Farm diversification, tenancy and CAP reform: Results from a survey of tenant farmers in England

Little work has considered explicitly the role of farm tenancy in influencing the uptake (or not) of diversification activities. The need to examine this link has been heightened because of the 2003 CAP reforms and the decision to tie Single Farm Payment (SFP) entitlement to the land rather than what is produced on that land. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to examine the nature of diversification activities on tenant farms in England, which includes a consideration of how the introduction of the SFP and other CAP reforms may influence such restructuring processes. Results from a national postal survey, supported by tenant farmer/landlord interviews and a workshop, reveal high rates of farm diversification on farms with tenanted land. However, if one takes away contract/hire services the rate of diversification on tenant farms is much less. Tenant farms appear to favour more ‘traditional’ diversification activities and the results also demonstrate an increasing need to move towards more ‘encultured’ definitions of farm diversification. The second key finding to emerge from the research relates to the high levels of uncertainty and negativity surrounding the potential impacts of the CAP reforms, and SFP in particular, on farm business behaviour. Tenant farmers were more concerned about levels of SFP and entitlement than future investment decisions, including diversification.     

The analysis of sex segregation: When is index measurement not index measurement

In their paper in this issue. Grusky and Charles (1998) make a number of dubious claims about the measurement and interpretation of sex segregation. First, they incorrectly claim that only log-odds measures yield margin-free measures of segregation. Second. the estimation and testing of a limited class of log-linear models does not provide an independent test of the appropriateness of a log-odds ratio index to measure segregation. Their estimation informs them of the statistically justifiable degree of occupational disaggregation, not whether a log-odds ratio is superior to, say, a linear index in the measurement of segregation. Finally, their index A is beset with problems of interpretation. not withstanding their arguments. and their additional measures, A_w and A_B, suffer similar problems. Grusky and Charles are. however, correct in arguing that measurement procedures should be margin-free. Further, I concur with the view that the adoption of a single annual summary measure of segregation cannot be justified. because it is premised on the assumption that individual occupations, or groups of occupations. exhibit similar trends in sex segregation.     

The H-1B visa: Free market solutions for business and labor

The H-1B visa program opened the US information technology labor market to temporary, skilled immigrant labor. But the immigrant worker was bound to a specific employer for the duration of the visa. The non-portability of the H-1B visa has benefitted the employer at the expense of immigrant and domestic workers. Much of the political debate surrounding the H-1B program has focused on raising the annual visa cap based on inconclusive evidence of a domestic IT labor shortage. The labor shortage question has obscured the more importantissue of reforming the H-1B program to level the playing field between business and labor.     

Drug abuse and eating disorders: prevention implications.

This article explores the relationship between drug and alcohol abuse and eating disorders in a sample of adolescent females using a self-report methodology. An Eating Disorders Risk (EDR) Scale is adopted and correlated with drug and alcohol use, other forms of deviance, family and peer relationships, and depression. The findings support the concept of a generalized theory of addictions based on psychosocial, family, and peer factors. Family and peer prevention applications and a need for further research on the correlates of depression are discussed.     

Qualitative and historiometric methods in leadership research: A review of the first 25 years of The Leadership Quarterly

In the spirit of the 25th anniversary edition of The Leadership Quarterly, as the world's premier outlet for leadership research, we have reviewed qualitative and historiometric research across those 25 years. Qualitative research is a complex and cluttered area of scholarship. This is not because there is an inherent confusion about it. Rather, it is because ‘qualitative’ research is a cover-all term for a wide range of research strategies, paradigms, parent disciplines, sources of data, and methods of analysis for them. More so than in previous journal review articles, we explored variation in qualitative analysis as well as variety in qualitative data. In terms of methodologies, our efforts concentrated on case study, content analysis, grounded theory and historiometrics. We also examined trends toward post-positivism, post-modernity and liquid modernity, and their resultant benefits for researching leadership. Future directions for leadership research are posited.     

AUSTRALIAN LIVING STANDARDS: SOME GENDER CONSIDERATIONS

This paper is an exploration of the contemporary definitions in use of the idea of a standard of living as it has been developed in social policy and economic research both in Australia and overseas. It is suggested that the assumptions underpinning the idea of a standard of living in areas such as poverty research or the analysis of redistributive policies and their effects are neither tenable nor useful. The concept is flawed because it makes unreasonable assumptions about the household and the nature of women's domestic labour. Consideration of the gender blindness of much economics suggests the need for a major revision in our approach to the idea of a standard of living.     

Social Work Doctoral Education in Australia: The Case for Further Development

ABSTRACT

Social work education in Australia has been based in universities since the 1940s. There are now 32 higher education providers offering social work programs across Australia. The significant growth in master’s level qualifying programs in Australia, along with recent higher education policy changes, has increased the need for social work academic faculty members with doctoral qualifications. This paper presents the findings of a scoping review of literature on social work doctoral education. Despite a growing literature on social work doctoral education in international contexts, the review found that there is a lack of Australian research and evidence on social work doctoral pedagogy, the number and diversity of doctoral students, the doctoral student experience, and doctoral graduate employment intentions and outcomes. Addressing the lack of Australian research in this area would be an important step to enabling Australian social work to address future research training and capacity needs and directions.

IMPLICATIONS

• There is a lack of research on Australian social work doctoral education and this is a neglected aspect of social work scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) research.

• Research into social work doctoral education would provide baseline information on the number and diversity of students, doctoral student experiences, graduate outcomes, and employment intentions.

• Development of social work SOTL about doctoral education would support future research capacity and enable the advancement of social work research knowledge and skills.

     

Reflective Practice,Reflexivity, and Critical Reflection in Social Work Education in Australia

Reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are now widely accepted as important in contemporary social work practice. Despite this, there remain differences in how the terms are discussed within the literature. This results in confusion in how students are instructed about reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection. This paper presents a proposal for clarifying these concepts based on the results from an interpretive study of reflective practice in social work education and practice in Australia. The study utilised three different methods: autoethnography, an archaeological analytic, and qualitative interviews. It found that reflective practice is understood as a capability, a form of critical thinking, a discipline response to a changing sector, and a way of theorising from practice. Conceptual clarifications of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are presented.

IMPLICATIONS

• There is a need for clarification about the meaning of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection within social work.

• Findings from a qualitative study on the meaning and use of reflective practice in Australian social work education may provide conceptual clarification of these terms.

     

A multiple testing protocol for exploratory data analysis and the local misclassification rate

A false discovery rate (FDR) procedure is often employed in exploratory data analysis to determine which among thousands or millions of attributes are worthy of follow-up analysis. However, these methods tend to discover the most statistically significant attributes, which need not be the most worthy of further exploration. This article provides a new FDR-controlling method that allows for the nature of the exploratory analysis to be considered when determining which attributes are discovered. To illustrate, a study in which the objective is to classify discoveries into one of several clusters is considered, and a new FDR method that minimizes the misclassification rate is developed. It is shown analytically and with simulation that the proposed method performs better than competing methods.