Chains and networks,territories and scales: towards a relational framework for analysing the global economy

A vast and continually expanding literature on economic globalization continues to generate a miasma of conflicting viewpoints and alternative discourses. This article argues that any understanding of the global economy must be sensitive to four considerations: (a) conceptual categories and labels carry with them the discursive power to shape material processes; (b) multiple scales of analysis must be incorporated in recognition of the contemporary ‘relativization of scale’; (c) no single institutional or organizational locus of analysis should be privileged; and (d) extrapolations from specific case studies and instances must be treated with caution, but this should not preclude the option of discussing the global economy, and power relations within it, as a structural whole. This paper advocates a network methodology as a potential framework to incorporate these concerns. Such a methodology requires us to identify actors in networks, their ongoing relations and the structural outcomes of these relations. Networks thus become the foundational unit of analysis for our understanding of the global economy, rather than individuals, firms or nation states. In presenting this argument we critically examine two examples of network methodology that have been used to provide frameworks for analysing the global economy: global commodity chains and actor‐network theory. We suggest that while they fall short of fulfilling the promise of a network methodology in some respects, they do provide indications of the utility of such a methodology as a basis for understanding the global economy.     

Measuring robustness for weighted distributions: Bayesian perspective

There are many situations where the usual random sample from a population of interest is not available, due to the data having unequal probabilities of entering the sample. The method of weighted distributions models this ascertainment bias by adjusting the probabilities of actual occurrence of events to arrive at a specification of the probabilities of the events as observed and recorded. We consider two different classes of contaminated or mixture of weight functions, Γ _a ={w(x):w(x)=(1−ε)w ₀(x)+εq(x),q∈Q} and Γ _g ={w(x):w(x)=w ₀ ^1−ε (x)q ^ε(x),q∈Q} wherew ₀(x) is the elicited weighted function,Q is a class of positive functions and 0≤ε≤1 is a small number. Also, we study the local variation of ϕ-divergence over classes Γ _a and Γ _g . We devote on measuring robustness using divergence measures which is based on the Bayesian approach. Two examples will be studied.     

Random Level-Shift Time Series Models,ARIMA Approximations,and Level-Shift Detection

The main purpose of this article is to assess the performance of autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models when occasional level shifts occur in the time series under study. A random level-shift time series model that allows the level of the process to change occasionally is introduced. Between two consecutive changes, the process behaves like the usual autoregressive moving average (ARMA) process. In practice, a series generated from a random level-shift ARMA (RLARMA) model may be misspecified as an ARIMA process. The efficiency of this ARIMA approximation with respect to estimation of current level and forecasting is investigated. The results of examining a special case of an RLARMA model indicate that the ARIMA approximations are inadequate for estimating the current level, but they are robust for forecasting future observations except when there is a very low frequency of level shifts or when the series are highly negatively correlated. A level-shift detection procedure is presented to handle the low-frequency level-shift phenomena, and its usefulness in building models for forecasting is demonstrated.     

Socioeconomic status,psychosocial factors and health in urban Guyana

Individuals of higher socioeconomic status live longer and enjoy better physical and mental health relative to individuals of lower social status. Socioeconomic status differences in health status persist over time. This paper examines the association between socioeconomic status, psychosocial factors, and health in Georgetown, Guyana. The major causes of death are cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease; life expectancy at birth is 67.3 years for males and 72.3 years for females; and the infant mortality rate is 44 per 1000 live births. Data for the study were drawn from a probability sample of 654 adult residents of Georgetown. A significant inverse association was found between formal education and morbidity for four of the six measures of health status. The authors investigated the extent to which self-concept, health behaviors, stress, and social ties are linked to health status and socioeconomic status, and can explain socioeconomic status differences in health status. Psychosocial factors, especially the self-concept measures of self-esteem and mastery, were found to play a moderate role in accounting for educational differences in health status.     

Isotonic Window Estimators of the Baseline Hazard Function in Cox's Regression Model Under Order Restriction

The regression model suggested by Cox (1972) has been widely used in survival analysis with censored observations. We propose isotonic window estimators for a monotone baseline hazard function in the Cox regression model. We prove that these estimators are asymptotically normal. The simulati on results presented in the article suggest that the proposed estimator performs better than several existing estimators in the literature     

Unveiling the Non‐discursivity of the Lifeworld Experience: An Inquiry into the Taken‐for‐Grantedness of the Spousal Sexual World of Hong Kong Chinese Couples*

Although the phenomenological thesis of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt) has posited that the intersubjective experience is largely non‐discursive, sociologists seldom attend to the dimension of non‐discursivity in empirical inquiries. Based on the work of Alfred Schutz, this study first endeavors to explicate that lived experience (Erlebnis) is founded on the non‐discursivity of the lifeworld, that is, the pre‐predicative background expectancies that make possible the everyday life experience. Then, along the Schutzian line of thinking, two novel research techniques—the surface interview and answer‐aire—are designed to delve into the taken‐for‐grantedness of the lifeworld, using the spousal sexual world as a case in point. This study pioneers a way that the structures of the horizon that lie within the unsaid region of the lifeworld become sociologically and scientifically examinable.