(En)countering terrorism: multiculturalism and Singapore

With national security concerns dominating the agenda for many states and with the management of cultural diversity under close scrutiny, can the agenda of multiculturalism—with its desire to accommodate cultural differences—survive? By assessing Singapore's review of its multiculturalism policy in this ‘age of terror’, this paper argues that the project of multiculturalism is far from over. Moreover, it argues that, if performed well and permitted to evolve constantly, multiculturalism may instead be a bulwark against the allure of what has become termed ‘home-grown’ terrorism. The argument progresses in broadly three parts. The first part defines the terms multicultural and multiculturalism, and presents a continuum of different approaches to multiculturalism. This section is keen to stress the diversity present in policies of multiculturalism in order to highlight the different policy options available to the management of difference. In the second part, Singapore's policy of multiculturalism is located on the continuum and assessed. Finally, by tracing recent alterations to Singaporean multiculturalism, the final part of the paper suggests possible adaptations that may be required of plural societies when (en)countering extremist ideology.     

Women at the Keyhole: Fatal Female Visions

An examination of thefemine gaze, as given in two recent mainstream Hollywood films (Black Widow, Fatal Attraction), is presented. How this gaze and its I understandings complement a feminist-based cultural studies project is discussed.     

Heterogeneous skewness in binary choice models: predicting outcomes in the men's NCAA basketball tournament

Several authors have recently explored the estimation of binary choice models based on asymmetric error structures. One such family of skewed models is based on the exponential generalized beta type 2 (EGB2). One model in this family is the skewed logit. Recently, McDonald (1996, 2000) extended the work on the EGB2 family of skewed models to permit heterogeneity in the scale parameter. The aim of this paper is to extend the skewed logit model to allow for heterogeneity in the skewness parameter. By this we mean that, in the model developed, here the skewness parameter is permitted to vary from observation to observation by making it a function of exogenous variables. To demonstrate the usefulness of our model, we examine the issue of the predictive ability of sports seedings. We find that we are able to obtain better probability predictions using the skewed logit model with heterogeneous skewness than can be obtained with logit, probit, or skewed logit.     

Development,inequality, health care,and mortality at the older ages: a cross-national analysis

We examine mortality at ages 50 and above in female populations of 38 countries and control for variation in quality of the mortality data. We find that economic development, economic distributional inequality, and basic primary health care have independent cross-national effects on cause of death structures and that these effects are not uniform across the age intervals of interest. As improvements occur in level of living and heath care, age-specific death rates decline except at the oldest ages, at which point they may increase. Our results are interpreted in terms of their relevance for mortality research, theory, and policy.     

The Consequences of Objective and Subjective Status Inconsistency*

The phenomenon of status inconsisitency, while having rich potential as an explanatory variable, has been beset with methodological problems and conflicting findings. Nelson has argued that the use of objective and subjective components of status inconsistency will allow for a more accurate test of its usefulness (1973). The present study, using a sample of 1971 male college graduates interviewed in 1974, analyzed the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of one type of status inconsistency (under-rewarded) incorporating objective and subjective techniques. The tentative conclusions were: (1) the use of subjective measures of inconsistency validates this phenomenon as an explanatory variable; (2) the use of subjective measures minimizes the methodological criticisms of the objective approach; and (3) both objective and subjective measures of status inconsistency should be incorporated in future research.     

The Intcractionist Study Of Social Organization: A Note On Method*

A symbolic interactionist approach to the study of social organizations is specified. Materials are drawn from an on-going investigation of the American liquor industry, which is treated as a fragmented organization. The core actors, activities and interactional locales of the industry are identified. The problems of establishing a historical baseline for a case study are discussed, as are the problems of confronting archival data, locating informants, and establishing interactive linkages. The stages in writing a case history of an organization are presented and illustrated with examples drawn from the American liquor industry.