Listening to care-givers: The community,work and family interface

Vic Riley talks about families challenging and contesting many assumptions about their role in long-term care-giving. His reflections invite the reader to revisit narrow and restrictive images of people with learning difficulties as dependent upon their parents for the provision of care and reveal a powerful picture of changes in the organisation of family life that have taken place in one small-town community. The role of the community in facilitating such transitions cannot be underestimated in the lives of care-givers and the people with learning difficulties they support. This account provides a compelling picture of changing aspirations amongst families involved in care-giving and the reader is invited not just to read it, but to make sure it amplifies their personal understandings and assumptions.     

Researching community,work and family with an interpreter

Community, work and family have been studied as practice and experience on an international scale. This work has included research with ethnic minority groups, usually practised by 'insiders' who share their participants' ethnicity, culture and first language. Many of these people live and work in extended family networks, part of a relatively small community embedded within a larger one. Generally, researchers do not have the language skills necessary to communicate with a linguistically diverse population. However, there has been a call to give a voice to, and hence empower, minority groups through the research process. It is in this context that a consideration of the use of interpreters in research on community, work and family can be made. Within this paper we present exploratory suggestions, drawn from our own research, for the appropriate use of an interpreter. This includes a discussion of the practical considerations and implications involved in this research activity, as well as more conceptual issues. Finally, the ways in which this research activity should be documented to reflect concerns in current qualitative methodological debates are considered. La communauté, le travail et la famille sont des sujets qui ont été étudiés, tant au niveau de la pratique que de l'expérience, à l'échelon international. Cette étude a envelopéune recherche parmi les groupes éthniques en minorité, dans l'ensemble vécue par des gens qui connaissent les choses de l'intérieur et qui partagent l'identité éthnique, la culture et la langue maternelle. Nombreux, parmi eux, sont des gens qui vivent et travaillent dans le cadre de familles étendues et font partie d'une petite communauté au sein d'une communaute plus grande. Dans l'ensemble, les chercheurs n'ont pas les competences linguistiques nécessaires pour communiquer avec une population de langues diverses. Cependant, il s'est avéré qu'il est plus que nécessaire de donner la parole et, de là, donner le pouvoir, aux groupes minoritaires au travers de la procedure du travail de recherche. C'est dans ce contexte que la considération de l'utilité de faire appel à des interprètes dans le domaine de la recherche qui embrasse la communauté, le travail et la famille, peut etre faite. Dans ce papier, nous soumettons des suggestions exploratoires, tirées de notre propre recherche, pour l'utilisation appropriée d'un interprete. Cela inclue une discussion sur les considerations pratiques et les implications contenues dans l'activite de cette recherche, y compris des activités conceptuelles. Pour finir, nous considérons la manière dans laquelle cette recherche devrait être documentée afin de refléter les débats méthodologiques qualitatifs en cours.     

Home,work and community: skilled international migration and expatriate women in Singapore

While skilled labour migration across international borders is a phenomenon of increasing significance in the age of globalization and an important component in the production of global cities, it has not been given sufficient attention in traditional migration analyses.
Recent research has focused on institutional mechanisms regulating the patterns of skill transfer rather than the individual experience of being part of the international labour circuit. Women, in particular, have usually been relegated to the role of "trailing spouses" and are generally invisible in the migration process.
Using a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, this article attempts to reinstate the importance of women's roles by portraying them as active agents who adopt a range of strategies in negotiating the move and coming to terms with the transformations wrought by the move in the domains of home, work and community. It argues that skilled labour migration is a strongly gendered process, producing different sets of experiences for the men and women involved in it.
While international circulation often represents "career moves" for expatriate men, their spouses often experience a devalorization of their productive functions and a relegation to the domestic sphere. As an adaptive strategy, expatriate women often turn to the social and community sphere to reach for grounding in their lives.
The article also points to the diversity of "expatriate experiences": while "western" expatriates tend to recreate a more exclusive world by drawing on strong institutional support, "Asian" expatriates find that they have to navigate much finer social and cultural divides between themselves and the host society.     

