bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Procedures Documentation Ought to be Illuminative, Not Just Archival
Authors: Murtuza Athar
Published: March 2007

The article starts by comparing the original and the current status of procedures documentation, a business communication genre. Seen as merely archival afterthoughts, procedures manuals have turned into neglected tools that are rarely used even though well-written current documentation can play many useful roles. Although speculating about the possible reasons for the decline, the article does not try to trace its sources; nor does it merely advocate a greater respect for the genre. Instead, this article seeks to change the very perception of what the genre ought to be by looking not only at the end product being created but also at the process that created it. The justification for such a shift lies in the changes taking place in the global environment, in what are coming to be seen as effective management practices, and in emergent information technology. Changing the perception of how the documentation process is viewed can help make it an occasion for institutional learning. That such a shift in perception is practical is evidenced by the success of what has come to be known as process redesign. If it is possible, practical, and profitable to redesign procedures and processes, why not do the same for the process involved in their documentation?
Communication Abilities and Individual Achievement in Organizations
Authors: Zorn Theodore E. , Violanti Michelle T.
Published: March 2007

Previous research suggests that interpersonal construct system development and person-centered persuasive ability are associated with indicators of individual achievement in organizations, such as job level and upward mobility. This study sought to extend previous work by using more sensitive indicators of individual achievement and by exploring sex differences in the relationship between communication abilities and individual achievement. Communication abilities were positively and significantly associated with attainment of organizational rewards. However, the correlations were significantly weaker on the whole than those found in previous research. Few significant differences were found in abilities-achievement relationships between the three organizations included in the present study or between men and women. Differences and similarities in organizational values, particularly the degree to which the organization valued communication, may have accounted in part for the differences and similarities in the abilities-success relationships across these three organizations and in the comparison to organizations included in previous studies.
Perceptions of Social-Sexual Communication at Work as Sexually Harassing
Authors: Solomon Denise Haunani , Williams Mary Lynn Miller
Published: March 2007

We examined factors that influence observers' assessments of social-sexual messages as sexually harassing. Participants read newsletters describing coworkers and scenarios in which one employee makes a suggestive remark to another. Results indicated that (a) messages conveying sexual interest explicitly were perceived as more harassing than those conveying interest implicitly; (b) explicit sexual interest was rated as more harassing when initiators were unattractive and targets were attractive; (c) males perceived messages as less harassing than females, particularly when initiators were attractive females or sexual interest explicit; and (d) supervisors were rated as more harassing than subordinates, particularly when supervisors were male and sexual interest explicit. The discussion highlights conceptual frameworks that offer insight into how observers diagnose social-sexual comununication at work.
An Outsider within Perspective to Organizational Communication
Authors: Orbe Mark P.
Published: March 2007

Drawing from muted group and standpoint theories, this article advances an outsider within perspective describing the ways that traditionally marginalized group members communicate in mainstream organizational settings. Specifically, the author explicates the process by which different co-cultural group members (i.e., people of color, women, gay/lesbian/bisexuals, persons with disabilities) come to adopt one or more communication orientations while interacting within dominant organizations. The strength of the model presented lies in its approach to studying diversity in organizations based on the lived experiences of those traditionally situated on the margins of organizational power structures.
King's Theory of Goal Attainment as a Framework for Managed Care Implementation in a Hospital Setting
Authors: Hampton Debra C.
Published: March 2007

Implementation of nursing conceptual frameworks and theories in practice settings is essential to foster the growth and advancement of the discipline of nursing. Over the past several decades nurse educators, administrators, and clinicians have often seemed to function in isolation. Educators developed conceptual models and theories, but these frameworks were infrequently applied in practice settings. In addition, administrators used management theories as a framework for nursing practice in institutional settings, while clinicians were left to utilize the medical model and theories from other disciplines as a base to guide practice. This article focuses on how King's theory of goal attainment can serve as a nursing framework for managed care.
Considering Tomorrow: Parse's Theory-Guided Research
Authors: Bunkers Sandra Schmidt
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this nursing study, guided by Parse's human becoming theory and research methodology, was to investigate the meaning of considering tomorrow for women who arehomeless. This is the first study to explore the newly conceptualized health phenomenon of considering tomorrow; thus, this research provides new knowledge for nursing and expands Parse's theory in relation to considering tomorrow, health, and quality of life. Through dialogical engagements with 10 women who were homeless and the process of extraction-synthesis, the researcher generated the structure of considering tomorrow as contemplating desired endeavors in longing for the cherished, while intimate alliances with isolating distance emerge, as resilient endurance surfaces amid disturbing unsureness. Conceptual integration led to a theoretical structure in which considering tomorrow is imaging the valuing in the connecting-separating of originating.
Finding the Culprit: Federal Policy and Teacher Education
Authors: Earley Penelope M.
Published: March 2007

