bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Braille: the wind of change
Authors: Maley Tom
Published: March 2007

The Braille Authority of the United Kingdom will soon make up its mind about what kind of code re vision to present to the 1987 International Conference on English Literary Braille. The Braille Code could be pruned rigorously of many of its seldom used contractions; tidied up and augmented by adding many new and efficient contractions; or kept as it is with perhaps a better chance of unification with the American standard. Benefits and risks accrue whatever course is taken. Events and trends underlying this most immediate controversy are presented in this article.
Meeting the training needs of teachers of the visually handicapped from developing countries in Africa
Authors: McCall Steve , Stone Juliet
Published: March 2007

For over thirty years Birmingham University has offered training courses for teachers wishing to specialise in the education of the visually handicapped. In addition to a large national intake it has consistently attracted students from all parts of the world, with African countries very well represented. In the last three years for example, teachers from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria and Tanzania have attended the one-year full time course. In 1986 a tutor was appointed with special responsibility for overseas students taking this training, which leads to a qualification at Diploma or BPhil level. This article, based on interviews with past and present students, seeks to examine the background to, and the recent development of, education for visually handicapped children and young people in parts of Africa and to identify the factors which lead to successful and relevant training in courses of this nature.
Beverley Lewis: the outcome
Authors: Matthews Malcolm
Published: March 2007

The death of Beverley Lewis has many implications and should help lead to some important changes. There are still many concerns that have not been investigated and until they have been, significant shortcomings in community care and services for sensory impaired people and their carers will inevitably remain.
Parental perspective: the mainstream education of a child with a severe visual impairment
Authors: Stokes Jayne
Published: March 2007

The following article is a slightly edited and expanded version of the talk given by the author at the conference 'The Provision of a High Quality Educational Service for Blind Children' (Birmingham, 25 September 1993), referred to in the Editorial.
A Pattern Decoding Glove for deafblind finger-spellers
Authors: Klein Robert H. , Giblin Roger
Published: March 2007

The authors describe a prototype communication system for users of the UK deafblind manual alphabet. A Teletact feedback glove is used to accept the Evan's manual alphabet as well as user-definable patterns. (The deafblind manual alphabet was adapted from the sign alphabet for the deaf by Edward Evans MP, who died in 1960.) The manual patterns are then decoded using a BBC Microcomputer which produces the decoded patterns as text (English alphabet), as well as audibly through a speech synthe siser implemented in software. From the results of preliminary trials as seen on 'Tomorrow's World' (BBC1, 5 May 1993) the authors conclude that the system has potential for many deafblind people who are unable to use existing (mainly braille-based) devices.
Understanding and representing spatial information
Authors: Millar Susanna
Published: March 2007

How we understand and represent the space around us is a vital aspect of how we think and act. The research on which my book was based tried to answer the question about what effect vision has on this process, by reversing the usual focus on vision and considering spatial representation also in the total absence of vision. Studies with congenitally totally blind and with sighted children, together with findings from a variety of other areas, suggest how touch and movement can complement other sources of reference cues. The paper that follows discusses some of the practical implications for spatial representation and spatial imagery without vision.
Pskov, Russia
Authors: Linders Jan
Published: March 2007

On the initiative of Theofaan International two teachers from Convergo, the educational institute for visually impaired children (in The Netherlands), visited a school for visually impaired in Russia. The Convergo delegation consisted of Mrs Ingrid Stekelenburg, teacher at the Rotterdam school, and Mr Jan Linders, itinerant teacher at the Grave school. They visited School nr 7 in Pskov, a town of some 200,000 inhabitants, situated 300 km to the south west of St Petersburg.
Attachment Security with Mother and Father: Associations with Adolescents' Reports of Interpersonal Behavior with Parents and Peers
Authors: Ducharme Jennifer , Doyle Anna Beth , Markiewicz Dorothy
Published: March 2007

Associations between adolescents' attachment security with mother, attachment security with father, and their affect and behavior in social interactions with parents and peers were investigated. One hundred and five 15-16-year-olds (75 girls and 30 boys) rated their security of attachment to each parent and emotional expressiveness, and completed a daily diary for one week, describing positive or negative interactions with parents and with close friends. Diaries were coded for self disclosure, emotional expressiveness, conflict, and positive and negative affect. With respect to attachment to mother, as hypothesized, secure participants described less affectively negative interactions with parents. In resolving conflict with parents, dismissing participants reported using more disengagement. Securely attached adolescents rated themselves as more emotionally expressive than did insecurely attached adolescents. With respect to attachment to father, secure adolescents reported less conflict in their peer interactions. Adolescents who were securely attached to one or both parents reported significantly more positive and fewer negative interactions with their parents than did teens who were insecurely attached to both parents. These findings suggest that, during adolescence, attachment security to mother and to father may differentially influence aspects of teens' interpersonal behavior and the affective quality of their relationships with both parents and peers.
The Therapeutic Relationship: Inexperienced Therapists' Affective Preference and Empathic Communication
Authors: Heiskell Thomas L. , Rychlak Joseph F.
Published: March 2007

