The periphery of care: Emergency services for homeless people in rural areas

Until recently, homelessness in rural areas has received little recognition because of overwhelming assumptions about the urban-centredness of homeless people and their needs. This paper seeks to build on recent research that has begun to uncover some of the problems and characteristics of rural homelessness, by suggesting two significant dynamics which together can shape the experience of different groups of homeless people in rural environments. First, rural places reflect particular local qualities which contextualise both the circumstances of homelessness and the provision of services in response to those circumstances. Secondly, the contemporary governance of homelessness unfolds rather unevenly in different rural areas, producing distinct local service environments with varying degrees of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ status in relation to joined-up responses to the needs of homeless people. These dynamics are articulated through three case studies: a remote friary in a deep rural area of southern England; a small hostel run by a vibrant non-statutory organisation in a small town in the west of England, and two advice centres in a coastal resort in the north-east of England. Through these case studies we highlight the importance of both local reactions to the homeless other, and local relations between central government funding, local authority initiatives and charitable organisations, in the production and consumption of spaces of care in settings set in, or serving, rural environments.     

Minimum wages and poverty with income-sharing

Textbook analysis tells us that in a competitive labor market, the introduction of a minimum wage above the competitive equilibrium wage will cause unemployment. This paper makes three contributions to the basic theory of the minimum wage. First, we analyze the effects of a higher minimum wage in terms of poverty rather than in terms of unemployment. Second, we extend the standard textbook model to allow for income-sharing between employed and unemployed persons in society. Third, we extend the basic model to deal with income sharing within families. We find that there are situations in which a higher minimum wage raises poverty, others where it reduces poverty, and yet others in which poverty is unchanged. We characterize precisely how the poverty effect depends on four parameters: the degree of poverty aversion, the elasticity of labor demand, the ratio of the minimum wage to the poverty line, and the extent of income-sharing. Thus, shifting the perspective from unemployment to poverty leads to a considerable enrichment of the theory of the minimum wage.      

The energy and mass balance of Los Angeles County

We conducted an urban “metabolic” study of inputs and outputs of food, water, energy, and pollutants from Los Angeles County, USA. This region has been the subject of recent debate about the nature of population density and distribution as it relates to urban form and associated environmental impacts. We found that with the exception of food imports and wastewater outputs, inputs of resources and outputs of pollutants generally declined on a per capita basis from 1990 to 2000. Reductions likely reflected a combination of changes in public policy, improvements in technology and public infrastructure, and impacts of increases in population density. However, in comparison to other municipalities and urban regions, resource consumption per capita was still relatively high in some categories, particularly inputs of water and transportation energy. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions were lower in Los Angeles County than for the average of the USA as a whole but higher than previous analyses of urban areas internationally, largely due to comparatively high emissions from the transportation sector. Wastewater discharge accounted for less than 40% of water inputs excluding precipitation; however the partitioning of water outputs through other potential losses, specifically evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater recharge, remains highly uncertain. We suggest that more detailed information about water losses will greatly improve future mass and energy accounting for analyses of urban environmental sustainability in this semi-arid region.     

Adoption of children with developmental disabilities.

United Methodist Family Services of Virginia placed 41 developmentally disabled children in adoptive homes between August 1985 and June 1988, representing a range of chronic emotional, intellectual, and physical disabilities. This article describes the need for specialized adoption programs for children with developmental disabilities and the methods used in placing these children. The obstacles to adoption of children with developmental disabilities are also discussed.     

WHAT'S IN A NAME? SOME CONFUSIONS AND CONCERNS ABOUT CONSTRUCTIVISM

As discussions about so-called 'epistemology' have receded within family therapy, discussions about te doctrine of constructivism have emerged to carry on the underlying impulse of those earlier discussions. This article contends that a constructivist epistemology is not a new doctrine in family therapy, but, rather, reflects a shift in emphasis in that discipline from a nontraditional use to the traditional use of the term "epistemology" uses that coexisted during the 'epistemology' debates of the early 1980s and that were the source of many confusions and logical contradictions. The articale also demonstrates how recent articulations of cosnstructivism have resulted in the same logical contradictions tht were committed during the earlier 'epistemology'; debates. The logic and utility of applying constructivism in particular, and epistemological analysis in general, to the practice of psychotherapy are questioned and considered.     

THE JOYS OF GARDENING: COLLECTIVIST AND BUREAUCRATIC CULTURES IN CONFLICT

Collectives and bureaucracies differ not only in structure and values, but interpret the social world and engage in actions based on quite different themes, symbols, and meanings. These diverse patterns of symbolic discourse, or organizational cultures, are assessed in the case of the recent urban gardening movement. Although government agencies assisted the movement by providing resources to movement collectives and by establishing thousands of urban gardening projects, collectives and bureaucracies had different meanings for what appeared to be the same experience. A comparison of how each described the benefits of urban gardening and structured the gardening experience for participants show serious underlying differences between these organizational cultures and a source of potential bureaucratic/collectivist conflict. Implications for understanding apparent official opposition to collectivist movements are also assessed.     

Responsibility and management strategies in child sexual abuse: a comparison of child protective workers, nurses, and police officers

This study identifies the attitudes of professionals toward the attribution of responsibility for sexual abuse and strategies for case management. Several variables, including the victim's gender, social status of the perpetrator, use of physical force, one's professional discipline, and past history of childhood victimization, were found to influence professionals' attitudes.     

Assessing the cost of behaviorally oriented residential treatment: predictive program factors

The authors identify program characteristics most predictive of cost in 13 residential treatment facilities for emotionally disturbed children and discuss how easily obtainable quantitative information can be used to decide resource allocation.