The social impact of the global financial crisis in Australia

The Australian economy has weathered the storm that followed the global financial crisis (GFC) better than most other OECD countries. The reasons for this are complex, although the fiscal stimulus measures introduced by the federal government in 2008 and 2009 boosted domestic consumption and investment and helped to sustain economic growth. However, even with these measures, concerns have been raised over the social impact of the financial crisis, with a number of studies suggesting that those with lowest incomes and/or reliant on welfare services for support were most adversely affected. This paper presents new estimates of the social impact of the GFC using data from two national surveys, conducted in 2006 and 2010 – before and after the crisis hit Australia. The impact is assessed using a range of different approaches, including people's own perceptions of the impact, changes in their subjective wellbeing, reported changes in financial stress and changes in deprivation and economic exclusion. The results suggest that the social impact of the crisis has been small, although some evidence suggests that those already facing the most severe levels of social disadvantage were most adversely affected. In this sense, the GFC may have led to greater inequality in living standards, at least in some dimensions.     

Reflections on the meritocracy debate in Britain: a response to Richard Breen and John Goldthorpe

A paper by Breen and Goldthorpe recently claimed to have exposed 'fatal flaws' in my work on meritocracy in Britain. This paper responds to their criticisms. The results of their re-analysis of the NCDS data set are shown to be consistent with my earlier findings and arguments. Furthermore, re-running some of my earlier models using measures that they favour and a method designed to privilege their position, the results once again demonstrate that, while class origins have some effect on class destinations (in particular, for those born into the middle class), ability and effort exert a much greater effect. Based on these results, the paper identifies three core propositions about meritocracy in Britain on which all parties to this debate should now be able to agree.     

DETERMINANTS OF SATISFACTION FOR BLACKS AND WHITES

The study analyzes the determinants of satisfaction for blacks and whites with data from the Quality of American Life survey conducted in 1971 and replicated in 1978. A domain satisfaction scale is the dependént variable and a series of demographic, social relationship, SES, and religion variables are used as independent variables. Separate regression analyses by race, and tests for the significance of the interaction of the independent variables with race reveal (1) perceived quality of important relationships (i.e., friends, neighbors, children, parents, and siblings) more strongly affects levels of satisfaction for both blacks and whites than demographic variables. SES, or religion; (2) black females report significantly lower levels of satisfaction than any other gender/race group; (3) blacks living in the East report lower satisfaction than any other region/race group; (4) feeling close to their parents more strongly impacts black than white levels of satisfaction; (5) religion is more important for blacks than for whites in producing satisfaction; and (6) SES is more important for whites than blacks in producing satisfaction. Theoretical interpretations are presented.     

Female marital mobility within Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: a log-linear analysis

A series of log-linear models predicting the exchange marital experiences of Irish wives are prevented for the Irish Republic. The best explanatory model is one in which the relationship between a husband's occupational status and that of his father-in-law remains homogeneous across age levels, Women show a marked propensity to marry husbands at a similar occupational status as that of their fathers and long-range upward or downward mobility across the manual/nonmanual divide is unlikely. This tendency towards endogamy is particularly pronounced within the two upper non-manual categories and the manual strata generally the same general model of homogeneous association holds for Northern Ireland across age levels and religious affiliation. In the North, however, more short-range mobility occurs, particularly between the two upper non-manual groups. Despite this the norm for both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland is marital immobility rather than marital mobility with no evidence of a fundamental trend towards increased marital mobility. Furthermore. The mobility through marriage that did occur does not result in an overall net advantage for women.     

Acknowledgement and support matter: A brief report on gender identity and sexual orientation at a large,urban university

ABSTRACT

Objective. To examine reporting trends of students identifying as LGBTQIA+ following changes made to the ACHA-NCHA-II survey about gender identity and sexual orientation.

Methods. Data were analyzed from two sources for the purpose of triangulation: the ACHA-NCHA-II 2016 survey specific to our university and an electronic audience response survey.

Participants. Primary analyses included first-year students from the ACHA-NCHA-II data (N = 158; spring 2016) and the audience response survey (N = 1,452; August 2016).

Results. Five percent of students did not identify as cis-gender and 21% did not identify as straight/heterosexual. The sexual orientation trend was confirmed by the audience response survey.

Conclusions. The percentage of students identifying as LGBTQIA+ increased nationally between the ACHA-NCHA-II 2014 and 2016 survey samples, a trend which was confirmed using an independent audience response survey. This information has implications for university programming and inclusivity efforts nationwide.     

In Defence of Kazakshilik: Kazakhstan's War on Sacha Baron Cohen

This article explores the controversy surrounding Borat Sagdiyev—the fictitious Kazakhstani reporter whose foibles mock Kazakhstan in particular and post-Soviet culture in general. With his appearances on Da Ali G Show, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat persona long ago became the bête noire of the Kazakhstani government. However, when Borat was selected to host the MTV Europe Music Awards, the dispute over Borat's authenticity as a Kazakhstani became an international incident. In response to his negative portrayal of Kazakshilik (Kazakhness) through the deterritorialized medium of MTV, the government of President Nazarbayev threatened Baron Cohen with legal action and brought down his web site borat.kz. Baron Cohen immediately responded in character via his new domain (.tv) and defended the actions of Kazakhstan, thus fuelling the controversy. The ongoing feud has prompted an interesting postmodern praxis—one in which a fictional persona and national government can carry on a mass-mediated dialogue. As I document the details of this ongoing conflict on the global and local levels, I seek to explain the changes in the international system which have enabled this intriguing paradox. In doing so, I attempt to draw some larger conclusions on the importance of protecting national identity in the postmodern era, especially from threats (both internal and external) which weaken a country's global brand.     

Africa seminar Programme First semester 1994

Popular Resistance and the Roots of Nationalism in Namibia, 1915–1966 by Tony Emmett. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing. 1999. Includes an Introduction by Patricia Hayes.

ANC: A View from Moscow by Vladimir Shubin. Bellville: Mayibuye Books. 1999.

Special Flights to Southern Africa. The GDR and Liberation Movements in Southern Africa by Hans‐Georg Schleicher &; Ilona Schleicher. Harare: SAPES Books. 1998.

Raymond Williams. Literature, Marxism and Cultural Materialism by John Higgins. London: Routledge. 1999.

Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa by Linda Thomas. Columbia: University of South Carolina.     

Narcissistic CEOs and executive compensation

Narcissism is characterized by traits such as dominance, self-confidence, a sense of entitlement, grandiosity, and low empathy. There is growing evidence that individuals with these characteristics often emerge as leaders, and that narcissistic CEOs may make more impulsive and risky decisions. We suggest that these tendencies may also affect how compensation is allocated among top management teams. Using employee ratings of personality for the CEOs of 32 prominent high-technology firms, we investigate whether more narcissistic CEOs have compensation packages that are systematically different from their less narcissistic peers, and specifically whether these differences increase the longer the CEO stays with the firm. As predicted, we find that more narcissistic CEOs who have been with their firm longer receive more total direct compensation (salary, bonus, and stock options), have more money in their total shareholdings, and have larger discrepancies between their own (higher) compensation and the other members of their team.