Poverty and deprivation among children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Although there is now a large body of literature on poverty in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there remains a dearth of comparative analysis of child poverty and wellbeing. This article uses household survey microdata for the period 2001–2003 to compare absolute poverty, relative poverty, material deprivation and participation in schooling among children in five countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan. The analysis shows that low absolute levels of household consumption are associated with other deprivation indicators and with children's participation in schooling. The article also highlights the usefulness of relative poverty measures that effectively identify children at risk of exclusion in even the poorest countries in the region. The article concludes by arguing that household consumption is a good indicator of child poverty and deprivation in the region, and that relative poverty measures should be more widely used in monitoring global targets for poverty reduction.     

Exploring Children's Stereotypes Through Drawings: The Case of Musical Performance

Drawings of 'a person' and of 'a person playing music' were collected from children aged seven to eight years and 10–11 years to discover whether children's musical representations would reflect gender differences evident in musical learning and performance, and the increased gender rigidity with age found in instrument preferences. As in previous drawing studies, same sex figures were overwhelmingly portrayed, although older girls drew more opposite sex figures than the other children. All except the older girls overwhelmingly drew same sex musicians irrespective of the gender stereotype of the instrument portrayed. The older girls drew similar numbers of male and female figures playing masculine instruments. Fewer feminine instruments were drawn by older than by younger boys. The increased gender rigidity with age accords with the results of the preference studies, but gender stereotyping was much weaker. This is discussed in relation to what the different methodologies measure.     

Community banking and economic development: Lessons from Los Angeles

Among the changes in the field of community development is thegrowing importance of microfinance, both to provide access tocredit and as a vehicle for empowerment. Community banks arerecognized for their role in meeting these goals, although theyremain controversial, as the goals of microfinance are not alwaysagreed upon, with government officials and community membersemphasizing different interests. We examine the Los AngelesCommunity Development Bank to glean further lessons regardingthe role community banks can play in community development.Among the lessons from this experience are that politics areinescapable in the design of community banks; the economicsof banking tends to undervalue community needs; and culturalfactors include both professional and community-level challenges.Accounting for these factors can help community banks empowercommunities to meet the challenges of eliminating poverty.     

Off to Plan or Out to Lunch? Relationships between Design Characteristics and Outcomes of Strategy Workshops

Strategy workshops, also known as away days, strategy retreats and strategic ‘off‐sites’, have become widespread in organizations. However, there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning the outcomes of these events and the factors that contribute to their effectiveness. Adopting a design science approach, in this paper we propose and test a multidimensional model that differentiates the effects of strategy workshops in terms of organizational, interpersonal and cognitive outcomes. Analysing survey data on over 650 workshops, we demonstrate that varying combinations of four basic design characteristics – clarity of goals and purpose, routinization, stakeholder involvement and cognitive effort – predict differentially these three distinct types of outcomes. Calling into question conventional wisdom on the design of workshops, we discuss the implications of our findings for integrating further the strategy process, strategy‐as‐practice and strategic cognition literatures, to enrich understanding of the factors that shape the nature and influence of contemporary strategic planning activities more generally.     

Linking Managerial Cognition and Organizational Performance: A Preliminary Investigation Using Causal Maps

This paper considers the potential relationship between individual cognition and organizational performance. A series of causal maps are elicited from the owner-managers of retail businesses which are either growing or static and contracting. The maps are compared using a series of propositions to establish whether individual cognition is consistent with the contrasts which would be expected between relatively high and low performing businesses. When the general characteristics of the maps are compared no significant differences are found when the propositions are evaluated. However, a subsequent inductive phase of analysis suggests that more detailed insights can be gained through a focus on the relationships between specific types of concept within the individual maps. In contrast to the assumptions made in many mapping studies, this finding suggests that it is the idiosyncratic details of map content and structure which provide the basis for exploring the relationship between cognition and performance, rather than the overall characteristic of the maps.     

Silent Partners: Women in Farm Magazine Success Stories, 1934–19911

Abstract Women's contributions to the farm and farm household have historically been undervalued. An analysis of farm magazine “success” stories through six decades indicates that these stories may be a vehicle for reproducing and transmitting a traditional domestic ideology that separates farm production from the rest of the farm household and that rarely portrays women as significant contributors to the economic well-being of either. Magazine stories depict women as spouses or farm helpers, but not as producers or decision-makers. Farm magazines thus offer few models of realistic gender relations for either farm women or farm men.     

Revisiting property crime and economic conditions: An exploratory study to identify predictive indicators beyond unemployment rates

Numerous researchers have questioned the use of the unemployment rate as an explanatory factor in econometric studies which address the relationship between the economy and crime. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study which sought to test the efficacy of the unemployment rate for predicting reported property crime rates and to identify other economic indicators which may also prove to be useful for predicting crimes with economic under tones or motives. Specifically, larceny-theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft, robbery, fraud and embezzlement. Given the exploratory nature of the study seven stepwise regressions were computed with unemployment emerging as a significant predictor for only one of the criminal offenses. Findings identified other useful economic variables, such as average wage and salary disbursements, supplemental security income receipts, the consumer price index and per capita personal income which should be considered in lieu of unemployment rates.     

地方治理研究:范式、理论与启示

20世纪90年代早期以来治理理论的兴起,可以看作是对当前世界各国在回应新的治理挑战中所采纳的不同于传统公共行政的公共管理方式的总结.治理理论的支撑性论点和概念包括:网络管理理论,即将治理的核心任务看成是管理网络;授权理论,认为有效治理的关键是恰当的授权机制;社会解释理论,以人们理解和解释世界的差异为研究起点并认为这种差异是治理所面临的最大挑战;侧重于合作如何达成的伙伴关系概念和社会资本概念.治理理论的启示在于:首先,治理要求扩大地方决策的范围并重新定义地方政府的角色;其次,面对新的挑战,公共管理者需要掌握新的管理技能;最后,治理理论及其对应的管理方式提供了全球比较的框架.