Ambiguity and User Involvement: Issues Arising in Assessments for Young People and their Carers

Correspondence to Peter R. Day CRSP, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University of Technology, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE 11 3TU. Summary Issues for service users and professional staff arising fromcontemporary community care policies emphasizing user involvementare reviewed. Against the background of a key expression ofthese policies, the Disabled Persons' Act of 1986, methods ofproviding assessments involving young people with learning disabilitieswere analysed. Problems identified for further study includeddifficulties arising for young people due to lack of experienceand immaturity, the low expectations of their parents or carers,problems arising from the culture of services and how assessmentsmay be developed which provide seriously disabled users themselveswith ways of expressing their wants and needs.     

The worker,the workplace,and the need for unemployment insurance*

Le chômage et la dépendance des prestations de l'assurance chômage qui en découle ne peuvent s'expliquer uniquement en termes de compétence naturelle, d'éducation, de formation professionnelle ou d'expérience préalable du travailleur en tant qu'individu. Lorsqu'on analyse ces attributs, on constate que leurs effets sont médiatisés par l'influence du lieu de travail. Pour explorer cette proposition, nous nous servons d'un modèle segmentaire d'établissements identifiés comme étant marginaux ou centraux dans le monde du travail, et fonctionnant selon une analyse des facteurs des caractéristiques de l'établissement. Les données sont tirées d'un échantillon vraisemblable de réclamants de prestations d'assurance chômage de la région canadienne de l'Atlantique. Nous comparons les travailleurs du monde marginal du travail à ceux du monde central en termes de l'usage possible de prestations. La portée théorique et la ligne de conduite de nos conclusions sont soumises à la discussion. Unemployment and subsequent dependence on unemployment insurance benefits cannot be explained solely in terms of the natural abilities, education, training or previous job experience of individual workers. When these attributes are analyzed, their effects are mediated through the influence of the workplace. To explore this proposition we use a segmentation model where establishments are identified either within the marginal or central work world operationalized through a factor analysis of establishment characteristics. The data are drawn from a probability sample of unemployment insurance claimants in Atlantic Canada. We compare workers in marginal and central work worlds in terms of potential benefit use. We examine through regression analysis the net effect of work world location, its importance in prediction, and its interactive effects with selected personal characteristics on potential benefit use. The theoretical and policy implications of our findings are discussed.     

The elimination of contraceptive acceptor targets and the evolution of population policy in India

In 1996 the government of India announced a new national population policy that eliminated numerical targets for new contraceptive acceptors. This paper examines the history of target setting in India and factors that led to the elimination of targets. The analysis is based on published and unpublished reports on India's population policy and the family planning programme and interviews with senior Indian and foreign officials and population specialists. Five factors are identified as playing a role in the evolution from target setting to a target-free policy: (1) the research of India's academics; (2) the work of women's health advocates; (3) the support of officials in the state bureaucracy who approved the target-free approach; (4) the influence of the donors to India's family planning programme, especially the World Bank; and (5) the International Conference on Population and Development.     

责任型领导与企业社会资本建立：怡海公司案例研究

从责任型领导的视角出发,采用案例研究方法探讨了责任型领导如何在考虑各利益相关者的不同需求的基础上,通过积极主动地履行各种社会责任,建立与各利益相关者之间互惠、互信的关系网络,从而形成社会资本,以促进公司的有序、稳定发展;最后,在案例研究的基础上,指出目前的责任型领导理论尚不能很好地解释一些客观现象,提出该理论的未来研究方向,以期对该理论的发展和完善起到一定促进作用.     

Earnings and transfers: income sources in Atlantic Canada and their relationship to work settings*

Cette communication examine la question des sources de revenus des foyers et comment elles sont combinées. Son but est de montrer que le lieu de l'emploi du chef du foyer dans le monde de travail marginal influence la présence de revenus de transfert dans le montant total des revenus de la famille. Nous partons de l'hypothèse que, même si un emploi est à salaire bas, c'est sa situation dans le monde de travail marginal, plutôt que dans le monde de travail central, qui se montre le prédiseur le plus important du besoin du foyer de s'appuyer sur des revenus de transfert. Nous montrons que les foyers du monde de travail marginal ont plus tendance à recevoir des bénéfices de l' Assurance-Chômage et de l'Aide Sociale que des foyers qui s'identifient avec le monde de travail central. En plus, tandis que les transferts sont des sources importantes de revenus, ils ne sont jamais plus importants que les revenus provenant de salaires, sans regarder au lieu de travail. Cette étude est basée sur des données secondaires provenant d'un échantillon des foyers dans les provinces Atlantiques établi par Statistique Canada. This is a paper about household income sources and how they are combined. Its purpose is to show that the “location” of the job of the head of household in the marginal work world influences the presence of transfer income in the household's “income package.” Our hypothesis is that even though a job may be low wage, it is its location in the marginal work world as opposed to the central work world that is a more important predictor of the household's reliance on transfer income. We show that households in the marginal work world are more likely to derive income from Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Social Assistance than households identified with the central work world. While transfers are important income sources they are never more important than income from earnings, regardless of work setting. This study is based on secondary data drawn by Statistics Canada from a sample of households in the Atlantic provinces.     

Political powerlessness and sociodemographic status in Canada*

Fondé sur une analyse secondaire de l'enquête sur l'election nationale (1974), cet article démontre l'association limitée entre l'expérience de l'impuissance et la position socio-démographique. Il offre une explication qui ne désavoue pas l'importance de la situation sociale, mais qui souligne comment le système social fonctionne de façon à produire des aliénations différentes en conformité avec l'expérience sociale de l'individu. Enfin, il discute l'importance, pour le système politique canadien, de la grande proportion des citoyens aliénés, et particulièrement la direction idéologique qu'un tel groupe prendrait s'il était mobilisé. Based on a secondary analysis of the national election survey (1974), this paper shows the limited association between the experience of powerlessness and sociodemographic position. An explanation is offered which does not deny the importance of social position, but stresses how the social system functions to produce different kinds of alienation according to the individual's social experience. Finally, the significance for the Canadian political system of its large proportion of alienated citizens is discussed with particular concern for the ideological direction of such a group if it were mobilized