Welfare expenditure and policy orientation in Canada in comparative perspective

J'examine dans cet article les politiques sociales canadiennes pour la période 1960–1983, à lumière des expériences d'autres pays. Les politiques considérées se lisent sur quatre dimensions: dé-marchandisation, solidarité, redistribution et plein emploi. Au regard des dépenses d'autres pays membres de l***'OCDE, les dépenses gouvernementales de consommation civile au Canada sont relativement élevées; elles sont, cependant, principalement cantonnées dans les secteurs de la santé et de l'éducation. Ainsi, les dépenses générates et orientées vers la prévention sont faibles, indiquant la petite taille des budgets consacrés au logement et à la création d'emplois. En ce qui concerne le plein emploi, le Canada est l'un des membres de l'OCDE qui connaissent le moins de succès. Malgré des niveaux de chômage qui demeurent élevés, les dépenses de redistribution sont basses; elles contribuent malgré tout à réduire les inégalités de revenu primaire et elles demeurent plus importantes à ce chapitre que le régime fiscal. Une quantité considérable de données indique que l'Etat-providence canadien est en voie d'être restructuré de façon à redistribuer les bénéfices selon des critères de classe, plutôt que des critères de citoyenneté. This paper examines welfare effort in Canada in the 1960-83 period in the context of cross-national patterns. Welfare effort is considered on four dimensions: decommodification, solidarity, redistribution and full employment. Canada has relatively high government civil consumption expenditure by OECD standards but this consists mostly of health and educational expenditure. General and preventively oriented expenditure is low, reflecting the low expenditure on housing and employment creation. In terms of the full employment dimension Canada is one of the least successful of the OECD welfare states. Despite consistently high unemployment, social transfer expenditure is low but does contribute to the reduction of inequality of primary income and is consistently more important in this regard than the tax system. There is considerable evidence to indicate that the Canadian welfare state is being restructured towards a distribution of benefits based on class rather than citizenship.     

The road to functional flexibility: white collar work and employment relations in a privatised public utility

This paper is concerned with the changing nature of office work in one region of a privatised public utility, which will be referred to as National Utility (NU). It describes how clerical work at NU, traditionally characterised by a detailed division of labour and functional specialism, is being transformed by the introduction of on-line processing and multi-functional team-working. At the same time, NU management is seeking to change the nature and pattern of clerical employment. The intention is to increase the ratio of part time to full time staff, to increase the ‘personal accountability’ of staff, and to move towards a performance-based, rather than a seniority-based, pay and promotion structure. These changes are of some broader theoretical significance. As Batstone et al. (1987) note, much industrial sociology literature has focused on job content as the primary determinant of a number of features of work and employment, including worker autonomy, supervisory styles, and management control strategies. Indeed, much recent industrial sociology, management and institutional economics literature has tended to link employment patterns and conditions, as a whole, with job content, in a direct and unproblematic fashion. In particular, it is often assumed that in order to secure multiple skills, high quality work and the innovative capacities of labour, employers will have to offer not only better pay, but also a better package of conditions, job security, fringe benefits and training and promotion opportunities. Developments at National Utility suggest that the link between job content and employment relations may be weaker than has sometimes been implied, and cast doubt on the theoretical basis for ‘post-Fordist’ confidence in the emergence of a new deal for labour as a result of flexible methods of work organisation.     

Streets and stages: urban renewal and the arts after World War II

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan and the revitalization of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn offer insights into the intersection of arts and urbanization after World War II. This intra-city comparison shows the aggrandizing pull of the international arena in the shaping of Lincoln Center and the arts it featured in contrast to the local focus and debate that transformed how BAM fit into its Brooklyn neighborhood. The performing arts, bound as they are to a moment fused in space and time, reveal the making of place within grandiose formal buildings as well as outside on the streets that surround them—and it is, perhaps, that tensile connection between stages and streets that informs the relevancy of both the institution and the arts it features. At a time when the suburbs pulled more and more people, the arts provided a counterforce in cities, as magnet and stimulus. The arts were used as compensation for the demolition and re-building of a neighborhood in urban renewal, but they also exposed the more complex social dynamics that underpinned the transformation of the mid-20th century American city from a segregated to a multi-faceted place.     

