Children's experience of public space

Children and young people regard the external physical environment as important for their needs. Their use of space varies according to age and circumstance and includes designated play and leisure facilities as well as other informal areas within their neighbourhoods. However, children have little influence over the development of public space as they do not have the opportunity to contribute their views to local processes. This paper explores children's and young people's views and experience of public space in regeneration areas. It considers whether children's perspectives are accurately reflected in public policy. It draws on primary research with young people aged ten to 14 years and representatives from local organisations in a disadvantaged urban area in Scotland.     

Improving the contribution of migrant remittances to development: the experience of Asian labour-exporting countries

"The purpose of this paper is to review policy initiatives [concerning migrant remittances] in six major labour-exporting countries in Asia--Bangladesh, India, Korea, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Where relevant, the experience of these countries will be compared and contrasted with those of labour-exporting countries in other parts of the world....[The author concludes that] the imposition of mandatory remittance requirements on migrant workers is unlikely to enhance remittance inflows unless the government of the labour-exporting country effectively controls the migration process." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Fragments of development: Nation, gender, and the space of modernity

Imagine any process of economic development. How do the social,political, and economic interact in your imaginary development?Who is active and who is passive? What stands in the way? Howis success or failure measured? Who is then credited or blamed?The ways that we think about development are at least partiallyreflective of essentialist constructions that have been producedby societal and theoretical discourses. Bergeron has examinedboth mainstream and critical bodies of literature and emergedwith a powerful set of observations regarding these constructions. The discursive analyses in Fragments of Development demonstrate     

Fragments of development: Nation, gender, and the space of modernity

Imagine any process of economic development. How do the social,political, and economic interact in your imaginary development?Who is active and who is passive? What stands in the way? Howis success or failure measured? Who is then credited or blamed?The ways that we think about development are at least partiallyreflective of essentialist constructions that have been producedby societal and theoretical discourses. Bergeron has examinedboth mainstream and critical bodies of literature and emergedwith a powerful set of observations regarding these constructions. The discursive analyses in Fragments of Development demonstrate     

Influence of gender and experience on college students' stalking schemas

Although stalking has been increasingly recognized as a serious social problem, surprisingly few studies have investigated perceptions of the specific behaviors that comprise stalking. The focus of this article, therefore, was to further delineate college students' stalking schemas and to examine the influence of gender and personal knowledge of stalking on their schemas. Participants judged whether or not a variety of behaviors were examples of stalking. Behaviors were designed to range from mild, somewhat ambiguous, examples of stalking to more severe examples. Results revealed an interaction between gender and experience on ratings of mild stalking behaviors. Men who had personal knowledge of stalking (by having been stalked themselves or knowing someone who had been stalked) were significantly more likely to rate mild stalking behaviors as stalking than men who had no experience. In contrast, experience did not affect women's perceptions of mild stalking, as no differences were found between women as a function of experience. Results are discussed in terms of overall relationship schemas.     

A good fit: the contribution of action learning to supervision practice

This paper discusses the value of action learning for social work supervisors. Recent years have seen renewed focus on supervision as a reflective space and some indications that the tide may be turning in regard to the dominance of managerial priorities within the supervision of direct practice. It is less evident that a similar shift is taking place for supervisors themselves and, anecdotally, many describe their own supervision as having a business focus with limited scope for reflective dialogue. While the traditional functions of supervision need to adapt to fit the responsibilities of those in management positions, it remains true that these staff provide a vital containing role within the organisational hierarchy. For that to be sustained, it is important that supervisors have space and structure within which to process the emotional, intellectual and practical challenges of their work. The integration of action learning sets within post-qualifying courses for supervisors has demonstrated a useful dual function. Firstly, they provide an effective model for group supervision, facilitating in-depth reflection on complex practice issues. Secondly, they offer managers a peer supervision forum; a safe place to explore dilemmas and share the vulnerabilities which belong to management roles as well as practice.     