Attention to teacher preparation has long been part of the federal portfolio of programs. This article reviews federal teacher education policy in the second half of the 20th century and concludes that resulting legislation generally has been driven by a need to identify a culprit when schools do not meet public expectations. This framework is used to consider reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in 1998 and the impact on that reauthorization of the National Commission on Teaching & America 's Future. The effect of policies based on competition as a strategy to improve teacher education is considered.
Promoting Inquiry-Based Instructional Practice: The Longitudinal Impact of Professional Development in the Context of Systemic Reform
Authors: Supovitz Jonathan A. , Mayer Daniel P. , Kahle Jane B.
Published: March 2007

Over the past decade, national and state policy makers have wagered heavily on systemically reforming science and mathematics education through inquiry-based instructional approaches. This study examines the impact in one state of intensive science and mathematics professional development for teachers in the context of statewide systemic reform. Based on a unique longitudinal data set, the study models the impact of professional development on teachers' attitudes toward inquiry-based instruction, their capacity to adopt inquiry-based teaching strategies, and their classroom use of inquiry-based instructional practices. The findings are remarkably consistent across both subjects. Teachers' attitudes, preparation, and practices all showed strong, positive, and significant growth from preprofessionai development to the following spring. Furthermore, these gains were sustained over several years following their involvement. These findings provide a promising indication that large-scale, high-quality, intensive training set within a context of standards-based systemic reform can be a powerful mechanism for sustained impact on teachers.
The Politics of Educational Policy: Urban School Reform in Unsettling Times
Authors: Carlson Dennis
Published: March 2007

This article argues that in relatively stable political periods a unifying policy discourse prevails in the state-what the author calls the hegemonic policy discourse-that represents the worldview and interests of the dominant political coalition. This policy discourse may remain basically unchanged until it is challenged by a counterhegemonic discourse based on new organizing principles and associated with the rise of a new political coalition and social movement. This general conceptual framework is applied to an analysis of urban school reform over the past several decades. The article indicates that throughout this period a hegemonic conservative discourse has constructed urban school reform issues around a "basic skills" model of the curriculum and suggests how basic skills reforms have participated in the structuring of class, race, and gender inequalities. After critiquing conservative approaches to managing the urban school crisis, the article discusses some possible organizing principles for a counterhegemonic, democratic-progressive policy discourse. In this regard it examines the contributions but also the limitations of recent liberal discourse in education, especially its concerns for higher-order thinking skills, equality of opportunity, and teacher professionalism. The article concludes by discussing the relevance of notions of workplace democratization and critical literacy and pedagogy.
A Jaundiced View of "Adequacy"in School Finance Reform
Authors: Hanushek Eric A.
Published: March 2007

Discussions of school finance have been seriously hampered by an inability to relate inputs to student performance. Because spending and resources are not closely related to student performance, discussions that concentrate on the distribution of educational inputs bear little relationship to the distribution of educational outputs. This fundamental problem makes a definition of "adequacy" in funding and resources virtually impossible. Balanced against this, problems with our schools are very important, and active policy to improve the situation is called for: The types of policies that hold the largest hope involve different incentive schemes based on student performance. Such schemes are generally not compatible with policies involving adequacy or input floors.
Patterns of Social Control in Assessment Practices in Canadian Frameworks for Accountability in Education
Authors: Mawhinney Hanne B.
Published: March 2007

This article identifies institutional patterns and modes of social control evident in assessment practices across the evaluative contexts in Canada's 10 provinces and two territories. Emergent patterns show loose linkage of provincial-level direction with classroom practice, but also assessment as an instrument of normative control, arm's-length oversight promoting system learning, and enhanced accountability and professional autonomy through process evaluation. These emergent institutional patterns suggest that assessment has become a very political and visible part of educational reform in all provinces. Despite strong provincial control over education, there is also clear evidence of a growing national agenda for accountability. Assessment has come to play an equally critical role in the provision for individual and systemic control in many educational policy frameworks. The institutional paterns reflected in changed roles, organizational forms, and technologies associated with new assessment strategies have created an intensified climate of accountability in Canadian education.
Local Educational Governance, Accountability, and Democracy in the United Kingdom
Authors: Radnor Hilary A. , Ball Stephen J. , Vincent Carol
Published: March 2007

