What a Weberian approach to interests can contribute to economic sociology

This review essay addresses Richard Swedbergs recent attempt to redefine the field of economic sociology. Grounding his position in Max Webers work, Swedberg advocates a type of economic sociology that not only focuses on social relations but also considers culture and interests, arguing that it is interests that drive action but that they are shaped by culture and enacted through social relations. We conclude our analysis with a consideration of the practical and empirical implications of this new approach for the study of economic life.     

Creating a bridge to healing: a professional/paraprofessional team approach

This paper describes a therapeutic model in which an English-speaking licensed clinician and a bilingual paraprofessional provide psychotherapy using a team approach in working with Cambodian refugee survivors of the Khmer Rouge. The team approach model differs from professionals who use interpreters in psychotherapy. The strengths and challenges of this approach are discussed. Agencies that serve refugees may not have professionally trained mental health providers who are from the country of origin of their clients. This model holds promise to provide culturally sensitive treatment. However, it is a model that is in its infancy in terms of knowing what works and how to duplicate that to other agencies and populations. This paper shares some of the benefits as well as some of the drawbacks.     

Maps of the uncertain: a new approach to communicate scientific ignorance

While uncertainty and the unknown are not only accepted but favoured within scientific debates, these concepts are less tolerated in instances of exchange with society. In scientific communication, definitive statements are expected and thus delivered; and this societal expectation of the scientific community has obviously been internalized by the scientists themselves. After giving an overview of the lively discussion about scientific uncertainty and nescience (landscapes of the uncertain), this paper presents a new tool for the communication of scientific uncertainties: Maps of the Uncertain. These maps take the form of infographics, which allow a different kind of communication of uncertainties, and thus a different relationship between science and society. The paper presents and discusses examples of six maps.     

We have rights too: examining the existence of professional prejudice and discrimination against public relations

This study of a large sample of public relations educators (n = 342) found substantial evidence that professional prejudice and discrimination towards public relations and public relations education exists. More than half (56.6%) of the respondents said they have had a dean, director or department chair who was prejudiced against public relations, and many of these administrators evidently have made use of exaggerations and stereotypes about public relations while criticizing it. Results also suggest this prejudice is more pronounced among print journalists and journalism faculty than it is among other groups of communication educators and practitioners.     

Musculoskeletal disorders: a new approach

Musculoskeletal disorders are still a major problem in daily occupational life. Despite the high incidence rates and important consequences for employees, employers and society, efficient preventive strategies seem to fail in efficiency. The reason may be found in approaching the issue via the classic post-factum analysis. The preventive measures are almost not implemented because of the low predictability to be injured which affects the awareness of the problem and the low identification with the improvement proposals. MSD belong to the cumulative diseases which require and anticipating strategy based on early detection of pre-indicating symptoms.     

Poverty status probability: a new approach to measuring poverty and the progress of the poor

Poverty measurement and the analysis of the progress (or otherwise) of the poor, whether it is societies, families or individuals, is beset with difficulties and controversies surrounding the definition of a poverty line or frontier. Here, borrowing ideas from the mixture model literature, a new approach to assigning poverty-non poverty status is proposed which avoids specifying a frontier, the price is that an agent’s poverty status is only determined to the extent of its chance of being poor. Invoking variants of Gibrat’s law to give structure to the distribution of outcomes for homogeneous subgroups of a population within the context of a finite mixture model of societal outcomes facilitates calculation of an agent’s poverty status probability. From this it is straightforward to calculate all the usual poverty measures as well as other characteristics of the poor and non poor subgroups in a society. These ideas are exemplified in a study of 47 countries in Africa over the recent quarter century which reveals among other things a growing poverty rate and a growing disparity between poor and non poor groups not identified by conventional methods.     

A new approach to motivation: Four-drive model

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new approach to the field of motivation. To start, it reviews the previously available literature in the field and analyzes some of the more popular theories and finds the gaps. A new model is put forward, which aims to cover the relevant parameters—as well as to plug the identified gaps. The model proposes four types of drives—sensual, material, emotional, and spiritual. A quantitative study was done to validate the proposed theory and to have a better understanding in identifying the socioeconomic parameters that are significant in predicting which drive is likely to dominate in a person. Using the proposed theory and the results from the quantitative analysis, a model for motivation is proposed. This research is part of an ongoing research effort to test, validate, and generalize the proposed model.     

Latvian Bilingual Education: Towards a new approach

During the transitional period from being part of the Soviet Union, with Russian as the official state language, to an independent state within the European Union, with special language policies supporting minority languages, Latvia has developed reasonable principles of bilingual education. Nevertheless, a lot of work still needs to be done to improve teaching methods, to develop effective programmes, and to assess the multifaceted process of language use at school, including sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic analysis of educational discourse and spontaneous bilingual communication. The quality of bilingual education depends upon different factors, which are subject to various influences. Some of these are not mentioned in the models being proposed by the government, such as the pedagogical relevance of a child-centered approach, the progression in language and cultural competence of participants, mixing/overlapping/avoidance strategies of language use, attitudes of families, children and teachers, etc. The challenge for teachers of both Latvian as a second and Russian as a first language is enormous. In the future, other bilingual situations will present themselves in Latvia as well. Because of this, Latvian society must consider their entire policy towards bilingualism in the educational system.     

The foreign language and intercultural competence teacher: the acquisition of a new professional identity

It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the study reported on here was to investigate to what extent and in what way teachers' current professional profiles meet the specifications formulated in the theoretical literature regarding the ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’. To answer this question, an international research design was developed, involving teachers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Our findings suggest that teachers' current foreign language‐and‐culture teaching profiles do not yet meet those of the envisaged ‘foreign language and intercultural competence teacher’, and that patterns in teacher thinking and teaching practice appear to exist within and across the participating countries.     

