bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Backyard Soweto
Authors: Crankshaw Owen , Gilbert Alan , Morris Alan
Published: March 2003

Backyard accommodation is widespread in South African cities; a phenomenon that is rare in most other parts of the world. Such a ‘solution’ is an outcome of past and present policies and this article demonstrates that over the years there have been certain similarities in government policy between Chile and South Africa, the only other country with significant numbers of families living in backyard accommodation. However, Sowetan backyard dwellers are different from their contemporaries in Chile. Sowetans do not usually have family relationships with people in the main structure. They also live in significantly worse conditions, in terms both of the quality of the structure and the services available. The backyard dwellers are not likely to disappear quickly. As such, there is a vital need to develop some kind of response to improve their current living conditions. The government is correct to argue that it is seeking to help those in the backyards through its housing subsidy programme, but to presume that a subsidized home is going to be available to most backyard families in the next ten years is surely wishful thinking. As such, something should be done to improve living conditions in the backyard shacks and to do this it is important to know who is living there. The article provides the empirical information that will allow an appropriate policy to be defined.

Habiter une arrière‐cour est un phénomène courant dans les villes sud‐africaines, contrairement à la plupart des autres régions du monde, cette ‘solution’ résultant de politiques passées et présentes. L'article démontre qu'au fil des années, certaines similitudes se sont dessinées dans les axes gouvernementaux en Afrique du Sud et au Chili, seul autre pays comptant un nombre significatif de familles vivant dans des arrière‐cours. Toutefois, ces habitants de Soweto se singularisent par un point: ils n'ont généralement aucun lien familial avec les résidents de l'habitation principale; de plus, ils vivent dans des conditions nettement plus mauvaises que leurs équivalents chiliens, en termes de qualité du bâtiment et des services disponibles. Il est peu probable que cette population disparaisse rapidement. De ce fait, la situation nécessite une réponse impérative pour améliorer les conditions de vie existantes. Le gouvernement assure à juste titre qu'il cherche à aider ces familles au travers de son programme d'accès au logement, mais supposer que la majorité d'entre elles disposera d'une habitation subventionnée dans les dix prochaines années tient certainement de la pure fiction. En conséquence, si l'on veut tenter d'améliorer les conditions dans les baraques des arrière‐cours, il est important de savoir qui y vit. L'article présente les informations empiriques qui contribueront à l'établissement d'une politique publique appropriée.
‘You're Good with your Hands, Why Don't You Become an Auto Mechanic’: Neighborhood Context, Institutions and Career Development
Authors: Bauder Harald
Published: March 2003

Previous research has linked sociodemographic neighborhood characteristics with labor market outcomes for youth, but this research has provided little evidence of how these linkages work. In this article I examine practices of urban institutions and the career development of inner‐city minority youth in the United States. A comparative study of two Latino inner‐city neighborhoods in San Antonio, Texas, analyzes in‐depth interviews with seventeen administrative officers of community‐based institutions. The results reveal that institutional practices and administrators' interpretations of the cultural attributes of youth and neighborhoods differ between the two case study areas. In one neighborhood, cultural preconceptions among administrators, accompanied by the spatial and social isolation of youth, channel some youth towards secondary careers. Institutions in the other neighborhood focus on social and spatial integration strategies and thereby facilitate acculturation. The article explores institutional practices of cultural marginalization.

Certaines recherches ont déjè lié les caractéristiques socio‐démographiques des quartiers aux débouchés du marché du travail pour les jeunes, mais elles ont apporté peu d'indications sur les modes de fonctionnement de ces liens. Cet article examine les usages d'institutions urbaines et le parcours professionnel de jeunes de minorités vivant dans des quartiers urbains déshérités aux Etats‐Unis. Une étude comparative de deux quartiers défavorisés latino‐américains de San Antonio (Texas) analyse les entretiens poussés réalisés avec dix‐sept agents administratifs d'institutions liées á la collectivité. Les résultats révélent que les usages institutionnels et les interprétations des administratifs quant aux attributs culturels de la jeunesse et des quartiers différent entre les deux zones d'étude. Dans l'une, les a priori culturels des administratifs, associés á l'isolement géographique et social des individus, canalisent les jeunes vers des carriéres de second ordre. Dans l'autre, les institutions se consacrent aux stratégies d'intégration sociale et spatiale, facilitant ainsi l'acculturation. Les pratiques institutionnelles de la marginalisation culturelle sont également examinées.
On Technology, Infrastructure and the Contemporary Urban Condition: A Response to Coutard
Authors: Graham Stephen
Published: March 2003

