Paying for God’s Work: A Rights-Based Examination of Faith-Based NGOs in Romania

This paper examines issues of democratic accountability as they apply to faith-based organizations cooperating in international developmental efforts, with a specific focus on the freedom of expression rights of nonprofit organizations and the freedom of association rights of their clientele. Child welfare nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Romania are used as a case study for examining the issue. The paper begins with a discussion of NGO-government partnerships in service provision in international development, and examines the ethical concerns surrounding church-state separation as applied to nonprofits in the United States and in the context of foreign aid. The literature analysis is complimented by empirical evidence from the Romanian case, using data gathered in a qualitative study exploring the role of NGOs as social service providers and policy advocates. The paper concludes by discussing the particular role that bureaucratic discretion and power plays in protecting the freedom of association rights of clientele in Romania.     

A Case Study of Adaptation in a Nonprofit Human Service Organization

This paper demonstrates the applicability of political economy theory to understanding adaptation of human service organizations. Through the use of a case study, the paper demonstrates the adaptation that occurred over twenty years in a family service agency. The findings show an organization selecting a particular service niche in which to operate. The findings further demonstrate a specialized clientele, a diversified program style, marked stability in the organization's financial strategy, and a diversified financial style. The major tier of revenue groups was dominated by Purchase of Service Contracts (POSC) which demonstrated volatility in response to changes in the external environment. Implications are drawn from education and practice.     

A national profile of child welfare workers and supervisors

Using information gained in a national survey of inservice training of child welfare supervisors and workers, the authors provide a profile of the practitioners providing child welfare services, their clientele, and their perspectives on training needs.     

The Impacts of Supermarket Procurement on Farming Communities in India: Evidence from Rural Karnataka

The rapid expansion of supermarket retailing, with its impact on farmer communities, represents a contentious part of India's recent economic development. This article reports on three districts of Karnataka, where a survey of 78 farmers supplying fruits and vegetables to Reliance Fresh, a leading supermarket chain, reveals low levels of vertical co‐ordination, a lack of written contracts, and highly competitive environments, with the quality parameters used by supermarkets specifying only a limited set of conditions. These findings suggest that supermarket‐led restructuring in India has not yet reached a stable institutional situation.     

Does Supermarket Purchase Affect the Dietary Practices of Households? Some Empirical Evidence from Guatemala

Very little is known about how changes in the retail environment affect consumers’diet and health status, especially in developing countries. This article examines the impact of supermarket purchases on the dietary practices of households in Guatemala, using an instrumental variable method to take account of the potential endogeneity of the supermarket purchase variable. The results reveal that supermarket purchases increase the share of highly and partially processed foods at the expense of staple foods, and are also positively and significantly associated with individual Body Mass Index. Different policy moves should be envisaged towards‘healthier’diets.     

FROM PRINTS TO POSTERS: THE PRODUCTION OF ARTISTIC VALUE IN A POPULAR ART WORLD

The activity of a gallery in an art world is centered not only on the distribution of works, but also on the development of a clientele. This involves convincing potential customers that works have both artistic and economic value. The traditional path of valuation of works is through the gatekeepers of the high art world. There are, however, art worlds whose works have not passed through these high art gatekeepers, but which are nevertheless successful in maintaining a clientele. This article examines the process by which this popular art world establishes a positive value for its art when it has no access to the legitimating institutions of the high art world. Data were gathered primarily through interviews with gallery directors, employees, and artists, both from the popular and high-art worlds. The sample includes 18 popular galleries and 10 high art galleries in the Chicago area. “Popular galleries” are defined as those galleries located in the shopping districts of cities or in suburban shopping malls. Many are part of larger chains, and all carry prints by well-known artists, works of lesser known artists, and some posters.     

