Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience1

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawnfrom unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman’s relationship with her spouse; the second is related to thefrequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.     

Linking Perceived External Prestige and Intentions to Leave the Organization: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment

ABSTRACT

The present study examines social workers' beliefs about the prestige that outsiders (e.g., patients, suppliers, competitors, and the public) attribute to their organization and the way these beliefs influence the social workers' commitment to the organization they work for, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions (i.e., intentions to leave the organization). We collected two primary data sets (N = 160 and N = 489, respectively) from social workers in nonprofit social service organizations in Israel in 2001 and 2002. In general, the results show that perceived (construed) external prestige results in higher employee commitment and satisfaction, which, in turn, leads to lower levels of intention to leave the organization. The implications of these findings for research on organizational image and employee commitment are discussed, with particular emphasis on social workers in nonprofit social service organizations.     

Pedagogy of human rights education: a Latin American perspective

Because we started to work with teachers on human rights education in Latin American in the middle of the 1980s, with dictatorial regimes in power, we understood that our pedagogical approach needed to be a critical one. This transformative process of change has not been easy. Many personal, social, political and cultural challenges have been faced. In this article I mention some of those challenges, especially: (1) the lack of a critical approach; and (2) the cultural ‘incapacity’ to recognize the ‘other’ as a legitimate ‘other’ and to accept the existence of social and cultural diversity. Finally, the article gives theoretical and practical recommendations on how to overcome these two main obstacles.     

The market’s reaction to two supreme court rulings on American labor law

The Supreme Court has gradually narrowed the number of persons who are protected by the National Labor Relations Act should they seek to form or join a union, in part by ruling that professionals who also serve as supervisors of less skilled employees are not covered by the Act. The market’s reaction to the two latest rulings, Health Care & Retirement Corp. and Kentucky River is researched herein. Shareholder wealth rose for health care firms in response to each ruling. The market response was greater for the latter decision, signaling investor beliefs regarding the benefit to employers and the likely future direction of court decisions.     

The Outposting Method of Community Services: A Multistaged Field Experience

Outposting is an interorganizational method of service delivery that requires an exchange relationship between an initiating agency and a host setting, for the benefit of third-party clients. This paper reports its experimental adoption as a graduate field training modality at a school of social work. Consideration is given to the contractual relationships among the parties, and to the learning objectives and outcomes. It focuses on problems of dual agency orientation and the integration of outposting with outreach and multiple advocacy. It confirms that outposting is a flexible service modality most appropriate in times of turbulence and social change.     

Queens Field Instruction Center: A Field Instruction Center for Multilevel Education in Social Work

This paper will describe the organization and educational program for undergraduate and graduate social work students in the Queens Field Instruction Center, an administrative unit that provides a closer working relationship between schools of social work and social agencies on all levels. The center's structure and program allow for the concurrent and integrated placement of social work students. Research opportunities are offered to identify and conceptualize the outcome and learning experience for each level. The field instruction program offers further research possibilities in examining whether multimethod training provides students with skills equal to those receiving single-method training.     

Evolving the latent variable model as an environmental DEA technology

This article tests several nonparametric DEA models for their ability to accurately decompose CO₂ emissions change using a Malmquist styled decomposition framework. This production oriented activity analysis involves panel data and two data sets from the literature for comparison. A new Latent Variable radial input-oriented technology is introduced that is closely associated with a Koopmans Efficient Slacks Based Model. The Latent Variable technology simultaneously reduces inputs and undesirable outputs in a single Multiple Objective Linear Program. This production theoretic methodology is adapted to preserve both scale efficiency and causality within the envelopment framework. Finally, the application studies demonstrate the internal consistency of the Latent Variable reduction coefficients, which overturns previous results and paves the way for further research into undesirable externalities.     

Disabled Women Sexually Abused in Childhood: Treatment Considerations

There is a dearth of literature addressing the issues presented in the treatment of adult disabled women who were victims of childhood sexual abuse. This article focuses on the pertinent issues involved in clinically treating this population, such as the meaning of the traumatic event of sexual abuse for the individual, the disability and how it may have impacted her in terms of dependence, body integrity, and sexuality. Coping strategies and case examples are presented and possible countertransferential reactions are examined.