Endangered Children: Experiencing and Surviving the State as Failed Parent and Grandparent

The state removes children from ‘failed’ parentsto give them a better experience of parenting. This articleexamines the role that the state plays as parent to young mothersin care and grandparent to their children, drawing on a small-scalestudy undertaken in western Canada using grounded theory methodology.The findings were bleak: the state as parent and grandparentalso fails these children. We consider why this is the caseand make suggestions for ways forward by critiquing the ideologyof familialism that underpins the state’s punitive approachto these young mothers and their children. We also call forpolicies and a practice that enable practitioners to addressstructural inequalities such as poverty and racism alongsidethe capacity to respond to the personal needs of the young womenand their children as young people with dignity and rights.     

The Government of Disability: economics and power in welfare and work

The term government of disability refers to the ways that the lived experiences of people with accredited impairments are contextualised by economics and power in welfare and work. This paper explores how far a multiple perspective that develops a framework of the government of disability and the ontological ambiguity of impairment can take us towards contemporary understandings of disability, impairment and change in the UK.

The term the ontological ambiguity of impairment describes the ways that understandings of impairment have become more ambiguous, contributing to greater insecurities and fragmentation because of key changes in the government of disability. However, I argue that wider explanations of economic and power relationships are also necessary to develop a critical perspective of the contemporary government of disability, economics, and power in welfare and work.     

Women and philanthropy

Although women often played a central role in the creation of non-profit organisations through their donations of time, money and material possessions, their efforts have received little systematic attention from students of the non-profit sector, particularly outside the United States. This special issue ofVoluntas traces the ties between philanthropy and women's social, economic and political roles in Argentina, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, India and Australia. Written as part of an international collaborative study co-ordinated by the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, these essays test a variety of theoretical models for assessing the significance of philanthropic activities in empowering disadvantaged groups and fostering the growth of civil society.     

Students’ Vocational Choices and Voluntary Action: A 12-Nation Study

Previous research on student involvement suggested that business and engineering students manifest lowest rates of voluntary action. Similarly, it was thought that social science students are the most involved in voluntary action, with students of natural sciences and humanities in the middle. However, there were very few studies that empirically compared these assertions. Furthermore, these assertions were not investigated from cross-cultural perspectives. Based on a study of students in 12 countries (N = 6,570), we found that even when controlling for background variables, social science students are actually less engaged in voluntary action than other students. Engineering students are higher than expected on voluntary action while students of humanities are the most involved in voluntary action. When studying these differences in the 12 selected countries, local cultures and norms form different sets of findings that suggest that there is no universal trend in choice of academic field and voluntary action.     

Positive and Negative Spillover from Work to Home: The Role of Organizational Culture and Supportive Arrangements

For today's managers, striking a sound work?home balance is an important matter. In this paper we investigate the relationship between organizational culture and work‐to‐home spillover. Two types of organizational culture, supportive and innovative, were compared with regard to work‐to‐home spillover. We measured work‐to‐home spillover with the help of positive and negative work?home interference measures: negative work?home interference was divided into strain‐based negative work?home interference and time‐based negative work?home interference. A total of 418 alumni of two Dutch business schools completed a questionnaire. The data were analysed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings showed that a supportive culture explained most of the variance in positive work?home interference and strain‐based negative work?home interference. The relationships between a supportive culture and positive and strain‐based negative work?home interference were fully mediated by flexible work?home arrangements. Flexible work?home arrangements explained the variance in time‐based negative work?home interference, while no relationship was found between supportive culture and time‐based negative work?home interference. Innovative culture was positively related to positive work?home interference and time‐based negative work?home interference. The outcomes suggest that a supportive culture, expressed in flexible work?home arrangements, can enhance positive spillover from the work domain to the home domain and diminish negative spillover. We suggest that improving the work?home interface may attract and retain valued managers.     

A comparison of the probability of the dissolution of first and second marriages

This paper applies the techniques of multiple decrement life tables to marriage histories collected as part of the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth, in an attempt to examine differences in pattern and level of marriage dissolution by marriage order. The paper considers the process of marriage dissolution in two stages—marriage to separation and separation to divorce—in addition to considering the composite of these two, marriage to divorce. Second marriages are more likely to remain intact only for blacks. For all subgroups of whites, second marriages are either as likely or more likely to dissolve than first marriages. For both first and second marriages, blacks are considerably less likely to obtain a divorce after separation.     

Direct Payments and Disabled People in the UK: Supply, Demand and Devolution

Direct payments have brought new opportunities for self-determinationand independent living to disabled people in the UK, featuringprominently in government strategy and the 2006 White Paper,‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’. However, ten yearsafter direct payments legislation, take-up remains low and implementationvaries greatly. Rates of take-up in England remain more thandouble those in other parts of the UK, raising questions aboutdevolution and equity. This paper presents data from a nationalstudy to examine some of the mechanisms underlying uneven outcomesfor disabled people in different parts of the United Kingdom,with particular reference to the politics of devolved governance.The analysis focuses on scope for interpretations of policy;resources for information and training; the impact of mandatoryduties and targets; extensions to new user groups; and the roleof support organizations and disability activism. The evidencesuggests that local variations have been produced not only by‘local’ factors, but also by different opportunitystructures for policy development in England, Scotland, Walesand Northern Ireland. This raises questions about the impactof devolution on equity and opportunity for disabled peoplein the UK.