Confrontations and donations: encounters between homeless pet owners and the public

This study examines the interactions between homeless pet owners and the domiciled public with a focus on how the activities of pet ownership help construct positive personal identities. Homeless people are often criticized for having pets. They counter these attacks using open and contained responses to stigmatization. More often, they redefine pet ownership to incorporate how they provide for their animals, challenging definitions that require a physical home. Homeless pet owners thus create a positive moral identity by emphasizing that they feed their animals first and give them freedom that the pets of the domiciled lack. Through what we call “enabled resistance,” donations of pet food from the supportive public provide the resources to minimize the impact of stigmatization.     

Being involved in the country: Productive ageing in different types of rural communities

Productive ageing recognises the contribution of older people to economic, social and cultural growth and helps build a sustainable community. Being involved in community life is good for individuals and good for society. However, we know very little about the participation of and contribution by people aged 50 and over in rural communities. This research aimed to develop a better understanding of productive ageing in different types of communities in rural Victoria, Australia. An anonymous self-complete postal questionnaire was distributed to a sample of households in twenty rural communities using the Australia Post Unaddressed Select Service. Those householders 50 years of age and older were invited to complete the survey. Data collected allowed examination of social and civic engagement, familiarity with community, the value placed on social relations by people aged 50 years and over, and how community involvement was linked to community sustainability. In particular it attempts to address the question ‘Does social and civic engagement differ across declining, stable and growing rural communities?’ Despite differences among rural communities, this study showed that older people develop and maintain strong community connections and well-functioning social capital and that participation in social activities was associated with feelings of being connected with community. It also identified health issues and lack of options as the main constraints on participation. A key message for policy makers is that older people play an important role in the sustainability of rural communities. There is much to be gained from actively supporting their participation in activities that are connected to ageing well.     

Land-use and environmental pressures resulting from current and future bioenergy crop expansion: A review

Recent energy and climate policies, particularly in the developed world, have increased demand for bioenergy² as an alternative, which has led to both direct and indirect land-use changes and an array of environmental and socio-economic concerns. A comprehensive understanding of the land-use dynamics of bioenergy crop production is essential for the development of sustainable bioenergy and land-use policies. In this paper, we review the patterns and dynamics of land-use change associated with bioenergy crops (hereafter referred to as ’bioenergy-driven land-use change’). The review focuses on four regions as the most prominent locations in which these patterns and changes occur: Brazil; Indonesia and Malaysia; the United States of America (U.S.A.); and the European Union (EU). The review confirms that bioenergy-driven land-use change has affected and will impact most severely on the ’land- and resource-abundant’ developing regions, such as Brazil, where economic development takes priority over sustainable land-use policies, and the enforcement capability is limited. Opportunities for more effective policy are available through the development of international climate change policy (e.g. REDD under the UNFCCC), and certification criteria for sustainable bioenergy products (e.g. EU RED). However, bioenergy produced from no and/or less land-using feedstocks (e.g. wastes and residues), and their associated technologies must be given higher priority to minimise bioenergy-driven land-use change and its negative impacts.     

Children and Families’ Involvement in Social Work Decision Making

This review summarises the research literature on children’s and parents’ involvement in social work decision making, which is regarded, in policy terms, as increasingly important. In practice, however, it tends to be messy, difficult and compromised. Different individuals or groups may have different understandings of participation and related concepts, while differences of age and disability also mediate effective user engagement. The literature highlights common themes in effective participatory practice with both children and their parents. Central to this are the establishment of relationships of trust and respect, clear communication and information and appropriate support to participate.     

A comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four different types of intensive care units in a children's hospital

This paper reports a comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four types of intensive care units in a children's hospital,: an Infant Care Center (ICC), a Medical/Surgical (Med/Surg) unit, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), each featuring a mix of multi-bed and private room (PR) patient care environments. The project is prompted by interest by the project sponsor in a pre-occupancy analysis, before the units are upgraded to exclusive PR designs. Methods comprised, for each unit: (1) observations of ergonomic design features; (2) task activity analyses of job performance of selected staff; and (3) use of a survey to collect perceptions by unit nursing and house staff (HS) of indicators of occupancy and patient care quality. Conclusions: (1) the five most common task activities are interaction with patients, charting, and interaction with equipment, co-workers and family members; (2) job satisfaction, patient care, work environment, job, patient care team interaction, and general occupancy quality rankings by ICC and/or NICU respondents are significantly higher than those by other staff respondents; and (3) ergonomic design shortcomings noted are excess noise, problems with equipment, and work environment, job-related health, and patient care quality issues.     

Family structure and child outcomes: a high definition, wide angle “snapshot”

Using data from the National Survey of America??s Families (NSAF), this research investigates the relationships between a highly defined set of family structures and a broad set of child outcomes at a particular point in time in a child??s life. A detailed classification of family structures is constructed that clarifies key differences among various types of diverse families, and facilitates equivalencies testing and pairwise comparisons across nontraditional family structures. The NSAF contains a large number of observations for less common, but growing, family structures such as single-father families, grandparent-headed households and cohabiters, which makes such detailed analyses feasible and allows further stratification by child age, gender and race. The data also contains information on child behavioral, educational and physical health outcomes, as well as extensive household characteristics, economic resources and parental behaviors and inputs. Results suggest that differences across nontraditional family structures are particularly prominent for child health outcomes and that the gender of the resident parent is empirically important, more so than the presence of a cohabiting or married step-parent. Children in single father families have lesser access to health care yet enjoy better health outcomes than those in other families, even after controlling for economic resources (and inputs). In contrast, few differences are found between grandparent-headed families and other non-parent families. While we explore alternative explanations for these results, our cross-sectional data and complex set of family structure variables preclude isolating causal relationships; instead, our analyses yield empirically important distinctions that point to promising avenues for future research.