The disability–poverty nexus and the case for a capabilities approach: evidence from Johannesburg,South Africa

Debates about the relationship between poverty and disability continue and are important in that they contribute to policies regarding how best to address the needs of disabled people living in conditions of poverty. Increasingly, researchers have begun to use Sen's capabilities approach in understanding disability. However, the approach has not been adequately applied to understand the nature of the poverty and disability nexus, particularly in developing contexts. This article seeks to address this gap by reporting on evidence from a study conducted in eight of the poorest wards in Johannesburg. Using the capabilities lens we demonstrate the ways in which both poverty and disability compound one another to limit the capabilities of people. The findings point to the need for broad-scale as well as targeted social development policies and programmes to address the consequences of poverty and disability.     

Hoarding in the Community: A Code Enforcement and Social Service Perspective

ABSTRACT

Hoarding behaviors endanger individuals and their communities. Although there is a growing literature on clinically referred and elderly hoarders, there is limited information about hoarding behaviors beyond these contexts. This study examines the frequency, characteristics, and outcomes of cases involving hoarding encountered by code enforcement officials and social service staff. Prior to an in-service training, 236 social service staff members completed a 43-item survey about their experiences with cases involving hoarding. Respondents reported encountering between two and three cases per year. Although these hoarding cases were estimated to cost more than $3,700 in cleaning fees, 83% of respondents reported having received no prior training on dealing with hoarding. Survey responses suggested that hoarding situations were difficult to resolve and involved multiple community agencies. Collectively, hoarding behaviors appear to be a problem regularly encountered by social service members, who often serve as the initial point of contact. Along with increased training, future research is needed to develop and evaluate collaborative interagency protocols to manage this multifaceted problem. Empirically informed interagency protocols may facilitate the timely referral of community hoarders to mental health professionals and may lead to improved outcomes.     

Psychosocial Care in Nursing Homes in the Era of the MDS 3.0: Perspectives of the Experts

Meeting psychosocial needs of nursing home residents is increasingly regarded as a critical component of care, and the nationally-mandated nursing home care screening instrument— the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0—was modified and implemented in 2010 to promote better assessment of psychosocial needs and health. Recognizing the importance of psychosocial well-being among nursing home residents, and the promise of MDS 3.0 for improving psychosocial care, this article reports recommendations derived from a conference of stakeholders representing diverse disciplines and organizations regarding next steps following MDS 3.0 screening. Results relate to seven areas of psychosocial care and address cross-cutting recommendations to improve psychosocial care.     

‘At last the family is together’: reproductive futurism in March of the Penguins

This paper offers a resistant reading of the nature documentary March of the Penguins, interrogating its humanist and anthropocentric assumptions. It focuses on the film's reiteration of a politics of reproductive futurism, the belief that children are the future. The figurative association March of the Penguins creates between penguin chick and human child demonstrates the politics of reproductive futurism in manifold ways, but also creates some remarkable ambiguities that can suggest the limitations of such a politics.     

Dementia spousal caregivers and past transgressions: Measuring and understanding forgiveness experiences

ABSTRACT

The transition from “wife” to “caregiver” for a cognitively impaired husband can be an overwhelming experience. Communication patterns change and small conflicts can grow, at times bringing angry feelings and new burdens. Engagement with forgiveness processes may benefit wives by lowering resentment over past tensions, restoring trust, and enhancing the overall caregiving experience. This study examined the utility of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI) within a sample of caregiving wives. Our intent was to better understand this population’s experience with forgiveness when other contextual factors were likely to influence this process. Forgiveness scores on the EFI were positively related to the cognitive status of the care recipient, a particularly important finding for clinical intervention, and inversely related to marital distress and state anxiety.     

Toxic stress in children and youth: Exploring the role of community-based programming to support health and well-being in the United States

Children and youth exposed to toxic stress are at a greater risk for negative outcomes on health, well-being and occupational performance. Focus groups were conducted to gain understanding of the experiences and perspectives of youth at-risk who were currently receiving services from a community-based agency in a small city in the Western United States. Participants discussed acquiring life skills through agency programming including social skills and coping/self-regulation skills. Participants also reported a positive culture of the agency, expressing feelings of safety, trust and supportive relationships. Community-based programming may be in a pivotal position to provide services and supports that act as buffering protection against the effects of toxic stress.     

