bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Citizenship-based social work
Authors: van Ewijk Hans
Published: February 2009

English

This article argues that modern citizenship is a highly fruitful concept for social work. Citizenship-based social work is defined as a field of action, knowledge and research, aiming at integration of all citizens and supporting and encouraging self responsibility, social responsibility and the implementation of social rights.

French

Cet article soutient que la citoyenneté moderne est un concept éminemment porteur pour le travail social. Le travail social fondé sur la citoyenneté se définit comme un champ d’action, de connaissance et de recherche visant l’intégration de tous les citoyens et faisant la promotion de la responsabilité personnelle, de la responsabilité sociale et de la promotion des droits sociaux.

Spanish

Este artículo argumenta que la ciudadanía moderna es un concepto altamente provechoso para el trabajo social. El trabajo social basado en la ciudadanía es definido como un campo de acción, conocimiento e investigación, apuntando a la integración de todos los ciudadanos, que apoya y alienta la responsabilidad propia, la responsabilidad social y la implementación de derechos sociales.
Intersecting social capital and Chinese culture
Authors: Miu Chung Yan  , Ching Man Lam
Published: February 2009

English

For youths to seek employment, social capital is as important as human capital. This article conceptually examines how guanxi, a form of social capital in Chinese culture, may be instrumental in helping young people access jobs. Suggestions of alternative services for helping unemployed youths in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are offered.

French

Pour les jeunes à la recherche d’un emploi, le capital social est aussi important que le capital humain. Cet article examine comment la notion de guanxi, une forme de capital social dans la culture chinoise, peut aider concrètement les jeunes gens à avoir accès à un emploi. Il propose aussi des suggestions de services alternatifs pour aider les jeunes chômeurs en Chine, à Taïwan et à Hong-Kong.

Spanish

Para la juventud que busca empleo, el capital social es tan importante como el capital humano. Este artículo examina conceptualmente cómo guanxi, forma de capital social en la cultura China, puede ayudar instrumentalmente a la gente joven para acceder al trabajo. Se ofrecen recomendaciones de servicios alternativos para ayudar a la juventud desempleada en Mainland China, Taiwán y Hong Kong.
When East Meets East: Framing the Sino-South Asian Diaspora
Authors: Rastogi Pallavi
Published: February 2009

This essay examines the contours of Chinese identity in the Indian subcontinent through three Sino-South Asian texts: “Travels Afar” (2001) by Chinese-Pakistani writer Maria Tham, “In Search of Lin Jia Zhuang” (2001) by Chinese-Sri Lankan writer Milan L. Lin-Rodrigo and The Palm Leaf Fan and Other Stories (2006) by Chinese-Indian writer Kwai-Yun Li. The shared configurations of the two autobiographical essays and the short story collection — all three are triangulated narratives involving ancestral origin in China, birth and adolescence in South Asia and eventual migration to North America — highlight a forgotten circuit of diasporic movement: one that does not simply follow an East-West pattern of migration, but also inhabits a middle place in the Indian subcontinent. In placing these three works next to each other, I sketch the thematic preoccupations of the twice-migrant Sino-South Asian diaspora, particularly focusing on where we can situate writing and writers that are Chinese in ethnicity, South Asian in upbringing and North American in location.
Amitav Ghosh's Anxious Witnessing and the Ethics of Action in The Hungry Tide
Authors: Tomsky Terri
Published: February 2009

Focusing on Amitav Ghosh's novel The Hungry Tide, this article explores the challenges faced by cosmopolitans seeking to make an ethical intervention in a subaltern space. By dramatizing the encounter between bourgeois characters and the traumatic history of people inhabiting the Sundarbans region of Bengal, Ghosh suggests that an unreconstructed cosmopolitanism is incapable of addressing social injustices; to effect any positive change, the cosmopolitan must undergo a transformation. This paper locates affect as the agent of that critical transformation, a surplus that is transmitted beyond the horizon of personal witnessing and into the larger community of writers and readers.
“Magic that Battles Death”: Pauline Melville's Marvellous Realism
Authors: Renk Kathleen Williams
Published: February 2009

Situating three stories from Pauline Melville's short story collection The Migration of Ghosts in relation to Wilson Harris's refiguring of Carl Jung's concept of the “alchemical imagination” as well as in relation to notions of magical and marvellous realism, I argue that Melville uses her alchemical imagination to transmute marvellous realism from a mode that represented a “strange”, but “commonplace” New World reality to a mode that reconnects to the unifying philosophic underpinnings of the Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Drawing on its historic roots as a Latin American/Caribbean reaction to conquest, Melville's marvellous realism reconnects with a philosophic era that rejects the fragmentation of thought, disciplines and eras. By re-establishing a connection to an era that promoted the unity of magic, science and all living things, Melville's alchemical imagination restores memory, transmutes consciousness and dispels fragmentation.
Sunlight and Salt: The Literary Landscapes of a Divided Family
Authors: Shamsie Muneeza
Published: February 2009

