THE QUANTITATIVE IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS IN DEVELOPMENT

This paper deals with a classic development question: how can the process of economic development—transition from stagnation in a traditional technology to industrialization and prosperity with a modern technology—be accelerated? Lewis (1954) and Rostow (1956) argue that the pace of industrialization is limited by the rate of capital formation which in turn is limited by the savings rate of workers close to subsistence. We argue that access to capital goods in the world market can be quantitatively important in speeding up the transition. We develop a parsimonious open‐economy model where traditional and modern technologies coexist (a dual economy in the sense of Lewis 1954). We show that a decline in the world price of capital goods in an open economy increases the rate of capital formation and speeds up the pace of industrialization relative to a closed economy that lacks access to cheaper capital goods. In the long run, the investment rate in the open economy is twice as high as in the closed economy and the per capita income is 23% higher. (JEL O11, F43, O14)     

Political Participation of Local Publics in the Unemployment Field: A Comparison of Lyon and Turin

This article focuses on political participation of local publics in the unemployment field, examining networks of collective actors in Lyon and Turin. Our main question is: Is the participation of local publics fostered under conditions of more developed governance that increases bottom-up access (formal or informal) to elites and institutions in the policy domain? Drawing upon the most recent developments in literatures on social movement theory, governance and network analysis, this article discusses the main variations in terms of political participation of local publics in Lyon and Turin. It then enquires into the main explanatory factors accounting for these variations, thus showing that the openness of governance does influence the level of political participation of local publics. The main argument is that in an open context participation is low, while in a closed (or underdeveloped) context local publics participate more, with differential access to decision-making according to their resources.     

Public access in the West European countryside: a comparative survey

This comparative study employs the concept of physical rigour to map and measure recreational routes and zones available to the public. The comparison is made for 15 representative countryside districts in four national settings (Great Britain, West Germany, France, and Benelux). Three of the districts are national parks, while the others are 40 × 25 km settled areas chosen to typify the physical and human landscape of their region. Statistical measures of access availability are computed for five levels of access rigour, grading from passive through to arduous. Road or ‘passive’ access is most prevalent in settled districts of West Germany and France, while footpaths providing casual access are most plentiful in West Germany and Benelux. Off-route lands open to the public are most common in sparsely settled upland areas. Polynomial regressions show that both amplitude of relief and type of land cover influence the availability of access types. However, land-use intensity is the strongest determinant of the access regime in all except mountainous areas. Although not investigated statistically, regional and national variations in access availability may be related to the history of land apportionment and to legal/customary constraints on public access. These help to explain exceptionally low degrees of access in Great Britain.     

IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF OPEN ACCESS ON CITATIONS USING A PANEL OF SCIENCE JOURNALS

An open‐access journal allows free online access to its articles, obtaining revenue from fees charged to submitting authors or from institutional support. Using panel data on science journals, we are able to circumvent problems plaguing previous studies of the impact of open access on citations. In contrast to the huge effects found in these previous studies, we find a more modest effect: moving from paid to open access increases cites by 8% on average in our sample. The benefit is concentrated among top‐ranked journals. In fact, open access causes a statistically significant reduction in cites to the bottom‐ranked journals in our sample, leading us to conjecture that open access may intensify competition among articles for readers' attention, generating losers as well as winners. (JEL L17, O33)     

Attachment Style,Rules Regarding Sex,and Couple Satisfaction: A Study of Gay Male Couples

This article explores the characteristics of open and closed relationships in 170 gay men according to their levels of satisfaction, their attachment styles, and the rules of having sex outside their relationships for open couples. We found no significant difference between open or closed relationships in levels of satisfaction or attachment styles. However, we found that gay men in open relationships who have explicit rules about having sex with other men are significantly more satisfied that those gay men with no rules. A content analysis of the rules is presented and implications for therapy are drawn from the findings.     

Shorebirds and stakeholders: Effects of beach closure and human activities on shorebirds at a New Jersey coastal beach

Coastal habitats are critical for conservation of migrant shorebirds. We examined the effect of beach closure on recreationists and on shorebirds, at an important southbound stopover area for shorebirds at Brigantine, New Jersey. The study had three prongs: 1) involve stakeholders during all phases, 2) assess public use of the beach and responses to closure, and 3) assess shorebird use of the beach and response to closure. Stakeholders were involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of the project. The beach was used for fishing, walking, dog-walking, and other recreational activities. Sixty percent of recreationists were positive about the study and beach closure to protect shorebirds. The data indicate that: 1) involving a wide range of stakeholders early and often was important to our ability to conduct, design, and implement the study, 2) the beach was used by different types of recreationists 3) beach users were supportive of the closure, 4) spatial use by shorebirds depended upon whether the beach was open or closed, especially for red knot, and 5) all species of shorebirds used a small beach area behind a protective fence whether the beach was open or closed. Red knot behavior was most affected by beach closure; they spread out over the entire beach when it was closed, and concentrated at the tip when it was open. Conservation measures should take into account stakeholders views, human uses, beach physiognomy, and potential closure of refuge areas during critical migration times for shorebirds.     

