Suchergebnisse

La reconnaissance officielle du diplôme d'assistant de service social, créé en France en 1932, est l'aboutissement des efforts de formation professionnelle engagés dès le début du XX e siècle par les pionnières du service social. Mais six ans plus tard, ce diplôme sera fusionné avec celui des infirmières visiteuses (trois fois plus nombreuses), orientant la profession vers une fonction essentiellement médico-sociale, à la différence des autres pays. Comme en témoigne la première Conférence internationale du service social de 1928. En France, trois méthodes se dégagent des principaux ouvrages parus à cette époque : la méthode d'enquête médico-sociale inspirée par les médecins hygiénistes tend à placer l'assistante sociale dans un rôle d'auxiliaire des médecins et des institutions ; la méthode inspirée du case work américain, conceptualisée par Mary Richmond, privilégie un rôle de clinicienne sociale ; la méthode monographique, en référence à la science sociale, met l'accent sur le rôle d'agent de développement de l'action sociale locale. Au-delà des méthodes, quelle fonction et quel rôle seront attribués ou s'attribueront les assistantes sociales ?

Saathiya, or "trusted partner" in Hindi, is an apt name for a new private sector social marketing initiative designed to help young married couples in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh make informed choices about how many children to have and when to start their families. Supported by funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), contributions from eight different pharmaceutical and medical association partners, and technical guidance from Abt Associates through the Private Sector Partnerships-One Project (PSP-One), Saathiya was launched in October 2007 at a press conference led by local government and civic officials, USAID, and the medical community. Program innovations include an intervention/control research design to track changes in family planning-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, expansion of the service delivery network to include traditional medical doctors, a "basket" of four different short-acting contraceptives that are cobranded with the Saathiya program, and a youth-friendly promotional strategy that employs a helpline, short message service (SMS) text messaging, and the Internet in additional to traditional channels.

AbstractThis study presents a greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle assessment of 1 tonne of wheat transported to port in south‐western Australia, including emissions from prefarm, onfarm and postfarm stages. The prefarm stage included GHG emissions from agricultural machinery, fertiliser and pesticide production. The onfarm stage included GHG emissions from diesel use, liming and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from N fertiliser applications. The postfarm stage included grain storage and transportation to the port. GHG emissions decreased from 487 to 304 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents when we used regional‐specific data for N2O emissions instead of the IPCC default value for the application of synthetic N fertilisers to land (1.0%). Fertiliser production in the prefarm stage contributed significantly (35%) to GHG, followed by onfarm CO2 emissions (27%) and emissions from transportation of inputs and wheat (12%). N2O emissions from paddock represented 9% of the total GHGs emitted. We recommend utilising regionally specific data for soil N2O emissions, rather than international default values, when assessing GHG for agricultural production systems.

Abstract
International meetings such as the G8 Summit have evolved from the sequestered gatherings of the economic elite to full-scale political media events. Dominant approaches to such events are often text-centered, focusing on the media's framing of protest and overlooking the actions and interactions at such sites. However, media events must also be examined from the perspectives of those involved in the event. Accordingly, a mediation approach is proposed to analyze the media practices of the Dissent! Network at the 2005 G8 Summit and specifically, Hori-Zone eco-village. After qualifying the G8 Summit as a media event, Hori-Zone is established as a site inside the media event. Protests launched from the camp are then analyzed, arguing that their position inside the media event transforms them from direct action into spectacular action. The conclusion reiterates the importance and implications of understanding political media events from the perspective of those inside the media event.

L'objectif de cet article est d'élargir certains récents travaux qui analysent économétriquement l'influence de quelques variables macroéconomiques sur le nombre des ouvertures d'action antidumping aux États-Unis et au sein de l'Union européenne (Knetter et Prusa, [2003]; Feinberg, [2005]). Les résultats de nos estimations confirment que le taux de change réel exerce une influence similaire pour les deux régions. Les fluctuations du PIB influencent l'ouverture d'enquête antidumping seulement aux États-Unis. A contrario, l'évolution de la production industrielle ne joue pas un rôle significatif pour les États-Unis alors que cet effet est important pour l'Union européenne. Le renforcement de la concurrence internationale apparaît agir de manière significative dans l'accroissement des enquêtes aux États-Unis alors que celui-ci ne semble pas agir de la même manière pour l'Union européenne. Somme toute, une des principales différences entre les États-Unis et l'UE semble être expliquée par les différences de règles et de pratiques mises en place par les autorités de régulations respectives.

