Ageing Populations and Housing Needs: Comparing Strategic Policy Discourses in France and England

Set against a broad European policy agenda which promotes ‘ageing in place’ and representations of older people as active, independent citizens, this article compares recent English and French policy discourses on population ageing and its implications for the housing needs of increasingly large numbers of older citizens. Through analysis of six recent strategic policy statements representing each government's official responses to population ageing and its social policy implications for the 21st century, we demonstrate how differences in the social representation of the ageing process and of older peoples themselves permeate policy discourse, influencing the perceptions of the housing needs of older citizens and the role that housing itself may play in promoting independent living. In England, demographic ageing, housing and its role in facilitating independent living and active ageing are explicitly articulated, whilst in France, the housing environment has until recently, been portrayed as one which must accommodate the illness, incapacity and dependency of later life. Our article offers explanations for these differences in terms of cultural variations in the social representations or ‘constructions’ of later life, divergences in political philosophies and welfare principles.     

Nonparametric adaptive likelihood weights

The weighted likelihood can be used to make inference about one population when data from similar populations are available. The author shows heuristically that the weighted likelihood can be seen as a special case of the entropy maximization principle. This leads him to propose the minimum averaged mean squared error (MAMSE) weights. He describes an algorithm for calculating these weights and shows its convergence using the Kuhn‐Tucker conditions. He explores the performance and properties of the weighted likelihood based on MAMSE weights through simulations.     

A Simple Adaptive Procedure Leading to Correlated Equilibrium

We propose a new and simple adaptive procedure for playing a game: ‘regret‐matching.’ In this procedure, players may depart from their current play with probabilities that are proportional to measures of regret for not having used other strategies in the past. It is shown that our adaptive procedure guarantees that, with probability one, the empirical distributions of play converge to the set of correlated equilibria of the game.     

Managing knowledge in the healthcare sector. A review

Over the past decade, knowledge management (KM), as a concept and a set of practices, has penetrated into the fabric of organizational and managerial processes in the healthcare sector, which has been the site of numerous innovative KM practices. As a result scholars from a range of academic (and non‐academic) fields have begun to document how KM is conceived and practised in health care, what the recurrent issues are and how they can be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature on KM concepts, policies and practices in the healthcare sector. Based on the analysis of the most relevant contributions in the last six years, three overarching themes that have occupied the interests of authors are identified and discussed: the nature of knowing in the healthcare sector, the type of KM tools and initiatives that are suitable for the healthcare sector, and the barriers and enablers to the take up of KM practices. The paper concludes with some considerations on what the literature tells us about the state of the art and the future of KM in this important sector of Western economies.     

A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary path and the road ahead

This study aims to trace the conceptual evolutionary path of theories on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to reflect on the implications of the development. The retrospection has revealed that the trend has been a progressive rationalization of the concept with a particular focus on tighter coupling with organizations’ financial goals. Rationalization involves two broad shifts in the conceptualization of CSR. First, in terms of the level of analysis, researchers have moved from the discussion of the macro‐social effects of CSR to organizational‐level analysis of CSR's effect on profit. Next, in terms of theoretical orientation, researchers have moved from explicitly normative and ethics‐oriented arguments to implicitly normative and performance‐oriented managerial studies. Based on the retrospection, the limitations of the current state of CSR research that places excessive emphasis on the business case for CSR are outlined, and it is suggested that future research needs to refocus on basic research in order to develop conceptual tools and theoretical mechanisms that explain changing organizational behavior from a broader societal perspective.     

The determinants of export performance: A review of the research in the literature between 1998 and 2005

Considerable attention has been paid to the determinants of export performance. However, despite this research effort in identifying and examining the influence of such determinants, the literature is characterized by fragmentation and diversity, hindering theory development and practical advancement in the field. This paper attempts to review and synthesize the knowledge on the subject. As a result, this study reviews and evaluates 52 articles published between 1998 and 2005 to assess the determinants of export performance. The assessment reveals that: (a) more studies have been conducted outside the USA; (b) the majority of the studies focus on manufacturing firms, with relatively few studies examining the service sector; (c) the majority of the export studies continue to focus on small to medium‐sized firms; (d) there is a continuous increase in the sample size; (e) despite the problems that may arise from the use of single informants, it seems that none of the studies reviewed here collected data from more than one informant in the firm; (f) an increasing number of studies have been using the export venture as the unit of analysis; (g) the level of statistical sophistication has improved; (h) the use of control and moderating variables in export performance studies has increased; (i) more studies have started to include the external environment in their models, including domestic market characteristics; and (j) market orientation as a key determinant of export performance emerges in this review. Finally, conclusions are drawn, along with some suggestions for further research.     

Life‐Course Transitions and the Age Profile of Internal Migration

Despite underlying regularities in the age profile of migration, there is mounting evidence of cross‐national variations in the ages at which migration occurs. Explanations for these differences have variously been sought by reference to cultural, social, and economic factors, and through analysis of reasons for moving. There is also a growing body of work linking migration events to particular transitions in the life course. We set out a conceptual framework that links contextual factors to the age structure of migration through life‐course transitions that act as proximate determinants of the age at migration. We propose metrics to capture the prevalence, timing, and spread of four key life‐course transitions: education completion, labor force entry, union formation, and first childbearing. We then seek to quantitatively establish the link between these indicators and the age and intensity of internal migration at its peak for a global sample of 27 countries. Correlation and factor analysis reveal substantial diversity in the timing and spread of transitions to adult roles, and show that cross‐national differences in the age profile of migration closely parallel variations in the age structure of the life course for over two‐thirds of countries. Migration age profiles are aligned with transitions to adulthood for both sexes but most strongly among women.     

Internal Migration and Development: Comparing Migration Intensities Around the World

Migration is the principal demographic process shaping patterns of human settlement, and it serves an essential role in human development. While progress has been made in measuring international migration, internal migration statistics are as yet poorly developed in many countries. This article draws on a repository of data established under the IMAGE (Internal Migration Around the GlobE) project to address this deficit by constructing the first comprehensive league table of internal migration intensities for countries around the world. We review previous work, outline the major impediments to making reliable comparisons, and set out a methodology that combines a novel estimation procedure with a flexible spatial aggregation facility. We present the results in the form of league tables of aggregate crude migration intensities that capture all changes of address over one‐year or five‐year intervals for 96 countries, representing four‐fifths of the global population. Explanation for the observed differences has been sought, inter alia, in historical, structural, cultural, and economic forces. We examine the links between development and migration intensity through simple correlations using a range of demographic, economic, and social variables. Results reveal clear associations between internal migration intensities and selected indicators of national development.     

Divorce in sub‐Saharan Africa: Are Unions Becoming Less Stable?

Divorce is one of the main drivers of family instability in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using data from 101 Demographic and Health Surveys and novel estimation techniques, we 1) provide the first systematic estimates of divorce across 33 countries; 2) assess trends in divorce in 20 countries; and 3) investigate the key country‐level correlates of divorce both across and within countries. Despite considerable geographic variation, our estimates show that divorce is common in most countries. Contrary to expectations, however, we find no evidence that divorce is increasing. Instead, divorce has been either stable or declining in recent decades. We show that socioeconomic factors associated with industrialization have countervailing effects on divorce. Urbanization and female employment are associated with higher levels of divorce, while age at first marriage and female education correspond to lower rates. These findings have implications for current and future family dynamics in sub‐Saharan Africa.