Beyond the Bedroom: Cognitive,Affective, and Behavioral Responses to Partner Touch in Women With and Without Sexual Problems

Women with female sexual problems (FSP) are more likely than unaffected women to demonstrate negative appraisals, negative affect, and avoidance of sexual activity. Research suggests affected women also experience negative affect and avoidance in response to intimate partner contact for fear it will lead to sex. This online study examined whether women with FSP (N = 157) and without FSP (N = 129) exhibited different perceptions, affective reactions, and behavioral responses to hypothetical touch occurring outside sexual activity. Women (M_age = 30.70; SD = 6.66) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions representing hypothetical interactions with their partner (affectionate, sexual, or no touch), and answered questions about their perceptions of their partner’s sexual intentions and their own anticipated negative affect and behavioral avoidance. Women with FSP reported higher perceptions of sexual intent, negative affect, and avoidance in the sexual touch condition, and higher negative affect in the affectionate touch condition, than women without FSP. Results highlight that women with FSP have more negative reactions to partners’ hypothetical affectionate and sexual touch than women without FSP. Interventions for FSP may benefit from targeting women’s perceptions, affective reactions, and behavioral reactions to partner touch when it occurs outside of explicitly sexual contexts.     

Countering Overseas Power in Global Value Chains: Information Asymmetries and Subcontracting in the Plastics Industry

Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) and Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis have been deployed in the strategic and international management literatures to address questions of power in dyadic relationships and global production networks, respectively. This paper integrates the two theoretical approaches in order to expand RDT, using insights from Hirschman's exit/voice model to show the options available to some firms but not others. Using the relationship between buyers and contract manufacturers from GVC analysis, we find a correlation between firm size and choice of strategic action in response to contract manufacturers' dependence on buyers. Large firms follow an acquiescence strategy while small manufacturers follow an avoidance strategy, able to use both exit and voice strategies. Enabled by scale or control over information, both of these approaches successfully reduce uncertainty and provide a source of sustained competitive advantage. Using a study of the production chain in consumer plastics manufacturing in China, we show how dependent firms respond to GVC induced pressure. We find that based on the size of the contract manufacturer, the range of strategic responses to power is constrained by the nature of the dependency in global value chains. This opens important insights into the role that structural characteristics of organizations (like size) play in determining strategic freedom.     

Hypothesis Tests for Neyman's Bias in Case–Control Studies

Survival bias is a long recognized problem in case–control studies, and many varieties of bias can come under this umbrella term. We focus on one of them, termed Neyman's bias or ‘prevalence–incidence bias’. It occurs in case–control studies when exposure affects both disease and disease-induced mortality, and we give a formula for the observed, biased odds ratio under such conditions. We compare our result with previous investigations into this phenomenon and consider models under which this bias may or may not be important. Finally, we propose three hypothesis tests to identify when Neyman's bias may be present in case–control studies. We apply these tests to three data sets, one of stroke mortality, another of brain tumors, and the last of atrial fibrillation, and find some evidence of Neyman's bias in the former two cases, but not the last case.     

Social inclusion through employment: the marketisation of employment support for people with learning disabilities in the United Kingdom

Employment for people with learning difficulties is considered key to their social inclusion. This contradicts the perceived un-employability of people with learning difficulties that has been part of their social identities throughout their history hitherto. The national rate of employment for people with learning difficulties remains extremely low and has barely changed in the 20?years between 1990 and 2010. This paper investigates links between learning disabilities and employment, drawing on interview-based research. It analyses the quality of experience of the minority in employment to consider whether employment can serve the inclusive purpose expected of it.     

Reviewing the Reviews: Discussions of Race by Film Reviewers

Color-blind racism has transformed how race scholars understand race relations in contemporary society. Previous researchers mainly utilized this theory to identify frames of color-blind racism in various social settings and interactions. What has received less attention, however, is how frames of color-blind racism are produced within material conditions in which social interactions and relations occur. In this study we use film reviews to exemplify how color-blind racism is produced in a specific materialist context—film reviews. Film reviews garner discussion among scholars for their impact on the box office revenues of films. Less attention is given to the content of these reviews and, particularly, how their writers address issues of race. This study provides a qualitative content analysis of film reviewer’s discussions of race in their reviews of twenty-first-century films featuring black protagonists to illuminate some ways in which mainstream and niche media outlets discuss race. Results suggest that the source of the reviews influences how race is considered and communicated among film reviewers. Mainstream reviewers differ widely from niche reviewers in both content and delivery in their discussions of race.     

Perception of Climate Risk among Rural Farmers in Vietnam: Consistency within Households and with the Empirical Record

Rural farmers in Vietnamese communes perceive climate risk and potential impacts on livelihood within a complex context that may influence individual and household decisions. In a primary survey of 1,145 residents of the Thach Ha district of Ha Tinh province, we gathered data regarding perception about stability in climate, potential risks to livelihood, demographic characteristics, orientation toward risk, and interest in expanding economic activity. Temporal analysis of meteorological and economic indicator data forms an empirical basis for comparison with human perception. We ask the basic question: Are rural farmers’ perceptions of climate consistent with the historical record and reproducible within households? We find that respondents do perceive climate anomalies, with some anchoring on recent extreme events as revealed by climate observational data, and further that spouses disproportionately share perceptions relative to randomly simulated pairings. To put climate‐related risk perception in a larger context, we examine patterns across a range of risks to livelihood faced by farmers (livestock disease, pests, markets, health), using dimension reduction techniques. We find that our respondents distinguish among potential causes of low economic productivity, with substantial emphasis on climate‐related impacts. They do not express uniform concern across risks, but rather average patterns reveal common modes and distinguish climate concern. Still, among those expressing concern about climate‐related risks to livelihood we do not find an association with expressed intention to pursue changes in economic activity as a risk management response.     

Social entrepreneurship as an employment pathway for people with disabilities: exploring political–economic and socio-cultural factors

The current economic climate demands more innovative approaches to increasing labor market participation for people with disabilities. Social entrepreneurship (SE) offers one alternative employment pathway. However, little is known about the broader factors influencing SE for people with disabilities. Using empirical data from focus groups comprised of social entrepreneurs with disabilities and interviews with key stakeholders working in the fields of policy, disability, and business, this research frames its analysis in the intersection of disability studies and entrepreneurship to explore which factors influence the potential for SE to provide equal participation opportunities for people with disabilities in the labor market. Findings suggest that further consideration of political–economic and socio-cultural factors is needed if we are to better understand the potential of SE for people with disabilities.