Discussion of paper 'explanations of the fertility crisis in modern societies: a search for commonalities', Population Studies 57(3): 241-263, by John Caldwell and Thomas Schindlmayr

The contributors to this discussion were invited to submit comments, each from a different standpoint, on the paper by John Caldwell and Thomas Schindlmayr that appeared in the preceding issue of the journal. The invitation was issued with the approval of these authors, and the journal is grateful to them for allowing their paper to be used to generate debate on the issues they had raised. The discussion is followed by the authors' response to it.     

Field trials of a novel toolkit for evaluating 'intangible' values-related dimensions of projects

A novel toolkit has been developed, using an original approach to develop its components, for the purpose of evaluating 'soft' outcomes and processes that have previously been generally considered 'intangible': those which are specifically values based. This represents a step-wise, significant, change in provision for the assessment of values-based achievements that are of absolutely key importance to most civil society organisations (CSOs) and values-based businesses, and fills a known gap in evaluation practice. In this paper, we demonstrate the significance and rigour of the toolkit by presenting an evaluation of it in three diverse scenarios where different CSOs use it to co-evaluate locally relevant outcomes and processes to obtain results which are both meaningful to them and potentially comparable across organisations. A key strength of the toolkit is its original use of a prior generated, peer-elicited 'menu' of values-based indicators which provides a framework for user CSOs to localise. Principles of participatory, process-based and utilisation-focused evaluation are embedded in this toolkit and shown to be critical to its success, achieving high face-validity and wide applicability. The emerging contribution of this next-generation evaluation tool to other fields, such as environmental values, development and environmental sustainable development, shared values, business, education and organisational change is outlined.     

Managerial Thinking on Value-Based Management

This study explores how managers perceive the issue ofcreating `common values,' what change strategies theyprefer, and their reflection on `value-basedmanagement.'Common values are the glue which binds anorganization together; they motivate and createa sense of community. If properly implemented, theemployees can be trusted in the absence of directrules and regulations. Most managers embrace a holistic view of man on a rhetorical level, but thewell-being of the company has priority in practice.Given these assumptions, held reluctantly orimplicitly, there is little leeway for democraticmanagement.This methodological reduction of man mostlyremains hidden. Without an open discussion, suchshort-term deviations from an ideal situation runthe risk of being a permanent conflict in the companyculture, or lead to an ontological reduction ofman.     

Specification analysis in mixed hazard models and a test of crossing survival functions

The paper investigates diagnostic procedures for the specification of common hazard models in duration analysis. It is shown that under mixed hazard specifications the survival functions of different subgroups cannot cross. A nonparametric test for the crossing of two survival functions is provided and its applications in duration analysis are discussed. In particular, the proportional hazard model with unobserved heterogeneity (PHU) is investigated, and procedures are developed to test whether given data are consistent with the PHU model and whether they contain unobserved heterogeneity within the PHU specification. Examples in which crossing survivals are of substantive concern are discussed, including the dynamics of infectious diseases and the demand for vaccination.     

Pseudo-Youden designs balanced for intersection

If the row-column intersections of a row-column design A form a balanced incomplete block design, then A is said to be balanced for intersection. This property was originally defined for triple arrays by McSorley et al. (2005a), Section 8, where an example was presented and questions of existence were raised and discussed. We give sufficient conditions for the class of balanced grids in order to be balanced for intersection, and prove that a family of binary pseudo-Youden designs has this property.     

Children with disabilities in Swedish child welfare – a differentiating and disabling practice

ABSTRACT

Research shows that children with disabilities are victims of violence and abuse to a higher extent than other children and thus need support from social services. In Sweden, cooperation between two different social services units is required to support children with disabilities in socially vulnerable families. In this study, we have examined the intersection between children and disability in a Swedish social services context from the perspective of childhood studies and disability studies. The reasoning of the two units including the child perspective emerged during focus group interviews based on two vignettes. The results show two different rationalities, which has consequences for the disabled child. In spite of a social policy where the ‘best interests of the child’ are meant to prevail and disabilities are meant to be interpreted as barriers in society, children with disabilities seem to be reduced to individuals who are lacking in ability and competency and who are profoundly victimised by power structures that favour the adult perspective in social services.