This response to Coutard’s piece, ‘Premium Network Spaces: A Comment’ (in this issue) takes issue with his three main arguments in turn. First, it is argued that post‐monopolistic systems of infrastructure supply, along with the biased application of new technology, do often lead to exaggerated inequalities in social power which his analysis of water fails to reveal because it is the sector where natural monopoly characteristics are most difficult to undermine. Second, I explore Coutard’s argument that intensifying spatial specialization in infrastructure supply can often be benign and economically positive because of the wider trickle‐down and fiscal impacts of major development spaces. Under conditions of intensifying place competition and the erosion of regional planning coordination, however, I argue that such trickle‐down and fiscal impacts are often less significant than the spatially and socially regressive cross‐subsidies that support and sustain the emergence of such spaces. Finally, I argue that boundary control around powerful ‘glocal’ economic spaces, far from being socially benign as Coutard suggests, usually amounts to a powerful set of exclusionary practices with all too real social effects.

Cette réponse à la partie de Coutard, ‘Premium Network Spaces: A Comment’ (dans ce même numéro) critique successivement ses trois principaux arguments. Tout d’abord, les systèmes post‐monopolitistiques de distribution, ainsi que l’application détournée des nouvelles technologies, conduisent souvent à amplifier les inégalités de pouvoir social, ce que Coutard ignore dans son analyse de l’eau alors que ce secteur présente les caractères de monopole naturel les plus difficiles àéliminer. L’article étudie ensuite l’argument de Coutard selon lequel intensifier la spécialisation spatiale d’une infrastructure de distribution peut fréquemment ?tre salutaire et positive sur un plan économique, du fait des impacts fiscaux et des effets de diffusion plus larges des grands espaces de développement; cependant, dans un contexte d’intensification de la concurrence entre les lieux, et d’érosion de la coordination régionale de l’aménagement, ces conséquences fiscales et cette diffusion sont souvent moins significatives que les inter‐financements régressifs au plan spatial et social qui soutiennent et entretiennent l’émergence de ces espaces. Pour finir, un contrôle à la périphérie des puissants espaces économiques ‘glocaux’, loin d’être favorable socialement comme le suggère Coutard, couvre généralement un ensemble efficace de pratiques d’exclusion aux conséquences sociales trop réelles.
Berlin transformations: another view
Authors: Lenhart Karin
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Hartmut Häußermann and Andreas Kapphan, Berlin: von der geteilten zur gespaltenen Stadt? Sozialräumlicher Wandel seit 1990

Stefan Krätke and Renate Borst, Berlin: Metropole zwischen Boom und Krise
Unauthorized Mexican Workers in the 1990 Los Angeles County Labour Force
Authors: Marcelli Enrico A. , Heer David M.
Published: March 2003

By analysing how unauthorized Mexicans compare with seven other ethno’racial groups in Los Angeles County, separately and collectively, by educational attainment and time spent in the US, we find that unauthorized Mexicans had relatively fewer years of formal education (either in the US or in Mexico) and had been in the US a relatively fewer number of years than in‐migrants of other ethno‐racial backgrounds in 1990. These findings are then used as proxies to compare the human capital endowments of different ethno‐racial groups. We next estimate the number of unauthorized Mexicans by occupation, industry and class of workers, and compare these distributions with the total labour force and with the other ethno‐racial groups in Los Angeles County. To the extent that unauthorized Mexicans are found to be substitutes (complements) in the labour market, they can be expected to be a valid (invalid) empirical source of social tension and hence contemporary restrictionist immigration policy sentiment. Results show that amounts of human capital are positively related to the kinds of occupations filled. Analysis of the percentage of discordant pairs shows that unauthorized Mexicans are found to be most dissimilar (potential complements) to non‐Latino (1) Anglos; (2) Blacks; (3) American Indians, Aleuts, and Eskimos; and (4) Asians and Pacific Islanders. Results also show that those ethno‐racial groups most similar to (potential substitutes for) unauthorized Mexicans are (1) legal Mexican in‐migrants and (2) other Latino foreign‐born persons (both authorized and unauthorized). The ethno‐racial group which falls into the intermediate realm of (dis)similarity is US‐born Mexican. Consequently, for most persons residing in Los Angeles County the rise of restrictionist immigrant sentiment is not consistent with their labour market experiences, and restrictionist immigration policy, to the extent it is based on a labour market competition assumptions, may not be justified.
Female Asylum‐Seekers in the Netherlands: An Empirical Study
Authors: Van Wetten Jos W. , Bijleveld Catrien C.J.H. , Heide F. , Dijkhoff N.
Published: March 2003

This article presents the findings from a study into the chances for refugee status, or a temporary residence permit, for three cohorts of male and female asylum‐seekers to the Netherlands. The study investigated whether men and women with similar backgrounds in terms of country of origin, social and demographic characteristics have a similar likelihood of obtaining permission to stay in the Netherlands.

