bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Government Subsidies
Authors: Schwartz Gerd , Clements Benedict
Published: March 2003

This paper addresses the problems of defining and measuring government subsidies, examines why and how government subsidies are used as a fiscal policy tool, discusses their general economic effects in terms of real welfare costs and distributional implications, appraises international empirical evidence on government subsidies, and offers options for their reform. Recent international trends in government subsidy expenditure are analyzed for the 16‐year period from 1975 to 1990, using general government subsidy data for 60 countries from the United Nations’ System of National Accounts (SNA). The paper reviews major policy options for subsidy reform, focusing on ways to improve the cost‐effectiveness of subsidy programs.
Carbon Taxes and Carbon Emissions Trading
Authors: Elkins Paul , Baker Terry
Published: March 2003

This paper surveys the literature on, and examples of current implementation of, carbon taxes and carbon emission permits. It sets out the theoretical basis for these instruments, with special reference to the revenue‐recycling and tax interaction effects. This theoretical work concludes that instruments which raise revenue which can be recycled so as to reduce pre‐existing distortionary taxes are significantly less costly than those which do not. The paper then reviews the sizable literature on the distributional effects of these instruments, especially with regard to industrial competitiveness and regressive effects on low‐income groups, evaluating attempts to mitigate these where they are perceived as unacceptable. The paper concludes that such efforts at mitigation, while possible, can substantially reduce the efficiency benefits of the instruments. The projected costs of carbon taxes depend on a wide range of assumptions. This is still a contested area, but the paper concludes that, on a range of plausible assumptions, these costs need not be high. Finally the paper notes that early evaluations of the environmental effectiveness of carbon taxes have been generally positive. This suggests that, if concern about anthropogenic climate change continues to increase, more countries will introduce carbon taxes and emission permits, with the latter increasingly auctioned.
Monetary Policy and the Stock Market: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Authors: Sellin Peter
Published: March 2003

This paper gives a comprehensive review of the literature on the interaction between real stock returns, inflation, and money growth, with a special emphasis on the role of monetary policy. This is an area of research that has interested monetary and financial economists for a long time. Monetary economists have been interested in the question whether money has any effect on real stock prices, while financial economists have investigated whether equity is a good hedge against inflation. Empirical studies show that money can be helpful in predicting future stock returns. Empirical evidence also suggest that equity is not a good hedge against inflation in the short run but may be so in the long run. The short‐run negative relation between stock returns and inflation can easily be explained by theoretical models. If the central bank conducts a countercyclical monetary policy this will result in a negative relation between inflation and stock returns, while if it conducts a procyclical policy we could observe a positive relation. According to both theoretical and empirical studies investors receive an inflation risk premium for holding equity.
North–South Models of Growth and Trade
Authors: Chui Michael , Levine Paul , Mansoob Murshed S. , Pearlman Joseph
Published: March 2003

The paper surveys the literature that combines growth and trade into models of North–South interaction. We distinguish two strands of growth theory: old (exogenous) and new (endogenous) growth. We also distinguish old trade theory which assumes constant returns to scale and perfect competition, and new trade theory which relaxes both of these assumptions. This gives us four possible combinations of growth and trade theories which provide the basis of the taxonomy employed in our survey. We address the following long–standing issues raised in the literature: first, given that one of the North–South asymmetries is that the North leads in technical progress, how does the South adjust to such changes? Second, can the models explain patterns of trade and income differentials between the regions? Third, do asymmetries mean that standard prescriptions on the mutual benefits of free trade and free movements of capital need to be modified? Finally, can our models explain why the South continues to favour protection of its manufacturing sectors at the same time that barriers within the North are being dismantled? JEL Classification: F43, O41
Involuntary Unemplyment in Imperfectly Competitive General Equilibrium Models
Authors: Lasselle Laurence S. , Svizzero Serge A.
Published: March 2003

This paper is about ‘involuntary unemployment’ in general equilibrium models with imperfect competition. It surveys papers written after the seminal work of d’Aspremont, Dos Santos Ferreira and Gérard‐Varet (1984). This unemployment is called involuntary because it exists at any wage. It results from imperfect competition in the product markets, more specifically from firms’ excessive market power. These papers have focussed their attention on the conditions required for involuntary unemployment. In our presentation, we characterise this form of unemployment through three elements: consumers’ preferences, price expectations and Ford effects. Each element is important because it influences the demand for the good and hence its price elasticity, the latter being central in the definition of firms’ market power. JEL Classification. D43, E24.
Solution‐focused Ideas in Social Work
Authors: Sundman Peter
Published: March 2003