Conceptualizing community in the context of work and family

In recent years, many work-family scholars and practitioners have called for expanding the analysis of work and family to include community. This paper uses the ecological systems approach as a framework for selecting and reviewing community concepts thought to be relevant to the analysis of work, community, and family. Based on the work-family literature and the review of community concepts, the paper creates a set of common categories of characteristics for the analysis of relationships among community, work, and family. The development of such categories is a first step in understanding work, community, and family as interrelated domains. Hopefully, they will be useful for developing and testing hypotheses regarding interrelationships among work, community, and family and the effects of work, community, and family characteristics on domain quality and individual well-being. On a vu, au cours de ces dernières années, de nombreux professeurs et praticiens demander que soit étendue l'analyse du travail et de la famille pour inclure la communauté. Cet article utilise l'approche des systèmes écologiques comme base de sélection et d'étude des principes de communauté considérés pertinents dans l'analyse du travail, de la communauté et de la famille. Ensuite, en s'appuyant sur la littérature visant le travail et la famille, ainsi que sur l'étude des principes de communauté, l'article établit un jeu de catégories communes des caractéristiques permettant l'analyse de rapports entre communauté, travail et famille. L'établissement de telles catégories constitue un premier pas envers une meilleure compréhension de l'interrelation entre les domaines du travail, de la communauté et de la famille. Il est à espérer que cela sera utile envers le développement et l'évaluation des hypothèses visant à établir une relation entre le travail, la communauté et la famille, ainsi que l'influence qu'auraient les caractéristiques du travail, de la communauté et de la famille sur la qualité du domaine et la qualité de la vie.     

Practices of citizenship: Inter-linking community,work and family in a national single parent organisation

Currently, public notions of community, work and family are enmeshing with concepts of citizenship to reconstruct various contexts and foundations for welfare reform in the UK. More specifically, paid work has become central to notions of ‘good’ citizenship, ‘good’ parenting and ‘strong’ communities within debates about welfare reform. This has the effect of re-defining parenting as a non-working activity. Consequently, single mothers who claim welfare benefits are in danger of being positioned as ‘partial’ citizens and their daily practices of citizenship which lie outside of those recognised by the state, rendered invisible. Conversely, in this paper, I will exemplify the ways in which the members of a national single parent organisation are constructing their own relationships between community, work and family and through this process are engaging in building citizenship practices (in local, national and international arenas). Conceptos de comunidad, trabajo y familia enlazan con conceptos de ciudadania para (re)construir varios contextos y fundamentos de reformas de asistencia social en el Reino Unido. Específicaments, en los debates de reformas de asistencia social, el trabajo pagado se ha puesto al centro de nociones de ‘buena’ ciudadanía, ‘buena’ crianza de los hijos y comunidades ‘fuertes’. Ha ofrecido como resultado la redefinición de la crianza de los hijos como actividad no laboral. Por consiguiente, las madres solteras que reclaman prestaciones sociales corren el peligro de verse posicionadas como ciudadanas ‘parciales’, y de hacerse invisible sus prácticas diarias de ciudadanía, que quedan fuera de las reconocidas por el estado. A la inversa, en este artículo, enfocado en los socios de una organización nacional de padres solteros, ejemplificaré como recontruyen sus propias relaciones entre comunidad, trabajo y familia, y como, por medio de este proceso, se ocupan de contruir prácticas de ciudadanía (a nivel local, nacional e internacional).     

Social capital in community,family, and work lives of Brazilian migrant parents in Ireland

The paper examines a recent phenomenon of Brazilian migration to Ireland using social capital as a framework of analysis. The analysis specifically makes use of Portes and Sensenbrenner's typology of social capital sources (1993; Portes, 1998): bounded solidarity, value introjection, reciprocity, and enforceable trust. The paper examines the processes and dynamics inhering within these sources of social capital to account for the differential experiences of family, work, and community life in Ireland. The absence or presence of social capital sources, it is argued, is important in the experience of settlement and adaptation, especially in exacerbating or countering the disadvantages facing migrants. The evidence used is based on recent research from qualitative interviews with Brazilian parents in a small town in the west of Ireland, and residing in Ireland for several years.     

