The Structural Adjustment Experiment

Book reviewed in this article: Stabilization and Structural Adjustment: Macro-economic Frameworks for Analysing the Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. By Finn Tarp Structural Adjustment and Beyond in Sub-Saharan Africa: Research and Policy Issues. Edited by Rolph van der Hoeven and Fred van der Kraaij Hemmed In: Responses to Africa's Economic Decline. Edited by Thomas M. Callaghy and John Ravenhill     

Food Banking and Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Food banks are a particular type of voluntary sector organization that bridges the government sector, private sector, and...     

A Note on the Dimensionality of Quality of Life Scales: An Illustration with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)

A case is made that measures used in quality of life and happiness research will be essentially unidimensional: inherently tapping minor dimensions. This is illustrated using Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). It is shown that the SWLS does not meet the standard of strict unidimensionality, but that the interpretation of the total scale score is not compromised because the additional dimensions are relatively minor. In the context of the example, a multi-step strategy is described that allows researchers to test for essential unidimensionality. Throughout the article, essential unidimensionality is contrasted with the received view of strict unidimensionality and confirmatory factor analysis methods.

Unmet need for couples: An analytical framework and evaluation with DHS data

While estimates of unmet need continue to be an important measure of the extent of demand for contraception and family planning programs success in developing countries, there are various reservations about the validity of these estimates. For instance, the traditional formulation of the measurement has relied solely on information from women while inferences from the findings are often drawn for couples. As more survey data have become available for both men and women in a number of countries, there is increasing evidence suggesting that husbands' preferences are indeed important determinants of the reproductive behavior of couples. This paper developsan analytical framework for measuring unmet need for couples. The approach: (1) takes a fresh look at the classification of pregnant and amenorrheic women, and (2) incorporates the contraceptive use and fertility preferences of husband and wife in estimating the level of unmet need in six sub-Saharan African countries. Our findings shows that taking these factors into account results in a 50 to 66 percent reduction in the level of unmet need in these countries. The importance of husbands' variables in determining the level of unmet need is clearly evident when examined among fecund couples in which the wife is neither pregnant nor amenorrheic. The implications of these findings for family planning programs and research are discussed.     

Occupational Cultures and the Embodiment of Masculinity: Hairdressing,Estate Agency and Firefighting

Drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded project, this article explores the implications of different occupational cultures for men's masculine identity. With a focus on embodiment and individual agency, it explores the argument that it is within ‘scenes of constraint’ that gendered identities are both ‘done’ and ‘undone’. In this article we examine embodied experience in occupational cultures commonly stereotyped as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ (hairdressing, estate agency and firefighting), showing how men conform to, draw upon and resist the gendered stereotypes associated with these occupations. What we argue is that gendered conceptions of ‘the body’ need to be differentiated from individual men's embodiment. Instead, processes of identification can be shown to emerge via embodied experiences of particular kinds of gendered body, and in the ways in which men negotiate the perception of these bodies in different occupational contexts.     

Bus rapid transit identity meets universal design

As bus rapid transit (BRT) systems continue to become more popular and as capital expenditure for such projects continues to grow, careful consideration of BRT identity design becomes ever more necessary. Properly considered identity systems can ensure accessibility to and usability of physical features and can also ensure that BRT systems are accessible and practical to use. Based on the seven principles of universal design, this article proposes a basic means to evaluate existing and planned BRT identity systems. The article concludes with recommendations for evaluators and guidelines for designers of BRT identity systems that will help to ensure the practical usability of BRT identity systems by a broad audience of diverse users, regardless of physical, cognitive or situational ability.     

Diversity of vocabulary and homogeneity of literary style

To help settle the debate around the authorship of Tirant lo Blanc, we analyse the evolution of the diversity of the vocabulary used in that book, as measured through eight different diversity indices. The exploratory analysis reveals a clear single shift in diversity, that is estimated through change-point techniques to be in chapter 382, and might indicate the existence of one main author writing about four fifths of the book, and of a second author finishing the last one fifth of the book. Before chapter 382, the language is richer and more diverse than after it.     

Health and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain theimpact of peoples self-reported health on theirlevels of satisfaction with their health, and theimpact of these things plus satisfaction with otherspecific domains of their lives on the perceivedquality of their lives. The latter was operationalized as general happiness, satisfactionwith life as a whole and overall satisfaction with thequality of life. Seven hundred and twenty-three (723)usable questionnaires returned from a mailout randomsample of 2500 households of Prince George, BritishColumbia in November 1998 formed the working data-setfor our analyses. Among other things, mean respondentscores on the SF-36 health profile were found to belower than published norms from the UK, USA,Netherlands and Sweden, but higher than scores fromAberdeen, Scotland. Mean scores on the CES-Ddepression scale also indicated that our respondentstended to have more depressive symptoms thancomparison groups in Winnipeg and the USA. A review oftrends in mean scores on 17 quality of life items(e.g., satisfaction with family life, financialsecurity, recreation, etc.) from 1994, 1997 and 1998revealed that there were only 7 statisticallysignificant changes across the four year period andthey were all negative. Multivariate regressionanalysis showed that health status measured with avariety of indicators could explain 56% of thevariation in respondents reported satisfaction withtheir health. A combination of health status plusdomain satisfaction indicators could explain 53% ofthe variation in respondents reported happiness, 68%of reported life satisfaction and 63% of reportedsatisfaction with the overall quality of life. Sixtypercent of the explained variation in happiness scoreswas attributable to self-reported health scores, whileonly 18% of the explained variation in satisfactionwith life and with the overall quality of life scoreswas attributable self-reported health scores.