This article reports an investigation into the links between local educational government, accountability, and democracy. Four case studies of local education authorities (LEAs) were designed to show how the LEAs were interpreting and responding to the accountability policy framework put in place by the 1988, 1992, and 1993 Education Acts. Qualitative methods were used to gather data from a range of stakeholders in settings broadly representative of political ideologies, size, location, demography, and history. Critical policy analysis was then used to identify the impact and effects of these policies in the LEAs and the broader social and societal consequences. Three emergent models of accountability enactments were found. There was considerable potential found in the current situation of cultural transformation for a politics of accountability at a local level to achieve more reciprocal relationships and communitarian forms of accountability.
Teachers Union Involvement in Educational Policy Making: Issues Raised by an In-Depth Case
Authors: Poole Wvendy L.
Published: March 2007

Existing arguments that support increased teachers union involvement in educational policy making assume that collective bargaining is the most important means, or the most legitimate means, by which teachers unions exert influence within the educational policy arena. This article provides an in-depth examination of a wide variety of traditional and emergent techniques that one teacher organization has employed during the 1990s as means of influencing provincial educational policy. The circumstances and reasoning that gave rise to specific influence techniques is included. A typology of educational policy influence techniques with their strengths and limitations is provided. The case raises issues that have important implications for governments, departments of education, and teachers unions in North American contexts.
Forensic Psychiatric Pharmacy Practice at Atascadero State Hospital
Authors: Gibler Brian , Hayes Grace , Raleigh Fred , Levenson Barbara , Heber Sheryl , Tham Ann
Published: March 2007

Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) is the nation's largest maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital. Most patients are committed under penal codes as psychiatrically unstable prisoners, mentally disordered parolees, individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity, or individuals deemed incompetent to stand trial. Pharmacists' involvement in patient care and supportive activities at ASH are varied. Direct patient care activities include attendance at interdisciplinary treatment teams, medication consultation upon request of physicians or other staff, and follow-up on adverse drug reactions. Pharmacists may also be involved in discharge planning, especially for patients on clozapine treatment. Patient medication education is provided by pharmacists through medication management classes and discharge counseling. Indirect patient care activities include verification of data entry for automation of physician orders and drug regimen review (DRR) audits. Drug Use Evaluations (DUEs) and the Annual Survey allow tracking and improvement of prescribing patterns. Committees and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) activities throughout the hospital often include pharmacist members. Teaching is another important function of the pharmacist. Pharmacology classes are given to psychiatric technician students. Drug-induced movement disorder classes are provided to new employees. Additionally, pharmacy students on clinical clerkship rotations are trained and assist in providing clinical services. Capable technicians play a key role in allowing greater emphasis of time on clinical and administrative pharmacist functions. ASH provides the somewhat unique combination of clinically-oriented pharmacist positions in a rural community.
Outcomes of a Small Group Educational Intervention for Urinary Incontinence
Authors: McFall Stephanie L. , Yerkes Adeline M. , Cowan Linda D.
Published: March 2007

Objectives:This article examines change in general and condition-specific measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL) among participants in a randomized trial of a community-based intervention for urinary incontinence (UI). Methods:Participants were randomized into intervention or wait control conditions. Participants were women aged 65 or older with urinary incontinence residing in Oklahoma. General HRQL measures included the Physical Function, Mental Health, Vitality, and Health Perceptions subscales of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form–36. Condition-specific measures included the Impact of UI and self-management strategies. Results:There were no significant group effects for the general HRQL measures. Intervention participants reported decreased Impact of UI and greater change in self-management strategies than control participants. Discussion:The intervention affected condition-specific quality of life and self-management but not general HRQL. The intervention’s impact on quality of life involves change in howthe condition is seen as impacting on life and on selection of self-management behaviors.
Educational Attainment, Continued Learning Experience, and Cognitive Function among Older Men
Authors: Wight Richard G. , Aneshensel Carol S. , Seeman Teresa E.
Published: March 2007

