This book addresses a key set of issues at the overlap between feminism, sociology and cultural studies. A central theme of the book is an engagement with feminist theory and practice, its relationship to sociological and cultural analysis, and its development over time from the late 1970s to the present day. Within this context, the book explores changing ideas and experiences of youth in contemporary society. Particular attention is paid to recent concern with child abuse and its treatment in the public arena, to the family, sexuality, and education. A final section of the book examines the relationship of youth culture to consumerism, advertising and identity.
New Research and Applications of Optimization and Dynamics
In this book Putman draws together the past decade's important new theoretical developments in modelling with his experience in development and application of operational integrated transportation and location models. It examines the critical but often overlooked interrelationships of theory construction and empirical analysis. Its purpose is ......
Effective discipline is vital to effective teaching and learning. This book reports the views of teachers and pupils and describes different kinds of practice in schools. Drawing on a three-year research project, it describes the common features underlying different approaches, analyzes key influences on school policy and practice and suggests the benefits and costs of different approaches. This book is the companion volume to Effective Discipline in Primary Schools and Classrooms.
Vulnerable Values in Western European Broadcasting
Modern broadcasting policy faces a number of challenges: how to regulate the growing commercial sector; the position and funding of public service television; and finding appropriate forms of public accountability in the changed media environment. Television and the Public Interest examines these challenges and how they are being addressed in the media systems of eight European nations. The authors' aim throughout is to identify the basic values that European policymakers, politicians, broadcasters and civic groups of all kinds regard as vulnerable in the new conditions and are striving to protect from market pressures. The book includes a wealth of information on broadcasting policy issues and practice in Western European nations and offers a major appraisal of the values enshrined in such policy, how they are protected institutionally in different systems, and how such systems are coping with the challenges of the new media landscape.
Few would disagree with the principle that successful achievement of an organization's overall strategic objectives is bound up with the design and implementation of appropriate human resource strategies (HRS). Yet many questions remain about what is entailed in implementing effective HRS. This volume brings together a range of outstanding contributions which explore not only the advantages but also the complexities of a strategic approach to human resource management. Deliberately broad in scope to reflect the organization-wide ramifications of HRS, combining theoretical analyses alongside case studies of HRS in practice, the book offers a fascinating review of this crucial topic. The book begins by addressing key themes and debates within the field about the nature and role of human resource management. Succeeding sections then focus on three core organizational arenas inevitably implicated in strategic human resource management - organizational structure, culture and personnel strategies. Human Resource Strategies is a Course Reader for the Open University Course B884 Human Resource Strategies.
This collection deals with the central questions which have emerged from the break-up of the postwar political consensus around the welfare state. A series of distinguished contributors, including exponents of alternative positions on welfare from the right, left and centre, examine key issues in the disputes over the relationship between the state and welfare. Individual chapters both explore the different political and theoretical issues in the debate, and concentrate on their application in key areas of social policy. Particular attention is given to the role of social work, and public policy and the family. The final section of the book examines the political sources of the current crisis of social policy, and the prospects for a resolution of the crisis of the welfare state. The State or the Market is a set book on the Open University Course D211, Social Problems and Social Welfare.
This volume offers a reappraisal of sociologist Talcott Parsons' work by social theorists who place his writing at the centre of current controversies over modernity, postmodernity and globalization. The contributors examine the problems in the interpretation of Parsons' work. The discussion encompasses his place in American social theory, his conception of world history and the contemporary neo-functionalist movement.
In this account of the purpose, practice and outcomes of groupwork with women, the author draws on her own involvement in establishing and running community based womens' groups. The book provides accounts of the structured content of group sessions and the definitions and measurements of change developed by women participants themselves. By examining the impact of group process and dynamics on self and group identity, the book accentuates the changes which take place during and after the life of a group. The book offers a convincing rationale for adopting a feminist approach with women isolated in their own communities who bear the brunt of socio-political disadvantages, but a central tenet of the book is that feminist groupwork is applicable across a range of settings in the state and private sectors. The authors also address the conflicts which can arise from working from a feminist perspective within mainstream organizational settings. Throughout, the focus is on women's perceptions and explanations of themselves and their experiences, where women's groups promote alternative potentially liberating interpretations which have profound consequences on women's lives. The book demonstrates the distortions and inadequacies of mainstream psychological interpretations of female behaviour and highlights the ways in which these oppress and constrain women.
This volume offers a reappraisal of sociologist Talcott Parsons' work by social theorists who place his writing at the centre of current controversies over modernity, postmodernity and globalization. The contributors examine the problems in the interpretation of Parsons' work. The discussion encompasses his place in American social theory, his conception of world history and the contemporary neo-functionalist movement.
