Informal Participation Research Articles

Work‐related deaths of children and adolescents in Australia, 1982 to 1984

Work-related deaths of children and adolescents up to the age of 19 years were studied as part of a larger investigation into all work-related fatalities in Australia in the three-year period, 1982 to 1984. This study aimed to characterise the circumstances which led to the deaths of these children. Of 1738 work-related fatalities identified over the three years in the larger investigation, 67 (4 per cent) were aged under 15 years, and 117 (7 per cent) were aged 15 to 19 years. The fatalities were characterised by a number of variables, the most important being age, sex, bystander status, location (farm or other) and vehicle involvement (especially tractors). The causes of death differed between subgroups. Although existing controls may be reasonably effective in minimising child deaths in most work places, farms are an exception. On farms, home and work activities overlap, and informal participation in work by the young is quite common. Preventive efforts should give special attention to farms and tractors, to toddlers and male children, and to measures (such as safety devices and other external control measures) which do not rely on behavioural change in the young people at risk. Adults responsible for young children should be educated to anticipate dangerous situations and thus ensure children are protected from injury hazards.

Power and Influence in Urban Planning: Community and Property Interests' Participation in Dublin's Planning System

Using local authority planning in Dublin as a case study. the extent and effectiveness of community and development interests' participation in policy formulation is examined. A primary locus is on the nature and timing of participation as a determinant of the relalive influence that each can exert over policy decisions. A critical distinction is drawn between formal and informal participation channels. The vast array of informal channels available to development interests can mean that they have little need to participate formally; thus a primary and secondary layer of influence on policy formulation can be distinguished. The primary layer is largely informal, on-going and pervasive. The secondary layer is formal, controlled and capable only of adapting rather than formulating policy. This supports the existence of an incontestable basis of planning policy that emerges from the primary layer of influence and reflects an inherent acceptance of the legitimacy of development interests' demands. As a consequence, questions are raised about the role of participation within a planning system which functions in support of capital.

NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION AND THE COMMUNITY QUESTION

This study addressed the question of whether the community exists as a meaningful social entity in modern urban society by examining neighborhood participation patterns and degrees of neighborhood attachment in a revitalized neighborhood. The research examined the effects of informal networks and participation in local organizations on resident's neighborhood attachments. Differences were found between longterm residents and newcomers, and renovators and non-renovators. Long-term residents were integrated into the social network of the neighborhood. Long-term residents who were renovators were also active in neighborhood organizations. Newcomers, whether renovators or not, were not integrated into the local network but newcomer renovators were highly active in local organizations.

Policy Impacts of Community Participation: Health Services in Rural Mexico

A decade after widespread incorporation of community participation in rural primary health programs, researchers continue to scrutinize its impact on policy development. This paper examines community participation in a nationwide health program in rural Mexico. Research was conducted between 1986 and 1988 in administrative offices in Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca, as well as in villages. Results suggest that the effects of formal and informal community participation on policy development differ. Formal participation—such as required community health activities, membership on health committees, participation in volunteer groups—has considerable impact on local health program implementation, but only limited influence on policy development. Informal community participation—which includes day-to-day interactions between program supervisors and local authorities, and interactions between clinic doctors and villagers—also has an impact on local program implementation, and, in addition, affects policy develop...

Racial differences in urban neighboring

Despite mixed expectations generated by existing theories and evidence, this analysis documents clear racial differences in urban neighboring behavior. Using data from a survey of Nashville, Tennessee, residents, we show that blacks interact with their neighbors more often than whites do, and in a greater variety of ways. The only noteworthy similarity between the two groups is the positive impact of neighboring on feelings of community affect. Overall, our results support the view that neighbor relations — like other kinds of informal participation — have helped blacks cope with constrained social opportunities and provided them with access to resources unavailable through formal institutional channels.

