Present in the World Economy: Québec's Students in the Springtime

Abstract

On February 13th, 2012, a coalition of student federations in Québec called for an unlimited general strike against government plans to increase university tuition fees by 75% over 5 years. Charged by a sense of themselves as actors on a global stage, social forces in Québec made common cause of their struggle – precipitating what grew into the most significant season of social protest in Québec's modern history. Fearing the ghost of global crowds, governments reacted with impolitic intransigence, leaving themselves exposed and with no other recourse but to reach out of the encounter and call a general election.

The printemps québécois is an event that took place in its own time and fashion, in the context of a world-wide wave of protest against neo-liberal world order. Looking into it, we are offered an opportunity to think more generally about the possibilities of resistance to neo-liberal disciplining.

En febrero 13 de 2012, una coalición de federaciones de estudiantes de Quebec, convocó a una huelga general ilimitada contra los planes del gobierno de subir las matrículas universitarias en un 75% durante 5 años. Las fuerzas sociales en Quebec hicieron de su lucha una causa común – sintiéndose ellos mismos como actores en una escena global, precipitando lo que se convirtió en una de las temporadas más significativas de protesta social en la historia moderna de Quebec. Temiendo por el fantasma de las multitudes globales, los gobiernos reaccionaron con una intransigencia impolítica, exponiéndose y sin otro recurso que mantenerse fuera del encuentro y convocando una elección general. La primavera de Quebec es un evento que tuvo lugar en su propio momento y estilo, en el contexto de una ola de protesta mundial contra el orden del mundo neoliberal. Analizándolo, se nos ha ofrecido la oportunidad de pensar más generalmente sobre las posibilidades de resistencia a la disciplina neoliberal.

2012年2月13日,魁北克学生联合会的一个同盟呼吁无期限大罢工,反对政府计划在未来5年让大学学费增加75%的计划。以全球舞台上的行动者自据,魁北克的社会力量集体斗争——引来了在魁北克现当代历史上最有意义的社会抗议季节。 由于担心示威扩大到全球,政府做出不让步的反应,使得魁北克的社会力量别无选择只得放下工作并号召大罢工。Printempsquébécois指的是在世界范围的抗议新自由主义世界秩序浪潮中发生的一个事件。 通过考察这一事件,我们提供了一个更进一步地思考抵制新自由主义统治的可能性的机会。.

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13 февраля 2012 коалиция студенческих федераций в Квебеке призвала к неограниченной всеобщей забастовке против правительственных планов увеличить плату за обучение в университетах на 75% в течение 5 лет. Ощущая себя актерами на глобальной арене, социальные силы в Квебеке действовали сообща в их борьбе – осаждение, что превратилось в самый существенный сезон социального протеста в современной истории Квебека. Опасаясь призрака глобальной толпы, правительства реагировали с нецелесообразной непримиримостью, оставляя себя незащищенными и без другого выхода, кроме как выйти из столкновения и назначить всеобщие выборы. Кленовая весна Квебека, в контексте всемирной волны протеста против неолиберального мирового порядка, является событием своего времени и моды. Изучая его, предоставляется возможность думать больше и шире о возможностях сопротивления неолиберальной дисциплине.     

Mixed results in a transitional planning program for alternative school students

Disciplinary alternative schools have a reputation as gateways to the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The authors conducted an evaluation of an intervention (Strategies for Success) designed to divert seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade alternative school students from this gateway. They used propensity score matching and a multivariate random effects model to estimate program impacts and found that the program not only increased attendance rates, at least in the short term, but also increased the likelihood of reassignment to alternative schools. The discussion focuses on possible reasons and solutions for high rates of return to alternative school and for the erosion of program effects.     

Are Informal Connections a Functional Alternative to Associational Life in Enhancing Social Cohesion? Findings from Hong Kong

This article aims to ascertain whether organizational life and informal connections, which made up part of Putnam’s (Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000) Social Capital Index, have separate effects on social cohesion. Postulating that informal gatherings with family and friends might be a functional alternative to associational life, we employed multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The analysis was based on a 2011 territory-wide door-to-door survey in Hong Kong. Controlling for the effects of demographic variables including gender, age, educational level, and employment status, it was found that formal participation in organizations contributed significantly to the explanation in five of the eight subindexes of social cohesion. In contrast, informal connections contributed significantly only to one subindex. The pattern persisted when attitudinal variables such as life satisfaction, social support, and perceived social class were added to the regression analysis. In short, our analysis demonstrated that participation in formal organizations fosters various aspects of social cohesion, and that this effect cannot be replaced by informal gatherings with family and friends.     

