Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Article Looks (article + look)
Selected AbstractsFEDERAL RESERVE TRANSCRIPT PUBLICATION AND REGIONAL REPRESENTATIONCONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 2 2010ELLEN E. MEADE This article looks at disagreement within the Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee, the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC, following a change in transparency practices taken in 1993 to publish verbatim transcripts of FOMC meetings. Other literature has examined the effects of opening the FOMC's deliberations to public view and provided empirical evidence that the publication of transcripts made policymakers less willing to voice disagreement with the chairman's policy proposal. This article adds to that work by examining whether regional variables are important to the analysis and whether the transcription effects are robust to the inclusion of regional variables. The results indicate that transcription effects are indeed robust, regardless of the regional indicator used, and that larger Federal Reserve districts may be more likely to voice agreement with a given policy proposal. (JEL E42, E58, E65, F33) [source] The ,Iranian Diaspora' and the New Media: From Political Action to Humanitarian HelpDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2009Halleh Ghorashi ABSTRACT This article looks at the shifting position of the ,Iranian diaspora' in relation to Iran as it is influenced by online and offline transnational networks. In the 1980s the exilic identity of a large part of the Iranian diaspora was the core factor in establishing an extended, yet exclusive form of transnational network. Since then, the patterns of identity within this community have shifted towards a more inclusive network as a result of those transnational connections, leading to more extensive and intense connections and activities between the Iranian diaspora and Iranians in Iran. The main concern of the article is to examine how the narratives of identity are constructed and transformed within Iranian (charity) networks and to identify the factors that contribute to this transformation. The authors use the transnational lens to view diasporic positioning as linked to development issues. New technological sources help diaspora groups, in this case Iranians, to build virtual embedded ties that transcend nation states and borders. Yet, the study also shows that these transnational connections can still be challenged by the nation state, as has been the case with recent developments in Iran. [source] World Bank Influence and Institutional Reform in ArgentinaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2009Maria F. Tuozzo ABSTRACT During the 1990s, reforms concerned with ,good governance' became popular with multilateral and bilateral lenders. This trend was led by the World Bank, which claimed that in order to achieve economic development, institutions mattered. This article looks at governance reforms in Argentina, specifically in the judicial sector, and contends that World Bank involvement affected the nature, reach and depth of these initiatives. The influence of the Bank can be traced through three dimensions that have characterized its approach to institutional reform: donor-driven designs for project reform; reliance on technical approaches; and restricted forms of decision making in project initiatives. Such an approach to institutional change conditioned domestic reform in Argentina and contributed to piecemeal and inadequate initiatives. The author also argues that the Bank's approach in Argentina can be traced to wider strategies that derive from embedded institutional practices and ideological foundations within the institution that throw into question the Bank's capacities to promote such reforms. [source] The Impact of AIDS on Rural Households in Africa: A Shock Like Any Other?DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2002Carolyn Baylies In areas where HIV prevalence is high, household production can be significantly affected and the integrity of households compromised. Yet policy responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS have been muted in comparison to outcomes of other shocks, such as drought or complex political emergencies. This article looks at the reasons for the apparent under,reaction to AIDS, using data from Zambia, and examines recent calls to mitigate the effects of AIDS at household level. Critical consideration is directed at proposals relating to community safety nets, micro,finance and the mainstreaming of AIDS within larger poverty alleviation programmes. It is argued that effective initiatives must attend to the specific features of AIDS, incorporating both an assault on those inequalities which drive the epidemic and sensitivity to the staging of AIDS both across and within households. A multi,pronged approach is advocated which is addressed not just at mitigation or prevention, but also at emergency relief, rehabilitation and development. [source] Vulnerability, Control and Oil Palm in Sarawak: Globalization and a New Era?DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2002Fadzilah Majid Cooke In the post logging era, Sarawak is being restructured to make way for large-scale oil palm plantations. In this restructuring, the vulnerabilities of particular areas are being used in a wider battle to control production, particularly for export. Native customary lands, considered ,unproductive' or ,idle' by officials, are the target of oil palm plantation development under a new land development programme called Konsep Baru (New Concept). This article looks at the contradictions generated by the complex process of laying claims to ,idle' native customary land and focuses on Dayak organizing initiatives in northern Sarawak, Malaysia. [source] Torture and truth in late antique martyrologyEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 4 2002Lucy Grig This article looks at descriptions of torture in hagiographical texts, analysing the significance of representations of violence and suffering in late antique Christian discourse. Seemingly redundant descriptions of torture in texts such as Prudentius's Peristephanon