The quantitative findings are corroborated with an in‐depth qualitative study of refugees' files from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), as well as with an experiment in which decision‐making personnel were asked to judge hypothetical case studies of refugees in which gender as well as other gender‐specific properties were systematically varied.

We recommend that further in‐depth studies be conducted to capture elements in the decision‐making process that could not be investigated in our kind of large‐scale study.
Network Approach versus Brain Drain: Lessons from the Diaspora
Authors: Meyer Jean‐Baptiste
Published: March 2003

For the past two decades, network approaches have led to many conceptual and empirical developments in the studies of international migration as well as of technological innovation. However, surprisingly, such approaches have hardly been used for the study of what is at the intersection of both fields, namely the mobility of highly skilled persons or knowledge workers.

This article draws on recent evidence brought by case studies on intellectual diaspora networks to bridge this gap and to explore the issue. These highly skilled expatriate networks, through a connectionist approach linking diaspora members with their countries of origin, turn the brain drain into a brain gain approach. These persons and groups also provide original information that questions conventional human capital based assumptions.

The article argues that descriptions in terms of network open interesting perspectives for the understanding as well as management of the current global skills’ circulation. The network approach under consideration combines input from migration as well as from innovation studies. This suggests an expanded version of the network approach, referring to actors and intermediaries, of which traditional kinship ties are but a part of more systematic associative dynamics actually at work.
Best Practices to Reduce Migration Pressures
Authors: Martin Philip , Straubhaar Thomas
Published: March 2003

Are there best practices to foster economic development, reduce population growth, and protect the environment in source countries of unauthorized migration, in a manner that reduces emigration pressures and redirects migration towards legal channels? This paper outlines cooperative actions that can be undertaken by both source and receiving countries to better manage the movements of people over national borders.

There are two broad approaches to foster wanted migration and to reduce unwanted migration. First, maximize migration’s payoffs by ensuring that the 3 Rs of recruitment, remittances, and returns foster economic and job growth in emigration areas. Second, make emigration unnecessary by adapting trade, investment and aid policies, and programmes that accelerate economic development and thus make it unnecessary for people to emigrate for jobs and wages.

Most of the changes needed for stay–at–home development must occur in emigration areas, but immigration areas can cooperate in the management of immigration, guest workers, and students, as well as in promoting freer trade and investment, and in targeting aid funds. In a globalizing world, selective immigration policies may have important development impacts, as with immigration country policies toward students, and workers in particular occupations, such as nurses and computer programmers, as well as with mutual recognition of occupational licenses and professional credentials. Trade policies affecting migration are also important, such as trade in services and laws regulating contracts between firms in different countries that allow the entry of lower wage workers as part of the contract. opening channels for legal migration can deter irregular migration.
Financial Structure, Corporate Finance and Economic Growth
Authors: Stulz René M.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines how a country’s financial structure affects economic growth through its impact on how corporations raise and manage funds. We define a country’s financial structure to consist of the institutions, financial technology and rules of the game that define how financial activity is organized at a point in time. We emphasize that the aspects of financial structure that encourage entrepreneurship are not the same as those that ensure the efficiency of established firms. Financial structures that permit the development of specialized capital by financial intermediaries are crucial to economic growth.
Centralism and alienation
Authors: Soyinka Wole
Published: March 2003

I see the fundamental nature of the question before us ‐ for the African continent at least ‐ as being how to effect an internal harmonisation of seeming irreconcilable elements within national entities, how to reconcile peoples of distinct histories with the consequences of colonial arbitrariness and the timidity, the lack of will, the failure of the first‐generation leaders to boldly tackle the fault‐lines of a continent that often run along the boundaries that have been inherited.
Torture and the borders of humanity
Authors: Sironi Francçoise , Branche Raphaeëlle
Published: March 2003

When the history of the group violently crosses the path of the history of the individual, that process calls for an interdisciplinary examination. Such interdisciplinarity turns out to yield undeniable benefits for the study of the deliberate injuring of one human being by another. In this article, a psychologist and a historian set out to tackle some of the questions raised by one extreme kind of violence, torture. What are its aims? What underlies its methods, and what are its mechanisms, once we look below the surface? Who are the torturers, and how are they made? What escape is there from torture ‐not just from the victim's point of view, but the torturer's as well? Testimony, case studies from clinical practice and research work are offered in support of their suggestions.
Current and Future Problems of Capital Accumulation in the Chinese Pension System
Authors: Jinchang Zhang , Jiagui Chen , Rösner Hans Jürgen
Published: March 2003

