bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Text and Simultext: Borrowing Claudian in Seventeenth‐Century Germany (A Case from the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft)
Authors: Reinhart Max
Published: March 2003

The Latin political pamphlet Aulaea Romana (Roman Tapestries), written by an anonymous member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in 1642, provides a unique textual model of what may be called ‘simultext’. This study belongs to a current trend in early modern German narrative theory to discover and investigate ‘intertextual’ strategies employed by early modern German writers. In simultexts, the referential technique differs from that in rhetorical texts, which are read as existing in a linear‐chronological relationship (‘Nacheinander’). The simultext arrangement blurs traditional genre boundaries by setting texts in a vertical simultaneous relationship (‘Nebeneinander’), which causes them to be read in a manner ordinarily reserved for visual artifacts. Borrowings from Claudian – one of the most‐quoted ancient authorities in the Renaissance – constitute the first level of reference throughout Aulaea Romana. His high visibility in this work from the Reformed court at Anhalt‐Kö then suggests that German scholars (such as Caspar von Barth, editor of Claudian’s works) had been successful in their appropriation of the pagan Claudian as a new (Protestant) Christian authority for an age in crisis.
Lessing’s Templars and the Reform of German Freemasonry
Authors: Batley Edward M.
Published: March 2003

The figure of the Templar plays an important part in two of Lessing’s later works, Ernst und Falk: Gespräche fü r Freimaurer and Nathan der Weise. His references in the first of these to English freemasonry, and to the role of Sir Christopher Wren in making the lodges more accessible and thus preparing the ground for the constitution of the Grand Lodge of London in 1717, contrast sharply with his description of the corrupt practices of the Scottish Lodges in Germany which believed the Templars to have been their predecessors. This negative image of the Templars is complemented by the positive one of the ‘Tempelherr’ in Nathan, whose characterisation is drawn from the early years of their existence around 1118, almost thirty years before they too succumbed to the same kind of corruption as the Scottish Lodges. Ferdinand I, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, Grand Master of the Scottish system throughout Germany, was the political force which brought about the reform of German freemasonry. As a result, the Wilhelmsbad Convention of freemasons, which met in 1782, approved a decision to abolish the Scottish Lodges. This article examines Lessing’s treatment of the Templar image as an integral part of his contribution to the process of masonic reform in Germany.
Placing Droste’s Ledwina: ‘Jugendwerk’ or ‘Gescheiterte Frauenliteratur’?
Authors: Tully Carol
Published: March 2003

This article is a reassessment of Annette von Droste‐Hülshoff’s novel fragment Ledwina. The text is approached from a feminist perspective in an attempt to place it within the context of early feminist social criticism. Droste’s text is identified as an example of specifically feminine autobiography, or autogynography. The discussion begins with a brief examination of the narrative strategies employed by women writers in the drive for acceptance in nineteenth‐century literary circles. Two strategies are identified: that of ‘manly writing’ and the ‘ideology of influence’. Both strategies can be found in Droste’s later works and are seen to deny the feminine voice. It is then suggested that Ledwina, in contrast to Droste’s other prose works, does in fact seek to create a feminine voice. This is achieved by means of focalisation through female characters and the creation of a Romantic heroine. The attempt to create a feminine voice is seen to have failed and possible reasons for this are put forward. The crux of this failure is seen to be Droste’s vehement attack on prevailing patriarchal social structures through the depiction of the gender‐ based dichotomy of positive sisterhood/negative brotherhood. The text is ultimately seen to fail due to the inability of the writer to identify a suitable, that is to say, socially acceptable strategy to voice her social criticism.
‘Die Wirklichkeit ist Anders’: Ida Pfeiffer’s Visit to China 1847
Authors: Howe Patricia
Published: March 2003

For the Austrian traveller Ida Pfeiffer, visiting China in the aftermath of the First Opium War, the tension between East and West jeopardises freedom and safety. In Eine Frauenfahrt um die Welt, she constructs and re‐constructs both the reality of China and her own identity as a traveller. Her construction of the reality of China and of her own situation emerges from the ambivalence of her own position within the discourses of patriarchy, gender, class and colonialism. Although she claims only to be a truthful observer, her narrative shows that she adopts narrative strategies familiar from earlier travel writing, mainly by men. Her experience challenges these strategies and forces her to examine received views of China and the Chinese. Chinese hostility to foreigners, especially to women, shows her that the exotic ‘other’ resists and resents appropriation and this resistance places her in an intense form of the dependency from which women travellers are trying to escape. Although she is inevitably implicated in Western activity in the East, her humane sympathy and scepticism transcend colonialist attitudes. Finally her departure from China allows her to embrace the provisional stance of the traveller whose identity and opinions change with every move.
Innocence and the Language of the Body in Discourses of the ‘Jahrhundertwende’
Authors: Grant Alyth F
Published: March 2003

