“Moving from transactional government to enablement” in Indigenous service delivery: The era of New Public Management,service innovation and urban Aboriginal community development

Over the last 40 years, Aboriginal Community Based Organisations have played a distinctive role in society in relation to urban Aboriginal peoples and their rights to self‐determination and community development in the Australian city of Newcastle. They have proven essential to advocacy, the maintenance of community development, and the creation of new Aboriginal social infrastructure (community organisations, facilities, services, and supporting infrastructure). Autonomy has been empowering for local Aboriginal people. Major reforms to the delivery of government social services, particularly government enablement of a new social service market based on New Public Management principles, threaten this success. This interpretive, qualitative case study illustrates the effects of social service market enablement. It draws on a case study of the effects of social service market enablement on urban Aboriginal Community Based Organisations in Newcastle, showing the antagonistic relationship between social service market enablement and Aboriginal community enablement and development. It ends with a discussion of how Aboriginal community development in this city could be re‐enabled in light of the Prime Minister's arguments in his 2017 Annual Parliamentary Closing the Gap speech providing particular value in the context of policy discussions about moving from transactional government to enablement in Indigenous affairs.     

Is imprecise knowledge better than conflicting expertise? Evidence from insurers’ decisions in the United States

This paper reports the results of the first experiment in the United States designed to distinguish between two sources of ambiguity: imprecise ambiguity (expert groups agree on a range of probability, but not on any point estimate) versus conflict ambiguity (each expert group provides a precise probability estimate which differs from one group to another). The specific context is whether risk professionals (here, insurers) behave differently under risk (when probability is well-specified) and different types of ambiguity in pricing catastrophic risks (floods and hurricanes) and non-catastrophic risks (house fires). The data show that insurers charge higher premiums when faced with ambiguity than when the probability of a loss is well specified (risk). Furthermore, they tend to charge more for conflict ambiguity than imprecise ambiguity for flood and hurricane hazards, but less in the case of fire. The source of ambiguity also impacts causal inferences insurers make to reduce their uncertainty.     

Immune shaping and the development of Alzheimer's disease vaccines

Given the emotional, social, and financial devastation wrought by Alzheimer's disease (AD), it is imperative that effective therapeutics be devised to ameliorate this presently incurable disorder. Vaccine-based approaches have been developed to target and eliminate amyloid beta (Abeta), a key peptide implicated in AD pathogenesis. Preclinical successes in AD mouse models created excitement and impetus for the clinical application of an Abeta-based vaccine. Eliciting immune responses against a self-peptide (that is, a peptide produced by the organism itself), such as Abeta, carries with it the potential to induce autoimmune and inflammatory conditions in the vaccinated individual, a caveat borne out in multiple patients enrolled as part of a recent clinical trial. These clinical adverse events seemingly overshadowed interesting behavioral stabilization and alterations of Abeta burden in these and other vaccinated patients, thus speaking to the potential of immunotherapy for AD. Understanding the mechanisms by which vaccines reduce Abeta burden in AD brain and the types of immune responses raised, as well as developing new modalities of vaccine delivery that facilitate the modulation of elicited immune responses, will undoubtedly lead to a new generation of efficacious Abeta immunotherapeutics with improved safety profiles.     

The impact of an integrated family planning program in Russia

In 1995, the U.S. Agency for International Development implemented an integrated program of family planning education and services in six Russian cities to increase physicians' and women's contraceptive knowledge and change current contraceptive use. Large population-based surveys of women ages 15-44 were carried out at the beginning of project implementation (in 1996) and 3 years later in two project sites and a comparison site. Results from these surveys indicate that project activities affected women's knowledge of family planning methods, and caused women to have more favorable attitudes toward modern contraception. In addition, abortion rates decreased in project sites while remaining virtually unchanged in the comparison site. Because of uneven implementation of project interventions in the demonstration sites, however, the intervention's actual impact on abortion rates remains unclear.     