The decree establishing a uniform system of basic pensions for employees in municipal and private enterprises, published by the State Council on 16 July 1997, reflects the Chinese Government's ultimate choice in favour of a partly private funded scheme to cover future pension needs. This article examines the reasons which led to this choice and asks how easy or otherwise it will be to find the capital to finance it. The authors believe that the partly private scheme is more advantageous than other methods and is right for China. Many issues, however, remain the focus of lively debate. In particular, a realistic coordination of individual and group accumulation is needed in order to avoid shortfalls in capital formation and the dangers of inadequate benefit provision. To safeguard the subsistence needs of former workers in state‐owned enterprises, a system of equalization at national level is needed, and problems continue over how future pension insurance funds should best be managed.
The Colombian pension system after the reform of 1994: An evaluation
Authors: Kleinjans Kristin J.
Published: March 2003

The Colombian pension reform of 1994 introduced a privately administered defined–contribution programme, which coexists with a reformed public defined–benefit programme. This paper gives an overview of the Colombian pension system and evaluates its performance using four criteria: (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency, (3) equity, and (4) sustainability, finding evidence of severe shortcomings. Both effective coverage and benefit levels are low, costs in the private programme are high, and there is evidence that insured persons are not fully informed about the actual system. The system is inequitable and the uninsured population bears part of the financial burden. The public programme is financially not sustainable. A current reform proposal from the Colombian government addresses only part of the problem.
Das Grollen und Donnern der Volkswirtschaftslehre
Authors: Reckling Falk
Published: March 2003

In his article ``Was bewirkt die Volkswirtschaftslehre?“ Bruno S. Frey has argued that economics and their ideas are not very influential in politics and society. While Frey is mainly focusing his analysis on the short-term impact of economic ideas such as economists in politics and in political advising, this commentary does, however, claim that ideas also have a long-term impact since they form worldviews, perceptions and agenda settings. An analysis must thus take into account how ideas are penetrating everyday life in politics, science, bureaucracy and society.
Ein zweiter Kreditmarkt für eine zweite Chance
Authors: Kritikos Alexander , Wießner Frank
Published: March 2003

Unregulated credit markets will not finance the majority of unemployed people when they aim to receive a loan for running their own business. In the US an optimal policy mix reduces the entry barriers so that the most promising selfemployment business plans are self-selected and financed via a secondary credit market. By this tool unemployed persons get a second chance which opens the possibility for self-employment. In Germany a similar approach is missing. The existing policy tools in the finance area are not designed to provide a second chance. 378 ß
Ordnungspolitik auf illegalen Märkten: Der Drogen- und Waffenmarkt
Authors: Beck Hanno , Prinz Aloys
Published: March 2003

In this paper, the economic structure of illegal markets with special reference to the markets for illegal drugs and arms is analyzed. Analytical tools of System Dynamics are employed to emphasize the dynamic aspects of these markets. The results of our analysis enable us to evaluate state intervention in the illegal markets for drugs and arms. It seems possible to mitigate the drugs problem by supplying drugs to heavily addicted people on the basis of health care measures. However, a similar policy seems not to exist for the illegal arms trade. This shows that each illegal market requires a deeper understanding before it can be fought effectively.
Was kann die Aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland aus der Evaluationsforschung in anderen europäischen Ländern lernen?
Authors: Steiner Viktor , Hagen Tobias
Published: March 2003

Most evaluation studies for Germany's active labor market policy (ALMP) indicate that subsidized employment programs in the public sector (public works programs, „Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaûnahmen“) and publicly funded training programs have, on average, no or even negative effects on individual re-employment probabilities. This paper provides possible explanations for the ineffectiveness of these programs, where we focus on heterogeneous treatment effects, which are not accounted for in the German evaluation studies due to lack of data, and locking-in effects, in particular related to the relatively high level of income support for participants in these programs. Since there is very little direct evidence on these effects for Germany to date, we draw on results from evaluation studies for other European countries. We argue that the success of ALMP is to a large extent determined by design features like the targeting of particular groups and the incentives from the coordination with unemployment insurance as well as the incentives of program administrators and local governments.
Choice Between Two Discrimination Tasks in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Authors: Suzuki Shuji , Matsuzawa Tetsuro
Published: March 2003

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of cognitive effort on a chimpanzee's choice between discrimination tasks. The tasks were of the matching‐to‐sample type. In Experiment 1, the chimpanzee was required to choose between a task providing a high reinforcement rate with high cognitive effort and a task providing a low reinforcement rate with low cognitive effort. Her choice depended on the reinforcement rate more than the cognitive effort. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 examined whether the kind of cognitive effort influenced the chimpanzee's choice. Experiment 2 manipulated the sample‐choice relationship, so‐called symmetry in the matching‐to‐sample tasks. Experiment 3 manipulated the number of comparison stimuli. Experiment 4 manipulated the delay interval between the sample and the comparison stimuli. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effects of the cognitive effort were confounded with those of the reinforcement rates. However, in one condition of Experiment 4, the chimpanzee preferred the simultaneous task to the delayed task, despite the lack of a significant difference in reinforcement rates between the two tasks. The present study demonstrated that the chimpanzee's choice of discrimination task depended on the cognitive effort involved, in addition to the reinforcement rate.
Instructions as discriminative stimuli (2): A within‐subject examination of the effect of differential reinforcement on establishing novel instructional control1
Authors: Okouchi Hiroto
Published: March 2003