The dialectics of open versus closed adoption of infants

The controversy concerning open versus closed adoption is mired in theoretical dialectics and cannot be resolved without longitudinal research. Adoptive parents and biological parents should be given the choice of participating in open or closed adoptions.     

The effects of adoption openness and type on the mental health,delinquency, and family relationships of adopted youth

ABSTRACT

Analyzing the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents, this study examines the impact of open adoption, demographics, and other factors on adopted children’s mental health, delinquent behavior, and family relationships. Specifically, we compare findings for youth in private and public (i.e., foster care) adoptions and identify key similarities and differences between predictors of children’s well-being across these two types of adoption. We find that youth in open foster care adoptions are more likely to receive an attachment disorder diagnosis than those in closed foster care adoptions but are also more likely to have family relationships characterized by trust and adoptive parents’ willingness to recommend adoption to others. Further, we find children in both public and private adoptions who are older at placement are more likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder diagnoses. For children in private adoptions, no statistically significant predictors affected youths’ delinquency outcomes or family relationships, with the exception of parents of private adoptees in households characterized by lower levels of poverty indicating they would be more likely to recommend adoption to others. The implications of the key findings are discussed with regard to service provision for multiple types of adoptive families.     

The Impact of Hukou Status on Migrants' Employment: Findings from the 1997 Beijing Migrant Census1

This article uses new data to analyze whether the 1990s brought a change in terms of migrants' access to urban jobs. The November 1997 “Beijing Migrant Census” provides a unique data set that enables a quantitative assessment of non‐locally registered migrants' access to the formal sector, and more specifically to “white‐collar” occupations. The results show that a university degree and a nonagricultural registration status are both means of increasing access to employment in the formal sector. The “formal” sector is defined as employment with five types of large, relatively stable employers — government organizations, state‐owned enterprises, joint ventures, shareholding enterprises, and enterprises owned/invested in by foreign, Hong Kong, or Taiwanese capital (San Zi). White collar jobs, in particular, are only available to migrants with a university degree, with hukou status having a limited relative effect. This article shows that qualified migrants are penetrating the formal job market while the majority of migrants are still taking low level jobs in the informal sector. This dichotomy represents a recent change that could reflect a new stream of migrants and/or more open urban employment. At the same time, the continuing segregation or marginalization of most migrants is clearly evident from the data.     

Newborns' Perceptual Categorization for Closed and Open Geometric Forms

This study explored newborns' ability to perceive perceptual similarities between different exemplars of 2 broad classes of simple shapes: closed and open geometric forms. Three experiments were carried out using a visual paired‐comparison task. Evidence showed that, after familiarization either to closed‐shaped or to open‐shaped forms, newborns manifested a novelty preference for a novel‐category rather than for a familiar‐category exemplar (Experiment 1). This result could not be explained either as a consequence of the newborns' inability to discriminate between instances of the same category of simple geometric forms (Experiment 2), or as a consequence of a spontaneous preference for the novel‐category exemplars (Experiment 3). Overall, findings revealed that newborns are able to form broad categories of distinguishable geometric shapes by relying on the shapes' perceptual similarity.     

Comparison of open versus closed group interventions for sexually abused adolescent girls

A first aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an open group therapy for sexually abused teenagers using a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest treatment design. A second aim was to explore whether differential gains were linked to an open versus a closed group format. Results indicate that sexually abused girls involved in an open group therapy showed significant gains relative to teenagers of the control group girls for the majority of the variables considered. Analyses contrasting the two formats of group therapy fail to identify statistical differences suggesting that both open and closed group formats are likely to be associated with the same significant gains for sexually abused teenagers.     

The Merton Theorem Revisited and Restated: Conservatism and Fascism as Functional Analogues

The paper revisits and restates the Merton Theorem of American religious conservatism (Puritanism) and European fascism (Nazism) as functional analogues. The original formulation the Merton Theorem identifies and describes them as functional analogues in nativism or nationalism through exclusion of and aggression against non-native out-groups. The paper offers an extended restatement of the Merton Theorem in which American conservatism and European fascism function as functional analogues in that both represent the model of a closed, or the antithesis to an open, society, of which nativism is a special case. In the extended Merton Theorem they are functional analogues specifically in terms of such indicators or dimensions of a closed society as political absolutism, closure and oppression, religious absolutism and nihilism, moral absolutism and repression, and extremism.     

The economic importance of air travel in high-amenity rural areas

The western United States offers a case study on the importance of access to large population centers and their markets, via road and air travel, for economic development. The vast distances between towns and cities in the American West can be a detriment to business, yet they also serve to attract technology and knowledge-based workers seeking to live in a picturesque setting. In spite of the increasing importance of amenities to migration and business location, also needed is access to markets, particularly via commercial air service. We test a new county classification system for the western United States to reflect differing degrees of access to population centers and account for the increasing importance of airports. Past classifications are based on population size and cross-county commuting. We examine the validity of this new classification and test for differences in economic performance among the three county types. Our findings show that there are three distinct Wests that can be classified using economic performance measures and socioeconomic characteristics. The results show that “metro” and “isolated” counties are clearly distinct, but “connected” counties, those that are rural in nature but have ready access to metropolitan areas via air travel, can be difficult to distinguish from “metro” and “isolated” counties. Much of the variation is explained by travel distance to airports. The findings illustrate the importance of airports in rural development, and the limitations facing those communities that are isolated from markets and population centers. The results apply to other parts of the world with similar characteristics that include large expanses of open space, natural amenities that attract migrants and stimulate new business, and different degrees of access to large population centers via road or air travel, and therefore different rates of economic growth.     

