School choice from a household resource perspective: Preliminary findings from a north of England case study

This paper seeks to widen the conceptual lens of school choice debate and analysis to account for multiple, intersecting economies, cultures, and infrastructures of daily life. Preliminary findings are presented in the case of primary school enrolment in the north of England city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The national context is one in which public service delivery has been influenced by the language of ‘choice’, notably a parent's ‘right to choose’ a school other than that nearest to their child's home, and ‘responsibility’ to exercise choice as self-determined consumer-citizens. At the metropolitan level this translates as market-led competitive enrolment and a tendency for more children to travel longer distances to school and for there to be greater variation in journey length, as some parents are able to use superior transport and personnel as leverage in their quest for a better choice of state school. Findings are presented from a multi-method pilot study combining daily diary, resource audit, and biographic analysis for a sample of 18 families drawn from two case study schools. One school (Town) attracts pupils from an area of low-income population, to which most children journey on foot; the other school (Woodland) attracts pupils from further away, situated within a largely middle-class area, to which most children are driven in their parent's car. The findings show how the market model assumes and rewards a particular mode of choice-making which fails to recognise that some parents seek less instrumentally for their child to be happy. Discussion combines theory, empirical findings, and critical analysis to expose the subtle inequities of school choice in relation to neo-liberal thinking.     

Social constructions of fatness: legal proceedings in Canada as a case in point

This article uses reports of cases of Canadian legal processes to explore social constructions of fatness as disability, as well as illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame. The review of cases in Canadian human rights, civil, administrative, and employment law suggests that fatness has been constructed as a disability in Canadian law. This has led to favourable outcomes for fat persons seeking redress for discrimination. Illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame also surface as recurrent themes. To consider all four themes, a concept of mythopoeia – myth-making process – is introduced. This adds to models of social construction by focusing on where ‘un-reality’ is constructed in a non-hierarchical view of marginal identities. Fatness constructions/mythopoeia of disability, illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame overlap as well as diverge. This suggests that fatness may be an incomplete fit with current classifications in human rights law.     

Alternative food in the global south: Reflections on a direct marketing initiative in Kenya

Amidst booming scholarship on alternative food networks (AFNs) in the global North, research on AFN in the global South remains scarce. Partly this is because explicitly alternative initiatives are themselves scarce, except for those focused on export markets. Yet in countries such as Kenya, urban consumers and rural smallholders have good reason to want alternatives to agrichemical dependency, insecure marketing channels, and food of dubious safety. This article describes one attempt to provide an alternative. A pilot box scheme launched by the Kenya Institute of Organic Farming (KIOF) in 2007 aimed to connect organic smallholders to consumers in Nairobi, the capital city. It did not last long, and we reflect on the reasons why. In particular, we argue that efforts to build AFN in “developing” countries must take account of the problematic history of development itself, both as an ideology and as a set of institutions, policies and activities. In the case of the Kenyan box scheme, the pervasive yet often ineffectual presence of aid-dispensing non-governmental organizations, in particular, influenced different actors’ perceptions and participation in ways we did not fully anticipate. More broadly, this article emphasizes the need to appreciate the macro-historical and socioeconomic contexts that inform on-the-ground practices and understandings of alternative food.     

Return migration from Australia: a case study

"The study investigates the departure from Australia of former settlers who arrived during the 1980 calendar year. The 1980 settler arrival cohort [consists] of 75,167 visaed migrants.... The study has three main aims: (i) to analyse departures from Australia of the 1980 settler arrival cohort with a view to gauging the success of Australia's immigration program in retaining settlers; (ii) to examine the retention rates of settlers with respect to characteristics...including age, sex, marital status, country of last residence, and settler eligibility category; and (iii) to consider implications of the findings." Australia's present immigration policy is discussed, previous research on return migration from Australia is summarized, and a detailed analysis of the departure data is presented. "This study found that by August 1984, 12.4 per cent of non-refugee settlers who arrived in Australia during 1980 had departed permanently but that only 0.6 per cent of the 1980 refugee cohort had done so." These figures represent a decline in immigrant departure rates since the 1960s and early 1970s. Small differences in departure rates by place of birth, age, and marital status, which may have demographic consequences if sustained over time, are noted. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Social capital and economic development in regional Australia: A case study

