bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Interstices of Globalization: The Example of Fair Coffee
Authors: Renard Marie‐Christine
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the process of globalization of agriculture and food. Its aim is to demonstrate that, inside of the homogeneous mainstream tendencies of this process dominated by transnational interests, interstices appear that open the way for small producers and middlemen developing certain products on the basis of specific qualities. Those interstices are made possible by the emergence of new patterns of consumption based on new socially shared values. The paper illustrates the argumentation with the case of the fair trade coffee network, which links producers from the ‘South’ with consumers in the ‘North’ around the values of solidarity and fairness. Because the network introduces the fair trade coffee into the large marketing channels in some European countries, it is built on the convergence of various interests among the agents involved in the filière. The paper analyses the ambivalence of the strategy that responds to market logic although it is also based on ethical principles. It finally raises questions about strategies based on specific qualities in the post‐Fordist era.
Negotiating Bacteriological Meat Contamination Standards in the US: The Case of E.coli O157:H7
Authors: Juska Arunas , Gouveia Lourdes , Gabriel Jackie , Koneck Susan
Published: March 2003

The paper analyzes changes in bacteriological meat contamination standards in the us since the early 1980s when E.coli O157:H7 was for the first time identified as a new foodborne pathogen associated with the consumption of undercooked meat. Four types of risks, and the standards associated with them, are identified. Up until 1982 meat contamination was ascertained via organoleptic standards. Meat was considered as safe as producers' and/or consumers' sanitary conditions and hygiene. In 1982,the identification of E.coli O157:H7 as a pathogen dangerous to human health resulted in a redefinition from organoleptic to biomedical standards. Meat contamination risks were measured by the extent to which sick patients could recover from foodborne diseases or die. In 1993,as a result of the massive ‘Jack‐in‐the‐Box outbreak’ associated with the consumption of hamburgers contaminated with E.coli O157:H7,biomedical standards were reformulated into epidemiological measures aimed at ascertaining the extent to which the country's population was at risk of getting sick or dying from meat contamination. Finally, in 1996,with the enactment of the Pathogen Reduction Act/haccp, meat processing standards replaced epidemiological standards. Meat was to be as safe as packers processed it. Economic, political, social, scientific and technological factors contributing to the origins of each of the four types of bacteriological meat standards are analyzed. Consequences of the changes in standards in terms of re‐distribution of costs, benefits, and risks to those social actors engaged in the meat subsector are discussed.
The Farmer Within an Institutional Environment. Comparing Danish and Belgian Organic Farming
Authors: Lynggaard Kennet S.C.
Published: March 2003

This article is about variation in the expansion of organic farming sectors in different countries. It is suggested that variations in the absolute expansion of organic farming may be understood through a theoretical framework emphasizing the importance of the quality of the interrelationships among national institutions within organic farming as well as between organic and conventional agriculture. The theoretical proposition is illustrated by comparing the development in the institutional environment of organic farming in Denmark and Belgium from 1985 to 1999. In the Belgian case, the organic farming sector has expanded slowly due to an institutional environment of organic farming that has developed along regional lines and detached from the institutions of conventional farming. This development is seen as a result of an interrelationship characterized by pure competition where very little dialogue appears between organic and conventional farming. In the Danish case the organic farming sector has expanded throughout the period as a result of a series of creative conflicts, both within the organic farming sector and between the organic and conventional farming sectors.
Death in Town and Country. An Analysis of Urban‐Rural Differences in Mortality
Authors: Rioja Luis A. Camarero , Redondo Rosa Gómez , Aboitiz Ricardo Jiménez
Published: March 2003

Based on the premise that types of death express differences in lifestyle, this article studies differences in causes of death between rural and urban habitats. This empirical analysis covers all deaths registered during the three‐year period from 1990 to 1992 in Spain, classified according to the following variables: age, sex, cause of death covering twenty‐seven categories, and town of residence. The analysis carried out shows convergence between urban and rural life expectancy. It is no longer the case that the rural population has a higher mortality rate because of a comparatively low socio‐economic level and poorer health care. In fact, the differences noted offer greater life expectancy in the rural environment although the difference of only one year is a relatively short period, hardly justifying the suggestion that improved environmental quality lengthens life expectancy ‐especially taking into account that the extra year occurs at an advanced age. Also of relevance here is the fact that the differences are mostly seen amongst men, whereas amongst women the differences in life expectancy are minimal.
1. Anticipating Law: Research Methods, Ethics, and the Law of Privilege
Authors: Palys Ted , Lowman John
Published: March 2003