This article discusses the status of innocence as a precept governing the behaviour of middle‐class girls at the ‘Jahrhundertwende’ by examining a range of discourses of the period – lexical definitions, etiquette manuals, sociological and feminist discussion of the nature of femininity, and fictional texts by women writers. It argues that the increasing awareness of the unviability of the precept is mirrored in a tendency to externalise virtue, i.e. to judge an inner moral state by ‘reading the body’. The language of the body serves as text when to speak of sexuality is still a taboo. Further, the focus on the female body can be seen as intrinsic to the sexual power struggle: the denial of the right of young women to sexual knowledge is symptomatic of the male desire to deprive women in general of control of their bodies. Hence, although the precept of innocence was obviously not viable, it still held an important place in the discourses of the time. In discussing the dress and the rules for comportment that confine their bodies, and in ironically subverting literary images, women fought for the right to self‐determination and a meaningful place in society.
Literary Heritage in the ‘Clowns‐Liedertheater’ of Wenzel and Mensching
Authors: Robb David
Published: March 2003

Hans‐Eckardt Wenzel and Steffen Mensching are two highly acclaimed East German poets who together play the clowns ‘Weh’ and ‘Meh’ in a musical and literary cabaret act which has successfully spanned two political systems. They achieved fame in the 1980s with satirical productions such as the Hammer=Rehwü and the Da Da eR clowns’ series. Due to the heightened sensitivity surrounding the GDR public stage they decided to abandon singing their own lyrics and to express themselves via texts from poets of the literary ‘Erbe’. Using a technique of musical and theatrical disruption, they constructed montages from texts by, for example, Goethe, Hölderlin and Heine, highlighting where these ironically clashed with the ideological rhetoric of the GDR state. This literary montage approach has also served them well in the 1990s. Wenzel and Mensching’s Aufenthalt in der Hölle, inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s Une Saison en Enfer, reflects the disorientation of the early years of unification and forms a clownesque account of the conflicts of a new society of winners and losers.
July Days in Skovsbostrand: Brecht, Benjamin and Antiquity
Authors: Phelan Anthony
Published: March 2003

It is common to stress intellectual differences between Brecht and Benjamin. However, Benjamin’s visits to Brecht in Denmark provided the occasion for productive critical exchanges. This paper identifies significant common ground in the analysis of history the two undertake in the face of fascism. Taking a cue from their understanding of chronicle history, a common dialectical view of temporality is suggested in Benjamin’s essays on the modernism of Kafka and Kraus and Brecht’s exile poetry. The sense that historical understanding requires an imaginative dislocation is central in Brecht’s responses to Benjamin’s study of Baudelaire. A careful reading of Brecht’s notes on Baudelaire, as well as on Benjamin’s book‐project,makes possible a reconstruction of their debate. Baudelaire’s ‘Les petites vieilles’ focusses their views of the relationship between antiquity and modernity. While Benjamin reads there the modern artist’s resignation, Brecht sees parallels with the false classicism of the Nazi spectacle and its petty bourgeois audience. The ‘Parzellenbauer’ from Der achtzehnte Brumaire shows Brecht reflecting on similar issues within a similar historical dynamic in his novel on Julius Caesar and Caesarism, and thus effectively doubling the explanatory force of the relationship between antiquity and modernity which fascinated Benjamin.
‘Wer Jetzt Schwarzweiss Malt, Hat Keine Ahnung’: Friedrich Christian Delius's Die Birnen von Ribbeck and the Predicament of ‘Wendeliteratur’
Authors: Von Oppen Karoline
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with the reception of one of the earliest fictional responses to German unification. In the early 1990s Die Birnen von Ribbeck by the West German author Friedrich Christian Delius was widely interpreted as an attempt to give a voice to East German villagers after the fall of the Wall, and was dismissed as another example of West German colonisation. I offer an alternative reading of the text which focuses on Delius's critique of the unification process and his deconstruction of the colonial metaphor so prevalent in this period. Delius himself, however, subsequently accepts the critics' reductive reading of his work, and retrospectively redefines his own text as an ethnographic monograph. In doing so he abdicates responsibility for the criticism contained in his text. The predicament of ‘Wendeliteratur’ is most evident in this study.
Von der Theodizee‐Krise zur ästhetischen Anthropodizee: Literarische Modernität in Romanen der Aufklärung
Authors: Krause Frank
Published: March 2003

