Stress and coping: the roles of ethnicity and gender in substance abuse recovery

This study investigated ethnic and gender differences in reported resource losses and gains for recovering substance abusers living in Oxford Houses (OH). Participants (n = 829) completed a version of Hobfoll's (1998) Conservation of Resources (COR) Evaluation. Results indicated significant individual differences in resources, based on gender, ethnicity, and the length of OH residential stay. Men reported fewer resource gains and losses than women. With respect to ethnicity, African-Americans reported greater gains and losses in resources than European-Americans. Individuals with less time in an OH also reported having experienced more losses in the past 3 months.     

Determinants of states' allocations of the master settlement agreement payments

To determine which factors influence states' allocation decisions for the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and the four individual settlements' annual payments, including the decision to securitize, we analyzed the effects of voter characteristics, political parties, interest groups, prior spending on public tobacco control programs, and state fiscal health on per capita settlement funds allocated to tobacco-control, health, and other programs. Tobacco-producing states and those with high proportions of conservative Democrats or elderly, black, Hispanic, or wealthy people tended to spend less on tobacco control. Education and medical lobbies had strong positive influences on per capita allocations for tobacco-control and health-related programs. State fiscal crises affected amounts spent by states from settlement funds as well as the probability of securitizing future cash flows from the settlements.     

Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's Employees

This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as 'professionals in pursuit of political outcomes'.     

Practical guidelines on incorporating “partnering” within IT agreements for public sector bodies

“Partnership” and “partnering” are two of the most frequently used terms in public sector procurement. They may be used by both customers and suppliers to justify their respective negotiating positions. A supplier may argue that, since the agreement is a “partnership agreement”, there should be no service credits or liquidated damages payable. The customer on the other hand, may argue, on similar grounds, that it wants to benchmark the supplier and have a broad right to audit every aspect of the supplier’s business.But despite being well used phrases, most guidance relating to these concepts does not define how “partnerships” or “partnering” is to work in practice. While most talk of the supplier and the customer working together “in partnership” with common aims, there is little information available as to how this will be incorporated into agreements, particularly in the context of large scale IT procurements.¹ The purpose of this article is to review the available guidance and detail some of the ways in which this guidance can be incorporated into legal agreements.