Our ethical obligation to protect the research confidentiality of individual participants is challenged when third parties use subpoenas in the context of criminal proceedings and civil litigation in an effort to order the production of confidential information. This paper discusses strategies researchers may employ in order to maximize their legal ability to maintain confidentiality in spite of those challenges. Use of existing statutory protections is the first choice, but these are available for only a subset of research related to health and criminal justice issues. In situations where statutory protections are not available, the Wigmore criteria may act as a guide for the design of research that maximizes researchers' ability to protect research participants by advancing a case-by-case claim for researcher-participant privilege. We discuss the legal basis for this conclusion and outline procedures that may be used to further strengthen confidentiality protections.
Countering Essentialism in Behavioural Social Science: The Example of ‘the Vulnerable Child’ Ethnographically Examined
Authors: Frankenberg Ronald , Robinson Ian , Delahooke Amber
Published: March 2003

After discussing ways in which the concept of vulnerability is applied to children in psychology and sociology. It is argued that many of these may arise from the mistaken concretisation of essentialising concepts which have sometimes thereby become barriers to, rather than facilitators of, sociological understanding. Fieldwork is presented and analysed concerning the interactions of some London children, and their characterisations of themselves and others, in a variety of home, school and other settings. It is suggested that situations in which children are present often do generate ‘vulnerability’ in all participants not only in the children. In classrooms and elsewhere the attribution and reality of vulnerability moves rapidly between persons as situations develop and change.
Death. So What? Sociology, Sequestration and Emancipation
Authors: Willmott Hugh
Published: March 2003

The paper argues for the widely unacknowledged importance of death in the motivation of human conduct and the significance of the sequestration of death for sociological theory. Sociological studies that illuminate modern strategies for coping with death also contribute to its sequestration as they routinely naturalise the contemporary commonsense understanding of death as something negative that must be coped with. The (negative or morbid) representation of death, it is argued, should be re-cognised as a social product, not reproduced in sociological studies as something that is seemingly innate to the human condition. Otherwise, a commonsense representation of death as unequivocally negative is reinforced rather than scrutinised; and alternative understandings of the significance of mortality for analysing everyday life and human emancipation are suppressed.
Styles of Illusion
Authors: Armstrong Peter
Published: March 2003

This paper argues that one of the most prevalent styles in contemporary sociology – style referring to a complex of theory, method and treatment of the literature – systematically allows space for the misrepresentation of reality. The theoretical core of the style in question is a view of identity as formed through the active consumption of discourse, its preferred methodology is that of qualitative fieldwork whilst a largely impressionistic literature is treated as a source of authoritative commentary on the influence of specific discourses. The theoretical and methodological elements of this style interact so that its treatment of ethnographic data functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy for whatever presuppositions can be constructed from its treatment of the literature.

This thesis is illustrated through an analysis of the claims made by Paul du Gay (1996), and Musson and Cohen (1997) that enterprise discourse had achieved hegemonic status in the UK during the last decade of the Twentieth Century.
Festive Traditions in Modernity: The Public Sphere of the Festival of the ‘Fallas’ in Valencia (Spain)
Authors: Costa Xavier
Published: March 2003

Festive sociability is central for the transmission of tradition and is fundamental field of interaction between the festive tradition and modernity. This sociability has a reflexivity and a public sphere of its own. The dominant modernist opposition between tradition and modernity is questioned with the help of a recent study of the Fire Festival of the ‘Fallas’(Valencia. Spain).
Commodities in Action: Measuring Embeddedness and Imposing Values
Authors: Koponen Timothy M.
Published: March 2003

Recent approaches in political economy look at the effects of technology and social values on economic action. Combining these approaches with those of economic anthropologists, this article poses that the way the economy is instituted can be understood by looking at reasons actors have for participating in actor-networks of production, distribution and consumption.

Using the author's research on American recycling, this article first shows that much of the ‘making’ or instituting of the economy happens outside the market, through political machinations, contracts and standards. Second, it suggests that these relationships impose value upon goods differently than do market relations. The details of the recycling ‘chain’ show the ways actors shape the network and demonstrate that the social values that add ‘economic value’ to goods are not uniform, but are highly contextual.

Starting from Mark Granovetter's notion of ‘social embeddedness', the article explains that the measure of social embeddedness is not as important as the values imposed upon other actors through social structure in the economy. It calls for a close observation of economic action in the locales within which production takes place to understand better the ‘actions-at-a-distance’ where the politics of technology, social movements and power create the empirical, instituted economy.
Inequality, Democratization, and De-Democratization
Authors: Tilly Charles
Published: March 2003

Reversions from democratic to undemocratic regimes have often occurred historically and continue to occur frequently. Both increases in categorical inequality across a regime's subject population and declines in the insulation of public politics from categorical inequality tend to de-democratize regimes. A general account of democratization and de-democratization yields a series of conjectures concerning the processes by which changes in categorical inequality threaten democracy.
Homoeopathy as a Feminist Form of Medicine
Authors: Scott Anne
Published: March 2003