Eine Reihe von Romanen der Aufklärung – Johann Gottfried Schnabels Wunderliche Fata einiger See‐Fahrer, Karl Philipp Moritz’Anton Reiser und Andreas Hartknopf sowie Christoph Martin Wielands Geschichte des Agathon– bemüht sich, religiös fundierte Hoffnungen auf diesseitigen Tugendlohn zu verteidigen. Diese Hoffnungen lassen sich weder im Verweis auf eine vernünftige Ordnung der faktischen Natur rechtfertigen noch mithilfe religiöser Gründe aufs Jenseits vertrösten: Die literarische Darstellung des empirisch wahrscheinlichen, indessen unverschuldeten Unglücks der Tugendhaften problematisiert teils implizit, teils explizit den Glauben an eine metaphysische Rechtfertigung der empirischen Ordnung. Statt dessen legitimieren die Romane innerweltliche Glücksansprüche der Tugend als Ausdruck einer rationalen Bedürfnisnatur, der seine Legitimität aus den ästhetischen Qualitäten seiner sinnenfälligen Erscheinungsform bezieht. Das Ästhetische wird damit zu einer eigenständigen – und insofern auf die literarische Moderne vorausweisenden – Autorität der Legitimation zwanglos anerkennungs‐würdigen Sinns, der sich der zureichenden Rechtfertigung durch reflektierende Vernunft und religiöse Überlieferung entzieht. Dieser Zusammenhang zwischen der Theodizeekrise und der Autonomie des Ästhetischen in Romanen der Aufklärung ist bislang nicht deutlich genug herausgearbeitet worden – bei allem Interesse der jüngeren Forschung an der Modernität aufgeklärter Literatur und an der Theodizee‐Problematik im Aufklärungsroman.
Continuity and Change in GDR Cinema Programming Policy 1979–1989: the Case of the American Science Fiction Import
Authors: Stott Rosemary
Published: March 2003

This article explores cinema programming policy with regard to the American film import in the last decade of the GDR. Taking the science fiction film as a case‐study, the mechanisms of censorship scrutiny of western imports in the GDR are examined on the basis of interviews with officials employed by the ‘Hauptverwaltung Film’ in the Ministry of Culture as well as the documents they produced. Prior to the decade under consideration, the science fiction genre had only been represented in GDR cinemas by indigenous productions and imports from other Eastern Bloc countries. Their designation as ‘utopische Filme’ was representative of the fact that these films were clearly demarcated from their western equivalents. The consideration and subsequent import of the American science fiction film would appear to suggest that there was a shift in policy towards the western import film. A close examination of the science fiction films’ distribution history confirms this in part, although it is concluded that the individual films do not represent a significant departure from the established cinema culture norms.
Representations of East German Masculinity in Hannes Stöhr’s Berlin is in Germany and Andreas Kleinert’s Wege in die Nacht
Authors: Clarke David
Published: March 2003

Given that, at least in economic terms, the women of the former GDR are often described as the ‘losers’ of the unification process, it may seem surprising that the two films examined in this article should focus on the difficulties of men in coming to terms with the process of social transformation which followed the ‘Wende’ in the new federal states. Berlin is in Germany (2001), by the West German born Hannes Stöhr, and Wege in die Nacht (1999), by East German director Andreas Kleinert, both portray the difficulties of East German men in maintaining a masculine identity in the unified Germany. However, in Stöhr’s film the GDR regime is shown to be responsible for the male protagonist’s initial loss of masculine authority, which the capitalism of the unified Germany ultimately allows him to regain. Kleinert’s film, however, portrays its central figure as a representative of a specifically East German model of masculinity which is now being undermined by the capitalist system. Whilst these films recall to an extent the crises of masculinity which accompanied the end of the First and Second World Wars, they reflect specifically on the process of ‘innere Einheit’ as the take–over of one patriarchal social order by another.
The Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union Committee System
Authors: Rhinard Mark
Published: March 2003

This article investigates both the operation and the democratic legitimacy of the European Union committee system. This vast but rarely studied system is an important site of European governance, exercising an increasing amount of policy responsibility while also providing the essential arenas necessary for supranational problem solving. Despite their contribution to the success of the “European project,” committees are increasingly coming under attack, notably for their lack of democratic credentials. The article employs original empirical research based on interviews and internal documentary evidence to answer a timely question: does the EU committee system strike an appropriate balance between the values of system effectiveness and democratic legitimacy? Following the application of a set of democratic principles to EU committees, the article finds that a poor balance has been struck between effectiveness and democracy. The article concludes with some operational suggestions for improving this balance in the short‐to‐medium term.
Lockbox Government: Segregated Funding Strategies and the Decline of Governmental Flexibility
Authors: Roberts Alasdair
Published: March 2003

