Exploring Accountability in Social Enterprise: Priorities,Practicalities, and Legitimacy

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper draws upon accountability and legitimacy theories to explore for what social enterprises are accountable, how...     

A partnership forged: BSW students and service learning at a historically Black college and university (HBCU) serving urban communities

ABSTRACT

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have a long-standing history of engaging the African-American community. In most instances, these institutions are located in predominantly African-American communities. This article intends to offer a discussion of a pedagogical approach used at an HBCU, located in a large mid-Atlantic city. The purpose of this macro-assignment was an effort designed to prepare BSW students for macro-practice with communities through participation in service-learning projects that involved community engagement with urban communities. Outcomes reflect that students have a vested interest in working with underserved communities, which exemplifies the School of Social Work’s mission; said mission is to fully prepare urban social work leaders who are committed to the alleviation of human suffering, social justice, and the improvement of the quality of life for diverse urban populations.     

How do mobile,internet and ICT diffusion affect the banking industry? An empirical analysis

Based on the World Development Indicators data provided by the World Bank, we investigate the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on the profits and risk of financial distress of the EU 28 banking industry. Specifically, we address the question of whether and how ICT diffusion, adoption and infrastructure (e.g., ATM penetration) affect banking profitability and stability over the period 1995–2015. Our results show that ICT exerts a positive role in improving these performance measures. In addition, we find that overall financial stability in the banking industry is enhanced with the intensive adoption of both IT and financial technologies, which increase the distance to default.     

Suicidal Thoughts/Behaviors in Sexually Abused Children

This study examined the frequency of suicidality based on self-report and parent report in 430 sexually abused outpatient youth ages 3 to 17. Thirty-four percent of youth experienced suicidal ideation or behavior. However, when both parent and child completed measures, the rate of suicidality increased to 45.3%. The prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behavior was not higher based on relationship to the perpetrator, race, or previous placement outside the home. Suicidal youth rated themselves as more depressed, anxious, and angry on self-reports. Child self-reports of post-traumatic stress disorder were greater among the suicidal youth. Parent reports of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder were greater among suicidal youth. A logistic regression model including Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children Depression and Anger scores correctly classified 74.2% of suicidal and nonsuicidal children and adolescents, but not self-criticism, was predicted by depression and anger. These findings support the need for formal multi-informant evaluations of suicidality in sexually abused youth.     

Dingo media? The persistence of the “trial by media” frame in popular,media, and academic evaluations of the Azaria Chamberlain case

In the bulk of popular, media, and scholarly discourse on Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance there is overwhelming consensus that the sensationalist reporting of the event convicted parents Michael and Lindy of their daughter’s murder outside official court processes. In feminist scholarship in particular, the infant’s disappearance in August 1980 has been read according to a “trial by media” frame. This frame persists despite altered perspectives about the role of the Australian public whose punitive and collectively hostile response to a media-driven hysteria has been replaced with the portrait of a kinder and more compassionate nation. The objectives of this article are threefold: to demonstrate the persistence of the trial by media frame in popular, media, and academic discourse; to consider assumptions of a monolithic and hostile media; and by examining a previously unanalysed archive to suggest that these arguments overlook the existence of sympathetic voices in mainstream media as well as the dialogic connection between media and counter-publics mutually supporting the Chamberlains’ bid for innocence. This research offers an alternative view to scholarship on a landmark event in Australian history and has broader implications for the way we view the media in trial by media situations.     

Testing an Incentive-Sensitisation Approach to Understanding Problem Slot-Machine Gambling Using an Online Slot-Machine Simulation

This study aims to test the application of the incentive-sensitisation theory to slot-machine gambling behaviour. The theory posits that for problem gamblers (PGs), gambling strengthens the response of motivational pathways in the mid-brain to gambling cues, eliciting strong wanting, independent of liking. Non-problem gamblers (NPGs) experience weaker changes to motivational pathways so liking and wanting remain associated. Hence, it is predicted that wanting to gamble will be greater than liking for PGs but there will be no difference for NPGs; wanting will be greater for PGs than for NPGs; and, wanting but not liking will predict whether PGs continue gambling, whereas both will predict this for NPGs. During gambling on an online simulated slot-machine, 39 PGs and 87 NPGs rated ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’. Participants played at least 3 blocks of 10–20 spins, and then had the option of playing up to 4 additional blocks; to continue playing they had to complete an effortful task, so that ‘number of blocks played’ acted as an additional indirect measure of wanting. Results supported hypotheses except on the indirect measure of wanting (the number of blocks played).     

Fringing trees may provide a refuge from prolonged drying for urban wetland invertebrates

Climate change is causing prolonged drying in many seasonal wetlands, including urban wetlands, potentially affecting aquatic invertebrates that take refuge in wetland sediment during dry periods and thereby threatening wetland biodiversity. We collected sediment from two habitats: open water (OW) and fringing trees (FT), in eight urban wetlands after seasonal inundation had ended. Both habitats are inundated during winter–spring and dry in summer–autumn. Each sediment sample was divided into subsamples. One set of subsamples were inundated in the laboratory to test the hypothesis that emerging invertebrate assemblages would differ between OW and FT sediments. Another set of subsamples was dried, stored for a year, and inundated to test the hypothesis that prolonged drying would reduce the abundance and taxa richness of emerging invertebrates. The composition of emerging invertebrate assemblages differed between habitats, with more amphibious species found in FT sediment. Invertebrate responses to prolonged drying and storage varied among species: for some, effects depended on habitat type, while others delayed emergence or showed no response. Microcrustacean abundance was unaffected by drying, suggesting that their productivity during refilling may resist drier water regimes. Surface temperatures of dry sediment are cooler beneath FT, and this sediment has higher organic matter, holds more water and is less dense than OW sediment; and FT sediment remained cooler than OW sediment in the laboratory, despite the absence of shading. Fringing trees may therefore provide a refuge for some freshwater invertebrates relying on dormant stages in the sediment to survive drying in urban wetlands.     

'I Value What You have to Say'. Seeking the Perspective of Children with a Disability, Not Just their Parents

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the right for children to express opinions about issues affecting them and the right to have these views heard (Davis, 1998). There has been an increase in the number of international studies including children as informants in research, but there is noticeably less published research including children as informants in Australia if they have a disability. Rather, there has been a reliance on parents/carers for insight into their child's experiences. In this article we present the results of a qualitative pilot study where we interviewed parents and their children who have cerebral palsy about their perceptions and experiences of communication in the medical consultation. We found that the views of children and parents were different, further reiterating the need to seek the perceptions of children as well as their parents.