From 1998 to 2002 we monitored changes in the relative abundance of Asian houbara bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii across the greater part of its range in Kazakhstan. The areas most frequented by houbara bustard were the Kyzylkum region, with 35% of total sightings, and the Betpak-Dala/Muyunkum region with 25%. For all survey areas combined, mean relative abundance ranged from 0.004 to 0.017 individuals seen per km driven. Density estimates ranged from 0.025 to 0.086 houbara bustard per km2. Between 1999 and 2002 spring relative abundance and density decreased by 65 and 51% respectively. Likewise, autumn relative abundance decreased by 56% from 1998 to 2001 and density decreased by 35% between 1999 and 2001. Kyzylkum had the greatest declines in relative abundance during both spring (78%) and autumn (61%). It is highly probable that this observed decline in houbara bustard populations is linked to hunting and poaching pressure, both in Kazakhstan and on the wintering grounds of these Central Asian breeding populations.

Visual methods such as photography are under-used in the active process of sociological research. As rare as visual methods are, it is even rarer for the resultant images to be made by rather than of research participants. Primarily, the paper explores the challenges and contradictions of using photography within a multi-method approach. We consider processes for analysing visual data, different ways of utilising visual methods in sociological research, and the use of primary and secondary data, or, simple illustration versus active visual exploration of the social. The question of triangulation of visual data against text and testimony versus a stand-alone approach is explored in depth.

The recognition that the majority of British children are involved in paid employment at some time before the minimum school leaving age has not been accompanied by comparable analytical advances. Large numbers work in areas beyond those traditionally identified with ‘children's work’ and are to be found in marginal, flexible, service sector jobs, defined by unskilled and low paid manual labour. The efforts of US researchers to link ‘adolescent work’ to child development and socialisation merely pathologises children's involvement in work, while the greater sensitivity of British researchers to the possible connections between work and changes to children's social lives provides only limited insight. It is demonstrated here that children's involvement in work is closely related to employers' increased demand for part-time student labour and that children are making themselves available for work in response to both the changing distribution of family income and the commodification of their leisure time.