Patterns of governance: The curious case of non-profit community services in Australia

Community has taken on a new significance in Australian social policy discourse. Seemingly sound and morally justifiable, in the context Of neo-liberalism the language of community positions non-profit delivery of services as superior to state-provided services. As a consequence, non-profit community services are being centrally positioned to mediate the relationship between the state and citizen subjects. In the first part of this paper we trace some of the key historical developments in Australia's welfare state and patterns of governance that are propelling the non-profit sector firm the margins to the centre. The second section examines the relationship between Australia's shifting political landscape and the emerging welfare regime. One key feature of this new regime is the attempt to relocate citizenship away from the domain of the state and into that of civil society. The article concludes by sketching out some research themes, focusing, for example, on the impact of devolution of governance in terms of client rights and public accountability.

Measuring community strength and social capital

In 2001/02 five case study communities in both metropolitan and regional urban locations in Australia were chosen as test sites to develop measures of community strength on four domains: natural capital; produced economic capital; human capital; and social and institutional capital. Secondary data sources were used to develop measures on the first three domains. For the fourth domain social and institutional capital primary data collection was undertaken through sample surveys of households. A structured approach was devised. This involved developing a survey instrument using scaled items relating to four elements: formal norms; informal norms; formal structures; and informal structures which embrace the concepts of trust, reciprocity, bonds, bridges, links and networks in the interaction of individuals with their community inherent in the notion social capital. Exploratory principal components analysis was used to identify factors that measure those aspects of social and institutional capital, with confirmatory analysis conducted using Cronbach's Alpha. This enabled the construction of four primary scales and 15 sub-scales as a tool for measuring social and institutional capital. Further analyses reveals that two measures anomie and perceived quality of life and wellbeing relate to certain primary scales of social capital.

Punctuated equilibrium and linear progression: Toward a new understanding of group development

This study proposes gaining a new understanding of group development by considering the integrative and the punctuated equilibrium models of group development as complementary rather than competing. We hypothesized that we would observe both punctuated equilibrium and linear progression in content-analyzed data from 25 simulated project teams, albeit on different dimensions. We predicted changes in time awareness and in task and pacing activity in line with the punctuated equilibrium model and changes in structure and process on task and socioemotional dimensions in line with the integrative model. Results partially supported predictions for both models.

Residential mobility in the Seoul metropolitan region: Who, where and why?

This article presents data on residential mobility for the Seoul Metropolitan Region. It addresses two questions-why do households move and who moves and finds that like research undertaken in other cities that a wide range of factors impact on the residential mobility process. Key outcomes include the impact of housing dissatisfaction on residential mobility and the impact that life cycle, period of residence and housing and dwelling characteristics have on discerning between movers and non-movers.