Introduction

SUMMARY

This introduction to Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Mental Health reviews the need for research specific to lesbian and bisexual women's mental health. We also emphasize the need to provide research sensitive to the multidimensional nature of lesbian and bisexual women's lives. We provide a human ecological perspective consistent with lifespan developmental psychology and compatible with Clinical Social Work and Counseling Psychology as well as other interdisciplinary disciplines. With a strong emphasis on empirical research, this volume introduces readers to research that explores and reexamines the interactions between lesbian and bisexual women's mental health and the diverse social contexts in which they (we) live.     

Child Support: The Limits of Social Policy Based on Assumptions of Knavery Extending the Pillars of Social Policy Financing to Aged Care

Julian Le Grand has argued that a key component of welfare reform involves changes in the assumptions about human behaviour which are embedded in social policies. Policy assumptions have been transformed from espousing a belief that social service providers act as well-intentioned knights and recipients as passive pawns, to a stance in which all participants are regarded as self-seeking knaves. These ideas are particularly pertinent to policy developments concerning financial obligations for children, and this paper examines these issues in relation to child support policy in New Zealand. It highlights the evident and inevitable failure of this policy to meet its primary stated aim of revenue generation. In New Zealand this failure is compounded by the creation of parallel systems for dealing with children and families, one for financial obligations and the other for care and development, which are founded on diametrically opposed assumptions about human behaviour and capabilities. This confusion is symptomatic of a wider failure in government policy towards families in New Zealand.     

Employability management practices in the Polish ICT sector

This article examines current career thinking and employability management practices within the Polish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The aim of this contribution is to identify career management problems and to determine obstacles for implementing employability management practices at a company level. Semi-structured interviews aimed at establishing company needs were conducted with 18 managers of small and medium-sized ICT enterprises in Poland. These firms appear to apply various developmental approaches to stimulate competitive advantage. Faced with a more demanding environment, firms aim for versatility rather than adopting simplified solutions. Managing the careers and employability of ICT professionals is acknowledged as vitally important for the survival and development of ICT companies.     

Talking of HRD

This paper draws upon research exploring the emergence of HRD within the British National Health Service (NHS), the aim being to investigate how HRD has been talked into being, is talked about and accomplished through talk. HRD is conceptualized as a socialand discursive construction, and as discursive action. It is argued that conceptualizing HRD as a social and discursive construction can help identify and explain changes in ways of thinking and talking about HRD. Conceptualizing HRD as discursive action can help explain and justify HRD activity, in that much of what HRD practitioners and academics ‘do’ is ‘talk’. This paper explores these concepts and introduces a typology of the discourses of training and development (T&D), HRD and strategic HRD (SHRD), labelled Tell, Sell and Gel. It is suggested that this typology is a useful analytical tool for those practising HRD, providing ameans for HRD professionals to identify and analyse, and possibly change, their practices and discourse(s). The paper introduces a way of identifying how HRD might be talked ‘about’ and theorizes how discursive activities (the talk) might be changing.     

Perceptions of efficacy in the use of contemporary film in social work education: An exploratory study

This article discusses the use of contemporary film in social work education, including the theoretical rationale for the inclusion of film from the perspective of narrative and adult learning theory as well as the application of the case method to the use of film. The student viewpoint and perspective is provided through the results of an exploratory research study with 109 Baccalaureate social work students who completed a survey questionnaire following a classroom activity involving a contemporary film. Analysis of the quantitative data and qualitative comments indicates that students believe that film is a beneficial adjunct to textbook and lecture content.     

Building capacity for urban management in Ghana: some critical considerations

Severe capacity gaps continue to constrain effective urban management in Ghana, despite numerous donor-supported training programmes. This paper examines the nature of these capacity gaps and analyses specifically the factors contributing to the low attraction and retention of local government staff: politicisation of the bureaucracy, excessive use of external experts, excessive state intervention in skill development and low remuneration of local government staff. Against this background, the paper reviews critically a recent capacity building initiative: the establishment of the (new) Institute of Local Government Studies in Accra. Suggestions to improve capacity building for urban management in Ghana are offered. These include the need to prepare a coherent strategy to guide and co-ordinate stakeholder inputs in capacity building; to place training in the context of institutional development; and encourage the development and use of local expertise in donor assisted projects; and, promote merit-based remuneration of local government staff.     

Endogenous socio-economic development in the European union — issues of evaluation

The public sector, in its policy statements and in the design of programmes of intervention, appears to be subscribing to a rhetoric of “grassroots participation”. At the same time, however, pressures are increasing for bureaucracies to adopt a managerialist modus operandi. This article considers the tensions that arise when participative service provision and programmes are subjected to evaluation scrutiny by managerialist bodies. The discussion takes place in the context of an EU-sponsored endogenous socio-economic development initiative. This prepares the ground for an exploration of participative evaluation.     

人的本质再探

通常认为，人的本质，在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和。从现实社会关系的总和出发把握人的本质，是把握人的本质的途径和方法，但不是人的本质本身。通过揭示并论证人是思维与存在的矛盾存在，实践是人的存在方式，进而论证了人的本质是在实践中展开着的思维与存在的矛盾存在，并初步揭示了“人的本质新论”的哲学功能。     

自然人性与社会人性的“战斗”——解读克洛德自然人性的复归

克洛德的自然人性，宛若“天使”，在黑暗的“魔鬼”生活中熠熠发光。可是在压抑中复归的人性是畸形的，以至于克洛德用这种不健全的、变态的人性既伤害了他人，又毁灭了自己，终于给自己的一生画上了一个悲凉而凄惨的句号。他既是罪恶的社会和宗教的代言体，又是受害体。宗教禁锢人性的本质不言而喻。     

李栗谷天人观研究——以人的命运问题为中心

李栗谷在对天、命观的研究中,从天人关系的角度思考了人性命运的问题。他以圣人与天的经历为基础,力图把传统的重要经典联成一个整体,证明了天与人,天道与人事之间存在着密切的关系:天与道遥相呼应,人对于人性有积极作用;人所应循之道是通过圣人来传递的,圣人与天相通。另外,在关于命运的看法上,儒学和基督教的观点体现出更多的互补性,而不是相异性。