Inducement of Nonexistent Order by the Analytic Hierarchy Process*

An apparently unreported problem facing decision makers who use AHP is described. It is demonstrated that conventional AHP and some of its variants (the ideal mode, and the pairwise aggregated approach, PAHAP) can induce ordering even when no order exists. It is also shown that all three approaches can induce different orderings and that the orderings are sensitive to innocuous changes. Thus, even absent addition or deletion of alternatives, the decision maker relying on AHP or these variants can be seriously misled.     

USE OF A LOG-LINEAR MODEL TO COMPUTE THE EMPIRICAL SURVIVAL CURVE FROM INTERVAL-CENSORED DATA, WITH APPLICATION TO DATA ON TESTS FOR HIV POSITIVITY

We describe how a log-linear model can be used to compute the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimate of the survival curve from interval-censored data. This permits such computation to be performed with the aid of readily available statistical software such as GLIM or SAS. The method is illustrated with reference to data from a cohort of Danish homosexual men, each of whom was tested for HIV positivity on one or more of six possible follow-up times.     

Talks Between Teachers

Qualitative Sociology -     

Graduate education

Graduate training in sociology is an uneasy compromise between teaching new sociologists what would be good for them to know and doing what a graduate department’s various constituencies demand. Instead of worrying about teaching a core of materials, the graduate faculty instead should teach students what they know, and try to help students learn what they want to know, as they come to define that during the course of their studies. Instead of requiring courses, faculty should develop a continuing dialogue with students and incorporate them, formally and informally, in their work. His most recent book isDoing Things Together (1986).     

Soziale ungleichheit von lesekompetenzen

Zusammenfassung In Anlehnung an das strukturell-individualistische Handlungsmodell von Boudon werden für Deutschland kausale Effekte von individuellen Lernvoraussetzungen, Ressourcen des Elternhauses, sozial selektiven Bildungsüberg?ngen sowie Lehr-und Lernbedingungen in Schulen auf die Entwicklung von Lesekompetenzen und ihre Streuung zwischen Sozialschichten untersucht. Hierbei wird zum einen der Frage nachgegangen, ob neben den Herkunftseffekten die Selektion von Grundschulkindern in die weiterführenden Schulen in der Sekundarstufe I zur allgemeinen Verschlechterung der mittleren Lesekompetenzen beitragen. Zum anderen wird gefragt, ob der sozial selektive Bildungsübergang von der Primar-in die Sekundarstufe eine bedeutsame Ursache für einen Anstieg in der ungleichen Verteilung von Leseleistungen zwischen den Sozialschichten ist. Weil es nicht m?glich ist, solche Ursache-Wirkungszusammenh?nge mit komparativ-statischen Querschnittsdaten wie PIRLS oder PISA empirisch zu isolieren, konstruieren wir anhand von Daten der beiden Studien PISA-E 2000 und PIRLS 2001 über das Verfahren des „pairwise matching” Quasi-L?ngsschnittdaten mit drei Beobachtungszeitpunkten (Leseleistung bei Einschulung, Leseleistung im Alter von 9 bis 10 Jahren und Leseleistung im Alter von 15 Jahren). Die empirischen Befunde belegen zus?tzlich zu den Herkunftseinflüssen die Rolle sozial selektiver Bildungsüberg?nge und damit die Sortier-und Selektionsleistungen des deutschen Bildungssystems. Es wird gezeigt, dass, neben individuellen Lernvoraussetzungen und Ressourcen des Elternhauses, die soziale Selektivit?t der Bildungsüberg?nge und damit auch sozial differentielle Lernbedingungen signifikant zur Erkl?rung der Entwicklung individueller Leseleistung und sozialen Disparit?t von Lesekompetenzen beitragen. Für wertvolle Hinweise danken wir den Herausgebern und besonders den anonymen Gutachtern.     

Ursula Trüper. The Invisible Woman: Zara Schmelen,African Mission Assistant at the Cape and in Namaland

Between 1935 and 1963, Zainunnessa ‘Cissie’ Gool was probably the most politically powerful woman of colour in Cape Town, yet her history has remained largely undocumented and unknown even in her own city. This article traces a skeleton of the biography of Gool and offers a few reflections on the process of making two theatre pieces, Cissie (2008) and This Woman is Not for Burning (2011). Both works were oriented around Gool’s life and the world of her constituency, District Six. Like the two plays it focuses on, this article is concerned with the efficacy and limitations of restorative archiving and historiography through performance and the potential seductions of hagiography. I suggest that both plays were acts of feminist biography, governed, in part, by the (often silent, sometimes unacknowledged) narrative of auto/biography. The article is also an attempt to forge a critical and creative cohesion between the multiple forms of inquiry (imaginative, anecdotal and theoretical) that underpinned both works.     

Income Inequality and Political Participation: A District-Level Analysis of Hong Kong Elections

Social Indicators Research - Income inequality has long been suggested as a crucial factor in determining political participation. This study focuses on the case of Hong Kong, a city with...     

Conceptualising Child and Family Support: The Contribution of Honneth's Critical Theory of Recognition

The role of social support in child welfare policy and practice continues to engender widespread debate. Yet the moral and philosophical underpinnings of this topical area have received less attention in the literature. This is of concern, not least because academic debates on the ‘politics of identity’ have a significant contribution to make to our understanding of self‐development and social justice. In this article the authors show how Axel Honneth's account of the ‘struggle for recognition’ can be adapted to invigorate theories of social support. The result is a conceptual framework for reflective practice that can illuminate, and interrogate, the moral and operational dimensions of preventative work with children and families.