Pretrial Bargaining in the Face of a Random Court Decision: Evidence from Laboratory Games

If negotiation over ownership of an asset is unsuccessful, agents go to court to determine possession. Experiments examine how the presence of a stochastic court decision affects pretrial bargaining behavior. Two players have private information over the value of an asset, owned by one player. If there is no acceptable trade price, a random court decision assigns ownership. The impact of a second stage court decision on bargaining outcomes and the efficiency of trades is measured. Courts reduce the total earnings of players and the frequency of efficient trades. Relative earnings and bargaining behavior depend on which agent proposes the trade price.     

Editorial: The Urgent Need for Global Action to Combat Climate Change

Abstract

Within the study of global politics and global political economy there has been an increase in literature within the last few years on the growth of resistance movements geared toward challenging the hegemony of US-inspired neoliberalism. This article questions much of the normative literature that is emerging, particularly from international political economy, on the nature of resistance and the anti-globalization movement. Using the case of Britain as an example, it argues that it is necessary to assess the various parts of the movement before any claim to counter-hegemony or counter-movement can be made. By looking at the various fragmented anti-globalization strategies and struggles that have been articulated within Britain, we also warn that any potential progressive or emancipatory ‘counter’ project is likely to suffer both from potential reactionary forces and from the lack of a clear transformative agenda.     

Planning for Aging in Place: Incorporating the Voice of Elders to Promote Quality of Life

Abstract

Aging in place offers emotional and physical benefits; however, challenges associated with advanced age may make aging in place difficult. As communities across the country prepare for forecasted increases in the proportion of older residents, it is important to understand barriers that may prevent aging in place. Perceived barriers voiced by residents of a suburban county who completed an Aging in Place Needs Assessment Survey were categorized into four themes: need to downsize/home modification; need for assistance; family desire to reciprocate care; and isolation. A fifth group with no intent to relocate, but with concerns about having to, was also identified. Included among this group were persons with mental health or developmental disorders, such as anxiety and autism spectrum disorder. Results were examined through a person-centered lens to illustrate that aging in place may be the desired option even among residents who indicate that it is not. It is important that aging-in-place initiatives preserve identity by fostering a sense of autonomy, control, and well-being in older residents.     

Social Return on Investment of an Innovative Employment Option for Persons with Developmental Disabilities

Common Ground Co‐operative (CGC) provides training, administrative, and job coach support to five social enterprises for which persons with developmental disabilities are the non‐share‐capital partners. This study examines the use of social return on investment (SROI) as a means of determining the value of program impacts related to quality‐of‐life changes for enterprise partners and their families. The process of conducting this SROI analysis is described and analyzed in terms of its utility in employment services for persons with developmental disabilities.     

No place like home? Availability,opportunity, and substance use in adolescence

Surveys on drugs and alcohol availability show that (1) alcohol is much more easily accessible than both cannabis and tobacco, and that (2) many adolescents still do not find it ‘easy’ to access those substances. In the current study, we examine the importance of both opportunity and availability in assessing substance use in adolescence. Our measures of opportunity include skipping school and unstructured socializing, while availability measures include parental substance use and perceived availability of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis at home. We draw from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) survey, and distinguish between (a) predictors of Wave II substance use for the whole sample, and (b) predictors of Wave II initiation for those respondents who reported no use at Wave I. We find that availability at home and parental substance use is correlated with substance-specific current adolescent consumption, but these indicators are not associated with initiation behavior. Instead, initiation seems to be carried by unstructured socializing outside of the home, with availability at home acting as reinforcement once some level of substance use is established.     

The new left,Jeremy Corbyn and the war of position: a new coherence or further fragmentation?

ABSTRACT

This article assesses the emergence of the new groups, organizations and protests that have emerged since the financial crisis and asks whether we can understand these as a fresh development where diverse movements fashioned through different ideological departure points have moved towards a form of convergence in which a wider hegemonic project can be fashioned, or whether in fact such proclamations are effectively another form of ‘wishing thinking’ in terms of left-wing renewal is concerned. In line with recently argued work, it suggests that for the left to look to overcome the ideological obstacles that plagued its twentieth century development, it needs to provide a wide/open set of principles that look to contest dominant norms of the neoliberal order that exist at the many levels of civil society. In this way a ‘war of position’ (to borrow from Gramsci) needs to be forged that looks to avoid charges of ‘elitism’ and ‘fragmentation’ that had seen the left to fail as a coherent alternative since the cold war. Whilst the new left has forged forms of contestation at the civil level (for example Occupy and the ESF) and more recently at the Political level (with Sanders, Corbyn and Syriza/Podermos), it has yet to form a consistent and coherent war of position to neoliberal capitalism.     

The Portable Community: Mobility and Modernization in Bluegrass Festival Life

Drawing from six years of ethnographic field research, I examine participants' involvement in bluegrass music and festival culture in the American West. Participants left their community‐starved home neighborhoods to cultivate what I refer to as “portable communities”: temporary forms of mobile gemeinschaft community that participants found in multiple settings. Festivalgoers articulated a consistent vocabulary of intimacy, inclusion, and simplicity when describing their continued involvement in this setting. They described their involvement as driven by a quest for intimate community, open and equal social relations, and simple living, elements they found in short supply in their daily lives. Whereas traditional community forms depend on residential stability, these participants intentionally cultivated and supported alternatives that emerged in response to participants' geographic mobility.     

The marketing approach to purchasing

The determination of supply and demand is a complex problem to which both sides of the equation must contribute. Although marketing departments have organized themselves to provide such a contribution to data, purchasing has done little to promote its contribution to demand forecasting. Until it does the equation will remain not merely complex but insoluble.A continuous inter-change between marketing and purchasing, supplier and customer, is essential for improving the accuracy of longer range forecasting and for logistical co-ordination of investment planning. The corporate plans of manufacturing organizations, at least, should reflect these considerations.