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Unexpected Consequences (unexpected + consequence)
Selected AbstractsExperience, change and vulnerability: consumer education for older people revisitedINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 3 2002Phil Lyon Abstract Everyday consumer transactions have the same potential for unexpected consequence whatever the age of the consumers involved. Young and old alike can find that products and services fail to live up to performance claims and that they are left with problems not easily resolved, or costs that are difficult to recover. While not overlooking consumer heterogeneity , especially on the basis of age , older consumers are arguably distinguishable in terms of the social and financial context in which they make decisions and attempt to redress problems. In 1988, attention was drawn to the need for consumer education to look beyond generic objectives to the specific situation of older people and their transactions. More than a decade later, in an allegedly consumer-oriented society, the issue is revisited here to assess the argument's current relevance. Despite the increased availability of information for decisions and consumer protection, difficulties persist in the way information is presented or accessed. Chameleon-like, old problems become manifest in new unfamiliar ways and invalidate experience. Consumer education today is as important as it was in 1988. Arguably, technological change means that the need for a better understanding of dangers, rights and redress procedures is greater than ever and the needs of older people in increasingly complex private and public sector transaction environments are all the more pressing. However, a fundamental revision of the way we approach the design of products, services and environments is needed to improve prospects for older consumers. [source] The Shaping of San Livelihood Strategies: Government Policy and Popular ValuesDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2002Michael Taylor The importance of understanding the livelihood strategies of poor people has received a fresh impetus over the last few years with the emphasis by many Western donors on poverty reduction. This article examines the livelihood strategies of San people in three villages on the northern peripheries of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Their economic marginalization is compounded by their ethnic background; a stigma that also marginalizes them politically and socially. The analysis presented here not only challenges stereotypes commonly associated with San by demonstrating the interconnectedness of different means of ,looking for life', but it also brings to the fore the importance of considering institutional factors that regulate livelihood strategies. The article focuses on some of the unexpected consequences of the wider policy environment, and on how the values associated with different ways of life affect material subsistence strategies. These are particularly pronounced for people with a heritage of hunting and gathering living in a society that regards such practices as ,backward'. [source] Campaign Contributions with Swing VotersECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 3 2003Manfred Dix We analyze contributor behavior when there are two types of voters: positioned voters, who care about the ideological positions of candidates, and swing voters, who care about only the leadership abilities of candidates. Campaign expenditures, which are funded by contributions, are assumed to influence voters' perceptions of a candidate's ability. We find that the number of swing voters may have unexpected consequences on equilibrium campaign contributions. In particular, total contributions may increase as the number of swing voters decreases. Elections are won by doing two things: mobilizing your base and winning the independent swing voters. (Karl Rove, campaign strategist for George W. Bush) [source] Culling wildlife hosts to control disease: mountain hares, red grouse and louping ill virusJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Annabel Harrison Summary 1.,Culling wildlife hosts is often implemented as a management technique to control pathogen transmission from wildlife to domestic or other economically important animals. However, culling may have unexpected consequences, can be expensive and may have wider implications for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. 2.,We assess the evidence that culling mountain hares Lepus timidus is an effective and practical way to control louping ill virus in red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. 3.,Evidence from the available literature is limited, restricting our ability to reliably assess the effectiveness of culling mountain hares to control ticks, louping ill virus, or increase red grouse densities. Furthermore, the information required to assess the cost-benefit of this management strategy is lacking. The population response of mountain hares to culling is not well understood and the possible effects on their conservation status and the upland ecosystem remain unexplored. 4.,We conclude that there is no compelling evidence base to suggest culling mountain hares might increase red grouse densities. 5.,Synthesis and applications. Widespread culling of wildlife is not necessarily effective in reducing disease or improving economic returns. The use of wildlife culls for disease control should be proposed only when: (i) the pathogen transmission cycle is fully understood with all host-vector interactions considered; (ii) the response of wildlife populations to culling is known; and (iii) cost-benefit analysis shows that increased revenue from reduced disease prevalence exceeds the cost of culling. [source] Bushwhacking the Ethical High Road: Conflict of Interest in the Practice of Law and Real LifeLAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 1 2003Susan P. Shapiro A long-standing scholarly tradition regards professions, in general, and ethics rules, in particular, as "projects" of market control. It is no surprise, critics charge, that in the latest assault on the monopoly of the American legal profession,waged by multidisciplinary professional service firms,lawyers are hiding behind their ethics rules to protect their turf. In this article, I report on an extensive empirical study of conflict of interest in private legal practice and look comparatively at other fiduciaries, among them, accountants, psychotherapists, physicians, journalists, and academics. I investigate the role of ethics rules that seek to insure fiduciary loyalty in structuring the delivery of services. How does social and institutional change, roiling the fiduciary world, threaten disinterestedness and loyalty and how, if at all, do fiduciaries respond? How is the regulation of conflict of interest accomplished? Where are the conflicts rules most likely to be honored or ignored? What incentive structures encourage compliance? What are the costs and unexpected consequences of compliance? What is foregone? And is it all worth it? In what might come as a surprise to many, I find that the legal profession takes conflict of interest more seriously than many of the rest of us. As the title implies, legal practitioners largely travel alone, bushwhacking through the underbrush snarling the ethical high road. As critical scholarship predicted, lawyers do enjoy a monopoly at the end of the road. But this monopoly is achieved, not by restraint of trade or some other artifice or stratagem of market control, but by lack of competition. It seems that no one else is trudging alongside the lawyers. Lawyers are not necessarily more ethical than the others; they just behave more ethically,at least with respect to conflict of interest. The question is why. And what difference does it make? [source] Research Note: The silenced assistant.ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 2 2010Reflections of invisible interpreters, research assistants Abstract Given the increased attention in anthropology and human geography to the positionality and reflexivity of researchers completing fieldwork in foreign countries, it is surprising that we still know relatively little about how research assistants and interpreters are positioned in the field and their own concerns, constraints and coping mechanisms. This article, based on in-depth interviews with local interpreters/research assistants in Vietnam and China, working alongside Western doctoral students researching upland ethnic minority populations, provides space for the assistants' voices. While reflecting upon their own time in the field, we see how the positionalities of these individuals can have rather unexpected consequences. Furthermore, the assistants' analyses of particular events, as well as their take on the best way to proceed in specific circumstances can be at odds with that of their employers, and negotiated coping strategies have to be found. The article concludes with advice from these assistants regarding how future assistants can make the best of their position, and what foreign researchers need to consider in fostering constructive working relationships. [source] | |||||||||||||