Childbearing traditions of Indian women at home and abroad: An integrative literature review

BackgroundThe percentage of overseas-born mothers giving birth in Australia has increased to 31.5% in 2012 and Indian women represent 10% (the highest proportion). It is important for midwives in Australia to be aware of the childbearing traditions of Indian women and how these influence Indian women birthing in Australia.AimTo explore childbearing practices in India and Indian women's experience of giving birth abroad; and to discuss the relevant findings for midwives working with Indian women in Australia.MethodAn integrative literature review was employed. 32 items, including 18 original research articles were thematically reviewed to identify commonly occurring themes relating to Indian women's childbearing traditions.FindingsFive themes relating to traditional childbearing practices of women birthing in India were identified. These themes included diversity and disparity; social context of childbirth and marriage; diet based on Ayurveda; pollution theory and confinement; and finally, rituals and customs.ConclusionIndian women giving birth abroad and by implication in Australia experience a transition to motherhood in a new culture. While adjusting to motherhood, they are also negotiating between their old and new cultural identities. To provide culturally safe care, it is essential that midwives reflect on their own culture while exploring what traditions are important for Indian women.     

Young People, Risk Taking and Risk Making: Some Thoughts for Social Work

Policy makers, professionals and the public have become increasinglyconcerned with identifying and managing young people who arenot only troubled or at risk, but troubling or risky. Socialwork, however, has been relatively silent on the subject. Insocial work practice, young people have become largely ‘someoneelse’s problem’; in the academy, relatively littlecritical attention has been given to their risk taking, or tothe way we ‘make’ or construct it. This paper takesan exploratory rather than systematically comprehensive journey,across a range of discursive terrains, to open up the debate.Examining current concerns with youth and risk, it exploressome of the social and psychological theory bases whereby youthis constructed as a risky business. Drawing on empirical researchfrom several disciplines, it examines patterns and dynamicsof young people’s risk taking, and explores concepts ofrisk culture and cultural learning, identity capital and Bourdieu’snotion of ‘habitus’, to frame these. The discussionhighlights the need for critically reflective social work tounderstand the complex interplay of identity and agency, structure,culture and context that underpins young people’s risktaking. It encourages us to scrutinize our judgements of whatis acceptable or unacceptable riskiness, what within and whatbeyond the pale.     

Adjusting overall survival for treatment switches: commonly used methods and practical application

In parallel group trials, long‐term efficacy endpoints may be affected if some patients switch or cross over to the alternative treatment arm prior to the event. In oncology trials, switch to the experimental treatment can occur in the control arm following disease progression and potentially impact overall survival. It may be a clinically relevant question to estimate the efficacy that would have been observed if no patients had switched, for example, to estimate ‘real‐life’ clinical effectiveness for a health technology assessment. Several commonly used statistical methods are available that try to adjust time‐to‐event data to account for treatment switching, ranging from naive exclusion and censoring approaches to more complex inverse probability of censoring weighting and rank‐preserving structural failure time models. These are described, along with their key assumptions, strengths, and limitations. Best practice guidance is provided for both trial design and analysis when switching is anticipated. Available statistical software is summarized, and examples are provided of the application of these methods in health technology assessments of oncology trials. Key considerations include having a clearly articulated rationale and research question and a well‐designed trial with sufficient good quality data collection to enable robust statistical analysis. No analysis method is universally suitable in all situations, and each makes strong untestable assumptions. There is a need for further research into new or improved techniques. This information should aid statisticians and their colleagues to improve the design and analysis of clinical trials where treatment switch is anticipated. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating Transition Probabilities for Ignorable Intermittent Missing Data in a Discrete-Time Markov Chain

This article considers a discrete-time Markov chain for modeling transition probabilities when multiple successive observations are missing at random between two observed outcomes using three methods: a na\"?ve analog of complete-case analysis using the observed one-step transitions alone, a non data-augmentation method (NL) by solving nonlinear equations, and a data-augmentation method, the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The explicit form of the conditional log-likelihood given the observed information as required by the E step is provided, and the iterative formula in the M step is expressed in a closed form. An empirical study was performed to examine the accuracy and precision of the estimates obtained in the three methods under ignorable missing mechanisms of missing completely at random and missing at random. A dataset from the mental health arena was used for illustration. It was found that both data-augmentation and nonaugmentation methods provide accurate and precise point estimation, and that the na\"?ve method resulted in estimates of the transition probabilities with similar bias but larger MSE. The NL method and the EM algorithm in general provide similar results whereas the latter provides conditional expected row margins leading to smaller standard errors.     

Business intelligence and analytics value creation in Industry 4.0: a multiple case study in manufacturing medium enterprises

Abstract

Medium enterprises (MEs) form a majority of enterprises in several regions, yet they are underrepresented in the literature. The digital transformation known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0) brings new data streams into enterprises. MEs and large enterprises will both leverage business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) to improve their business performance, so the study of the conditions favouring value creation of BI&A is of interest. However, there are few studies focusing on the impact of business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) on value creation in I4.0 and none focusing on MEs. Using a multiple case-study design, this paper explores factors linked to BI&A business value creation in manufacturing MEs that are undergoing an I4.0 transformation. Findings suggest enterprises resources and capabilities are not sufficient to predict business value: organizational learning and organizational culture have a non-negligible influence for MEs.