MATERNAL GRANDMOTHERS AS CHILD CARE PROVIDERS FOR RURAL,LOW-INCOME MOTHERS

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of forty-two rural, low-income mothers who utilized their own mothers for routine child care. A life course perspective was used to explore mothers’ perceptions of their child care arrangement and the influence of the adult daughter–older mother relational context. Results focus on the benefits and weaknesses of child care provided by grandmothers and the influence of the relationship between participants and their mothers on this care arrangement. The analysis has implications for research, support programming, and public policy.     

CHILD CARE AND POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA

This article draws on ethnographic research with children and their caregivers to explore the interaction between poverty and the nature and quality of child care in a resource-poor urban community in South Africa. The authors attend to issues such as mobility and “family fragmentation,” the role of the extended family and other networks, and children's contributions to their own and others’ care, all matters that provoke particular concern in the context of HIV/AIDS. The research challenges some of the more conventional interpretations on these matters by pointing to the continuities children experience in what can appear a disrupted care setting as well as the positive aspects of children's involvement in care. It also supports the case for a closer look at men's participation in various child-care roles in a climate where they are often dismissed as absent or unemployed and therefore non-contributory. Future research and policy on child care would benefit from the conceptual approach adopted across this work, which employs a relational lens and encompasses the dynamic contexts in which care is experienced and performed.     

COMMUNITY AND CARE WORK IN A WORLD OF CHANGING IDEOLOGIES

Seymour B. Sarason, one of the founders of community psychology, has stated the need for developing barometers of community changes. The authors present a methodology for identifying societal ideologies, ideological shifts and power relations as reflected by the language of public discourse. As a case study, systematic analyses of changes in the Norwegian language over the last two decades are presented. It is demonstrated how Norwegian society has been gradually transformed from a traditional Scandinavian welfare society towards the values and ideals of neo-liberalist market ideology: for instance, language reflects and supports competitive practices increasingly being applied to public service provision. Another example is that the public discourse of individual rights has gradually been overshadowing the discourse of community duties and obligations. On the other hand, the analyses also reveal counter-ideologies, reflected, for example, in the launching of new words and expressions critical to neo-liberalist ideology.     

QUESTIONS AND HINDSIGHT: WORK WITH ZARA,AN ASYLUM SEEKING CARE LEAVER

Psychodynamic ideas are used to think about social work with an asylum‐seeking young woman with mental health problems. Questions are raised about her needs and our response to them in relation to her individual history, the organisation and the wider socio‐economic context. These lead to reflections on adolescence and the leaving care task, non‐dependence, loss of home and homelessness, fear of madness, attitudes to difference and asylum seekers and institutional racism. Failure and learning from it is also a theme.     

WORKING TO LEARN: INTERNSHIPS FOR TODAY'S SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

This study compares student learning in employment-based internships with learning in nonemployment-based internships. Data from foundation and advanced employment-based and nonemployment-based students (N=180) indicate statistically significant gains during the academic year. Pre- and post-evaluative data from field instructors (N=22) also reflect statistical significance. This counters concerns about the value of employment-based internships. There was a trend for employment-based foundation MSW students to perceive themselves initially as more knowledgeable than nonemployment-based students. By the end of the foundation year, this difference disappeared. Recommendations are made for employment-based field practica.     

JOB STRESS, DRINKING NETWORKS, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT AT WORK:

Most research examining the problem drinking behaviors of employees has sought to demonstrate that variation in alcohol consumption derives from nonrewarding or stressful aspects of modern work that promote intrapsychic stress and/or alienation. These inquiries have ignored additional job factors that might influence employee drinking patterns. We extend this literature by developing and testing a comprehensive model of influences on employee problem drinking. The model includes the simultaneous influences of stressful working conditions, participation in job-based drinking networks, and perceived social support on the job. Analyses of data from the 1991 National Employee Survey (NES) indicate that this explanatory model significantly improves our understanding of the job-related influences on employee problem drinking. We also demonstrate that each class of job factors has important mediated influences on problem drinking that result from their association with individualized job escapist-oriented reasons for drinking.     

