The worker,the workplace,and the need for unemployment insurance*

Le chômage et la dépendance des prestations de l'assurance chômage qui en découle ne peuvent s'expliquer uniquement en termes de compétence naturelle, d'éducation, de formation professionnelle ou d'expérience préalable du travailleur en tant qu'individu. Lorsqu'on analyse ces attributs, on constate que leurs effets sont médiatisés par l'influence du lieu de travail. Pour explorer cette proposition, nous nous servons d'un modèle segmentaire d'établissements identifiés comme étant marginaux ou centraux dans le monde du travail, et fonctionnant selon une analyse des facteurs des caractéristiques de l'établissement. Les données sont tirées d'un échantillon vraisemblable de réclamants de prestations d'assurance chômage de la région canadienne de l'Atlantique. Nous comparons les travailleurs du monde marginal du travail à ceux du monde central en termes de l'usage possible de prestations. La portée théorique et la ligne de conduite de nos conclusions sont soumises à la discussion. Unemployment and subsequent dependence on unemployment insurance benefits cannot be explained solely in terms of the natural abilities, education, training or previous job experience of individual workers. When these attributes are analyzed, their effects are mediated through the influence of the workplace. To explore this proposition we use a segmentation model where establishments are identified either within the marginal or central work world operationalized through a factor analysis of establishment characteristics. The data are drawn from a probability sample of unemployment insurance claimants in Atlantic Canada. We compare workers in marginal and central work worlds in terms of potential benefit use. We examine through regression analysis the net effect of work world location, its importance in prediction, and its interactive effects with selected personal characteristics on potential benefit use. The theoretical and policy implications of our findings are discussed.     

提高英语专业学生口语有效输出能力的探讨

以参加英语口语课堂活动的英语专业学生为研究对象,通过访谈、问卷、口语测试和课堂观察等方法,收集口语输出活动过程中的真实材料,并进行学生输出障碍分析。发现"可理解输出"未必是"有效输出"。情感过滤、课堂输出活动方式和学生的语用能力是影响课堂教学环境下学生口语有效输出的主要因素。认为情感支持、元语言环境下的话语互动和课堂语用教学是促进有效的口语输出、提高英语口语能力的重要策略。     

Social Networks and Social Service Workers

Correspondence to Peter Sharkey, School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool Polytechnic, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ. Summary ‘Networks’ is a word often used in the discussionof social work practice and within social services departments.It was a word which was central to the Barclay Report (1982)and important within the more recently published Griffiths Report(1988) on community care. It is a word also known to sociologistsand anthropologists through the development of ‘networkanalysis’. There is, however, a fairly wide gap betweenits use within social work and its use within social science.This article tries to explore this gap and the ways in whichsocial science ideas might have some use and relevance to socialservice workers. It does this by using some illustrative datafrom a study done of the personal networks of thirty elderlypeople who were all clients of a social service district office.     

Probation Practice, Effectiveness and the Non-Treatment Paradigm

Correspondence to Dr Peter Raynor, Department of Social Policy and Applied Social Studies, University of Wales, Swansea SA2 8PP. Summary This paper reports interim and largely positive results fromthe continuing evaluation of ‘Straight Thinking on Probation’,a substantial intensive probation programme in Mid-Glamorganbased on the work of Robert Ross et al. (1988) in Canada. Thepotential effectiveness of this type of programme is then discussedin relation to the influential model of the probation service'srole advanced by Bottoms and McWilliams in their 1979 ‘non-treatmentparadigm’. Are such programmes ‘treatment’,based on a model of offender pathology and therefore in conflictwith the paradigm, or are they ‘help’, based ona model of empowerment? An attempt to answer this question alsorequires consideration of how far the ‘non-treatment paradigm’was itself a response to perceived ineffectiveness requiringrevision in the light of new evidence. It is argued that suchrevision need not threaten the underlying moral philosophy ofthe paradigm.     

Use of pre-school daycare and education 1979–86

SUMMARY. Using General Household Survey data, this paper considers attendance by children under five at public and private services providing non-parental daycare and education in 1986 and compares it with 1979. Attendance of children under five rose from 32 per cent in 1979 to 42 per cent in 1986. The services included are primary schools, nursery schools and classes, playgroups, day nurseries and child minders. Playgroups are most used for two and three year olds and schools for four year olds with the majority of children attending on apart time basis. Children from higher social class backgrounds are more likely to receive care and/or education with 50 per cent of such children using pre-school services, as compared to 3 7 per cent of children with fathers in manual occupations