The Clinical Sociology Review, a peer-reviewed and open-access journal, publishes – in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish – research articles, essays, historical pieces, reviews, and teaching as well as practice notes. Clinical sociology is a creative, interdisciplinary, humanistic and rights-based field that focuses on analysis and intervention to improve all our lives and the planet. We welcome accessible and engaging contributions from a variety of disciplines that will help us examine, reduce, and resolve problems at all intervention levels, from individual to global.
Licensing information Creative Commons CC Attribution 4.0 International Public License © Author(s)
Absenteeism and Labour Precarity: A Quantitative Analysis of a South African Cleaning Services Company
This study investigates absenteeism among cleaners employed by a South African cleaning services company. Despite its economic importance and the challenges faced by its workforce, the cleaning services industry remains understudied, particularly in terms of absenteeism and its impacts on cleaners’ livelihoods. To fill this void, a quantitative approach was employed, utilising a dataset of 5109 cleaners to analyse the prevalence and patterns of absenteeism. Results show that Black African females were disproportionately affected, and regions such as Cape Town and the North-West Province displayed the highest prevalence of absenteeism among cleaners. This study contributes to the growing body of research on precarious work and informs policy discussions and interventions on improving labour practices in low-wage sectors.
Copyright (c) 2025 David du Toit, Gerrit Koorsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review: The Untold Story of Zama Zama Miners in South Africa: Unearthing Hope
Bester starts the telling of her story of South Africa’s Zama Zama miners at some miserable holes in the ground outside a dusty little town called Stilfontein. It was here, in 2025, that the issue of Zama Zama mining finally erupted forcefully into the consciousness of just about every South African, and indeed, many others the world over. Before this, the issue had kind of bubbled away just beneath the surface of popular consciousness, sometimes showing us a hint of its existence, but never really materialising fully. I return to this choice as an opening scene, the ‘scene of the crime’ to all but the most critical of observer, a little later in this reflection. But for now, the point I want to make about this is that, while this was where Bester chose to start telling the story, it is quite clear that her engagement with Zama Zama miners and mining started long before the Stilfontein frenzy. I emphasize this up front so that there can be no confusion that this book might have been an opportunistic response to the media frenzy that ‘went down’ outside Stilfontein.
Copyright (c) 2025 Neil Eccles https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Feminist Practices and Experiential Pedagogies: Student Learning at the Commission on the Status of Women
This article describes an undergraduate experiential learning course based at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The course introduces students to the evolution of global women’s rights movements and gender equality efforts at the United Nations (UN) while simultaneously preparing them to engage directly with human rights leaders and policymakers during the annual CSW meeting in early March. Prior to participation in the CSW, students learn about the history of women’s rights as human rights campaign alongside essential governing documents, meeting outcomes, and global resolutions on gender equality. Students likewise trace ongoing challenges to human rights mechanisms and consider how feminist leaders and movements have shaped and continue to influence human rights work today. In this article, I explore the ebbs and flows of the course, delivered across five different semesters, offering critical insight on the ways in which changes to the CSW environment and student learning outcomes inform pedagogical progression in course delivery, assessment and design. I spotlight one scaffolded assignment where students collaborate with others to create and distribute advocacy materials at the CSW as an illustrative example of experiential learning as feminist praxis. Drawing from student reflections, the article interweaves discussions of lessons learned as well as the value experiential education provides to the related interdisciplinary fields of clinical sociology, and women’s and gender, or feminist studies.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emily Bent https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Hommage à Robert Sévigny, pionnier de la sociologie clinique au Québec
C’est avec beaucoup de tristesse que nous vous annonçons le décès de Monsieur Robert Sévigny survenu à Montréal le 13 mai 2025 à l’âge de 94 ans. Il était l’époux de feue Thérèse Paquet-Sévigny, et le père d’Odile, sa fille et de feu Éric, son fils. Professeur émérite à l’Université de Montréal, Robert Sévigny (PhD sociologie, Université Laval) a joué un rôle central dans le développement d’une approche clinique de la sociologie. En 1966-1967, il fut chercheur invité à l’Association pour la recherche et l’intervention psychosociologique (ARIP) à Paris puis au Centre Carl Rogers, à La Jolla, Californie en 1980-1981. Il a su constamment relier les apports de la France et des États-Unis pour développer ses recherches et ses pratiques d’intervention au Québec. En 1991, il fut à l’origine, avec madame Jan Fritz de l’Université de Cincinnati, du Comité de recherche en sociologie clinique (RC 46) au sein de l’Association internationale de sociologie (AIS). Cela achevait une démarche qui avait débuté dès 1982, lors d’un précédent congrès de l’AIS. Nous soulignons quatre idées centrales de la pensée de M. Sévigny : la dimension de l’approche clinique en sociologie et en sciences sociales; la notion de sociologie implicite; la perspective interdisciplinaire; l’avenir de l’approche clinique en sociologie et en sciences sociales dans le contexte social actuel.