Proponents of “reinvention” assert that it will produce governments that are more agile, better able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions, and able to produce public services at much lower cost. However, attempts to make government “work better and cost less” have had limited success. Policy‐makers have consequently invested their creative energy in another class of institutional innovations: segregated funding strategies, which protect agencies and programs from the impact of fiscal restraint by excluding them from normal budgeting processes. The proliferation of budget “lockboxes” may actually introduce new rigidities into the public sector and erode democratic influence in policy‐making. On the other hand, there may be some circumstances in which these devices can be justified as a method of ensuring that critical long‐run interests receive appropriate attention.
The New Quality Assurance Arrangements in England and Wales
Authors: Brown Roger
Published: March 2003

A new national quality assurance agency is about to commence operations. This article looks at the background to the new agency and at its immediate agenda, in which the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (‘The Dearing Committee’ are likely to bulk large. The article suggests a number of issues which the new agency will need to resolve if it is to prove more durable than its predecessors, the Higher Education Quality Council and the Quality Assessment Divisions of the English and Welsh Higher Education Funding Councils.
Learning and Earning: Measuring ‘Rates of Return’ Among Mature Graduates from Part‐time Distance Courses
Authors: Woodley Alan , Simpson Claire
Published: March 2003

This paper develops a method for tracking changes in the earnings of Open University graduates and for examining the extent to which such changes differ from national trends. The preliminary findings suggest that Open University graduates do indeed achieve relative financial gains and some attempts are made to identify where these increases are most commonly found.
Markers of ‘Authentic Place’? The Significance of Degrees, Awards and Qualifications in the Analysis of Higher Education Systems
Authors: Wright Peter W.G.
Published: March 2003

Although the power to award degrees lies at the heart of the concept of a university, neither it nor degrees themselves have attracted much scholarly attention.

The paper contends that award‐conferment provides an interface of major importance between higher education and its environment; and that the awards themselves can serve as rich and informative (yet often coded) indicators of the relationship between the two.

For awards to be seen in this way, the paper argues, two conditions are required: the conceptual independence of awards in their own right has to be recognised as entities distinct from courses of study; and instrumentalist views have to be sufficiently prevalent to make it meaningful to treat an award as specifying a set of purposes and intended outcomes (that is to say, as an ‘end’potentially achievable by various ‘means’). These conditions, it is suggested, only tend to arise in particular social circumstances, specifically those of mass higher education.

Having illustrated these points by considering certain changes of usage in the terms used for higher education awards (degree, qualification, etc), the paper concludes with a tentative sketch of a framework by which to analyse the various ways in which awards might contribute to the workings of HE as a system.
The Welsh Credit Vision
Authors: Reynolds Sonia
Published: March 2003

The paper sets out the developing vision of a unified credit and qualification framework, within the context of devolution in Wales. It outlines the current agenda of the National Assembly for Wales in terms of education and training and describes the effects in relation to credit developments of the newly emerging structures for education and training provision. The potential role for the credit‐based framework in facilitating flexible learning provision through underpinning administration of learning as well as curriculum developments is discussed. In addition, a brief history of credit development in Wales since the early ’90s is provided and a description of how this has laid the foundations for the current Credit and Qualification Framework for Wales Project.
University Admissions: Empowering the Applicant
Authors: Price Christopher
Published: March 2003

There are three sets of ‘primary stakeholders’ in the university entrance process: academics, school teachers and applicant students. This process is currently subject to intense media interest, scrutiny by parliament and new Government policies calculated to influence the social composition of higher education. One instrument of potential student empowerment is currently missing from this process: Post Qualification Application (PQA). At present, ‘conditional offers’ of places are made by universities before examination results are known, with school teachers estimating grades in advance. Students have to make choices about the university to which they aspire before they know their grades. A different set of arrangements, under which applications would only be made after grades are known, might give students greater confidence to make appropriate choices. PQA has been supported by UCAS, the body which facilitates admissions, and by four enquiries over the past nine years, including a parliamentary select committee and a study of the organisation of the school year. If PQA became feasible, it could help alter the power exchange in the higher education ‘market’ in favour of the student and complement current government higher education priorities for recruiting more students and removing historic distortions in the social composition of universities.
Governance in Higher Education Corporations: A Consideration of the Constitution Created by the 1992 Act
Authors: Knight Michael
Published: March 2003

This article argues that the constitutions of higher education corporations created by the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act are flawed. It argues that the constitutions were created with insufficient regard both for precedents for the creation of universities and also for emerging problems and principles of corporate governance. This resulted in a model of governance which maximised the role of the vice–chancellor or chief executive and ‘independent members’ of governing bodies, limited the participation of staff and students, and allocated a restricted role to academic boards. This article examines a number of the problems arising from inadequacies in governance in a number of post–1992 universities and their similarity with problems arising in further education colleges who shared common governance arrangements from the 1992 Act. This article compares these problems with governance problems in Australian universities and concludes that there is a need to reform the governance arrangements created by the 1992 Act.
The Opening of Higher Education to Women in Nineteenth Century England: ‘Unexpected Revolution’ or Inevitable Change?
Authors: Raftery Deirdre
Published: March 2003

