Migrant Care Work Going Dutch? The Emergence of a Live‐in Migrant Care Market and the Restructuring of the Dutch Long‐term Care System

In recent years, a live‐in migrant care (LIMC) market has emerged in European countries with specific care, migration, and employment regime features. In countries with relatively low levels of formal long‐term care (LTC) provision, people in need of care and their families have started purchasing LTC directly from individual – mostly migrant – workers who live‐in with the person in need of care. Previous research has shown that this arrangement is facilitated by the availability of cash‐for‐care benefits that can be freely used by the beneficiaries, and/or by low levels of regulation of employment and migration. The Netherlands traditionally features strong, universal and generous LTC policies. However, recently, the phenomenon of LIMC has also appeared there. Based on exploratory qualitative research, this article examines the features of Dutch LIMC and the factors that foster or hinder its development. Our findings show that the ongoing restructuring of the Dutch LTC system – particularly the emphasis on informal care and decreasing accessibility of institutional care – are important factors pushing an LIMC market. At the same time, various institutional factors limit its growth, particularly the high levels of regulation of the Dutch care, migration and employment regimes. Further cutbacks in the care sector might push more families to this market in the near future, and change the character of the Dutch LTC sector. The Dutch case is relevant for other countries with longstanding traditions of generous LTC services which currently undergo retrenchment, and sheds light on routes to institutional change.     

International Competition Intensified: Job Satisfaction Sacrificed?

Social Indicators Research - There has been an intense debate as to the effects of offshoring and global value chains on labor, with the debate centering around possible negative employment and...     

Innovating Practices to Prepare Students for Graduate School: Lessons From a Social Work MOOC

This article describes the implementation of a massive open online course (MOOC) developed by a school of social work and piloted in the incoming 2016 MSW class (N=397). Using implementation science as a framework, we describe the MOOC as an intervention for preparing students for graduate school and share findings from the pilot evaluation. We argue that MOOCs can represent an innovative approach for other schools of social work, but our lessons learned suggest that they also require resources, time investment, organizational support, and understanding of the implications for students and the school. Future questions for research include examining the long-term benefits of MOOCs to students, their broader application, and the cost-benefit analysis for schools interested in developing MOOCs.     

Cash for long‐term care: Policy debates,visions, and designs on the move

Cash‐for‐care (CfC) schemes have introduced a key transformation in long‐term care policies across Europe since the 1990s. The article explores the extent to which CfC policies have changed over time and into which directions, the ways in which change (if any) has occurred and the forces underlying it. By combining the literature on institutional change with ideational approaches, the article focuses on policy theories and policy designs, on modes of change and factors pushing for change within the CfC policy, and in the long‐term care and neighbouring policy fields. In doing so, we aim to contribute to understanding institutional change and the transformation of an increasingly important sector of the welfare state.     

The Impact of Quality Management Practices on Performance and Competitive Advantage

As decision makers become more involved in implementing Total Quality Management, questions are raised about which management practices should be emphasized. In this exploratory investigation of the relationship of specific quality management practices to quality performance, a framework was constructed. It focuses on both core quality management practices and on the infrastructure that creates an environment supportive of their use. In addition, it incorporates two measures of quality performance and their role in establishing and sustaining a competitive advantage. Path analysis was used to test the proposed model, with multiple regression analysis determining the path coefficients, which were decomposed into their various effects. Weak linkages were eliminated. The trimmed model indicated that perceived quality market outcomes were primarily related to statistical control/feedback and the product design process, while the internal measure of percent that passed final inspection without requiring rework was strongly related to process flow management and to statistical control/feedback, to a lesser extent. Both measures of quality performance were related to competitive advantage. Important infrastructure components included top management support and workforce management. Supplier relationships and work attitudes were also related to some of the core quality practices and quality performance measures. The results were interpreted in light of Hill's concept of order winners and order qualifiers and Garvin's eight dimensions of quality. They indicate that different core quality management practices lead to success in different dimensions of quality, and that those dimensions function differently as order winners and order qualifiers.     