Abstract:  Six undergraduates were exposed to a fixed‐ratio schedule with an instruction to respond slowly and to a differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate schedule with an instruction to respond rapidly when a white circle was presented on a display monitor. When a yellow circle was presented, however, the subjects were exposed to the fixed‐ratio schedule with the instruction to respond rapidly and to the differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate schedule with the instruction to respond slowly. Following this, a fixed‐interval schedule was in effect during those stimuli and instructions. Under the white circle, response rates were higher with the instruction to respond slowly than with the instruction to respond rapidly during the fixed‐interval schedule. Such control by instructions was not observed under the yellow circle. A previous study examined establishment of novel instructional control by between‐subject comparisons and found that for three of four subjects (Okouchi, 1999). In contrast, the present results demonstrate the instructional control through within‐subject comparisons for all six subjects.
Islam and Human Rights: A Case of Deceptive First Appearances
Authors: Price Daniel
Published: March 2003

It is a common belief that Islamic‐based government, when serving as an ideological foundation for government, facilitates the poor protection of human rights. However, most studies of the relationship between Islam and individual rights have been at the theoretical and anecdotal levels. In this article, I test the relationship between Islam and human rights across a sample of 23 predominately Muslim countries and a control group of non‐Muslim developing nations, while controlling for other factors that have been shown to affect human rights practices. I found that the influence of Islamic political culture on government has a statistically insignificant relationship with the protection of human rights.
Religious Involvement and Status‐Bridging Social Capital
Authors: Wuthnow Robert
Published: March 2003

Is religious involvement positively associated with having influential friends or is religious involvement unrelated to this kind of social capital? Building on the distinction between the “bonding” and “bridging” aspects of social capital, I distinguish two kinds of bridging social capital—identity‐bridging and status‐bridging—that have been a source of terminological confusion. I examine the relationship between religious involvement and status‐bridging social capital by analyzing data from a large nationally representative survey of the U.S. adult population that included questions about friendships with elected public officials, corporation executives, scientists, and persons of wealth. The data show that membership in a religious congregation and holding a congregational leadership position are most consistently associated with greater likelihood of having these kinds of friendships. The data also show that frequency of religious attendance is largely unrelated to these measures of social capital and that there are some significant variations among religious traditions and size of congregation.
Definitional and Responsive Environmental Meanings: A Meadian Look at Landscapes and Drought
Authors: Weigert Andrew J.
Published: March 2003

Current conceptual frameworks differ deeply on the meanings of human‐natural environment relations. One is a monist social constructionist frame: meaning is only in human definitions, and natural events are meaningless. The other offers dualist perspectives that locate meaning both in definitions and in realist indications of environmental events such as global environmental change. After discussing ‘landscape’ as a bridging concept, I suggest an ordering of the two perspectives through a metatheoretical distinction between definitional and responsive meanings with primacy in the response. Finally, I apply a metatheoretical schema based on the work of George H. Mead to meanings of natural environment implicated in a discussion of an official pronouncement, ‘The drought is over’.
The Ontological Status of Ideation: a Continuing Issue
Authors: Smith Charles
Published: March 2003

In this introductory paper, it is argued that the ontological status, or more correctly statuses, of ideations of varying sorts remains a central issue for the social sciences. The paper begins by tracing the central historical role played by ideations in accounting for human behavior and the inherent tension between ideations and the commonly assumed tenets of science. The central theme of the paper is that a naturalistic view of ideations must ground ideations in ongoing behavioral practices and other natural contexts. The variety of such contexts raises questions regarding the different forms and characteristics which ideations assume. Some of these alternatives are briefly introduced.
What There is, How Things Are
Authors: Ossorio Peter
Published: March 2003

Ontology is critically assessed as being too narrowly based to contribute substantially to our understanding of the real world. Ontology reflects only what amounts to an extended notion of an object, whereas understanding the real world requires, in addition, the concepts of process, event, and state of affairs. Formal relationships among the four reality concepts are presented and the privileging of any one of them is rejected, the use of the |State of Affairs System (the conceptual system encompassing objects, processes, events and states of affairs) leads to a parsimonious formulation of the nature of persons as states of affairs rather than objects. In passing, the notion that states of affairs cannot be located is rejected and the significance of the State of Affairs System for scientific and metaphysical theorizing is noted.
Chinese Relationalism: Theoretical Construction and Methodological Considerations
Authors: Hwang Kwang‐Kuo
Published: March 2003

