Sociologists view the family, the most basic unit of social organization, as the cornerstone of society. As societies continue to evolve, social changes such as urbanization…
Abstract
Sociologists view the family, the most basic unit of social organization, as the cornerstone of society. As societies continue to evolve, social changes such as urbanization produce changed family structures. This has recently happened in Zimbabwe, creating new family forms such as the “small house practice”: the trend among married men to maintain a single woman as a quasi-permanent sexual partner outside official marriage. This relationship is considered subsidiary (small) compared to the official marriage; yet, it is important to the welfare of both man practicing it and the unmarried woman being looked after. The study focused on the development of the “small house practice” in Zimbabwe and its impact on the traditional family unit. The economic crisis in Zimbabwe, between 2000 and 2010, in particular, affected families negatively and also led to the proliferation of the small house. The study reveals that the family unit in Zimbabwe continues to evolve.
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The benefits of total productive maintenance (TPM) are quantifiable as adirect contributor to improved bottom‐line performance. Describes theprocedures for implementing TPM…
Abstract
The benefits of total productive maintenance (TPM) are quantifiable as a direct contributor to improved bottom‐line performance. Describes the procedures for implementing TPM. Overall TPM aims to result in equipment that is easy to operate flawlessly, requires minimum maintenance effort and is capable of reliable, low‐cost, high‐quality operation. TPM is a practical application of total quality and empowerment of the workforce. It is an indispensable contribution to lean production through just‐in‐time manufacturing and is an essential pillar to those seeking world‐class manufacturing status.
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The marginalisation of council housing in Britain since the Housing Act of 1980 threatens to obscure some of the very valuable lessons to be learned from almost a century of mass…
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The marginalisation of council housing in Britain since the Housing Act of 1980 threatens to obscure some of the very valuable lessons to be learned from almost a century of mass public housing provision. This chapter demonstrates that despite considerable economic problems, and in the face of social change since 1980, a relatively poor council estate remained a site of social capital, and that women were particularly prominent in working with local agencies to solve problems.
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The importance of ties between older people and their children has been widely documented as a fundamental component in the provision and receipt of support. While the reference…
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The importance of ties between older people and their children has been widely documented as a fundamental component in the provision and receipt of support. While the reference to such support is usually made in a benign manner, it is overly simplistic to assume that support provided by family members will always and necessarily lead to positive outcomes for older people. A person's perception of the adequacy or quality of support is inevitably influenced by his or her expectation of the type, frequency and source of support preferred or required. Most existing British research on the family support of older people has concentrated on those from the white‐British majority with little cross‐group comparisons. This article reports on in‐depth qualitative research with 17 and 21 older people from white‐British and Asian‐Indian backgrounds respectively. It demonstrates how gender, ethnicity, migration history and a range of other factors interweave in complex manners to affect individuals' expectations for support from their adult children. The findings reveal commonalities and differences within and between groups and demonstrate that the association between expectations of support and resultant sense of well‐being is complicated and is often conditional. Stereotypes within and across groups need to be examined given the observation that while familial norms may be played out differently in different cultural contexts, individuals make sense of and rationalise their expectations for support to take into account the dynamics of changing structures and attitudes.
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This article deals with a social phenomenon in which individuals organise locally to promote their personal safety.
Heather A. Haveman and Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya
This paper traces how in Britain and Germany, for-profit and non-profit businesses coevolved with political-economic institutions. Starting in the late eighteenth century, Britain…
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This paper traces how in Britain and Germany, for-profit and non-profit businesses coevolved with political-economic institutions. Starting in the late eighteenth century, Britain embraced the logic of liberal capitalism, although the path was not smooth. Over the same period, German states balanced both liberal and social-welfare ideals. Social-welfare ideals did not gain support in Britain until the start the twentieth century. The market logic embodied by for-profit businesses was more congruent with liberal capitalism than with social-welfare capitalism, so business corporations thrived more in Britain than in Germany. Yet in both countries, the growing number and power of for-profit businesses created problems for farmers, workers, and small producers. They sought to solve their problems by launching non-profit businesses – co-operatives, mutual-aid societies, and credit co-operatives – combining the ideals of community, enterprise, and self-help. British non-profits gained support from authorities by emphasizing their self-help and enterprise ideals, which were congruent with liberal capitalism, over the community idea, which was not. In contrast, German non-profits gained support by emphasizing all three ideals, as two were congruent with liberal capitalism and all three with social-welfare capitalism. Our analysis reveals how the success of different forms of business, embodying different institutional logics, depends on prevailing political-economic logics. It also shows how the existence and technical success of various organizational forms shapes elites’ perceptions and through them, societal-level logics of capitalism.
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Mark Clapson and Ray Hutchison
World population is expected to increase by some 2.6 billion from 6.9 billion in 2010 to more than 9.5 billion by mid-century. Most of this population increase will occur in the…
Abstract
World population is expected to increase by some 2.6 billion from 6.9 billion in 2010 to more than 9.5 billion by mid-century. Most of this population increase will occur in the developing nations, and most of this increase will be absorbed in the rapidly expanding metropolitan regions of these countries – the so-called megacities of the twenty-first century (United Nations, 2009). And as urban development accelerates across the globe, most of the population increase will occur in the emerging megacities and other metropolitan areas in Africa, Asia and South America. Because the original areas of settlement in the city centre have long been established, much of the population increase in these metropolitan regions will occur in the suburban areas of cities in the Global South – areas of favelas and shanty towns alongside earlier middle-class and upper-class suburbs, newly planned gated communities and garden suburbs, and indigenous models of suburban growth that will emerge in the next century.
Increased managerial effectiveness has been a concern for academics, management trainers and developers. However, the topic has remained relatively unexplored, especially so far…
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Increased managerial effectiveness has been a concern for academics, management trainers and developers. However, the topic has remained relatively unexplored, especially so far as the effectiveness of the senior managers and officials is concerned. Examines results of first‐time study which has been carried out in the Romanian public sector. Finds that senior managers are aware of the needs for their own and others’ effectiveness and desire for development, and that the presence of certain conditions, some specific to Eastern European countries, tend to act as inhibiting factors insofar as the development of the senior managers is concerned. Concludes that effectiveness should be defined as functions of awareness of self and other organizationally shared and unshared values, constraints, demands and choices available to senior managers and their abilities and skills to get the job done. Thus, further understanding of the topic requires attention being paid to managers, their work, organization and social realities as they are and not as one expects them to be.