The Perils of Privatization: Bringing the Business Model into Human Services

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-224
Author(s):  
Jennifer R Zelnick ◽  
Mimi Abramovitz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Human Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Programs ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Business Principles ◽  
Human Services Organizations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract During the last three decades in both the United States and Europe, neoliberal policies, especially privatization, have restructured services in ways that dramatically affect the capacity of human services workers and agencies to serve all clients. Privatization means not only transforming public programs such as Social Security, but also managerialism—the incorporation of business principles, methods, and goals into public and nonprofit human services organizations. Few researchers have looked at the impact of market-based managerialism (focused on productivity, accountability, efficiency, and standardization) on social work’s mission and the effectiveness of human services workers and organizations. Using an anonymous survey of 3,000 New York City human services workers, authors examined the impact of managerialist practices including performance measures, quantifiable short-term outcomes, and routinized practices on frontline workers and service provision. A troubling trend emerged. Workers in agencies with a high commitment to managerialism found it considerably more difficult to adhere to social work’s mission and fundamental values. This conflict between the “logic of the market” and the “logic of social work” subsided dramatically in agencies with a low commitment to managerialism, indicating that even in today’s competitive environment, agencies can protect the social work mission.

scholarly journals Economic Effects on Million Dollar Giving

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Una O. Osili ◽  
Jacqueline Ackerman ◽  
Yannan Li
Keyword(s):  
Human Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
Corporate Giving ◽  
Human Services Organizations ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of economic conditions on the number of charitable gifts of 1 million dollars or more within the United States using the Million Dollar List (MDL) data set. We investigate key donor types—individuals, corporations, and foundations—using quarterly data. Results indicate that individual donors are significantly responsive to underlying economic conditions, foundation giving tends to be countercyclical, and corporate giving is less closely linked with aggregate macroeconomic conditions. We also find that economic conditions vary in their influence on million dollar giving to subsectors, and gifts to public benefit and human services organizations increase significantly during periods of recession, holding other factors constant. In contrast, million dollar giving to arts and education organizations is significantly associated with favorable economic conditions, holding other factors constant. Findings have direct implications for philanthropists, fundraisers, and policy makers as they seek to understand how economic conditions affect large gifts.

The Settlement House Movement Revisited

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Settlement House ◽  
Settlement Houses ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

The Settlement House Movement is perceived as a major influence on the emergence of the social work profession globally. Yet, historical research on this movement in social work, and in particular, the transnational translation of this idea, is very limited. This volume sheds new light on the establishment of settlement houses in diverse societies, the interface between this Movement and other social movements, and the impact that it had on the social work profession, its values, practices and research. The chapters in the book explore the settlement house phenomenon in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Canada, France, Portugal and Mandatory Palestine and the individuals and groups that played a major role in their establishment. They underscore both the ways in which the international Settlement House Movement developed, the commonalities between settlement houses across the globe, and also the differences that emerged between them. In particular, it seeks to highlight the various motivations and sources of belief and knowledge of settlement founders, the goals that they sought, the contexts in which they worked, the activities they undertook and the populations which they served. The critical and transnational historical perspective adopted by the authors of the case studies in the path-breaking book provides the reader with a more subtle understanding of the complexities of the Settlement House Movement and its impact on the social work profession.

Cross-space Consumption among Undocumented Chinese Immigrants in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhou ◽  
Xiangyi Li
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Currency Exchange ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Migrants

