bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Danger! Metaphors at Work in Economics, Geophysiology, and the Internet
Authors: Wyatt Sally
Published: May 2004

The authoranalyzes the types of metaphors that are used to describe the Internetin issues of Wired magazine from before and after the dot-com collapse to understand the perceptions and expectations of some of the actors involved in the shaping of the Internet. In addition, the metaphors deployed in economics and geophysiology are used to demonstrate how metaphors can influence public debate, policy, and theory. The author argues that metaphors do not simply have a descriptive function but that they also carry normative connotations. Language, alongside social practices and material objects, is an important tool in attempts to construct the future. Six overlapping metaphorical themes are identified: revolution, evolution, salvation, progress, universalism, and the “American dream.” A critical analysis of these metaphors, informed by a critique of the metaphors used in economics and geophysiology, leads the author to challenge the universalist claims made by some Internet enthusiasts for the inclusive potential of the Internet.
Those Who Get Hurt Aren’t Always Being Heard: Scientist-Resident Interactions over Community Water
Authors: Roth Wolff-Michael , Riecken Janet , Pozzer-Ardenghi Lilian , McMillan Robin , Storr Brenda , Tait Donna , Bradshaw Gail , Penner Trudy Pauluth
Published: May 2004

This study is about the interaction of scientific expertise and local knowledge in the context of a contested issue: the quality and quantity of safe drinking water available to some residents in one Canadian community. The authors articulate the boundary work in which scientific and technological expertise and discourse are played out against local knowledge and water needs to prevent the construction of a water main extension that would provide a group of residents with the same water that others in the community already access. The authors draw on an extensive database constructed during a three-year ethnographic study of one community; the data base includes the transcript of a public meeting, newspaper clippings, interviews, and communications between residents and town council. The authors show not only that scientists and residents differ in their assessment of water quality and quantity but also that there is a penchant for undercutting residents in their attempts to make themselves heard in the political process.
Evaluation of a Public Education Program Delivered by Firefighters on Early Recognition of a Heart Attack
Authors: Meischke Hendrika , Diehr Paula , Rowe Sharon , Cagle Anthony , Eisenberg Mickey
Published: May 2004

The Heart Attack Survival Kit (HASK) project is a prospective, randomized trial, testing the effectiveness of an intervention delivered door-to-door by firefighters to increase use of 911 and ingestion of aspirin for symptoms of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among seniors in King County, Washington. Firefighters visited 24,582seniors in King County, Washington and delivered a Heart Attack Survival Kit. Another 24,191 senior households served as the control group. Outcomes of the program were measured by tracking 911 calls as well as survey data. This study reports on the results of the telephone survey with a random sample of seniors (N = 323) to assess their knowledge of and intentions to act during a heart emergency. Results of a logistic regression analysis showed that being female, be ing younger, and remembering the kit was significantly related to intentions to act appropriately to AMI symptoms. The results are discussed in terms of public education around AMI.
Recruitment Strategies
Authors: Cockerill Rhonda , Cohen Marsha , Dunn Sheila , Brown Thomas
Published: May 2004

The objective of this article was to describe the effectiveness of a multifocus recruitment strategy to a pilot project allowing direct provision of emergency contraception (EC) in a community pharmacy through collaborative agreements between pharmacists and physicians. The project recruited pharmacies through direct appeals to pharmacists, pharmacy managers and/orowners, and corporate pharmacy chains. The evaluation project was successful in recruiting sufficient numbers of pharmacies to warrant proceeding with the project. The most successful component of the recruitment strategy was reference to the opportunities that participation offered to expand the pharmacist’s role in patient-focused care. The importance of peer influence was also noted in terms of encouraging pharmacy involvement.
An Evaluation of Provider Educational Needs in Geriatric Care
Authors: Larson James S. , Chernoff Ronni , Sweet-Holp Tim J.
Published: May 2004

Providers of geriatric care in Arkansas were surveyed to determine the desire for more information on their specialty as well as opportunities for further training. Those in the nursing profession were most interested in further training, and the major area of interest for all providers was in cognitive decline and mental health information. Specifically, information was sought in the areas of dementia, depression, and memory loss. It is recommended that improvement in geriatric care in the future should focus on nursing education and on raising the level of knowledge and academic prestige in the treatment of elderly patients, especially in the mental health areas.
Multivariate Tests of Means in Independent Groups Designs
Authors: Lix Lisa M. , Keselman H. J.
Published: May 2004

