An evaluation of socially responsive planning in a new resource town

New resource towns on the Canadian frontier have presented planners with opportunities to experiment with innovative planning ideas which attempt to resolve the persistent problems of such communities. In the planning of Tumbler Ridge, a new coal mining town in British Columbia, socially responsive planning was an attempt to develop a town using principles derived from social science research. In this paper the reactions of residents to selected attributes which reflect the application of these principles are examined five years after settlement began. Ratings of community attributes offer an indication of aspects of residential satisfaction, while the results of a principal components analysis suggest the dimensionality of residents' evaluative structures and provide a useful framework within which to consider planning issues. Issues examined are: the association between employment and the community environment; the suitability of the environment for children; and the social environment. While social aspects of the new community are judged as satisfactory, less positive elements reflect the underlying influence of the economic well-being of the mining company on overall community satisfaction. When compared to indicators of community satisfaction in other western Canadian resource towns, ratings for Tumbler Ridge tend to be fairly low. It is concluded that the inability of planners to adequately control implementation or dontinuity of their ideas has resulted in a community not distinctly different from other resource towns. Efforts have been further hampered by a lack of adequate models of the distinctive dynamics of resource communities.     

Leveraging the common and outsourcing the distinct: institutional difference and multinational company identity in emerging economies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the challenges of outsidership faced by multinational companies (MNCs) accessing emerging economies. The paper departs from popular conceptualisations of culture drawing instead on social identity theory as part of an institutions-based view, to explain how employing a singularities approach can allow the identification of commonalities of Indianness and Australianness that can be leveraged to ameliorate negative socially embedded business norms that pose a challenge to MNC success in emerging economies. This study shows that despite recognised formal (regulatory) and informal (cultural) differences, managers of Australian MNCs operating in India were able to innovatively identify and exploit cultural commonalties/singularities to ease cultural adjustment and mitigate intergroup conflict, allowing them to achieve an innovative institutional fit. The paper discusses how, using this approach, sole-venture MNCs can access many of the benefits provided by collaborative entry modes while preserving MNC identity. We further propose that the singularities approach can provide a valuable starting point to develop culturally appropriate competence training initiatives.     

Analysis of strategic plans to assess planning for sustainability of comprehensive community initiatives

In order to achieve the intended impact on a community, comprehensive community initiatives must sustain programs once they have been implemented. However, planning for sustainability is challenging and is rarely incorporated in the planning process of an initiative. The current study examined 19 5-year plans developed during the planning phase of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to assess the extent to which the construct of sustainability was incorporated. The plan analysis was supplemented with results from other components of the complex evaluation design implemented as part of the process evaluation of Comprehensive Strategy. Results suggested that sustainability was not accounted for during the planning phase of this initiative. The implications of these findings, including the importance of planning for sustainability in order to achieve sustainability, are discussed.     

Engaging Children in Meaningful Charity: Opening-up the Spaces within Which Children Learn to Give

This paper presents qualitative evidence from an in-depth, participative action research project with 150 children aged 4–8 years old, exploring their experiences, perceptions and preferences regarding charitable giving. Most children positively engage in charitable giving through home, school and their community; however, less than 20% are aware of the cause area they are being asked to support, and most have little decision-making in their giving. Children’s willingness to engage increases when they critically examine the cause area and are facilitated to lead on giving decisions, often resulting in increased and sustained efforts to support cause areas that matter to them.     

Writing resistance together

This piece of writing is a joint initiative by the participants in the Gender, Work and Organization writing workshop organized in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2019. This is a particular form of writing differently. We engage in collective writing and embody what it means to write resistance to established academic practices and conventions together. This is a form of emancipatory initiative where we care for each other as writers and as human beings. There are many author voices and we aim to keep the text open and dialogical. As such, this piece of writing is about suppressed thoughts and feelings that our collective picket line allows us to express. In order to maintain the open‐ended nature of the text, and perhaps also to retain some ‘dirtiness’ that is essential to writing, the article has not been language checked throughout by a native speaker of English.     

42 CFR Part 2 final rule: OTP input into PDMP,more enforcement and easier

The final rule “modernizing” the country's confidentiality regulation, which originally required treatment providers to obtain patients' consent in writing to the release of their substance use disorder (SUD) treatment information, was published last week. Consent for release of information would apply to a broad category of health care operations, care coordination and case management. And methadone patients could have their treatment information put into state data systems; since 2011, that has not been allowed. Finally, the freedom of law enforcement to place and use confidential informants inside treatment programs has been expanded.     

NIDA: How parents can talk to children about opioids

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the federal National Institutes of Health, has advice for parents in the midst of the opioid epidemic: “[T]alk openly about the effects of opioids and other drugs with your children and stay actively engaged in their lives.”     

Study: Number of alcohol‐related deaths doubled between 1999 and 2017

This is going to be the year of alcohol: the year the public, awakened to substance use disorders by the tragedy of opioid‐related deaths, finally recognizes that underneath its nose alcohol‐related deaths have been increasing just as tragically.     

Online meetings for 12‐Step and other support groups

The study showing that Alcoholics Anonymous as as effective, or more effective, than psychotherapy (see “Research: AA is better pathway to abstinence than psychotherapy,” ADAW March 16, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adaw.32655 ) was published a few days before COVID‐19 federal and state restrictions on group gatherings (“social distancing”) took effect, making AA and other meetings untenable. This seems like cruel timing. But John Kelly, Ph.D., one of the authors of the study, provided the below infographic to ADAW on other meetings. And Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., co‐author, was quoted recently on ABC News saying that he is concerned about patients with extreme mental health issues such as addiction, for whom face‐to‐face contact is key.