Child sexual abuse evaluations: adherence to recommendations

Sixty-eight parents of children with alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) were surveyed 4 months after visiting an interdisciplinary CSA evaluation clinic in order to examine the extent to which recommendations were recalled and implemented. Of those parents for whom specific recommendations were provided, 9% recalled recommendations for medical follow-up, 79% recalled recommendations for child therapy, and 43% recalled recommendations for parental therapy. Families were more likely to receive and adhere to recommendations when there were behavioral problems and a strong indication of CSA. To improve communication with families, the reasons for recommendations must be clearly conveyed, and possible barriers to implementation should be anticipated and addressed. In addition, recommendations need to be realistic, and professionals need to facilitate the implementation of their treatment plan.     

The common-sense model of illness representation: Theoretical and practical considerations

This article focuses on several areas. After reviewing the most commonly used approaches in the study of health behaviors, (e.g., the medical model, the health belief model, and the theory of reasoned action) the common-sense model is presented as an alternative. By presenting evidence across a wide range of illness domains, we demonstrate the usefulness of the common-sense, self-regulatory approach. We then discuss the importance of the common-sense model for health research among minorities. We conclude the article with examples of the operationalization of illness representations in past research and directions for future research.     

The resolutions of separation: Are marital reconciliations attempted?

This study, using 1987–88 National Survey of Families and Households data, has examined the prevalence and characteristics of ever-separated white women who attempt a marital reconciliation. Marital reconciliations are quite common as 44% of the separated women attempt a reconciliation. There is some support for the thesis that those with the fewest resources and greatest reliance on the relationship are the most likely to attempt a reconciliation. In comparing these findings with previous research on the marital dissolution process, there is little consistency in the relationship that the sociodemographic variables have with attempting a reconciliation and with the success of an attempted reconciliation. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain?

According to revisionist historians and American Indian activists,Christopher Columbus deserves condemnation for having broughtslavery, disease, and death to America’s indigenous peoples.We ask whether the general public’s beliefs about Columbusshow signs of reflecting these critical accounts, which increasedmarkedly as the 1992 Quincentenary approached. Our nationalsurveys, using several different question wordings, indicatethat most Americans continue to admire Columbus because, astradition puts it, "he discovered America," though only a smallnumber of mainly older respondents speak of him in the heroicterms common in earlier years. At the same time, the percentageof Americans who reject traditional beliefs about Columbus isalso small and is divided between those who simply acknowledgethe priority of Indians as the "First Americans" and those whogo further to view Columbus as a villain. The latter group ofrespondents, we find, show a critical stance toward modal Americanbeliefs much more broadly. We also analyze American history school textbooks for evidenceof influence from revisionist writings, and we consider representationsof Columbus in the mass media as well. Revisionist history canbe seen as one consequence of the "minority rights revolution"that began after World War II and has achieved considerablesuccess, but the endurance of Columbus’s reputation—toa considerable extent even among the minorities who have theleast reason to respect him—raises important questionsabout the inertia of tradition, the politics of collective memory,and the difference between elite and popular beliefs.     

Strategic Management and Change in High Dependency Environments: The Case of a Philanthropic Organization

On the basis of a detailed, in-depth study of the operations and strategic decision-making of Centraide, a charitable organization in Greater Montreal, this paper suggests that dependency on the environment can be a stimulus to organizational adaptation. Two major changes over a 10-year period are studied to show that strategic management in high dependency situations requires a continual attention to the organization's relationships and interactions with the forces in its environment, and a continuous management of the process by which change takes place. The basic position advanced is that: strategy in philanthropic organizations is more effective in ensuring survival and growth when the search for autonomy is seen as irrelevant and when dependence is seen as an unavoidable fact that should shape behavior. A set of propositions helps conceptualize the findings and is offered as a guide for further research.     

The Iowa Gambling Treatment Program: Treatment Outcomes for a Follow-up Sample

The Iowa Gambling Treatment Program (IGTP) amassed participant data for gamblers and concerned others of gamblers over 4 years (1997–2001). Data collection opportunities included: (1) crisis contacts, (2) placement screening, (3) admission, (4) treatment services, (5) discharge, and (6) follow-up. Among followed gamblers, 74% of treatment completers, 49% of substantial treatment completers, and 36% of dropouts and referrals were abstaining from gambling at 6-month follow-up. The reduction in dollars lost to gambling was similar; 85% of treatment completers, 88% of substantial treatment completers, and 65% of others reduced their dollars lost per week. Although more extensive follow-up efforts are needed to properly evaluate the effectiveness of the IGTP, these results suggest that the IGTP shows promise.