The nineteenth century movement to open higher education to women in England has been the subject of much scholarship in the last two decades. Studies of individual colleges have added to the corpus of research on how women were provided with formal higher education at this time. However, scholars offer differing theories as to why radical changes in the higher education of women took place when they did. This paper offers a synthesis of these various theories, and challenges the general perception that the opening of higher education to women was an ‘unexpected revolution’ (Bryant, 1987).
Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: A Review of The Issues
Authors: Bebbington Diane
Published: March 2003

Concern continues to be expressed over women’s difficulties in advancing their careers as academic scientists. Though some sciences may be numerically ‘feminised’, few women reach the upper echelons of science. Scant attention has been paid to issues of the progression of women from non–traditional backgrounds, such as those from ethnic minorities, who may be particularly disadvantaged. What research there is indicates a variation between the sciences in terms of women’s careers and patterns that are replicated globally. Explanations are now focusing on how the scientific culture itself acts as a barrier to women rather than on the notion that women themselves lack the requisite skills. The Athena Project is a policy response to this issue. Future research and policy needs to look more closely at differences between the sciences, how women from diverse backgrounds experience the academic labour market and epistemological connections between employment and engagement with the scientific agenda.
Crises of Confidence: Attitudes of the Domestic Bankers Towards the Credit Problem in Mexico
Authors: Mayer Jean F. , Woodside Kenneth
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the Mexican banks’ loan policies since 1995. Based on a series of interviews, we find that Mexico’s financial system is currently experiencing two crises. First, banks lack confidence in the business practices of small and medium size enterprises. This negative attitude is reinforced by the bankers’ perception of a culture of non‐repayment. Banks also loan little to big businesses, which rely on the international money market. Second, bankers believe small and medium size business owners lack confidence in the Mexican financial system. Consequently, loan activities are down significantly. Socio‐economic growth and development in Mexico will depend upon a profound change in structures, practices and attitudes surrounding loan activities.
Low Intensity Democracies: Latin America in the Post‐dictatorial Era
Authors: Kruit Dirk
Published: March 2003

In the context of the Cold War and accompanied by the doctrines of National Security, authoritarian and often repressive military or civil‐military regimes emerged in a number of Latin American countries. However, military regimes were not the only ones contributing to the formation of societies mutilated by fear and terror. During the last four decades, the continent became affected by a cycle of violence that involved various armed actors, from the armed forces to the guerrilla, from the paramilitaries to the narcotics‐trafficking Mafia, or from the committees of self‐defence to the ‘common’ criminals. This article focuses on the persistence of military influence and organised political violence more general in post‐authoritarian and indeed post‐Cold War Latin America. After briefly reviewing the historical legacy of so‐called ‘political armies’ in the region as a whole, I offer an assessment of the consequences of this legacy for the current agenda of democratic consolidation in Latin America. Two possible scenarios are examined: that of fairly progressive democratisation and civilianisation of politics, and that of the re‐emergence of violence despite the formal rule of democracy. In the latter scenario, de facto harsh and violent regimes collide with a growing array of rival perpetrators of political and other forms of organised violence.
The Neoliberal Inheritance: Agrarian Policy and Rural Differentiation in Democratic Chile
Authors: Murray Warwick E.
Published: March 2003

This paper critically appraises the core philosophies of the three Concertación governments with respect to agrarian change and rural restructuring in Chile since 1990. It identifies common ideological ground in the successive administrations' perspectives on the nature and role of agriculture in the wider economy, arguing that a ‘neoliberal inheritance» has pervaded each. In drawing on primary and secondary data from the non‐traditional fruit export sector the paper challenges the concept of reconversión as a panacea for rural under‐development and grower failure. Given the simultaneously regionalising and globalising context which frames the Chilean transition, the paper highlights the tough choices that face policy makers at the current time. Developmental dilemmas are increasing in the sector, given the stated desire of the Concertación governments to move beyond pure, efficiency‐driven, neoliberalism towards the incorporation of equity and sustainability goals. After ten years of democratic transition it is timely to ask if policy shows any signs of moving beyond reconversión.
The role of migrant networks in linking local labour markets: the case of Asian Indian migration to New York and London
Authors: Poros Maritsa V.
Published: March 2003