Health evaluation research often employs multivariate designs in which data on several outcome variables are obtained for independent groups of subjects. This article examines statistical procedures for testing hypotheses of multivariate mean equality in two-group designs. The conventional test for multivariate means, Hotelling’s T2 , rests on certain assumptions about the distribution of the data and the population variances and covariances. When these assumptions are violated, which is often the case in applied health research, T 2 will result in invalid conclusions about the null hypothesis. This article describes parametric procedures that are robust, or insensitive, to assumption violations. A numeric example illustrates the statistical concepts that are presented and a computer program to implement these robust solutions is introduced.
Practitioners’ Attitudes Toward the Use of Treatment Progress and Outcomes Data in Child Mental Health Services
Authors: Huffman Lynne C. , Martin Jacqueline , Botcheva Luba , Williams Sharon E. , Dyer-Friedman Jennifer
Published: May 2004

This study focused on practitioners’ attitudes toward child mental health services data collection and outcomes measurement in university-based and community-based clinics. It is relevant to the burgeoning field of empirically based mental health therapy management because it examines one potential barrier to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy strategies (i.e., practitioners’ attitudes toward outcomes measurement) that are informed by real-time, clinically relevant data. Two site differences were noted regarding the utility of specific questionnaires and the perceived burden of conducting outcomes measurement. At both sites, practitioners held positive attitudes about outcomes measurement. Compared with psychologists and other child mental health specialists, psychiatrists had less favorable attitudes toward outcomes evaluation. Practitioners who rated outcomes evaluation as more important also perceived less burden associated with such evaluation efforts. Increased understanding of the utility of systematic clinical data collection is more likely to occur in an organizational culture in which treatment progress and outcomes measurement is integral to clinical work.
Greek Television Drama: Production Policies and Genre Diversification
Authors: Koukoutsaki Angeliki
Published: May 2004

The study of Greek television drama production trends over the last three decades reveals the importance of the local context in television production. A quantitative analysis built on samples of fiction programmes serves to portray the diachronic evolution of Greek television drama output in two respects: in terms of quantity as well as genre. These findings, combined with interviews with professionals in Greek television, have been used to analyse the economy of the production sector and to define the different policies that have guided production over the years. In this respect, the role of broadcasters turns out to be decisive. Thus, this article demonstrates how, over time, a small European country has developed different genre subtypes based on the specific necessities of local settings of production.
Haiti 1990-6: Older and Younger Journalists in the Post-Cold War World
Authors: Holohan Anne
Published: May 2004

The events in Haiti in the early 1990s - the overthrowing of the democratically elected president, the subsequent internationally imposed economic embargo and the international military intervention that reinstated the President - provided a historical moment when the correlation of the age of journalists with their professional attitudes and practices was thrown into sharp relief as three generations worked alongside each other in a radically changing world. US print journalists working in Haiti at this time adopted substantially different journalistic beliefs and practices depending on whether they were the last of the post-Second World War generation of journalists, journalists who began their careers during or just after the Vietnam War, or journalists who had begun working since the end of the Cold War. The generational differences provide an opportunity to gain insights into the dynamics of the profession of foreign correspondents.
Influence of Kotodamaism on Japanese Journalism
Authors: Maeda Naoki
Published: May 2004

This study was conducted to investigate the way in which Japanese media is affected by ‘Kotodamaism’. Kotodamaism is a belief held by many Japanese people that words, sentences and conversations contain a spirit which can influence reality. While most Japanese people do not believe in the direct effects of Kotodamaism in today’s society, its applied effects have been observed not only in Japanese daily life but also in the media, which is required to report news as accurately as possible. Case studies provide an analysis of news stories from Japanese newspapers, one of which is compared to a British newspaper article. The study shows that Japanese mass media seems to be affected by Kotodamaism and that both Japanese media and the public may unconsciously accept distorted information that works against standards of accurate journalism.
Strategy, Positioning and Projection in Digital Television: Channel Four and the Commercialization of Public Service Broadcasting in the UK
Authors: Born Georgina
Published: May 2004

This article examines the digital televison and interactive strategies of one of Britain’s leading public service broadcasters, Channel Four. They form part of a wider shift in Channel Four’s identity: from a television channel to a cross-platform media company positioned to exploit technological convergence and the expanding media economy. The wider context is one of multiple uncertainties, technological, economic, regulatory and cultural. Channel Four’s DTV strategies developed in the context of a government decree that the broadcasting industry must move to digital in coming years, an injunction that has been met, however, by substantial consumer resistance. Given the uncertainties and heightened competition, the article highlights through the case of Channel Four the contemporary importance for broadcasters of the development of strategy based on business analysis and market research. The article’s focus is an analysis of the rationales given by Channel Four executives for the DTV strategies that were adopted. It points to the centrality in strategic thinking of projections: predictive, future-oriented discourses informed by the abstractions of media analysts. Before that the article gives a periodization of Channel Four’s place within Britain’s broadcasting ecology based on key phases in its changing positioning since its launch in 1982. In doing so it develops a critique and an extension of Bourdieu’s analysis of cultural fields in relation to contemporary broadcasting. In the last section, the article gives a critical evaluation of the current state of the channel, and of the contradictions arising from its commercialization and diversification, one with wider implications for the hybrid model of PSB represented by Channel Four.
Kings without Crowns? The Re-Emergence of Investigative Journalism in China
Authors: de Burgh Hugo
Published: May 2004

