Challenging intolerance

Social identity is multilayered and complex. Schools, communities, and nations can implement structures and approaches that help youth to understand one another and respect differences.     

Finding the majority-rule equilibrium under lexicographic comparison of candidates

This paper considers the well studied problem of the existence of an undominated point, under the assumption of lexicographic preferences of voters, as espoused by Taylor in [24]. We extend Taylor's model to situations were we allow for (i) voters to have different ranings of the issues in n-dimensional issue space and (ii) a candidate to be disregarded by a voter if his stand on any one or more of the issues involved in the election is perceived to be too extreme by the voter and (iii) combinations of (i) and (ii). We extend the results of Taylor by demonstrating the non-existence of an equilibrium point in these models in general and then showing that under special circumstances, specialized variants of the “median” point(s) represent equilibrium or undominated points in these models too. Thus a model of voting behavior results that is closer approximation of reality in that historically incumbents tend to win. The primary conclusion of the paper is to suggest that incumbents tend to have an advantage when the election process is characterized by a large presence of special interests or as information becomes more expensive to acquire. Received: 13 February 1996 / Accepted: 27 March 1997     

Five-Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and Their Cost-Effectiveness

We gathered information on the cost-effectiveness of life-saving interventions in the United States from publicly available economic analyses. "Life-saving interventions" were defined as any behavioral and/or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature death among a specified target population. We defined cost-effectiveness as the net resource costs of an intervention per year of life saved. To improve the comparability of cost-effectiveness ratios arrived at with diverse methods, we established fixed definitional goals and revised published estimates, when necessary and feasible, to meet these goals. The 587 interventions identified ranged from those that save more resources than they cost, to those costing more than 10 billion dollars per year of life saved. Overall, the median intervention costs $42,000 per life-year saved. The median medical intervention costs $19,000/life-year; injury reduction $48,000/life-year; and toxin control $2,800,000/life-year. Cost/life-year ratios and bibliographic references for more than 500 life-saving interventions are provided.     

Towards migration research networking in Eastern-Southern African subregions

This article reports efforts made by a small group of Eastern-Southern African (ESA) subregion scholars to adopt a systematic approach to establishing a regional network Migration Network in Eastern and Southern Africa (MINESA). The approach involved: 1) holding a conference at which symptomatic types of internal and international migration would be discussed; 2) publication of the conference proceedings; and 3) establishment of MINESA as a network of policy-oriented research in the two subregions. The first stage has been accomplished, the second is nearly complete, and the third has yet to be undertaken. During the African Population Conference organized by the International Union for Scientific Study of Population in Dakar, Senegal, on 5-9 November 1988, a small group agreed on a timetable to establish MINESA. At the ESA conference, papers were presented on ESA issues; internal migration processes and mechanism; refugee movements and their implications for countries; the effects on the economies of Southern African states, of emigration to the Republic of South Africa (RSA). In a keynote address, Adepoju surveyed migration and development in Western-Central (Middle) Africa and Eastern-Southern Africa, which included colonial and post-colonial historical epochs, internal and international migration, and labor and refugee movements. A paper on Kenya by Oucho discussed the implications for rural-urban balance of internal migration based on 1969 and 1979 censuses. Rural-urban migration from the traditional economy to Nairobi and Mombasa in particular has created an unacceptable rural-urban imbalance, adversely affecting rural development. Eastern and Southern Africa has seen massive and wide spatial dispersal of refugees (victims of wars, drought, and famine). Two papers were presented on Tanzania and one on Uganda. The final set of papers addressed the effects of labor migration to the RSA on Swaziland and Lesotho.     

Recent trends and future prospects for the elderly in Scandinavia

After World War II, and all through the 1970s, social and economic development in general, and social policy in particular, raised the standard of living for old people in Scandinavia considerably. Public provision then leveled off and declined through the 1980s, with some variation between the countries. While the aging of the population continues, the political and economic climate now favors cuts rather than expansion of public budgets. Any further development along these lines will reinforce the inequalities, and place a growing number of the elderly and their families at risk.     

Population policies and the "creation" of Africa

"This paper will look at the ways in which population policies have played an important role in the ongoing debate about African identities and culture.... In dealing with the construction of Africa, this paper will be limited to the impact of the population discourse on Africans. Three groups will be considered. These are: the target population of (largely rural) women; males (representing the patriarchal dimension); and African intellectuals. Even though membership in each group is not mutually exclusive, each will be dealt with separately for ease of analysis." (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

The effects of distance and individual differences in arousability on nonverbal involvement: A test of discrepancy-arousal theory

