THE GUNS OF AUTUMN?: AGE DIFFERENCES IN SUPPORT FOR INCOME TRANSFERS TO THE YOUNG AND OLD

Data from the 1973 and 1986 General Social Surveys are usedto test the hypothesis that elderly individuals favor publicspending patterns that support their own interests and not thoseof children. Support for educational spending and welfare bythe elderly is found to be less than within other age groups.Age patterns of support for Social Security spending are mixed.Responses to a series of "vignettes" depicting low-income familieswith young children and elderly women living alone showed thatelderly respondents are slightly more supportive than averageof transfers to low-income families with children and less supportivethan average of transfers to low-income members of their owncohort. Elderly respondents appear more generous once theirmore frugal notions of what it takes to "get along" are takeninto account. Support for transfers to young families is moreclosely related to income than age and is not consistent withthe hypothesis that the elderly support programs that benefitthemselves at the expense of programs that benefit the young.     

Unequal networks: comparing the pre‐migration overseas networks of Indonesian and Filipino migrant domestic workers

Previous studies of Asian migrant domestic workers' pre‐migration overseas networks have tended to be ethnographic, small‐n case studies such that it is unclear if network differences between migrants are due to individual‐ or country‐level differences or both. This article draws from an original survey of 1,206 Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong to reveal statistically significant differences in the pre‐migration overseas networks of these two nationality groups even after controlling for migrants' educational attainment, marital status, employment status, age, year of first migration, and survey location. Multiple regression analysis highlights how Filipino respondents are more likely than Indonesian respondents to have known existing migrants prior to their first migration from their homeland. Filipino respondents' overseas networks are also significantly larger, more geographically dispersed, and comprise more white‐collar contacts. These findings open up new terrain for migration scholars to study the impact of these nationality‐based network differences on the two groups' divergent migration experiences and aspirations.     

Book Reviews

Critical appraisal of research studies forms a central role within the application and uptake of evidence‐based approaches within health and social care. While there are established checklists for evaluating quantitative research, this is not the case for qualitative research. This article outlines the process of developing an evaluative tool for qualitative studies, reflecting the uniqueness of the associated paradigm, and illustrates its use by reference to three qualitative research papers appraised within a systematic review of community‐based rehabilitation services. At its centre are concerns with the context of the study and the way the data are collected and analysed. Use of such an evaluative template opens the way for the quality of qualitative research to be judged in a systematic manner and for qualitative research to take its rightful place within debates over what works, where, when and how within health and social care policy and practice.     

Community Work, Social Work: Green and Postmodern?

Correspondence to Mary Lane, Department of Social Work, Social Policy and Sociology, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Summary Opening with a story about community work, this paper exploresdevelopments and challenges in social and political theory andthe implications for social work, particularly for collectivepractices. Feminism, postmodernism and green political theoryare of particular interest. The paper argues for an interpretiveapproach to practice which emphasizes the local and specific,yet aspires to broader political action in the pursuit of socialand ecocentric justice. Feminism has much to contribute to thisexercise, challenging, as it does, a modern/postmodern divide.The emerging discourse of ecofeminism offers a synthesis ofsocial and ecocentric purposes and values as a basis for tacklinginequalities, whilst postmodern feminists enlighten our understandingof difference and encourage us to renounce certainty and lastproofs.     

Men and Anti-Sexism

Correspondence to Dr Neil Thompson, 1, Worcester Road, Bangor on Dee, Wrexham, Clwyd, LL13 0JB. Summary This paper explores the negative impact of sexism on both womenand men and considers what active part men can play in challengingand undermining sexism. The costs of living and working in apatriarchal society are outlined, and related to the differingexperiences of women and men. It is argued that, although womenclearly bear the brunt of sexism, gender stereotyping is notwithout significant costs for men. This leads us into an exploration of possible anti-sexist strategiesthat men can promote and implement as part of the developmentof anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice. The aimis not for men to ‘colonize’ or take over the struggleto achieve emancipation from oppressive gender norms. Rather,it is for men to play a part in the collective struggle to removethe inhumanity of patriarchal social relations. The paper is grounded within a professional value base premissedon a commitment to combating discrimination and oppression,and within a theory base informed by existentialist philosophy(Thompson, 1992a).     

Not Such an 'Ordinary' Relationship: the role of women support staff in relation to men with learning disabilities who have difficult sexual behaviour

This paper brings together some preliminary data on the management of men with learning disabilities who have unacceptable/abusive sexual behaviour patterns with a small pilot study which specifically explores the roles of women support workers in relation to difficult sexual behaviour. A specific focus on the behaviour of men with learning disabilities is justified because of consistent evidence that it is men, rather than women, service users who challenge services in this way. The studies explore with staff the boundaries of what is considered acceptable sexual behaviour and how breaches of these are responded to within services. One issue which we have chosen to highlight is the frequent exposure of women staff to the men's sexual behaviour, sometimes precipitated by the unusual relationship that exists between the two parties, and exacerbated by the lack of clear management guidance within the gendered hierarchies found in service agencies.     

A Comparison of Methods of Increasing Parental Consent Rates in Social Research

Previous research on children requiring written parental consenthas indicated that this requirement reduces samples to halfthe size they might otherwise be and results in overrepresentationof whites and underrepresentation of blacks. Within the courseof a four-year study, four methods were utilized to increaseparental consent rates, particularly for black students. Allmethods increased consent rates. Providing an incentive to theparents increased consent rates significantly more for the whitestudents than for the black students, while communication withthe children and incentives to the children resulted in consentrates which were more similar for the two racial groups. Communicationwith the parents was the most effective method for both blackand white children, but was also the most time consuming.     

Studying multinational migrations,speaking back to migration theory

A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single‐origin‐single‐destination model for thinking about international migration in our globalizing world. Several terms – onward, stepwise, serial, secondary, triangular, multiple, and transit migration – have been coined to describe these multiple moves within a single migratory lifetime, but the lack of consensus on the terminology to describe these migrations is indicative of the lack of theoretical clarity on this emergent phenomenon. We therefore propose to introduce a new umbrella term, ‘multinational migrations', to capture the varied movements of international migrants across more than one overseas destination with significant time spent in each country. The articles presented here bring together researchers investigating multinational migrations across a range of migrant categories and between various migration hubs. They highlight how individual imaginations, aspirations, capabilities and subjectifications interact with multinational migration infrastructures (in the domains of education, tourism, labour, and citizenship) to lead to the adoption of complex multinational migration trajectories.