The Social Enterprise as an Alternative Work Option for Persons with Developmental Disabilities: A Case Study of Staff Perspectives at Common Ground Co-operative

Traditional employment options for persons with developmental disabilities are lacking. Employment options available for persons with developmental disabilities are reflective of the medical and social model perspectives of disability; with segregated and supported employment reinforcing the idea that persons with developmental disabilities are incapable and competitive employment missing the necessary accommodations for persons to be successful. This study examined social enterprises as an alternative employment option that can balance both medical and social model perspectives by accommodating for weaknesses or limitations and recognizing the strengths and capabilities of persons with developmental disabilities in the workplace. Moreover, this study is part of a broader case study which is examining the nature and impacts of a social enterprise, known as Common Ground Co-operative (CGC), which supports five social purpose businesses that are owned and operated by persons with developmental disabilities. This study is part of the Social Business and Marginalized Social Groups Community-University Research Alliance. To date, a case study has been written describing the nature and impacts of CGC and its related businesses from the perspectives of the Partners, board members, funders and staff (Owen, Readhead, Bishop, Hope & Campbell, in press & Readhead, 2012). The current study used a descriptive case study approach to provide a detailed account of the perceptions and opinions of CGC staff members who support each of the Partners in the five related businesses. Staff members were chosen for the focus of this study because of the integral role that they play in the successful outcomes of the persons they support. This study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase five staff members were interviewed. During this stage of interviews, several themes were presented which needed to be examined in further detail, specifically staff stress and burnout and duty of care for business Partners versus the promotion of their autonomy. A second phase of interviews was then conducted with one individual participant and a focus group of seven. During both interview phases, Staff participants described an employment model that creates a non-judgemental environment for the business Partners that promotes their strengths, accommodates for their limitations, provides educational opportunities and places the responsibility for the businesses on the persons with developmental disabilities cultivating equality and promoting independence. Staff described the nature of their role including risk factors for stress, the protective factors that buffer stress, and the challenges associated with balancing many role demands. Issues related to the replication of this social enterprise model are described.

Educational Qualification Without Suitable Employment: Exploring Immigrant Engineers' Personal Narratives

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of immigrant professional engineers in Canada, 81% of whom are unable to secure employment in their field despite arriving under the auspices of the Canadian government’s skilled workers program. The study sought to identify factors that impede such qualified engineers’ opportunities within the Canadian job market. Because global economic competition demands that qualified professionals contribute to technological innovation, Canada must develop transitional programs that acknowledge credentials and prior work experience in order to address the underutilization of these qualified professionals and allow immigrant engineers to gain employment within their field. To this end, the study examined personal narratives of immigrant engineers who have experienced unemployment despite high levels of educational attainment, and circumstances that contribute to immigrant engineers’ unemployed status. The paper presents a discussion and recommendations for future research in the area of qualification without suitable employment.  

Living in the Skin That I Am: An Organizational Autoethnography of an Adult Educator's Plight to Survive the Stigma of Invisible and Episodic Disability in an Academy of Administritiva

Through the reflective lens of an adult educator with invisible and episodic disabilities, this paper has been written as an organizational autoethnography. Through a process of autoethnographical sensemaking, it is intended to illuminate important gaps in organizational theory. Feminist/relational care ethics, critical reflection, and transformative learning serve as the educational theories that comprise its framework. In telling my story, embodied writing and performance narrative are used to convey the felt existence of a body exposed through words—where my “abled” and “disabled” professional teaching and learning identities may be studied against the backdrop of organizational policies and procedures. Words used to describe unfamiliar experiences and situations shape meaning for which new meaning may emerge. At the conclusion of this paper, an alternative frame of reference—a view from the margins—may be offered to articulate authenticity in the expectancy of workplace equity for adult educators with disabilities. Taken collectively on a larger level, it is hoped that this research may provide a source of inspiration for systemic organizational change in adult learning environments.

