The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa: Implications for Agrifood Systems and the Rural Poor

The rise of supermarkets in Africa since the mid‐1990s is transforming the food retail sector. Supermarkets have spread fast in Southern and Eastern Africa, already proliferating beyond middle‐class big‐city markets into smaller towns and poorer areas. Supplying supermarkets presents both potentially large opportunities and big challenges for producers. Supermarkets' procurement systems involve purchase consolidation, a shift to specialised wholesalers, and tough quality and safety standards. To meet these requirements, producers have to make investments and adopt new practices. This is hardest for small producers, who risk exclusion from dynamic urban markets increasingly dominated by supermarkets. There is thus an urgent need for development programmes and policies to assist them in adopting the new practices that these procurement systems demand.     

Family Members' Narratives of Divorce and Interparental Conflict: Implications for Parental Alienation

This study focused on the internal dynamics of family members who experience divorce and interparental conflict. Interparental conflict and triangulating children increase the likelihood of alienating children from a parent. Narrative interviews with members of three families were used to explore meaning structures. Results showed how parents and children thought, felt, and created meaning about their experiences; how family members responded to conflict and behaviors associated with parental alienation; and how they viewed family relationships. Metalevel findings suggested each family member held dichotomous views and used cognitive and behavioral control response strategies. Thus, parental alienation stems from a relational dynamic and needs to be addressed from a family systems perspective.     

Marital Conflict Behaviors and Implications for Divorce Over 16 Years

This study examined self‐reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. Husbands and wives (N = 373 couples; 47% White American, 53% Black American) reported conflict behaviors in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of their marriages. Individual behaviors (e.g., destructive behaviors) and patterns of behaviors between partners (e.g., withdrawal‐constructive) in Year 1 predicted higher divorce rates. Wives' destructive and withdrawal behaviors decreased over time, whereas husbands' conflict behaviors remained stable. Husbands reported more constructive and less destructive behaviors than wives, and Black American couples reported more withdrawal than White American couples. Findings support behavioral theories of marriage demonstrating that conflict behaviors predict divorce and accommodation theories indicating that conflict behaviors become less negative over time.     

学生文化的存在及其与成人文化的冲突

要认识学生文化价值的独立性,正视学生文化特有的价值和意义,为学生文化的充分发展和发育提供应有的空间.加快教育体制改革是解决学生文化与成人文化冲突的基础性工程.     

Factors Related to Domestic Violence in Asia: The Conflict between Culture and Patriarchy

While most research on domestic violence (DV) has focused on the West, there is an increasing interest in DV in Asian countries. This article explores the extent of DV against women in areas where most of the research has been conducted, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The factors associated with DV in the Asian region is explored through the Heise model that considers four levels of analysis, including personal factors, the microsystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem. The analysis points to the importance of the patriarchal culture that is inextricably linked to culture that is resistant to change and must be addressed at a range of levels.     

Call for Communications and Papers: The New Poor

No abstract available for this article.     

Spanish Language Self-Efficacy Beliefs Among Spanish-Speaking Social Workers: Implications for Social Work Education

Limited research exists about Spanish-speaking social workers that provide bilingual social work services. To date, studies have not exclusively focused on actual language competence of bilingual social workers or even their self-perceived language beliefs. This study reviews the results of a cross-sectional Internet-based survey exploring self-perceived Spanish language skills of bilingual social workers. The nationwide sample consisted of 321 participants who self-rated their self-efficacy Spanish language skills in relation to 5 social work competency categories. Results indicate that the language that participants reported speaking at home versus at work was significantly associated with the self-efficacy ratings. These associations along with implications for social work education are discussed.     

The Multiple Intelligences Theory and Its Implications in Foreign Language Teaching

Multiple Intelligences Theory was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983. In the MI theory, Gardner put forward eight intelligences to account for human potential in children and adults. This paper aims to make an in-depth analysis of MI theory by discussing previous studies, its current situation, and then discuss its implications in foreign language teaching. The study shows that MIT has its advantages and drawbacks. This study has implications in the field of FLT which may offer some inspiring insights in educational reforms.     

Examining the Notion of Listening Subskill Divisibility and its Implications for Second Language Listening

The testing and teaching of listening has been partially guided by the notion of subskills, or a set of listening abilities that are needed for achieving successful comprehension and utilization of the information from listening texts. Although this notion came about mainly through applications of theoretical perspectives from psychology and communication studies, the actual divisibility of the subskills has rarely been examined. This article reports an attempt to do so by using data from the answers of 916 test takers of a retired version of the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery listening test. First, an iterative content analysis of items was carried out, identifying five key subskills. Next, the discriminability of subskills was examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Five independent measurement models representing the subskills were evaluated. The overall CFA model comprising the measurement models showed excessively high correlations among factors. Further tests through CFA resolved the inadmissible correlations, though the high correlations persisted. Finally, we made 23 aggregate-level items which were used in a higher-order model, which induced best fit indices and resolved the inadmissible estimates. The results show that the subskills in the test were empirically divisible, lending support to scholarly attempts in discussing components in the listening construct for the purpose of teaching and assessment.     

Conflict and Conflict Resolution in a Cooperative: The Case of the Nir Taxi Station

What conflict resolution mechanisms dodemocratic worker cooperatives generate and to whatextent could these mechanisms be called democratic? Thiscase study tries to address these questions by examining both conflict and conflict resolution in ademocratic organization, a 66-year-old taxi cooperative.The conflicts presented stem from three main sources:ethnic origin, local division of labor, and“class” affiliation. These conflicts are resolvedthrough different processes, ranging from a joke-tellingritual to a formal tribunal composed of elected judges.Discussion centers on unique aspects of conflict resolution in a democratic worker cooperativeand their implications for studies of conflictresolution in nondemocratic firms.     

