Suchergebnisse

In this article, we analyze two landmark reviews of British voluntary action to cast a critical gaze on the recurrent claim that voluntarism is facing a new era of ever more turbulent welfare systems and dramatic changes in state–voluntary relations. Rather than representing a new era, we find the current climate may be more accurately considered a collage of past relations. By this, we mean a composition of reality that assembles different aspects of past realities to create a seemingly new era. This suggests that conventional discursive institutional accounts of policy change, which downplay the interrelated dynamics of stability and change, are inadequate for explaining the evolution of state–voluntary relations specifically and policy reform more broadly. Debates about public policy and the role to be played by voluntary action among scholarly and practitioner communities would be better served by greater understanding of the historical experience that has formed today's institutions.

Accounts of institutional change and categorization conventionally assume that high‐status change agents can impose change, even to stable category systems, which lower‐status actors accommodate in order to ensure social approval and material resources. By exploring the UK Conservative‐Liberal Coalition's rhetorical efforts to reform the welfare state, how welfare providers are categorized and the subsequent response of implicated category members, we offer instead an account of institutional change that exposes the agentic limitations of high‐status actors. While governments may well be in a position to impose changes in the formal rules of the game through manipulation of material resources (fiscal contraction, privatization, open markets, deregulation), we find that they cannot necessarily monopolize symbolic resources (identities/cultural features). We also find that deviation from cultural expectations is available not only to large, high‐status organizations; low‐status actors too have discretion over their responses to institutional pressures regarding how they are categorized and subsequently judged.

Against a backdrop of austerity, characterised by public-sector funding cuts and a devolutionary agenda, this paper explores how legislation might address two, inter-related challenges which face public urban green space ('greenspace') in England and Wales; namely, responsibility for provision, and identification of supporting funds. It focuses on two proposals; first, the introduction of legislative powers to enable local authorities to create user-charging schemes, and secondly, the imposition of a local authority statutory duty to provide greenspace.

This study examined whether medium is an important factor in arousal of curiosity about morbid events. A total of 131 undergraduate students read or viewed six reports: one good news story, one neutral story and four morbid stories. One group read print versions only, while a second group saw photographic images depicting these events and a third group viewed televised versions of these events. Subjects rated stories on a 100-point thermometer rating scale measuring attraction-aversion. Television news reports, somewhat contrary to expectations, did not evoke more curiosity about morbid events than did print or still photo accounts. Television may be getting a bad rap, the authors suggest.

Rules -- Client-lawyer relationship -- Counselor -- Advocate -- Rules advocate -- Transactions with persons other than clients -- Law firms and associations -- Public service -- Information about legal services -- Maintaining the integrity of the profession.

The first book of its kind, this volume brings together a range of experts to review key methodological issues in the study of voluntary action, charitable behaviour and participation in voluntary organisations. Using case studies from around the world – from ethnography to media analysis and surveys to peer research – chapters illustrate the challenges of researching altruistic actions and our conceptualisations of them. Across different fields and methods, authors unpick the methodological innovations and challenges in their own research to help guide future study. Demystifying research and deepening our ability to understand the role of the third sector, this accessible book is suitable for social researchers at all levels