A group of social workers from Helsinki City Social Service Department working in an ordinary community‐based social welfare office were trained to use basic solution‐focused ideas in their work with people seeking living allowances and with families in child welfare. These social workers’ relationships with their clients were compared to their previous similar relationships and to a control group. There were no significant changes in goal achievement but in line with solution‐focused orientation there were increases in positive statements, goal focus, and shared views between social workers and their clients.
Science and Family Therapy
Authors: Legg Charles
Published: March 2003

Family therapists are being exhorted to adopt a social constructionist epistemology and to abandon science as a valid form of knowing. Epistemological objections to science are usually directed at ‘positivism’, an outmoded view that is largely discredited among practising scientists. Contemporary science, is rather, constructionist, differing from other constuctionist approaches only in ways of arbitrating between world views. Criticisms aimed at science apply to all forms of discourse, including family therapy. I conclude that science has failed family therapy at the practical, not the philosophical level.
Twenty Years on – Water under the Bridge
Authors: Skynner Robin
Published: March 2003

My paper in the first issue of the Journal of Family Therapy outlined some ideas which have continued to form the basis of my practice of family therapy ever since. Using the psychoanalytic concept of ‘counter‐transference’ I suggested that opening themselves to the emotional interaction of the family will usually lead to a reproduction of the essential basic family conflict within the therapists' own psyches. In this way the therapist takes on the role assumed by many ‘family scapegoats’, expressing some emotion ‘for’ the family which other members dare not articulate or even entertain.
Family therapy and soiling: an audit of externalizing and other approaches
Authors: Silver Evril , Williams Alison , Worthington Fiona , Phillips Nicola
Published: March 2003

This is a retrospective audit of the therapy outcome of 108 children with soiling and their families. Fifty‐four children were treated by externalizing and 54 comparison children and families were treated by the usual methods in the same clinic. The results from the externalizing group were better and compared favourably with standards derived from previous studies of soiling. Externalizing was rated as much more helpful by parents at follow‐up.
Premarital counselling: a focus for family therapy
Authors: Stahmann Robert F.
Published: March 2003

Premarital counselling has not been identified as an area of practice in recent surveys of family therapists. Yet this preventive approach is an area that is receiving much attention worldwide as some governmental units are requiring premarital counselling as a means to reduce divorce and strengthen families. A descriptive overview of premarital counselling rationale, process, content and effectiveness is presented and the possible role of family therapists offering this service is discussed.
Building on the indigenous: theory and method of marriage therapy in contemporary Eastern and Western Africa
Authors: Nwoye Augustine
Published: March 2003

This paper highlights the distinctive approach to marriage therapy in use by therapists in two regions of Africa. It illustrates that marital therapy in these two regions is based on role theory framework and follows, in its execution, the pattern of the judicial trial model. It traces adaptations made by contemporary marriage therapists to ensure that while building their present practices on this essentially indigenous/court‐room trial model, they are able to remain open to outside influences from other models of marriage.
Time‐out and writing in distressed couples: an experimental trial into the effects of a short treatment
Authors: Lange Alfred , Van Der Wall Charlotte , Emmelkamp Paul
Published: March 2003

The results of a controlled experimental trial into an ultra‐short protocolled treatment for quarrelling couples are reported. Fifty‐five couples were randomly allocated to two treatment conditions and one waiting list/control condition. The treatment conditions focused on self‐control by time‐out including writing. In the interactional treatment the partners wrote letters to each other when they felt angry. In the individual treatment the partners were instructed to evaluate their own role in the conflict without sharing the writing with their partner. In accordance with expectactations, the quality of the relationship of the treated couples improved significantly compared to the waiting list control group. No differences were found between the two experimental conditions.
Family Therapy Training and Workforce Planning
Authors: Webster Jeni
Published: March 2003

There is a strong argument for further developing family therapy as a profession within the NHS, using the mechanisms for workforce planning at regional and national levels. Family therapy can be a full‐time occupation, as a profession and a secondary activity, as systemic practice. There is ambivalence about professionalism within the field and at different levels of society. This article outlines areas of tension between family therapy and government policies which focus on evidence‐based practice. Full integration into the NHS is possible through the career structure which links family therapy with clinical psychology, adult and child psychotherapy, and provides a model for linking workforce planning with education. There are risks of family therapy becoming marginalized in the future, as a profession or as systemic practice, unless it connects better with workforce planning.
Lessons for an Outsider:A Family Therapist's Experience in Bolivia
Authors: Lidchi Victoria Gabrielle
Published: March 2003

