Comment

Bonferroni inequalities often provide tight upper and lower bounds for the probability of a union of events. The bounds are especially useful when this probability is difficult to compute exactly. There are situations, however, in which the Bonferroni approach gives very poor results. An example is given in which the upper and lower Bonferroni bounds are far from the probability they seek to approximate and successive bounds do not converge. Even an improved first upper Bonferroni bound may not be close to the probability of the union of events.     

t-Latinized Designs

A variety trial sometimes requires a resolvable block design in which the replicates are set out next to each other. The long blocks running through the replicates are then of interest. A t -latinized design is one in which groups of these t long blocks are binary. In this paper examples of such designs are given. It is shown that the algorithm described by John & Whitaker (1993) can be used to construct designs with high average efficiency factors. Upper bounds on these efficiency factors are also derived.     

"Bridging the Gap": New Relationships between Primary Care Groups and Local Authorities

Current policy places great emphasis on the development of "partnerships", particularly between NHS and local authority services, with the aims of increasing service coordination and delivery and improving health. To this end, primary care groups (PCGs), at the forefront of NHS organizational developments, are required to include a social services representative on their governing boards; similarly, primary care trusts (PCTs) have a social services representative on their executive committees. Drawing on a representative longitudinal national survey of English PCGs, the paper evaluates the contribution of these new governance arrangements to the development of inter-agency partnerships. Despite poor histories of collaboration and some major organizational barriers, there are some signs of progress, with social services representatives playing an active part in PCG affairs and having clear lines of communication about PCG matters with their employing authorities. Equally significantly, PCGs have also quickly established a wide range of contacts directly with other local authority services and departments. However, these early gains risk being limited by traditional professional inequalities between social work and medicine and, in particular, by the prospect of further organizational upheaval as PCGs merge with each other and/or acquire trust status.     

Changing the Palace Guard: Analysing the Impact of Women's Entry into Medicine

Women's rapid entry into medicine raises important questions about change in this historically male-dominated profession. In addition to shifting the gender balance, do increasing numbers of women signal a more fundamental change in the way in which medicine is organized and practised? A growing body of research suggests such change. Yet there is continuing controversy about the meaning of observed gender differences in practice, whether they reflect an essentially pragmatic response to women's dual workload of family and career, or whether they are the result of underlying differences in attitudes, values and orientations. This article uses data from a survey of a recent cohort of family physicians in Ontario, Canada, to document the extent of gender differences and similarities in medical practice, and their interrelationships to family situation, political attitudes and patient care attitudes. The results show that seemingly related differences in practice are accounted for in different ways: while some are associated with differences in family situation, others are tied to attitudes, while others are a function of gender alone. The results also reveal gender similarities which do not suggest that women are becoming more like men, but that men, and the profession as a whole are changing. We would emphasize the importance of interpreting gender differences and similarities within a broader conceptual understanding of change in the profession.     

Child Support: The Limits of Social Policy Based on Assumptions of Knavery Extending the Pillars of Social Policy Financing to Aged Care

Julian Le Grand has argued that a key component of welfare reform involves changes in the assumptions about human behaviour which are embedded in social policies. Policy assumptions have been transformed from espousing a belief that social service providers act as well-intentioned knights and recipients as passive pawns, to a stance in which all participants are regarded as self-seeking knaves. These ideas are particularly pertinent to policy developments concerning financial obligations for children, and this paper examines these issues in relation to child support policy in New Zealand. It highlights the evident and inevitable failure of this policy to meet its primary stated aim of revenue generation. In New Zealand this failure is compounded by the creation of parallel systems for dealing with children and families, one for financial obligations and the other for care and development, which are founded on diametrically opposed assumptions about human behaviour and capabilities. This confusion is symptomatic of a wider failure in government policy towards families in New Zealand.     

The particularity of the universal: critical reflections on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power and the state

A critical review of Bourdieu’s theory of the state is developed here against the backdrop of both his wider theoretical project and empirical studies. Elaborating the concepts of symbolic capital, symbolic violence, and symbolic domination, the centrality that Bourdieu accords to symbolic forms is compared to benchmark Weberian accounts that start with the state monopoly of violence. Reviewing also some of the burgeoning secondary literature discussing his theory of the state, Bourdieu’s writings, which encompass various antinomies, are shown to vacillate between two distinct perspectives—a strong and a weak theory of the state. His rejection of the “physicalist” approaches of Marx, Elias, and Tilly is elaborated and subject to a counter-critique, particularly in relation to the notion of symbolic “violence.” Bourdieu’s account of the state is shown to be as much a political as theoretical intervention. His antagonism towards Marxist accounts in particular is shown to be rooted in a pragmatic interest in the role of the “left hand of the state” in progressive reform; and this perspective is traced back to the twin influences of Durkheim and Hegel, French republicanism, and in particular the potential of the state to express a universal interest. At the same time, compared with sophisticated Marxist and Weberian accounts and the work of Norbert Elias and Gramsci, Bourdieu’s theory is shown to be severely lacking in the way that he deals with violence and coercion. His “expanded materialism,” particularly with the “strong theory,” bends the stick too far and overplays the symbolic basis of consent. Nevertheless, Bourdieu’s insights with regard to the pervasive influences of state practices of classification, taxonomy, delegation, and naming are shown to have real utility with regard to focused empirical investigations of the state in modern societies.     

Public child welfare workers' perception of efficacy relative to multicultural awareness,knowledge and skills

Maintaining a well trained pool of workers in public child welfare agencies continues to be an ongoing problem. Research suggests that it is critical that we continue to explore the factors associated with worker efficacy. Existing research has found that outcomes for families and children are affected by numerous individual and organizational characteristics including worker's perceived efficacy (Advancement of Social Work Research, 2005; Bernotavicz, 2007; Collier, 2007; Ellett, 2007; Government Accountability Office, 2003; Milner, 2003). This study describes public child welfare workers, and their perceptions of efficacy relative to multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills. Study outcomes have implications for worker training, supervision, and curriculum on child welfare.     

Biological Pre‐emption: “Race”, Class,and Genomics

Genomics is a complex field of study involving researchers and practitioners immersed in the social milieu from which their genetic theories and comprehensions in part emerge. Genomic researchers' embeddedness in social formations with distinct ideologies predisposes them to construct hypotheses about genetics with value‐laden assumptions. Given genomics' inseparability from social influences this article explores how its use with marginalized groups has eugenic implications. Several important links between eugenics and genomics are identified suggesting eugenic implications in genomics.