bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Corporate Governance on the Use of Enterprise Risk Management: Evidence From Canada
Authors: Kleffner Anne E. , Lee Ryan B. , McGannon Bill
Published: June 2003

This article examines the use of enterprise risk management (ERM) by companies in Canada, the characteristics that are associated with the use of ERM, what obstacles companies face in implementing ERM, and what role, if any, corporate governance guidelines have played in the decision to adopt ERM. We obtained our data from the responses to a mail survey sent to Canadian Risk and Insurance Management Society members as well as telephone interviews with 19 of the respondents. The results indicate that 31 percent of the sample had adopted ERM and that reasons for adopting ERM include the influence of the risk manager (61 percent), encouragement from the board of directors (51 percent), and compliance with Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) guidelines (37 percent). The major deterrents to ERM were an organizational structure that discourages ERM and an overall resistance to change. Although only about one‐third of companies indicated that they had adopted an ERM approach, evidence was clear that a larger portion of the sample was moving in that direction, as indicated by what changes they had observed in their companies in the past three years. These include the development of company‐wide guidelines for risk management (45 percent), an increased awareness of nonoperational risks by operational risk management personnel and an increased awareness of operational risks by nonoperational risk management personnel (49 percent), more coordination with different areas responsible for risk management (64 percent), and more involvement and interaction in the decision making of other departments. Contrary to what we expected, there was not a significant difference between firms that are listed on the TSE versus those that are not in terms of the propensity to use ERM. However, the fact that 37 percent of firms indicated that the TSE guidelines were influential in their decision to adopt ERM provides some evidence that the guidelines are influencing companies’ risk management strategies.
Insurance and China's Entry Into the WTO
Authors: D'Arcy Stephen P. , Xia Hui
Published: June 2003

Insurance emerged as one of the most hotly debated issues regarding China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a result of both historical precedents and the potential for significant market growth. The new rules for insurance operations in China under the WTO will allow insurers more freedom to enter and operate in this market. This article provides an explanation of the history of insurance operations in China, the role of insurance in the WTO negotiation process, and the effect that membership in the WTO will have on insurance operations in China in the future.
Reconsidering Relational Anthropology: A Critical Assessment of John Zizioulas's Theological Anthropology
Authors: Russell Edward
Published: June 2003

Abstract:  There has been an increasing emphasis in theological anthropology on the constitution of the person through their relation to God, others, self and the world. In focusing on the relational dimensions of personhood other important facets have not received sufficient attention: the doctrine of sin, the discontinuity between divine and human persons and human embodiment in the world. This article offers a critical assessment of John Zizioulas's anthropology which can be considered a paradigmatic example of a relational anthropology. Although the concerns raised are in relation to Zizioulas's work, many of them are instructive for relational anthropologies more generally.
Divine Transcendence, Religious Pluralism and Barth's Doctrine of God
Authors: Johnson Keith E.
Published: June 2003

Abstract:  Pluralists such as John Hick frequently argue that the transcendence, mystery and ineffability of ‘God’ provide the grounds on which a pluralistic interpretation of religion should be embraced. In this article the author explores the possibility that certain contemporary accounts of divine transcendence, consciously indebted to Karl Barth, may implicitly open the door to Hick's line of argument. After identifying four reasons why Barth's own account of transcendence (Church Dogmatics II/1) resists a pluralist appropriation, the author examines two contemporary proposals: William Placher's The Domestication of Transcendence and Stacy Johnson's The Mystery of God. He contends that, unlike Barth, the accounts of God's transcendence proposed by these two theologians implicitly open the door to Hick's line of argument.
Sociability and Positive Emotionality: Genetic and Environmental Contributions to the Covariation Between Different Facets of Extraversion
Authors: Eid Michael , Riemann Rainer , Angleitner Alois , Borkenau Peter
Published: June 2003

The relation between sociability and positive affect is one of the most often replicated results of research on personality and subjective well‐being. It is shown how behavior genetics can contribute to our understanding of the covariance between sociability and positive emotionality. The results of a multimethod behavior‐genetic study with 158 monozygotic and 120 dizygotic twins are reported. In this study, sociability and two components of positive emotionality (positive affect, energy) were assessed by self‐report and other report. Additionally, positive state affect was assessed in five situations and aggregated across situations. The results showed that there are strong genetic correlations between all variables. Furthermore, there are substantive correlations between the nonshared environmental components of the different variables. Shared environmental influences, however, seemed to be unimportant for explaining the correlations between sociability and the different components of positive emotionality. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for future research on sociability and positive emotionality.
A Model of a Price‐setting Duopoly with a Wage‐rise Contract
Authors: Ohnishi Kazuhiro
Published: June 2003