Over the last 10 years a genre of critical, abrasive journalism has emerged in China, particularly on television. Chinese journalists like to refer to it as ‘investigative journalism’ and, in doing so, they are consciously likening it to the Anglophone equivalent. This article examines how Chinese journalists describe their work. It also looks at the various possible explanations offered for the emergence and popularity of the genre: as an epiphenomenon of government reforms of the institutional and financing systems of the media; as a function of the irritation felt by professionals with past practices and the unsatisfied urge to participate of many Chinese citizens; because of the social roles ascribed to journalists both by themselves and by the citizenry; a response to new ideas from abroad, or ‘westernization’. It is concluded that, while many topics and techniques of investigative journalism are analogous with those of Anglophone countries, the Chinese journalists appear to be striving to realize roles traditional to Chinese culture rather than adopting foreign models. The notion that the re-emergence of investigative journalism is an instance of ‘westernization’ is rejected.
Producing Nature(s): On the Changing Production Ecology of Natural History TV
Authors: Cottle Simon
Published: May 2004

Over recent years natural history programmes have undergone dramatic change and evolution both in form and in their representations of nature(s). This article empirically examines the changing ‘production ecology’ of natural history television and how this has impacted on the changing nature(s) represented within this popular genre of programming. The discussion explores the strategic and creative responses of organizations and producers, including those of natural history units based within national public service and commercial TV companies, international satellite and cable TV distributors, and medium- and small-scale production houses and independent producers. The concept of ‘production ecology’ is elaborated to help orient research precisely to the organizational dynamics and relations characterizing a particular field of cultural production and how these can permit differentiated responses to forces of change and creative adaptations of form. Attending to the production ecology of natural history programming reveals how and why transformations of genre have been enacted, and serves to underline the centrality of issues of form at the heart of the productive enterprise within different cultural fields. Considerations of form also help to explain the woeful natural history programme representations of ecology and environmental politics across recent years
Exorcizing the Ghost: Donovan Bailey, Ben Johnson and the Politics of Canadian Identity
Authors: Jackson Steven J.
Published: May 2004

This article explores how sporting ‘Others’, such as Ben Johnson and Donovan Bailey, are constituted by, and constitutive of, the politics of racial and national identity in Canada. Tracing the emerging media discourses surrounding these two ‘Jamaican-born’ Canadian sprinters, this study specifically examines: (a) the context within which Ben Johnson and the contemporary crisis of racial and national identity in Canada emerged; (b) previous research regarding the discourses which defined and redefined Ben Johnson’s racial and national identities before and after the 1988 steroid scandal; and (c) evidence of the nature and extent to which the symbolic spectre of Ben Johnson haunts Donovan Bailey and other Canadian black people of Caribbean descent, as well as Canada itself.
The Slide towards Decentralization: Clock and Computer
Authors: Sawhney Harmeet
Published: May 2004

The parallels between the diffusion of mechanical clocks and computers are quite striking. The mechanical clock migrated from Western monasteries to clock towers to our wrists and in the process contributed towards a profound transformation of our society. Today, omnipresent clocks, mechanical and electronic, allow for coordination and control essential for the functioning of a modern society. Similarly, the computer migrated from corporate basements to desk tops to hand-held devices and in the process made possible new means of coordination and control which have reconfigured social activity. In both cases, we see: (1) a ‘monumental’ (stand-alone) technology, (2) a reduction in size and a multiplication and diffusion into society (smaller stand-alone pieces), and (3) interconnection to form a web of coordination and control. On one level, this article traces the stages of technological development as outlined above. On another level, it examines socio-cultural changes that accompanied this pattern of technological change.
Negotiating Images of the Nation: The Production of Flemish TV Drama, 1953-89
Authors: Dhoest Alexander
Published: May 2004

