Between ‘homeland’ and ‘diaspora’: multicultural education in Israel and South Korea

The aim of this qualitative case study was to explore multicultural education for ‘newcomers’ in Israel and in South Korea. Despite their differences, the two countries face the same inflow of two types of newcomers – one group that is expected to fully integrate, and the other of newcomers considered temporary. The educational challenge that results is recognition of the cultural groups, and providing equal educational opportunities, for both. Four schools were compared, two in each country, measuring multicultural education according to Bank’s five dimensions. Findings show that the same dimensions could be identified in all schools. The differences were in the school’s interpretation of the cultural identity of the students, congruent with their legal status, and degree of acceptability by the host country. The groups that were expected to fully integrate into the host country (perceived as a ‘homeland’) were given a more assimilatory education, as manifested in the Content Integration dimension; whereas the groups that were considered foreign were given a more multicultural education, with the schools making more references to their national culture, thus enhancing an identity of a ‘diaspora.’     

Exploring cultural economies of internationalization: the role of ‘iconic individuals’ and ‘brand leaders’ in the globalization of headhunting

Understanding the internationalization of professional services like advertising, architecture, accounting, consulting and legal services continues to attract considerable attention in academic and policy circles. Research in geography and management studies has emphasized the different organizational strategies adopted by firms as they seek to develop and maintain a competitive position within an increasingly global economy. In this article we develop a new strand in this literature by adopting a cultural economy approach to argue that an important, yet comparatively neglected, aspect of the internationalization strategies of transnational professional service firms is the role of certain ‘iconic individuals’ and ‘brand leaders’ in influencing the practice of internationalization. Drawing on empirical research into the burgeoning European executive search (headhunting) industry we identify a cadre of such individuals and brand leaders that act as resources other firms leverage when internationalizing. This highlights the importance of a cultural economy perspective in theories of the internationalization of professional services and its value in moving discussions beyond purely economic analyses of competitive advantage.     

The institutional logics of love: measuring intimate life

Building on a long tradition of measuring cultural logics from a relational perspective, we analyze a recent survey of American university students to assess whether institutional logics operate in the lived experience of individuals. An institutional logic is an analytic troika of object, practice, and subject linked together through dually ordered systems of articulations. Using the formal method of correspondence analysis (MCA) we identify two latent dimensions that order physical, verbal, emotional, categorical, and moral practices of and investments in love. We take these dimensions as evidence of an institutional logic. The dominant first dimension is organized through talk of love, non-genital physical intimacies, and affective investment. It has no sexual specificity. The subsidiary second dimension is organized through moral investment and it has a genital sexual specificity. There is little difference between women and men, either in the way these dimensions are organized or in the location of men and women within these dimensionalized spaces. We find that romantic love has a situated material effect in terms of increasing the probabilities of orgasm.     

青少年亲社会行为测评维度的建立与验证

本研究基于亲社会行为概念的原型分析结果,对青少年群体认同的亲社会行为的维度结构进行了探索和验证,旨在为开发测评工具提供依据。结果验证了青少年亲社会行为的概念维度结构由利他性、遵规与公益性、关系性以及特质性构成;以该结构为依据建构测评维度,其信度指标符合测量学要求;验证性因素分析的结果表明,构成测评维度的四因子模型与数据的拟合性良好;效标测试结果表明,四个维度的效标效度也良好。     

The measurement of occupational segregation and its component dimensions

The paper reviews different approaches to, and current knowledge of the measurement of occupational segregation, using the case of gender segregation. It shows that most popular segregation ‘indices’ are actually statistics of association in a 2x2 table, often with distorting weightings. The dimensions of segregation comprise a vertical dimension measuring inequality and an orthogonal horizontal one measuring difference without inequality. Together, the dimensions make up segregation as generally understood; so segregation and its dimensions require consistent measurements. Conditions for suitable measures are considered, and the limitations of the various measures noted. The alternative conception of segregation, where all occupations are treated as though they were the same size, is shown to be seriously flawed. The most useful measures are selected and shown to be related as Lorenz curves. Since all segregation measures vary with the number of occupations considered, standardisation on 200 occupations is introduced for the chosen measures.     