On continuity of incomplete preferences

A weak (strict) preference relation is continuous if it has a closed (open) graph; it is hemicontinuous if its upper and lower contour sets are closed (open). If preferences are complete these four conditions are equivalent. Without completeness continuity in each case is stronger than hemicontinuity. This paper provides general characterizations of continuity in terms of hemicontinuity for weak preferences that are modeled as (possibly incomplete) preorders and for strict preferences that are modeled as strict partial orders. Some behavioral implications associated with the two approaches are also discussed.     

A longitudinal analysis of the effects of open enrollment on equity and academic achievement: Evidence from Minneapolis,Minnesota

Open enrollment was expected to provide students in urban school settings with equal opportunity to access schools with abundant educational resources that led to improved student achievement. The One-way ANOVA and Linear Mixed Models used a propensity score matching method were administered to identify to what extent urban students utilized inter-district open enrollment in a Midwestern city and to compare their performances on standardized tests before and after the school transfer had occurred. The results indicated that open enrollment provided black students and students in the child welfare system with equal access to racially and socioeconomically integrated schools. However, these students' academic performance was not significantly enhanced by their open enrollment, except the 3rd grade student achievement in math. The results raised questions about the characteristics of open enrollment. Recommendations for future research are made; study limitations are addressed.     

Communities of practice: Legitimacy not choice

Communities of practice has emerged as an alternative to other current sociolinguistic models such as speech communities and social networks, particularly in the area of language and gender. The valorization of non‐linguistic behaviours as adding further explanatory power to sociolinguistic models is timely: it has often been implicit in linguistic study (through ethnography) but rarely been given recognition. However, the types of self‐constituting communities of interest to sociolinguists are not the same as the communities of learning studied by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) . If this construct is to be useful to sociolinguists, then the mechanisms by which it models access, gate‐keeping and its internal hierarchy need development. Using Eckert's (2000) Belten High data, and other work on adolescent talk, it is argued that gaining legitimate peripheral participation is a matter of sanction from within the hierarchy. Individuals do not have open access to communities based solely on their desire to be part of that community and to take part in its practices. While practices may define the community, the community determines who has access to that practice.     

Mutualism,resource competition and opposing movements among Turkish organizations in Amsterdam and Berlin, 1965–2000

This article seeks to understand environmental effects on associational interdependencies, be they competitive or collaborative, in a polarized organizational population. To do so, it builds on the density‐dependent model and the ecology of ideologies. Especially interested in the effect of context on density‐dependent processes, I compare different Turkish ideological movements in Amsterdam and Berlin. Amsterdam represents an open and supportive environment for such movements, whereas Berlin constitutes a more closed and hostile one. By analysing the founding and disbanding rates of Turkish immigrant organizations in Amsterdam and Berlin during the period 1965–2000, the article demonstrates how the increasing density of Turkish ideologies has affected interdependencies in two main ways: by heightening competition, particularly between ideologically similar organizations, and by increasing counter activities between opposing movements. It also shows that the influence of context is limited. An open environment does not significantly influence the vitality rates of ideologies or further collaboration among or between them. On the contrary, it seemingly increases competition and fragmentation because more resources and opportunities are available. More signs of collaboration and mutualism are found in Berlin's closed environment.     

Gender and Performance Capital among Local Musicians

This article extends Bourdieu’s field theory to explain how learning spaces in the Toronto folk and metal scenes create gendered access to a field-specific form of cultural capital: performance capital, or the instrumental and interpersonal skills required to perform music. Folk musicians develop performance capital in open-access spaces, such as workshops and open stages at local folk clubs, while metal musicians learn in private spaces such as garages, basements, and rented rehearsal rooms. Folk’s learning spaces are open to all aspiring musicians, while access to heavy metal’s learning spaces relies on social networks from which women are often excluded. These different processes of capital development can lead to greater or lesser opportunities for women to become cultural producers: In Toronto, women make up approximately five percent of heavy metal musicians, but almost half of practicing folk musicians.     

The weakness of tie strength

The relationship between network structure and access to novel information has fascinated social scientists for decades, culminating in the recent identification of the bandwidth-diversity tradeoff. Yet, existing work focuses on a unidimensional conception of network ties that leaves many important sources of novel information unexplored. We unpack bandwidth, identifying three factors that govern the transmission behavior of network ties: capacity (the ability of a tie to transmit content), frequency (the average time between tie activations), and redundancy (the extent to which a tie reaches persons who are connected to each other). Empirical analyses and simulation models reveal new types of ties, as well as the conventional variety, that open promising research avenues.