The goal of this article is attempting to establish a research tradition of Chinese relationalism on the methodological grounds of constructive realism. Two of Ho’s (1993, 1998a) key concepts, person‐in‐relations and persons‐in‐relation, are carefully examined and reinterpreted. Three of my theoretical models, namely, my Face and Favor model (Hwang, 1987), Confucian ethics for ordinary people (Hwang, 1995), and a conflict resolution model (Hwang, 1997‐8), are conceived of as microworlds for illustrating an account of person‐in relations in Chinese culture. The manifestation of Confucian ethics for ordinary people in one’s lifeworld results in the phenomenology of persons‐in‐relations as depicted by Fei’s (1948) differential order or Hsu’s (1971a) psychosociogram. Applying constructive realism to my models and using the result as a framework for studying Chinese social behavior constitutes Chinese relationalism.
Co‐constructing the Personal Space‐Time Totality: Listening to the Dialogue of Vygotsky, Lewin, Bronfenbrenner, and Stern
Authors: Wong Wan‐chi
Published: March 2003

Insightful ideals on the subtle and dynamic relation between the person and the environment have been expressed by Vygotsky, Lewin, Bronfenbrenner and Stern. Carefully following their intricate dialogue reveals that their ideas are mutually enriching. The present essay aims to revitalize this intricate dialogue, and to show how it converges to supply rich meaning to the concept of personal space‐time totality. With a view to an empirical study of the personal space‐time totality, a four‐phase inquiry is proposed, which is essentially a refined co‐construction between the subject and the researcher. It is suggested that such a co‐construction can be meaningfully integrated into research areas such as autobiographical and narrative studies, commonsense psychology, and optimal human development.
‘Moral Taint’ or Ethical Responsibility? Unethical Information and the Problem of HIV Clinical Trials in Developing Countries
Authors: Zion Deborah
Published: March 2003

Clinical trials in developing countries are often beset by ethical problems that would be considered unresolvable in countries like Australia and the U.S. Nevertheless, such trials continue to go ahead throughout Asia, Africa and South America, and are often conducted in ways that could be considered to be unethical. In this article I discuss two issues, focussing on an HIV preventative trial of a vaginal gel, the Nonoxynol 9 phase three trial being held in Kenya. The first of these is what makes such a trial unethical given that it has approval from the WHO and seemingly conforms with acceptable standards of consent. The second issue involves using material from such trials, if we accept that they were conducted unethically.
Opportunistic Carnivorism
Authors: Almeida Michael J. , Bernstein Mark H.
Published: March 2003

Some carnivores defend the position that the opportunistic consumption of meat is morally permissible even under the assumption that it is morally wrong to act in ways that ause unnecessary suffering to sentient beings. Ordering and consuming chicken once a week, they argue, will not increase the numbers of chickens suffering or slaughtered, since the system of purchasing and farming chickens is not sufficiently fine‐tuned to register differences at margin. We argue that, insensitivity of the market notwithstanding, consistent consequentialists are morally prohibited from each additional purchase and consumption of meat.
Our Obligation to the Dead
Authors: Brecher Bob
Published: March 2003

Can we have a real obligation to the dead, just as we do to the living, or is such a notion merely sentimental or metaphorical? Starting with the example of making a promise, I try to show that we can, since the dead, as well as the living, can have interests, not least because the notion of a person is, in part, a moral construction. ‘The dead’, then, are not merely dead, but particular dead persons, members of something like the sort of ‘transgenerational community’ proposed by Avner de–Shalit. More generally, I argue, we have an obligation to the dead that goes beyond the particularities of promise–making, on account of their role in having made us who we are. I then suggest, though only embryonically, that such obligations may appropriately be discharged by remembering the dead, who they were and what they did. Finally, I consider some possible objections.
In Defence of Entrapment in Journalism (and Beyond)
Authors: Levy Neil
Published: March 2003

The use of ‘proactive’ methods of newsgathering in journalism is very frequently condemned, from within and without the media. I argue that such condemnation is too hasty. In the first half of the paper, I develop a test which distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of proactive methods by law enforcement agencies. This test combines the virtues of the standard objective and subjective tests usually used, while avoiding the defects of both. I argue that when proactive methods pass this test, they are always legitimate; but that in addition they are sometimes mandatory. In the second half, I apply this test to journalism. I show that actual uses of proactive methods by journalists pass the test, and are therefore (at least) permissible. There are other ethical considerations which are relevant to the use of such techniques by journalists, which ought to be taken into account before it is decided to employ such methods, but I show that they are rarely of sufficient weight to render proactive newsgathering impermissible.
Autonomy, Constraining Options, and Organ Sales
Authors: Taylor James Stacey
Published: March 2003

