Access to Water in the Slums of Sub‐Saharan Africa

This article reviews the changing perspectives for improving access to water in the slums of developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa. While much of the literature continues to maintain an aversion to state‐led urban development policies, there is now increasing emphasis on the importance of informal, small‐scale providers and communitarian initiatives, following the many failures of privatisation. The article argues that market‐oriented solutions are inappropriate for sub‐Saharan African countries where over two‐thirds of the urban population live in squatter settlements with multidimensional challenges.     

Internationalization and Performance of Firms in China: Moderating Effects of Governance Structure and the Degree of Centralized Control

This study proposes necessary modifications to the existing internationalization–performance relationship to meet the idiosyncrasies of China-specific contexts. We first hypothesize an S-shaped internationalization–performance relationship as the baseline and then investigate the moderating effects of a firm's governance structure and the degree of centralized government control on the relationship between its internationalization and performance. The results, based on a longitudinal sample of manufacturing firms in China for the 2001–2007 period, indicate that (1) the S-shaped internationalization–performance relationship holds for firms in China; (2) the governance structure moderates the internationalization–performance relationship such that increased profitability through internationalization is more likely for modernized firms than for their conventional local counterparts; and (3) the degree of centralized control moderates the internationalization–performance relationship such that increased profitability through internationalization is more likely for firms affiliated with higher level governments than for those affiliated with lower-level governments.     

Eminent Social Scientists’ Views on Immigration Issues: 1985 and 2006

Following up on a research note by Stephen Moore published in 1985, this article compares the results of the survey conducted in 1985 against one carried out in 2006 on the views of eminent social scientists (economists, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, historians and anthropologists) on immigration issues. Specifically, the surveys report on whether the respondents are likely to favor an increase in the number of immigrants who are allowed into the United States and other issues such as whether immigrants improve the economy.

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Advances in the surgical management of prolapse

Prolapse is an extremely common condition, for which 11% of women will have a surgical procedure at some point in their lives. The recurrence rate after most of the traditional surgical procedures is high and upto 29% of women who have had surgery for prolapse will require a further operation. In order to improve the surgical outcome, there is currently much interest in the use of grafts to augment traditional repairs and new procedures have been developed using specifically developed grafts. These have been combined with minimally invasive surgical techniques in an attempt to reduce surgical morbidity. These procedures may improve the outcome of surgery for prolapse. However, there is currently a lack of long-term data from randomized trials to demonstrate their effectiveness and safety.     

Why do newcomers vote for a newcomer? Support for an immigrant party

This article studies the voters of DENK, the first immigrant party to gain seats in a national parliament. It builds further on the existing literature on how immigrants and people from immigrant descent vote in Western European countries. From the literature we derive seven expectations about the kind of voters that are likely to vote for an immigrant party in terms of their political cynicism, attitudes towards economic, globalisation and moral issues. We find that DENK voters are younger Muslims, who have conservative views on moral matters, cynical attitudes towards politics, right-wing views on economic matters and progressive views on issues that pertain to the globalisation dimension, such as immigration, integration and Islam and in particular discrimination. This article uses VAA data to construct a matched sample that in terms of key variables is representative for voters with and without a migration background.     

Social Harmony in Hong Kong: Level,Determinants and Policy Implications

This study aims at ascertaining how Hong Kong people perceive Hong Kong as a harmonious society. It also identifies the elements that are most conducive to social harmony in Hong Kong, so that the government could take reference when formulating new policies. 1,062 adults residents were asked to rate their perceived level of social harmony and their satisfaction with 36 items (divided into three dimensions: public governance, society, and economy, family and work) for which the research team believes would be influencing the perceived level of social harmony. Results show that the average rating of social harmony was 5.57 (out of 10), delineating a moderate level of social harmony. Subsequent multivariate factor analysis and regression analysis show that the four extracted factors (from the three dimensions) had significant impacts on the level of social harmony. These were, in order of significance: (a) public governance, (b) social solidarity and respect, (c) economy/family/work and, (d) social tolerance and progressiveness. According to the factor loadings of each significant factor, we identified four core values which we hope the government would consider when formulating new policies, as follows: (1) A Justice Government with Sincerity on Communication, (2) Mutual Support and Respect with Integrity and Dedication, (3) Dedication to One’s Job and Community by Helping the Needed and, (4) Creativity and Progressiveness with Tolerance. Implications for policy making are discussed. The study was conducted under the direction and guidance of the Fostering Social Harmony Task Force of the Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association (HKPASEA). The authors acknowledge the kind support and assistance provided by the Council Members of HKPASEA and staff members of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy at Hong Kong Baptist University. We are also grateful to Prof. Alex Michalos and Prof. P. K. Ip for their comments and suggestions given at the International Conference on National Well-Being held in November 2006 at the National Central University, Taiwan.     

Can We Compare Life Satisfaction Between Nationalities? Evaluating Actual and Imagined Situations

Do differences in reported life satisfaction between societies reflect real differences or do they reflect cultural differences in the way people rate their experiences? Study 1 showed that imagining better or worse life situations affected student respondents’ ratings of their own life satisfaction, as predicted by range–frequency theory. Study 2 investigated how German and Polish students rated their actual life satisfaction and how satisfied they would be under three imagined scenarios. Study 3 similarly compared Danish and Hungarian students. Both studies found significant differences in the rating of the hypothetical situations, and moderate correlations between ratings of satisfaction in the hypothetical situations and reality, but in neither study were national differences in actual satisfaction predicted by differences in hypothetical satisfaction. Overall, the results suggest that national differences in rated life satisfaction are real rather than reflecting differences in how satisfaction is rated.