Heroin, crack, and AIDS: examining social change within Honolulu, Hawaii's street sex trade

The intent of the research was to conduct a replication study of a previous investigation in order to permit a comparative analysis of some aspects that might permeate overtime from the street sex trade of Honolulu, Hawaii. The design comprised the elements of a (1) longitudinal design, (2) a snowball sampling technique, (3) a survey instrument and (4) ethnographic and field data collection. Data comparison utilized survey interviews obtained from a population immersed in the street sex trade at the same location but from two different points in time. Both studies used Likert scale and semantic differential tests to target the prostitutes' attitudes toward the law, experiences with local social service agencies, and other aspects of the streetwalkers' personal lives. Details included the use of drugs and alcohol, fear of sexually transmitted infections, and experiences with crime and victimization. Increases in highest educational level completed were noted, but decreases in the completion of high school were more significant. Self reported use of narcotics was relatively consistent across the two studies, but an overall decrease in frequency of use was found. The current subjects rated HIV and AIDS their number one personal concern; whereas in 1974, the most commonly chosen concern was being arrested. None of the 1992 subjects reported that they had contracted HIV or the AIDS virus and stated that they preliminary depended on regular military clients for their income. The overall analysis of both samples yielded the epidemiological themes of (1) drug addition, (2) sexual exploitation, and (3) sexually transmitted infections among those within the street sex trade even though the time periods between them had spanned almost over twenty years. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The project‐funding regime: Complications for community organizations and their staff

Abstract: Various levels of government contract‐out the provision of public services such as health and education to community organizations, which have traditionally received core funding for these services. In recent years, however, with the adoption of neoliberal policies and New Public Management ideals, Canadian federal and provincial governments have increasingly off‐loaded the provision of social services to community organizations through a project‐funding regime. Community organizations and their workers now find themselves facing new challenges created by this new funding regime. This article explores the ways in which the daily lives of these workers have been organized and influenced by project‐funding regime procedures and rules, which benefit the state but create hardships for workers. This analysis draws on staff interviews and focus group data collected from three community organizations in three provinces across Canada. The qualitative analytic approach includes both a thematic analysis and the identification of practices that benefit the institution but complicate worker activities, as identified by the Psycho‐Social Ethnography of the Common‐Place method, which borrows from Institutional Ethnography. Through the analysis of procedures of increased accountability, short‐term funding, hiring on contract, use of information and communication technologies, and forced partnerships, the authors delineate the ways in which a neoliberalized ruling system benefits and manages staff activities while complicating the lives of the workers. Recommendations and responses to this situation are discussed. Sommaire: Differents paliers de gouvernements donnent la prestation des services publics comme la santé et l'education en soustraitance B des organismes communautaires, qui recevaient traditionnellement leur financement de base pour la prestation de ces services. Ces dernières années, cependant, avec l'adoption des politiques néolibérales et les idéaux de la nouvelle administration publique, le gouvernement fédéral et les gouvemements provinciaux canadiens se sont de plus en plus déchargés de la prestation des services sociaux sur les organismes communautaires, grâce à un régime de financement de projets. Les organismes communautaires et leurs employés se trouvent maintenant confrontés à de nouveaux défis Créés par ce nouveau régime de financement. Le présent article explore la manière dont la vie quotidienne de ces employés a été organisée et influencée par les procédures et les règles du régime de financement de projets, qui profitent à l'État mais créent des complications pour les organismes communautaires. Cette analyse est basée sur des interviews des membres du personnel et sur des données de groupes de discussion recueillies auprès de trois organismes communautaires dans trois provinces du Canada. L'approche analytique qualitative comprend à la fois une analyse thématique et l'identification de pratiques qui profitent aux institutions mais qui compliquent les activités des employés, comme l'a démontré la méthode Psycho‐Social Ethnography of the Common‐place, qui emprunte à l'ethnographie institutionnelle. Par le biais de l'analyse de procédures d'imputabilité accrue, de financement à court terme, d'embauche par contrat, de l'utilisation de technologies de l'information et de la communication, et de partenariats forcés, les auteurs délimitent la manière dont le système néolibéral actuel profite des activités du personnel qu'il gére tout en lui compliquant la vie. Des recommandations et des solutions sont offertes pour faire face à cette situation.     

