Social change

About: Social change is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 61197 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1797013 citations.

Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women's Movement

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Radical Feminism in Columbus, Ohio 2. The Evolution of Radical Feminist Identity 3. Changers and the Changed: Radical Feminists in the Reagan Years 4. Keeping the Faith: Working for Social Change 5. United We Stand: The Impact of the Women's Movement on Other Social Movements 6. Feminists in the "Postfeminist" Age: The Women's Movement in the 1980s 7. The Next Wave Conclusion: Persistence and Transformation of Social Movements Appendix: Women's Movement Organizations and Dates, Columbus, Ohio Notes Index

When Do Governments Promote Women's Rights? A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Sex Equality Policy

Abstract: This essay proposes a framework to analyze cross-national variation in women’s legal rights. To explore the distinct logics of policy change, we disaggregate sex equality policies on two dimensions: 1) whether they improve the status of women as a group or alleviate gender-based class inequalities, and 2) whether or not they challenge the doctrine of organized religion and the codified tradition of major cultural groups. We show that policies promoting gender equality seek fundamental social change and therefore challenge historical patterns of state-society interaction concerning relations between the state and the market; the respective authority of the state, religion, and cultural groups; and the contours of citizenship. Different issues, however, challenge different aspects of these relations. What’s more, the priorities, strategies, and effectiveness of advocates and opponents of change (including women’s movements, left parties, international NGOs, and organized religion) are shaped by state capacity, policy legacies, international vulnerability, and the degree of democracy.

Making the connection: randomized controlled trial of social skills at school for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Abstract: Peer relationships are critically important to children’s success at school. Many studies describe the benefits of healthy social development on children’s emotional, social, and academic performance at school (Ladd, 1990; McClelland, Morrison, & Holmes, 2000; Oden & Asher, 1977). Despite the importance of social relationships at school, some children may be particularly prone to feeling isolated and having few peer relationships, as is commonly noted about children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Interventions are needed to build peer interaction skills of children with ASD, and generally fall into two categories. Direct training is the most common of the two, in which social skills training is provided directly to the child with autism, either in groups or individual contexts (Bellini, Peters, Benner, & Hope, 2007; Rao, Beidel, & Murray, 2008; Williams-White, Keonig, & Scahill, 2007). The active ingredient is direct instruction of the child’s social skills (e.g., social etiquette or how to take turns in conversation). Peer-mediated models, on the other hand, focus intervention on the peers of the child with ASD (Bellini et al., 2007; Rao et al., 2008). In peer-mediated models, the active ingredient is indirect, by training peers how to engage the child with ASD. Both approaches have theoretical and empirical support, but both are missing important evidence of efficacy. For example, direct training approaches tend to occur outside of natural contexts. Variants on this intervention model have sometimes shown promising outcomes, but generalization to school and community settings has been poor or unmeasured (Bellini et al., 2007; Rao et al., 2008; Williams-White et al., 2007). On the other hand, peer-mediated models have shown good outcomes and generalization for preschool children, but have not been rigorously tested among school-aged children (McConnell, 2002). There has not yet been a controlled study comparing the efficacy or maintenance of these two types of socialization interventions. It is highly likely that children who receive both models will perform better than children who receive only a single model. The two interventions may work synergistically leading to an effect greater than the sum of their parts. Thus, by developing children’s social skills they can take advantage of peer willingness to engage. All interventions are expected to be superior to inclusion alone. The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to compare the efficacy of school-based social skills interventions to improve the social salience and peer engagement of high functioning, fully included children with autism. Our secondary goals were to examine the effect of interventions on friendship nominations, friendship reciprocity and teacher report of social skills.

Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example

Abstract: The nature of the distinction between culture and social system is brought out more clearly when one considers the contrasting sorts of integration characteristic of each of them. A more differentiated class system, more bureaucratic and impersonal forms of government, greater heterogeneity of social background, all tend to lead to the same result: the de-emphasis of strictly geographical ties in favor of diffusely ideological ones. In Modjokuto, as in most of Indonesia, the search is taking place largely within the social context of the mass political parties, as well as in the women’s clubs, youth organizations, labor unions, and other sodalities formally or informally linked with them. The severity of the contrast between santri and abangan is in great part due to the rise of nationalist social movements in twentieth century Indonesia. In the larger cities where these movements were born, they were originally of various sorts: tradesmen’s societies to fight Chinese competition.

European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities: National and Transnational Approaches

Abstract: The social relations of home and work represent some of the most fundamental aspects of gender relations in society, and thus some of the most important elements in the construction of men and masculinities. The separation of home and work is both a very real one and an ideological construction. It is at the root of much liberal social science, as well as figuring, in more or less sophisticated ways, in non-feminist (Habermas, 1984, 1987) and feminist (Fraser, 1989) critical theory. In some ways it refers to the distinction between production and reproduction; but an over-simple division into dual spheres has been shown to be theoretically flawed, historically inaccurate (Bose, 1987; Hearn, 1992) and contrary to the experience of some people and some social categories, for example, women of colour (Collins, 1990).