Explaining legal norm transmission using an epidemiological model : the case of employment drug testing

Dans cette thèse, nous construisons un modèle épidémiologique de la dissémina- tion de normes juridiques. L’objectif est d’expliquer la transmission de normes juridiques américaines régissant les tests de dépistages pour drogues au travail vers le Canada ainsi que la propagation subséquente de ces normes à travers la jurisprudence canadienne. La propagation des normes régissant les tests de dépistages pour drogues au travail sert donc à la fois de point de départ pour une réflexion théorique sur la transmission de normes juridiques et pour une étude de cas empirique. Nous partons de la prémisse que les explications du changement juridique, telles celle de la transplantation et celle de l’harmonisation, sont essentiellement métaphoriques. Ces métaphores explicatives fonctionnent en invitant des comparaisons entre les domaines connus et inconnus. Quand ce processus de comparaison est systématisé, la métaphore devient un modèle. Dans la thèse, nous appliquons cette procédure de systématisation afin de transformer la métaphore de la propagation virale en modèle épidémiologique. Après une revue de la littérature sur les épidémies sociales, nous décrivons les éléments pertinents de la théorie épidémiologique pour, ensuite, les transposer au domaine juridique. Le modèle est alors opérationnalisé en l’appliquant à une base de données composée de la jurisprudence pertinente (n=187). Les résultats soutiennent les hypothèses du modèle. 90 % des décisions qui citent les sources américaines sont infectées selon les critères du modèle, alors que seulement 64 % des décisions qui ne citent pas de sources américaines sont infectées. Cela soutient l’hypothèse d’une épidémie dite de « réservoir commun ». Nous avons également démontré une corrélation positive entre la référence à ces décisions et l’état d’infection! : 87 % des décisions qui citent des décisions qui réfèrent aux sources américaines sont infectées, alors que le taux d’infection parmi la population restante est de seulement 53 %. Les résultats semblables ont été obtenus pour les décisions de troisième génération. Cela soutient l’hypothèse selon laquelle il y a eu propagation à travers la jurisprudence suite aux contacts initiaux avec le réservoir commun. Des corrélations positives ont aussi été démontrées entre l’état d’infection et l’appartenance à l’une ou l’autre de sous-populations particulières qui seraient, par hypothèse, des points d’infection. En conclusion de la thèse, nous avançons que c’est seulement après avoir construit un modèle et d’avoir constaté ses limites que nous pouvons vraiment comprendre le rôle des métaphores et des modèles dans l’explication de phénomènes juridiques.

Diversification In Employment Structure And Status Of Rural Women Workers In Ernakulam District

The basic objective of the present study has been to observe the process and pattern of employment diversification among the rural women workers in Ernakulam district. The evidences are that the women workers in the rural areas of the state are being increasingly diversified into the tertiary sector. The clear cut evidence for the fact that in Kerala non-agricultural employment of rural women is increasing with more and more of them getting diversified into the tertiary sector. The women get more self esteem and recognition in terms of the work being done by them. In the urban areas of the state as a poverty eradicating measure the Kerala government has already introduced a new scheme under the banner of Kudumbasree. Another fact noticed in the study that the sectoral shift of women workers has posed a grave problem to the agricultural sector. The reluctance of workers to do manual jobs on land and the prevalence of high wages among the agricultural labours has left many a cultivable area fallow or has induced farmers to shift to less labour –intensive crops. The situation is expected to worsen in future as even the high wages fail to attract the young generation to this sector. To conclude the study has fulfilled all its objectives, viz; highlighting the rural employment structure in Kerala, examining the process, pattern, determinants and consequences of diversification among rural women workers in the sample villages. Being the first of its kind at the micro level in the state it contributes to the available literature in the area enriching the database that is crucially lacking for devising projects at the village and block-level. There exists ample scope for future research of similar nature in an urban background where the secondary data-sources are hinding towards a reversal of trends from non-agriculture to agriculture.

Study on Microcredit in Kerala with Special Reference to Employment and Income Generation through Microenterprises and Livelihood Projects

This study aimed to study the evolution and substance of microfinance as a major tool for combating poverty at the global and national level. The development of micro finance in Kerala is briefly discussed. It also indicates the importance and role of microcredit in bringing the poor up in the society through entrepreneurial initiatives. The current trends in the field are also discussed, leading to the need of the present research.

