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A defining feature of immigration detention in the United Kingdom is its indeterminacy; that is, there are no statutory constraints on the length of time an individual can be detained. As such, detention is uncertain and unpredictable; it may last a few hours or a few days, or weeks, months, and even years. Consequently, the lived experience of detention is one of waiting: waiting to know both when and how detention will end (i.e. release to the community or expulsion from the country). The denial of liberty and the conditions of confinement present additional challenges for detainees, as they must contend with significant limits to their agency as they await the decisions of a variety of other actors. Waiting has been conceptualised as an exercise of power, one that manipulates others’ time. Although it is a common human experience, for immigration detainees, the lived experience of waiting in the uncertain and unpredictable context of detention is especially challenging. Passing time in immigration detention raises important questions about affect, identity, agency, and resistance within this unique quasi-penal space. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork, including 89 semi-structured interviews with detainees, carried out in four immigration removal centres in the UK to explore the lived experiences of waiting. The analysis demonstrates the relevancy of time and agency in immigration detention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proverb, the shortest form of cultural expression and wisdom tradition, plays a significant role in most of the traditional societies. Exploring proverbs in a particular socio- cultural context is the gateway to understand the perceptions of people in a given society. This paper in an attempt to analyze certain proverbs that are collected through fieldwork in Tirunelveli region of Tamil Nadu and tries to find out how proverbs reflects the human relationship: between castes, and between men and women in a given society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five experts, Dalton Conley, Roger N. Lancaster, Alondra Nelson, Kristen Springer, and Karl Bryant, debate the natural science turn in sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By integrating insights from economic and sociological theories, this article investigates whether and through which mechanisms friends’ fertility behavior affects an individual’s transition to parenthood. By exploiting the survey design of the Add Health data, our strategy allows us to properly identify interaction effects and distinguish them from selection and contextual effects. We use a series of discrete-time event history models with random effects at the dyadic level. Results show that, net of confounding effects, a friend’s childbearing increases an individual’s risk of becoming a parent. We find a short-term, curvilinear effect: an individual’s risk of childbearing starts increasing after a friend’s childbearing, reaches its peak approximately two years later, and then decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we critically examine the social institution of monogamy. First, we discuss the lack of an adequate and consistent definition of the construct of monogamy and consider how common monogamy is. Next, we address perceived benefits of monogamy and whether those ostensible benefits are supported by empirical evidence. We conclude that evidence for the benefits of monogamy relative to other relationship styles is currently lacking, suggesting that, for those who choose it, consensual non-monogamy may be a viable alternative to monogamy. Implications for theories of close relationships are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Korean American youth experience immigration-related parent-child challenges including language barriers, parent-child conflicts, and generational cultural divides. Using grounded theory methods, this article examines the ways in which 18 Korean American college-enrolled emerging adults retrospectively made sense out of their experiences of immigrant family hardships. Of those who narrated childhood hardship, over half narrated positive change in which they reinterpreted their relationship to their parents and redeemed their immigrant parents either through their own maturation or through spirituality. This narrative strategy is consistent with cognitive change in emerging adults' view of their parents that have been documented in other studies (Arnett, 2004). Only a minority of participants did not narrate positive changes and remained distressed over their relationship to their parents. Findings suggest the possibility that narration of positive change is a culturally salient process by which many Korean American emerging adults come to terms with early family challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the relatively new field of social-activity travel behavior research, it has often been stated that social relationships have become increasingly physically dispersed in various contemporary societies. If so, this dynamic has enormous consequences on both travel behavior and social support. More explicitly, people have to travel some distance in order to meet, they need to plan their social activities further ahead of time, and, sociologically speaking, they are at risk of weakening their relationships to friends, immediate family, relatives, etc due to spatial distance. In this paper a binominal logit model was used to examine the characteristics of Swiss citizens who had named nonlocal strong-tie relationships in a nationwide representative survey. The empirical findings show various characteristics that increase the likelihood of having strong-tie relationships outside one's community, such as one-person households, higher education, younger cohorts, long-distance commuting, and, interestingly, people who want to spend more time with friends. I elaborate a discussion of these findings as they concern recent debates in the field of social-activity travel behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although popular discourse claims that elite female athletes serve as effective role models for a broad set of characteristics, theoretical and empirical perspectives on athletes as role models are sparse and somewhat inconsistent. In exploratory research designed to clarify conceptualizations of athletes as role models by asking for the athlete's own perspectives, we surveyed 39 elite women soccer players in the USA. Drawing primarily on open-ended responses, we found that the players did articulate a consistent cultural script for the characteristics of a role model and felt comfortable with their role-model status. Interestingly, however, that script was not as focused on the athletic prowess that made the players public figures. Instead, the players focused on role models as characterized by meritocratic personality traits (such as being disciplined and hard working) and interpersonal abilities (such as being caring and generous). We discuss implications for those interested in promoting, working with, and studying athletes as role models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pilot study among Latinos with intellectual disabilities (ID) was conducted. Focus groups and Photovoice methodology were employed to explore participants' health perceptions and beliefs. Three focus groups were conducted for a total of 15 participants. An additional member check focus group was conducted to verify results of the analysis. Photovoice methodology was employed with four Latinos with ID to explore health beliefs and perceptions of the influence of the social and physical environment. Participants' perceptions of health focused on social and mental aspects of health. Latinos with ID believed that social relationships are important to health. They believed in a connection among social, mental, and physical well-being and health. Cultural beliefs related to the role of God and traditional therapies were identified. Latinos with ID reported that they believed that health was influenced by behaviors and that diet and physical activity were beneficial, but this did not necessarily translate into regular practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though largely overlooked by scholars of ethnicity and culture, animal practices can structure and reflect identity and social relations. Based on individual and group interviews and observations in Berlin, Germany, this study examines how a group of Turkish men experience and assign significance to the activity of caring for domestic pigeons. Building on approaches to ethnicity that follow the “cognitive turn,” as well as recent studies of human-animal interaction and cultural examinations of nature and the environment, this article demonstrates how: (1) these men frame their animal practices within their understandings of ethnicity, culture, and territory; and (2) communal relationships formed through pigeon caretaking reinforce definitions of Turkish ethnicity and culture for participants. Beyond offering in situ data on the link between animal practices and ethnicity, the analyses and case suggest how and why sociologists should consider animals and nature as potential constitutive objects of ethnic identity and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically reviews the literature on racism (White and internalized Black) in the heterosexual relationships of Black women. In addition, it assesses the relevance of this literature to Canadian Black women, identifies the research gaps on the subject, and maps out an empirical agenda for research on Black Canadian heterosexual relationships, premised on an integrated feminist, antiracist, and class-based analytical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a study that analyzed anger scripts in close relationships from a relational schema perspective focusing on the interpersonal experience of anger and the sequencing of anger events. Gender differences in interpersonal scripts; Causes of anger; Anger expression; Expected responses to different expressions of anger; Method; Results and discussion; Limitations and future directions.