Objectives:This article assesses the effects of educational attainment, posteducational training experience, and occupational status on cognitive function among older men, controlling for demographic and health factors. Conditional relationships between educational attainment and factors that importantly influence cognitive function are also investigated. Methods:Data from a nationally representative sample of 1,839 older men are used to explore life-course effects of occupational and training experiences during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Results:A positive relationship is found between formal educational attainment and cognitive function, but this association is conditional on subsequent training experience, ethnicity, and symptoms of depression. Training experiences are also positively associated with cognitive function. Discussion:Continued pursuit of education and training may offer opportunities to promote cognitive function throughout the life course, especially among those with low educational attainment early in life.
Care-Related Stress
Authors: Deimling Gary T. , Bass David M. , Townsend Aloen L. , Noelker Linda S.
Published: March 2007

This research examines the role that relationship and household arrangement have in explaining the levels of care-related stress effects experienced by spouse and adult-child caregivers in shared and separate residences. Data from 180 spouse and adult-child caregivers were analyzed to identify differences in caregiver health decline, relationship strain, and activity restriction across these settings when the effects of elder impairment, caregiver age, and use of social supports are controlled. Results show that spouse and adult children in shared households experience similar levels of care-related strain. However, comparison of adult children in shared and separate households show considerable cross-setting differences in strain, with those in shared households having significantly greater activity restriction but less relationship strain. These findings have implications for the delivery of social services, specifically for targeting health monitoring, respite, and family counseling services.
A Model for Reducing the Cost of Care in VA Medical Centers that Offer Adult Day Health Care
Authors: Chapko Michael K. , Weissert William G. , Ehreth Jenifer L. , Hedrick Susan , Kelly James R.
Published: March 2007

One approach to providing cost-effective adult day health care (ADHC) services is to guide both the inputs to ADHC services and the provision of other services so that substitution for institutional services can realistically take place. This approach has been used in a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the medical efficacy and cost of ADHC in the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA). This article describes the strategies that were used to improve the cost effectiveness of ADHC during the evaluation. Cost and use estimates were developed based on the best data available from the DVA and previous research on the cost for patients' use of ADHC, nursing home, hospital, and ambulatory care. A cost workshop was attended by the ADHC managers to develop plans for controlling costs. Plans were identified that increase the likelihood that ADHC can be shown to be less costly than customary care.
Self-Management of Chronic Disease by Older Adults
Authors: Clark Noreen M. , Becker Marshall H. , Janz Nancy K. , Lorig Kate , Rakowski William , Anderson Lynda
Published: March 2007

This article summarizes the literature describing the at-home management of and psychosocial coping with five chronic diseases (heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis, and diabetes) by the general population of adults. It also reviews the literature describing self-management of these chronic diseases by older adults. Conclusions drawn subsequent to the review are (a) that there are strong commonalities in the essential nature of tasks that exist across disease entities, (b) that the context for self-management of disease by the ill elderly is likely to differ somewhat from the context for other age groups. Questions for future research are posed.
Factors Predicting Assistive Device Use in the Home by Older People Following Rehabilitation
Authors: Gitlin Laura N. , Schemm Ruth L. , Landsberg Lisa , Burgh Desiree
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to (a) describe the pattern of assistive device use by older adults the first 3 months home following rehabilitation, (b) examine factors that predict home use, and (c) describe characteristics of users. The study involved 86 patients 55 years of age or older who were hospitalized for a stroke, orthopedic deficit, or lower limb amputation and discharged home with assistive devices. Of the 642 devices provided in the hospital, 50%o were used frequently to always, with those using devices in Month 1 continuing over time. A respondent's expectation while hospitalized to use devices was an independent predictor of actual home use. Although there were no differences between users and nonusers among sociodemographic variables, respondents with a lower limb amputation used devices with greater frequency than those with either a stroke or orthopedic deficit.
Policy Applications of Health Expectancy
Authors: Bone Margaret R. , Bebbington Andrew C. , Nicolaas Geraldine
Published: March 2007

Empirical estimates of trends in health expectancy throughout the nations of the developed world provide conflicting evidence on the debate whether increasing life expectancy is accompanied by a compression or expansion of morbidity and disability. Complicating this issue is the fact that various methods are available for calculating health expectancy, each requiring a unique and often difficult to obtain source of data. It is suggested here that to reliably communicate the policy relevance of the measure of health expectancy it is necessary for countries such as the United Kingdom to make a long-term commitment to developing longitudinal databases that permit the most reliable estimates of trends in the health status of the population.
Public and Private Responsibilities
Authors: Wiener Joshua M. , Cuellar Alison Evans
Published: March 2007

