A GENERALIZED EMERSON RECURRENCE RELATION

The Emerson (1968, Biometrics 24 , 695–701) recurrence relation has many important applications in statistics. However, the original derivation applied only to discrete distributions. In the following, a simple derivation is given that generalizes the Emerson recurrence relation to any distribution for which the necessary expectations exist. A modern application is outlined.     

Counter-geographies: The campaign against rationalisation of agricultural research stations in New South Wales, Australia

This paper discusses an example of community action mounted in a rural region of New South Wales, Australia, in response to proposals by the State Government to rationalise agricultural research stations operated by the Department of Primary Industries. Informed by a Foucaultian understanding of power and the concept of governmentality, neoliberalism is theorised as being the broad governmental context in which rationalisation proposals were put forward. Recent literature drawing on this theoretical perspective has emphasised that neoliberalism is enacted through a relationship of power, and is not monolithic or inevitable. Neoliberalism is always negotiated by those seeking to govern and those who are the object of such governmental actions. This paper analyses how plans to rationalise publicly funded agricultural research stations were opposed by those seeking to keep research facilities open in the case study area. The paper discusses the methods and scope of community action and, drawing on interviews, identifies a series of discourses articulated by campaigners. Non-local actors were depicted as uncaring and insensitive. In contrast, campaigners discussed the emergence of a ‘city-country divide’ in domestic politics; the need for specialist agricultural knowledge given the region's unique geographical location; and local impacts of an economic, social and emotional nature. Central were discourses of maintaining community, tradition, and continuity in unique local places defined by their climate, biophysical environment and economy. These were ‘counter-geographies’ that sought (successfully, it would transpire) to disrupt the state's imagined geography of a homogenous and flexible administrative space in which research services could be relocated wherever most efficient. Important too were embodied resistances to the way rural industries and people were subjected. Campaigners refused to accept preferred codes of neoliberal behaviour (particularly mobility and rationality) and instead demanded respect for their careers, families and communities. Important considerations are suggested for further research on impacts and negotiations of neoliberalism. This study particularly highlights the successes—as well as contradictions and limitations—of arguments that construct rural places as socialised, unique and unfairly treated (by governments), in opposition to metropolitan dominance and ‘placeless’ neoliberalism.     

‘I’m not really sure but I hope it’s better’: early thoughts of parents and carers in a regional trial site for the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is one of the most significant initiatives in Australian social policy history. Its complexity has been compounded by a fast-paced introduction and ongoing refinement throughout the initial trial phase. Parents and carers of very young disabled children face particular challenges accessing and navigating NDIS systems. This article presents findings from a mixed-method pilot study examining the perspectives of parents and carers of disabled children in one NDIS trial site – the Hunter Region of New South Wales. The research highlights a number of policy assumptions potentially impacting on NDIS take up for young disabled children and their families in regional contexts. Based on research findings a number of policy suggestions and improvements for disabled children and their families entering the NDIS and other individualised funding schemes are outlined.     

GIRLS MAKING CHOICES ABOUT CAREERS: THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Because of the gender-differentiated nature of the Australian workforce, it is important to gain a clear understanding of how girls and women make choices about careers. The data in this paper originate from a study involving girls discussing their subject choices as they move into Year 11 at school. The study revealed a strong link between subject choices and career aspirations. Furthermore, personal experiences of a career through home or school activities were usually necessary for a girl to aspire towards that career. This raises questions about the efficacy of trying to influence career decisions through brief exposure to role models. It also suggests the need to supplement the experiences of those girls with limited experiences related to careers.     

The intergenerational education spillovers of pension reform in China

Economic theory establishes that pension privatization weakens the link between old and young and so reduces the incentive to invest in public education in an economy with lower return rate of capital than growth rate of wage. However, empirical studies of the link change are few. In this paper, we investigate the effects of pension privatization and the central government’s subsidy to individual accounts on public education spending in a three-period overlapping generation model. And then, we take contemporary pension reforms in a number of Chinese provinces as offering natural experiment conditions. Using a difference-in-difference framework and 282 municipal districts panel data over years 1998–2009, we test the pension-education theoretical link change. Both our theoretical and empirical results confirm that pension privatization is adversely associated with local public spending on education in China. Private pension subsidies, moreover, magnify this effect. Our study supports the theoretical assertion and selective empirical findings of a negative intergenerational effect of pension privatization.     

Using a “child's‐eye view” of social success to understand the importance of school readiness at the transition to formal schooling

Recent research into school readiness has highlighted the importance of not only children's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills, but also the degree to which they have family support in the home. The current study examines the association between social success upon school entry and teacher‐ratings of school readiness as assessed by the Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI), controlling for language ability. Importantly, social success was assessed using a “child's‐eye view” with peer‐reported assessments of both social preference and reciprocated friendships. A total of 244 children (131 boys, M_age = 61 months, SD = 4.78 months) in their first year of formal schooling participated. Child school readiness was found to be important for social preference, with the association being more marked for boys versus girls. Family support was the only independent predictor of children's reciprocated friendships. The use of the BESSI, with its broad scope compared to other measures of school readiness, highlights the importance of focusing both on a child's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills at school entry and their family support when exploring the association of school readiness to children's social success at the transition to formal schooling.     

Listening Environment and the Bottom Line: How a Positive Environment Can Improve Financial Outcomes

Amidst the onslaught of communication at work, employees’ voices can be neglected in favor of the bottom line. This research initiates an exploration of the relationship between employee perceptions of the listening environment at work and organizational financial performance indicators. In this exploratory pilot study, we collected data from N = 65 employees of a single firm with multiple geographically and financially independent units. Using simple regression analysis, researchers compared data between units to determine if employee perceptions of positive qualities of the listening climate are related to improvement in sales and net income. Results suggest a potentially positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of a positive listening environment and these organizational performance indicators, suggesting that listening is an important step in building the communication climate of a productive company.     

‘We fight for all living things’: countering misconceptions about the radical animal liberation movement

This qualitative content analysis of online documents compiled from the North American Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Kollective (ELK) and Grassroots Ontario Animal Liberation (GOAL) network websites and Facebook pages explores how activism within the Radical Animal Liberation Movement (RALM) intersects with other social movements. While most literature to date traces the RALM’s (dis)junctures with other forms of social justice activism through analyses of their broad ideological assumptions, or the views of renowned RALM scholars, this research provides authentic insights into the voices of Canadian, American and Mexican activists as they are represented in documents they author themselves. Like activists in anarchistic, anti-capitalist, immigrant rights, Indigenous, prison abolition, prisoner support and radical feminist movements, those in the RALM critique capitalism, colonialism, hierarchy, racism, sexism, state power and the prison industrial complex. Our research calls into question the existing narratives that depict the RALM as an extremist, single-issue movement oblivious to all other forms of social inequality, injustice, marginalization and oppression. Rather, RALM activists are building alliances with other radical social movements to achieve the common goal of ending both human and animal suffering and exploitation.     

Pedagogical guerrillas,armed democrats,and revolutionary counterpublics: Examining paradox in the Zapatista unprising in Chiapas Mexico

Theory and Society -