Interdisciplinary foundations of urban ecology

Researchers have identified urban ecology as a new field integrating social and ecological science. Critics have portrayed the field as under-theorized with negative implications for research and urban environmental planning. Unprecedented urbanization and historical bias against research integrating social and ecological systems are identified as driving this deficit. Researchers have called for new integrative approaches to address this issue. In response, this paper applies ecology’s analytic framework of “patch dynamics”, Kuhn’s concept of “normal science” and Mazoyer and Roudart’s “evolutionary series” to demographic data and historical texts to perform an analysis of interdisciplinary contributions to theory applicable in the field of urban ecology. The subsequent exploration reveals a rich history of interdisciplinary inquiry along the nature/society divide. The paper concludes that these “largely ignored” contributions offer urban ecology the opportunity to claim much broader depth as a field gaining access to precedents and innovations accomplished during the field’s early theoretical development. Drawing upon this history, a framework for ecological urban development is suggested to inform and assist contemporary research in urban ecology and planning.

Honorary whiteness

‘The fantasy of the exception’ is a seductive trope. More penetrating than any explicit legal codes or political structures, the fantasy is embedded in a constellation of politics and psychology and is linked to both colonial and neocolonial logics. In her book Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire, Anne Norton presents the ‘fantasy of the exception’ as luring individuals to repress or magnify parts of their identities in exchange for increased access to political and economic privilege. This study argues that the fantasy of exception is intrinsically intertwined in constructs of ‘honorary whiteness’ as exemplified in the contemporary academy, as well as in colonial and neocolonial constructs of identity. Building on Norton's definition of this fantasy, I examine its colonial roots and contemporary manifestations in the broader neoliberal agenda. In doing so, I will show how the fantasy is exemplified by individuals' aspirations for ‘honorary white’ status, and how their drive to achieve power comes at the expense of the splitting of their selves. By examining the narratives of ‘non-white’ individuals and their struggle for power and identity in the face of colonial and neoliberal orders, the fantasy of exception is revealed as reinforcing inequality and oppression, and ultimately, sustains fabricated differences that fuel the legacy of colonial racism.     

STRATEGIC DISCLOSURE OF MEANINGFUL INFORMATION TO RIVAL

I study a model of strategic disclosure of a private signal to a rival in the presence of a payoff externality. In the model, two agents forecast the unknown true state of a future period. Specifically, the quality of the signal is also private information. Hence, which quality of signal is revealed for which incentive is the main question of interest. I show that, even when disclosure is costly, the revealing equilibrium, where an agent voluntarily reveals his signal, can exist and it should be a monotone equilibrium. Asymmetry between the penalty for an incorrect forecast and the reward for a correct forecast is a necessary condition for the existence of this revealing equilibrium. If the penalty is larger than the reward, the unique revealing equilibrium is a separating equilibrium, where only the low quality signal is disclosed in order to induce the rival's imitation. On the other hand, if the reward is much larger than the penalty, the unique revealing equilibrium is a pooling equilibrium, where the signal is always revealed in order to induce the rival's deviation. If the reward is not much larger than the penalty, no revealing equilibrium is robust to a costly disclosure. (JEL D81, D82)     

Serving families with child maltreatment and substance use disorders: A decade of learning

ABSTRACT

An increase in parental substance use disorders (SUD) and the number of infants and toddlers entering foster care has prompted federal and state efforts to change the treatment paradigm toward more integrated and family-centered strategies. The Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) program demonstrated that family-centered strategies can improve child and parent outcomes. The current challenge is to bring effective strategies to scale. This conceptual article highlights the lessons learned from 10 years of implementing and evaluating programs to meet the needs of families affected by parental SUD and child maltreatment. Effective family-centered strategies identified by the RPG program are illustrated with specifics from the Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Team program. These effective strategies could be implemented in any jurisdiction and include (1) collaboration toward integrated services between child welfare and SUD treatment, (2) timely access to SUDS treatment, (3) recovery management and support, (4) tailored family services, and (5) adaptation to local jurisdiction needs. When these strategies are operational, children are more likely to be safe and remain in parent custody, and parents are more likely to achieve sobriety and improve their parental capacity. Future research might examine the unique impact of each of the five strategies independently.     

Media Diet Homogeneity in a Fragmented Media Landscape

This study assesses the nature of selective exposure and avoidance behaviors among political liberals and conservatives using a survey of 351 American citizens obtained through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Analyses of a new “homogeneity of media diet” measure suggest that although liberals and conservatives consume a comparable total number of media sources, the homogeneity of those media sources is higher among liberals than it is among conservatives. In the sample examined here, liberals were significantly more likely than conservatives to selectively attend to ideologically onsonant media sources and were significantly more likely than conservatives to selectively avoid ideologically discrepant media sources. Analyses include a validity test of the self-reported selective exposure used by Pew and others, as well as an examination of partisan perceptions of the ideological leanings of various media sources. Results indicate that conservatives are more likely than liberals to rate neutral media sources (e.g., CNN, USA Today, and network news broadcasts) as ideologically biased. Meanwhile, liberals are more likely than conservatives to perceive the bias in their ideologically consonant media sources. Implications for future studies of selective exposure and avoidance—and democratic theory in general—are discussed.     

A Simple Analysis of the Exact Probability Matching Prior in the Location-Scale Model

It has long been asserted that in univariate location-scale models, when concerned with inference for either the location or scale parameter, the use of the inverse of the scale parameter as a Bayesian prior yields posterior credible sets that have exactly the correct frequentist confidence set interpretation. This claim dates to at least Peers, and has subsequently been noted by various authors, with varying degrees of justification. We present a simple, direct demonstration of the exact matching property of the posterior credible sets derived under use of this prior in the univariate location-scale model. This is done by establishing an equivalence between the conditional frequentist and posterior densities of the pivotal quantities on which conditional frequentist inferences are based.     

Bayesian analysis of panel data using an MTAR model

Bayesian analysis of panel data using a class of momentum threshold autoregressive (MTAR) models is considered. Posterior estimation of parameters of the MTAR models is done by using a simple Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. Selection of appropriate differenced variables, test for asymmetry and unit roots are recast as model selections and a simple way of computing posterior probabilities of the candidate models is proposed. The proposed method is applied to the yearly unemployment rates of 51 US states and the results show strong evidence of stationarity and asymmetry.     

Social process theory of emotion: A dynamic systems approach

In this paper we apply a dynamic systems perspective to infant emotional development. We propose that emotions are not states but self-organizing dynamic processes intimately tied to the flow of an individual's activity in a context. We review data on the relationship between emotional actions and the social context, in particular the development of smiling and laughter. These data are more adequately explained by our perspective than by other theories of emotional development. We provide a model for how emotional processes in early infancy become embedded into sociocultural systems, and suggest new avenues of research on emotional development.