The Social and Political Implications of Muslim Middle Eastern Women's Participation in Violent Political Conflict

Five cases from the twentieth centuty Islamic Middle East are investigated in terms of the role patterns of women's participation in violent political conflict and the post-conflict social and political consequences of their participation. The study finds extensive role segregation between male and female participants, and virtual absence of women from leadership roles. These conflicts are seen not to be a catalyst for permanent social and political change, and reason for this consequence are discussed.     

Worldviews or Social Groups as the Source of Moral Value Attitudes: Implications for the Culture Wars Thesis

Individual moral value attitudes are typically explained by reference to social experiences as indicated by social group variables. Contrary to this view, the emergent culture wars perspective claims that two worldviews that transcend social groups are ultimately and fundamentally responsible for moral value attitudes. Although this relationship has been claimed for the general population, it has not been investigated with national representative data. This paper contrasts the worldview and social group explanations by examining the relative importance of the worldviews implicated in the culture wars literature and the social groups found to be important in previous research. I find social groups to be more important than worldviews, but that worldviews also have explanatory power. I conclude with a discussion about possible clarifications of the culture wars thesis.     

Exploring Digital Culture in Virtual Teams: Implications for Leading and Developing Distributed Organisations

Understanding human communication in the technological age is becoming more complex as advances in technology and its use in human exchange are being magnified. New studies show that technology is no longer just a device for human connections; it is an integrated artefact in the human exchange and communication process. As a result, we are witnessing and experiencing new norms and patterns of behaviour, values in human connections, expectations of one another, language, and other symbol systems: a digital culture. This article explores further development of the digital culture model in relation to organisational work culture. Specifically, the dimensions related to digital communication and online group dynamics are further articulated from a literature review. The findings are also presented from a study of e-process teams in a distributed organisation based on data from a digital culture inventory, focus group observations, and participant reflections, which illustrate changes in behaviour, language, group dynamics, and communication exchange between team members working in a distributed organisation. The article aims to contribute new insights which could inform approaches to organisational development that view organisational culture as central to the process.     

The Relationship Between Work-to-Family Conflict and Family-to-Work Conflict: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict was tested using a longitudinal research design with 234 dual-earner couples caring for both children and aging parents. Two waves of mailed survey data were collected. The mediating effects of role-related satisfaction were hypothesized to link these two forms of work-family conflict. The analytical steps for determining mediating effects followed suggestions by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results failed to show significant mediating effects of role-related satisfaction between the two forms of conflict over time for both husbands and wives, contrary to suggestions by Frone, Yardley, and Markel (1997). Instead, positive, direct relationships between the two types of work-family conflict were found. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Conflict Resolution in Mexican-Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, and Marital Quality

This study examined associations between Mexican-origin spouses' conflict resolution strategies (i.e., nonconfrontation, solution orientation, and control) and (a) gender-typed qualities and attitudes, (b) cultural orientations, and (c) marital quality in a sample of 227 couples. Results of multilevel modeling revealed that Mexican cultural orientations were positively associated with solution orientation, and Anglo cultural orientations were negatively associated with nonconfrontation. Expressive personal qualities were negatively associated with control, whereas instrumental qualities were positively related to control. Links between conflict resolution and marital quality revealed that control and nonconfrontation were associated with spouses' ratings of marital negativity. In some cases, different patterns emerged for husbands and wives. Discussion highlights the role of culture and gender dynamics in marital relationships.     

Becoming Poor: The Experiences of Elders1

Elderly Americans residing in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) areas have higher poverty prevalence than their metropolitan (metro) counterparts. Data from both the response and nonresponse files of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1988 wave) are analyzed to establish the extent to which this disadvantage also occurs in the length of poverty spells and the risk of becoming poor at older ages. Specifically, for individuals aged 55 and older Kaplan-Meier survival functions and multivariate discrete-time hazards models are estimated to document residential differences in the poverty risks of metro and nonmetro men and women. Nonpoor nonmetro elders are much more likely to become poor than metro elders. These results hold when controlling for race, education, marital status, age, change in work effort, becoming widowed, and types of income received.     

The insulin-like growth factor-I receptor: Implications for the aging process

Aging is associated with decreased levels of growth hormone and both circulating and local levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I). The decline in IGF-I has been postulated to be important in both physiological aging and pathological states that are seen with aging. In parallel, inappropriate apoptosis is thought to play a role in some of these same processes. In experimental models, IGF-I signalling through the IGF-I receptor confers a protective effect from apoptosis. This review summarizes the results of studies documenting the IGF-I anti-apoptotic effect in neuronal model systems. The known downstream signalling cascades that mediate this signal are beginning to be elucidated; these include MAP kinase and Akt. In addition, IGF-I prevents the reduction of anti-apoptotic proteins of the bcl-2 family induced by hyperosmotic conditions in cultured neuronal cells. IGF-I has been shown to positively impact on tau, the microtubule-associated protein, possibly preventing the degradation of proteins that are associated with the neurofibrils seen in Alzheimer's disease. All of the studies to date support the hypothesis that appropriately high levels of IGF-I signalling prevent some of the processes associated with aging.