Scholarly knowledge of organizational founding in the nonprofit sector has grown not from macro-level analyses but rather from the aggregation of in-depth and focused studies of…
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Scholarly knowledge of organizational founding in the nonprofit sector has grown not from macro-level analyses but rather from the aggregation of in-depth and focused studies of particular geographical regions or service fields. Employing logistic regression techniques, this paper examines the formation of nonprofits in one key but overlooked site of the voluntary sector: workplace charity. Testing competing theories, the paper analyzes the effect of demand-side, supply-side, and community-level characteristics on the presence of rival federated fundraisers in the largest 123 MSAs in 2000. The results indicate that these nonprofit organizations are formed in large cities with a sizeable and stable nonprofit sector, regardless of ease of access to charitable contributions and the level of available funding.
Over the last several decades, the question of the import of firms’ social and environmental responsibilities has taken center stage. While once companies’ obligations to…
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Over the last several decades, the question of the import of firms’ social and environmental responsibilities has taken center stage. While once companies’ obligations to stakeholders and to sustainability were framed as normative issues, these criteria are taking on instrumental worth. Most recently, advocates of Responsible Investment have suggested that firms’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance possesses critical implications for companies’ creation and capture of long-term economic value. Employing textual analysis, this chapter analyzes the accounting, rating, and reporting standards that have been developed by which companies are expected to measure, communicate, and be evaluated for their ESG performance. Drawing from literature on organizational imprinting, this chapter finds significant differences across these standards, in terms of the determination of materiality and firms’ desired stakeholder relations. The divergence present in the meaning and measure of Responsible Investment across these standards possesses important strategic implications for managers in this field who must consider the implications of each guideline for internal and external purposes.
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Regardless of whether “elite” is defined with respect to social status, economic wealth, or professional accomplishment, these sources of advantage are blunted by democratic…
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Regardless of whether “elite” is defined with respect to social status, economic wealth, or professional accomplishment, these sources of advantage are blunted by democratic political commitments to equality. This durable dilemma has shaped the institutional development of the American polity and the economy, as those with extra-political advantages have sought new forms of political influence, at times subverting rules or advancing cultural projects that elaborate an image of corporations as moral actors or the development of a “business creed.” American elites have also worked at the margins of the formally democratic policy to construct fields of public action that are accepted as public, legitimate, and admirable, but not strictly democratic. Corporate philanthropy has been central to these efforts. Organizations like the Community Chest can be understood as practical responses to the constraints of ideological commitments to political egalitarianism. This line of response to the democratic dilemma is “constructive” in the nonnormative sense that it produces new fields of social action and reconfigures institutional arrangements. By linking economic position to civic influence, organizations of this type translate economic power into elevated influence over public affairs through the constitution and stabilization of partially hybridized forms or fields.
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Sinziana Dorobantu, Ruth V. Aguilera, Jiao Luo and Frances J. Milliken
This chapter argues that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and even corporate sustainability and responsibility will be insufficient to generate the transformation needed for…
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This chapter argues that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and even corporate sustainability and responsibility will be insufficient to generate the transformation needed for businesses, economies, and societies to deal with potentially existential sustainability, climate change, and inequality crises. A new socio-economic narrative needs to be created to underpin thinking about economies, societies, and nature. After briefly looking at CSR today, the paper discusses the power that the neoliberal narrative has in shaping understanding of the roles and purposes of businesses. It then argues for a new narrative emphasizing well-being, dignity, and sustainability, an economy in service to life, as an alternative, highlighting the powerful role that memes, core units of culture, play in shaping narratives.
