Parent-worker relationships in child welfare social work: a Belgian case study

The involvement of parents within child and family social work has become an important research topic during the past few decades. Within this research, a lot of attention is paid to partnership, which is recognised as a dominant concept in current thinking about the parent–worker relationship in present-day practice. The debate on parent–worker relationships, however, seems to be mainly focussed on the individual relationship between the parent and the social worker. Based on a historical analysis of policy documents on a Belgian child and family welfare service, this article offers a historical and sociopolitical contextualisation of the current debate on the parent–worker relationship. The analysis reveals that sociopolitical ideas about the responsibilities of the state, the community and the private family have induced a continuous reflection on which children and parents should be seen as the most appropriate clients for a particular service, as well as an ongoing development of diagnostic instruments to legitimise inclusion and exclusion of families within child and family social work. Consequences for parent–worker relationships in child and family social work are discussed, as well as some implications for future research on child and family social work practices.     

Work Trajectories of Female and Male Immigrants in Spain

This article aims to examine in depth the work trajectories of individuals over time, in order to provide a wider perspective of the employment history of immigrants compared to native people, by gender and for more than one decade (2005–2017) in Spain. We use microdata (cohort and multivariate analysis) from the Labour Force Survey and carry out a comparison for three groups: the Spanish born in Spain, the Spanish born abroad, and the non-Spanish born abroad. The results confirm that the non-Spanish born-abroad group is characterized by the existence of segmented assimilation. All foreigners suffered a loss in their work trajectories, since their employment rate in 2017 has as yet neither reached the level of the last years of the previous economic expansion nor the level of the previous cohorts at the same age.     

AN ANALYSIS OF SHAREHOLDER AGREEMENTS

Shareholder agreements govern the relations among shareholders in privately held firms, such as joint ventures and venture capital‐backed companies. We provide an economic explanation for key clauses in such agreements—namely, put and call options, tag‐along and drag‐along rights, demand and piggy‐back rights, and catch‐up clauses. In a dynamic moral hazard setting, we show that these clauses can ensure that the contract parties make efficient ex ante investments in the firm. They do so by constraining renegotiation. In the absence of the clauses, ex ante investment would be distorted by unconstrained renegotiation aimed at (i) precluding value‐destroying ex post transfers, (ii) inducing value‐increasing ex post investments, or (iii) precluding hold‐out on value‐increasing sales to a trade buyer or the IPO market. (JEL: G34)     

Upper Bounds for the SPOT 5 Daily Photograph Scheduling Problem

This paper introduces tight upper bounds for the daily photograph scheduling problem of earth observation satellites. These bounds, which were unavailable until now, allow us to assess the quality of the heuristic solutions obtained previously. These bounds are obtained with a partition-based approach following the divide and pas conquer principle. Dynamic programming and tabu search are conjointly used in this approach. We present also simplex-based linear programming relaxation and a relaxed knapsack approach for the problem.     

“生态哲学”:野性的力量

现代性由一些理性的概念酝酿形成.这些概念被法兰克福学派的哲学家们称之为“工具理性”,它们给功利主义以特殊待遇,将所有人的参数,如喜悦、游戏、梦想等,也就是通常意义上的“好的状况”束之高阁.这导致了世界的“荒芜”,完成了对生态的掠夺.一种极性的反向变化正在人们的思想中进行.这是被社会学家们(例如索罗金)称之为文化“饱和”的现象.这也引起了理性的另一种应用:“感性理智”.也就是说,迫使我们承认“人类动物”有着一部分动物性的东西:本能、激情、感情等等.由此,人们能够到达一种“生态哲学”;也就是说,智慧与“部屋(希腊语为“oikos”)”相关联.这就是被埃德加·莫兰称作应当重新予以重视的“土地一母亲”.也就是我所讲的“积极寻根”.     

Difficult Data: Boundary Dynamics,Public Engagement and Bridging Technologies in a Science/Policy Controversy

In 2001, the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MoH) contracted the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd. (ESR) to undertake a serum dioxin study to determine exposure (current and historical) to dioxins for residents living in close proximity to the former Ivon Watkins Dow chemical plant in Paritutu, New Plymouth. In the years that the plant had operated, a number of activist groups had organised in the community to ask the government to respond to their concerns about possible exposure and any links to adverse health effects. The members of these groups were angry and frustrated. They distrusted industry and the various government agencies involved, and felt that previous scientific studies had marginalised their concerns. This paper explores the processes that enabled ESR to work with the community to produce a robust scientific study. Key dynamics, lessons, methods and mechanisms critical to the success of this intervention are appraised. This paper offers theoretical reflection on boundary work between science, policy and community and focuses on the challenges in including local knowledge to produce ‘useable knowledge’ in this case.     

Mariage et mobilité sociale en France

La formation des couples est un moment crucial de la reproduction sociale. Pour établir le bilan des transactions sur le marché matrimonial, trois méthodes ont été utilisées : la comparaison des positions sociales des conjoints, la comparaison des caractéristiques sociales de leurs parents, la comparaison des trajectoires sociales des conjoints. La formation d'un couple correspond le plus souvent à la conjonction de deux trajectoires parallèles, ce qui a pour effet de conforter les positions acquises ou d'accompagner les évolutions engagées. Dans d'autres cas, plus rares, le mariage peut accélérer sensiblement la transition à un nouveau statut, ou au contraire freiner voire inverser le déclin d'une trajectoire sociale.Marriage is a crucial stage in social reproduction. To establish the outcome of transactions in the marriage market, three methods have been used: comparison of the social positions of the marriage partners; comparison of the social characteristics of their parents; and comparison of the social careers of the partners. Usually a marriage represents the conjunction of two parallel social careers, the effect of which is to consolidate the positions acquired or to support the evolutions in progress. In more rare cases, the marriage can either appreciably accelerate the transition to a new status, or slow down and even reverse the decline of a social career.

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Cet article est la version révisée et enrichie d'une communication présentée au III^e séminaire franco-soviétique de démographie, à Bordeaux (10–14 octobre 1988).