Computerization of social services: a critical appraisal

This article presents an analysis of ethics and computerization of social services. Drawing from the work of Baudrillard, the article suggests that social existence is redefined by the worldview that accompanies computerization. The authors conclude that practitioners have an ethical obligation to protect the human element when social services are computerized. Suggestions are offered for accomplishing this important goal.     

How Poor Were Quebec and Canada During the 1840s?

This article uses the censuses of 1842 of Canada East (modern-day Quebec) and Canada West (modern-day Ontario) to help explain the historical differences in living standards between Canada and the United States. The wage and price data contained in the censuses suggest a gap of 42 percent between Canada East and Canada West. We argue that Canada East was substantially poorer than the rest of Canada and, as it represented such a large proportion of the total population of the initial four Canadian provinces (over 35 percent), that relative poverty weighed heavily in determining the extent of differences in living standards between Canada and the United States. These findings change the perspective on the roots of the differences between the two countries. We propose that any research agenda trying to explain those differences should focus heavily on Quebec.     

Internal migration in India 1961-81

Trends in internal migration during the 1960s and 1970s are examined using data from Indian censuses, including that of 1981. Urban growth is analyzed in order to establish the relative impact of natural increase, rural-urban migration, and boundary changes. A discussion of the reasons for migration is also included. The paper concludes with a review of government policies on urban development and population redistribution.     

Role of migration in the urbanisation process of Assam

The role of migration in the urbanization process of Assam, India, is investigated. Trends in urbanization since 1901 are first briefly reviewed. Rural-urban migration in Assam during the periods 1951-1961 and 1961-1971 is then analyzed using data from the 1961 and 1971 censuses. It is concluded that "net rural to urban migration...has made a significant contribution to the total urbanisation process."     

Economic progress of immigrants in Sweden from 1970 to 1990: a longitudinal study

This article presents a longitudinal study of immigrants' adaptation to the Swedish labour market. The study is based on data from the 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1990 censuses. It demonstrates large differences in economic success between different immigrant groups compared with corresponding native-born Swedish groups. There are differences in both socioeconomic trends and income trends. Some of the results tend to support the corresponding studies made in the United States, but there are also results that differ from the findings in the United States. It is necessary to understand the economic progress among immigrants in a very broad perspective. The economic and the political circumstances, both in the emigrant and the immigrant countries must be added to a traditional human capital model.     

1990-2000年中国的经济转型、学校扩招和教育不平等

本文考察了20世纪90年代中国经济改革过程中教育分层的趋势。基于1990年和2000年人口普查的样本数据,本研究将学龄子女和其父母的背景信息作匹配,对家庭背景如何影响他们入学和继续受教育的机会进行研究,结果表明,尽管在1990年至2000年的十年中教育机会有了极大的扩展,但家庭背景仍然在决定入学和升学方面发挥着重要作用。在这一时期,农村户口子女的状况相比于城镇户口同龄人来说变得愈加不利,父亲的社会经济地位对于入学状况的影响作用增大了。尽管作为九年义务教育全国普及的结果,农村（户口）孩子获得的初中教育的机会相对增加了,高中教育升学机会的城乡差距却在扩大;即使在控制了地区经济发展水平的差异后,父亲的社会经济地位对于高中升学率的影响仍然呈增加趋势。     

Ethnodemographic Processes in the USSR (On Materials from the 1970 Census)

Censuses were taken in 1970 and 1971 in most countries of the world, at the recommendation of the United Nations. These censuses, conducted in accordance with coordinated lists of questions, will make it possible to determine more exactly the populations by country and continent and also to obtain information on population composition according to a number of criteria.     