In the late 1980s, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany had roughly the same system of financing and delivering long-term care. In contrast to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany enacted radical reform. The United Kingdom converted an open-ended, means-tested national entitlement for institutional care to a block grant to local governments, whereas Germany enacted a nationally uniform, non-means-tested social insurance program. This article analyzes the postreform experience of the United Kingdom and Germany with respect to issues of financing, assessment and case management, and the availability of home-and community-based services. Policy implications for the United States are developed.
The Risk and Reward of a Double-Edgedsword: Effects of a Merit Payprogram on Intrinsic Motivation
Authors: Deckop John R. , Cirka Carol C.
Published: March 2007

Merit pay plans are becoming increasingly popular in nonprofit organizations, despite their downside risk. One risk is the potential negative effect of the plan on employees’ intrinsic motivation. The authors investigated employee motivation in a study of a nonprofit organization before and after the implementation of a merit pay system. Results suggest that merit pay produced a decline in intrinsic motivation for employees initially highly intrinsically motivated. Justice-related factors also had an effect. Employees who indicated a preference for merit pay and believed that their performance was appraised unfairly experienced a significant decline in intrinsic motivation after the merit pay plan was implemented.
The Methods and Metrics of the Boston Area Diary Study
Authors: Havens John J. , Schervish Paul G.
Published: March 2007

The authors discuss the conceptual framework, methods, and findings of the Boston Area Diary Study (BADS) to provide insights into the problems and prospects of survey research on philanthropy. First, the conceptual foundations and the operationalization of the variables are discussed. Next, the research design and methodology are described, and the findings are briefly summarized. Next, two validity measures are presented: a comparison of the BADS results with those subsequently obtained by The Gallup Organization from interviews with the same participants and a study of possible Hawthorne effects produced by repeated interviewing. Next, some specific recommendations are made for the operationalization and measurement of giving and volunteering and for improvements to field procedures. In the conclusion, the authors reflect on the implications of careful research methodology for an adequate assessment of the range and level of care in society.
Introducing the Nonprofit Program Classification System: The Taxonomy We’ve Been Waiting for
Authors: Lampkin Linda , Romeo Sheryl , Finnin Emily
Published: March 2007

The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute has developed a system to classify the programs, services, and activities of public charities, called the Nonprofit Program Classification (NPC) System. Designed to serve a wide range of potential users, the system has been used to code the activities of each organization, as reported in Part III—Program Service Accomplishments of its Form 990. Currently, codes from the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) system are used to classify nonprofit organizations according to their organizational purpose. Frequently, however, the questions that are asked by researchers, nonprofit organizations, and the public are focused on what an organization does rather than the type of organization. This article describes the development of the system and its strengths and limitations. Using both the NPC and NTEE systems, researchers will be able to develop a more complete portrait of nonprofit organizations and their activities.
Negotiating Accountability: Managerial Lessons from Identity-Based Nonprofit Organizations
Authors: Ospina Sonia , Diaz William , O’Sullivan James F.
Published: March 2007

This article explores the emerging conceptualization of accountability in nonprofit organizations. This definition broadens traditional concerns with finances, internal controls, and regulatory compliance. The authors explore how the top-level managers of 4 identitybased nonprofit organizations (IBNPs) faced accountability and responsiveness challenges to accomplish their mission. The organization-community link was the core relationship in their accountability environment, helping the IBNP managers achieve what the literature calls “negotiated accountability.” The managers favored organizational mechanisms to sustain this relationship in the midst of the accountability demands they experienced daily. Communication with the primary constituency tended to drive the organization’s priorities and programs, helped managers find legitimate negotiation tools with other stakeholders, and helped develop a broader notion of accountability. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for other nonprofit organizations and propose questions to further clarify the concepts of broad accountability, negotiated accountability, and the link between accountability and responsiveness in nonprofits.
Nonprofit Advocacy in Weakly Institutionalized Political Systems: The Case of NGDOs in Lima, Peru
Authors: Díaz-Albertini Javier
Published: March 2007

Nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) in the Third World are considered an important force in strengthening democratic practices. Many Third World countries, however, have political systems characterized by both weak states and weak civil societies, especially in the areas of development and welfare planning. In these cases, NGDOs must attempt both to strengthen civil society via grass-roots empowerment and to ensure the viability of the state as an apparatus capable of processing political demands and claims in a more or less democratic fashion. Based on six in-depth case studies, this article examines how Peruvian NGDOs have responded to this situation in the last ten years.
Local Government Funding for Housing Development in Chicago: A Comparison of Funding for Nonprofit and For-Profit Groups
Authors: Leachman Michael
Published: March 2007