The subjects of this study are third-year male medical students who rated videotaped male psychiatric patients for likeability before role-playing a `therapeutic' contact with them. Both liked and disliked patients were confronted in the role-play. Each patient said something positive and something negative about himself. The subjects, who are not trained psychotherapists, were instructed to reply to these self-characterizations in a therapeutic manner. Their replies were blindly rated for empathic quality. It was predicted and substantiated (p < 0.02) that subjects would be more empathic in replying to positive than negative self-characterizations of a liked patient, and vice versa for a disliked patient. A restricted range on the empathy ratings qualified these results. Subjects also attributed higher prognostic expectations and more favourable interpersonal skills to their liked than to their disliked patients (p < 0.01).
Changes in the Sense of Family among Couples having their First Child
Authors: Lips Hilary M. , Morrison Anne
Published: March 2007

Seventy-three couples expecting their first child were asked to respond in writing to open-ended questions about their experience of pregnancy three times during pregnancy and once at one month postpartum. Their responses were coded for the mention of five family-related issues: the transition from `couple' to `family', changed closeness with spouse, changed involvement with extended family, male partner's positive involvement with fathering, and female partner's conflict between job and family. The first four of these issues were mentioned with relatively high frequency, with, for example, more than 60 percent of all respondents stating that the pregnancy had increased their closeness to their spouse. In contrast, the issue of women's potential conflict between job and family was mentioned relatively less frequently, by just under one-fifth of the women in the sample. The results lend support to the notion that first pregnancy is associated with an increased focus on family issues for both women and men, and represents a developmental process not only in the individual parents but in the family itself.
A Comment on Krokoff's 'Recruiting Representative Samples for Marital Interaction Research'
Authors: Bell Robert A.
Published: March 2007

Krokoff (1987) recently described a three-stage procedure for generat- ing representative samples of couples in marital interaction research. He encouraged investigators to: (1) draw random samples from telephone directories; (2) use direct recruitment mailings to facilitate participation; and (3) employ informational meetings in couples' homes to describe the study, collect preliminary data and deal with barriers to participation. This brief comment is directed at the first stage of Krokoff's procedure. Drawing upon marketing research, it is argued that severe sampling biases often result from directory sampling, biases nearly identical to the ones found in past research that Krokoff sought to overcome. Random-digit dialing procedures, which have become standard in survey design, are suggested as a simple and effective modification of the first step in Krokoff's recruitment strategy.
Communication Strategies for Intensifying Dating Relationships: Identification, Use and Structure
Authors: Tolhuizen James H.
Published: March 2007

Fifteen strategies were inductively derived from written accounts of subjects' attempts to intensify dating relationships. Both gender and the question of whether one's self or one's partner was first to want an intensified relationship significantly affected reported strategy use. In addition, the results suggested that intensification may be a multiple-act process in most relationships and that the strategies of `increase contact' and `increase rewards' may be important in the construction of strategy sequences. Multivariate analysis revealed that Intimate versus Nonintimate, and Dominant versus Submissive were underlying dimensions of the typology, and that the strategies grouped together into four clusters called Social Rewards and Attraction, Implicitly Expressed Intimacy, Passive and Indirect, and Verbal Directness and Intimacy.
Determinants of Social Support Provision in Personal Relationships
Authors: Dunkel-Schetter Christine , Skokan Laurie A.
Published: March 2007

Social support is discussed as dyadic interactions in which one person is experiencing distress and the other person attempts to provide support. Drawing from helping research in social psychology as well as social-support research, four sets of variables are presented which influence the likelihood of support attempts: stress factors, recipient factors, relationship factors and provider factors. We also present partial results of a pilot study of support intentions which suggests that the extent of past experience with major stressful conditions is significantly and positively associated with a willingness to provide support to peers themselves experiencing stressful problems.
The Family and Children's Peer Relations
Authors: Cohn Deborah A. , Patterson Charlotte J. , Christopoulos Christina
Published: March 2007