Existence of homogeneous representations of interval orders on a cone in a topological vector space

Necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the existence of a pair <u,v> of positively homogeneous of degree one real functions representing an interval order on a real cone K in a topological vector space E (in the sense that, for every x,yK, xy if and only if u(x)v(y)), with u lower semicontinuous, v upper semicontinuous, and u and v utility functions for two complete preorders intimately connected with . We conclude presenting a new approach to get such kind of representations, based on the concept of a biorder.This research has been supported by the Integrated Action of Research HI2000-0116 (Spain-Italy). Also, the work of coauthors Candeal and Induráin has been partially supported by the research project PB98-551 Estructuras ordenadas y aplicaciones (M.E.C. Spain, December 1999).     

The experience of personal space: Perception of interpersonal distance

The experience of personal space was studied by comparing objective interpersonal distance with subjects' perception of interpersonal distance. Regardless of sex, several personality traits, and objective size of personal space, perceived personal space is larger than objective personal space. Yet in non-personal space situations, subjects did not overestimate distance. In personal space situations, individuals apparently believe they are farther from other people than they actually are.     

Durkheim's contribution to the sociological analysis of history

Emile Durkheim has long been viewed as one of the founders of the so-called variables-oriented approach to sociological investigation. This view ignores his considerable achievements using the methodology of “case-based” historical analysis, most prominent among them, his lectures on the history of French education (The Evolution of Educational Thought).In this paper I first outline the intimate relationship that Durkheim envisioned between historical and sociological investigation. I then turn to his work on French education for substantive illustrations of his approach. Finally, I explore certain points of intersection between Durkheim's approach to history and present-day concerns, especially in regard to the role of culture in history and the opposition between prospective and retrospective (“teleological”) strategies of historical analysis.     

Institutional design and utilization of evaluation: a contribution to a theory of evaluation influence based on Swiss experience

Growing interest in the institutionalization of evaluation in the public administration raises the question as to which institutional arrangement offers optimal conditions for the utilization of evaluations. Institutional arrangement denotes the formal organization of processes and competencies, together with procedural rules, that are applicable independently of individual evaluation projects. It reflects the evaluation practice of an institution and defines the distance between evaluators and evaluees. This article outlines the results of a broad-based study of all 300 or so evaluations that the Swiss Federal Administration completed from 1999 to 2002. On this basis, it derives a theory of the influence of institutional factors on the utilization of evaluations.     

Intersections of regulation,space and gender: retail banking in an Australian Regional Town

This paper analyses the intersections of employment regulation, gender and space in the working lives of employees in three banks in an Australian Regional Town, contributing to a socio-spatial analysis of the impact of different levels of regulation. Illustrating our analysis through a dispute around Saturday working at one of these banks, we argue that ‘place’ and ‘space’, in the location and organisation of these banking worksites and in the social organisation of family and market work, create a distinct and gendered pattern of opportunities and constraints for banking employees. The lived experiences of the workers negotiating, accommodating and resisting inadequate staffing and the unilateral imposition of new working time arrangements, highlight the dynamic and contradictory practice of employment regulation, both formal and informal, at the local and individual levels and the ways it intersects with space and gender to shape working lives.     

The gender of bruising: A critical literature review on gender in boxing

This article provides a critical review of the scholarship on gender in boxing since the formal recognition of women's boxing internationally in 1994. The article is divided into three parts, each addressing a different aspect of the relationship between gender and boxing. The first part discusses the beginnings of boxing scholarship that mostly focussed on men and masculinity, the second part explores the research on boxing since the inclusion of female boxing in international competitions and examines organizational aspects of boxing, and the last part outlines the scholarship that explores gender identities in boxing. The review is based on qualitative textual analysis and attempts to identify gaps in the scholarship, providing suggestions for future research directions. Overall, the article argues that while the scholarship on gender in boxing is saturated, there are still a few areas that would benefit from further research. These are studies on the relationship between volunteering, refereeing, heterosexuality, and gender in boxing.     