[1] [1] Nous invitions le lecteur ou la lectrice à prendre connaissance de l’entretien fait avec M. Robert Sévigny dans la présente revue, Volume 19, no.2 en 2024, pp. 1-25.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jacques Rhéaume https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the digital shift: Factors influencing the sustainable adoption of e-health tools for digital mental health services amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the global adoption of electronic health (e-health) tools for digital mental health services (DMHS) in South African higher education institutions (SA HEIs). However, the long-term sustainability of these innovations remains uncertain. This study employs an integrated Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework to investigate determinants of the sustainable adoption of e-health tools. A cross-sectional survey of 348 staff at a selected SA HEI was analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. Three critical factors emerged: (1) University capacity to deliver DMHS, emphasising the significance of top management support, financial resources, and information and communications technology expertise; (2) Perceived benefits and importance of e-health tools, highlighting user perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, and behavioural intention; and (3) External support to enhance university capacity, including government policies, competitive pressures, and institutional partnerships. The study advances theory by synthesising TOE and TAM in a resource-constrained context, revealing how institutional readiness and user perceptions jointly influence the sustainable adoption of e-health tools for DMHS. Practical implications highlight the need for targeted investments in digital infrastructure, capacity-building, and policy alignment to strengthen DMHS sustainability. The study results are consistent with Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), offering a roadmap for SA HEIs to leverage e-health tools for mental health resilience post-pandemic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rhodrick Nyasha Musakuro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Socio-Psychic Knots of Teacher Burnout in Brazil
The literature indicates that teachers are among the professional groups most susceptible to developing burnout syndrome. To deepen understand this phenomenon, we analyze data collected in Brazil between 2020 and 2022, specifically through 16 socio-clinical interviews conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the framework of Clinical Sociology, our objective is to examine the socio-psychic knots of burnout in order to address it in all its complexity. We argue that burnout serves as a Dominant Social Symptom of contemporary teaching work, particularly as a consequence of the erosion of meaning in professional activities. This symptomatic exhaustion reflects the intensification of managerial frameworks within the educational field. Our conceptual approach seeks to challenge the prevailing narrative that tends to individualize teacher burnout, often by attributing it to psychological factors while overlooking the structural contradictions and conflicts inherent in teachers' work. Indeed, our data suggest that teacher burnout is fundamentally a collective and institutional phenomenon—an expression of a broader socio-historical process marked by the flexibilization and precarization of labor relations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matheus Viana Braz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Improving the Lives of Older Adults in South Korea
This article examines mandatory and involuntary retirement in South Korea. Information is first provided about Korea and the older adults who may have faced mandatory or involuntary retirement. This is followed by a human rights approach to employment and a brief discussion about ageism. The next section is about some attempts to improve the situation in Korea: a training program for middle-aged adults, the work of the national human rights organization, the national attention given to reform efforts and the initiatives of the organization of retired people. The conclusion includes 10 suggestions about what can be done to continue to improve the employment situation of older adults.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jan Marie Fritz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Eugène Enriquez: Memory, Thinking and Humanity
This article aims to provide an overview of the work on both personal and professional trajectory of the French thinker Eugène Enriquez who had a great influence on the creation and development of Clinical Sociology and French Psychosociology. Enriquez legacy continues to inspire academicals and professionals through his innovative thinking and the depth of his oeuvre. The manuscript is divided into four parts. The first one emphasizes the author's socio-professional history, revealing personal aspects from birth to academic and intellectual consolidation as a pioneer in his field. In the second part, his three seminal works and their fundamental contributions are briefly presented. Herein, Enriquez adopts a psychosociological and clinical perspective to discuss social and organizational dynamics. His viewpoint significantly contributed to recognition of the interdisciplinarity between psychoanalysis and sociology. In the third part, Enriquez most recent texts are discussed in which he analyzes society contemporary challenges, addressing social fragmentation and redefinition in human relations on the XXI century. And finally, the last part engages on a personal narrative highlighting Eugène´s generosity and humanity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ludmila de V. M. Guimarães, Luciana Otenio Carreteiro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Racialized Researcher Facing a Differentiated Racial Subjectivity: Clinical and Reflexive Approach to Racism
