Introduction to The Giard Portfolio: A Man for All Seasons

This essay contextualizes Baraitser's (2009 Baraitser , L. ( 2009 ). Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption . London , UK : Routledge . [Google Scholar]) Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption with regard to a persistent neglect of the value of motherhood in Western philosophy. The author argues that Baraitser's approach foregrounds the “maternal encounter” in a way that is distinctive both with regard to mainstream philosophy and with regard to hegemonic versions of feminism. The text is also singular in its style and enactment of a more personalized experience of motherhood, which is nonetheless simultaneously articulated through a subtle and powerful reading of contemporary philosophy, most especially through the work of Alain Badiou and Julia Kristeva. The author argues that Baraitser avoids the more moralistic or naive versions of the contemporary “return to the ethical” and instead plots a powerfully original and iconoclastic philosophy of the maternal, which maintains an idiosyncratic subversive potential, both philosophically and politically.     

Parents' hopes and expectations for their children's future occupations

Qualitative research has generated important insights into the intersection of social class, parental values and children's experiences of education and their role in the reproduction of inequalities. There has been less analytic engagement with parents' expectations and aspirations regarding their children's future occupations. Such expectations and aspirations have attracted much research and policy interest. Typically, analyses have been quantitative and focused on outcomes for children. Whilst parental expectations are deemed very influential for children's future occupational outcomes, there is relatively little evidence on the shaping of such expectations, or the ways in which future work and occupations are discussed between parents and children. This article reports on an analysis of parents' ideas about their children's future occupations and the contexts in which these ideas accrue meaning. Drawing on primary data from interviews with parents we explore diversity within, as well as across, social classes. First we explore parents' expectations and aspirations for their children's future occupations. Secondly we consider how parents see their own role in shaping such futures. The evidence highlights the salience of parents' own biographies and class backgrounds in shaping their orientations to, and manner of engagement with, their children's futures. Thirdly we briefly explore how parents' expectations and engagement with their children play out in class differentiated ways as their children approach early adulthood.     

Trust,Culture, and Cooperation: A Social Dilemma Analysis of Pro‐Environmental Behaviors

Social dilemmas require a choice between cooperation, or sacrificing for the greater good, and self‐interest. One commonly studied social dilemma is environmental conservation. Previous work suggests that trust predicts cooperation in the form of environmental protection. We contend that this view ignores cultural factors. Building on prior cross‐cultural research, we predict an interaction between strength of social ties and trust on cooperation. Findings from General Social Survey data indicate that low trust levels found in the U.S. South (a collectivist culture) renders trust ineffective at promoting environmental protection. However, trust predicts cooperation in nonsouthern regions (which are more individualist), where trust levels are higher.     

Bayesian analysis of life-testing problems involving the weibull distribution

Credible and highest posterior density intervals for the reliability function and parameters of a two-parameter Weibull process are obtained and the estimates compared with their corresponding classical counterparts.     

Bayesian infermce about the reliability function foe the exponential distributions

The posterior distributions and the posterior bounds of the reliability functions have been derived for the one and twoparameter exponential distributions. Using Grubbs' (1971) data the posteriors are tabulated and plotted and their robustness studied     

A spatial model incorporating dynamic,endogenous network interdependence: A political science application

We propose applying the multiparametric spatiotemporal autoregressive (m-STAR) model as a simple approach to estimating jointly the pattern of connectivity and the strength of contagion by that pattern, including the case where connectivity is endogenous to the dependent variable (selection). We emphasize substantively-theoretically guided (i.e., structural) specifications that can support analyses of estimated spatiotemporal responses to stochastic or covariate shocks and that can distinguish the possible sources of spatial association: common exposure, contagion, and selection (e.g., homophily). We illustrate this approach to dynamic, endogenous interdependence–which parallels models of network–behavior co-evolution in the longitudinal networks literature–with an empirical application that aims to disentangle the roles of economic interdependence, correlated external and internal stimuli, and EU membership in shaping labor market policies in developed democracies in recent years.     

Dropping observations without affecting posterior and predictive distributions

Suppose in a distribution problem, the sample information W is split into two pieces W ₁ and W ₂, and the parameters involved are split into two sets, π containing the parameters of interest, and θ containing nuisance parameters. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the posterior distribution of π does not depend on the data W ₂, which can thus be ignored. This also has consequences for the predictive distribution of future (or missing) observations. In fact, under similar conditions, the predictive distributions using W or just W ₁ are identical.     

The effects of the child support provisions of the Family Support Act of 1988 on child well-being

The provisions for child support reform in the Family Support Act of 1988 are likely to have a large impact upon the well-being of children eligible for child support, a group expected to include half of the children in the country. The reform is expected to increase child support payments and thereby reduce the economic insecurity and poverty of children who live apart from a parent. It is also expected to lead to increased contact between noncustodial parents and their children, which may also enhance well-being. This paper reviews the child support system in the United States, summarizes the empirical research that has been carried out on children from disrupted families, analyzes the impact that the Family Support Act may have on child well-being, and discusses the key variables that should be measured as well as the most promising sources of data to evaluate child support reform.Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the sponsoring institutions.