Current Sociology

Concerns for social justice have figured prominently in much current sociological and criminological discourse. Often implicated by these critiques is the enduring presence of harm, suffering and injustice in contemporary western society — particularly as these are reinforced and perpetuated by organizational and institutional policies and practices. Less often considered are the moral-psychological foundations that give rise to these problems and pathologies. Opposing the struggle for social justice, it could be argued, is a generalized impoverishment of moral sensibilities that would forefront the good of the other, thereby giving rise to relationships, communities and institutional policies and practices conducive to widespread human flourishing. This article suggests that meaningful social transformation in pursuit of social justice requires significant alterations of our collective value framework. More specifically, what seems needed is an overcoming of habitual cognitive and affective obstacles to the embodiment of compassion. Two such impediments to compassion are explored: appraisals of desert and responsibility; and perceptions of likeness and difference. The underlying concern throughout is to affirm the importance of the virtue of compassion as a crucial component of the struggle for social justice and human flourishing.

Despite growing interest in the knowledge economy, the work practice of its key workers has remained neglected. This article reviews the key sociological and managerial debates about ascendant knowledge workers. The authors argue that both debates assume, rather than empirically examine, changing work practices and through a leap of faith move on to discuss the enhanced class position of knowledge workers and the managerial challenges that they pose. The authors postulate that omission of work practice undermines such claims. They critique both debates, presenting an alternative, empirically sensitive research agenda to help overcome the existing analytical myopia.

Ethnicity is a social division that is increasingly difficult to ignore. Ethnicity has to be considered alongside other social divisions including socioeconomic status which is crucial to explaining minority disadvantages in health. Identity is a key dimension of ethnicity, which encompasses self-ascribed and externally-imposed elements. The stigma associated with particular conditions, combined with the effects of racism and economic marginalization, can be central to some minority groups' ability to discuss disease and seek treatment. In a world where human rights are taken seriously, minority ethnic groups' presence in research has to become a routine consideration, rather than an optional extra. In research, as in service provision, planning for linguistic and cultural diversity represents additional work and will require extra resources.

This article draws on Bourdieu's notion of habitus to address the interaction between cultural and structural factors in influencing the experience of informal care among Bangladeshi women in London. The authors present a secondary analysis of a qualitative study focusing on the accounts of informal care. The data were drawn from a two-year study with Bangladeshi women aged 35—55. Thirty-two out of the 100 women in the original study were providing care, mostly in isolated circumstances and with little or no formal support. The authors analysed the accounts of these 32 women and in the context of high levels of suffering and distress, three key themes emerged: amplification of suffering, dispositions of duty and religion and entitlements and fields of struggle. The gaps in access to formal support faced by these women suggest that strong cultural and structural forces determined their experience of informal care and the meanings they attached to their role as informal carers. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu and others, the authors suggest that where there is a lack of agency and resistance to support services, the explanation needs to move beyond poor information and language issues to a more rounded understanding of relationship between habitus and conflicts over local fields of welfare.

When making decisions about prenatal diagnosis, couples not only draw on their understanding of the condition but also broader aspects of their cultural identity. This article looks at how faith and religion mediate attitudes towards screening, prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy for sickle cell and thalassaemia disorders. The article specifically reports on a qualitative study, which used focus groups from a variety of faith communities (Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Christian), at risk of haemoglobin disorders, living in England. Our findings suggest that the decision about whether or not to have diagnostic testing generally related to attitudes towards the termination of pregnancy. The consequences of the condition were as important as religious beliefs to most people. More generally, faith beliefs emerged as negotiable and contingent: realized within a broader moral framework. Religion was felt not to be prescriptive and reproductive decisions were seen as personal. When making decisions, people utilize faith within a broader context of individual, family and social relationships.

The risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older adults in the US has increased in recent years, especially in the southeast. Stigma is a known barrier to STI control, but is rarely addressed in relation to older adults because of assumptions about their lack of sexual activity or their low risk of STI. This study presents the results of a telephone survey on STI stigma among older adults in a southern US state using Bourdieu's concept of habitus and the `exemplary elder' construct as conceptual frameworks. The sample consisted of 81 black and 109 white residents aged over 50 years. Black elders gave more stigma-related responses than whites, especially if they lived in rural areas. The results indicated that, after controlling for income and education, habitus played a role in different reactions to being infected and seeking treatment for STIs. Habitus was also evident in rural and gender differences between the two groups concerning knowledge, fear of STIs and willingness to seek treatment. The construct of `exemplary elder' is a viable conceptual frame of reference in helping to explain why older African Americans in the south are more fearful of STIs than older whites.

This article discusses the recruitment and training of bilingual project workers and their role in data gathering; the level of comprehension of the interviewees with regard to the nature of the task and its alien nature; the contribution of social customs and expectations; the vagaries of language; the researchers' level of comprehension of data collected across a range of languages; the feelings of loss of control by the researchers over the research process; and issues of communication with bilingual project workers. The authors draw on two studies designed to assess the adequacy of questionnaire translations from English into four ethnic minority languages: Cantonese, Punjabi, Urdu and Sylheti. Bilingual project workers were recruited to carry out interviews and focus groups with the lay communities and to feed back results in English to the researchers. The authors conclude that researchers should be aware of the influence of social and contextual factors when carrying out research with ethnic minority participants mediated by bilingual project workers.