The professional role of social work in a market environment

One argument often heard in garnering support for the reorganisation of the welfare state in the Netherlands is that the safety net which it was intended to form has become something of a hammock, whereas a genuine safety net ought to act more like a trampoline. Nowadays sometimes also known as the activating welfare state, it aims to reduce apathetic response and increase the participation of its citizens in society. More and more, social workers are enlisted to help achieve these goals. Activation, however, is also associated with the introduction of a market environment in the social sector.

In 1992, the management of the social work organisation in The Hague concluded a controversial agreement with the municipal social services. Under this contract, clients referred to the social work organisation by the municipal social services would be made eligible for regular jobs on the labour market. The clients who were referred had obligations of their own: their benefits would be reduced if they did not cooperate. The social work organisation guaranteed contractually a success rate of 60% within a pre-determined period. For this ‘product’, the municipal social services paid a fixed amount of money each year.

The article describes the professional manner in which the social workers in The Hague dealt with the contract.     

The Life Rope: a transactional approach to exploring worker and life role development

The Model of Human Occupation offers a framework for analyzing occupational roles including that of worker; however, it does not describe the dynamics of role change after a traumatic injury. This paper reports a qualitative study of sixteen individuals who experienced a traumatic spinal cord injury in the midst of their occupational career development. The study examined their role change processes involved in redeveloping the worker role. Data were collected across 24 months of the participant's lives and triangulated via participant observations, guided interviews, mapping, and archival document review. Results showed that individuals formed multiple strands within their role repertoires at any point in time. After a traumatic injury, the worker role became an optional, elective role strand, one that often unraveled first as they encountered breakdowns in more basic survival roles, such as home manager, assistive technology user and attendant care employer. The metaphor of a Life Rope emerged as a useful conceptual framework for explaining life role development, including that of worker.     

Face to face with the 'sovereign consumer': service quality and the changing role of professional academic librarians

This article considers the impact of service quality initiatives on the role of professional academic librarians.¹ It is argued that these initiatives—by asserting the dominant role of ‘sovereign’ consumers—offer a powerful legitimating device which is currently being used to support radical changes in professional work. One possible outcome of this is a weakening of professional autonomy and power to unilaterally determine levels and standards of service. The case of academic librarians is adopted to illustrate these points. Firstly, two ideal types of library and professional organisation, developed from a review of the librarian literature, are compared. These are the ‘traditional’ and the ‘service quality-led’ models. Following this, a case study of an academic library which has recently adopted various quality improvement strategies is discussed. The results of this investigation suggest that not only have service quality initiatives provided a legitimation for radical change, but they have also generated a number of unintended consequences and hidden costs for the users of library services. Finally, some of the wider problems associated with service quality initiatives in the public sector are discussed.     

The training of nursery workers: the need for a new approach

SUMMARY. This paper sets out an argument for an approach to under fives provision which ignores the boundaries between care and education. It demonstrates an example of training, at South Bank Polytechnic in London, which attempts to overcome barriers to looking at children as whole individuals     

Multicultural education: A new approach for a new South African dispensation

In a new South African dispensation, the reconstruction of a national education system necessitates fundamental change to existing educational policies and practices. Seen as a cultural kaleidoscope or ethnic mosaic of peoples, modern South African society can be characterised as being multicultural. It stands to reason, therefore, that multicultural education for a new multicultural South Africa has become a logical, outcomes-based necessity. The extent to which multicultural education will succeed depends largely on the knowledge, attitudes, views and conduct of the teacher as initiator, facilitator and manager of the educational and learning practice. Most teachers in this country have been trained in a monocultural context and are therefore not adequately prepared for implementing multicultural education. All educators in South Africa who are seriously concerned with the formal education of children will have to become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to initiate and facilitate optimal learning in a multicultural context. What is needed is an innovative and studious predisposition, cultural reappraisal, and the acceptance of co-ownership in building a new democratic dispensation for South Africa. Teachers within multicultural school contexts need to bring about this conceptual paradigm shift in the hearts and minds of young people.     

The best interests of the child? The role of the court welfare officer

SUMMARY. The current developments in practice, where children are involved with the courts, will form a fundamental part of work with children under the 1989 Children Act. One of the key actors will be the Court Welfare Officer, part of the Probation Service. This article reviews the role as it has developed in recent years, pointing out the different practices which coexist, even in the same area. Using evidence from a small scale research study in one Service, the article argues for a clearer and more consistent role, which can only really develop under a Family Court Welfare Service     

Child protection: a new approach in South Australia

This paper argues the case for an integrated approach to child protection services, embracing children's safety, risk and needs and incorporating formal assessment instruments. It then provides a brief overview of the new child protection system in South Australia. The steady rise in child abuse/neglect reports raises questions about how best to provide child protection services. Analysis of South Australian data suggests that much of the rise can be attributed to an increase in reports of neglect and emotional abuse and an increase in re‐notifications. This in turn raises questions about the traditional investigative approach. In 1995 Messages from Research advocated that agencies re‐focus on children's needs and concentrate less on investigations into safety and risk. The critical question is how to distinguish families requiring investigation from those needing support. The latest research suggests that such decision‐making in child protection is generally inconsistent and unreliable. This paper argues that statutory agencies should use formal assessment tools to determine the level and nature of their interventions. These arguments have been critical in the development of the new child protection model in SA, which relies on a centralized intake, differential response to reports and the structured decision‐making system. Initial evaluation of the new model indicates improvements in consistency of initial screening and responses to children in danger. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.