The transformation of the Occusphere

ABSTRACT

Between September and November 2011, the Occupy Wall Street protest encampment in New York captured the public imagination worldwide and generated similar events in hundreds of urban spaces. Even after riot police evicted the occupations, the Occupy social movement continued to confront political authority over questions of inequality, and it remains active both online and at diverse protest events. However, beyond the social movement there has been a growth of related anti-capitalist politics. The Occusphere is constituted by the totality of Occupy-inspired activity on the internet and in social networks, and in the larger area of political ideas. This study explores the Occusphere as an expanding zone of densely interlinked anti-capitalist politics with three modes of existence – urban spaces, virtual electronic spaces, and intellectual spaces.     

Best linear unbiased estimates in ranked-set sampling with particular reference to imperfect ordering

SUMMARY Ranked-set sampling is a widely used sampling procedure when sample observations are expensive or difficult to obtain. It departs from simple random sampling by seeking to spread the observations in the sample widely over the distribution or population. This is achieved by ranking methods which may need to employ concomitant information. The ranked-set sample mean is known to be more efficient than the corresponding simple random sample mean. Instead of the ranked-set sample mean, this paper considers the corresponding optimal estimator: the ranked-set best linear unbiased estimator. This is shown to be more efficient, even for normal data, but particularly for skew data, such as from an exponential distribution. The corresponding forms of the estimators are quite distinct from the ranked-set sample mean. Improvement holds where the ordering is perfect or imperfect, with this prospect of improper ordering being explored through the use of concomitants. In addition, the corresponding optimal linear estimator of a scale parameter is also discussed. The results are applied to a biological problem that involves the estimation of root weights for experimental plants, where the expense of measurement implies the need to minimize the number of observations taken.     

Susceptibility to AIDS: what college students do and don't believe

In-depth, qualitative discussion using the nominal group technique examined freshmen's perceived susceptibility to AIDS and barriers to prevention. Groups were led by dormitory resident advisors as a follow-up to a survey questionnaire of college students' knowledge and beliefs about AIDS. Students' comments showed that many misunderstandings lay behind an apparent understanding of the facts about AIDS. These findings underscore how imperative it is that college health education programs be attuned to the needs and address the deficiencies of the particular student body. In-depth, qualitative research techniques such as the nominal group are described as useful in tailoring AIDS prevention to the specific campus audience and are an appropriate introduction to an AIDS-education session. Suggestions, based on students' comments, are made for improving AIDS-prevention programs on campus.     

Three Women Writing/Riding Feminism's Third Wave

In this article the authors compare their own stories of developing a feminist consciousness in order to demonstrate how the distinction between feminist waves and feminist generations can be a productive one. They argue that the metaphor of waves must be delineated from the family metaphor of generation in order to maintain the fluidity that exists within a generational cohort of feminist scholars. Their narrative begins where they all meet, at the University of Minnesota in 2001, and interweaves stories of how they eventually come together in the same institution as feminist scholars. Their stories illustrate that although they each identify as feminists, and each fall into the category often referred to as third wave, their pursuit of a feminist agenda has followed different trajectories. Taken together, their personal narratives unpack and explore the wave metaphor for describing individuals, provide a critique of feminist generations, and illustrate the multiplicity of third wave feminism.     

The Modern World-Systemas environmental history? Ecology and the rise of capitalism

This article considers the emergence of world environmental history as a rapidly growing but undertheorized research field. Taking as its central problematic the gap between the fertile theorizations of environmentally-oriented social scientists and the empirically rich studies of world environmental historians, the article argues for a synthesis of theory and history in the study of longue dureesocio-ecological change. This argument proceeds in three steps. First, I offer an ecological reading of Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern World-System. Wallerstein's handling of the ecological dimensions of the transition from feudalism to capitalism is suggestive of a new approach to world environmental history. Second, I contend that Wallerstein's theoretical insights may be effectively complemented by drawing on Marxist notions of value and above all the concept of metabolic rift, which emphasize the importance of productive processes and regional divisions of labor within the modern world-system. Finally, I develop these theoretical discussions in a short environmental history of the two great commodity frontiers of early capitalism – the sugar plantation and the silver mining complex.     

ASSESSMENT OF INTERPERSONAL FUNCTIONS: DEVELOPING MEASURES TO AID THE FUNCTIONAL FAMILY THERAPIST

One of the cornerstones of the functional family therapy model proposed by Alexander and Parsons (1982) is the assessment of interpersonal functions, which has traditionally been accomplished through intuition and clinical judgment. In this study, 109 college freshmen were recruited to evaluate the test-retest reliability of a videotaped scenario measure and a questionnaire designed to assess interpersonal functions. Subjects responded to both measures during an initial assessment phase and then again, during a second assessment phase, 2 weeks later. Pearson product-moment correlations and average agreement percentages indicate that both measures have adequate reliability. There were no sex differences, nor were subjects' responses related to a measure of social desirability.     

A rural road: exploring opportunities,networks, services,and supports that affect rural families

The Great Plains Rural Collaborative project explored rural poverty through the experiences of people living at or below 185% of poverty. Researchers collected information through qualitative and quantitative research methods. They designed focus group questions to identify obstacles rural families face when trying to access economic opportunities, social networks, and services and supports. The article highlights the salient findings.     

Violence and hostility among families of Vietnam veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder

The current study provides a portrait of emotional-behavioral functioning within a small sample of Vietnam veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), their partners, and older adolescent and adult children. Veterans, their partners and children reported moderate-low to moderate-high levels of violent behavior. In addition, partner and veteran hostility scores were elevated relative to gender and age matched norms. Partners also reported heightened levels of psychological maltreatment by veterans. Veterans' combat exposure was positively correlated with hostility and violent behavior among children but unrelated to partner variables. Veterans' reports of PTSD symptoms were positively associated with reports of hostility and violence among children, and hostility and general psychological distress among partners. Veterans' violent behavior was also positively correlated with children's violent behavior, but did not yield significant correlations with other child or partner variables. Findings are discussed in relation to prior work and directions for future research are addressed.