POSTSTRUCTURALISM IN FAMILY THERAPY: INTERROGATING THE NARRATIVE/CONVERSATINAL MODE

The narrative/conversational mode of family therapy, based in constructivism and Batesonian cybernetics, has lately associated itself with the poststructuralism of Foucault and Derrida. The narrative/conversational models of White and Epston (1990) and de Shazer (1991) draw only selectively from Foucault and Derrida's ideas and so perpetuate the constructivist neglect of social context and power. Disregarded aspects of Foucault and Derrida's work do contribute to an under-standing of social context and power. Poststructuralism is a dubious prop for constructivist assumptions: its true merit is in its capacity to illuminate the political/cultural context of our practice, including family therapy as a social institution.     

Citizenship, poverty and the real will

The paper analyses the concept of citizenship in the work of Bernard and Helen Bosanquet against the backcloth of a broader intellectual and historical framework. The discussion then addresses three issues in relation to citizenship: class, markets and poverty. Each concept is introduced through the medium of T.H. Marshall's ideas on citizenship. Marshall's ideas are taken as broad markers for the discussion of the concept in the post 1945 era. The discussion of each concept is then analysed in relation to the Bosanquets’ theories. The basic conclusion is that many of the Bosanquets’ analyses and answers are both inappropriate and antique, however they do highlight certain intrinsic difficulties which are still very much part of twentieth century states.     

A Non-radial DEA Index for Peruvian Regional Competitiveness

In this paper, we propose a method to measure competitiveness performance at the subnational level, with an application to Peruvian regions. For this, we propose a benefit-of-the-doubt composite index that summarizes the information of several indicators that characterize competitiveness. It is based on an optimization approach, using data enveloping analysis (DEA) techniques, so that each indicator is weighted in an endogenous way, and each unit is evaluated in the most favourable light. Our proposed index is a non-radial variant of the typical DEA scores, which avoids the traditional pitfalls of DEA-based composite indices, such as unreasonable weights. Additionally, we propose a meta-frontier approach in order to compare the competitiveness performances across different periods of evaluation. Our assessments of the Peruvian regions’ competitiveness performance improve on the results of traditional DEA methods, which award high marks to regions with very heterogeneous performance (i.e., regions with very high scores in some indicators, and very poor in others). Additionally, the comparison of the performance across time shows a general decrease in the average competitiveness between 2008 and 2014 of the Peruvian regions.     

Where now for ‘child protection’ in Scotland?

In common with the rest of the UK, child care and protection practice in Scotland has undergone unprecedented change over the last ten years, including a wide‐ranging three‐year Child Protection Reform Programme. In 2006, The University of Dundee's Centre for Child Care and Protection and Barnardo's Scotland Research and Development team were commissioned by the then Scottish Executive to undertake a process review of the Child Protection Reform Programme (Daniel et al., 2007 ). Drawing on findings from the process review, this article considers the impact of the Child Protection Reform Programme. The process review concluded that, in the view of the respondents, the Child Protection Reform Programme made a substantive contribution towards the improvement and delivery of child protection services in Scotland, particularly in terms of raising awareness and increased multi‐agency working. It was beyond the scope of the review to measure outcomes for children as a result of the reforms. Since the completion of the Child Protection Reform Programme, national policy emphasis has broadened from ‘child protection’ towards integrated support for children under the Getting it Right for Every Child reforms of children's services. The paper concludes with a discussion around where ‘child protection’ now fits within this context of universal support for children and argues that there is a need to ensure that the valuable work which was done to improve child protection services in Scotland under the Child Protection Reform Programme is not lost. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gesundheits- und entwicklungsf?rderliches Führungsverhalten: Gendertypische Differenzen

There has been a growing interest in the past years, in analyzing the impact of leadership behavior on employees?? health and well-being. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between supervisors?? behavior and indicators of employees?? well-being among a sample of 685 female and 637 male employees. Employees assessed the leadership behavior of their direct supervisors using the recently developedGesundheits- und Entwicklungsf?rderliche FührungsverhaltensAnalyse (GEFA) and reported information on their well-being. Supervisors?? behavior was significantly related to all indicators of examined employees?? well-being. The underlying model of health- and development-promoting leadership behavior??with the dimensions: demanding leadership, development-oriented leadership, and support-oriented leadership??could be confirmed. Gender-differentiated analyses regarding the gender of the supervisors and of the employees, revealed differences in leadership behavior which were reflected in employees?? well-being. We discuss implications of these findings for research and practice.     

Pitirim A. Sorokin’s integralism and public sociology

Major features of the thought of Pitirim A. Sorokin are related to Michael Burawoy’s four forms of sociology. The article develops the theme that Sorokin’s system of sociology makes major contributions to identifying standards of excellence for professional, critical, policy, and public sociology and for their interrelationships. Sorokin’s integral ontology and epistemology are described and identified as sources of the distinctive characteristics of his system of thought.