Home  About us  Contact
 

Specific Kind (specific + kind)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

International venture capital research: From cross-country comparisons to crossing borders

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2005
Mike Wright
Venture capital (VC) has become an international phenomenon, and VC firms are a specific kind of service firm whose characteristics have distinctive implications for international behaviour. There is now a disparate body of research on international aspects of VC across a number of disciplines comprising finance, economics, strategy, entrepreneurship, international business and economic geography. A novel aspect of this paper is that we review and synthesize this disparate literature. A number of research gaps and limitations in the theoretical and methodological approaches involved in previous studies are identified and suggestions made for further research. We show that the vast majority of the literature relates to cross-country comparisons; that is, macro-level comparisons of VC industries across different countries and micro-level comparisons of VC behaviour across countries. From our review of the literature, we argue that an under-researched area concerns the influence of institutional contexts, especially the role of social networks and cultures. Furthermore, our review of the literature indicates that there is a major research gap in relation to work dealing with the crossing of country borders by VC firms. We suggest that resource-based, capabilities, institutional and network theories may be offer insights to further our understanding of the behaviour of VC firms in this area. [source]

The allometric pattern of sexually size dimorphic feather ornaments and factors affecting allometry

JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 7 2009
J. J. CUERVO
Abstract The static allometry of secondary sexual characters is currently subject to debate. While some studies suggest an almost universal positive allometry for such traits, but isometry or negative allometry for nonornamental traits, other studies maintain that any kind of allometric pattern is possible. Therefore, we investigated the allometry of sexually size dimorphic feather ornaments in 67 species of birds. We also studied the allometry of female feathers homologous to male ornaments (female ornaments in the following) and ordinary nonsexual traits. Allometries were estimated as reduced major axis slopes of trait length on tarsus length. Ornamental feathers showed positive allometric slopes in both sexes, although that was not a peculiarity for ornamental feathers, because nonsexual tail feathers also showed positive allometry. Migration distance (in males) and relative size of the tail ornament (in females) tended to be negatively related to the allometric slope of tail feather ornaments, although these results were not conclusive. Finally, we found an association between mating system and allometry of tail feather ornaments, with species with more intense sexual selection showing a smaller degree of allometry of tail ornaments. This study is consistent with theoretical models that predict no specific kind of allometric pattern for sexual and nonsexual characters. [source]

Litigation as a Strategy in Penal Reform

THE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 1 2004
Claire Valier
With this context in mind, the significance of a recent action for judicial review is discussed. In this landmark case, the Howard League for Penal Reform successfully challenged the legality of the Home Secretary's policy on children held in young offender institutions. The article describes the changing strategies employed by the League, and particularly contrasts ,persuasion and influence' with the turn to litigation. The ability of judicial review, as a specific kind of litigation, to further the goals of penal reform, is considered. Two principal arguments are advanced, namely: (i) that legal strategies are an important means through which penal policy is contested, and (ii) that legal actions contribute to the pursuit of informed modes of public engagement with questions about criminal justice. [source]

Making up People in Papua

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 2 2001
Eric Hirsch
This article focuses on a frequently reported but poorly analysed aspect of colonial and post-colonial relations in Melanesia, the episodic jettisoning of social practices. Under what conditions does this occur and what forms does it take? It is argued here that such changes are part of the process of ,making up people'. Making up people in Melanesia is where ,human kinds' are created through the ,looping effects' of government, mission and capitalist, and local, discourses and coercions. These processes are analysed among the Fuyuge of highland Papua, where since the 1940s there has emerged a transformed relation between homicide and head-dress adornments. The Fuyuge actively changed aspects of their appearance as part of the means of becoming people who know the ,law', becoming people of a specific kind. The article draws comparisons with analogous Melanesian materials, including the well-known examples of ,cargo cults'. [source]

Designs of Deception: Concepts of Consciousness, Spirituality and Survival in Capoeira Angola in Salvador, Brazil