Social networks have long been identified as crucial to migration flows and the economic behaviour of immigrants. Much of the literature on international migration and economic sociology specifically focuses on the role of interpersonal ties in influencing migration and economic action, such as finding employment. Using the case of Gujarati Indian migration to New York and London, the life histories of these immigrants illustrate that specific configurations of network ties result in different migration flows and occupational outcomes. These configurations include organizational, composite, and interpersonal ties that link local labour markets transnationally and channel immigrants to particular destinations and into particular occupations. The findings clarify the role and meaning of networks as they affect different types of migration and the occupational outcomes of migrants. The prominence of these network mechanisms also challenges the role of human capital in producing distinct outcomes for immigrants.
Psychiatric Examinations on Handcuffed Convicts in Brazil: Ethical Concerns
Authors: Filho Elias Abdalla , Garrafa Volnei
Published: March 2003

Psychiatric examinations in official institutions of the Brazilian government include examinations of individual convicts – some of whom are highly dangerous – carried out by court decision. These individuals are taken handcuffed under police escort from penitentiaries to the examination site. In most Brazilian states, medical examiners or experts adopt the basic procedure of asking the police officers to remove the handcuffs from the convict for the examination to be carried out. This article analyzes, from the bioethical standpoint, the behavior of 49 forensic psychiatrists in eight Brazilian states in relation to procedures adopted as protection measures against any possible danger posed by their examinees. In the context of a developing country, where sophisticated protection means are not available, the practice of keeping convicts handcuffed during such examinations is compared to other measures and more advisable alternatives are discussed from the ethical standpoint. Considering the dilemma between showing minimum respect for the autonomy of examinees and ensuring the security of examiners, the need to adopt equitable procedures based on the recognition of the different needs of examiners and examinees is addressed.
The Injustice of Unsafe Motherhood
Authors: Cook Rebecca J. , Dickens Bernard M.
Published: March 2003

This paper presents an overview of the dimensions of unsafe motherhood, contrasting data from economically developed countries with some from developing countries. It addresses many common factors that shape unsafe motherhood, identifying medical, health system and societal causes, including women's powerlessness over their reproductive lives in particular as a feature of their dependent status in general. Drawing on perceptions of Jonathan Mann, it focuses on public health dimensions of maternity risks, and equates the role of bioethics in conscientious medical care to that of human rights in public health care. The microethics of medical care translate into the macroethics of public health, but the transition compels some compromise of personal autonomy, a key feature of Western bioethics, in favour of societal analysis. Religiously‐based morality is seen to have shaped laws that contribute to unsafe motherhood. Now reformed in former colonizing countries of Europe, many such laws remain in effect in countries that emerged from colonial domination. UN conferences have defined the concept of ‘reproductive health’ as one that supports women's reproductive self‐determination, but restrictive abortion laws and practices epitomize the unjust constraints to which many women remain subject, resulting in their unsafe motherhood. Pregnant women can be legally compelled to give the resources of their bodies to the support of others, while fathers are not legally compellable to provide, for instance, bone‐marrow or blood donations for their children's survival. Women's unjust legal, political, economic and social powerlessness explains much unsafe motherhood and maternal mortality and morbidity.
The Limits of Conscientious Objection to Abortion in the Developing World
Authors: Van Bogaert Louis–Jaqcues
Published: March 2003

The South African Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996 gives women the right to voluntary abortion on request. The reality factor, however, is that five years later there are still more ‘technically illegal’ abortions than legal ones. Amongst other factors, one of the main obstacles to access to this constitutionally enshrined human right is the right to conscientious objection/refusal. Although the right to conscientious objection is also a basic human right, the case of refusal to provide abortion services on conscientious objection grounds should not be seen as absolute and inalienable, at least in the developing world. In the developed world, where referral to another service provider is for the most part accessible, a conscientious objector to abortion does not really put the abortion seeker’s life at risk. The same cannot be said in developing countries even when abortion is decriminalised. This is because referral procedures are fraught with major obstacles. Therefore, it is argued that the right to conscientious objection to abortion should be limited by the circumstances in which the request for abortion arises.
Cloning and Deliberation: Korean Consensus Conference
Authors: Kim Myung–sik
Published: March 2003

This article addresses the 2nd Korean consensus conference on cloning that was held by the Korean National commission for UNESCO in 1999. It notes that the citizens participated directly and handled the important social agenda through deliberative process. The consensus conference is another democratic form derived from preference aggregative democracy in the sense that it basically depends on public judgment of the citizens.

Compared to other models (elitist or preference aggregative), it has some advantages: 1. It can solve the problem of political legitimacy. 2. It can check the partiality of expert groups in biotechnology and ethics. 3. It enables us to make informed, responsible decisions. 4. It results in education of citizens’ preference.

