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This chapter applies the Consortium for Advanced Management, International (CAM-I) Activity-Based Cost Management (ABC/M) tool to paratransit. The intent is to enable agencies sponsoring rides to save money through sharing rides and vehicle-time.

Several paratransit cost-allocation models from Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) and other sources are reviewed and one is adapted to the ABC/M methodology, based upon the author’s previous work proportionately allocating ride time among sponsoring agencies at a consolidated human service transportation agency and the price sheets used in contracted operations to minimize financial risk.

Through application of the principles of ABC/M, paratransit providers can properly allocate costs, determine the costs of providing proposed new services, plan for future vehicle acquisitions, and motivate their customers to tailor their transportation needs in a manner that will save them money and boost efficiency.

University-based transportation studies programs may be motivated to apply these strategies to urban and rural paratransit providers that serve several customer agencies.

If agencies sponsoring paratransit rides understand that funds can purchase more rides during off-peak hours or if rides are shared with clients of other agencies, then paratransit resources can be used more efficiently and to the benefit of more individuals.

By enabling the provision of more rides, a greater number of riders will be enabled to reach necessary services and participate in community life.

This is the first application of the ABC/M methodology to paratransit (and transit) and possibly to social services.

The chapter traces the genealogy of the Education for All (EFA) Movement understood as a global regime of educational governance between 1990 and 2005. The chapter sets out the achievements of EFA including some success in uniting diverse interests around a common set of goals. It will also discuss the key tensions related to the Northern and Western-led nature of EFA; tensions between the multilateral agencies over the leadership of EFA and the issues associated with the hegemonic status assumed by the World Bank; the tension between a wider EFA agenda and a narrower focus on a few quantifiable targets; and the associated tensions between more economistic and rights-based views of EFA. It will be argued that the development of these tensions can be understood in relation to different kinds of power linked to the international political economy and to the impact of other global regimes.

This chapter explores the rise in genetic approaches to health disparities at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Analysis of public health policies, genome project records, ethnography of project leaders and leading genetic epidemiologists, and news coverage of international projects demonstrates how the study of health disparities and genetic causes of health simultaneously took hold just as the new field of genomics and matters of racial inequality became a global priority for biomedical science and public health.

As the U.S. federal government created policies to implement racial inclusion standards, international genome projects seized the study race, and diseases that exhibit disparities by race. Genomic leaders made health disparities research a central feature of their science. However, recent attempts to move toward analysis of gene-environment interactions in health and disease have proven insufficient in addressing sociological contributors to health disparities. In place of in-depth analyses of environmental causes, pharmacogenomics drugs, diagnostics, and inclusion in sequencing projects have become the frontline solutions to health disparities.

The chapter argues that genetic forms of medicalization and racialization have taken hold over science and public health around the world, thereby engendering a divestment from sociological approaches that do not align with the expansion of genomic science. The chapter thus contributes to critical discussions in the social and health sciences about the fundamental processes of medicalization, racialization, and geneticization in contemporary society.

This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.

Purpose – Child sponsorship programs have been accused of representing children from the developing world in a manner described as “development porn” in their marketing communications, and of operating in such a way as to reinforce beliefs that people in the global South are powerless, dependent on help from the developed North. This research takes a critical, historical approach to investigating the marketing practices of Plan Canada, a subsidiary of one of the oldest and largest child sponsorship-based development agencies, in order to evaluate outcomes of charitable giving at the social and ideological level.

Methodology – We adopted a consumer storytelling theoretical lens to conduct narrative analysis of letters written by donors upon their return from visiting their sponsor children.

Findings – We reveal how even if aid recipients are treated with respect in marketing communications, ideological outcomes which reinforce Northern hegemony may still result.

Social implications – Although charitable acts by individuals are commonly encouraged and lauded, marketers may play a role in perpetuating negative outcomes that result from this consumer action, such as reinforcing notions of cultural difference and superiority.

Originality/value of paper – Only a few researchers have investigated the social and ideological outcomes of charitable giving. We investigate the outcome of charitable giving on the donor and recipient communities and relationship between these communities. Models of charitable giving need to be revised to include these outcomes.

For over six decades, multilateral agencies in education have prompted the international community to embrace proposals for large-scale initiatives to solve once and for all the problems of illiteracy and the lack of universal schooling. Even with their highly contrastive policy frameworks, the major agencies can periodically be relied upon to call for military-like assaults to achieve basic education for all, usually over a 10–15-year time frame. Just as predictable have been inflated expectations, failures of analysis, strategy and financing, and the tendency of agencies to hold other actors to account for failing to meet agency expectations. The much-trumpeted World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA, 1990) is analyzed in the wider perspective of post-WW2 agency programs for universal literacy and primary education. Although expectations of success were high at the time, the WCEFA initiative quickly evaporated, although it remained for some time as a much-cited normative and political point of reference. The failure of WCEFA is analyzed in terms of the strains and stresses facing multilateral education at the end of the Cold War and in terms of more recent multilateral commitments to education for all.

This chapter considers the role of technology transfer intermediaries (TTIs) in the processes of innovation in networks involving universities, research and development centres, and business firms from an international perspective. A diversity of types of TTIs is recognised in terms of their particular interests in the operation of innovation processes and the conditions they impose in transactions involving intellectual property. It will identify the various objectives of sponsoring stakeholders as differentiating the missions and accountabilities and, in turn, determining the focus and roles of different types of TTIs and the interactions and networking between them, both formal and informal.

In discussion, the chapter will propose that the significance of systemic influence on the processes of technology transfer and innovation should be researched at two levels. At the micro-level of personal interactions, examining how systemic influences shape tacit knowledge transfer between and learning by individuals engaged in research and innovation processes. Second, at the level of national cultures, examining the ways in which the cultural context institutionalises patterns of innovation and technology transfer networking.

This chapter examines a 5-year case (Stake, 2005) which examines the structure and culture of the graduate admissions process of Indonesian applicants to a College of Education degree program in the Midwest United States. This chapter focusses on what steps are involved in the sponsorship, application and admission of international applicants to a graduate program. It was determined that the sponsorship of in-bound international students is a highly detailed and complex process engaging multiple agencies on tight timelines. This process is further complicated by single points of failure, slow decision-making and structural barriers. It was determined that because there are internal unpublicised ways to address some challenges, it is helpful to recruit and retain highly knowledgeable advocates to support the process.

A sizable cohort of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will transition into adulthood over the next 10 years. Employment participation is an important part of individual economic independence but also of one's ability to contribute to broader civil society in meaningful ways. Yet, to date, the majority of young adults with autism are not successfully entering the workforce. Of particular importance for this “Generation A” will be to establish a sound foundation as they exit their teenage years that includes postsecondary educational pursuits and labor force involvement. Exploring corresponding outcomes of individuals with ASD who recently progressed through these life stages will help inform Generation A and families and educators who support them how to better prepare for the workplace of the future. For this purpose, robust representative data containing refined disability detail, employment and training information, and well-being and support content are necessary. Currently available public survey and administrative microdata that can be used by researchers and practitioners as they delve into these issues are discussed. Additionally, appropriate restricted-access datasets and the process involved in obtaining them are highlighted. After summarizing key resources and noting their advantages, their drawbacks, limitations, and areas for improvement are addressed. Implications of the data available to date to assist educators, family members, and young adults with autism themselves to better navigate the transition from school to work, to successfully secure work, and ultimately economic independence, which is critical to adulthood, are presented.