非正式创新网络结构仿真研究

非正式创新网络对于组织创新能力的提高具有重要意义,特别是我国社会具有充满"人情"味的特征,研究非正式创新网络更具有重要的现实意义.在对非正式创新网络的概念和研究现状进行分析梳理的基础之上,对非正式创新网络建立计算机仿真模型.初步研究了非正式创新网络的结构特征.发现非正式创新网络同时具有小世界以及无标度特性.     

第三部门对社会矛盾冲突的调控作用探析

现代社会广泛兴起的介乎于政府和市场之间的第三部门，具有正规性、民间性、非营利性、自治性、志愿性和公益性等特性，在消除社会矛盾和冲突中，起着独特的作用。我国正处于社会矛盾的凸显期，应充分发挥第三部门组织的预防、整合、沟通、协调和济贫救困功能，化解社会矛盾和冲突，促进社会和谐。     

Researching Asia's Third Sector

Most Asian countries have a strong third sector and a rich tradition of philanthropy. The varied array of social, economic, political, and third sector variables across the many countries of the region make Asia an ideal site for testing and developing third sector theory. The research infrastructure needed to sustain such a venture is beginning to form. The five papers published in this issue of Voluntas indicate some of the product, and the variety, of this growing body of research.     

The service system challenges of work with juvenile justice involved young people in the Hunter Region,Australia

Current policies suggest that collaborative approaches are core to working effectively with juvenile justice involved young people. However, there is little research examining the workings of multi‐agency and collaborative endeavours in this field, or the experiences of the human service workers facilitating these connections. This paper reports on qualitative research that resulted from the Juvenile Justice and Education Equity in the Hunter Region project. Thirty‐eight human service workers were interviewed about their perceptions of the workings, strengths and challenges of the service system that supports young people who come into contact with the Children's Court in the Lower and Upper Hunter regions of New South Wales. Data analysis revealed three key themes related to (1) service gaps, cycles and maelstrom; (2) pursuing authentic service engagement; and (3) insider–outsider dynamics in service provision. Findings are discussed in relation to emerging practice and research agendas.     

Complaining Our Way to Quality: Complaints, Contracts and the Voluntary Sector

The research on which this paper is based is part of a wider study of quality assurance and the voluntary sector. The focus of this paper is on complaints procedures, as part of quality assurance mechanisms, where voluntary agencies are the contracted service providers. The authors argue that, with the introduction of contracting and particularly with its further development, the way in which complaints mechanisms currently operate will need to be revised if they are to be an effective part of the quality assurance process.     

New Policy Spaces: The Impact of Devolution on Third Sector Policy in the UK

The development of third sector policy in the UK since 1997 has seen changes which have been of significance both for analysts and practitioners. This period has seen government engagement with and support for the sector extend far beyond the levels found throughout much of the last century. This has led to a growth in the size and scale of the sector and a closer involvement of sector representatives in political debate and policy planning. These changes have taken place at the same time as third sector policy has been devolved to the new administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This article explores the impact of devolution on these policy developments and assesses the extent to which political devolution has led to policy divergence across the four countries in the UK. The conclusion is reached that policy devolution has created important new space for policy development for the third sector across the UK, but that the direction of travel in all four regimes has remained remarkably similar.     

Receipt of Formal and Informal Help with Specific Care Tasks among Older People Living in their Own Home. National Trends over Two Decades

Sweden is seen as a typical example of a social democratic welfare regime, with universal and generous welfare policies. However, in the last decades, there have been substantial reductions in the Swedish provision of care for older people. This study aimed to examine trends in sources of care‐receipt in older people (77+) living in their own home and with a perceived need for help with two specific tasks: house cleaning and/or food shopping. Trends in care‐receipt were examined in relation to gender, living alone, having children and socio‐economic position. Data from the 1992, 2002 and 2011 data collection waves of the national study, Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD), were used. Response rates varied between 86 and 95 per cent, and the sample represents the population well. Trends and differences between groups were explored in bivariate and logistic regression analyses. There was a reduction in formal care‐receipt regarding house cleaning and food shopping over the study period. It was more common for women than men to receive formal care, and more common for men than women to receive informal care. Reductions in formal care have affected older women more than older men. Still, living alone was the most influential factor in care‐receipt, associated with a greater likelihood of formal care‐receipt and a lower likelihood of informal care‐receipt. It can be concluded that public responsibility for care is becoming more narrowly defined in Sweden, and that more responsibility for care is placed on persons in need of care and their families.     

Beyond New Zealand's Dual Health Reforms

The New Zealand health system was substantially reformed in 1993 with the introduction of a purchaser–provider split, competitive contracting and managerialism. The new system failed to deliver the desired gains and, in 1996, the reforms were reformed. While there has been widespread study of the 1993 reforms, there has been little discussion to date of the 1996 changes and the emerging directions for New Zealand health policy and service delivery, which remain unclear. This paper discusses the New Zealand health reforms of the 1990s. It briefly outlines the 1993 reforms and their results. Next, it details the 1996 reforms. Third, it discusses developments since 1996, some of which have emerged out of the 1993 reforms, but which have gathered momentum only since the 1996 changes were announced. In the conclusion, the paper lists some of the directions in which the New Zealand health sector appears to be heading, noting that there is a need for coordination of the sector, and for permanence.     

The construction of social work in Brazil: a study of scientific texts

This article is a review of 50 selected peer-reviewed articles from 2004 to 2013. The texts are analysed with reference to Malcolm Payne’s model of the three-way discourse of social work, and the findings are discussed in relation to Brazil’s social and political background. The review of the articles reveals a general perspective on social work in Brazil as a profession aiming at social change through collective transformation, and a normative identity of social work as a profession with political implications. The texts written in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience are more inclined to promote explicit political perspectives on social work than the English texts. Ideological concepts such as democracy and universal rights expressed in the articles are challenged by competing views in Brazilian society. This is especially the case in discussions about the role of the third sector in Brazil. Social work as a concept cannot be taken for granted. The experience of extreme inequalities that Brazil shares with several other Latin American countries makes it necessary to consider historical and social characteristics in order to understand the analytical perspectives that national and international academics employ when studying social work in Brazil.