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This register of current research in social economics has been compiled by the International Institute of Social Economics. The register does not claim to be comprehensive but is merely an aid for research workers and institutions interested in social economics. The register will be updated and made more comprehensive in the future but this is largely dependent on the inflow of information from researchers in social economics. In order to facilitate this process a standardised form is to be found on the last page of this register. Completed forms, with attached sheets as necessary, should be returned to the compiler: Dr Barrie O. Pettman, Director, International Institute of Social Economics, Enholmes Hall, Patrington, Hull, N. Humberside, England, HU12 OPR. Any other comments on the register will also be welcome.

The article describes the Five Dimensions of Person‐Centredness, an evaluation tool developed specifically to explore supported living and inclusion‐orientated organisations. It explores some of the learning gained from using the evaluation process with four organisations in Scotland, and includes identification of common themes that make the difference when personalising support.

The abuse of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) has become one of the most important social problems in modern society. AOD abuse causes untold personal anguish to the abusers and their families, is associated with high levels of crime, and the health consequences include death and disability. Billions are spent on treatment, prevention, and incarceration. The papers in this special issue focus on two key issues in the study of AOD abuse: etiology and treatment. Etiology is a key factor because it is the foundation for prevention and treatment programs. If the etiology of AOD abuse can be unraveled, abuse can be prevented and treatment can be effectively targeted. But, effective treatment also requires an understanding of how treatment works.

The aim is to investigate and group the strategic motives that firms engage in cooperative R&D by exploring a new method.

Four theories are adopted to explain the motives and they are cited as the base to categorize the motives into four factors. A survey questionnaire of participants in the aluminum industry is used to examine the empirical prevalence and clustering of these different categories of strategic motives. Factor analysis is used to test this measurement modeling.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis support this grouping of strategic motives as reliable and valid method. Research limitations/implications – The techniques used in this study when applied to group other motives or other similar issues could produce useful information in business and management research. Moreover, the theories employed in this research can help in hypothesis development and the relationship test between the factors and the formation of R&D alliances.

The incentives such as strategic motives and the formation of R&D alliances studied in this paper can be used to investigate how they might be related to the aluminum or any other industry characteristics.

This paper contributes to the modeling of measurement model in management by exploring a new method.

The recent Australian reforms in higher education envisaged the creation of a unified national system at the expense of the binary system with a smaller number of larger institutions through institutional mergers. The Green Paper quoted the La Trobe‐Lincoln merger as an example. Based on an evaluation of relevant archival material and interviews with most of the key personnel of both institutions and the merged university, examines the key issues which delayed the merger for seven years, the goals and the academic rationale set with outcomes of this process within the first two years after the formal merger along with future trends.

Looks at Amadeus (advanced manipulator for deep underwater systems) which is an international subsea manipulator project, funded by the European Community Marine Science and Technology Research Programme. The object is to improve the sampling and manipulation capabilities of underwater systems, through the development of advanced grippers and manipulation control techniques. Says that Phase 1 of the project produced an innovative dextrous gripper system for laboratory use. The objective of phase 2 is to produce more robust systems offering enhanced functionality and suitability for trials in the marine environment. Provides an overview of the Amadeus project describing the achievements of the first phase and the proposed developments for phase 2.

Purpose – This study tracks the legal control of the problem of substance abuse.

Methodology/Approach – The chapter explores the “natural history” of the evolution of the social construction of drug use and our collective response to it. Over the past 100 years, our understanding of drug use/abuse and the system for handling drug problems have gone through a series of changes. In the past 20 years or so, provision of treatment for drug offenders within the criminal justice system has rapidly expanded. California's recently enacted Proposition 36 (Prop 36) initiates for the first time on a mass basis the court-supervised drug treatment that began a decade earlier on a much smaller scale with the original drug courts. This chapter compares the Prop 36 program for diverting nonviolent drug offenders into court-supervised treatment with the original drug courts.

Findings – The research shows how court-supervised drug treatment has evolved from a personalized care program in the original drug courts to a mass processing operation under Prop 36. The research finds that the social problem solution of offering treatment to more drug defendants created its own unanticipated consequences and problems, including significant standardization in the operations of the court and a dilution of many useful features that defined the early drug courts.