This paper considers a wage‐rise contract between a firm and its employees as the firm's strategy, and suggests a wage‐rise‐contract policy. The policy is a promise by the firm that it will announce a certain output level and a wage premium rate, and if it actually produces more than the announced output level, then it will pay each employee a wage premium uniformly. First, this paper examines the case in which one of two firms unilaterally offers the wage‐rise‐contract policy by using a two‐stage price‐setting duopoly model. It is then shown that there exists an equilibrium which coincides with the Stackelberg solution where the firm adopting the policy is the leader. Next, this paper examines the case in which both firms can offer the wage‐rise‐contract policy in the model. It is then shown that there exists an equilibrium which is more profitable for both firms than in the unilateral case.
Targeting Regional Output with State Government Fiscal Instruments: a Dynamic Multi‐regional CGE Analysis
Authors: Giesecke James
Published: June 2003

Between 1986/87 and 1998/99, Tasmania's share of national output declined from approximately 2.3 per cent to 1.9 per cent. At least two forecasters have projected that Tasmania's share of national activity will continue to decline over the period 1999/00 to 2003/04, falling to 1.7 per cent of national activity by the end of this period. This paper investigates whether it is within the power of the Tasmanian government to influence materially this forecast outcome by means of a budget neutral tax policy. Two such policy packages are investigated using a dynamic two‐region CGE model of the Australian economy (FEDERAL‐F). In the first, the question asked is whether there exists a feasible re‐arrangement of the Tasmanian government's revenue raising effort which has the effect of maintaining, over the forecast period, Tasmania's share of national GDP at its 1998/99 level. This is found not to be so. Hence, a second and (comparatively) less ambitious policy is then considered. This involves the gradual but complete elimination of payroll tax over the forecast period, and its replacement with a direct tax on households. Even when such a dramatic tax change as this is considered, the impact on the forecast for Tasmania's share of national activity is not large.
The Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development
Authors: Barbier Edward B.
Published: June 2003

Economists now recognize that, along with physical and human capital, environmental resources should be viewed as important economic assets, which can be called natural capital. Three recent debates have emerged over the role of natural capital in economic development. First, as many ecological services are unique, does the environment have an “essential” role in sustaining human welfare, and if so, are special “compensation rules” required to ensure that future welfare is not worsened by natural capital depletion today? Second, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has fostered empirical estimations of an “inverted U” shaped relationship between a variety of indicators of environmental pollution or resource depletion and the level of per capita income. Does the existence of such EKC relationships suggest that environmental degradation will eventually decline with growth? Finally, recent economic theories and empirical evidence have questioned whether lower income economies that are endowed with abundant natural resources develop more rapidly than economies that are relatively resource poor. Is it possible that resource abundant economies are not reinvesting the rents generated from natural resource exploitation into productive assets, or that resource booms actually divert economic resources from more productive and innovative sectors?
Board Composition and Performance in Life Insurance Companies
Authors: O'Sullivan Noel , Diacon Stephen R.
Published: June 2003

The past decade has witnessed a renewed emphasis on the quality of board governance worldwide. In the wake of a series of governance reports, particular interest has focused on the role and effectiveness of non‐executive board members. This study seeks to add to our understanding of the governance role of non‐executive directors by examining the use and usefulness of non‐executives in insurance companies. The focus on the insurance industry, which includes both proprietary (stock) and mutual companies, allows us to examine the importance of board governance in the context of different ownership structures. Furthermore, by focusing our study in a period prior to the widespread adoption of the recommendations of the Cadbury Report by UK companies, our findings should more accurately capture the true role of board composition in a less‐prescriptive governance environment. Our results suggest that mutual insurers utilize a greater proportion of non‐executive directors and are less likely to have CEO/Chairman duality than their proprietary counterparts. This evidence is consistent with mutuals using stronger board governance to compensate for weaker ownership control. Proprietary companies, which are subject to stronger shareholder and capital market control, place less reliance on non‐executive monitoring. Using a number of performance measures, we find no significant difference in the behaviour of mutual and proprietary companies with the exception of executive remuneration, (which is significantly higher for proprietary companies); furthermore there is no evidence that mutuals have outperformed their stock company rivals. Overall, our findings suggest that insurance companies emphasize different governance mechanisms depending on the specific monitoring problems they face.
Models of Change Agency: a Fourfold Classification
Authors: Caldwell Raymond
Published: June 2003

