Globalizing Consumption and the Deferral of a Politics of Consequence

The reform process doi moi (Engl.: renovation) in Vietnam has brought profound changes for the Vietnamese economy. Most notably the opening of a formerly centrally planned economy to the capitalist world market has made the country more accessible to foreign direct investment and integrated the country more strongly into the capitalist world system. Part of the overall modernisation and global integration strategy in Vietnam is the development of the Internet. However, the Internet in Vietnam is not a ubiquitous and widely available technology, rather it is a piece of infrastructure that is unevenly available across social and regional spaces. Aided by a regulatory environment that presents itself as providing opportunities for all, the Internet provides a business tool for a transnational capitalist class and its local affiliates to access the resources of Vietnam's periphery type economy. The Internet has contributed to a shift in economic control functions away from the state territorial level to a network of dispersed actors. The paper suggests close links between dependency and world-systems theories and Internet research and argues that the theories remain valid in their principle argument, but that the level of analysis needs to be shifted away from the state territorial unit to these dispersed sets of actors.

El proceso de reforma doi moi [renovación] en Vietnam ha traído profundos cambios a la economía vietnamita. Particularmente, la apertura de una economía de planificación anteriormente centralizada al mercado capitalista mundial, ha hecho al país más accesible a la inversión directa extranjera y lo ha integrado a un sistema capitalista mundial con mayor fuerza. En términos generales, parte de la estrategia de modernización e integración global en Vietnam es el desarrollo de la internet. Sin embargo, la internet en Vietnam no es una tecnología omnipresente y extensamente accesible, más bien es una pieza de infraestructura que se ofrece desigualmente a través de los espacios sociales y regionales. La internet provee un instrumento de negocios a la clase capitalista trasnacional y a sus afiliados locales, para tener acceso a los recursos de la economía de tipo periférico de Vietnam, ayudado por un medioambiente regulador que se presenta tal y como ofreciendo oportunidades para todos. La internet ha contribuido a un cambio en las funciones de control económicas, del nivel del estado territorial a una red de actores dispersos. El artículo sugiere enlaces estrechos entre las teorías de dependencia y de sistemas mundiales y la investigación de internet y sostiene que las teorías siguen válidas en su argumento de principio, pero que el nivel de análisis debe distanciarse de la unidad del estado territorial a esos grupos de actores dispersos.

     

Transnational Corporations and Human Rights: Silencing the Ontological Controversy

“Engines of development” or “tools of exploitation”? Both expressions have been used to describe the transnational corporation’s (TNC) activity in the developing world. In this paper, it will be argued that these extreme characterizations—each armed with their preferred method and unit of analysis—are merely assessing different aspects of the relationship in question. Moreover, theoretical issues can help shed some light on the Janus-faced nature of TNCs’ human rights’ effects. These issues suggest that FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) benefits are conditional and can help determine whether or not the presence of TNCs will be benign.

     

The population dynamics of the voleClethrionomys rufocanus in Hokkaido, Japan

Population dynamics of the gray sided-vole,Clethrionomys rufocanus, in Hokkaido, Japan were described on the basis of 225 time series (being from 12 to 31 years long); 194 of the time series have a length of 23 years or longer. The time series were classified into 11 groups according to geographic proximity and topographic characteristics of the island of Hokkaido. Mean abundance varied among populations from 1.07 to 21.07 individuals per 150 trap-nights. The index of variability for population fluctuation (s-index) ranged from 0.204 to 0.629. Another index for population variability (amplitude on log-10 scale) ranged from 0.811 to 2.743. Mean abundance and variability of populations were higher in the more northern and eastern regions of the island. Most populations, except for the southernmost populations, exhibited significant direct density-dependence in population growth. Detection rate for delayed density-dependence varied among groups from 0% to 22.6%. Both direct and delayed density-dependence tended to be stronger in the more northern and eastern populations. The proportion of cyclic populations was higher in the northern-eastern areas than that in the southern-western areas. There was a clear gradient from the asynchronous populations in southwest, to the highly synchronized populations in the northeast.     

Assessing non-use of social assistance

Non-use of income tested social benefits has many causes. Three hypotheses on non-use of social assistance based on data for Sweden collected in 1985 and 1997 are investigated. The results indicate some support for the view that it is more socially acceptable to apply for social assistance when a larger proportion of the population are receivers. Non-use of social assistance seems to be widespread. There are no signs of non-users as a fraction of those eligible changing across the years. Among the eligible, household income per capita as recorded the year before the interview was found to be negatively related to use. This indicates that people who expect to receive larger sums of social assistance are more likely to take up social assistance than those who expect smaller amounts.     

Changes at Corporate Headquarters: Review,Integration and Future Research

In modern corporations, the corporate headquarters (CHQ) unit is considered central to the fortunes of the overall firm. In light of ever‐changing environments, changes at the CHQ have become a crucial concern in management research and practice, and scholars have studied a variety of changes at the CHQ. Despite the common focus on the CHQ entity and the potential for cross‐fertilization across several research tracks, a coherent picture of this dispersed body of knowledge is lacking. This paper reviews 25 years of research on changes at the CHQ. In so doing, it advances a common language and an overarching framework that integrates the existing knowledge in the intellectual domains of strategy, organizational design and international business research. On this basis, the authors suggest directions for future research to advance knowledge of: (1) the pressure for and resistance to changes at the CHQ; (2) interrelationships among changes at the CHQ; (3) change processes at the CHQ; (4) agents involved in changes at the CHQ; and (5) adaptive and disruptive effects of changes at the CHQ. Overall, the study provides a conceptual basis for combining the existing knowledge of changes at the CHQ and serves as a guide for future research.     

