A Revolution for Our Rights: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Justice in Bolivia, 1880–1952

Brian Easlea, Witch‐hunting, Magic and the New Philosophy. An Introduction to Debates of the Scientific Revolution 1450–1750 (1980), xii+283 (Harvester Press, Brighton, £25, paperback £8.50).

Peter Laslett, Karla Oosterveen and Richard M. Smith (eds), Bastardy and its Comparative History: Studies in the history of illegitimacy and marital nonconformism in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, North America, Jamaica and Japan (1980), xv+431 (Edward Arnold, £24.00).

Jonathan Dewald, The Formation of a Provincial Nobility: the Magistrates of the Parlement of Rouen 1499–1610 (1980), xv+402 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, £14.40); James B. Wood, The Nobility of the Election of Bayeux, 1463–1666 (1980), xiv+220 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, £8.80).

Christopher R. Friedrichs, Urban Society in an Age of War: Nördlingen, 1580–1720 (1980), xvii+350 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, £13.60).

Tony Dickson (ed.), Scottish Capitalism: Class, State and Nation from before the Union to the Present (1980), 335 (Lawrence &; Wishart, £9.50).

John Brewer and John Styles (eds), An Ungovernable People: The English and their law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1980), 400+4 plates (Hutchinson, £12.50).

Harvey J. Graff, The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth‐Century City (1979), xxii + 352 (Academic Press, New York, n.p.). Carl F. Kaestle and Maris A. Vinovskis, Education and Social Change in Nineteenth‐Century Massachusetts (1980), xxi + 349 (Cambridge University Press, £17–50).

Toni Offermann, Arbeiterbewegung und liberales Bürgertum in Deutschland 1850–1863 (1979), 623 (Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn, DM 108) (The Labour Movement and the Liberal Bourgeoisie in Germany 1850–1863)

Joseph Melling (ed.), Housing, Social Policy and the State (1980), 233 (Croom Helm, £10.95).

Stuart Macintyre, A Proletarian Science: Marxism in Britain 1917–1933 (1980), xii + 286 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £12.00).

Stuart Macintyre, Little Moscows: Communism and Working‐class Militancy in Interwar Britain (1980), 213 (Croom Helm, £11.95).     

Zur Messung von Forschungsqualit?t

This paper deals with the Forschungsrating (RWR) by the German Wissenschaftsrat (WR) in sociology. The WR??s objective in conducting this pilot study was to test a practice which allows a sophisticated assessment of the research facilities in Germany. Basically, two theses are exhibited towards the RWR in this paper: First, it seems possible that the published results are neither objective, nor reliable or valid because of implicit assessment procedures by the reviewers. Second we ask, whether a simple model of scientific quality, composed of a few quantitative indicators, yields similar results compared with the RWR. To empirically address these aspects, data of the RWR and our own standardized survey on the reputation of German research facilities is analyzed. Furthermore we conducted interviews with members of the group of reviewers. The results show that problems concerning the objectivity of analysis cannot be excluded. Our general conclusion about the reliability of the measurement, limited to the inner consistency of the quantitative indicators, is positive. A satisfactory reproduction of the RWR??s results solely based on quantitative data cannot be achieved. This is interpreted as a sign of minor validity. It is concluded that the amount and quality of data collected in the RWR, as well as the standardization of the rating process need to be improved.     

Mixed risk aversion and preference for risk disaggregation: a story of moments

In a recent article entitled “Putting Risk in its Proper Place,” Eeckhoudt and Schlesinger (2006) established a theorem linking the sign of the n-th derivative of an agent’s utility function to her preferences among pairs of simple lotteries. We characterize these lotteries and show that, in a given pair, they only differ by their moments of order greater than or equal to n. When the n-th derivative of the utility function is positive (negative) and n is odd (even), the agent prefers a lottery with higher (lower) n + 2p-th moments for p belonging to the set of positive integers. This result links the preference for disaggregation of risks across states of nature to the complete structure of moments preferred by mixed risk averse agents. It can be viewed as a generalization of a proposition appearing in Ekern (1980) which focused only on the differences in the n-th moments.     

‘Unnatural’, ‘Unwomanly’, ‘Uncreditable’ and ‘Undervalued’: The Significance of Being a Childless Woman in Australian Society

Childlessness is an increasing trend, internationally and in Australia. The few studies exploring the lived experiences of childless women have been conducted in America, Canada and the United Kingdom; predominantly during the 1980s and 1990s. The experiences of childless women in contemporary Australia remain under-researched. This hermeneutic phenomenological study sought to enhance understanding of the lived experience of being a childless woman in contemporary Australia. In-depth interviews with five childless women revealed five key themes as significant facets of the experiences of childless women: notions of ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’; woman = mother; childlessness as a discrediting attribute; feeling undervalued; and the significance of being childless. By privileging the experiences of childless women in a pronatalist society, it is apparent that misconceptions and stereotypes about childlessness continue to pervade. This study contributes to understanding this growing population group; highlighting that while childlessness is increasingly acknowledged, it is still not completely understood.     

Pathways to Ready Schools

To encourage communities to play a more significant role in getting kids ready for school and schools ready for kids, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation launched Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) in 2001. This nationwide initiative emphasized community-based collaboration and the development of strategic infrastructures to support early care and education and school readiness among at-risk children. As part of this initiative, the authors were charged with developing a definition of a ready school. Following consultation with experts, a literature review, and four site visits, the authors identified the following nine pathways to ready schools: children succeed in school; a welcoming atmosphere; leadership; connections to early care and education; connecting culturally and linguistically with children and families; parental involvement; partnering with the community; using assessment results for individual student progress and improving school performance; and quality improvement including professional development and training.     

Melancholy Hope and Other Psychic Remainders Afterthoughts on Love the Sin

In this essay the coauthors of Love the Sin consider connections between moral and psychic ambivalence around sex and sexual pleasures; what tolerance “feels” like; and melancholia as both block to and resource for democratic social relations. In the final section of their essay, they suggest rethinking tolerance as a kind of melancholic reaction, or defense, that protects the agents of tolerance from knowing just how far short that they have fallen from their own professed commitments to being fair and doing good.     

Job Volatility of Rural,Low-income Mothers: A Mixed Methods Approach

The struggle for rural, low-income mothers to enter and remain in the workforce can contribute to job volatility, longitudinal changes in employment patterns. This study used a mixed methods longitudinal approach to examine job volatility of 245 rural, low-income mothers across 14 states. The mothers were categorized into three groups: stable employment, intermittent employment, and continuous unemployment. Work and family responsibilities were a continuous struggle for these mothers. Some mothers addressed these struggles through changing jobs, receiving social support, and/or staying out of the workforce to care for their children. To reduce job volatility, both qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that human capital development requires workplace flexibility and social support in addition to the traditional investments in education and healthcare.