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SummaryConflict and Social Change: The Case of an Israeli VillageSome aspects of a village of immigrants from the island of Djerba (Tunisia) in Israel are described. The village is of the moshav type where Israeli authorities endeavour to transform immigrant groups into cooperative farming communities, a situation of directed change. The particular village under discussion poses a sociological question: although efforts to introduce agriculture have largely failed, the villagers have congregated into a tightly‐knit community reminiscent of the ideal moshav. Such a combination is not usual on the Israeli immigrant moshav scene.The empirical findings are discussed in terms of conflict between the agents of change and their objects, the villagers. The analysis points out that such conflict is latent in a situation of directed change because of the basic duality of agents and objects of change, which implies efforts of the former to change accepted custom of the latter. The eruption of actual conflict as well as its precise nature depends on the particular case. The paper demonstrates the relevance of an analys of the relations between agents and objects of change, to a fuller understanding of the effects of projects of directed change upon a community. It is suggested that these relations have ramified effects; their study is proposed as a fruitful approach in research on directed change.

Afghanistan's past greatly affects its present. This is especially true of the two state coups: the anti-monarchy coup of 1973, which brought Mohammad Daud to power, and the events of 1978, which brought the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power. They were followed by a protracted civil war and foreign military interference which consecutively created the regimes of the Islamic fundamentalist-mojahedin in 1992, which declared Afghanistan an Islamic state, and of the radical Taliban movement, which established a military theocratic regime in the form of the Islamic Emirate throughout most of the country. Late in 2001, it fell under blows delivered by the international U.S.-led counterterrorist coalition and the Northern Alliance. The nation paid dearly for the years of devastating internecine war with loss of life, destroyed political, economic, and cultural infrastructure, an altered demographic situation, and millions of émigrés. (According to the U.N., there are about three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan alone.) The wars and the kaleidoscopic regimes delivered a crushing blow to the centuries-old moral and ethical norms and traditional lifestyle of the Afghans, as well as to their habits and customs. Islam as an important part of the local lifestyle was no exception; the war affected the situation of the Muslim clergy and the Islamic institutions. Under the Marxist regime of the PDPA, the clergy was persecuted and its members repressed. The anti-Islamic policy was especially cruel at the very beginning of the party's rule, when the clans of Mojaddidi, Waezi, Qiyani, and other respected religious figures suffered a lot. Under the mojahedin and the Taliban, the clergy was brought to the very summit of power. The role of the clergy and its influence on the country's contemporary life stem from the nation's past. For a long time, between the 7th and 11th centuries, since the time when Islam finally established itself as the main religion of the local tribes, a multi-step social-economic hierarchy developed. It consisted of individual groups of clergy which differed in their level of material well-being and their influence on the popular masses. The ulamaye dini (the religious ulemas) occupied the highest steps of the structure. The group consisted of theologians—the maulawis, mudarisses-mutabahhirs (erudite persons), faqihs, etc. normally educated in the best Islamic centers abroad—Deoband in India, Al-Azhar in Egypt, and others.

Objective – This study examines conceptually corporate social responsibility and earnings management measurement approach review. It reviews existing measurement approaches used in the empirical studies. Problems that led to lack of standardize measurement approach for both CSR and EM were identified and the solutions to the problems were highlighted. Design/methodology – Explanatory research design was employed in the study to review measurements approach for the earnings management and corporate social responsibility used by previous empirical studies. Results – The review of measurement approach reveals that up to today there is no standardized way to measure CSR and EM as studies normally select the method that suit their purpose. Some of the points of contention among scholars were lack of consensus on the best and standardized way to measure CSR, subjectivity and bias issue with regards to measurement, myriads of models for EM measurement and the voluntary nature of CSR activities and disclosure way. However, in order to address the contentious issues, this study, therefore recommends that relevant agencies should set up standardize way to measure CSR of different companies, on their part government and authorities concern should find way to standardized CSR reporting, makes CSR activities and disclosure mandatory for companies and separation of measurement approach for financial related business companies and non-financial related business companies should be done.

AbstractWe consider the concept of poverty from the asset-accumulation approach and propose an integrated framework, building upon existing theories, to describe how the interconnected factors of trust (or lack thereof) and social distance can reinforce poverty traps. Social distance is influenced by choice, while trust is the symptom that defines the strength of social ties on a group. We look at how an absence of trust influences how households make decisions about the use and accumulation of assets in ways that could perpetuate poverty. Weak trust also affects how groups interact with each other in a society, creating "trust clusters" within homogeneous groups and antagonism across groups, which in turn affects aspirations and leads to an erosion of the basis of a social contract. For more effective and sustainable poverty reduction, we need to understand these linkages and address them systematically.

Frequently seen as an alternative to the realities of hardcore corporate life, social entrepreneurship and its emphasis on giving back to society after a life of abundance, may well become a thing of the past, along with Non Government Organisations (NGOs), which often act as watchdogs of corporate and government policy and practice. Both will likely transition into and underpin new 'good companies'. At least that's the view of leading Singapore social entrepreneur, Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO).

The major purpose of this study was to identify predictors of grandparent caregiver health status. Additional purposes were to describe the physical and emotional health of grandparent caregivers and the perceived benefits of support group attendance. A convenience sample of 42 grandparents was recruited from support groups. Data were collected through telephone interviews. Grandparents who had higher parenting stress reported lower levels of physical, social, and mental health. Inverse correlations were present between life stress and mental health. Positive correlations were found between social support and physical health. No pattern emerged in a comparison of the health of caregiving grandparents and a normative sample. Emotional support was the primary benefit derived from support group attendance. There were modest inverse associations between the length of time the child had lived with the grandparent and six of the eight indicators of grandparent health.