PurposeThis paper aims to raise awareness and the level of debate on a significant new development in international law.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes a historical overview in considering current approaches to the phenomenon of private military corporations (PMCs) and uses case examples to discuss the issues raised.FindingsThe paper concludes that the phenomenon raises many issues that need further analysis, such as the outcome of this phenomenon on the future of democracy in sovereign states.Research limitations/implicationsThe topic allows for much further research into such matters as definitional, jurisdictional and enforceability issues with regard to corporate entities known as PMCs.Practical implicationsFor peace and human rights to prevail in democracies in which the state maintains the monopoly on the use of force, the paper argues that PMCs should be prohibited rather than subjected to mere regulation.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to use the term "preyfits" in describing the actions of transnational corporations. While most scholars argue for regulation of PMCs, this paper argues for their total prohibition.

The present article addresses the question of whether Switzerland can continue to be seen as an extreme case of federal consensus democracy, as illustrated by Arend Lijphart (1999). A re-analysis of Lijphart's (1999) study of the Swiss political system from 1997 to 2007 clearly demonstrates that due to recent political-institutional changes (a decreasing number of parties, growing electoral disproportionality, increasing decentralization and deregulation of the relationship between the state and interest groups), a consensus democracy with strong tendencies toward adjustment and normalization of the original exceptional Swiss case to meet the rest of the continental European consensus democracies has emerged. This development has been further strengthened by intensified public political contestation, rising polarization between the political camps in parliament, and the weakening of the cooperative search for consensus as the dominant mode of negotiation within the government. From the perspective of international comparison, Switzerland can thus be seen henceforth as a typical example, not an extreme case, of consensus democracy.

Cette étude s'intéresse au rôle des délégués nationaux dans les décisions des organisations intergouvernementales à travers le cas du Codex Alimentarius, organisation internationale qui produit des normes alimentaires et compte plus de 170 États-membres. Selon une première approche, les organisations intergouvernementales sont envisagées comme le siège de négociations multilatérales, dans lesquelles les délégués gouvernementaux ont le double objectif, de défendre la position de l'État qu'ils représentent, et de parvenir à un accord entre eux, notamment par la construction de coalitions. Une lecture organisationnelle fait quant à elle apparaître une organisation «faiblement couplée»; son processus de décision est flou, incertain voire chaotique. Dans ces conditions, influencer les décisions nécessite de «tenir» dans le temps et dans l'espace, en utilisant tous les points d'appui possibles. Pour augmenter ses chances de succès, le délégué national peut utiliser des ressources – notamment techniques et scientifiques – de l'industrie. Plus encore, une coopération entre administration et entreprises peut s'avérer d'une grande efficacité pour influencer la décision intergouvernementale.

Historical accounts of the Cold War usually relegate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to footnotes, if they acknowledge the GATT at all. This article examines the impact of the Cold War on the institutional development of GATT, showing how geopolitical considerations influenced decisions about whether to grant membership in GATT to Communist and non-aligned countries. The accession debates in GATT also reveal the multicentered dynamic of the Western alliance, exposing a variety of views about whether the Cold War was a battle to be waged or a condition of global international relations to be accepted. But if the GATT could not evade the Cold War, its secretariat also manipulated Cold War circumstances, beliefs, and priorities to strengthen the institution. The result of the GATT accession debates was to reposition the GATT as a forum and instrument of the Western alliance, rather than the universal organization it was supposed to be, and to impart new meaning to the process of liberalizing world trade.

During the German occupation, Greece suffered a serious malaria epidemic, and the progress in malaria control achieved by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) mission to Greece in the 1930s was wiped out. At the same time, however, medical relief was channelled into the country through a relaxation of the Allied blockade. While the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) inherited the wartime local relief distribution networks, malaria control measures required a return of the RF scientists within the organizational and logistical framework provided by UNRRA's Medical Division. They introduced dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) spraying on a nationwide scale, revolutionizing malaria control and the idea of disease eradication, and created UNRRA's largest DDT malaria programme. As the Greek civil war unfolded, the fight against malaria acquired a dynamic which immunized it from the political issues of the postwar international scene. In the Greek case, the RF's influence on malaria control by means of DDT moved smoothly from UNRRA to the World Health Organization (WHO) framework.

