Letters to the editor

Relatively little attention has been paid to the use and importance of labels used by men who have sex with men to describe insertive or receptive sexual behavior during intercourse. This study examines sexual self‐labels, sexual behavior, HIV transmission risk, and psychological functioning among 205 HIV‐seropositive men who have sex with men. The majority of participants (88%) identified as a “top, “ a “bottom, “ or “versatile. “ Tops were more likely to engage in insertive anal intercourse than bottoms, and bottoms were more likely to engage in receptive anal intercourse than tops, with versatiles reporting intermediate rates of both behaviors. Although the results suggest preliminary evidence regarding the predictive utility of self‐labels, sexual behaviors of self‐label groups were greatly overlapping. Differences were found among self‐label groups in gay self‐identification, internalized homophobia, sexual sensation seeking, and anxiety. Results suggest an added value in assessing self‐labels in addition to asking about sexual behavior.     

The End of the World Designed with Men in Mind

According to Derrida, the European self-understanding marking the name “Man” is governed by eschatology and teleology. Man is that being on its way towards its proper end. The times of science seemed to Kant and others to be evidence of just such progress. For Freud, by contrast, the great scientific achievements of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud have cumulatively contributed a series of de-centring blows to our “self-love”. This paper explores the nature of great scientific achievements, and raises the possibility of a further devastating blow to Man, this time in the twentieth century, and connected to the name of Marx.     

Access to Water in the Slums of Sub‐Saharan Africa

This article reviews the changing perspectives for improving access to water in the slums of developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa. While much of the literature continues to maintain an aversion to state‐led urban development policies, there is now increasing emphasis on the importance of informal, small‐scale providers and communitarian initiatives, following the many failures of privatisation. The article argues that market‐oriented solutions are inappropriate for sub‐Saharan African countries where over two‐thirds of the urban population live in squatter settlements with multidimensional challenges.     

Assessing and Improving the Performance of Nearly Efficient Unit Root Tests in Small Samples

Abstract

The development of unit root tests continues unabated, with many recent contributions using techniques such as generalized least squares (GLS) detrending and recursive detrending to improve the power of the test. In this article, the relation between the seemingly disparate tests is demonstrated by algebraically nesting all of them as ratios of quadratic forms in normal variables. By doing so, and using the exact sampling distribution of the ratio, it is straightforward to compute, examine, and compare the test' critical values and power functions. It is shown that use of GLS detrending parameters other than those recommended in the literature can lead to substantial power improvements. The open and important question regarding the nature of the first observation is addressed. Tests with high power are proposed irrespective of the distribution of the initial observation, which should be of great use in practical applications.     

Heaven or Hubris: Reflections on the New ‘New Poverty Agenda’

A new construction on poverty reduction links the Millennium Development Goals, an international consensus on how to reduce poverty, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, a new set of instruments for delivering aid, and, underpinning the others, results–based management. This new construction has undoubted strengths. There are also cross–cutting risks, that targets will oversimplify, citizenship will be neglected, trade–offs and conflicts of interest will be obscured, macro–economic policy will be neglected, social sectors will be emphasised at the expense of growth policies, and commitment to partnership will degrade into a form of covert conditionality. These risks are not immutable. A way forward is proposed, with a list of six principles and a set of Dos and Don’ts.     

The extent of children's knowledge of court as estimated by guardians ad litem

‘Knowledge of court’ questionnaires were completed by 35 designated professionals (guardians ad litem) with specific responsibility for children in family proceedings in the civil judicial system within England and Wales who then estimated the percentage of 11‐year old children, in general, which they would expect to provide a ‘full’, ‘partial’ and ‘incorrect’ answer to each question. These estimations were compared with normative data on this questionnaire obtained from actual 11‐year‐olds. This comparison suggests that guardians ad litem tend to overestimate the extent of such children's knowledge, implying that individual children may not be as well prepared for involvement with the legal system as such informed professionals might believe; such a tendency might render it less likely that easily corrected misconceptions and gaps in knowledge be identified and subsequently addressed, thereby failing to minimize the stress (e.g. fear of the unknown) which can often accompany contact with the courts. The possibility that the discrepancy between actual and estimated scores might be, in part, due to a failure in adults to adopt the ‘psychological perspective’ of the child in the unfamiliar world of the adult judicial system is discussed. Although this possibility requires further investigation, making an explicit effort to ‘get into the child's shoes’ is suggested as a potentially valuable and practical first step towards reducing such discrepancies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do newcomers vote for a newcomer? Support for an immigrant party

This article studies the voters of DENK, the first immigrant party to gain seats in a national parliament. It builds further on the existing literature on how immigrants and people from immigrant descent vote in Western European countries. From the literature we derive seven expectations about the kind of voters that are likely to vote for an immigrant party in terms of their political cynicism, attitudes towards economic, globalisation and moral issues. We find that DENK voters are younger Muslims, who have conservative views on moral matters, cynical attitudes towards politics, right-wing views on economic matters and progressive views on issues that pertain to the globalisation dimension, such as immigration, integration and Islam and in particular discrimination. This article uses VAA data to construct a matched sample that in terms of key variables is representative for voters with and without a migration background.     

The Legal Status of Turks in Germany

Turks in Germany constitute the single largest non-national group living in the member states of the European Union. This essay examines the legal dimensions of their entry, residence and integration in Germany during the 1990s up to 2002. The evidence shows that, despite long-term settlement patterns, Turks in Germany have not achieved a high level of formal inclusion. However, recent policy reforms have already gone some way to improving their situation, and the impact of planned reforms should equally ensure that this process continues in the future.