Change agents often play significant roles in initiating, managing or implementing change in organizations. Yet these roles are invariably exaggerated or misrepresented by one‐dimensional models that ignore the full complexity and scope of change agent roles. Following a review and theoretical clarification of some of the literature and empirical research on change agency, a new fourfold classification of change agents is proposed, covering leadership, management, consultancy, and team models. The four models reaffirm the significance of the multifaceted and complex roles change agents perform in organizational change, while underlining the importance of conceiving change interventions within organizations as processes that need to be coordinated and effectively managed.
Receptivity to Change in a General Medical Practice
Authors: Newton John , Graham Joanne , McLoughlin Kevin , Moore Alice
Published: June 2003

In this paper, Pettigrew, Ferlie and McKee's concepts of receptive and non receptive contexts for change are examined using data from an evaluation study of a general medical practice implementing a Personal Medical Services Pilot between 1998 and 2001. Four questions concerning the applicability, associatedness, temporality and dynamism of the eight factors Pettigrew et al. identified as constitutive of receptivity are used in the analysis, which extends the original model through an operationalization yielding 21 ‘focal questions’. Although the process of change at the fieldwork site was stalled, the receptivity model is shown to have been a useful tool in identifying the factors blocking change. The analysis shows that when the eight factors are conceptualized in terms of the strength, direction and continuity of their influence, the receptivity metaphor provides a distinctive tool for the analysis of change. The paper concludes that further refinement of the model could provide a basis for the derivation of change management typologies.
Modes of Response to Marketing Communications Failures in the Computer Services Industry
Authors: Bennett Roger
Published: June 2003

Chief executives of 186 computer services companies participated in a survey designed to establish (i) how firms in this sector were likely to respond to serious failures in their marketing communications programmes, and (ii) the factors affecting the mode of response. Businesses can react to a failure radically or conservatively. Radical responses might involve the dismissal of marketing managers, extensive reorganization of the marketing department and the implementation of radical changes in current programmes. Alternatively, a company could intensify the continuation of existing programmes; support, develop and mentor employees; and slightly modify rather than fundamentally alter its current marketing‐communications activities. A number of variables identified from academic literature concerning general organization decline and innovation were applied to the examination of corporate responses to marketing communications failures. In particular, hypotheses were developed and tested regarding the possible influences of managerial rigidity, internal power diffusion, organizational complexity and degree of formality, resource slack and decision‐making style.
Consumer Awareness, Understanding and Usage of Unit Pricing
Authors: Mitchell Vincent‐Wayne , Lennard David , McGoldrick Peter
Published: June 2003

The debate continues over whether prescribed quantities or unit pricing offers the best method to enable consumers to make value‐for‐money comparisons. In theory, the ‘informed’ consumer should benefit from being given unit‐price information to identify optimum purchases; in practice, however, it would appear that many consumers do not use the data. Although unit pricing can reduce the level of confusion caused by large product ranges and large numbers of unique size–price combinations, results of a survey of over 1000 people showed that: 31% of the sample did not understand how unit pricing was meant to help them compare products; 35% could not be bothered to look at unit prices and 28% stated that unit pricing was too difficult to use. Those least likely to look at unit prices are women, the least educated and consumers aged 18–34. The research investigated why consumers do not use unit‐price information and found: some consumers do not possess the cognitive ability to process the information and feel unit pricing is too complicated to use; some products are not comparable, which makes unit prices misleading; many shops do not provide unit‐price information; unit‐price information was felt unnecessary when evaluating products with few or no alternative sizes or brands; unit‐price comparisons take too much time; consumers use simpler strategies for getting value for money, e.g. volume discount heuristic, own brands, special offers, x% free, reward points, etc. The paper explores policy and retailer implications for unit pricing and examines recommendations for government.
Creativity and Work Environment in a High‐Tech Context
Authors: Lapierre Jozée , Giroux Vincent‐Pierre
Published: June 2003

Creativity is essential for success in business, especially in the high‐tech field where knowledge is the key resource. This study addresses the ways in which creativity is fostered in high‐tech organizations. It melds the different perspectives on organizational creativity into one six‐dimensional model that defines the creativity work environment. Those dimensions are: work atmosphere; vertical collaboration; autonomy/freedom; respect; alignment; and lateral collaboration. They are valid, reliable predictors of the creativity achieved in high‐tech organizations.
Synectics: Reflections of a Little‐s Practitioner
Authors: Rickards Tudor
Published: June 2003

Vincent Nolan provides a valuable update on the body of knowledge known as Synectics. The contribution deserves attention as an account of a fascinating body of knowledge of a method seeking deliberately to stimulate creativity, particularly in small, facilitated groups. He also indicates a lack of awareness of such practical work from academic establishments. In this response I offer another perspective, from a practitioner of creative problem‐solving techniques based in an academic environment.
Preference-Shaping: An Empirical Test
Authors: Stubager Rune
Published: June 2003