Employment and Income of Workers on Indonesian Oil Palm Plantations: Food Crisis at the Micro Level

The importance of oil palm sector for Indonesia is inevitable as the country currently serves as the world’s largest producer of crude palm oil. This paper focuses on the situation of workers on Indonesian oil palm plantations. It attempts to investigate whether the remarkable development of the sector is followed by employment opportunities and income generation for workers. This question is posed within the theoretical framework on the link between trade liberalisation and labour rights, particularly in a labour-intensive and low-skilled sector. Based on extensive field research in Riau, this paper confirms that despite the rapid development of the oil palm plantation sector in Indonesia, the situations of workers in the sector remain deplorable, particularly their employment status and income. This also attests that trade liberalisation in the sector adversely affects labour rights. The poor working conditions also have ramifications for food security at the micro level.

The allometry of non-employment. What can compositional data analysis tell us about labour market performance across the UK's regions?

The low levels of unemployment recorded in the UK in recent years are widely cited as evidence of the country’s improved economic performance, and the apparent convergence of unemployment rates across the country’s regions used to suggest that the longstanding divide in living standards between the relatively prosperous ‘south’ and the more depressed ‘north’ has been substantially narrowed. Dissenters from these conclusions have drawn attention to the greatly increased extent of non-employment (around a quarter of the UK’s working age population are not in employment) and the marked regional dimension in its distribution across the country. Amongst these dissenters it is generally agreed that non-employment is concentrated amongst older males previously employed in the now very much smaller ‘heavy’ industries (e.g. coal, steel, shipbuilding). This paper uses the tools of compositiona l data analysis to provide a much richer picture of non-employment and one which challenges the conventional analysis wisdom about UK labour market performance as well as the dissenters view of the nature of the problem. It is shown that, associated with the striking ‘north/south’ divide in nonemployment rates, there is a statistically significant relationship between the size of the non-employment rate and the composition of non-employment. Specifically, it is shown that the share of unemployment in non-employment is negatively correlated with the overall non-employment rate: in regions where the non-employment rate is high the share of unemployment is relatively low. So the unemployment rate is not a very reliable indicator of regional disparities in labour market performance. Even more importantly from a policy viewpoint, a significant positive relationship is found between the size of the non-employment rate and the share of those not employed through reason of sickness or disability and it seems (contrary to the dissenters) that this connection is just as strong for women as it is for men

SIDUR: development of an information system, using controlled vocabulary designed to the characterization and sample of population with and without disability, attended by Rehabilitation programs, University of Rosario

Introduction: the statistical record used in the Field Academic Programs (PAC for it’s initials in Spanish) of Rehabilitation denotes generalities in the data conceptualization, which complicates the reliable guidance in making decisions and provides a low support for research in rehabilitation and disability. In response, the Research Group in Rehabilitation and Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities has worked on the creation of a registry to characterize the population seen by Rehabilitation PAC. This registry includes the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the WHO. Methodology: the proposed methodology includes two phases: the first one is a descriptive study and the second one involves performing methodology Methontology, which integrates the identification and development of ontology knowledge. This article contextualizes the progress made in the second phase. Results: the development of the registry in 2008, as an information system, included documentary review and the analysis of possible use scenarios to help guide the design and development of the SIDUR system. The system uses the ICF given that it is a terminology standardization that allows the reduction of ambiguity and that makes easier the transformation of health facts into data translatable to information systems. The record raises three categories and a total of 129 variables Conclusions: SIDUR facilitates accessibility to accurate and updated information, useful for decision making and research.

Medidas de bienestar en empleados: análisis de los estudios realizados entre 2002 y 2012 desde la noción de organización saludable

Actualmente se considera que las organizaciones con resultados positivos y rendimientos crecientes tienen aspectos y características particulares que las diferencian de aquellas organizaciones que no obtienen los mejores resultados en el mercado. Para que las organizaciones sean saludables deben garantizar el bienestar del empleado y comprometerse con el mejoramiento continuo del mismo. Es así como surgen las escalas de medidas de bienestar, las cuales contribuyen directamente al bienestar del empleado y sus resultados positivos dentro de la organización. Este estudio hace referencia a las medidas de bienestar más utilizadas en un periodo de diez años (2002-2012), con el propósito de establecer la relación entre las medidas de bienestar, el bienestar de los empleados y las organizaciones saludables. Para determinar dicha relación, se llevó a cabo un análisis detallado de los estudios realizados sobre las escalas de medidas de bienestar utilizadas durante el periodo de tiempo 2002 y 2012. Los resultados arrojados señalan que las medidas de bienestar más utilizadas durante este periodo son: Satisfacción laboral, Clima organizacional, Engagement y Calidad de vida laboral, mientras que las cuatro medidas de bienestar menos utilizadas son: Remuneración y Bienestar subjetivo.