For a racialized researcher, investigating racism can seem perilous from the perspective of the relationship to the object required by a scientific objectification approach. This reflexive article is based on an ethnography that links my biography to a clinical approach in order to access the racist experience of different racialized groups in France (social work students and residents of working-class neighborhoods). This approach, both reflexive and clinical, requires a patient and attentive construction of the conditions of enunciation of the experience in order to identify the tensions between identity for oneself and identity for others. It allows for the comparison of similar experiences, sometimes lived differently depending on life history and the frequency of racist offenses and attacks. The article's theme questions the ambivalence of my ethnoracial identification with minority groups, a relationship that takes the form of a play of similar or discordant perceptions. Identity misalignments in the field are a particular source of reflexivity, especially since being racialized does not necessarily offer an epistemic advantage in accessing minority experiences. In a context of denial of systemic racism, transference and countertransference (Devereux, 1967) reflect the sharing of a stigmatized identity—a racialized self—with subjects who do not initially consider themselves racialized. These contrasting ways of recognizing oneself in the experience of racialization are the result of a differentiated learning of a racialized self, which is revealed or reinforced in the research interaction. Countertransference, in particular, made it possible to make a differentiated racial subjectivity visible.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rachid Bouchareb https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Developing a Deliberative Researcher-Practitioner Relationship in Sociological Evaluation Research: A Practical Reflection on using Sociology in the Carer Café Evaluation Project in Hong Kong
Reflecting on the experience of a sociological evaluation about a community Carer Café project by Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centre between 2022 and 2023, this paper illustrates why and how developing a deliberative researcher-practitioner relationship in the evaluation research is of importance to making a more profound impact on service development and knowledge transfer. The collaboration includes engagement, mutual learning, dialogue in the evaluation, and the deliberation of knowledge for service development, and re-positioning the roles between researchers and practitioners in further collaboration. The reflection provides a practical account of how to address the power imbalance in the evaluation process and facilitates the deliberation in the sociological evaluation research. From the reflection, this article also highlights recommendations on how to work out deliberative clinical sociological evaluation research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ka Yi Fung, Wing Sun Chan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Constructing Grounded Scientific Research Using Field Notebooks
Being a socially and physically situated researcher is not without biases for constructed research. From this perspective, we revisit the role of field notebooks, used as artifacts to distance and expose potential biases. Starting from a "must-do" dimension, to an archival dimension before opening up the possibility of analysis, particularly through the recording of emotions experienced during the research process, the field notebook constitutes a tool at the heart of professional identity linked to action research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carine Mira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Subjectification: A Central Concept in Clinical Sociology
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of subjectivation, as it can be understood in clinical sociology. The aim is to justify the focus on this concept, preferred to that of the subject, and to emphasize its processual dimension. Subjectivation is defined as a process caught in multiple dialectical movements, linking therapeutic and political subjectivations, desubjectivation and resubjectivation, subjugation and emancipation, recognition of one's desire and desire for recognition, determinism and freedom, meaning and action, and self-affirmation and destruction. This complicates the definition of subjectivation: it involves grasping the subjective shifts through which individuals seek to grasp and grasp the socio-psychological processes in which they are engaged, so that they can reclaim their agency and the meaning of their lived experiences by performing meaningful actions and by giving meaning to their actions. However, these dialectical movements break with a romantic conception of subjectivation, integrating into its understanding its precarious, fleeting, partial, indefinite, and ultimately interminable characteristics. Moreover, in order to grasp the socio-anthropological and psychological conditions of possibility for subjectivation processes, it seems heuristic to link this concept to those of historicity and negativity. Finally, a dialogue with the critical analysis of capitalist subjectivation proposed by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval allows us to question the political and emancipatory scope of collaborative research mechanisms in clinical sociology.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pascal Fugier https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Psychoanalytically Oriented Clinical Anthropology: An Intercultural Dialogue
