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Women’s Work and Land Reform in Zimbabwe: A Feminist Political Economy of Social Reproduction
59-80Views:179While the future of work in Africa is increasingly becoming an important area of research, a feminist political economy of social reproduction holds potential to illuminate the gendered and geographical nature of women’s work in a context of radical land reform. Time-use surveys data was gathered across three study areas, two land reform and one non-land reform sites. This was complemented with in-depth and focus group discussions in the land reform sites with participants drawn from participating female and male-headed households. While literature on women’s work is accumulating, this has not been extended to integrate a feminist social reproductive lens on African rural women’s work in a context of land reform. The none or malrecognition of social reproduction by the State makes the latter an agent of depletion – a gendered form of structural and everyday violence on women. While liberating, radical land reforms, of their own, do not necessarily improve the care burden of women. This is compounded by the debt crisis crippling many countries of the global South.
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Parents’ school volunteering in the interpretation of teachers in a disadvantaged region of Hungary
28-48Views:348In the international literature, there are many studies dealing with the voluntary work of parents at school, but there is little research on this in Hungary. In our study, we examine the volunteering of parents through the interpretation of teachers in three disadvantaged counties of Hungary, using a qualitative interview method. The research population was the teachers of primary and secondary schools, and the interviewed teachers were selected by multi-stage, stratified sampling. We included 38 interviews in the analysis, in which the voluntary work of the parents appeared. The interviews were analysed by manual and machine hybrid coding. According to our results, teachers also considered participation on request or under pressure as volunteering. “Real” volunteering is hardly present, and parents are less likely to initiate assistance on their own. Parents are typically occasional volunteers, and mostly the members of the parents’ work community participate in regular volunteer work. According to the teachers, the voluntary work of parents is indispensable in the life of the school, so in our opinion it would be important to promote it and to motivate parents to participate more in school life.
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The role of a children group for the participant, underprivileged children in the family care system 1995–2005
113-135Views:209The aim of this paper is to analyse the methods and effects of a children group, which existed
from 1995 till 2005. The relevance of this group is, that the beginning of this period preludes the
constitution of the Hungarian child protection law. After the transmission period the emerging
social service system provided (or at least tried) supports and services. Those families whose
children were involved in this child group were dealing with unemployment, poverty, lack of
proper housing, abuse, deviance and addictions. The significance of this group that the given
service was easily ductile to the needs of the children and families. -
On the margin of child protection: Negative life events impact on the adolescents and youth health behavior
80-108Views:365The paper studies how negative life events affect risk behaviour of children and young people. Calculations on the database of the ‘Hungarian youth 2012’ research suggest that negative life events are strong predictors of different types of risk behaviour like alcohol, drug abuse and suicide. According to the data people who have experienced several and more serious negative life events, more likely refuse and turn away from the norms of the adult society than those whose life proves to be less stressful. To place these results into child protection context, the study calls attention to the fact that the Hungarian child protection system does not treat each group in the fragmented society equally, although, on the basis of the incidence of threat it should. Another important message of this paper is to highlight that in addition to scientific values large-scale sociological research studies have professional and practical values as well. To support it, from the questions of the well-known Holmes-Rahe scale the authors re-developed an exploration scale (Reduced Life Events Scale). The application of the Reduced Life Event Scale (or the original Holmes-Rahe scale) allows experts to focus more on the studied issues in the process of planning services, prevention and case work. The tool might propose solutions to use the insufficient resources in a more targeted way.
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Investigation of working conditions and risk factors for burnout of social and pedagogical professionals
3-29Views:508The study scrutinizes the relationship between professional working conditions and burnout among Hungarian social and pedagogical professionals. Despite the fact that burnout and occupational well-being have been extensively researched abroad among professional helpers – primarily health care workers –, no quantitative survey has been conducted in Hungary so far in the target group we examined. Another added value of our study is that, besides work and organizational factors revealed by previous burnout studies, it points to the role of client- and fieldwork-related difficulties in the prevalence of burnout symptoms. In our exploratory, crosssectional survey, 261 social and pedagogical specialists participated from Baranya County. Our results suggest that job and task matching problems, and difficulties related to the fieldwork and clients lead to emotional exhaustion of professionals and decreased work efficiency. Deficiencies related to work motivation cause loss of efficiency as well. The results also indicate that out of the three occupational groups involved in the research, professionals working in the field of child protection are most at risk for emotional exhaustion, and the symptom of depersonalization is most relevant to child protection and family and child welfare workers. In addition, we have shown that longer professional experience can be considered a protective factor in burnout symptoms. Our results can make an important contribution to the establishment of individual and organizational level training, support, development, monitoring and evaluation programs and/or policy-level guidelines and interventions that can improve the working conditions of professionals and reduce their risk of emotional, mental and physical strain.