This is a reflection on cross‐cultural therapy from the perspective of a practitioner and trainer who is an outsider to the culture in which she is working. The context is work in Bolivia. The therapist's own position, the process of interaction and the influences on the family of its context are considered. Cultural notes are provided to highlight what an outsider may represent, and the legitimacy of his involvement and intervention in family situations. Themes frequently encountered in therapy are reviewed including jealousy, violence and the changing societal relationship between men and women. The usefulness of getting to know the cultural background of such themes, including the possibility of exploring them anew in therapy, is examined. Finally, a case study is presented related to the themes which also illustrates the adaptation of process to fit patient's culturally related expectations.
Exposing racism, exploring race
Authors: Erskine Ruth
Published: March 2003

Therapeutic practice cannot be neutral in the understanding of race. Living in a society that discriminates between the races affects the thoughts, feelings and experiences of all. By its emphasis on context, systemic practice offers a way to consider how social inequalities are reflected in personal dilemmas without perpetuating myths of black inferiority. A case example is used to illustrate a systemic approach which takes account of racial differences. The orientation is towards exposing the manifestations and effects of racism as well as exploring associated issues of racial identity. These ideas are linked to theoretical and research studies in related fields. A therapeutic stance of exposing racism and exploring race fits with current developments in family therapy and can be applied to the therapist’s use of self.
The family therapy journals in 2001: a thematic review
Authors: Rivett Mark
Published: March 2003

This article reviews the principal English–language (including British) family therapy journals for the year 2001. Articles are clustered around various common themes which include marital therapy and cultural competency. There is also a discernible interest in working with populations that have received less attention from family therapists such as substance misusers. Within this literature there is also a trend to ‘import’ ideas and methods from other therapeutic traditions. Important research papers are noted from within these categories, rather than having a separate section. As this is the fifth in a series of reviews, a ‘look back’ at trends within the family therapy literature concludes the paper.
England, France and their North American Colonies: An Analysis of Absolutist State Power in Europe and in the New World
Authors: Stanbridge K.A.
Published: March 2003

Using Michael Mann's concepts of “despotic” and “infrastructural” power as a starting point, this paper examines how the political associations between the state elite and dominant groups in “absolutist” England and France gave rise to state mechanisms that resulted in their exercising very different sorts of power, both at home and in their respective North American colonies. It is determined that the system of governance that defined the infrastructural power of the English state was less conducive to trans‐Atlantic rule than the system that defined the combined despotic/infrastructural power of the French state. The analysis shows how the social relationships that comprise the structure of a state come to define the source and character of state power, and how the durability of those relationships can have a lasting effect on the exercise of state power.
Lineaments of the Political Geography of State Formation in Twentieth‐Century South Africa
Authors: Ashforth Adam
Published: March 2003

As a step towards framing an understanding of the politics of the South African transition and the prospects for democracy in that country, this paper asks the question: what kind of state is it that is being transformed? It offers the argument that we should conceptualize the history of state formation within the territory that is presently called South Africa in terms of three inter‐related trajectories: imperial, national, and urban. By doing this, it is argued, the dimensions of key obstacles in the path of democratic national governance understood as ‘legacies of apartheid’ become clearer as the new leadership of the state strives to establish new forms of rule. Understanding the history of the imperial state system, as well as stressing the distinctiveness of the urban domain, adds to the well‐attested story of racial exclusion in the national state and enables a clearer appreciation of matters such as the status of women, the mobilization of ethnic nationalism, problems of crime and civil disorder, and the new forms of politics that are emerging as local ANC notables become agents of the state in black townships and rural areas.
Benthamism in the Countryside: The Architecture of Rural Space, 1900–1930
Authors: Bantjes Rod
Published: March 2003

Historians of state formation have increasingly recognized what Foucault has described as the ‘dark side’ of the enlightenment institutional principles of representation, transparency and accountability and explored the parallel principles of legitimation, surveillance and discipline. In this paper, I pursue these themes in a neglected area, the institutional architecture of rural space. I do so by examining ideologies for rural planning in western Canada and the American midwest in the early twentieth century. These ideologies were linked to state projects, and found institutional expression in Canada in the ‘town planning movement’ attached to municipal and provincial planning offices, and in the United States in agricultural extension services and the ‘county agent’ system—the local ‘inspectorate’ of the Federal Department of Agriculture. The aim was a restructuring of rural space in the interests of rationalizing agricultural production and controlling large populations of settlers, recently displaced, and disturbingly ‘isolated’ and inaccessible in the vast spaces of the great plains. Despite common aims, American and Canadian reformers adopted fundamentally different principles of spatial design. Town planners inherited the European assumption that community networks and class relations were embedded in particular spatial arrangements, so that rural reform required re‐drawing the boundaries of fields and settlements. As early as 1915, American reformers developed the idea that networks of sociability and domination were defined first by abstract structures, formal organizations and the cash nexus, and could, using modern media of communication, be ‘disembedded’ from particular locales and distributed spatially.
The Cloth of Field of Gold: Material Culture and Civic Power in Colonial Ibadan
Authors: Watson Ruth
Published: March 2003

