Quality of Life in Intentional Communities

The present study was initiated to investigate levels and predictors of wellbeing among inhabitants of intentional communities (ICs). An anonymous, Internet-based questionnaire was distributed to US and Canadian ICs. Responses were obtained from 913 members. Wellbeing was measured by the widely used satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were run to test the predictive validity of Social support, Identity fusion, Meaning in life, Community satisfaction and Life change, and Religious activity above and beyond demographic variables and personality traits. Mean scores on the SWLS were estimated to 5.27 and 5.47 (1–7 scale) for men and women, respectively. The full model explained 41.4% of the variance for men and 38.2% for women. Personality explained 13.4 (men) and 14.4% (women) of the variation, while demographic variables only had a minor impact. Overall, presence of Meaning in life and Social support were the most important predictors. The IC inhabitants reported wellbeing on par with the highest scores previously published. The findings support the contention that sustainability, in the form of a communal lifestyle of low ecological footprint, may be promoted without forfeiting wellbeing.     

THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

(with an introduction by Daniel L. McFadden) The past and the present processes leading to social security legislation inform expectations regarding the future of social security, and with international comparisons, provide lessons to those who would learn them. (JEL H55)     

Modelling period fertility: Schooling and intervals following a birth in Eastern Africa

We describe a regression-based approach to the modelling of age-, order-, and duration-specific period fertility, using retrospective survey data. The approach produces results that are free of selection biases and can be used to study differential fertility. It is applied to Demographic and Health Survey data for Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe to investigate differential trends in fertility by education. Parity progression fell and the intervals following each birth lengthened between the 1970s and 2000s in all four countries. Fertility fell most among women with secondary education. In contrast to other world regions, postponement of successive births for extended periods accounted for much of the initial drop in fertility in these African countries. However, family size limitation by women with secondary education in Ethiopia and Kenya and longer birth spacing in Zimbabwe also played significant roles. Thus, birth control is being adopted in Eastern Africa in response to diverse changes in fertility preferences.     

Young people and caregivers' perceptions of an intervention program for children who deliberately light fires

A significant number of children and adolescents engage in deliberate fire setting, beyond the scope of curiosity and experimentation. Interventions developed to respond to the needs of such fire setters generally involve educational and/or psychosocial approaches. Research evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions is dominated by outcome studies which rely on recidivism rates determined by either official records or parent reports. There has however, been no process evaluation studies published. This study presents a process analysis which aimed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a Fire Awareness and Intervention Program in New Zealand, from the perspectives of program consumers. Qualitative research methods were employed, with data being derived from in-depth interviews with young people and their parents/caregivers. The analysis indicated that (a) the FAIP was generally regarded as a positive experience, (b) practitioners' qualities of empathy and understanding are important for developing rapport with the young people and their parents, (c) education-based intervention tailored to the young person's age and developmental level is important, (d) educational resources need to be updated and used flexibly to respond appropriately to the age and developmental level of the young person, and (e) inter-agency and intra-agency relationships need to be developed and maintained, with formal arrangements for reciprocal referral systems developed in order to respond to the needs of the clients. The resulting implications for service providers, along with future research are discussed.     

Networking practitioner research: synthesising the state of the ‘art’

The aim of this paper is to examine what we know about the experience and outcomes of networked initiatives aimed at facilitating practitioner research. We outline the roles and significance of practitioner research within social work; review emerging understanding of practitioner research network initiatives; and draw conclusions from a comparative analysis of three such initiatives in Auckland, New Zealand, Arhus County, Denmark, and across Scotland. We consider the nature and challenges of practitioner research and a number of responses to how such work should be formulated and conducted. Central to our argument is an empirically informed consideration—from our separate and shared experiences—of how well networks enhance the process and consequences, and art and craft, of such research projects.     

ESTIMATING A PARAMETER WHEN IT IS KNOWN THAT THE PARAMETER EXCEEDS A GIVEN VALUE

In some statistical problems a degree of explicit, prior information is available about the value taken by the parameter of interest, θ say, although the information is much less than would be needed to place a prior density on the parameter's distribution. Often the prior information takes the form of a simple bound, ‘θ > θ₁ ’ or ‘θ < θ₁ ’, where θ₁ is determined by physical considerations or mathematical theory, such as positivity of a variance. A conventional approach to accommodating the requirement that θ > θ₁ is to replace an estimator, , of θ by the maximum of and θ₁. However, this technique is generally inadequate. For one thing, it does not respect the strictness of the inequality θ > θ₁ , which can be critical in interpreting results. For another, it produces an estimator that does not respond in a natural way to perturbations of the data. In this paper we suggest an alternative approach, in which bootstrap aggregation, or bagging, is used to overcome these difficulties. Bagging gives estimators that, when subjected to the constraint θ > θ₁ , strictly exceed θ₁ except in extreme settings in which the empirical evidence strongly contradicts the constraint. Bagging also reduces estimator variability in the important case for which is close to θ₁, and more generally produces estimators that respect the constraint in a smooth, realistic fashion.     

Adat in the Office: The Creative Afterlife of a New Order Cultural Policy

This paper explores the emergence of a new genre of garments in Eastern Indonesia: ‘traditional’ uniforms, made from locally hand-woven cloth, which are worn twice weekly by government employees in Kupang, the capital of the province of East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur, or NTT). These uniforms, which appeared following a 1997 regulation, supported the emergence of a new, urban textile culture, and a partial decoupling of traditional clothing from adat, Indonesian customary law, even as they allowed adat to make inroads into government offices. National policy, the agitation of local elites and the innovation and conservatism of artists and ritual practitioners, all contributed to this new form of artistic and cultural expression. While attention has been paid to the domesticating power of the state on local forms of cultural expression, this example shows how attempts at control can also push cultural expressions in unexpected directions.     

Is the Statistics Authority another factory inspectorate?

It is a year since the Statistics Authority came into being. Official statistics are now supposed to be independent and on course to be trustworthy—and transformed to serve not just government but society as a whole. Has it all worked out? Ian Maclean of the Statistics Users Forum says a start has been made, but progress has been slower than hoped.     

Polynomials for classification trees and applications

This paper relates computational commutative algebra to tree classification with binary covariates. With a single classification variable, properties of uniqueness of a tree polynomial are established. In a binary multivariate context, it is shown how trees for many response variables can be made into a single ideal of polynomials for computations. Finally, a new sequential algorithm is proposed for uniform conditional sampling. The algorithm combines the lexicographic Groebner basis with importance sampling and it can be used for conditional comparisons of regulatory network maps. The binary state space leads to an explicit form for the design ideal, which leads to useful radical and extension properties that play a role in the algorithms.