Public Attitudes toward Partisan and Neutral Symbols in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland

Using original data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey, this article assesses public attitudes toward key issues of symbolism intimately connected with the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process. It uses public attitudes toward the symbolic expressions of Northern Ireland's politico-religious blocs as indicators of the extent of intercommunity tolerance in the delicate post-Belfast Agreement period. Survey questions on attitudes toward flags, including the idea of a new flag for Northern Ireland; loyalist and republican murals; and memorials to the dead of the conflict, including the idea of a memorial for all of the victims of the conflict, reveal that partisan attitudes toward communal symbols of identity and commemoration persist, despite macro-level political changes heralded by the 1998 peace accord. It is argued that the consociational design of the Belfast Agreement facilitates the perpetuation of the single-identity politics of Irish nationalism and Ulster unionism. In this context, public attachment to partisan symbols remains strong.     

Some factors in the valences of erotic visual stimuli

Duersted, Yul H. Green Fruit. New York, N. Y.: Grove Press, Inc. 1974. 283 pages. $ 9.50.

Fisher, Esther Oshiver. Divorce: The New Freedom. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. 198 + viii pages. $7.95.

Female Sterilization: Guidelines for the Development of Services, Geneva, World Health Organization, 1976 (WHO Offset Publication No. 26: ISBN 92 4 170026 2). 27 pages. Price: Sw. fr. 9.‐. US$ 3.60. French edition in preparation. Available through? Q Corporation, 49 Sheridan Avenue, Albany, N. Y. 12210

Gianturco, Daniel D., M.D. and Harmon L. Smith, B. D., Ph.D. The Promiscuous Teenager. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1974. 110 pages.

Kroger, William S., M.D. and William D. Fezler, Ph.D. Hypnosis and Behavior Modification: Imagery Conditioning. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 426 pp.

Storaska, Frederic. How to Say No to a Rapist and Survive. New York: Random House, Inc., 1975. 237 pages; $ 7.95.     

Editorial Note

The issue of acculturation is an important one in the history and historiography of Dutch colonialism in the Indies. In so far as there is any substantial orthodoxy, it is that the orientalisation of Java's Dutch communities had become very marked by the late seventeenth century and remained so for the next two hundred years. It was only with the changed global circumstances of the late colonial era, c. 1880 onwards, that Western modes began to assert themselves effectively against those of the East. In turn, the profound acculturation prior to that date of the Dutch colonial communities in the Indies, and in Java in particular, came to be associated with the notion of a Tempo Doeloe [lit: 'time past'], which provided a salient contrast to the markers of a subsequent, late-colonial 'modernity' This paper questions some of the basic assumptions of this orthodoxy, from a postcolonial standpoint that challenges its inherent colonial-era binaries. The nineteenth century family histories of a number of men and women - Suikerlords [Sugar Lords] and their Ladies - from the elite strata of Dutch colonial society in the Indies demonstrates that the cultural and social nexus between The Netherlands and the Indies throughout the nineteenth century was a good deal more intimate, and colonial identity significantly more ambivalent, than enduring stereotypes might allow.     

Selected health behaviors that influence college freshman weight change

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors investigated the effect of physical activity (PA), fruit and vegetable intake, and alcohol use on 6-month weight change in 193 college freshmen (78.8% white, 88.2% women, 94.5% on a meal plan). METHODS: The authors administered a Web-based survey in fall 2002 (baseline) and spring 2003 (follow-up). RESULTS: There was an overall average weight gain of 2.5 lbs (p < .05), although only 57% reported weight gain (M = 7.1 lbs). Fruit and vegetable intake decreased (p = .034), alcohol use increased (p > .05), and PA was unchanged. Weight gain for students with body mass indexes (BMI) > or =25 kg/m2 was nearly twice that of students with BMIs < 25 (p < .05). Students with low-frequency baseline PA were twice as likely to be overweight. Follow-up data showed that students reporting > or = 4 sessions per week (ie, high frequency) of low-intensity PA were twice as likely to have healthy BMIs as students engaging in low- and moderate-frequency PA. CONCLUSIONS: PA interventions should target freshmen with BMIs > or = 25.     

State and Regional Variation in the Effects of Trade on Job Displacement in the US Manufacturing Sector, 1982–1999

Worker-level data from the 1984–2000 Displaced Worker Surveys are employed to examine the effects of trade on manufacturing workers’ probabilities of job displacement. Observed changes in import and export penetration rates yield increases in displacement probabilities for the North Central, Middle Atlantic and South Central regions yet lower displacement probabilities for the Plains/West and Pacific regions. Changes in import and export price indexes lead to increases in displacement probabilities for the Pacific, Southeast and Northeast regions and decreases for the South Central and Middle Atlantic regions. However, while the influences of imports and exports on job displacement vary considerably across states and regions, the estimated net effect of trade on displacement probabilities is minor, generally speaking, when compared to the combined influence of other factors.

Theorizing the institution: foundations,duality, and data

Although a central construct for sociologists, the concept of institution continues to elude clear and full specification. One reason for this lack of clarity is that about 50 years ago empirical researchers in the field of sociology turned their gaze downward, away from macro-sociological constructs in order to focus their attention on middle-range empirical projects. It took almost 20 years for the concept of the institution to work its back onto the empirical research agenda of mainstream sociologists. The new institutional project in organizational sociology led the way. Since then, scholars in this tradition have achieved a great deal but there is still much more to accomplish. Here, future directions for research are considered by reviewing how the concept of the institution has come to be treated by mainstream philosophers, sociologists of science and technology studies, and social network theorists.

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Marketing of Voluntary Organizations as Contract Providers of National and Local Government Welfare Services in the UK

Voluntary organisations have become major providers of numerous social welfare services that previously were supplied by the state. In Britain, between 35 and 40% of the average human services charity’s annual income now derives from government (predominantly local government) sources, meaning that the acquisition of fresh contracts to undertake government funded work, in conjunction with the maintenance of good relations with government funders vis-à-vis current assignments, is increasingly important for ensuring a human service charity’s financial survival. An organization that wishes to obtain new contracts and to keep government bodies satisfied with its present activities will need to market itself effectively. This empirical study examined two aspects of charity marketing relevant to this requirement: the extent to which voluntary organizations applied the principles of strategic account management (otherwise known as key account management) to their relations with government funders, and the organizational characteristics (passion and commitment, low wage costs, etc.) that they emphasized to government bodies when making bids. A number of organizational variables (e.g., mission rigidity, strategic intent, short term operational focus) were employed in regression analyses as possible determinants of: (i) the degree to which a charity used strategic account management; and (ii) the genres of the organizational characteristics that it accentuated when tendering for government funded work.

Contraceptive sterilization in Puerto Rico

For twenty years Puerto Rico has had the world’s highest prevalence of sterilization. From the 1982 Puerto Rico Fertility and Family Planning Assessment we examine whether the probability of obtaining sterilization is changing and what impact sterilization has on fertility, finding that the use of contraceptive sterilization has not declined and will probably continue to increase in Puerto Rico. Nonuse rather than temporary methods of contraception is the second most likely circumstance after sterilization. We also find that sterilization has reduced the total marital fertility rate by over 33 percent, thus having a significant effect on reducing the rate of natural increase; by all indications, it will have a greater effect in the future.