However, we need to expand the deliberative model. First, we need institutional efforts on behalf of future generations because cloning relates to them. Second, we should not confine deliberation to logical argument, but expand deliberation to include the value of life which cannot be expressed in the form of argument or discourse.
Quality Protects: A Commentary on the Government's Agenda and the Evidence Base
Authors: Rushton Alan , Dance Cherilyn
Published: March 2003

Quality Protects was introduced in 1998 as the government's main initiative to improve children's social services. This review considers the aims, origins and intended effects of the policy. While applauding the attempt to improve services, attention is drawn to four areas on which progress will depend: better performance indicators; the extent and quality of research based evidence; the expansion of professional social work training and user feedback and involvement. The first of the Quality Protects objectives on promoting secure attachment is highlighted and the evidence for the current emphasis on adoption is considered. The article concludes that the extent of progress that is being made to help children and families in difficulty will need to be assessed by systematic research as well as by routine service performance indicators.
The technology of early platinum plating: a gold mask of the La Tolita culture, Ecuador
Authors: Meeks N. , La Niece S. , Estévez P.
Published: March 2003

A metallurgical study of platinum plating on a gold pendant of the La Tolita culture of northern Ecuador was carried out, using high‐magnification examination by scanning electron microscopy with analytical facilities. The plating layer was found to comprise a 25 µm thick foil of platinum grains sintered with a gold–silver alloy. The high silver content of this alloy suggests the deliberate selection of pale‐coloured, silver‐rich alluvial gold. The foil had been bonded on to the pre‐formed gold sheet by hammering and heating. It is postulated that a strip of gold sheet was plated by this method and that several pendants were cut from it.
Adapting visual methods: action research with Kampala street children
Authors: Young Lorraine , Barrett Hazel
Published: March 2003

The paper examines the use of four visual ‘action’ methods for eliciting information from street children about their interactions with the socio‐spatial environment. These methods were adapted and used to encourage child‐led activities and minimize researcher input. The advantages and constraints associated with the successful implementation of visual methods with children are examined, followed by a brief examination of the ‘real’ and ethical considerations surrounding their use. The paper concludes that visual methods allow a high level of child‐led participation in research, as well as providing a stimulus for eliciting further oral material.
Bank Interest Rate Adjustments: Are They Asymmetric?
Authors: Lim G.C.
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with the asymmetric adjustments between three Australian bank interest rates: a bank bill rate, a loan rate and a deposit rate. A multivariate asymmetric error‐correction model is applied to capture the interplay of long‐run relationships between the levels of the rates and short‐run relationships between the changes in the rates. The empirical analysis, for the sample period 1990:01–2000:04, shows that interest rate adjustments, in response to positive and negative shocks, are asymmetric in the short run, but not in the long run. In particular, the results suggest that banks adjust their loan and deposit rates, in response to a change in the bank‐bill rate, at a faster rate during periods of monetary easings (negative changes) than during periods of monetary tightenings (positive changes).
Tax Modelling
Authors: Creedy John
Published: March 2003

This paper reviews several alternative approaches to tax modelling, emphasizing the strengths and limitations of different approaches and types of model along with their potential role in rational policy analysis. The coverage is limited to models of personal direct and indirect taxes. A range of small models is considered, in which there is little population heterogeneity, and tax structures are relatively simple. Larger microsimulation models, which are based on cross‐sectional data sets and which attempt to capture much of the complexity of actual tax structures, are then discussed. The challenge presented by the need for behavioural models is examined. It is argued that there is a role for a variety of alternative models. Policy debates inevitably involve prejudices, much rhetoric and special pleading. Rational policy analysis, in which the implications of adopting a range of explicit value judgements are examined, can make a valuable contribution to such debates.
The Gender Wage Gap in Australia — The Path of Future Convergence
Authors: Kidd Michael P. , Shannon Michael
Published: March 2003

The paper attempts to project the future trend of the gender wage gap in Australia up to 2031. The empirical analysis utilises the Income Distribution Survey (1996) together with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) demographic projections. The methodology combines the ABS projections with assumptions relating to the evolution of educational attainment in order to project the future distribution of human capital skills and consequently the future size of the gender wage gap. The analysis suggests that female relative pay will continue to rise up to 2031. However, gender wage convergence will be relatively slow, with a substantial gap remaining in 2031.
State Tax and Policy Competition For Mobile Capital
Authors: Petchey Jeffrey D. , Shapiro Perry
Published: March 2003

We characterise a model in which states engage in tax and policy competition with one another to attract mobile capital. The mix of policies chosen is shown to depend on the interaction between a desire to exploit capital for the benefit of domestic residents (labour) and a net marginal externality generated by capital. It is also argued that competition between states leads to an inefficient supply and geographical distribution of capital within the domestic economy if capital markets are not fully integrated.
The Contribution of Structural Shocks to Australian Unemployment
Authors: Heaton Chris , Oslington Paul
Published: March 2003

