Engaging Indigeneity in Development Policy

This article explores how development programming in rural poverty and the environment can work with indigenous peoples. It draws on research conducted in Asia and Latin America to suggest how indigeneity can be understood as specific kinds of marginalisation intersecting with self‐identification and recognition as indigenous. Current obstacles to effective engagement with indigenous peoples are outlined, and suggestions are offered for pro‐actively addressing their experience. Two critical areas where there are opportunities for donors to support indigenous peoples' priorities include ‘FPIC’ (Free Prior and Informed Consent) and a careful consideration of the implications of niche‐market engagement.     

The Time Squeeze: Parental Statuses and Feelings About Time With Children

Policy makers, parents, and the public are concerned with perceived declines in parents’ time with children. Data from two national surveys (N = 1,159 and N = 821) used in this study show that nearly half of parents report feeling too little time with children. Work hours are strongly related to these feelings, even controlling for time spent with children, and explain why fathers more than mothers feel time strain. For fathers, those whose youngest child is an adolescent feel more strain than similarly situated mothers. Controlling for work hours, single parents are not more likely than married parents to feel that they spend insufficient time with children.     

The Pomp of Power: Black Mayoralties in Urban America*

Objectives. Although urban scholarship has come to better understand the dynamics of black political incorporation in the United States, to date scant empirical attention has been paid to an important element of minority representation in local politics—the rise of black mayors. The present study addresses this gap in the extant literature. Methods. We analyze incidences of black mayoralties by fitting standard pooled and random effects probit models to a panel of 309 cities observed between 1971 and 2000. Results. Although cities' racial profiles are strongly associated with the incidence of black mayoralties, black representation on city council, black educational attainment, and reformed governments increase the odds of black mayoral emergence. On the other hand, southern location continues to depress the rise of black mayoralties, as do partisan elections, particularly in cities where no racial group constitutes a majority. Conclusions. Although our results partially confirm extant research on the diffusion of black mayoralties in American urban politics, they also call into question conventional wisdom. Our study emphasizes the need for more large‐N studies of minority representation in urban politics and provides suggestions for how the independent effects of black mayors on municipal policy outcomes might subsequently be analyzed empirically.     

Trajectories of Perceived Friendship Quality During Adolescence: The Patterns and Contextual Predictors

Findings are presented from an ecologically grounded, longitudinal study of 206 urban, ethnic minority adolescents that used hierarchical linear modeling to examine: (1) individual trajectories of change in adolescents' perceptions of general and closest same‐sex friendship quality from middle to late adolescence; (2) the effects of gender and ethnicity on these trajectories of change; and (3) the relative influence of adolescents' perceptions of individual‐level (i.e., self‐esteem) and contextual‐level (i.e., family relationships and school climate) variables on change over time in perceptions of friendship quality. Findings indicated that adolescents' perceptions of the quality of friendships improved from middle to late adolescence. Boys reported sharper increases over time than girls in their perceptions of the quality of their closest, same‐sex friendships. Furthermore, perceptions of contextual level variables (i.e., family relationships, teacher/student relations, and student/student relations) were significantly associated with change over time in perceptions of general and/or closest same‐sex friendship quality.