In this paper I begin by discussing the reinforcement offered to ontological dualism by biomedicine. It then describes some parallels between the development of feminist health activism and that of professional, non‐medically qualified homoeopathy, going on to ask whether alternative medicine can offer a ‘political’ challenge to ontological dualism. Three aspects of the feminist critique of biomedicine are discussed in relation to contemporary, feminist, homoeopathy. They include the power dynamics within the clinical encounter, the degree to which social and environmental issues are incorporated within medical diagnosis and treatment, and the manner in which the patient’s subjective experience is used during case‐taking. I conclude that contemporary feminist homoeopathy does address the concerns relating to dualism and power raised by the health activists of second wave feminism; it therefore must be considered a ‘feminist’ form of medicine. However, its very success in this regard raises a new set of difficulties and tensions. Although holistic forms of medicine do have the potential to address the ontological dualism which is inherent to biomedicine, they may also increase the capacity practitioners have to construct and enforce normative forms of behaviour through their clinical practice. In addressing one set of feminist concerns relating to biomedicine, homoeopathic practice may actually intensify the dangers relating to a second set of feminist concerns.
Decline of the Hospital: Reconstructing Institutional Dangers
Authors: Armstrong David
Published: March 2003

The number of hospital beds in Britain rose to a peak about 35 years ago but has since rapidly declined. This dramatic change was preceded by a number of independent technical critiques of two core assumptions of hospital care, that the hospital was a place of safety, and bed rest was in itself therapeutic. The result was the end of the old hospital and a search for an alternative that stressed restricted bed usage and more ambulatory services. These changes may themselves be manifestations of an even more fundamental realignment in the relationship between health and illness.
A Lifecourse Perspective on Socio‐economic Inequalities in Health: The Influence of Childhood Socio‐economic Conditions and Selection Processes
Authors: Van De Mheen H. Dike , Stronks Karien , Mackenbach Johann P.
Published: March 2003

In this article a lifecourse perspective on socio‐economic inequalities in health is presented. In a lifecourse perspective, cumulation of adverse socio‐economic circumstances and selection are important mechanisms, which successively may cause a downward spiral. A conceptual model is examined with empirical data. Three processes in the explanation of socio‐economic health inequalities are emphasised: the contribution of childhood socio‐economic conditions, the contribution of childhood health and the contribution of health selection. Data were used from the longitudinal Study of Socio‐Economic Health Differences (LS‐SEHD) in the Netherlands.

It was found that the relation between adult socio‐economic status and adult health is influenced by childhood socio‐economic conditions. An independent effect of childhood socio‐economic conditions on adult health was partly explained by unhealthy behaviour and personality characteristics and cultural factors. Also, childhood health was found to play a role in the explanation of socio‐economic health differences in early adult life. Health selection in childhood seems the most important mechanism in this process. With respect to health selection in adult life no effect of health problems on downward social mobility was apparent. Our results indicate that the occurrence of a downward spiral is likely to be significant during the period of childhood and youth.
Regional Mortality and the Irish in Britain: Findings from the ONS Longitudinal Study
Authors: Williams Rory , Ecob Russell
Published: March 2003

We explore predictions from three sociological models linking excess Irish mortality in England and Wales with urban and regional patterns of settlement and mortality.

The analysis is prospective, of urban residents aged 25‐74 in a 1 per cent sample of the 1971 Census of England and Wales, linked with death certificates from 1971‐1985 (the ONS Longitudinal Study). Analysis is by multilevel modelling of probabilities of death.

The association of past Irish immigration with contemporary regional mortality is confirmed. However Model 1, suggesting that excess Irish mortality is solely a regional effect related to the economic history of the north and west, is rejected. Model 2, suggesting that excess Irish mortality is due to political and religious differences which have tended to disadvantage this group similarly across regions of England and Wales, is supported. Model 3, suggesting that the economic model (1) and cultural model (2) interact, creating sharper political and religious divisions and greater excess Irish mortality in the north and west, is rejected.
The division of labour in vision care: professional competence in a system of professions
Authors: Stevens Fred , Van Der Horst Frans , Nijhuis Frans , Bours Silvia
Published: March 2003

The provision of vision care services by ophthalmologists, general practitioners, orthoptists, optometrists and opticians in the Netherlands was investigated. We assessed their division of labour, task boundary conflicts, and consensus on professional domains. Analysis of six patient cases indicated considerable overlap in the services provided by these professions. Only general practitioners and orthoptists were content with their current role. Ophthalmologists preferred to delegate cases, optometrists and opticians to expand their services.

