Low-Wage Single-Mother Families in This Jobless Recovery: Can Improved Social Policies Help?

Low-wage single-mother families face greater relative disadvantage in this jobless recovery than do other earning and marital groups. Stressful uncertainties are intensified for them not only by a lack of financial reserves related to low pay and having only one family earner but by the characteristics of their labor market, a growing disparity in income distribution nationally that increases their relative disadvantage, intensified job competition from more skilled unemployed workers. Incomplete education and fewer and less adequate training programs than are available for more educated workers make it more difficult to improve or diversify skills. Given the limitations of wage-related social policies, there is a need for expanded education and training programs to increase skills and raise the earnings potential to a more family-sustaining level.     

Participatory Spaces of Mental Health Service User Organizations in the Post-deinstitutional Era: Mapping Roles and Challenges

By applying the concept of participatory spaces, this article maps and analyzes current research on mental health service user organizations (MHSUOs). We have analyzed research literature from 2006 to 2016 to examine how the role of and challenges facing MHSUOs are formulated in the post-deinstitutional era. The current situation is marked by MHSUOs parallel presence in invited, claimed and popular spaces for participation. The post-deinstitutional era is characterized by a shift in focus from gaining access to such participatory spaces, to critically examining the political opportunities available in these. We further argue that the dominance of psychiatry-specific spaces could prevent MHSUOs from fully exploring their potential for participation in broader social issues.     

Do financial professionals behave according to prospect theory? An experimental study

Prospect theory is increasingly used to explain deviations from the traditional paradigm of rational agents. Empirical support for prospect theory comes mainly from laboratory experiments using student samples. It is obviously important to know whether and to what extent this support generalizes to more naturally occurring circumstances. This article explores this question and measures prospect theory for a sample of private bankers and fund managers. We obtained clear support for prospect theory. Our financial professionals behaved according to prospect theory and violated expected utility maximization. They were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses and their utility was concave for gains and (slightly) convex for losses. They were also averse to losses, but less so than commonly observed in laboratory studies and assumed in behavioral finance. A substantial minority focused on gains and largely ignored losses, behavior reminiscent of what caused the current financial crisis.     

An analytical management framework for new product development processes featuring uncertain iterations

This paper presents an analytical framework for effective management of projects with uncertain iterations. The framework is based upon: (1) the combination of two complementary techniques, one focused on improving iterative process architectures, the Design Structure Matrix, and one focused on predicting project performance, the Graphical Evaluation Review Technique; and (2) the introduction of an activity set-based criticality measure. The intent of the framework is to help project managers and researchers identify and evaluate alternative process architectures, in order to help them determine the alternative which best balances risk and other project performance parameters, as illustrated through an example application.     

The introduction of genetically modified food in the United States and the United Kingdom: A news analysis

Genetically modified (GM) food is a highly controversial topic. Research has shown that individuals gather information on controversial issues predominantly from newspapers. This paper compares newspaper coverage of GM food during the years 1993–2003 within two U.S. and two U.K. newspapers. The data suggests a greater affinity for similar coverage within the same country than between similar regions in different countries. Regardless of the geographic location, newspaper coverage appears to be event driven. The study reported here represents an exploratory engagement with GM food; we suggest that the topic warrants further study by geographers.     

The Emergence of a Community-based Social Assistance Programme in Urban China

To many people, the problem of poverty in China was confined mainly to the rural areas, and the situation of urban poverty was regarded as insignificant. Yet in fact, market-orientated economic reforms have created an urban underclass, made up of poorly paid state workers, the unemployed, and migrants from the countryside. In attempting to respond to the mounting needs of the urban poor, the Chinese government has introduced a means-tested social assistance programme in the cities since the mid-1990s. This paper describes the basic philosophy, structure and operation of this programme, and provides a general assessment of its functions and shortcomings.     

Repas ambulants Informalité urbaine et modernité industrielle à la frontière nord du Mexique

The relation between urban informality and industrial modernity is analyzed by examining very small businesses specialized in selling prepared food to workers in the transnational manufacturing plants (maquiladoras) along Mexico’s northern border. In the urban setting along this border, the model of an export-driven industrialization is compatible with premodern aspects of the subsistence economy. In fact, it depends on subsistence activities for its very existence. As a consequence, informal services have emerged that help stabilize the work force needed by these plants. A survey of the owners of these microbusinesses has provided data for analyzing the organization and operation of this commerce and its relation with the family as a social unit. — Special issue: Latin America.     

Collective Deliberations and Hearts on Fire: Experiential Knowledge Among Entrepreneurs and Organisations in the Mental Health Service User Movement

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Previous research has shown that experiential knowledge plays an important role for service user movements and has also...     

On social aspects of the usage of guide-dogs and long-canes1

The paper argues that discredit pertains not only to individuals, but also to the implements of aid that discredited persons use to overcome their situation. Focusing on the mobility aids of blind people, the paper demonstrates that as a consequence of the diffusion of discredit, the users of guide-dogs and long-canes mould their usage practices in particular ways. Namely, according to norms which the users conceive to be unobjectionable to sighted people. Thus cane-users considered the sound that their canes emitted to be embarassing, and tried to avoid causing it. Also guide-dog usage was inhibited as a result of traditional Middle-Eastern attitudes towards dogs. In concluding, the ambiguity of blind people toward their mobility aids is juxtaposed with their accepting attitude toward television sets in their homes. The latter are conceived by blind people as a natural element of the material culture of the sighted environment. Consequently, even blind people for whom television sets are manifestly unsuited introduce them into their lives. This leads to the conclusion that material artifacts are conceptualized in society generally, according to practices that are attuned to the dominant social stratum. The data are drawn from observations made in the course of ethnographic field-work in a population of blind people in Israel.     

Developing collaborations between child welfare agencies and Latino communities

Collaborative efforts to achieve permanency planning and family stability for all children in the child welfare system are increasing. As Latino children and families constitute the fastest growing ethnic group in the child welfare system, it is important to understand how to develop culturally sensitive collaborations with their communities. The purpose of this article is to suggest helpful guidelines for developing collaborations between child welfare agencies and Latino communities.