The article offers the author's insight on the studies related to social interaction. The author mentions that cognitive ability is more likely to develop from a person who has an intrapersonal skills. On the other hand, the author mentions that interaction can be fully understand through interpersonal approach.

The article discusses the phenomenology of social interaction. It states that the emotional tone of an interaction can be traced in nonverbal, fantasy and value-expressive levels. It says that tracing relationship patterns between social interaction levels can help researchers in providing clues on motivational processes. It tells that the interpersonal conflicts are much more ego-involving for children that for an adult who can classify conflict with the help of differentiated self-conception.

The article discusses the methodological dimension in studying social interaction. It says that the primary dimension for this study is its setting. It tells that the second dimension is form of output of interest or the explanation of unit of behavior observed. It tells that next dimension are the content of interaction and scope of an observational system. Moreover, the Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) which integrates the level of the scope dimension is also featured.

The article explores the sociological aspects and social relations between health care personnel and patients involved in Health Centres managed by the National Health Service in Great Britain. Emphasis is given to topics such as the relationship between organizational structure and patterns of communication, the identification of casual relationships, and the social aspects of working conditions.

The article offers the author's insights on several papers related to group interaction. The author states that groups have several approaches and styles in interaction as what revealed in the papers presented by several psychologists including David Tresemer, Elizabeth Aries and Barbara Newman. The author states that fours factors are being considered in group relations including group composition, leadership styles and environmental setting.