We review research on linkages between the family and children's peer relations including studies of attachment, parent-child relations and the social and economic contexts of family life. Whether based on observations of parent-child relations, teacher reports, parental reports or child reports, the literature has consistently documented connections between the quality of parent-child relationships and peer relations assessed in the school context. In addition, children's experience of stressors such as low income and parental divorce appear to be associated with difficulties in peer relations. Given that such connections would seem to exist, several recommendations for future research are offered, including the adoption of broader perspectives on the family (e.g. to incorporate marital as well as parent-child relations), the expansion of conceptualizations of peer relations (e.g. to include friendships and social networks as well as popularity and behavior) and greater consideration of social contextual factors (e.g. economic and other life circumstances and events) as they influence both the family and peer relations.
The Phenomenology of Intimacy
Authors: Register Lisa M. , Henley Tracy B.
Published: March 2007

Intimacy is a topic of importance with respect to many aspects of relationship theory and a variety of academic disciplines. A consideration of the literature reveals much research but little consensus on even such basic issues as a definition of intimacy. Given that, a phenomenological study was done to determine what ordinary people meant by, and experienced as, intimacy. Results of that study revealed seven major components to intimate experiences. These included: non-verbal communication, presence, time, boundary, body, destiny/surprise and transformation. The relationship between these results and previous research is discussed.
Friendship in the Lives of Gay Men and Lesbians
Authors: Nardi Peter M. , Sherrod Drury
Published: March 2007

Results from a survey of 283 gay men and lesbians contradict some of the findings of earlier research on gender differences in same-gender friendships. Data from a variety of scales and items indicate that, while gay males and lesbians value casual, close and best friendships equally (similar to research findings on heterosexual men and women), their definitions and enactments of friendship also were similar (unlike other research which supports differences along gender lines). However, some gender differences did persist in the ways gay men and lesbians dealt with conflict and sexuality within friendships. The implications of considering sexual orientation and gender in the study of friendship are discussed in terms of theoretical, methodological and socio-political issues.
Children's and Adolescents' Gender Preferences for Conversational Partners for Specific Communicative Objectives
Authors: Clark Ruth Anne
Published: March 2007

For eight hypothetical situations involving different communicative objectives, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth graders indicated whether the person they most wanted to talk with was male or female. As expected, younger children preferred a same-sex partner, but by eighth grade more cross-sex preferences emerged, particularly when wanting to pass time or feel included. Boys were generally preferred for telling jokes and stories. By eighth grade, female partners were preferred when the participant wanted to be cheered up or needed advice in persuading or explicating a complicated idea.
Individual and Partner Love Styles: Implications for the Quality of Romantic Involvements
Authors: Morrow Gregory D. , Clark Eddie M. , Brock Karla F.
Published: March 2007

The goal of this study was to explore the association between the love styles endorsed by respondents and their romantic partners on the one hand, and the quality of their romantic involvements on the other. A sample of 186 couples at a large southern university completed a questionnaire that included a shortened version of Hendrick & Hendrick's (1986) Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) designed to assess six love styles originally proposed by Lee (1973). Both the individual's and partner's scores on the six love scales (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, Agape) were then examined as predictors of the structural qualities of the couple's relationship specified by Rusbult's (1980a, 1983) investment model. The results of correlational and multiple regression analyses indicated that the respondent's own love style scores were the best predictors of relationship quality. In particular, the endorsement of Eros and Agape were associated with higher levels of rewards, satisfaction, investments and commitment, lower levels of costs and poor alternative quality. Ludus showed the opposite associations with these same variables. The partner's love styles were also related to a number of relationship characteristics, although less strongly so. In addition, couples showed evidence of matching of love styles (with the exception of Ludus and Mania), and discrepancies in couples' love attitudes were related to negative outcomes for women but not for men. Finally, the associations between several demographic variables (relationship status, age, relationship duration) and respondents' love styles suggest that individuals' love attitudes may be subject to change as a result of time and/or experience. These findings suggest that individuals' beliefs about love have important implications with regard to the relationship outcomes experienced by both themselves and their romantic partners.
Autonomy and Connectedness as Dimensions of Relationship Styles in Men and Women
Authors: Harter Susan , Waters Patricia L. , Pettitt Lisa M. , Whitesell Nancy , Kofkin Jennifer , Jordan Judith
Published: March 2007