This paper combines memoir and criticism to compare the treatment of Partition, class, colonialism, history and gender in two Partition novels from the same family: Sunlight on a Broken Column by the Indian writer Attia Hosain (1963) and Salt and Saffron (2000) by the Pakistani writer, Kamila Shamsie. Both novels portray a young woman's struggle for selfempowerment alongside their country's assertion of independence. Attia Husain's narrator, Laila, grows up in feudal pre-Partition Lucknow, never agrees with Partition and is heartbroken by the division of her family and the disappearance of her world; Kamila Shamsie's narrator, Aliya, the daughter of urban, Karachi professionals, does not question Pakistan, but, haunted by a bitter quarrel between her Pakistani grandparents and their Indian siblings, she looks for answers in history and their princely past. What family links do these novels reveal? Where do they differ? How has the gap of the two generations influenced both writers and their writing? This essay provides a personal comment on these questions because Attia (1913—98) was my aunt, and Kamila (b. 1973) is my daughter.
Longitudinal Changes in Acculturation for Immigrant Women From the Former Soviet Union
Authors: Miller Arlene Michaels , Wang Edward , Szalacha Laura A. , Sorokin Olga
Published: February 2009

Most research on immigrant acculturation has been conducted with cross-sectional samples, using statistical designs that may not capture different trajectories for the components that contribute to this complex concept. The purpose of this study was to examine change over time in acculturation for 226 women from the former Soviet Union who had lived in the United States fewer than 8 years when recruited. Using self-report data from four annual waves, growth trajectories were examined in four components of acculturation (American behavior, Russian behavior, English language proficiency, and cultural generativity). Results indicate that these components changed at varying rates. Acculturation is a process with multiple distinct components that should be measured separately to obtain a full profile of change over time.
Unmet Demand for Union Membership in Australia
Authors: Pyman Amanda , Teicher Julian , Cooper Brian , Holland Peter
Published: February 2009

Unmet demand for union membership is defined as employees in non-union workplaces who would join a union if given the opportunity. Unmet demand is a significant issue for Australian unions as union density continues to decline and the current legislative environment remains hostile. This article gauges the contours of unmet demand for union membership in Australia, drawing on responses to the Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey (AWRPS 2004). It finds a significant level of unmet demand for union membership in Australia. Unmet demand varies according to workplace and employee characteristics and is highest among low income earners, younger workers, workers with shorter organizational tenure and workers in routinized occupations. The practical implications of our findings are discussed in relation to union renewal and the legislative environment prevailing in 2008.
Better the Devil you Know? An Analysis of Employers' Bargaining Preferences in the Australian Hotel Industry
Authors: Knox Angela
Published: February 2009

The pursuit of regulatory reform is ongoing in Australia. To date, research has examined the purposes and outcomes associated with these regulatory reforms, while the actual preferences of employers seem to have been overlooked. This is particularly remiss given that the Government has founded much of its reform agenda, including Work Choices, on the supposed `needs of employers'. Given this oversight, this article examines employers' bargaining preferences and experiences in a sample of Australian luxury hotels. The findings deepen our understanding of employers' regulatory preferences and subsequently challenge the rationale and direction of Government policy in Australia.
Articulation Work Skills and the Recognition of Call Centre Competences in Australia
Authors: Hampson Ian , Junor Anne , Barnes Alison
Published: February 2009

Debates over whether customer service work is deskilled or part of the knowledge economy tend to focus on single issues such as control, emotional labour or information management. Call centre work, however, falls within a spectrum of service jobs requiring simultaneous and multifaceted work with people, information and technology, This activity, which we call `articulation work', is often performed within tight timeframes and requires workers, first, to integrate their own tasks into an ongoing `line' of work, and second, to collaborate in maintaining the overall work-flow. The requisite skills, of awareness, interaction management and coordination, tend to be poorly specified in competency standards that subdivide work into discrete tasks. We compare examples of call centre competency standards with case study accounts of the use of articulation work skills, arguing the need for a taxonomy allowing the recognition of different levels of these skills across the service sector.
Australian Workplace Agreements in Universities
Authors: van Barneveld Kristin
Published: February 2009

