A refinement of Hoeffding's inequality

In this paper, we present a refinement of Hoeffding's inequality which is of closed form and which significantly improves on this inequality in many cases. Some numerical comparisons are also presented.     

‘Doing femininity’ at work: More than just relational practice1

Workplaces constitute one of the more interesting sites where individuals ‘do gender’, while at the same time constructing their professional identities and meeting their organisation's expectations. Drawing on interactional data recorded in New Zealand professional organisations, this paper focuses in particular on how participants manage and interpret the notion of ‘femininity’ in workplace discourse. In much current usage, the concepts ‘feminine’ and ‘femininity’ typically evoke negative reactions. Our analysis suggests these notions can be reclaimed and reinterpreted positively using an approach which frames doing femininity at work as normal, unmarked, and effective workplace behaviour in many contexts. The analysis also demonstrates that multiple femininities extend beyond normative expectations, such as enacting relational practice ( Fletcher 1999 ), to embrace more contestive and parodic instantiations of femininity in workplace talk.     

Knowledge Communities, Spatial Theory and Social Policy

This paper uses the concept of knowledge communities to account for the relatively low impact of spatial perspectives on welfare policy (marginalization in the economic sphere; limited uptake in the social sphere). However, recent developments in the social sciences include a growing recognition of relationships between discourse, knowledge and power. Central to this work is a recognition of the territorialized nature of knowledge. These developments suggest that social policy has the potential to be reconfigured in a much more geographically sensitive manner.     

Why is Getting Rid of P-Values So Hard? Musings on Science and Statistics

ABSTRACT

The current concerns about reproducibility have focused attention on proper use of statistics across the sciences. This gives statisticians an extraordinary opportunity to change what are widely regarded as statistical practices detrimental to the cause of good science. However, how that should be done is enormously complex, made more difficult by the balkanization of research methods and statistical traditions across scientific subdisciplines. Working within those sciences while also allying with science reform movements—operating simultaneously on the micro and macro levels—are the key to making lasting change in applied science.     

For-Profit Welfare: Contracts, Conflicts, and the Performance Paradox

This article examines how financial inducements in performancecontracts shape the inner workings of a for-profit welfare-to-worktraining program serving long-term recipients. Our work paysparticular attention to how contract requirements shape relationshipsbetween manager and line staff and their treatment of clients.We argue that contract design, coupled with bottom-level managementefforts to meet contractual obligations, leads to a performanceparadox—the same actions taken to achieve contractualresults ironically produce negative program practice and poorclient outcomes. Thus, rigidly constructed legal agreementsbetween the government and private service providers can distortincentive structures, causing programmatic conflicts betweenmanagement and staff, and do little to reduce long-term welfareuse and diminish recipients' poverty.     

Positive college attitudes among minority and low-income students as an indicator of academic success

Positive student attitudes among minority and low SES students toward the effectiveness of their college may be seen as a function of college success. These data suggest that students with positive attitudes toward their college experience had greater academic achievements than those who had negative attitudes.     

The Revolt Against Cultural Authority: Power/Knowledge as an Assumption in Organization Theory

Foucault-inspired organization theory hasinterpreted the Enlightenment effort to make reason thefoundation for human freedom as a failure. Reason isseen as developing into disciplinary knowledge, which dominates modern organizations and theindividuals who live and work in them. In fact, theindividual s very identity is the means by which theindividual is enslaved. Knowledge is thus seen asnowhere separate from power. In this essay, I will usea concept of traditional authority to examineFoucault-inspired organization theory and itspower/knowledge conceptual framework in terms of theirethical and cultural implications. This will includeFoucault s influence on both the literature in criticalorganization theory and postmodern organization theory.My approach will highlight the Foucault-inspired misinterpretation of the effect of theEnlightenment on modern organizations, its rejection ofthe authority of the past as a basis for moral order,and its impossible attempt to find freedom through the destruction of cultural authority.