Relationships across multiple settings: an overview

It is not the method of interaction but the quality of the interaction between patient and therapist, student and teacher, mentee and mentor, or youth and youth worker that is the most critical determinant of success in a myriad of fields.     

Solar Festivals and Climate Bills: Comparing NGO Climate Change Campaigns in the UK and Australia

This paper compares climate change campaigns conducted by environmental nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. The NGOs represent a diversity of political access, financial resources, and international connections. Three campaign activities common to both countries undertaken between 2004 and 2006 are analyzed for their effectiveness via interviews and document review. This examination is embedded within an analysis of the political, economic, policy, and social contexts of each country. It is shown that in the UK climate change has been used as a pivotal leadership issue, that the fossil fuel industry’s influence is not predominant, and that NGOs enjoy political legitimacy. Whereas, in Australia climate change has only recently emerged as a political priority, the fossil fuel industry has had significant political and financial influence, and NGO advocacy has been marginalized. It is argued that NGOs are embedded in the political and policy contexts of their country, and the greatest campaign traction and NGO influence can only be achieved when these contexts provide favorable conditions.

“The chug is coming through!” “There's two chuggas!”: A longitudinal study of the social function of imitation in children's play with siblings and friends

Imitation is argued to have an important affiliative function in social relationships. However, children's tendency to imitate different play partners during naturalistic play and associations with social understanding have been overlooked. We investigated the frequency and context of imitation in a longitudinal study of 65 focal children (T1: M age = 56.4 months, SD = 5.71) during play with their older or younger sibling and a friend in two separate play sessions. Children were observed again approximately 3 years later (T2: n = 46, M age = 94.6 months; SD = 6.6). We coded focal children's verbal and nonverbal imitation of their play partner, their partner's response to being imitated, the context in which imitation occurred (e.g., pretense), and the focal child's social understanding (i.e., mental state references). Verbal imitation occurred more often than nonverbal imitation and was used most often during the contexts of play negotiations and pretense. Although focal children's imitation of both their siblings and friends increased significantly over time, children imitated friends more than siblings at T1. All play partners responded positively (i.e., smiling, laughing) most often to being imitated. Associations between focal child imitation and mental state talk with friends at T2 approached significance. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of the nature of imitation during children's play interactions and support assertions that imitation is a process whereby children build affiliation, mutuality, and shared meanings in their relationships.     

Trends in Danish Income Distribution

Most of the available evidence on income distribution in Denmark is based on cross‐section studies for a number of specific years, which are difficult to compare owing to major changes in definitions and concepts. The data base for the present study is an existing longitudinal sample of 5 percent of the adult Danish population containing a great number of background variables for the individuals. Based on this, new results on Danish income distribution, using both individuals and married couples as the income unit, are presented. We concentrate on the impact from female participation and from unemployment. In the final parts of the paper we include some semi‐lifecycle distribution measures based on work in the Danish Economic Council and relate our results to earlier long–run estimates of inequality in Danish income distribution.     

Les dépenses de sécurité sociale vont-elles de pair avec de meilleurs résultats des entreprises? Étude de cas sur les PME indonésiennes

Le lien entre protection sociale et résultats des entreprises est abondamment étudié, mais on manque d'informations sur la situation des petites et moyennes entreprises des économies en développement. L'auteure examine ce lien à partir de données de recensement indonésiennes portant sur la période 2010-2014. Elle constate que, lorsque les dépenses de sécurité sociale augmentent de 10 pour cent, le chiffre d'affaires par travailleur progresse de 2 pour cent. De même, l'extension de la couverture sociale n'entraîne pas de baisse du bénéfice, ce qui laisse penser que les entreprises pourraient avoir intérêt à investir dans la sécurité sociale de leur personnel.     

Constructing Girlhood: Abject Labour in Magazine Offices

Girls' magazines act as important texts through which meanings of childhood, girlhood and womanhood are mediated and constructed. However, previous research has focused on either the conditions of work practices or cultural production of the magazine as a product. Separately in each context women or girls have been described as abject. The paper will argue that employees working on girls' magazines experienced a simultaneous double abjection: in the gendered working practices and as an outcome of the construction of girlhood they produced. Two studies of all female teams producing teenage and pre‐teen magazines were used, including interviews and observations. Our approach engaged with the difficulty of examining abjectivity in working practices, as present but marginalized, silenced and othered. As a result of scrutinizing the gendered embodiment in these studies, the findings suggest there is a relation between the working practices and gendered cultural production, forming a process of abjection. This process was threefold: a marginalization of a particular gendered embodiment, the cracks or leaks where abjectivity became apparent and the silencing of those leaks. This study will be of value to scholars interested in gendered embodiment in workplaces, abjectivity and cultural production, noting the interrelation between these areas.     

Single case studies and theory-testing: the knots and dots of the process-tracing method

Single case studies can provide vital contributions to theory-testing in social science studies. Particularly, by applying the process-tracing method, case studies can test theoretical frameworks through a rigorous research design that ensures substantial empirical leverage. While most scholarly contributions on process-tracing focus on either theory-building or on explaining single outcomes, we discuss how to apply the process-tracing method in theory-testing case studies. Furthermore, unlike the tendency to use examples from classic social science studies, we refer to our own case study of tax reform in Georgia thereby providing a constructive reflection on the practical application of and relevant methodological challenges in applying process-tracing. The strength of the process-tracing method lies in its ability to provide depth and testable substance to theoretical causal explanations.     

Social security and firm performance: The case of Vietnamese SMEs

This article investigates how social security provision – a key determinant of formality – impacts on small and medium‐sized firm performance in Viet Nam. Based on enterprise census data covering all registered firms from 2006 to 2011, the authors find that firms which increase their social security coverage by 10 per cent experience a revenue gain of 1.4–2.0 per cent per worker and a profit gain of up to 1.8 per cent, depending on the survival time of the firm. However, given the time lag between “investment” (in social security contributions) and returns (enhanced firm performance), specific policy measures such as initial social insurance subsidies for small firms could increase participation in mandatory schemes.     

Caring or Vulnerable Children? Sibling Relationships When Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Drawing on qualitative interviews with the children about how they and their siblings have responded to intimate partner violence, this paper explores processes of victim positioning. In their narratives, some children positioned themselves in line with notions of vulnerable victims, while others positioned themselves as caregivers or changed their positions vis‐à‐vis their siblings. In their stories, they assigned and assumed positions in interaction with their siblings. Receiving sibling support and care was in the narratives related to the quality of the sibling relationship, the shared experiences of violence and the age order.