Utopian thought: Re-visioning gender,family, and community

Utopian ideals are vital to sustained engagement in the struggle to create a better society. However, the problematic aspects of utopian traditions also need to be addressed as part of the work of social movements. This paper offers a framework for exploring the interplay of healthy and pathological forms of idealization in groups and for analyzing the non-rational dimensions of group life. In critiquing communitarian thought, the paper develops a socialist— feminist and psychoanalytic perspective focusing on the connections between family, sexuality, and democratic community. The paper concludes with political strategies for grounding utopian ideals in contemporary struggles for reform. Les visions d'utopie jouent un rôle très important dans les mouvements visant àfaire une transformation sociale. Pourtant, dans ces projets tranformatifs, il faut aussi tenir compte des aspects les plus problématiques des traditions utopiques. Dans cet article, les auteurs proposent une stratégie pour l'exploration de l'effet réciproque des formes d'idéalisation saines et pathologiques et pour analyser les aspects non-raisonnables en la vie des groupes sociales. En critiquant les idées des ‘communitarians’, une perspective socialist—feministe et psychoanalytique est présentée qui met au centre de l'analyse les rapports entre la famille, la sexualité et la communautédemocratique. Pour conclure, on propose quelques stratégies politiques pour intégrer des idéales utopiques dans les luttes actuelles pour la réforme.     

Separate family and community realities? An urban-rural comparison of the association between family life satisfaction and community satisfaction

Classical and contemporary statements about family and community suggest mutually reinforcing connections between these two life domains. However, in their search for greater niche building, scholars have largely overlooked such links because of their adherence to specific traditions. This article considers the public-private sphere debate, a tradition associated primarily with family studies. This tradition holds that individuals experience life as discrete social spheres. Using this tradition as a framework for critique, this study examines individuals' association with family and community via an empirical test of family life satisfaction and community satisfaction. Particular attention is also given to urban and rural differences and similarities in family life and community. Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of adults from the USA. The multivariate analysis revealed a reciprocal relationship between family life satisfaction and community satisfaction. Findings are discussed in light of the public-private sphere debate and urban and rural realities. Les énoncés classiques et contemporaines sur la famille et la communauté suggèrent des rapports qui se renforcent mutuellement entre ces deux domaines de la vie. Pourtant, dans leur recherche de se faire une place dans le monde universitaire, les spécialistes ont en grande partie ignoré de telles liaisons à cause de leur adhésion aux traditions spécifiques. Cet article considère le débat entre les sphères publiques et privées, une tradition associée principalement aux études de familles. Cette tradition soutient que les individus font l'expérience de la vie comme sphères sociales discrètes. En employant cette tradition comme structure pour la critique, cette étude examine l'association des individus avec la famille et la communauté par une épreuve empirique de la satisfaction de la vie familiale et de la satisfaction de vie communitaire. Cette recherche tient compte aussi des différences et des ressemblances urbaines et rurales dans la vie familiale et communautaire, et elle se base sur des données d'un échantillon nationalement représentatif d'adultes des Etats-Unis. L'analyse multivariate a révélé un rapport réciproque entre la satisfaction de la vie familiale et la satisfaction de la vie communautaire. Les découvertes se présentent à la lumière du débat des sphères publiques-privées et des réalités urbaines et rurales.     

Bridging the gap between social work practice and community based welfare agencies

This article argues that social work in the UK needs to renegotiate its relationship with community welfare agencies. It begins by examining what we mean by local community and how welfare needs reflect complex non-linear dynamics unique to the local circumstances. It is argued that these are not always recognised in centralised policy agendas. The article broadly draws a parallel between policy issues for the European Community and for the national state. The drive for both is towards uniformity, which potentially fails to acknowledge the unique circumstances at both the national level between nations and the local level between communities.

