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Medical anthropologists have studied a great variety of phenomena in medicine and health care across the globe. However, the field of acute medical conditions have received less attention from social sciences. In medicine, this is the field that provides the key inspiration for studies on clinical decision-making. It is the acute and dangerous diseases that receive the greatest attention and it is the medical specialities dealing with these conditions that receive the highest acclaim within the profession. In the article two cases from departments of internal medicine and surgery are presented that demonstrate that the diagnostic process is not free from influence from the clinical setting and social context more generally, but is rather dependent on it. Doctors are seen to use in their diagnostic work a combination of what is here called a local spectrum of normality, a search for available fast-track action pathways and a locally negotiated hierarchy of different sources of information. The implication of the findings is discussed against prevailing notions of diagnostic reasoning in medicine. The article is a preliminary exploration of issues that warrant more attention in future studies.

Protests at national party conventions are an important setting in which political parties and social movements challenge one another. This article examines the motivations of participants in these events. Drawing upon data from surveys of protesters outside the 2008 national party conventions, it focuses on how partisan and independent political identifications correspond with the reasons that individuals give for protesting. The results demonstrate that there are some conditions under which independents place a greater focus on issues than do partisans and under which partisans place a greater focus on presidential candidates than do independents. However, there are also conditions under which independents are inclined to work alongside partisans, such as trying to stop the election of a threatening candidate and in championing an issue outside their opposing party's convention. The article argues that micro-level partisan identifications are thus likely to affect the broader structure of party coalitions. These considerations promise to become increasingly relevant as social movements – such as the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter – launch new campaigns against or within established parties.

This study attempts to examine the conditions of construction workers and problems faced by them in Gandhinagar city. From the analysis, it is clear that economic condition of the workers has slightly improved, but demographic–social and working–living situations of the workers are extremely pathetic and vulnerable till now. The demand and supply of migrant workers is managed through the contract system. Contractors and sub-contractors play a crucial role in providing facilities and obtaining desired employment within a short time span. From the employment point of view, the industry is totally male dominant and preponderant and female workers are unskilled and remain unskilled during their entire life. Of the many theories of migration, the Harris–Todaro model of migration is partially applicable in the rural-to-urban migration process. Unlike government employees, a construction worker has no social security, no earned leave, no sick leave and no pension or gratuity. Finally, it is clear that the objective of decent work for migrant workers will remain a major challenge for years to come.

Protests at national party conventions are an important setting in which political parties and social movements challenge one another. This article examines the motivations of participants in these events. Drawing upon data from surveys of protesters outside the 2008 national party conventions, it focuses on how partisan and independent political identifications correspond with the reasons that individuals give for protesting. The results demonstrate that there are some conditions under which independents place a greater focus on issues than do partisans and under which partisans place a greater focus on presidential candidates than do independents. However, there are also conditions under which independents are inclined to work alongside partisans, such as trying to stop the election of a threatening candidate and in championing an issue outside their opposing party's convention. The article argues that micro-level partisan identifications are thus likely to affect the broader structure of party coalitions. These considerations promise to become increasingly relevant as social movements – such as the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter – launch new campaigns against or within established parties.

This monographic issue edited by Caterina Arcidiacono follows up La camera blu journal's on-line publishing. This number gathers together documents and contributions which help understand the challenges that contemporary society pose to women. Its purpose is to take into account how female condition is performed in a social context where relationships are far cry from the traditional patriarchal family standards. Yet, man and woman are in a context where environmental, working, and relational shapes struggle to find innovative forms of living together able to meet the needs of well-being, justice, and equality. ; This monographic issue edited by Caterina Arcidiacono follows up La camera blu journal's on-line publishing. This number gathers together documents and contributions which help understand the challenges that contemporary society pose to women. Its purpose is to take into account how female condition is performed in a social context where relationships are far cry from the traditional patriarchal family standards. Yet, man and woman are in a context where environmental, working, and relational shapes struggle to find innovative forms of living together able to meet the needs of well-being, justice, and equality.

