Tolerance Within Community: Does Social Capital Affect Tolerance?

Credit cooperatives are financial intermediaries that pay attention to social criteria. Thus, if such entities want to survive and thrive in the new international context, they cannot ignore their inefficiencies in both the financial and social dimensions of their activity. However, previous research on efficiency in credit cooperatives is very limited and only considers their financial activity. To date, no study has been published giving evidence through indicators on whether these banking institutions are socially efficient. This paper therefore constructs a social efficiency index of Spanish credit cooperatives during the period 2008–2014 and examines its main explanatory factors. After applying a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach, the results from the first stage indicate that, on average, the social efficiency of Spanish credit cooperatives reaches an acceptable level of 66.42 %. Second-stage truncated regression reveals that entities with a greater proportion of branches in urban areas are socially less efficient, whereas both their size and the number of service points have a positive effect. Interestingly, social efficiency also varies significantly depending on the regional location of credit cooperatives in Spain. As a result, our findings enable these Social Economy financial institutions to both know their performance relative to their social activity and use this information to improve their competitiveness in the future.     

Book Review

Homophobia: An Australian History Shirleene Robinson (ed), The Federation Press, Sydney, 2008, pb, x + 262 pp., $35.00     

Career Counseling With Clients Who Have a Severe Mental Illness

Individuals who are diagnosed with a serious mental illness encounter a variety of barriers that can impede their career development. In this article, the career barriers of clients who have a severe mental illness are reviewed, and a developmental approach to career counseling with this population is described. A case example is provided to illustrate the complex process of developmental career counseling with people who are seriously impaired by a psychiatric illness.     

Gender and New Public Management: Reconstituting Academic Subjectivities

This article is located within the context of British Higher Education. It examines the ‘radical reforms’ of New Public Management (NPM) (marketization and managerialism) in the management of university organizations. The article has two main aims. First, to explore the extent to which NPM initiatives have influenced individual women academics’s day–to–day experiences of the gendered academy and their professional identities. Second, to understand individuals’ active responses to NPM to develop theorizing of individual resistance in public service organizations. Adopting a Foucauldian feminist framework, it is suggested that the introduction of NPM presents a site for political struggle for women academics. The article explores the gendered nature of NPM, to determine how, in three individual universities, different women academics have responded to the ‘managerialist challenge’. Finally, the article focuses on the ways in which different women academics might accommodate, resist, or transform the discourses of NPM, the factors facilitating this, and the material outcomes.     

Creating more trauma-informed services for children using assessment-focused tools

This article promotes integrating assessment and evidence-based practice in the treatment of traumatized children through a review of two newly developed trauma assessment tools: (1) the Child Welfare Trauma Referral Tool (CWT), and (2) Assessment-Based Treatment for Traumatized Children: A Trauma Assessment Pathway Model (TAP). These tools use pathways and algorithms to increase understanding of individual child trauma victims, and assist professionals working with children to make appropriate referral and treatment decisions within both child welfare and mental health contexts.     

Physical and psychological outcomes of a supported physical activity program for older carers

This study evaluated health benefits of a supported physical activity program for 116 older carers (mean age 64.4 [SD = 7.9], 85% women). Participants undertook a 6-month center-based physical activity program (strength training, yoga, or Tai Chi). Eighty-eight participants (76%) completed the program. Multivariate repeated-measures ANOVA identified overall significant improvement postintervention (p = .004). Univariate analyses revealed significant improvements for balance, strength, gait endurance, depression, and SF-36 (physical component; p < .05). There was no change in the Zarit Carer Burden Scale (p > .05). Change in performance scores did not differ significantly between those with higher and lower attendance at classes, although there was significantly greater improvement in gait endurance and balance (p < .05) in those attending classes run twice weekly than in those attending once-weekly classes. In conclusion, a carer physical activity program, providing additional carer support to facilitate participation, can achieve high levels of involvement by carers and significant health benefits.     

When My Mom Was a Little Girl … : Gender Differences in Adolescents' Intergenerational and Personal Stories

Narratives about parents may help adolescents navigate their own experiences. Yet, research has not examined what adolescents know about their intergenerational past. Sixty‐five 14‐ to 16‐year‐old middle‐class, racially diverse adolescents narrated two stories about each parent's childhood, and 2 positive personal stories. Narratives were coded for structure (length, elaboration), theme (affiliation, achievement), and internal states. Mothers' stories were more elaborative, affiliative, and emotionally rich than fathers', which were more achievement focused. Girls' personal narratives were longer, more elaborative, and more emotionally rich than boys' and resembled narratives about mothers but not fathers. Adolescents may be narrating parents' experiences through gendered lens of the parent but personal experiences through their own gendered lens. Implications of intergenerational narratives for adolescent identity are discussed.     

The myth of transit: the making of a life by asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia

An increasing number of migrants are living in a state of indefinite ‘transit’. In this paper, we report on interviews conducted in 2009 with 59 refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia and describe how these individuals make a life despite their circumstances. While all participants were deeply affected by their position of uncertainty and insecurity, most sought to transcend these conditions and pursue significant life projects such as getting married, having children, becoming part of the local community, and working towards a better future. The current conceptualisation of transit as life in limbo does not wholly account for such permanent, life-changing experiences. We analyse the reasons why the use of the term ‘transit’ persists in international policy settings despite its incongruities, arguing that its ongoing political valence overrides its conceptual flaws.     

“Luring Overseas Trained Doctors to Australia: Issues of Training,Regulating and Trading”

Australia is at a crossroads. Its long history of relying on overseas trained medical practitioners and the last decade’s changes, in terms of the introduction of policies to recruit large numbers of temporary doctors, both require examination. Not only is Australia alone in its overt policy initiatives but it also fails to be aware of the consequences for some sending countries. Australia has not entered into the spirit of international attempts to ameliorate the potential effects of developing‐to‐developed country medical migration and trade. This paper will provide an overview of the current international situation regarding supply and demand, major ethical issues, Australia’s immigration policies and regulatory framework and the situation with respect to the labour market integration of overseas trained doctors (OTDs). It will be argued that Australia ‘lures’ with little concern for the consequences for source countries.