This article compares City of Chicago Department of Housing (DOH) funding for nonprofit organizations with the city's funding of for-profit developers, finding that DOH provides more generous funding for for-profit groups through its flagship program. Nonprofits receive more overall money through the other two programs analyzed, though the subsidy differences are more ambiguous than in the flagship program. The study determines that important distinctions exist between the rental products produced by nonprofit and for-profit housing development groups in Chicago. Nonprofits tend to employ DOH funding to reach the lowest income households, whereas for-profits seek moderate-income renters in more stable neighborhoods. These distinctions begin to break down, however, when the funding structure requires all recipients to produce very low rents.
Expanding the Governance Construct: Functions and Contributions of Nonprofit Advisory Groups
Authors: Saidel Judith R.
Published: March 2007

Despite continuing interest in nonprofit governance issues, little debate has occurred about the identity of participants in governance other than trustees and executive staff. This article finds, however, that advisory groups are also a critical instrument of governance in many public benefit organizations with government grants or contracts. Advisory group members perform numerous primary organizational activities, link nonprofits to key stakeholder groups in the environment, and strengthen ties of cooperation and shared purpose with other community actors. They supplement governance activities carried out by nonprofit boards of directors. In addition, some groups establish new ties to various elites; others connect or reconnect nonprofits to grassroots community constituencies. Nonprofit governance theory should take into account the functions and contributions to governance of advisory groups.
High-quality Preschool Programs Found to Improve Adult Status
Authors: WEIKART DAVID
Published: March 2007

Adults born in poverty who attended a high-quality, active learning preschool program at ages 3 and 4 have fewer criminal arrests, higher earnings and property wealth, and greater commitment to marriage, according to the latest findings of the High/Scope Perry Preschool study. Over participants' lifetimes, the public is receiving an estimated $7.16 for every dollar invested.
Sex Education Content and Teenage Motherhood
Authors: RUSSELL STEPHEN T.
Published: March 2007

Sex education is a controversial topic in many countries. Research on the effectiveness of sex education is optimistic, but the content of sex education learned by teenagers is often unknown. Using data from the National Child Development Study of Great Britain, this study examines the sex education lessons reported at age 16 by subjects and their school headteachers, and the subjects' report of teenage motherhood at age 23. Results show that sex education may be associated with teenage motherhood either positively or negatively, depending on the topic and the marital status of the individual when she became a teenage mother. Implications for continuing debates on the worth and effectiveness of sex education are discussed.
"Mad Cow" Disease and the Animal Industrial Complex
Authors: Adams Carol J.
Published: March 2007

A possible link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called "mad cow" disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the fatal human equivalent, has been announced. Both of these diseases are forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that attack the brain and destroy its nerve cells. That a disease identified with cows since 1985 could possibly be spread to human beings by eating meat from infected animals prompted a crisis for the meat industry and consumers. Most responses to this crisis represent a search for anthropocentric solutions to an anthropocentric problem: that is, improve the meat supply rather than examine the practice of meat eating. In this essay, the author examines this beefeating crisis through ecofeminist analysis, which resists such anthropocentricity. From an ecofeminist perspective, the beefeating crisis represents a small piece of the larger animal industrial complex and its production practices and attitudes. This analysis explains why this is a problem, and stresses a closer examination and a possible rejection of meat eating.
Environmental Management as Political Sustainability
Authors: Levy David L.
Published: March 2007

Grounded in critical theory and the Gramscian concept of hegemony, this article argues that environmental management (EM) can be understood as an accommodation to growing public awareness of environmental problems that potentially threatens dominant hegemonic coalitions. On the material level, EM is a set of practices that ameliorates the more egregious environmental consequences of industrialproduction; on the ideological and symbolic level, EM constructs products and companies as "green " and legitimizes the primacy of corporate management's role in addressing environmental problemrs. EM is thus seen to be more about political than environmental sustainability.
From Brown to Green?
Authors: Sonnenfeld David A.
Published: March 2007

