CONTEXT EFFECTS FOR CENSUS MEASURES OF RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN

This paper reports on the results of a split-ballot experimentconducted in 1987 to test alternative versions of the decennialcensus long form. Two forms were randomly assigned and self-administeredin group sessions involving a total of 515 respondents. Theorder of race and Hispanic origin items was experimentally manipulated.The standard long form asks race, then Hispanic origin. Theexperimental form reversed the order of the items in order toreduce perceived redundancy, and to create a more restrictedframe of reference for the race item. The objectives of thecontext manipulation were (1) to reduce item nonresponse forthe Hispanic origin item, and (2) to reduce reporting of "Otherrace" by Hispanics in the race item. Objective (1) was met.Objective (2) was met for Hispanics born in a U.S. state, butnot for immigrants. The results are interpreted as reflectinga process of acculturation that affects how Hispanic respondentsapply U.S. racial categories "white" and "black" in the census.     

Career Planning Connections: Using the Computer to Match Students With Professionals in the Field

This article describes a computerized career resource network designed to assist in matching students, efficiently and cost-effectively, with professionals in their career fields of interest.     

Femininity, Sexuality and Professionalism in the Children's Departments

Correspondence to ReadingLasses, Wigtown, Galloway, DG8 9EH. Summary Noting the significance of women in management in the localauthority children's departments (1948–72) and the preoccupationwith women in management during the 1990s, the authors comparethese two periods. In particular, they focus upon the discoursesof femininity which shape the ways in which women as managersand as professionals are talked about, understood and analysed.The argument, presented from a feminist post-structuralist perspective,is based on an analysis of data generated through interviewswith women who were significant in the children's departments(as children's officers or members of the children's committees)between 1948 and 1972. The paper shows that the ways in whichfemininity is constructed, socially and through women's subjectivities,act as powerful mechanisms through which women are controlled,but also present opportunities to women for resistance and change.     

Stakeholder Reporting: The Role of Intermediaries

Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many companies. This paper adapts Mayston's normative “information beneficiaries” framework and focuses on intermediaries who might potentially use published financial information to open a restricted form of dialogue with companies, which might benefit unsophisticated stakeholders. The paper examines the Mayston framework using interviews conducted in organizations that might act on behalf of three stakeholder groups associated with gas and electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom, these being: consumers, employees, and the environment. While a long chain of communication exists between utility company and stakeholder, and many organizations do not fulfill their full potential as information intermediaries, there is some evidence that Mayston's framework might well operate in practice.     

Corporate Responses to HIV/AIDS: Experience and Leadership from South Africa

HIV/AIDS harms the viability and competitiveness of African businesses. As a consequence, companies increasingly subscribe to the view that taking a proactive role to combat HIV/AIDS is not simply a question of compassion and good corporate citizenship. Rather, these firms see assertive action against HIV as critical to their long‐term profitability, and some have concluded that it is cost effective even in the short term. The article discusses how South African companies are taking action against HIV in ways that set new benchmarks, enhance the effectiveness of international AIDS advocacy efforts, and spur businesses across Africa and beyond to strengthen their corporate responses to HIV/AIDS.     

Working Together to Protect Children on the Child Protection Register: Myth or Reality

Correspondence to Jan Horwath, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Elmfield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK. Summary Child protection guidance at a national level has predominantlyfocused on the investigation and assessment of child abuse andneglect. Post-registration practice has received little attention,resulting in a variety of local responses. This paper describesthe findings from a national study designed to identify theimpact of the lack of national guidance on local post-registrationframeworks for practice. Data collected indicate that very fewArea Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) have developed policies,procedures or practice guidance which would provide a structurefor post-registration practice. This position is aggravatedfurther as individual professionals are confused about theirown roles and responsibilities and those of colleagues. We considerthe impact of these findings on practice and conclude by suggestinga macro level framework that can be utilized by ACPCs who wishto develop practice in this area.     

The transnational lives and third space subjectivities of British Nigerian girls

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2012 on British Nigerian young women who have gone to boarding school in Nigeria and returned to attend university in the UK, I use the concept of third space as a heuristic device for understanding their transnational subjectivities and practices. I argue that, for some, this third space is a transgressive one in which they can craft alternative subjectivities and narratives about African culture and political economy. Applying insights from decolonial theory, I seek to build on the transgressive nature of this third space. In positioning themselves variously as Londoners, Nigerians, dual and post‐nationals, they express key features of contemporary transnational European subjectivities. Yet, parental expectations that they marry Nigerians and members of the Nigerian diaspora serve to reproduce the racial distinctions and nationalist rhetoric of colonial modernity that their third space subjectivities contest.     

The training of nursery workers: the need for a new approach

SUMMARY. This paper sets out an argument for an approach to under fives provision which ignores the boundaries between care and education. It demonstrates an example of training, at South Bank Polytechnic in London, which attempts to overcome barriers to looking at children as whole individuals     

Child Protection: Balancing Paternalism and Partnership

Correspondence to Martin C. Calder, Child Protection Unit, Salford Social Services Department, Avon House, Avon Close, Little Hulton, Manchester M38 OLA Summary There have been a great many protracted and heated debates aboutthe practice of state intervention and control of family lifein recent years. Indeed, the Children Act (1989) was draftedafter the Cleveland Inquiry highlighted the lack of consulationwith parents and the lasting effects of ill-considered intrusioninto family life, and embraced the philosophy of partnership.Social workers operating in the child care and child protectionareas need to balance the contradictory notions of paternalismand partnership, in the knowledge that they will be pilloriedby the popular press when they get it wrong. This paper attemptsto contrast the two concepts in their philosophical and socialwork contexts, and moves on to recommend frameworks for helpingto balance them when they are operationalized. It is essentialto consider this particular debate in the wider political andeconomic contexts, particularly where uncertainty and the lackof resources are ever-present features.