Housing strategies in an uncertain market

The slump in house prices in the early 1990s created a degree of uncertainty in the housing market which contrasts markedly with the optimism of the 1980s. In particular, the market downturn made it sharply apparent that there could be losers as well as winners in the unstable housing market. This study looks at a sample of owner occupiers drawn from Glasgow and Bristol in 1995. While still endorsing home ownership as the major housing option and as potentially enabling in housing and neighbourhood terms, a note of caution is recognisable. Aspirations to climb the housing ‘ladder’ are tempered by fear of overextending financially and by the broader uncertainties that people perceive to be endemic in the labour market and the housing market. Strategies reflect both diverse personal histories and the adoption of defensive or risk reduction options. For many respondents maintaining current housing standards is more important than market advancement.     

Religious intermarriage in Canada, 1974-1982

"This paper reviews recent literature, with particular reference to Canada, on religious intermarriage. The importance of intramarriage in the cross-generation maintenance of subcultural values is emphasized. Recent trends in religious outmarriage and the major explanations and correlates of these trends are considered. Recent data published by Statistics Canada is examined for the nine year period between 1974-1982."     

Belonging on the Move: Market Rhetoric and the Future as Obligatory Passage

Recent neglect of the concept of belonging may be traced to its subsumption under matters of locality or kinship (concepts that have left its theorising rather static and underdeveloped), as well as to theoretical understandings which try to keep distinct a logic of belonging from a logic of the market. In reworking a sociological tradition that formerly associated the work of managers with a specific responsibility to induce conditions of belonging, at least within bureaucratic organisations, the present study examines closely the rhetoric deployed in a large private sector organisation alongside its invention of 'internal' markets. Adopting a consumption perspective, the paper argues that a 'rubbishing' of the past within organisations may be being aimed at undermining aspects of members' belonging, especially matters of tradition, loyalty and custom. In so much as these aspects once offered themselves as 'resources' for managers' accounts (to themselves, their colleagues and their superiors), their effacement as resources can be understood as helping reframe accounts in ways that not only colonise the present and characterise the future, but sustain ambiguities vital to the imposition of pseudo-market relations, such as those between 'purchasers' and 'providers'.     

Balancing parents' and very young children's rights in care proceedings: decision-making in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998

This paper explores whether the Human Rights Act 1998 has influenced the approach a range of professionals, including social workers, managers and children's guardians adopt when they examine and seek to balance the potentially competing rights of parents and children involved in care proceedings. Drawing on findings from an empirical study of the decision‐making process that influences the life pathways of very young children in care, it also explores some of the dilemmas professionals face in their day‐to‐day practice and examines whether parental rights are prioritized over children's rights in certain instances.     

A Feminist Trade Union Agenda? The Continued Significance of Class,Gender and Race

During the 1990s attempts to identify a feminist trade union agenda have focused on both the content and process of such a potential agenda. In a period in which trade unions have changed significantly, the general national agenda appears to be changing, acknowledging issues of importance to women. UNISON, Britain's largest trade union, has enshrined proportionality and fair representation in its constitution, developing national initiatives aimed at improving opportunities in work and in the union for women, black workers, manual workers, disabled workers, etc. who traditionally have been less well represented. Many issues affecting women generally have moved to centre stage, yet issues affecting women ancillary workers seem as excluded as ever. Through a study of cleaners in the National Health Service this article argues that workplace interests reflect wider social divisions, but in a variety of patterns depending on the social organization of work. Despite thewidening trade union agenda, particular interests — more specifically the workplace interests of working‐class women and black women — continue to be neglected.     

Living beyond the unanticipated sudden death of a partner: a phenomenological study

This research project explored grief and its impact upon men and women who have experienced the sudden and unanticipated death of his or her partner. It included what grief meant to them, how it was manifested in his or her everyday lives and how his or her partner's death had impacted upon his or her relationship with themselves, with others and the world. A Husserlian phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of the ten women and five men whose partner had died up to five years prior to being interviewed. The need for the surviving partner to continue to participate in everyday life placed great strain upon the internal resources of the surviving partner. The surviving partner needed to reinvent him or herself, in an attempt to become independent and regain functionality, whilst dealing with the sadness and loss that they had experienced. The surviving partner discovered that a new life order emerged that included hope, optimism, planning for the future and perhaps the prospect of a new relationship. The death of a partner left the surviving partner with a loss that would always be a part of them, with the memories of his or her relationship being maintained within them that will never be replaced by somebody else. The results of this research project reinforce the need for ongoing education of the community in grief and bereavement issues in order to increase the awareness of the support needs of the bereaved person. The length of time and amount of energy required to incorporate the experience into the survivor's life, is greatly underestimated by the community, and perhaps by some of the health and caring professionals. Colonial and hospital based bereavement support services need to be established and be proactive using outreach programs, actively offering the suddenly bereaved partner and family support and information.     

Student Bodies,Past and Present

Abstract

This article examines how the field of college health has evolved over time to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. The central argument is that college and university health programs developed in conjunction with shifting standards of medical care and public health practices in the United States. The author reviews the role of college health programs as public health agencies for campus communities, and describes contemporary public health challenges facing college campuses. She shows how the history of college health is intertwined with the history of diversity in higher education. In particular, the author outlines how the growth of health services made higher education accessible to women, racial minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities.     

The national provident fund model: An analytical and evaluative reassessment

Both earlier and current analytical perspectives on appropriate modes of delivering retirement provision have tended to underestimate both the inherent adaptability and the developmental potentialities of the national provident fund (NPF) model. The essence of this model is found in the welfare salience of the possibility of synergy between the NPF's direct (retirement provision) and indirect (development finance institution) roles in developing political economies. Diffusion is found to be important in the development of the NPF model from Asian origins and in its subsequent retention in a limited number of states. NPF "success stories" are few in number but potentially significant given their regional concentration and impact, the latter currently underlined by further expansion and development of existing NPFs and by recently renewed prospects for regional diffusion of the model. Further examination of the significantly enhanced welfare outcomes achieved through the creative utilization of existing NPFs underlines the potentiality for NPF-led development within "pillarized" retirement provision.