Receptivity toward Immigrants in Rural Pennsylvania: Perceptions of Adult English as Second Language Providers*

This article uses interview and questionnaire data to examine how adult English as a second language (ESL) providers in rural Pennsylvania perceive community receptivity toward immigrants and the factors they believe foster or hinder receptivity and immigrants' integration. ESL providers' depictions of local responses to immigrants ranged from welcoming to hostile. They identified four constellations of factors that influenced receptivity: national and local politics, the labor market and immigrant occupations, immigrants' ability to look or act like native-born residents, and community institutions. This study reveals how differing contexts of reception are believed to influence immigrants' incorporation into rural communities. It also highlights the role of educators and educational institutions in creating a welcoming atmosphere that supports immigrants' socioeconomic well-being.     

Wachstumsbedingungen von Ein-Personen-Gründungen – Eine Längsschnittbeobachtung über acht Jahre

This study analyzes the growth potential of one-person startups on the basis of the framework model proposed by Gilbert, McDougall and Audretsch (2006) by postulating five key groups of enterprise growth predictors: entrepreneur characteristics, resources, strategy, industry, and organizational structures and systems. The framework model was adapted to suit the specific circumstances of one-person startups. The model was tested using a longitudinal data set comprising 188 Austrian one-person startups which were observed over a period of eight years. At the end of the observation period, the businesses included in the study had an average of 1.33 employees. The gender of the founder, capital requirements at the time of establishment, and growth strategy proved to be the most important predictors of growth. In addition, human capital resources also tended to have a positive impact. In summary, it is possible to draw empirically reliable conclusions about growth potential on the basis of the “seriousness” of an one-person startup project.     

Backing seen of population policy in AID

Congress is almost certain to agree to use of U.S. funds to motivate reduced population growth in developing countries but funding for sterilization abroad emerged as a political issue in the House. In the proposed U.S. AID budget, which in the past has been about 10% funded for direct population programs, a total concern with literacy for women, higher educational levels, and other developmental programs which increase motivation for family planning has been proposed. Zero Population Growth has sent telegrams to Congress supporting this basic development policy. The controversy over sterilization is the result of India's compulsory sterilization legislation. An amendment refusing to allow any U.S. funds to be used for sterilization programs was rejected, but in rejecting it, the members of the House of Representatives expressed their concern that any and all sterilization programs be completely voluntary. In a letter, AID Deputy Administrator Robert Nooter assured Congress that AID has no goals to sterilize any certain number of women around the world and it is not the main purpose of the AID program to to emphasize sterilization as a method of family planning.     

‘The Realm of Maiden Beauty’: Spectres of Slavery,Rebellion, and Creolisation in the Landscape of Cable’s Louisiana

Using a creative interdisciplinary method of enquiry, this article seeks to exorcise the spectres of revolutionary creolisation embedded in George Washington Cable’s 1880 novel The Grandissimes. It probes, in particular, the secreted traces of the Creole diaspora triggered by the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804, and attempts to peel back the manifold layers of ideological occlusion embedded in the (ostensibly white, Anglo-American) narrative frame of Cable’s omniscient narrator and his protagonist Joseph Frowenfeld, which suppress the connections between inter-American identities across diverse, revolutionary, creolistic worlds in Louisiana and the Gulf South. Unlike other studies examining traces of the Haitian Revolution in The Grandissimes, which tend to focus on the parallels between fictional and historical figures in Cable’s southern romance, this article dissects the subtle allusions to the revolution and the attendant diaspora found in the plantation infrastructures and the urban landscape of Cable’s Louisiana. In so doing, it demonstrates how Saint-Domingan migrants affirmed and reinvigorated the cultural landscape of the ‘Creole’ South and ‘circumvented’ the ideological spread of ‘Americanness’ at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, and during successive moments thereafter.     

Effects of distortion of spatial and temporal resolution of video stimuli on emotion attributions

Whether recognition of emotion from facial expression is affected by distortions of pictorial quality has rarely been tested, with the exception of the influence of picture size on emotion recognition. On the other hand, this question is important for (low-cost) tele-communication and tele-conferencing. Here an attempt is made to study whether emotion recognition from facial expression is impaired when video stimuli are distorted both with respect to spatial (pixel) resolution and with respect to temporal resolution (refreshment rate).N=56 stimuli, in which professional actors encoded 14 different emotions, were presented to groups of judges (N=10 in each condition) in six different distortion conditions. Furthermore, judges were confronted with a control condition, presenting the non-distorted stimuli. Channel of information (close-up of the face versus full body recording) was in addition manipulated. Results indicate (besides main effects for type of emotion encoded and for channel) that emotion recognition is impaired by reductions of both spatial resolution and temporal resolution, but that even very low spatial and temporal resolutions result in recognition rates which are still considerably above chance expectation. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of facial expression and body movement in communicating emotions, and with respect to applied aspects concerning tele-communication.     

Kriminalitätsfurcht im urbanen raum

Ziel ist die Erkl?rung von Kriminalit?tsfurcht auf verschiedenen Dimensionen (affektiv, kognitiv, konativ). Es werden drei theoretische Modelle zur Erkl?rung von Kriminalit?tsfurcht empirisch überprüft (Viktimisierungsmodell, Disorder-Modell, Modell sozialer Integration). Auf der Grundlage einer postalischen Bev?lkerungsumfrage (N = 3.612) in 49 Hamburger Stadtteilen werden Mehrebenenmodelle getestet. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Kriminalit?tsfurcht zwischen den Stadtteilen signifikant variiert. In der Mehrebenenanalyse best?tigen sich Effekte von Individualvariablen (perzipierte physical und social incivilities, pers?nliche und indirekte Viktimisierungen, Vertrauen zu Nachbarn, perzipierte Polizeistreifen, Alter, Geschlecht) und Kontextvariablen (problematische Sozialstruktur, Bev?lkerungsdichte) auf die verschiedenen Dimensionen der Kriminalit?tsfurcht.     

Wirkungen des TV-Duells im Vorfeld der Bundestagswahl 2005 auf die Wahlentscheidung

During the election campaign to the German Federal Election 2005 the incumbent chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his challenger Angela Merkel met one another on the occasion of a televised debate, the so-called “TV-duel”. This debate was viewed by roughly one third of the German electorate. It is analyzed, whether the perception of the TV-duel winner has had an influence on the voting decision. In the empirical analyses special regard is given to the stability of the winner perception until election day and the influence of subjective expectations towards the debate performance of the candidates. The data analyzed were collected by means of a new interviewing technology via the television screen of the respondents. It is shown, that the winner perception was largely stable and only marginally influenced by the media coverage following the debate. Subjective expectations towards the debate performance of the candidates turn out to be of no importance for the voting decision. The effect of the winner perception on voting behaviour was mediated by changing candidate orientations.