can be contextualized within a broader late antique concern with violence and pain. These descriptions should also be seen as playing a central role in constructing the power of the martyr, and that of his or her church. Close readings of several martyr acts show how the torture process (the quaestio) was rewritten to suit the needs of a new era: that of the Church Triumphant. [source] THE ILLUSORY TAX BASE: WHY TAXES ON CAPITAL ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVEECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2003Barry Bracewell-Milnes Taxes on capital are economically and socially counterproductive. The economy and society would benefit from their abolition. The obstacle to their abolition is not financial or economic but a failure of political will. This article looks at taxes on capital from an economic perspective: how do they differ from other taxes, what costs do they impose on the economy, and what are the consequences of their abolition? And, even if they are a failure economically, can they be justified socially or politically? [source] Brownjohn, Hughes, Pirrie, and Rosen: What Rhymes with Oral Writing?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001Anthony Wilson Abstract This article looks at the work of four writers who have had considerable influence on the teaching of poetry writing to primary school children. Each writer is considered in terms of their merits as a contributor to wider questions about writing, and in comparative terms with each other. Links are made between these writers' explicit and implicit philosophies and approaches. Finally, the article considers how far discussions about voice and form within children's writing are necessarily exclusive of each other. [source] The limits to local participation and deliberation in the French ,politique de la ville'EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007YVES SINTOMER This article looks at whether it has led to a genuine democratisation of policy making. The following four questions are discussed: Have participatory procedures improved the efficiency of public policy? Have they fostered the strengthening of the social bond? Has setting up new procedures improved deliberation between political and nonpolitical actors? And has this new policy generated a renewal of local elites and modified the decision-making process? The authors conclude that these different attempts have had only a very limited impact. [source] A decline of linkage?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2003Intra-party participation in Norway The decline in party membership in Western Europe is generally taken as an indicator of party transformation. This article looks beyond membership figures and asks whether membership decline should be interpreted to mean that the activities and motivation of the remaining members are changing. Hypotheses on changes in party activism and motivation for party membership are tested with data from the 1991 and 2000 Norwegian party member surveys. Rather than uncovering evidence of change, most analyses point to a remarkable level of stability. Active and passive members seem to have disappeared at about the same rate. The general diagnosis of party decline is neither improved nor aggravated, but the analysis casts doubt on propositions about the transformation of the grassroots organisation. The Internet is used by party office-holders and the young, but the grassroots rarely use the new technology for political purposes. The character of the representative and participatory linkages provided by parties has, however, changed as a consequence of a shrinking party membership. [source] Staying with People Who Slap Us Around: Gender, Juggling Responsibilities and Violence in Paid (and Unpaid) Care WorkGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2006Donna BainesArticle first published online: 13 FEB 200 Little is actually known about women's occupational health, let alone how men and women may experience similar jobs and health risks differently. Drawing on data from a larger study of social service workers, this article examines four areas where gender is pivotal to the new ways of organizing caring labour, including the expansion of unpaid work and the use of personal resources to subsidize agency resources; gender-neutral violence; gender-specific violence and the juggling of home and work responsibilities. Collective assumptions and expectations about how men and women should perform care work result in men's partial insulation from the more intense forms of exploitation, stress and violence. This article looks at health risks, not merely as compensable occupational health concerns, but as avoidable products of forms of work organization that draw on notions of the endlessly stretchable capacity of women to provide care work in any context, including a context of violence. Indeed, the logic of women's elastic caring appear crucial to the survival of some agencies and the gender order in these workplaces. [source] Corporate Strategy and Gendered Professional Identities: Reorganization and the Struggle for Recognition and PositionsGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 3 2001Bente Rasmussen Will decentralization of responsibilities in services give women service workers at the lower levels of the organization better and more ,professional' jobs and a recognition of their importance in the organization? This article looks at the valuation of so-called women's skills in services in reorganization processes involving dehierarchization and decentralization of responsibilities. Through four cases of reorganized private and public services in Norway it is shown that more focus on customers and decentralization of responsibilities for the services may lead to recognition of gendered skills and an improved position for women service workers at the lowest levels of the organization. When the tasks of the workers are closely linked to the core function of the organization and not dominated by the organization's ,dirty work', the women at the lowest levels may obtain a more ,professional' work role and their work be recognized as important for the organization. [source] ,Bekanntlich sind