Prisoners of Love? Job Satisfaction in Care Work

Previous research has established that paid care work is typically undertaken by women and that this work is often poorly rewarded in terms of pay and promotion opportunities. Much less is known about the reasons why women enter these jobs or their experiences of this work. This paper examines the motivations and experiences of two groups of care workers: childcare workers and dental assistants in Queensland in 2009 (N=1,767). We examine intrinsic, extrinsic and overall job satisfaction and the effects of job characteristics, work experience and demographic characteristics on job satisfaction. We find that childcare workers are less satisfied with their jobs than dental assistants on all three measures, despite a greater proportion nominating intrinsic reasons for entering the occupation. The most important factors predicting job satisfaction for both groups are day‐to‐day work experiences such as control over weekly rosters and entitlements that enable work‐family balance. We conclude that although love of the job may be a strong drawcard into care occupations for some women, experiences may not live up to expectations. Moreover, there is considerable diversity across these groups in motivations and outcomes indicating that it is impossible to view all care occupations as similar in terms rewards, outcomes and experiences.     

Evaluating the effects of canine urine on urban soil microbial communities

Due to extensive areas of impermeable surfaces, combined sewer overflow (CSO) is currently a major problem in urban areas across the United States. In CSO systems, sewage can travel through underground pipes to be decontaminated in treatment facilities, or it can combine with stormwater after a precipitation event and discharge into local waterways. Many cities are implementing green infrastructure installations, which use vegetation and bioactive soil microbial communities to enhance soil water-holding capacity, thereby minimizing CSO events. Understanding the factors that structure soil microbial communities in green infrastructure will facilitate more effective management of these engineered ecosystems; however, few studies to date have evaluated ecological patterns and processes of microbes in the urban environment. Nitrogen loading is known to be a major factor structuring fungi and bacteria in non-urban soils, and since cities also contain large populations of canines, N-rich urine deposition is a potential factor that could be important for structuring soil microbes in ground-level green infrastructure installations. Our study investigated the effects of canine urine on the urban soil microbial communities in a greenhouse experiment by treating Liriope muscari, a common plant found in New York City green infrastructure, with different concentrations of canine urine for 4 weeks in an experimental setting. We found that urine application significantly decreased total soil microbial biomass and microbial richness, and increased water runoff volume. These findings indicate that canine urine may have negative consequences for soil water-holding capacity and nutrient cycling in urban green infrastructure installations by directly decreasing the abundance and richness of soil microbial communities.

     

Context collapse: theorizing context collusions and collisions

The collapsing of social contexts together has emerged as an important topic with the rise of social media that so often blurs the public and private, professional and personal, and the many different selves and situations in which individuals find themselves. Academic literature is starting to address how the meshing of social contexts online has many potentially beneficial as well as problematic consequences. In an effort to further theorize context collapse, we draw on this literature to consider the conditions under which context collapse occurs, offering key conceptual tools with which to address these conditions. Specifically, we distinguish two different types of context collapse, splitting collapse into context collusions and context collisions. The former is an intentional collapsing of contexts, while the latter is unintentional. We further examine the ways in which both technological architectures and agentic user practices combine to facilitate and mitigate the various effects of collapsing contexts.     

The relationship between gambling accessibility and Hong Kong people's participation in gambling activities

Prior foreign research showed significant positive relationship between geographical accessibility, gambling advertising and gambling behaviors. This paper, using data from two studies, describes and discusses the change in prevalence of gambling in Hong Kong with the liberalization of gambling activities in Macau. Results mirror the findings of foreign studies. Analysis showed that the groups who indicated that they were mostly influenced by the increased number of Macau casinos and gambling advertising were those aged 20–39, those with tertiary or above education, and the problem and pathological gamblers. Policy makers and gaming operators' effort to implement responsible gambling policies to prevent gambling addiction are discussed.     

非营利部门员工从业动机研究: 利他主义的反思

作为一个宗旨驱动型组织,非营利组织主要依靠其员工来提供服务并满足组织利益相关者的期望与需求。然而,基于何种动机个体才会选择到非营利组织而不是营利或公共组织从业呢？对此问题的理解要比非营利组织为了从数量和质量上招募到理想员工而采取何种竞争战略更为优先。与营利部门和公共部门不同,非营利部门有其独特的员工及其服务动机谱系,利他主义也只能代表非营利部门的其中一面。相对于诸多学者所使用的“内因-外因”传统两分法分析框架,从员工在非营利部门从业的服务约束性（积极性/被动性）和服务导向性（利他性/利己性）维度构建的非营利部门员工从业动机矩阵将员工从业动机分为四种类型,这将有助于我们理解员工显性从业选择行为下实际的隐性需求,并可成为未来实证分析的基础。     

Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre

In May 2010, amidst the ‘global financial crisis’ a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government succeeded a 12-year reign of New Labour in the United Kingdom, and ushered in massive welfare cuts. Although New Labour tabled major welfare and disability benefit reform, they arguably did not activate the harshest of these. This paper focuses on the backlash of youth and disability in the form of demonstrations; two groups that are being hit hard by the political shift to work-first welfare in an era of employment scarcity. The case of young disabled activist Jody McIntyre is used to explore parallels and divergences in neoliberal and ‘populist’ discourses of ‘risky’, ‘troubling’ youth and disability.