The results revealed important differences in inter‐professional status, more or less fixed‐status hierarchies and dissatisfaction with the existing division of labour. Preferences of the professions did not point to increased inter‐professional co‐ordination; this could probably only be achieved by means of external intervention.
Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder
Authors: Mulvany Julie
Published: March 2003

Sociologists appear to have abandoned the study of serious mental illness. This paper argues that the work of the disability theorists provides new directions for an analysis of the plight of people suffering from serious mental illness. Disability theory, revolving around a ‘social approach to disability’, redirects analysis from the individual to processes of social oppression, discrimination and exclusion. The application of the ideas of disability theorists to the study of mental ill health will orient research and theoretical development towards an analysis of the complexity and multiplicity of the social restrictions faced by people diagnosed as ‘mentally ill’, and the social disadvantage and oppression they face. A number of vigorous debates within the disability theory literature are examined. One debate addresses the political and theoretical implications of identifying the differences that exist between people with disabilities. A second debate examines the relative importance of including an analysis of impairment in the social approach to disability. Finally, the paper discusses the critique of medical sociology, linking illness with disability, which is advanced by some disability theorists. This debate is particularly concerned with the linking of illness with disability and the ideological and conceptual disadvantages of a focus on illness.
Interviews and biographical time: the case of long‐term HIV nonprogressors
Authors: Pierret Janine
Published: March 2003

In 1996–1997, I interviewed 30 men and women who, though infected with HIV nearly 10 years earlier, were still not sick and were not receiving treatment. The empirical data drawn from these interviews are used to show how the conditions and context of this research affected the stances adopted by interviewees and led them to centre their comments on their experience of time. The analysis of these data focused on the form of the interview and the conception of time. A typology is proposed of how time was constructed during interviews.
Everyday experiences of implicit rationing: comparing the voices of nurses in California and British Columbia
Authors: Bourgeault Ivy Lynn , Armstrong Pat , Armstrong Hugh , Choiniere Jacqueline , Lexchin Joel , Mykhalovskiy Eric , Peters Suzanne , White Jerry
Published: March 2003

Managed Care in the U.S. is one of the more controversial strategies to implicitly ration health care. It has also been creeping into Canada where care is similarly being managed albeit in a different socio‐political environment. Based on nine group interviews with 35 RNs in California and 10 group interviews with 39 RNs in British Columbia, we find that the price to be paid for the promise of cheaper, more efficient health care through managerial strategies is borne largely by nurses and other health care providers. The data reveal that nurses in British Columbia and California share similar experiences with how the amount of care is rationed at the bedside – through care pathways, early discharge policies and reduced staffing – while the rationing of access to care differs because of the socio‐political contexts of their respective health care systems. In both cases, the implicit rationing of care through managerial strategies fails to deliver on its promises.
Beyond ‘beer, fags, egg and chips’? Exploring lay understandings of social inequalities in health
Authors: Popay Jennie , Bennett Sharon , Thomas Carol , Williams Gareth , Gatrell Anthony , Bostock Lisa
Published: March 2003

This paper seeks to contribute to the limited body of work that has directly explored lay understandings of the causes of health inequalities. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodology, the views of people living in contrasting socio‐economic neighbourhoods are compared. The findings support previous research in suggesting that lay theories about causality in relation to health inequalities, like lay concepts of health and illness in general, are multi‐factorial. The findings, however, also illustrate how the ways in which questions about health and illness are asked shape people's responses. In the survey reported on here people had no problem offering explanations for health inequalities and, in response to a question asking specifically about area differences in health experience, people living in disadvantaged areas ‘constructed’ explanations which included, but went beyond, individualistic factors to encompass structural explanations that gave prominence to aspects of ‘place’. In contrast, within the context of in‐depth interviews, people living in disadvantaged areas were reluctant to accept the existence of health inequalities highlighting the moral dilemmas such questions pose for people living in poor material circumstances. While resisting the notion of health inequalities, however, in in‐depth interviews the same people provided vivid accounts of the way in which inequalities in material circumstances have an adverse impact upon health. The paper highlights ways in which different methodologies provide different and not necessarily complementary understandings of lay perspectives on the causes of inequalities in health.
Conditioning as disintegration
Authors: Chang J. T. , Pollard D.
Published: March 2003

Conditional probability distributions seem to have a bad reputation when it comes to rigorous treatment of conditioning. Technical arguments are published as manipulations of Radon–Nikodym derivatives, although we all secretly perform heuristic calculations using elementary definitions of conditional probabilities. In print, measurability and averaging properties substitute for intuitive ideas about random variables behaving like constants given particular conditioning information.