Fertility implications of nuptiality patterns in South Asia

The author presents an overview of nuptiality in South Asia, with particular reference to India and Bangladesh, and of the effect of nuptiality on fertility. Data are from censuses and national surveys. The characteristics of nuptiality over the past century, including early age at marriage, the large number of widows, and the universality of marriage, are discussed. Exceptions to the general patterns observed, such as Sri Lanka and Kerala, are identified, and the reasons for decreases in fertility in Kerala are analyzed     

1949年以来北京市少数民族人口规模变动及影响因素分析

新中国成立以来,首都少数民族人口得到了前所未有的发展,呈现出明显的阶段性特征。本文以历次人口普查资料和2005年1%人口抽样数据为基本数据,对北京不同时期少数民族人口变动特点和影响因素进行分析。     

A service tracking and referral form to monitor the receipt of services in a case management program

Too often, systematic recording procedures are not developed which describe and assess the delivery of social work--and, more specifically, case management--services. The authors report on the Service Tracking and Referral Form developed by California's Adolescent Family Life Evaluation Project to document the receipt of services by pregnant adolescent clients as a result of case management intervention. The rationale and process underlying the development and use of the project's Service Tracking and Referral Form are discussed. Data are presented to illustrate the kinds of information which can be generated from the form. Finally, the authors discuss the form's utility and the possible uses of these types of data for case management, supervisory, administrative, and evaluative purposes.     

Pensioners and the Minimum Income Guarantee: Observations from Recent Research

This article summarizes some of the data collected via the 1999/2000 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey. The absence of any counterpart in Northern Ireland to the British Family Resources Survey has resulted in a dearth of basic information on the financial and allied circumstances of pensioners in this part of the United Kingdom. The authors review the data obtained on levels and sources of income, health and receipt of core disability benefits and the extent of non-take-up of the Minimum Income Guarantee. The authors locate the data within the broader debate about the new directions of pension policy in the UK.     

Are Ballot Order Effects Heterogeneous?*

Objective. Past research on ballot order effects has typically focused on the average benefit a candidate receives if placed at the top of the ballot. This study addresses a gap in the literature by examining the possibility that a simple average may mask systematic differences in how the ballot order effect varies across candidates and voters. Methods. Using data from all Australian federal elections between 1984 and 2004, a sample that covers 1,187 separate electoral contests and 7,113 candidate × election observations, this study estimates the effect of ballot order on a candidate's share of the primary vote. To determine whether ballot order effects differ across voters as well as candidates, the study also makes use of electorate‐level demographic data from the 1996 and 2001 Australian censuses. Results. The results of these estimations indicate that being placed first on the ballot increases a candidate's vote share by about 1 percentage point. As a proportion of their total vote, this effect is much larger for independents and minor parties than for major parties. The ballot order effect appears to be similar for male and female candidates, and does not show strong trends upward or downward over the 20‐year period covered by our study. Across electorates, the ballot order effect is higher in places where voters are younger and fluency in English is lower. Conclusions. A statistically significant ballot order effect was a consistent feature of Australian federal elections between 1984 and 2004. Moreover, this study challenges the assumption that ballot order effects are homogenous, and finds that the effect of being placed atop the ballot varies across both candidates and voters.     

中国农地制度变革对农业生产力及其布局的影响

文章回顾了 2 0世纪后 80年的农村土地制度变革的历史 ,指出中国农业生产力水平与我国农地制度的变革有着密切的联系。通过对 1978年以来的农业相对统计数据与农业制度改革的相关分析 ,得出中国农村土地制度变革是农业生产力及其布局变化的根本原因 ,并且发现 ,尽管存在资源、制度和市场的三重制约 ,我国农业生产力布局已开始向地区专业化分工的方向发展     

The impact of information and computer based training on negotiators' performance

This paper presents the results of an experiment on negotiation, designed to measure the impact of (1) computerized training and (2) information on negotiators' performanceThe paper is structured as follows. First, we review the literature on negotiation training. Second, we develop a conceptual framework to link various forms of Negotiation Support Systems to joint and individual negotiation performance. Third, we present the negotiation paradigm — a bilateral monopoly — and the computerized training system we used. Regarding training, our results show an asymmetric impact on individual performance levels and, unexpectedly, a negative impact on negotiators' joint performance. In contrast, more information improves both individual and joint performance. Finally, we discuss these results, and outline further research questions.     

