Collaboration patterns among Swedish professionals in the repatriation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children: an explorative study

This study explores patterns of collaboration between Swedish professionals involved in the repatriation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children. A qualitative case study methodology was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 20 statutory social workers, social workers at care homes, police officers, Swedish Migration Board officers, and legal guardians. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data. The results showed low levels of collaboration among the professionals and the use of different strategies by the professionals to manage their work tasks. Patterns were found among the professionals: some tended to isolate themselves from interaction and acted on the basis of personal preference, and others tended to behave sensitively, withdraw, and become passive observers rather than active partners in the repatriation process. These behaviours made it difficult for the relevant professionals to employ dignity and efficiency in the repatriation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children.     

Political Influence and Bureaucratic Autonomy

The establishment of autonomous public bodies during the past two decades has created a highly fragmented public sector. Using a dataset with more than 200 Dutch public sector organisations, this article examines three related sets of questions: to what extent a relationship exists between formal and de facto autonomy; the level of influence that interested parties exert upon those organizations; whether a relationship exists between levels of formal and de facto autonomy and the level of influence exercised by these parties. We find that formal autonomy does not reinforce de facto autonomy; organizations with less autonomy report higher levels of political influence when policy autonomy is concerned; and that organizations with more autonomy report higher societal influence on their financial autonomy.

The changing relationship between unemployment and total fertility

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether there has been a fundamental change in the relationship between economic conditions and fertility. We use panel data methods to study the short-term changes in total fertility and the unemployment rate in a range of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1957 to 2014. We find that although fertility was counter-cyclical before 1970, with good economic times being associated with lower fertility, since then it has become pro-cyclical, with good economic times being associated with higher fertility.     

Thirty years of the Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism: A review of reviews

In the 30 or so years since the publication of Gosta Esping-Andersenapos;s Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism a number of rival welfare state typologies have emerged. This article has two broad aims. First, we review the reviews of welfare state typologies, pointing to issues of often unclear case selection and a wide range of concepts, variables, and methods, resulting in a variety of worlds of welfare and their constituent nations. We show that there is a great variety in the welfare modelling business at two different levels. Reviews vary significantly in terms of the number and composition of included studies, which has made it difficult to sum up the “state of the art.” Individual studies included in the reviews also vary significantly in terms of issues such as aims, concepts, variables, and methods. Second, we produce a new review, which adds value as it is based on a clearer search strategy, and includes more recent material that was not available in earlier reviews. This finds that there is a great variety in terms of process (concepts, variables, methods, and number of countries) and findings (the number and composition of “worlds”). We argue that the country classification seems to show less consensus that previous reviews, with fewer “pure” nations (i.e., agreement between studies). We suggest that in order to provide a clear point of engagement, future reviews need to pay more attention to a clear and explicit search strategy, including issues such as inclusion criteria.     

Doctoral Study Programs in Social Work at HBCUs: Origin and Program Development

Fisk University began the genesis of HBCU graduate programs in 1880. During the next fifty years, several other HBCUs established graduate programs. That group included Lincoln, Howard, and Morgan State. However, only Lincoln University established a PhD program. The primary goal of this paper is to provide a historical perspective regarding the development of social work doctoral degree programs in the context of HBCU graduate degree program development. Although HBCU social work doctoral programs have only existed since 1978, they are significant and growing academic enterprises which are expanding the pool of doctoral level social work experts and professors of color. Further, these programs should be viewed contextually as producers of scholars on the larger landscape of the academy.     

Gender Inequalities in Academic Innovation and Enterprise: A Bourdieuian Analysis

This paper demonstrates that engagement in innovation and enterprise activity in SET departments within three UK universities is, in part, gendered. A Bourdieuian approach is adopted to identify underlying structures and practices that have causal powers to generate gender‐based inequalities. Drawing on empirical research with 52 participants, this study reveals gendered science enterprise experiences, characterized by a field that is considered strong in shaping the habitus and presenting stark options to women in pursuit of their careers. It demonstrates the multilayered nature of the fields that shape gendered experiences and resultant inequalities by taking into account individual dispositions of academics and their habitus, including their science enterprise experience and the wider commercial field beyond the university, and generates a number of implications for practice and policy.     

New calibration estimator in stratified sampling

This paper develops the theory of calibration estimation and proposes calibration approach alternative to existing calibration estimators for estimating population mean of the study variable using auxiliary variable in stratified sampling. The theory of new calibration estimation is given and optimum weights are derived. A simulation study is carried out to performance of the proposed calibration estimator with other existing calibration estimators. The results reveal that the proposed calibration estimators are more efficient than Tracy et al., Singh et al., Singh calibration estimators of the population mean.     

Fingerprinting and Biopolitical Police Surveillance in Turkey

This paper problematises the 2007 amendments to Article 5 of the Police Powers and Duties Law (PPDL) in Turkey that categorises all citizens as ‘potential suspects’ through fingerprinting technology. The amended article requires everyone to submit fingerprint samples when applying for certain official documents such as driver's licences, passports, and ID cards. Consequently, the result has been dramatic: the police have so far proactively recorded more than 60 million people's fingerprints in the process of issuing these documents. Yet, there has been no research into this phenomenon. This paper suggests that this sort of biometric police surveillance is not a recent development, rather part of a long tradition within policing ‘Turkish’ national interests. Following Foucault's genealogical methodology, the paper argues that the governability of a large heterogeneous population across a vast territory has always demanded biometric policing technologies, addressing biopolitical proximity between the capacity building of modern security apparatus and identifying the unknown masses. Studying the historical data comparatively reveals that fingerprinting first started with recording exceptional groups such as criminals and convicts in Europe, while from the late Ottoman Empire to modern Turkey, large sections of the population have always persistently been targeted by police regulations.