This article reports the findings of a case study of social capital and economic development conducted in two towns in regional Australia between 2001 and 2002. The hypothesis driving the research states that a town displaying a high level of social capital will also display a high level of economic development, while a town with a low level of social capital will display a low level of economic development. Moreover, it is suggested the social capital will exert a positive causal influence on economic development. The study goes some way to confirming this hypothesis and provides empirical evidence to suggest that both bonding and bridging social capital are important for successful community economic development outcomes.     

The resale of right to buy dwellings: a case study of migration and social change in rural England

Drawing on data relating to some 500 households, taken from local government records and questionnaire surveys, this paper examines the processes of migration and social change associated with the resale of former local authority dwellings in a rural part of the East Midlands, England, UK. Legislative change principally stemming from the Housing Act (1980) has given tenants a `right to buy’ their rented dwelling from the local authority landlord. By focussing on the longer term impact of this process the findings of this study reveal a radical discontinuity with the past, as new households with contrasting characteristics to previous occupants move in when these dwellings are resold on the open market. The study shows that the relative affordability of the dwellings in a highly competitive rural housing market is creating an opportunity for comparatively young, dual-career and largely urban families to move to the countryside. Their movement into former local authority dwellings has important implications for the future provision of local needs housing in rural areas.     

Management identities in transition: a case study from further education

Since the mid‐1980s. Further Education has experienced deep transformations as the result of market driven reforms and the emergence of ‘new managerialism’ in the sector. The changes affected its governance, purpose, organisation and culture, and had deep influence on the relations and identities in the workplace. This paper explores the response of managers in selected Colleges of FE in England, and their discursive construction of new work identities. It is argued that in mediating the reforms, managers adopt a range of responses and position themselves differentially to the discourses of ‘managerialism’ and the ‘market’. From enthusiastically adopting entrepreneurial management, to resisting, or quietly re‐constructing vocabularies and practices to fit traditional models of professional practice, the managers in this study illustrate the contested nature of implementing reforms in the public sector, and the complex interplay between agency and institutional practice.     

Understanding labour processes in global production networks: a case study of the football industry in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Over the last few decades, the changing nature of global production and distribution processes has raised a number of critical questions regarding work and employment relations. Presenting a qualitative case study of the football industry in Pakistan as an example of the general mechanism of the social relations of re/production in a global system of industrial organization, this research highlights how and under what conditions informal workers are embedded in extended global production networks. By drawing on the integrated conceptual framework of the global production network (GPN) and labour process theory (LPT), this research sheds light on the working conditions and living realities of informal workers. A potential contribution of this paper is to extend the horizon of production network theory by analysing the work and employment conditions of informal workers, which are absent in existing discussions of these conceptual frameworks.     

Ergonomic design of crane cabins: a case study from a steel plant in India

The study, carried out at the Batch Annealing Furnace (BAF) shop of Cold Rolling Mill (CRM) at an integrated steel plant of India, concerns ergonomic evaluation and redesign of a manually-operated Electrical Overhead Travelling (EOT) crane cabin. The crane cabin is a complex worksystem consisting of the crane operator and twelve specific machine components embedded in a closed workspace. A crane operator has to perform various activities, such as loading and unloading of coils, setting and removal of convector plates, and routine maintenance work. Initially, an operator had to work in standing posture with bent back most of the time. Ergonomically poor design of the chair and the controls, awkward work postures, and insufficient vision angle resulting in musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are some of the critical problems observed.. The study, conceived as an industry-academia joint initiative, was undertaken by a design team, the members of which were drawn from both the company concerned and the institute. With the project executed successfully, a number of lessons, such as how to minimize the anthropometric mismatch, how to improve the layout of the components and controls within enclosed workspace, and how to improve work posture minimizing risk of MSDs have been learned.     

