Global Development Goals: The Folly of Technocratic Pretensions

This article argues that, although effective strategic choices for achieving global development goals need to be based on assessments of the costs and benefits of alternative approaches, existing methods of arriving at such assessments are highly unreliable, in particular deriving from implausible and restrictive assumptions and often depending on data of poor quality, and on the pretence that the future can be adequately known. Such weaknesses can be mitigated, but not easily overcome, without abandoning deeply held technocratic presumptions.     

Generalised Linear Models Incorporating Population Level Information: An Empirical Likelihood Based Approach

In many situations information from a sample of individuals can be supplemented by population level information on the relationship between a dependent variable and explanatory variables. Inclusion of the population level information can reduce bias and increase the efficiency of the parameter estimates.Population level information can be incorporated via constraints on functions of the model parameters. In general the constraints are nonlinear making the task of maximum likelihood estimation harder. In this paper we develop an alternative approach exploiting the notion of an empirical likelihood. It is shown that within the framework of generalised linear models, the population level information corresponds to linear constraints, which are comparatively easy to handle. We provide a two-step algorithm that produces parameter estimates using only unconstrained estimation. We also provide computable expressions for the standard errors. We give an application to demographic hazard modelling by combining panel survey data with birth registration data to estimate annual birth probabilities by parity.     

Dialect stabilization and speaker awareness in non‐native varieties of English1

Research on indigenized non‐native varieties of English has aimed to distinguish these varieties from individual second language learning in structural and social terms ( B. Kachru 1983 ; Platt, Weber and Ho 1984 ; Cheshire 1991 ) ; however, quantitative evidence of this divergence remains scarce. Through an analysis of a range of Indian English speakers in a contact situation in the United States, this study distinguishes developing dialect features from second language learning features and explores the concomitant emergence of dialect consciousness. First, an implicational analysis shows that some non‐standard variables (past marking, copula use, agreement) exhibit a second language learning cline while others (articles) form a more stable, incipient non‐standard system shared to some extent by all speakers; a multivariate analysis suggests that both sets of variables are governed by proficiency levels. Next, the explanatory scope of proficiency is assessed by examining the use of selected phonological variants (rhoticity, l‐velarization, aspiration). The use of these features resembles native‐like style‐shifting, as it appears to be more sensitive to speakers’ attitudinal stances than to proficiency levels. This points to the importance of understanding emerging speaker awareness and perceptions of stigma, risk, and value in new varieties of English.     

Robustness of complete diallel crossing plans against exchange of one cross

The robustness aspects of block designs for complete diallel crossing plans against the exchange of one cross using connectedness and efficiency criteria have been investigated. The exchanged cross may have either no line in common or one line in common with the original cross. It has been found that randomized complete block (RCB) designs for complete diallel crosses and binary balanced block designs for complete diallel crosses are robust against the exchange of one cross in one observation. The RCB designs for diallel crosses have been shown to be robust against the exchange of one cross with another cross in all the blocks. The non-binary balanced block designs obtainable from Family 5 of Das et al. (1998) have also been found to be robust against the exchange of one cross.     

On the construction of group divisible incomplete block designs

In this paper a method of constructing group-divisible incomplete block designs has been suggested. A series of balanced incomplete block designs has also been obtained.     

CONSTRUCTION OF BALANCED TERNARY DESIGNS

In this paper variance balanced ternary designs are constructed in unequal block sizes for situations when suitable BIB designs do not exist for a given number of treatments because of the constraints bk=vr,and λ(v - 1) =r(k- 1).     

Supervisors' participation in quality efforts in large and small manufacturing firms

Supervisors' participation in quality efforts in large n = 77 and small n = 113 manufacturing firms in the motor vehicle parts and accessories industry SIC 3714 was examined. While a majority of the supervisors of both types of firms agreed that top management was committed to quality, less than 27 of the supervisors indicated that they were satisfied with management support for quality efforts. A majority of the supervisors of both firm types also stated that they were committed to the organization and did not work under a great deal of tension. Unlike supervisors of large firms, a majority of the supervisors of small firms reported that they received training in quality and that workers responded positively to supervisors' quality efforts. Compared to small firms, supervisors of large firms . felt a significantly higher workload p < 0 01 , significantly lower top management commitment p < 0.05 , and . received less encouragement p < 0 05 for their quality efforts.     

BARING LIFE AND LIFESTYLE IN THE NON-PLACE

In this paper I offer an intervention into two prevailing approaches to the non-place – those spaces of transit that include hotels, airports, theme parks, and refugee camps. The non-place is treated on the one hand as an apolitical space of hypermediated consumption and mobility while, on the other hand, it also figures as exemplary of the biopolitical regulation of life within a ‘contemporary camp’. I argue that the non-place must be read, not as spectacle or camp, but as housing a very specific politics of place wherein the logic of the camp and the spectacle collide. What is of interest to me is not so much the camp as the hidden space of modernity, but how it finds a willing alibi in the spectacular media saturated spaces of capital. Within the non-place, the forces of global corporate capital have found an amiable space to both invest (lifestyle) and reduce (bare life) human life to maximize and optimize its own power.