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Charitable Choice Policy, the heart of President Bush’s Faith‐Based Initiative, is the direct government funding of religious organizations for the purpose of carrying out…
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Charitable Choice Policy, the heart of President Bush’s Faith‐Based Initiative, is the direct government funding of religious organizations for the purpose of carrying out government programs. The Bush presidential administration has called for the application of Charitable Choice Policy to all kinds of social services. Advocates for child‐abuse victims contend that the Bush Charitable Choice Policy would further dismantle essential social services provided to abused children. Others have argued Charitable Choice Policy is unconstitutional because it crosses the boundary separating church and state. Rather than drastically altering the US social‐policy landscape, this paper demonstrates that the Bush Charitable Choice Policy already is in place for childabuse services across many of the fifty states. One reason this phenomenon is ignored is due to the reliance on the public‐private dichotomy for studying social policies and services. This paper contends that relying on the public‐private dichotomy leads researchers to overlook important configurations of actors and institutions that provide services to abused children. It offers an alternate framework to the public‐private dichotomy useful for the analysis of social policy in general and, in particular, Charitable Choice Policy affecting services to abused children. Employing a new methodological approach, fuzzy‐sets analysis, demonstrates the degree to which social services for abused children match ideal types. It suggests relationships between religious organizations and governments are essential to the provision of services to abused children in the United States. Given the direction in which the Bush Charitable Choice Policy will push social‐policy programs, scholars should ask whether abused children will be placed in circumstances that other social groups will not and why.
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By the beginning of the war, Germany's over‐all self‐sufficiency in food had reached a level of approximately 83 per cent., on the peace‐time basis of 2,200—2,400 calories per…
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By the beginning of the war, Germany's over‐all self‐sufficiency in food had reached a level of approximately 83 per cent., on the peace‐time basis of 2,200—2,400 calories per person per day. In respect to some types of food, however, the situation was not satisfactory. For example, before the war she produced approximately 73 per cent. of fish requirements, 12 per cent. of corn, 50 per cent. of legumes, and 60 per cent. of fat within her own boundaries. The country could be fed at a reduced level by the produce raised within its own boundaries if food were perfectly controlled and evenly distributed. However, in practice, individual provinces were much less favourably situated in this respect. Western Germany, an area of relatively small and diversified farms, was critically dependent on the eastern provinces for its flour, grain, and potato supplies. It is clear that all German civilians could be fed at a uniform level of adequacy during a war only by control of the country's food supply at the national level and by the continued operation of the new transportation network of the country. For this reason the bombing of rail and inland water transportation facilities became such a serious threat to national uniformity in food distribution. Of the many kinds of centralised food processing industries known in the United States, only a few played an important role in the food supply of German civilians. The principal examples of these were grain milling, sugar production and refining, and the large bakeries of urban areas. The damage or destruction of these facilities, incidental to air attack on other industrial targets, seriously decreased their production capacity. Bombing destroyed the mills for processing 9 per cent. of the German rye output and 35 per cent. of the wheat output. Of the sugar refineries four plants producing 300,000 tons annually, were destroyed. This represents a 38 per cent. decrease in production of sugar. Similarly bombing of chemical plants was largely responsible for the decrease in the supply for fertiliser nitrogen. In 1939, 718,000 tons of fertiliser nitrogen were available, but by 1945 this had decreased to 140,000 tons. The significance of this destruction of facilities vital to the feeding of a country already on a border‐line diet is ominous. Reliable estimates indicate that aerial bombings destroyed 35 per cent. of Germany's total (approximately 460,000 square metres) cold storage capacity. The increased use of cold storage intensified their dependence on transportation and on the continuity of the power supply. Aerial attack, as a result, not only decreased usable cold storage space, but also seriously interfered with the operation of the remaining space by impeding shipments and interrupting sources of power. It was the constantly reiterated opinion of all food officials that the bomb destruction of the transportation network was the largest single factor contributing to the disruption of the food supply. Bulk shipments which had been carried on inland waterways were seriously impeded by the bombing of canals. Aerial attack against railway lines, bridges and terminal facilities caused widespread interruptions in service and destroyed rolling stock, freight en route and handling facilities at terminals. It is not possible at this time to state exactly in what measure the curtailment of the national diet contributed to the ultimate defeat of Germany. The evidence available indicates, however, that it was an important factor. There is in any case no doubt that strategic bombing is the major element contributing to the present shortage of food in Germany. It was not apparent that the Germans considered the vitamin and mineral content of food in determining the ration allowances of the people. Immediately with the beginning of the war, all the principal foods were rationed, so that the lack of recognition of the importance of the vitamin and mineral content of this ration actually was an additional point of vulnerability for the German diet. With a food economy so vulnerable it is not surprising to have found that the basic food rationing programme was abandoned early in 1945 when the destruction of transport and communications by the strategic air offensive attained major proportions. This necessitated falling back on the inadequate system of regional self‐supply. The destruction of large food stocks, processing plants and cold storage plants by bombing also contributed to the general deterioration of the German food supply. There is ample evidence for the conclusion that as a result of the strategic air offensive the nutritional demands for the continued health of the German people could not be met.
