Are there asymmetries in the effects of training on the conditional male wage distribution?

Recent studies have used quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the impact of education on the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. We conduct a similar investigation of the role of work-related training. We utilise both ordinary least squares and QR techniques to estimate associations between work-related training and wages for private sector men in ten European Union countries. For the majority of countries, the association between training and hourly wages varies little across the conditional wage distribution. However, there are considerable differences across countries in mean associations between training and wages.     

The life of the gay gene: from hypothetical genetic marker to social reality

The gay gene was first identified in 1993 as a correlation between the genetic marker Xq28 and gay male sexuality. The results of this original study were never replicated, and the biological reality of such an entity remains hypothetical. However, despite such tenuous provenance, the gay gene has persisted as a reference in science news, popular science writings, and in press releases and editorials about biomedical research. An examination of the life of the gay gene in U.K. news media demonstrates that the gay gene has become an assumed back-story to genetic sexuality research over time, and that the critique of its very existence has been diminished. Latterly, the gay gene has entered into the online biomedical databases of the 21st century with the same pattern of persistence and diminishing critique. This article draws on an analysis of the U.K. press and online databases to represent the process through which the address of the gay gene has shifted and become an index of biomedicalization. The consequent unmooring of the gay gene from accountability and accuracy demonstrates that the organization of biomedical databases could benefit from greater cross-disciplinary attention.     

Donor engagement through Twitter

This research examines how non-profit organizations can build and strengthen relationships with donors using the social media tool Twitter. Strong relationships are what lead to donor engagement in a non-profit cause, and the participatory culture that grows online as a result of using Twitter can help to initiate and build relationships with online donors. In this research, tweets were collected from two non-profit organizations, Care2 and United Way Toronto, and one for-profit corporation, Ford Motor Company. The textual construction of the tweets was analyzed using discourse analysis and a rhetorical framework as methodologies. Two main communication theories – the Social-Judgement Theory and the Social Networking Theory – emerged from the analyzed data and were driving forces behind the results. When applied to the data, it was evident that both these theories supported and illustrated ways to build and strengthen relationships using the social media tool, Twitter.     

Physical victimization of rural methamphetamine and cocaine users

Substance use and physical violence often coincide, but little has been published on the correlates associated with receipt of partner versus nonpartner physical violence for rural users of methamphetamine and/or cocaine. In this study, participants' substance use, depression and past-year physical victimization were assessed. In separate logistic regression models, received partner violence in females was associated with age; alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine abuse/dependence; and number of drugs used in the past 6 months. In males, received nonpartner violence was associated with age, cocaine abuse/dependence, and being Caucasian. Findings suggest a relationship between stimulant use and received violence among rural substance users and a need for victimization screenings in settings where such individuals seek health care.     

Family decision making in child welfare: challenges in developing a knowledge base for practice

Over the past two decades, engaging families in decision‐making has grown in popularity across child welfare systems internationally. The family group conference in particular has generated interest as a practice model that facilitates broader family engagement in care and protection. As the practice has flourished, research has been undertaken to strengthen the knowledge base and to support the introduction of family engagement strategies across jurisdictions. This paper examines the recent research relating to family engagement strategies in child welfare and explores the ways in which family involvement in decision‐making can be incorporated into emerging protective practices. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Professionalisation and public relations education: Industry accreditation of Australian university courses in the early 1990s

This paper investigates the Public Relations Institute of Australia's introduction in 1991 of a national accreditation programme for university courses. Drawing on an analysis of previously unstudied industry archives, it identifies four themes significant for industry perspectives of education: public relations knowledge; industry expectations and experience; public relations curricula; and academic legitimacy. While university education was perceived by institute members to demonstrate the professional standing of public relations, the findings reveal divergent understandings of its role and content and identify considerable resistance to the institutionalisation of public relations knowledge. At the same time, the expansion and marketisation of higher education led to the introduction of new, vocational courses such as public relations. The significance of this study is it offers new insights into the development of Australian public relations education and the role of the professional association.     

“Mostly we are White and Alone”: Identity,Anxiety and the Past in Some White Zimbabwean Memoirs

Using the space created by the land invasions, over the last ten years or so there has been a proliferation of exile memoirs written by white Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, which foreground colonial nostalgia and postcolonial anxiety. This article profiles elements of this latest wave of “white (female) writing”, arguing that writers such as Alexandra Fuller construct their own personal narratives based on an extremely teleological and narrow interpretation of the history of Zimbabwe. It is argued that memoirs are used as a mechanism to uphold an idealised (i.e. powerful) white identity, because whites' current “destabilised” identity has resulted in them clinging to a seemingly utopian version of both what it meant to be white and the past. The article also examines some aspects of whiteness studies, utilising Peter McLaren's framework to argue that these memoirs are beset by a whiteness of social amnesia.     

Perceptions of the effectiveness of training and development of ‘grey-collar’ workers in the People's Republic of China

An important human resource development (HRD) implication of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) rapidly expanding economy has been the emergence of a critical shortage of grey-collar workers (GCW). Although ‘grey-collar’ has been commonly used in the West to describe an aging population within the workforce, in China it refers to people who are neither white nor blue collar workers but technicians. The shortage of GCW constrains the PRC's economic and developmental sustainability, and has been recognized in central and provincial government initiatives to increase training and development of employees within these fields. While acknowledged as a policy and organizational problem, there has been no research investigating what organizations are doing to develop these employees. Drawing upon a survey of 310 semi-skilled and skilled employees in Beijing, our findings suggest that while the surveyed organizations are investing heavily in both on- and off-the-job training, employees' perceived value of such differs markedly according to age and position. The research has important implications for China's HRD strategy in suggesting links between training and other human resource management (HRM) functions are yet to be evidenced.     

Similar or Different? Downward Accountability Across Civil Society Organisational Forms

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This research explores accountability to beneficiaries within Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Conceptualised as...