A comparative study on legal frameworks of work and family reconciliation in Mozambique and Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses legal frameworks designed to reconcile work and family responsibilities in Mozambique and Tanzania from the perspective of ILO standards. Three labour laws are explored, the Mozambique Family Law 2004, the Mozambique Labour Law 2007, and the Tanzania Employment and Labour Relations Act 2004. ILO standards have encouraged both countries to become better equipped for working families to reconcile their work and family responsibilities. Their legal frameworks, however, remain below ILO standards, especially in parental leave and childcare services. The paper finds the root cause of such low compliance from a number of historical junctures, including a historical hangover from colonial regimes, social development policies and structural adjustment policies. The paper suggests a stronger commitment by the Mozambique and Tanzania governments’ and active involvement of civil societies to reshape the patriarchal political economy and promote gender equality in both public and private spheres.     

Motivations Behind Using Performance Measurement: City-wide vs. Selective Users

Abstract

This article identifies and describes the utilisation of performance measurement in Florida local governments. Two research questions are considered here: which factors influence Florida city governments to use performance measurement? And how do the factors associated with cities that are city-wide users differ from cities that are selective users? The paper develops a framework constructed from literatures in performance measurement and management innovation to develop hypotheses that are tested with 2005 Florida local government data. This study finds strong support for the role of community attributes, form of government and internal capacity as contributors to the use of performance measurement. The study also finds the factors that influence city-wide users are different from factors that influence selective users, especially with regard to revenue size and the reward/incentive system.     

Validation of Reduced Reagent Volumes in the Implementation of the Quantifiler® Trio Quantification Kit

The Quantifiler^® Trio Quantification Kit has been developed to quantify the total amount of amplifiable and human male DNA in samples and to estimate the extent of DNA degradation. To minimize the cost of DNA quantification, we evaluated kit performance using a reduced volume of reagents (1/10‐volume) using DNA samples of varying types and concentrations. Our results demonstrated concordance between the manufacturer's method and the low‐volume method for DNA quantification, DNA degradation index estimation, and human male DNA quantification. We confirmed the practical utility of the low‐volume method with 109 casework samples by evaluating short tandem repeat (STR) profiling success with respect to DNA quantity and quality. We also defined a cutoff value for DNA quantity to ensure reliable STR results. Using a reduced volume of reagents, 10 times more reactions per kit are possible; accordingly, this method reduces the cost of DNA quantification, while maintaining performance.     

Is social concertation a viable alternative under globalization? Reconsidering the case of Ireland

By exploring how the Irish social partnership was established and evolved, this article highlights the validity of a social concertation model, and takes a critical look at hasty attempts to identify the causes of its breakdown. The article holds that the collapse of Irish social partnership in the current economic crisis does not suggest the irrelevancy of social concertation under globalization, as neoliberals argue, nor does it confirm a predetermined path generated by the absence of supportive institutions or the structural nature of neoliberal social partnership. To the contrary, the social concertation model remains viable as an alternative to the neoliberal free market under globalization, and it can be used even in the absence of strong institutional arrangements. Contesting the accounts of neoliberals and Marxist-inspired structuralists, the article argues that social partnership has achieved a greater success in Ireland than neoliberal Britain, under similar globalization challenges. Against institutionalist accounts, it holds that social partnership was able to survive over two decades even in the absence of supportive corporatist institutions. The article's core argument is that domestic politics, rather than institutional and structural determinism, are needed to form social consensus in building and sustaining social concertation.     

Linking Family Economic Pressure and Supportive Parenting to Adolescent Health Behaviors: Two Developmental Pathways Leading to Health Promoting and Health Risk Behaviors

Adolescent health behaviors, especially health risk behaviors, have previously been linked to distal (i.e., family economic pressure) and proximal (i.e., parental support) contributors. However, few studies have examined both types of contributors along with considering health promoting and health risk behaviors separately. The present study investigated the influences of family economic hardship, supportive parenting as conceptualized by self-determination theory, and individual psychosocial and behavioral characteristics (i.e., mastery and delinquency, respectively) on adolescents’ health promoting and health risk behaviors. We used structural equation modeling to analyze longitudinal data from a sample of Caucasian adolescent children and their mothers and fathers (N = 407, 54 % female) to examine direct and indirect effects, as well as gender symmetry and asymmetry. Findings suggest that family economic pressure contributed to adolescent mastery and delinquency through supportive parenting. Further, supportive parenting indirectly affected adolescent health risk behaviors only through delinquency, whereas supportive parenting indirectly influenced health promoting behaviors only through mastery, suggesting different developmental pathways for adolescent health risk and health promoting behaviors. Testing for gender symmetry of the full model showed that maternal and paternal parenting contributed to females’ health risk behaviors directly, while maternal and paternal parenting contributed to males’ health risk behaviors through delinquency. Gender symmetry was largely unsupported. The study highlights key direct and indirect pathways to adolescent health risk and health promoting behaviors within a family stress model and self-determination theory framework, and also highlights important gender differences in these developmental pathways.     

Financial liberalization in South Korea

This article analyzes the process of financial liberalization in South Korea from the perspective of financial globalization through an international political economic approach. Korean financial liberalization has been highly influenced by the outside pressure of the United States, the OECD and the IMF, as well as by the big business conglomerates (chaebols), as a powerful domestic interest group. In a broad perspective, South Korea's entrance into the OECD, the Financial Services Agreement under the WTO and the Structural Adjustment Program of the IMF after the 1997 financial crisis were important moments for Korea's financial reforms. There are two viewpoints on the causes of the Korean financial crisis. From a domestic viewpoint, South Korea had a weak financial market system and its financial liberalization process was too premature to create a stable financial market when Korea met the financial crisis. In a globalization perspective, financial globalization intrinsically encourages uncontrollable short-term financial capital flows across borders, thus financial crisis is inevitable regardless of a strong or weak domestic financial system. This article compares these two viewpoints in the case of South Korea.     

Chasing two hares at once? Effect of joint institutional change for promoting commercial use of university knowledge and scientific research

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Stimulating the university’s scientific research while encouraging the commercial use of the resulting knowledge is one of the foremost missions to...     

The effect of faith program participation on prison misconduct: The Life Connections Program

Faith-based programming is one of many potential tools for preparing inmates for successful reentry into society. The current study used official records of inmate misconduct and attitudinal survey data to investigate whether participation in a faith-based program reduced the likelihood of prison misconduct. The results indicated that program participation did lower the probability of engaging in serious forms of misconduct. No effect was discovered, though, for less serious forms of misconduct or for both types of misconduct considered simultaneously.