Head movement during listening turns in conversation

In five subjects, head movement during conversation was monitored by polarised light goniometry, and recorded alongside speech and a signal proportional to peak amplitude of sound waves (peak loudness). Kinematic properties of listeners' head movements, such as amplitude, frequency and cyclicity, differentiated various conversational functions. That is, they were function-specific: symmetrical, cyclic movements were employed to signal yes, no or equivalents; linear, wide movements anticipated claims for speaking; narrow linear movements occurred in phase with stressed syllables in the other's speech (ynchrony movements); and wide, linear movements occurred during pauses in the other's speech. That, it is argued, bears upon the relation between thesignalling of communicative intentions and the synchronisation of interactional rhythm. Thus, the former appears to determine the timing and tempo of responses such as yes and no, while the latter determines the regulation of synchrony movements. The manner in which these factors interact in other conversational functions and their theoretical implications are discussed.     

The Effect of a Family Policy Reform on Mother’s Pay: A Natural Experiment Approach

All parents in Norway with children aged one to three, who do not attend publicly subsidised day care, are entitled to a cash-for-care (CFC) subsidy. Studies have shown that the reform has reduced mothers labour supply. In this paper we analyse wage effects of the reform. We put forward a framework for evaluating reforms when reforms are uniformly and equally accessible nation-wide. First, running a simple Difference in differences (DD) analysis, results suggest that the CFC reform has reduced the mothers wages. However, after controlling for the age of the child effect, by running a triple difference approach, we no longer find any evidence of negative wage effects.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the authors name and to the heading of table A2.     

Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distributions

This paper establishes the principles that should govern the welfare and inequality analysis of heterogeneous income distributions. Two basic criteria – the equity preference condition and the compensation principle – are shown to be fundamentally incompatible. The paper favours the latter, thereby vindicating the traditional method of dealing with heterogeneous samples. However, inequality and welfare comparisons will usually be well defined only if equivalent incomes are obtained using constant scale factors; and researchers will need to distinguish clearly between inequality of nominal incomes and inequality of living standards. Furthermore, household observations must always be weighted according to family size.     

Choice,freedom, and freedom of choice

This paper argues in favour of a distinction between freedom and freedom of choice – a distinction that economists and political philosophers have so far either ignored or drawn wrongly. Drawing the distinction correctly may help to resolve a number of disputes in contemporary political philosophy and non-welfarist normative economics regarding the so-called preference-based account of freedom and the relevance, to judgements about freedom, of degrees of similarity between agents options. The paper begins by setting out three much discussed axioms for the measurement of freedom (of choice?) originally put forward by Pattanaik and Xu. It is suggested that the problems these axioms give rise to can be solved by distinguishing correctly between freedom and freedom of choice. The paper then sets out definitions of freedom, choice and freedom of choice, justifying these in philosophical terms and arguing their superiority to alternative definitions. Finally, on the basis of these definitions and with reference to Pattanaik and Xus axioms, it is shown that an agent can enjoy freedom without enjoying freedom of choice, and that she can enjoy an increase in one of these without enjoying an increase in the other. For their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, I should like to thank Keith Dowding, Martin van Hees, Matthew Kramer, Marco Negri, Serena Olsaretti, Olof Page, Mario Ricciardi, Alan Ritter, Hillel Steiner, Kotaro Suzumura and audiences at seminars in Manchester, Palermo, Pavia and Oxford. I am grateful to the Italian Ministry for Higher Education (MURST) and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) for funding that facilitated the completion of the paper.     

