Living in the city: school friendships,diversity and the middle classes

Much of the literature on the urban middle classes describes processes of both affiliation (often to the localities) and disaffiliation (often from some of the non‐middle‐class residents). In this paper, we consider this situation from a different position, drawing on research exploring whether and how children and adults living in diverse localities develop friendships with those different to themselves in terms of social class and ethnicity. This paper focuses on the interviews with the ethnically diverse, but predominantly white British, middle‐class parent participants, considering their attitudes towards social and cultural difference. We emphasize the importance of highlighting inequalities that arise from social class and its intersection with ethnicity in analyses of complex urban populations. The paper's contribution is, first, to examine processes of clustering amongst the white British middle‐class parents, particularly in relation to social class. Second, we contrast this process, and its moments of reflection and unease, with the more deliberate and purposeful efforts of one middle‐class, Bangladeshi‐origin mother who engages in active labour to facilitate relationships across social and ethnic difference.     

Trust in triads: An experimental study

Pairs of trustors play finitely repeated Trust Games with the same trustee in a laboratory experiment. We study trustfulness of the trustor and trustworthiness of the trustee. We distinguish between learning and control effects on behavior. Learning effects are related to the trustor's information on past behavior of the trustee. Control effects are related to the trustor's opportunities for sanctioning a trustee in future interactions. Hypotheses on learning and control effects are derived from backward-looking learning models and from forward-looking models of strategic behavior. The design of the experiment, with respect to trustfulness, allows for disentangling learning effects from a trustor's own experience with the trustee and learning effects through third-party information. Also, the design enables disentangling control effects on trustworthiness and trustfulness through a trustor's own sanction opportunities and opportunities for third-party sanctions. We find evidence for learning and control effects. The trustor's own experiences, the experiences of the other trustor, as well as the trustor's own sanction opportunities affect trustfulness. We find evidence for control effects on trustworthiness, including effects arising from opportunities for third-party sanctions. However, there is no evidence for control effects through opportunities for third-party sanctions on trustfulness. This could indicate limited strategic rationality of trustors.     

SAMPLING AS A SOLUTION METHODOLOGY

This paper examines the use of sampling procedures as a solution methodology for large combinatorial problems. Three sampling strategies are investigated: random sampling (each alternative is equally likely), biased sampling (alternatives' probabilities are biased by specified criteria), and improvement sampling (alternatives' probabilities are dynamically changed based upon new information). These three methodologies are illustrated and compared on the basis of solution quality and computer time requirements.     

Improving bank operations: A case study at BancOhio/Ohio National Bank

The paper describes the procedures employed at Ohio National Bank to improve operations of the check handling and clearing system. It illustrates the approaches utilized to (1) schedule messenger vehicles, (2) determine worker shift schedules, (3) forecast daily work loads and (4) develop work priorities. These four tasks improved productivity and reduced float at the bank. Also discussed is the data required to utilize the formal planning procedures illustrated. The paper indicates the financial impact of this work and future efforts in a dynamic banking environment.     

On the likelihood of Condorcet's profiles

Consider a group of individuals who have to collectively choose an outcome from a finite set of feasible alternatives. A scoring or positional rule is an aggregation procedure where each voter awards a given number of points, w _j, to the alternative she ranks in j ^th position in her preference ordering; The outcome chosen is then the alternative that receives the highest number of points. A Condorcet or majority winner is a candidate who obtains more votes than her opponents in any pairwise comparison. Condorcet [4] showed that all positional rules fail to satisfy the majority criterion. Furthermore, he supplied a famous example where all the positional rules select simultaneously the same winner while the majority rule picks another one. Let P ^* be the probability of such events in three-candidate elections. We apply the techniques of Merlin et al. [17] to evaluate P ^* for a large population under the Impartial Culture condition. With these assumptions, such a paradox occurs in 1.808% of the cases. Received: 30 April 1999/Accepted: 14 September 2000     

Treatment decisions at the end of life: What if they're still standing?

Clinical and managerial decision-making have been traditionally mutually exclusive entities. Recent advances in medical technology and therapeutics however, including chemical nutrition and psychopharmacology, have prompted a questioning of this heretofore professional courtesy. Thislaissez faire approach to clinical professional turf is particularly problematic when patients' civil liberties are constrained in situations in which the patient has little, if any, real control, e.g. psychiatric inpatient admissions. This paper seeks to examine an area of managerial and clinical conflict—the realm of the care and involuntary treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa. Specifically addressed are the concerns raised by a conflict between competent psychiatric inpatients' refusals of treatment, medical management based on research protocols, and managerial distancing from the issue.     

Generalizing from PRSA to public relations: How to accommodate sampling bias in public relations scholarship

One of the major challenges to conducting externally valid, quantitative scholarship in public relations is accessing samples of practitioners that are willing to participate in academic research. One sampling frame would naturally be the membership of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), which is the world's largest professional association for public relations practitioners. Yet, even if the question of access were resolved, there still remains the question of external validity, i.e., the issue of whether and to what extent the membership of PRSA (or any other sampling frame) reflects the population of public relations practitioners in general.     

Interracial‐Interethnic Unions and Fertility in the United States

How does the fertility of interracial and interethnic couples compare to the fertility of endogamous couples? If exogamous couples have transcended the boundary between them, then exogamy should not affect fertility. Alternatively, opposition to the relationship from the couple’s family and friends may reduce fertility. This study uses 2000 – 2005 American Community Survey data on married (n = 272,336) and cohabiting (n = 48,769) couples to compare the fertility of endogamous and exogamous couples. Interracial and interethnic partnering do not affect fertility for cohabiting, Black‐White, Mexican‐White, and Puerto Rican‐White intermarried couples, but it does reduce fertility in Chinese‐White and Asian Indian‐White intermarriages. These results are largely consistent with the argument that intermarried couples have transcended group boundaries.     

The integral paradigm: The truth of faith and the social sciences

This article proposes a paradigm for the social sciences derived from Pitirim A. Sorokin’s writings about Integralism. His conception of a three-component system of truth and knowledge which includes the senses, reason, and faith is the foundation of this integral perspective. The paradigm entails the incorporation of religious-ethical ideas within the established frame of reference of the social sciences. The consensus among several world religions that some version of the Golden Rule is the most fundamental ethical principle, and the idea of individual transformation involving the realization of this principle, are advanced as the foundation for integral social science. The virtues, the vices and the Ten Commandments are presented as more specific schemes which articulate the positive and negative precepts associated with the Golden Rule. The incorporation of these religious-ethical ideas in value premises, existing paradigms and theories, special fields, and empirical research is considered. Integralism is proposed as a solution to the current crisis of fragmentation and anomie in the social sciences.