When Women Run Against Men

The electorate's reactions to women congressional candidatesare examined using both election returns and survey data. Whenparty and incumbency are controlled candidate sex alone is foundto have little or no effect on election outcomes. A curiousinteraction is found between candidate sex and party, however.This is attributed to nomination patterns     

Marital splits and income changes: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

We provide new evidence about what happens to people's incomes when their or their parents' marital union dissolves using longitudinal data from waves 1--4 of the British Household Panel Survey. Marital splits are accompanied by substantial declines in real income for separating wives and children on average, whereas separating husbands' real income on average changes much less. Results are shown to be robust to the choice of income de®nition and degree of economies of scale built into the household equivalence scale, and are validated with information about respondents' assessments of how their personal ®nancial circumstances changed. In addition we analyse the extent to which the welfare state mitigates the size of the income loss for women and children relative to men, and document the accompanying changes in social assistance bene®t receipt and paid work, and maintenance income receipt and payment.     

Professional Ethics in Social Work-- What Future?

Correspondence to: Sarah Banks, Community and Youth Work Studies Unit, Durham University, 45, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN, UK. E-mail: s.j.banks{at}durham.ac.uk Summary This paper examines the ethical implications of recent changesin social work, particularly in relation to the conception ofsocial workers as professionals guided by a code of ethics.These changes include the fragmentation of the occupation, theincreasing proceduralization of the work and the growing focuson consumer rights and user participation. Some people haveargued that codes of ethics are becoming increasingly irrelevantin this climate, in that they assume a unified occupationalgroup and are based upon professionals' definition of valueswithout consultation with service users. On the other hand,it has also been maintained that it is ever more important toretain and strengthen codes of ethics in order to maintain professionalidentity and to defend the work of the profession from outsideattack. This paper explores the relevance of a code of professionalethics for social work, focusing particularly on the BritishAssociation of Social Workers' code, in the context of the changingorganization and practice of the work. It considers two alternativeapproaches: the ‘new consumerism’ which focuseson the worker's technical skills (rather than professional ethics)and consumer rights (as opposed to professional obligations);and a ’new radicalism‘ which stresses the worker'sown personal or political commitment and individual moral responsibility(as opposed to an externally imposed code of professional ethics).It is concluded that the changes in social work do threatenthe notion of a single set of professional ethics articulatedin a code, and that, in some types of work, this model is lessappropriate. However, there is still mileage in retaining anddeveloping a code of ethics, not as an imposed set of rulesdeveloped by the professional association, but as part of adynamic and evolving ethical tradition in social work and asa stimulus for debate and reflection on changing and contradictoryvalues.     

Transnational social capital: the socio‐spatialities of civil society

Civil society remains a contested concept, but one that is widely embedded in global development processes. Transnationalism within civil society scholarship is often described dichotomously, either through hierarchical dependency relations or as a more amorphous networked global civil society. These two contrasting spatial imaginaries produce very particular ideas about how transnational relations contribute to civil society. Drawing on empirical material from research with civil society organizations in Barbados and Grenada, in this article I contend that civil society groups use forms of transnational social capital in their work. This does not, however, resonate with the horizontal relations associated with grassroots globalization or vertical chains of dependence. These social relations are imbued with power and agency and are entangled in situated historical, geographical and personal contexts. I conclude that the diverse transnational social relations that are part of civil society activity offer hope and possibilities for continued civil society action in these unexpected spatial arrangements.     

Educational ties,social capital and the translocal (re)production of MBA alumni networks

Research on elite, transnational networks has identified social and cultural capital associated with particular academic credentials as being an important element in network formation. How and why such networks are reproduced after graduation, however, has received less attention. In response, in this article I combine work on social capital and personal networks to explore the reproduction of MBA alumni networks in London's financial services district that were created in leading business schools in the USA and UK. My analysis documents the ways in which business schools and individual alumni combine forms of virtual and corporeal co‐presence to reproduce translocal educational ties. I then argue that the motivation for sustaining these educational ties lies in the potential to convert the social and cultural capital of MBA alumni networks into different types of value ranging from enhanced career progression to increased alumni donations. In doing so, I develop debates on the intersections between social capital, academic credentials and the reproduction of elite networks.     

The Urban Programme: a report on Some Programme Funded Projects

Summary The paper reports on a questionnaire survey of a sample of projectsfunded by the Urban Programme. Six of the most frequently fundedproject types were surveyed, and questionnaires sent to localauthorities and voluntary agencies running the projects. Four main areas of investigation are reported—the aimsand achievements of projects and the relationship of projectaims to programme aims; the origins and development of projects;the testing of some claims made of the Urban Programme; anda testing of local authority and voluntary agency reactionsto the Urban Programme in general. Most projects were aimed as much at improving access to andinformation about other services, as they were with providinga direct service. Whilst most projects were rated as successful,the notion of what constituted success varied considerably. More than a half of all projects were modified from the originalaims and structure during the course of development and morethan two-thirds would be altered in more than detail were applicationfor urban aid to be made anew. Of the four ‘claims’ about the Urban Programme testedin the survey, two were found to be largely substantiated-thatthe programme has a ‘multiplier’ effect, and thatone of the major areas of benefit of the programme lies in thespin-offs it produces by way of experience gained and lessonslearned. The two others were not substantiated—that programmefunding enables rapid implementation of projects, and that theprogramme provides the only possible source of funding for suchprojects, which would otherwise not be established