THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE: A REVIEW OF THE MODELS

This paper reviews four consumer maximization models where the probability of premature death enters as a variable that is both known to the consumer and under his control. These models generate a number of interesting results with respect to a person's willingness to pay for an increased chance of living. The most useful to the cost-benefit analyst is the derived relationship between this willingness-to-pay value and a person's lifetime earnings, and thus the relationship between the theoretically correct willingness-to-pay approach to the valuation of life-saving programs and the widely-used human-capital approach. However, the conclusions of the reviewed models are in this regard conflicting. Two of the models establish a theoretical basis for investigating the correlation of these two measures; however, this basis is shown to follow from an unrealistic assumption concerning the person's lifetime utility function. The remaining two models, although based upon more realistic assumptions, do not claim to provide theoretical grounds for making such investigations. The conclusion of this review is that in the absence of available data on personal demand for increased survival probability it is impossible to determine the relationship between the willingness-to-pay and the human-capital approaches to placing a value on human life .     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MINNESOTA COUPLE COMMUNICATION PROGRAM: A REVIEW OF RESEARCH*

Findings from a review of 19 research studies on the Minnesota Couple Communication Program (CCP) indicate that CCP has an immediate positive effect on communication behavior and relationship satisfaction. CCP does not alter reported levels of self-disclosure or self-esteem. Positive changes due to CCP persisted at follow-up in some studies, but evidence of the durability of effects is weak. While research on CCP has improved over the last ten years, future research is needed on the issues of maintenance of effects, the types of individuals and couples with whom CCP is most effective, and the specific program components which are most crucial for improving marital communication skills.     

CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE PRACTICE OF MARKET DESIGN

The years since 1994 have witnessed the emergence of market design as a new discipline within economics, in which research and practice exert powerful mutual influences in matching and auction markets. The problem of designing well‐functioning auction markets has led economic designers to revisit such fundamental issues as the definitions of commodities, the ways participants communicate with markets, the trade‐offs between the incentives provided for truthful reporting and other attributes of mechanism performance, and the determinants of the scope of markets, especially whether and how trade in different goods is linked. (JEL D44, C78)     

DO CHANGING VALUES EXPLAIN THE NEW POLITICS? A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE POSTMATERIALIST THESIS

Many social scientists have argued that major political changes have occurred in the postindustrial societies of Western Europe, North America, and Australasia since the 1960s. These changes include partisan dealignment accompanied by a breakdown in traditional political orientations, the appearance of "new social movements," and increasing use of non-traditional forms of political action. One of the most influential account of the origins of the "New Politics" is Ronald Inglehart's "postmaterialist" thesis. Analyzing data from the Political Action surveys, we test two central propositions of the postmaterialist thesis: that postmaterialism constitutes an emerging and categorically distinct type of value commitment in these societies; and that a commitment to postmaterialism leads to a rejection of the state as a means of accomplishing policy objectives. Neither of these propositions is supported. The analyses instead provide evidence for an alternative account that we characterize as "value pluralism," and they show further that even citizens with postmaterialist values endorse the intervention of state institutions to achieve desired political outcomes.     

STATUS POLITICS AND THE POLITICAL AGENDA OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

Status politics has been used by scholars to explain social protest movements, particularly those that have been right-wing in orientation. In recent years, some scholars have placed the Christian Right within the context of status politics, while others have suggested it is erroneous to do so. This article examines the applicability of status politics to the Chrisitan Right from the perspective of the political agenda the movement has pushed in the Congress. The argument is that status politics fails to explain adequately the moral, nonsymbolic, and "offensive" dimensions of the Christian Right.     

文化符号融入文创产品设计研究——以西安历史街区为例

<正>在一带一路和国家中心城市背景下,西安要发展地方特色文创产品需结合创意来思考文化主体与地方脉络,寻找、发掘深具特色的地方文化,发展具有地方文化符号的产品,以满足现代人精神需求和审美要求。历史街区文创产品设计依托街区历史文化,集创意、生产、销售为一体,有着强烈的时空聚集倾向。文章以西安地区历史街区为时空场所,研究基于文化符号认知的文创产品设计内容,首先剖析历史街区文创产品现状及问题;其次分析西安地区历史街区文创产品存在问题;最后提出文化符号融入西安历史街区文创产品设计策略。以帮助当前国家中心城市西安实现城市内涵与外延的双重统一,并为历史街区文创产品设计提供一些思路。     

A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF MEASURES OF CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE

The methodology of measuring central bank independence suggested by Bade and Parkin three decades ago and inverse correlations between the measures and inflation have been widely accepted. The measurement literature has made important contributions identifying elements of institutional design that establish the relationship between the central bank and the government and the measurements from an ordinal perspective provide some useful insights about the major institutional redesigns of central banks during the past several decades. At the same time, the measurement literature is problematic. First, a dummy variable bifurcating central banks into groups of independent and less independent central banks can duplicate the standard correlations suggesting the information content of the specific measures is limited; second, the correlations between inflation and measures of independence are not as stable as claimed; and most important, the measurements are subject to classification problems that have not been fully appreciated. Review of the institutional design and history of the Bank of Korea, Bank of Japan, and the Federal Reserve provide evidence the classification problems are important. The measures of independence are more appropriately regarded as ordinal rankings of central bank independence rather than considered cardinal measures suitable for econometric modeling. (JEL E50, E58, E65)     

THE "INCESTUOUS FAMILY" REVISITED: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF FAMILY THERAPY MYTHS

From a feminist perspective, the family therapy literature concerning incest fails to perceive the patriarchal context of abusive behavior and consequently blames the victim. This paper critiques the family therapy literature by drawing on the feminist discourse concerning incest. Several pervasive myths are identified: (a) that fathers and mothers are pathologically disturbed or inadequate; (b) incest is caused by separation and loss; (c) family isolation or a rigid external boundary explains incest; and (d) incest serves a function in maintaining family organization. By analyzing the contradictions arising from these polemical positions, we propose criteria for developing an adequate clinical account of incest.     

CONFIDENTIALITY ASSURANCES AND RESPONSE: A QUANTITATIVE REVIEW OF THE EXPERIMENTAL LITERATURE

This article tests the general hypothesis that a stronger assuranceof confidentiality improves survey response by means of a meta-analysisof the experimental literature. No support is found for thegeneral hypothesis, but the subsidiary hypothesis, that confidentialityassurances improve response when the data asked about are sensitive,is supported. Under those circumstances, the effect of confidentialityassurances is small but statistically significant and is robustin the presence of a variety of control variables.     

THE WOMAN WHO COULD NOT GRIEVE: A CONTEMPORARY LOOK AT THE JOURNEY TOWARD MOURNING

The inability to mourn is a common but not sufficiently recognized theme underlying various forms of psychopathology. The paper will demonstrate how a patient has defended against the pain of loss by turning away from the external object in reality and creating a maternal object in fantasy over which she has omnipotent control. Focus is on a contemporary understanding of the inability to mourn as a “disease of narcissism.” Aspects of transference distortion, annihilation fantasies, and merger with the maternal object will be highlighted. Through treatment the patient has begun to relinquish the fantasied object, have moments of experiencing real loss of others, and connect more realistically with others.     

CRITICAL EXPLORATIONS OF GENDER AND THE CARIBBEAN: TAKING IT INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

ABSTRACT

In the years after the Greek Junta, activists who had been involved in anti-dictatorship movements abroad returned as the country’s new pool of left-leaning, well-educated political actors. Drawing on interviews with former activists and borrowing from recent developments in cultural sociology, I analyse these returns as political projects fraught with moral conundrums. I argue that the contemporary crisis structure accounts of returns by placing speakers within what Boltanski and Thévenot call a ‘situation subject to the imperative of justification’. I make two arguments regarding the critiques and valuations used in accounts: First, the idealized political subject put forward by former activists promotes withdrawal over participation and silence over speech. Second, failure is valorized as a principled mode of self-exoneration. This article further demonstrates the importance of theorizing return migration within an ethnographic treatment of the present.     

WOMEN SOCIOLOGISTS IN THE MIDWEST: A STATUS UPDATE

In this article, an earlier study of the status of academic women sociologists in the Midwest that was extended to 1984–1985 is discussed. Type of appointment, rank, and chairpersons, as well as position in a Ph.D. rather than an M.A. program were used in the study as indicators of employment status. Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) leadership positions and participation in the annual MSS meeting served as indicators of professional participation. The results show that gains in employment status for women slowed in the 1980s. Employment of women in sociology department positions, especially in full-time positions and higher ranks, continued to lag behind the proportion of women Ph.D.s in the field. Women were overrepresented in the secondary labor market of part-time employment. However, women are now almost as likely to be employed in Ph.D. as well as M.A. programs. While gains in employment status generally slowed, professional participation has accellerated in recent years. Possible explanations for the differential penetrability of the two realms are offered. The appropriateness of statistical parity as a standard for evaluating equality in academic employment also is discussed. This article proposes that structural barriers to employment equity for women may not be more significant than direct discrimination.