Agents for Change or Conflict?

In today’s Latin America, governments implementing public policies for development and against poverty and inequality meet with social movements that engage in practices for social change, poverty reduction, and empowering. In this context, we analyze the interplay between both processes, describing its conflicts in three specific dimensions: the material, the democratic, and the environmental. Social movements are permanently contesting and challenging public policy when they autonomously appropriate public policy resources; yet, governments respond with criminalization and cooptation strategies. In a setting where social conflict takes place in response to existing poverty and inequality levels, movements challenge development and poverty reduction projects of an ‘assistentialist’ and extractivist nature, and propose an integral understanding of development and the emergence of new relationships among individuals, society, and the environment.     

Who are Volunteers in Urban China?

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Although government-organized volunteering is common in China, the Chinese government has also sought to encourage the...     

Accountability Agreements in Ontario Hospitals: Are They Fair?

Governments can be accountable for improving the fairness oftheir priority setting through enhanced transparency and stakeholderengagement. A case analysis is conducted of priority settingin a government health care context in Ontario, Canada, assessinghow implementation of hospital accountability agreements meetsthe conditions of a leading international ethical frameworkfor priority setting, "accountability for reasonableness" (A4R).Hospital accountability agreements provide a mechanism for governmentto ensure that public funding achieves desired performance inhospitals. A key goal of priority setting is fairness. A4R linkspriority setting, legitimacy, and fairness to theories of democraticdeliberation, making a claim for fairness if the four conditionsof relevance, publicity, revision/appeals, and enforcement aresatisfied. Regarding the relevance condition, this analysissuggests that government only partially met the relevance conditionproviding limited stakeholder engagement but with evidence ofpolicy learning and movement toward the establishment of inclusivestakeholder arrangements. Evidence suggests that governmenteventually progressed toward meeting the publicity condition.Government only partially met the revision/appeals conditionand did not meet the enforcement condition, as the other conditionswere only partially met. It is our view that regional governancestructures in Ontario (i.e., Local Health Integration Networksor LHINs) provide an opportunity for the province to improvethe fairness of their accountability agreement processes throughenhancing transparency and stakeholder engagement. More broadly,this case study provides a guide for government to enhance accountabilityby focusing on A4R to improve the fairness of its priority setting.     

The Planets Aligned: Is Child Protection Policy Reform Good Luck or Good Management?

Abstract

Governments across Australia are struggling to address escalating child protection notifications, a marked increase in the number of children in State care, a decrease in the number of foster carers and chronic workforce shortages in child welfare services. This paper explores the reform process that culminated in the proclamation of the Victorian Children, Youth and Families Act, 2005 and represents an aspect of the response in Victoria to these wider issues. It explores the history of the reform from the perspective of key actors from government, non-government sectors and academics who participated in the process. The paper explores the “ingredients of social policy reform” and how the change process was managed in Victoria. It does not seek to evaluate the reform but rather to understand the complex processes through which a propitious moment for reform was both seized and constructed.     

Volunteers for NPOs in Welfare Services in Iceland: A Diminishing Resource?

The question of declining membership of non-profit organizations (NPOs) has been central in academic discussion and research has indicated changes in the way people volunteer. Less emphasis has been on the functions of volunteers as a resource for NPOs and how changes such as increased reliance on professionals in their operations can influence the volume and type of volunteering. This paper examines the value of volunteers as a resource for Icelandic NPOs in the field of welfare services. It is based on a study of the majority of active Icelandic NPOs in the welfare field, as well as an analysis of their respective websites. The findings show that volunteer contributions do not constitute a significant part of the activities of most Icelandic NPOs in welfare services. Apart from membership of boards, volunteers seem to be used primarily as a means of supplementing other resources, such as temporary fundraising efforts. However, the level of volunteering varies according to the size and operational type of organization.     

Relational Interactions Between Immigrant and Native-Born Volunteers: Trust-Building and Integration or Suspicion and Conflict?

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - We investigate the bridging interactions between migrant-background and native-born volunteers. Bridging interactions are...     

Diversity in sociology: Problem or solution?

Some of sociology’s recent internal critics (e.g., Turner and Turner, 1990; Halliday and Janowitz, 1992; Collins, 1986; Gans, 1990; Crane and Small, 1992) suggest that the discipline's diversity of theoretical, methodological and substantive foci leave it in a weakened position for achieving individual and collective ends. Other sociologists (e.g., D'Antonio, 1992; Roos and Jones, 1993; Stacey and Thorne, 1985) argue that substantive diversity has made the discipline attractive to a greater variety of previously underrepresented groups, particularly women, groups that have, in turn, contributed to sociology’s substantive diversity. This paper reports on a content analysis of 2,016 articles from North American sociology journals in 1936, 1956, 1976, and 1996 as well as from chemistry, anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology journals in 1996. The analysis focused on a number of, often contradictory, hypotheses drawn from the competing views of sociology's diversity with respect to its substantive concerns and its gender composition. It finds, for instance, that there is more substantive diversity in today's sociology journal articles than there was earlier, at least when diversity is measured in terms of fields that are reputed to be attractive to women. This may not be surprising, since more women are writing sociology journal articles than ever before. Moreover, the substantive diversity seems to be related to more, not less, funding of sociological research. It is, of course, a trite remark — one made more frequently by sociologists than by their gibing critics — that sociology has not yet come to the development which commands from its adherents wholehearted agreement as to the objectives to be aimed at, the field to he limited, and the methods to be used. Gladys Bryson, 1936     

Gambling in prison: addiction or leisure activity?