This article addresses the question of how to take anthropologists' subjectivity into account in their research through a psychoanalytically oriented clinical approach. Through the analysis of the author's own psychological movements, he hypothesizes that a sense of guilt may be common to those who practice anthropology, and that analyzing their transference and countertransference reactions can provide a way to access the reality of the other. In this way, he proposes to find in the clinical approach an ethic that allows us to break with the evolutionary and neocolonial positions of the discipline. He seeks to define anthropology as the practice of intercultural dialogue, first at the level of intersubjectivity, but also at the level of culturally distant social and institutional practices.
Copyright (c) 2025 Adrien Cante https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review: "Dialogues with Eugène Enriquez: On the Work: "From the Horde to the State – Psychoanalysis of the Social Bond"
"Dialogues with Eugène Enriquez: On the Work: From the Horde to the State – Psychoanalysis of the Social Bond" is a collection organized by Vanessa Andrade Barros, Teresa Cristina Carreteiro, Jacyara Rochael Nasciutti, and José Newton Garcia de Araújo, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Eugène Enriquez’s seminal work, De la horde à l’État. The book brings together contributions from various scholars who revisit and expand on Enriquez’s ideas, integrating theoretical and practical perspectives that bridge the individual and the collective. The work is divided into two main parts: the first, "Freud and the Social Bond," explores the foundations of Enriquez’s thought, addressing themes such as myth, political power, religion, and violence. The second part, "Social Bond, Domination, and Power," examines issues of gender, culture, modern power, and contemporary challenges, such as the fragility of community ties and democratic regression. This work is essential for understanding the relevance of Enriquez’s thought and its applications in analyzing current issues, making it a must-read for researchers interested in social dynamics and power structures.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ludmila de V.M. Guimaraes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Quebec, an important figure in the development of a clinical approach in sociology and the human sciences is undoubtedly Robert Sévigny, professor emeritus in the department of Sociology at the University of Montreal. Four specific phases of his journey are thus addressed. A first period is that of his training and his professional experiences which go from 1951 to the end of the 1970s. Another phase follows, from the 80s to the beginning of the 2000s, marked more particularly by his research and intervention work. exploring 'implicit' sociology among practitioners and researchers. A third period is that of the development of the clinical approach in sociology, both in Quebec and in international networks. This involves reference to different theoretical currents and varied practices depending on the countries concerned. Finally, by examining the major social transformations that we are experiencing in our Western societies and in the world, a critical reflection is necessary on the current and future development of a clinical approach in sociology, and more broadly, in the human and social sciences.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jacques Rhéaume https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Clinical posture in social sciences and relationship to the research object
This article presents an epistemological reflection on the clinical posture in social sciences and the relationship to the object in a thesis project where the student is situated in a dual posture of proximity and distance. As a speaker, immigrant mother and doctoral student wishing to better understand the transcultural encounter between speakers and immigrant parents, the author takes you into her reflection on the relevant modalities that can promote the realization of an objectification process in clinical research in social sciences. The objective of the presentation of this reflexivity is to provide other student-researchers, situated in a dual posture, with avenues of reflection to develop a frame of reference allowing them to move towards objectification. The author thus hopes to contribute to transforming the perception of subjectivity, considered as an obstacle to a lever in the construction of scientific knowledge. First, she presents the broad outlines of her thesis project as well as her clinical posture in research, including her epistemological positioning and her methodological choices. She will then present her reflexivity by answering the question "Who am I?" in order to better understand her relationships with the research object. Finally, she will propose some of the fundamental principles and tools that can be available to student-researchers wishing to progress towards objectification while reducing the tension likely to arise between proximity and distancing from the research object.