This article details the use of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) in universities after the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) mandated that all university staff be offered an AWA by the end of August 2006. It is clear from the evidence that, despite this requirement, at most universities there was little take-up of this form of individual employment arrangement. Of the few who did sign an AWA, one group stood out more than others — senior general staff. However at most universities, these workers have traditionally been employed on individual, common law contracts and moving them from one form of individualized employment arrangement to another did little to increase the overall pool of those on individual employment arrangements in higher education. Once these senior general staff were excluded from the equation, the take-up rate was very low indeed. The research demonstrates that the Howard government's approach to increasing the take-up rate of AWAs in universities failed. With the election of the Rudd Labor Government in November 2007, the very low take-up of AWAs has meant that the university sector has a relatively small task in moving staff back to collective employment arrangements.
Technological Grounding
Authors: Leonardi Paul M. , Jackson Michele H.
Published: February 2009

In technologically grounded organizations, culture is bound tightly to the material characteristics of the technology that the organization manufactures, distributes, or services. Technological grounding helps explain why high-technology organizations often experience cultural integration problems following a merger. Examining the recent merger of US West and Qwest, this article analyzes how powerful actors strategically used the process of technological grounding to enroll a core technology to situate postmerger integration in technological terms, creating a discourse of inevitability that then justified publicly Qwest's cultural domination of US West.
The WTO and the limits of distributive justice
Authors: Maffettone Pietro
Published: February 2009

In this article I rethink Rawls' conception of international economic justice, with a particular focus on international trade. I ground my normative argument on a different interpretation of the concepts of basic structure and of basic institution. I use the contemporary international trading system to illustrate my normative interpretation. I use the Law of Peoples to discuss the Rawlsian concept of basic structure. I contest Samuel Freeman's interpretation of this concept as one that pertains exclusively to the domestic realm. As a reply, I work out an interpretation of basic institutions valid for both the national and international context. I base my understanding on the impact and the form of membership that characterize basic institutions. Both properties are compatible with an extension of the concept of a basic institution to the international domain. I then show how the World Trade Organization (WTO) system can be compared to a domestic basic institution. I analyse the decisional setting that surrounds the choice of joining the WTO. I conclude that no real alternative exists. Hence, WTO membership is not to be considered a completely free policy choice. I also state that the new system is witnessing a strong expansion of the areas subject to trade governance. Such expansion is responsible for the growing impact that international trade has on domestic institutions and hence on people. Finally, I use my analysis of contemporary international trading relations to test Rawls' position in the Law of Peoples. I conclude that although Rawls' principles for fair trade and international cooperation can regulate GATT-style international trade, they are not proficient in assessing the new characteristics of international trade.
Three aspects of the self-opacity of the empirical subject in Kant
Authors: Saji Motohide
Published: February 2009

This article attempts to reconstruct Kant's view on the self-opacity of the empirical subject by exploring three aspects of his work: the unconscious, moral incentives and moral genealogy, and rule-following practice. `Self-opacity' means that one is unable to give an account of one's everyday activity, of why in one's everyday life one thinks and acts in the way one does. Kant's view thus recast gives us a sobering insight into our ordinary way of life. The insight is that we are confronted with such self-opacity concerning that area of our activity to which the aforesaid three things apply. That is, a large part of our everyday activity is at bottom opaque to ourselves. This reading of Kant has two implications. First, it enriches our interpretation of Kant. Second, the aforesaid sobering insight is potentially an encouraging message because it may help us cultivate our self-understanding for our everyday life.
Liberalism as a lifestyle
Authors: Assoulin Kobi
Published: February 2009

In this article I offer a way of interpreting Richard Rorty's political suggestions. I believe Rorty's lack of offering concrete proposals for dealing with the usual key problems of liberalism is deliberate. I look at this lack from a generous point of view and claim that what Rorty offers us is another kind of political intentionality. As a pragmatist, Rorty does not look for a foundational way of justifying things but, instead, searches for a description that makes liberalism an attractive practice. Following Gadamer and Rorty, I intend looking at liberalism as a kind of game and a public lifestyle. I claim that such a prior understanding illuminates and articulates liberal key terms such as: freedoms, public sphere, respecting the other.
A new approach on the long-standing problem of evil
Authors: Hernández Mario Alfredo
Published: February 2009

In recent years, discussion on evil as a philosophical problem has increased. However, there is a tendency to see this problem from an aesthetic point of view, to frame it in theodicy's plot, or even to suggest silence in front of those extreme forms of evil that are linked to specific episodes, such as totalitarianism or ethnic cleansing. This review article focuses on María Pía Lara's development of a postmetaphysical theory of evil in her book Narrating Evil. The main purpose of Lara's theoretical effort is to show that critical recovery of historical episodes that have become paradigms of evil for us, has a narrative texture and intends to generate a discussion in the present time about the ways we can give reality to an idea of democratic justice, in the context of what Jürgen Habermas has called secular and postmetaphysical societies. Thus, learning from catastrophes — the term coined by Habermas and redefined by Lara — becomes a tool for mastering the past, but also constitutes a narrative device that allows us a critical approach to our present political reality.
Making the complex simple
Authors: Caputo Anne
Published: February 2009

