(When) Is job-finding via personal contacts a meaningful concept for social network analysis? A comment to

Chua (2011) argues that in a meritocratic context, institutions restrict the usefulness of social networks in exerting influence on job seekers’ earnings. Regressing job-finding via personal contacts on earnings, he finds negative effects of influence via personal contacts, especially for the well-educated and individuals working in the state sector. In this comment, I argue that these results are ambiguous because (1) the analysis does not sufficiently distinguish between job ‘search’ methods and job ‘finding’ methods, (2) job-finding method indicates information flow rather than a personal contact's influence, and (3) it remains unclear whether Chua's analysis reflects the effect of network usage in job search per se or the effect of self-selection into network usage by individuals with low earning potential.     

基于社会服务项目的儿童福利资源整合

当前,我国儿童福利资源存在资源匮乏、供给分散、可获得性弱等问题,而社会服务项目则是解决这些问题的一种路径。以福利治理为理论视角,尝试以一个留守儿童社会服务项目为例的研究发现,该项目通过不同形式的合作整合了来自政府、军队、群团组织、社会组织、企业、社区等资源,提高了福利资源的供给效率,满足了留守儿童多元化的福利需求,但是,由于项目本身的周期性、制度保障的缺乏等限制,导致了项目难以持续发挥作用。因此,基于社会服务项目的福利资源整合只是一种基于实践基础上的暂时的整合,而最根本的还需要在福利制度上进行整合。     

The governance of social enterprises: Mission drift and accountability challenges in hybrid organizations

We examine the challenges of governance facing organizations that pursue a social mission through the use of market mechanisms. These hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises, combine aspects of both charity and business at their core. In this paper we distinguish between two ideal types of such hybrids, differentiated and integrated, and we conceptualize two key challenges of governance they face: accountability for dual performance objectives and accountability to multiple principal stakeholders. We revisit the potential and limitations of recently introduced legal forms to address these challenges. We then theorize about the importance of organizational governance and the role of governing boards in particular, in prioritizing and aligning potentially conflicting objectives and interests in order to avoid mission drift and to maintain organizational hybridity in social enterprises. Finally, we discuss future research directions and the implications of this work for rethinking traditional categories of organizations, namely business and charity.     

Young People Leaving Care: Participatory Research to Improve Child Welfare Practices and the Rights of Children and Young People

Abstract

This paper discusses participatory research with young people who are leaving public care in Finland to begin independent lives. The aim of the research, organised by SOS Children's Villages International, was to bring about change in alternative care arrangements, particularly those involving young people's transition to independence. The project used a participatory research design based on employing care-leaving peers as co-researchers. This paper adheres to the methodological principles of empowerment in analysing the personal experiences of young people leaving alternative care with the goal of informing good practice. The findings suggest that the peer research method can be an effective means of empowering young people to develop research skills and to be involved in knowledge production, as well as serving as a means of promoting improved services for “care-leavers”, those young people who are leaving either foster care or institutional care. The participatory and peer research method challenges the traditional understandings of expertise and knowledge production. Although the hierarchy between adult researchers and young people as co-researchers is still evident, the method provides possibilities for better understanding the social- and health-service systems and their challenges and pitfalls from a user's perspective.     

Connecting for success: Egocentric network types among underrepresented minority students at college

This study investigates the egocentric networks of underrepresented minority students. Adjustment to college for underrepresented minority students often means balancing between the origin (i.e., low-status family) and host (i.e., academic) environments, requiring students to develop different coping strategies. The analysis included 124 Roma university students. We employed the contact diary method and the EgoNet program for mapping students’ egocentric networks. We explored classification among egocentric networks by cluster analysis based on the network proportion of the origin, fellow, and host groups. Three clusters were distinguished. The Host-based cluster proved to be the most advantageous, while the Balancing cluster appeared to be the most disadvantageous in terms of network resources, well-being, and trust. Partners’ ethnicity and educational attainment showed a strong connection with cluster membership. Our results highlight that small fellow communities can successfully interconnect the origin and host groups in students’ egocentric networks.     

Work performance and tax compliance in flat and progressive tax systems

Different tax systems, and their impact on work motivation and tax compliance are significant issues in contemporary political and economic debates. The proportional feature of a flat tax system is assumed to lead to higher performance, while the fairness of the redistributive progressive tax system is assumed to result in higher tax compliance. However, empirical findings on the topic are inconclusive. Both work performance and tax compliance under different tax systems were examined in an experiment, with special attention devoted to the effect of a change in tax systems. A flat tax system was supposed to induce greater work performance, whereas a progressive tax system was expected to increase tax compliance based on fairness perceptions, allowing for the opposite effect due to higher complexity. Furthermore, it was assumed that performance and tax payments would be influenced by motives of self-interest. The design included 20 rounds with a real-effort task in each round, determining participants’ experimental income. Participants (N = 191) made decisions about their tax payments from round-to-round in four different experimental conditions: (1) a flat tax system, (2) a progressive tax system, (3) starting with a flat and changing to a progressive, and (4) starting with a progressive and changing to a flat tax system. Results indicate higher work performance in a progressive system. However, a change from a progressive tax system to a flat system led to increased tax compliance.     

Conceptualizing anxiety among social work students: implications for social work education

Student anxiety is frequently discussed within social work education. Due to its potentially devastating impacts, social work educators need to have a full understanding of anxiety in this context, in order to determine the best way to support students. Research on student anxiety from a broad body of literature provides implications for social work classrooms and field education. Key underlying concepts from previous social work and related research on student anxiety inform a conceptual model to help educators develop a more complex understanding of student anxiety. Implications for further research and important next steps in the development of support strategies for social work students are identified.     

Connecting and Strengthening Young Aboriginal Men: A Family Wellbeing Pilot Study

A significant proportion of young people in Australia are currently not being engaged in school and other social systems. This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study of a pilot Family Wellbeing intervention designed to enhance the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of young Aboriginal men and improve engagement in education, employment, and other social participation. A questionnaire incorporating the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and respondent self-assessment SEWB questions was administered to program participants pre and post intervention (N = 30) and qualitative data were collected from program organisers (N = 6). The results suggest that the Family Wellbeing intervention has the capacity to make a marked contribution to the SEWB of young Aboriginal men; participants experienced strong improvement in capacity to manage relationships, engagement in education and employment, and mental and physical health. The factors that enabled the program to be adapted to the target group and setting are documented.     

Analytic strategies for longitudinal networks with missing data

Missing data are often problematic when analyzing complete longitudinal social network data. We review approaches for accommodating missing data when analyzing longitudinal network data with stochastic actor-based models. One common practice is to restrict analyses to participants observed at most or all time points, to achieve model convergence. We propose and evaluate an alternative, more inclusive approach to sub-setting and analyzing longitudinal network data, using data from a school friendship network observed at four waves (N = 694). Compared to standard practices, our approach retained more information from partially observed participants, generated a more representative analytic sample, and led to less biased model estimates for this case study. The implications and potential applications for longitudinal network analysis are discussed.