The article focuses on a political controversy which occurred in Ibadan, a city in south‐western Nigeria, during 1939. At face value, the contentious issue was a particular design of damask cloth. Ruth Watson suggests that the controversy was actually far more complex and argues that it cannot be understood unless one develops an historical reading of political culture in the city. This reading explores the cultural/symbolic meanings of political practices and how, at certain times, these practices served to generate material forms of civic power.
Cutting up Cultures
Authors: Symons Michael
Published: March 2003

The dictionary meaning of ‘cooking’ is heating food, but cooks do much more. Socially, the essential activity is distributing food. Kitchen knives are central. The historical success of kitchen knives has led to their being overlooked; for the division of food at meals goes hand in hand with the division of associated tasks, and specialist helpers, typically men, have aggrandised their trades and tools – soldiers their swords, farmers their ploughs and priests their sacrificial blades. Tragically, those most social of instruments, knives, have cut off the ‘cooking animal’ from its world and each other.
The Enlightenment, Greek Civilization and the Ottoman Empire: Reflections on Thomas Hope's Anastasius
Authors: Kasaba Res¸at
Published: March 2003

Abstract This paper addresses the widespread belief in Europe in the late eighteenth century that without a Greek revival in art, architecture, and philosophy, the rejuvenation of European civilization would never be complete. This intellectual tradition, which is commonly referred to as Philhellenism, sought to rescue the Greek civilization from the Turkish rule. However, the Greeks turned out to be too poor, too religious, and too well integrated into the Ottoman society to respond to the call of the European intellectuals. This essay examines the source and implications of this clash between the enlightenment's idealized Greeks and the real Greeks of eastern Mediterranean through a close reading of Anastasius: Memoirs of a Greek that was written by Thomas Hope at the close of the eighteenth century.
The Gay 90s?: Models of Legal Decision‐Making, Change and History1
Authors: Earl Jennifer
Published: March 2003

Abstract Using legal rulings on gay marriages from two periods in the U.S., I analyze the ability of dominant approaches to legal decision‐making to explain the rulings, their content, and changes from one period to the next. I show that no single dominant approach can address all three concerns. Instead, an approach that blends existing “attitudinal” and new institutionalist models within a structuration framework is developed and defended. In addition to contributing to a specific debate about legal decision‐making, the paper compares the power of cross‐sectional models to more temporally sensitive approaches and develops on Sewell's (1992) structuration theory.
The Usefulness of Earnings and Book Value for Equity Valuation in Emerging Capital Markets: Evidence From Listed Companies in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Bao Ben‐Hsien , Chow Lynne
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the relative value relevance in equity valuation of two sets of accounting information of listed Chinese companies which issued the so‐called B shares to foreign investors on the Chinese stock exchanges. These firms are required to prepare two sets of financial statements: one based on China's accounting regulations (domestic GAAPs) and the other based on International Accounting Standards (IASs). The study adopted the Ohlson (1995) model and used the Davidson‐MacKinnon J‐test to assess which one of these two competing sets of accounting information is more closely associated with the share prices. The results showed that earnings and book value reported based on IASs have greater information content than those based on domestic GAAPs. The results of yearly regression analysis generally suggested that the explanatory power of these earnings and book values for share prices increased over time.
Attitudes towards Uniform Accounting: Cultural or Economic Phenomena?
Authors: Roberts Clare B. , Salter Stephen B.
Published: March 2003

The existing literature suggests that uniformity versus flexibility is a key dimension of differentiation in cross‐national financial reporting practices. However, the issue of what drives attitudes towards uniformity has not been explored. Drawing upon a variety of existing studies, this study explores the attitudes of “Big 6” auditors in 23 countries towards rules mandating a single treatment across 14 issues. The study finds that auditors are in favor of a single mandated treatment in the majority of cases and that support for such rules is affected by both culture and the importance of the domestic stock market to the country. These results hold true even after the influence of extant practice or the level of uniformity of current practice is controlled for. Relatively higher levels of uniformity in de facto financial reporting practices and relatively stronger support for increased uniformity were both found in many of those countries which are traditionally thought of as having more flexible financial accounting systems.
The Valuation‐relevance of Earnings and Cash Flows: an International Perspective
Authors: Bartov Eli , Goldberg Stephen R. , Kim Myung‐Sun
Published: March 2003