One way to engage in rigorous, guilt‐free manipulation of conditional distributions is to treat them as disintegrating measures—families of probability measures concentrating on the level sets of a conditioning statistic. In this paper we present a little theory and a range of examples—from EM algorithms and the Neyman factorization, through Bayes theory and marginalization paradoxes—to suggest that disintegrations have both intuitive appeal and the rigor needed for many problems in mathematical statistics.
Monotone missing data and pattern‐mixture models
Authors: Molenberghs G. , Michiels B. , Kenward M. G. , Diggle P. J.
Published: March 2003

It is shown that the classical taxonomy of missing data models, namely missing completely at random, missing at random and informative missingness, which has been developed almost exclusively within a selection modelling framework, can also be applied to pattern‐mixture models. In particular, intuitively appealing identifying restrictions are proposed for a pattern‐mixture MAR mechanism.
Optimal static customer routing in a closed queuing network
Authors: Hordijk A. , Loeve J. A.
Published: March 2003

In this paper we analyse the routing of customers in a general closed queuing network which satisfies a product‐form assumption. We prove that there are optimal deterministic routing rules, and we provide an algorithm to compute a Nash equilibrium point of the stochastic game in which the players are the customers. Constrained optimal routing rules are also considered.
A Bayesian adaptive design in clinical trials for continuous responses
Authors: Biswas Atanu , Angers Jean–François
Published: March 2003

Adaptive design is a popular concept in several clinical trials, especially in phase III trials. The idea is to allocate treatments to the entering patients according to the state of art of the present data, i.e., to allocate a larger number of patients to the better treatment. The present paper provides a Bayesian formulation of an adaptive allocation design for clinical trials that considers all the continuous responses along with the associated covariates for future allocation. Some Bayesian inferences followed by the allocation are discussed along with a Bayesian prediction for future allocation. The convergence of the allocation probabilities is also discussed along with some related logistics of the design.
Bayesian inference in time series models using kernel quasi likelihoods
Authors: Tsionas Efthymios G.
Published: March 2003

The paper takes up Bayesian inference in time series models when essentially nothing is known about the distribution of the dependent variable given past realizations or other covariates. It proposes the use of kernel quasi likelihoods upon which formal inference can be based. Gibbs sampling with data augmentation is used to perform the computations related to numerical Bayesian analysis of the model. The method is illustrated with artificial and real data sets.
Weak Pronouns as LF Clitics: Clustering and Adjacency Effects in the Pronominal Systems of German and Hebrew
Authors: Laenzlinger Christopher , Shlonsky Ur
Published: March 2003

This paper is a comparative study of weak pronouns in German and Hebrew. Weak pronouns share properties of both Romance‐like clitics (adjacency, clustering effects) and full pronouns (non‐reduced, free‐standing forms). Weak pronouns are analyzed as maximal projections prior to Spellout and as clitics, X0 elements, at LF. In the overt syntax, they move as XPs to their Case‐checking position. They move beyond the Case position if that position is not close enough to their LF‐host. At LF they move as X0s, i.e. they cliticize and incorporate to a V‐related host.

In Hebrew, the clitic host is the participle (Agr participle0) in complex tenses and the verb in AgrS0 or in C0 (inversion) in simplex tenses. In German, the pronouns’ LF‐host is unique: AgrS0 raised to C0. Weak pronouns can form clusters, which are derived by multiple adjunction of the pronouns. Weak pronouns are also subject to an adjacency constraint, as a consequence of the Head Movement Constraint, operative on LF Incorporation.
Isothermic Surfaces in Spaces of Arbitrary Dimension: Integrability, Discretization, and Bäcklund Transformations—A Discrete Calapso Equation
Authors: Schief W. K.
Published: March 2003

A vector analog of the classical Calapso equation governing isothermic surfaces in Rn+2 is introduced. It is shown that this vector Calapso system admits a nonlocal) scalar Lax pair based on the classical Moutard equation. The analog of Darboux's Bäcklund transformation for isothermic surfaces in R3 is derived in a systematic manner and shown that it may be formulated in terms of the classical Moutard transformation acting on the scalar Lax pair. A permutability theorem for isothermic surfaces is set down that manifests itself in an explicit superposition principle for the vector Calapso system. This superposition principle in vectorial form is shown to constitute an integrable discretization of the vector Calapso system and, therefore, defines discrete isothermic surfaces in Rn+2. The discrete Calapso equation is related to the discrete Korteweg–de Vries equation and discrete holomorphic functions. A matrix Lax pair based on Clifford algebras and a scalar Lax pair are derived for the discrete Calapso equation. A discrete Moutard‐type transformation for the discrete Calapso equation is obtained, and it is shown that the discrete Calapso equation may be specialized to an integrable discrete version of the O(n+2) nonlinear σ‐model.
The Cauchy Problem for the Kadomtsev–Petviashili II Equation with Nondecaying Data along a Line
Authors: Villarroel J. , Ablowitz M. J.
Published: March 2003

