The Experience and Practice of Approved Social Workers in Northern Ireland

Correspondence to Dr Roger Manktelow, School of Social and Community Sciences, University of Ulster Magee College, Derry, BT48 7JL, Northern Ireland. Summary This article reports on the first extensive survey of ApprovedSocial Worker (ASW) activity under the Mental Health (NorthernIreland) Order 1986. The integrated health and social servicesorganizational structure, the adverse effects on individualmental health of the legacy of thirty years of civil conflictand the move from hospital to community care are significantfeatures which have influenced the delivery of mental healthsocial work services locally. The practice and experience ofASWs was surveyed by postal questionnaire and user and carerexperience of compulsory hospital admission was investigatedby a series of focus groups. The study revealed that two-thirdsof ASWs had experience of acting as an applicant in compulsoryhospital admission during the past two years. Nearly half (42per cent) of these ASWs had reported experience of between oneand five admissions and one-tenth had completed over twentyadmissions in the two-year period. In only a small minorityof cases did joint face-to-face assessment with the GeneralPractitioner (doctor) take place; nearly half of ASWs reporteddifficulties in obtaining transport; and only one-fifth of ASWshad experience of acting as a second approved social worker.Half of ASWs reported experience of guardianship, either asapplicant or in making the recommendation. Both service usersand carers reported a lack of understanding about the role ofthe ASW and complained about the lack of alternative resourcesthat ASWs could use to prevent hospital admissions. These findingsare discussed and a number of recommendations are proposed forimprovements to approved social worker practice.     

A Strange Kind of Science: Making Sense of the Millennium Villages Project

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are often critiqued as a strategy of social engineering. This analysis would seem to be supported by the case of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), the world's leading programme for the achievement of the MDGs. At the level of its discursive articulation, the MVP appears as a scientific ‘proof of concept’ for the comprehensive engineering of neoliberal social orders. But its evaluation methodology has been widely criticised for a lack of scientific rigour, and field research that I conducted in the Ruhiira Millennium Village in Uganda in 2013 revealed serious problems of implementation. I argue that the MVP is better understood not as a strategy of social engineering but as the staging of a social fantasy in which the constitutive antagonisms of capitalist development are concealed. In this fantasy space, the MDGs function to fill the gap between the promise of development and the impossibility of capitalism without poverty.     

基于决策优先权的闭环供应链运作效益研究

针对由一个制造商和两个零售商组成由制造商直接回收旧品的闭环供应链系统,利用博弈论方法,研究了零售商决策权均衡的"E"情形和其中一个零售商具有决策优先权的"A"情形对于运作效益的影响.通过结果比较分析,可知"A"情形相对于"E"情形,制造商的边际利润增大而最优利润均下降,但两个零售商的边际利润和最优利润均有所增加.所以"A"情形中,制造商的最优利润降低,主要是由于回收努力系数的降低所致,但边际利润增加了,同时,回收努力系数较小,所以对于刚刚涉足产品回收和再制造的制造商来说,"A"情形不失为一种较好的选择;但"E"情形是制造商积累了闭环供应链管理经验后的终极选择.     

在ARIMA(0,1,1)需求下的牛鞭效应与信息共享的评价

本文考虑一个包含一个供应商和一个零售商的两级供应链,研究在需求模型ARIMA(0,1,1)下牛鞭效应的量化和信息共享的价值,比较信息共享之前和之后的差异,其结果表明信息共享能给供应商带来减轻牛鞭效应、减少现有平均库存以及降低成本等好处。     

零售商与第三方回收下闭环供应链回收与定价研究

基于市场细分建立了零售商回收与第三方回收废旧产品情形的闭环供应链决策模型,通过对两种情形决策变量的求解与比较,讨论了回收努力程度和产品定价的区别,分析了制造商与零售商的利润随消费者偏好系数的变化规律.结果表明:与第三方回收相比零售商回收情形回收努力程度较高,但零售商不具有参与闭环供应链的积极性;第三方回收情形零售商具有参与闭环供应链的积极性,但回收努力程度较低;第三方回收情形新制造与再制造产品的零售价均高于零售商回收情形的零售价,零售商回收对消费者有利.     

Energy and U.K. agriculture

This paper makes the point that although U.K. agriculture has become more efficient in many ways, it has become less efficient in its use of energy. Moreover, although farming utilises less than 3 per cent of national power energy consumption and produces over 40 per cent of the nation's food, there are no predominant users of energy in the U.K. Thus small savings in each individual industry, including agriculture, must be effected. How this can be achieved is discussed. But the paper concludes that it may well take another ‘energy crisis’ before farmers and growers respond by modifying their production systems accordingly.     

Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of Business Owners: The Role of Gender

There is a widely held belief that banks may be discriminating against female business owners. This study was designed to explore the perceptions held by bank loan officers of male and female business owners, using Bourdieu's theory of practice and Kelly's personal construct methodology. The research literature might lead to an expectation that the characteristics of the business owners would be relatively homogenous but that men and women business owners would be construed differently (for example women might be seen to lack drive). However, the results demonstrate heterogeneity in the constructs held by bank loan officers, and a particular concern with the character of the business owner. Significant gender differences were observed in only 20 of the 325 constructs elicited from 35 bank loan officers. Female bank loan officers were as likely as male bank loan officers to draw gender distinctions between business owners. Detailed multivariate analyses confirmed no evidence of systematic gender differences in the constructs held by bank loan officers of business owners.     

中国的东北和日本的东北——对中日构筑“大东北经济圈”的思考与建议

2006年10月安倍首相上任伊始，便决定访问中国，展开了“破冰之旅”，结束了中日之间自2001年小泉上台由于参拜靖国神社引发的对立和矛盾，此后“融冰之旅”、“迎春之旅”使中日战略互惠关系不断向前推进。胡锦涛总书记的“暖春之旅”使两国战略互惠关系进入全面升级阶段。在上述氛围推动下，两国的经贸也不断取得突破，中日贸易超过美日贸易，中国成为日本第一大贸易伙伴。随着两国在各个领域的相互依赖不断加深，以区域合作为纽带、以友好城市发展为拉动，两国的地方交流也出现蓬勃发展势头。尤其是我们的东北振兴战略持续深化，使两国在东北地区的各种合作不断增加，学术、经济和企业界甚至发出了打造“中日大东北经济圈”的热切呼声。从中日经贸互动和地方国际合作背景来看，随着两国在东北地区合作的不断深入，中日构筑“东北经济圈”不但具有可能性而且时机日渐成熟。     

Futures forecasting for strategic planning at general electric

Without in any way denying that there are forces for stability, I want to state, as strongly as I can, my conviction that change is now more rapid, more complex and more pervasive than ever before in human history. There are forces loose in the world, particularly in the ‘post-industrial society’ of the United States, that go far beyond the youth movement in creating change. As a result, it is utterly unrealistic to pretend that business can continue to plan its strategies in the traditional mode.