Extended Pareto rules and relative utilitarianism

This paper introduces the “Extended Pareto” axiom on Social Welfare Functions and gives a characterization of the axiom when it is assumed that the Social Welfare Functions that satisfy it in a framework of preferences over lotteries also satisfy the restrictions (on the domain and range of preferences) implied by the von-Neumann Morgenstern axioms. With the addition of 2 other axioms: “Anonymity” and a weak version of Arrow's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives axiom: “Weak IIA” it is shown that there is a unique Social Welfare Function called “Relative Utilitarianism” that consists of normalising individual utilities between 0 and 1 and adding them. Received: 7 June 1994 / Accepted: 28 April 1997     

Strong State Society Synergy: A Novel Approach to Governance for Ameliorating Poverty in India

This paper examines the sustainability of a novel institutional architecture, the Strong State Society Synergistic approach, to help ameliorate poverty in India. The motivation for this study stems from the need to unravel the elusive governance puzzle that has long riddled policy-makers in India. Of the profuse vulnerabilities that characterize the Indian society today, the persistence of poverty amid plenty looms as the greatest challenge. It is therefore imperative that institutions that can work for inclusion have to be identified and made effective.     

Chinese grand(parenting) encourages a re-imagining of Canada's immigration regime

Canada's migration regime prioritizes the admission of young skilled immigrants while restricting elderly immigrants constructed as non-contributing dependents. We review and compare the current pathways to family reunification for elderly immigrants. Based on interviews with 16 Chinese skilled immigrant mothers and eight sponsored (grand)parents in Edmonton and Ottawa, we highlight the contributions made by elderly Chinese immigrants to social reproduction, intergenerational cultural preservation, and various forms of transnational support. We also reveal the financial and emotional costs incurred by young skilled immigrants who sought to sponsor their elderly parents for permanent residency. Based on these rich conversations, we propose two policy recommendations to reduce the pressure on sponsoring family members and create opportunities for elderly immigrants to access gainful employment.     

Affective politics and reading/writing poetry from the Northeast of India

ABSTRACT

Theorization of cultural and political issues of Northeast of India often creates a disengagement from the actual cultural performances produced in the region. This unique geo-cultural place is sometimes homogenized. In actuality, it is the home of diverse socio-cultural practices and performances. In the context of globalization, deforestation, Christianization, other internal clashes and external influences, material bodies, here, are continuously being rewritten in socio-cultural sphere. Non-representational theory considers poetry as an effective mode of exhibiting the virtual multiplicity of the nonrepresentational world. This paper will focus on exploring the corpus of Northeast Indian English poetry that focuses on social practices and bodily experiences to interpret the entire cultural flow of everyday life. As Non-representational Theory positions ‘affect’ as a central issue to individual and collective disposition in constituting the affective political discourse, this paper will also indicate some political imperatives by advancing a politics of hope in the realm of socio-political sphere.     

Scoring rule voting games and dominance solvability

This article studies the dominance solvability (by iterated deletion of weakly dominated strategies) of general scoring rule voting games when there are three alternatives. The scoring rules we study include Plurality rule, Approval voting, Borda rule, and Relative Utilitarianism. We provide sufficient conditions for dominance solvability of general scoring rule voting games. The sufficient conditions that we provide for dominance solvability are in terms of one statistic of the game: sufficient agreement on the best alternative or on the worst alternative. We also show that the solutions coincide with the set of Condorcet Winners whenever the sufficient conditions for dominance solvability are satisfied. Approval Voting performs the best in terms of our criteria.     

An exploration of gratitude themes and suggestions for future interventions

For many years, the concept of gratitude was not considered worthy of investigation by psychologists since research goals were strongly dominated by the deficit-based approach and gratitude concepts were believed to be derived from common sense, and thus not warranting scientific query. This study, in attempting to understand gratitude themes, explores various events that elicit gratitude among engineering students in India. Thirty-two final year engineering students were introduced to gratitude research, administered gratitude exercises, and asked to provide feedback about the exercises. Nested questions, in the form of three-blessings and benefit finding exercises, were used to identify experiences of students leading to gratitude. Content analysis was applied to identify underlying themes and report them systematically. Four major themes and five minor themes were uncovered. Among these, positive emotions was the most prevalent theme and finance was the least encountered theme. Strategies to improve intervention studies, including restricting the area of investigation to one domain and making exercises interesting, have been suggested. Implications of the research within the socio-cultural context have been discussed with special reference to the complexities in separating the sense of duty and gratitude. Further research will provide us with more insights into the topic, specifically from an Indian socio-cultural perspective.     

Comparison of conflict of interest policies and reported practices in academic medical centers in the United States

The authors reviewed the conflict of interest policies of 9 academic medical centers in the United States and interviewed members of the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Conflict of Interest Committees (COICs) at those institutions. They found that many institutions used processes for reporting and managing conflicts of interest that were more decentralized than the processes described in their policies. Also, most institutions had no clear and comprehensive policy to guide investigators regarding disclosure of conflicts of interest to potential research participants. Considerable differences in understanding of conflict of interest policies were observed between IRB and COIC officials.     

“The Paper that You Have in Your Hand is My Freedom”: Migrant Domestic Work and the Sponsorship (Kafala) System in Lebanon

A recent report on migrant domestic work in Lebanon has cited psychological disorder among Lebanese “Madams” as the leading cause of violence against their migrant maids (Jureidini, 2011, www.kafa.org.lb/StudiesPublicationPDF/PRpdf38.pdf ). This report typifies much of the existing scholarship on the experiences of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in the Middle East, where the focus is on employer–employee relationships, especially the abusive Arab “Madam.” In this paper, I argue that the portrayal of violations of MDW rights as abuse of one set of women by another is inherently problematic on several fronts. It privatizes the structural problem of workers’ and immigrant rights violations, delegates it to the household, and absolves the state of its responsibility. Moreover, the focus on abusive employers takes attention away from the root of the problem – the inherently exploitative system of migration and recruitment in the region, the sponsorship system. The sponsorship system not only creates conditions for much of these violations, but also systematically produces a new population of readily exploitable worker – the category of “illegal workers.” Oral histories and interviews with individual workers are employed to analyze the process by which illegal workers are “produced” in Lebanon. Finally, focus group discussions highlight critical policy recommendations made by the workers themselves, which address the systemic bases of their exploitation in Lebanon.     

Troubling the Fields: Choice,Consent, and Coercion of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers

This article brings a new, theoretically minded approach to weighing the relative utilities and harms of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) without dismissing the agency of SAWP enrollees or arriving at an abolitionist argument to end Temporary Migrant Worker (TMW) programmes in Canada. Building on the anti‐trafficking debate within feminist migration studies, we evaluate the availability and exercise of consent, choice, and coercion among SAWP workers. We draw on extensive documentation by scholars across disciplines to contextualize the SAWP within a socio‐economic history that engendered and continues to legitimize the “success” of the programme in both Mexico (the largest sending state) and Ontario (the largest provincial recipient of workers). Our analysis suggests that, while grievous, the SAWP's structural injustice ought not to preclude individuals from migrating and earning wages. The article concludes with recommendations to create a fairer avenue for Mexican workers into, through, and out of the SAWP.