In its passage through the Grand Committee the Food Bill is being amended in a number of important particulars, and it is in the highest degree satisfactory that so much interest…
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In its passage through the Grand Committee the Food Bill is being amended in a number of important particulars, and it is in the highest degree satisfactory that so much interest has been taken in the measure by members on both sides of the House as to lead to full and free discussion. Sir Charles Cameron, Mr. Kearley, Mr. Strachey, and other members have rendered excellent service by the introduction of various amendments; and Sir Charles Cameron is especially to be congratulated upon the success which has attended his efforts to induce the Committee to accept a number of alterations the wisdom of which cannot be doubted. The provision whereby local authorities will be compelled to appoint Public Analysts, and compelled to put the Acts in force in a proper manner, and the requirement that analysts shall furnish proofs of competence of a satisfactory character to the Local Government Board, will, it cannot be doubted, be productive of good results. The fact that the Local Government Board is to be given joint authority with the Board of Agriculture in insuring that the Acts are enforced is also an amendment of considerable importance, while other amendments upon what may perhaps be regarded as secondary points unquestionably trend in the right direction. It is, however, a matter for regret that the Government have not seen their way to introduce a decisive provision with regard to the use of preservatives, or to accept an effective amendment on this point. Under existing circumstances it should be plain that the right course to follow in regard to preservatives is to insist on full and adequate disclosure of their presence and of the amounts in which they are present. It is also a matter for regret that the Government have declined to give effect to the recommendation of the Food Products Committee as to the formation of an independent and representative Court of Reference. It is true that the Board of Agriculture are to make regulations in reference to standards, after consultation with experts or such inquiry as they think fit, and that such inquiries as the Board may make will be in the nature of consultations of some kind with a committee to be appointed by the Board. There is little doubt, however, that such a committee would probably be controlled by the Somerset House Department; and as we have already pointed out, however conscientious the personnel of this Department may be—and its conscientiousness cannot be doubted—it is not desirable in the public interest that any single purely analytical institution should exercise a controlling influence in the administration of the Acts. What is required is a Court of Reference which shall be so constituted as to command the confidence of the traders who are affected by the law as well as of all those who are concerned in its application. Further comment upon the proposed legislation must be reserved until the amended Bill is laid before the House.