The initial value problem for the Kadomstev–Petviashvili II (KPII) equation is considered with given data that are nondecaying along a line. The associated direct and inverse scattering of the two‐dimensional heat equation is constructed. The direct problem is formulated in terms of a bounded Green's function. The inverse data are decomposed into scattering data along the line and data from the decaying portion of the potential. The solution of the KPII equation is then obtained via coupled linear integral equations.
Modulation Equations of Weakly Nonlinear Geometrical Optics in Media Exhibiting Mixed Nonlinearity
Authors: Srinivasan Gopala Krishna , Sharma V. D.
Published: March 2003

The system of evolutionary equations describing the asymptotic behavior of nonlinear waves propagating in materials exhibiting mixed nonlinearity is derived with the resonant wave interactions inherent in the system. Our analysis differs from the results of Hunter et al., in that we have employed a different scaling, keeping in view the delayed effects of nonlinearity in certain thermodynamic systems exhibiting mixed nonlinearity. The result is to modify the transport equations obtained by Hunter et al. by the addition of certain cubic nonlinear terms. Through the method of averaging, the secular terms are eliminated. However, the averaging process is carried out in two steps; first, along manifolds of codimension two giving an advection equation, the solution of which is then averaged in a direction transverse to the above‐mentioned manifold.
Spectral Filtering Formalism and Its Application for Multi‐Phase Deep‐Water Wavetrains
Authors: Kliakhandler I. L. , Rubinstein B. Y.
Published: March 2003

A new formalism of spectral filtering for the description of the modulation processes is proposed. The method allows one to study the classical problem of multi‐phase modulations in dispersive systems. In the present paper, deepwater waves are considered. Spectral filtering results in a system of coupled equations that describe the modulations of the carrier wave and its harmonics. The formalism may find applications in a broad range of physical situations with multi‐phase dynamics.
Slow Hand: A Secondary School Survey of Handwriting Speed and Legibility
Authors: Roaf Caroline
Published: March 2003

Caroline Roaf looks at the effects of handwriting speed and legibility on student performance. The ability to write quickly and neatly remains an important characteristic of effective learning in spite of technological advances. The 25 per cent of pupils identified as struggling by Roaf is worrying in as much as this could be replicated in many other schools. She comes to six broad conclusions and finally draws attention to the advantages of the French system, which is the subject of the following article.
Stress and Health, Workload and Burnout in Learning Support Coordinators in Colleges of Further Education
Authors: Male Dawn , May Derek
Published: March 2003

Worlds like ‘stress’ and ‘burnout’ are now heard too frequently in education. Dawn Male and Derek May's contribution is therefore opportune and though focusing on colleges of further education will strike a chord elsewhere. Surprisingly, they do not find evidence of heightened stress but excessive workloads appear to lead to ‘exhausted emotional health’. Their postscript indicates that there are job‐related ‘buffers’ that alleviate stress but many of these are not in place.
Connecting with connexions: the role of the personal adviser with young people with special educational and support needs
Authors: Grove Bob , Giraud–Saunders Alison
Published: March 2003

The Connexions service has particular responsibility for coordinating transition planning for students with learning difficulties. In this study Bob Grove and Alison Giraud–Saunders report on the development of the personal adviser (PA) role in two special schools and an FE college as part of the Lewisham Connexions pilot. This article is based on the evaluation report of the Connecting with Connexions project, which is available in full from the authors.
Parsing Coordinates and Ellipsis: Copy α
Authors: Frazier Lyn , Clifton, Jr. Charles
Published: March 2003

In this paper we argue that the human parsing mechanism has available two distinct methods of building syntactic structure. One mechanism, which has been studied extensively, involves building structure in response to the input in a step‐by‐step, inference‐by‐inference manner. Building more structure by this means involves more processing cost than building less structure. The second mechanism, proposed here, involves essentially cost‐free copying of the structure of an antecedent clause. Building more structure by this means (copying) does not necessarily impose a greater cost than building (copying) less structure. The results of several sentence processing studies are presented in support of the proposal.
Syntactic and Phonological Verb Movement
Authors: Zwart C. Jan‐Wouter
Published: March 2003

This paper defends the essentially syntactic nature of head movement, contra Chomsky (1999:30f). Head movement yields effects of word order that do not find a natural place in phonology, defined as the conversion of syntactic terminals to strings of phonemes. It also feeds syntactic processes such as NP‐raising in restructuring constructions. The only “phonological” aspect to head movement involves the fluctuating spell‐out positions of the verb. It is argued that these fluctuations, illustrated in the Continental West Germanic verb movement patterns, result from the interaction of formal feature movement (“syntactic verb movement”) and lexical feature movement (“phonological verb movement”), the latter restricted to situations where the target of formal feature movement lacks lexical features of its own.
The Monty Hall Matrix
Authors: Eisenhauer Joseph G.
Published: March 2003

A general procedure for solving the ‘Monty Hall problem’ is demonstrated using probability matrices, and an n‐dimensional extension is presented.
Conversational Learning: A Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Preaching
Authors: Kim Eunjoo Mary
Published: March 2003

