Die Supervision auf dem Weg zur Profession? Professionalisierung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Expansionsbestrebung und Selbstbescheidung

In contrast to the general trend of deprofessionalization, supervision has established some criteria for professions during the last twenty years: wide ranges of quality standards, standardized educational programs, professional ethics etc. This development toward this trend needs explanation. It is argued, that the approach of the development of profession could be successful, because supervision became a successful “parasite” of its “host” social work. The introduction of supervision in social work, however, was responsible for the introduction of coaching as a new profession in the area of organizational consulting. The question is which effects the expansion of supervision towards team and organizational development will have on the establishing of its further professionalization. There appears to be some tendencies toward the idea that supervision will become a part of the development of professionalization as the “perfect nanny of organizations”.     

Stationen eines Coaching im ärztlichen Bereich Eine Fallstudie mit hypothetischen Beratungssituationen

Stages of a coaching in the medical area. A case study with hypothetical counseling situations This article presents typical points of a career in the medical field in Germany, structured by hypothetical coaching interventions including thorough methodological reflections. Career counseling, analysis of the organizational chart and culture as well as conflict counseling constitute the main focus of this paper. Creative methods such as painting and use of hand puppets supplement the therapeutic methods discussed, such as Socratic dialogue, role play exercises and an analysis of a sibling constellation.     

Evaluating Population Forecast Accuracy: A Regression Approach Using County Data

Many studies have evaluated the impact of differences in population size and growth rate on population forecast accuracy. Virtually all these studies have been based on aggregate data; that is, they focused on average errors for places with particular size or growth rate characteristics. In this study, we take a different approach by investigating forecast accuracy using regression models based on data for individual places. Using decennial census data from 1900 to 2000 for 2,482 counties in the US, we construct a large number of county population forecasts and calculate forecast errors for 10- and 20-year horizons. Then, we develop and evaluate several alternative functional forms of regression models relating population size and growth rate to forecast accuracy; investigate the impact of adding several other explanatory variables; and estimate the relative contributions of each variable to the discriminatory power of the models. Our results confirm several findings reported in previous studies but uncover several new findings as well. We believe regression models based on data for individual places provide powerful but under-utilized tools for investigating the determinants of population forecast accuracy.     

The Changing Space for NGOs: Civil Society in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes

In this introductory essay to the special issue on civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, we review core themes in the growing literature on shrinking or closing space for civil society. We discuss the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as agents of democratization and note the emergence of dual, at times apparently conflicting policy postures within authoritarian regimes (restriction and repression for some CSOs vs. financial support and opportunities for collaboration for others). We posit that different conceptual perspectives applied to civil society can help account for the duality of authoritarian postures and examine repercussions for three key subgroups of CSOs: claims-making (or advocacy) NGOs, nonprofit service providers and regime-loyal NGOs supporting often populist and nationalist discourses.

     

Poverty alleviation,coverage and fiscal sustainability: Investigating the effect of a new social pension in Hong Kong

This article synthesises the characteristics of social pensions across Asia and evaluates the effect of a new social pension in the Hong Kong SAR, the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA), on poverty alleviation, coverage rates and fiscal sustainability. We found that the effectiveness of the OALA in reducing old‐age poverty was limited, although it has led to an increase of retirement pension coverage by 6%. The OALA is projected to face substantial cost increases in the medium and longer term. Increasing the level of OALA benefits would be a direct means to enhance its poverty alleviation effect but may potentially be hampered by concerns about the fiscal sustainability of such changes. More obfuscated alternatives for Hong Kong policy makers to affect old‐age poverty alleviation include adjusting the indexing rules of benefit level payments and the eligibility criteria to reduce the stigma attached to the current policy choices.     

Linking jobs in global supply chains to demand

The expansion of global supply chains (GSCs) has increasingly disconnected the location of jobs from the demand supporting them, both geographically and in terms of sector. Using data from the World Input–Output Database, the authors examine these linkages across 40 countries over the period 1995–2013, expanding on earlier analysis published by the ILO, and provide evidence of the number of GSC‐related jobs in terms of job location–export destination combinations. Their findings point to changing patterns in demand and supply of GSC‐related jobs, increasing the role of China as a demand generator, reinforcing production linkages between emerging economies and increasing the number of service jobs dependent on manufacturing GSCs.     

Raumspezifische Armutsgefährdung im Alter

The aim of this article is to investigate income poverty risks of older people in Austria considering spatial aspects. By comparing rural and urban regions it should be tested whether spatial variables exert a significant effect on the income poverty risk of older people and how such an effect can be explained. Thus, specific aspects of rural poverty among older people are discussed. The empirical analysis is based on EU-SILC 2004. A binary-logistic regression model is applied in order to test the effect of local population density and local population size on the poverty risk of older people. Results show that the poverty risk of both older people and retirees increases significantly if population density decreases. The effect of local community size, however, was insignificant. For the younger population (< 60), on the contrary, poverty risk increases significantly with both decreasing population density and local community size.