Migration,remittances and development: a study of Caribbean cane cutters in Florida

The results of a 1981 survey of 302 Caribbean sugarcane cutters who were temporary immigrants in Florida are presented. The focus is on remittances to the islands of origin. The results provide "no evidence that seasonal stateside employment expands agricultural output, or enhances the productive capacity of small farmers in the Caribbean."     

Population Growth and the Distribution of Household Income: The Case of Brazil*

Special tabulations of the 1970 census of Brazil are used to estimate fertility and mortality rates by level of household income. Projections to the year 2000 indicate that the poor population will grow substantially faster than the rich population. Projections that simulate upward social mobility and declines in fertility and mortality levels do not alter this conclusion. Differential rates of natural increase by income strata are shown to contribute to an increase in the proportion of the population in the lower income strata, by the end of the century. Although these differentials could be reduced by a more equitable distribution of income, the style of development in Brazil has yielded only a small increase in the real income of the poor. Analysis of the income elasticity of fertility and mortality at different levels of household earnings suggest that this pattern of economic growth will further widen differences in the rate of natural increase by socioeconomic strata. The analysis of the demographic behavior of population subgroups questions the assumption that a lower rate of aggregate population growth in developing countries necessarily contributes to a more equitable distribution of income.     

Corporate planning and operations research: Do they go together?

Corporate planners in 59 U.S. commercial banks responded to a questionnaire on the use of operations research methods in the planning activities of their bank. Based on the questionnaire responses, 39 of the banks were identified as users of operations research techniques in corporate planning. The 39 banks provided background information on their operations research activities in corporate planning with respect to techniques used, number of persons employed, general organization and overall results. In order to learn more about the performance of operations research planners, comparisons were made between the financial performance of the group of users and the group of non-users in the sample. The results suggest that U.S. banks using operations research methods in corporate planning are larger, but not necessarily more profitable, than other banks in the industry.     

G. H. MEAD'S SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM VS. THE ASTRUCTURAL BIAS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM*

Symbolic inleractionism has been criticized for having an astructural bias. This paper presents a response to that criticism by examining the ontological stance contained in Mead's social behaviorism and contrasting it with the ontological stance of symbolic interactionism's chief architect, Herbert Blumer. Mead's social behaviorism is shown to be a nondualist philosophy of conduct based solidly on conceptions of the human community and of individual conduct as organized on the basis of social acts–a view not shared by Blumer.     

Human Resource Management–Performance Research: Is Everyone Really on the Same Page on Employee Involvement?

Differences in the treatment of involvement in the human resource management (HRM)–performance research stream have been underplayed, as commentaries concentrate on showing that HRM produces a performance premium, and more recently on exploring the mechanisms explaining this. This paper first identifies the two initial concerns of the research stream – the value of employee involvement and the holistic treatment of HRM – and the way these are joined to present a unified view of the area. It then reviews the studies, confirming that involvement has been underplayed or neglected completely, and is only prioritized in a minority. A divide is identified between HRM as an orientation towards fostering employee involvement – seen as a managerial philosophy – and as a technology – a set of practices constituting high‐performance work systems. The paper then argues that acknowledgement of this divide matters, and concludes by drawing out some implications for how we should progress the research stream.     

Girls being Rey: ethical cultural consumption,families and popular feminism

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that consumers of popular culture engage in practices of ‘ethical cultural consumption’, whereby the consumption of cultural texts is imagined as having the potential to ‘do good’ both individually and socio-politically. The paper explores data from an online questionnaire and drawing activity with girls aged 5–10 and their parents on the experience of costume playing as Rey from the contemporary Star Wars trilogy. Imagined as a ‘girl who can do anything’, Rey represents a new kind of popular feminist hero and role model for girls, enabling a degree of critique of normative gendered role models for children. ‘Being Rey’ also represents a deterministic project through which parents aim to cultivate the ‘right’ kind of girls, seeking to instil the resilience to ‘cope’ with unknown futures. More than a purely individual project, we argue that parents invest in an individualized idea of doing ‘good’ through consumption, drawing on a notion of the consumer as a political actor with the power to affect social change. Investigating the project of participating in and consuming culture ‘ethically’ allows for an exploration of what it means to ‘be political’ and ‘do good’ as a consumer in neoliberalism.     

Gender Stereotypes and the Evaluation of Men and Women in Military Training

The present study investigated perceptions of men and women in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. For both stereotypes and evaluations of individual cadets enrolled in the training program, men more than women were believed to possess the motivation and leadership qualities necessary for effective military performance, whereas women were believed to possess more feminine attributes that impair effective military performance. Because men and women did not differ on objective measures of military performance, the sex-differentiated evaluations of cadets enrolled in training most plausibly reflect the influence of gender stereotypes rather than performance differences between the sexes. Furthermore, integration of women into the corps was associated with more favorable stereotypic judgments of women and did not reveal a backlash against women in this strongly male- dominated setting.     

Social Utility Theory: Guiding Labeling of VNRs as Ethical and Effective Public Relations

Social utility theory suggests that labeling video news release (VNR) source material is the ethical decision (Wulfemeyer & Frazier, 1992 Wulfemeyer, K. T. and Frazier, L. 1992. The ethics of video news releases: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 7: 151–168. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), yet the persuasion knowledge model predicts that the effectiveness of VNRs will decrease as people become aware of this PR tactic (Friestad & Wright, 1994 Friestad, M. and Wright, P. 1994. The persuasion knowledge model: How people cope with persuasion attempts. Journal of Consumer Research, 21: 1–31. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Our study found that positive and negative effects were heightened when subjects read about VNRs and viewed a labeled VNR in a newscast. These subjects were most likely to recognize the VNR story source and least likely to perceive the story as credible. Neither reading nor labeling affected evaluations of the VNR message or featured company.