This study identified a trichotomy of styles that characterize adults' relationships with partners: self-focused autonomy, other-focused connection, and mutuality. Each style was defined by several dimensions; dominance-submission, whose needs are met, sensitivity to the partner's feelings, clarity of feelings, separateness vs intimacy, and concern with the relationship. Participants were adults, aged 18-70 years, who responded to a newspaper survey in which they identified their own style of relationship and that of their partner. Mutual individuals most often reported that their partners shared the same style. Other-focused women most often reported self-focused male partners, and self-focused men most often identified their female partners as other-focused. Correlates of these partner combinations included perceived validation by one's partner and the ability to be one's authentic self within the relationship. Findings revealed that mutual individuals with mutual partners reported the highest levels of perceived validation and authentic-self behavior. Other-focused women paired with self-focused men reported the lowest levels of validation and authentic-self behavior, with self-focused men paired with other-focused women falling in between. Discussion emphasized the liabilities of the two more extreme styles, self-focused autonomy and other focused connection, as well as the dynamics of the different partner combinations.
When Marriage Breaks Up-Does Attachment Style Contribute to Coping and Mental Health?
Authors: Birnbaum Gurit E. , Orr Idit , Mikulincer Mario , Florian Victor
Published: March 2007

This study examines the association between adult attachment style and the way people react to the crisis of divorce. A research group of 120 participants undergoing legal procedures related to divorce and a control group of 108 married participants were classified according to their attachment style (secure, avoidant, anxious-ambivalent) and completed the Mental Health Inventory. In addition, the divorced participants answered scales tapping appraisal of divorce and ways of coping with it. As expected, divorced participants reported more distress than married ones. This effect was found among avoidant and anxious-ambivalent participants, but not among secure participants. Significant differences were also found among attachment groups in appraisal and coping variables. Structural analyses supported the hypothesis that appraisal and coping mediate the association between attachment style and mental health during the crisis of divorce. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory.
The Love Attitudes Scale: Short Form
Authors: Hendrick Clyde , Hendrick Susan S. , Dicke Amy
Published: March 2007

The Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) is a well-standardized measure of six of Lee's (1973) love styles. The LAS has six sub-scales, each with seven items. Several researchers have selected subsets of the items to create very brief versions of the LAS; however, no brief version has been fully validated. To satisfy the need for brief love scales, we selected the best four of seven items per subscale, using a large data collection, and began the process of restandardization. Three studies, with over 2700 participants, are reported that yielded two new short forms of the LAS, one with 4-item and one with 3-item subscales. The data indicate that these versions have even stronger psychometric properties than the original scale. The LAS: Short Form should be suitable for researchers who need a brief love scale as part of a battery of relationship measures.
Sexual Satisfaction within Dating Relationships: A Test of the Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction
Authors: Byers E. Sandra , Demmons Stephanie , Lawrance Kohli-An
Published: March 2007

This study extended the Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction (IEMSS) to short-term dating relationships. The IEMSS has been shown to have excellent validity for long-term heterosexual relationships. The IEMSS proposes that sexual satisfaction is greater to the extent that, over time, relationship satisfaction is high, levels of sexual rewards exceed levels of sexual costs, relative sexual reward levels exceed relative sexual cost levels, and interpersonal equality of sexual rewards and of sexual costs are perceived to exist. Fifty-one college men and 57 college women in a dating relationship of 3 to 36 months participated in the study. As predicted, more sexually satisfied individuals reported greater relationship satisfaction, a more favorable reward/cost ratio, a more favorable relative reward/relative cost ratio, and more equal rewards and costs between partners. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that relationship satisfaction, the difference between relative rewards, relative costs and cost equality made unique contributions to the prediction of sexual satisfaction, accounting for 75 percent of the variance in sexual satisfaction. The model was shown to work equally well for men and women, for individuals new and less new to their relationship, and for high and low self-disclosers. The IEMSS offers a promising approach for investigating and understanding sexual satisfaction.
I'll Go if You Will: Do Shy Persons Utilize Social Surrogates?
Authors: Bradshaw Scott D.
Published: March 2007

The Social Surrogate hypothesis argues that high-shy persons utilize persons in their social network to engage in or facilitate anxiety-provoking social interactions. High-shy persons should report efforts to recruit persons to accompany them into social situations (Recruiting behaviors), report the Surrogate as engaging in the majority of the interactions (Utilization behaviors), and report a reduction of their anxiety and an increase in their participation in social situations (Performance Increase). In Study 1, questions were generated to assess these behaviors and were given to two samples along with measures of shyness, sociability and self-esteem. In Study 2, participants were given descriptions of 14 situations and 10 behaviors and reported their likelihood of engaging in Recruitment and Utilization behaviors. The two studies indicate that high-shy persons actively cope with their anxiety by recruiting persons in their social network, that this helps the persons to enter situations they would otherwise avoid, and that the Surrogate sometimes engages in social interactions in the place of the high-shy person.
Strategic Analysis and Export Behaviour of SMEs
Authors: Prefontaine Lise , Bourgault Mario
Published: March 2007

