Preserving Domesticity: Reading Tupperware in Women's Changing Domestic,Social and Economic Roles*

L'image représentée par Tupperware est essentiellement féminine. Cet article analyse la littérature entourant Tupperware pour y retrouver cette image de la fémininité de classe moyenne, euronord‐américaine et domestique. L'analyse de cette littérature se fait en tenant compte des changements et continuités, au cours des 50 dernières années, des rôles domestiques, économiques et sociaux des femmes nord‐américaines. Ces rôles domestiques et économiques se sont entrelacés, ce qui a permis à L'entreprise de mieux les exploiter. La réussite de Tupperware en s'associant à cette image très précise peut servir comme baromètre pour révéler comment les femmes négocient les pressions combinées de la maison et du travail. Tupperware projects a quintessentially gendered image. This article explores writings by and about Tupperware to discover its representation of middle‐class white domestic femininity. This image is read against changes and continuities in North American women's domestic, economic and social roles over the past fifty years. There has been an ongoing intertwining of women's domestic and paid work roles that Tupperware has been able to exploit. The enduring success of Tupperware as a company associated with a specific image is thus a useful barometer indicating how women are contending with the combined pressures of home and work.     

THE ECONOMICS OF CARPOOLS

The paper shows how separate parts of a work trip enter the decision to carpool, and examines how the size of a carpool is related to the gasoline price, the wage rate, speed limits, and other factors. The paper also suggests that policies designed to promote carpooling may produce perverse effects on gasoline consumption.     

BIRTH ORDER AND RISKY ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOR

It is commonly believed that birth order is an important determinant of success. However, previous studies in this area have failed to provide convincing evidence that birth order is related to test scores, education, or earnings. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth–1979, we investigate the association between birth order and adolescent behaviors such as smoking, drinking, marijuana use, sexual activity, and crime. Our estimates show that middle borns and last borns are much more likely to use substances and be sexually active than their firstborn counterparts. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that birth order is related to measurable behaviors. (JEL I12 , J12 , J13 )     

Guardianship of the Person in Scotland

Correspondence to Bill Whyte, Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Adam Ferguson Building, University of Edinburgh, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL. Summary There has been a renewed interest in recent years on the purposeof Guardianship but only limited empirical data on how it isbeing used under the current Mental Health legislation. Thispaper attempts to address both issues. The paper presents someof the findings of a Scottish study which examines the implicationsof this legislation and covers a range of issues including usesof Guardianship; a profile on the Mental Health Officers (ApprovedSocial Workers) involved and their role in assessment; who becamethe guardian and how they exercised their role; and broaderlegal issues. Unlike a recent paper (Evans, 1989) the authorsbelieve the legislative framework is inadequate to promote initiativeand good practice in this field and that there is a need fora new debate on the purposes of Guardianship with particularreference to the powers needed to care for and protect a rangeof adults with differing needs who might be considered ‘atrisk’ in the community.     

A hybrid approach to sequencing jobs using heuristic rules and neural networks

A hybrid approach to solve job sequencing problems using heuristic rules and artificial neural networks is proposed. The problem is to find a job sequence for a single machine that minimizes the total weighted tardiness of the jobs. Two different cases are considered: (1) when there are no setups, and (2) when there are sequence-dependent setup times. So far, successful heuristic rules for these cases are: apparent tardiness cost (ATC) rule proposed by Vepsalainen and Morton for the former case, and an extended version of the ATC rule (ATCS) proposed by Lee, Bhaskaran, and Pinedo for the latter. Both approaches utilize some look-ahead parameters for calculating the priority index of each job. As reported by Bhaskaran and Pinedo, the proper value of the look-ahead parameter depends upon certain problem characteristics, such as due-date tightness and due-date range. Thus, an obvious extension of the ATC or the ATCS rule is to adjust the parameter values depending upon the problem characteristics: this is known to be a difficult task. In this paper, we propose an application of a neural network as a tool to ‘predict’ proper values of the look-ahead parameters. Our computational tests show that the proposed hybrid approach outperforms both the ATC rule with a fixed parameter value and the ATCS using the heuristic curve-fitting method.     

金圣叹与李渔戏剧结构论比较

金圣叹和李渔的戏剧美学思想存在着诸多差异,反映在戏剧结构理论的探索上,他们的这种差异集中地体现在对于戏剧结构中不同艺术要素的侧重:金圣叹重视人物性格的塑造和感情的展现,并主张以塑造人物为核心来组织戏剧的结构;而李渔则更加推重故事情节的新奇,他将情节视为组织戏剧结构的中心要素。     

台湾信用合作社从业人员组织公民行为之探索性研究

组织公民行为（Organizational Citizenship Behavior,简称OCB）系指组织成员自发性表现出超越组织正式角色要求的行为,这些行为并非工作规范所明订,组织成员可自行选择表现与否,但这些行为整体而言有助于组织绩效。面对当前金融环境的快速变化,信用合作社从业人员除了应遵守明文规范的管理措施之外,更应表现超越工作规范,且有益于组织的行为,亦即组织公民行为,才能有助提升服务质量,增进组织绩效。本研究运用文献探索法,阐述组织公民行为之意涵,探讨信用合作社从业人员应表现的组织公民行为,并对于如何塑造组织公民行为的环境提出具体的建议。     

课程与教学研究二十年回溯:香港与内地的视角

新旧世纪交替更迭,世界各国教育改革此起彼伏,各种理论与学说交相辉映,共同形成颇为壮阔的图景.作为教育的核心领域--课程与教学的研究在近些年同样经历着日新月异的变化.本文尝试从香港与内地学者的视角勾勒出近二十年香港课程与教学的研究脉络与发展轮廓.文章首先概述两岸三地在课程与教学研究交流发展方面所做出的不懈努力;其次,文章围绕课程改革、课程实施、教师教育、学科教育、大学教育等     

被动句对动词的选择

现代汉语中“被”、“叫”、“让”、“给”是表示被动语法意义的介词。把现代汉语中这四个介词各个所适用的格式分成七类而考察七类格式对动词的选择。可以发现并不是所有的动词都能出现在七类格式中动词的位置上,即有些动词能进入由四个介词形成的被动格式,有些不能。但能够出现在由四个介词形成的被动格式的动词在具体被动格式之下还不能出现。总的来说,能否出现在七种被动格式的动词受动词表达的意义、音节、语体色彩与格式的制约。