Battles through and about statistics in French pay equity bargaining: The politics of quantification at workplace level

This article proposes to study the discreet ‘battles of numbers’ at workplace level, particularly exacerbated on pay equity, in relation to its potential additional costs for employers. Figures are at once a framework, an object and a resource for power struggles between social partners. This approach is inspired by ‘statactivism’, a research perspective that studies the ways and contexts in which statistics can become tools for social mobilization. In a European context where bargaining is increasingly decentralized to company level, we argue that researchers should pay attention to statistical resources and quantification skills of negotiators, both on the management and unions side. They should also include in their analytical framework the influence of experts and specialists who advise social partners on how to strategically produce and use gender‐sensitive statistics. In this article, two case studies allow us to open the ‘black box’ of equality bargaining, revealing challenges and controversies of gender pay reporting.     

Peer collaboration: conflict,cooperation, or both?

The present study sought to characterize the mechanism of cognitive change during peer interaction. Forty-eight focal subjects (8-year-old females) were paired with either their mother or their best friend for dyadic discussion of two socio-moral dilemmas. The focal subjects were pretested and posttested to assess any change in their socio-moral reasoning. The hypothesis tested was that subjects cooperatively co-construct solutions to dilemmas; therefore, the discussions regarding solutions they eventually accept, as opposed to those they reject, will be positively related to posttest performance. Contrary to expectations, it was discovered that only the discussion of rejected solutions has a significant relation to cognitive outcome. Close analysis revealed that the consequence of a rejected solution discussion often is the focal's proposal of a more acceptable solution, and this also has a strong relation to outcome. A new conceptualization of collaboration is proposed, one that focuses on the importance of dyadic consideration of multiple perspectives. The consequence of such consideration is both critical analysis of ideas (socio-cognitive conflict) and co-construction of new understanding (cooperation).     

Agricultural Journalists' Assessments of Print Coverage of Agricultural News1

Abstract Critics of agricultural news claim farm media and mass media coverage of agriculture is systematically distorted, a condition that could seriously affect the agricultural information system. A national survey used agricultural journalists as expert judges to assess how well three types of print journalists cover agricultural news. Their assessments indicated that mass media reporters who do not regularly cover agricultural news tend to write agriculture stories that are superficial and stereotyped but not biased toward agricultural interests. Farm magazine writers' stories are not superficial or stereotyped, but writers are uncritical of agriculture, biased toward agroindustry, and overlook important social and environmental issues. Newspaper farm beat reporters are closer to farm magazine writers in not trivializing agriculture and closer to general newspaper reporters in avoiding close ties with industry. Both farmers and public thus receive biased and fragmented reporting that may polarize their views on current agricultural issues. Even if reporters are aware of critical shortcomings in their coverage, improvement may require reduction in structural constraints on story choice.     

What Are the Determinants of Open‐Space Ballot Measures? An Extension of the Research*

Objective. This article comments on the findings of Romero and Liserio's “Saving Open Spaces.” Their primary claim is that open‐space ballots are not related in any way to actual land‐use patterns. Methods. First, I present a number of methodological problems with their approach and demonstrate a sample selection bias using their original data. Second, I present some alternate models using data from 350 municipalities in the greater Philadelphia area. Results. I demonstrate that the sample selection bias in Romero and Liserio's model is so acute that all their parameter estimates are jointly zero. With other data, I find that sprawl votes are related to land‐use patterns using a number of different measures. Conclusions. I conclude that open‐space votes are related to land‐use patterns and that this may be explained as a rational response to sprawl by community planning bureaucracies.     

People in a World Between: Psychodynamic Themes in the Treatment of Bisexual Patients

Normal sexual behavior is on a continuum—with homosexuality at one end, heterosexuality at the other, and bisexuality at the midpoint. Most people have some bisexual potential. A bisexual person is capable of having intimacy with either a man or women but may be made uncomfortable by the ambiguity of their libidinal longings, feel different, isolated, and long to make a clearer gender choice—homosexuality or heterosexuality. The sacrifice to the self and the psychic conflicts that block such a lifestyle resolution brings these bisexuals into treatment and clinicians are confronted with a need to apply psychodynamic theory in new and more flexible ways. Using two case studies this paper discusses forms of androgynous transference, pregnancy fantasy, and dream interpretation that can unfold in the psychotherapy of bisexual patients.