Consumer Behavior in the United States: Implications for Social Security Reform

This article shows theoretically and empirically that an aggregate Euler equation relates the growth rate of per capita consumption to the real interest rate, the ratio of private wealth plus asset income to consumption, and the ratio of social security wealth to consumption. Using the estimated Euler equation, the paper then calculates the steady-state effects of social security reform. Reforms that reduce the ratio of social security wealth to consumption are found to shift the balanced growth paths for the capital stock, output, and consumption upward appreciably.     

Reevaluating the Concrete–Explanatory Animation Creation as a Digital Catalyst for Cross-Modal Cognition

This article explores the relationship between abstract and concrete as categories of knowledge and Wilensky’s (1991) theory that all ideas are abstract until they become concrete. Dewey (1910/1997) made a similar claim by suggesting that ideas are initially beyond our comprehension until they have become consolidated. This article documents the evolving mental models of 11- and 12-year-old children as they designed and made explanatory animations for the sake of their own learning. The conclusion from this research is that transferring ideas from thought to word, word to image, or transmediation of any kind, is a semiotic tool for cross-modal cognition.     

La transition verte: analyser la croissance de l'emploi vert

Les auteurs estiment le nombre des emplois verts en Écosse et analysent son évolution dans le temps en s'appuyant sur les données de l'Enquête sur la main‐d'œuvre du Royaume‐Uni (2011‐2014) et en croisant deux systèmes de classification professionnelle (CITP‐08 et O*NET). Leur cadre méthodologique est transposable à n'importe quelle région. Ils montrent qu'il vaut mieux retenir une définition large des emplois verts, plutôt qu'une définition étroite, pour mesurer correctement l'impact de la transition verte sur l'emploi en général. Ils concluent par ailleurs qu'il faudrait s'intéresser davantage à la qualité des emplois verts et au caractère inclusif de la croissance de l'emploi vert.     

Re-assembling climate change policy: Materialism,posthumanism, and the policy assemblage

National and international policy-makers have addressed threats to environmental sustainability from climate change and other environmental degradation for over 30 years. However, it is questionable whether current policies are socially, politically, economically, and scientifically capable of adequately resolving these threats to the planet and living organisms. In this paper we theorize and develop the concept of a “policy assemblage” from within a new materialist ontology, to interrogate critically four policy perspectives on climate change: “liberal environmentalism”; the United Nations policy statements on sustainable development; “green capitalism” (also known as “climate capitalism”) and finally “no-growth economics.” A materialist analysis of interactions between climate change and policies enables us to establish what each policy can do, what it ignores or omits, and consequently its adequacy to address environmental sustainability in the face of climate change. None, we conclude, is adequate or appropriate to address climate change successfully. We then use this conceptual tool to establish a “posthuman” policy on climate change. Humans, from this perspective, are part of the environment, not separate from or in opposition to it, but possess unique capacities that we suggest are now necessary to address climate change. This ontology supplies the starting point from which to establish sociologically a scientifically, socially, and politically adequate posthuman climate change policy. We offer suggestions for the constituent elements of such a policy.     

THE MOTIVATIONS TO ENTER TEACHING BY AGE RELATED CAREER STAGE AND CERTIFICATION PATH

In this research I compare the motivations to enter the teaching occupation among 49 novice teachers who participated in traditional and alternative preparation programs to explore the influence of age and career stage on the decision making process. Early career entrants in both groups were more likely to cite the subject specialty as a reason to enter the occupation but only mid-career traditionally certified teachers included social concerns as a motivator. Overall, twice as many alternatively certified teachers cited the opportunity for a stable career as a motivator than did traditionally certified teachers.     

Beyond alphabet soup: helping college health professionals understand sexual fluidity

ABSTRACT

Many college students today are no longer using the terms straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to self-identify their sexual orientation or gender identity. This commentary explores research related to fluidity of sexual identities, emerging sexual identities used by college students, and how these identities interact with the health and well-being of the student. Additionally, the authors discuss strategies to help college health professionals provide a sensitive environment and clinical experience for students whose sexual identity is fluid.     

New materialist social inquiry: designs,methods and the research-assemblage

This paper discusses issues of research design and methods in new materialist social inquiry, an approach that is attracting increasing interest across the social sciences as an alternative to either realist or constructionist ontologies. New materialism de-privileges human agency, focusing instead upon how assemblages of the animate and inanimate together produce the world, with fundamental implications for social inquiry methodology and methods. Key to our exploration is the materialist notion of a ‘research-assemblage’ comprising researcher, data, methods and contexts. We use this understanding first to explore the micropolitics of the research process, and then – along with a review of 30 recent empirical studies – to establish a framework for materialist social inquiry methodology and methods. We discuss the epistemological consequences of adopting a materialist ontology.     

Anti-War Activism: New Media and Protest in the Information Age

This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working class, we focus on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia to argue that contemporary urban social movements and networks utilize a multi-media platform to further class-based politics. The respective use of old or new media depends on important contextual questions, regarding technology access and geographic aspects of movement building work.