Challenges to the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers in Traditional Nonprofit Organizations: A Case Study of Australian Meals on Wheels

Australian Meals on Wheels (MoWs) is a well-known, traditional nonprofit organization operating for over 60 years in a mixed economy of welfare, where it is positioned between the increasingly complex demands of state regulation and market efficiency. These contextual challenges cause critical tensions to an organization reliant on humanitarian principles and a large volunteer workforce. Findings show that this organization is experiencing conflicting and multiple identities which are having a significant impact on volunteer recruitment and retention. Specifically, data highlight the external challenges that threaten volunteers relating to regulation and funding, and internal challenges that tend to ignore volunteer value and instead picture volunteers as ageing and resistant to change. Findings suggest that the organization needs to work with all stakeholders to develop a shared organizational identity that blends humanitarianism with managerialism. New inclusive processes can enable better recruitment and retention practices, enabling the organization to “unfreeze” its traditional ways of operating to build a sustainable future for this much-needed organization.     

HOPE VI–a viable strategy for improving neighborhood conditions and resident self-sufficiency? The case of Maverick Gardens in Boston

This article considers whether the HOPE VI program has achieved two of its key goals: improving neighborhood conditions and increasing resident self-sufficiency. Findings from the Maverick Gardens HOPE VI program in Boston, Massachusetts are presented and discussed in the context of other research on HOPE VI and other relocation initiatives.

Evidence from the Boston site affirms that the combination of relocation and redevelopment can lead to dramatic improvements in neighborhood quality for many – but not all – residents. Self-sufficiency outcomes, on the other hand, were not achieved: employment did not change, job networks were not expanded to new neighbors, and some residents experienced a decline in economic stability as a result of the program. Why HOPE VI has failed to improve neighborhood conditions for all residents and why it has failed to impact resident self-sufficiency is discussed, and how program goals and strategies might be adjusted to make it more effective is considered.     

Notes on contributors

Robyn Eckersley: Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Arne Naess: Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. Translated and revised by David Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

M. Annette Jaimes, ed.: The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance. Race and Resistance Series, Boston, South End Press, 1992.

Alexander Wilson: The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1992.     

Legal Reality: A Naturalist Approach to Legal Ontology

Law and Philosophy -     

The Doha Development Agenda: Reflections on the Road Ahead

From 9 to 14 November 2001, Qatar hosted the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a new trade round, the successor to the Uruguay round, was successfully launched in Doha. This was by no means a foregone conclusion and was a major feat. The outcome of the Doha Ministerial Conference was in doubt until the very end. Failure at Doha to resolve the issues left over from the inconclusive Seattle Ministerial Conference of 1999 would have seriously weakened the WTO and threatened the future of the multilateral trading system. In this article, WTO Director-General Mike Moore, describes the steps taken in a more transparent and inclusive preparatory process for the Doha meeting and the key achievements of the new round--the Doha Development Agenda. He concludes that as a ''member-driven'' organization, all WTO members share joint responsibility for a successful and inclusive multilateral trading system and describes the current preparations being made for the conclusion of the new round by the three-year time-frame, as agreed by ministers.     

Icons of control: Deleuze,signs, law

This paper is broadly concerned with Deleuze’s distinction between ‚la loi et les lois’ on the one hand, and jurisprudence on the other. Jurisprudence is the␣creative action of legal practice, the process by which it is forced to think constructively and anew. In such circumstances legal thought is akin to Deleuze’s concept of the event. I explore the distinction between law and jurisprudence by way of Deleuze’s comments on control societies, arguing that, under control, law ceases to be a juridical hierarchy conforming to disciplinary modes to become a regulatory practice of interminable modulation. In order to begin to explore the relations and connections between law/jurisprudence and control, the paper will look to the semiotics of C.S. Peirce (who influenced Deleuze’s work on cinema). In particular it will argue that control operates predominantly through icons. As a consequence I argue that the proper ground of the sign, the event, is co-opted and, following from this, that control functions through the confusing of sense and meaning. Thanks to Anne Bottomley, Ronnie Lippens and Jamie Murray.