Dreiecksbeziehungen am kompliziertesten': Turkish, Jewish and German Identity in Zafer ,enocak's Gefährliche VerwandtschaftGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2003Katharina Hall Zafer ,enocak is one of Germany's most prolific Turkish German writers, known both for his wide,ranging essays on questions of minority identity and as the author of a tetralogy of ,Prosabände' that treat similar themes: Der Mann im Unterhemd (Berlin 1995), Die Prärie (Hamburg 1997), Gefährliche Verwandtschaft (Munich 1998) and Der Erottomane (Munich 1999). This article looks in detail at Gefährliche Verwandtschaft, exploring its representations of contemporary Turkish German and Jewish German identity, as well as its vision of a possible trialogue between Germans, Turks and Jews. Particular attention is given to the depiction of the novel's unusual Turkish,Jewish,German narrator, Sascha Muhteschem, and the way in which he is used to challenge cultural images of the Turk or Jew as victim within German society. This, it is argued, is designed to unsettle dominant perceptions of ethnic and national identity both in order to highlight the inadequacy of available categories of identity and to suggest that the key to moving beyond these lies in the recognition of the importance of individual biography. The article's reading of the novel is supported by an examination of its conceptualisations of history, memory and the imagination, as well as ,enocak's own reflections on issues of identity in his latest collection of essays, Zungenentfernung (Munich 2001), and in two as yet unpublished interviews. [source] Second-tier reviews of complaints in health and social careHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2006Jackie Gulland Abstract There has been a flurry of recent government initiatives concerning how citizens should be able to take up grievances against the state. In the fields of health and social care, people have been expected to use internal complaints procedures to resolve grievances. Research in this area suggests that there have been problems with the existing complaints procedures and there has been particular criticism of the ,second-tier' review stage in both health and social care. This has led to the introduction of more independent means of review. Different models of review have been developed in England, Wales and Scotland. Based on a review of recent policy documents and legislative instruments, this article looks at recent changes and proposals and considers the relative merits of the different models in the three administrations. [source] Honour and duty at sea, 1660,1815HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 190 2002N. A. M. Rodger This article looks at the changing meaning of the concepts of honour and duty among sea officers over the ,long eighteenth century'. As gentlemen and as fighting men, sea officers felt particularly close to the concept of honour; but as members of a skilled, semi,bourgeois profession which was substantially open to talent, they were seen by others as being on the margins of gentility. The rise of the middle,class virtues of duty and service in public esteem at the end of the century, benefited the sea officers by making their long,standing combination of honour and duty fashionable. [source] Napoleon and the Universal MonarchyHISTORY, Issue 319 2010PHILIP DWYER Although the idea of ,Universal Monarchy' has existed since the early middle ages, the term started to be used pejoratively from the sixteenth century onwards. This article looks at the manner in which contemporaries perceived Napoleon's actions on the international scene, and how they used the term in relation to his foreign policy. Most of Europe's political elite believed that Napoleon was bent on some sort of ,universal domination', and that it was not limited to Europe. That perception was a direct result of an aggressive, expansionist French foreign policy. Napoleon's intentions, on the other hand, are more ambiguous. While at times he adopted a rhetoric which informed contemporary fears, the practical limits to his foreign policy were such that ,Universal Monarchy' could never be anything more than an ephemeral dream. [source] The Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of England, 1066,1266HISTORY, Issue 292 2003G. A. Loud This article looks back from the political crisis in England in the 1250s to examine English and Anglo-Norman perceptions of southern Italy and Sicily, and contacts between the two regions, over the previous two centuries. Although some at least were conscious of a common Norman heritage, commentators from England knew relatively little of the southern kingdom; certainly less than the Norman chroniclers, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, and even they were less well informed than has been suggested in the past. There was a period of increased diplomatic contact for a generation or so after 1160, in which the Becket dispute played a part, culminating in the visit of Richard I to Sicily during the Third Crusade although that episode did nothing to increase the warmth of Anglo-Sicilian relations. Thereafter there was relatively little contact for the next half-century, in spite of Frederick II's marriage to the sister of Henry III of England in 1235. Furthermore, Sicily was always perceived as an exotic and alien region indicating that the perceptions found in the 1250s had been anticipated at an earlier period. [source] Unmarried in Palestine: Embodiment and (dis)Empowerment in the Lives of Single Palestinian WomenIDS BULLETIN, Issue 2 2010Penny Johnson There are rising numbers of single women across the Arab world. While this is usually connected with delayed marriage, Palestine shows a unique pattern of early but not universal marriage. This article looks beneath the statistics to investigate the stories behind this trend. How do young unmarried women negotiate boundaries and understand and enact choice in the context of a society experiencing prolonged insecure and warlike conditions, political crisis and social fragmentation and where the high number of unmarried women can be an increasing locus of moral panic? In conducting focus groups with two generations of