A Multidisciplinary Perspective on the Role,Functions, and Effectiveness of Parenting Coordination

Based on a survey conducted in 2018 in collaboration with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts’ (AFCC) Task Force on Parenting Coordination, this paper explores issues related to the process and perceived outcomes of parenting coordination for families post separation and divorce. The views expressed emerge from a diverse and multidisciplinary sample (n = 289) from legal, mental health, and conflict resolution backgrounds. Almost half of all participants (46%) were mental health professionals (psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker), followed by attorneys (28%), family mediators (17%) and judges (5%). Over half of all participants identified as a parenting coordinator (PC) (53%). Based on the results, participants had the highest level of agreement that the goal of parenting coordination should be to assist in sheltering the children from parental conflict and to help the coparents reduce interparental conflict. Participants assigned greater success to parenting coordination when there was demonstration that coparenting conflict decreased. Several differences were noted among professional disciplines and specifically between legal and mental health professionals. Mental health professionals rated higher on the effectiveness of PCs to help children adjust and limit their involvement in the parental conflict, while legal professionals focused on PCs’ ability to help families resolve legal disputes. The implications of the results are discussed, including how best to measure the success of parenting coordination and to prioritize outcomes related to the success of parenting coordination across disciplines to create greater consistency in the field.     

Emerging Parenting Coordination Practices Around the Globe: What We Have Learned

Parenting coordination is emerging in numerous countries around the globe as a response to the need to protect children in families whose parents experience high conflict following their separation or divorce. This article describes the different trends in the implementation of parenting coordination programs in Canada, Spain, and Italy and the socio‐legal contexts in which they have evolved. An analysis will also be presented of the unique challenges faced by these countries and the ensuing debates on issues related to the referral process, legal procedures, decision‐making authority, judicial immunity, confidentiality, and professional requirements and training for the appointment of parenting coordinators. The authors will present what has been learned from their respective experiences and make recommendations to promote continued development.     

Building and Enhancing Efficacious Coparenting in Parenting Coordination

Parenting coordination is a dispute resolution process to assist the subset of separating/divorcing parents who remain entrenched in high conflict coparenting post‐separation/divorce. Based on factors known to impact positive child outcomes, its goals include assisting parents to protect children from their conflict and implementing a framework that will assist the child to have a good relationship with both parents. Despite significant efforts, parenting coordination often falls short of achieving its intended goals, which include not only healthy child adjustment but also efficacious coparenting, which is itself an important mediator and moderator of child outcomes. This article raises questions and concerns about the extent to which child outcomes may be limited if the goals of parenting coordination are limited to establishing and implementing a disengaged, parallel model of coparenting, while avoiding or giving up on efforts to build and enhance cooperative coparenting. Given preliminary findings indicating some parents note change here express dissatisfaction with the process and outcomes, it is necessary to consider whether the seemingly intractable subset of parents referred for parenting coordination might benefit from something more or different. We discuss two innovations: One aims to strengthen individual parent readiness and responsiveness and the other brings parents together in a child‐centered team‐building approach. Though cooperative coparenting is a challenging and unrealistic goal for some parents, further research is necessary to understand more fully which interventions help which families, when and in what manner.     

Geographical versus social displacement: the politics of return and post-war recovery in Northern Uganda

The civil war in Northern Uganda in the period 1986–2006 fundamentally altered former ways of life and created diverse and complex needs. Protracted conflict and displacement create, reveal, and enforce vulnerability, which can undermine resilience. Based on in-depth interviews with internally displaced persons and returnees, both before and after their return to Amuru District and Gulu District, this article argues that war and displacement constitute more than a temporary disruption. The physical and social wounds of war are engraved and embedded in people’s lives. Therefore, recovery interventions must take these effects into account to forge a new post-war future.     

A tale of two railways and the Reuter family

Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the influence of Baron Julius de Reuter and his famous agency, Reuters, was evident in his and his family's investments around the world. By looking at the histories of the Reuter Concession and the Greek Railway Concession, this work aims to offer insight into the international politics of certain governments and the value of news as a commodity at the time. The Reuter Concession illustrates part of the British-Russian conflict over Persia while the Greek Railway Concession demonstrates British policy toward the Ottoman Empire and Greco-Ottoman relations.     