Mutual influence in human interaction refers to the tendency for persons to alter their verbal, vocal, and kinesic behaviors in response to the intensity, frequency or duration of those behaviors emitted by their partners. Numerous explanations of these processes have been put forward involving principles of approach-avoidance conflict, arousal, reward, and cognitive processes. These explanations are reviewed with special attention given to an arousal based theory, discrepancy-arousal. This theory holds that mutual influence is primarily the result of arousal changes due to the degree of discrepancy of partner's behavior from the receiver's expectation.The theory predicts that persons who differ in reaction to arousal should also differ in their response to a partner's immediacy. This hypothesis was tested on high and low sensation seekers under conditions of near and normal distances during an interview. Several different behavioral responses were coded, including eye gaze, posture and orientation, smiles and laughter, object- and body-focused gestures, vocalization, pauses, and latencies to respond. The hypothesized interaction did not materialize with a median split on sensation seeking. A measure of state-trait sensation seeking (STSS) was developed. The interaction between distance and a median split on the state-trait measure was significant for eye gaze and posture and orientation, with the high STSS subjects compensating less than the low STSS subjects.     

A COMPONENT OF VARIANCE DUE TO COMPETITION1

The existence of a component of variance for competition among sampling units or among individuals in a group was discussed by Yates and Zacopany in 1935. No procedure was suggested for estimating this component of variance. It is the purpose of this paper to give a procedure for estimating the component of variance due to competition and to apply the procedure to a set of data on weaning weights of pigs with 116 litters of various sizes and for Yorkshire, Chester-White, and Berkshire breeds. The first problem was to define litter size. Within this definition then, litters sizes of 3 to 14 pigs per litter were obtained. The variation among pigs within a litter of size h was considered to have an expected value equal to V_s+ V_ch where V_s is the sampling variance component and V_ch is the competition variance component for a litter of size h. In order to obtain an estimate of V_ch, a polynomial relation between h and V_ch was postulated. In particular, it was postulated that where E(.) denotes expected value. This form states that V_ch goes to zero for one pig per litter; it may be appropriate as long as small litter sizes (say 1 and 2 at least) are omitted from the analysis as was done in the present instance. Using an iterative procedure of reestimating the weights at each stage, a form of weighted least squares analysis was performed. The procedure appears to converge after three to four steps of iteration. Solutions for some or all of the parameters V_p, V_s, β₁ and β₂ for h even, h odd, and all h = 3, 4, …, 14, were obtained using among litter mean squares, A_h, only, using within litter mean squares, W_h, only, and using both A_h, and W_h values. The A_h values for h = 3, 4, and 5 appeared to form a different group than for the other values of h. Both the A_h and W_h mean squares were from 56 day weights adjusted for birth weight. The maximum value of V_ch for odd h, was nine whereas it was six for even h. Using all h the maximum value for V_ch occurred when h was equal to nine. It appeared that expressing V_ch as a quadratic function of litter size was satisfactory for these litter sizes and mean squares.     

The economic nature and value of volunteer activity in Canada

Recent concerns with the quality of life have led economists to investigation of activities outside the market and beyond GNP, among them household work, volunteer services, and student time investment. The present study focuses upon volunteer activities, delineating at the outset the boundary between economic and non-economic types of volunteer action. Our main concern is to analyze what economic volunteer services are, and to estimate their dollar value. A scheme is proposed to classify volunteer actions as to their economic and non-economic aspects, isolating those that are economic in nature. This last group, Economic Volunteer Services (EVS) is further classified by type of function (Health, Education, etc.) and the scheme is illustrated by reference to a sample of 322 volunteer agencies. In addition a second scheme of classification is developed for the particular ESV jobs or tasks performed by volunteers, and this scheme is illustrated with a sample of 5334 volunteer requests made to the Metro Toronto Volunteer Centre. The analysis of agency types show that the major users of volunteers are Health and Rehabilitation centres, and Neighbourhood Multi-Service Agencies. Analysis by types of jobs reveals that Supervision and Friendly Visiting are the major ones; adding to this Parole Counselling, Child Care, Clerical Work, and Driving, one accounts for about 60% of all volunteer actions. Fifteen other groups of jobs account for the remaining 40%. The average work assignment in all agencies and jobs is 5.0 hours per week, varying from a high of 7.0 in Friendly Visiting and Co-ordination tasks, to a low of 2.0 for Teaching and Therapy Assistance. Variation by agency type is found to be far greater. The value of such volunteer work is then estimated and found to be, for the sample used, about $800 per annum per volunteer in 1971. A conservative estimate of the numbers of volunteers doing EVS places this value in the aggregate at 1% of GNP; an upper bound estimate for volunteer involvement makes the aggregate 3%. Finally, the study analyzes the availability of data in Canada on voluntarism, and concludes that there is very little hard data; in particular, there is not a single comprehensive census or even a national survey to serve as a benchmark. We note also, however, that there exists a good potential network for compiling such information, namely the Volunteer Centres or Bureaus in most Urban areas.