In this article, the author considers the important trends that are reshaping the way information and knowledge workers consume and use information. She looks at the way in which the first generation of digital natives are approaching work activities in a different way from earlier generations, and exploiting the advances in technology across the spectrum to deal with the explosion in the volume of available information. She focuses on the way in which the combination of these factors emphasize the need for good quality, timely and relevant information, and how they affect the role of the information professional.
Online customer communities
Authors: Paterson Lorraine
Published: February 2009

This article describes how the author investigated the business case for the operation of online customer communities, and evaluated their impact. This was achieved through analysis of opinions from members in company-sponsored and member-initiated online customer communities. The research aimed to understand the relationship between customer and company in online communities, explore the motivations of customers to participate in online customer communities, and the benefits of these communities to companies. The main findings of the research revealed that online customer communities are beneficial to both company and customer. The evaluation concludes with a set of recommendations to companies on how online customer communities might be effectively created and managed.
The contemporary library and information services manager
Authors: Knight Jennine
Published: February 2009

The contemporary Library and Information Services (LIS) environment employs a multifaceted group of employees who are better educated and more expensive to recruit than in previous times. In order to maximize these talents and resources available, this modern setting requires managers — at all levels — who are versatile and fitted out with the right skills and knowledge to maintain group cohesion and to propel this dynamic environment to continuously move in unison with the society. This article identifies and discusses the required skills and knowledge of the contemporary manager. In doing so, the concepts of skill and knowledge are defined and their interrelationship is highlighted.
Mass Digitization for Research and Study: the digitization strategy of the Bavarian State Library
Authors: Ceynowa Klaus
Published: February 2009

The Bavarian State Library is one of the largest European research libraries. The Library`s unique collection profile is characterized by extremely precious manuscripts, rare printed books and comprehensive special collections from thousands of years of cultural heritage. Responding to the challenges of the digital age, it is a primary strategic objective of the Bavarian State Library to digitize as soon as possible its unique collections, which are a good part of written cultural heritage, and to make them usable for the world. Aiming for this strategic objective, the library undertakes several large-scale digitization projects, which will bring more than 1.2 million books online during the next few years. The deployment of state-of-the-art robotic scanners as well as a public-private partnership with Google which are part of this digitization strategy are described in detail. The implications for the future role of libraries — especially as `bricks and books' institutions — in the rapidly changing information landscape is also briefly discussed.
Delivering a Strategy for Working with Māori, and Developing Responsiveness to an Increasingly Multicultural Population: a perspective from the National Library of New Zealand
Authors: Mohi John H. , Roberts Winston D.
Published: February 2009

Outlines the role and responsibilities of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa in a country with a bi-cultural foundation and a multicultural national community. The Library's plan for responsiveness to Māori — `Te Kaupapa Mahi Tahi: a Plan for Partnership' builds on traditional library services and products by developing new electronic services including digitization for access and preservation, through a power-sharing relationship with Māori. A Māori perspective is maintained through a national consultative and facilitative process. New avenues for collaboration between the National Library and other national and local government policy developers are indicated and examples of the Library's working relationships with iwi (tribes) are provided. The Library's collaboration with Pasifika, Asian, refugee and migrant communities in New Zealand is outlined. These activities are linked to the `New Generation National Library' strategy, which is designed to provide all New Zealanders with information important to all aspects of their lives. Issues and challenges for the future are also noted..
The Spatio-temporality of Capitalism
Authors: Castree Noel
Published: February 2009

This essay seeks to explain the constitutive role that space-time plays in the dynamics of capital accumulation. Through a close reading of David Harvey's work, I show that time and space work together in ways particular to the capitalist mode of producing, distributing, selling, consuming and disposing of commodities. This does not, I argue, mean that space-time is reducible to capital accumulation — there are, to be sure, other forms of space-time that are relatively autonomous from the now dominant mode of production. My aim is not to provide a definitive account of space-time tout court but, instead, to show both the organic connection between space and time within capitalism specifically as well as the necessary — rather than simply contingent — role that space-time plays in the dynamics of accumulation. My argument is that capitalist space is inconceivable in abstraction from capitalism's temporal compulsions, and that space-time functions as a concrete abstraction that internalizes the whole gamut of contradictions that Marx identified over a century ago. The essay makes its analytical contribution by surveying previous Marxist and non-Marxist contributions to understanding space and time in the social sciences, en route to a close reading of Harvey's Limits to Capital. The political implications of paying careful attention to capitalist space-time are explored by counter-posing Harvey's work with Doreen Massey's recent writings about spatio-temporality.
Temporary versus Permanent
Authors: Moshe Mira
Published: February 2009