A preliminary profile of unapprehended undocumented aliens in northern New Jersey: a research note

This article sheds light on a number of questions regarding the sociodemographic structure, economic behavior, and the process of economic insertion of unapprehended undocumented aliens in the Northern New Jersey area. The data, taken from questionnaires of the clientele of the Migration Offices of the Catholic Community Services of the Archdiocese of Newark, allows an in-depth look at the goals and motivations of the family unit and the individual while permitting a glimpse of the structural causes and consequences of international migration. Respondents hold basically secondary labor market service and light industry jobs in which they work diligently without being a burden to the community. Their diligence and effort are rewarded by a respectable showing in household income figures. They also have high participation rates both in paying income taxes and filing income tax returns. Although much of the new undocumented immigration is of relatively recent origin, the respondents plan on a long-term stay. The educational and demographic profiles indicate respondents bring with them substantial amounts of human capital which is a necessary 1st step in assessing whether their overall net contribution to the US is positive or negative.     

Movin’ on up: Hierarchical occupational segmentation and gender wage gaps

Our study evaluates and extends existing wage decomposition methodologies that seek to measure the contributions of endowments, pure wage discrimination, and job segregation. We employ data from a regional supermarket that faced a Title VII class-action lawsuit to examine how standard wage specifications integrated with a model of hierarchical segregation might perform in wage decompositions. Our results show that a common misspecification of the wage structure leads to false inferences about the presence of pure wage discrimination. We demonstrate the generalizability of our methodology using CPS data.     

A model for identifying the potential clientele for substance abuse programs

A model is presented that estimates the rates, numbers, and socio-demographic characteristics of potential clientele for substance abuse programs. Using the synthetic estimates technique and existing bodies of information, the model has been tested and cross validated with substance abuse related problem indicators across the counties of Oregon with good results. The model has both strengths and weaknesses and may be seen as being of greatest value to policymakers, planning agencies, and program administrators in the field of substance abuse and related service programs.     

SUPERMARKETS AS A NATURAL OLIGOPOLY

This paper proposes and tests a model of supermarket competition based upon an endogenous fixed cost (EFC) framework (Sutton, J. Sunk Cost and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.). The relevance of the EFC framework to supermarket competition stems from the industry's surprisingly uniform competitive structure: irrespective of the size of the local market, a small number of firms (between three and six) capture the majority of sales. As markets grow, local rivalry drives firms to expand their fixed investments, limiting the number of firms that can profitably enter even the largest markets. Although markets stay concentrated, competition remains fierce, reflecting the inherently rivalrous nature of the underlying competitive mechanism. The goal of this paper is to identify the strategic focus of this rivalry, namely the drive to provide an ever greater variety of consumer products, and to eliminate alternative explanations for the observed structure by highlighting the unique form of firm conduct that characterizes this industry. (JEL D21, D43, L11, L13, L22, L81)     

The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets?

A series of articles, many of them published in this journal, have charted the rapid spread of supermarkets in developing and middle‐income countries and forecast its continuation. In this article, the level of supermarket penetration (share of the retail food market) is modelled quantitatively on a cross‐section of 42 countries for which data could be obtained, representing all stages of development. GDP per capita, income distribution, urbanisation, female labour force participation and openness to inward foreign investment are all significant explanators. Projections to 2015 suggest significant but not explosive further penetration; increased openness and GDP growth are the most significant factors.     

Social class and psychotherapy: A sociolinguistic approach

Professional social workers are the primary resource for psychotherapeutic services among the lower status groups in our society. While everyone in the profession knows this, relatively little systematic research and theory has been generated on the question of how to adapt our interventions so as to better serve this clientele.Bernstein's work on social class and speech codes is examined. His theories are applied to the problem of conducting psychotherapy with a social stratum whose language code is ill-suited for the more traditional verbally oriented therapies. Some suggestions for alternative treatment approaches are made.     

