Gender and ethnic equity in Aotearoa New Zealand's public service before and since Covid-19: Toward intersectional inclusion?

Since its bi-cultural foundation with Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by Māori, the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), chiefs and representatives of the British Crown), cultural identities have expanded through immigration. While Aotearoa NZ's government seeks to encourage workplace diversity in public service agencies, developments are being disrupted by Covid-19. Using a typology of equality approaches, this study appraises the “ambition” of equity progress in Aotearoa NZ public service agencies based on content analysis of interviews with sector experts, agency staff and managers. In terms of equity discourses, workplace inequities emerge as more pronounced for Māori and Pasifika (the indigenous peoples of the Pacific), indicating that more “ambitious” equality initiatives, including those which aim for intersectional inclusion, are needed. The study thereby contributes a more nuanced understanding of equity approaches that could meaningfully inform workplace initiatives designed to recognize, value and empower gender diversity. Its relevance for Aotearoa NZ, which has one of the most diverse working-age populations in the world, is likely to resonate in other countries where workforce diversity is yet to translate into equitable engagement in and experiences of work organizations by all.     

Teaching Children with Autism to Mand for Information Using “Why?” as a Function of Denied Access

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The current study evaluated a procedure used to teach two children with autism to ask “why” questions maintained by causal information about an event....     

Rail safety in Britain: An occupational health psychology perspective

As occupational health psychology matures, it will become involved in a more detailed way in areas ofspecific concern, and it will outgrow its recent over-dependence on a small number of very generalconcerns such as work stress and burnout. One example of all area of potential interest andopportunity is that afforded by rail safety. This paper discusses the position in Britain. It outlines thehistory and nature of safety management in the rail industry following privatisation in the 1990s. Itthen describes recent changes in safety thinking that could represent a mini-paradign shift and thatopen the door to the more active involvement of occupational health psychologists.     

Effects of International Volunteering and Service: Individual and Institutional Predictors

Despite unprecedented recent expansion of international volunteering and service (IVS), there has been relatively little research on impacts. This paper proposes a conceptual model for impact research based on existing research evidence published in English. The model suggests that outcomes for host communities, volunteers, and sending communities vary depending on individual and institutional attributes and capacity. How institutions structure and leverage individual capacity influences who participates and how they serve, and shapes the impact of volunteer action. The conceptual model provides directions for future research.

Presence and Quality of Touch Influence Coregulation in Mother–Infant Dyads

The first major goal of this study was to determine whether touch would enhance mother—infant coregulation in ordinary, nonstressful face‐to‐face interactions. In an experimental manipulation of presence versus absence of touch in face‐to‐face interactions between 79 mothers and their 3.5‐month‐old infants, results indicated that when touch is prohibited, relaxed and mutually attuned coregulation (asymmetrical coregulation) decreases. Contrary to expectations, coactive and mutually attuned coregulation (symmetrical coregulation) increased during prohibited touch, but this finding was qualified by a significant interaction between touch and order. The second major goal of this study was to question the assumption that the presence of touch should exert uniform effects on mother—infant interactions despite likely individual differences in the way touch is practiced. We assessed affectionate touch and stimulating touch in the touch condition of the experiment. Results indicated that the decrease in symmetrical coregulation during touch was primarily explained by those dyads that practiced more affectionate and less stimulating touch, indicating that affectionate touch is inversely related and stimulating touch is directly related to infant activity level.     

Apportioning the House of Representatives in 2000: The Effects of Alternative Policy Scenarios*