This article juxtaposes `temporary' versus `permanent' based on a study of the Israeli Prime Minister's `permanent incapacity' (the result of illness) and of the President's `temporary incapacity' (the result of a police investigation). Analysis indicates that: a) temporal maps are mainly framed by focusing on `temporary' states; b) the temporal structure of `temporary' is associated simultaneously with a sense of stability and with a search for change and transition; c) the temporal structure of `permanent' is linked both to uncertainty and confusion and to the maintenance of continuity. It seems that the inherent tension between `temporary' and `permanent' is challenged by the notion of risk and the rise of `second modernity'.
Governmentality, Temporality and Practice
Authors: Binkley Sam
Published: February 2009

Recent scholarship on the governmentality of risk has revealed ways in which rationalities of government are directed at the transformation of mundane time consciousness in daily conduct. Reflexive temporalities are inscribed through what Ulrich Beck has termed the `individualization of risk'. Such an account, however, has been criticized for its overemphasis on the reflexive, cognitive dimensions of temporal practice, by theorists drawing on a Bourdieusian notion of the habitus, as a pre-reflexive basis for action. This article attempts to mediate these two positions by emphasizing the practical work by which individual temporalities are made reflexive. Drawing on the theory of ethical practice developed in Michel Foucault's later work, the governmentality of temporality is read as a multi-dimensional practice of ethical self-transformation. More precisely, drawing on Bourdieu, this article considers the pre-reflexive, unthought and embodied future orientations incorporated in the bodily habitus as the ethical substance of a reflexive project of temporal self-government.
From Incarceration to Restoration: National Responsibility, Gender and the Production of Cultural Difference
Authors: Murdocca Carmela
Published: February 2009

The Criminal Code of Canada contains a sentencing provision aimed at offering alternatives to incarceration for Aboriginal peoples. One of the intentions of this provision is to take national responsibility for the over-incarceration of Aboriginal peoples. Using official documents, the objective of this article is to address the possible meaning of national responsibility that is shaped by the emergence of this legal intervention. The objective is to explore how even as it attempts to address national responsibility in law, the nation remains fundamentally committed to an understanding of colonial history in which it is not guilty of wrongdoing and hence arrives at an official stance that suggests that the Canadian state is not responsible for the continued ramifications of colonialism. This article also demonstrates that the practices of control and containment which are central to the criminal justice system require cultural difference paradigms as their ideological impetus.
Being and Doing: The Judicial Use of Remorse to Construct Character and Community
Authors: Weisman Richard
Published: February 2009

This article argues first that attributions of remorse are used in legal discourse to distinguish those whose character is perceived as different from their wrongful act (the remorseful) from those whose character is perceived as consistent with their wrongful act (the remorseless). It then advances an explanation as to why courts emphasize the showing of remorse more than the offering of an apology as the true measure of the wrongdoer's character. Next, using a population of Canadian judgments rendered between 2002 and 2004, It proceeds to identify how judges constitute the category of remorse through the criteria they use to decide which claims to remorse are valid and which are not. Finally, building upon work in the sociology of affect, the article looks at how judicial speech shapes the form that expressions of remorse are expected to take.
Love, Freedom and Governance: Same-Sex Marriage in Canada
Authors: Osterlund Katherine
Published: February 2009

Recent developments in Canadian marital jurisprudence require that we ask: what if love could be mobilized as a technology of power? In this article I propose such an analysis. I establish a recent discursive shift in the meaning of marriage in law, amounting to what I will call a `normalizing love discourse'. I argue that this process of transformation reflects a broader synthesis within liberal governance of freedom, aspiration, feeling and the exercise of power. The shift has operated in two ways: marriage is now defined by love (and the state's sanction of it), and second, love among heterosexuals or among lesbians or gay men has been rendered legally equivalent for the purpose of marriage law. I then draw upon accounts of neo-liberalism to suggest several lines of inquiry that may be fruitful for developing a critical analysis of legal love discourse. I argue that love is being opened as a space for and method of governance, at the paradoxical moment of its (re)privatization in/as marriage.
From Sea to Shrimp Processing Factories in Bangladesh
Authors: Islam MD Saidul
Published: February 2009

Shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh linking the European Union, the USA, and Japan exhibits several characteristics of a buyer-driven global commodity chain (GCC). The study shows that, along with the effects of local conditions, buyers’ pressures transmitted through the GCC affect gender and employment relations in the lower segments of the chain. It has been found that the feminisation of the workforce in aquaculture is accompanied by the marginality of females, who receive lower wages and social prestige than their male counterparts, and who are mostly concentrated at the beginning and end of the local supply chain, with very limited access to other important nodes of the GCC. In addition to being flexible (part-time, temporary, casual), much of the employment in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture is also informal, without an employment contract or its associated rights. As there is an apparent gap between labour standards in private regulatory regimes and actual labour practices in the production and processing segments of the chain, the pressing question concerns how the structure of the commodity chain can allow companies to maintain the flexibility and low labour costs required for international competitiveness while ensuring more equitable and empowering labour market outcomes for workers.
Whose Extension Matters? Role of Governmental and Non-Governmental Agricultural Extension on the Technical Efficiency of Rural Nepalese Farms
Authors: Bhatta Kiran Prasad , Ishida Akira , Taniguchi Kenji , Sharma Raksha
Published: February 2009

South Asian economies are characterised by agrarian dominancy. Despite this agriculture is unable to meet even the domestic demands. Low levels of productivity and inefficiency of the farms are among the main causes. Hence, finding appropriate ways to increase productivity and efficiency is important to improve individual household welfare as well as to feed the ever increasing population. In this context, the objective of this research is to explore characteristics that significantly affect technical efficiency of the crop producing farms. 124 samples were purposively selected from the Far Western Region of Nepal. Household heads were interviewed with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data on farming systems. Stochastic Frontier Production Function was used to estimate the effect of different variables on the farm’s technical efficiency. Results showed significantly positive effect of agricultural extension provided by non-governmental organisations but negative although insignificant effect of agricultural extension provided by the governmental organisations on the technical efficiency of the crop producing farms. Results implied the need of policy reconsideration to increase the role of non-governmental organisations in providing agricultural extension services, especially for the developing agrarian economies like Nepal in the South Asian region.
Brain Clocks: From the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei to a Cerebral Network
Authors: Mendoza Jorge , Challet Etienne
Published: February 2009

Circadian timing affects almost all life’s processes. It not only dictates when we sleep, but also keeps every cell and tissue working under a tight temporal regimen. The daily variations of physiology and behavior are controlled by a highly complex system comprising of a master circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus, extra-SCN cerebral clocks, and peripheral oscillators. Here are presented similarities and differences in the molecular mechanisms of the clock machinery between the primary SCN clock and extra-SCN brain clocks. Diversity of secondary clocks in the brain, their specific sensitivities to time-giving cues, as their differential coupling to the master SCN clock, may allow more plasticity in the ability of the circadian timing system to integrate a wide range of temporal information. Furthermore, it raises the possibility that pathophysiological alterations of internal timing that are deleterious for health may result from internal desynchronization within the network of cerebral clocks.
Review: Disparities in Long-Term Care
Authors: Konetzka R. Tamara , Werner Rachel M.
Published: February 2009

A growing body of evidence documents pervasive racial, ethnic, and class disparities in long-term care in the United States. At the same time, major quality improvement initiatives are being implemented that rely on market-based incentives, many of which may have the unintended consequence of exacerbating disparities. We review existing evidence on disparities in the use and quality of long-term care services, analyze current market-based policy initiatives in terms of their potential to ameliorate or exacerbate these disparities, and suggest policies and policy modifications that may help decrease disparities. We find that racial disparities in the use of formal long-term care have decreased over time. Disparities in quality of care are more consistently documented and appear to be related to racial and socioeconomic segregation of long-term care facilities as opposed to within-provider discrimination. Market-based incentives policies should explicitly incorporate the goal of mitigating the potential unintended consequence of increased disparities.
Psychological Factors Associated With Weight Loss in Obese and Severely Obese Women in a Behavioral Physical Activity Intervention
Authors: Annesi James J. , Whitaker Ann C.
Published: February 2009

The behavioral processes of weight reduction are poorly understood, and responses to treatments based primarily on caloric restriction have been unfavorable. A theory-based path derived from proposed relations of physical activity, changes in psychological factors, and weight loss was separately tested with women with Class I and Class II obesity (body mass index [BMI] from 30 to 39.9 kg/m2; n = 116), and Class III (BMI ≥ 40.0 kg/m2; n = 57) obesity. Participation in a cognitive-behavioral exercise support treatment along with nutrition education was significantly associated with changes in measures of self-efficacy, body satisfaction, and mood. Changes did not significantly differ by BMI group. Multiple regression analyses indicated that changes in the psychological factors explained 14% (Class I/II obesity group) and 22% (Class III obesity group) of the variance in exercise session attendance, and attendance was strongly related to weight loss. Implications for weight loss theory and treatment are discussed.
Evaluators' Decision Making
Authors: Tourmen Claire
Published: February 2009