In this paper dynamic factor analysis techniques are used to decompose changes in unemployment into industry sectoral and common components. Sectoral shocks are important, but the dominant causes of variation in unemployment are common to all industries. This is particularly the case for low–frequency fluctuations in unemployment. The pattern of the estimated sectoral shocks reflects the well–documented shift of employment from agriculture and manufacturing to services, and we find no evidence that microeconomic reform has contributed greatly to unemployment.
Equilibrium unemployment: Theory and measurement in Australia using the Phillips curve
Authors: McDonald Ian M.
Published: March 2003

This paper reviews the measurement of equilibrium unemployment in Australia using the Phillips curve. To provide a theoretical framework through which these measurement exercises can be understood, the theory of equilibrium unemployment based on wage bargaining is also described and reviewed. The paper shows how studies have moved from specifying a unique and constant equilibrium rate of unemployment to specifications which emphasise the influence of unemployment benefits, hysteresis and a range of equilibrium rates of unemployment.
Efficient Estimation and Testing of Alternative Models of Currency Futures Contracts
Authors: Sequeira John M. , McAleer Michael , Chow Ying‐Foon
Published: March 2003

An efficient systems approach is used to estimate and test two alternative models regarding the pricing of Australian dollar futures contracts traded on the International Monetary Market of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Cointegrating relationships among the Australian dollar spot and futures prices, and the US and Australian risk‐free rates of interest, suggest alternative error‐correction representations for the cost‐of‐carry model which, with appropriate zero restrictions, yields the unbiased expectations hypothesis. A structural break in the futures price series permits estimation of appropriate models for the full sample in the presence of the break, for the full sample without explicitly modelling the break, and for two separate sub‐samples created by the structural break. The restricted and unrestricted cost‐of‐carry formulations are estimated for all sample sets, the models obtained are found to be statistically adequate, and the qualitative results are reasonably robust across different sample sets for both models. On the basis of the tests of zero restrictions, the cost‐of‐carry model is found to be empirically superior to the unbiased expectations hypothesis for the four sample sets considered, regardless of the number of cointegrating relations.
Evolution of disturbed oak woodlands: the case of Mexico City’s western forest reserve
Authors: García‐Romero Arturo
Published: March 2003

Mexico City is the largest city in population and area in the world. In the last 30 years it has expanded its area westwards to include the mountains of the Sierra de las Cruces. These mountains contain the nearest forest reserve for the citizens of Mexico City. Deforestation and severe ecological degradation resulting from the destruction of the natural environment; air, water and soil pollution; and hydrological and geomorphological imbalances, limit the capacity of these areas to support forest regeneration. This study focuses on the geo‐ecology of the climax oak woodlands found in the Sierra de las Cruces. Based on morpho‐structural evidence, bioclimatic type, degree of human intervention and general geo‐ecological considerations, three territorial systems have been differentiated in which the oak woodlands exist in different climax facies: a) oak woodlands developed in very humid and cool environments located on low mountain slopes; b) disturbed oak woodlands developed in humid and cool environments located on high piedmonts; and c) highly disturbed oak woodlands developed in subhumid and temperate environments, located on low piedmonts. A comparative study of the content, structure and functional relationships of the secondary facies associated with these climax communities, allowed conclusions to be drawn on the way oak woodlands respond to human intervention, and the risky situations to which these communities are subjected, particularly the most sensitive facies that deserve immediate protection.
Spatial competition and the new governance framework in Mabibi (Maputaland): implications for development
Authors: Guyot Sylvain
Published: March 2003

The evolution of the demarcation of the political territories in South Africa has resulted in spatial competition between political structures, conservation authorities and local communities. The current multi‐governance policies are attempting to overcome the problems created by the political structures of the apartheid era – during which time the declaration of natural areas for conservation resulted in forced removals and negative perceptions of conservation. The case study of Mabibi, within the confines of the Maputaland coast, is a typical example that reflects the history of the past and the conflicts of the present.
Between a rock and a hard place: contested livelihoods in Qwaqwa National Park, South Africa
Authors: Slater Rachel
Published: March 2003

This paper examines rural livelihoods and the prospects for participatory conservation through a case study of Qwaqwa National Park (QNP) in South Africa. The park was established in 1992 in the context of South Africa’s transition to democracy, growing ecotourism in the country and global movements towards conservation involving and benefiting local people. The paper argues that the protracted conflict between park residents and management led to new patterns of livelihood activities and household formation, and resulted in material and social differentiation amongst park households. The goals of park management, with a commitment to nature conservation and ecotourism, were at odds with the livelihood practices of park residents. Conflicts arose over stocking levels, overgrazing, wood‐cutting and deforestation and over the use of other natural resources, including water and medicinal plants. The park was the site of a Rand Water project that employed many residents. Residents found themselves between a rock and a hard place as they resisted attempts by the management to reduce stocking levels and yet relied on management to gain access to sources of paid employment.