Objective. The goal of this article is to develop and examine eight different scenarios in which the U.S. House of Representatives is reapportioned for the year 2000 on the basis of eight scenarios in which the apportionment population is differentially defined. In each scenario we adjust the 2000 apportionment population of each of the 50 states on the basis of various aspects of immigration, eligibility to vote, the overseas population, and statistical sampling. Method. The method we use to apportion the House under each of the eight scenarios is the method of Equal Proportions, a divisor method that has been used to apportion the House since 1940. It endeavors to assign equitably to the 50 states, on the basis of population size, the 385 House seats that are available to be apportioned. Not all 435 House seats are assigned to the states using this method because each state automatically gets one seat. Results. We show that when the House of Representatives is reapportioned on the basis of any of the eight scenarios, there is a varying amount of redistribution of seats among the states. Many states end up gaining or losing seats, but not all are affected. Conclusion. There have been several legal challenges following the 2000 and earlier apportionments. The results of our analyses suggest that there will continue to be legal challenges to the 2000 and later apportionments. Since it is not likely that the Congress will permit a larger number of representatives than 435, apportionment challenges are really a zero‐sum game. Some states will gain political power, and others will lose it. This redistribution of power and its politically relevant consequences lead us to expect that apportionment challenges regarding the kinds of political and demographic issues raised in this article are not at all unlikely in the future.     

Body and Management Pedagogy

In this article I explore the impact of bodies in management education — why they have been ignored and what possibilities may be created when we understand them better. Bodies — including gestures, stature, posture and voice — shape and constrain how teachers and students act, what they think and what is taken away. The bodies of male and female teachers and students occupy different spaces and carry contrasting significations, resulting in different repertoires of embodied and disembodied pedagogical styles. Drawing on feminist scholarship, organizational research and my own bodily experiences and observations in management teaching, and despite the myth of disembodiment in rational classrooms, I suggest management pedagogy increasingly assumes and celebrates particular bodily performances. Rather than lament the constriction of stereotypical body regimes, I argue that making bodies more visible in management pedagogy has liberating possibilities for teachers and students and their learning.     

Is Agency Skin Deep? Surface Attributes Influence Infants' Sensitivity to Goal‐Directed Action

Three studies investigated the role of surface attributes in infants' identification of agents, using a habituation paradigm designed to tap infants' interpretation of grasping as goal directed (Woodward, 1998). When they viewed a bare human hand grasping objects, 7‐ and 12‐month‐old infants focused on the relation between the hand and its goal. When the surface properties of the hand were obscured by a glove, however, neither 7‐ nor 12‐month‐old infants represented its actions as goal directed (Study 1). Next, infants were shown that the gloved hands were part of a person either prior to (Study 2) or during (Study 3) the habituation procedure. Infants who actively monitored the gloved person in Study 2 and older infants in Study 3 interpreted the gloved reaches as goal directed. Thus, varying the extent to which an entity is identifiable as a person impacts infants' interpretation of the entity as an agent.     

Keeping the Farm in the Family Name: Patrimonial Narratives and Negotiations among German‐Heritage Farmers

Sociologists tend to view rural culture as an inertial force, committing members to past cultural patterns which, in turn, inform their present courses of action. By emphasizing such cultural stasis, we obscure how members of cultural enclaves negotiate, recommit to, or revise certain cultural traditions. This article explores how rural culture is in dialogue with changing external contexts. Drawing on interviews I conducted among a small group of German‐heritage farmers in southern Wisconsin, I find that farmers select legal arrangements, entrepreneurial actions, and traditional male succession in order to fulfill the “yeoman” goal of keeping the farm in the family name. I explore how the narratives farmers develop about the cultural priority of transferring the home‐farm to a new generation allow sociological insight into their creative negotiations between cultural traditions and a greatly altered context of agricultural production. I argue that this dialogue between a historically persistent cultural tradition and very present pressures of agricultural production makes a significant contribution to the dynamics of modern rural life.     

Health care innovations for homeless families: Emerging opportunities under Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act

Prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the ACA), the US health care system left many low-income families facing limited access to medical care, struggling with high-health costs, or lacking health insurance altogether. The ACA aims to increase access to care, improve the quality of care, and lower total health care costs. While the ACA can benefit all individuals and families, it has significant potential for expanding and improving services for those experiencing homelessness. This paper describes specific opportunities under the ACA and Medicaid that can be used to strengthen services for homeless families and provides examples of efforts under way. It also offers guidance for how homeless service agencies can effect change in their respective states. The examples described here are promising approaches to strengthening homeless services. Pursuing these ideas for homeless families will require initiative, creativity, and perseverance, but recent progress is encouraging.