Our objective is to illustrate how to create and maintain a healthy flow of carefully curated communication between a research team and a community of interest using the principles of cultural brokering. We begin with a brief critical review of the existing literature on cultural brokering between immigrant and academic communities. We follow this review with a case study of cultural brokering between a research team at Tulane University and the Vietnamese American immigrant community in New Orleans. We draw upon specific examples from an ongoing collaboration to illustrate types of cultural conflict that are common to academic and community collaborations, and we discuss how different types and features of cultural brokering have helped to resolve these conflicts and keep the project(s) moving forward. We summarize a set of traits, potential roles/contributions, and training and operating strategies for a cultural broker.

Income inequality has increased in the United States over the past decades and, more recently, social media has expanded adolescents' reference groups and their field of social comparison. These parallel societal changes may influence adolescents' social identity development and affect their well-being. We interviewed adolescents in contact with health services to understand their experiences with social status differences and social comparisons. In this sample of adolescents, social comparisons varied, based on context and individual characteristics, and were associated with a range of feelings and coping mechanisms. We highlight the implications of the findings in the context of changing societal dynamics.

Myriad research examines benefits and drawbacks of working from home, both pre- and post-pandemic. Our research looks at how work from home mandates due to the COVID-19 pandemic were implemented, primarily by those who also had caregiver roles to fulfill. We used a convenience sample, drawing from full-time college faculty at a mid-sized state college in Florida, gathering information from caregivers and non-caregivers for comparative purposes. As we analyzed our data, we considered two additional concepts: Elmore's backward mapping, which asks us to consider how employer mandates are implemented and will assist us in making policy recommendations, and Smith's Standpoint, which allowed us to consider our own different gendered experiences as we analyzed survey responses. Our findings reveal that there are some employees well suited to working from home, while others are less enthusiastic about this initiative, and that a significant factor is household caregiving responsibilities, often considered to be the domain of women. Our insights shed light on differences in caregiver-employee statuses; we hope to help guide effective institutional policy should there be a need for workplaces to shut down again and to encourage administrators to consider faculty who may be a good work from home fit should it be considered for everyday work. Understanding where the strengths and weaknesses were/are for workers who work from home will benefit employers.

This study examines the relationship between tourism development, governance, and income inequality in 31 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. In the main, the study aims at examining whether tourism inflows ameliorate or exacerbate income inequality in the studied countries. The study also aims to examine whether institutional governance modulates the impact of tourism development on income inequality. For robustness, four proxies of governance indicators have been used, namely, the rule of law, voice and accountability, political stability, and government effectiveness, thereby leading to four separate specifications with four interaction variables. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), which accounts for endogeneity, has been used to examine this linkage. Contrary to some of the previous studies, the results of our study show that an increase in tourist arrivals leads to a decrease in income inequality in the studied SSA countries. The results also show that the favorable negative impact of tourism on income inequality could switch to an unfavorable positive impact if the following levels of governance are exceeded: 1.6842, 3.1429, and 0.7436 for voice and accountability, political stability, and government effectiveness, respectively. Policy implications are discussed.

This explorative paper aims to test a model of operationalized subindicators that allows for a simplified analysis of the social bond between therapists and clients in violence therapy. A theoretical premise of this work is that a stable social bond is a prerequisite for the client’s building a positive self-image and becoming reintegrated into society as nonviolent. The research entails the comparison of two different therapy treatments. A psychodynamic therapy against men’s violence, undertaken voluntarily and frequently used in Nordic countries, is compared to a compulsory cognitive behavior therapy used for men in correctional settings. Although the therapists in both treatments attempt to balance the relationship between themselves and the clients, both therapies tend to alienate the parties from each other, thereby preventing the development of a stable social bond of solidarity. For both treatments, an awareness is needed of those parts of the therapy that evoke shame and pride, thereby permitting an evaluation of the treatment so that the positive quality of the social bond can develop.

In the 2018 President Address provided by Gary David, he discusses the need for new approaches to how applied and clinical sociology is branded. He explores business approaches to how we can leverage our passion for sociology with the unique skills we have with clear messaging around what it is we do and why we do it.

This article investigates the possible negative effects of power in organizations. It demonstrates how holding power may affect an individual’s perception of others, actions, and cognition. Ways in which power may have a detrimental effect on different aspects of a manager’s functioning within an organization, including building relationships, communication, and performance are analyzed. It is argued that individuals are unaware of these effects, and thus it is necessary to introduce methods of their diagnosis and countermeasures on the organizational level. In addition, negative phenomena associated with the power’s distribution among organizations’ units and its structural aspects are analyzed. A set of questions is proposed, which can be used by individuals and organizations to reveal the extent to which adverse effects of power are present in an organization. These inquiries can be used to design and introduce specific countermeasures and improve communications and the quality of interactions within organizations. Selected countermeasures are also proposed in the article.

Humans make thousands of decisions each day. Most of the decisions we make are trivial or relatively unimportant in possible consequences. However, there are a few decisions we make in life that are lifechanging; one of those is the decision to retire from the professoriate. Voluntarily deciding to leave a profession where one has spent a substantial portion of one’s working life is one of life’s major decisions. This qualitative research looks at the various influences, actions, and feelings through the process of deciding to retire. Using a five-stage cognitive decision-process model as a framework, this paper reports on the reflections of 20 recent retirees over the five stages of the decision process from when first seriously considering the decision to postretirement activities and feelings. The results show that while all faculty progressed through the five stages, the timeframe, influences, feelings, and actions were unique to each individual.