Farmer-Researcher Collaboration in Developing Cropping Practices that Involve the Complementary Use of Mechanical Tied Ridge and Fertilizer Technology for Sorghum in Burkina Faso

SUMMARYSpecific soil fertility and water retention constraints limit increased crop production in the subsistence-oriented farming systems of Burkina Faso. Previous attempts to introduce apparently promising technologies based on research that had not directly involved the fanner and that had not benefited from farmer-feedback have been largely unsuccessful. Active farmer involvement can help to identify relevant constraints to production and to identify and modify technologies to make them viable. Formal and informal farmer surveys and farmer participation in field experiments have led to the development of potentially useful cropping practices involving the complementary use of mechanical tied ridge and fertilizer-based technology.

Listening for Silences

Talking with informants in the field lies at the methodological heart of Africanist history and anthropology. Historians and anthropologists rely on formal and informal interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and participant observation in order to generate data from Africans and to privilege an African perspective on society, culture, and change. Fieldwork serves both as a political statement empowering African voices and as a right of passage for Africanists.Vansina's (1965) careful methodological considerations for mining and interpreting the African voice in the form of oral traditions has helped give Africanist history its distinctive character. Collecting and using oral traditions has not been unproblematic, however. Considerable debate surrounds the historicity of oral traditions (for example, Wrigley 1971; Henige 1974; Prins 1979; Miller 1980; Webster 1982; Vansina 1985).In comparison, little attention has been paid to the interview as the encounter central to the production of knowledge. In hisOral Tradition, Vansina was concerned primarily with the chains of transmission of testimony and their possible distortions. Vansina recognized, but did not pursue, how the encounter between informant and researcher influenced the informant's testimony.

Developmental apraxia and augmentative or alternative communication–a case example

This case example involves a developmentally apraxic 8-year-old girl who uses a multimodal communication system. This report describes implementation of the Partners in Augmentative Communication Training program (Culp & Carlisle, 1988) with the subject, her mother, the classroom teacher, and the school speech-language pathologist. Both formal pre-test compared with 2 month post-test data and informal participant observations suggest some improvement in communication interaction skills as a result of the intervention described. This case illustrates several issues regarding developmental apraxia and the use of augmentative and alternative communication which require further consideration.

Women in elite positions: Insiders or outsiders?

Formal institutional locations and informal participation in elite networks are examined for women and men occupying principal decision-making positions in powerful institutions in three advanced societies: the United States, West Germany, and Australia. In all three countries, the few women are concentrated in a small number of elite positions, especially those set aside for women. Social backgrounds vary, with women coming from somewhat higher status and class origins than their male counterparts. Further, network analyses reveal that men are more integrated than women in informal elite networks in all three nations. The results suggest that women in formal positions of power remain outsiders on the inside.

The Fisheries Management Structure and Process under the MFCMA: A North Pacific Perspective

Abstract The fishery management process established under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation Management Act (MFCMA) is reviewed using the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) as a model. The council's responsibility is primarily to develop and maintain Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) and has established committees and staff to fulfill this responsibility. The secretary of commerce has the responsibility to evaluate, approve, and implement the FMPs. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for resource assessment but state agencies contribute. Formal public participation is mandated in the MFCMA but there is extensive informal participation. Once a FMP or amendment has been drafted, a review process ensues involving regional and Washington offices of the NMFS, and the public. In-season management is accomplished by the Regional Office of NMFS. Although many problems face councils today, five seem most important: communication, goals, obtaining timely data, lobbying, and region...

The Social Support Function in Epilepsy Self-Help Groups

The nature of self-help groups is discussed and considered with special reference to those composed of epileptics. Results of a preliminary survey of epilepsy self-help group members are presented, and effects relating to stigmatization, reasons for participation, asserted curative factors, and formal-only versus informal participation in the self-help group process are examined. Societal reaction to people with epilepsy is viewed as a major contributor to problems associated with this disability.

