From Mangos to Manufacturing: Uneven Development and Its Impact on Social Well-being in the Dominican Republic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and theWorld Bank have been trying to help developingcountries speed up economic growth in order tohelp eradicate poverty. In the last twodecades these policies in the DominicanRepublic have caused rapid and severe changes. Over the last two centuries Dominican culturehas faced numerous challenges including a shiftfrom an indigenous subsistence society inbalance with nature to an agrarian-basedeconomy. Now a third wave is impacting theDominican Republic, based on a rapid shift to amanufacturing and service economy. Thiscurrent shift has led to reprioritizing limitednational funds for economic infrastructure, atthe expense of cuts in public services in suchkey areas such as education, health, and water. The literature suggests such structuraladjustments do not benefit all persons equally. Of specific interest are those left behind whoreside in rural places and work in traditionaleconomic sectors especially agriculture. Thegoal of this study was to compare thewell-being of female heads of households(employed and self employed) in agriculture tothe male and female heads of households in theother categories of employment in the DominicanRepublic (professional or technical manager,service industry, clerical position, sales,skilled laborer, unskilled labor, andagriculture both as an employee andself-employed). The researchers anticipatedthat those households employed in agriculturewould have lower well-being scores than thoseemployed in other economic sectors. Ofparticular concern were female heads ofhousehold working in agriculture, because theyhave been most affected due to genderdiscrimination, cultural bias, lack of accessto land, credit, and training while still beingresponsible for reproductive labor. Theresults show that those that are working inagriculture have received very little benefitfrom the structural adjustments that have beenmade in the economy compared to other sectors(in terms of the sectors of employment). However, women in this circumstance seem to beequally bad off as men. The evidence for thishypothesis is far from conclusive. The datamay support the fact that the aperture ofemployment markets such as free trade zones andemployment are actually improving the women'splace in the society by giving them morecontrol over their own financial resources. Nonetheless these findings suggest there is aneed to invest in agrarian communities becausethey are an important key in the fight againstpoverty. In turn this may help to preventfurther urban migration, provide food security,and provide a bastion for preserving Dominicanculture and heritage.     

Comparative performance of tests of normality in detecting mixtures of parallel regression lines

This paper addresses the problem of detecting a mixture of parallel regression lines when information about group member¬ship of individual cases is not given. The problem is approached as a missing variable problem, with the missing variables being the dummy variables that code for groups. If a mixture of par¬allel regression lines with normally distributed error terms is present, a simple regression model without dummy variables will produce residuals that follow approximately a mixed normal dis¬tribution. In a simulation studyr several goodness-of-fit tests of normality were used to test the residuals obtained from mis-specified models that excluded dummy variables, Factors varied in the simulation included the number and the separation of the parallel lines and the sample size, The goodness-of-fit test based on the sample kurtosis (82) was overall most powerful in detecting mixtures of parallel regression lines, Applications are discussed.     

How Fair Is Safe Enough? The Cultural Approach to Societal Technology Choice1

This paper consists of an argument and a pilot study. First is a general, perhaps philosophical, argument against the National Academy's viewpoint⁽¹⁾ that dealing with risk is a two-stage process consisting of (a) assessment of facts, and (b) evaluation of facts in sociopolitical context. We argue that societal risk intrinsically revolves around social relations as much as around evaluations of probability. Second, we outline one particular approach to analyzing societal risk management styles. We call this the fairness hypothesis. Rather than focusing on probabilities and magnitudes of undesired events, this approach emphasizes societal preferences for principles of achieving consent to a technology, distributing liabilities, and investing trust in institutions. Conflict rather than probability is the chief focus of this approach to societal risk management. This view is illustrated by a recent empirical pilot study that explored the fairness hypothesis in the context of new nuclear technologies.     

Mixed Messages in Risk Communication

The exchange of risk information between risk managers and affected parties is frequently hampered by differences in the understanding or interpretation of many words and phrases. Much of the terminology used by risk practitioners may have different "technical" and "colloquial" meanings, resulting in "mixed messages" in risk communication. Several words and concepts commonly used in risk management that may be resulting in these "mixed messages" are discussed. These include primary underlying concepts, such as the various meanings of the word "risk" itself, as well as the perplexity of the notions of "safety vs. zero risk" and "probability". The potential "mixed messages" of the derived concepts of "significant vs. nonsignificant", "negative vs. positive results", "conservative assumptions", "population vs. individual risk", "relative vs. absolute risk", and "association vs. causation" are shown to range from mild confusion to the completely opposite interpretation of these words and expressions. Suggested strategies for recognizing and mitigating the use of words and phrases which may create unnecessary confusion are presented.     

