A Practitioner's Guide to Successful Coalitions

The highly complex practice of building successful community coalitions is explored. Key dimensions related to coalition success are identified and best practices are delineated. Nine dimensions are explored that are critical to coalition success: coalition readiness, intentionality, structure and organizational capacity, taking action, membership, leadership, dollars and resources, relationships, and technical assistance. Two coalition case studies follow the discussion of dimensions and illustrate the journey traveled to create successful community coalitions.     

Book Reviews

Luc Boltanski, Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics
Stephen Frosh, The Politics of Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to Freudian and Post-Freudian Theory
Dennis Chong, Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society
Zsolt Enyedi and Ferenc Erös, Authoritarianism and Prejudice: Central European Perspectives
Stephanie Riger, Transforming Psychology: Gender in Theory and Practice
V. M. Bekhterev, Suggestion and Its Role in Social Life
Ian Glynn, An Anatomy of Thought: The Origins and Machinery of the Mind
David O. Sears, Jim Sidanius, and Lawrence Bobo (eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America
Philip A. Klinkner with Rogers M. Smith, The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America     

Imagine There Is a War and No One Turns Up! A Response to the Commentaries

In this response to the commentaries, we make one concession and try to clarify two critical points raised by the commentators. The concession is about the common stock of knowledge on which social representations approaches draw in general, and the model outlined in our article in particular. The two points we attempt to clarify concern the importance of both an intergroup perspective and of the structural components of power to our model of social representations.     

Child Safety in Australian Family Law: Responsibilities and Challenges for Social Science Experts in Domestic Violence Cases

Understanding the potentially adverse effects of exposure to domestic violence on children is increasing in the Western world. However, in Australian family law, there remain challenges in centralising the special needs of these children in cases before the family courts in the determination of their best interests. This article draws on some key findings of a small qualitative study to highlight and discuss some of the barriers that need to be overcome in order for social science experts to enhance the courts' capacity to protect child subjects of proceedings from possible future harm.     

Phenomenology of Phenomenology

I explore some interpretations of the practice of international market reliance that forms the focus of Aaron James' book, and I wonder how our actual practices help to settle what we should go on to do now.     

The Disproportionality Dilemma: Patterns of Teacher Referrals to School Counselors for Disruptive Behavior

Disproportionality plagues schools nationwide in special education placement, dropout, discipline referral, suspension, and expulsion rates. This study examined predictors of teacher referrals to school counselors for disruptive behavior in a sample of students selected from the Educational Longitudinal Study 2002 (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Findings demonstrated that students’ race predicted English teacher referrals; students’ gender, previous disciplinary infractions, and teachers’ postsecondary expectations for students predicted English and math teacher referrals. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.     

Le collectif de travail : une protection pour la santé psychologique d’éducateurs d’ateliers industriels en milieu carcéral

Using data from a survey conducted in Psychodynamic of Work in a maximum security penitentiary with monitors of industrial workshops, this paper proposes an understanding of the impact of organizational constraints on the psychological health. This qualitative study shows that the situation faced by these workers produces significant sources of suffering for example, work prevented, oppositions between different groups of workers, rough social relationships, fears and dangers). Few sources of pleasure, based on the team relationship, the challenge of rehabilitation of prisoners and the satisfaction of making quality products. The study identified various defensive strategies to counter the suffering at work. Finally, the discussion focuses on the importance of collective work as a means of protecting psychological health.     

Learning on the Ground: Ecology,Engagement, and Embodiment

If theological education is to prepare religious leaders who will respond faithfully and capably to ecological challenges, what models of teaching and learning will best equip them for this work? In conversation with environmental education theory and examples from diverse learning contexts, this paper proposes a model of “learning on the ground” which is characterized by engaged and embodied pedagogy through participation in earth‐honoring social practices. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal (Kevin J. O'Brien, “Balancing Critique and Commitment”) and a response to both these essays (Forrest Clingerman, “Pedagogy as a Field Guide to the Ecology of the Classroom”) also published in this issue of the journal.     

Comparative Effects and Social Validation of Support Strategies to Promote Mindfulness Practices Among High School Students

Abstract

We compared the effects of support strategies for promoting formal mindfulness practices of 9th grade high school students who participated in a 10-week school-based mindfulness education program. The students also completed social validity ratings of the support strategies they selected and the formal mindfulness practices they learned. All of the support strategies were associated with increased average minutes of formal mindfulness practices. Students who did not select an extra support strategy also had increased minutes of formal mindfulness practices but of less magnitude in contrast to the two most effective strategies. The social validity ratings of the support strategies ranged from equivocal to good approval, and the students gave positive ratings to the majority of formal mindfulness practices. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing mindfulness education programs, implementing practice-promoting support strategies, and conducting mindfulness research with school children and youth.