Parental education, time in paid work and time with children: an Australian time-diary analysis

How does parental education affect time in the paid workforce and time with children? Potentially, the effects are contradictory. An economic perspective suggests higher education means a pull to the market. Human capital theory predicts that, because higher education improves earning capacity, educated women face higher opportunity costs if they forego wages, so will allocate more time to market work and less to unpaid domestic labour. But education may also exercise a pull to the home. Attitudes to child rearing are subject to strong social norms, and parents with higher levels of education may be particularly receptive to the current social ideal of attentive, sustained and intensive nurturing. Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time‐use Survey 1997, this study offers a snapshot of how these contradictory pulls play out in daily life. It finds that in Australia, households with university‐educated parents spend more daily time with children than other households in physical care and in developmental activities. Sex inequality in care time persists, but fathers with university education do contribute more time to care of children, including time alone with them, than other fathers. Mothers with university education allocate more daily time than other mothers to both childcare and to paid work.     

Managing in the competitive environment

The purpose of this paper is to report, on the basis of limited personal experience, that enterprises operating in a competitive environment have been able to secure significant advantages where strategy and marketing are closely integrated. Results accrue as a consequence of the responses made by customers who pass judgment on corporate products or services.     

Beyond empathy; Seasons of Affiliation,Intimacy and Power in Therapeutic Relationships

A therapeutic approach is proposed which accommodates attachment and feminist theories, and also recognises the essential place of narrative. Therapeutic relationships are conceptualised as occurring within a four-stage sequence which incorporates the trinity of motives: power, intimacy and affiliation. To help explain this process the metaphor of seasons is invoked.     

Motivators for Change and Barriers to Help-Seeking in Australian Problem Gamblers

Although prevalence studies consistently indicate that many thousands of Australians experience gambling-related problems, only a relatively small proportion of these people seek professional help. This study examines the principal motivations for, and impediments to, help-seeking in a sample of 77 problem gamblers recruited from agencies and the general community. The results indicated that profession help-seeking is predominantly crisis-driven rather than being motived by a gradual recognition of problematic behaviour. Shame, denial and social factors were identified as the most significant barriers to change rather than a lack of knowledge, or dislike of, treatment agencies. The value of early interventions including the screening of gamblers in routine medical consultations and partner support strategies is discussed.     

Estimating means when sampling gives probabilities as well as values or “Looking a gift horse in the mouth”

Consider the random sampling of a discrete population. The observations, as they are collected one by one, are enhanced in that the probability mass associated with each observation is also observed. The goal is to estimate the population mean. Without this extra information about probability mass, the best general purpose estimator is the arithmetic average of the observations, XBAR. The issue is whether or not the extra information can be used to improve on XBAR. This paper examines the issues and offers four new estimators, each with its own strengths and liabilities. Some comparative performances of the four with XBAR are made.The motivating application is a Monte Carlo simulation that proceeds in two stages. The first stage independently samples n characteristics to obtain a configuration of some kind, together with a configuration probability p obtained, if desired, as a product of n individual probabilities. A relatively expensive calculation then determines an output X as a function of the configuration. A random sample of X could simply be averaged to estimate the mean output, but there are possibly more efficient estimators on account of the known configuration probabilities.     

The practices of collective action: Practice theory,sustainability transitions and social change

Developing theory for understanding social transformation is essential for environmental sustainability, yet mainstream accounts of collective action neglect the dynamics of daily life. Theories of practice have proved generative for the study of sustainable consumption but struggle to accommodate the roles of collective actors, strategic action and purposive collective projects in social change. In response, this paper develops a practice theoretical account of collective action pertinent to processes of large scale social change, with specific focus on transitions towards sustainability. We consider three ideal types of collective—bureaucratic organisations, groupings and latent networks—and, drawing on existing social theoretical resources that are ontologically compatible with a practice account, explore the kinds of practices and arrangements which compose them. Processes concerning strategy, bureaucracy, management, social worlds and collective identity are identified as important combinations of practices and arrangements. We suggest a key contribution of practice theory has been to identify a type of collective action we call dispersed collective activity, and we suggest how this type of activity may give rise to collectives. We conclude by suggesting further development for the realisation of the project's contribution to the analysis of sustainability transitions.     

“Teachers think the kids around here,don't really want to learn”: Street-identified black men and women's attitudes toward teachers and schooling

This street participatory action research project explored the reflective schooling experiences of street identified Black men and women (ages 18–35) in two small low-income neighborhoods. Secondary analysis of survey (N = 520) and interview (N = 46) data examined: (1) How are attitudes toward schooling and teachers affected by race, gender and age?; and (2) How do students utilize a street-identity as a site of resilience inside schools? Overall, street-identified study participants held positive attitudes toward schooling, but generally performed poorly in schools and had negative experiences with educators. No significance was found as a function of gender and age regarding attitudes toward schooling and attitudes toward teachers. Also, interview results, across gender and age, suggest school-related structural challenges and poor teacher-student relationships contributed to severe conflict between students and teachers; and between students. Interviewees argued some Black students internalized a street identity or became disruptive and even engaged in school violence as a protective mechanism to endure hostile schooling environments. Moreover, Street PAR is discussed as a method and intervention to improve student performance and resolve concerns between students and educators.