Rethinking the science-policy nexus: from knowledge utilization and science technology studies to types of boundary arrangements

The relationship between political judgment and science-based expertise is a troubled one. In the media three cliché images compete. The business-as-usual political story is that, in spite of appearances to the contrary, politics is safely on top and experts are still on tap. The story told by scientists is that power-less but inventive scholars only speak truth to power. But there is plenty of room for a more cynical interpretation. It sees scientific advisers as following their own interests, unless better paid by other interests, and politicians as asking for advice only to support and legitimize their pre-formed political decisions. To the extent this cynical perspective gains ascendancy, politics and science lose credibility. If we think the three clichés cloak a more complex reality, we should embark upon a quest for other, possibly better models of the science/politics nexus. That is exactly the purpose of this article. Its claim is that a mutual transgression of the knowledge utilization strand of research in policy studies and the study of science, technology and society will provide us with more sophisticated images of science/politics boundary arrangements. Building upon Habermas well-known distinctions and Wittrocks historical-institutional approach in the construction of a property space, eight models are presented. We should try to discover the conditions under which some of these models may claim greater verisimilitude. This may allow us to rethink the role of scientific expertise in policymaking and generate a model that guides experts and policymakers (and perhaps other stakeholders as well) in their day-to-day boundary work.

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Zusammenfassung Die Beziehung zwischen politischem Urteil und wissenschaftlicher Expertise ist problematisch. In den Medien wetteifern heute drei Klischees dazu. Allem gegenteiligen Anschein zum Trotz ist die Sichtweise der Politik gewöhnlich, dass sie sicher alle Fäden in der Hand hält und die Experten auf Abruf bereitstehen. Wissenschaftler vertreten dagegen die Auffassung, sie seien machtlose, wenngleich erfindungsreiche Gelehrte, die lediglich den Mächtigen die Wahrheit sagen. Daneben ist jedoch reichlich Raum für eine zynischere Betrachtungsweise, nach der wissenschaftliche Berater ihre eigenen Interessen verfolgen, sofern andere Interessen sie nicht besser bezahlen, und Politiker nur solchen Rat suchen, der ihre vorgefassten politischen Entscheidungen stützt und legitimiert. In dem Maße, wie diese zynische Sicht die Oberhand gewinnt, verlieren Politik und Wissenschaft an Glaubwürdigkeit. Wenn wir jedoch meinen, dass diese drei Klischees eine komplexere Realität verhüllen, dann sollten wir nach anderen, möglicherweise besseren Modellen für den Nexus zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik suchen. Genau darauf zielt dieser Artikel ab. Wir behaupten, dass ein beidseitiges Überschreiten des Forschungsansatzes zur Wissensanwendung in den Politikwissenschaften und in der wissenschaftlichen Betrachtung von Naturwissenschaft, Technologie und Gesellschaft hochauflösendere Bilder von den Verhältnissen an der Grenze zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik liefert. Wir präsentieren acht Modelle, aufbauend auf Habermas bekannten Unterscheidungen und Wittrocks historisch-instutionellem Ansatz zur Konstruktion eines Eigenschaftsraums. Wir sollten nach den Bedingungen suchen, unter denen manche dieser Modelle eine größere Wahrheitsnähe für sich beanspruchen können. Dies könnte uns ermöglichen, die Rolle wissenschaftlicher Expertise bei politischen Entscheidungsprozessen neu zu überdenken und ein Modell zu schaffen, an dem sich Experten und politische Entscheidungsträger (und vielleicht auch andere Beteiligte) in ihrer täglichen Arbeit im fraglichen Grenzbereich orientieren können.

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Résumé La relation entre le jugement politique et lexpertise à fondement scientifique est problématique. Dans les médias, trois clichés se disputent la première place. Même si les apparences indiquent le contraire, le langage du monde politique montre que ce dernier tient les rênes et que les experts doivent répondre à lappel. Le message diffusé par les scientifiques consiste à dire quils sont des érudits certes sans pouvoir mais ingénieux, qui se contentent de «dire la vérité aux puissants». Mais ceci laisse assez de place à une interprétation plus cynique, suivant laquelle les conseillers scientifiques poursuivent leurs propres intérêts, à moins que dautres intérêts ne les rémunèrent mieux; et les hommes politiques ne leur demandent leur avis que pour étayer et légitimer les décisions politiques quils ont déjà prises. La politique et la science perdent de leur crédibilité à mesure que cette vision cynique gagne du terrain. Si nous pensons que ces trois clichés cachent une réalité plus complexe, il nous faudra chercher dautres modèles, meilleurs si possible, pour la connexion entre science et politique. Tel est exactement lobjectif de cet article. Il affirme quune transgression mutuelle des filières dutilisation du savoir dans la recherche en sciences politiques et létude de la science, de la technologie et de la socièté nous fournira un tableau plus complexe des rapports en présence sur les lignes de démarcation entre science et politique. Il présente huit modèles sur la base des distinctions bien connues dHabermas et de lapproche historico-institutionnelle de Wittrock sur la construction dun espace de propriété. Nous devrions rechercher les conditions dans lesquelles certains de ces modèles peuvent se targuer dêtre très vraisemblables. Ceci nous permettrait de repenser le rôle de lexpertise scientifique dans la production politique et de créer un modèle capable de guider les experts et les politiques (et peut-être aussi dautres intéressés) dans leur travail quotidien aux frontières de ces deux domaines.

