Sociology and the European Court of Human Rights

This article offers a sociological analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Adopting a sociological jurisprudence approach, the article aims to demonstrate the unique and valuable contribution that sociology can make to understanding key aspects of international human rights law. Whilst the article seeks to develop an agenda for critical sociological research on human rights law, it also aims to persuade those charged with the supervision of human rights of the value of sociological analysis. To achieve this, the article focuses on three separate but inter‐related aspects of ECtHR jurisprudence: first, it considers the ECtHR's approach to consensus in its adjudication of human rights complaints; second, it examines the social control implications of the ECtHR's decisions and judgments; and third, it assesses how conceptualizations of social identity are often foundational to the ECtHR's reasoning.     

Measuring Sharedness of Team-Related Knowledge: Design and Validation of a Shared Mental Model Instrument

Many researchers have explored how people share and construct similar mental models in teams. They have claimed that successful team performance depends on a shared mental model of team members about task, team, equipment and situation. Most of the literature has illustrated simplified relationships between a team's mental model and their performance without a valid instrument addressing the confined and relevant constructs of a shared mental model. This paper describes the instrument development steps and the conceptual framework for factors associated with shared mental models. After development and refinement, the instrument was finalized for use to measure team-related knowledge. The final instrument consists of 42 items that are linked to the five emergent factors of shared mental models including general task and team knowledge, general task and communication skills, attitude toward teammates and task, team dynamics and interactions, and team resources and working environment.     

Production functions and population theory

The persistence of the population problem in many developing countries' especially in Asia, must mean that the relation between population trends and productivity has to be kept continually under review. In recent years the economists' interest in this relation has shifted away from the Keynesian stagnation analysis, with its emphasis on the influence of population trends on the level and composition of consumption and investment, to a reconsideration of their influence on production. It is a striking testimony to the influence of Malthus that his theory is still under active consideration and that it frequently serves as starting point, as it does for Professor Belshaw, for an analysis of the economics of population. Divorced from its particular context, in which value judgements particularly distasteful to many commentators abound, and reformulated in terms of modern production theory, it clarifies the main issues, by showing what facts are required and what logic demands in order to provide a useful answer to practical problems of policy. Readers of the first two chapters of Professor Buquet's book will find ample confirmation of the sterility of much of the debate regarding optimum populations which developed largely from differences of opinion about definitions of “good” and “bad” economic criteria for policy than from faults in logic. The debate continues and the posthumous career of Parson Malthus still occasions even personal abuse! It would be difficult, however, to accuse Professor Belshaw of taking sides in the Malthusian debate. He takes the Malthusian analysis for what it is worth, shows where it fits the facts and where it does not, provides convincing evidence of a Malthusian problem in Asia by a skilful round-up of well presented statistics, and then, instead of committing himself to a forecast of what is likely to happen in Asia, he illustrates through the modern theory of production what are the pre-conditions for a removal of the population problem. This is surely a sensible procedure and contrasts favourably with the sibylline utterances of a number of distinguished amateur social scientists.     

The Eating Disorders NOS Diagnostic Profile Among College Women

Abstract

The authors examined a proposed profile of eating-related behaviors, associated features, developmental issues, and help-seeking behavior among college women, using an eating disorder response program. The most common symptom scenario was a pattern of regular binge eating, together with daily exercise and occasional purging. The most common associated features were distressing or dysfunctional overconcern about body image and self-esteem, usually with day-to-day stress and intermittent depression. The women who fit this pattern also presented developmental issues of perfectionism, conflictual relationships with parents, and struggles for independence; and they tended to be ambivalent about seeking services. Implications for practice, including the need to develop a framework for eating disorder responses on campus that includes preventive programs and developmental interventions to target emerging and moderate concerns are discussed; limitations and the preliminary nature of the findings are explicated.     

The Detection of Influential Observations for Allocation,Separation, and the Determination of Probabilities in a Bayesian Framework

Normal theory separation and allocation problems are discussed from a predictive point of view. Influence statistics are defined and employed to ascertain the impact that particular observations will have on the inferential goals—allocation of future observations, separation between populations, and the determination of probabilities for future cases. Methods are illustrated on a collection of financial data taken from Johnson and Wichern (1982).     

Complex Thinking and Computing Organization Facing Contingent Problems

Public Organization Review - Facing the reflexive modernity, social wealth production is systematically correlated with the production of social and technical problems. Due to the complexity...     

Exploring Parameter Relations for Multi‐Stage Models in Stage‐Wise Constant and Time Dependent Hazard Rates

Single cohort stage‐frequency data are considered when assessing the stage reached by individuals through destructive sampling. For this type of data, when all hazard rates are assumed constant and equal, Laplace transform methods have been applied in the past to estimate the parameters in each stage‐duration distribution and the overall hazard rates. If hazard rates are not all equal, estimating stage‐duration parameters using Laplace transform methods becomes complex. In this paper, two new models are proposed to estimate stage‐dependent maturation parameters using Laplace transform methods where non‐trivial hazard rates apply. The first model encompasses hazard rates that are constant within each stage but vary between stages. The second model encompasses time‐dependent hazard rates within stages. Moreover, this paper introduces a method for estimating the hazard rate in each stage for the stage‐wise constant hazard rates model. This work presents methods that could be used in specific types of laboratory studies, but the main motivation is to explore the relationships between stage maturation parameters that, in future work, could be exploited in applying Bayesian approaches. The application of the methodology in each model is evaluated using simulated data in order to illustrate the structure of these models.     

A Seemingly Unrelated Nonparametric Additive Model with Autoregressive Errors

This article considers a nonparametric additive seemingly unrelated regression model with autoregressive errors, and develops estimation and inference procedures for this model. Our proposed method first estimates the unknown functions by combining polynomial spline series approximations with least squares, and then uses the fitted residuals together with the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) penalty to identify the error structure and estimate the unknown autoregressive coefficients. Based on the polynomial spline series estimator and the fitted error structure, a two-stage local polynomial improved estimator for the unknown functions of the mean is further developed. Our procedure applies a prewhitening transformation of the dependent variable, and also takes into account the contemporaneous correlations across equations. We show that the resulting estimator possesses an oracle property, and is asymptotically more efficient than estimators that neglect the autocorrelation and/or contemporaneous correlations of errors. We investigate the small sample properties of the proposed procedure in a simulation study.     

Staying strong: gender ideologies among African-American adolescents and the implications for HIV/STI prevention

This paper explores adolescents' definitions of what it means to be a man and a woman, the psycho-social context surrounding the formation of gender ideologies and their relationship to HIV/STI prevention. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with fifty African-American adolescents living in Baltimore, Maryland. Female gender ideologies included economic independence, emotional strength and caretaking. Male gender ideologies emphasized financial responsibility, toughness and sexual prowess. Findings suggest that stronger adherence to male gender ideologies related to toughness and sexual prowess is influenced by male participants' perceived inability to fulfill their primary gender role as economic providers and the importance of gaining approval from male peers in the absence of adult male role models. Stronger adherence to female gender ideologies related to emotional strength and caretaking may be linked to a heightened desire for male intimacy and tolerance of male sexual risk behavior. Implications of the gender ideologies documented and their commonalities are discussed in terms of HIV/STI prevention.