Circuits of architecture and urban planning: Professional ethos and the internationalization of small architectural offices

Although the production of the built environment is increasingly globalized, and architecture and urban planning (AUP) professionals are known to be the key carriers of mobile ideas, the internationalization of small owner-centred architectural offices has gained little academic attention, compared to the large consultancies that dominate the global market. We bring together the literature on the circuits of urban planning ideas, the international movement of AUP firms and professional ethoses to explore the internationalization of small AUP offices. Using interview data from Finnish offices, we investigate the ‘what, where, why and how’ and find that they have entered specific geographically delimited AUP circuits demarcated by type of project. We contribute to the literature by identifying motives characteristic of small offices guided by professional ethoses suited to the circuits where they internationalize. Their ethoses may evolve in time and space, as they operate in new circuits. We propose that ethos–circuit coherence may contribute to the successful internationalization of small architectural offices. The findings open avenues for further research on professional ethos not only of architects but also other internationally operating professionals, as it may guide their decisions by other than a narrowly conceived profit motive.     

广州市企业内外向国际化及其程度研究

从动态和静态的视角根据广州企业国际化的发展历程和现状分别建立模型对广州企业内外向国际化及其程度进行分析,研究结论为：从动态角度来看,随着时间的推移,广州企业国际化经营的规模不断扩大、质量不断提高,且在内外向国际化选择中稍偏向于内向国际化;从静态角度来看,广州市企业国际化的程度还不高,且各项指数显示出企业国际化发展不平衡,需要继续改进。     

Axiomatic measurement of multidimensional well-being inequality: Some distributional questions

This paper focuses on two main issues which are crucial for improving on the analysis of multidimensional inequality: the effect of both the dispersion of well-being attributes across individuals and the interaction among attributes on the measurement of multidimensional well-being. To approach these distributional questions we rely on the Atkinson, Kolm, Sen (hereafter AKS) methodology, which defines a multidimensional inequality index consistent with the Pigou–Dalton principle. This index can be decomposed into univariate indexes belonging to the class of AKS indexes, and a residual term accounting for the interaction across dimensions. The empirical application investigates the evolution of inequality in well-being across some EU countries between 1994 and 2001.Since the multidimensional index depends on the values assigned to the parameters, we test the sensitivity of the trend in well-being to the degree of inequality aversion on each dimension. Our empirical results summarize the evolution of inequality for the indicators of well-being considered both separately and jointly, over time and across countries.     

BUSINESS RESOURCES AND TAXATION: A CROSS-SECTIONAL EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AND PUBLIC POLICY

Many writers have speculated about the connection between economic resources of corporations and their ability to dominate politics in democratic societies with advanced capitalist economies. Using a cross-sectional analysis of business taxes in the American states, this study examines the political impact of four economic resources that are plausibly related to heightened business political influence. With seven factors held constant, I find that states with larger enterprises are most likely to have lower taxes on manufacturing, but concentrated sales do not have any effect on these taxes. The degree to which the organizational efforts of firms are handicapped because industry products are diverse also has an independent relationship with state and local taxes paid by manufacturers, but this relationship does not hold when the least industrial states are excluded from the equations. I also find that where competition between political parties is most intense, tax policies will be less likely to favor business interests. It follows that the evidence in this study is consistent with a hypothesis that firms can translate their formidable economic resources into political influence at the state and local level.     

广州经济国际化:进程评估与推进路径

一方面,城市经济国际化表现为生产、交易和消费的国际化,另一方面,城市经济国际化又可分为内向和外向国际化。因此,可同时从生产、交易、消费三个维度和内向、外向两个维度评估广州近年的经济国际化进程。结果表明,总体而言,从国际化进程看,广州经济国际化程度呈下降态势;从国际化程度来看,经济国际化程度总体仍较低;从国际化的内外向比较看,广州经济的内向国际化强于外向国际化;从国际化的城际比较看,广州经济国际化总体略强于北京。基于以上结论,广州应从最薄弱环节入手,以推进生产要素国际化为重点提升广州生产国际化水平,以扩大服务贸易为重点提升广州交易国际化水平,以扩大消费品进口为重点提升广州消费的国际化水平。     

