Care workers, care drain, and care chains: reflections on care, migration, and citizenship

In this article, we discuss a case study that deals with the care chain phenomenon and focuses on the question of how Poland and the Ukraine as sending countries and Poland as a receiving country are affected and deal with female migrant domestic workers. We look at the ways in which these women organize care replacement for their families left behind and at those families’ care strategies. As public discourse in both countries is reacting to the feminization of migration in a form that specifically questions the social citizenship obligations of these women, we also look at the media portrayal of the situation of nonmigrating children. Finally, we explore how different aspects of citizenship matter in transnational care work migration movements.     

DISPOSITIONAL OPTIMISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORK DIVERSITY

Personality has yet to be examined as an indirect yet powerful determinant of the diversity of personal social networks that is independent of preference‐ and population‐based mechanisms. I use the 2004 General Social Survey to illustrate how dispositional optimism shapes core discussion network size as well as demographic heterophily among core ties. I find that optimism is associated with enhanced network size as well as ties among nonkin and across lines of age, education, and race. Following these results, I urge closer attention to personality as it dynamically shapes the social structure of opportunities and resources.     

Dimensions of Capacity in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to present and develop a firmer grasp of the underlying dimensions of organizational capacity in nonprofit human service organizations. The paper draws on the resource-based view of the organization (Barney et al. in Journal of Management 37:1299, 2011; Wernerfelt in Strategic Management Journal 5:171, 1984), which recognizes that organizational attributes and capabilities facilitate performance. Interviews were conducted with 66 executives in moderate sized, human service organizations to discuss factors that influence performance. Findings suggest that human, financial, and social capital all contribute to organizational performance. Executives emphasized the quality of people associated with the organization including the role of the board of directors in supporting performance. Many respondents also believed that maintaining healthy and dynamic external relationships was critical to success.     

Erratum to: Poland: A New Model of Government–Nonprofit Relations for the East?

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Monies that Matter,on the Discursive Power of the Bank for International Settlements

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and its committees perform an increasingly important systemic regulatory role on the global financial markets, as well as for national monetary policies. In this article I argue that the cooperation and coordination among central banks makes this community vital for global discourse formation around monetary policies and financial interaction. The self-image displayed in speeches and evaluations of BIS representatives indicate that the community influences national economies. Using the concept of performativity for analysing the power dynamics of the BIS community, the article argues that cooperating central banks have considerable influence on economic interaction both nationally and globally. The nature of this political influence is not conspiratory or intentional, but embedded in the economistic interaction within and around the BIS.     

Reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU: Expected results and their social acceptance

The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP) is one of the oldest and most controversial of the UE policies. Different possible scenarios of the future reforms of the CAP are currently being discussed. They vary in terms of the extent and the type of the intervention and consequently the welfare effects for different social groups. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the partial equilibrium model (CAPRI) and the Theory of Moves (TOM) can be jointly used to test socio-political acceptance of the CAP’s reforms, informing subsequent changes to the policy. Our exemplary results demonstrate that liquidation of the first pillar of the CAP would negatively influence the socio-political acceptance of the CAP.     

Is the outcome of frailty syndrome gender dependent?

ABSTRACT

We assessed the relationship between the stages of the frailty syndrome and the development of limitations in the activities of daily living, hospitalization, and death among women aged ≥80 as compared to men over the course of 12 months. The Fried criteria and selected tests of comprehensive geriatric assessment were performed in 213 participants (phase 1). After 12 months, detailed feedback on the general health and functioning was collected (phase 2). Statistically significantly higher mortality (p < .05) was found among men as compared to women. The number of deaths in the frail group was higher among frail men than frail women (p < .007).     

Gender Differentiation in Seasonal Migration: The Case of Poland

This paper reviews seasonal migration from Poland to Germany from the perspective of gender. The main lenses used are the participation in this migration by individuals as members of families, the informal recruitment mechanisms that bring new migrants on board, and the legal environment. The paper argues that the selection of a migrant by the family depends importantly on the costs of migration for the family, and shows how this consideration bears on the choice of women as seasonal migrants. In addition, the paper argues that the patterns of recruitment are gender-specific, explains why women recruit new migrants in a manner which differs from that of men, and assesses the impact of the underlying legal environment on the differential participation of women and men.