Social and Economic Exchange Between Social Workers and their Employers in the Context of their Sectorial Affiliation and Seniority

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Partial privatization creates organizational hybrids that can generate conflict between professional and institutional...     

Men Don't Put on Make-up: Toddlers' Knowledge of the Gender Stereotyping of Household Activities

Toddlers’ knowledge of the stereotyping of traditionally feminine and masculine household activities was examined in two experiments. The experiments used a generalized imitation paradigm which required toddlers (total N = 63) to select a male or female doll to imitate nine masculine, feminine and neutral activities (e.g., shaving, vacuuming, sleeping). In the first experiment, 24‐month‐old girls, but not boys, demonstrated knowledge of both feminine and masculine activities. Results from study 2 indicated that boys possess some knowledge of these stereotyped activities by the age of 31 months. The results of the two experiments suggested that knowledge about the gender stereotyping of familiar activities can be demonstrated in children as young as 24 months.     

The lives of disabled women in Nepal: vulnerability without support

The study examines a broad range of problems faced by physically disabled women. Qualitative interviews with 30 women with physical disabilities (congenital and acquired) were administered to understand various aspects of their lives. The research explores the causes of disability, which include gender discrimination, poverty, an inactive state security system, inadequate family support, negative attitudes and a lack of commitment on the part of government. The available services from non-governmental organizations have been proved to be unsatisfactory and gender biased in terms of training and employment. The importance of disability and its relation to gender has not been recognized by the state.     

Potential of the Net to Construct and Convey Ethnic and National Identities: Comparison of the Use in the Sri Lankan Tamil and Kashmir Situations

This paper argues that the potential of the Internet to construct and perpetuate identities, especially ethnic and national identities, depends on the social, political and economic factors that affect the region and the people. The paper goes along with the claim that the Internet is a powerful tool in the creation of national identities, especially when the members of the community are widely dispersed and perceive themselves as suppressed or oppressed by another power. The Internet offers communities one of the most effective means of reaching its members, who may no longer live in the geographical area of the nation, while at the same time enabling them to evade the authority and power of the oppressor. Thus, the Internet is the most potent tool for creating and sustaining identities among people who are physically far removed from the nation. However, the Internet's efficacy in the instillation and nurturing of national identity is largely affected by the political, social and economic conditions of the people and the region. The article elaborates this point by analysing the potential of the medium in the long-simmering Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan.     

The Influence of Western Special Education on Community-based Services in India

The article examines the consequences of the transfer of Western special education technology to India. Looking specifically at the policies of community integration and integrated education, it presents evidence that community-based services are unsuited to the local culture and analyses the implications of inappropriate programs for families of children with disabilities. Culturally responsive alternatives are discussed.     

An Imperfect Contraceptive Society: Fertility and Contraception in Italy

Italy represents an unexpected and in some ways paradoxical outcome in terms of fertility control: a drop to one of the lowest birth rates in the world has been accompanied by continuing extensive use of traditional methods despite the availability of modern contraception. Using data from 349 interviews conducted in 2005–06 in four Italian cities, we argue that Italian women commonly achieve “unplanned” and desired conceptions through the use of withdrawal and natural methods. While data from other countries reveal similar notions of ambivalence surrounding pregnancy intentions and contraceptive use, Italy stands out for the surprising correlation between highly “managing” the conditions under which children are born and the socially commended approach of “letting births happen.” Such results suggest the need to rethink theoretical understandings of low fertility. Through the use of non‐technological methods, individuals manipulate culturally produced norms and beliefs about the appropriate time to have a child; simultaneously, their actions are embedded in larger cultural, economic, and political processes.     

Reproductions of global security: accounting for the private security household

ABSTRACT

This article shows how private security households exist at the nexus of two foundational logics of contemporary warfare—militarism and neoliberalism. The celebration of neoliberalism and normalization of militarism allow the private security industry to draw upon the labor of eager contractors and their supportive spouses. This article develops a feminist analysis of the role of the private security household in global security assemblages. In what ways are households connected to the outsourcing of security work to Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs), and how are these connections gendered? Through interviews with female spouses of former UK Special Air Services soldiers, now private security contractors, we demonstrate how the household is both silenced and yet indispensable to how PMSCs operate and how liberal states conduct war. These spouses supported the transition from military service to private security work, managed the household, and planned their careers or sacrificed them to accommodate their husband’s security work. Their gendered labor was conditioned by former military life but animated by neoliberal market logics. For the most part, the women we interviewed normalized the militarized values of their husband’s work and celebrated the freedom and financial rewards this type of security work brought.     

IS LOVE BLIND? THE EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCE AND INFATUATION ON THE PERCEPTION OF LOVE

We hypothesized that participants in love and more experienced in romantic love (e.g., schematics) would perceive love more accurately than those who were not in love and less experienced. Judges viewed and rated a series of 25 thin-slice video clips of couples for whom their love for another was known via Sternbergs (Psychological Review, 93, 119–135) love scale. Individual differences in love judgment accuracy were large. Not surprisingly, participants who were in love at the time of the study and who reported having had a lengthy romantic relationship were more confident in their love judgment accuracy but, in fact, were less accurate. Apparently the love schemas people develop subjectively may not adequately represent the way in which the construct manifests among the population in general. Although love judgments may come easier to those in love, their perceptions of the love around them may be biased and inaccurate.