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Analytical Work (analytical + work)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

The Politics of Social Learning: Finance, Institutions, and Pension Reform in the United States and Canada

GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2006
DANIEL BÉLANDArticle first published online: 27 OCT 200
Because the traditional concept of social learning has faced significant criticism in recent years, more analytical work is required to back the claim that the lessons drawn from existing institutional legacies can truly impact policy outcomes. Grounded in the historical institutionalist literature, this article formulates an amended concept of social learning through the analysis of the relationship between finance, social learning, and institutional legacies in the 1990s debate over the reform of earnings-related pension schemes in the United States and Canada. The article shows how social learning related to specific ideological assumptions and policy legacies in the public and the private sectors has affected policymaking processes. At the theoretical level, this contribution stresses the political construction of learning processes, which is distinct from the technocratic model featured in the traditional literature on social learning. This article also distinguishes between high- and low-profile social learning while emphasizing the impact of private policy legacies on learning processes. [source]

Geographic diversification strategy and the implications of global market integration in table grapes

AGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002
Angela M. Krueger
The geographic diversification mode for U.S. agribusinesses to establish an international presence is examined, using the example of table grapes. This study extends the analytical work on geographic diversification strategy in a firm-level application that considers how longer marketing seasons might affect early-season premium prices. The method draws on market integration tests from the industrial organization literature. The extent of market integration is examined using a probabilistic measure. Then, a simulation of profit incorporates the probability that markets are integrated. Tests on the market for table grapes indicate high probability that markets for domestic grapes and imports from Chile are not integrated (0.81 and 0.91). Long distances and the lack of overlap in production seasons play key roles in this finding. The simulation that makes operational the findings of limited integration suggests that geographic diversification is more profitable and of lower risk than production in California alone. [JEL Classification: Q130, Q170, F140] © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Laughter in medical interaction: From quantification to analysis, and back

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 2 2002
Markku Haakana
This study discusses the use of quantification in analysing interactional practices, especially in conversation analytical work. The paper concentrates on laughter in medical interaction and starts from a quantitative point of view. West (1984) found certain statistical patterns of laughter in medical interaction: the patients laugh more than the doctors and most laughter is not reciprocated, i.e. the interactants mostly laugh alone. This statistical pattern is also found in Finnish data but it is approached again from the micro-analytical point of view and some features of it are problematised through analysing in more detail: (1) the ways in which laughter is made relevant; (2) how laughter is responded to; and (3) the interactional functions laughter can have. The paper shows that Schegloff's (1993) critique of quantitative interactional work is indeed called for, but nevertheless also presents advantages of quantification: the distribution of laughter between the participants in medical interaction turned out to be an interesting issue, one which is revealing of their different interactional roles and footings. [source]

Pre-Hispanic perspectives on the modern Mexican psyche; contemporary subjects and ancient objects.

THE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2000
A Mayan text of evolution: the stages of creation in the Popol Vuh or sacred book of the Mayans
The ancestral tribes of Mexico, like any people living within a certain culture, may be affected by the archetypal images and values of their surroundings. Access to the imagery of the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh, has provided an orientation in my analytical work with Mexican patients as they attempt to recreate themselves by engaging their conflicts around their reality, individuality and capacity to relate. I will address the psychological meaning of the different stages of creation: the original creative event, the man of mud, the man of wood, the false sun and the man of corn. With these images, I will illustrate their clinical application in analytic work with three Mexican middle age male patients dealing with different issues of identity and with a young female patient struggling to separate from a manipulative and destructive family system. [source]