Although there continues to be a chronic shortage of transplant organs the suggestion that we should try to alleviate it through allowing a current market in them continues to be morally condemned, usually on the grounds that such a market would undermine the autonomy of those who would participate in it as vendors. Against this objection Gerald Dworkin has argued that such markets would enhance the autonomy of the vendors through providing them with more options, thus enabling them to exercise a greater degree of control over their bodies. Paul Hughes and T. L. Zutlevics have recently criticized Dworkin's argument, arguing that the option to sell an organ is unusual in that it is an autonomy–undermining “constraining option” whose presence in a person's choice set is likely to undermine her autonomy rather than enhance it. I argue that although Hughes’ and Zutlevics’ arguments are both innovative and persuasive they are seriously flawed — and that allowing a market in human organs is more likely to enhance vendor autonomy than diminish it. Thus, given that autonomy is the preeminent value in contemporary medical ethics this provides a strong prima facie case for recognizing the moral legitimacy of such markets.
The Effectiveness of an Initial Teacher Training Partnership in Preparing Students to Teach Art in the Primary School
Authors: Green Linda , Mitchell Robin
Published: March 2003

Recent government reform of initial teacher education has increased teachers’ responsibility for training students in schools, bringing about some fundamental changes in the professional relationship between the schools, higher education institutions (HEIs), teachers and students. This paper reports on primary undergraduate student teachers’ and their class teachers’ perceptions of school‐based training to teach art. Class teachers were interviewed about their preparedness to train students and questionnaires and interviews were used to gauge students’ views of the effectiveness of university‐based courses and the support given to them by teachers. The findings indicate that teachers were able to support students in matters of classroom management and resources but that they were mostly unable to assist them in developing subject knowledge and understanding of art teaching and learning. This raises concerns about teachers’ subject knowledge and their confidence in training students. Our findings suggest that there is significant room for improvement in the partnership arrangements between schools and HEIs in order to better support students’ teaching of art.
Thoughts on a Relevant Art Curriculum for the 21st Century
Authors: Dash Paul
Published: March 2003

We have something in photography that is called a zone system . . . the zone system is completely constructed around what makes white people look best. It is our system and our theory – photo theory – for understanding what a good print is, and it is based on white skin. So the very base of photography and the way that photography has been developed in the West as a science, because that’s what most of it is, is based on ideas of whiteness. What would have happened, for instance, if photography, had been developed in Japan? The images would look very different, and what is theoretically impossible or even practically acceptable would be very, very different as well. [Carrie Mae Weems in conversation with bell hooks, Art on my Mind. pp. 91–92]

We face as a nation the deep, profoundly perturbed and perturbing question of our relationship to others – other cultures, states, histories, experiences, traditions, peoples, destinies. There is no Archimedian point beyond the question from which to answer it; there is no advantage outside the actuality of relationships among cultures, among us and others; no one has the epistemological privilege of somehow judging, evaluating, and interpreting the world free from the encumbering interests and engagements of the ongoing relationships themselves. [Ibid. p. 65]
After the Public Realm: Spaces of Representation, Transition and Plurality
Authors: Miles Malcolm
Published: March 2003

This essay questions the privileging of the design of public over domestic spaces and buildings in architecture and urban design, and their education, and the identification of public space with a public realm seen as the location of democracy. It cites the case made by Doreen Massey that the division of public and private realms is gendered, allowing men the freedom of public affairs whilst confining women to domesticity; and argues that a dualism of public and private space ignores a third area of transitional spaces which affect patterns of urban sociation. The case of redevelopment in El Raval, Barcelona, demonstrates that public space may be, today, part of an anti‐democratic strategy of gentrification. But, if public space constructs a gendered public realm as imposition, there remains, as Hannah Arendt contends, a need for locations of social mixing in which difference is visible. What, if not public space, enables this?
Consistency of UK Pension Fund Investment Performance
Authors: Brown Gavin , Draper Paul , McKenzie Eddie
Published: March 2003

Transition matrix techniques are used to relate the past and present performance of pension fund portfolios. In particular, funds are ranked to study the tendency of portfolios to remain in the same quartile of the ranking as they were in the previous period. For raw returns, funds in both of the top quartiles are found to be more likely to remain in the same quartile than would be expected by chance. This result can be taken as limited evidence for the consistency of performance. Similar systemic effects are observed on a risk‐adjusted basis. There appears to be clear evidence that some fund managers can offer a degree of consistent good performance.
Timeliness of Reporting and Earnings Information Transfers
Authors: Han Jerry C.Y. , Wild John J.
Published: March 2003