Textual analysis of Flemish television drama produced by the monopolistic public service broadcaster discloses strong representational patterns constructing a homogeneous discourse about the nation, focusing on rural Flanders in the early 20th century. Using document analysis and expert interviews, the production context of this discourse is reconstructed. The drama on offer turns out to be the product of a cultural-educational and Flemish-minded broadcasting policy, deliberately aiming to stimulate Flemish culture and the viewers’ national identity. However, there are also other factors at play, such as viewer preferences, financial restrictions and creative constraints. The drama produced, and the portrayal of Flanders, is the result of processes of negotiation between these considerations and restrictions.
Children, Marriage Form, and Family Support for the Elderly in Contemporary Rural China
Authors: Li Shuzhuo , Feldman Marcus W. , Jin Xiaoyi
Published: May 2004

Using data from a survey in Songzi County of Hubei Province, this article analyzes the relationship between children’s gender and marriage form and their provision of old-age support to their noncoresiding parents in rural China. The results show that children’s gender and marriage form have significant influence on their likelihood of giving financial and housework support to their parents, but no significant influence on the amount of financial support or their likelihood of supporting their parents with agricultural labor in peak agricultural seasons. Thus, the authors find that in Songzi, where both virilocal and uxorilocal marriages have been historically accepted and commonly practiced, sons and daughters play basically the same role in providing old-age support for their noncoresiding parents, as do virilocal and uxorilocal couples. The article discusses how these findings relate to current and future problems of old-age security and son preference in rural China.
Cyber café industry in Africa
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2004

The paper provides an overview of the origin of cyber cafe culture and the growth of this industry in Africa. Current status of the cyber café sector is assessed by analysing the Internet infrastructure and penetration, patterns of use of cyber cafés, impact of cyber cafés and the Internet in Africa. The challenges facing the African continent in putting in place infrastructure for Internet growth are assessed. Finally, the paper examines the prospects for the growth of the Internet infrastructure and what governments in Africa should do to take advantage of the current prevailing international development agencies’ support as well as the support of the international community. The paper ends with an exposition of the way forwa
Finding a Paper’s Subject Based on Cited and Citing Papers
Authors: Drori Offer
Published: May 2004

A series of experiments designed to examine the most effective way of presenting information in a list of search results, found that presenting the subject of the paper can be of benefit to the user. Several sources can be used to find the paper’s subject, including citation elements found in a list of papers. The purpose of the study was to examine what constitutes the optimal elements in a list of citations for finding the paper’s subject. The value of terms derived from the papers cited in the source article (title) and key works are ranked highest while journal name and author are less informative.
Project Management Communication: a Systems Approach
Authors: Gillard Sharlett , Johansen Jane
Published: May 2004

This discussion analyzes and reviews verbal and non-verbal communication issues that have an impact on information resource project managers. The concepts are presented in a familiar information systems model framework showing open and closed-loop systems as well as a communication flow system. It provides theoretical underpinnings for project managers who strive to develop proactive management of the environmental influences surrounding them to shape a communications environment, rather than having to take a reactive stance to the multiple messages and barriers they encounter. Technology alone is insufficient to improve communication. Technology may be utilized to organize data into information, but information becomes communication only as it is interpreted by a person. Information resource project managers, who can expect to spend a large percentage of their time in communication activities, can develop communication skills as they increase their understanding that communication is interactive and manageable.
Constraints on the Formulation and Implementation of National Information Policy for Nigeria
Authors: Uhegbu Augonus Nnamdi
Published: May 2004

The problems hindering the formulation of a viable information policy for Nigeria are discussed. They include, among others, the unstable nature of the country’s economic, social and political environment, weak and uncoordinated information professional bodies and oral tradition reinforced by high illiteracy rates. The chaotic information environment in Nigeria is also highlighted. The paper advocates that a committee of information experts be set up, that the government re-evaluates economic and monetary policies and that professional associations and institutions should make concerted efforts towards championing the cause of a national information policy.
Subjectivity as a Concern for Information Science: A Popperian Perspective
Authors: Abbott Robert
Published: May 2004

Subjectivity is discussed in the context of information processing, and its properties are considered in relation to Popper’s three Worlds model of information. The uncertainties that subjectivity creates are seen as central to some problematic issues of information handling, including classification and retrieval. An appreciation of problems relating to subjectivity also has relevance in several subject areas of interest to information science, including understanding, relevance and significance, knowledge management, and creativity.
Studies on Information as an Asset III: Views of Information Professionals
Authors: Oppenheim Charles , Stenson Joan , Wilson Richard M.S.
Published: May 2004