NOTES ON A CANADIAN MASS MEDIA POLICY

So we may usefully add a new dramatic factor to public education—an uplifting factor which associates knowledge with pride and private effort with a sense of public purpose. We can widen the horizons of the schoolroom and give to every individual, each in his place and work, a living conception of the community which he has the privilege to serve. We can take his imagination beyond the boundaries of his community to discover the destiny of his country. We can light up his life with a sense of active citizenship. We can give him a sense of greater reality in the present and a vision of the future.¹     

Differential Effectiveness of a Middle School Social and Emotional Learning Program: Does Setting Matter?

There is a lack of studies in the literature addressing the differential effectiveness of Social and Emotional Learning according to their implementation setting. This study compared the effectiveness of an upper middle school Social and Emotional Learning program applied in two different settings: within school and after-school hours, while controlling for individual and class-level variables. There were 837 students (M_age?=?12.70; SD?=?0.98; 47.6% were female): 246 in the control group, 319 in the after-school intervention group and 272 in the within school schedule intervention group, assessed at pretest, post-test and follow-up seven months later. Multilevel analyses identified more positive intervention results in on self-esteem, self-control, and social awareness for students in the within school schedule groups. Girls gained more in social awareness in both program settings. This study highlights the importance of analyzing Social and Emotional Learning program´s differential effectiveness in order to optimize it.     

Public Sector ‘Modernisation’: Examining the Impact of a Change Agenda on Local Government Employees in England

Can public sector reform change service performance for the better? This is a hotly contested debate that carries significant theoretical and practical importance. In England, as in many countries, modernisation was at the heart of local government reform and represented an interpretation of New Public Management into a policy framework. This paper examines the role of the modernisation change agenda in England and what this has subsequently meant for ‘service improvement’. Drawing on both document analyses and qualitative interviews with local government employees, we find that while modernisation sought to establish continuous improvement, unintended consequences of modernisation have led to Staff Reductions, Skill Deficiencies, and Loss of a Competent Middle Core in local government, as well as performance outcomes creating an environment for Commissioning, Service Reduction, and Self‐Policing. Implications for the lasting roles and behaviours of public managers affected by this national change agenda are discussed, and conclusions for theory and practice are drawn.     

Physical restraint and the therapeutic relationship

The role of the forensic mental health nurse has led to many debates due to the conflicts between security and therapeutic aspects of their role. Physical restraint is a security element of the role which may have an impact on their ability to work therapeutically with patients. This study examined the impact of physical restraint on the nursing staff–patient therapeutic relationship. This was investigated in a secure unit in the North of England. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients across the service, and thematic analysis was undertaken. Five themes were identified from the data which highlighted the impact of the physical restraint as a power imbalance, the experience as traumatic, the importance of justification, the negative attributes and motives of some staff and the impact of coping with powerlessness. Clinical implications and research recommendations are discussed further in this article.     

Are Survey Measures of Trust Correlated with Experimental Trust? Evidence from Cameroon

In less developed countries, there is often a low correlation between survey-based measures of interpersonal trust and experimental measures. This has caused doubt about the reliability of trust measures used to explain variations in levels of socio-economic development. Using data from rural Cameroon, we explore whether the correlation between survey and experimental trust depends on social distance, and on whether the survey questions are context-specific. We find a high correlation in all cases. However, correlations with survey trustworthiness do depend on social distance.     

Inequality and Economic Growth: The Empirical Relationship Reconsidered in the Light of Comparable Data

Almost all the recent empirical work on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth has used inequality data that are not consistently measured. This article argues that this is inappropriate and shows that the significant negative correlation often found between income inequality and growth across countries may not be robust when income inequality is measured in a consistent manner. However, evidence is found of a significant negative correlation between consistently measured inequality of expenditure data and economic growth for a sample of developing countries.