The focus of the analysis is the lack of engagement with the subtleties of the local within the arena of social work education and practice. With the opportunity presented by the introduction of a new social work degree in the UK, the authors describe how a social work programme in Liverpool undertook a piece of research with the aim of creating an appropriate place for community welfare agencies in practice placements, the academic curriculum and, ultimately, with the next generation of social work practitioners. Eight welfare agencies within the proximity of Liverpool University, an area known as Toxteth, agreed to participate in the research to investigate what kind of placement module would enable local welfare agencies to engage meaningfully in the social work degree. Out of this process emerged a model for research based curriculum development involving local community agencies and academic institutions. More specifically for Liverpool, it placed the notion of social work's relationship with local community welfare at the heart of professional development for qualifying social workers, paving the way in this region of England for closer links between welfare agencies associated with civil society and professional social workers.     

Juggling three life spheres: reconciling work,family and politics

In the field of work–life balance, most research focuses on the reconciliation of role-related expectations that derive from the work and family spheres. This article aims to identify coping strategies that reconcile life spheres in situations that go beyond the classic two-sphere framework. We analyze the actual coping behavior of individuals juggling three life spheres by studying local Flemish politicians. The strategies that were found in this study were communication with family, recognizing priorities within the political sphere, consciously creating time for family moments, downsizing and segregating the life spheres. The results suggest that women usually remain the manager of the household, which reinforces traditional gender roles.     

Class,work and family in women's lives

Interviews with white, working professional and working class mothers suggest that these women share values about work, family and on-the-job sociality. Respondents draw from a common value system, and many of the statements voiced by one group are echoed in the other. Work and motherhood are important paths to the development of individual identity for both working class and professional women. Differences in jobs, however, lead to differences in the actualization of values in their lives. Professional women are pulled in two directions and face continuing dilemmas in balancing careers which extract strong commitments from them and the demands of motherhood. Working class women's jobs do not require the same intensity of commitment, and they find it easier to meet their families' demands on their time. But conceptualizing their work as meaningful becomes more difficult than it is for professional women. Sociality is the third area of concern. Women in this study emphasized sociality because it allowed them to complete their work more effectively. It also served expressive functions; some women made friends at work. Some de-emphasized sociality if it interfered with their work identities. The importance of sociality was not necessarily dependent upon respondents' class location.I would like to thank Harold Bershady, Charles Bosk, and Robin Leidner for their comments and encouragement during the research and writing of this project. I would also like to thank M. E. Hughes, several anonymous reviewers, andQualitative Sociology for their helpful comments on earlier version of this article.     

The relationship between work/family benefits and earnings: A test of competing predictions

Using data from a random statewide telephone survey, this study examines the relationship between four specific types of work/family benefits (child care, flextime, and two types of flexible leaves) and employee earnings. The research is guided by two competing theoretical perspectives. One—compensating wage differential theory—is based on the presumed cost of the benefits, and the other is based on their potential productivity enhancing effects. Despite the prevalence of the former perspective for guiding work on the impact of job characteristics on earnings, we found limited supporting evidence. Instead, earnings more closely related to work/family benefits were likely to have a positive impact on productivity, but only among those groups that stood the most to gain. Building on the findings of this study, suggestions are made to examine further how and in what ways this important new class of benefits might affect employee earnings.     

The relationship between work/family benefits and earnings: A test of competing predictions

Using data from a random statewide telephone survey, this study examines the relationship between four specific types of work/family benefits (child care, flextime, and two types of flexible leaves) and employee earnings. The research is guided by two competing theoretical perspectives. One—compensating wage differential theory—is based on the presumed cost of the benefits, and the other is based on their potential productivity enhancing effects. Despite the prevalence of the former perspective for guiding work on the impact of job characteristics on earnings, we found limited supporting evidence. Instead, earnings more closely related to work/family benefits were likely to have a positive impact on productivity, but only among those groups that stood the most to gain. Building on the findings of this study, suggestions are made to examine further how and in what ways this important new class of benefits might affect employee earnings.