We investigate which variable, earnings or cash flows, provides greater information for equity valuation within the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Japan. We regress returns on earnings and cash flow metrics. We generally find earnings developed in three Anglo‐Saxon countries—where capital is traditionally raised in public markets and reporting rules are unencumbered by taxation requirements—to have greater explanatory power for stock returns than cash flow metrics. Conversely, in two non‐Anglo‐Saxon countries—where capital is traditionally raised from private sources—earnings are generally not superior to cash flows for equity valuation, except in Japan, non‐consolidated sample. While sensitivity analyses generally support the conclusions of our primary tests, in some of the additional analyses, earnings were superior to cash flows for samples from all countries. As expected, in all countries earnings have incremental information content over cash flows in explaining returns. Collectively, our findings provide two contributions. First, we generalize the findings of prior US research by showing that earnings are more important than cash flows for equity valuation in other Anglo‐Saxon countries. Second and more importantly, our findings demonstrate that the superiority of earnings over cash flows is not universal. Rather, it depends on the national reporting regime and attendant institutional factors.
The Operational Hedging Properties of Intangible Assets: the Case of Non–voluntary Foreign Asset Selloffs
Authors: Doukas John A. , Padmanabhan Prasad
Published: March 2003

In this paper we examine the valuation effects and long–term performance of US multinational firms involved in forced transfers of their foreign operating assets during the 1965–88 period. The evidence suggests that the operational hedging ability of the firm to address country risk (nationalization threats) is related to the level of its intangible assets. While it is well known that firms with high levels of intangible assets prefer foreign direct investment, our results show that intangible assets have hidden properties of protection against country risk as well. We document significantly negative abnormal returns only for divesting firms with low levels of intangible assets, but not for firms with high levels of intangible assets. In addition, we show that low (high) growth firms are involved in partial (complete) withdrawals, and show that the long–term economic performance of firms choosing the complete withdrawal strategy is better than those that opt to remain. We argue that management’s attempt to maintain economic links in a hostile foreign environment can be attributed in part to the firm’s low growth opportunities, performance, and lack of contingent plans to address country risk.
Sharing Wealth: Evidence from Financial Ratios in Spain
Authors: Gallizo José L. , Gargallo Pilar , Salvador Manuel
Published: March 2003

Firms are managed on the basis of relationships between mutually involved groups, not only because of market forces, but also due to the influence that each group can exert over distribution decisions at a given moment in time. On the basis of a value added statement, it is possible to analyse the ability a firm has to reward all agents and to consider how the residual income is to be distributed. In this paper we set out to establish the tensions that arise between productive agents in the distribution of generated wealth. We carry out a time analysis of the movements between relationships that provide information on the distribution of that wealth, using data drawn from the Spanish Transport Equipment Manufacturing Industry. We propose a new multivariate dynamic linear model that is capable of analysing the joint evolution of the value added distribution ratios, with our particular objective being to throw light on the factors underlying this evolution. This analysis results in one single factor that explains 92.88 per cent of the total variation present in the residuals of the model.
Privatizing the Universities
Authors: Kelsey Jane
Published: March 2003

For most of the twentieth century, privatization of state universities seemed inconceivable. By 1997 government reviews of tertiary education in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand were all exploring variations on a market‐driven theme. Similar policy agendas were being promoted through international agencies like the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). This article examines the convergence of tertiary education restructuring and the extent to which that reflects, and serves to embed, an ascendant neo‐liberal hegemony. Taking the extreme example of New Zealand, it assesses the implications of a global competitive model of tertiary education for law schoools in the common law world.
Gazing into the Future through a VDU: Communications, Information Technology, and Law Teaching
Authors: Alldridge Peter , Mumford Ann
Published: March 2003

The article deals with the interaction of computers, informationtechnology, and legal education. It considers the technical achievementsof communications and information technology (C&IT) in the practiceand teaching of law, then the jurisprudential paradigms which underliethese issues. To the extent to which law is conceived as a form ofinformation, existing assumptions about the theory, practice, andteaching of law are challenged. Where, on the other hand, law is regardedas a collection of rules, reversal to formalism, driven by C&IT, isidentified as a concern for socio‐legal scholars. Other concerns addressedby this article include the exclusive economics of the C&IT revolution,the power dynamics of technophobia, and the interaction of computersand gender. The article concludes with suggestions for alternative visonsof the future of C&IT and legal education.
Reforming Leasehold: Discursive Events and Outcomes, 1984–2000
Authors: Blandy Sarah , Robinson David
Published: March 2003