An empirical study was conducted in the aerospace sector in order to analyse the relationship between strategic analysis and export behaviour of SMEs. CEOs' perceptions of the environment were measured using the four traditional SWOT model dimensions: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Results from 132 Canadian and 141 American SMEs show interesting differences between the two countries. It appears that Canadian managers are more prone to react to external opportunities whereas their American counterparts adopt a more defensive behaviour and primarily adjust their export behaviour in view of perceived weaknesses and threats. Globally, strategic analysis has a greater impact on export behaviour in Canada than in the USA.
The Impact of Firm-Provided Training on Production
Authors: de Kok Jan
Published: March 2007

The returns to firm-provided training are established, taking account of three possible firm-size effects: the HRM (Human Resource Management) effect, employee selection effect and scale effect. Using panel data on 173 Dutch firms, support is found for the existence of the HRM effect: training support per working day (the average time a firm spends on setting up and coordinating a training programme) has a positive influence on the benefits of training. Small firms provide, on average, less training support per working day than their larger counterparts. In combination with the HRM effect, this implies that small firms benefit less from firm-provided training.
UK economic forecasts: a comparative survey
Authors: Scott Doug
Published: March 2007

The nature and purpose of UK economic forecasts are analysed. The published forecasts from government, government-aided organisations, independent bodies and stockbrokers are described, compared and evaluated.
Business statistics from Government
Authors: Willis Chris
Published: March 2007

The demand for business information, in relation to its price, is rather perverse in that high price often generates a high demand. The Business Statistics Office, however, produces some inexpensive but useful data currently in the form of Business Monitors but soon to be released online as the BSO Databank.
Diversity - An End in Itself?
Authors: Hellman Heikki
Published: March 2007

The scope of this article is methodological, focusing on the measurement of programme diversity on television. In recent research literature programme diversity has been understood too narrowly. In order to avoid typical pitfalls of diversity studies, the article discusses the concept and dimensions of diversity and, then, develops four parallel measures of breadth of programming and difference between channels, applicable for the analysis of both individual channels and the channel system as a whole. These measures (channel diversity, system diversity, deviation and choice options) are tested in a longitudinal analysis of Finnish television schedules. The article demonstrates that since shifts in the different dimensions of diversity are not necessarily unilinear, the multi-measure method tends to provide a more versatile picture of the developments in programme schedules than the traditional diversity analysis can do.
Defining European Public Service Broadcasting
Authors: Harrison J. , Woods L. M.
Published: March 2007

European Community audiovisual policy, and particularly public service broadcasting (PSB), exhibit tensions between different types of policy objectives: the social, political and cultural on the one hand and economic on the other. Thus, while the Community recognizes the importance of PSB as a public good (i.e. non-individualized goods or benefits, which are for the benefit of, and enjoyed by, the community), which has democratic potential, it also subjects any state funding for PSB to the limitation that `such funding does not affect trading conditions and competition in the Community to an extent which would be contrary to the common interest'. This article aims to identify the Community view of PSB as necessitated by its perceived role in society and juxtapose those requirements against the operation of Community competition policy.
Electoral Rhetoric and Political Polarization: The Begin-Peres Debates
Authors: Caspi Dan
Published: March 2007

The article is based on a political-stylistic analysis of the first televised debates in Israel, which took place in 1977 and 1981 between Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres. It examines how the Israeli parliamentary democracy adapted and changed the debate format which originated in American presidential elections. The rhetorical strategies of the two candidates are then identified and compared to determine whether they are idiosyncratic or anchored in contrasts between their rival ideologies, focusing especially on the `spheres of polarization' by which their verbal behaviours were shaped.
The Information Society: Some Trends and Implications
Authors: van Cuilenburg Jan J.
Published: March 2007

This article deals with the question of whether the so-called `information society' really will be an informed society. It is argued that there is empirical evidence to show that information supply in modern societies rises exponentially, whereas consumption and pragmatics of information lag far behind supply. Thus, the gulf between supply of information, on the one hand, and demand for and use of information on the other, is getting broader and broader. This phenomenon may be explained partly by an autonomous tendency in information services to fill-up available production capacity. In other words, the information society is subject to the law of diminishing returns from information. The article concludes with a sketch of some implications for education, public libraries and public administration, drawing on the experience of the Netherlands.
Born Losers or Flexible Adjustment? The Media Policy Dilemma of Small States
Authors: Trappel Josef
Published: March 2007

