From Europe to the Americas: a comparative panel-data analysis of migration to Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, 1870–1910

We use annual panel data, 1870–1910, to estimate and compare the determinants of European emigration to Argentina, Brazil, and the USA. The Hausman–Taylor instrumental variable technique we use provides for cross-sectional (country) controls, accounts for variables that are potentially correlated with the unobservables and allows the recovery of the coefficients of temporally invariant variables. In general, migration was from low-wage source countries, from countries with large stocks of immigrants in the destination who were born in the origin, and from countries with relatively much recent migration to the destination. Certain determinants differ considerably for the three countries.     

Workforce‐constrained Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Using Evolution Strategies

Heavy equipment overhaul facilities such as aircraft service centers and railroad yards face the challenge of minimizing the makespan for a set of preventive maintenance (PM) tasks, requiring single or multiple skills, within workforce availability constraints. In this paper, we examine the utility of evolution strategies to this problem. Comparison of the computational efforts of evolution strategies with exhaustive enumeration to reach optimal solutions for 60 small problems illustrates the ability of evolution strategies to yield optimal solutions increasingly efficiently with increasing problem size. A set of 852 large‐scale problems was solved using evolution strategies to examine the effects of task‐related problem characteristics, workforce‐related variables, and evolution strategies population size (μ) on CPU time. The results empirically supported practical utility of evolution strategies to solve large‐scale, complex preventive maintenance problems involving single‐ and multiple‐skilled workforce. Finally, comparison of evolution strategies and simulated annealing for the 852 experiments indicated much faster convergence to optimality with evolution strategies.     

What Happened to the “Social” in Social Psychology?*

This article describes the historical abandonment of the distinctive conception of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior embraced by American social psychologists in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is suggested that part of the reason why the original conception of the social was abandoned by American psychologists was because of its association with theories of the "group mind," the apparent threat it posed to cherished principles of rationality and autonomy, and the impoverished conception of the social inherited from European crowd theorists that came to inform the experimental study of social groups. It is suggested that while these factors partly explain the neglect of the social in American social psychology, none represent particularly good reasons for abandoning the original conception of the social. Consequently there are in principle no impediments to the revival of the theoretical and experimental study of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior in contemporary American social psychology.     

The determinants of migration between standard metropolitan statistical areas

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze the “determinants” of migration between Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA’s) in the United States. The magnitudes in which various factors have influenced inter-SMSA migration are estimated both for the country as a whole and for individual SMSA’s. The “migration elasticities” estimated for individual SMSA’s are in turn used to test several additional hypotheses concerning migrant behavior. Other similar migration studies have found “wrong” signs or insignificant coefficients on certain variables a priori thought to play a crucial role in the migration process. Finally, we present clues to the causes of such “surprising” results.     

Fertility expectation and employment across three female cohorts

The purpose of the study reported here is to assess the relationship between fertility expectation (total number of children expected to have or have had), childrearing career (ratio of actual or intended total time per child taken out of the labour force to rear children), and the following variables across female age cohorts: (a) age, (b) education, (c) personal income, (d) religious strength, (e) marital status, and (f) employment status. The random sample consists of 323 women. Results of simultaneous equation modelling indicates that fertility expectation and childrearing career are influenced by different factors in the age cohorts. Results are discussed in terms of role compatibility and new home economics theories.Data were part of the Winnipeg Area Study, managed by Raymond Curry in the Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba.Dr. Kingsbury received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Her research interests are fertility decision-making and women's employment.     

Problems with the measures of gastrointestinal and cardiovascular symptom frequency in The Standard Shiftwork Index

The measures of gastrointestinal and cardiovascular health in The Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI; Barton, Costa, Smith, Spelten, Totterdell, and Folkard, 1995) purport to measure the frequency of 19 related symptoms using a 4-point rating scale, with response categories expressed in terms of a relative frequency: 'almost never', 'quite seldom', 'quite often', and 'almost always'. The present pilot study examined the relationship between frequency ratings of 11 gastrointestinal and 8 cardiovascular symptoms made on the SSI 4-point scale, and ratings of the same symptoms made on an alternative 9-point rating scale, which had response categories that were expressed in terms of an absolute value of symptom frequency (e.g. 'once a week'). Results obtained from a sample of 56 non-shiftworkers showed that the correlations between the two response formats were not high for any of the 11 gastrointestinal or 8 cardiovascular symptoms. Three of the relationships were non-significant. In addition, substantial variability in the interpretation of the response categories was detected between symptom items pertaining to both the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular subscales. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the current system of scoring individual symptom items, and the current aims within shiftwork research.     

Action research,science, and the co-optation of social research

This paper centers on our argument that action research (AR) produces “better” research than orthodox social research but that AR is marginalized in “Northern” universities because it connects social research to social reform. The key viewpoints informing our work are easily stated but elaborate arguments are required to justify them. We argue that AR is the most credible and methodologically coherent way to create and apply reliable knowledge in social research.

Existing power structures prefer orthodox social research, not because it produces better research but because it does not interfere with existing social arrangements. The demand for social distance and objectification separates the researcher from the subject and prevents social research from becoming an instrument of social change. The dominance of these frameworks in university environments reveals that universities, in addition to being centers of learning, play an important role in replicating existing social arrangements (Noam Chomsky et al., 1997). We believe that AR's social change agenda, not its inferiority as social research, causes its marginality.     

Authority,discourse and the construction of victimhood

ABSTRACT

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru has been a fundamental tool in the healing of the nation in the aftermath of the brutal period of war and authoritarian rule in the 80s and 90s. This paper explores the authority of the TRC to produce coherent and representative narratives for the so-called voiceless, marginalised victims of that violence. The complex relationship between the power and the production of victimhood led Asháninka victims of the violence to appropriate discursive narratives of violence. Such an appropriation local project of empowerment. Victimhood, this defined, provides these groups with the authority required for inclusion in the state and ultimately a manifestation of future goals.     

Performance Measures for Selection of Metamodels to be Used in Simulation Optimization

This paper points out the need for performance measures in the context of simulation optimization and suggests six such measures. Two of the measures are indications of absolute performance, whereas the other four are useful in assessing the relative performance of various candidate metamodels. The measures assess performance on three fronts: accuracy of placing optima in the correct location, fit to the response, and fit to the character of the surface (expressed in terms of the number of optima). Examples are given providing evidence of the measures' utility—one in a limited scenario deciding which of two competing metamodels to use as simulation optimization response surfaces vary, and the other in a scenario of a researcher developing a new, sequential optimization search procedure.     

Temporal and spatial patterns of geographically indirect immigration to the United States

"This article examines the little-studied phenomenon of indirect geographic migration to the United States, or the movement of persons whose country of last permanent residence differed from their country of birth. Over 8 million records of legal immigrants to the United States were studied for the period 1972-1987. Geographically indirect migration is shown to be important, amounting to as many as 86,136 persons during a single year. Primarily because of the dislocations of Southeast Asian refugees from their homelands and their subsequent admittance to the United States, indirect immigration increased during the 1980s. Moreover, again somewhat due to refugees, the patterns of geographically indirect movement changed during recent years. Political conditions in countries of birth appear to be important in explaining these patterns, as well as the age and skills of the indirect migrants themselves."