Internationalization and the Governance of Research

This paper addresses two main questions. First, is it appropriate to talk of the internationalization of EU research policies, and if so in which sense? Secondly, in so far as elements of internationalization are observable, how can this be explained? After summarizing the objectives, conceptual framework and hypotheses of the research conducted in the INNOCULT project, from which this paper is drawn, we consider the various dimensions of internationalization as an issue for policy analysis: the language of internationalization, as it emerges from documentary sources and expert interviews; the broader context of trends in European research policies, with particular emphasis on the emergence of what we call for these puporses a 'governance' model of state intervention; and the prospective dynamics of internationalization in its relation to research policy, in light of recent trends and emerging issues. Our conclusions qualify the nature of 'innovation' in contemporary European research policies, in light of the structural pressures that shape them, by pointing to its largely unplanned and adaptive character.     

Teaching theory in an empirically-oriented graduate program

The role of theory is to facilitate cognitive integration, both for sociology and for sociologists. Integration has a vertical dimension (abstract to concrete) and a horizontal one (across schools and substantive fields). Attention to these dimensions of integration competes for time in sociology courses, with the result that trade-offs are required. Teaching theory in an empirically oriented graduate degree program, the author has decided to stress horizontal integration over the upper level of vertical integration.     

Strategies of Italian Firms in Romania: Evidence from Selected Case Studies

The aim of this paper is to analyze the internationalization of Italian firms in Romania, operating in the sectors of footwear, furniture and industrial refrigeration. After describing and quantifying the internationalization process between Veneto and Romania, we discuss for each of the sectors, the changes that occurred in the organisation of the production processes within the firms, and particularly how such processes have been fragmented. This article draws on numerous case studies, posits different models of value chain governance, and discusses their implications for regional development and sustainability.     

Cognitive and motivational structure of sustainability

In this paper the cognitive and motivational perceptual structure of sustainability of light users of sustainable products are empirically compared to the Brundlandt definition and the Triple-P-Baseline definition of sustainability. Results show that light users cognitively can distinguish between the social and temporal dimensions of the Brundlandt definition, as well as the People, Planet and Prosperity dimensions of the Triple-P definition of sustainability. In the motivational structure of light users of sustainable products, all attributes that do not offer direct and personal benefits are collapsed into a single dimension. This single dimension explains purchases more parsimoniously than a more complex structure, and is itself explained by a set of psychographic predictors that appears to be related to identity.Theoretical implications are that research into consumers’ cognitive understanding of abstract constructs may fail to predict purchase behaviour of light users, because their motivational structure is not related to this understanding. Practical implications are that focusing on sustainability as a container construct that incorporates various approaches to sustainable development matches with motivations of light users and thus may induce them to purchase more sustainable products.     

The Multidimensionality of Presbycusis: Hearing Losses on the Content and Relational Dimensions of Speech

Presbycusis, the age associated decline in hearing and listening, has been traditionally conceptualized as the progressive inability to distinguish phonemes and hence to apprehend the content of spoken communication. Based on the distinction between the content and relational dimensions of communication, this study posed the possibility that presbycusis also involves a loss of listening ability along the relational dimension of communication. Using five measures of speech discrimination and listening, the study confirmed that aging is significantly associated with losses on the content and relational dimensions of listening. Furthermore, there are different rates of aging for these two dimensions. Whereas the loss on the content dimension is linearly related to age, the loss on the relational dimension is curvilinearly related to age with little decline in ability until a relatively drastic loss occurs in the early to mid-70s. These results indicate that the communicative impact of presbycusis is considerably greater for the old elderly than for the young elderly. Thus, this study constitutes initial evidence for a multidimensional conception of presbycusis.     

Organisation et institution: vers une socioéconomie de la firme?

The paper aims at showing that beyond its economic nature the firm is an organized social institution. The theory of the firm does not succeed in unifying in a single analytical framework both its institutional and organizational dimensions. In contrast, organization theory – notably organizational sociology – deals with the intertwining of these two existential elements of firms. The cross-fertilization which occurs between these two social sciences can be used to propose a real socio-economic theory of the firm.     