We consider cross-space consumption as a form of transnational practice among international migrants. In this paper, we develop the idea of the social value of consumption and use it to explain this particular form of transnationalism. We consider the act of consumption to have not only functional value that satisfies material needs but also a set of nonfunctional values, social value included, that confer symbolic meanings and social status. We argue that cross-space consumption enables international migrants to take advantage of differences in economic development, currency exchange rates, and social structures between countries of destination and origin to maximize their expression of social status and to perform or regain social status. Drawing on a multisited ethnographic study of consumption patterns in migrant hometowns in Fuzhou, China, and in-depth interviews with undocumented Chinese immigrants in New York and their left-behind family members, we find that, despite the vulnerabilities and precarious circumstances associated with the lack of citizenship rights in the host society, undocumented immigrants manage to realize the social value of consumption across national borders and do so through conspicuous consumption, reciprocal consumption, and vicarious consumption in their hometowns even without being physically present there. We conclude that, while cross-space consumption benefits individual migrants, left-behind families, and their hometowns, it serves to revive tradition in ways that fuel extravagant rituals, drive up costs of living, reinforce existing social inequality, and create pressure for continual emigration.

scholarly journals The Myth of King Kong and the Religious Background That Nests in the Human Soul

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Juan Antonio Roche Cárcel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tribal Society ◽  
The Impact

The four most important King Kong films (1933, 1976, 2005, and 2017) contain religious sentiments that are related to the numinous and mysterious fear of Nature and death that gives meaning to life, and to the institutionalization of society. In this way, as observed in the films, the Society originated by religion is a construction against Nature and Death. Based on these hypotheses, the objective of this work is to (a) show that the social structure of the tribal society that lives on Skull Island is reinforced by the religious feelings that they profess towards the Kong divinity, and (b) reveal the impact that the observation of the generalized alterity that characterizes the isolated tribal society of the island produces on Western visitors—and therefore, on film viewers. The article concludes that the return to New York, after the trip, brings an unexpected guest: the barbarism that is installed in the heart of civilization; that the existing order is reinforced and the society in crisis is renovated; and that the rationality subject to commercial purposes that characterizes modernity has not been able to escape from the religiosity that nests in the depths of the human soul.

Do Stock Markets Catch the Flu?

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 979-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. McTier ◽  
Yiuman Tse ◽  
John K. Wald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Stock Markets ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trading Activity ◽  
Market Makers ◽  
International Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Bid Ask Spreads

AbstractWe examine the impact of influenza on stock markets. For the United States, a higher incidence of flu is associated with decreased trading, decreased volatility, decreased returns, and higher bid-ask spreads. Consistent with the flu affecting institutional investors and market makers, the decrease in trading activity and volatility is primarily driven by the incidence of influenza in the greater New York City area. However, the effect of the flu on bid-ask spreads and returns is related to the incidence of flu nationally. International data confirm our findings of a decrease in trading activity and returns when flu incidence is high.

Alcohol Problem Prevention: A “Common Sense” Approach

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-393
Author(s):  
Selden D. Bacon
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Direct Methods ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Alcohol Related Problems ◽  
Social Science Approach

In view of the low likelihood of the acceptance of the social science approach to alcohol problems proposed several years ago, a “common sense” approach is suggested as an alternative. Several assumptions guide this proposal, the principal one being the absence of any significant progress in the reduction of alcohol problems in the United States over the past 200 years. By the development of a common vocabulary and direct methods of observation and data collection, the “common sense” approach would provide for identifying the strengths of the multitude of past and current efforts in dealing with alcohol problems in terms of both intervention and prevention. The guiding criterion in such an approach would be the impact on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems, the definition of which would be a major task of the research.

Impacts of Liberation Pedagogy: The Case of Workers' Education

1983 ◽  
Vol 165 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hakken
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antonio Gramsci ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Worker Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberation Pedagogy ◽  
The Impact

Some perspectives with which to evaluate the impact of the pedagogy of liberation on worker education programs in England and the United States are suggested. The pedagogy of liberation is often associated with the work of Paulo Freire and occasionally with that of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. After some initial discussion of the nature of liberation pedagogy, the problems involved in assessing its effectiveness, are discussed in reference to specific worker education programs in England and the United States. The analysis of workers' education involves discussion of the pedagogy which informs particular programs and the social psychological dilemmas which often face the worker/students involved in workers' education. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research on workers' education for liberation pedagogy.

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