According to Downs, parties are forced to accommodate the preferences of the voters in order to win elections. However, Dunleavy and Ward argue that it is also possible for a party to use preference-shaping strategies to bring the preferences of the voters in line with the party's position. Using structural equation modelling, preference-shaping theory is tested in relation to the effect of sales of council houses and shares in privatised companies on the electorate's attitudes to economic policies under the 1979–92 Conservative governments in Britain. The analyses provide little support for preference-shaping theory, which seems in need of respecification if it is to be maintained.
The Politics of Pension Reform: Lessons from Public Attitudes in Greece
Authors: O'Donnell Owen , Tinios Platon
Published: June 2003

While the construction of a rational case for pension reform is often straightforward, the political implementation of such reform can be somewhat more difficult. In large part, this can be attributed to sceptical public opinion. The precise role played by public opinion in constraining the political feasibility of pension reform is, however, unclear. The purpose of this paper is to distil the ways in which public attitudes influence pension reform. This is done through examining survey data from Greece, where progress with the implementation of pension reform has been particularly modest. Political opposition to pension reform appears to be rooted in a general lack of public appreciation of the case for reform combined with the desire to protect interest group privileges. Public ignorance and insecurity breed attitudes not conducive to reform. Public attitudes do not simply act as a given constraint on reform but are a product of the structure of the pension system and the reform process itself. In this path-dependent process, implementation of a reform agenda of rationalisation is more difficult from the starting point of a severely fragmented and distorted system.
Open Citizens' Juries and the Politics of Sustainability
Authors: Ward Hugh , Norval Aletta , Landman Todd , Pretty Jules
Published: June 2003

Scholars have sought to establish a link between sustainability and deliberative democracy. Some suggest that citizens' juries can realise this link, especially since they encourage a deeper form of democratic participation. However, we argue that there remain important problems. We therefore propose an open citizens' jury model as an alternative, based on key principles drawn from democratic theory.
In Place of Strife? The PLP in Government, 1997–2001
Authors: Cowley Philip , Stuart Mark
Published: June 2003

After entering government in 1997, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) acquired a reputation for acquiescence. This article attempts to answer two related questions. Was this an accurate picture of the PLP under Blair? And if so, what explained it? The number of back-bench revolts was certainly low. Excluding the short parliaments of 1964 and February 1974, we have to go back to 1955 to find a parliament with fewer rebellions by government back benchers than the one elected in 1997 – but those rebellions that did occur were sizeable. Rebellion was also widespread amongst the PLP: 133 MPs rebelled at some point in the Parliament. There are four explanations for this compliant pattern of behaviour, in order of increasing importance: the issues on the legislative agenda; the composition of the PLP; the government's behaviour; and a desire on the part of most of the PLP to appear united.
New Rights for Old? Cosmopolitan Citizenship and the Critique of State Sovereignty
Authors: Chandler David
Published: June 2003

Cosmopolitan international relations theorists envisage a process of expanding cosmopolitan democracy and global governance, in which for the first time there is the possibility of global issues being addressed on the basis of new forms of democracy, derived from the universal rights of global citizens. They suggest that, rather than focus attention on the territorially limited rights of the citizen at the level of the nation-state, more emphasis should be placed on extending democracy and human rights to the international sphere. This paper raises problems with extending the concept of rights beyond the bounds of the sovereign state, without a mechanism of making these new rights accountable to their subject. The emerging gap, between holders of cosmopolitan rights and those with duties, tends to create dependency rather than to empower. So while the new rights remain tenuous, there is a danger that the cosmopolitan framework can legitimise the abrogation of the existing rights of democracy and self-government preserved in the UN Charter framework.
The Right to Secession: An Antisecessionist Defence
Authors: Glaser Daryl J.
Published: June 2003

Liberal egalitarians should support a right to secession while seeking to discourage secessions. The coherence of these apparently opposed stances depends upon three important distinctions that are under-explored in existing secession literature: between the right to secede and the choiceworthiness of secessions; between moral considerations relevant in advising would-be secessionists and those relevant in advising leaders of existing states; and between the legitimacy of a secession and the means that might be legitimately employed in advancing or resisting it. There is a strong but conditional right to secession rooted in the principle of associational freedom, but there are good reasons usually not to exercise it. Would-be secessionists should normally be advised against secession, but leaders of existing states should be advised to grant secessions that satisfy certain conditions. Only certain means are legitimate in resisting even secessions that fail to satisfy these conditions. If necessary the conditions that secessionists are expected to satisfy should be relaxed, provided relaxation takes place in a morally appropriate sequence.
Archaeology, Genealogy and Hegemony: A Reply to Mulligan
Authors: Howarth David
Published: June 2003