This report is drawn up by the Director‐General of Health and Medical Services for State of Queensland and presented by him to the Minister for Health and Home Affairs of the…
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This report is drawn up by the Director‐General of Health and Medical Services for State of Queensland and presented by him to the Minister for Health and Home Affairs of the State. The report is a record of conscientious and efficient public service by a depleted staff working under great difficulties; over a wide stretch of territory; hampered by shortage of labour and materials for repair or construction. In addition to this was the concentration of large bodies of troops in areas by no means primarily designed for their accommodation. It may be remarked that the huge area now called Queensland was separated from New South Wales in 1859. Its area is 670,000 square miles. Length from north to south 1,300–1,400 miles and from east to west at the widest about 1,000 miles. The greater part lies in the tropics. The east coast and for some distance inland is a trade wind and monsoon belt. With this region the report is mainly concerned. The rainfall diminishes towards west and south. The temperature of the State is by no means excessive. In general the climate is a good one. It is in favour of the public health authorities. On January 1st, 1945, the estimated population was in round figures just over a million, including Brisbane with 384,370. There is closer settlement in the east and along the east coast. Ports, mining and manufactures have developed urban areas so that in addition to Brisbane we have sub‐offices such as Cairns, Toowomba, Townsville, and Rockhampton. Owing to war conditions already referred to, it was not possible without much difficulty for the head quarters staff to carry out sanitary surveys in country areas. It is noted that the limited staff available “carried out all duties assigned to them in the same competent and efficient manner” as before. Rockhampton states that there was only one officer available for a district with a population of 40,000; Cairns that 50 towns were visited with a total of 113 separate visits and a distance of 6,334 miles being traversed. These figures give some idea of the demands made on the sanitary officers. The inspections in one area included anti‐malaria drainage, 39 inspections; malaria investi‐gation, 9; mosquito infestation, 10; swamps, 2; rat infestation, 73; food premises, 77; milk premises, 28; food factories, 129. It will be noticed that much attention is given to the danger of mosquito infestation, with the attendant risk of malaria. In 1943 the Government offered a 50 per cent. subsidy to local authorities for carrying out approved mosquito eradication measures, and though the response was not as great as was expected, the expenditure by those local authorities who, at the time of making this report, had availed themselves of the scheme runs into many thousands of pounds. This was mainly for drainage works, but in addition to this there was spraying and the appointment of additional inspectors. Taking one or two instances, Brisbane expended £173,375; Rockhampton £8,918; Charleville £4,000. It is stated “in Toowomba and to a lesser degree in the other large towns [in the area] the townspeople have become mosquito conscious” and will readily report the presence of even a few mosquitoes. On the other hand in country districts the attitude seems to be that mosquitoes have always been present and will always be present, so “Why worry?” A good instance of bucolic fatalism. After the rains it is obvious that unless water be run off from or sprayed in town puddles and from patches of swampy ground nearby these places become breeding grounds for the nuisance. In the 1944–5 period 696 cases of malaria were notified. Many of these were possibly recurrent attacks among Service and ex‐Service men. Still, the “utmost vigilance” is necessary. The rat nuisance and danger is common to every port in the world. Apart from the fouling and destruction of food and house infestation there is the graver menace of plague. This risk in Queensland most happily seems to be slight, as out of 113,000 examinations of rat bodies and spleen smears no instance of Pasteurella pestis was detected, but again “Vigilance” is the watchword. Poisoning (several kinds of poisons are used), gassing, trapping and hunting are all good within their limits, but rat proofing, removal of harbourages, the use of sanitary rubbish bins, and so forth, are admittedly better, as they strike at the root of the evil. Some seven cities are named where the rat population has not diminished during the last seven years owing to the latter precautions having been more or less neglected. These “starve the rat” and “build out the rat.” Milk claims a large share of attention. The offences are of the kind that we know so well in this country, namely added water and fat deficiency. With regard to added water, some of the figures given range from 19 per cent. to 34 per cent., with, we are glad to note, a correspondingly heavy fine. The Queensland Health Acts prescribe a fine of not less than £1 for each one per centum of added water up to a maximum of £50. It is illegal to carry water on a milk delivery cart when milk is being sold therefrom. Some dishonest vendors had adopted the practice of taking a dip out of a can of water so carried at the instant of delivery to the buyer. It was clearly almost impossible under these circumstances to prosecute successfully a dishonest vendor. Rockhampton states that out of 199 samples of milk officially analysed in the district in the period under review, eleven convictions were obtained for