This paper reports findings from a small number of interviews (six) with internationally-active information professionals and academics using a semi-structured interview instrument. The value of information, its identification, use and impact are discussed. Seven themes were explored within the broad context of the role of information assets in enhancing organizational effectiveness. These themes were: value of information and its measurement; impact of the concepts of knowledge management and intellectual capital; acquisition and use of information and the embedding of good practice; relevance of these questions to other industry sectors; identification of attributes of information assets; information assets and organizational effectiveness; and the impact of identification and measurement of information assets on the perceptions of senior managers. The major conclusion was that studies in this field should take a very broad view of information assets and should not be restricted to valuation in financial terms.
Discontinuity and After: the Social Dynamics of Technology Evolution and Dominance
Authors: Munir Kamal A. , Jones Matthew
Published: May 2004

While there has been much discussion of the social dynamics of technology evolution within the technology management literature, this has made relatively little use of work done by sociologists on similar issues. In this article, the potential of sociological research to inform our understanding of technology evolution and dominance is explored, focusing in particular on the contribution of actor network theory. The bringing together of questions posed by technology management theorists and insights offered by social theorists provides new insights on technology evolution, and generates several important implications for both research and practice.
Power, Action and Constraint in Strategic Management: Explaining Enterprise Restructuring in the Czech Republic
Authors: Clark Ed
Published: May 2004

One significant strand of organization and management theory has been the development of approaches that focus on the active role of management in formulating strategic responses, such as organizational restructuring, to the external business environment. Despite subscribing to the idea that ‘management matters’, however, influential theories have often ignored or minimized the role of human agency. This article examines the strategic management process by placing the interaction between management power and action at the heart of the empirical and theoretical enterprise. The theory construction process evolves inductively from case study research on the restructuring processes and outcomes in four large Czech enterprises. The empirical findings and theoretical arguments strongly support the importance of introducing a political dimension into a sensemaking framework as a fruitful way of progressing the theory of strategic management action.
Expectations of Alignment: Examining the Link Between Financial Markets and Managerial Work
Authors: Tengblad Stefan
Published: May 2004

Based on a direct observation study of eight CEOs of large corporations, this paper examines how control is exercised in an era of financial transparency. In particular, the impact and effects of the increasing power of shareholders (corporate governance, shareholder value) with regard to managerial practices are investigated. The results show that CEOs were to a great extent influenced by expectations from exchange market actors and that such expectations, in a modified form, were passed down the hierarchy. Senior managers were given discretion in their work, but their performance (on the basis of how well they met expectations) was closely watched. The exercise of control by setting and monitoring expectations resulted in some managers working to exhaustion, and also in conformity and non-constructive communication. At the end of the paper, the effects of shareholder value management are discussed in relation to the societal level regarding issues of governance ethics, organizational development and work–life balance. It is concluded that reciprocal expectations and their intended and unintended consequences deserve further study in order to increase the understanding of the dynamics of modern capitalism.
Vita Contemplativa
Authors: Weick Karl E.
Published: May 2004

The craft of idea generation is explored autobiographically, using as the core principle the theme that ideas generate their own contexts for development. Ideas generate their own contexts by means of conceptual affinities, as is illustrated by the author’s movement from ideas about unintended consequences to ideas about cognitive dissonance, enacted environments, organizational failures, and wisdom. Ideas also generate their own context by means of the assumptions they entail, in the author’s case, these entailments being assumptions of continuity, evolution, ambivalence, complexity, and levels of analysis. When activated, these diverse resources may generate portraits of human organizing that have poetic overtones, but that resemblance simply mirrors the fact that people do poetry in their everyday living.
Pragmatism and `compassionate' political change
Authors: Volpi Frédéric
Published: May 2004

This paper calls into question Richard Rorty's recasting of the traditional justifications of liberal political philosophy in an anti-foundationalist ironic mould. Rorty suggests not only that his irony is compatible with the liberal commitments to human flourishing but also that it can clear up many of the conceptual difficulties that liberal reformers face today. Two objections are raised against the Rortian approach to politics, one conceptual, the other practical. Conceptually, because Rorty does not wish to burden political irony and imagination with a constraining political theory, his proposal increases the likelihood that two liberal commitments that he judges essential, the separation of the public and the private, and the aversion of wilful cruelty, will clash with one another. Practically, the success of his anti-foundationalist irony among sophisticated liberal reformers is jeopardized by its potentially negative impact upon the non-ironic, metaphysically minded political actors who most need to be brought into the liberal debate.
Mourning the Law
Authors: Kellogg Catherine
Published: May 2004

In his 1992 text ‘Force of Law’ Jacques Derrida makes the radical claim that the aura of law’s legitimacy is always achieved by virtue of an ideological sleight of hand. I argue that the radicality of this claim does not lie in its abandonment of the rule of law, nor is this claim a call to political quietism. Rather, Derrida charges us with the responsibility of interrogating the moments of law’s force or ideology. Following this suggestion I argue that one important way that the law has maintained its aura of legitimacy is on the basis of an ideological appeal to the presumed natural or transparent nature of sexual complementarity. Through a reading of Hegel’s use of the Greek mythological Antigone, I argue that one important way that the impossibility of the necessary encounter between law and the singular case has been covered over, is by way of an appeal to the presumed naturalness of heterosexuality.

