The socialogy of football: a research agenda for the 1990s

The paper emphasizes the need for an alternative sociology of football that goes beyond the issue of football hooliganism, which has dominated work in the field. In the light of the Taylor Report and the agenda of modernization of football in the 1990s, research into the football crowd as a whole is required. A positive view of the state of English football in 1990 is presented as a corrective to the negative image of the 1980s. The debate is set in the context of my previous work on the politics of football both in Britain and the new Europe – West and East. In the final section, several topics are placed on the research agenda for the sociology of football in the 1990s. These are the modernization of facilities, the study of fanzines, comparative research and a social demography of the football crowd.     

Are some disabilities more equal than others? Conceptualising fluctuating or recurring impairments within contemporary legislation and practice

In recent years, the concept of fluctuating or recurring impairments has grown both in the public consciousness as well as in frequency of note within policy documentation and legislation. However, contention still surrounds the perceived legitimacy of such impairments, including chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, epilepsy and diabetes, which have the potential to vary in intensity over time, versus more ‘traditional’ and accepted forms of disability. By drawing on current conceptual discussion and research activities in Canada around what have been termed episodic disabilities, as well as legislative developments in the United Kingdom, this paper will provide an overview of how fluctuating or recurring impairments have to date been conceptualised, contested, and the central issue of competing definitions within this context     

Squaring the welfare circle and government ideology: Greece and Spain in the 1990s

This article examines the "squaring the welfare circle" thesis and its usefulness to our understanding of welfare developments in Greece and Spain in the 1990s. The welfare state in both Greece and Spain was expanded considerably in the early 1980s by the newly elected socialist governments, only to hit the buffers of diminishing resources and rising demands in the late 1980s as well as the hostile neo-liberal welfare ideology. The process of welfare expansion was halted in the 1990s, labour market deregulation was encouraged and containment of welfare expenditure became the dominant aim of government policies. This article concentrates on the actual policies of governments in the 1990s rather than on the rhetoric of political parties. It concludes that governments of both the Left and the Right in both countries attempted to "square the welfare circle" mainly through reductions in the supply of welfare. This general conclusion is country-specific and may not apply to other countries involved in welfare restructuring. While recognizing the significance of institutional factors to welfare reform, the article concentrates on the outcomes of reforms rather than on the political process leading to them.     

Boards of directors in nonprofit organizations do they follow a life-cycle model?

In this study the authors used data from a survey of Canadian nonprofit organizations to empirically test hypotheses derived from models of nonprofit board “life cycles.” The authors suggest that while formal structural elements of board behavior change in the manner suggested by life-cycle models, the more enacted or behavioral aspects of nonprofit boards do not. The data further suggest caution in the use of life-cycle or age-dependent models to either explain or guide nonprofit board behavior.     

Native Migrant Labour in the Southern Alberta Sugar-beet Industry: Coercion and Paternalism in the Recruitment of Labour*

Les recherches commencent à révéler de façon de plus en plus évidente la présence des autochtones dans les emplois salariés au Canada. Bien que nous constations la participation des autochtones au travail salarié, nous savons peu de choses sur le rôle joué par l'État en vue de les mobiliser pour qu'ils travaillent dans l'industrie canadienne. À partir de l'exemple des autochtones qui sont venus dans le sud de l'Alberta au cours des années cinquante et soixante travailler dans l'industrie de la betterave à sucre, cet article analyse le rôle de l'État dans leur mobilisation. Nous montrons qu'à diffé-rents échelons l'État, par l'intermédiaire de comités de main-d'?uvre fédéraux et provinciaux ainsi que du ministère fédéral des Affaires indiennes, a eu recours à diverses mesures paternalistes et coer-citives pour aider les fermiers du sud de l'Alberta à recruter et à retenir ces travailleurs. L'une des principales mesures utilisées par les gouvernements fédéral et provincial pour pousser les autochtones àémigrer a été de priver de leurs prestations d'aide sociale ceux et celles que l'on jugeait aptes au travail. Research has begun to increasingly document Native peoples' participation in wage employment in Canada. Despite an acknowledgement of native participation in wage labour, little is known of the role of the state in mobilizing Native workers for Canadian industry. Using the case of Native migration to the southern Alberta sugar-beet industry in the 1950s and 1960s, this paper analyzes the role of the state in the mobilization of the native workers for employment. We show that the various levels of the state, acting through federal/provincial manpower committees and the Indian Affairs Branch of the federal government, used a variety of paternalistic and coercive measures to help farmers in southern Alberta recruit and retain Native workers. One of the main measures used by the federal and provincial governments to coerce Native people into migration was to cut off social assistance benefits to those Native people deemed to be employable.     

Women on boards of nonprofits: What difference do they make?

In this article, the authors explore the impact of women on nonprofit boards. From a sociological perspective, they look at the actual proportion of women on boards and, from a more psychological perspective, at the sex of the chief executive officers in order to examine the impact of these variables on board effectiveness, structure, and process. The study results, based on data from a cross section of Canadian nonprofits, indicate that as the percentage of women on a board increases, the dynamics of the board are significantly affected.     

Perceptions of Board Chair Leadership Effectiveness in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Organizations

This article reports on the results of a multi-year, multi-phase international quantitative research investigation into perceptions of board chair leadership impact in nonprofit and voluntary organizations in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Specifically, this research tests four hypotheses and a hypothesized model derived from theoretical perspectives on chair leadership effectiveness that emerged when the results of a prior grounded theory research investigation were reviewed ex post facto through the lens of leadership literature (see Harrison and Murray, NPML, accepted). The purpose of this phase of the research is to determine: (a) whether there is empirical support for the theoretical perspectives advanced; and (b) which perspective offers the best explanation for why some board chairs are perceived as having more impact in the role than others. The results suggest chair leadership effectiveness is best understood as a multi-dimensional theoretical construct explained by more than one leadership theory. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and directions for further research.     

Evaluating Social Service Agencies: Fuzzy Pictures of Organizational Effectiveness

This article presents a case study of how members of three funding organizations evaluated the same two agencies in Canada. The research on which the article is based sheds light on the organizational effectiveness construct, on the ways in which the evaluators use it to reach conclusions on agency effectiveness, and the relation between these conclusions and funders' decisions on agency funding. The authors describe a framework for understanding evaluation processes, describe three funders in terms of this framework, set out predominant patterns in evaluation processes the funders used, and show the effects of these patterns from the agency's perspective. They then discuss the implications of the findings for agency managers and how the findings relate to theories of organization.     

Best linear unbiased estimates in ranked-set sampling with particular reference to imperfect ordering

SUMMARY Ranked-set sampling is a widely used sampling procedure when sample observations are expensive or difficult to obtain. It departs from simple random sampling by seeking to spread the observations in the sample widely over the distribution or population. This is achieved by ranking methods which may need to employ concomitant information. The ranked-set sample mean is known to be more efficient than the corresponding simple random sample mean. Instead of the ranked-set sample mean, this paper considers the corresponding optimal estimator: the ranked-set best linear unbiased estimator. This is shown to be more efficient, even for normal data, but particularly for skew data, such as from an exponential distribution. The corresponding forms of the estimators are quite distinct from the ranked-set sample mean. Improvement holds where the ordering is perfect or imperfect, with this prospect of improper ordering being explored through the use of concomitants. In addition, the corresponding optimal linear estimator of a scale parameter is also discussed. The results are applied to a biological problem that involves the estimation of root weights for experimental plants, where the expense of measurement implies the need to minimize the number of observations taken.