Biotechnology: Movers,Shakers, Winners,Losers

Book reviewed in this article: Biotechnology and Developing Country Agriculture: The Case of Maize. By Carliene Brenner Agricultural Biotechnology: Opportunities for International Development. Edited by Gabrielle J. Persley Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology: Economic and Social Aspects. Edited by E.J. Da Silva, C. Ratledge and A. Sasson     

Winners and Losers: Segmenting a Casino Loyalty Programme

Abstract

As the competition within the gaming industry continues to grow exponentially, casinos are using players club programmes as a key component of their marketing and loyalty programmes. This study investigates the relationships between casino players’ club programmes and its members. Through the use of data collected from a mail survey of 3,000 players’ club members, analyses were conducted to explore the impacts of these programmes on the creation of behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. The findings suggest fnr a number of loyalty programme members, these programmes have little impact on creating loyalty and their subsequent gaming behaviour.     

Modern Multi-line Slot Machine Games: The Effect of Lines Wagered on Winners,Losers, Bonuses,and Losses Disguised as Wins

We simulated the commercially available multi-line slot machine game “Money Storm,” including its bonus wins. Our results show that after a specified amount of time (such as 1 or 50 h), when players played a single line, there were marked differences between one player and the next—a few won a lot, others lost far more than average. When playing 20 lines there were fewer big winners and fewer players quickly losing a large percentage of their money. We simulated a Gambler’s Ruin scenario whereby players arrived with $100 and made $1 wagers until broke. Again we saw a reduction in the variability among player as the number of lines wagered increased, fewer players lost their entire bankroll quickly, and fewer players had big wins. The bonus wins in Money Storm contribute approximately 24 % to the payback of the game, and our simulations of bonus wins shows that with 20 lines wagered the players spend approximately 11 % of their time in bonus wins. With one line wagered, there are no losses disguised as wins while with 20 lines wagered the majority of hits are losses disguised as wins. Players using multi-line machines can thus tune the characteristics of the machine gambling experience to match their preferred pattern, though most seem in practice to bet on the most possible lines. Our results serve to inform researchers, counsellors, gamblers and others about how slot machines are designed, and the effect that wagering on multiple lines has on short-term and long-term play, bonus wins, and losses disguised as wins.     

Welfare and Welfare to Work in the United States

Summary

Despite social work's historic ambivalence toward income support programs, the policy changes introduced by the TANF welfare to work program demand the profession's attention. Although social workers are not directly responsible for the administration or implementation of the program, many serve TANF clients whose lives have been affected by these changes. Tracing social work's historic but reluctant involvement with income support, this paper urges the profession to respond to the challenges posed by the TANF program in a more systematic way and to contribute more effectively to the wider task of poverty eradication.     

Democrats, Dictators, and Demonstrators

Using a data set of democratic movements and democratic transitions that took place between 1960 and 1990, I investigate the implications for economic growth of these events. There are two comparisons of interest: successful democratic movements to movements that are repressed, and successful democratic movements to democratic transitions that occurred without such movements. None of these events has a positive effect on economic growth.     

Maternal Functioning, Time, and Money: The World of Work and Welfare

Numerous studies have assessed families' employment and financial stability following welfare reform. Yet little research has addressed whether welfare and work transitions are linked with other changes in family functioning. Using a representative sample of approximately 2,000 low-income urban families from the Three-City Study, analyses assessed whether mothers' welfare and employment experiences over a two-year period following welfare reform were related to changes in family well-being. Lagged regression models controlling for family characteristics and earlier levels of functioning found that moving into employment and stable employment (of 30 hours or more per week) were linked to substantial increases in income and improvements in mothers' psychological well-being. Movements into employment also were associated with declines in financial strain and food insecurity. Sustained or initiated welfare receipt was related to relative declines in income, physical health, and psychological well-being, but also to improved access to medical care. In contrast, mothers' welfare and work experiences showed very limited relations to changes in the quality of parenting or of children's home environments. These patterns were similar for families with young children and those with adolescent children. Results suggest that parenting behaviors are more resistant to change than are maternal emotional and economic functioning.     

Re‐thinking Disability,Work and Welfare

There is a wealth of evidence that disabled people experience far higher levels of unemployment and underemployment than non‐disabled peers. Yet hitherto sociologists have paid scant attention to the structural causes of this issue. Drawing on a socio/political or social model of disability perspective this paper argues for a reconfiguration of the meaning of disability and work in order to address this problem. It is also suggested that such a strategy will make a significant contribution to the struggle for a fairer and equitable global society.     

Family Well-Being Between Work,Care and Welfare Politics

Summary

This article examines how policy-relevant aspects such as gender equality, work load and relationship qualities affect family well-being. The analysis aims at identifying the constellation of factors that can explain family life satisfaction using data drawn from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Despite the fact that Norwegian welfare policies have a strong emphasis on supporting gender equality and mothers'employment, the study finds a gendered pattern in parents'work and family lives. Family well-being is shown to be influenced by family internal factors, such as time pressure, the quality of close relations, and level of conflict. This in turn provides input for national policy-making.     

Welfare State Transformation, Childcare, and Women's Work in Russia

The paper analyzes the transformation of the Russian welfarestate during the transition period, through the prism of formalcare provision in three distinct categories: childcare services,maternity/parental leave provisions, and in-home caregivingand other family allowances— in both Soviet and post-Sovietperiods. It shows that, since the 1990s, Russia has undergonesignificant structural reforms of its social, political, andeconomic systems, including childcare. Such reforms were notlimited to changes in the welfare state, but also included deepideological changes. These changes involved a transformationin the Russian welfare regime, leading towards a neofamilialistmodel of care. The paper illustrates the implications of thenew childcare policy mix on the position of women in the labormarket, utilizing the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Surveydata.     

“Losers” and “Winners” Within an Intertwin Dyad: A Case of a Twinship Selfobject Relationship of a Twin

This paper reports on and discusses a relationship involving the selfobject function of twinship in the case of an adult patient who is a twin. This study shows that the intense twinship the patient formed with her sister when they were children, although providing positive functions, also contributed to developmental problems regarding differentiation and the formation of secure self-boundaries.     

Welfare to Work in the United Kingdom

Summary

Increasing employment and reducing child poverty are two central goals of current government welfare reform policy in the UK, and single parentswith their relatively low employment rates and relatively high poverty ratesare one of the key target groups for both. This article outlines welfare reform policies in the UK with particular reference to single parents, and discusses the impact of these. In doing so, it highlights some key differences compared with the US.     

Juggling Paradoxes Commentary on the Work or Jessica Benjamin

Jessica Benjamin's contributions have exerted an enormous influence on contemporary psychoanalytic thought in general and on me in particular. I consider here some of the concepts basic to her approach that 1 find most helpful: recognition, identification and identificatory love, and gender overinclusiveness. I then point to the ways in which overinclusiveness in retaining certain lines of theorizing poses occasional problems for me.