Social identity and alcohol in young adolescence: the perceived difference between youthful and adult drinking

This paper examines the evolving social identities of young adolescents in regard to alcohol and drinking culture in Norway. Detailed analysis of 29 focus group interviews and 32 individual interviews with 12–13-year-olds reveal a thorough negative attitude towards alcohol, especially when enjoyed by young people. Young adolescents found young people to be too irresponsible and immature to drink, while adults were portrayed as capable of enjoying alcohol without losing control or experiencing other negative effects. Through symbolic boundary work, they distanced themselves from adolescents who drank. The young adolescents rejected the idea that drinking alcohol was a sign of maturity; instead, they exhibited maturity by distancing themselves from drunk adolescents. We discuss how these findings reflect the participants’ socio-cognitive development, and how symbolic boundaries are often drawn against those closest in social distance. We conclude that boundaries between ‘adolescents’ and ‘adults’ are fundamental when understanding emerging adolescent social identities, especially when it comes to drinking and drinking culture.     

Insecure Attachment Behavior and Partner Violence: Incorporating Couple Perceptions of Insecure Attachment and Relational Aggression

Intimate partner violence and insecure attachment are therapeutically relevant concepts when working with couples. The link between attachment and intimate partner violence has been examined in the literature, but an area of aggression that often goes unexamined is relational aggression, or using third parties as a means of being aggressive toward a partner. We asked how participants' attachment behaviors were related to their own and partners' relational and physical aggression. We used structural equation modeling to estimate actor–partner interdependence among these relationships in 644 heterosexual couples. Results indicated significant partner paths from attachment to relational aggression, as well as significant actor paths between relational aggression and physical aggression. Implications were discussed. Data for this study were collected from the RELATE assessment.     

Materials receiving capacity and inventory management

This paper analyses the optimal level of materials receiving capacity for a manufacturer that receives deliveries from many suppliers. Inventory levels and inventory carrying costs depend on the frequency of deliveries and thus, on the materials receiving capacity. An analytic model that captures the tradeoff between inventory costs and materials receiving costs is presented and discussed. The receiving cost is modeled as increasing in discrete jumps of varying sizes whenever materials receiving resources are added. Practical issues in implementing the model are highlighted and methods to reduce the marginal materials receiving cost are discussed. The paper also discusses connections to the JIT approach for production environments where materials receiving is heavily automated.     

Between Poor Relief and Human Capital Investments – Paradoxes in Hybrid Social Assistance

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are often being promoted for their simultaneous advantages of short‐term income protection and long‐term human capital investments. Yet, existing evaluations have largely failed to test the underlying programme theory, and few empirical case studies have explored inherent contradictions and ambiguous consequences of this hybrid approach. To further understand the programmes' social policy implications, this study identifies and analyzes such ambiguities and paradoxical consequences in the case of Uruguay's CCT‐programme, Asignaciones Familiares (AFAM). Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with beneficiaries and members of the commission who designed the programme, this study reveals major paradoxes in AFAM's design and implementation caused by various endogenous factors. Relevant to social policy in general, and CCT‐evaluations in particular, findings also indicate that the hybrid social assistance approach may have perverse effects on the programme's twin objectives.     

Sisters (can’t) unite! Wages as macro‐political and the gendered power orders of corporatism

In addition to political parties and the government, trade union confederations and employer organizations are major power players in the Finnish labour market, policymaking and the wider society. This article analyses the significant role of the Finnish corporatist regime in creating and maintaining the gendered hierarchies of the labour market, including the gender pay gap. Using the case of the Finnish nurses’ industrial action in 2007, our analysis highlights the capacity of the corporatist regime to resist change in current wage relativities and effectively block attempts made to challenge the status quo. This article describes how wages are macro‐political, shaped by political processes, negotiations, power relations and vested interests of central stakeholders within the Finnish corporatist regime. The analysis focuses on the problem representations through which the actors articulate either their attempt to increase wages or to maintain the status quo, which makes their vested interests, as well as politics, visible.     

Lawyers’ Professional Careers: Increasing Women's Inclusion in the Partnership of Law Firms

Despite a huge increase in the number of women lawyers employed in professional service firms (PSFs) over the last four decades, the proportion of women at partnership level has changed at a much slower rate. This article investigates men's and women's understandings of women's careers and promotion to equity partner. The findings show that one reason why few women advance to equity partner level is that both men and women understand this role as requiring them to privilege work considerations over family. We recommend that PSF researchers and practitioners reflect more on the management of diversity and alternative work arrangements and organization.