When Beauty Brings Out the Beast: Female Comparisons and the Feminine Rivalry

Research on competition amongst women has largely focused on relational aggression amongst adolescents, but less explored are women’s understandings of the origins of competition as it relates to comparisons amongst women and feminine ideals. Drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 30 collegiate women, we find young women’s stories constructed comparisons and competition amongst women as never-ending and seemingly natural, although they point to restricted societal expectations of femininity as its origin. Women drew from the interrelated topics of perfection-seeking, media portrayals, relationships, and consumerism to explain how they and other women negotiated feminine ideals. Even if participants understood these actions as ultimately undermining their self-image, they still perceived achieving goals of femininity as connected with perfection and happiness. We define such ongoing comparisons and competition as a feminine rivalry, as women perceived other women as direct competitors and thus understanding of the nature of the competition. We conclude by considering how college-aged women’s negotiations of feminine ideals to seemingly bolster or secure their social positioning in a hierarchy of femininity, at times in contradictory ways, offers additional insight into connections between interpersonal dynamics, expectations, and stereotypes of women.     

The Role of Contract Negotiation and Industry Structure in Production Outsourcing

Despite the spread of cost‐driven outsourcing practices, academic research cautions that suppliers' cost advantage may weaken manufacturers' bargaining positions in negotiating outsourcing agreements, thereby hurting their profitability. In this study, we attempt to further understand the strategic impact of low‐cost outsourcing on manufacturers' profitability by investigating the contractual form of outsourcing agreements and the industry structure of the upstream supply market. We consider a two‐tier supply chain system, consisting of two competing manufacturers, who have the option to produce in‐house or to outsource to an upstream supplier with lower cost. To reach an outsourcing agreement, each manufacturer engages in bilateral negotiation with her supplier, who may be an exclusive supplier or a common supplier serving both manufacturers. Our analysis shows that wholesale‐price contracts always mitigate the competition between manufacturers regardless of whether they compete with price or quantity. In contrast, two‐part tariffs intensify the competition when the manufacturers compete with quantity, but soften it when they compete with price. As a result, when outsourcing with two‐part tariffs, the manufacturers may earn lower profits than they would from in‐house production, although the suppliers are more cost efficient. This suggests that managers have to be wary about the downside of using coordinating contracts such as two‐part tariffs when pursuing low‐cost outsourcing strategies. Our analysis also sheds some light on the profitability of using an exclusive supplier for outsourcing. When outsourcing with wholesale‐price contracts, the competing manufacturers are better off outsourcing to an exclusive supplier. However, when outsourcing with two‐part tariffs, the manufacturers may earn higher profits by outsourcing to a common supplier than to an exclusive one when the manufacturers' bargaining power is sufficiently strong (weak) under quantity (price) competition.     

Beyond talk: Contributions of quantity and quality of communication to language success across socioeconomic strata

Infants from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households hear a projected 30 million fewer words than their higher-SES peers. In a recent study, Hirsh-Pasek et al. (Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071) found that in a low-income sample, fluency and connectedness in exchanges between caregivers and toddlers predicted child language a year later over and above quantity of talk (Hirsh-Pasek et al., Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071). Here, we expand upon this study by examining fluency and connectedness in two higher-SES samples. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we sampled 20 toddlers who had low, average, and high language outcomes at 36 months from each of 2 groups based on income-to-needs ratio (INR; middle and high) and applied new coding to the mother–toddler interaction at 24 months. In the high-INR group, the quality of mother–toddler interaction at 24 months accounted for more variability in language outcomes a year later than did quantity of talk, quality of talk, or sensitive parenting. These results could not be accounted for by child language ability at 24 months. These effects were not found in the middle-INR sample. Our findings suggest that when the quality of interaction, fluency and connectedness, predicts language outcomes, it is a robust relation, but it may not be universal.