The conclusion of my analysis is that the illusion of law’s legitimacy is not necessarily achieved with reference to the feminine, nor by virtue of an appeal to the transparency of heterosexuality, but it is no coincidence that it has been achieved in this way so often in the history of political philosophy either. However, no matter how the illusion of law’s legitimacy is achieved, it will always require a sleight of hand; it will always be ideological and therefore political. This analysis therefore serves as an example of how deconstruction can be mobilized as much more than a philosophical meditation on the impossibility of justice; rather, it offers a mode of analysis of critical importance to social and legal theorists.
After Foucault
Authors: Mourad Roger
Published: May 2004

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of a new form of right that is both antidisciplinarian and liberated from ‘sovereignty’, the term Michel Foucault uses for what he claims to be the traditional theme of modern political philosophy. Some attempts to derive a theory of right from Foucault’s critique have been made. However, by their own admission they do not yield a coherent and adequate theory, and other work has demonstrated the major problems inherent in Foucault’s critique that render such a project problematic. This paper takes a different approach by revising the philosophical foundations of modern democracy with the goal of developing a new theory of right that addresses the problems that Foucault identified.

To provide a theoretical context for this exploration, Foucault’s key concepts of disciplinary technologies, power, the construction and maintenance of human subjects, and the role of the human body in human subjection are briefly reviewed. The main analysis will focus on the ideas of three political theorists whose respective works represent the core of ‘sovereignty’, and who are indisputably basic to any student of Western political theory, namely Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The aim of this analysis is not to provide another critique of their virtues and shortcomings. Instead, the work of these thinkers is used in a pragmatic way, to elicit a new form of right that could serve as a counter to disciplinary power.
Democracy and the Individual
Authors: Leet Martin
Published: May 2004

The main question informing this paper is whether it is possible to extend democracy beyond its liberal forms. The paper reflects upon this question with regard to its implications for the individual. For the radicalization of democracy implies a need for self-transformation, if the everyday egoism of contemporary citizens is not to thwart reasonable discussion and participation. Theorists such as Richard Rorty argue that the philosophical resources required to guide such self-transformation can be made available only by sacrificing the political freedom and cultural diversity liberalism has been able to precariously establish. Other theorists insist that the thresholds of pluralism and tolerance that existing liberal democracies are struggling to maintain actually require an extension of democracy. The paper evaluates two different theoretical strategies that aim to identify potentials for democratization without falling prey to the dilemma identified by Rorty: a ‘ deliberative’ strategy explicated with reference to Jürgen Habermas and an ‘existential’ approach represented here by William Connolly.
Public Knowledge
Authors: McAfee Noëlle
Published: May 2004

This paper argues that the public can do more than legitimate government; it can provide public knowledge for sound public policy. Critics of democracy worry that the public has too little objectivity and impartiality to know what is best. These critics have a point: taken one by one, people have little knowledge of the whole. For this reason, citizens need to escape the cloisters of kith and kin and enter a world of unlike others. They need to be open to other perspectives and concerns. They need to deliberate with others in public. In other words, an inchoate plurality of people needs to become public in order to develop a more comprehensive picture of the whole and to define ‘where the shoe pinches’. Democracy requires that the multitude deliberate publicly in order to create public knowledge by which sound public policy can be formed.
Cesare Beccaria and the Cruelty of Liberalism
Authors: Baruchello Giorgio
Published: May 2004

In this paper I outline and criticize Judith Shklar’s and Richard Rorty’s ‘liberalism of fear’. Both political thinkers believe liberalism to be characterized by a fundamental opposition to cruelty , which they regard as the least liberal of the features that may distinguish any given human community. In order to demonstrate the limits of the Shklar–Rorty thesis, I make use, in the first place, of John Kekes’s critique of liberalism as to show that liberalism allows for cruelty in so far as it grants wider margins of agency to the members of the community. In the second place, I make use of Cesare Beccaria’s reflections on the cruelty implied by liberalism assuch, in so far as this political doctrine endorses the institutions of penal justice and private property.
Symbol, Exchange and Birth
Authors: O’Byrne Anne
Published: May 2004

