“Male Hair Cannot Extend Below Plane of the Shoulder” and “No Cross Dressing”: Critical Queer Analysis of High School Dress Codes in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this study, we questioned how high school dress codes outlined in official handbooks were written or presented in regard to the gender binary, either/or perspective. We critically analyzed how or if they allowed for flexibility in expression of gender and sexual identity and if they supported, encouraged, or affirmed a variety of expressions, in particular transgender and gender non-conforming expressions, throughout the text or images. The content analysis method was used to analyze 735 handbooks from the 2016 to 2017 school year. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) support of fluid gender expression, yet not overt support; (2) passive marginalization of gender non-conforming or transgender identities or expressions; and (3) active marginalization of gender non-conforming or transgender identities or expressions. The “LGBTQ+ Dress Code Analysis Tool” was developed for policy makers to use to analyze their dress codes.     

Intermediate variables and educational differentials in fertility in Korea and the Philippines

This analysis compares the effects of contraceptive use and infant and fetal mortality on the pace offertility in Korea and the Philippines and explores the mediating effects of these intermediate variables on educational differentials in childspacing. For birth intervals initiated in a recent period before a sample survey, second, third and higher-order intervals are examined. Transitions within successive segments of interval exposure (q _xvalues) are examined rather than cumulative transitions (1 - l _xvalues). This methodological choice is substantively important because breastfeeding should primarily affect early segments of exposure and because it allows empirical examination of the timing of the effects of other variables such as contraceptive use. Further, this choice allows multivariate analysis within the structure of the life-table perspective. The results show substantial differences in patterns between Korea and the Philippines, indicate clearly the effect of each intermediate variable, and illustrate how educational differentials in fertility are affected by contraception and infant and fetal mortality.     

East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation

Books reviewed:
A lan W alker and C hack - kie W ong , East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation.     

Measuring Social Capital in the Republic of Korea with Mixed Methods: Application of Factor Analysis and Fuzzy-Set Ideal Type Approach

Variation in the concept of social capital casts difficulties in measurements; moreover, measuring social capital requires different methods because concepts can differ by countries, regions and also according to the conceptual attributes included in the concept. Discussion on social capital has been gaining much attention in also East Asia, where Confucianism and family oriented values are suggested to be an important cultural background. This study aims to first critically review research on social capital not only in Korea, but also elsewhere, with a focus on measurements and indicators. By highlighting the importance of developing measurement that can reflect the cultural context of social capital, we compose survey questionnaires, which include multiple aspects of social capital and conduct an investigation on Korean social capital. Then, we exploit factor analysis with these questions. Next, with results from the factor analysis above, we employ the method of fuzzy set ideal type approach in order to measure social capital in Korea according to different demographic groups. The results suggest that people with low education and low income have difficulties participating in the society through interactions, even when their trust toward the society and their consciousness regarding the norm are similar to those of the other groups in Korea.     

Improving the Progress of Research & Development (R&D) Projects by Selecting an Optimal Alliance Structure and Partner Type

This paper extends the study of alliance governance structure by examining what alliance structure, coordination mechanisms and partner type best enhance the likelihood of Research and Development (R&D) progress or performance. We specially focus on the coordination and interaction mechanism of alliances, through which we classify the alliance governance structures in order to reflect the more complex alliance types and contracts used in today's R&D. Using data from 255 biopharmaceuticals between the years 2000 and 2004, we found that, ceteris paribus, a moderate degree of inter‐partner interaction and a moderately complex (non‐equity‐based) alliance contract contributes more to a better R&D alliance performance than those structures that are too simple or too organizationally embedded (e.g. equity joint ventures), which possibly increase the risk of misalignment and miscommunication between allies. In addition, due to the reduced opportunism and the diverse resource (e.g. technology) pooled in the alliance, allying with diverse organizational partners such as non‐profit research institutes and universities is more likely to enhance the R&D performance. Our findings provide insightful strategic implications to practitioners in designing an appropriate alliance governance structure and choosing the right partner type for a successful R&D collaboration.     

Dynamic Bayesian analysis for irregularly and incompletely observed contingency tables

Pre-election surveys are usually conducted several times to forecast election results before the actual voting. It is common that each survey includes a substantial number of non-responses and that the successive survey results are seen as a stochastic multinomial time series evolving over time. We propose a dynamic Bayesian model to examine how multinomial time series evolve over time for the irregularly observed contingency tables and to determine how sensitively the dynamic structure reacts to an unexpected event, such as a candidate scandal. Further, we test whether non-responses are non-ignorable to determine if non-responses need to be imputed for better forecast. We also suggest a Bayesian method that overcomes the boundary solution problem and show that the proposed method outperforms the previous Bayesian methods. Our dynamic Bayesian model is applied to the two pre-election surveys for the 2007 Korea presidential candidate election and for the 1998 Ohio general election.     

A parent gesture intervention as a means to increase parent declarative pointing and child vocabulary

This study examined whether a brief parent gesture training resulted in a change in the communicative intent of pointing gestures used by parents of infants from age 10–12 months and whether specific types of points (declarative vs. imperative) were more or less likely to predict later child language skill at 18 months. Compared to parents who were randomized to the control group, parents in the intervention group produced significantly more declarative pointing gestures as a result of the intervention. Moreover, parents’ use of declarative points at 12 months was predictive of later child vocabulary comprehension at 18 months. These findings suggest that a short-term parent training can have important effects on the communicative intentions conveyed through gesture which predict vocabulary development.     

The Rural/Urban Volunteering Divide

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Are rural residents more likely to volunteer than those living in urban places? Although early sociological theory posited...