Proportional quota weighted voting system hierarchies

We investigate achievable and unachievable hierarchies in weighted voting systems where the quota is a proportion of the total weight. This extends work of Bean et al. (Theory Dec 65:285–302, 2007) where simple majority achievable hierarchies were characterized. In particular we resolve the question of which hierarchies are possible with common quota rules other than simple majority, such as 2/3-majority or 3/4-majority, and offer a conjecture about proportional quota achievable hierarchies in general.     

Stuck in a Loop: Individual and System Barriers for Job Seekers With Disabilities

Research conducted within Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996) and Workforce Investment Act of 1998 systems indicates pervasive issues hindering program effectiveness for job seekers with disabilities. This population frequently experiences employment barriers beyond those of able‐bodied job seekers, including significantly lower self‐esteem. Service providers need and want information about disability but do not know how to obtain it. Program staff and job seekers with disabilities get stuck in a loop wherein each questions their ability and neither feels empowered to make meaningful changes to improve outcomes. Career counselors may need to expand their role to be more culturally relevant for these clients.     

Liminality and learning: international placements as a rite of passage

This article reports findings from a collaborative study of UK student learning in Malaysia. We analyze the concept of liminality as a means of understanding the transitional process between states and statuses that social work students experience in practice learning. Here, in specific reference to immersion in new cultural contexts represented by international placements, the development and learning of students are explored in relation to the overlapping domains of familiar and unfamiliar ‘cultures’ and disciplinary practice. These findings carry implications in terms of the increasing popularity of international placements and the potential imposition of hegemonies of values and knowledge.     

Disclosure Issues in Neuroscience Research

Issues of disclosure arise in neuroscientific research during the informed consent process, whenever incidental findings are identified, and when study results are generated. The possibility of disclosure of incidental findings and/or research results may raise informational expectations on the part of subjects and may alter a study's risk:benefit ratio. We recommend that the informed consent process address this potential consequence of research participation, and specify the conditions under which particular types of information will be offered, the conditions under which information may not be disclosed, and any provisions for helping subjects make sense of the information to be disclosed.     

Conceptions of Knowledge in Swedish Social Work Education: A Historical Account

This article considers competing conceptions of knowledge within Swedish social work education often presented as incompatibles. However, in this article we find commonalities and differences in these conceptions of knowledge. The analysis relies on written materials about Swedish social work education and concentrates on three developmental phases in time: the establishment of the first social worker programme, the establishment of social work as an academic discipline and the current situation. It shows how competing conceptions of knowledge try to respond to societal and academic demands in different ways.     

Servant,sailor, soldier,tailor, beggarman: Black survival in white society 1780–1830

Black history has witnessed an upsurge in historical interest from the 1970s onwards. However, significant developments have been impaired by the lack of direct black testimony and the paucity of information in general. Thus, scholarship has concentrated on a triumvirate of black literary figures and on the abolition of slavery. New dimensions and departures have been achieved by the work of Duffield, Lorimer and Braidwood; nevertheless, there remain identifiable areas in which our knowledge is deficient. One of the most important is that of black economic survival in white society, which has received only cursory attention. The aim of this study is to reconstruct black occupational structures and examine strategies of survival during the period 1780 to 1830.

This reconstruction of black socio‐economic groupings and employment patterns identifies complexities that were previously obscured. Important distinctions between the free and enslaved are discernible, especially in the occupations of servant and sailor. To support these conclusions evidence has been quarried from newspapers, parish registers and criminal records and comparisons made with the white population. Occupational structures of black men and women have been analysed and the material has enabled black people in the metropolis to be geographically located. Furthermore, the results reinforce the young male dominance of the black population as gender ratios and ages are distinguished.

By adopting a ‘history from below’ approach, attention has finally been diverted away from an elitist group of articulate black men and the issues of abolition towards an analysis of ‘rank and file’ black men and women, and will assist those in search of black roots.