In this article I use Baudrillard’s claim that systems of exchange are ontologically and historically prior to systems of production, and Arendt’s understanding of birth as the arrival of something both quite familiar and quite new into the world as the starting-points for a theory of labour as relation. Such a theory has the virtue of avoiding the problem, found in Marx, Arendt and elsewhere, that labour is both a vital feature of being human and yet a drudgery that will be absent from post-revolutionary society (in the case of Marx) or strictly relegated to the private realm (for Arendt). It also involves repositioning the work of social reproduction – of which women’s labour in giving birth is exemplary – as paradigmatic.
No Contest? Assessing the Agonistic Critiques of Jürgen Habermas’s Theory of the Public Sphere
Authors: Brady John S.
Published: May 2004

Would democratic theory in its empirical and normative guises be in a better position without the theory of the deliberative public sphere? In this paper I explore recent theories of agonistic democracy that have answered this question in the affirmative. I question their assertionthat the theory of the public sphere should be abandoned in favor of a model of democratic politics based on political contestation. Furthermore, I explore one of the fundamental assumptionsat work in the debate about the theory of the public sphere’s status, namely the assumed opposition between consensus and contestation. Questioning the rigid nature of the opposition, I go on to argue that the deliberative theory of the public sphere actually facilitates the development of the agonistic approach to democratic theory and practice.
The Effect of Parents’ Attitudes toward Divorce on Offspring’s Attitudes
Authors: Kapinus Carolyn A.
Published: May 2004

This study addresses three questions: (a) What influence do parents’ attitudes toward divorce have on off spring’s attitudes? (b) How are offspring’s attitudes toward divorce influenced by parental divorce, and do the effects vary depending on the gender of the child? and (c) How do conditions surrounding parental divorce influence young adults’ attitudes? Results indicate that parents have the greatest influence on offspring during the late teen years. Fathers have more influence on sons’ attitudes than mothers; the gender of parent has no effect on the influence of parents’ attitudes on daughters’ attitudes. In contrast to prior research, this study finds that parental divorce continues to influence offspring’s views of divorce after controlling for parents’attitudes only for daughters, not for sons. Postdivorce conflict and diminished closeness to father following the divorce have different effects on sons’ and daughters’ attitudes.
Adolescent Childbearers in Later Life
Authors: Kinard E. Milling
Published: May 2004

In a study of child maltreatment, mothers who began childbearing as younger adolescents (age 17 years or younger), older adolescents (age 18 to 19 years), or adults (age 20 to 24 years) did not differ regarding child maltreatment or maternal self-perceptions of competence, depressive symptoms, or most aspects of social support. Sociodemographic risk factors persisted into later life for adolescent childbearers. Among younger adolescent childbearers (age 17 years or younger), mothers of maltreated and nonmaltreated children did not differ on self-perceptions of social support, competence, or depressive symptoms. Sociodemographic differences between these two groups suggested that younger adolescent childbearers who do not overcome sociodemographic deficits common to early childbearing are at greatest risk for child maltreatment.
The Childhood Living Arrangements of Children and the Characteristics of Their Marriages
Authors: Teachman Jay D.
Published: May 2004

In this article, the author uses data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth to examine the impact of childhood living arrangements on the characteristics of marriages formed by womenbetween 1970and 1989.The focus is on sociodemographic characteristics of marriage that may be taken to indicate a heightened risk of marital stress or marital disruption. With the exception of parental death,it is foundthat any time spent in an alternative family increases the likelihood that a woman forms a union with characteristics that decrease the like-lihood of a successful union (i.e., women who experience parental divorce are more likely to cohabit before marriage). The author provides several theoretical alternatives for explaining the effects of childhood living arrangements. Two alternatives, selectivity and socialization, appear to be most consistent with the data.
Retirement Satisfaction for Retirees and their Spouses
Authors: Smith Deborah B. , Moen Phyllis
Published: May 2004

This study investigates factors related to retirees’ and their spouses’ individual and joint retirement satisfaction using decision-making theory and a life course perspective. The sample includes 421 retired respondents (ages 50 to 72) and spouses from the Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study. Although 77% of retirees report retirement satisfaction, only 67% of their spouses are satisfied; even fewer couples (59%) report joint satisfaction. Multivariate logistic regression analyses reveal that retirees’ and spouses’ individual and joint reports of retirement satisfaction are related to perceptions of spousal influence on the retirement decision, with effects varying by gender. Those couples most likely to report being satisfied with retirement, individually and jointly, are retired wives and their husbands where wives reported that their husbands were not influential in their retirement decision. The results underscore the importance of regarding retirement as gendered and as both an individual- and a couple-level experience.
The Effects of Economic Policies and Employment Assistance Programs on the Well-Being of Displaced Female Apparel Workers
Authors: Rocha Cynthia , Strand Elizabeth B.
Published: May 2004