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Types of fathers’ home-based and school-based involvement based on an interview study
119-139Views:373In this study, we examine fathers’ home-based and school-based involvement to assist the development and achievement of their children. The international literature suggests that fathers are less involved than mothers, and the form of their involvement is also different. However, their home-based and school-based involvement has been shown to have similar positive effects on children’s educational outcomes. We examine the forms of parental involvement based on the typology created by Epstein and Sanders. In our empirical work, we conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with fathers with young children and aimed to delineate father types based on the forms of involvement by conducting a classification of the interviews. Our results show that the first group of fathers are only involved at home; they do not participate in school-related events with their child but report being actively involved in their child’s education and school-related activities at home. Fathers in the second group, on the other hand, are involved not only at home but also in school life. The third type is made up of divorced fathers who, with one exception, are involved at school and at home, which is consistent with the findings in the literature on single fathers with children. In this study, we also attempt to answer the question of how to increase fathers’ school-based involvement. According to the interviewees’ answers, their activity could be encouraged through support from their wife, greater self-confidence, and events organised by schools which are more suited to fathers (sports events, cooking together).
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Changes in family decision-making and division of labor among weekly families
148-165Views:369The study deals with the transformation of decisions and division of labor within the family by
processing the results of a qualitative, interviewed study of the target group of weekly workers.
The study shows how decisions are restructured according to roles within the family and how
the roles of women and men change as a result of the regular absence of one family member.
From the point of view of the approach to domestic work, the differences between weekdays and
weekends, which can be considered as a consequence of weekend, come to the fore. In the course
of the analysis, we examined whether there was a change in the decision-making processes
within the family as a result of the weekly (and if so, what areas were affected by the change)
and whether there was a radical change in the division of family responsibilities as a result of the
weekend. I present the results on the basis of two dimensions, on the one hand, of the phenomena
of disposition and decision-making over income, and, on the other hand, of the division of family
responsibilities and problem-solving. -
Drawn Commuters: Caricature as a visual historical resource
125-150Views:230Despite of the fact that during the time of state socialism commuters meant a continuously
growing social group both in proportion and in size, writing about their social history has
been pushed into the background so far. The author’s aim is to fill this gap by trying to discover
the most of the available sources of different genres. The present study shows part of this
larger volume work, it shows what it can add to our knowledge about a social group through
traditional sources if we include caricatures of a given social group as visual historical sources
in the analysis.
In this paper, the author analyses sixteen caricatures of commuters, published in “Ludas
Matyi,” comparing written and audio visual sources. In the study, she tries, among other things,
to find out if there was a definite commuter picture of “Ludas Matyi”, and if so, to what extent
did this commuter’s image differ from that of other products in the press? To what extent did the
satirical portrayal of commuters refer to long-distance commuters and to what extent to daily
commuters? Were the real anomalies of commuting in the era reflected in Ludas Matyi?