Several studies conducted around the world confirm the presence of gambling in detention facilities. Based on interviews conducted with male inmates in three Canadian penitentiaries, the authors of this article studied the reasons to gamble or not gamble in detention. The inmates' relationships with gambling prior to their incarceration were taken into consideration, to explain notably the influence of context on the reasons why they do or do not gamble. For most inmates, gambling is a good recreational alternative to boredom; however, some use it also to socialize or even protect themselves indirectly. Even more interesting is the fact that, despite the presence of gambling addicts among the inmates interviewed, none of the reasons generally associated with pathological gambling was reported during the interviews to explain gambling in detention. These results reinforce the influence of contextual factors on pathological gambling problems. Anxiety-producing factors in gamblers' lives, an environment where gambling is too accessible, as well as solitary habits, are conducive to addiction. By reducing stressful elements, as well as the availability, variety and special effects of gambling games, prison would indirectly control inmates' compulsive gambling habits during their incarceration.     

Volunteers Managing Volunteers: The Role of Volunteer Board Members’ Motivating and Demotivating Style in Relation to Volunteers’ Motives to Stay Volunteer

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Against the background of declining volunteering rates in nonprofit and voluntary organizations, this study examined the...     

Interest Groups and Social Movements: Self- or Public Interested? Insights from the Brazilian Third-Sector Literature

By definition, interest groups are seen as self-interested, that is, organizations established to pursue the self-interest of their members. As such, this plethora of self-interested actors has been seen largely as a negative thing, cluttering the policy process, creating unmanageable demands, and leading to iron triangles of interest group/legislative/bureaucratic networks geared toward funneling benefits to narrow groups. In contrast, social movements, nongovernmental organizations, and the like typically are seen as positive, democratizing players in public policy. This paper seeks to muddy both sides of this neat distinction by bringing the Brazilian third-sector literature and field research on scientific and professional associations in the states of Sergipe and Santa Catarina to bear on the question of the self- versus public-interested stance of third-sector groups. On the one hand, social movements can be just as self-interested as the more traditional interest groups. On the other, interest groups often act wholly in the public interest.     

Women in Social Work Education: Progress or Promise?

Abstract

The literature on the status of female social work educators has addressed the problems these educators face in the areas of salaries, academic rank and tenure, publication rates, and level of decision making. Given this attention to the status of these educators, one might expect positive resolutions to these problems. This article, which is based on a review of both the current literature and statistics on US social work faculty, evaluates the status of women faculty in social work academia to determine if progress has been made. Findings reveal that female educators are seeing slow improvment in some areas; however, inequalities continue. The authors suggest strategies for supporting the development and retention of women faculty.     

Community welfare organisations in Australia: Activism or industry?

This paper reports on an investigation of the work undertaken by community groups in Australia. Specifically, it highlights the role of community welfare organisations in socio-political contexts undergoing change. Different operating rationalities, corresponding to shifting political and economic imperatives, are examined. An overview of the development of the community welfare sector since 1970 reveals tendencies towards bifurcation and convergence as strategic responses to different socio-political conjunctures. Analysis of the contemporary preoccupation with the rationale of the market indicates a rehearsal of the bifurcation tendencies that characterised the sector in the 1970s. Yet shifts in the organisational relations between the state and the community welfare sector and the appearance of new strategic responses to the operating logics of the market also suggest that it is time for the development of different discursive frameworks in which to think about work in the community welfare sector.     

Community-managed water supplies in Africa: sustainable or dispensable?

Over the past two decades, community management has become theprevalent model for management of rural water supplies throughoutsub-Saharan Africa. Despite its widespread popularity amongdonors and implementing agencies, low water supply sustainabilitylevels throughout the sub-continent indicate that it is notthe panacea it is often presented to be. There is a strong needto distinguish between ‘community participation’which is a prerequisite for sustainability and ‘communitymanagement’ which is not. If community management systemsare to be sustainable, they require ongoing support from anoverseeing institution to provide encouragement and motivation,monitoring, participatory planning, capacity building, and specialisttechnical assistance. If such support is not available, alternativessuch as household water supplies and private sector servicedelivery should be considered.     

Alune incantations: Continuity or discontinuity in verbal art?

Throughout this century some Alune-speaking villages in the eastern Indonesian province of Central Maluku have experienced rapid sociopolitical and ecological change. Concomitant with these changes, language shift from Alune to the regional Malay variety, Ambonese Malay, is also occurring. This paper draws on a corpus of 45 incantations collected in two Alune villages which have been dissimilarly affected by the processes of change. The utilisation of a limited corpus of modern incantations in one village indicates a substratum of specialised indigenous sociocultural knowledge which has persisted in that site despite language shift and sociopolitical change. Comparison between traditional and contemporary forms of this genre of verbal art reveals structural differences and the extensive use of lexical items from languages other than Alune. Despite linguistic discontinuity, the endurance of incantations in this contemporary Christian society provides some continuity with pre-Christian Alune practices and may be viewed as a response to external events which are driving social, cultural and linguistic change.     

“Home” for Now or “Home” for Good?

ABSTRACT

This article explores accommodation experiences of East Europeans in London. Based on in-depth interviews with recent Polish and Lithuanian migrants it highlights a range of accommodation strategies that they exercise living in London. The article argues that instead of being passive users of the housing services in the immigration country, East European migrants skillfully manipulate the British housing market in order to achieve maximum benefit from the limited housing options available them. In this way, the article reflects on the dilemmas of making “home” and contributes to the theoretical refinement of the concept of “home” in the context of temporary accommodation.