Increased attention is being paid to `smallness' as an analytical dimension as processes of internationalization and cross-media networking accelerate. To assure a certain `room for manoeuvre' of small states' media and to enhance regional identities in Europe — in some respects counteracting the integrating power of the European Community and associated market forces — political action on various levels is required. Small states' media operate under special and difficult conditions of small internal markets, shortages of resources, external dependency and vulnerability, and pressures of political corporatism. In order to preserve small states' media culture in such circumstances, media policy concepts should include integrated, cross-media oriented and `media-ecological' elements.
Newspaper Complexity and the Knowledge Gap
Authors: Kleinnijenhuis Jan
Published: March 2007

The knowledge gap hypothesis states that segments of the population with higher education acquire knowledge from the mass media at a faster rate than the lower educated segments. This article states that the faster learning rate of highly educated persons, which is claimed by knowledge gap theory, rests upon their greater capacity to process complex, compactly written newspapers. Content analysis data from The Netherlands in combination with data from national election studies in The Netherlands support this hypothesis. For the less educated, watching political news on television proves to be more efficient for acquiring political knowledge than reading political news in a newspaper. Conversely, for higher educated persons reading political news is more efficient, provided they opt for a compactly written newspaper with complex news.
Them and Us: Story and Stereotype in TV World Cup Coverage
Authors: Tudor Andrew
Published: March 2007

British television coverage of the 1990 soccer World Cup provides a context in which to explore some of the ways in which television seeks to construct coherent narratives about ongoing events. In telling such stories television draws upon distinctive narrative strategies and on extensive reservoirs of stereotypes. This is seen in elementary form in the techniques by which television commentary defines and develops particular `characters', and more elaborately in the construction of extended narrative accounts of the activities of national teams — notably, in this paper, Cameroon and England. These accounts are seen to be rooted in discourses that formulate key distinctions in terms of race and national identity, and, by circulating applications of such systems of stereotypes, television contributes to the production and reproduction of our everyday knowledge of `Them' and `Us'.
The Role of the Public in Broadcasting Policy-Making and Regulation: Lesson for Europe from Canada
Authors: Raboy Marc
Published: March 2007

Broadcasting can be conceptualized as a complex activity taking place in the public sphere and involving actors situated in the state, the economy and civil society. The strategies and interests of each of these intersect in the sphere of broadcasting policy development and execution, particularly with respect to the question of regulation. In Canada, various mechanisms have been set in place over the years to provide for articulation of the public interest in broadcasting policy-making and regulation. The operation of such mechanisms is particularly important in the present context of a restructuring of national broadcasting systems and the emergence of a global media environment. In this respect, the Canadian example may be pertinent for grappling with broadcasting policy issues in Europe.
Time-Series Analysis of Longitudinal People-Meter Data
Authors: Sang Fritz , Schmitz Bernhard , Bretz Hans Joachim , Stanat Petra , Tasche Karl
Published: March 2007

Realizing that worldwide longitudinal television research has exclusively been based on short sequences of cross-sectional data, it is argued that future developmental television research should use people-meter data in combination with time-series methods. To support this claim, several issues are investigated. It is demonstrated how telemetric TV data, which are collected continuously in all industrialized countries, can be used not only to validate findings based on cross-sectional data but also to expand our knowledge about developments in TV use by individuals and groups. This is an implicit plea to use these already-existing data pools for social and media scientific purposes. The examples presented are based on individual and aggregated trajectories of daily television viewing time covering a period of three years.
The Rules of the Journalistic Field
Authors: Marlière Philippe
Published: March 2007

Pierre Bourdieu's recent research on the media offers a valuable although somewhat inconsistent appraisal of what he describes as the `journalistic field'. The French sociologist applies his main conceptual tools to the media — and more particularly to television — in order to shed light on hidden forms of domination and symbolic violence exercised by television. He emphasizes that market journalism has become a threat to the autonomy of fields endowed with specific rules and capital, such as the academic and the political fields. Bourdieu insists that it is this process that endangers democracy. This article proposes a critical assessment of Bourdieu's sociology of television. Despite a generally sympathetic account, it stresses the epistemological weakness of his work and argues that it is difficult to understand the recent evolution of the French journalistic field — Bourdieu's main case study — without paying more attention to the impact of the political field on the media than Bourdieu does. While ultimately welcoming his stimulating analysis of the overlapping of the political, academic and journalistic fields, the article stresses that Bourdieu's negative diagnosis of television is largely to be explained by his erroneous tackling of `journalists' as a homogeneous category.
Why did they Kill Barney?
Authors: Edge Sarah
Published: March 2007