women, my research looks at the prevailing importance of education, civil society and security in negotiating space within women's lives and uncovers a long tradition of unmarried women leading full and significant lives which needs to be recovered from the past. [source] Unnatural Extinction: The Rise and Fall of the Independent Local UnionINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2001Sanford M. Jacoby This article analyzes what happened to independent local unions (ILUs), also known as company unions, since 1935. After providing a statistical analysis of ILU membership since 1935, the article looks at the factors that shaped membership trends: changes in labor law, the characteristics of ILUs, worker attitudes toward ILUs, and employers' industrial relations policies. New evidence is presented that suggests that even those employers who still favored ILUs in the 1950s were orienting them away from collective bargaining and toward the "new nonunion model" of the 1960s and 1970s. [source] Corporate assets as a trust: for whom are corporate officers trustees in insolvency? the role of incentives in maintaining the trust,INTERNATIONAL INSOLVENCY REVIEW, Issue 2 2003Ronald B. Davis Uncertainty is a constant theme when corporations are in financial distress. Yet any successful restructuring of an insolvent corporation requires numerous stakeholders, including creditors, employees and suppliers, repose some degree of trust in those corporate officers who are trying to continue to operate the firm while restructuring it into a viable entity. This article looks at the issue of the positive and negative incentives that can be generated for corporate officers and directors from both their continuing control of corporate assets and their potential personal liability arising from corporate activity both before and after the corporation became insolvent. The potential role these incentives can play in providing a basis for the trust needed to meet the other governance challenges that arise in a restructuring is reviewed in the context of recent developments in Canada concerning the duties of corporate directors to creditors during insolvency. Also reviewed is the role of directors' insurance and indemnification in altering the incentives' effects on directors' behavior. Finally a critical appraisal is given of the present legal regime's provision for compromise of claims against corporate officers during restructuring, as well as the proposal to amend the law to allow complete exoneration of corporate directors from certain liabilities on insolvency. The article urges caution in altering the effects of incentives that may create the necessary basis for trust in the distressed corporation's officers amongst those stakeholders whose co-operation is crucial to restructuring. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Antiphospholipid syndrome: a systemic and multidisciplinary diseaseINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RHEUMATIC DISEASES, Issue 2 2008L. PAGALAVAN Abstract Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) was first described by Hughes and colleagues in 1983. Since the first few initial descriptions of the syndrome, almost every organ in the body has been reported to be involved in APS. The ,Sapporo' criteria which has been used as the diagnostic criteria since 1999 was recently revised in Sydney before the 11th International Congress on antiphospholipid antibodies in 2006. Over the last 24 years it has evolved into a systemic and multidisciplinary disease. This article looks into the extensive multidisciplinary involvement and presentation of APS including neurology, nephrology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, endocrinology, hematology, ophthalmology, dermatology, otorhinolaryngology, gastroenterology, and orthopaedics. [source] New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2004Markus Loewe This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why , despite the country's numerous social protection systems , social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better-off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro-insurance is a promising approach for the Arab-world region. [source] The use and application of Rose's theory of lesson drawing in peripheral areas of ScotlandINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 2 2003Robert Nash Abstract This article looks at Rose's theory of lesson drawing and its possible use and application in social science research. It identifies the contingencies necessary for its application and also identifies how a lesson may be transferred between cases. The use and viability of Rose's theory of lesson drawing is evaluated. The lesson drawing approach would be appropriate to most comparative social science research. It lends itself to tourism research and the establishment of circumstances in which lessons can be imported or exported between regions or countries. It recently has been used in a comparative study of islands and lesson drawing. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification ResearchINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006TOM SLATER Recent years have seen an extraordinary resurgence of interest in the process of gentrification, accompanied by a surge of articles published on the topic. This article looks at some recent literature , both scholarly and popular , and considers the reasons why the often highly critical perspectives on gentrification that we saw in earlier decades have dwindled. Whilst a number of reasons could be put forward, three in particular are discussed. First, the resilience of theoretical and ideological squabbles over the causes of gentrification, at the expense of examining its effects; second, the demise of displacement as a defining feature of the process and as a research question; and third, the pervasive influence of neoliberal urban policies of ,social mix' in central city neighbourhoods. It is argued that the ,eviction' of critical perspectives from a field in which they were once plentiful has serious implications for those at risk from gentrification, and that reclaiming the term from those who have sugarcoated what was not so long