The American West’s longest large mammal migration: clarifying and securing the common interest

Over the last 10 years, conflict has grown over a 170-mile pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) migration between Grand Teton National Park and the Upper Green River Basin in western Wyoming. Resolving conflict in the common interest is proving difficult. This movement is the longest mammal migration in the lower 48 states, spanning the jurisdiction of three federal agencies, three Wyoming counties, and over 40 private landowners. In addition, there are over ten non-governmental conservation organizations, two major state agencies, Wyoming’s executive office, and many citizens involved in the issue. There are three major problem definitions serving the beliefs of participants: the ecological-scientific (conservation biologists, environmentalists), local rights (local control, property rights), and cultural value (historic, western heritage) definitions. These definitions challenge the social and decision making processes of regional communities and government agencies. Underlying the problem of securing the common interest is the highly fragmented patterns of authority and control, misorganized arena(s), and parochial perspectives of many participants. Options promoted by participants can be loosely classified as top-down (government, expert driven) versus bottom-up (local, practice-based) approaches and reflect preferences for the distribution and uses of power and other values. Given the social and decision making context of this case, the bottom-up, practiced-based approach would likely best secure a common interest outcome.     

公立医疗机构民营化改革的模式及其比较

公立医疗机构民营化改革是新自由主义思潮波及并影响医疗卫生领域的重要表现,是当代全球公共部门治道变革的有机组成。尽管全球金融危机的爆发引起了人们对新自由主义思潮的全面反思,但是公共部门民营化改革的取向不会因此发生重大的转变。从国内公立医疗机构民营化改革的实践来看,托管经营模式、股份合作制模式和产权整体转让模式是较为典型的三种模式,这三种模式不论是在改革的进路、力度、目标,还是在绩效、阻力与风险等方面均存在着较为显著的差异。文章借助于浙江公立医疗机构民营化改革的实证材料,对上述三种模式进行了多维度的比较分析,以期更好地解读公立医疗机构民营化改革的不同模式及其适用性。     

理论界对企业型政府模式的诘难

企业型政府作为当下行政改革的一种模式,因其致力于顾客服务、降低成本、推进创新的价值追求,受到了实际工作部门的青睐。然而在理论界这一改革实践和主张却受到诸多诘难:公共部门与私营部门存在巨大差异,不能将企业管理理论移植于行政管理;以新制度经济学作为行政改革的理论基础缺乏科学性、可靠性;管理主义技术属性的追求易于导致相应的伦理与责任问题;市场化取向下政府对市场的过度崇拜导致行政价值的偏离;将公民称作顾客,降低了其应有的政治地位;改革的举措和手段背离了公共行政的基本规律,等等。以上观点存在这种或那样的偏见,应当认真加以辨析。     

政治企业家的制度创新模式——对浙江吉利、中国电信与海南凯立的案例研究

创新是一个民族的灵魂.这个创新不仅是技术上的,就中国目前的社会状况而言,它更应该是制度上的.鉴于政府对企业的巨大影响,政治领域的制度创新(包括法律法规、政策规章和政府行为方式等的改变)在我国尤为普遍和突出.采用案例研究方法,通过对三个案例企业--浙江吉利集团、中国电信和海南凯立公司的制度创新的分析,在研究了我国政治企业家制度创新的一般模式的基础上,提出了四种基本的制度创新模式:私下游说下的制度创新模式、私下实践迫使政府追认的制度创新模式、借用社会力量的制度创新模式和借用强制力量的制度创新模式.并进一步分析了这四种制度创新模式的优点、缺点、所针对的制度类型、在中国的使用频率和关键的成功因素,指出,在中国目前的社会背景下,企业应该优先采用私下游说下的制度创新模式,谨慎对待借用强制力量的制度创新模式.该研究对于理解我国政府政策和政府行为的发展演变,以及对于如何处理与政府的关系,提供了有益的见解.     

公共组织模式的现象学重构

被广泛应用于公共机构的官僚制度虽然是现代社会在形式方面高度合理的组织模式,却因非人格化的内在特征而持续遭到人们的批评.哲学层面的反思不仅能展现官僚制度重大缺陷的深度,还有助于在不同的根基上建构公共组织的替代性模式.本研究尝试从现象学的进路对公共组织的官僚制模式进行批判和重构.研究发现,匿名性的增长一方面是公共组织个体结...