This article aims to establish the meanings press photographs give to the reporting of Loyalist murders in Northern Ireland. It begins by considering a case from 1994 and the selection of a family photograph by the national press to `illustrate' their reports. It goes on to argue that this use of a family photograph functions to individualize and decontextualize the murder, through the photograph's dominant humanistic discourse. It moves on to consider this use of family photographs, and other press images, in regional reporting, establishing the meanings that they give to the sectarian murder of Catholics in the context of the divided community of Northern Ireland. Conclusions concerning the ways in which news photographs work to mystify and marginalize such murders are drawn through a comparison with the regional reporting of the IRA murder of two RUC men.
Research Note: Distinction and Integration
Authors: Schoenbach Klaus , Lauf Edmund , McLeod Jack M. , Scheufele Dietram A.
Published: March 2007

Who reads daily newspapers in the USA and in Germany? Despite a steady decline of newspaper reading, the sociodemographic determinants of newspaper readership have been surprisingly stable in both countries since the mid-1970s. A long-term comparative analysis of audience data suggests that newspapers serve different cultural functions: in the USA, they seem to be more and more an instrument of social distinction; in Germany they also maintain a function of social integration.
PATTERNS OF TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ISRAELI SOCIETY
Authors: Rapoport Tamar , Lomsky-Feder Edna
Published: March 2007

Patterns of transition to adulthood are conceptualised in terms of three dimensions encompassing contradictory principles: the social definition of youth (consistent/inconsistent), the structure of social relations (hierarchical/symmetrical), and behavioural orientations (conformity/deviation).

We apply this conceptualisation to a comparative analysis of transition to adulthood in Israel during two distinct historical periods: the 1950s (`transitional society') and the 1980s (`post-transitional society'), studying the link between macro-social conditions and transition anchored in the life-cycle of the individual. The research entails a structured content analysis of articles appearing in an Israeli newspaper for youth during the two periods, where the unit of analysis is roles.

The findings indicate two different, yet non-polar patterns of transition: `Transitional society' is characterised by the coexistence of contradictory principles related to a strongly ambivalent attitude toward youth. `Post-transitional society' shows fewer coexisting contradictions due to a reduced reliance on youth and an ability to absorb loose behaviour.
The Formalization of Informal/Precarious Labor in Contemporary Argentina
Authors: Olmedo Clara , Murray Martin J.
Published: March 2007

In this article we argue that the Argentinian state is legalizing or formalizing informal/precarious labor. In the actual context of employment crisis in Argentina, the state intervenes in the labor market through a legislation that promotes low wages and unstable and unprotected work. Paradoxically, these precarious conditions are associated with informal labor, where the established theory does not recognize the power of regulation of the state. The new labor legislation in contemporary Argentina challenges the established division between formal-regulated vs informal-unregulated labor, at the same time that it contradicts the neoliberal/anti-state intervention discourses.
Structural Expansion and the Cost of Global Isomorphism
Authors: Kim Young S. , Jang Yong Suk , Hwang Hokyu
Published: March 2007

Central governments have expanded over time across all regions in both ministerial and fiscal scales. However, it has not been shown empirically whether the structural expansion of central government is even a world-wide phenomenon. By studying both ministerial and fiscal expansion of 116 sovereign nation-states from 1950 to 1990, this study empirically demonstrates the global nature of governmental expansion and further examines its implication for national development using two-way random effects GLS models. Results clearly indicate that the cost of a large governmental structure is overwhelming and the expansion of central government has not been beneficial for national development across all nation-states. Negative effects are especially strong for relatively new and less developed nation-states that use ministerial structures as a form of expressing their stateness to obtain international legitimation.
BUREAUCRACY AND ECOPOLITICS IN THE THIRD WORLD: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FORMATION IN BRAZIL
Authors: Guimarães Roberto P.
Published: March 2007

We are definitely in an age of scarcity. Scarcity of resources, scarcity of places to dispose of our wastes, and, above all, scarcity of adequate institutions to face the challenges of the current environmental crisis. In this context, ecopolitics represents the most immediate recognition that in order to look inward, searching for answers to the basic questions of human existence and destiny, we must look outward, to our ways of relating to our fellow human beings in society as well as to our partners in nature. This is thus a study of politics. It is also a study of the bureaucratic politics of environmental policy formation. But it is equally a study of a particular political system, of a particular process of policy formation, that of a Third World country, Brazil. Starting from an exploration of the context of Brazil's political development, attention is focused on the social and political conditions that favoured the creation of a specialised environmental agency, as well as the extent to which these conditions have determined its perceived missions and its ability to translate environmental concerns into coherent public policies. The study introduces also an analysis of the bureaucratic politics of ecopolitics, understood both as pollution control and abatement, and as conservation and management of natural resources.
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT: A STUDY ABOUT REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE POWER ON SANTA CATARINA ISLAND
Authors: Maluf Sônia Weidner
Published: March 2007