The analysis discusses the economic and social processes that characterize the time of
publishing the caricatures, and denominates the external and internal characteristics and
emotions commuters were endowed with.The aim of the author is to present the method of
caricature analysis, which emphasizes the comparability of resources. -
„Promise is a nice word, but is it good if we keep it” – A review of the literature on programs designed to develop social skills of disadvantaged children
135-160Views:113Childhood social-emotional development lays the foundation for an individual’s life path. A significant proportion of disadvantaged children born into low-status families have deficits in their abilities. According to the disadvantage compensation approach, the gap can be reduced, and even desirable behaviors can be successfully taught in any community (class, peer group, parents, adults, etc.) with the help of professional experts. In our study, we undertake to provide an overview of disadvantage compensation programs developed for school-age children and younger children, based on international and domestic literature, with the aim of strengthening social competencies. In addition to presenting good examples, our goal is to create a complex and critical picture of programs aimed at developing social competencies, especially domestic programs, based on a qualitative evaluation criteria system, which may be useful in the future for professional efforts aimed at helping and developing disadvantage compensation. The ideas of international and domestic education researchers about good practices show many similarities. We believe that both in the domestic and international arenas there is enough good practice, methodological guidelines, training that strengthens self-awareness and responsibility, and theoretical foundations that can inspire experts (teachers, helpers, parents, civilians, etc.) in effective and enjoyable development activities. However, success can only be ensured through continuous and controlled pedagogical and social support work, impact monitoring, and program review. With detailed knowledge of the situation in Hungary, it can be said that disadvantage compensation is practically competing with falling behind. In lucky cases, the distance between groups, the extent and speed of falling behind can be reduced. The difficulties are exacerbated by the lack of a sufficient number of qualified human resources for catch-up programs, and the development of tools and buildings is uneven and, above all, not continuous. The limitations of the effectiveness of disadvantage compensation cannot therefore be found in the quality of the programs developed on the appropriate conceptual background, but in fundamentally structural reasons. In our article, we critically analyze the domestic and international efforts of the past two decades and draw attention to successful solutions and opportunities for further development.
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Where do young villagers work? Types of social bonds and occupational characters of young generations living in small villages
55-85.Views:323One of the defining elements of local identity is the opportunity to work and the chance ofear- ning money. These factors are especially important in small villages within low-populated rural areas, where due to changes in the production structure and land ownership job opportunities become less and less. In the absence of livelihood opportunities and adequate income for young people living in the countryside, the migration process is intensifying, the villages are aging and become more and more depopulated. A smaller part of young villagers however remain in the settlement, with new marginalized settlers from urban areas, who appear alongside them.
Our case study, based on 104 interviews in 12 settlements, seeks to find whether young peop- le – aged 19–25 – look at village life as a constraint or an opportunity. The central question is whether they think that this marginal status, with an assumingly cheap village life, is the only choice for them, or they are convinced that they are staying in small villages due to their cons- cious choice in favour of a rural lifestyle.
Focusing on employment strategies, the aim of this paper is to look at the dimensions of local attachment of the target group, and to show the various labour market characteristics of the target groupthat develops within the given framework.
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Help professionals in schools and in local communities, with a particular focus on mental health
161-185Views:211This study was conducted as part of a larger research project aimed at gaining a detailed understanding of rural elementary schools in disadvantaged areas and their environment to formulate recommendations for their development. This paper summarizes international and Hungarian literature that presents the work and methods of professionals working in small settlements, as well as programs targeting disadvantaged children and young people living there, with a particular focus on mental health and school inclusion. The target group belongs to the most vulnerable in society, as they have to face complex problems at a very early age. With this in mind, we have divided the study into two main sections. In the first part, we emphasize the power of community cooperation in and outside of school, presenting practices on both national and international level. In the second section, we present a specific problem that strongly affects the target group, namely alcoholism and substance abuse, and its impact on children’s lives and mental health. The main conclusion of the study is that if we want to improve their living conditions, school performance, and mental health, we need complex, multi-professional cooperation and intervention as early as possible.
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Leadership challenges in virtual environment: The importance of the synergism in ICT toolset and leadership development
27-48.Views:241The companies connected to the global value chain inevitably and necessarily apply virtualized
solutions in their work organization. As such, the appropriate implementation of the shoring
strategies, the increasing competition and the supply-demand imbalance on the local market of
the high-skilled workers, all puts the existing organizational and leadership practices to the test.
The article aims to highlight the main challenges the virtual team leaders (VTL) are facing and
some best practices that might widen the toolset of the modern VTL. The results are based on a
case study of a multinational info-communication technology (ICT) service company in which
experienced managers and leaders shared their strategies. The main takeaways of the empirical
research are (i) the emphasis on the “early-adopter” behavior and the proper usage of the latest
technology in the communication, (ii) the importance of the ability of building trust and setting
common goals; (iii) despite that everyone is perfectly connected via the internet, the regular
personal presence is still the most powerful leadership tool.
