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The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experiences of women without children experiencing housing instability and homelessness in Calgary, Canada; and narratives of what triggered their journeys were constructed according to the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology, and suggest a framework for assisting these women.

The design for this study is qualitative, approached through hermeneutic phenomenology rooted in Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics (Gadamer, 2004). Hermeneutic phenomenology, as a research method has provided insight into understanding phenomena and human experiences that are important to human science professionals.

The experience of homelessness for women without children started while they still lived at home, but after they lost all sense of “being at home” as a consequence of identifiable negative home experiences, such as abuse. The effects or impacts of stable childhood or adult home experiences and the implications of such in contributing to the feelings of homelessness were pervasive in the stories told by these women.

Access to housing does not mean getting out of the feeling of homelessness, because the trauma that triggers the experience for the clients often last for a life time. Long-term engagement with the client will be synonymous to increasing the possibility that they can be stabilized permanently. Resources dedicated to these clients must be tailored to each client’s needs, with strong agency collaboration with the mainstream systems.

Community health nurses and other support workers for individuals experiencing homelessness need to build bridges with inter-professional groups to close the gap created by societal attitudes toward women and domestic abuse survivors through advocacy and education, especially in countries where women are still treated as second class citizens.

Although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted on the determinants of homelessness and housing instabilities in women or their pathways into homelessness, the plight of women without children and their experiences while homeless have received little attention in literature. This study explored the lived experiences of women without children experiencing homelessness and narratives of what triggered their journeys were constructed according to the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology, and suggest a framework for assisting these women.

The challenges of achieving housing stability are examinable from a variety of locations and perspectives, resulting in a range of solutions and recommendations for practice. Attending to the experiences and understandings of both service users and service providers within a broad environmental scan, one can obtain a more complete picture of how housing stability can be supported and sustained. The purpose of this research is to better understand the practical landscape, human relationships, interdisciplinary understandings and everyday activities of housing stability.

The paper draws on thematic analysis from expert informant interviews conducted during an environmental scan of housing options and facilities for those who have been labelled “hard to house” in a large, ethnically‐diverse urban city in western Canada. Interviews of selected service users yielded information on their perspectives of the barriers and facilitators of housing stability. Parallel interviews of service providers and/or policy makers were also conducted, and responses compared and contrasted with those of service users.

Three interconnected patterns on the path to housing stability were experienced by the expert informants, and are explored herein. The overlapping and developmental themes “more than a house,” “finding support,” and “connecting multiple supports” are discussed. Conditions and realities of coordinated support need, particularly for those deemed “hard to house” because of addictions or mental health problems were revealed by the expert informants in this study.

Thematic analysis of the parallel interviews brought the landscape of housing stability into clearer focus and contributed to practice recommendations. This qualitative research approach was not intended to provide generalizable findings, but rather sheds light on particular experiences and understandings in ways that may contribute to further research. The themes identified may resonate in differing circumstances having arisen from the more generalized practical realities and social conditions which warrant an ongoing analysis.

The analysis revealed an ongoing gap of support for the management and coordination of the often complex requirements of support for housing stability for service users. Various service agencies, providing houses, providing financial aid, providing health and social support need to “connect multiple levels of support” something identified as an all too often missing link in achieving housing stability. Recommendations include recognizing the necessity of multiple sectors working together with multiple sites and layers of support, in particular for those who experience addictions or mental health problems. More tailored support, follow up and recognition of the potential for instability is a particular practical implication of the study. Invigorating a coordinative, case management role, with a view to bridging and bringing together seemingly disparate sectors and service providers are relevant practical implications of this study.

The research is novel in approach, drawing on a parallel expert informant interview process, and findings are of relevance to practical activities in housing, social and health services and policy as well as for scholarly dialogue and discussion.

This study aims to contribute to the emerging discourse on elite financial crime, with particular attention devoted to the role played by the legislature in corrupt practices in Nigeria. Separations of power, watchdog role of legislature and ideologies have become a major influence in democratic system. Legislative power has developed as a means of providing oversight functions over the executives, thereby inhibiting fraudulent practices in governments.

The paper argues that the political institutional structures embedded with monopoly, discretion and little or no accountability facilitate financial corrupt practices within the legislature. The paper uses publicly available evidence to show that the legislators in developing countries are actively engaged in corrupt practices.

The evidence provided in this paper shows that separation of power and representative democracy had not brought about transparency and accountability in government activities in Nigeria. Legislature often trade-off their constitutional power and their claim of service to the public interest by engaging in financial criminal practices.

This paper does not set out to provide a comprehensive analysis of political corruption. Instead, it considers the “dark” side of legislative practice by examining the involvement of legislature in facilitating corrupt financial practices in Nigeria.

The inability of the regulators to effectively sanction legislators implicated in corrupt practices suggests that the current institutional and regulatory apparatus are not fully equipped in dealing with the financial criminal activities of legislators.

Despite the arrest and prosecution of some legislators, a number of cases are swept under the carpet. Therefore, this paper suggests that Nigeria need to reform its political system and institutions to promote transparency and accountability in government and to build trust in the legislative process.

This paper considers the “dark” side of legislative practice by examining the involvement of legislature in facilitating corrupt financial practices in Nigeria.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate board characteristics and country-level legal system on corruption disclosures mandated by the recent European Union (EU) Directive No. 95/2014.

Based on a sample of 234 European listed companies and covering the 2017–2018 period, this study uses regression analyses to empirically test the association of independent directors, board gender diversity and country’s legal system with disclosure of corruption information.

The presence of independent directors and female directors is positively associated with corporate corruption disclosures. The association between independent directors and corruption disclosures is especially strong when firms are operating in the common law environments.

This study is exclusively focused on larger European listed firms and therefore the findings may not be valid for small and medium firms.

This study provides important information to policymakers to have a better understanding of the factors that influence firms’ disclosure policy on corruption-related activities. It also offers useful information to investors because it shows firms’ propensity to disclose corruption information that would enable them to evaluate their risk and return better.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates firms’ response to the EU Directive No. 95/2014 in disclosing corruption information after its implementation in 2017. It documents the effective role played by female directors in influencing firms’ information disclosure policies. It also confirms that common law environment is more conducive to disclosures.

This paper aims to test the levels of anti-corruption disclosure and its implication on the banking performance of both conventional and Islamic banks listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market.

The authors have used the content analysis to identify the levels of anti-corruption disclosure in the banks’ annual reports. They have also used the two-steps generalized method of moments (GMM) regression applied to dynamic panel data analysis to examine the effect of the anti-corruption disclosure on the banking performance.

The empirical results show that the anti-corruption disclosure is at low levels for all banks and conventional and Islamic banks samples. The results also show no significant differences in the anti-corruption disclosure between Islamic and conventional banks. The results of the two-steps GMM regression applied to dynamic panel data analysis show a negative and significant impact of the levels of anti-corruption disclosure on the bank’s performance for both all banks and conventional banks; the results of the dynamic panel data analysis show an insignificant impact of anti-corruption discloser for the Islamic banks' sample.

The findings recommended a comprehensive framework of anti-corruption disclosure to the central banks and financial market regulators to enhance anti-corruption practices within the financial institutions to increase transparency and enhance their performance.

Fighting against anti-corruption is essential for financial institutions. This paper is the first study that examined the extent of anti-corruption levels and their effect on banking performance for both Islamic and conventional banks operates in the UAE. The findings help in enhancing reporting practices in terms of anti-corruption to improve transparency and performance in the banking sector.