In ‘An Archaeology of Political Discourse?’ I examined the possibility of, and conditions for, rendering Foucault's archaeological method appropriate for ideologico-political analysis. Shane Mulligan takes issue with three aspects of my account, namely, the application of archaeology to the ideological realm, the translation of concepts, and the issue of political subjectivity. The first part of my reply tackles his initial objection and the next addresses the other two criticisms.
What is public service improvement?
Authors: Boyne George A.
Published: June 2003

Five conceptual models of public service improvement are derived from the large literature on organizational effectiveness. These are the goal, systems‐resource, internal process, competing values and multiple constituency models. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these models is evaluated and a working definition of improvement is proposed. This emphasizes that concepts and measures of public service improvement are political rather than technical, and contingent rather than universal. Conclusions are drawn on the implications for academic research and policy development.
Scottish devolution: identity and impact and the case of community care for the elderly
Authors: Marnoch Gordon
Published: June 2003

This article examines the emergent identity and impact of devolution in Scotland. Using the case of community care for the elderly, a model is set out for capturing the different interpretive perspectives evident in relation to a particular policy area in 1999–2001. The political story of the ‘free personal care’ issue, in which the Scottish Executive were unexpectedly forced into adopting a markedly different policy from the rest of the UK, is examined in some detail. Setting the episode in a broader context, four discursive thematics are identified in relation to the policy case. A model is demonstrated for examining different aspects of devolution including constitutional level and sub‐system aspects of post‐devolution governance. Conclusions are drawn as to the meaning which should be ascribed to the discourse associated with devolution and community care for the elderly.
Balancing revisability and robustness? A new institutionalist perspective on local government modernization
Authors: Lowndes Vivien , Wilson David
Published: June 2003

This article focuses upon one particular aspect of new institutionalist thinking – that which analyses the scope for, and constraints upon, deliberate interventions in institutional change. New institutionalist insights are used to illuminate the challenges faced by the British Labour government in its programme for modernizing local government. The focus is upon two core concepts: robustness and revisability – a pairing which highlights the potential contradictions that exist within the new institutionalist approach to design. It is argued that New Labour struggled to achieve a balance between these key design criteria during its first term, with revisability increasingly sacrificed in favour of robustness. In its second term in office (since June 2001), Labour has sought to rebalance robustness and revisability, largely through the principle of ‘earned autonomy’. In this context the values informing the institutional redesign of local government have become less clear and more contested, and there has been a progressive shift from commitment‐based to control‐based strategies for change.
Local and regional public management reforms in Switzerland
Authors: Schedler Kuno
Published: June 2003

Public management reforms at the local (community) and regional (canton) level in Switzerland almost all embrace elements of the new public management. In addition, in Switzerland, the merging of small communities as well as new developments such as electronic government are becoming apparent. The new public management model has been adapted for Swiss needs according to the perception of decision makers on problems that require solution in a Swiss context. NPM has developed, therefore, into rather different models in practice, aimed at the solution of these diverse problems. Foreign examples, such as the Dutch Tilburg Model and the German Neues Steuerungsmodell, played a major role at the start of this process, but have continuously lost their influence as actual models to be emulated. The most outstanding peculiarities of the Swiss reforms are an early and subsequent outcome focus together with the strong influence of direct democracy.
‘Portrait of a profession revisited’
Authors: Wilson Sir Richard
Published: June 2003

On the walls of my private office hang the photographs of my seven distinguished predecessors as Secretary of the Cabinet. I sometimes find myself staring at them for inspiration, not always successfully I admit.

A week or two ago I found myself looking at the great Lord Bridges, Secretary of the Cabinet and War Cabinet from 1938 to 1946. I wondered what he would have made of it if in the space of a week one of his predecessors had published an article in The Spectator advertised as ‘The Descent of the Civil Servant’ and another had appeared on the Frost programme to reassure the world that the Service was still in good shape.

Both predecessors, Lords Butler and Armstrong, I hasten to say, were acting in the most supportive spirit and spoke from what for all of us is a deeply shared view of the role of the Civil Service. But, staring at Bridges, I could see a bubble emerging from his mouth enquiring: what precisely is happening on your watch, Sir Richard?
Conceiving Emotions: Martha Nussbaum's Upheavals of Thought
Authors: Cates Diana Fritz
Published: June 2003

In Upheavals of Thought, Martha Nussbaum offers a theory of the emotions. She argues that emotions are best conceived as thoughts, and she argues that emotion‐thoughts can make valuable contributions to the moral life. She develops extensive accounts of compassion and erotic love as thoughts that are of great moral import. This paper seeks to elucidate what it means, for Nussbaum, to say that emotions are forms of thought. It raises critical questions about her conception of the structure of emotion, and about her conception of compassion, in particular. Finally, the paper seeks to show how analyzing the structure, as well as the moral value, of the emotions ultimately requires entering the realm of religious ethics.
Aesthetics and Ethics: Jonathan Edwards and the Recovery of Aesthetics for Religious Ethics
Authors: Delattre Roland A.
Published: June 2003