ago a ,dirty word' (Smith, 1996) is essential if political challenges to the process can be effective. [source] The Europeanization of Higher Education: Markets, Politics or Learning?,JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 2 2006IAN BACHE This article looks at increased European co-operation in higher education, taking as its main case study the proposal for universities to adopt a common core curriculum for European studies. The article situates higher education co-operation in the context of political and economic imperatives promoting ,ever closer union' and highlights immanent dangers for academic goals. However, it also identifies the scale of European co-operation as an opportunity for national higher education actors to resist together what they may be unable to resist alone: namely, greater economic and political intrusion into academic life. Long term, this may prove crucial to the vitality of the European integration process. [source] A Realist Theory of HegemonyJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2000Jonathan Joseph A new approach to understanding hegemony is developed based on the method of critical realism. Breaking from the traditional interpretations that emphasise inter-subjective, superstructural and cultural aspects of hegemony, this article looks at hegemony's structural context and the conditions for its possibility. A realist conception of hegemony relates hegemonic projects to structural reproduction and transformation via Bhaskar's transformational model of social activity. In doing so this model is itself modified to incorporate hegemony as the political moment of social reproduction. A distinction is made between hegemony in its structural aspect, and specific hegemonic projects as emergent possibilities. [source] Pathways approaches to homelessness researchJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2003David Clapham Abstract Research on homelessness has focused on either structural forces or individual actions or, where both are considered, has failed to find an effective way of analysing the two sets of factors together. This article looks at one way of doing this through the adoption of a ,pathways' framework. The article reviews existing pathways research on homelessness and argues that existing studies do not analyse the interaction of structural and action elements. A stronger theoretical framework is outlined and emphasis placed on the discourses which shape the nature of services for homeless people and the actions of both staff and homeless people themselves. Understanding of the interaction between these two groups is vital if the nature of homelessness is to be comprehended. A research method is needed which focuses on homelessness discourses and their restructuring and shaping through interaction in order that the aim of a holistic analysis can be achieved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] What's behind the other firm's numbers?JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 2 2006Rob Reider You're considering an M&A deal. How do you appraise the other company's situation,from both an operational as well as a financial perspective? This article looks at the operations behind the financial numbers. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Family therapy by default: developing useful fall-back positions for therapistsJOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 3 2006Sigurd Reimers This article looks at some of the effects on practitioners of the increasing complexity and variety of ideas within the family therapy field. In adopting the currently popular notion of ,default position' from information technology, I argue that therapists can easily feel that their work has a random quality to it. I examine how our own default positions can be based on force of habit, a quest for novelty or the effects of stress. Some suggestions are offered for how we can more accurately go about choosing ideas that will be of help to the families with which we work and to ourselves. [source] Spot water markets and risk in water supplyAGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2005Javier Calatrava Water markets; Economic risk; Water availability; Irrigated agriculture Abstract Water availability patterns in semiarid regions are typically extremely variable. Even in basins with a highly developed infrastructure, users are subject to unreliable water supplies, incurring substantial economic losses during periods of scarcity. More flexible instruments, such as voluntary exchanges of water among users, can help users to reduce risk exposure. This article looks at the effects of spot water markets on the economic risk caused by water availability variations. Our theoretical and empirical risk analyses are based on the random profits of water users. Profit probability density functions are formally and graphically characterized for both water sellers and buyers under several possible market outcomes. We conclude from this analysis that, where water supply is stochastic, water markets unambiguously reduce both parties' risk exposure. The empirical study is conducted on an irrigation district in the Guadalquivir Valley (Southern Spain), where there is a high probability of periods of extreme water scarcity. Water demand functions for the district representative irrigators and a spatial equilibrium model are used to simulate market exchanges and equilibrium. This programming model is combined with statistical simulation techniques. We show that the profit probability distribution of a representative irrigator is modified if water exchanges are authorized, leading to risk reductions. Results also indicate that if the market were extended to several districts and users that are subject to varying hydrological risk exposure, extremely low-profit events would be less likely to occur. In sum, we show that exchanging water in annual spot markets can reduce farmers' economic vulnerability caused by water supply variability across irrigation seasons. These results support the water policy reform carried out in Spain in 1999 to allow for voluntary water exchanges among right holders. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||