DESCRIBING DISABILITY THROUGH INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL MIXTURE MODELS FOR MULTIVARIATE BINARY DATA

Data on functional disability are of widespread policy interest in the United States, especially with respect to planning for Medicare and Social Security for a growing population of elderly adults. We consider an extract of functional disability data from the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) and attempt to develop disability profiles using variations of the Grade of Membership (GoM) model. We first describe GoM as an individual-level mixture model that allows individuals to have partial membership in several mixture components simultaneously. We then prove the equivalence between individual-level and population-level mixture models, and use this property to develop a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for Bayesian estimation of the model. We use our approach to analyze functional disability data from the NLTCS.     

The Equity and Poverty Impacts of Aquaculture: Insights from the Philippines

Recent literature is sceptical about the ability of aquaculture development to enhance equity and reduce poverty. This article investigates the issue empirically by surveying 148 households randomly selected in five coastal communities of the Philippines. There is overwhelming evidence that aquaculture benefits the poor in important ways and that it is perceived very positively by poor and non‐poor alike. In particular, the poor derive a relatively larger share of their income from it than the rich, and a lowering of the poverty line only reinforces this result. A Gini decomposition exercise also shows unambiguously that aquaculture represents an inequality‐reducing source of income, providing employment to a large number of unskilled workers in communities characterised by large labour surpluses.     

Using WhatsApp for a homeless count

The study analyses how the use of instant messaging (WhatsApp) alongside other ICT tools is adequate to complement the count of homeless people in an area. In particular, it describes the methodology used in order to organize the first official count of homeless people in Girona (Catalonia, Spain). Given that this is the first count of individuals experiencing homelessness in the city, it is difficult to say that it is an improvement, but it could be suggested that the app might make the future counts more efficient. Both professional and volunteers and homeless people used WhatsApp to send information. A total of 283 homeless people were detected. Results show that the usage of this application optimized the results of the count. 36.1% of the data were obtained online. Homeless people, who were reluctant to contact directly with the professional team, used WhatsApp to communicate with them, adding up to 19.4% of the data obtained. Results show how communication between homeless people and health and mental health services can be potentially improved with this type of application.     

Paths to citizenship? Public views on the extension of rights to legal and second‐generation immigrants in Europe

This study uses variations in the legal-institutional frameworks of citizenship to explore cross-nationally public views about granting equal rights to legal immigrants and citizenship status to second-generation immigrants in 20 European countries. We link the literatures on citizenship regimes and attitudes toward immigrants to construct a conceptual model that is tested using ISSP data from 2003 and a set of matching contextual measures. Results from hierarchical linear regression analyses indicate that (1) opposition to the extension of rights to legal immigrants is augmented by shorter periods of required residency for naturalization and (2) granting citizenship status to second-generation immigrants is not sensitive to whether a regime consents or not to citizenship by birth. Net of individual and contextual controls, the findings also show that resistance to the expansion of rights to legal immigrants is higher in countries consenting to dual citizenship. Furthermore, our analyses reveal that Eastern European respondents do not differ significantly from their Western counterparts with respect to extending rights to either category of immigrants. These results are discussed in reference to the diversity of citizenship regimes in Europe and in light of the existing debates on harmonizing immigration policies.     

Racial segregation and the limits of international undergraduate student diversity

This study challenges the assertion that the influx of Asian international undergraduate students in universities across the United States creates richer educational and social environments. Drawing on qualitative research at a public university with a large number of Asian international students, this article examines how Asian American student leaders and their organization took on the difficult institutional task of actualizing the diversity of these new students in a racially segregated campus. We found that instead of viewing racial segregation practices as possibly tied to racial discrimination and privileges of normative whiteness, students expressed both support and resistance to Asian international students in race-neutral language of comfort and organizational differences that reflects the dominant ideology of colorblindness. We argue that any claims to the benefits of international student diversity must take serious account of colorblind racism and the experiences of racial marginalization and racial segregation among domestic minority and international students.     

Collaboration outcomes in a public sector: impact of governance,leadership, interdependence and relational capital

Collaboration between public agencies is critical to address social issues effectively. The main objective of this research was to identify the factors that lead to successful achievement of desired collaboration outcomes that could eventually lead to societal outcomes. The factors identified were: transformational leadership, governance, interdependence, and relational capital. An integrated framework was developed based on collaboration governance framework (CGF) of Ansell and Gash (J Public Adm Res Theory 18:543–571, 2008). The CGF framework has integrated the following four broad variables that are responsible for achieving the desired collaboration outcomes: starting conditions, institutional design, leadership, and collaborative process. The study was conducted in Malaysia by sending questionnaires to 500 officers in various ministries who were involved in planning, formulating, and implementing public policies. The main findings of this study are: (1) transformational leadership influences governance, interdependence, relational capital, and collaboration outcomes; (2) governance has impact on relational capital, interdependence, and collaboration outcomes; (3) relational capital and interdependence result in positive collaboration outcomes; (4) dimensions of governance are inter-related; and (5) interdependence and relational capital are strongly correlated. This research adds significantly to the literature on collaborative governance. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Tracking the defining moments of crisis process and practice

Crisis holds the potential for profound change in organizations and industries. The past 50 years of crisis management highlight key shifts in crisis practice, creating opportunities for multiple theories and research tracks. Defining crises such as Tylenol, Exxon Valdez, and September 11 terrorist attacks have influenced or challenged the principles of best practice of crisis communication in public relations. This study traces the development of crisis process and practice by identifying shifts in crisis research and models and mapping these against key management theories and practices. The findings define three crisis domains: crisis planning, building and testing predictive models, and mapping and measuring external environmental influences. These crisis domains mirror but lag the evolution of management theory, suggesting challenges for researchers to reshape the research agenda to close the gap and lead the next stage of development in the field of crisis communication for effective organizational outcomes.     

Policy Shift: South Africa’s Old Age Pensions’ Influence on Perceived Quality of Life

Noncontributory pensions serve as an important resource for poverty-affected households in low- and middle-income countries. This study explores how a recent policy change to pension receipt influences perceived quality of life among older South Africans. We use survey data from the longitudinal World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health and from the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System census. We find pension receipt to have a positive impact on both men’s and women’s perceived quality of life. These findings hold when controlling for prior well-being status. We find a significant moderating factor of physical limitations on the relationship between pension receipt and quality of life. Individuals reporting the highest levels of physical limitation report a larger increase in their quality of life upon pension receipt than those with less severe physical limitations. We conclude that despite the well-documented household income-pooling in this population, pension receipt still leads to a significant positive impact on pensioners’ perceived quality of life.     

Analysing the dimensions of social pedagogy from an international perspective

Over recent years, social pedagogy has emerged or undergone transformation processes in many countries, justifying the need to understand how it is being shaped and transformed throughout the world. However, conceptual ambiguity and lack of a homogenous and unified theoretical body accentuate the dilemma of whether social pedagogy is a specific area of knowledge, a professional field, a research field or all of these at once. We have moved into a stage where we do not have an immediate answer as to what social pedagogy is, what kind of knowledge it is or what its specific working methods are. This research aims to provide a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of social pedagogy from an international perspective. The methodology employed herein is the Delphi method, using three questionnaires in three different phases. Based on the individual contributions of a group of renowned experts from different countries, our aim is to build a global, current and integrated view of social pedagogy.