Is one of the advantages of late industrialization the ability to incorporate advanced environmental technology in manufacturing? Under what conditions will this take place? This article examines the case of Thailand's pulp and paper industry, which became among the most technologically advanced in the world in the mid-1990s. It documents the social, political, economic, and environmental conditions of this technological greening, noting its accomplishments and limitations. It analyzes the structure of Thailand's pulp industry, examines an eco-catastrophe involving one firm, and addresses the influence of political turmoil, resource conflicts, and business dynamics on that process. Data were collected through site visits, interviews, correspondence, and archival research in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, and the United States, from 1993 to 1997.
Centrifugal Incentives in Multi-Candidate Elections
Authors: Merrill Samuel , Adams James
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes factors that affect candidates’ position-taking incentives in multi-candidate and multi-party elections. Following Cox (1990), we define centrifugal incentives as those that motivate vote-seeking candidates to take more extreme positions relative to the center of the voter distribution. For a multivariate vote model that includes a Left-Right policy component, a party identification component and an unmeasured term that renders the vote choice probabilistic, we present theoretical and computer simulation results that quantify candidates’ incentives to shift their policies away from the center in the direction of their partisan constituencies’ mean policy preferences. Centrifugal incentives are found to increase with (1) the salience of policies and party identification, (2) the size of the candidate field, (3) the size of a candidate’s partisan constituency and (4) more extreme constituency policy preferences. Thus, ceteris paribus, candidates who represent large constituencies are motivated to present more extreme policies than are candidates who represent small ones.
Structure and Hostility in International Systems
Authors: Muncaster Robert G. , Zinnes Dina A.
Published: March 2007

This article presents a comprehensive theoretical classification of the patterns of hostile behaviour of an international system based upon a mathematical model of conflict processes. The model provides for multifaceted behaviour, including combinations of progress to war, protracted conflict and conflict resolution. It is postulated that the hostile behaviour among nation-states is determined by a system of social forces that captures effects of grievance, friendship, fear, aggression, deterrence and a pull to war. The possible relationship between social force configurations and conventional structure variables, such as alliances, polarity and power distribution, is also discussed.
Public Policy in a Principal-Agent Framework
Authors: Bergman Michael , Lane Jan-Erik
Published: March 2007

The principal-agent framework is a rapidly developing approach to the analysis of contractual relationships within the private sector. We argue that it should be a promising approach to the analysis of public policy commitments as well. As a matter of fact, it allows the statement of a number of basic public policy problems in terms of an integrated framework. The making and implementation of public policy involve fundamental contractual problems referred to as asymmetric information, moral hazard, bounded rationality and adverse selection. The Niskanen bureau model is a principal-agent model, but its general result is much more limited than previously recognized, which may be shown by employing the same mathematical structure as Niskanen himself uses.
Success on the Commons
Authors: McKean Margaret A.
Published: March 2007

The notorious `tragedy of the commons' is incorrectly held to be the eventual fate of all resources that are used collectively rather than by individual private owners. This essay reviews several examples around the world of successful collective management of environmental resources - institutional regimes that have operated for decades or even centuries without resulting in degradation of resources. It then explores the features shared by these historically unconnected institutional regimes in order to begin specifying the characteristics of regimes that circumvent tragedy. Successful systems usually have well defined communities of eligible user-managers and clear, easily enforced and environmentally cautious rules to constrain resource use. But they vary greatly in terms of the allocation of the harvested supply of the resource, from hierarchical systems of rights with unequal allocation of the resource to very egalitarian systems that assign equal shares by lottery.
On Time and Comparative Research
Authors: Bartolini Stefano
Published: March 2007

The essay argues why the comparative method has been amply debated in reference to cross-cultural synchronic research, while less attention has been devoted to the problems of its application to temporal variance. Three central method-issues are discussed: (1) the definition of `temporal units' of analysis; (2) the special character of cross-time generalizations versus cross-spatial ones; and (3) the problem of historical multi-collinearity. The core arguments are that: (1) the search for a specific `historical method' is vitiated by the confusion between the peculiarity of historical `rules of method' - which cannot be identified - and the peculiarity of `cross-time variance' - which, on the contrary, is so momentous; (2) in controlling the validity of causal generalizations, resorting to temporal variance only presents methodological pitfalls not inferior to those stemming from the resort to the sole spatial synchronic variance; (3) consequently, control-maximization is best achieved by research designs which combine both types of variance and permit `slides of synchronic comparisons through time'.
Coalition Politics
Authors: Schofield Norman
Published: March 2007

Although there are well-developed theories of two-party competition in a one-dimensional policy space, it has proven extremely difficult to construct a model of multi-party competition (with three or more parties) in two or more dimensions. One difficulty with developing such a model is due to the phenomenon of political uncertainty over the expected nature of the governing coalition. A cooperative equilibrium notion, the `political heart', is used here to characterise post-election coalition formation. Empirical evidence from 12 European political systems in the post-war period is presented, to corroborate this equilibrium concept. Using this notion, a typology based on fragmentation and centrality is proposed. A model of multi-party competition over pre-election policy proposals is described. It is argued that this model is compatible with the predictions of the political heart concerning coalition formation.
Probabilistic Graphs and Power Indices
Authors: Calvo Emilio , Lasaga J. Javier
Published: March 2007

