Reforming public services in the UK:Bringing in the third sector

In the UK, the government continues its project to reform public services. Earlier projects have focused on the modernization of public sector organizations; in the latest round of reform, New Labour has focused on widening choice and the personalization of services. To this end, the government has been working with Third Sector (TS) organizations to expand their role in shaping, commissioning and delivering public services. The government's vision is predicated on a normative assertion, that, unlike traditional public sector organizations, TS bodies create public value by being more innovative, are inspired by altruistic aims and values, and have greater commitment to their clients. This paper reviews recent policy and questions whether the government's policy is flawed, contradictory and risks damaging the attributes of the TS admired by New Labour. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The third sex: Kathoey - Thailand's ladyboys

Review of Totman, R. (2003). The Third Sex: Kathoey – Thailand’s Ladyboys. London: Souvenir Press

The making of an ideology of the third way:the evolution of christian democracy in Germany (with special reference to 1945-49)

This study investigates the search for the third way in the history of German Christian Democracy. Today, in the United Kingdom, the 'third way' is seen as a new phenomenon, a synthesis of post-war belief in the welfare state and neo-liberal conservatism. Yet it insufficiently acknowledges that the origins of third way thinking, the marriage of social justice with free market economics, of individualism with collective responsibility, are found in the early philosophies of Catholic Social Theory and Protestant Social Ethical Teaching in Germany. This study shows that in the hundred years from the 1840s to the end of the 1940s, there were Catholic and Protestant socio-ethical thinkers and political reformists in Germany who attempted to bridge the philosophical differences between liberalism and socialism, to develop a socio-economic order based on Christian moral values. It will focus on the period 1945-1949, when the CDU was founded as the first interdenominational, Christian party. The study provides the first comprehensive account of the political debates in Christian democratic groups in the Soviet, British, French and American allied occupied zones, also giving equal attention to the contribution from the Protestant wing, alongside the more widely acknowledged role of Catholics in the birth of the CDU. It examines how Christian Democrats envisaged correcting the aberrations of German history, by uniting all social classes and Christian religions in one all-embracing Volkspartei, and transforming party politics from its earlier obsession with sectarian and ideological interests towards a more pragmatic 'third way' programme. The study argues that through the making of its ideology, the CDU modified the nation's understanding of its history, re-interpreted its traditions, and redefined the meaning and perception of established political philosophies. This reveals how the ambiguity of political terminology, and the flexible practice of 'third way' politics, were an invaluable political resource in the CDU's campaign for unity, ideological legitimisation and political power.

Parabolic optical pulses under the action of the third-order dispersion

Recent developments in nonlinear optics reveal an interesting class of pulses with a parabolic intensity profile in the energy-containing core and a linear frequency chirp that can propagate in a fiber with normal group-velocity dispersion. Parabolic pulses propagate in a stable selfsimilar manner, holding certain relations (scaling) between pulse power, width, and chirp parameter. In the additional presence of linear amplification, they enjoy the remarkable property of representing a common asymptotic state (or attractor) for arbitrary initial conditions. Analytically, self-similar (SS) parabolic pulses can be found as asymptotic, approximate solutions of the nonlinear Schr¨odinger equation (NLSE) with gain in the semi-classical (largeamplitude/small-dispersion) limit. By analogy with the well-known stable dynamics of solitary waves - solitons, these SS parabolic pulses have come to be known as similaritons. In practical fiber systems, inherent third-order dispersion (TOD) in the fiber always introduces a certain degree of asymmetry in the structure of the propagating pulse, eventually leading to pulse break-up. To date, there is no analytic theory of parabolic pulses under the action of TOD. Here, we develop aWKB perturbation analysis that describes the effect of weak TOD on the parabolic pulse solution of the NLSE in a fiber gain medium. The induced perturbation in phase and amplitude can be found to any order. The theoretical model predicts with sufficient accuracy the pulse structural changes induced by TOD, which are observed through direct numerical NLSE simulations.

Parabolic optical pulses under the action of the third-order dispersion

Recent developments in nonlinear optics reveal an interesting class of pulses with a parabolic intensity profile in the energy-containing core and a linear frequency chirp that can propagate in a fiber with normal group-velocity dispersion. Parabolic pulses propagate in a stable selfsimilar manner, holding certain relations (scaling) between pulse power, width, and chirp parameter. In the additional presence of linear amplification, they enjoy the remarkable property of representing a common asymptotic state (or attractor) for arbitrary initial conditions. Analytically, self-similar (SS) parabolic pulses can be found as asymptotic, approximate solutions of the nonlinear Schr¨odinger equation (NLSE) with gain in the semi-classical (largeamplitude/small-dispersion) limit. By analogy with the well-known stable dynamics of solitary waves - solitons, these SS parabolic pulses have come to be known as similaritons. In practical fiber systems, inherent third-order dispersion (TOD) in the fiber always introduces a certain degree of asymmetry in the structure of the propagating pulse, eventually leading to pulse break-up. To date, there is no analytic theory of parabolic pulses under the action of TOD. Here, we develop aWKB perturbation analysis that describes the effect of weak TOD on the parabolic pulse solution of the NLSE in a fiber gain medium. The induced perturbation in phase and amplitude can be found to any order. The theoretical model predicts with sufficient accuracy the pulse structural changes induced by TOD, which are observed through direct numerical NLSE simulations.