Like many a recently liberated country with the experience of starvation and hardship vivid in its people's physical state, Greece emerged in the immediate aftermath of the second world war in great need of assistance, facing a wrecked economy and drained resources. Relief provision became the responsibility of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), an international relief organization established in late 1943 with the purpose of furnishing essential supplies and services to war-devastated states. For over two years (April 1945-June 1947), Greece received goods worth approximately $350 million, as much as its pre-war commercial imports, and almost 12 per cent of total UNRRA assistance. This article traces the provision of UNRRA aid in the micro-context of the Cyclades, a famine-stricken group of some 25 Aegean islands. Drawing on UNRRA's mostly undisclosed archive, it examines the implementation of welfare policies and the conversion of general plans to particular actions to disclose the interplay between relief strategies and the development of the local economy.

Due to the advancement of globalization, overseas assignments are becoming increasingly necessary for the coordination of international subsidiaries or to guarantee the transfer of knowledge, among other things. However many of these assignments are unsuccessful in that either the business expatriates return earlier as planned or they do not perform as well as expected. Multiple reasons for the failure of such assignments have been identified, most of which are related to the ability of an individual to adapt to the host culture and culture learning. In this article it will be argued that power may affect the quality and nature of an expatriate's culture learning and thus may undermine the chance to adapt adequately. The article presents first results of a case study regarding German expatriates of five organizations in Mexico. The data displays evidence that power may restrict sanctions of host country nationals (HCNs) of an expatriate's culturally inappropriate behaviour. This tendency appears to be reinforced by the high value placed on power distance and an emphasis on hierarchical structures within an organization.

The Simulations and Role Play I track examined a broad range of approaches to classroom
simulations and role-playing exercises. The presentations covered designs that operate
online and face-to-face, model decision making at local and international levels, and run
from only a few minutes to an entire semester. Participants and discussants identified
several elements that are common to successful simulations. These elements included
establishing clear objectives for a simulation prior to its use in a course, designing
simulations to actively engage students in the learning process, and using simulations to
develop professional skills, empathy, and intercultural understanding among students. The
track members agreed that simulations need not be time intensive in preparation or
presentation, but can be flexible and made to fit unique situations. Finally, while
simulations may not increase student perceptions of the quality of instruction, the
simulations do seem to increase student empathy and student decision-making skills, which
are worthwhile achievements.

Les dysfonctionnements structurels de l'économie moldave se sont exacerbés en 2007 avec la grave sécheresse qui a affecté la production agricole au cours de l'été, alors que l'industrie agroalimentaire, principal secteur exportateur du pays, se remettait lentement de l'embargo russe imposé en 2005 et 2006. Le nombre de Moldaves qui s'expatrient pour survivre s'élève aujourd'hui à 800 000, soit un tiers de la population active, et les transferts de fonds de ces émigrés représentent désormais le tiers du PIB, alimentant un boom de la consommation et des importations. Sur le plan politique, les élections locales ont été marquées par un échec relatif du Parti communiste, au pouvoir depuis 2001, qui s'est révélé tout aussi incapable d'assurer un niveau de vie décent à la population que de résoudre le conflit avec la province séparatiste de Transnistrie. Sur le plan international, les relations avec la Russie se sont améliorées à proportion de la dégradation des relations avec Bucarest, accusé de saper la souveraineté nationale en facilitant l'accession des Moldaves à la citoyenneté roumaine.

Whether it was his prodigious publication rate or the untiring help he extended to his students, the remarkable generosity he showed to colleagues or the anger he occasionally displayed over what he considered to be problematic scholarship, or merely his outsized appetite for good food, Gerry Feldman was a titanic force in the field of German history for more than forty years. His fascination with the past, love of the present, and concern for the future transformed his spacious home in the Oakland hills and his cramped office at the University of California at Berkeley into international destinations for itinerant intellectuals. His writing and his personal relations were infused with an exuberant delight in the most mundane of things and a wry appreciation of life's greatest challenges. With his passing, we have lost a great advocate of transnational scholarly relations, one of the profession's most talented economic historians, and our foremost expert on the Weimar Republic, its antecedents, and the men who dug its grave.