Between the Procedural and the Substantial: Democratic Deliberation and the Interaction Order in “Occupy Middletown General Assembly”

This article analyzes interaction from an intentional, self‐reflexive democratic meeting of ordinary citizens—a “General Assembly” from the 2011 Occupy Movement—to explore two competing theories of democracy: Habermas's democratic deliberation and Mouffe's agonistic pluralism. The group's rational ideals and procedures for democratic deliberation approximate those of Habermas's “ideal speech situation,” but appear limited in their capacity to ensure Habermasian understanding or consensus. Intertwined with these rational procedures are practices best explained in terms of what Goffman called “face‐work”—the ways in which participants maintain a working consensus of mutual acceptance and respect in conversation. These face‐work procedures—rather than sincere, rational intentions—help constitute the civility necessary for rational deliberation and participation. Such symbolic valuing of self and other provide interactional grounds for the liberty and equality of agonistic democratic conversation as conceived by Mouffe.     

The valuation “by-tranche” of composite investment instruments

The return on composite investment instruments takes the form of weighted-average, derived from two economic indicators or more. Three experiments illustrate that prospective investors tend to valuate composites “by-tranche”, consistently violating the premise of reduction. Valuation-by-tranche shows for uncertain and risky composites and reflects in allocation problems and binary choice. The willingness to invest still strongly increases when one tranche hedges against the other, suggesting that reduced-form considerations may interfere with the inclination to value by part. A hybrid model where investors weight the values of tranches, but also respond to the reduced-form, approximates the data most accurately.     

The Short Term Effects of Immigrant Students on the Educational Achievements of Native‐Born Students

Since 1989 nearly one million immigrants from the FSU have arrived in Israel. Although well‐educated on average, most of these immigrants lacked economic means. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether the presence of immigrants in schools affected the educational achievements of their Israeli‐born peers. We analyzed data pertaining to 8,288 Israeli tenth graders who attended 208 schools in 1994. Respondents' records were obtained from the Ministry of Education and the Bureau of the Census. Using hierarchical models we examined the effects of the proportion of immigrant students in a school and of their parents' education on the probability that Israeli‐born students in the school would earn matriculation certificates. Results did not yield evidence of any negative spillover effects on the educational achievements of the native students. Moreover, the presence of many immigrant students with high educational backgrounds increased the likelihood of Israeli‐born students earning matriculation certificates.     

Environmental risks of urban agriculture in the Lake Victoria drainage basin: A case of Kisumu municipality, Kenya

This paper examines the environmental risks threatening sustainable urban agriculture in Kisumu municipality. The issues covered in the paper are: review of policy and institutional framework, infrastructure and service delivery, pollution analysis of irrigation water and crops and urban agriculture waste management. In addition, the paper proposes measures for sustainable urban agriculture. Household survey and pollution analysis of irrigation water and crops (kales and yams) were conducted in the study area. To capture spatial distribution of farmers in the municipality, the municipality was stratified into four strata and in each stratum a combination of stratified-systematic-simple random sampling was used to sample 194 households. Structured household questionnaire was administered to the sampled households.     

Subjective discount rates among Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews

In this study, we compare the subjective discount rate for Israeli Jews and Arabs. All the subjects were bank customers, who were asked to bid and ask prices for delayed fixed amounts and for lotteries. The two populations live in the same country under the same laws. Nevertheless, according to the literature, Israeli Arabs seem to be a discriminated minority, who exhibit traits of a traditional collectivist culture, while Israeli Jews are a majority, who exhibit traits of an individualistic culture. As a discriminated minority, Israeli Arab may suffer from lower trust and as a result, according to the “trust” hypothesis, exhibit higher subjective discount rates and higher risk aversion. On the other hand, according to the “cushion” hypothesis, a collectivist society such as Israeli Arabs, provides a safety net for the individual and as a result, he will exhibit lower subjective discount rates and lower risk-aversion. The experimental findings show that the subjective discount rate and risk aversion of Israeli Arabs are significantly higher than that of Israeli Jews. Moreover, higher percent of Israeli Jews are at the low range of the discount rates (below 10%) and lower percent of Israeli Jews are at the high range of discount rate (above 20%) compared to Israeli Arabs. This is consistent with the “trust” hypothesis. For Israeli Jews, the discount rates are closer to the bank interest rate, while Israeli Arabs rates are much higher particularly for receipt. The dispersion of the distribution of discount rate is much larger for Arabs than for Jews.     

Financial decision making in collective society—A field test on Israeli kibbutz members and city residents

This comparison of Israeli kibbutz members to city residents examines how of individualistic/collective society affects financial decision making. Findings revealed that kibbutz members are more risk averse and discount the future more than city residents, undermining the assumption that collective society accords a safety net. We claim that the collective financial management of the kibbutz reduces individuals’ financial knowledge and experience, causing them to be more risk averse in financial decisions, and thus overpowering the safety net offered by the collective society. In addition, we argue that despite privatization, individuals still operate according to collective ideas in handling their personal finances, but less than before the onset of the privatization process.     

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Contesting the Adhans in Majority Non-Muslim Societies

In recent years, requests by mosque authorities across Europe to broadcast the adhans (calls to prayer) have triggered fierce protests at both local and national levels. Concerns were not limited to noise nuisances, but reflected also the belief that adhans represent an Islamic quest for domination and a decline of Christian values. Based on an analysis of case-studies in England, Sweden and Germany, the article traces the dynamics of contestations over adhans in Europe and argues that the hybrid practical-symbolic approach to this specific Islamic practice is characteristic of a broader trend, and complicates conflicts that can be reasonably reconciled within a liberal context. Drawing a comparison to adhans in mosques in Israel, which have also become hotly debated, the article demonstrates how different socio-political contexts affect the outcomes of these contestations. It further emphasizes that in liberal societies, the demands and attitudes of majorities as well as minorities should be informed by universal guidelines drawn from the foundations of liberal theory.