Dissaggregation of deviations in cost analysis

The decisions on investigation of cost deviations have been generally discussed in the cost control literature assuming deviations are monitored and reported at a certain level of aggregation. This paper focuses on the relationship between the level of aggregation of the reporting system and the effectiveness of the investigating decisions. It suggests that, by incorporating into the decision process the prior knowledge managers have about the deviation sources, the deviation report could be further disaggregated leading to improved investigation decisions. This is done by using the reported deviation to update the prior distribution of its possible sources in a Bayesian manner. The resulting system is less costly to monitor than a system which monitors all the possible sources of a deviation, although it is less exact. The paper illustrates how the selection of the optimal level of aggregation should be made simultaneously with the information system and the decision rules.     

The desire for space: stains in Zoltan Kluger’s institutional photography

The article studies the construction of Zionist space in Kluger’s institutional photographs in an attempt to understand the ideological desire for space in Zionist imagistic propaganda. The analysis employs Lacanian ‘stains’ as well as strategies of art interpretation to suggest that behind the image of Sisyphean work of men toiling the land stands the Zionist ‘law’ (in contrast to the female jouissance) which comes to signify the Jewish return to history after the fall from divine grace. This paper demonstrates by what means Kluger’s photographs echoed and propagated the Zionist unconscious based on western and Christian desire for eternity and redemption of the land, even if it meant sacrificing the sons in exchange for eternal life and the return to grace.     

Revisiting Declines in Social Capital: Evidence from a New Measure

Social Indicators Research - In the late twentieth century, researchers began calling attention to declining social capital in America and the potential consequences of this trend for a healthy...