In this paper a method is offered for calculating the power of political parties in the Spanish parliament. This is a modification of the Shapley-Shubik index which allows the ideological affinities between parties to be taken into account. It extends Myerson's model of games with restricted communication. A version of Hart and Kurz's model is also used to study the stability of government coalitions.
Comparing Local Policy Networks
Authors: Melbeck Christian
Published: March 2007

This paper examines features common to both policy analyses and community-power studies, focusing on the conceptualization of power, the boundary specification of the system, the content of relationships and the effects of institutional frameworks. Two community studies, `Altneustadt' and `Towertown', provide the empirical basis. The effects of the institutional frameworks on policy-domain networks and the relation between policy-domain networks and policy networks are analyzed empirically, with information relationships as the most important content of the networks. With regard to boundary specification, actors in issue-specific networks differ from the discussion partners of actors within the social system, depending on the phase in the political process. Both pluralistic approaches and structural aspects of the policy domains are analyzed. In theory, the different institutional conditions in the German and American communities lead one to expect differences that can, in fact, be demonstrated empirically.
Policy Networks: More Than a Metaphor?
Authors: Pappi Franz Urban , Henning Christian H. C. A.
Published: March 2007

Policy networks are often used as a metaphor to describe new forms of governance beyond state control involving both public and private actors. This paper argues that the delineation of policy networks is a common task of all network approaches. The authors proceed, first by selecting specific types of relations between actors to identify patterns of interest mediation, and second by introducing network characteristics to predict policy outcomes. A model of collective decision-making is discussed which postulates an exchange process between actors on a market for control and influence resources. Deviations from perfect market conditions are interpreted as transaction costs. A specific application is described. An outline of the full model including the mean-voter theorem as the rationale to reach a final collective decision is presented in the Appendix.
Why Power Indices for Assessing European Union Decision-Making?
Authors: Holler Manfred , Widgrén Mika
Published: March 2007

In this paper we argue that spatial voting games and power index models are not necessarily exclusive ways to analyse EU decision-making. We find that the two main criticisms pointed out by scholars of spatial voting games, namely that power indices do not take into account preferences or the role of the agenda-setter, are not fully valid as spatial voting games deal with complete whereas power indices deal with incomplete contracts. Ideas for combining the two so far very opposite views are then discussed.
Liberalism and the limits of science: Weber and Blumenberg
Authors: Turner Charles
Published: March 2007

Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too.... Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial. It is the want of nerves of understanding for such a talk; it is the degenerate fondness for tricking short-cuts and little fallacious facilities, that has in so many parts of the world created governments with arbitrary powers. (Edmund Burke)
Making Sense of Science
Authors: Velody Irving
Published: March 2007

This section presents the four opening papers given at the conference 'Science's Social Standing', held at the University of Durham on 2-4 December 1994.
The risks of environmental degradation in Bogotá, Colombia
Authors: Castañeda Fernando Casas
Published: March 2007

The risks of environmental degradation in Bogota, Colombia reviews urban overspill onto fertile peri-urban areas, bottlenecks in water distribution and treatment systems, landslides and floods (particularly in poorer districts) and health disorders linked to air pollution, inadequate refuse disposal and consumption of drugs and contaminated food. It also discusses the use of public space and long-standing inter-institutional conflicts associated with environmental problems.
Planning for child health in a poor urban environment - the case of Jakarta, Indonesia
Authors: Harpham Trudy , Garner Paul , Surjadi Charles
Published: March 2007

Planning for child health in a poor urban environment-the case of Jakarta, Indonesia considers the health problems of children living in the kampungs of Jakarta. It describes the most serious health problems; the economic and environmental conditions which contribute to them; and the health services available to poorer households and the use made of them. The authors stress the need for improvements in the housing and living environments of poorer households as one important factor in improving their health.
Gender in two slum cultures
Authors: Thorbek Susanne
Published: March 2007

Gender in two slum cultures considers the lives of women through comparing and contrasting two Asian slum areas in Bangkok and Colombo. It examines their lives through focusing on gender struggle and the conflicts between men and women and considers the reasons for the women's different experiences in each of the two areas.