This article explores howlabor market trends and current employment assistance policies affect reemployment opportunities and emotional well-being in a sample of female dislocated apparelworkers. The study follows the displacedwomen from the time the plant closed for 6 months to assess their financial and emotional well-being as they reentered the job market or enrolled in training programs. Averagewages of the reemployedwomen were less than their former plantwage; 14% lost their health insurance, and only half thewomen in training were in programs leading to higher paying jobs. Although some emotional recovery occurred, single parents still showed signs of depression after 6 months. Continued financial difficulty over timewas strongly correlated with depressive symptoms. Depression, in turn, was significantly related to satisfaction with spouse and children’s behavioral problems. In a multivariate analysis, baseline depression, financial difficulty, and single parenthood predicted depression 6 months later.
An Evaluation of Collaborative Interventions to Improve Chronic Illness Care
Authors: Cretin Shan , Shortell Stephen M. , Keeler Emmett B.
Published: May 2004

The authors’dual-purpose evaluation assesses the effectiveness of formal collaboratives in stimulating organizational changes to improve chronic illness care (the chronic care model or CCM). Intervention and comparison sites are compared before and after introduction of the CCM. Multiple data sources are used to measure the degree of implementation, patient-level processes and outcomes, and organizational and team factors associated with success. Despite challenges in timely recruitment of sites and patients, data collection on 37 participating organizations, 22 control sites, and more than 4,000 patients with diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, or depression is nearing completion. When analyzed, these data will shed new light on the effectiveness of collaborative improvement methods and the CCM.
A Comparison of Methods to Obtain Active Parental Consent for an International Student Survey
Authors: McMorris Barbara J. , Clements Jackie , Evans-Whipp Tracy , Gangnes Danielle , Bond Lyndal , Toumbourou John W. , Catalano Richard F.
Published: May 2004

Many school-based research efforts require active parental consent for student participation. Maximizing rates of consent form return and agreement is an important issue, because sample representativeness may be compromised when these rates are low. This article compares two methods for obtaining active parental consent: return of consent forms in the mail versus return by students to their classrooms. The methods were tested in a pilot study of 46 schools (1,058 students), with half of the schools randomly allocated to each of the alternative methods. A hierarchical nonlinear model of consent form return and agreement rates suggests that the student-delivered method is more successful at producing higher rates of consent form return and agreement to participate in the study, after controlling for school-level characteristics. The authors discuss the findings and their implications for other researchers engaged in school-based research with adolescents.
Child Welfare Privatization
Authors: Yampolskaya Svetlana , Paulson Robert I. , Armstrong Mary , Jordan Neil , Vargo Amy C.
Published: May 2004

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the development of safety, permanency, and child well-being indicators by using administrative data sets as well as by using these indicators as tools for evaluating Florida’s Community-Based Care (CBC) initiative. Longitudinal data from 37 counties including 4 counties that implemented community-based care were examined in this study. The results of the study indicated that the overall performance of CBC counties is at least as good as the performance of their comparison run by the state counties. The findings that emerged from this study may provide important lessons for developing a performance measurement system in the child welfare field.
The Race Gap in Support Group Participation by Breast Cancer Survivors
Authors: Michalec Barret , Willigen Marieke Van , Wilson Kenneth , Schreier Ann , Williams Susan
Published: May 2004

Addressing methodological weaknesses of previous research, this study assesses whether African American women are, in fact, less likely to participate in breast cancer support groups than are White women. Of the breast cancer survivors, 958 (26% African Americans, 73% Caucasian) completed interviews concerning demographic characteristics, other support networks, effects of illness on home and spiritual life, and support group participation. Contrary to previous research, no race difference was found in support group participation. This research suggests more effort needs to be paid to sampling techniques and other methodological factors to adequately reflect the experiences and needs of breast cancer survivors, specifically African American women.
Methodological Issues in the Measurement of Birth Preparedness in Support of Safe Motherhood
Authors: Stanton Cynthia K.
Published: May 2004

Behavior change interventions focusing on birth preparedness for pregnant women, their husbands, and adults in the community are common components of community-oriented Safe Motherhood programs in developing countries. Few studies have examined the effectiveness of these interventions, and existing studies are flawed due to study and sample design. This article highlights methodological issues that are often overlooked when measuring indicators of birth preparedness among multiple audiences for program evaluation purposes in household-based surveys. Solutions are proposed to address each of these problems in an effort to improve future research.