ARE TRUSTWORTHINESS AND FAIRNESS ENOUGH? CONTEXTUAL FAMILY THERAPY AND THE GOOD FAMILY

The moral dimension of family therapy theory and practice has received increasing attention in recent years. Boszormenyi-Nagy was among the first to see that family therapy and moral questions are inseparable. His focus on relational ethics has helped us to reappropriate individual responsibility and accountability within a systemic context. Although contextual therapy has clearly enriched the field, we argue that its emphasis on trustworthiness and fairness provides a limited view of the good in family life and leads to three related problems. First, Boszormenyi-Nagy offers a compelling ethical vision of the family and then denies that he has done so, which undermines some of his key moral claims. Second, because fairness is defined subjectively, contextual therapy may not have the resources to deal with legitimate differences in family ideals. Third, the reliance on self-interest as the primary motive for trustworthy relating appears to be self-defeating. We offer a hermeneutic perspective that takes a broader approach to the good. It places greater emphasis on the social and historical context, deals squarely with different understandings of the good in family life, and recommends an approach to resolving these differences.     

LONGEVITY AND PUBLIC OLD-AGE PENSIONS

Using an overlapping generations model with endogenous but uncertain longevity, this article analyzes the effects of public old-age pensions on longevity choice and capital accumulation. When agents are not altruistic, increases in old-age pensions are longevity-neutral for golden rule economies and longevity-decreasing if interest rates exceed population growth, and saving effects are strictly negative. When agents are altruistic, longevity is independent of old-age pensions regardless of the interest rate–population growth relation. On the other hand, the longevity effect of a price subsidy on longevity extending expenditures or an advance in longevity extending technology is positive.(JEL H5 , J1 )     

DO MANUFACTURERS POLLUTE LESS UNDER THE REGULATION‐THROUGH‐INFORMATION REGIME?

Because past studies on the effects of right-to-know laws have relied on highly aggregated data, it is still unknown whether being located in a state with a funded right-to-know program has a significant effect on the environmental performance of individual manufacturing plants. Nor has it been shown that such effects exist net of other plant characteristics that are known to increase pollution. To remedy this situation, we have used plant-level data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to test the effects of states' right-to-know programs on the toxic emissions of chemical plants in 1990 and 2000. Consistent with several organizational theories (neoinstitutionalism, organizational ecology, and the resource dependence framework) that stress how regulatory policies are just one of several institutional forces that bear on organizations, our findings reveal that states' right-to-know programs have had no significant net effect on plants' toxic emissions. In addition to raising questions about the efficacy of information disclosure laws, our results underscore the importance of approaching pollution as an organizational phenomenon and studying organizations where they most directly impact the environment-at the site of production.     

Estimates of long-term immigration to the United States: Moving US statistics toward United Nations concepts

US immigration data are revised to reflect the UN demographic concept of long-term immigration. Long-term immigration is measured by the number of new immigrants (permanent resident aliens) arriving in the year, temporary migrant arrivals (nonimmigrants) who subsequently adjust to permanent resident status, arrivals of asylees and refugees, and nonimmigrants who arrive during the year and stay for more than twelve months before departing. The estimates of long-term immigration for 1983 are compared to official INS statistics on alien immigration. Significant differences emerge according to country of origin, age, and state of intended residence. A method of producing current estimates of long-term immigration is illustrated.     

Welfare to What? After Workfare in Toronto

An employment survey among people in Toronto who left Ontario Works — a classic "work-first" regime — shows clear secondary labour market status. Most interventions typical of work-first programmes did not have a positive effect on job quality: contrary to the "stepping stones" theory that poor initial jobs lead to better jobs, those who changed jobs after leaving assistance experienced poorer job quality. A shift in orientation to "sustainable employment" is required to address the employment needs of those on social assistance. Policy must also address the fact that the social assistance caseload includes a size able group that face significant barriers to employment other than education or skills.     

