From Maria Colwell to Victoria Climbié: reflections on public inquiries into child abuse a generation apart

This paper compares and contrasts the Maria Colwell and Victoria Climbié Inquiry Reports. It argues that rather than concentrating on the similarities, it is more important and challenging to consider the differences as exemplars of the changing contexts of child protection in England over the past 30 years. The differences are analysed in terms of: the inquiries themselves; globalization and identity; expert knowledge; systematic care, responsibility and accountability; managerialization; trust and uncertainty; and the legislative contexts. The overall impression is one of increased complexity, where the responsibilities of agencies have both broadened and intensi?ed at the same time. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kinship care in Australia

Kinship care is the fastest growing form of out‐of‐home care placement in Australia. It is now a more common form of placement than foster care in some Australian states and is the most common form of placement for Indigenous children nationally. This paper reviews national data and reports ?ndings from a state (New South Wales) study of the experience of kinship carers, children and workers. Relative carers, children and child welfare caseworkers were found to identify psychological bene?ts, family obligation and criticism of other forms of care as reasons for preferring kinship care. Legislation and policy, particularly the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, are also identi?ed as factors contributing to the rise in kinship care. Concern for the high levels of stress among carers and the low levels of monitoring of children's safety and well‐being are discussed and a stronger policy and practice response from government agencies is proposed. Indications of new policy and programme responses are demonstrated by several recent initiatives at state and national levels. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Traditional vs. Modern Food Systems? Insights from Vegetable Supply Chains to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

This article describes the development of vegetable marketing in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), where modern distribution outlets are competing fiercely with traditional traders for wholesale and retail customers. Data from interviews with supply chain stakeholders and a survey of vegetable wholesalers have been used to compare the performance of modern and traditional chains, and the findings reveal the chains as segmented in their product focus, the modern sector focusing exclusively on quality. Modern marketing channels are generally more efficient than traditional ones but still account for only around 2% of vegetable distribution. The article argues that policy‐makers should not promote the ‘modernisation’ of food systems at the expense of traditional channels which meet important consumer needs.     

THE COMMUNITIES WE ARE REGAINING BUT NEED TO LOSE

Michael Young and Gerard Lemos’ (1997 Young, M. and Lemos, G. 1997. The communities we have lost and can regain, London: Lemos and Crane.  [Google Scholar]) text The communities we have lost and can regain has had a substantial influence on New Labour's communitarian thinking. This paper critically examines a specific aspect of New Labour's communitarian agenda, namely, its use of public housing policy to rebuild communities in order to combat social exclusion on so-called ‘sink estates’. The paper is presented in four main parts. The first part of the paper discusses how, why and to what extent ‘community’ has been lost, with particular reference to public housing estates. The second part examines why community rebuilding is now seen as the solution to the problems caused by the loss of community on public housing estates and, to this end, pays particular attention to the communitarian values that underpin New Labour's third way. The third part of the paper examines some empirical studies of community in order to highlight the key characteristics of ‘community’ and thereby develop a critical understanding of what New Labour are currently seeking to achieve. The fourth part of the paper juxtaposes this discussion of ‘community’ with a discussion of emerging socio-economic trends that have been identified in the literature on late modernity and globalization. By highlighting emerging socio-economic trends such as residential mobility into the community debate, the paper concludes by criticizing the policy of community building as ‘good for you’. Our key point is that community building restricts the residential mobility of poorer households and exacerbates (rather than combats) their social exclusion because a key indicator of social inclusion is their ability to take advantage of the social, cultural and economic opportunities that so often exist ‘elsewhere’.     

New Organizational Forms for Competing in Highly Dynamic Environments: the Network Paradigm

Turbulence and rapid change in the business environment have been associated for some time with the development of new network organizational forms which put various types of strategic alliance and other inter-organizational collaborations into effect. This paper traces the rationale for the formation of such networks and the associated vertical disaggregation of functions and implications for internal organizational design. This leads to the proposal of a classification framework for network forms. Using the dimensions of volatility of environmental change on the one hand, and the type of inter-organizational relationship involved (collaborative or transactional) on the other hand, network forms are classified as: hollow networks, flexible networks, value-added networks and virtual networks. In each case it is possible to identify the environmental and organizational contingencies most likely to be associated with the emergence and adoption of a particular type of network arrangement. This argument leads to the identification of a new research agenda which has the goals of developing more robust conceptualizations of network characteristics; better understanding the contingencies surrounding the emergence of network forms and their relative efficiencies and specifying some of the major implications of network formation for internal organizational design. In parallel the paper identifies a number of managerial implications for setting strategic priorities and developing appropriate management systems in these new organizational contexts.     

Competitive Advantage, Quality Strategy and the Role of Marketing

The improvement of product and service quality has been widely discussed in the literature as an appropriate competitive strategy for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. However, neither the linkage between competitive strategy and quality, nor the role of marketing in the implementation of quality-based competitive strategy, has received detailed attention in the marketing and strategy literatures. This paper explores the interface between marketing and quality management in seller organizations, by developing a contingency model of quality strategy. This model is grounded in the literatures of marketing, strategy and quality management, and the perceptions of managers uncovered in exploratory interviews.