Korean students’ minority schooling experience in Japan

A qualitative study conducted in western Japan examined the perceptions of Korean students in Japanese junior high school to identify factors contributing to a consistently low high school advancement rate compared to mainstream Japanese students. Fourteen people were interviewed about their Korean students’ experiences in Japan. The findings of this study suggest that factors contributing to the low high school advancement rate among Korean students cluster around three themes: (1) discrimination experienced in society at large and at school, (2) assimilation to become more like the Japanese, and (3) inconsistent cultural and insufficient academic support given by the school and teachers. Findings from this study indicate how the power structure in a social context of schooling influences minority students’ learning and also confirmed in part Ogbu and Cummins’ theories of how power relations between the subordinated and the dominant affect minority students’ schooling experiences and learning.     

Do ‘soft law’ board gender quotas work? Evidence from a natural experiment

In a new era of “open governance”, in which societal and corporate change is taking place, 15 predominantly European countries, including Spain, enacted board gender quotas to increase the share of women on boards. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of the European Union’s first “soft” quota – the 2007 Spanish Gender Equality Act recommending all large public and private Spanish firms to appoint a target of 40 percent of each gender to serve as board directors by 2015. The Act provides an incentive in that quota compliant firms may receive a preference for the tendering of public contracts. We draw on institutional and resource dependency theories to motivate the first empirical test of a “soft” quota which is distinct from Norway’s “hard law” board gender quota, and more similar to the proposed EU-wide quota. Using a large novel panel of 767 Spanish firms and 2786 firm-year observations from 2005 to 2014, we exploit the Spanish Act as a natural experiment and employ a difference-in-differences model. We find that less than nine percent of targeted firms fully comply with the quota. Firms that depend on public contracts are significantly more likely to increase female representation, although quota compliant firms do not actually benefit from the Act’s potential incentive. The results highlight the Spanish government’s lack of commitment to the quota, and that the quota’s normative obligations did not trigger the adoption of gender-balanced boards.     

Problem Gambling Among Urban and Rural Gamblers in Limpopo Province,South Africa: Associations with Hazardous and Harmful Alcohol Use and Psychological Distress

Little is known about the mental health correlates of problem gambling in low- and-middle-income countries such as South Africa and whether these correlates vary by urbanicity. To address this gap, we examined mental health factors associated with problem gambling among gamblers in Limpopo Province, South Africa disaggregated by rural, peri-urban and urban location. A survey of gambling behaviour and mental health was conducted among 900 gamblers. Overall, 28.3 % were at high risk and 38.1 % were at moderate risk for problem gambling. For the entire sample, hazardous/harmful alcohol use was associated with almost twofold increased chance of being at moderate risk (AOR 1.83; 95 % CI 1.08, 3.11) and almost sevenfold greater odds (AOR 6.93; 95 % CI 4.03–11.93) of being at high risk for problem gambling. Psychological distress was associated with being at high risk for problem gambling only (AOR 1.18; 95 % CI 1.14–1.22). After stratifying by urbanicity, hazardous/harmful alcohol use and psychological distress remained associated with high risk gambling across all locations. We found little knowledge of a free gambling helpline and other gambling services—particularly in less urbanised environments [χ² (2), 900 = 40.4; p < 0.001]. These findings highlight the need to increase awareness of free helpline services among gamblers and to ensure gambling services include screening and treatment for common mental disorders.     

Oral Sex,Young People,and Gendered Narratives of Reciprocity

Young people in many countries report gender differences in giving and receiving oral sex, yet examination of young people’s own perspectives on gender dynamics in oral heterosex are relatively rare. We explored the constructs and discourses 16- to 18-year-old men and women in England used in their accounts of oral sex during in-depth interviews. Two contrasting constructs were in circulation in the accounts: on one hand, oral sex on men and women was narrated as equivalent, while on the other, oral sex on women was seen as “a bigger deal” than oral sex on men. Young men and women used a “give and take” discourse, which constructed the mutual exchange of oral sex as “fair.” Appeals to an ethic of reciprocity in oral sex enabled women to present themselves as demanding equality in their sexual interactions, and men as supporting mutuality. However, we show how these ostensibly positive discourses about equality also worked in narratives to obscure women’s constrained agency and work with respect to giving oral sex.     

Zine-Making as a Pedagogical Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work Education

As a collaborative endeavor between teacher and student, we reflect on the process of creating and sharing social justice oriented zines in our classroom. Zines can be used as a pedagogical tool for awareness, education, empowerment and transformation. Created in the form of self-published work of original and/or appropriated texts and images, zines are usually presented in small booklet format in a variety of ways, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text. When shared, they represent a subversive form of media to deconstruct stereotypes and hegemonic representations perpetuated by mainstream media. Through our classroom project, we found that zines provided an opportunity for creative expression, connection and collaboration. As an experiential technique, they can serve to raise student self-awareness and allow for a broader understanding of power hierarchies. As a direct action tool they can be useful for promoting active class participation in the movement for social justice. We advocate for integrating arts-based projects in social work education in order to promote more embodied ways of learning and to facilitate personal and societal transformation.     

Citizenship in action: the lived experiences of citizens with dementia who campaign for social change

This article examines the experiences of citizens with dementia who campaign for social change, with a particular focus on the effects of campaigning on citizenry identity and psycho-emotional well-being. In diary-interviews, 16 people with dementia recorded and described their experiences of campaigning. Findings revealed that although campaigning can be energising and reaffirming of citizen identity, because it (re)located a person within the realm of work, individuals may experience dementia-related fatigue and oppression linked to normative expectations about what someone with dementia ‘should’ be like. The discussion is linked to critical debates within disability studies about the psycho-emotional aspects of impairment and disability, and concludes that the struggle for citizenship has only just begun for people with dementia.     

Is Corporate Engagement an Advocacy Strategy for NGOs?: The Community Aid Abroad Experience

This article focuses on the question of whether corporate engagement can be used as an advocacy strategy for international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The article will explore some of the characteristics of corporate engagement by studying the corporate engagement experience of the Australian NGO Community Aid Abroad (CAA) in its program, the Mining Campaign. The risks that emerged for CAA from policy decisions and processes within the development of the campaign are of central concern.     

MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEMS

Each of the many two-dimensional variations of the classical assignment problem has at least one counterpart in higher dimensions. This paper is a tutorial on these higher dimensional assignment models and their applications. It is a synthesis of a vast literature scattered throughout a great variety of journal articles and other miscellaneous sources. We have attempted to make the paper a complete bibliography with the emphasis on topics important to practitioners of decision sciences. These topics include original results by the authors, most notably, a polynomial solution approach for a class of multidimensional assignment problems which often arise in scheduling applications.