This study examines earnings timeliness and its effect on earnings information transfers. Empirical analyses focus on a sample of approximately fifteen hundred earnings reports and nearly four thousand information transfers. The principal findings are: (1) earlier earnings releases yield negative information transfers, (2) earnings releases yield negative (nominal) information transfers to firms that previously (subsequently) release their earnings reports, and (3) earlier earnings releases yield negative information transfers to firms that have not yet disclosed earnings. These findings show that the timing of earnings reports has significant and far‐reaching economic consequences.
Strategic Auditor Behavior and Going‐Concern Decisions
Authors: Matsumura Ella Mae , Subramanyam K.R. , Tucker Robert R.
Published: March 2003

This paper analyzes a game‐theoretic model in which a client can potentially avoid a going‐concern opinion and its self‐fulfilling prophecy by switching auditors. Incumbent auditors are less willing to express a going‐concern opinion the more credible the client's threat of dismissal and the stronger the self‐fulfilling prophecy effect. Similarly, the client is more willing to switch auditors the more likely it is that auditors' reporting judgments will differ and the stronger the self‐fulfilling prophecy effect. Further, with greater noise in the auditor's forecast of client viability, the auditor tends to express fewer going‐concern opinions.
A Description and Market Analysis of Write‐off Announcements
Authors: Bunsis Howard
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the stock market reaction to write‐off announcements. The increasing prevalence of write‐offs over the last decade has lead the Financial Accounting Standards Board to issue new guidelines on the accounting for write‐offs, and there has been much discussion about the stock market reaction to these types of announcements. By focusing on the expected cash flow implications of the different types of write‐off announcements, this paper documents that the stock price reaction to write‐off announcements is associated with the expected cash flow implications of the events surrounding the write‐off.
Usefulness of Value Added and Abnormal Economic Economic Earnings: An Empirical Examination
Authors: Bao Ben‐Hsien , Bao Da‐Hsien
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the usefulness of two alternative measures of performance: value added and abnormal economic earnings. Using earnings as the benchmark, firm value analysis, levels analysis, and changes analysis were performed to evaluate their explanatory power. Results show that value added is a statistically significant variable; its explanatory power is higher than that of earnings. Abnormal economic earnings, however, are not a significant variable.
Intraday Empirical Regularities in Interest Rate and Equity Index Futures Markets, and the Effect of Macroeconomic Announcements
Authors: Buckle M. , Ap Gwilym O. , Thomas S.H. , Woodhams M.S.
Published: March 2003

This paper focuses on the intraday behaviour of returns, volatility, volume and price reversals for the Short Sterling interest rate and FTSE100 stock index futures contracts traded on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). It also examines the effect of scheduled macroeconomic announcements and interest rate changes on the intraday behaviour of the variables of interest. We find clear differences and similarities with US studies and between the interest rate and equity contracts, which have important theoretical implications. This new evidence helps discriminate between the theories seeking to explain these intraday patterns.
Arbitrage‐Free Valuation of Exhaustible Resource Firms
Authors: Lehocky Milan , Paxson Dean A.
Published: March 2003

We provide an arbitrage‐free valuation of exhaustible resource firms through extending the Gibson and Schwartz (1990) model and also the Jamshidian and Fein (1990) solution to valuing an entire petroleum firm based on quoted oil futures. Our solutions are compared to accounting, traditional finance and to stockmarket valuations on a daily basis. An alternative expression of the valuations relative to stockmarket prices is in terms of the time varying implied ‘market price’ of convenience yield risk. Initial illustrations show that the implied convenience yield risk is not necessarily consistent between stockmarket and derivative market participants. Finally, we calculate the sensitivities of petroleum firm values to changes in oil prices, the convenience yield observable on NYMEX, and oil price volatilities. These partial derivatives show some of the complexities in the dynamic hedging process of using the contingent claims approach to valuing (and hedging) real assets.
The Variability of Earnings and Non‐Earnings Information and Earnings Prediction
Authors: Shroff Pervin K.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the performance of a ‘composite’ model of earnings prediction that integrates current earnings and current price as predictors of next year's earnings. The results show that current earnings (current price) play a key role in predicting future earnings when the ratio of earnings variance to price variance is low (high). The composite model is superior to univariate time‐series models in out‐of‐sample predictive accuracy for the overall sample, and is substantially so for the group of firms with a high ratio of earnings variance to price variance.
An Analytical Confidence Interval for the Treynor Index: Formula, Conditions and Properties
Authors: Morey Matthew R. , Morey Richard C.
Published: March 2003

The Treynor index, a well‐known, widely‐used measure of portfolio performance, is the ratio of the mean excess rate of return of the portfolio to the portfolio's beta. We derive an analytical formula that is designed to yield rigorous confidence intervals on the index. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the Treynor index to be statistically different from zero, are provided. We illustrate our approach with detailed examples and include simulations to help analysts choose the number of periods to study. Finally, some interesting properties of the interval and some sensitivity results are provided.