低保未就业人员的情况分析与促进就业的基本思路--对北京市东城区调查数据的分析

文章基于北京市东城区低保人口的严格抽样调查数据 ,对低保未就业人员的基本情况、就业意愿、培训及求职情况进行了分析 ,提出应在开发就业岗位、拓宽就业渠道的前提下 ,针对低保未就业人员的不同情况 ,采取市场手段与非市场手段相结合的、多种形式的就业扶持措施 ,并加强社会救助与就业政策之间的衔接     

武汉市残疾人社区服务的现状、问题及对策研究

残疾人社区服务是残疾人服务体系的重要组成部分。本文从残疾人社区服务的支持系统和服务内容两个方面描述武汉市残疾人社区服务的现状,通过分析发现该市残疾人社区服务存在政府扶持不到位、服务项目有待完善以及服务人员不足等问题,并在此分析基础上提出相关对策,以促进武汉市残疾人社区服务体系的构建。     

What Does it Take for a Canadian Political Scientist to be Cited?*

Objectives. The article examines the factors that influence the frequency whereby scholarly articles published by Canadian political scientists are cited. Method. We collected data on 1,860 journal articles published between 1985 and 2005 by 758 Canadian political scientists and listed in the Social Science Citation Index. Using these data, we performed OLS and tobit estimations to identify factors influencing citation frequency. Results. The regressions show that the reputation of the journal in which the article is published, though important, does not explain everything. The gender of the author(s), the number of authors, the geographical focus of the article, the field, and the methodology also matter. Conclusion. An article is more likely to be widely cited if it is published in a prestigious journal, if it is written by several authors, if it applies quantitative methods, if it compares countries, and if it deals with administration and public policy or elections and political parties. Faculty members who belong to larger departments and those who are women are more cited.     

When the Floods of Compassion Are not Enough: A Nation's and a City's Response to the Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina exposed serious deficiencies in the social support safety net at the federal, state, and local level. This article explores the impacts of the disrupted safety net through participant observation and interviews with service providers and evacuees resettled in one southern city. Their stories illustrate how vulnerable low‐income groups struggle to cope with disaster within the context of inadequate larger support systems and the legacy of racism. The data also illustrate the limits of the local resources and response, given the years of retrenchment and underfunding and increasing dependence on nongovernmental sources of support. The authors explore some of the implications of this trend for evacuees' long‐term recovery and social work intervention.     

Positive Illusions and the Necessity of a Bright Line Forbidding Psychologist Involvement in Detainee Interrogations

The authors commend Costanzo, Gerrity, and Lykes (2007) and their cogent summary of a number of ethical and scientific considerations relevant to evaluating the proper role of psychologists in national security interrogations of so-called "enemy combatants." From their careful analysis they derive a series of recommendations for the American Psychological Association (APA) and other psychology-related associations, all of which are quite powerful. While supporting these recommendations, the authors also argue that the logic and evidence presented by Costanzo et al. imply, in current legal, political, and organizational circumstances, that psychologists should play no role in the interrogations process. The authors propose that a "bright line" should separate the profession of psychology completely from national security interrogations. The argument is based partly upon ethical considerations, on the practical knowledge available for documenting psychologist participation in interrogations as members of the so-called Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) at Guantánamo, evidence from other locations and sources, and equally upon the social psychological research regarding the interrogation process so adroitly summarized by Costanzo et al.     

Sigsearch: a new term for post hoc unplanned search for statistically significant relationships with the intent to create publishable findings

Post-hoc secondary data analysis with no prespecified hypotheses has been discouraged by textbook authors and journal editors alike. Unfortunately no single term describes this phenomenon succinctly. I would like to coin the term "sigsearch" to define this practice and bring it within the teaching lexicon of statistics courses. Sigsearch would include any unplanned, post-hoc search for statistical significance using multiple comparisons of subgroups. It would also include data analysis with outcomes other than the prespecified primary outcome measure of a study as well as secondary data analyses of earlier research.