Making the carbon basket count: Goal setting promotes sustainable consumption in a simulated online supermarket

We compared the effectiveness of basket goal-setting to product information strategies on sustainable consumption in a simulated online supermarket. Experiment 1 found a significant effect of basket goal setting techniques with carbon basket feedback in either numerical or graphical form on the carbon content of baskets purchased but no effect of numerical product information alone or in combination with basket CO2 information. Experiment 2 also found that basket goal setting was effective, but found no additional effect of introducing five-colour coding of the carbon footprints of either products or baskets. Experiment 3 found that repeated visits to the online supermarket led to improved learning about product carbon footprint in the basket goal setting condition, which mediated the effect of goal setting on basket carbon footprint. Our results suggest that goal setting techniques with feedback can reduce the carbon footprint of online shopping baskets and facilitate learning about product carbon footprint.     

Transition in use of human resources in the field of aging

Through a review of national surveys that address the area of human resource development in the field of aging, the idea that professional human resources in the field have not been given adequate attention is discussed. The conclusions are that with appropriate modifications in educational preparation and personnel policies and procedures, most aging-specific organizations will be able to more adequately meet the needs of their clientele despite limited material resources and the restrictions on the purchase of the time of professional staff.     

Dietary Implications of Supermarket Development: A Global Perspective

Five decisions by supermarket operators have important dietary implications: the location of their outlets; the foods they sell; the prices they charge; the promotional strategies they use; and the nutrition‐related activities they implement. These decisions influence food accessibility, availability, prices and desirability, which in turn influence the decisions consumers make about food. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article finds that the dietary implications are both positive – supermarkets can make a more diverse diet available and accessible to more people – and negative – supermarkets can reduce the ability of marginalised populations to purchase a high‐quality diet, and encourage the consumption of energy‐dense, nutrient‐poor highly‐processed foods. Overall, the most universally applicable dietary implication is that supermarkets encourage consumers to eat more, whatever the food.     

The development and field testing of a vocational education evaluation model

Reported is the development and field testing of an evaluation model used to evaluate the vocational education programs at the Metropolitan Community Colleges (MCC) of Kansas City, Missouri which can be implemented on vocational programs at other institutions. The model evaluated a vocational program on the following six criteria: (1) program's relationship to job market profile; (2) program's level of community support; (3) program's success in meeting vocational aspirations of clientele; (4) program's success in terms of student performance; (5) program 's cost-effectiveness; and (6) program 's success in reaching the handicapped and disadvantaged. The evaluation model provides a strategy and a set of procedures for assessing the quality of existing vocational education programs of study at any post-secondary institution. The model can be easily and inexpensively implemented, thus providing a data base which is useful for administrative planning and decision making.     

Transition in Use of Human Resources in the Field of Aging

Through a review of national surveys that address the area of human resource development in the field of aging, the idea that professional human resources in the field have not been given adequate attention is discussed. The conclusions are that with appropriate modifications in educational preparation and personnel policies and procedures, most aging-specific organizations will be able to more adequately meet the needs of their clientele despite limited material resources and the restrictions on the purchase of the time of professional staff.     

Is an e-mental health programme a viable way to reach affected others of disordered gamblers? A feasibility study focusing on access and retention

Although affected family members (AFMs) of disordered gamblers suffer from highly stressful living conditions and are in need of specialized help, access to and knowledge of professional support is limited. To improve this situation, an e-mental health programme called EfA with one information module and five consecutive training modules was developed. The study investigated (1) promotion of and referral to EfA, (2) duration of visits and conversion rate, and (3) participants’ characteristics and retention in EfA. In 9 months, 6357 visits were counted. Most visitors arrived at the website via direct access. Those using search terms most commonly used phrases that were used in promotional materials. Per month, 16.1 new potential participants registered. The final sample consisted of 126 participants, most of them female, with high daily Internet usage and low use of prior professional support or self-help. More than one-third finished all modules. This is the first time that data on an e-mental health programme for this clientele was collected in Germany. Findings imply the importance of promoting such a programme in order to reach a clientele that has not had prior help and also show that it is a viable way to reach AFMs.