Anti-corporate movements and public relations

This paper develops a theoretical framework of the anti-corporate movement. We argue that previous accounts in the public relations literature, including theorizing around stakeholders, publics, activist groups and issues management, are limited and provide only a partial conceptualization of anti-corporate movements. In order to address this shortcoming, we draw upon social movements theory to develop a grounded and enriched theoretical framework of anti-corporate movements.     

A new technique for measuring preferences in demographic studies

In this article, we introduce an alternative technique to the single-sentence question for measuring preferences for number of children, age at marriage, length of first birth interval, length of employment, and years of schooling. This new measurement procedure utilizes a graphic scale rather than verbal responses, and it places family size decisions within the context of several other major life cycle decisions. One month reliability data for the measurement technique were obtained from a sample of 107 school children. Reliability results are compared to data from a previous study of teenagers.     

Cell phones,electronic delivery systems and social cash transfers: Recent evidence and experiences from Africa

Electronic delivery systems for social cash transfer programmes offer advantages to programme implementers and benefit recipients in terms of enhanced cost efficiency and flexibility. The rapid penetration of cell phone infrastructure, combined with a growing interest from banks to extend financial services, is likely to make the electronic delivery of cash transfers an increasingly viable option. Taking into account the broader benefits for cash transfer recipients arising from improved access to financial services infrastructure, this article elaborates recent evidence and experiences from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland. The article concludes with an assessment of the opportunities and challenges for scaling‐up electronic delivery systems.     

Does caregiving increase poverty among women in later life? Evidence from the Health and Retirement survey

Given the rapid aging of the U.S. population and reductions in federal funding, elder care has become a major issue for many families. This paper focuses on a long-term consequence of elder care by asking how caring for elderly parents affects women's subsequent risks of living in poverty. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine whether and how caregiving for parents in 1991 increases women's risks of living in households with incomes less than the poverty threshold, receiving public assistance, and receiving Medicaid in 1999. Our findings illustrate that caregiving in earlier life raises women's poverty risks in later life by intensifying the negative effects of stopping work and declining health on women's economic well-being.     

Do Babyfaced Adults Receive More Help? The (Cross-Cultural) Case of the Lost Resume

The hypothesis that babyish-looking adult faces would elicit help was tested in a field experiment using the lost letter technique. Digitized images of African-American and European-American adult male and female faces were made to look babyish (neotenous) by substituting enlarged eyes and lips for normal ones. Eyes and lips were reduced in size to make faces look mature. As expected, neotenous features made adults appear submissive, weak, naive, feminine, compassionate, and honest, but not more or less attractive, relative to mature features. Neotenous or mature faces were printed on (fictional) resumes, attached to stamped, addressed envelopes, and lost in the US (n = 408) and Kenya (n = 176). Helping was indexed by whether resumes were posted (returned) or not. Most results supported predictions; across nations, resumes depicting neotenous, white and black female faces and neotenous, white male faces were returned more often than were resumes displaying the mature versions of these faces. Returns for neotenous and mature black male faces, however, were not significantly different. Overall, support was found for the hypothesis that neotenous, submissive-looking facial characteristics cue social approach and elicit help while mature, dominant-looking facial traits cue avoidance.