How do evaluation practitioners make choices when they evaluate a program? What function do evaluation theories play in practice? In this article, I report on an exploratory study that examined evaluation practices in France. The research began with observations of practitioners' activities, with a particular focus on the phases of evaluation design. The purpose of the study was to examine the logic underlying their choices and the role that evaluation theory played in those choices. In this study, I used activity theory and ergonomics methods. I highlight various ways in which working evaluators make evaluation choices in real situations, explained by different sets of conceptual resources they hold related to their level of experience. Finally, I show how this research contributes toward clarifying the role of theories in practice and enriching an evaluation theory
The Development of Theory-Driven Evaluation in the Military
Authors: Williams Andrew P. , Morris John C.
Published: February 2009

The use of theory-driven evaluation is an emerging practice in the military—an aspect generally unknown in the civilian evaluation community. First developed during the 1991 Gulf War and applied in both the Balkans and Afghanistan, these techniques are now being examined in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as a means to evaluate the effects of military operations in complex, asymmetric conflict environments. In spite of these practices, theory-driven evaluation in the military is still in the developmental stages. This article traces the development to date of theory-driven evaluation in NATO and assesses its strengths and weaknesses in the military context. We conclude that a cross-pollination of ideas between military and civilian evaluators is urgently needed to improve the quality and effectiveness of military evaluation.
Association of Serum Prolactin and Oxytocin With Milk Production in Mothers of Preterm and Term Infants
Authors: Hill Pamela D. , Aldag Jean C. , Demirtas Hakan , Naeem Villian , Parker Noah P. , Zinaman Michael J. , Chatterton Robert T.
Published: February 2009

The present study was designed to compare milk production and hormone responses (prolactin [PRL], oxytocin [OT]) and to determine associations of hormone levels with milk production in mothers of preterm (PT) and term (TM) infants during the first 6 weeks postpartum. Mothers of PT infants ( n = 95) were all pump dependent; mothers of TM infants ( n = 98) were all feeding their infant at breast. Mothers of nonnursing PT infants produced less milk over time compared to mothers of TM infants. A higher proportion of PT mothers had lower basal PRL levels compared with TM mothers. PRL and frequency of breast stimulation combined positively influenced milk production in PT mothers. OT levels were higher in PT versus TM mothers, but OT was not related to milk production. Further study is warranted regarding interventions to enhance milk production, particularly in pump-dependent mothers of PT infants.
School disengagement and ‘structural options’ Narrative illustrations on an analytical approach
Authors: McGrath Brian
Published: February 2009

The purpose of the present article is to outline and illustrate an analytical approach that accentuates the biographically complex processes inhering within early school leaving transitions. The organizing device of ‘structural option’ (Stones, 2001) is introduced, which brings into focus the role and interplay of types of ‘structures’ (in a structurationist sense) in the decision-making processes underlying school exit. ‘Structural option’ combines two important dimensions in influencing young people's choices: cognitive/emotional and relational/interactional structures. This study shows that disengagement from school is more than a straightforward reading that might suggest lack of positive disposition towards education, but rather is born out of powerful interactions across these two main structural dimensions. As an analytical construct, structural options alert us to the importance of analyzing young people's disengagements from mainstream school in terms of social relationships, power, and emotions. While the article is based on empirical findings from an Irish context, the intention is that its scope extends more broadly to qualitative data analysis of school exit transitions within other contextual settings. The empirical focus derives from the interview narratives with fourteen participants attending a second chance educational initiative in Ireland, known as the Youthreach programme. While most of the young people occupy the status of ‘early school leaver’, closer inspection of their structural options shows that their pathways to early school exit and school disengagement (for those who completed) comprise quite differing structural combinations. As researchers, appreciation of such combinations can help us understand the justifications young people use in their decision-making.
Review Essay: Beyond Bullets, Bombs, and Grassroots
Authors: Twose Gabe
Published: February 2009

This article addresses several of the most relevant ideas, implicit and explicit, in Judy Kuriansky's collection Beyond Bullets and Bombs. Identity development is highlighted as a key component of peacebuilding attempts; more detail is given on the psychosocial portion, which is elaborated as a dialectic between one's perception of others, one's view of how one is perceived by others, and the relationship between the two. A maturity development model, a dialogical interaction model, and the importance of power dynamics are also explored. The limitations of focusing only on the grassroots level in order to create a culture of peace are discussed, and other areas of investigation, such as tiers of leadership and structural-institutional conditions, are proposed.
Commentary: Psychology of Selfhood in China: Where is the Collective?
Authors: Choi Bongyoung , Han Gyuseog
Published: February 2009