POWER, STATUS, AND ABUSE AT WORK: General and Sexual Harassment Compared

Workplace harassment can be devastating for employees and damaging for organizations. In this article, we expand the literature by identifying common and distinct processes related to general workplace harassment and workplace sexual harassment . Using both structural equation modeling and in-depth case immersion, we analyze content-coded data from the full population of workplace ethnographies—ethnographies that provide in-depth information on the nature and causes of both general and sexual harassment that would otherwise be difficult to gather. Importantly, both forms of harassment emerge in settings characterized by physically demanding work and minority work groups. In such contexts, both general and sexual harassment enforce formal and informal status hierarchies and social exclusion. Grievance mechanisms and "team models" of workplace organization reduce sexual harassment but have no effect on general harassment. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical, legal, and policy implications for identifying and remedying harassment as a widespread and devastating form of inequality and social exclusion in organizations.     

ALWAYS SINGLE AND SINGLE AGAIN WOMEN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

What is it like to be a single woman today? Are the experiences of women who have always been single different from those who find themselves single again after having been married? How can family therapists promote the development of single women both individually and relationally? The purpose of this phenomenological, multiple-case study was to investigate perceptions of being single among heterosexual single women between the ages of 30 and 65. Nine focus group interviews and a semistructured, mailed questionnaire were used to collect the data. Constant comparative analyses were used to develop the findings. The findings were organized around the most salient theme that emerged from the analyses: single women have unresolved or unrecognized ambivalences about being single. This overaching theme was supported by three subassertions: (a) single women are aware of both the advantages and the drawbacks of being single; (b) single women are ambivalent about the reasons for their singleness; (c) although content with being single, many women simultaneously experience feelings of loss and grief. Implications for the clinical practice of family therapy and future research on single women are discussed.     

KNOWING THE CHILD: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

Social workers in agencies and school settings often deal with high risk, multi problem children such as those in foster care. Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that a coordinated, multifaceted approach is required to address the range of cognitive, social, and mental health problems with which they present. This article recommends utilization of an ecological treatment intervention that is specifically tailored to the needs of the child based on a formulation of the child’s experience and developmental deficits. A case example comprising the treatment of an eight-year-old boy in foster care with comorbid diagnoses of alcohol related neurodevelpomental disorder, failure to thrive, and attachment disorder, illustrates this approach. The article concludes with implications for social work practice.     

INTEREST IN WORKING WITH THE ELDERLY: A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY OF GRADUATING SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

The article presents a cross-national study of social work students' interest in working with the elderly, based on a sample of 679 graduating BSW students from 7 countries: Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and the United States. The findings among all the national cohorts show that the motivation to work with the elderly was lower than motivation to work with any other age group and, moreover, that it was equally low in most of the countries. They indicate that low motivation to work with the elderly is not limited to 1 or 2 countries but exists in various parts of the globe. The findings support the growing concern that the social work profession may not be able to meet its obligations to the aging society.     

THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF TEMPORARY TAX CUTS AND SUBSIDIES: THEORY,ESTIMATION, AND APPLICATIONS

This article presents a tractable and intuitive theory on the welfare effects of temporary tax cuts and subsidies, fiscal policies that I generically term “holidays.” The Kaldor–Hicks efficiency effects are theoretically ambiguous, with competing pro‐ and anti‐efficiency effects on newly incentivized versus time‐shifted purchases. To rectify this ambiguity I derive expressions for the welfare effects that are consistent with constant elasticity assumptions and depend only upon readily and reliably observed information. To demonstrate the framework's broad applicability, I analyze two different policies: the 2009 Cash for Clunkers program and states' sales tax holidays. I estimate that both policies generated substantial deadweight loss. (JEL H21, H30, D91)     

INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT AT WORK AND THE FREQUENCY,APPRAISAL, AND CONSEQUENCES OF BOUNDARY‐SPANNING DEMANDS

