Cultural studies, a sociological poetics: institutions of the Canadian imaginary

La poétique sociologique est définie comme problématique pour la sociologie critique de la culture afin de considérer l'avenir du rapport du dédoublement entre les cultures vécue et officielle à travers les institutions de l'imaginaire canadien anglais. On propose des critiques de la CBC, du développement de la politique culturelle, et des Études canadiennes comme école de pensée. A critique of the official definition of Canadian culture is presented. Given the distinction between lived and official culture, the question posed is, ‘how do we theorize the relations between these two levels for an entire society? Based principally on Bahktin's concept of ‘dialogism’ with references to Dumont and Rioux, a sociological poetics is advanced as a theoretical device for unravelling ‘the Canada’. It is argued that cultural studies defined as a sociological poetics must negate any definition of the one Canadian culture or representations of the one Canadian society. Lines of inquiry are suggested with respect to the CBC and Canadian studies as cultural industries.     

A goodness-of-fit index for blockmodels

The ‘fit’ between blockmodels and data networks is extended from a binary to a continuous concept. An index of goodness-of-fit for α-fit blockmodels is proposed, based on the purity (density of 1's or 0's) of the submatrices of the data matrix(es) after the blockmodel partition is imposed. The characteristics of this index are compared with those of correlation coefficient. Some applications are described.     

Accuracy and precision of the topological mapping procedure for estimating within-tree populations of bark beetles

Summary The accuracy and precision of the topological mapping procedure for estimating within-tree populations of bark beetles was investigated for a variety of different sampling conditions. Simulation techniques were used to define the mean and standard deviation of proportional errors encountered in estimation under different sampling intensities. The number of samples collected at a particular height and the vertical spacing between heights were varied. Information presented should aid in developing sampling plans for studies of bark beetle populations and will permit the reexamination and/or recovery of historical data sets on bark beetle populations. Texas Agric. Exp. Stn. TA No. 14318.     

Community banking and economic development: Lessons from Los Angeles

Among the changes in the field of community development is thegrowing importance of microfinance, both to provide access tocredit and as a vehicle for empowerment. Community banks arerecognized for their role in meeting these goals, although theyremain controversial, as the goals of microfinance are not alwaysagreed upon, with government officials and community membersemphasizing different interests. We examine the Los AngelesCommunity Development Bank to glean further lessons regardingthe role community banks can play in community development.Among the lessons from this experience are that politics areinescapable in the design of community banks; the economicsof banking tends to undervalue community needs; and culturalfactors include both professional and community-level challenges.Accounting for these factors can help community banks empowercommunities to meet the challenges of eliminating poverty.     

Fifteen years later: Can residential mobility programs provide a long-term escape from neighborhood segregation,crime, and poverty

We examined whether the Gautreaux residential mobility program, which moved poor black volunteer families who were living in inner-city Chicago into more-affluent and integrated neighborhoods, produced long-run improvements in the neighborhood environments of the participants. We found that although all the participants moved in the 6 to 22 years since their initial placements, they continued to reside in neighborhoods with income levels that matched those of their placement neighborhoods. Families who were placed in higher-income, mostly white neighborhoods were currently living in the most-affluent neighborhoods. Families who were placed in lower-crime and suburban locations were most likely to reside in low-crime neighborhoods years later.     

A Model of the Consumption Response to Fiscal Stimulus Payments

A wide body of empirical evidence finds that approximately 25 percent of fiscal stimulus payments (e.g., tax rebates) are spent on nondurable household consumption in the quarter that they are received. To interpret this fact, we develop a structural economic model where households can hold two assets: a low‐return liquid asset (e.g., cash, checking account) and a high‐return illiquid asset that carries a transaction cost (e.g., housing, retirement account). The optimal life‐cycle pattern of portfolio choice implies that many households in the model are “wealthy hand‐to‐mouth”: they hold little or no liquid wealth despite owning sizable quantities of illiquid assets. Therefore, they display large propensities to consume out of additional transitory income, and small propensities to consume out of news about future income. We document the existence of such households in data from the Survey of Consumer Finances. A version of the model parameterized to the 2001 tax rebate episode yields consumption responses to fiscal stimulus payments that are in line with the evidence, and an order of magnitude larger than in the standard “one‐asset” framework. The model's nonlinearities with respect to the rebate size and the prevailing aggregate economic conditions have implications for policy design.     

The Liberalization of Cannabis Possession Laws and Birth Outcomes: A State-Level Fixed Effects Analysis, 2003–2019

Population Research and Policy Review - As states liberalize their cannabis laws, cannabis use has become more widespread among adults across the United States, including pregnant women. As a...     

The Brazilianisation of Youth Transitions in Australia and the UK?

A central theme of Beck's argument in The Brave New World of Work (2000) is that labour markets in the developed world are taking on some of the core characteristics that have been associated with less developed labour markets such as employment insecurity, informality and precarity. A process he refers to as Brazilianisation. In this paper we consider whether Beck's thesis can help us understand changes in youth transitions in Australia and the UK by developing a comparative analysis of processes of casualisation in the youth labour markets of the two countries. We assess the extent to which precarious labour market biographies have become entrenched and represent modern forms of engagement with the labour market. While evidence is presented to suggest that young people's labour market experiences have been affected by a trend towards greater casualisation, we argue that the changes are having the greatest impact on those in the weakest positions: in both countries women are more likely to be affected than men and casualisation is most evident in the lowest skilled occupations.     

Patterns of Governance: The Curious Case of Non-profit Community Services in Australia

"Community" has taken on a new significance in Australian social policy discourse. Seemingly sound and morally justifiable, in the context of neo-liberalism the language of community positions non-profit delivery of services as superior to state-provided services. As a consequence, non-profit community services are being centrally positioned to mediate the relationship between the state and citizen subjects. In the first part of this paper we trace some of the key historical developments in Australia's welfare state and patterns of governance that are propelling the non-profit sector from the margins to the centre. The second section examines the relationship between Australia's shifting political landscape and the emerging welfare regime. One key feature of this new regime is the attempt to relocate citizenship away from the domain of the state and into that of civil society. The article concludes by sketching out some research themes, focusing, for example, on the impact of devolution of governance in terms of client rights and public accountability.