Suchergebnisse

This thesis explores the influence of institutions in the development of policies dealing with adult intimate relationships in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States between 1990 and 2014. Over this period, the social importance and acceptance of non-"traditional" relationships has increased in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. However, despite all three countries working from what Gauthier describes as a "non-interventionist" approach to family policy, relationships policies have developed in markedly different ways in each. I argue that divergent translations of similar social trends are the result of differences between the structures of decision-making and institutions of interest representation in each country, and of policy legacies that make particular policy avenues more readily accessible. Electoral systems, parliamentary procedures and party structures govern which interests are able to exercise power within legislatures, while other institutions such as courts, bureaucracies, and law commissions contribute to the policy-making process in different ways. Countries are less likely to move in a non-interventionist or pro-egalitarian relationships policy direction where candidate selection procedures allow religious conservatives to play a significant role in both major parties, but religious conservatives have had little success in reversing non-interventionist policy changes after the fact. Instead, pro-traditionalist policy changes are typically minor regulatory changes or expenditures that are vulnerable to budget pressures. Legal interests expressed through law commissions or justice bureaucracies have a key role in enabling transitions to non-interventionist policies, particularly in the treatment of non-marital relationships, although the treatment of these relationships in core government activities such as taxation and welfare may also contribute to decisions in this area.

Nigeria has many child welfare policies; however, many do not have effective impact on the welfare of children. . Economic dynamics in Nigeria and the introduction of the neoliberal state and economic policies which led to the breakdown of the family structure undermine the implementation of child welfare policies in Nigeria. This study argues that the introduction of the neoliberal state, that is a minimalist state and its economic policies such as privatization, removal of state subsidies and deregulation undermine the implementation of existing child welfare policies in Nigeria. These policies are market and profit driven perspective which has a significant impact on the prospects of sustainable development and welfare of children. The aim of the study is therefore to explain how the introduction of neoliberal economic policies created a gap in policy implementation in which children are not provided for within the social safety nets in the neoliberal Nigeria. These gaps have increased the rate of exclusion and integration of children in the area of education, health, protection, nutrition and wellbeing among others. This is mainly because the priorities of neoliberal policies are to expand market forces, facilitate open competition, enhance mass production, attract foreign investment, and maximize consumption which in many ways undermines child welfare and development. The article adopts a methodology involving qualitative research based on interviews of 70 participants and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the workplace experiences of women employees during maternity and post-maternity periods to reveal the institutional order that coordinated the social relations and shaped their experiences through local and extra-local texts.


Design/methodology/approach
The institutional ethnography research framework allowed for mapping of workplace experiences of women employees during their maternity and post-maternity periods in their local context, connecting them to the invisible extra-local social relations.


Findings
The research study explored the disjuncture between the gender diversity initiatives that aimed at the inclusion of women employees and the workplace experiences of women employees in terms of work disengagement and work role degradation, including career discontinuity.


Practical implications
The gender diversity and inclusion initiatives of an organization need to examine the local and extra-local institutional texts that govern their context and coordinate social relations, such that there is no inconsistency between the intentions, implementation and outcomes.


Social implications
The state needs to revisit the maternity benefit act to provide additional measures to protect the career continuity of women, who choose maternity at some point in their work lives.


Originality/value
The paper explored the institutional order that influences the career continuity of women employees during maternity and post-maternity periods using institutional ethnography research framework in an information technology services organization in India. No such research study has even been attempted.