Practical implications – “Farming out” drug defendants to probation and treatment makes case-processing and treatment potentially less effective therapeutically. The chapter raises questions about how social control can extend its domain without “breaking the bank” and what the consequences are for how social problems are handled.

Purpose – This chapter on global civil society provides a definition of global civil society, and also provides a historical and theoretical overview of social movements. This chapter also presents a taxonomy of non-state actors and demonstrates at the theoretical level that actions and initiatives by non-state actors since the 1990s’ globalisation. In this chapter, the concept of civil society is presented as a form of globalisation from below, and its role in the participatory governance of societal processes implies forms of soft regulation and moral authority which transcend the role of states as enforcers.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter is based on an extensive literature review.Findings – Actions and initiatives by non-state actors in the current age of globalisation have been increasing. This increase has become more evident with the more stringent traceability of processes associated with the development of information and communication technologies (ICT), and private forms of organisation networking at the local and transnational level. This has re-defined geographical boundaries, creating proximity between individuals which goes beyond physical constraints, and it has extended definitions of communities to multiple levels of identification and convergence, but also divergence.The concept of civil society and its role in the participatory governance of societal processes implies forms of soft regulation and moral authority which transcend the role of states as enforcers. The idea of civil society opens a space for non-traditional actors to actively participate and engage in the political processes of change in society, for the betterment of marginalised groups, the environment or social justice in general. The diversity of roles that single individuals have in society allows them to participate from different angles.Although the concept of civil society has limitations due to its breadth, manifestations of a global civil society can be understood as forms of globalisation that occur outside traditional institutional settings.Originality/value of chapter – This chapter provides a general overview on civil society, and its relevance for analysing contexts of international business, and MNES's relations with community and non-governmental groups. Within this chapter, it is also conceptually describe how multinationals as non-state actors have increasingly playing a role in providing welfare.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence the probability that staff will commit acts of inadequate care, abuse, and neglect.

A cross-sectional survey study was carried out in one county in the middle of Norway (Sør-Trøndelag). Random sampling, stratified by size of nursing homes, and location (rural or urban areas), was used to select a variety of nursing homes from a total population of 55 nursing homes. All staff working in 16 nursing homes working were asked to participate in the study. A response rate of 79 per cent was achieved (n=616).

Findings reveal that location and size of the nursing home, age of the staff, education level, job satisfaction, resident aggression, and conflicts between residents and staff predict inadequate care, abuse, and neglect. The most consistent findings are that resident aggression increases the risk for all three types of inadequate care, and that conflicts predict different types of inadequate care depending on whether the conflicts are related to direct care-giving activities or not.

Nursing home care is an important part of care for the elderly, and should be characterized by good-quality services. The relation between inadequate care and resident aggression, conflicts, and other factors shown in this study points to the relevance of further improvements in nursing home practices to minimize the occurrence of episodes of inadequate care, abuse, and neglect.

This study investigated the relationships between 11 specific factors and different types of inadequate care in a nursing home context.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the physiological cost of concrete construction activities.

Five concrete construction workers were recruited. The workers’ three-week heart rate (HR) data were collected in summer and autumn. In this paper, several HR indexes were used to investigate the physiological cost of work in concrete construction trades, including average working HR, relative HR and ratio of working HR to resting HR.

This paper measures how absolute and relative HRs vary throughout a workday and how working HR compares to resting HR for individual workers.

Field observations are usually extremely difficult as researchers need to overcome a number of barriers, including employers’ resistance to perceived additional liabilities, employees’ fear that their level of activity will be reported to managers and many other practical and technical difficulties. As these challenges increase exponentially with the number of employers, subjects and sites, this study was limited to a small number of subjects all working for the same employer on the same jobsite. Still, challenges are often unpredictable and lessons learned from this study are expected to guide both our and other researchers’ continuation of this work.

The time effect on the physiological cost of work has not been considered in previous studies. Thus, this study is noteworthy owing to the depth of the data collected rather than the breadth of the data.