Mothers’ ideals and experiences of raising children in inner and outer suburban Melbourne,Australia

Parents’ perceptions of their neighbourhoods are important for child health outcomes. This study compared views among mothers in inner versus outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia using a mixed methods approach. Mothers of preschool-aged children were recruited via playgroups, mother’s groups and preschools and interviewed face-to-face regarding their local area as a good place to raise a family, with a second open-ended interview focussing on mothers’ ideals and experiences of raising children in their current location. Findings demonstrated that mothers had different ideals for, and experiences of, raising their children in their neighbourhoods. Inner suburban mothers valued a manageable work/family balance and access to public transport over the size of their homes. However, access to childcare, secondary schooling and heavy traffic were issues, with the latter two being reasons for moving from the municipality. In contrast, outer suburban mothers preferred a larger home in neighbourhoods that they perceived as low crime, over accessibility to work. Access to a car and activities for their children were also important. Findings suggest no ‘one size fits all’ in respect to what features mothers expect from a good place to raise a family, or how they experience these features. This has implications for service delivery and social planning of suburbs.     

Making the Net Work for Intercultural Education

This article examines the use of the Internet in education, and how its use can revolutionise the way children learn, the way they communicate their ideas and the role of the teacher in the classroom. The Internet has some of the greatest potential in the field of education and particularly intercultural education—due to the nature of the medium, cultural, national, gender, racial and national barriers between students can be reduced and communication with any part of the world is immediate, frequent and informal.

There are many challenges for educators using this new medium in the classroom—there is a great lack of training in IT, the schools themselves need to be connected and there must be a fundamental change in the philosophy of teaching. In addition, there is a grave need for on‐line educational content. This article examines three educational websites for young people and presents an example of a group exercise for student publishing.     

Multilevel modelling of refusal and non-contact in household surveys: evidence from six UK Government surveys

Summary.  We analyse household unit non-response in six major UK Government surveys by using a multilevel multinomial modelling approach. The models are guided by current conceptual frameworks and theories of survey participation. One key feature of the analysis is the investigation of the extent to which effects of household characteristics are survey specific. The analysis is based on the 2001 UK Census Link Study, which is a unique source of data containing an unusually rich set of auxiliary variables. The study contains the response outcome of six surveys, linked to census data and interviewer observations for both respondents and non-respondents.     

Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of Business Owners: The Role of Gender

There is a widely held belief that banks may be discriminating against female business owners. This study was designed to explore the perceptions held by bank loan officers of male and female business owners, using Bourdieu's theory of practice and Kelly's personal construct methodology. The research literature might lead to an expectation that the characteristics of the business owners would be relatively homogenous but that men and women business owners would be construed differently (for example women might be seen to lack drive). However, the results demonstrate heterogeneity in the constructs held by bank loan officers, and a particular concern with the character of the business owner. Significant gender differences were observed in only 20 of the 325 constructs elicited from 35 bank loan officers. Female bank loan officers were as likely as male bank loan officers to draw gender distinctions between business owners. Detailed multivariate analyses confirmed no evidence of systematic gender differences in the constructs held by bank loan officers of business owners.     

Exploring internalized ableism using critical race theory

This paper is an attempt to theorize about the way disabled people live with ableism, in particular internalized ableism. Typically literature within disability studies has concentrated on the practices and production of disablism, examining attitudes and barriers that contribute to the subordination of people with disabilities in society. My exploration occurs through examining the insights of critical race theory (CRT) and the contribution that CRT can further make to thinking through the processes, formation and consequences of ableism. A focal concern is the possible ways that the concept of internalized racism, its deployment in CRT and application to critical disability studies. The paper is interested in working through points of difference between the way internalized racism/ableism are mediated in the processes of subjectification and identifying points of convergence that can benefit dialogue across varied sites of scholarship. The author concludes that the study of ableism instead of disability/disablement may produce different research questions and sites of study.     

Moving Beyond Statistical Validity in Economics

Social Indicators Research -     

RESPONSES TO DEATH IN COMPLEX INDUSTRIAL WORK SITES: THE NEXUS BETWEEN WORKPLACE SAFETY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This article is concerned with the effect of the current economic, political and regulatory climate on the future of health and safety at work. This climate includes a push for increased efficiency and flexibility through industrial restructuring leading to the growth of the secondary labour market of subcontractors, casual labour in increased self employment. Measured against this is the increased regulatory expectations in the area of health and safety including legislation which places major contractors as primarily responsible for all employees on site, whether their own or not. The sets up a potential conflict between the economic and regulatory imperatives. It is this potential conflict which is the focus of concern. The data used to explore the issue are the responses organisations made to a fatality they experienced on a complex industrial worksite. The nature of their response was related to their ideology concerning business success, which was in turn related to the influence they held at the worksite. While these findings tentatively support legislation to increase the responsibility of major contractors, this should not be seen as a panacea. The growth of the secondary labour market as well as the culture of success which motivates large contractors to comply with such legislation is dependent upon the broader economic climate making the a viable success strategy.     

Don't Screw the Crew: Exploring the Rules of Engagement in Organizational Romance

Thirty years ago sociological research began to discover what workplace romance might mean for the participants. Since then management research has tended to adopt a functionalist approach, using survey methods, or third‐party approaches to ask about company policy and negative consequences of workplace romance, warning of the dangers and consequences of romance and offering solutions for managers on how to deal with this potential problem. Drawing on the sexuality of organization and critical literature, and adopting a position of constructivist structuralism with a qualitative research method, this research looks at how the concept of workplace romance is defined and negotiated within a public‐house setting. It examines the ‘rules of engagement’, the personal experiences and views of both managers and workers, as well as first‐hand stories of workplace romance. Romance was conceptualized as ‘natural’ and something that could not be legislated for, where unwritten rules were defined but often ignored. However, the ‘rules of engagement’ emerged as favouring particular groups depending on gender, position in the hierarchy and sexual identity. Subjective value judgements are made, often resting on gendered assumptions of male and female behaviour.