Like Mother(-in-Law) Like Daughter? Influence of the Older Generation’s Fertility Behaviours on Women’s Desired Family Size in Bihar,India

This paper investigates the associations between preferred family size of women in rural Bihar, India and the fertility behaviours of their mother and mother-in-law. Scheduled interviews of 440 pairs of married women aged 16–34 years and their mothers-in-law were conducted in 2011. Preferred family size is first measured by Coombs scale, allowing us to capture latent desired number of children and then categorized into three categories (low, medium and high). Women’s preferred family size is estimated using ordered logistic regression. We find that the family size preferences are not associated with mother’s fertility but with mother’s education. Mother-in-law’s desired number of grandchildren is positively associated with women’s preferred family size. However, when the woman has higher education than her mother-in-law, her preferred family size gets smaller, suggesting that education provides women with greater autonomy in their decision-making on childbearing.     

Who intermarries in Britain? Explaining ethnic diversity in intermarriage patterns

This paper investigates trends, patterns and determinants of intermarriage (and partnership) comparing patterns among men and women and among different ethnic groups in Britain. We distinguish between endogamous (co‐ethnic), majority/minority and minority/minority marriages. Hypotheses are derived from the theoretical literatures on assimilation, segmented assimilation and opportunity structures. The empirical analysis is based on the 1988–2006 General Household Surveys (N = 115,494). Consistent with assimilation theory we find that, for all ethnic minority groups, the propensity to intermarry is higher in the second generation than in the first. Consistent with ideas drawn from segmented assimilation theory, we also find that substantial differences in propensity to form majority/minority marriages persist after controls for individual characteristics such as age, educational level, generation and length of residence in Britain, with men and women of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi background having higher propensities to form endogamous partnerships. However, we also find that opportunity structures affect intermarriage propensities for all groups alike, with individuals in more diverse residential areas (as measured by the ratio of majority to minority residents in the area) having higher likelihood to form majority/minority partnerships. We conclude then that, beginning from very different starting points, all groups, both minority and the majority groups exhibit common patterns of generational change and response to opportunity structures. Even the groups that are believed to have the strongest community structures and the strongest norms supporting endogamy appear to be experiencing increasing exogamy in the second generation and in more diverse residential settings. This suggests that a weak rather than a strong version of segmented assimilation provides the best account of British patterns.     

Relationalism through Social Robotics

Social robotics is a rapidly developing industry‐oriented area of research, intent on making robots in social roles commonplace in the near future. This has led to rising interest in the dynamics as well as ethics of human‐robot relationships, described here as a nascent relational turn. A contrast is drawn with the 1990s’ paradigm shift associated with relational‐self themes in social psychology. Constructions of the human‐robot relationship reproduce the “I‐You‐Me” dominant model of theorising about the self with biases that (as in social constructionism) consistently accentuate externalist or “interactionist” standpoints as opposed to internalist or “individualistic”. Perspectives classifiable as “ecological relationalism” may compensate for limitations of interactionist‐individualistic dimension. Implications for theorising subjectivity are considered.     

Direct Perception and Symbol Forming in Positioning

Harreà's positioning theory posits discourse as the concrete context within which selves are produced, but accentuates the dissociation between the physical engagement in a conversation and 'location' in a conceptual interpersonal space. The thesis that positioning involves selective attention, and that selected positions express ongoing transformations in the hearer's experiential realm is expanded here initially by reference to Gibson's direct-perception theory. The concepts of indexical and symbolic affordances are introduced to describe the function of utterances in setting parameters for hearer's behavioural and social-relational engagement, respectively. This implicates a construct of 'psychological value' (i.e., the affective intensity and valence of elements of experience), as proposed by C. G. Jung. The essay draws attention to the idea of symbol forming as a process whereby abstract self/world relations are articulated in one's actions and thoughts, and in which context the 'reception' of others' actions and utterances as having positioning implications may be understood.     

e-Inclusion and e-Social work: new technologies at the service of social intervention

ABSTRACT

This paper defines the concept of e-inclusion in reference to programmes and projects that promote social inclusion through the use of new technologies. This concept is related to e-social work, defined as the use of ICTs in the field of social work and social services. To illustrate the implications of e-inclusion and e-social work, a case study is presented on a community involvement project using new technologies as a means and as an end. The SAREGUNE project for community use of new technologies was set up in Vitoria (Spain) in 2004. Ten years later, it gained recognition as a European e-inclusion scheme within the ‘Leonardo Da Vinci Multilateral Projects, Transfer of Innovation’ lifelong learning programme. This article explores the origins of the idea and its significance in the fight against the digital divide and in the processes of intercultural and social inclusion within the city's historic central district. A process of deconstruction, construction and reconstruction of the scheme is used to identify and describe the movements of rotation and revolution within the process of social inclusion, the levels of integration of e-social work at individual, group and community level, and the impact of the project in terms of e-inclusion.     

The Presence of Self in the Person: Reflexive Positioning and Personal Constructs Psychology

Tan and Moghaddam's (1995) 'reflexive positioning' expansion of Harré's positioning theory provokes consideration of psychological factors underlying the discursive production of selves. However, it understates the issue, why do people appropriate particular positions, hearable in utterances, as applicable to themselves. Some of the theoretical ambiguities dissipate when positioning is approached from a personal-constructs perspective (Kelly 1995), which draws attention to personal construction of selves, as distinct from social construction, and describes the dynamics of individual continuity, though understating the concrete contextuality of personal becoming. The present essay considers the compatibility of the personal constructs approach with Harré's positioning theory.     

Near-optimal designs for dual channel microarray studies

Summary.  Much biological and medical research employs microarray studies to monitor gene expression levels across a wide range of organisms and under many experimental conditions. Dual channel microarrays are a common platform and allow two samples to be measured simultaneously. A frequently used design uses a common reference sample to make conditions across different arrays comparable. Our aim is to formulate microarray experiments in the experimental design context and to use simulated annealing to search for near-optimal designs. We identify a subclass of designs, the so-called interwoven loop designs, that seems to have good optimality properties compared with the near-optimal designs that are found by simulated annealing. Commonly used reference designs and dye swap designs are shown to be highly inefficient.