Caring about independent lives

With the rhetoric of independence, new cash for care systems were introduced in many developed welfare states at the end of the 20th century. These systems allow local authorities to pay people who are eligible for community care services directly, to enable them to employ their own careworkers. Despite the obvious importance of the careworker’s perceptions of a welfare system aimed at independence for disabled people, this perspective is under‐researched. This article explores this perspective by outlining three examples of careworker strategies (a continuing carer biography, searching for new horizons and acting pragmatically) identified in a cross‐national case study of cash for care in the UK and Norway. The strategies are mainly derived by considering different positions in the labour market and different ways of carrying out this carework. Overall, the paper intends to contribute to the understanding of the complex welfare dilemma between user independence and the nature of carework.     

Conflicting evidence and decisions by agency professionals: an experimental test in the context of merger regulation

Many important regulatory decisions are taken by professionals employing limited and conflicting evidence. We conduct an experiment in a merger regulation setting, identifying the role of different standards of proof, volumes of evidence, cost of error and professional or lay decision making. The experiment was conducted on current practitioners from 11 different jurisdictions, in addition to student subjects. Legal standards of proof significantly affect decisions. There are specific differences because of professional judgment, including in how error costs and volume of evidence are taken into account. We narrow the range of explanations for why professional decision making matters.     

Introduction to the Issue

Gordon Willard Allport was born more than 100 years ago on November 11, 1897. In honor of the centennial of his birth, this issue of the Journal presents a collection of articles on the social psychology of prejudice and intergroup relations—the field that Allport pioneered with his classic 1954 book, The Nature of Prejudice. The articles provide insights into both perpetrators and targets of prejudice and the conflict that often takes place between members of different societal groups. In the tradition of Gordon Allport, these articles demonstrate that it is possible for social science to make theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions to the understanding and resolution of social problems. This introductory article high-lights Allport's contributions to the social psychology of prejudice and intergroup relations. Overviews of the articles in this issue are also provided, and the recurring theoretical and methodological approaches are considered.     

Technoscientia est Potentia?

Within the realm of nano-, bio-, info- and cogno- (or NBIC) technosciences, the ??power to change the world?? is often invoked. One could dismiss such formulations as ??purely rhetorical??, interpret them as rhetorical and self-fulfilling or view them as an adequate depiction of one of the fundamental characteristics of technoscience. In the latter case, a very specific nexus between science and technology, or, the epistemic and the constructionist realm is envisioned. The following paper focuses on this nexus drawing on theoretical conceptions as well as empirical material. It presents an overview of different technoscientific ways to ??change the world????via contemplation and representation, intervention and control, engineering, construction and creation. It further argues that the hybrid character of technoscience makes it difficult (if not impossible) to separate knowledge production from real world interventions and challenges current science and technology policy approaches in fundamental ways.     

Paternity Establishment for Men’s Nonmarital Births

This paper uses the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine paternity establishment among men’s nonmarital births. Using births as the unit of analysis, I find that paternity establishment for first births (n = 661) is linked to race/ethnicity and relationship status at birth, and these characteristics are associated differently with the timing and location of paternity establishment (in-hospital or at some later point). For higher-parity births (n = 429), paternity establishment for a particular birth is strongly related to prior paternity and fertility behaviors. Paternity is less likely to be established for a higher-parity birth if the father failed to establish paternity for at least one earlier birth, and third or higher-parity births are far more likely to have paternity established at a subsequent point than at the hospital.     

Impact of Hazardous Substances Regulations on Small Firms in Delaware and New Jersey

Regulations under the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act impose significant requirements on firms handling hazardous chemicals. The nature of the regulations would suggest that small firms, because of limited resources and other structural limitations, would experience more difficulty complying with the regulations than large firms. To understand the difficulties imposed by the regulations on small firms, we interviewed ten small firms in Delaware and New Jersey, states with existing hazardous regulations similar to those being considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and evaluated their responses to state regulations. The impacts of the environmental regulations on the firms and on the risk levels of their businesses are discussed. Propositions for research into small firms compliance are developed. Possible means for reducing the regulatory burden on small firms while enhancing regulatory effectiveness are suggested.     

On moments and cumulants of the D compound Poisson distribution

This note provides more results on moments and cumulants of the D compound Poisson distribution through the properties of the multivariate generalized power series distribution.