Stakeholder management and program planning in German public theaters

Taking the example of a German public professional theater, this study is the first to analyze how stakeholder interests are managed in the process of program planning. We address the following questions: (1) What are the goals and interests of the most influential stakeholders? (2) How are these goals and interests reflected by theater management when deciding the season's program? (3) Which strategies does theater management apply to balance conflicting stakeholder goals and interests? Results of our qualitative study identify five decisions to be made with regard to program planning: selection of the season's theme, plays, stage directors, cast, and chronological order of productions. Four strategies of balancing conflicting stakeholder goals and interests are identified: setting priorities, combining stakeholder interests, focusing on neutral goals, and developing audiences.     

Interpreting the Principal Component Analysis of Multivariate Density Functions

Functional principal component analysis (FPCA) as a reduction data technique of a finite number T of functions can be used to identify the dominant modes of variation of numeric three-way data.

We carry out the FPCA on multidimensional probability density functions, relate this method to other standard methods and define its centered or standardized versions. Grounded on the relationship between FPCA of densities, FPCA of their corresponding characteristic functions, PCA of the MacLaurin expansions of these characteristic functions and dual STATIS method applied to their variance matrices, we propose a method for interpreting the results of the FPCA of densities. This method is based on the investigations of the relationships between the scores of the FPCA and the moments associated to the densities.

The method is illustrated using known Gaussian densities. In practice, FPCA of densities deals with observations of multidimensional variables on T occasions. These observations can be used to estimate the T associated densities (i) by estimating the parameters of these densities, assuming that they are Gaussian, or (ii) by using the Gaussian kernel method and choosing the matrix bandwidth by the normal reference rule. Thereafter, FPCA estimate is derived from these estimates and the interpretation method is carried out to explore the dominant modes of variation of the types of three-way data encountered in sensory analysis and archaeology.     

Determinants of the living arrangements of older people in Europe Déterminants des modes de vie des personnes âgées en Europe

This paper analyses the influence of relevant variables (age, sex, marital status, health, income, education and children) on the risk of belonging to one of the four main types of household in which old European people live nowadays: alone, with partner, with others, in a collective household. Nine countries with different social and political contexts are compared by using different data sources. These socio-demographic characteristics play the same role in all countries except for the influence of childlessness and of gender, but the geographical heterogeneity of the living arrangements remains partly unexplained due to currently inadequate comparative data sources for Europe.     

Exploring emotional aspects of care and control in social work with children and families - a single case analysis of conversation

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore how emotions are displayed and dealt with on a communicative level in face-to-face encounters between social workers and parents in a child welfare setting. The analysis draws upon detailed analysis of a whole encounter between a social worker and a parental couple who have recently had their new-born daughter placed in foster care. By examining the way emotional stances are expressed and responded to I discuss how orientations toward institutional tasks and goals create constraints for the display, recognition and validation of clients’ emotion displays. I consider the communicative challenges this poses for the parents and the social worker and the implications these may have for the client–worker relationship.     

Professionals' understanding of partnership with parents in the context of family support programmes

Partnership has become a dominant concept in current thinking about the parent–professional relationship within a variety of interventions aimed at child welfare, including family support practice. However, despite the burgeoning policy and research attention, the meaning of partnership in practice remains unclear. Based on interviews with professionals in a family support intervention in Flanders (the Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium), this paper offers an insight into professionals' daily interactions with parents. The analysis reveals a tension between professionals' commitment towards parents on the one hand, and the way professionals take up this commitment in an expert role on the other. Consequences for professionals' relationships in child and family welfare interventions are discussed, as well as some implications for the realization of proper partnerships that acknowledge the power imbalances that exist in such partnerships.     

Organizing for strategic management

In this paper, the author—a well-known Dutch academic and consultant—discusses the factors which make ‘strategic management’ effective. Among these, a dominant factor is the organization climate which, in its turn, is determined by the quality of the managers and the availability of alternatives. He suggests that to improve the organization climate in which strategic management can be effective, the quality of the managers is a crucial factor. The scope for alternatives is an important constraint. This article assesses common problems and failures in strategic management and gives some suggestions for organizing it, including the use of consultants and the role of formal procedures.     

How do social work novices and experts solve professional problems? A micro-analysis of epistemic activities and the use of evidence

Evidence-based practice in social work is an intensely debated topic, with many differing perspectives on how it should be done. However, we know surprisingly little about how social workers actually engage in professional problem-solving and about the knowledge base of those processes. To shed light on this topic of social work expertise, we present a novel model of scientific reasoning and argumentation and investigate how experts and novices differ in the reasoning processes they engage in as they are confronted with social work problems. Vignettes were used to capture reasoning processes, and the corresponding verbal data were then analysed. In this study, 26 probation officers and 22 social work students participated. The findings show that experts differ from novices with respect to both their knowledge bases and the epistemic activities in which they engage. Furthermore, a cluster analysis revealed three common problem-solving strategies: evidence-based solution seeking (15 experts and 15 novices), shared problem-solving (8 experts) and explanation seeking (1 expert and 7 novices). The results indicate the need to improve the practical problem-solving skills of students through situated teaching methods.     

Emigration Rates From Sample Surveys: An Application to Senegal

What is the emigration rate of a country, and how reliable is that figure? Answering these questions is not at all straightforward. Most data on international migration are census data on foreign-born population. These migrant stock data describe the immigrant population in destination countries but offer limited information on the rate at which people leave their country of origin. The emigration rate depends on the number leaving in a given period and the population at risk of leaving, weighted by the duration at risk. Emigration surveys provide a useful data source for estimating emigration rates, provided that the estimation method accounts for sample design. In this study, emigration rates and confidence intervals are estimated from a sample survey of households in the Dakar region in Senegal, which was part of the Migration between Africa and Europe survey. The sample was a stratified two-stage sample with oversampling of households with members abroad or return migrants. A combination of methods of survival analysis (time-to-event data) and replication variance estimation (bootstrapping) yields emigration rates and design-consistent confidence intervals that are representative for the study population.