Cambodian youth managing expectations and uncertainties of the life course – a typology of biographical management

Globalising changes in recent decades have produced great impacts on young lives, and youth sociologists have been analysing how young people negotiate change and uncertainty in their lives. This article complements existing research by a case study on Cambodia, where young people have in recent years been charged to deal with drastic social changes but in social conditions different from the better known global North. By drawing on data from a study of young rural–urban migrant labour workers' and university students' life experiences and expectations in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, we systematically compare their sense making, action strategies and future orientation during their transition into working life. We present a theoretically informed but empirically grounded typology that illustrates three major modes of biographical management: entrepreneurial, traditional and situational, which are linked to different perceptions of uncertainty, future perspectives, action strategies, planning modes and resources available through the family, personal capacity and the larger sociocultural context. We conclude with critical remarks on the extent to which the fulfilment of Cambodian young people's hopes for a better life is shaped by broader social conditions and individual circumstances.     

Permutation tests — A revival?!

It is shown that permutation tests have optimum properties for interesting classes of continuous distributions as well as for discrete ones. General conditions sufficient for uniformly maximal power on subclasses are given. Moreover, a variety of examples is presented. Research supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant No. Schm 677/5-1     

Popular sovereignty and the historical origin of the social movement

This article seeks to explain why the social movement had its historical origin in the 1760s. It argues that the rise of the social movement as a particular form of political action was closely linked to a new interpretation of sovereignty that emerged within eighteenth century British politics. This interpretation, which drew inspiration from Jean-Jacques Rousseau??s social contract thinking, not only resonated with the radicalism of John Wilkes and his followers?? struggle to promote civil liberties to Englishmen of all classes, it also spurred a transformation of the repertoire of popular contention. The article traces the evolution of the concept of sovereignty in British political thought from the Restoration to the Wilkites and discusses how this evolution informed the contentious actions of the Wilkites as they formed the first mass movement to promote a specific political issue.     

Contributions of the German “Expression Psychology” to nonverbal communication research

An attempt is made to survey research on nonverbal behavior performed by German speaking Expression Psychologists. In this first part of a series of articles (other parts will cover research on facial expression, body movement, and speech and voice) theories and concepts of this nearly unknown branch of psychology are reviewed and discussed. Topics include the nature of expressive behavior, the relation between states/traits and expressive behavior, and the perception of expressive behavior.... we should now concentrate on searching for new avenues of approach, particularly in the study of human social communication, without worrying too much about rigid conformity with the canons of experimental respectability. We need more ideas, not more experiments; any provocative theory would be preferable to the inductive collecting of bits and pieces that has become our respectable habit. (Israel & Tajfel, 1972, p. 4)Editor's Note: The subsequent three parts of this series, to be published in consecutive issues of theJournal, further explore this area of theory and research often little known to American psychologists. Comments and contributions about the series are welcomed.     

Modeling marginal features in studies of recurrent events in the presence of a terminal event

We study models for recurrent events with special emphasis on the situation where a terminal event acts as a competing risk for the recurrent events process and where there may be gaps between periods during which subjects are at risk for the recurrent event. We focus on marginal analysis of the expected number of events and show that an Aalen–Johansen type estimator proposed by Cook and Lawless is applicable in this situation. A motivating example deals with psychiatric hospital admissions where we supplement with analyses of the marginal distribution of time to the competing event and the marginal distribution of the time spent in hospital. Pseudo-observations are used for the latter purpose.