On the probability of observing Borda’s paradox

Previous studies have shown that, when voters’ preferences become more internally consistent or mutually coherent, the probability of observing Condorcet’s Paradox of cyclic majorities is reduced and tends to zero, in accordance with intuition. The current study shows that the impact of an increasing degree of mutual coherence among voters’ preferences on the likelihood of observing Borda’s Paradox is much more subtle and more difficult to analyze. The degree of the impact in this case depends both on the measure of mutual coherence that is considered and on the voting rule that is used. In some circumstances, the probability that Borda’s Paradox will occur actually increases when voters’ preferences become more internally consistent.     

May’s Theorem with an infinite population

In this paper, we investigate majority rule with an infinite number of voters. We use an axiomatic approach and attempt to extend Mays Theorem characterizing majority rule to an infinite population. The analysis hinges on correctly generalizing the anonymity condition and we consider three different versions. We settle on bounded anonymity as the appropriate form for this condition and are able to use the notion of asymptotic density to measure the size of almost all sets of voters. With this technique, we define density q-rules and show that these rules are characterized by neutrality, monotonicity, and bounded anonymity on almost all sets. Although we are unable to provide a complete characterization applying to all possible sets of voters, we construct an example showing that our result is the best possible. Finally, we show that strengthening monotonicity to density positive responsiveness characterizes density majority rule on almost all sets.My thanks to John Duggan for useful discussions. I also thank Milo Ziman and the participants of the Workshop on the Density Concept held at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.     

What’s India’s Beef with Meat? Hindu Orthopraxis and Food Transition in India Since the 1980s

Does development affect food practices? The nutrition transition model correlates positively meat consumption levels with gross domestic product per capita, except in India. In this article, I analyze food diets in this country since the 1980s by mapping out households’ practices in animal product consumption depending on their social positions. Applying multiple factor analysis on the Consumer Expenditures data of the National Sample Survey Office, I produce a relational model of food diet segmentation to overcome the dead ends of the nutrition transition model. Two structural dimensions are highlighted. The first one differentiates beef and nonbeef meat diets and relates to the symbolic capital of caste and religion. The second one opposes diets including animal products and without, depending on the amount of economic capital. The concept of temporal homology is introduced to show that the social structure remains stable over time. This denotes the importance of sociocultural norms in food practices rather than their weakening due to “modernization” and shows how these norms are key to understand food transitions beyond linear expectations drawn from economic development.     

Women’s Sexual Communication with Their Peers and Its Association with Sexual Wellbeing

Abstract

Communication about sex is an important variable in sexual well-being, but sex remains a taboo topic, particularly for women. This study explores women’s peer sexual communication, and its association with their sexual well-being. A survey (N?=?617) showed that women tend to solicit expressive, rather than instrumental, sexual communication from other women. Regression analyses revealed that peer sexual communication is associated with higher sexual self-efficacy, and sexual self-esteem, but also higher risky sexual norms perceptions. Peer sexual communication appears to be a potential vehicle for disseminating sexual information, as long as women have accurate and empowering information to start with.     

Women’s Experiences with Infertility: The Fluidity of Conceptualizations of ‘Family’

In this study, I examine women’s experiences with infertility and the impact upon their conceptualizations of ‘family.’ Active interviews with 32 women revealed most women started out with conceptualizations that reflected a traditional ideology of family. Participants who conceived biological children through medical assistance expressed a broader conceptualization of family through a greater appreciation for their children and family life in general. Women who did not conceive, despite medical assistance to do so, also discussed broadening their conceptualizations so that ‘family’ took on new meanings, structures, and/or significance. Conceptually, the analysis shows how notions of family are not static, but rather a fluid process subject to interpretation and re-evaluation as a result of life events, in this case, encounters with infertility.     

‘It’s not my problem’: exploring lecturers’ distancing behaviour towards students with disabilities

While conducting a qualitative study on the e-learning needs of students with disabilities at a South African university, the responses from some of the lecturers indicated that they distanced themselves from the responsibility of providing learner support to students with disabilities. These participants displayed a lack of involvement with the students and tended to transfer their responsibilities to support services on campus, such as the Unit for Students with Disabilities. In essence, this means that the creation of an inclusive learning environment at this campus remains elusive, thus frustrating the learning of students with disabilities in particular. Although the necessity of institutional policies is not refuted, we argue that personal responsibility is essential in bringing about inclusive campuses. Factors contributing to the shifting of responsibility will consequently be explored and ways in which lecturers can be supported to provide enriching learning experiences for all students will be suggested.     