Embodying and destabilising disability and childhood

Young people's bodies have been at the centre of much policy and media discourse of late, forming the focal point of moral panics about obesity, substance abuse, and anti-social behaviour, to name just a few. Political responses to these issues are often focused on finding 'pragmatic' solutions based on a normative understanding of child development. This book, instead, demonstrates the contested and differentiated nature of childhood and youth embodiment. It combines the critical analysis of imagined and disciplined youthful bodies with a focus on young people's lived and performed, embodied subjectivities. Contested Bodies of Childhood and Youth points towards ways of addressing the issues that affect young people's wellbeing without criminalising and stigmatising them. It presents cutting edge interdisciplinary research in an accessible style that seeks to bridge the divide between theory and practice in research.

Heritage property, tourism and the UK Disability Discrimination Act

Heritage tourism depends on a physical resource based primarily on listed buildings and scheduled monuments. Visiting or staying in a historic building provides a rich tourism experience, but historic environments date from eras when access for disabled people was not a consideration. Current UK Government policy now promotes social inclusion via an array of equal opportunities, widening participation and anti-discrimination policies. Historic environments enjoy considerable legislative protection from adverse change, but now need to balance conservation with public access for all. This paper discusses the basis of research being undertaken by The College of Estate Management funded by the Mercers Company of London and the Harold Samuel Trust. It assesses how the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act has changed the legal obligations of owners/operators in managing access to listed buildings in tourism use. It also examines the key stakeholders and power structures in the management of historic buildings and distinguishes other important players in the management process.

Special Issue on Virtual Reality Technologies for Disability and Rehabilitation

The papers presented in this issue provide a glimpse of the International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (ICDVRAT) research community, illustrating advances in virtual reality and associated technologies facilitating interaction in physical and digital environments for individuals and practitioners in disability and rehabilitation. We hope that you will find this issue of interest and recommend this journal and use it to communicate this research to a broader public.

Factors influencing adoption of improved grassland management by small-scale dairy farmers in central Mexico and the implications for future research on smallholder adoption in developing countries

There have been limited recent advances in understanding of what influences uptake of innovations despite the current international focus on smallholder agriculture as a means of achieving food security and rural development. This paper provides a rigorous study of factors influencing adoption by smallholders in central Mexico and builds on findings to identify a broad approach to significantly improve research on and understanding of factors influencing adoption by smallholders in developing countries. Small-scale dairy systems play an important role in providing income, employment and nutrition in the highlands of central Mexico. A wide variety of practices and technologies have been promoted by the government public services to increase milk production and economic efficiency, but there have been very low levels of uptake of most innovations, with the exception of improving grassland through introduction of grass varieties together with management practices. A detailed study was conducted with 80 farmers who are already engaged with the use of this innovation to better understand the process of adoption and identify socioeconomic and farm variables, cognitive (beliefs), and social–psychological (social norms) factors associated with farmers' use of improved grassland. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was used as a theoretical framework and Spearman Rank Order correlation was conducted to analyse the data. Most farmers (92.5%) revealed strong intention to continue to use improved grassland (which requires active management and investment of resources) for the next 12 months; whereas 7.5% of farmers were undecided and showed weak intention, which was associated with farmers whose main income was from non-farm activities as well as with farmers who had only recently started using improved grassland. Despite farmers' experience of using improved grassland (mean of 18 years) farmers' intentions to continue to adopt it was influenced almost as much by salient referents (mainly male relatives) as by their own attitudes. The hitherto unnoticed longevity of the role social referents play in adoption decisions is an important finding and has implications for further research and for the design of extension approaches. The study demonstrates the value and importance of using TRA or TPB approaches to understand social cognitive (beliefs) and social–psychological (social norms) factors in the study of adoption. However, other factors influencing adoption processes need to be included to provide fuller understanding. An approach that would enable this, and the development of more generalisable findings than from location specific case studies, and contribute to broader conceptualisation, is proposed.