Interest Group Participation in Rule Making: A Decade of Change

Ten years ago we completed a survey that examined interest groupparticipation in the rule-making process. At the time, it wasthe first major study to examine the role of interest groupsin one of the most important policy-making venues in our democraticsystem. This article reexamines interest group participationin rule making a decade later. We focus most of the study oncomparisons in how organizations access rule-making agencies,what techniques are used to lobby agencies, and the perceivedeffectiveness of these techniques by the organizations themselves.In addition, given the relatively new phenomenon of e–rulemaking and the increase of other electronic communication techniques,we open an examination of interest groups use of these formsof communications and their implications. We find that rulemaking continues to be a primary concern of organizations tryingto influence federal public policy, even as they have focusedmore on campaign and grassroots activities. In some ways, theseefforts are more important now than they were ten years ago.     

Rural studies: Modernism, postmodernism and the ‘post-rural’

In response to Philo [(1992b), Neglected rural geographies: a review. Journal of Rural Studies8, 193–207), who calls for rural studies to take the study of ‘others’ more seriously, we argue the need to take postmodernism more seriously. The paper focuses upon the production of knowledge about rural areas by academics. In the narrative that we provide here, the ‘rural’ had a strong presence until Pahl's critique of the rural-urban continuum which both diminished the status of the rural and emphasised the role of class in shaping particular spaces. Newby and his colleagues applied class analysis to agriculture, likewise undermining the significance of the rural. Further applications of general social theory, such as the political economy and restructuring approaches, show how modernist rural studies seem to be fighting a losing battle to posit the indispensability of the significance of the urban-rural division as an explanation; articulating and rearticulating the divide within a whole range of processes: economic, social and cultural. Rural social scientists have woven this modernist narrative, but, as Philo shows, one effect has been the neglect of certain social groups, cultures and identities. However, in contrast to Philo, we argue that a rather fundamental reassessment of social scientific approaches to the rural is required if these ‘neglected others’ are to be satisfactorily considered. We believe a ‘sociology of postmodernism’ would offer a more reflexive perspective on the processes which give rise to ‘the rural’. We thus call for an end to the use of universal or global concepts such as ‘rural’ (or the ‘urban’) and for a concern with the way places are ‘made’. This will entail a focus on ‘power’ as certain actors impose ‘their’ rurality on others. We term this the study of the ‘post-rural’.     

The vowel space as sociolinguistic sign

This paper examines variation in vowel space area and its use in social meaning making. Among adolescents at a California high school, patterns of difference in vowel space correlate to social practices of exclusion in the partying scene, albeit alongside explicit discourses of high school social life as inclusive and fluid. I treat vowel space as a sociolinguistic sign, that is, a holistic semiotic resource at play in addition to (or in tandem with) individual segments. Though the semiotic potential of a given linguistic sign is no doubt shaped by large-scale patterns of variation, the particular manifestations of meaning making are best viewed at the community level alongside other day-to-day practices. Further, I suggest that linguistic practices of difference and discourses of sameness are not contradictory, but instead a feature of the semiotic landscape. I thus interpret this vowel space variation as stylistically meaningful within the context of social actors’ ideological orientation to social life.     

Evaluation of single and mixed verbal operant arrangements for teaching mands and tacts

The purpose of this series of experiments was to evaluate the effects of mixed mand-tact arrangements on the acquisition of mands and tacts in preschool-aged children. In Experiment 1, the effects of three training arrangements (mand-only training, tact-only training, and mand-tact training) were investigated with 3 typically developing children. Rates of acquisition in single (mand-only and tact-only) versus mixed (mand-tact) presentation were comparable, in contrast to earlier investigations. Experiment 2 attempted to clarify the equivocal findings of Experiment 1 by directly replicating the Carroll and Hesse (1987) investigation with 2 typically developing children. Results again demonstrated no clear benefit of mixed verbal operant training on tact acquisition. In Experiment 3, these same arrangements were evaluated with a boy with autism and included assessments to determine that a relevant establishing operation was in effect prior to each mand training session. Experiment 3 again failed to demonstrate the facilitative effects of mand-tact training on the acquisition of mands or tacts. Taken together, the data from these three experiments fail to support the improved efficiency of mand-tact training suggested by prior studies. Findings are discussed in the context of future research investigating mixed verbal operant arrangements.     

A weighted test of internal symmetry

This study examines extensions of McNemar's Test with multinomial responses, and proposes a linear weighting scheme, based on the distance of the response change, that is applied to one of these extensions (Bowker's test). This weighted version of Bowker's test is then appropriate for ordinal response variables. A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to examine the Type I error rate of the weighted Bowker's test for a cross-classification table based on a five-category ordinal response scale. The weighted Bowker's test was also applied to a data set involving change in student attitudes towards mathematics. The results of the weighted Bowker's test were compared with the results of Bowker's test applied to the same set of data.     

China's tobacco industry's communication practices: Paradoxes and proposals for public policymaking

The People's Republic of China's expanding tobacco-control efforts call for additional, urgent government action on two major fronts: (a) conducting comprehensive health-communication campaigns on the clinical and economic effects of tobacco use; and (b) requiring major policy changes in the (structural and administrative) relationships between the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) and the industry at large, that is, primarily, the China National Tobacco Company (CNTC). China's signing (in 2003) and ratifying (in 2005) the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) place it in a position to adopt some of the anti-smoking measures common in some developed nations. Even though the country's tobacco industry acknowledges publicly health concerns over its products, it engages in communication practices that are paradoxical, in that they circumvent public-health initiatives and the expanding regulatory regimes of product-risk reduction even as the government promotes tobacco use. That paradox calls for three public-policymaking proposals: to conduct more comprehensive, nationwide health-communication campaigns; to use legislation to reduce tobacco use; and to restructure the tobacco industry.     

The Researched Opinions on Research: visually impaired people and visual impairment research

In this paper, we describe our research review, commissioned by 'the Gift of Thomas Pocklington', into the opinions of visually impaired people on visual impairment research. We interviewed 37 visually impaired people across Central Region, Scotland. Our findings suggest areas of need for visual impairment research, both concerning what is researched and how it is researched. We make recommendations for future research addressing both resource and methodological issues. We suggest increasing resources for recruiting participants and multimedia dissemination (e.g. audio tape, Braille, Moon). Methods may need to be refined to address difficulties in recruiting participants, and to capture the diversity of strengths and needs of visually impaired people. We make three core recommendations that identify the need for research to: respect people's individuality; be practical and action orientated, and contribute to an empowering and emancipatory research agenda. We conclude by reflecting on our role as community psychologists through examining the ideological position we adopted in this study.