Changing Fatherhood: An Exploratory Qualitative Study with African and African Caribbean Men in England

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study undertaken with 46 African and African Caribbean men exploring their experiences of fatherhood. Data analysis was informed by Connell’s theoretical work on changing gender relations. Findings indicate that fathers’ lives were mediated by masculinities, racism, gender, migration and generational changes in parenting. Fathers advocated a style of parenting centred on good communication with children. The implications of findings for theory, future research and health and social care policy regarding both children’s well‐being and the inclusion of fathers by health and social care practitioners are discussed.     

Developing an effective tsunami warning system: Lessons from the 1960 Chile earthquake tsunami for New Zealand coastal communities

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, property values have escalated in many coastal areas in New Zealand. While the mainstream media see the increasing property values as a positive economic development, Australian research suggests that migration to coastal settlements and increasing property values in those settlements is a more complex phenomenon and warrants close attention. The Australian research reveals significant social and cultural shifts occurring as well as the more widely discussed ecological impacts. In order to find out more about the social impacts of recent rapid property price increases on previously slow growing and comparatively inexpensive settlements, exploratory research involving interviews with key informants in six small coastal settlements was carried out in 2004. The study demonstrates the importance of micro‐level research to complement macro‐level analysis of development patterns and contributes to the emergent international literature on nonmetropolitan development trends since the 1990s. It highlights the need for more co‐ordinated and integrated development of the small settlements based on a comprehensive assessment of current and future social, economic, and environmental impacts of development.     

‘Let's Live,and See’: Interview with Moshe Talmon

Moshe Talmon, author of Single Session Therapy and Single Session Solutions, spoke to Lil Cox, family therapist from Oakrise Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service at Launceston, when she caught up with him at the Inaugural Pan‐Pacific Family Therapy Conference in Melbourne, Australia in September 2001. He spoke about his early life, training, his research showing that clients can get what they need from one session, and his current approach to therapy. Finally, he gives his reasons for continuing to live and work in Israel.     

Research into Practice/Practice into Research; How a Practice‐based Research Network Might Work

Last issue, I wrote some more about Practice Based Research Networks as a model that could be followed for applied clinical research in family therapy settings. What I would like to do now is to choose an area of interest and show how it might be worked up into a PBRN. This is necessarily going to be a limited example because at this stage there is a ‘network’ of one — I am effectively talking to myself right at the moment — but it will still serve as a demonstration.     

Closeness,loneliness, support: Core ties and significant ties in personal communities

Past research has introduced further distinctions within the strong ties that form our personal communities. This work aimed at a comparison between core and significant ties in terms of their emotional closeness to ego, the social provisions that are exchanged, the relationship maintenance behaviours reported, and ego's loneliness. Measures for all these variables were assessed in a survey study. Evidence for a trade-off between the number of ties and their level of intimacy was obtained such that having more core ties was associated with lower levels of intimacy. Distinct signatures for friends from both sets of ties emerged for friendship maintenance behaviours and social provisions exchanged. Further, social and emotional loneliness were differentially related to the number and the intimacy of core and significant ties.     

The application of dynamic programming in United Kingdom companies

Dynamic Programming (or DP as it is commonly known) is a mathematical programming method which would appear to be a very powerful technique for use in management decision problems. A great number of theoretical texts have been written on the mathematics of DP and a few articles have been published on the more practical aspects, but DP has remained very much on the theoretical shelf as far as practising management has been concerned. This paper gives the results of a survey carried out at the beginning of 1972 and is intended to provide some insight into the use of DP in real management problems in U.K. companies and to show what sort of problems are apparently restricting its use. The findings demonstrate that several firms have used DP in various applications with considerable success. There are also some enlightening comments on the difficulties involved, and on the future potential of DP in industry.     

Creating Treaty-based local governance in New Zealand: Māori and Pākehā views

This article explores the need for Treaty-based local governance, raised to national prominence by the 2014 outrage against New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd, who advocated a Māori ward for 2016. The Treaty of Waitangi influenced the creation of Māori seats in Parliament in the nineteenth century, and a provision for Māori seats in local councils in 2001. There has been limited uptake of the latter and Māori remain significantly under-represented. Innovations in governing arrangements have allowed non-elected Māori to take up advisory roles and, in some cases, decision-making roles. We argue that these do not ensure fair and effective Māori representation. Ad hoc and unpredictable structures have failed to deliver fair and effective representation to all New Zealanders. There is a pressing need for a New Zealand constitutional debate – a conversation among Māori and non-Māori – to devise a governance model that addresses the Treaty of Waitangi as New Zealand’s founding document.     

Shifting the Goalposts? Analysing Changes to Performance Peer Groups Used to Determine the Remuneration of FTSE 100 CEOs

This paper examines year‐on‐year changes to the composition of performance peer groups used for relative performance evaluation in setting CEO pay in FTSE 100 companies and finds evidence of peer selection bias. The authors find that firms keep their peer groups weak by excluding relatively stronger performing peers. They also show that peer selection bias is less pronounced in firms with higher institutional investor ownership, which suggests that institutional investors might be aware of the risks of peer selection bias. The results suggest that peer group modifications can be viewed, at least in part, as an expression of managerial rent‐seeking.