     

Brief Communications: Treating Problem Gamblers: A Residential Therapy Approach

The Gordon House Association (GHA) is the UK's only specialist and dedicated residential facility for problem gamblers. This paper describes the GHA therapeutic programme which is centred round a nine-month period of residency. Progression through the programme is described by overviewing each of the phases. These are initial assessment and five distinct phases comprising coping with today (Phase One), coping with yesterday (Phase Two), coping with change (Phase Three), coping with tomorrow (Phase Four), and coping on my own (Phase Five). These phases are themselves underpinned within the GHA core therapeutic approach which is also described.     

Addiction to fruit machines: A preliminary study among young males

Although most sources treat gambling as an adult phenomenon, adolescent gambling is more widespread than is generally recognized, and in some cases may even be pathological. This paper outlines a preliminary study of eight adolescents addicted to playing and gambling on coin-in-the-slot machines (more commonly known as fruit machines). Factors involved in the onset of fruit machine playing are examined along with their alternative gambling activities and associated problems. The role of skill and excitement components in persistent playing are also discussed.The author would like to thank the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a research studentship.     

Ethnography as Translation

Sociologists and anthropologists often struggle over how to accurately convey ethnographic data from the field setting to a final report. This paper examines ethnography as a form of translation in order to clarify what occurs between the acquisition of data and the formulation of a thesis about the data. The paper argues that the ethnographers mind should be seen as a transitional space which in the act of translating field data into an analytic report (1) poses unique challenges to ethnographys claims for providing an accurate account of field situations while (2) simultaneously offering paths to insight which quantitative and survey research can not.     

The Dodgson ranking and its relation to Kemeny’s method and Slater’s rule

In this paper we provide a binary extension of Dodgsons non-binary preference aggregation rule. This new aggregation rule is then compared to two other rules which, as Dodgsons rule, are also explicitly based on distance functions, namely Kemenys and Slaters rule. It is shown that the alternative which is top ranked by any of those rules can occur at any position in the Dodgson ranking.I am very grateful to Nick Baigent, Daniel Eckert and the participants of the CEPET 2002 Workshop in Udine and the Graz University Research Seminar for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. It goes without saying that any remaining errors are exclusively the authors responsibility.     

The instability of robust aggregation

Levis robust aggregation suggests a generalization of the standard ex ante mode of aggregating individuals expected utilities into a social choice function. This generalization applies some social choice rule not only to the actual individuals but also to hypothetical individuals with all possible combinations of the actual individuals probabilities and utilities. We show that robust aggregation can lead to preference reversals in the social choice when the very same decision situation is described with different degrees of detail, thus violating a desirable stability condition. We also show that any stable robust social choice rule must collapse back into the ex ante mode without recourse to hypothetical individuals. Under sufficient conditions, such as strong Pareto optimality, robust aggregation even leads to an infinite series of reversals in group choices. By contrast, stability is ubiquitous in the standard ex ante mode and is closely related to independence of irrelevant alternatives.I wish to thank Christs College, Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology for their generous financial and academic support. I am grateful to three anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I am much indebted to Isaac Levi, Philippe Mongin and Teddy Seidenfeld for their help and encouragement.     

