Fertility of U.S. farm women during the electrification era, 1930–1950

The research reported here examines the fertility of U.S. farm women during the period in which rural America became electrified. It suggests that electrification was relatedly indirectly to fertility through the impact it had on farm and home production modes, and also through its facilitation of more general socioeconomic change. The model is tested using Census and Agricultural Census data for 473 rural farm counties at three points in time — 1930, 1940, and 1950. Overall, the results of multivariate analyses generally support the conceptual model. The effects of farm production/technology factors, electrification, and sociodemographic characteristics are evaluated using OLS. The effects of electrification net of the other variables are significant when subsamples of Southern and non-Southern counties are examined separately, with electrification related to lower fertility in Southern counties and higher fertility in non-Southern counties. The findings emphasize the importance of considering potential demographic impacts when introducting rural development projects in developing countries.     

Quantitative aspects of marriage,fertility and family limitation in nineteenth century America: Another application of the coale specifications

This paper deals with three aspects of the decline in the fertility of white women in the United States from 1800 to 1920. The first concerns the portion of the secular decline in the total fertility rate which was due to changes in marriage rates and the portion due to decreases in marital fertility rates. The second concerns the fraction of couples in the nineteenth century who acted effectively to reduce their fertility and the third deals with the importance of abortion as a family-limiting practice among white couples in the nineteenth century.     

A Near Electoral Majority of Pensioners: Prospects and Policies

In the first half of this century in many of today's developed countries, the proportion of voting age populations 65 years old or older will roughly double. As voting age populations age, the proportion of net contributors to national budgets (mainly through taxes) will fall and the proportion of net beneficiaries (mainly through public pension and health care benefits) will rise. By mid‐century in many wealthy countries, a near majority of electorates will become net beneficiaries of government expenditures, producing unprecedented changes in their political landscapes. We analyze three aspects of this phenomenon in Germany, Japan, and the United States.     

Taipei,Taiwan: A transformational learning event: Reflecting on the 4th Asian Conference of Academy of Human Resource Development

Abstract

The 4th Asian Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development held in Taipei, Taiwan, nurtured new learning, networking and international integration. As we reflected upon the experience in Taiwan, the realization was evident that we now view the world from a global perspective. We no longer look at the world through our own country's lenses. Through participation in this transformational learning event, the way we see the world and ourselves has changed as well as enriched our HRD knowledge.     

Postmodernism and Popularisation: The Cultural Life of Chaos Theory

Popular accounts of science have helped to stimulate greater public interest in the role of science in contemporary society. For example, chaos theory and complexity theory have proven to be highly marketable science "products". These concepts have increasingly travelled into wider culture and, notably, the study of organization. Through an interpretation that promotes a leaning towards uncertainty, unpredictability and ambiguity, these accounts of science have been seen to provoke a (postmodern) re-conceptualisation of our view of the world. Indeed the overtly philosophical style of many of these stories has provided a rich source of material for social scientists seeking to explain and legitimise developments in organization and cultural studies. Concentrating upon the treatment of chaos theory as a "postmodern science", this paper examines and questions the historical and cultural influences that have encouraged the appropriation of theories from the natural science.     

The sense of violence and the absence of consolation

The paper is an attempt to engage with our contemplations of violence and the failure of familiar explanations to capture these contemplations. We begin our explorations of these familiar accounts by examining contemporary debates on media violence but find these problematic. By reducing media violence to mere spectacle or, on the contrary, by seeing such violence as desensitising and destructive, the various positions in the debates deprive violence of meaning and fail to address our fascination with violence. Other explanations that seek to attach meaning or utility to violence, be it economic, symbolic or moral, equally fail to convince. There is always an excess that transcends these explanations, an excess that is ill-captured by the notion of ‘gratuitous violence’ often deployed to condemn violence that does not make sense. Furthermore, the various accounts of violence we review tend to consider violence only in terms of its victims and perpetrators rather than the (fortunately) more common position of the observer. In the remaining of the paper, we try to say something about the sense of violence without investing it with deterministic or moralistic implications. This leads us to re-interpret the notion of desensitisation; for the observer, desensitisation indexes a lack of sensation of violence. This lack of sensation, our inability as observers to sense and make sense of violence, we argue, brings about moral questioning and acuity rather than moral indifference.     

QUANTIFYING THE CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF FAMILY HEALTH

The Family Health Scale is an instrument designed to quantify the quality of family functioning from the perspective of an external clinical observer. Rating may be based on whatever information is available on the family but, ideally, should be derived from a valid standardized method of direct observation like the Family Task Interview (Kinston and Loader, 1986). Clinical judgement must be exercised in rating, and new methods to enhance its quality have been devised. The scale may be used with nonlabelled, as well as psychiatrically labelled, families. The FHS has demonstrated consistently high inter-rater agreement, and test-retest reliability. Evidence is also offered for its validity and specificity.     

Teaching operations research on microcomputers

Teaching operations research on microcomputers is just beginning. The first educational packages (diskettes plus guides) recently appeared (1983) on the market, and many faculty members and trainers in industry are wondering how to evaluate and use these or industry packages in an efficient and effective manner. This paper examines this issue from different aspects: experience in the classroom, software availability, criteria for selecting classroom software, and microcomputer hardware.     

Destigmatization of identity: From deviant to charismatic

This paper lays the groundwork of a systematic theory of destigmatization, specifying: 1) the structural arrangements which could promote destigmatization; 2) the aims of destigmatization and; 3) the degree of success. The concept of charismatic destigmatization is also developed, with the author's suggestion of three types of modes of charismatic destigmatization: individual purification, individual transcendence, and collective aristocratization. Finally a special social role, that of the charismatic deviant, is analyzed; a role which provides both for individual destigmatization and for representation of the deviant collectivity to the general public.