Renegotiating the domestic division of labour? A study of dual career households in north east and south east England

This paper is concerned with extending debate on the renegotiation of the domestic division of labour within the context of contemporary economic restructuring. Our focus is on a form of household which is becoming increasingly common in Britain in the 1990s. This is the dual career household, in which both partners are in full time professional/managerial employment. A sample of 71 households drawn from the North east and South east, forms the basis for the study. The paper is divided into three main sections. In the first we establish a typology of forms of the domestic division of labour, as well as a means of allocating individual households to particular forms of the domestic division of labour. Then we move on to discuss the degree of variation in particular forms of the domestic division of labour found within our sample households and illustrate these with reference to five case studies. In our final section we consider the implications of our findings for the respective arguments of Lydia Morris and Jane Wheelock; point to the significance of gender identities to an understanding of between household variation in form of the domestic division of labour; and suggest how our finding shed light on the debate over women and social class.     

The curious case of case study: a viewpoint

Abstract

This paper focuses on microethical issues concerning interactions in which the process of informed consent occurs. It draws on research analysing the biographies and future hopes of 15- to 17-year-old girls and boys participating in targeted youth/educational programmes in the Helsinki area. The ethical challenge explored here is how to negotiate with the young interviewees on expanding the research setting towards a longitudinal and cross-generational approach, which also means expanding the data produced on their already well-reported lives. The paper highlights the power relations between adult researcher and young research participant, the contextual nature of gaining informed consent, and the conflict involved in trying to avoid hounding an over-surveilled group while still tracking their whereabouts and revisiting them for a follow-up interview.     

Temporary versus permanent population mobility in Melanesia: a case study from Vanuatu

A case study of temporary and circular Melanesian population mobility and labor migration focuses on the island of Paama in the Republic of Vanuatu (an archipelago of 80 islands) in Melanesia and on urbanization, which is a relatively recent phenomena. A critical analysis is provided of temporary and permanent migration and methodological inadequacies in explanations of mobility. Mobility is neither a cause nor a result of economic, social, and political change; it is the interrelationship among the general structural setting, people's personal and social environment, and their perceptions and actions. In the case of Paamese mobility, changes appeared in the source of migration and destination areas. There was a period of original land acquisition, when migrants returning from Queensland with tools were the only ones who could actually acquire land. Inequalities of land access date from this period. The population is dependent on external income sources as well as the need for plantation migration and a huge increase in bridewealth. Concurrently, "kampani" or community work, which ensures the continuous authority of local chiefs and village elders, creates problems for those seeking work for their own families. These conditions encourage out-migration. Rapid urban growth began in the 1960s with a diversified economy. Employment opportunities were available for women; single employee residence spaces declined. This meant families could permanently settle in urban areas. Retirement benefits were also available and contributed to securing permanent migration. There were growing needs for a stable, skilled labor force. Another change was the abolishment of the tripartite colonial administration. Rural disasters and price declines also triggered urban migration. Migration to the town of Port Vila by Paamese men and women between 1953 and 1982 is analyzed, based on 258 employment related mobility histories collected in 1982-83. Two processes are evident: continued periodic, short-term, rural-based circulation and permanent urban migration among Paamese to Port Vila. A major reversal of mobility is unlikely in the future. The reasons why are indicated.     