This article uses discourse analysis to explore and explain the limits of ongoing efforts to resolve the problems experienced by long leaseholders living in private flats in England and Wales. Attention is focused on the position of leasehold within the three discourses of property law, housing, and housing law, as revealed through the language used in legislation, consultation papers, Law Commission reports, political statements, media representations, and the accounts of leaseholders themselves. The implementation gap between legislative intentions and effects, so often neglected in discussion of housing policy, is explored. The article considers policy and legislation in the light of a metanarrative encompassing all aspects of the multi‐occupancy of blocks of flats.
Questions and Answers: The Logic of Preliminary Fact Investigation
Authors: Abimbola Kola
Published: March 2003

My paper considers the role of questions and answers in the inferential tasks of fact investigators (investigators such as police officers and crime scene examiners) prior to trial and indeed prior to arrest. My contention is that the reasoning processes of these investigators obey an internal, simple, successful, but dangerous, logic.
Narrative, Politics and Legitimacy in an IT Implementation
Authors: Brown Andrew D.
Published: March 2003

This paper offers an interpretation of an information technology (IT) implementation through an analysis of group narratives. A focus on narrative is valuable because it facilitates recognition of the extent to which interpretive research involves the creation and ascription of meaning in ways that require authorial reflexivity. An analysis based on group narratives, which incorporate plurivocal understandings of actions and events, is also a means by which polysemy can more easily be read back into ethnography. The research contribution this paper makes is twofold. First, it exemplifies the importance of narratives for individuals and groups in their attempts to understand and give meaning to their technologies and working lives. Second, it illustrates how narratives can be deployed in political attempts to legitimate their actions and interests.
Alliance Management: A View from the Past and a Look to the Future
Authors: Spekman Forbes, III Isabella MacAvoy Robert E., Theodore M., Lynn A., Thomas C.
Published: March 2003

The literature on strategic alliances has focused mainly on issues related to alliance formation and the reasons why firms form these partnerships. Yet the large number of failures would suggest that there exists a gap between an understanding of alliance formation and the practice of alliance management. The purpose of this paper is to narrow that gap. We begin with a review of the extant state‐of‐knowledge and then discuss areas in which further insight can be gained. More specifically, the remainder of the paper focuses on issues related to managing alliances over time and the role of the alliance manager, a linch‐pin in the alliance management process.
Technology and The Courtroom: An Inquiry into Knowledge Making in Organizations
Authors: Lanzara Giovan Francesco , Patriotta Gerardo
Published: March 2003

Recent theories of knowledge management have offered a functionalist understanding of knowledge creating dynamics in organizations. Their focus is on the role of knowledge assets as a determinant of competitive performance. However, the presupposition that knowledge can be managed or treated as an objective commodity seems to overlook the highly interactive, provisional and controversial nature of knowledge‐oriented phenomena in organizations. By deviating from the mainstream, we conduct a phenomenological inquiry into knowledge making within the setting of courtroom trials. Evidence is provided by in‐depth case studies carried out in six Italian courtrooms adopting videocassette recording (VCR) technology as a tool for recording and storing the proceedings of criminal trials. The behavioural responses of courtroom actors confronted by the intrusion of an alien technology in a highly institutionalized and resilient setting are particularly relevant for the study of knowledge in organizations. They reveal the highly controversial, pasted up and medium‐specific features of organizational and professional knowledge systems. Rather than being the product of smooth conversion processes, knowledge in organizations is the outcome of inquiry, controversy and bricolage, resilient as a whole, but subject to local disputes, experiments and reassembling. Based on the findings of the cases, our account points towards a view of organizational knowledge as a dynamic, heterogeneous ‘assemblage’ characterized by ongoing transformations and reconfigurations.
Personality Psychology: Research Trends for 1993–1995
Authors: Endler Norman S. , Speer Rachel L.
Published: March 2003

Articles published in five prominent personality journals for the three‐year period 1993–1995 were reviewed in order to identify recent trends in personality research. Each article was assessed in terms of research methodology and content area. Research methodology has changed very little, the exceptions being a shift away from laboratory settings and a greater use of nonuniversity participants. Results for content demonstrate that over time certain topics emerge and fade from popularity. Current popular topics include traits, emotion/motivation, and health psychology. The general lack of advancement in methodology is discussed, and the current “hot topics” in content area are compared with those of the past. In addition, some comparisons are made between current personality research in North America versus research in Europe.
To Follow Expert Advice When Making a Decision: An Examination of Reactive Versus Reflective Autonomy
Authors: Koestner Richard , Gingras Isabelle , Abutaa Rania , Losier Gaëtan F. , DiDio Lina , Gagné Marylene
Published: March 2003