The analysis of Chinese maxims shows strong Confucian norms of filial piety operating in the family (Wang & Dai, 2009). Admitting that the norm is also strong in Korea, we explore the difference in selfhood between Korea and China. Taking a sociolinguistic approach, we characterize Chinese collectivism as relational collectivism and pose the question of how the collective works in Chinese selfhood. For comparative purposes, we describe the working of the collective in Korean selfhood and invite efforts to examine linguistic practice.
Cultural Psychology Today: Innovations and Oversights
Authors: Valsiner Jaan
Published: February 2009

Culture & Psychology has developed from a small start-up journal in 1995 into the key trend-setter in the field. This editorial analysis continues the tradition of inquiry started in previous efforts (Valsiner, 2001, 2004a) and extends it to the needs of psychology as a whole for the study of dynamic, meaning-making human beings. Cultural psychology—using the term culture as a generic term in various versions—continues to be an arena where innovations can occur. Separate research fields— such as the dialogical self, social representation processes, semiotic mediation, symbolic action, and actuation theories—have all been co-participants in this new advancement of ideas. Yet the central problem—an innovation of empirical research methodology which would appropriately capture human active meaning-making—has not been solved. Likewise, cultural psychology has only marginally touched upon the lessons from indigenous psychologies—the richness of folk psychological terms, and the cultural over-determination of objects used in human everyday living. Contemporary cultural psychology turns increasingly towards the study of objects as cultural constructs. Editing a journal is itself an act of construction of a cultural object, and the current state of contemporary scientific journals indicates a re-construction of the social nature of knowledge. Moving beyond its postmodernist and empiricist confines, psychology is set to return to the level of an abstracted generalization of its culture-inclusive theories. Culture—in terms of semiotic mediators and meaningful action patterns—is the inherent core of human psychological functions, rather than an external causal entity that has `effects' on human emotion, cognition, and behavior.
Multi-Level Relations in Political Parties
Authors: van Houten Pieter
Published: February 2009

Most political parties operate on several territorial levels, but we have only limited theoretical understanding of multi-level party dynamics. This article presents a delegation framework for studying the interaction between the national leadership and regional branches in state-wide parties. Assuming a principal—agent relationship, the national leadership can obtain benefits from delegating tasks to a regional branch, but also faces possible costs in doing this. The rules and conventions regulating the multi-level interaction in parties are possible mechanisms by which to control the actions and policies of regional branches. These include formal party rules, informal party procedures and conventions, and state laws affecting party organizations. The framework provides an agenda and hypotheses for empirical research, research that should focus on crisis situations in parties, on what regional branches cannot do (instead of just documenting the activities of branches), and on the role of parties in shaping state laws and regulations.
Understanding Post-Devolution Elections in Scotland and Wales in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Jeffery Charlie , Hough Dan
Published: February 2009

In this article, we explore the electoral dynamics of multi-level political systems for the case of the United Kingdom (Scotland and Wales) through a comparison with multi-level voting behaviour in Germany, Spain and Canada. The analysis suggests that sub-state elections can be `second order' in relation to state-wide elections, but that this `second orderness' is reduced when more powers are decentralized to the sub-state level (and, thus, more is at stake in sub-state elections), and if sub-state identities and parties are stronger. Consequently, elections in Scotland and Wales are unlikely to be or become only `second order' to Westminster elections, and British state-wide parties will continue to face challenges and pressures to adapt their organizations and programmes to the devolution of the British state.
Trade globalization and national income inequality — are they related?
Authors: Babones Salvatore J. , Vonada Dorian C.
Published: February 2009

This article takes a comprehensive approach to examining the empirical relationship between trade globalization and national income inequality. We estimate the relationship between trade globalization on national income inequality for a wide panel of countries for the years 1975, 1985 and 1995, and the periods 1975—85 and 1985—95. We also study four subpanels of developed and developing countries and small- and large-population countries. Across a total of 210 permutations of panels, time periods, model specifications and variable operationalizations, we find that inequality is not robustly related to trade globalization, though scattered significant correlations can be detected. Excluding significant results due to one or two influential points, the number of significant correlations across all analyses is no better than chance. We conclude that the increasing levels of inequality recently experienced by the English-speaking countries are more likely caused by country-specific policies than by broad forces related to globalization.