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2001
Margaret WillsonArticle first published online: 8 JAN 200
This paper addresses various questions concerning "consciousness" and related folk concepts through an examination of fundamental principles of capoeira angola. These include, for instance, ideas such as ginga, the sensing of the mind/body through specific movements; or energia, a type of psychic force believed to be engendered through engagement within a group or with an opponent; or mentalidade, the kind of "head" one develops in capoeira angola, referring in part to what we conceptualize as a "state of consciousness," and in this case a highly alert and perceptive state with other elements of psychic ties and influences. This mentalidade includes "street smarts" and a highly developed knowledge about the various ways deception can be used to "get what one needs" in life, in other words, these are tools for survival in a specific kind of environment. Such a discussion must include "race," and class in Brazil. Racial and class discrimination in Brazilian society is seldom expressed explicitly; indeed a rhetoric of "racial democracy" has been popularized in direct contradiction to the reality of a racial oppression that includes class. In this paper, I integrate related issues of "states of consciousness" that have developed in capoeira angola to the conditions of racial and class inequality, power and history that have been its nurturance. In the conclusions, I speculate that notions of consciousness are in the process of change as capoeira angola is being regimented, taken out of context and taught increasingly among middle-class Brazilians and in such places as the United States. [source]

Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
Christopher Kelty
This article investigates the social, technical, and legal affiliations among "geeks" (hackers, lawyers, activists, and IT entrepreneurs) on the Internet. The mode of association specific to this group is that of a "recursive public sphere" constituted by a shared imaginary of the technical and legal conditions of possibility for their own association. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the United States, Europe, and India, I argue that geeks imagine their social existence and relations as much through technical practices (hacking, networking, and code writing) as through discursive argument (rights, identities, and relations). In addition, they consider a "right to tinker" a form of free speech that takes the form of creating, implementing, modifying, or using specific kinds of software (especially Free Software) rather than verbal discourse. [source]

Gender, Nations and States in a Global Era

NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2000
Sylvia Walby
Nations and national projects are gendered in different ways. Feminist theory has raised important questions about the conceptualisation of ,difference'. This article develops the conceptualisation of the different ways in which nations and national projects are gendered, arguing for a mid-level conceptualisation of gender relations. It argues against, on the one hand, the excessive fragmentation of gender, and on the other, too simple dichotomies of mordless unequal gender relations. This draws on a theorisation of gender relations which connects the different dimensions into specific kinds of gender regimes, either public or domestic gender regimes. This enables us to conceptualise different national projects as having a more or less public or domestic gender project. The conflicts between different national projects and with other polities, such as states, are then conflicts between differently gendered projects. The usefulness of this mid-level conceptualisation is demonstrated through examples of the competing relations between the UK, Ireland, the EU and the Catholic Church in a global era. [source]

Disintegration, recognition, and violence: A theoretical perspective

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, Issue 119 2008
Wilhelm Heitmeyer
The literature explaining deviance, criminality, or violence offers a broad spectrum of approaches in criminology and sociology. Mostly the theories focus on specific levels of explanation like the macrolevel (for example, strain theories) or the microlevel (for example, self-control theory). This article presents a relatively new theoretical approach combining different levels and focusing on three dimensions associated with specific kinds of recognition: social-structural, institutional, and socioemotional. The social-structural dimension refers to access to the functional systems of society and the accompanying recognition of position, status, and so on. The institutional dimension concentrates on the opportunity to participate in public affairs with the aim of getting moral recognition. The socioemotional dimension emphasizes the quantity and quality of integration in and social support from families, friends, partners, and so on, which provide emotional recognition. The underlying idea is that lack of access, participation, and belonging causes a lack of recognition. When this happens, social and individual problems increase. Thus, deviant and violent behavior can be seen as one potential reaction to a lack of recognition and as a way to gain status and recognition in a different manner (for example, with a delinquent peer group or other gang). [source]