Suicide and the continuum of self-destructive behavior

Suicide and self-destructive behavior are strongly influenced by a negative thought process, referred to here as the "voice." The voice process represents a well-integrated pattern of thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs, antithetical to self and hostile toward others, that is at the core of a patient's self-limitations and self-defeating actions. The voice varies along a continuum of intensity ranging from mild self-criticism to angry self-attacks and even suicidal thoughts. Self-destructive behavior similarly exists on a continuum ranging from self-denial to accident proneness, drug abuse, alcoholism, and other self-defeating behaviors, culminating in actual bodily harm. The two processes, cognitive and behavioral, parallel each other, and suicide represents the acting out of the extreme end of the continuum. The authors provide a chart depicting the levels of increasing suicidal intent along the continuum. The chart identifies specific negative thoughts and injunctions typically reported by persons who attempt suicide, neurotic patients, and "normal" subjects. Understanding where an individual can be placed on the continuum of self-destructive thoughts and actions can assist clinicians in their diagnoses and help pinpoint those students who are more at risk for suicide.     

A new test for the presence of a normal mixture distribution based on the posterior Bayes factor

We present a new test for the presence of a normal mixture distribution, based on the posterior Bayes factor of Aitkin (1991). The new test has slightly lower power than the likelihood ratio test. It does not require the computation of the MLEs of the parameters or a search for multiple maxima, but requires computations based on classification likelihood assignments of observations to mixture components.     

The Exchange of Aesthetics: Women's Work and ‘The Gift’

Drawing on empirical research data on the work of flight attendants, this paper will explore Marcel Mauss's theory of ‘gift’ exchange relations, with particular reference to his concern with the ‘exchange of aesthetics’ (Mauss 1954), as an analytical model which may contribute to our understanding of ‘women's work’ in contemporary Western societies, of which, we shall argue, the work of female flight attendants is a notable example. It will begin by locating the authors' analytical and theoretical concerns with ‘women's work’ within the context of recent empirical research. It will then go on to outline briefly a Maussian model of exchange relations and to identify the potential utility of this analytical model for the study of women's work. This paper then goes on to offer an analytical account of empirical research into the work of flight attendants and to analyse the ways in which airline service provision constitutes a critical case study of women's work, certain elements of which involve a form of ‘gift’ exchange relations which operate, not as an alternative to, but inside — and in the interests of — commodity exchange relations. Finally, in the light of recent feminist work, this paper will conclude by suggesting the wider implications of this analytical model for the study of gender and work.     

Models of Multiculturalism: implications for the twenty‐first century leaders 1

Prominent among the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century is multiculturalism. Technology and transportation are fast changing the world and the concept of a global village has never been more real. The “New World Order” as proclaimed by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, has proclivity to disorder unless new multicultural understanding is embraced.

This paper provides a discussion of different models or stages of multiculturalism: denial, assimilationism, affirmative action, valuing diversity, managing diversity, global multiculturalism, and humanistic multiculturalism. It promotes the concept of humanistic multiculturalism as a more holistic, inclusive, emancipatory view of diversity that will be necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The paper concludes with implications for corporate, educational, military, and government leaders as well as for intercultural trainers and researchers.

     

Flexibility, Hierarchy, Markets

The conclusion that organizations need to become more strategically flexible as a response to increasing environmental dynamism and uncertainty has been an important feature of recent contingency theories of organization design. In this literature organizations have been analysed from the perspective of the development of networks of organizations concentrating on their core competencies and contracting among themselves on a stable long-term basis. This model of inter-firm relationships provides an alternative mode of organizational structuring to that arising from vertical integration, which, by contrast, is seen as fostering strategic inflexibility. In the literature on corporate restructuring and changes in ownership form arising from the markets and hierarchies perspective, we see a similar emphasis on the dysfunctional consequences of large-scale bureaucratic organization. Changes in ownership form are seen as a major means of providing more effective managerial control. In this paper we argue that linking the literature on flexibility emanating from contingency theories of organizational design and the markets and hierarchies perspective provides important new insights into current and emerging forms of organization.