Layered Sites of Environmental Justice: Considering the Case of Prisons*

A growing body of scholarship highlights the merits of fusing green criminology and environmental justice frameworks to better understand intersections among carceral systems, race- and class-based stratification, and environmental harm. This paper explores how correctional institutions (CIs) with known histories of federal environmental law violations compare against other previously established environmentally harmful facilities and land uses. In this article, we ask: are prisons and other CIs that have violated federal environmental laws located proximate to areas where there is evidence of existing high-pollution facilities? Relatedly, are CIs that have established noncompliant histories with federal environmental laws located in similarly marginalized and disadvantaged communities compared to other traditionally defined sites of environmental injustice and harm? To answer these questions, we utilize data from the EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database. Our findings provide evidence that, within our sample of facilities that have recorded noncompliance with federal environmental laws, CIs are significantly more likely to be located proximate to Superfund sites than most of the other facility types/land uses and more likely to be located in communities with racially minoritized populations. Our findings have important implications for further research on carceral systems and environmental justice.     

Elliptical safety region plots for C pk

The process capability index C _pk is widely used when measuring the capability of a manufacturing process. A process is defined to be capable if the capability index exceeds a stated threshold value, e.g. C _pk >4/3. This inequality can be expressed graphically using a process capability plot, which is a plot in the plane defined by the process mean and the process standard deviation, showing the region for a capable process. In the process capability plot, a safety region can be plotted to obtain a simple graphical decision rule to assess process capability at a given significance level. We consider safety regions to be used for the index C _pk . Under the assumption of normality, we derive elliptical safety regions so that, using a random sample, conclusions about the process capability can be drawn at a given significance level. This simple graphical tool is helpful when trying to understand whether it is the variability, the deviation from target, or both that need to be reduced to improve the capability. Furthermore, using safety regions, several characteristics with different specification limits and different sample sizes can be monitored in the same plot. The proposed graphical decision rule is also investigated with respect to power.     

The Implosion of the Moral Third: Moral Omnipotence in the Era of Horror About Donald Trump

This article, while unsympathetic to Donald Trump, critiques the frequent tone of moral omnipotence and narcissistic display of good-heartedness in much current political discourse in the American psychoanalytic community. The author argues, from the perspective of a Scandinavian psychoanalyst, that the United States violated basic human rights long before the Trump era, and that the problems with the Trump era lie on a continuum with what came before, rather than suddenly crossing an unacceptable line. It suggests that there are dangers in seeing a bad other, rather than exploring our own dominant behavior. Invoking Akhtar´s term “beguiling generosity,” the author cites studies of “moral self-licensing” that suggest that, paradoxically, people who commit a self-consciously ethical act tend to feel free to behave unethically afterward. It explores some dangers in taking satisfaction for being the good, critical anti-Trump voice.     

Social Impact Measurement and Non-profit Organisations: Compliance,Resistance, and Promotion

Non-profit organisations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their social impact. This paper examines the experience and behaviour of non-profit organisations in the UK in relation to a demand for social impact evaluations. External resource providers request organisations to present evidence on how resources are used and what organisations have achieved. While most organisations are willing to comply and accept this control, they can also resist through using their discretion in deciding what to measure, how to measure and what to report. Non-profit organisations can proactively and voluntarily use social impact measurement for learning and promotional purposes, and as a way of exerting control over their environment. The analysis develops the concept of strategic decoupling to explain the differences observed between what organisations are asked to do, what they plan to do and what they are doing in practice.     

我国八大综合经济区数字经济发展特征研究

研究区域数字经济发展的演变趋势与差异来源,对实现中国协同高质量发展具有重要参考价值。基于2012—2020年我国30个省区市的面板数据,运用熵值法测算整体与八大综合经济区数字经济发展水平,采用Markov链和Kernel密度估计探索数字经济发展的时空演变特征,应用Dagum基尼系数以及方差分解模型揭示数字经济发展差异的空间来源与结构来源。研究表明,我国整体与各区域数字经济发展水平呈逐年增长之势,但八大综合经济区呈现出“东部沿海-南部沿海-北部沿海-长江中游-大西南-黄河中游-东北-大西北”梯度递减的不均衡格局。时空演变特征显示,省域数字经济发展通常伴随着空间效应与“集聚”效应,且存在一定概率的内部流动性;核密度曲线的演变趋势与极化特征表明,数字经济发展存在区域异质性。空间差异分解显示数字经济发展总体差异呈波动下降趋势,且区域间差异为主要来源;结构差异分解显示,数字产业化、产业数字化及数字基础设施发展差距是数字经济发展差异的主要结构来源。研究有助于完善我国数字经济发展空间格局与打造区域数字经济产业新优势,为此建议政府着重打通区域壁垒,在推进数字产业深度融合的同时进一步加强基础设施建设。     

Slaps,Punches, Pinches—But not Violence: Boundary‐Work in Nursing Homes for the Elderly

This article presents an analysis of boundary work in the context of care for the elderly, where violence appears to be widespread but is still relatively unacknowledged. Talk about aggressive patients was formulated in a particular way among workers in a nursing home. Nursing home staff described how the elderly residents sometimes slapped, pinched, or hit them. Although staff members could describe these acts as intentional, although they could hold patients responsible, and although this violence could end in injuries, demarcations were made such that aggressive acts were constructed as somehow not really “violence.” As “violent” is an inherently exclusionary label, this downplaying can be seen as an effort to avoid pushing persons outside the boundary of normalcy and of continued acceptance. Placing the elderly's violence outside the boundaries of violence means that the elderly remain “care takers,” the staff “caregivers,” and the nursing home a “caring context.”     

Organizational impact on psychosocial working conditions

Using a multilevel approach, this study explores how job demands and control are dependent on the organizational context in which work is performed. The data set consisted of 3,485 employees at 51 establishments divided into 141 sub-units and belonging to 10 parent organizations. Data were collected by means of a survey answered by the employees and structured interviews conducted with operative managers at participating establishments. The results showed that a significant proportion of the variance in job demands and control was attributed to the organization, and that the three organizational levels varied in terms of their impact on the two psychosocial dimensions. More specifically, job demands were mostly affected by the establishment level, while the sub-unit level seemed to be the most important for job control. It is concluded that in studies of working conditions, the organizational context should be considered.     

It is not just scale that matters: Political trust in Utah

While the traditional assumption is residents have more confidence in governments that are closest to them, empirical studies supporting this claim remain limited. In this study, we test the claim that ‘small is beautiful’ by comparing citizen reactions to similar types of decisions affecting Utah residents made by political leaders at different levels of governance. Our primary goal is to test the claim that trust is higher for local governments. Our secondary goal is to examine potential determinants of trust and whether they vary across levels of governance. The central finding from this study is that, despite claims to the contrary, citizens are not necessarily more trusting of government closer to the people and higher levels of government can engender as much trust as more local levels of government. Our findings also emphasize that regardless of the level of governance considered, interrelations exist between residents’ views of procedural justice and trust in these officials.