Welfarist-consequentialism,similarity of attitudes,and Arrow’s general impossibility theorem

Two features of Arrows social choice theory are critically scrutinized. The first feature is the welfarist-consequentialism, which not only bases social judgements about right or wrong actions on the assessment of their consequences, but also assesses consequences in terms of peoples welfare and nothing else. The second feature is a similarity of peoples attitudes towards social outcomes as a possible resolvent of the Arrow impossibility theorem. Two extended frameworks, one consequentialist and the other non-consequentialist, are developed. Both frameworks are shown to admit some interesting resolutions of Arrows general impossibility theorem, which are rather sharply contrasting with Arrows own perspective.     

Non-government development organisations and the grassroots in Peru

This paper examines the long-term grassroots empowerment strategies endorsed by non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs) in Lima, Peru and their application in concrete development programmes. An examination of NGDO literature and projects permits the synthesis of three ideal-typical empowerment strategies (Neo-Marxist, Neo-Anarchist, Coalition-Building). These strategies are described and compared, especially with respect to their diverging conceptions on processes of botton-up development, the characterisation of grassroots mobilisation and the role of the state and political parties. These differences, however, tend to be compromised once actual advocacy work with the grassroots is contemplated, when development projects have to deal with the micro-mobilisation patterns of the poor and the political conjuncture. Several interpretations of the contradiction between idealtypical strategies and actual advocacy tactics are discussed, concluding that such contradictions are inherent to any political process based on grassroots empowerment and a bottom-up agenda.     

Ideology and welfare in the UK: the implications for the voluntary sector

The UK has, over recent years, moved from a welfare state to a more market-oriented system of welfare. But the extent of this change has varied considerably according to the ideological position of local government in different parts of the country. This makes it possible within one country to assess the implications for the voluntary sector of different models of welfare. This article develops a framework for looking at different welfare ideologies and the values they espouse, with reference both to the UK and to the models that exist in other countries. It then takes four examples of UK local authorities which demonstrate the different models and examines the implications for the voluntary sector. In doing so, it examines the prospects for the voluntary sector to deliver both service and political pluralism in the future.     

Assessing success and decisiveness in voting situations

In this paper we propose a simple model for measuring success or decisiveness in voting situations. For an assessment of these features two inputs are claimed to be necessary: the voting rule and the voters behavior. The voting rule specifies when a proposal is to be accepted or rejected depending on the resulting vote configuration. Voting behavior is summarized by a distribution of probability over the vote configurations. This basic model provides a clear common conceptual basis for reinterpreting different power indices and some related game theoretic notions coherently from a unified point of view.The authors would like to thank to M. Braham, M. Machover, N. Megiddo and F. Steffen, for their comments, and to J. F. Mertens for pointing out a misstatement, in all cases referring to previous versions of this paper. This research has been supported by the DGES of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura under project PB96-0247, by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología under project BEC2000-0875, and by the Universidad del País Vasco under project UPV/EHU00031.321-HA-7918/2000. The first author also acknowledges the financial support from a postdoctoral grant from the Basque Government (2000–2001) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología under the Ramón y Cajal Program.     

Factors Contributing to Parents’ Preparation For Special-Needs Adoption

Three hundred and sixty-eight parents shared their perceptions of special-needs adoption preparation. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data to determine and understand what factors contribute to preparation, this study found that 12 child, family, and agency variables were correlated with perceived preparation, and that parents perceived level of preparation was predicted by the childs ability to attach, by the parents relationship with the agency, by the duration of the adoption, and by the parents ages at the time of adoption. Implications of these findings are discussed, as they relate to supporting parents, children, and families in special-needs adoptive placements.     

Brief Report: Thin Slices of Racial Bias

The present work examined the detection of racial bias through thin slices of nonverbal behavior. Thirty Black and 30 White American judges rated the nonverbal behavior displayed by White individuals from 20-seconds of silent videotape of an interaction with either a Black or a White confederate. Correlations between judges nonverbal ratings and targets scores on a response latency measure of racial bias (i.e., Implicit Association Test, IAT) as well as on a self-report racial bias measure (i.e., Affective Prejudice Scale) were obtained. Results revealed that relative to White judges, Black judges nonverbal behavioral ratings were better predictors of both White individuals IAT and explicit racial bias scores, but only if those targets were engaged in an interracial dyad. The results are consistent with recent research finding that subtle forms of racial bias leak through nonverbal behavior, as well as with work noting the predictive accuracy of judgments made from thin-slices of nonverbal behavior.Jennifer A. Richeson and J. Nicole Shelton. Jennifer A. Richeson, Dartmouth College; J. Nicole Shelton, Princeton University. This research was supported by a Rockefeller Center Faculty Fellowship from Dartmouth College awarded to JR, as well as a research grant from Princeton University awarded to JNS. We thank Sue Paik, Lisa Pugh, Kurt Peters, and Leigh Poretzky for help with data collection and stimulus preparation.     

