FRACTURED RESISTANCES:

This article analyzes the arguments of two of the central positions in the debate over assimilationism in the gay and lesbian community as a means of exploring the meaning of resistance, opposition, struggle, and agency within the context of a dominant and generative field of power. Instead of debating which position is better or most effective, or which involves "true resistance," we use Foucault's formulations to suggest that each represents but one among a multiplicity of strategies, all existing simultaneously in a field of power. Because this field is composed of a plurality of dissonant, multi-layered, multidimensional relations of power, we argue that no single form of resistance can be identified and uniquely practiced. Instead, each struggle contributes its own partial modification to the overall transformation of the field of power, and simultaneously highlights the inconsistencies faced by agents who attempt to present a coherent identity in opposition to structures of domination.     

Affective and aesthetic dimensions of contemporary social movements in South West England

The paper examines contemporary social movement activity within South West England. It is argued that much social movement analysis has been too nation‐state orientated, that it has too readily framed diverse contemporary practices within a narrow, politically reductive and instrumentally rational frame. Increasingly, aesthetic and affective dimensions of everyday life must be examined if any coherent theoretical account of such activity is to be offered. Altering relations between states and their citizens in a global age and the emergence of an extended civil society are linked to a weakening of the capacity of nation states to manage identity formation. A series of excursuses link theoretical analysis of the expressive dimensions of the region's social movement activity, to these more extended global transformations.     

Squaring the welfare circle and government ideology: Greece and Spain in the 1990s

This article examines the "squaring the welfare circle" thesis and its usefulness to our understanding of welfare developments in Greece and Spain in the 1990s. The welfare state in both Greece and Spain was expanded considerably in the early 1980s by the newly elected socialist governments, only to hit the buffers of diminishing resources and rising demands in the late 1980s as well as the hostile neo-liberal welfare ideology. The process of welfare expansion was halted in the 1990s, labour market deregulation was encouraged and containment of welfare expenditure became the dominant aim of government policies. This article concentrates on the actual policies of governments in the 1990s rather than on the rhetoric of political parties. It concludes that governments of both the Left and the Right in both countries attempted to "square the welfare circle" mainly through reductions in the supply of welfare. This general conclusion is country-specific and may not apply to other countries involved in welfare restructuring. While recognizing the significance of institutional factors to welfare reform, the article concentrates on the outcomes of reforms rather than on the political process leading to them.     

Estimating Cuban gross domestic product per capita in dollars using physical indicators

A methodology for estimating levels of gross domestic product per capita (GDP/capita) which obviates the need for estimating GDP/capita in domestic currency and converting to another currency is the physical indicators (PI) approach developed by Janossy-Ehrlich. Using this methodology, estimates of Cuban GDP/capita in dollars for four years (1965, 1970, 1975 and 1977) have been made. The estimates rely on the relationships between GDP/capita in dollars and levels of consumption or production of 24 physical indicators in 28 reference countries for each of the four years. The relationships are estimated using both univariate and multivariate regression techniques. The PI estimates of GDP/capita in dollars are compared with other measures of Cuban macroeconomic performance to test their reasonableness. The paper closes with some tentative conclusions regarding the applicability of the PI method to the estimation of GDP/capita in dollars for Cuba and for other developing countries.     

The effects of immigration on children in the Mexican-American community

Effects of immigration on Mexican-American immigrant children and families can be lifelong. This article describes conditions contributing to immigration and its effects on poor families, describing and illustrating developmental disruptions, and emphasizing effects on school participation and family dynamics.He is a graduate of the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, and has clinical and supervisory experience in child welfare.     

A New Look at Half-normal Plots for Assessing the Significance of Contrasts for Unreplicated Factorials

The visual inspection of a half-normal plot is a popular procedure for interpreting data from unreplicated factorial experiments. As this technique is somewhat subjective, the plot should preferably be supplemented with a more formal procedure. However, despite the improvements proposed by Zahn, the formal method using the half-normal plot suggested by Daniel seems to be rarely used. We investigate this procedure by using simulations and real data and suggest a modification to improve its acceptability. We also present corrected critical values for a procedure proposed by Lenth which was found to be miscalibrated.     

The Cornish-Fisher expansion for a class of statistics in first order autoregression

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with the derivation and study of the Cornish-Fisher expansion for a wide class of estimators of the parameter in the first order autoregressive process. Second and third order Cornish-Fisher approximations to the quantile of the distribution of the corresponding asymptotically normal standardized statistic are stated explicitly and their accuracy is examined, both theoretically and numerically, by comparing them with the exact value of the quantile obtained by Monte Carlo simulation.     

Dependence Between Two Diagnostic Tests with Copula Function Approach: A Simulation Study

The study of the dependence between two medical diagnostic tests is an important issue in health research since it can modify the diagnosis and, therefore, the decision regarding a therapeutic treatment for an individual. In many practical situations, the diagnostic procedure includes the use of two tests, with outcomes on a continuous scale. For final classification, usually there is an additional “gold standard” or reference test. Considering binary test responses, we usually assume independence between tests or a joint binary structure for dependence. In this article, we introduce a simulation study assuming two dependent dichotomized tests using two copula function dependence structures in the presence or absence of verification bias. We compare the test parameter estimators obtained under copula structure dependence with those obtained assuming binary dependence or assuming independent tests.