'Living for the Brethren': Idealism, Social Work's Lost Enlightenment Strain

Correspondence to Ken Moffatt, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, York University, Kinsmen Building, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3. E-mail: kmoffatt{at}yorku.ca and allan.irving{at}widener.edu Summary In this article we define British idealism, a thread of Enlightenmentthought. We draw upon historical British writings and Canadianarchival material to reveal key concepts central to idealismand social work. The article begins by discussing social responsibilitybased on the idealist premise of Christian immanence. We thendiscuss the spiritual rationality of the new liberalism. Thethought of E.J. Urwick, a key philosopher of British and Canadiansocial work, illustrates that both British and Platonic idealismcontinued to influence the field of modern social work. Theconcepts of engaged participation and reciprocity are congruentwith Christian immanence and spiritual rationality. We arguethat social work can benefit from recovering its lost pastssuch as idealism as an aid in prefiguring an uncertain future.     

Work and Non-Pathological Gambling

Most economists believe that people would value an additional $1,000 in income more if they were poor than if rich, but if so, people should not gamble according to standard expected utility theory. Thus, economists have been challenged to explain the pervasiveness of gambling in human behavior. A recently proposed solution to this theoretical challenge (Nyman 2004; Nyman et al. in Journal of Socio-Economics 37:2492–2504, 2008) suggests that, because having to work for one’s income is a fact of life in market economies, many individuals view the winnings from gambling not only as additional income, but as additional income for which one does not need to work. As a result, individuals, and especially those who are disadvantaged in the labor market, attach a utility premium to gambling winnings and gamble because of that. This utility premium would explain the pervasiveness of gambling in society, especially among the economically disadvantaged. This paper reviews the economic approaches to explaining non-pathological gambling, presents an overview of the new theory, and uses data from the National Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions from 2001 to test it. The results indicate that the respondent’s work characteristics explain the decision to gamble in a way that is consistent with theory.     

FAMILY STRUCTURE TRANSITIONS AND CHILD ACHIEVEMENT

This article uses prospective data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to investigate how children in divorced and never-married-mother families vary in reading and math achievement after parental remarriage. These are compared to children who remain in never-married, divorced, and continuously married families. Results based on growth curve modeling indicate that children remaining in single-parent families resulting from divorce or nonmarital births have lower achievement scores than children from married families. Maternal education and income account for all of the adverse effects of family structure on reading achievement, while maternal education, income, and children's home environment can explain the negative relationship between single parenting and math scores. We conclude that parental remarriage may have more benefits for children than previous studies have suggested.     

Reviews

Ramsay MacMullen, Roman Social Relations 50 B.C. to A.D. 284 (1974), ix+212 (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, $8.95).

Georges Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries (1974), x+292 (Weidenfeld &; Nicolson, £4.00).

M. K. Ashby, The Changing English Village: A History of Bledington, Gloucestershire in Its Setting 1066–1914 (1974), xxiii+425 (The Roundwood Press, Kineton, £5.50).

Jan de Vries, The Dutch Rural Economy in the Golden Age 1500–1700 (1974)) xv+316 (Yale University Press, New Haven, £7.50).

Lawrence Stone, Family and Fortune: Studies in Aristocratic Finance in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1973), xviii+315 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £4.50).

Roger Thompson, Women in Stuart England and America. A comparative study (1974), x+276 (Routledge &; Kegan Paul, £4.25).

Elizabeth Isichei, The Ibo People and the Europeans: The Genesis of a Relationship ‐to 1906 (1973), 207 (Faber &; Faber, £4.50).

Conjoacture Economique, structures sociales. Hommage &; Ernest Labrousse (1974), 547 (Mouton, Paris, 140 fr.).

Colin Lucas, The Structure of the Terror: the Example of Javogues and the Loire (1973), xvi+411 (Oxford University Press, £9.00).

Martha Vicinus, The Industrial Muse. A Study of Nineteenth Century British Working‐Class Literature (1975), x+357 (Croom Helm, £6.95).

David J. Pivar, Purity Crusade: Sexual Morality and Social Control, 1868–1900 (1973), x+308 (Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, £5.50).     

A Comparison of Pyramidal Staff Training and Direct Staff Training in Community-Based Day Programs

This study evaluated two methods of training staff who were working with individuals with developmental disabilities: pyramidal training and consultant-led training. In the pyramidal training, supervisors were trained in the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and in delivering feedback. The supervisors then trained their direct-care staff and, subsequently, provided ongoing performance feedback. In the consultant-led training, the direct-care staff was trained in the principles of ABA. Both groups learned similar amounts of knowledge of ABA principles, but pyramidal training was more effective in teaching staff to use correct teaching procedures with consumers. In addition, the pyramidal training group maintained the improvement in their teaching procedures at a 3-month follow up, while the consultant-led training group's performance declined.     

Extending the Foundations and Reach of Design Science: Further Reflections on the Role of Critical Realism

In his commentary on our proposal to reframe the relevance of business and management research by combining design science with critical realism (Hodgkinson and Starkey, British Journal of Management, 22 (2011), pp. 355–369), Willmott (British Journal of Management, 23 (2012), pp. 598–604) commends us for our advocacy of a social science as opposed to professional school agenda, while admonishing us for seeking to underpin the commended design science ethos with critical realism, on the grounds of ontological inconsistency and the risk of diminishing the emancipatory elements of our social usefulness agenda. In reply, we demonstrate how, in highlighting the interplay of multiple generative mechanisms within and between levels of analysis, critical realism is entirely commensurate with the design science approach advocated, and enriches rather than diminishes our overarching agenda to humanize the workplace.     

A note on the distribution of mean square error of forecasting

Simulation has been a very important and widely used method in the study of misspecification or order determination in time series analysis. Mean square error of forecasting (MSEF) has been a major criterion for comparing the performance of different models. In simulation studies, standard deviations of MSEF's are calculated from the computed values of the MSEF's, In this note, the distribution of MSEF from simulation studies is established. Exact variance of the MSEF can be obtained from the prespecified values of the model selected for simulation. This variance should be a more appropriate criterion for evaluating the performance between models.     

Incentives Policies to Site Hazardous Waste Facilities

This paper addresses the use of mitigation and compensation as incentives policies to stimulate agreement between parties interested in siting a hazardous waste facility and potential host communities. We develop a model of facility siting that distinguishes five key factors which influence the acceptability of a proposed facility when considered in relation to status quo conditions. This model then is used to examine the effectiveness of different incentives policies with regard to (a) mitigating the perceived risks and (b) compensating the adverse impacts of a hazardous waste facility.     

The Role of Formal Education in the Rehabilitation of Persons with Chronic Schizophrenia

Rehabilitation services seek to address the various needs of persons with chronic schizophrenia but little attention has been paid to their participation in formal education. This study surveyed the educational needs of this population. It was hypothesised that these needs are often unmet and that their expression is influenced by an individual's history, expectations and knowledge in relation to education. A questionnaire was administered to 60 subjects in the context of a structured interview. Of the total sample, 26 individuals expressed an interest in further education but only two were currently participating in educational courses. Twelve individuals had recently enquired about further education. Analyses of the data revealed that expressed interest in education was significantly associated with an individual's background and age and with how they construed the associated benefits and difficulties. The implications of the findings for rehabilitation services are discussed.