Seeing the system: Systemic gender knowledge to support transformational change towards gender equality in science

Scholars agree that gender inequality is systemic and that participants in gender equality interventions need knowledge on gender inequality processes. However, a detailed view on the specific characteristics of this knowledge is as yet missing. This article aims to contribute to gender equality interventions by conceptualizing and visualizing systemic gender knowledge as an important condition for transformational change. Combining gender and participatory system dynamics literature, this article first introduces the concept of systemic gender knowledge. This concept captures two main characteristics that make gender knowledge systemic: knowledge on the interaction of gender inequality processes and endogenous thinking, here implying a focus on the organization as the relevant level of analysis. In addition to this conceptual contribution, the research contributes methodologically to the gender inequality intervention literature by designing a visualization process, translating written texts into system dynamics models which enable exploration of systemic gender knowledge. Finally, the research contributes empirically by exploring the systemic gender knowledge of participants in two science research institutes of a Dutch university, finding shifts in both characteristics of systemic gender knowledge. This enables researchers to discern whether gender equality interventions lead to increases in systemic gender knowledge, thus supporting transformational change.     

Macroergomonics' contribution to the effectiveness of collaborative supply chains

This article presents a conceptual model that combines Macroergonomics and Supply chain. The authors combine their expertise on these individual topics, building on their previous research. The argument of the paper is that human factors are key to achieve effective supplier-customer collaboration. A conceptual model is presented, its elements and their interactions are explained. The Content-Context-Process is applied as a departing point to this model. Macroergonomics aspects considered are: a systemic approach, participatory ergonomics, formation of ergonomics teams and evaluation of ergonomics projects. The expected outcomes are: (a) improvement of production and productivity levels, (b) improvement of the product quality, (c) Reduction of absenteeism, (d) Improvement in the quality of work life (from the employees' perspective), and (e) increase in the employees' contribution rate of ideas for improvement. A case study was carried out at a vitroplant production organisation incorporating environmental aspects to obtain sustainable benefits.     

A distribution-sensitive examination of the gender wage gap in Germany

This paper provides a new examination of the gender pay gap for Germany based on a family of distribution-sensitive indicators. Wage distributions for men and women do not only differ by a fixed constant; differences are more complex. We show that focusing on the bottom of the wage distribution reveals a larger gender gap. Our distribution-sensitive analysis can also be used to study whether the statistical disadvantage of women in average pay might be ‘offset’ by lower inequality. Over a broad range of plausible preferences over inequality, we show however that ‘inequality-adjusted’ estimates of the gap can be up to three times higher than standard inequality-neutral measures in Eastern Germany and up to fifty percent higher in Western Germany. Using preference parameters elicited from a hypothetical risky investment question in our sample, inequality-adjusted gender gap measures turn out to be close to those upper bounds.     

The contribution of non-profit organisations to the management of HIV/AIDS: A comparative study

This article elaborates a typology of organisational responses during the first decade of AIDS/HIV in a dozen Western European countries.Welfare mixes: that is, the division of task between all producers of welfare (both private and public), and the processes at work in these policies, are analysed. Three types are identified, presenting unexpected variants in respect to general typologies of Western welfare states. They underline the importance of non-profit actors and also argue that new forms of co-operation between those actors and public ones can lead to renewed management of the main social issues currently facing Western welfare states.     

From the transnational to the Sinophone: lesbian representations in Chinese-language films

This article theorizes global lesbian cinema in Chinese-language films through regionalism, diaspora studies, and Sinophone studies. Through an inter-regional analysis of Butterfly (Yan Yan Mak, 2004, Hong Kong) and diasporic and Sinophone readings of Saving Face (Alice Wu, 2005, USA), I argue that Mak's film illustrates a Hong Kong regional retranslation of a Taiwanese lesbian story, which complicates any claim to a stable "Chinese" identity. Finally, Wu's representation of lesbianism also troubles the politics of Chineseness by pointing to the ways diasporic reproduction of "community" works through the disciplining of other non-normative sexualities.