Copyright (c) 2024 Berna Elias https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The application of sociological knowledge, including theory, methods, and skills, has been identified as sociological practice. Within the field of sociological practice there are two distinct types of practice - clinical and applied (Clark and Fritz 1986). In the United States (U.S.) the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology (AACS) certifies these sociological practitioners at the master’s or doctoral level. The process involves an evaluation by previously certified peers and includes the submission of a portfolio and the completion of a demonstration in which applicants showcase their action-oriented work. Certification is not state licensure. The credentialing of sociological practitioners in the U.S. and internationally can serve as a model for sociological practitioners globally - applied, clinical, and engaged public.
Copyright (c) 2023 Melodye Lehnerer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Elements for the Analysis of the Institutionalization of Applied Sociology. A case of Clinical Sociology in Colombia (2015-2022)
The institutionalization process of a discipline can be studied from a set of representative cases on which, although we cannot base ourselves to account for all its complexity, they do allow us to identify the elements involved in that process and the problems to be faced. This work is dedicated, in its first part, to the presentation of the debate around two visions of sociology that coexist and characterize its institutionalization. First, the classic discussion around the dichotomies "theory and technique", "theoretical and applied", "science and profession", "basic research and applied research" is explored, to then address the relevance of applied sociology. Finally, the particular case of the first attempt to institutionalize clinical sociology in Colombia from its inclusion in the study plan of the sociology career of the Universidad del Atlántico is exposed, together with the development of research activities; social outreach activities; internships and degree projects; diploma courses, international seminars, publications and, finally, the creation of a professional association.
Copyright (c) 2023 Fernando Yzaguirre, José Luis Álvaro Estramiana, Alicia Garrido Luque https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Towards the analysis of the researcher's subjectivity A dialogue between researchers
This text proposes to reflect on the relationships between researcher and participants in the development of fieldwork and in the information analysis, with emphasis on what happens to the researcher. The proposed reflections are part of our analyzes from research experiences in the socio-educational field and intergenerational, intercultural and interracial relationships. With them we interpellate our social, cultural, age, gender, ethnic/racial places and our privileges. We believe that questioning our involvement, our subjectivity and putting it into dialogue, has contributed to controvert some of the bases of common sense, to unravel the cultural, symbolic and subjective factors that could be reinforcing the structural historical maintenance of the inequalities we face on the topics we cover. Taking into consideration the methodological aspects, this has been possible due to our work from the qualitative methodology approach and, particularly, from the epistemological and methodological approach of clinical sociology, in which we previously found a large part of the discussions that later provoked reflection for the qualitative methodology, which has a strong tradition of reflection on objectivity and epistemological vigilance, to a lesser extent but not in depth on subjectivity and perhaps very little on involvement in research. In this paper we intend to contribute to thinking about these aspects, mainly the implication, from our own subjectivizing processes, because these are always present whether we contemplate them or not.