added water, and four for carrying water on the milk delivery van. It is added “Whilst the number of samples of milk which proved to be adulterated with added water was almost twice that of the previous year, it was more than ever apparent that the practice most frequently adopted by offenders is that of carrying water in smaller cans to adulterate the milk when measuring for individual customers.” This evil practice would seem to be widespread, and as its success would seem to depend on delivery from large open containers—an old and almost obsolete method—the remedy is to insist, as far as that be possible having regard to local conditions, that all milk should be pasteurised and sold in bottles. Clearly a person who systematically perpetrates day by day a series of petty frauds on his neighbours is likely to be as careless of their health as he is of their pocket. Pasteurising and bottling are being more widely practised. The periodical examination by the health authorities of milk so treated shows that statutory standards of purity are maintained. Most of the milk sold in Toowomba is pasteurised milk; the same seems to be the case in Townsville, and, as we should expect, in a city such as Brisbane. The game is, or, as we hope, was, an uphill one for milk vendors. Townsville says that local dairymen “still endeavour to carry on under very severe handicaps, such as staff shortages, transport and equipment shortages, and lack of sufficient fodder.” We hope that these drawbacks may by now be referred to in the past tense, for Cairns hopefully stated that “a return to normality is gener ally observable.” During the period under review 2,099 “legal samples” were taken by inspectors in accordance with the provisions of the Health Acts. Of these, 79 85 per cent. passed the standard; 3.95 were adulterated with water; 3.176 were deficient in fat only; 12.44 were below the standard in total solids and/or solids not fat. Of the 2,099 samples taken 1,666 were taken in the “Greater Brisbane Area”; 81.2 per cent. were, it seems, below the standard quality. As the population of the city of Brisbane is about 384,000 it is perhaps not too much to say that 40 per cent. of the total population of the State of Queensland is consuming milk a large proportion of which—about 19 per cent.—is below the standard set by the laws of the State. At Rockhampton 92 out of 135 samples, and at Townsville 28 out of 36, passed the standard. The figures are much the same for seven other towns named and 11 others not named. The results for the whole State is the subject for unfavourable criticism by the Health Department. Proprietary Medicines.—The report states that the prescribing of expensive medicines of this type is a common practice, and that the pharmacist may put the medicine in a different container and usually replaces the proprietary label with his own. “The prescribing of proprietary medicines may maintain the patient's faith in his medical practitioner : it also augments the profit of the pharmacist.” Price fixing has reduced the latter. Homeopathic medicines claim some attention. “As is common with homeopathic medicines those submitted during the year consisted of milk sugar only.” Saccharum lactis seems to be harmless kind of stuff with no particularly marked positive properties. Dose ad lib, says the pharmacopoelig;ia. It is “used for weakly children,” and “diabetics are said to occasionally show slight improvement” by ingesting it. Its normal price is about half‐a‐crown a pound. When, however, it has been “improved ” by the addition of minute traces of the phosphates of calcium, magnesium, and potassium and of calcium fluoride, then made up into tabloid form and sold, the recorded price in one instance had risen to £15 9s. 0d. a pound. The Health Department does not accept an enhanced price to be necessarily a measure of an increase in therapeutic virtues. It observes that“ two hundred tablets of one preparation (a month's course) contained no more mineral substance than one‐third of a teaspoonful of milk,” and after some further remarks to the same purpose, suggests “that in the light of modern therapeutics there would appear to be necessity for health administrations to define their attitude towards homeopathy.” It further quotes responsible medical opinion to the effect that “modern therapeutics has inherited from homeopathy the knowledge of the remarkable power the body possesses of healing itself, if given a chance.” Vitamins. —The grossly exaggerated claims of some food manufacturers and patent medicine manufacturers are referred to. It seems that in 1941 it was suggested to the Queensland Department of Health “that vitamin claims for foods and patent medicines should be re stricted within the known knowledge on the subject or within scientific bounds,” and that the Canadian definition of “vitamin” should be adopted; and that in 1943 the Commonwealth National Health and Medical Research Council recommended that the quantity of each vitamin present in a food should be indicated on the label in units per ounce or pound, and in drugs or medicinal preparations in units per dose. It is perhaps no great exaggeration to say that magic and medicine are still mutually identified in the minds of a sufficient number of people to make the hawking about of what is, in many cases, rubbish, a monetary success. The belief held by such people that what is repeatedly stated must for that and for no other reason be unquestionably true, together with an appeal to their fears and impulses form the psychological basis for success based on the claims made. Thus, it may be said that London, Brisbane, and the aborigines of the Cape York Peninsula are in this respect on much the same level.