Historical, Developmental, and Behavioral Factors Associated with Foster Care Challenges

Three agency-based studies explored the associations of traumatic child histories, as well as their developmental, health and behavioral problems with foster care challenges such as placement instability. The findings represent the convergent perspectives of child welfare workers and foster parents in small cities in Ontario. Alone and in aggregate, child and familial traumas and problems were very strong predictors of various foster care challenges. Foster parent training and other support needs are discussed.     

对意向性存在论/本体论批判的方法论预设——柏拉图笔下的苏格拉底看艾多斯

海德格尔对胡塞尔的现象学构想进行了批判,他认为胡塞尔的现象学在意识的基础上决定了意向性的存在,而对意向性“存在规定”的理解是本体论的缺失,这种观点基于对意向性错误的“客观化”和“主观化”,因此在限定意向性存在模式和意义的反思性方法时,胡塞尔纯粹现象学具有必然缺陷,并无力质询意向(Intentio)所包含的对存在的先验理解.海德格尔认为,纯粹现象学对存在问题忽略的终极历史根源在于希腊人对存在作为实存意义上的理解,在这个理解上,柏拉图和亚里士多德是不可调和的,而胡塞尔的意向性概念不能被看作是对柏拉图逻各斯提诺斯洞见的重新发现.但是,海德格尔对于柏拉图的批判预设了,柏拉图的苏格拉底式对诸艾多斯看法的说明就是柏拉图就这个主题最后的定论,这也就意味着,海德格尔对胡塞尔意向性概念的存在论/本体论批判是依赖于希腊本体论限制中的历史优先性的.     

Entry rates and the risks of misalignment in the EU8

New member states will join the EMU in the coming years. Setting the central parity at which they will join has been and will be a challenging task, as there is a considerable amount of uncertainty, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, surrounding the determination of the optimal exchange rate. Given the probable difficulty in evaluating the equilibrium rate it is thus advisable to focus on the effects of a misalignment of the entry rate for the economy, as it has implications for countries’ real and nominal convergence. An overvalued exchange rate would have an adverse impact on a country's competitiveness and its growth, while an undervalued currency would contribute to an overheating of the economy and an excessive inflation. The objective of this paper is to better understand the role of the entry rates for short run inflation and GDP developments and their implications for the inflation criterion and the real convergence process. Having estimated equilibrium exchange rates for eight out of ten countries that entered the EU in May 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia we conduct simulations showing what their adjustments to equilibrium would be if their entry rates deviated from the optimal ones.     

Strengthening Board Performance

Many nonprofit boards have undertaken board development activities, yet there has been little empirical evidence of the impact on board performance. This article reports findings from organizations: ten participated in developmental interventions, and fourteen received no interventions but served as matched comparisons. The experimental group showed significant improvements in board performance, and the comparison group did not. Lessons from the study include a number of practical steps boards can take to reorganize governance procedures and structures to enhance board effectiveness.     

WHEN 'VIRTUAL' MEETS VALUES: INSIGHTS FROM THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR

Electronic networking can support strategic re-positioning within organizations seeking to respond effectively to deep shifts in the social, economic and political regimes in which they operate today. Evidence, though, from our large-scale survey of core UK voluntary organizations suggests that voluntary organizations do not always seek to exploit this capability. Instead, our survey indicates that voluntary organizations are exploiting information and communication technologies (ICTs) in conventional ways to enhance administrative and operational efficiency and effectiveness. There is little evidence of more strategic applications supporting reconfiguration of the organization internally, redefinition of relationships across organizational networks or the extension of business scope. Further research based upon in-depth case studies demonstrated that social conditions are active in shaping the uptake and application of information and communication technologies within voluntary organizations. Within volunteer-intensive settings in particular,founding philosophies and the deeply rooted values that accompany these can have a profound effect. Ultimately,the technologically supported transformations, which occur within the organizations that we examine here, emerge from the inter-play between historically institutionalized values, strategic objectives and technological capability.     

Prevention of Mental Health and Behavior Problems Among Sexually Abused Aboriginal Children in Care

This agency-based study explored the preventive impact of a multi-method intervention program for children in care who had been sexually abused. Participants were Aboriginal children of the Stól:lö Nation in British Columbia, Canada. It suggested that such programs offered in child welfare contexts could actually prevent many mental health and behavioral problems that otherwise would be more prevalently experienced by such traumatized children in care.     

Culture and change in nonprofit boards

The actions of boards, like all organizational behaviors, emerge from board culture, which is composed of members' customary practices, shared beliefs, and assumptions about reality. It is a board's culture that enables its participants to deal with ambiguity and complexity by providing familiar meanings and solutions to problems. Board development efforts that do not take these factors directly into account are likely to produce only superficial and short-term changes. This article presents alternative approaches to board development, using two levels of learning drawn from examinations of board cultures.     

Long-Term Unemployment: New Initiatives

Responding to Professor Leaper's basic article in the Spring 1985 issue, the Director of the Manpower Services Commission accepts that long-term unemployment will continue at a high level. He analyses the big changes in the kind of jobs available, particularly over the last twenty years in manufacturing industry. Long-term unemployed people need special programmes as well as being helped to adapt to new types of employment like other workers. The Community Programme of the MSC has been successful in meeting special needs, and is this year substantially increased in scope. It should be further improved by: having higher national standards, by getting employers to sponsor more projects, by using the Enterprise Allowance Scheme to help CP workers to go on to self-employment. These improvements will encourage people generally to feed in new ideas for responding to the challenge of long-term unemployment.     

Promoting stability and continuity of care for looked after children: a survey and critical review

This paper reports on a two‐pronged research study: a critical review of reported research concerning continuity and stability for children looked after away from home, and a telephone survey of UK managers responsible for looked after children. The review found limited research in this specific field that met the criteria of the critical review, but reports some evidence in favour of sibling co‐placement, kinship care, parental participation, professional foster care and individualized, multidimensional support. The survey revealed a culture of innovation in this field in the UK voluntary and statutory sectors, but with little evaluation of the independent effects of new interventions. The paper places the research in the context of current policy initiatives in the UK and discusses the implications of the findings for research and practice.