The present study examined whether reactive and reflective autonomy moderated individuals’ responses to expert influence. Participants were given the opportunity to win money at a racetrack betting task for which they were provided with objective information about horses’ previous performances along with specific expert recommendations. The experts were made to look either credible or noncredible by manipulating information on the success rate of their previous predictions. The results showed that the two forms of autonomy led to exactly opposite behaviors in response to the advice of credible experts. Reflective autonomy was significantly positively associated with following the recommendations of credible experts whereas reactive autonomy was significantly negatively associated with following the recommendations. The results also showed that it was particularly after losing their first race that reactive autonomy was related to rejecting the advice of experts. These findings indicate that reactive and reflective forms of autonomy may yield opposite patterns of behavior in certain situations.
Personal Ideology: The Intersection of Personality and Religious Beliefs
Authors: De St. Aubin Ed
Published: March 2003

Individual religious beliefs are conceptualized as a component of personal ideology,which is one’s value‐laden philosophy of how life should be lived and of what forces impact human living. Extending Silvan Tomkins’ (1911–1991) writings concerning ideology polarity and his script theory of personality, I suggest that personal ideology theory may be employed to elucidate the content, structure, and development of religious beliefs. This theory examines religiousness as a biologically motivated interpretive structure that is situated within the sociohistorical, age‐relevant, and idiosyncratic conditions of the ontogenetic matrix.
Further Distinctions between Coping and Defense Mechanisms?
Authors: Miceli Maria , Castelfranchi Cristiano
Published: March 2003

In the current literature there is a great confusion between coping and defense mechanisms. As Cramer (1998) points out, a distinction between them is both possible and worthwhile in that they possess different cognitive features. Cramer proposes two basic criteria: the conscious/unconscious and the intentional/unintentional nature of the processes. We focus on a further criterion, the manipulation versus revision of one’s mental attitudes, which so far has been neglected in the relevant literature. We suggest that responses to adversity implying manipulation are typical of defense mechanisms, while those implying the revision of one’s mental attitudes characterize coping strategies. Finally, we address emotion‐focused coping as the area where coping and defense meet, and we suggest that responses displaying defensive features should be excluded from the category of coping in accordance with the distinctions identified.
Trait Psychology and Culture: Exploring Intercultural Comparisons
Authors: McCrae Robert R.
Published: March 2003

Personality traits, studied for decades by Western personality psychologists, have recently been reconceptualized as endogenous basic tendencies that, within a cultural context, give rise to habits, attitudes, skills, beliefs, and other characteristic adaptations. This conceptualization provides a new framework for studying personality and culture at three levels. Transcultural research focuses on identifying human universals, such as trait structure and development; intracultural studies examine the unique expression of traits in specific cultures; and intercultural research characterizes cultures and their subgroups in terms of mean levels of personality traits and seeks associations between cultural variables and aggregate personality traits. As an example of the problems and possibilities of intercultural analyses, data on mean levels of Revised NEO Personality Inventory scales from college age and adult samples (N = 23,031) of men and women from 26 cultures are examined. Results showed that age and gender differences resembled those found in American samples; different subsamples from each culture showed similar levels of personality traits; intercultural factor analysis yielded a close approximation to the Five‐Factor Model; and factor scores were meaningfully related to other culture‐level variables. However, mean trait levels were not apparent to expert raters, casting doubt on the accuracy of national stereotypes. Trait psychology can serve as a useful complement to cultural perspectives on human nature and personality.
Intelligent Repair of Existing Concrete Structures
Authors: Casas Joan R. , Ramos Gonzalo , Diaz‐Carrillo Sebastián , Alfredo Guemes J.
Published: March 2003

Advanced composites offer some advantages over traditional procedures for repairing concrete structures, due to their optimal corrosion properties, low weight, and decreasing costs. Thin, cured laminates may be externally bonded, or dry fabrics can be wet applied and in situ cured over the concrete structure, conforming to its surface irregularities. Fiber optic strain sensors, specially Bragg gratings, show some advantages when compared to conventional strain gauges: absolute measurements, spectrally encoded output, no EMI, no drift (long‐term stability), low size, multiplexing capability, and their ability to be embedded into laminates without degradation. The combination of both techniques is easy and offers important advantages. The long‐term mechanical behavior of the repair may be checked and information on environmental degradation could be obtained. In this way, a repaired smart structure is obtained comparable to a new one. On the short term, information on the stress transfer from the concrete to the laminate is obtained, and the validity of models is verified. Tests on a concrete beam repaired with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and instrumented with Bragg gratings are reported, showing the possibility of the intelligent repair.
Web‐Based Information Management System for Construction Projects
Authors: Lam H. F. , Chang Tse‐Yung Paul
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a web‐based project information management (WebPIM) system for civil engineering applications, with particular emphasis on construction project management. In the proposed system, all project information is centralized in a project database residing in the project server, instead of being distributed to many different locations. By utilizing the latest web technology, the system works as an information platform for all design and construction participants of a construction project throughout the life cycle of the project. A prototype model is designed in this paper to illustrate the application of the proposed system and the hardware and software requirements for the intended application. Discussion is given on the security and speed of data transfer, as well as an effectiveness comparison among various project management methodologies.
Unconfigured Tractarian Objects
Authors: Page James
Published: March 2003

