Time Off: The Social Experience of Time on Vacation

This article explores the phenomenological and socially constructed experience of time during the finite period of the vacation. Temporal routine is considered as a form of social control from which vacations and similar breaks for time off offer opportunities for agency and release. In-depth interviews, participant observation, and a narrative analysis of vacation blogs are used to analyze norms in orientation to time while one is away from select constraints of everyday life. Approaches to time while on vacation are found to fall into two ideal types: those who may ??ignore?? time and find release from schedules and routine, and those who must closely attend to its passage. Influences of duration, frequency and pace are also central in moderating experience.     

Silencing the Good: Memory,Forgetting and the Belated Reputation of Giorgio Perlasca

The sociological analysis of the reputation of historical figures has rarely paid attention to temporal delays in the emergence of collective memory. This article focuses on a case of belated reputation as a particular reputational trajectory. I analyse the reputational trajectory of the Italian Giorgio Perlasca, who posed as Spain's representative in Budapest during the German occupation of 1944‐5, and saved thousands of Jews from deportation. Upon his return to Italy, his story was neglected, only to resurface forty years after the events. An analysis of these processes requires the consideration of three factors: the presence of agents who promote a reputation, the configuration of centre‐periphery relations, and the memorability of the figure. The consideration of how these three factors change over time offers an adequate account of processes of commemoration.     

How do Australian adult mental health clinicians manage the challenges of working with parental mental illness? A phenomenological study

Adult mental health clinicians face a range of challenges that hinder their use of family‐focused practices when working with consumers who are parents. The purpose of this study was (a) to examine clinicians' experiences when working with parents and (b) identify strategies they found to be effective when working with parents. Eleven Australian mental health clinicians were recruited who regularly worked with consumers who are parents. Semistructured interviews were conducted within a qualitative paradigm and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Themes were identified which related to (a) managing sensitive parenting conversations, (b) making decisions about child safety in unclear or unpredictable situations, and (c) working with child protection services. Participants had developed strategies for managing the challenges of the first two practice issues and suggested organizational changes that could facilitate collaboration with child protection services. The findings highlight that the challenges of working with parents with mental health issues cannot be addressed with a one‐size‐fits‐all approach. Initiatives to facilitate the effective support of parents and their children need to be informed by contextual factors, including clinical practice.     

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Financial Literacy Curriculum for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Financial literacy programs are quickly gaining in popularity around the globe. A relatively new target group is survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), an economically vulnerable group for whom resource acquisition is related to personal safety and well-being. This study is a randomized controlled trial of a financial literacy curriculum designed for and delivered to a sample of 300 IPV survivors from 14 agencies in seven US states and Puerto Rico. Findings, based on difference-in-difference analyses and OLS regression models, indicate a strong effect of the curriculum on self-reported financial knowledge and behaviors and support the expansion of similar programs for survivors.     

Asset Accumulation: An Alternative Approach to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are unlikely to be achieved by 2015, owing to conceptual flaws in their design as well as the structural and political constraints faced during implementation at the country level. While criticism of the MDGs is widespread, innovative ideas on addressing these operational challenges are still scanty. By reviewing a number of experiences, including those of the Foundation for the Promotion of Local Development (PRODEL) in Nicaragua and the Ministry of Cities in Brazil, this article highlights the importance of incorporating an asset‐accumulation perspective into MDG‐related policies and programmes as a way of generating an enabling environment that opens up new opportunities for poverty reduction in the cities of low‐ and middle‐low‐income countries.     

Overcoming medication refusal using a patient-centered approach

The refusal of psychotropic medication is a challenge faced by many healthcare providers when treating patients with mental illness. Controversy surrounds medication refusal because some mental health professionals believe that psychiatric patients should be forced to take medications for the safety of the general public, while patients are often acutely aware of potential lifelong adverse side effects and are sometimes reluctant to comply. The proposed alternative to this problem begins with developing the patient-provider relationship through a patient-centered approach. This approach emphasizes the individual needs of patients and creates opportunities for input from patients about their care, which helps form relationships of mutual trust and respect between patients and providers. This article explores the literature to: (1) understand some of the challenges and controversies involved in patient medication refusal from a clinical and societal level; (2) identify some issues in a patient-centered approach; and (3) make some brief clinical and policy recommendations that might help to bring about an increase in the use of patient-centered care. Hopefully, as efforts are made toward a patient-centered approach, increased psychotropic medication adherence and decreased medication coercion will result as providers listen and act upon the needs of their patients.     

Restructuring of the Financial Industry: The Disappearance of Locally Owned Traditional Financial Services in Rural America

Restructuring in the financial services industry has altered the relationship between small business owners and capital. In the past small businesses have relied on relational, or soft data, lending from locally owned banks for capital. The proliferation of absentee‐owned local branch networks brought standardized practices, thus eliminating the autonomy of local loan officers to utilize soft data in loan decisions. In this article we examine the changes in the percentage of traditional financial services that are locally owned in three county types: metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore. We utilize the Longitudinal Business Database at the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies. We examine changes in local ownership of traditional financial services between 1976 and 2007. We find that the rate of decline of local ownership has been greatest in the noncore (most rural) counties. We also explore to what extent these patterns are related to the emergence of alternative financial services during the same period. We find that such alternative services are growing in all three county types, but at rates not significantly different than the population growth for these county types. We supplement our analysis with data from qualitative interviews with small business owners throughout rural Texas. We conclude with a discussion of implications and plans for future research.     

Debt‐Relief Effectiveness and Institution‐Building

This article provides new evidence on the effects of recent debt‐relief programmes on different macroeconomic indicators in developing countries, focusing on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). The relationship between debt relief and institutional change is also investigated to assess whether donors are moving towards ex‐post governance conditionality. Results show that debt relief is only weakly associated with subsequent improvements in economic performance but is correlated with increasing domestic debt which undermines the positive achievements in reducing external debt service. There is also evidence that donors are moving towards a more sensible allocation of debt forgiveness, rewarding countries which have better policies and institutions.