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The paper begins with an investigation of two metaphors central to the 'social capital' framework - 'glue' and 'capital'. Both are found to be inappropriate descriptions of the kinds of human relationships supposedly being alluded to by the term 'social capital'. While the inappropriateness of the term 'glue' is not a major threat to the discourse, the case of 'capital' is more serious. The rest of the paper is devoted to unravelling the connotations of 'capital' and the implications of applying it to relationships where the kinds of calculations necessary for sound economic performance have no place. The competitiveness inherent in the functioning of capital belies the cooperation assumed to exist in 'social capital', while the requirement for 'productiveness' has disquieting implications for those who, for whatever reason, cannot be productive in the economic sense. The final section of the paper argues that those who are supposedly the main, if not the only, beneficiaries of 'social capital' - the `disadvantaged' or the 'socially excluded' - do not in fact benefit from whatever is being alluded to by the term `social capital'. The paper concludes by asking, but not answering, the question: Why, if 'social capital' cannot diminish poverty, is it being posited as a substitute for the welfare state, the only institution that does address poverty (if minimally)? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deinstitutionalisation is represented as a major step toward social inclusion through the resettlement of disabled people residing in segregated large-scale institutions into community-based homes. By promoting the right to live in ordinary community residential settings, deinstitutionalisation fundamentally changes both the support services and housing arrangements of former institutional residents. In Australia, as in many western countries, debates on community care have tended to focus on the location and nature of non-housing supports for people leaving dependent care. This focus, however, overlooks the fact that deinstitutionalisation involves a radical rehousing of people in care. This paper explores the character and implications of deinstitutionalisation in Australia as a rehousing process. It is based on a recent national research project that has examined the housing futures of people with intellectual disabilities who have been, or will be, deinstitutionalised. The paper considers the increasingly divergent socio-political perspectives that have emerged in recent discussions about social inclusion, institutional reform and independent living and their implications for housing and community care policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For parents there can be negative aspects of how work `spills over' to family. This analysis focuses on mothers of young children and considers how aspects of work-to-family strain differ for single and couple mothers. While there has been increased focus on the work-family strains of mothers, less is known about single mothers and their experience of work-family strain. We might expect that single mothers would have more difficulty in combining work and family, given that they do not have the support of a resident partner to assist with childrearing responsibilities. This paper explores the relationships between several demographic, employment and supports factors and work-family strain, It also examines whether these associations are different according to family form; that is, whether certain factors make the work-family balance significantly worse or better for single mothers than for otherwise similar couple-parent mothers. The analysis is based on the 2004 Growing up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). This dataset contains detailed family and child data for around 10,000 families, all with at least one child aged 5 or under. With such a large sample size, the number of single mothers is sufficiently large to enable more analyses than is often possible from survey data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries with low fertility regimes, researchers are focusing on what factors influence higher levels of parity and parity progression. This paper examines the impact of sex of existing children on parity progression in Australia. There are two dominant theoretical propositions about the effect of sex of existing children. Firstly, sex of existing children is more important in low-fertility societies than under high-fertility regimes in explaining parity progression, while secondly that sex of existing children is less important in societies with an egalitarian gender system. We model what effect sex of existing children has on progressing to a second and third child by analysing data from a nationally representative survey from Australia (Negotiating the Life Course), and consider the two theoretical positions. Other factors considered include continuity of relationship, educational background and religiosity. We find that sex of children has some impact on explaining parity progression in Australia, particularly for recent cohorts of childbearing women, but suggest that qualitative research would be useful in understanding why parents want both sons and daughters in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]