Public Participation in Hazardous Waste Facility Location Decisions

Public opposition continues to stymie siting of new hazardous waste management facilities in the United States. A review of the literature indicates that much effort has been undertaken in the states to institutionalize public participation in the siting process. However, informal public participation such as public pressure on local elected officials and active passive civil disobedience has been most influential in the denigration of siting proposals. Current state siting procedures suffer from numerous critical flaws: facility needs assessments are rarely performed, and there is much elasticity in the demand for off-site facilities since alternative management options are available; serious and credible environmental sensitivity studies tend to be site specific, but no corresponding regional reference studies indicate that the proposed site is relatively advantageous; and early and meaningful public participation in the siting process has not achieved socially acceptable proposals. These flaws must be addressed effectively in order to provide for safe facilities when they will be needed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Formal and Informal Participation in Urban Areas

Abstract Determinist urban theory and complementary interaction concepts were used to develop two contrasting sets of hypotheses about the relationships between types of social participation. The relationship between extent of interaction and subjective well-being was also predicted from these competing perspectives. Data from 292 men in Los Angeles, California; 234 men in Sydney, Australia; and 226 men in London, England, indicated that formal-association involvement was somewhat positively correlated with kinship. Friendship was positively correlated with kinship. Men who interacted intensively with a variety of others had high well-being. Findings between urban areas did not differ greatly.

Major Role Losses and Social Participation of Older Males

This article examines the relative importance of major role losses experienced in widowhood and retirement, personal characteristics, and prior level of participation as predictors of formal and informal social participation in old age. Data obtained from the Longitudinal Retirement History Survey (LRHS) of a panel (N = 6603) of males in their sixties are analyzed. Stepwise regression analysis reveals that prior level of participation and personal characteristics explain more variance in participation than major role losses considered alone or in conjunction with related deteriorative changes such as income loss. When the effects of these variables are simultaneously controlled, persons with major role losses have lower levels of participation in formal organizations and in selected areas of informal activity than those without comparable losses. Examination of the cumulative effects of experiencing both major role losses exacerbated these results. Policy implications for preretirement education and programming are discussed.

The Impact of Different Kinds of Neighborhood Involvement on Residents' Overall Evaluations of Their Neighborhoods

Abstract This paper focuses on the relative impact of different kinds of social participation on an individual's sentiment toward his or her neighborhood. Three kinds of neighborhood participation are considered: (1) informal social participation; (2) involvement in formal neighborhood voluntary associations; and (3) use of neighborhood services. Survey data on nine moderate income neighborhoods with various racial mixes are employed in the analysis. The results of the regression analysis indicate that informal social participation and use of neighborhood services are positively associated with overall sentiment toward the neighborhood, whereas involvement in formal neighborhood voluntary associations has no relationship to the dependent variable. The implications of these findings for policy-making concerned with neighborhood maintenance and revitalization are discussed.

Economics in Interdisciplinary Courses

In order to learn something about the kinds of interdisciplinary courses containing some economics being offered, the methods of teaching these courses, and satisfaction with them, a survey was mailed to 218 departments of economics in randomly selected colleges and universities in the United States. Replies were received from 101 of the schools. It should be stressed that the answers to the surveys reflect the view of the respondent, and not necessarily those of the entire economics faculty or of departments which did not reply. Questions about enrollment size and about affiliation with either business administration or the social sciences were asked. Of the total respondents, 59 percent were associated with business administration and 41 percent with the social sciences. But the observed distribution indicates that far more schools of size 5,000-10,000 have departments of economics affiliated with the social sciences than would be expected, using a Chi Square test. For schools at either end of the enrollment size spectrum, the observed distribution is very close to the expected. The kinds of interdisciplinary courses being offered were divided into categories of double-numbered (those which are listed in two different departments and taught by only one faculty member), overview (those which contain material from several areas, but are taught by only one faculty member), team-taught (those which are taught by faculty members from more than one department), and informal participation courses (those in which a faculty member from outside the department in which the course is being offered is asked to participate several times during the term). Using a Chi Square test, a difference significant at the .01 level was found between the expected and the observed distribution of these courses. Business administration affiliated departments of economics offered more double-numbered courses than expected. The social science affiliated departments offered more of the team-taught and informal participation courses and less of the double-numbered than expected. No statistically significant difference was found in the number of kinds of courses offered by departments affiliated with business administration or with the social sciences. When schools were classified as small (enrollments under 5,000) and large (enrollments over 5,000), no statistically significant difference was found between the number of kinds of interdisciplinary courses offered by enrollment size. The last question on the survey stated: Do you feel your school is offering an adequate number of interdisciplinary courses which include some economics? If the respondent answered No, he or she was asked to indicate which of a number of possibilities are problems.