Copyright (c) 2023 Mónica Olaza, Mabela Ruiz Barbot https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Media and the Case of State Capture in South Africa: How Independent Outlets Aided Whistleblowers in Communicating their Messages
State capture, which is when private actors influence the state through illegal and non-transparent forms, significantly impacted South Africa’s socio-political landscape during Jacob Zuma’s presidency. This transpired largely because of an unethical nexus that formed around Zuma, those in government loyal to him, and the powerful business family – the Guptas. These revelations came to the fore because of independent media, which focused on exposing the illicit relationships driving state capture. Independent media was reliant on whistleblowers to communicate a complete narrative, which resulted in a mutually beneficial collaboration between independent media and whistleblowers. A qualitative research approach employing two methods was utilised to examine this collaboration. The dominant source of information arose from semi-structured interviews conducted with whistleblowers and independent media outlet affiliates. This data was further supplemented with document analysis. This study found that independent media played a crucial role in providing support to state capture whistleblowers. Support occurred in three forms, namely: defensive; emotional; and offensive support. Defensive support entailed legal, financial and security aid. Emotional support was provided in the form of informal counselling. Offensive support entailed using media exposure to make the whistleblowers’ narratives public, as well as mediating between whistleblowers and official commissions of inquiry.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ugljesa Radulovic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
This qualitative study explores the experiences of food-delivery couriers employed by UberEats, MrDFood and BoltFood in Johannesburg, South Africa. Through in-depth interviews with Black African male migrant food delivery couriers from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda, the study investigates the opportunities, challenges and coping strategies characterising their work in the gig economy. Key findings reveal increased earning potential, multiple job opportunities and flexible schedules as the main benefits. However, food delivery couriers also experience challenges including crime and safety risks, lack of fringe benefits, customer harassment, and rising petrol and data costs. To cope with these challenges, food delivery couriers utilise several individual strategies such as WhatsApp support groups and networks to help them with job-related challenges. The article concludes with several interventions to policy change to improve the working conditions of food delivery couriers.
Copyright (c) 2024 David du Toit, Ngubeni Phumzile https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Clinical Sociology Honours Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa
A qualification in Clinical and Applied Sociology facilitates initiatives to mitigate and reduce pervasive social problems prioritising women, children, migrants, families and society. Graduate studies in Clinical and Applied Sociology is limited in South Africa and the global South, therefore a postgraduate degree focused on applying interdisciplinary perspectives in diverse social contexts was initiated. This approach addresses social problems, policies, and enhances community well-being through direct intervention, research, and advocacy. Graduates gain competencies in healthcare, community organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions, contributing to societal change and development. The Clinical Sociology postgraduate programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal produces change agents by designing and implementing clinical and applied models and interventions. Post-graduates augment critical skills, proficiencies and dexterities by combining research academic interests and societal needs. The aim of the programme typically involves applying l theories and methods to analyse and intervene in social issues and problems at the individual, community, and societal levels. The programme focuses on understanding human behaviour in a social context, diagnosing social problems, and developing strategies for social change. It prepares students for roles in policy development, social research, community work, and advocacy, aiming to promote social justice and improving quality of life. The Bachelor of Social Science in Clinical and Applied Sociology (Honours) is open to students in possession of an undergraduate Sociology qualification or a cognate discipline. A qualification in Clinical Sociology facilitates initiatives that seek to mitigate and reduce pervasive social problems in the interest of women, children, migrants, families and society.
