ELECTRIC AND PLUG‐IN HYBRID VEHICLE DEMAND: LESSONS FOR AN EMERGING MARKET

Understanding demand in the new plug‐in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) market is critical to designing more effective adoption policies. We use stated preference data from an innovative choice experiment to estimate demand for PHEVs relative to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and to explore heterogeneity in demand for these vehicles. We find the gap between willingness to pay for PHEVs and their price premium over conventional vehicles is on the order of current subsidies, while that of BEVs is an order of magnitude larger. We use a latent class model to show PHEVs draw a different consumer segment into the market. (JEL Q5, R41)     

On Teaching as Activism

This essay explores the relationship between teaching and activism by interrogating if teaching in higher education should be considered activism. Through a discussion of my commitment to data literacy and how participatory democracy, as practiced by Black Freedom Movement organizer Ella Baker, informs my pedagogy, I interrogate if activism and academic labor should be conflated. In the process I examine how my assessment is informed by my relationship to activism, the academy, my career trajectory, and racism as part of academic work conditions.     

“Building a Bigger Table”: Mobilizing Social Capital to Develop a Community Food Resource Center

Traditional food initiatives often aim to increase food access through market-based, needs-driven models, leaving basic food requirements unmet for many in the current U.S. food system. Employing qualitative community-based participatory methods, we examine the asset-based developmental stages of a local-level Food and Resource Center (FRC) in rural Stillwater, OK. We consider the ways that social capital can be activated as a community asset for development, articulating how social networks are used to identify, mobilize, and galvanize community support. How has the community identified and mobilized a “stock” of social capital to employ an asset-based approach to developing a food resource center? How can the FRC enhance social capital for the community as a whole? We provide insight into how individual, agency, and institutional actors act as pivotal resources for community development, delineating the ways in which community social capital and asset-based development can influence an organization's operational goals. Additionally, we explore strategies used to enhance linking and bonding forms of social capital as well as obstacles to bridging social capital in the broader community.     

“Learning to become a better man”: Insights from a fathering programme for incarcerated Indigenous men

This paper reports a qualitative study of incarcerated Indigenous fathers in Australia, using a framework of generative fathering. Researchers interviewed 28 imprisoned Indigenous men about their experiences of parenting and their responses to a parenting programme. Participants identified how the programme supported their learning and their capacity to embrace the role of parenting the next generation. Responses indicate that the programme's format and content were relevant to their experience as Indigenous fathers, and enhanced by the skills of the facilitator, and provision of a safe learning environment. It facilitated their growth as individuals and as parents through acknowledging their cultural identity and roles.     

Development and Validation of the Poverty Attributions Survey

This article describes the process of developing and testing the Poverty Attribution Survey (PAS), a measure of poverty attributions. The PAS is theory based and includes original items as well as items from previously tested poverty attribution instruments. The PAS was electronically administered to a sample of state-licensed professional social workers. The three scales of the PAS—individual, cultural, and structural—demonstrated strong internal consistency reliability. We conducted exploratory factor analyses and forced three-factor analyses and retained items with factor loadings at or above .50. The items on each scale loaded as predicted with few exceptions. The PAS is a new tool for standardizing poverty attribution research. We discuss implications for social work education, research, and practice.     

“That's not Grassfed!” Identity Formation,Maintenance, and Co‐Optation in Oklahoma's Grassfed Livestock Movement

Using interview data from thirty‐one grassfed ranchers across Oklahoma, we adapt a culturally focused social movement framework to explore a regional grassfed livestock movement. Drawing on social movement and agrifood literature, we examine how grassfed actors forge a cohesive grassfed collective identity and how collective identity processes inspire engagement in forms of individualized, cultural protest. We address how collective identity politicizes movement actors, moving them to prioritize cultural issues of the grassfed movement and development of a grassfed activist identity, sometimes above other tangible, economic rewards. We also consider how grassfed ranchers are restricting the boundaries of movement membership in response to increased interest in alternative agricultural practices by new producers and by agrifood elites, and how they use market‐oriented tactics to enforce those boundaries. In doing so we draw parallels to conventionalization processes in the organic sector. By emphasizing the identity work of grassfed producer‐activists, we provide new perspectives on an emerging agricultural movement gaining traction in the US and abroad.     

Victimization and Violence: An Exploration of the Relationship Between Child Sexual Abuse,Violence, and Delinquency

Child sexual abuse (CSA) continues to be a major public health issue with significant short- and long-term consequences. However, little contemporary research has examined the relationship between CSA and delinquent and violent behavior in adolescence. Children who have been sexually abused experience a unique form of victimization compared to children who have endured other forms of maltreatment, as CSA can result in feelings of shame, powerlessness and boundary violations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of CSA on delinquent and violent behavior in adolescence. We examined self-report data at the age 18 interview from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) on measures of sexual abuse experience, and engagement in delinquent and violent behavior in the past year. All participants reported either a history of maltreatment or were identified at-risk based on demographic risk factors. Participants included 368 males and 445 females who self-reported experiences of CSA and delinquent and violent behavior (N = 813). Findings indicated that, when controlling for gender and race, the odds of engagement in delinquent and violent behavior for those who have experienced CSA are 1.7 times higher than for those who have not. Additionally, female victims of CSA were .52 times less likely to engage in violent and delinquent behavior compared to their male counterparts. Further efforts are needed to examine the effects of CSA on violent and delinquent behavior to better guide treatment efforts that prevent juvenile justice involvement.     

Child mortality and fertility: public vs private education

How does the effect of child mortality reductions on fertility and education vary across educational systems? To answer this question, we develop an overlapping-generations model where altruistic parents care about both the number and human capital of their surviving children. We find that, under a private education system, if income is low initially, the economy converges to a Malthusian stagnation steady state. For a high level of initial income, the economy reaches a growth path in which children’s education rises and fertility decreases with income. In the growth regime under private education, exogenous shocks that lower child mortality are detrimental for growth: fertility increases and education declines. In contrast, under a public education system, the stagnation steady state does not exist, and health improvement shocks are no longer detrimental for growth. We therefore offer a new rationale for the introduction of public education.     

Promoting Career and College Readiness,Aspirations, and Self‐Efficacy: Curriculum Field Test

To address the need for enhanced career and college readiness, a classroom guidance curriculum was studied using a pretest–posttest nonequivalent groups quasi‐experimental design. Data from 163 ninth‐grade students enrolled in a low‐performing high school were analyzed via hierarchical linear modeling. The analyses indicated a treatment effect on postsecondary education‐going knowledge and career and college readiness self‐efficacy, accounting for 100% of the variance explained by classroom‐level factors and indicating potential for the classroom guidance curriculum. The findings encourage career and professional school counselors to proactively employ similar classroom guidance programs aimed at encouraging high school students to consider postsecondary education opportunities. Future research could focus on component analyses of the curriculum, broadening the target populations, using mixed‐method designs, and additional validity studies of the dependent measures.