German welfare organizations and the process of European integration

The process of European integration affects an increasing number of areas of life. The influence of the European single market on the social sector, including organizations providing human services, can no longer be denied. This article looks at the activities of the European Commission toward these organizations and argues that European regulations are relevant to the German system of social service delivery due to the introduction of market‐like features in the national context. Within this context, German welfare organizations have discovered an important field of interest representation and lobbying.     

How far is England in the process of introducing a mandatory reporting system?

This article argues that England is in the process of introducing a mandatory reporting system, not based on the requirement to report child abuse but on the basis of ‘a cause for concern’ for a child's welfare. It describes Section 12 of the Children Act 2004, which is fundamental to the development, and the rationale upon which it is based. The second part of the article summarizes the key criticisms that have been made of mandatory reporting systems and discusses how these are likely to apply in the English situation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Media orientation of German university decision makers and the executive influence of public relations

This study investigated the executive influence of public relations managers in the German higher education system. The study is based on a whole-population survey of German university decision makers (N = 1619). It provides evidence that the mediatization of German higher education offers an important opportunity for the empowerment of university PR departments. They can benefit from the New Public Management reforms in recent years as power shifts to management-oriented administrators and the public image of universities turns into a competitive asset. Nevertheless, an indispensable precondition for PR departments’ organizational advancement resides in professionalization. PR workers need to claim a status of expert boundary spanners between their universities and the public stakeholders.     

The Bologna process in European and post-Soviet higher education: institutional legacies and policy adoption

This paper addresses the puzzle of the unlikeliness of the implementation of elements of the Bologna Process agenda in Europe and post-Soviet higher education systems. Following mainstream policy science theories, the policy initiative would be qualified as “prone to failure”, but surprisingly many governments took up the challenge to develop regulations and guidelines and to change the structures of their higher education systems. Looking at the adoption of Bologna process elements in various countries – east and west – I will be able to point at factors that contribute to explaining why and to what extent countries engaged with the process and hence to contribute to the literature on Europeanisation and policy adoption.     

The university budget process: A case study

In the past, contingency theory has been used by researchers to explain what factors influence the design and implementation of budget systems. However, little of this research has been conducted in the context of nonprofit organizations, especially private universities. Previous research on university budgeting has focused on resource allocation issues, and most of these studies have involved state institutions, which differ in significant ways from private universities. This article presents the results of a case study of the budgeting systems within three schools of a private university. Using a contingency approach, it describes the characteristics of the schools' environments that appeared to affect the types of budget systems used by the three schools studied: a law school, a liberal arts school, and a school of management.     

German Maquiladora? Foreign workers in the process of regional economic restructuring

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the German Federal government signed a number of bilateral agreements providing the framework for the recruitment of workers from Central and East European countries. This article analyzes the goals, instruments and (planned as well as unintended) implications of these policies. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that this is—far from a radical reappraisal—just a conservative modernization of the German migration regime. The new regulations combine piecemeal reactions to the global political changes with provisions intended to support the growth of the German economy. Methodologically the paper combines official employment statistics with information from exploratory interviews conducted with commuters in the German‐Czech border region.     

Differences in health determinants between international and domestic students at a German university

The authors used a standardized questionnaire to survey 201 international and 193 German students at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, to determine differences in health practices between the 2 groups and to identify targets for health-promoting interventions. Multivariate logistic regression models revealed that long-term female international students (those whose duration of residency in Germany was more than 2 years) had lower levels of physical activity and alcohol consumption than their German counterparts and higher rates of smoking independently associated with international citizenship. Short-term international female students were less likely than German students to receive social support. Among men, long-term international student status was associated with daily smoking and inconsistent seat belt use, whereas short-term student status was associated with a lower rate of seat belt use, a higher level of perceived stress, and a healthier diet, compared with domestic students. Findings from the study could give rise to health-promotion activities for international students at German universities; additional studies at other European universities are necessary before making further recommendations.     

Rethinking the circuit of culture: How participatory culture has transformed cross-cultural communication

This paper explores the influence of digital communication ? and in particular social media ? on cross-cultural communication, based on the Circuit of Culture model. Scholarly literature supports the notion that social media has changed the speed at which we communicate, as well as removed traditional (geographical) boundaries around cross-cultural campaigns. Since the introduction of digital media, the role of the public relations practitioner has become more strategic in order to maintain relevance with even more diverse ? and dispersed ? audiences. Large scale campaigns, like the Human Rights Campaign to support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights, have seen messages spread far beyond the country of origin, and with that, demonstrate the ability to affect advocacy campaigns in other countries. The authors argue that instead of acting as cultural intermediaries, public relations practitioners must become cultural curators, with the skills to create meaning from audiences, who are now content creators in their own rights, and encourage a true participatory environment that sees cultural values shared as part of an organic exchange process.     