Copyright (c) 2024 Mariam Seedat-Khan, Jayanathan Govender https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Socio-economic and Demographic Determinants of Household Fertility Decisions
This study investigates the socio-economic and demographic determinants of household fertility decisions in Nigeria. Using the family system model as framework, a cross-sectional survey design in a retrospective study was adopted. Quantitative data were purposively gotten from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) household recode dataset. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Logistic Regressions at P<0.05. The mean age at first birth of respondents was 18.8±4.0 years. The mean of Children ever-born was 5.9±2.8. The Children ever-born was highest in the North West region (36.7%), while the South East had the least (12.6%) sum of Children ever-born in the six regions. The relationship between children ever-born and the age at first birth is statistically significant (χ2= 8334.4, p=<0.001). Women with all living are 2.0 times (OR=2.071, CI=1.987-2.158) more likely to increase their Children ever-born than women who have experienced the loss of a child. Women who have no formal education are 5.8 times (OR=5.835, CI=5.504-6.186) more likely to increase their Children ever-born than women with tertiary education. Women who do not utilize contraception in any way and those who used the folkloric method were respectively 0.8 times and 5.5 times more likely to increase their children ever-born than women using modern contraceptives respectively. Based on the findings, it is recommended that fertility controls must be prioritized, specifically by encouraging girl child education across the nation.
Copyright (c) 2024 Endurance Uzobo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Community-Engaged Research in Teaching Research Methods
This article presents a community-engaged project integrated into a research methods course. The goal of the course was to engage students in research on a transitional housing program for homeless veterans and develop their understanding of veteran homelessness. While students learned the basic concepts, theoretical paradigms, and methods of qualitative research from assigned readings, class lectures, and discussions, they engaged in research activities such as data collection, analysis, and dissemination in real world settings. Toward the end of the semester, the students in the course shared their research findings and recommendations for further improvement with the program stakeholders. The research outcomes were utilized to support the program development. During the research process, both student researchers and community partners gained benefits by building mutual trust and creating positive relationships. The students who completed the community-engaged project demonstrated greater knowledge of veteran homelessness and suggested ways to help them integrate back into society.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mieko Yamada https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Rising Religious Extremism and Mob violence in Nigeria
Before the emergence of Boko haram terrorist group in the early 2000s, religious extremism in Nigeria had sparked large scale crises in Kaduna and Plateau among other states in the country. Since the inception of the Nigerian fourth republic, such crises have been undermining public safety and by implication, the country’s quest for national integration and sustainable development. In the light of a mob violence that resulted in the gruesome murder of a college student who allegedly uttered blasphemous comment, this paper examined the rise of religious extremism in Nigeria. Looking beyond human security threats like poverty and illiteracy, the paper utilised desk review of published documents to establish the historical and political factors that sowed in the country, the seeds of religious extremism now germinating. The paper found that the nature of the pre-colonial empires that now make up the Nigerian state coupled with colonial and post-colonial factors including the dissipation of knowledge on Islamic justice system, competition over political powers and the politics of divide and rule have converged to make religion a volatile phenomenon in the country. Therefore, the paper concludes that until the multidimensional factors are addressed through mitigating and preventive efforts—such as robust religious education, religious regulation, interreligious dialogue and economic empowerment—the country’s quest for ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ among other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will remain a mirage.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ismail Husain Mshelia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Community Partners in Evaluation and Change
Over the past quarter-century, The Magnolia Project has served a section of “the Northwest Corridor” of Jacksonville, FL, providing reproductive and well-woman care and intensive case management to reduce infant mortality in the African American community. During this time, the primary focus for Magnolia has been to provide clinic-based well woman care, prenatal care, support groups and case management through a store-front site in the heart of the target area. As new opportunities for funding became available, Magnolia moved from its “traditional” focus of women who come to, or are referred to, the clinic site to a broad-based Community-wide focus in order to address the underlying symptoms affecting the community’s health and the disparities this community faces. The Authors have been involved in the discussion, design, and implementation of Magnolia throughout the past 25 years, literally “sitting around the table” working on the original program proposal. In this paper we reflect on our role as evaluation partner for the Magnolia Project, and discuss how Program Representatives and staff, Evaluation Partners, and Community Partners joined forces over the past 25 years to implement the Magnolia project, and how they made a difference in their community. The lessons learned from this process are informative to other programs seeking to expand their community impact through partnering with university-based researchers.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jeffry A. Will, Tracy Milligan, Timothy Cheney https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Clinical Sociology and Community Interventions
