Suchergebnisse

Societal integration and communication in China / Godwin C. Chu -- Communication in China's mass mobilization campaigns / Charles P. Cell -- Participation, communication, and political integration / Victor C. Falkenheim -- The mass line and leader-mass relations and communication in basic-level rural communities / Marc Blecher -- Communication from the party center / Kenneth G. Lieberthal -- Goal structure and coordination in China's rural local administration / Steven B. Butler -- Peasant interest articulation and work teams in rural China, 1962-1974 / John P. Burns -- Mass media and conflict resolution / Godwin C. Chu and Leonard L. Chu -- Horizontal mobilization and communication for conflict resolution / Mitch Meisner -- Integration in China / Godwin C. Chu and Francis L.K. Hsu.

This volume, Applied Social Sciences: Sociology, offers the reader a wide collection of quantitative and qualitative studies from different research areas such as medical sociology, political sociology, sociology of communication, sociology of culture, sociology of education, sociology of migration, sociology of population, and urban sociology. Theoretical and empirical papers attempt to explain complex social phenomena, including attitudes and values concerning economic recession, culture, e

Despite the recent growth of research on social problems facing the people of sub-Saharan Africa, there remains a critical lack of conceptual, epistemological, and empirical research and documentation. This sophisticated new book attempts to fill that gap by synthesizing, interpreting, and extending the existing literature on conditions that constitute serious impediments to socio-economic development in Africa. It provides an original and up-to-date survey of key problems ranging from poverty and inequality to violence and crime. The contributors, all of whom have lived or worked in Africa, s

The personal social services in Sweden have undergone major changes during recent decades, partly due to the reforms caused by the influence of New Public Management (NPM) and partly due to the trend towards greater specialisation. These changes have had consequences for both social work management and for social work practice. The consequences for practice have gained attention both from research and from the field, but the consequences for managers have rarely been discussed. In this thesis therefore, the attention is directed towards the managers. Inspired by a mixed methods approach, this thesis aims to explore the personal social service managers' perceptions of their organisational conditions and the content of their everyday work, as well as to interpret the managers' experiences against the background of NPM influence, increasing specialisation and the specific circumstances that come with managing politically governed organisations. The results show that the personal social service managers in general were former professionals with extensive social work experience. The managerial work was to a great extent perceived as reactive, entailing constant interruptions and acute situations. The managers experienced a heavy workload that appeared to prevent them from engaging in strategic work and leadership to the extent that they would have liked. Substantial proportions of managers were dissatisfied with their own levels of influence compared to that of politicians and, in general, the managers perceived themselves to have more influence regarding aspects that were operational (such as methods and working procedures) compared to aspects related to organisational structure. Through the managers' descriptions of their relations with politicians, it was revealed that the roles could be muddled, and that both managers and politicians could have difficulties in distinguishing between politics and administration, or politics and profession. Several changes that could be attributed to the influence of NPM were described by the managers. Some changes had consequences for the more technical side of management, e.g. decentralised budget responsibility, increased focus on cost effectiveness and downsizing of support functions. Other changes were more related to the overarching concept of management, which had consequences for the choice of managerial training, the expectations placed on the managers, and to some extent the managers' own views on what good management should be. Despite the many indications of changes that may be attributed to NPM, an important result in this thesis is that NPM does not appear to have permeated social work to the degree that might have been expected. Rather, there are clear indications of a remaining professional identity among managers on all managerial levels, as well a continuing bureau-professional regime within the personal social services.