Pension reforms in EU11 countries: An evaluation of post‐socialist pension policies

This article evaluates the pension policy pathways of the 11 former state socialist nations that have joined the European Union since 2004. Focusing primarily on the post‐2004 period, the analysis discusses the most important measurable outcomes of these countries’ pension reforms, in terms of poverty alleviation, pension adequacy and fiscal sustainability. Going beyond the quantifiable concepts, we also investigate the quality of the 11 countries’ pension systems in terms of equity as well as efficiency, emphasizing the less conspicuous design errors present in these systems. Although these errors have received little attention to date, they may harm pension schemes along several dimensions, including their fiscal sustainability.     

Feminine or feminist? Women’s media leadership

This paper presents a small-scale qualitative case study of five women’s experiences of leadership roles in Irish media industries. Relational Leadership Theory is used to examine whether there is a gendered dimension to women’s leadership and to explore why women’s participation in leadership has not resulted in significant feminist gains or changes to media organisations. The article finds that: the women saw their leadership as relational and simultaneously as socially constructed in a gendered manner. Moreover, the women led organisational change towards greater gender equality in the norms of media work. However, while the women’s leadership was relational and feminine, it was not necessarily feminist; it did not aim to generate systemic changes within the gendering of the media as an institution. The changes that the women wrought incorporated women into a system of production that remained nonetheless masculinist.     

Developmental Outcomes of School Attachment Among Students of Mexican Origin

We used a longitudinal community study of 674 grade school children (Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8; 337 males, 337 females) of Mexican origin to examine outcomes of school attachment. Attachment to school is important in this population given the high level of school dropout rates of Mexican‐origin students. Results indicated that, on average, school attachment from fifth to sixth grade remains stable, but declines from sixth to eighth grade. Boys had lower levels of school attachment at fifth grade but followed similar patterns of change as girls did. Attachment to teachers, peer competence, school aspirations and expectations, and substance‐use cognitions emerged as longitudinal outcomes of level or changes in school attachment. Gender moderated associations of school attachment.     

Attitudes toward poverty among exit students of undergraduate social work programs in eight Latin American countries

What is the attitude of Latin American undergraduate social work students toward poverty? An earlier study from Europe and other countries worldwide found that most graduating social work students who participated in the research were clear about the socio-structural causes of social problems such as poverty. Still, no data on this topic is available for Latin American countries. The aims of this study were: (1) to describe and to compare eight Latin American graduating undergraduate social work student groups regarding their attitudes toward poverty, as measured by two scales: Causes of poverty scale and Ways of dealing with poverty; and (2) to discuss some of the implications of the study for social work education and practice. Using a quantitative transnational-comparative design, a total sample of 525 nonrandomly selected, graduating undergraduate social work students from eight Latin American countries responded to a self-administered questionnaire. An individualistic attitude to understanding and to dealing with poverty emerged in the majority of the student groups. Multivariate procedures and inferential analyses demonstrated variations across the student groups. Implications for social work education and practice are discussed.     

U.S. CREDIT UNIONS: SURVIVAL,CONSOLIDATION, AND GROWTH

This study uses hazard function estimations and time‐series and cross‐sectional growth regressions to examine the impact of exit through merger and acquisition (M&A) or failure, and internally generated growth, on the firm‐size distribution within the U.S. credit union sector. Consolidation through M&A was the principal cause of a reduction in the number of credit unions, but impact on concentration was small. Divergence between the average internally generated growth of smaller and larger credit unions was the principal driver of the rise in concentration. (JEL G21)     

Negotiating Solidarity: Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and the ‘NGO-ization’ of Postcolonial Narrative

This essay examines the relationship between transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and postcolonial disasters as represented in literature. After the 1990s expansion of humanitarian organizations, a wide array of NGO-related literature emerges, including depictions of aid workers in fiction as well as humanitarian-authored narratives. While these texts contain a capacity for self-critique typically lacking in transnational NGO campaign materials, they remain mired in a ‘bureaucratic imagination’, sequestered from supposed beneficiaries. Alongside this literary development is an increasing pressure on postcolonial fiction to align with narrowly defined NGO missions, or what might be called an ‘NGO-ization of postcolonial narrative’. This essay interprets Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People as a vociferous refutation of such humanitarian pressure. Sinha stages the interaction between subaltern survivor and humanitarian benefactor not in terms of heroic salvation or radical rejection but as a conditional and negotiated solidarity. Disaster thus creates an opportunity to reimagine the subaltern-humanitarian relationship.     

Continuity of Mental Health Care Across Military Transitions

Multiple deployments, a prominent characteristic of operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn, have been linked to increased risk for various mental health conditions. It is also well known that military transitions, such as a change of duty station or discharge, are an inevitable part of military life. While military transitions can be stressful for any service member or veteran, those with mental health conditions face additional challenges. Transition stress can exacerbate a mental health condition that in turn hinders ability to manage the transition, resulting in a cycle of stress. As a result, those receiving mental health care while transitioning often experience difficulty continuing treatment post-transition. This article describes a unique and innovative transition coaching program designed to address this emerging issue.     

Unequal partners in crime: masters,slaves and free people of color in Santo Domingo,c.1600–1650

In the early seventeenth century, important socioeconomic changes in the Spanish colony of Hispaniola brought about substantial shifts in race relations between white residents and peoples of African descent, who were enslaved and free. As the plantation system declined precipitously, white members of the Spanish elite started envisioning new roles for enslaved laborers, which included enrolling these enslaved peoples in their own intrigues against other elites. This cooperation led people in bondage to carry out violent attacks and assassination plots against other members of the white colonial society. People of African descent took advantage of these collaborations as an opportunity to advance their own interests within the community. Nevertheless, people of African descent faced fierce and often violent backlash if they acted of their own accord.     

The Effect of Solution‐Focused Versus Problem‐Focused Questions: A Replication

In therapeutic conversations, questions can be considered as interventions in their own right. This study is a cross‐cultural replication of Grant (Journal of Systemic Therapies, 2012, 31, 2, 21) study on the effects of different types of questions on various clinically relevant variables. A total of 204 students of a Spanish university described a real‐life problem that they wanted to solve and were then randomly assigned to either a solution‐focused or a problem‐focused questions condition. Before and after answering the questions, they completed a set of measures that assessed positive and negative affect, self‐efficacy, and goal attainment. Solution‐focused questions produced a significantly greater increase in self‐efficacy, goal approach, and action steps than problem‐focused questions, and a significantly greater decrease in negative affect, providing further empirical support to solution‐focused practices.