Evaluating the use of IT by the third party logistics in South East Asia to achieve competitive advantage and its future trend

As the number of using 3PL providers are increasing rapidly in recent years, 3PL providers play a major role in the logistics industry. Due to customers demands are raising and changing, it has facilitated 3PL providers to invest IT systems that could meet customer requirements and create competitive advantage. The use of IT systems could assist 3PL providers to achieve supply chain visibility and enhance supply chain collaboration with business partners. In this paper, it is mainly focus on the Europe and Far East 3PL providers in terms of current and future IT systems, IT motivators and barriers, as well as the future supply chain demands that address by IT systems. The common IT system that implemented in both regions is information technology, which is mainly used to collaborate and share information with supply chain partners. Some of the common motivations and barriers were existed and 3PL providers need to be understood. Given the future demands of IT implementation and supply chain collaboration, IT systems such as RFID and integration systems would be strongly focus in the future. The suggestion about the advanced integration system such as business process management (BPM) could be the next key IT systems in the future logistics industry. © 2012 AICIT.

Divided care and the Third Way:user involvement in statutory and voluntary sector cancer services

In health care, as in much of the public sphere, the voluntary sector is playing an increasingly large role in the funding, provision and delivery of services and nowhere is this more apparent than in cancer care. Simultaneously the growth of privatisation, marketisation and consumerism has engendered a rise in the promotion of 'user involvement' in health care. These changes in the organisation and delivery of health care, in part inspired by the 'Third Way' and the promotion of public and citizen participation, are particularly apparent in the British National Health Service. This paper presents initial findings from a three-year study of user involvement in cancer services. Using both case study and survey data, we explore the variation in the definition, aims, usefulness and mechanisms for involving users in the evaluation and development of cancer services across three Health Authorities in South West England. The findings have important implications for understanding shifts in power, autonomy and responsibility between patients, carers, clinicians and health service managers. The absence of any common definition of user involvement or its purpose underlines the limited trust between the different actors in the system and highlights the potentially negative impact of a Third Way health service.

Building bridges: the third sector responding locally to diversity

This paper focuses on a hitherto unstudied segment of the broad 'third sector': organisations and groupings that aim to build bridges (that is, increase interpersonal contacts) between people of different faiths and/or ethnic groups. We draw on the findings of an empirical study, conducted in three diverse urban areas of England, of community-level projects with bridge building as an explicit aim. We describe the characteristics of bridge-building activities and the challenges they face; both the organisational challenges and those that arise from the nature of bridge building itself. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for an understanding of the third sector generally and for the potential role of the sector in responding to our diverse society.

Enjoying the third age! Discourse, identity and liminality in extra-care communities

Extra-care housing has been an important and growing element of housing and care for older people in the United Kingdom since the 1990s. Previous studies have examined specific features and programmes within extra-care locations, but few have studied how residents negotiate social life and identity. Those that have, have noted that while extra care brings many health-related and social benefits, extra-care communities can also be difficult affective terrain. Given that many residents are now ‘ageing in place’ in extra care, it is timely to revisit these questions of identity and affect. Here we draw on the qualitative element of a three-year, mixed-method study of 14 extra-care villages and schemes run by the ExtraCare Charitable Trust. We follow Alemàn in regarding residents' ambivalent accounts of life in ExtraCare as important windows on the way in which liminal residents negotiate the dialectics of dependence and independence. However, we suggest that the dialectic of interest here is that of the third and fourth age, as described by Gilleard and Higgs. We set that dialectic within a post-structuralist/Lacanian framework in order to examine the different modes of enjoyment that liminal residents procure in ExtraCare's third age public spaces and ideals, and suggest that their complaints can be read in three ways: as statements about altered material conditions; as inter-subjective bolstering of group identity; and as fantasmatic support for liminal identities. Finally, we examine the implications that this latter psycho-social reading of residents' complaints has for enhancing and supporting residents' wellbeing.

The role of third party logistics providers (3PLs) in the adoption of green supply chain initiatives

The increasing importance of environmental sustainability has sharpened the focus on the need for innovative approaches to the purchasing of transport and logistics services. This article points out some of the challenges that purchasers of transport and logistics services, as well as their suppliers in the third party logistics (3PL) industry, are facing. These include the need for closer collaboration between 3PLs and their customers, as well as developing systems for the robust assessment of the environmental sustainability of services. The article is based on several years’ research experience in Ireland, Italy and Sweden.