Gender,class and rurality: Australian case studies

The interrelationship between gender and class in rural spaces has received little attention. While rural scholars have focused on the implications for class from processes of gentrification and agricultural and rural restructuring, these analyses have remained largely ungendered. Similarly, feminist rural studies have rarely explored subjectivity as gendered and classed. This paper contributes to rural theories of class and gender by drawing on the work of contemporary feminist class theorists to explore class as gendered and inscribed through personal memory, community narrative and through everyday values and interactions associated with work, leisure and family. To explore intersections of gender, class and rurality, the article draws on data from interviews from two separate Australian studies of farming families. Narratives highlighted the ambiguity of class, the gendered and classed nature of voluntary organisations in rural spaces, and moral values and signifiers associated with what it is to be a ‘good’ farmer and a ‘good’ community member. The data indicate how values of moral worth are gendered and classed and inscribed on farming women and men. This qualitative examination of gender and class in rural spaces draws attention to class as being more than a ranking on an occupational scale, property ownership or degrees of engagement in consumption. Rather, it reveals class as emotionally inscribed in ways that are gendered, economic and moral, and represented through symbolic signifiers and cultural narratives.     

Plant species richness, vegetation structure and soil resources of urban brownfield sites linked to successional age

Brownfield sites contribute significantly to urban biodiversity due to their high spatio-temporal dynamics and their transient character. Plant species richness is, among other factors, contingent on vegetation structure. In this study, we examined plant species richness, vegetation height, vegetation density and soil parameters of a chronosequence of urban brownfield sites in Bremen and Berlin, Germany. These parameters were linked to successional age using single and multiple linear regression. Most biotic and abiotic variables differed significantly between sites with and without brick rubble in the soil, indicating a strong effect of site history on vegetation development. Soil parameters of the sites were not clearly linked to site age. Vegetation height and density increased significantly over time. Additionally, height and density increased with soil phosphorus content and water permeability of the soil, whilst plant available water only contributed to the model of vegetation density. Species richness increased with vegetation height but decreased with vegetation density. This indicates that species richness is maximised when a community comprises a mixture of early and mid-successional species. The results suggest that high plant species richness on sandy brownfield sites can be achieved by strong disturbances at an interval of 5 (±2) years. However, limiting soil resources can prolong this interval considerably. Management aiming to maximise plant species richness in urban brownfield sites should therefore take into account the interplay between soil resources and site age.     

Gruppendynamik als Interventionswissenschaft – eine neue Herausforderung?

Social criticism, social learning (action learning), (self-)reflection and interventions into social systems have always been important categories for group dynamics and action research. In chapter one their understanding of ?intervention“ is elaborated, a term that came in use in the context of small groups. Only later this term was also transferred to organizations and institutions. Starting from basic ideas of group dynamics the article investigates to what extent the learning models and ideas to organize social processes that come from laboratory situations can be made fruitful towards a science of intervention (chapter two). In practice a number of group dynamic models for research and professional acting are used (consulting, organization development, training, contract research) but the special method of insight producing and consciousness raising intervention is paid little attention to in social science. It is therefore advisable to estimate these practical experiences higher, in order to make them accessible for a respectable development of theory (case study in chapter two). The way of group dynamics towards an intervention science is a current challenge that all applied social sciences are facing nowadays; the development of a dialectic understanding of science seems to be necessary in this context.     

Deutsch-polnisches Training: Persönliche und professionelle Erfahrungen mit Bikulturalität und Interkulturalität – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit

This report contains several experiences and authentic examples taken from highly professional German-Polish and Polish-German coaching groups. Accordingly, ideas are in part presented from a very personal point of view. Running “Intercultural activities” is very much praised in a world that becomes more and more globalized. But how do these activities work out in practice? The author’s goal is to explain the cultural differences in order for managers to be able to work effectively in international projects. The author illustrates her method and her goals by giving characteristic examples. She talks about demands as far as the personality of the coach is concerned, as well as about interferences within the coaching situation. A prevailing common culture in Europe does not (yet) exist which makes it even more important to talk about differences openly so that they can be understood and be overcome. Useful experiences are shared which shall help to build a ‘working’ trust level between representatives of different cultures. Cultural factors of power usage are described which show how power can be applied in different ways. The influence of language problems is also analyzed in detail. Finally, this paper shows that the most important is to keep an atmosphere based on cooperation: only when such an atmosphere is accepted as a natural daily routine can contacts among participants of different cultures be established as among equals and it is then possible to overcome the challenges related to differences of cultures.