Learning From Difference: Comparing Child Welfare Systems

Child welfare and child protection are integral aspects of the welfare regimes of all post-industrial societies. However, although the needs of children and the dangers of child abuse are so widely acknowledged, the ways in which these needs and risks are met varies considerably, even between countries with similar structures. By studying the ways in which other countries deal with similar problems, we can learn about new ways of responding and may find ideas that we can adapt for use in our own context. But we can do much more than this. By looking at differences, and using the power of making comparisons, we can begin to understand more about our own system and why it has developed as it has. We can begin to identify the ‘taken-for-granted’. This may lead us to question some of the assumptions on which our system rests and to become more aware of the aspects of our system that we value most highly. As we become more aware of the reasons why our system has developed as it has, positive changes may become more attainable

Testing the Unfolding Theory of Turnover: Development of an Exit Survey

Understanding turnover has always been a concern for organizations. The costs of turnover to an organization are both direct and indirect, through financial and personnel consequences. By understanding why employees leave, organizations can create more effective retention strategies in hopes of keeping top talent. One theory of turnover, The Unfolding Theory, proposes that employees follow one of five cognitive pathways when deciding to leave an organization. Previous studies evaluating this theory have both methodological and administrative flaws, such as conducting interviews after employees leave the organization. The present study examined the Unfolding Theory by creating an exit survey based on all the aspects of the theory and administering the survey to 107 employees before leaving an organization. The results indicated that the Unfolding Theory does well to capture the processes employees engage in when deciding to leave an organization. However, the data also suggested that additional cognitive pathways may exist and that different groups of employees may have a higher prevalence for a particular pathway. The study discusses how organizations can utilize the findings to gather exit data more accurately, which will help to better understand why employees leave an organization

The low-dimensional homology of finite-rank Coxeter groups

We give formulas for the second and third integral homology of an arbitrary finitely generated Coxeter group, solely in terms of the corresponding Coxeter diagram. The first of these calculations refines a theorem of Howlett, while the second is entirely new and is the first explicit formula for the third homology of an arbitrary Coxeter group.Comment: 59 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Final version, to appear in Algebraic and Geometric Topolog

You Can “Like” It on Paper Too: Reaching Digital Students through Analog Displays

In response to literature on libraries as space and the Millennial generation, this chapter speaks to the importance of the academic library as both social and communal space and how to communicate with today’s college students. These case studies illustrate that students can be reached through analog displays, building an unconscious community between students as a group and students with the library. Community built within the academic library is discussed in light of these analog displays, the current library literature and via sociological positions. It is concluded that although it is thought that students want digital or online communication only, the highest amount of interaction with displays come from the traditional, analog elements

Women, Solidarity & the Global Factory

[Excerpt] For many of us who are concerned with international labor issues, a new image has come to represent our collective understanding of the global economy. It is an image of women in Third World nations toiling under sweatshop conditions in huge assembly plants owned by U.S.-based transnational corporations (TNCs). Yet what does international solidarity really mean in practice? Who does it include, and how? From a U.S. standpoint, if so many women workers are not organized into unions, how can they be included in international networks? If their voices are not heard, what can these networks hope to accomplish? This article explores these questions by looking at the experience of several groups in promoting international communication among women workers in the nonunion sector. It is excerpted from The Global Factory: An Organizing Guide for a New Economic Era. The complete publication, developed by the American Friends Service Committee, surveys the efforts of many different kinds of groups, inside and outside the trade union movement, to build international labor networks

A Preliminary Investigation of the Taxonomic Status of Desmognathus Monticola Jeffersoni

Undergraduate Basi