This is a tricentennial riff on the Edwardsean idea that beauty is both the first principle of being and the distinguishing perfection of God. What is really distinctive about Edwards's view of beauty is that it is an ontological reality and consists in joyfully bestowing being and beauty more than in being beautiful, in creative and beautifying activity more than in being beautiful. Edwards was also a pioneer in the way he envisaged a lively universe created by God, not out of nothing or out of something, but out of the very fullness of God's own life overflowing into a world as a self‐enlargement of the divine life. Edwards dares to offer a vision of God as the animating soul of the universe who governs the universe by the attractive and creative power of God's own beautifying life. What might it mean for religious ethics to take this as a description of the context for its work? The answer, in part and in brief, is that a life of true virtue, grounded in the heartfelt piety of holy affections, is a beautifying life. My aim in spinning out some Edwardsean themes is to encourage the reader to think about religious ethics outside the box within which beauty and beautifying activity play no part in defining the agenda of religious ethics. Inspired by themes unique and central to Edwards in his time, we may learn things of importance to religious ethics in our time that Edwards neither knew nor believed.
The Paradoxof Protest in a Culture of Contest
Authors: Karlberg Michael
Published: June 2003

We live in a culture of contest and protest. Our economic, political, and legal institutions are structured as contests. Our efforts to reform these institutions frequently are characterized by protest. This article examines the social and ecological implications of this culture of contest and protest. It begins by demonstrating that our economic, political, and legal institutions form an integrated tripartite system of contests that is socially unjust and ecologically unsustainable. It then considers the paradox of attempting to reform these institutions through protest and other adversarial strategies of social change. The article concludes by outlining a theory of social change that derives from the concept of cultural games. This theory suggests that the nonadversarial strategies of construction, attraction, and attrition are the most effective means of creating a more peaceful, just, and sustainable social order.
Social Capital, Networks, and Community Environments in Bangkok, Thailand
Authors: Daniere Amrita , Takahashi Lois M. , Naranong Anchana
Published: June 2003

This paper considers the case of Bangkok where, as in many Asian cities, the expansion of urban areas has outpaced the ability of public entities to manage and provide basic services. One potential way to improve the capacity of neighborhoods to assist in provision or improvement in environmental services is to enhance the positive contributions provided by local social networks and social capital. A conceptual framework is presented to explore the role of social networks in environmental management in polluted urban environments. This is followed by a brief description of the methodology and survey instrument used to collect information from a sample of community households in Bangkok and an analysis of the results from this survey regarding environmental practices, community action, and social networks. Some of the results suggest that increasing the number of social interactions that residents of a community experience is associated with increased community participation as, apparently, is increasing knowledge about what happens to waste or waste water after it leaves the community. Local public education efforts that focus on useful knowledge about environmental impacts may well be an effective way to encourage community participation.
Evaluating the Pluses and Minuses of Custody: Sentencing Reform in England and Wales
Authors: Roberts Julian V.
Published: June 2003

This article explores three sanctions contained in the 2002 Criminal Justice Bill which follows upon the 2002 white paper Justice for All. The Bill creates a Sentencing Guidelines Council to develop sentencing guidelines, and defines three dispositions applicable to sentences of imprisonment under twelve months: ‘Custody Plus’, the suspended sentence of imprisonment, and the intermittent sentence of imprisonment. These reforms constitute a significant step for the sentencing process in England and Wales, and are in part a response to the 2001 Halliday Report. The changes (among others) may well have an important impact on the prison population in England and Wales, which in October 2002 reached a record level. Since the suspended sentence of imprisonment bears close resemblance to the conditional sentence of imprisonment introduced in Canada in 1996, the article makes comparisons between the two sanctions.
Down that Wrong Road: Discretion in Decisions to Detain Asylum Seekers Arriving at UK Ports
Authors: Weber Leanne
Published: June 2003

The discretionary power to detain asylum seekers on arrival in the UK has been described by one human rights organisation as ‘extraordinary and largely unrestrained’ (Amnesty International 1996). Although decisions made by immigration officers can lead to long periods in prison or in prison‐like conditions, these actions are considered to be administrative and are therefore not subject to the legal constraints that apply to criminal justice agencies. This article traces the many sources of discretion in the use of Immigration Act detention, using an analytical framework developed by Schneider (1992). Discretion is found to originate from the vague and permissive nature of detention guidelines (rule‐failure discretion), the priority given to operational considerations at ports (rule‐binding discretion) and the failure to resolve conflicts between policy objectives (rule‐compromise discretion).
Listening to Young Adult Offenders: Views on the Effect of a Police‐Probation Initiative on Reducing Crime
Authors: Chui Wing Hong , Tupman Bill , Farlow Colin
Published: June 2003