Social functioning and mental health among children who have been living in kinship and non‐kinship foster care: results from an 8‐year follow‐up with a Norwegian sample

Studies have shown relatively high rates of emotional and behavioural problems among children living in out‐of‐home care. This study reports the prevalence of social problems at an 8‐year follow‐up for a group of children/young adults. Predictors for prevalence and change in emotional and behavioural problems at the follow‐up are examined. A prospective cohort design with 233 children who had been living in foster care was used. Forty‐eight per cent (n = 111) of those interviewed at baseline were located and interviewed at follow‐up. Mean age was 17.4 (standard deviation = 2.9) years. Mental health symptomatology was measured with Child Behaviour Checklist and Adult Self‐Report. Linear and generalized mixed model analyses were used. Changes in internalizing and externalizing problems from baseline to follow‐up was associated with gender. Boys showed more problems at a young age, whereas girls developed more problems later. Predictors for social problems at follow‐up were mental health at baseline, kinship care and care placement away from the local community.     

Social work and Nordic welfare policies for children—present challenges in the light of the past1

The aim of this article is to explore welfare policies for children in five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden—and in that context identify what kinds of issues and challenges social work is currently facing. The data reviewed consist of policy documents, law texts, official reports, statistics, professional texts, and previous research. Policies and laws on children's protection; provisions, including policies on state benefits and care for children; and the autonomous integrity of children in terms of the norms and policies concerning their participation, in particular in public everyday life, are analysed from a historical perspective. Hence, future challenges for social work are analysed in light of the past. Our conclusion is that social workers have a unique opportunity, based on their close encounters with children as clients, to work for the realisation of children's rights. Furthermore, by applying a holistic perspective to issues of childhood and parenthood, social workers can contribute to the development of knowledge on how welfare systems can meet the challenges brought about by the new ideas of children's rights, social changes, globalisation, and the new ideological concepts of risk that have arisen in child welfare.

Artikkeli tarkastelee lasten hyvinvointipolitiikan kehitystä viidessä Pohjoismaassa—Tanskassa, Suomessa, Islannissa, Norjassa ja Ruotsissa—ja sen valossa sitä millaisia kysymyksiä ja haasteita tämän päivän lasten hyvinvoinnin parissa tehtävä sosiaalityö kohtaa. Artikkelissa on käytetty aineistona erilaisia politiikkadokumentteja, lakeja, julkisia raportteja,tilastoja, professionaalisia kirjoituksia sekä aiempaa tutkimusta. Artikkelissa analysoidaan historiallisesta näkökulmasta lastensuojelun, sosiaalipalvelujen, lapsille suunnattujen sosiaalisten tukien sekä lasten osallistumista koskevia normeja ja toimintapolitiikkaa. Sosiaalityön tulevaisuushaasteita analysoidaan menneisyyden valossa. Johtopäätöksemme on, että sosiaalityöntekijöillä on ainutlaatuinen mahdollisuus, joka perustuu heidän läheisiin työskentelysuhteisiinsa vaikeissa elämäntilanteissa olevien lasten kanssa, olla lasten oikeuksien todellisia toimeenpanijoita. Lisäksi lapsuuden ja vanhemmuuden näkökulmat yhdistävästä toimintapaikastaan käsin juuri sosiaalityöntekijät voivat vaikuttaa tutkimukseen ja kehittämiseen niin, että hyvinvointipalvelut ja –etuudet kohtaisivat nykyistä joustavammin lasten oikeuksien, yleisen yhteiskuntamuutoksen, globalisaation ja kovin ideologisena pitämämme riskiajattelun haasteet.     

Wertschöpfungs- und Werteinforderungsnormen im Rahmen der „Plural Form Governance“: Ein empirischer Test in Key-Account- und Nicht-Key-Account-Dyaden

In order to secure against uncertainty in vertical business relationships, actors dispose of different mechanisms. This article focuses on the influence of contracts, specific investments, value-creating norms, value-claiming norms, and trust on customer satisfaction and commitment. An empirical study lead to the result that governance mechanisms have high explanatory power for the outcome variables. Value-creating norms and trust play a key role. In addition, the article differentiates between key account and non key account relationships. It shows that only value-creating norms contribute to the explanation of both outcome variables across both types of relationships.     

The experience of returning to work

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore from an environmental perspective the experiences of returning to work of former unemployed sickness absentees. Five separate focus-group interviews were carried out with themes concerning different environmental areas. The findings showed that the participants in their process of being off work and then attempting returning to work experienced a personal transition manifesting itself as a negative self-image, change of life-rhythm and restrictions in their roles and activities. In their progression, the participants experienced a need for reorientation and expressed feelings of alienation, and for that reason felt need of support from a network, especially a professional one. Regarding attitudes in society, the participants reported experiences of social stigmatization, both in mass media and in their immediate social environment, and an increasing egocentricity among their fellow-workers. They perceived their progression back to work as a 'time quarantine' and as a long and destructive wait for support. The findings indicate that the phenomenon of 'returning to work' after unemployment and sick leave could not be reduced to a single issue. It should rather be seen as a dynamic problem with individual and structural, environmental aspects.