By the time of Euro 2012, deepening tensions of nationalism and internal social struggles were developing across Europe in worsening conditions of systemic crisis. The official football ideology of UEFA conceives Euro 2012 as a civilizing platform for mutual respect and brotherhood between competing nations. In contrast, what I call Hyper-Critical Theory conceives of football competitions like Euro 2012 as part of a de-civilising 'sports mode of production' that necessarily produces crisis conditions, alienation and violence on a mass scale, fostering nationalism, militarism and racism. Between these polar perspectives, the figurational sociology of sport associated with Norbert Elias proposes that major international football competitions like Euro 2012 creates and dissipates contingent tensions of 'group charisma' and 'group disgrace'. Study of Euronews 'post-national' coverage of Euro 2012 allows their explanatory adequacy to be compared. In a competition structure like the Euros no social group – players, officials, media or fans – is able to disregard entirely the field capabilities of the 'best minority of 11' in the serious game of exemplifying the group charisma of nations.

Deconstructing the influence of existing institutions in institutional creation remains a key challenge. This thesis explores nuanced institutional phenomena through the lens of social institutions in enterprise, towards unwrapping the interaction of actors and structure in local economic development. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research in the uncertain context of Afghanistan, the case studies specifically examine the initial transformation of the boundary social institution of purdah, and the subsequent development of new market institutions in three women's enterprises. The thesis highlights the strategies of the entrepreneur, local power holders and external actors (agency), and the influence of local conditions (structure) in the process of institutional transformation and development. It is indicated that Trailblazer entrepreneurs can generate both open and democratic institutions, and promote inclusive opportunities for (new) power and wealth, even in fragile contexts, particularly if supported by enlightened actors. Yet, in less stable conditions without supportive actors, Gatekeeper entrepreneurs can equally foster distorted economies through the reproduction of more exclusive institutions. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis has highlighted the importance of multi-actor, structural and evolutionary thinking, going beyond either pure individualism or structuralism, towards appreciating institutional processes and their outcomes.

The advent of civil society in the Arab world, the proliferation of nongovernmental advocacy organizations, and the expansion of civil society activism have been heralded as promising developments with significant implications on the region's immutable political environment. While noting the vibrancy of civil society, Zayani's article questions its ability to affect the existing political culture of the region. It argues that the proclivity of civil society activism and associational life to generate political change in the Middle East and North Africa is limited. This is so not so much because the Middle East does not have a strong tradition for supporting civil society or because the concept of civil society is anathema to the region, but because the development of an effective civil society is contingent on a set of political realities, social dispositions, and economic conditions that are missing in the Arab world. In spite of the increasing popularity of civil society activism founded on religious beliefs and the West's vigorous promotion of associational life as a policy tool to induce political change, the social, political, and legal conditions for a potentially consequential civil society are not fully developed.

В статье изучена деятельность региональных политических элит в условиях формирования социального государства в субъекте Российской Федерации. Рассмотрены понятие и особенности деятельности региональных политических элит в условиях формирования социального государства в субъекте РФ, исследованы основные проблемы развития региональных политических элит в современной России, указано значение данной деятельности для развития политической системы России в целом, сделан вывод о необходимости качественного обновления региональной политической элиты Забайкальского края. ; This article is devoted to the research of the activity of regional political elite under the conditions of creating the social state in the subject of the Russian Federation. It provides the investigation of the concept and features of the regional political elite activity under the conditions of forming the social state in the subject of the Russian Federation. The main issues concerning the development of the regional political elite in Russia today have been studied in this work as well as the significance of this activity for the development of the Russian political system in whole have been investigated. The conclusion has been made about the necessity of a qualitative renewal of the political elite of Zabaykalsky region.

This paper presents some of the major health concerns that affect black women, and examines how various individual health problems co-exist and coincide to create complex health concerns for women. It posits the idea that to effectively address a Black woman's health, her mental, emotional, social, economic and even spiritual health must be considered as well as her physical condition. The paper focuses largely on the information from individual health-related research presentations at "The Invisible Woman" conference held at Bennett College in March 18–19, 2011 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At this event, scholars presented new research on HIV, obesity and mental health—three areas of critical concern for African-American women—examining ways in which these conditions affect Black women. The paper also addresses the role of health care access and policy in addressing these and other health concerns among women and within the black community. The review of the literature highlights the importance of examining health—perhaps especially Black women's health—from social, cultural, behavioral, environmental and economic perspectives. It also points out the continued need for research that includes women and people of color.