Subjective and Occupational Well-Being in a Sample of Mexican Workers

This article examines the well-being of workers, observing that subjective and occupational well-being are interrelated but independent dimensions and analyzing their interaction with their modulating factors. Specifically, the relationships between well-being and personal value structures are examined, hypothesizing that congruence between personal and socially predominant values improves the well-being of workers. The influence of various occupational and personal factors is also analyzed. We studied 209 workers of a multinational company in Mexico using different standardized questionnaires. The results demonstrate that subjective and occupational well-being are related but are independent variables influenced by differentiated variables. Specifically, the occupational wellbeing of workers is influenced by the nature of their work, whereas subjective well-being is affected by their social values and level of education. We present a model for the interaction of these variables and their consequences with the intention of the worker to stay with or leave the company. We discuss some practical issues raised by the study and make recommendations for future.     

The Validity of Social Media–Based Career Information

The use of social media expands the availability and sources of career information. However, the authorship of this information has changed from traditional print media and multimedia sources created by experts to social media–based career information created by the users themselves. Although variability in career information validity has been an issue for some time, rapid growth in the use of social media creates some unique challenges. The ease with which social media–based career information can spread creates the potential for rapid widespread dissemination of disinformation and biased perceptions. Potential sources of invalidity include intentional bias (with or without profit motive), unintentional bias, restricted range of experience, out‐of‐date information, popularity bias, similarity bias, and context deficiency. The authors examine potential sources of social media–based career information invalidity and suggest implications for practice to help individuals make the best use of such information.     

“I’m not a greenie but…”: Environmentality,eco-populism and governance in New Zealand Experiences from the Southland whitebait fishery

The experiences of nascent local institutions in regional resource management issues in New Zealand can help to inform the important analytical projects of considering the impacts of neoliberalism on environmental management as well as the meanings of governance as the new order in rural and natural resource management. This study considers how devolved governance shapes individual subject positions relative to the environment in a neoliberal context, deploying Agrawal's optics of “environmentality” to analyze a case study of the political ecology of the whitebait fishery in Southland, New Zealand. This research demonstrates that the devolution of resource governance in New Zealand has cultivated empowered, ‘accidental environmentalists’ and related environmental subjectivities. The extent and quality of individual involvement in governance influences whitebaiters’ perceptions of environmental change and resource management priorities. At the same time, a strong ‘eco-populist’ conceptualization of resource management infuses the fishers’ environmental subjectivities and potentially constrains the depth and degree of fishers’ opposition to environmental degradation.     

Family, Neighborhood, and Peer Characteristics as Predictors of Child Adjustment: A Longitudinal Analysis of Additive and Mediation Models

The purpose of this study was to test direct, additive, and mediation models involving family, neighborhood, and peer factors in relation to emerging antisocial behavior and social skills. Neighborhood danger, maternal depressive symptoms, and supportive parenting were assessed in early childhood. Peer group acceptance was measured in middle childhood, and data on antisocial behavior and social skills were collected when boys were 11 and 12 years old. Results were consistent with an additive effects model of child antisocial behavior. In contrast, peer relationships were stronger predictors of social skills than were family factors. Support for mediation was found in models involving neighborhood danger and supportive parenting. However, only peer group acceptance predicted change in antisocial and prosocial behavior. Implications for family and peer relations as socialization contexts are discussed.     

Sexual dysfunction: overview of prevalence,etiological factors,and treatments

Sexual dysfunctions and sexual problems are reviewed from the perspective of prevalence, broad etiological factors, and available treatments. Although a large percentage of individuals experience sexual problems, with estimates between 10 and 52% of men and 25 and 63% of women, the prevalence of sexual dysfunctions that meet diagnostic criteria is lower and less well established by large scale population-based studies. Sexual problems and dysfunctions are correlated with other health conditions, including cardiovascular disorders, common diseases such a s diabetes, health habits, and mental health. Adequate sexual functioning also appears to be associated with personal well-being and relationship stability, although this may be more accurate for men than women. Efficacious and effective treatments exist for some of the sexual disorders, and there is an increasing focus on medical (particularly pharmacological) treatments being tested by the pharmaceutical industry. Sexual problems and dysfunctions have been notably under-researched, particularly from the perspective on consequences to individual mental health, relationships, and family functioning.     

Parental Involvement in Playgroups

SUMMARY. This paper reports results from a study of playgroups in three areas of England. It describes the extent and nature of parent involvement in the study playgroups, and how far this involvement included fathers as well as mothers; examines the relationship between involvement and various socio-economic characteristics of the parents, to see whether certain groups were more or less likely to be involved in their children's playgroups; and considers attitudes to parent involvement among both mothers and playgroup leaders, and playgroup leaders' experience of involvement, in particular whether they experienced any difficulties in getting or maintaining involvement.