Restroom restrictions: How race and sexuality have affected bathroom legislation

This research details how current bathroom legislation that discriminates against trans individuals is rooted in the same discriminatory practices that permitted Jim Crow bathroom policies to exist. Sexualities that are considered nonwhite, non‐heterosexual, or non‐cisgendered are considered “othered,” as they are perceived to be a threat to the fertility of cis white women. This study details how sexuality stereotypes have been defined between white and black men and women, homosexual people, and trans‐people (with an emphasis on trans women).     

How has public policy shaped defined-benefit pension coverage in Canada?

Unlike federal regulation in the United States, variation in provincial regulation across Canada provides a natural laboratory to examine the impact of public policy on pension coverage. Using data from a nationally representative sample of private sector workers in Canada in 1994, we find that higher marginal taxes, earlier vesting, and more permissive eligibility rules increase coverage, while a ban on mandatory retirement has a negative, but insignificant effect. Implications for differences in defined-benefit coverage between Canada and the United States, and pension theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Large-scale changes in the German residential care system during the 1980s

In West Germany during the 1980s extensive and encompassing reforms took place in residential care. These reforms involved completely new approaches such as non-institutional individual care. This paper examines the question of how non-institutional individual care was able to establish itself on a national basis in the West German youth services while, at the same time, other innovations failed to take hold. The reasons presented here involve: specific historical contextual conditions; certain qualities of agents' actions; and changing education and labour market policies, particularly the rapid increase in the professional workers in the youth service during the 1970s and 1980s. These and other factors led to an alteration of collectively shared interpretation schemes within residential care that called into question the closed forms of prison-like residential care of children and young people. These changes, however, led to problems in areas where youth services encountered other professional and societal systems, which continued to expect that youth services deal with youth delinquency in a custodial manner. New forms of treatment were needed which would be accepted by other services and wider society, while at the same time being compatible with changing ideas in the youth services. Non-institutional individual care was able to assert itself in this situation, in contrast to other innovations, because of the key abilities of the agents involved in its development, primarily as a result of their ability to create strategic alliances to support change.     

German dual system education to occupation education in China

Made in Germany has earned a global reputation and its strong industrial base is inseparable from the dual system occupation education. So now German economy is in the front rank of the world. Our country is in the new period of reform and opening-up, economic development needs of a large number of new talents. In our country occupation education has been belongs to the weak link, influence of socialist modernization construction. This paper mainly focuses on the German dual system education characteristic, as well as the implementation basis. Combine our country occupation education present situation, it can inspire our country to reform the education system to respond to future development.     

East German Feminists in the New German Democracy

Abstract

This article describes the contemporary women's movement in eastern Germany and assesses its ability to adapt to the political opportunity structure of post-unification Germany. The configuration of feminist groups is categorized into three distinct components, and the success of each component in adapting its political goals and strategies to the new political system is analyzed. Successful adaptation is found to be determined in part by the structure of opportunities, which favors local-level “non-political” social organizations over explicitly political groups and in part by the differing abilities and willingness of movement activists within each of the three segments to identify and seize new opportunities.     

How children tell: the process of disclosure in child sexual abuse

In an analysis of the disclosure by a large number of children from three to 17 years of age of having been sexually abused, and who were eventually confirmed as credible victims, the large majority at first denied the abuse. The authors describe disclosure as a process with definable phases and characteristics--seldom the single entity that typical investigations consider disclosure to be, thereby setting the stage for ensuring injustices and harm to the children.     

Before and after science: Admissions process to Australian university social work courses

Abstract

Application processes to Australian university social work courses provide an explicit example through which to explore the influence of two schools of thought — social work as an art and as a science — on social work processes. Using admissions literature and questionnaire data provided by Australian schools of social work, this qualitative study explored the extent to which these perspectives are reflected in admissions processes. It was found that in terms of both qualities sought and techniques utilised, schools are operating essentially from a social work as science perspective, although there exists a desire to access qualities from an art perspective. This is perceived as being the result of institutional requirements, resource constraints, academic conventions and lack of knowledge about how to effectively assess the latter qualities. It is argued that social work needs to assert its unique perspectives in claiming a right to determine application processes for social work courses.