An increasing number of female students populate preaching classes in seminaries and theological schools across the United States. Based on the analysis of female students' needs and demands in preaching courses, I propose a pedagogy for conversational learning to teach homiletics. My own teaching experience and the knowledge gained through conversations with other feminist educators and homileticians are major resources upon which the principles and strategies of conversational learning are drawn. The ultimate goal for conversational learning is to enable “transformative learning” through which students transform their sense of identity, worldviews, values, ways of thinking, and enhance their unique voices in the pulpit. For this purpose, conversational learning employs student‐centered, group‐oriented, and inductive approaches in an egalitarian learning environment. Conversational learning is an on‐going process of learning preaching in a collaborative way.
Finding Meaning in the Text: The Process of Interpretation in Text‐Based Divination
Authors: Zeitlyn David
Published: March 2003

Some systems of divination are used to select particular sections of text, which are typically arcane and erudite, in which lies the answer to the particular, pressing problems of the client. Celebrated examples of such systems are the Chinese I Ching and the Yoruba Ifá. Werbner’s work on Kalanga and Tswapong divination provides a case‐study of the detailed praxis in such systems. Diviners have a multiple role when a divination technique selects a text. At each consultation they must satisfy themselves, their client, and their audience that they have followed the correct procedures to select the text. A second stage follows. The client has a particular question and the selected text was not composed as a specific answer to it. Interpretation is required to satisfy the client that the question has been answered. The diviner thus plays the role of indigenous critic, a role both similar to and different from that of literary critics in the Western tradition. The concept of ‘dialogic’ used by Barber in her analysis of Yoruba praise poetry is taken to illustrate similarities and differences between diviner and critic.
An Archaeology of Supernatural Places: The Case of West Penwith
Authors: Tilley Christopher , Bennett Wayne
Published: March 2003

This article interprets ‘natural’ features of the landscape unaltered by human agency – hills, rock outcrops, and solution basins – in West Penwith, Cornwall, and discusses their significance in relation to Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age monuments, cairns, and enclosures. We argue that ‘nature’ provides a fundamental conceptual resource for understanding cultural form, and that ‘natural’ architecture had a super‐natural significance for prehistoric populations. Its meanings were intricately linked to elemental processes involving metaphorical relationships between water and fire, stone, sea, and the passage of the sun in the heavens.
From Warrior to Wife: Cultural Transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia
Authors: Freeman Dena
Published: March 2003

This article focuses on cultural transformation in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia and seeks to explain the way in which certain initiation rituals have transformed over time. The article begins by considering two structural variants of the initiation ritual that exist in two neighbouring communities, Doko Gembela and Doko Masho, and argues that one is an historical transformation of the other. After comparing the contemporary form of these two variants, the article then moves to consider the macro‐level forces of change that have impinged on the two communities over the past two hundred years or so. It then seeks to bring ethnography and history together by considering how the macro‐level changes might have been experienced in the interpersonal relations of individuals. It explores the new types of situations that would have arisen and discusses how these new situations would have put strains on particular interpersonal relations, leading in many cases to conflict and dispute. After describing the local methods of conflict resolution, it is shown that on some occasions solutions are found which involve communal decisions to make a small change in cultural practice. In some cases these small changes have a knock‐on effect leading to overall structural change. The article ends with a hypothetical reconstruction of the way in which the Doko Masho initiation rituals might have transformed.
Flooding, River Management and Emergency Legislation Experiences of the accelerated reinforcement of dikes in the Netherlands
Authors: Driessen Peter P.J. , De Gier Anton A.J.
Published: March 2003

In early 1995 the Netherlands was faced with extremely high water levels on some of its major rivers. An emergency situation arose due to the threat of dikes being breached. As a result, during 1995 and 1996 the dikes along major rivers have been subjected to large‐scale reinforcement. So that this could be achieved, a special Act was brought into force to make possible a fast realisation of the operation. In spite of expeditious implementation, factors other than safety concerns were taken into account, such as the interests of ecology and the landscape. The approach adopted towards dike reinforcement in the Netherlands proves that fast decision‐making in complex policy situations, does not per se have to be detrimental to precision, regarding procedures and the balancing of different interests.
Strategic Territorialisation: The Politics of Anglo–Montrealers
Authors: Boudreau Julie–Anne
Published: March 2003