Informal Social Ties Among Urban Black Americans

Reports over the last several years have been forming a profile of social organization among blacks in the United States that has balanced and corrected the overly emphasized and sometimes inaccurate view of the disorganized and pathological community life of urban blacks cited in often quoted works (for example, Myrdal, 1964; Clark, 1965; Moynihan, 1965). General studies of ethnic subcommunities by Whyte (1948), Gans (1962), Suttles (1968), Hannerz (1969), and Stack (1974) have demonstrated that ghettoes are often highly complex and organized, and bear little resemblance to the stereotype image of the disorganized neighborhood. The applicability of this generalization to the black low income ghetto has been a specific aim of the more recent studies. On another front, studies of formal participation among blacks and whites have shown that black participation is not necessarily lower as had been previously reported (Wright and Hyman, 1958), but may be associated with lower socioeconomic status (Orum, 1966) and, especially when controls are introduced, is generally much higher and extensive than often imagined (Babchuk and Thompson, 1962; Renzi, 1968; Olsen, 1970; Williams et al., 1973; Antunes and Gaitz, 1975). Evidence on black informal social participation, however, has been even less frequently reported. Yet, such informal participation has been identified as particularly critical for the basic fabric of community organization (Liebow, 1967;

An interdepartmental musical acoustics course

We believe it is important not to slight either music or physics in teaching a musical acoustics course. We are currently offering a course with two lectures (by G. H., with some informal participation by D. H.) and one coordinated lab/activity session (by D. H.) each week. We will discuss course organization, activity topics, advantages, and disadvantages of this plan. As an important component of the activities, each student works on an independent project and presents a report to the class. We conclude (1) that inclusion of experiments and activities as well as demonstrations is highly preferable to lectures alone, and (2) the course is more valuable and interesting when the teacher(s) can provide real expertise in both music and physics.

CONFESSIONAL ATTACHMENT AND ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR IN THE NETHERLANDS*

ABSTRACTThe analysis presented in this paper seeks to outline some of the political consequences of a general decline in the place of the church and religious faith in peoples’ daily lives in the Netherlands. It juxtaposes a reconstruction of religious origins or backgrounds against current assessment of the strength of confessional attachments. Erosion of traditional ties to the church of one's early loyalties is depicted as accompanied by withdrawal from formal participation in the electoral process. Interest in politics and informal participation remain high, but the rejection of institutionalized religion is associated with what appears to be an active rejection of institutionalized politics. For those who do remain in the active electorate, a continued decline in confessional attachment appears to forecast a continued decline in confessional party vote.Insofar as change in the future involves general depillarization, or decreased political relevance of the church for all degrees of confessional attachment, the political beneficiaries may be the parties of center and right as well as left. An across‐the‐board drop in level of confessional voting would mean that many voters with strong confessional attachments would be turning to the secular parties and in doing so – if the recent past is any guide – would turn no more often to the left than to the other options open to them. However, insofar as the future brings a decline in confessional attachment without a diminution in the relevance of confessional attachment for confessional voters, the parties of the left will benefit disproportionately as the newly deconfessionalized turn away from the parties of tradition and seek out the parties of change.

Correlates of Life Satisfaction: A Re-examination

The relationships between 22 variables and life satisfaction are explored, testing in particular for partial effects and determining the extent to which each predictor makes an independent contribution to explaining perceived satisfaction. Based on data from 274 females and 233 males aged 45 and over, a number of important relationships are noted. Holding socioeconomic status constant, generally observed relationships such as between life satisfaction and age, marital status, and family size disappear. Other relationships found in previous research are reduced in magnitude by the introduction of the control variables. Computing standardized partial beta coefficients, it is found that the best predictors of life satisfaction are socioeconomic status, perceived health status, and informal participation with nonlcinsmen. Neither interaction with kin nor most of the social and personal background characteristics considered contribute significantly to explaining reported satisfaction. The implications of these findings for future studies and theory construction efforts are suggested.