Compared to job‐specific conditions, the interpersonal context of work has received less attention from work–family scholars. Using data from a 2007 U.S. survey of workers (N = 1,286), we examine the impact of workplace social support and interpersonal conflict on work–family conflict and exposure to boundary‐spanning demands—as indexed by the frequency that workers receive work‐related contact outside of normal work hours. Findings indicate that workplace social support is associated negatively with work‐to‐family conflict, while interpersonal conflict at work is associated with higher levels of work‐to‐family conflict. Results also indicate that both supportive and conflictive work contexts are associated with more frequent exposure to boundary‐spanning demands. However, workers in supportive contexts are more likely to appraise these demands as beneficial for accomplishing work tasks, and are less likely to appraise them as disruptive to family roles. By contrast, workers in conflictive contexts are more likely to appraise demands as disruptive to family roles, and are less likely to appraise them as beneficial for paid work. Consequently, our findings underscore the resource and demands aspects of interpersonal work contexts and their implications for the work–family interface.     

"PUBLIC' WORK AND SOCIAL PARTICIPATION:

The impact of labor force participation by women on their social activism is examined using data gathered in a study of 695 North Carolina farm families. The traditional gender division of labor into "instrumental' (male) and "expressive' (female) activism breaks down when women take off-farm jobs. Their rates of activism in instrumental organizations move closer to those of men. Labor force participation by women also reduces the impact of the husband on the wife's activism.     

INEFFICIENT STANDARD ADOPTION: INERTIA AND MOMENTUM REVISITED

This article examines the possibility that consumers will adopt an inefficient standard. When there are successive generations of consumers, the current generation will not consider the costs and benefits to past and future generations of adopting a new standard. If a standard is proprietary, the incentives of a firm to induce adoption of the standard generally do not match the social incentives. The divergence is caused by the firm's imperfect ability to appropriate the future surplus generated by the standard. (JEL D62 , L1 )     

REMARRIAGE AND ITS ALTERNATIVES FOLLOWING DIVORCE: MOTHER AND CHILD ADJUSTMENT

The current literature on the effects of new parental relationships following separation on the child's well-being has overemphasized remarriage, per se, and has failed to analyze other types of relationships. The present study examines how mother and child adjustment varies among four categories of "blending": (a) remarriage, (b) living together but not remarried, (c) seriously involved but not living together, and (d) not seriously involved.     

TERROR AND THE COLONIAL IMAGINATION AT WORK IN THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATE SPACES OF JAKARTA,INDONESIA

This article examines the role of the imagination in the construction of meaningful places out of economically defined and organized spaces. It seeks to understand the processes through which a colonial imagery is deployed in the negotiation of a complex and continually transforming transnational corporate order. This article is based on research conducted while working as a cross-cultural trainer within a transnational corporate office space in Jakarta, Indonesia. I discuss cross-cultural training as a space within which a colonial discourse based on terror and uncertainty persists, producing an ambivalent understanding of foreign overseas labor. I argue that a colonial approach to the social relations that take place within trans-national spaces persists for both Western-born and Indonesian members of the transnational capitalist class and is central to their perspective on capitalist expansion.     

THE PROXIMATE CONTEXTS OF WORKFARE AND WORK:

This article provides a framework for examining how the conditions of urban, low-income, single motherhood and the resources available through personal networks shape mothers' conduct in work-welfare programs. It suggests how research on welfare programs ignores work-family linkages and misses the ways economic action is embedded in social structures and communal constraints. Three rubrics of proximate context, referring to personal networks, urban environments, and moral economies, organize material indicating how patterns of personal life shape work efforts. Data from a qualitative study of mothers in AFDC work-welfare programs provide illustrations.     

CONSCIOUSLY WORKING AT THE UNCONSCIOUS LEVEL: PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY IN ACTION IN A TRAINING ENVIRONMENT

The author explores methods of working with residential child care foster care agencies in developing a psychotherapeutic culture. He suggests that such a culture can only be built on the firm foundations of clear organisational boundaries and task, but that such clarity is not sufficient. In addition, senior managers must have an understanding of unconscious processes and how they affect relationships between adults and children and between colleagues within the organisational hierarchy. The process requires a range of possible interventions including organisational consultancy, practice consultancy and staff support, specialist training and explorations of team processes.