This article reports the subjective views of young adult offenders, regarding their experience of a police‐probation initiative in the south‐west region of England. Project ARC (Addressing Repeat Criminality) was a pilot scheme that targeted persistent offenders, mainly drug offenders, by offering them an intensive form of probation supervision. The procedure of allowing these offenders to speak and listening to their voices has been seen as an excellent and powerful method to depict vividly their perception of probation experience and views on the usefulness of the crime reduction project. Several central themes emerged from the in‐depth interview data, regarding the success or otherwise of the initiative in addressing their criminal behaviour. These include offenders' attitudes to offending, self‐explanations for their criminality, views of peer associations and the usefulness of the Project ARC intervention. Finally, the offenders' first hand accounts also offer invaluable insight to the police and probation services on how the project can and should be further improved in order to reform their offending behaviours.
Advances in optical imaging of the newborn infant brain
Authors: Hebden Jeremy C.
Published: June 2003

New methods of imaging the oxygenation, hemodynamics, and metabolism of the newborn infant brain are being developed, based on illumination of the head with near‐infrared light. Techniques known as optical topography and optical tomography have the potential to provide valuable information about the function of the normal brain, and about a variety of cerebral pathology such as hypoxic‐ischemia. Optical methods provide a unique means of monitoring brain oxygenation safely in an intensive care environment without interference with the normal handling of the infant. Studies on infants have focused on the assessment of steady‐state regional cerebral perfusion and tissue oxygenation, as well as monitoring hemodynamic changes in response to sensory stimulation. Recent technological and methodological advances in this research field are reviewed, and the likely impact of optical imaging methods on the care of newborn infants is assessed.
Optical coherence tomography: Technology and applications for neuroimaging
Authors: Boppart Stephen A.
Published: June 2003

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging imaging technology with applications in biology, medicine, and materials investigations. Attractive features include high cellular‐level resolution, real‐time acquisition rates, and spectroscopic feature extraction in a compact noninvasive instrument. OCT can perform “optical biopsies” of tissue, producing images approaching the resolution of histology without having to resect and histologically process tissue specimens for characterization and diagnosis. This article will review several of the current technological developments in OCT. To illustrate the potential of this technology for neuroimaging, applications for imaging neural development, the neural retina, tumors of the central nervous system, and the microsurgical repair of peripheral nerves will be presented. This technology offers a potential investigative tool for addressing many of the present challenges in neuroimaging.
Optimum filtering for EROS measurements
Authors: Maclin Edward L. , Gratton Gabriele , Fabiani Monica
Published: June 2003

The event‐related optical signal (EROS) is a relatively new technology that provides noninvasive data about the time course of neural activity in circumscribed cortical areas. However, much still remains to be learned about the physiology and physics underlying the observed signals. We examined the instrumental and physiological noise observed in the intensity modulation and phase‐delay measurements produced by a frequency domain oxymeter in response to steady‐state auditory stimuli. We present here data on the effects of different filters on the between‐subjects response consistency for amplitude and phase measurements. The results of these analyses may help explain some apparently discrepant results previously reported from different laboratories (Steinbrink et al., 2000), and illustrate differences between data from different types of measurements.
Hemodynamic evoked response of the sensorimotor cortex measured noninvasively with near‐infrared optical imaging
Authors: Franceschini Maria Angela , Fantini Sergio , Thompson John H. , Culver Joseph P. , Boas David A.
Published: June 2003

We have performed a noninvasive bilateral optical imaging study of the hemodynamic evoked response to unilateral finger opposition task, finger tactile, and electrical median nerve stimulation in the human sensorimotor cortex. This optical study shows the hemoglobin‐evoked response to voluntary and nonvoluntary stimuli. We performed measurements on 10 healthy volunteers using block paradigms for motor, sensory, and electrical stimulations of the right and left hands separately. We analyzed the spatial/temporal features and the amplitude of the optical signal induced by cerebral activation during these three paradigms. We consistently found an increase (decrease) in the cerebral concentration of oxy‐hemoglobin (deoxy‐hemoglobin) at the cortical side contralateral to the stimulated side. We observed an optical response to activation that was larger in size and amplitude during voluntary motor task compared to the other two stimulations. The ipsilateral response was consistently smaller than the contralateral response, and even reversed (i.e., a decrease in oxy‐hemoglobin, and an increase in deoxy‐hemoglobin) in the case of the electrical stimulation. We observed a systemic contribution to the optical signal from the increase in the heart rate increase during stimulation, and we made a first attempt to subtract it from the evoked hemoglobin signal. Our findings based on optical imaging are in agreement with results in the literature obtained with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The mind's eye, looking inward? In search of executive control in internal attention shifting
Authors: Gehring William J. , Bryck Richard L. , Jonides John , Albin Roger L. , Badre David
Published: June 2003

