Modeling firms in the global economy

I examine the apparent deverticalization of firms in the world economy and their adoption of relational contracting and modularization, necessitated by rapid product change, cheap and rapid transport, and new technologies. I argue that relational contracting is superseded by modularization when possible in the interest of more control over suppliers, and modularization in turn leads to consolidation, when possible, through buying up suppliers or making them captives. The result is increased concentration of economic power in the world economy, and examples of this are presented.

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The making and unmaking of a “transborder nation”: South Korea during and after the Cold War

The burgeoning literature on transborder membership, largely focused on the thickening relationship between emigration states in the South and the postwar labor migrant populations and their descendants in North America or Western Europe, has not paid due attention to the long-term macroregional transformations that shape transborder national membership politics or to the bureaucratic practices of the state that undergird transborder claims-making. By comparing contentious transborder national membership politics in South Korea during the Cold War and Post-Cold War eras, this article seeks to overcome these limitations. In both periods, the membership status of colonial-era ethnic Korean migrants in Japan and northeast China and their descendants was the focus of contestation. The distinctiveness of the case—involving both a sustained period of colonial rule and a period of belated and divided nation-state building interwoven with the Cold War—highlights the crucial importance of three factors: (1) the dynamically evolving macro-regional context, which has shaped transborder national membership politics in the region in distinctive ways; (2) the essentially political, performative, and constitutive nature of transborder nation-building; and (3) the role of state registration and documentation practices in shaping the contours of transborder national membership politics in the long run. By incorporating Korea—and East Asia more broadly—into the comparative study of transborder nation-building, this article also lays the groundwork for future cross-regional comparative historical studies.

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The crisis of neoliberalism and the future of international institutions: A comparison of the IMF and the WTO

The current crisis of neoliberalism is calling into question the relevance of key international institutions. We analyze the origins, nature, and possible impacts of the crisis through comparing two such institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both originated in the post-World War II U.S.-led hegemonic order and were transformed as part of the transition to global neoliberalism. We show that while the IMF and the WTO have been part of the same hegemonic project, their distinct institutional features have put them on significantly different trajectories. Historical differences in the two institutions’ systems of rules have placed the IMF in a more vulnerable position than the WTO, which provides clues to the future contours of global economic governance.

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Overcoming Barriers to Using Empirically Supported Therapies to Treat Childhood Anxiety Disorders in Social Work Practice

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. Most empirically supported treatments (ESTs) for pediatric anxiety disorders include various cognitive-behavioral methods. Although demonstrated efficacious in controlled and clinic settings, there are barriers to implementing these types of therapies in social work settings due to beliefs about the usefulness of ESTs in community settings; limitations of treatment manuals; time constraints of implementing ESTs; fidelity and flexibility of implementing ESTs; and limited training opportunities. This article provides an overview of ESTs for childhood anxiety disorders, highlighting options for overcoming common barriers to implementing ESTs. Collaborative multi-method approaches to advance implementation of ESTs in social work practice are suggested.     

Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Clinical Outcomes for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance Living in Foster Care

Children living in foster care are an especially vulnerable population who often come to the attention of Medicaid mental health providers. These children experience a high incidence of emotional and behavioral disorders and may have specialized treatment needs related to their living arrangement status. This study assessed whether Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation could effectively treat youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders who live in foster care. Analysis of data from an open trial of 218 clinically-impaired youth, aged 3–18 years, revealed no reliable differences in treatment outcome between foster versus non-foster children, with a trend toward more favorable outcomes for foster youth. Findings justify further study of the effectiveness of this Medicaid-funded service for the treatment of youth in care.     

Violence Exposure Among Children of Incarcerated Mothers

Social workers are becoming increasingly aware of the unique experiences faced by children of incarcerated parents. Little is known, however, about their experiences prior to their parents being incarcerated. Using data from a broader study of incarcerated women, we examined women’s accounts of their children’s exposure to violence prior to maternal incarceration. Open-ended interviews addressed family and relationship history, physical and psychological victimization, lifetime delinquency and crime, and interactions with service and justice systems. Interviews were analyzed using ATLAS/ti software and a grounded-theory approach. The emergent themes revealed a myriad of consequences experienced by the children, including child witnessing of violence, emotional sequelae, bodily harm from abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and birth defects from prenatal violence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Do Work Demands and Resources Predict Work-to-Family Conflict and Facilitation? A Study of Iranian Male Employees

This study examined the effects of some work demands-resources on two dimensions of work-to-family interface among Iranian employees. The results of canonical correlation and multiple-regression showed that among work resources (i.e., social support and autonomy), social support was associated negatively with work-to-family conflict and autonomy was associated positively with work-to-family facilitation. Also, among work demands (i.e., job demands and working hours), job demands were associated with both work-to-family conflict and work-to-family facilitation. Unlike previous studies, working hours shows a positive association with work-to-family facilitation, which may be explained by the specific cultural context in Iran. The findings of the study will be of importance to employees and organizations.

Barriers to Help-seeking for a Gambling Problem: The Experiences of Gamblers Who Have Sought Specialist Assistance and the Perceptions of Those Who Have Not

This paper presents barriers to help-seeking data as reported by users of a national gambling helpline (help-seekers, HS, N = 125) as well as data pertaining to perceived barriers to seeking help as reported by gamblers recruited from the general population (non-help-seekers, NHS, N = 104). All data were collected via a structured, multi-modal survey. When asked to identify actual or perceived barriers to seeking help, responses indicative of pride (78% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants), shame (73% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants) or denial (87% of NHS participants) were most frequently reported. These three factors were also most often identified as the real or perceived primary barrier to help-seeking (collectively accounting for 55% of HS, and 60% of NHS, responses to this question) and were the only barriers to be identified by more than 10% of either HS and NHS participants without prompting. It was of note, however, that participants in both groups identified multiple barriers to help-seeking (mean of 6.7 and 12.2, respectively) and that, when presented with a list of 21 possible barrier items, NHS participants endorsed 19 of the listed items significantly more often than their HS counterparts. The implications of these findings, with respect to promoting greater or earlier help-seeking activity amongst problem gamblers, are discussed.

Impulse Control Disorder Behaviors Associated with Pramipexole Used to Treat Fibromyalgia

Objective: Compulsivity has been associated with use of dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD). Increasing use of these agents to treat fibromyalgia (FM) raises concern for this unexpected toxicity in a new group of patients. This is the first report of compulsive gambling and shopping among patients taking dopamine agonists for treatment of FM. Design: A retrospective chart review of all patients in a large, active FM research practice was used to identify compulsivity associated with dopamine agonists and describe its remission following dug withdrawal. Results: Of 3006 patients with FM treated between 2002 and 2006, 1356 had taken ≥1 dose of a dopamine agonist ( >95% pramipexole). Twenty-one (3 male, 18 female) were identified with compulsive gambling (33%), shopping (40%) or both (27%) after taking a 4.5 mg mean dose of pramipexole at bedtime for 14.4 ± 14.9 months. Compulsivity resolved in 3–10 days for 19 of 21 patients and by 3 months for all following a monitored, compulsory tapered discontinuation over 7 days. Conclusions: While biologic aspects of PD and FM differ considerably, compulsive gambling and shopping have become important, yet unexpected concerns related to use of dopamine agonists for patients with FM and their treating clinicians.