The “Practice of Humanity”

“Practice of Humanity” examines visual and legal representations of transnational sex and domestic work. Specifically, we analyze a 2003 United Nations public service announcement, Cleaning Lady; the 2000 UN Protocol on Human Trafficking; the 2000 US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act; and current trends in the sociological literatures of both types of work. We demonstrate how these texts allow particular connections between domestic and sex workers, while foreclosing others. We draw out the ways these regimes suppress understandings of work in favor of moralizing about workers; how the “domestic” in domestic work, and “work” in sex work continue to vex humanitarian operations; and the ways national and racial privilege cut across connections between domestic and sex work.     

Managing Multisite Nonprofits

Multisite nonprofit systems are organized in a variety of ways, ranging from central control to local control. Regardless of where a system falls along this organizational continuum, inevitable tensions emerge in the relationship between headquarters and the local organization. The purpose of this article is to understand the causes of these tensions and to offer management action that, regardless of the organizational structure, leads to greater system cohesion. Our exploration was facilitated by intense field research at five multisite systems: Outward Bound USA, Planned Parenthood, Habitat for Humanity, SOS Kinderdorf, and The Nature Conservancy. Our investigation suggests that multisite system behavior may be mapped on two dimensions—one that exerts forces toward unit autonomy and the other influencing the degree of organizational affiliation. These forces are associated with a host of organizational functions that are the traditional domains of management to influence and shape and thereby enable a multisite nonprofit to simultaneously optimize the benefits of organizational affiliation and unit autonomy.