Firm Ownership and Rent Sharing

In this paper we analyse—theoretically and empirically—how the degree of private versus public ownership of firms affects the degree of rent sharing between firms and their workers. Using a particularly rich linked employer-employee dataset from Portugal, covering a large number of corporate ownership changes across a wide spectrum of economic sectors over more than 20 years, we find that rent sharing is significantly higher in firms with a larger share of private ownership. Estimates from our most preferred empirical specification suggest that an increase in the private ownership share of 10 percentage points increases (on average) the rent-sharing elasticity by 0.0002. Based on a theoretical analysis that incorporates union-firm wage bargaining and efficiency wage effects within the same modelling framework, this result cannot be explained by private firms being more profit oriented than public ones. However, the result is consistent with a scenario whereby privatisation leads to less job security for workers, implying stronger efficiency wage effects.     

A Multidimensional Exploration of the Foundations of Community Attachment among Seasonal and Year‐Round Residents

Utah is a popular second‐home destination because of its unique landscapes offering numerous natural amenities. This research utilized data from a mail survey of residents in six Utah counties and had two objectives: (1) to test a multidimensional conceptualization of community attachment and (2) to determine if the foundations of community attachment, based on those conceptual dimensions, are different for year‐round and seasonal residents. The study utilized structural equation models, which allow the use of latent variables, to complete those objectives. Results revealed that a multidimensional conceptualization of community attachment is appropriate. The conceptual dimensions (social bonds, participation, and sentiments) used in this research all proved to be important elements of the higher order construct “community attachment” for both year‐round and seasonal residents. For year‐round residents, community attachment is best predicted by the social bonds dimension, while for seasonal residents the participation dimension is most important. However, all three of the dimensions of attachment used herein are important among both residence categories, indicating that future research on this topic would be best served by using a multidimensional conceptualization of community attachment.     

A Review of: “Producing Sperm Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid. By Lisa Jean Moore.”

This paper offers a preliminary conceptualization of the psychological structure of AIDS‐related attitudes among American adults and describes some of the social and psychological factors that affect those attitudes. Data were collected first from participants in focus groups in five U.S. cities and then from respondents in a national telephone survey. Two major psychological dimensions of attitudes were observed consistently. The first dimension, labeled COERCION/COMPASSION, includes judgments about the extent to which AIDS is viewed as highly contagious and requiring containment, through coercion if necessary. It also includes attributions of blame to people with AIDS. The second dimension, PRAGMATISM/MORALISM, includes judgments about the extent to which AIDS is viewed as controllable through research, public education and governmental sponsorship of behavior‐change programs. The two attitude dimensions are not highly correlated. Regression analyses suggest that the two dimensions have different social and psychological antecedents and that these antecedents differ between White and Black Americans. Using the two factors, a tentative typology of responses to the AIDS epidemic is presented. Implications for AIDS education and policy are discussed.     

Service Productivity: What Stops Service Firms from Measuring It?

Productivity measurement poses a challenge for service organizations. Conventional management wisdom holds that this challenge is rooted in the difficulty of accurately quantifying service inputs and outputs. Few service firms have adequate service productivity measurement (SPM) systems in place and implementing such systems may involve organizational transformation. Combining field interviews and literature-based insights, the authors develop a conceptual model of antecedents of SPM in service firms and test it using data from 276 service firms. Results indicate that one out of five antecedents affects the choice to use SPM, namely, the degree of service standardization. In addition, all five hypothesized antecedents and one additional antecedent (perceived appropriateness of the current SPM) predict the degree of SPM usage. In particular, the degree of SPM is positively influenced by the degree of service standardization, service customization, investments in service productivity gains, and the appropriateness of current service productivity measures. In turn, customer integration and the perceived difficulty of measuring service productivity negatively affect SPM. The fact that customer integration impedes actual measurement of service productivity is a surprising finding, given that customer integration is widely seen as a means to increase service productivity. The authors conclude with implications for service organizations and directions for research.