Corporate protectors of state sovereignty: Mitsubishi’s and a Taiwan affiliate’s accounts of relations with Taiwan Aborigines

This paper compares two related corporations’ accounts of enacting sovereignty with Taiwan Aborigines. First, Mitsubishi corporate webpage histories constitute mythic origin narratives about how their patriotic founder, Yataro Iwasaki, helped the Japanese government transport munitions and troops to Taiwan in 1874 and the government rewarded him with 30 ships, starting their close relationship. These narratives about this state-centred assemblage omit why Japan sent the military expedition, which ostensibly was a punitive expedition against Paiwan Aborigines for the 1871 massacre of 54 Ryukyu Islanders, but was actually part of the new Meiji state’s annexation of the Ryukyu Islands. Second, it analyses the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines which was founded in 1994 by the wealthy chair of the Shung Ye Group, a Taiwan-based Mitsubishi-affiliated conglomerate. The museum is a private assemblage organized around hero narratives in which the chair demonstrates his patriotism by rescuing Taiwan Aborigines and their cultures. The museum contributes to the Taiwan-centred identity project which challenges One-China sovereignty claims over Taiwan.     

Empirical Applications of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior with Humans

In Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) provided a conceptual framework and taxonomy for the controlling variables of language that defined independent verbal operants by their functional relations to antecedents and consequences (rather than by topography or meaning). Although professional interest in this area has recently increased within the behavior analytic community, Skinner''s conceptual framework may not yet have fully impacted the experimental literature. This quantitative review of the literature examined the studies on verbal behavior that were empirical in nature, concerned with human verbal behavior, and addressed at least one verbal operant (e.g., mand, tact, echoic, autoclitic, and/or intraverbal behavior) within the experiment. The results of this review suggest that a growing body of research exists to support many of the tenets of Skinner''s conceptualization and taxonomy but many areas of verbal behavior research have yet to be addressed. Continued research in this area is crucial for the development and implementation of effective verbal behavior interventions for people with disabilities.     

Listening with/to Nature’s Voice: An Ethical Polyphony

I propose a holistic practice of interlistening (Lipari, 2014) with/to nature’s voice as an ethical eco-feminist intervention in the Western humanities that privilege speech acts (Corradi Fiumara, 1990, Location No. 15). As I discuss, this unfortunate cultural disengagement with listening as an object of desire is in fact a call of Western communicative praxis’ deep rooted disenfranchised grief, an inadequate and unrecognized pain of separation from the infant’s first point of connection, the mother’s voice. To address this loss, I offer that one attunes with/to nature’s fluid and nourishing voice much like Mladen Dolar’s (2006) idea of the acousmatic voice, the untraceable, material yet incorporeal sonic excess to re-enfranchise the mother’s lost voice in listening and imagine ethical communicative practices that welcome the Other.     

Algeria’s Trade with GAFTA Countries: A Synthetic Control Approach

Arab countries signed the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) agreement in 1998, while Algeria only joined in 2005. In this study, I investigate the counterfactual trade that Algeria would have had with its GAFTA trade partners had it joined the agreement in 1998. I employ synthetic control methods (SCM) in the context of the gravity approach to international trade to estimate this counterfactual outcome. The SCM creates the synthetic control unit based on a weighted average of the past characteristics and trade realizations of the countries that signed the GAFTA agreement and compares the counterfactual trade outcome against the actual outcome of the treated unit, Algeria in our case. Estimation results indicate that Algeria??s trade with nine GAFTA countries, covering more than 96?% of Algeria??s pre-treatment trade, would have improved if Algeria had signed the agreement in 1998.     

Editor’s Notes

CHINA has achieved great leaps in the 20 years since it launched itsreform. Economically it has reached a vital junction — the reform ofstate-owned enterprises. China is aiming to enable the majority of thelarge- or medium-sized state-owned enterprises to rid themselves of deficitand those serving as China's economic backbone to establish a modernenterprise system, all by the end of the century. This is the hard, urgent taskfacing the Chinese people. In this reform, women have given, and are stillgiving, an important contribution. Wang Hongming, General Manager of theShenyang Dawn Garments Group, provides a suitable focus for this issue.