In studies of mental counting, participants are faster to increment a count that was just incremented (no‐switch trial) than to increment a different count (switch trial). Investigators have attributed the effect to a shift in the internal focus of attention on switch trials. Here we report evidence for other bottom‐up and top‐down contributions. Two stimuli were mapped to each of two counts. The no‐switch facilitation was greater when stimuli repeated than when they were different. Event‐related potential (ERP) activity associated with repetitions was anterior to that associated with switching. Runs of no‐switch trials elicited faster responses and frontal ERP activity. Runs of switches and large counts both elicited slow responses and reduced P300 amplitudes. Bottom‐up processes may include priming on no‐switch trials and conflict on switch trials. Top‐down processes may control conflict, subvocal rehearsal, and the contents of working memory.
Circadian rhythm and desensitization in chemosensory event‐related potentials in response to odorous and painful stimuli
Authors: Nordin Steven , Lötsch Jörn , Murphy Claire , Hummel Thomas , Kobal Gerd
Published: June 2003

Olfactory (H2S) and trigeminal (CO2) event‐related potentials (ERPs) were studied with respect to circadian rhythm and desensitization. ERPs, perceived odor and pain intensity, oral temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, nasal volume, and sleepiness were assessed four times at 04:00, 08:00, 12:00, 16:00, 20:00, and 24:00 hr in five young men. For each of these 24 sessions per participant, H2S and CO2 were each presented in 15 series of five stimuli with a 5‐s ISI within and 30‐s ISI between series. ERP amplitudes, but not latencies, followed a circadian rhythm (largest at 16:00 and smallest at 04:00) similar to oral temperature and opposite to sleepiness. Amplitudes decreased (most pronounced at 16:00 and 20:00) and latencies increased with repeated stimulation, suggesting desensitization, in accordance with odor and pain intensity. These findings imply that circadian rhythm and desensitization should be considered in chemosensory ERP studies.
Reliability of smooth pursuit, fixation, and saccadic eye movements
Authors: Ettinger Ulrich , Kumari Veena , Crawford Trevor J. , Davis Robert E. , Sharma Tonmoy , Corr Philip J.
Published: June 2003

The present study investigated the reliability and susceptibility to practice effects of oculomotor tasks. Smooth pursuit, fixation, antisaccade, and prosaccade tasks were administered to 31 healthy participants to assess internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and within‐session practice effects. Twenty‐one of these participants were retested after an average interval of 57.86 days to assess temporal stability and between‐session practice effects. Internal consistencies were high for most measures, with few within‐session performance changes. Test–retest reliabilities of most measures were good. Between‐session practice effects were most consistently observed on the antisaccade task, indicated by reduced error rate and improved spatial accuracy at retest. Magnitude of improvement on these measures was related to performance, indicating that poor performers benefited most from repeated assessment. These findings support the trait nature of oculomotor function and point to the need to take into consideration between‐session practice effects on the antisaccade task in longitudinal studies.
Narrating deglobalization: Danish perceptions of a lost empire
Authors: Olwig Karen Fog
Published: June 2003

Abstract According to Ulf Hannerz, globalization, viewed as a historic process of increasing interconnectedness, implies the possibility of an opposite process of deglobalization involving a delinking of interconnectedness. This study of Danish engagement in the Danish West Indies, a colony sold to the United States in 1917, exemplifies deglobalization. This case shows that while globalization can be reversed in terms of interconnectedness, it may continue unabated in stories of former global ventures. Indeed, the delinked Danish West Indian past has offered a rich, imagined resource for Danish narratives of past achievements on the global arena that bear little relation to the modest Danish contribution to colonial history. Globalization therefore does not just involve actual interconnectedness, but cultural interpretations of global engagement, past or present.
Creolization and creativity
Authors: Eriksen Thomas Hylland
Published: June 2003

Abstract ‘A bit of this and a bit of that; that is how newness enters the world’, according to Salman Rushdie. In Ulf Hannerz's varied and voluminous work on cultural creolization, creativity and cultural ‘newness’ are often described. Examining this view of creativity, the essay contrasts processual and hybrid aspects of culture with its stable and structural aspects, showing how each implies a particular view of creativity. The contrast is developed through three very different kinds of examples: postcolonial literature, information technology and minority youth in Western Europe.