Constitutional entanglements in Canada–Quebec relations are well known. From one referendum on Quebec’s sovereignty to the other, from one pan–Canadian constitutional meeting to the other, the ‘Quebec problem’ seems irresolvable. One dimension is constantly overlooked in this debate: territorial identity. Territorially–based cultural claims emerge in the core of urban Quebec under the leadership of partitionist and localist movements. Originally based in Montreal, the partitionist movement is driven by Anglo–Que´be´cois claims over local municipalities and certain parcels of the territory in the event of an independent Quebec. This paper seeks to understand a dual reterritorialisation process: 1) state territorial rescaling policies such as decentralisation and metropolitan reform, and 2) the use of territorial claims underpinning social mobilisation strategies. When state territorial restructuring policies do not correspond with the local territorial political culture, as I argue in the case of a ‘frontier–city’ like Montreal, it spurs the activation of strategic territorialisation. This paper begins with an analysis of Montreal’s territorial political culture, rooted in the coexistence of opposite territorial myths and a common feeling of distinctiveness. Then follows a discussion of strategic territorialisation and the poly–scalar nature of such mobilisation.
Evaluating Errors in a Digital Vegetation Map with Forest Inventory Data and Accuracy Assessment Using Fuzzy Sets
Authors: Franklin Janet , Simons Dena K. , Beardsley Debby , Rogan John M. , Gordon Hazel
Published: March 2003

In large‐area mapping projects, existing reference data, often collected for a different purpose, are increasingly being used for map accuracy assessment. Multi‐attribute digital vegetation maps have been developed for all National Forest lands in California (8.1 million ha). We developed decision rules that could be applied to quantitative Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data in order to score the fuzzy membership of plot locations in all possible map classes. We compare the accuracy of the vegetation map attributes estimated using this method to accuracy estimated from fuzzy class membership scores assigned by experts (inventory crews) during field work. Accuracy of the vegetation life form attribute was estimated to be higher when expert label assignments were used as reference data (76–87%), instead of FIA plot data (62–79%). This suggests that automated decision rules applied to detailed data from FIA plots, which have smaller area than map polygons, may systematically underestimate map accuracy. However, assignment of the actual map labels to FIA plot locations by inventory crews appears to be a robust method for using the FIA data for accuracy assessment.
An Architecture for the Management of GIS Data Files
Authors: Vert Gregory , Stock Molly , Jankowski Piotr , Gessler Paul
Published: March 2003

Management of GIS data presents unique problems. These include the need to manage a wide range of differing applications ’ data formats, group files into meaningful organizations that are driven by geospatial concerns, provide lineage and version support, provide documentation of the nature of the data and other descriptive information, and keep track of relationships among data files and groups of data files. Current approaches to data management can provide partial solutions to these problems, but none is complete. We have developed a software architecture that addresses all levels of this problem. This architecture centers around a data model that is populated with metadata and extended with fuzzy set theory notation. Fuzzy set theory allowed us to solve data ambiguity problems and to develop an object‐oriented framework that served as the basis for a proof‐of‐concept prototype. In addition, we developed file system organizations, computer network communications strategies and the mechanics of basic system operation so that the architecture provides a blueprint for a new type of software.
The phonetics and phonology of Tashlhiyt Berber syllabic consonants
Authors: Coleman John
Published: March 2003

Tashlhiyt Berber has entered the folklore of phonological theory as an unusual language in which any consonant can be syllabic, many words consisting entirely of consonants. I shall argue for an alternative analysis, according to which the epenthetic vowels which frequently accompany syllabic consonants are the phonetic realisations of syllable nuclei. Where no vowel occurs, it can be regarded as hidden by the following consonant, according to a gestural overlap model. On this view, Tashlhiyt syllable structure is a quite unmarked CV(C(C)), and syllabification is unproblematic.
Nominal Compounds In The Baltic Languages
Authors: Larsson Jenny Helena
Published: March 2003

In this article the Baltic system of compounding will be presented and its relation to the well attested Proto–Indo–European system of nominal compounding will be sought. The different types have enjoyed different degrees of productivity and the system will be traced back, via East and West Baltic, to Proto–Baltic. It will also be shown that the Lithuanian accentuation of nominal compounds follows certain regular patterns. Finally, the fate of the composition vowel will be discussed and a tendency to delete this vowel in initially stressed compounds will be argued for.
Grappling with Globalisation: Challenges for Economic Governance
Authors: Prakash Aseem
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the key domestic institutional challenges posed by globalisation in terms of the following questions: how does economic globalisation differ from other types of economic integration, what is its impact on the extant national institutions of economic governance, what institutional innovations are required to cope with the challenges, and how can institutional change be made politically feasible? It identifies three perspectives on how national governments may respond – retreat, hold fort, or rearticulate. It concludes that though governments need to devise policies to attract MNEs, indulging in races‐to the‐bottom is not the only route, perhaps not even a desirable route. Second, to attract FDI, governments must afford labor flexibility. How they actually implement it will vary within and across countries, depending on the capacities and the willingness of governments to undertake institutional reform. Labour flexibility can be made politically feasible by increasing the levels of social insurance to protect displaced labour and by instituting programmes that increase their skills and employability.