Sustainable communities,economic development,and social change: Two case studies of 'garrison communities' in Jamaica

Although the concept of sustainable communities is often referred to as being closely allied to environmental sustainability, it also embodies notions of sustainable development, empowerment and increase in community autonomy. The concept of sustainability assumes a process of social and/or economic development that has as a high priority the needs of the future generation. However, models of social and economic development employed in developing countries must rely heavily on political, social and psychological empowerment techniques being employed at the community level, in order to warrant any type of sustainability becoming apparent. Two case studies taken from Kingston, Jamaica, demonstrate the process of community economic development (CED) employed and provide a source for analysis of one writer's criteria for sustainable development. Conclusions are subsequently drawn as to the usefulness of this particular CED model in contributing to sustainable community-driven action. The analysis also points to improvement in the quality of life, acceptance of a 'third-party' support mechanism, the creation of an atmosphere for continued community decision making and continued visible government support as important factors in the struggle to maintain a responsible, viable community which will be acceptable to present and future generations. A pesar de que con frecuencia se refiere al concepto de las comunidades autosuficientes como muy vinculadas con mantenimiento del medio ambiente, tambien contiene nociones de desarollo sustentable, transferencia de poder y aumento de la autonoma de la comunidad. El concepto de la sustentabilidad asume un proceso de desarollo social y/o económico que tiene como su maxima prioridad las necesidades de la generación futura. Sin embargo, los modelos del desarollo social y económico empleados en los paises en desarollo, deben depender en gran medida de que las técnicas del autorizamiento póltieo, social y sicológico esten implementadas al nivel de comunidad para garantizar que cualquier tipo de sustentabilidad sea aparente. Dos estudios, hechos en Kingston, Jamaica demuestran que el proceso del desarollo económico de la comunidad (CED) emplearon y facilitaron un fuente para el análisis de los criterios de un escritor sobre el desarollo sustentable. En consecuencia, se han extrá´ do concluciones referentes a la utilidad de este modelo espe? fico (CED) para contribuir a la acción originada por la comunidad sustentable. El análisis tambien apunta a una mejora de la calidad de vida, la a ceptación de un mecanismo de apoyo a terceros, la creación de un ambiente para la toma de decisiones comunitanas y el continuo apoyo gubernamental visible como factores importantes en la lucha para mantener una comunidad viable y responsable que sea aceptable para las generaciones presentes y futuras.     

No wonder social workers feel uncomfortable in court

The present article assesses the adversary systemper se and asks the question, Is there any place for courtroom antics and histrionics in cases involving children? Social workers are uncomfortable before the august body of thecourt, not because of any lack of education or knowledge on their part but because of the nature of the adversary process itself.     

Using Geographic Information Systems to Reconceptualize Spatial Relationships and Ecological Context

In this article, the author demonstrates how geographic information system (GIS) software can be used to reconceptualize spatial relationships and ecological context and address the modifiable areal unit problem. In order to do this, the author uses GIS to (1) test an important category of spatial hypotheses (spatial proximity hypotheses), (2) overcome methodological problems that arise when data sets are not spatially comparable, and (3) measure ecological context. The author introduces a set of GIS variable construction techniques that are designed to accomplish these tasks, illustrates these techniques empirically by using them to test spatial proximity hypotheses drawn from the literature on environmental inequality, and demonstrates that results obtained using these techniques are methodologically superior to and substantively different from results obtained using traditional techniques. Finally, the author demonstrates that these techniques are the product of an alternative conceptualization of physical space that allows sociologists to develop new ways to think about and measure spatial relationships, ecological context, and place-based social inequality and that gives them the ability to reconceptualize spatially based methodological problems that have confronted them for years.     

The (Conditional) Resource Dilution Model: State- and Community-Level Modifications

Demography - One of the most consistent patterns in the social sciences is the relationship between sibship size and educational outcomes: those with fewer siblings outperform those with many. The...     

Cambodia's Fertility Transition: The Dynamics of Contemporary Childbearing

Cambodia is undergoing a fertility transition, with the total fertility rate falling from 6.7 before 1970 to 3.0 in 2010. This study is the first to examine the contemporary context of childbearing in Cambodia and the drivers of this transition, analyzing the articulations of men and women and the rationales behind their fertility intentions and behavior. Findings are derived from 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in urban and rural settings in Siem Reap. The article explains how patterns of reproduction are shaped by the specific context and social organization, the political economy, gender relations, and kinship system. In Cambodia, changes in employment conditions, agricultural systems, and living arrangements create new motivations that in turn affect fertility decisions. In post‐conflict Cambodia rationales related to lineage continuation and the effects of the Khmer Rouge period also emerge as important influences.     

Writing resistance together

This piece of writing is a joint initiative by the participants in the Gender, Work and Organization writing workshop organized in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2019. This is a particular form of writing differently. We engage in collective writing and embody what it means to write resistance to established academic practices and conventions together. This is a form of emancipatory initiative where we care for each other as writers and as human beings. There are many author voices and we aim to keep the text open and dialogical. As such, this piece of writing is about suppressed thoughts and feelings that our collective picket line allows us to express. In order to maintain the open‐ended nature of the text, and perhaps also to retain some ‘dirtiness’ that is essential to writing, the article has not been language checked throughout by a native speaker of English.     

Measuring servitization progress and outcome: the case of ‘advanced services’

The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for assessing the progress and outcome of a manufacturer’s transformation towards becoming a provider of ‘advanced services’ – a complex bundling of products and services, whereby manufacturers offer capabilities and outcomes instead of products alone. ‘Advanced services’ represent the most complex offering in the current servitization trend amongst manufacturers. However, current performance measures lack the breadth and focus to assess progress or outcomes, and so support research and practice of organisational transformation efforts required. To address this gap the paper investigates how a manufacturer’s efforts to become an ‘advanced services’ provider can be comprehensively measured, and develops a framework for assessing the transformation journey towards becoming an ‘advanced services’ provider. The research method is based on (1) a systematic literature review process to create a comprehensive set of service-related performance measures that are available to assess a manufacturer’s servitization efforts, followed by (2) an engagement with an expert panel to synthesise the identified measures and create a set of ‘advanced services’ performance measures. The proposed framework is presented as a scorecard that can be used in practice to assess the progress and outcome of a manufacturer’s transformation towards becoming a provider of ‘advanced services’.