At least 235,000 people experience homelessness in Canada each year, with over 35,000 experiencing homelessness on any given night (Gaetz et al. 2013a). For many, maintaining housing is challenging due to the absence of essential life skills. This paper departs from a community-identified problem with conventional life skills programming and uses sociological tools to address it. Community partners have expressed a need for a life skills curriculum that is inclusive, representing the intersecting needs and experiences of a diversity of clients, and that will address budgetary constraints of not-for-profit (NFP) organizations in the region. The Community-Ideas Factory: The Life Skills Project consists of an interdisciplinary research team and 16 NFPs collaborating to build a comprehensive, inclusive, relevant, and effective online life skills intervention. Adopting a clinical sociological and community-engaged research approach, our findings emphasize the importance of recognizing that essential life skills are diverse and shaped by the larger social, political, and economic context, such as social inequities. Notably, social justice is identified as a crucial life skill, uncovering the intersectionalities that shape individuals' lives and that must be integrated into life skills programming. This ground-breaking finding is facilitated by our methodology, deviating from the positivist research approaches prevalent in life skills studies. Significantly, the entire life skills curriculum is Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)-informed. The intervention addresses immediate financial strains for partner organizations. We anticipate that the intervention will interrupt current cycles of homelessness while holding promise as a preventative measure.
Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Sara Cumming, Dr. Julianne DiSanto, Leah Burton-Saliba, Chloe Shackelton, Joel McLeod https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
This article takes a reflective look at the scientific approach at the heart of a doctoral thesis in social work aimed at studying the experiences of separation and reunification of members of transnational refugee families in Quebec/Canada. Through a "feminist memory work" it presents: 1) the problematic as well as the theoretical and methodological framework of the thesis; 2) a "situation" (Ahmed, 2024) that was decisive in the choice of doctoral research object; 3) an analysis mobilizing among other things the concept of intersectional praxis "in and outside" of one's social class and racialized group (Bilge and Hill Collins, 2023; hooks, 2018) in order to reflect on the ways of conducting a scientific process whose mission is to learn about the experience of others and to transform the sources of oppression that affect them.
Copyright (c) 2024 Myriam Richard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Development of Clinical Sociology in Malaysia
This article discusses the significant contributions made by Wan Halim Othman in the advancement of clinical sociology in Malaysia. Wan Halim, introduced as the progenitor of Clinical Sociology in Malaysia, has played a pivotal role in social issue management and his unique approaches have had a lasting social impact in the country. This article starts with the backdrop of the country and the main figure - Wan Halim Othman, and then discusses the various innovative and impactful initiatives that he has spearheaded using the clinical sociology approach. Programmes such as PINTAS and the social clinic exemplify the profound capacity of clinical sociology to address intricate societal issues. Wan Halim has effectively empowered marginalized communities and promoted social cohesion by implementing new strategies, like community mediation and support groups specifically designed for single moms. Though clinical sociology is gaining traction in Malaysia, much needed to be done to further recognize and institutionalize this discipline. Among the proposed next steps include the formalization of clinical sociology by implementing comprehensive curricula, hands-on training, and professional certification. The author emphasizes the significance of fostering collaboration among academia, government, and civil society in order to establish clinical sociology as an institutionalized field and effectively tackle urgent societal issues.
Copyright (c) 2024 Puspa Melati Wan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Book Review: Assessing Social Science Research Ethics and Integrity: Case Studies and Essays
Published in Springer’s Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice series, Assessing Social Science Research Ethics and Integrity: Case Studies and Essays is the work of Harry Perlstadt, Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University’s Department of Sociology. This scholarly work is concerned with research ethics in the social sciences, focusing on the protection of human participants in social experiments. With two comprehensive essays and a meticulous analysis of six contentious experiments, Perlstadt embarks on a journey to elucidate the complex interplay between ethics and empirical inquiry.