Only sane: Autistic barriers in “boring” patients

This paper addresses needs of patients whom Winnicott called boring. Although often functioning well in the work world, they lack a rich inner life and a capacity for intimacy. Thus, psychotherapy is particularly problematic for them. To develop a model for working with this group of patients, the authors elaborate the concept of autistic barriers from British object relations theory, and suggest a changing role for the therapist in four successive phases of the treatment.     

Gender and Community Context: An Analysis of Husbands’ Household Authority in Rural Guatemala

Drawing on research about womens autonomy, gender, and development, and Latin America, I analyze individual, household, and community-level factors associated with husbands sole authority with regard to four household issues: (1) money management; decision-making about (2) food purchases, (3) medicine purchases, and (4) health providers. The results point to how husbands authority varies across household issues and how the dynamics of authority differ with regard to money management and the other decision-making issues studied. This study found that husbands authority varied not only by individual characteristics but also by community features and thus adds to efforts to represent more fully how context matters to household gender relations.     

Voluntary welfare associations in Germany and the United States: these on the historical development of intermediary systems

This research note presents several comparative theses on the historical development of voluntary and non-profit welfare associations in Germany and the United States. The major argument is that voluntary and non-profit associations in both countries share one common root: the secularisation and socio-political consequences of the enlightenment. However, voluntary welfare associations in Germany and the United States have developed along radically different lines, due to their distinct political embeddedness in society. Following periods of divergence in which the German voluntary action emphasised state orientation, and its American counterpart market orientation, the two countries have entered a new period of convergence.This paper emanates from an ongoing project at the University of Bremen, which analyses the history of social welfare in the city of Bremen. In 1989, as senior fellow in philanthropy at the Institute for Policy Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, I explored the private social welfare system in the United States, in particular comparing the results of former research on Germany with my studies in the United States. I am indebted to Kathleen D. McCarthy (New York), Helmut K. Anheier (Vienna/New Brunswick), Juergen Blandow (Bremen), Lester M. Salamon (Baltimore), Jon Van Til (Camden), Stanley Wenocur (Baltimore), and Manfred M. Wambach (Bremen) for their advice and encouragement. Grants from the Research Commission of the University of Bremen, the Fellowship in Philanthropy Programme of the Institute for Policy Studies, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States are gratefully acknowledged.     

Non-welfaristic theories of justice: Is “the intersection approach” a solution to the indexing impasse?

Rawls (1971, 1993) suggests that a primary goods index should be the basis for interpersonal comparisons in a theory of justice, but it is well known that in general this approach is not compatible with the Pareto principle. This is the indexing impasse. Sen (1985, 1991) argues that this is partly due to the fact that the approach does not take note of the citizens orderings of these bundles of valuable objects. He suggests an intersection approach, which is an incomplete approach to interpersonal comparisons based on judgements that are shared implications of the relevant set of weighting schemes. In this paper, we show that the intersection approach does not provide any solution to the indexing impasse. Unless the individuals have identical preferences, the intersection approach is incompatible with the Pareto principle. This paper originates from the second chapter of Brun (1998). An earlier version was presented at a conference on Non Welfaristic Issues in Normative Economics at the University of Caen in June 1999, and we should like to thank the participants at the conference for their discussion of the paper. Moreover, we are grateful to Geir B.Asheim, Alexander Cappelen, Kåre P. Hagen, Aanund Hylland, Marc Fleurbaey, John Roemer, Eivind Stensholt, Gaute Torsvik, and an anonymous referee for valuable comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.