According to the Tractatus, the world consists of atomic objects arranged in various configurations, and the ways the world might be are determined by the ways these objects can be configured. The question I address is whether these very objects can be unconfigured as well as configured. Much depends on a positive answer to this question, including, as I show, the internal coherence of the Tractatus itself. I argue that these objects can be unconfigured, and am critical of certain interpretive claims made by Fogelin which lead to the conclusion that they cannot be.
Critical Notice
Authors: Edelman John
Published: March 2003

Virtues and Reasons: Philippa Foot and Moral Theory, edited by Rosalind Hursthouse, Gavin Lawrence and Warren Quinn
Truth, Sense and Reference
Authors: Palmer Anthony
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this essay:

Wolfgang Carl, Frege’s Theory of Sense and Reference: Its Scope and its Origins

William P. Alston, A Realist Conception of Truth
Natural Law, Motives, and Freedom of the Will
Authors: Brenner William H.
Published: March 2003

In this paper I piece together a Wittegnsteinian view of the topics indicated in my title, contrasting it with the views of Bertrand Russell and Donald Davidson ‐ two philosophers who, in words from the Blue Book, seem “constantly to see the method of science before their eyes.” I conclude that Wittegnstein helps us understand something those philosphers tend to overlook: that “freedom of the will” gets its meaning not in a belief to be assessed by evidence but, on the contrary, in the expression of a way of living and assessing life that limits the role of “assessing beliefs by evidence.”
Book Reviews
Authors: Crouch Colin
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed:

Alan Campbell, Nina Fishman and John McIlroy (eds.), British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics; Volume One: The Post‐war Compromise, 1945‐‐64; Volume Two: The High Tide of Trade Unionism, 1964‐79

Robert E. Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies

Peter Self, Rolling Back the Market: Economic Dogma and Political Choice

Anne Phillips, Which Equalities Matter?

Royden J. Harrison, The Life and Times of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, 1858‐‐1905: The Formative Years

Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge

Michael J. Hogan (ed.), The Ambiguous Legacy: US Foreign Relations in the ‘American Century’

Eric Roll, Where Are We Going? The Next Twenty Years

Dennis Smith and Sue Wright (eds.), Whose Europe? The Turn Towards Democracy

Meg Russell, Reforming the House of Lords: Lessons from Overseas

The Wakeham Report, A House for the Future: The Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords

Anthony D. Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation

Phil Mullan, The Imaginary Time Bomb: Why an Ageing Population is not a Social Problem
Identifying Competencies with Behavioral-Event Interviews
Authors: McClelland David C.
Published: March 2003

Coding competencies from behavioral-event interviews according to the principles of a new approach to assessment (McClelland, 1973) produces assessments that are reliable and validly associated with success as an executive. These assessments are not influenced by length of protocol or by performance in the preceding year. Bias is not a problem if both the interviewer and the coder are blind to executive success. In contrast to a traditional psychometric approach based on regression analysis, an algorithm based on competency scores predicted managerial success and improved performance across a number of samples. This algorithm identified potential outstanding performers as individuals whose scores reached designated tipping points within clusters of substitutable competencies. Experts' judgments of competencies needed or shown by executives in various positions agreed only moderately with competencies shown to be important by the data from behavioral-event interviews.
A Sociocognitive Analysis of Substance Abuse: An Agentic Perspective
Authors: Bandura Albert
Published: March 2003

This article presents a social-cognitive theory of substance abuse. The exercise of self-regulatory agency plays a central role in this approach. Perceived self-efficacy is the foundation of human agency. Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act. Self-efficacy beliefs promote desired changes through cognitive, motivational, affective, and choice processes. Perceived self-efficacy exerts its effects on every phase of personal change—the initiation of efforts to overcome substance abuse, achievement of desired changes, recovery from relapses, and long-term maintenance of a drug-free life. Assessments of perceived efficacy identify areas of vulnerability and provide guides for treatment. Substance abuse is a social problem, not just a personal one. Reducing substance abuse also requires policy initiatives and social remedies achieved through the exercise of collective efficacy.