This paper deals with narratives about witches and witchcraft as narrated by the inhabitants of Lagoa da Conceiçao, a village colonised by Azoreans, in the Southern Brazilian coastal area. In these narratives, which were related as real events, the witch appears as a powerful female figure who is responsible for ailments, sickness and deaths among Lagoa's residents. These histories originated in mediaeval European imagery, but they are still alive in this village, despite an accelerated process of change and urbanisation, because they found support in the way of living and thinking as well as in the construction of gender in that community. The narratives about witchcraft tell us about an informal female power that is not recognised in the models presented by the informers. By analysing the differences in the meaning of the narratives of men and women, we can find forms of construction of gender identity in this culture.
IDENTITY AND SOLIDARITY IN THE COMPLEX OF CITIZENSHIP: THE RELATIONAL APPROACH
Authors: Donati Pierpaolo
Published: March 2007

Within modernity, social identity and solidarity are deemed to be conflicting terms. What has been called the `culture of difference' triggers a weak solidarity anywhere. If this is really so, how can we explain the rise of new `social solidarities' - a phenomenon which is occurring throughout Europe along with concomitant processes of fragmentation and differentiation? The general argument of this paper is that conflicts between social identities and solidarities cannot be understood in terms of a clash between individual and holistic perspectives. We need a relational perspective. From this angle, the paper tries to explain why and how a post-modern (societal) balance between social solidarity and social identities (i.e., a new citizenship) is emerging today, from the society rather than from the state, in such a way as to build new forms of interdependences and links between identities and solidarities. Sociologically speaking, it may be that a new `societal semantics' is emerging, according to which citizenship is a complex of rights and duties not only of individuals but also of social groups, arranging civic life into several `universalistic autonomies' capable of reconciling collective goals and self-management practices, solidarity and identity issues. This is the new challenge for post-modern societies; the name of this new game is `societal citizenship' or citizenship of social autonomies, including regional ones.
Sociological Models of Scientific Knowledge
Authors: Cannavò Leonardo
Published: March 2007

In contemporary advanced societies, the study of science and technology has acquired huge importance; this has been possible also thanks to the sociology of science. It is a hybrid specialty, because it derives from the sociology of knowledge and the social history of science, and yet is more and more conditioned by economics and politics. This critical review article examines the opposing sociological models of science which were developed in the 20th century, and relates them to the global processes of collectivization and steady state of science and technology. The diffusion of scientific communication is suggested as an important social goal.
The Ethos of the Welfare State
Authors: Zijderveld Anton C.
Published: March 2007

The welfare state has arisen as a radical consequence of modernisation and may be associated with a variety of ideologies but often is not based on any explicitly. This raises the question of what ethos has the greatest 'elective affinity' with the welfare state and three ideal types of ethos are outlined: the moralistic, amoralist and immoralist. Whereas the United States and Japan exhibit moralistic traits, an Italian peasant society the amoralist, the Netherlands particularly exhibits the immoralist, which has the closest affinity to the welfare state with its emphasis on personal authenticity, consumption, resentment and ant-institutionalism. A welfare state sustained by the immoralist ethos will be particularly vulnerable to declines in consumption when expectations are always rising.
The Educational Insignificance of Technological Attendere: Listening Toward a New Educational Discourse
Authors: Ulveland Randall Dana
Published: March 2007

In this article, the author examines the discourse that substantiates computer use in schools. The discourse is examined from within a shared pedagogical experience with a child. The author describes the noticeable loss of language that animates corporeal awareness when a discourse is adopted that is derived from business, research, and reform literature. The notions of dwelling, communing, and revealing are played out against the notion of technological attendere (a term intended by the author to describe a directedness toward technology) in an attempt to urge the reader to take a close look at the attenuating language used in the promotion of computer-based technologies. Ultimately, the reader is asked to re-instill a more humanistic language in pedagogical encoun ters that gives credence to corporeal understandings.
Comparing Environmental Science Literacy Among Education Majors and a National Sample
Authors: Robinson Mike
Published: March 2007

The responses of a convenience sample of 83 secondary preservice and preeducation students in three university classes were compared to each other and to a national sample of 1,492 adults on a national poll of science knowledge. The results of the data analyses using simple ANOVA and two-tailed t tests indicated that preservice secondary science teachers in a secondary science methods class are significantly more science literate than preeducation majors and the na tional sample. They were not significantly more science literate than preservice and in-service science teachers in an environmental science methods class. Chemistry majors were significantly more science lit erate than other science and health majors. Additional comparisons between males and females, graduates and undergraduates, and older and younger (younger than 28) students indicated males, graduates, and older students are significantly more science literate than females, undergraduates, and younger students.