'Some aspects of the Southern question' (1926) established a strain of thought in Antonio Gramsci's questioning of conditions of uneven and combined development in Italy, which encompassed complex relations of class stratification, racial domination, colonial rule, the social function of intellectuals, and how best to mobilise against the bourgeois state. This strain of thought was then extended, in his carceral research, through his sustained and wide-ranging historical sociological focus on passive revolution as a condition of modern state formation. This article sets up the importance of passive revolution as a backdrop to approaching passive revolutions of diverse varieties, which is the subject of this wider special issue, stressing 'approaching' (as transitive verb) in terms of setting about the task of assessing the theoretical import of passive revolution; and 'approaching' (as intransitive verb) in terms of the advance of passive revolutions that are contemporary to us, and those that are in the process of becoming. The continuum of passive revolution is thereby asserted in a historically specific sense, capturing transitions to and transformations of the social relations of capitalist production, rather than as some transhistorical affirmation of intersocietal existence.

This article describes the contours of the residential care placement experience for social service staff, health care providers, and their client families of patients with Huntington's disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors, conditions, and barriers encountered by outpatient clinical staff and families in the transition to skilled nursing care. A Long-Term Care Contact Survey was developed to (a) gather information about long-term care referral sites; (b) determine the factors considered in choosing a facility; (c) describe the factors that hindered the transition to long-term care; (d) describe conditions prior to institutionalization; and (e) determine research interest. The study found that large cohorts of patients with Huntington's disease in residential care are scarce. A lack of confidence in the available options suggests the need for increased support for educational and social services to facility staff. Speech/swallowing therapy and physical therapy as placement facilitators reflect salient issues of latter stages of the disease, implicating funding support needs. Families facing this transition require long-term guidance for financial, caregiving, and psychosocial issues.

Цель данного исследования оценить влияние социально-психологических факторов, особенно уровня доверия, на перспективу развития аграрных кооперативов в сложившихся в России экономических и политических условиях. На основе анализа современной литературы по организационной экономике были выдвинуты и тестированы гипотезы о существенной связи между доверием аграрных производителей к кооперации и партнёрам, с одной стороны, и их желанием участвовать в кооперативных организациях с другой. Результаты исследований показали, что социально-психологические условия, а не столько экономическая и политическая среда, тормозят развитие кооперативных практик в российском сельском хозяйстве. ; The Purpose given studies value the influence social-psychological factor, particularly level of the confidence, on prospect of the development agrarian co-operative society in established in Russia economic and political condition. On base of the analysis co-time literature on organizing economy were brought forth and tested hypothesises about essential relationship between confidence of the agrarian producers to coopera-purpose and partner, on the one hand, and their desire to participate in а cooperative with another. The Results of the studies have shown that social-psychological conditions, rather then so much economic and political ambience, hold up the development cooperative practical person in russian agricultures.

Ethnonational policy comprises the settlement of national problems and is connected with providing effective functioning of a government in conditions of unequality of social groups based on ethnic and national signs. Positive ethnopolicy formation becomes especially important. It is defined as the capability of the forces that are in power in the country to construct their relations with ethnic groups in such a way so as not to break the functional bases of the society. The article dwells upon the deformed types of ethnopolicy and offers concrete measures to settle interethnic contradictions. ; Ethnonational policy comprises the settlement of national problems and is connected with providing effective functioning of a government in conditions of unequality of social groups based on ethnic and national signs. Positive ethnopolicy formation becomes especially important. It is defined as the capability of the forces that are in power in the country to construct their relations with ethnic groups in such a way so as not to break the functional bases of the society. The article dwells upon the deformed types of ethnopolicy and offers concrete measures to settle interethnic contradictions.

SummaryThis study uses sets of historical family reconstitutions from all of Quebec and from four villages of the Haut-Jura, France—first marriages of 2226 and 994 women, respectively—to investigate the physiological and social factors affecting age of mother at last birth before and during fertility transition. Age remained high throughout the period covered in Quebec, under 'natural' conditions, but showed a steady decline in the French material which extends to late 19th century generations practising family limitation.Age at marriage had no influence in Quebec; in France, however, women with the most surviving children at age 35 continued childbearing the latest. There was no link between biological ability to achieve a live birth, or in health status or aging rhythm, and age at last birth. Behaviour of mothers and daughters showed no relation. The variability in age at last birth thus appears to be random under natural conditions; with the onset of controls, social differences seem to influence not only the end of childbearing, but all aspects of behaviour governing final family size and child survival.