Children with cognitive disabilities in a Swedish educational context: reflections from a case study

The present study analyses the experience of parents of children with cognitive disabilities attending compulsory school in regular classes or in special units. It relates this experience to the arguments presented by the staff of special education services in a Swedish municipality, their administrative decisions and the organization of special education services. The parents had different standpoints: some defended the existence of special units and the resources available to them, while some fought to have their children accepted in regular classes, while other parents accepted the special units but were critical of certain aspects of their functioning. The situation presented here seems likely to generate conflicts between parents and educational administrators, and even among parents.     

e-Social work in practice: a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a theoretical reflection on e-social work by considering a case study: an intervention programme with vulnerable people, included in the services catalogue of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Zaragoza Red Cross Assembly. This programme cares for older people with a home assistance system mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). The digital convergence of the Spanish Red Cross and the digitalization of internal processes were accelerated by the use of ICTs as a tool in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis: first, to manage bureaucratic matters; second, to coordinate professionals and third, to interact with users. The text is divided into five sections including an introduction and final remarks. The first section describes the intervention programme and its evolution from a traditional social work vision to an e-social work perspective. The second section describes and analyses the intervention programme and the incorporation of ICTs in this NGO, over more than two decades. The third section describes professional contributions to the implementation and adaptation of social work to new social and technological circumstances and users’ requirements based on these intervention experiences.     

Voluntary organisations and local government: lessons from a Danish case study

The purpose of this article is to analyse the changing relationships between local government and voluntary organisations in the decentralised Danish welfare state within the field of social policy. Here major changes in public discourse have brought voluntary organisations more to the forefront in a welfare state model whose distinct public character might be fading. However, little attention has been devoted to potential problems resulting from intensified co-operation. The article explores these issues using evidence from a case study of the links between public authorities and seven voluntary organisations in the city of Aalborg in northern Jutland. This case study raises the question of whether voluntary organisations, as argued in public debate, can generally be regarded as the antithesis of the bureaucratically and paternalistically organised public social services. Rather, they seem to be co-actors, actively constructing new paradigms and practices in social policy, that cannot be captured in conventional dichotomous models. This suggests that the public bureaucracy versus altruistic voluntary organisation, or distinctions usually made between professional and volunteer motives, may be of limited use. The author wishes to thank Per Selle for his helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Special thanks to Catharina J. Kristensen and Claus B. Olsen for their help with the English version.     

Planned relocation of severely depopulated rural settlements: a case study from Japan

Large-scale rural-urban migration in post-war Japan in conjunction with demographic transition resulted in the depopulating of the rural areas from the late 1950s. The Japanese government has been energetic since 1970 in attempting to halt the drift to the cities. One of the less successful policies has been the voluntary resettlement of severely depopulated communities.This paper examines one such extreme case, that of Kojō, a village in the mountains of Hyōgo Prefecture, which has lost more than 80% of its population since 1955. By the early 1980s, the population of Kojō was so depleted and had aged so rapidly that the inhabitants opted for resettlement.This paper traces the economic and demographic decline of the village of Kojō, and presents the administrative background to the resettlement plan. It examines in detail the rehabilitation of the inhabitants in a purpose-built housing estate in December 1984, and attempts to draw some conclusions regarding the concept of resettlement of severely depopulated settlements in remote rural areas.     

The intersection of employment and care: evidence from a UK case study

Working carers are a key focus of UK policies on health and social care and employment. Complementing national and European evidence, this paper presents a local case study of working carers. It draws on data from a county-wide survey containing a module on caring. Data were primarily categorical and were analysed using SPSS. Three quarters of all carers who responded to the survey were of working age: two thirds were employed and one third had been employed previously. The majority of working carers were mid-life extra-resident women. Over half of cared for relatives were elderly parents/in law; ‘physical illness’ was the primary cause of dependency. A tenth provided intensive care and half reported that caring adversely affected their health. Both were triggers for leaving employment. Two thirds of households received input from services and/or friends/family; being a co-resident carer appeared to mitigate against service allocation. Four issues were identified as pivotal to facilitating employment: access to advice and information, the availability of a matrix of affordable good-quality social-care services, ‘joined up’ needs assessment of the carer and cared for person, and employers identifying carers in their workforce. Europe's ageing profile underscores the study's timeliness.