Reconsiderations about Greek homosexualities

Focusing his analysis on (mostly Athenian) vase paintings of the sixth- and early fifth-century and on a handful of texts from the late fifth- and early fourth-century (again Athenian), Dover depicted the pederastic relationship of erastes (age 20 to 30) and eromenos (age 12-18) as defined by sexual roles, active and passive, respectively. This dichotomy he connected to other sexual and social phenomena, in which the active/ penetrating role was considered proper for a male adult Athenian citizen, while the passive/penetrated role was denigrated, ridiculed, and even punished. Constructing various social and psychological theories, Foucault and Halperin, along with a host of others, have extended his analysis, but at the core has remained the Dover dogma of sexual-role dichotomization. Penetration has become such a focal point in the scholarship that anything unable to be analyzed in terms of domination is downplayed or ignored. To reduce homosexuality or same-sex behaviors to the purely physical or sexual does an injustice to the complex phenomena of the Greek male experience. From Sparta to Athens to Thebes and beyond, the Greek world incorporated pederasty into their educational systems. Pederasty became a way to lead a boy into manhood and full participation in the polis, which meant not just participation in politics but primarily the ability to benefit the city in a wide range of potential ways. Thus the education, training, and even inspiration provided in the pederastic relationship released creative forces that led to what has been called the Greek 'miracle.' From around 630 BCE we find the institution of Greek pederasty informing the art and literature to a degree yet to be fully appreciated. Moreover, this influence not only extends to the 'higher' realms of culture, but also can be seen stimulating society at all levels, from the military to athletic games, from philosophy to historiography. An understanding of sexual practices-useful, even essential, to an appreciation of Greek pederasty- cannot fully explicate its relationship to these other phenomena; pederasty is found in many societies, and certainly existed before the Greeks. It is time that we move beyond Dover and recover the constructive dynamics of Greek pederasty.     

Rationalising knowledge: IT systems, professional identities and power

This paper explores the impact of a new IT system on the knowledge claims and occupational boundaries made by professional groups within a hospital laboratory setting. Within organizational settings professional groups enjoy considerable power and status through the specialised knowledge claims they make, deploying a variety of material and discursive resources to secure these. However, when organizations introduce new technologies to manage information needs, professional boundaries and claims to expertise may be threatened. This paper examines the strategies deployed by two key professional groups – Medical Laboratory Scientific Officers and medics – to secure their knowledge claims and statuses within the new organizational context shaped in part by an IT system. Though medics were more successful here, they had to accommodate to new demands within the organization. The professional identity and organizational space of the MLSOs were also redefined but, in contrast, by being narrowed. The different experiences and strategies of the two groups reflect their unequal holding of cultural capital and their differential capacity to define their status relative to the organization itself.     

The Effects of Organizational Culture, Structure and Market Expectations on Technological Innovation: A Hypothesis

This paper is chiefly concerned with the causes and technological effects of ‘short-term pressures’ on and in large firms in British manufacturing. ‘Short-term pressures’ (STP) are defined as factors acting upon (or within) an organization which tend to cause decision-makers (explicitly or implicitly): (a) to raise their time rate of discount; and/or (b) to foreshorten the time horizon beyond which future revenues are ignored altogether. Such pressures will tend to reduce the rate of investment (defined very broadly as present sacrifice of cash flow for future gain), and/or bias it towards ‘short-term’ projects. In the British context such pressures upon firms arise from the nature of the relationship with shareholders. (High interest rates and low profitability have similar effects but should be analysed separately.) STP can also be generated and/or transmitted within organizations. STP acting within an organization are likely to be associated with pressures on middle and lower management to take a narrow, ‘sectional’ view, avoiding efforts and expenditures whose benefits may go largely to other parts of the firm. The first section sets out a theoretical framework within which to predict the intensity of external STP, and uses this to assess their likely incidence. After defining and discussing the concept of culture in organizations, it is argued that culture dominates structure at higher levels, and the reverse at lower levels. The second section deals with internal STP, and shows how performance pressures on managers at various levels are determined by the interaction of structural and cultural factors. Structural factors considered include organizational configurations and methods of auditing and management accounting. Internal performance pressures may at various levels be quite different from the external pressures. The third section shows how, by contrast with economic rationality, STP may affect technological progress - distinguishing between process change, which under certain circumstances may actually be stimulated, and product change, which is likely to be seriously inhibited. (It is pointed out that the impact of any set of performance pressures must be evaluated by comparison with an alternative set, which may themselves not be ideal.) At each stage the analysis is differentiated to allow for the differing circumstances of the UK electronics, Pharmaceuticals and mechanical engineering industries, building up a hypothesis as to the differing incidence of STP among them. This hypothesis can account for the very different record of these UK industries in innovation.     

Looking to the Future: Welfare-Reliant Women Talk About Their Job Aspirations in the Context of Welfare Reform

We examine the job aspirations of 80 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in Cleveland and Philadelphia by drawing on data from in-depth, qualitative interviews conducted in 1997–98, well after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was implemented but before time limits were reached. We show that these recipients view the work mandates they face as legitimate and express optimism regarding future work and earnings prospects. They also desire more education. Although their earnings expectations are high, respondents' occupational goals are relatively low, even among those with the most human capital. Furthermore, mothers say their vocational expectations reflect the urgency they feel about finding a job. We suggest that providing cash assistance while TANF recipients increase their human capital is critical for meeting the self-sufficiency goals of welfare reform.