An Integrated Approach to Oversight Assessment for Emerging Technologies

Analysis of oversight systems is often conducted from a single disciplinary perspective and by using a limited set of criteria for evaluation. In this article, we develop an approach that blends risk analysis, social science, public administration, legal, public policy, and ethical perspectives to develop a broad set of criteria for assessing oversight systems. Multiple methods, including historical analysis, expert elicitation, and behavioral consensus, were employed to develop multidisciplinary criteria for evaluating oversight of emerging technologies. Sixty‐six initial criteria were identified from extensive literature reviews and input from our Working Group. Criteria were placed in four categories reflecting the development, attributes, evolution, and outcomes of oversight systems. Expert elicitation, consensus methods, and multidisciplinary review of the literature were used to refine a condensed, operative set of criteria. Twenty‐eight criteria resulted spanning four categories: seven development criteria, 15 attribute criteria, five outcome criteria, and one evolution criterion. These criteria illuminate how oversight systems develop, operate, change, and affect society. We term our approach “integrated oversight assessment” and propose its use as a tool for analyzing relationships among features, outcomes, and tradeoffs of oversight systems. Comparisons among historical case studies of oversight using a consistent set of criteria should result in defensible and evidence‐supported lessons to guide the development of oversight systems for emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology.     

The current status and future of centers for independent living in Korea

In Korea the independent living movement has made great strides since the late 1990s. This paper describes the current status and future directions of Centers for Independent Living (CIL) in Korea. This paper discusses the following. First, the demographic and historical perspectives of disabilities are described for context. Second, the disability movement and the independent living movement are described. The current status and operations of CIL are then explored in detail. Finally, the current issues and future directions of CIL are discussed. To facilitate independence among disabled people several critical tasks must be addressed: the establishment of relevant laws, the development of various funding sources, unification of the two associations for CIL, the development of the capacity of CIL staff and the establishment of an international network for sharing information and experiences. Achieving the goals listed above will advance the Korean independent living movement and, therefore, the international independent living movement.     

On 'False, Collusive Objectification': Becoming Attuned to Self-Censorship, Performance and Interviewer Biases in Qualitative Interviewing

In this paper, we discuss a problem in qualitative interviewing labeled by Bourdieu as 'false, collusive objectification'. As described by Bourdieu, interviews where this occurs appear authentic because they often echo social science concepts and terminology and therefore may please the interviewer; however, they are actually unusable. We evaluate Bourdieu's claim for the existence of 'false' interviews in light of the predominant postmodern position in qualitative research, offer examples from our own research on people diagnosed with mental illness and raise the issue of whether, when and how qualitative researchers should concern themselves with the shortcomings of interviews. We conclude with suggestions derived from Bourdieu's view on how to address the problem he described.     

Effects of government public relations on international news coverage

Using content analysis of an international newspaper and a government publication, this study examines the influence of newsworthiness and public relations efforts on international news coverage, one of the key sources for understanding other countries. Grounded in gatekeeping theory, this study hypothesizes strong relations between three variables (newsworthiness, public relations involvement, and international news coverage) in the context of several South Korean news stories.     

Choosing between international technology licensing partners: An empirical analysis of U.S. biotechnology firms

This paper examines the potential factors that might influence U.S. biotechnology holders’ licensing decisions regarding whom to choose as foreign licensing partners in the context of a global environment. The important explanatory factors relate to the knowledge appropriability regime of the licensee country (i.e. strength of IPR protection), familiarity through prior interaction, business similarity between partners, and prior independent experience as a licensor. U.S. biotechnology firms also license technology more to partners who have joint manufacturing, marketing, and research and development (R&D) experience. The results show that transaction cost considerations weigh heavily when choosing international licensing partners.     

Beyond Exposure: A Person‐Oriented Approach to Adolescent Media Diets

Research on adolescents' use of sexual media has been dominated by a variable‐oriented perspective, focusing on incremental effects of media exposure on sexual behavior. The present investigation examines the ways in which adolescents select and organize their television viewing. This study used cluster analysis to identify, validate, and describe distinct profiles of adolescent television use. Eight discrete clusters emerged, each with a unique profile of primetime viewing. To validate the cluster solution, participants' television viewing profiles were compared with their music preferences. The study then examined the sexual content consumed by adolescents in different viewing clusters. Content analysis of the most popular programs revealed that participants in all clusters were watching programs that were high in sexual content alongside programs that were low in sexual content. None of the clusters demonstrated an exclusive preference for sexual content.     

Learning Words Over Time: The Role of Stimulus Repetition in Mutual Exclusivity

During the second year of life, infants develop a preference to attach novel labels to novel objects. This behavior is commonly known as “mutual exclusivity” (Markman, 1989). In an intermodal preferential looking experiment with 19.5‐ and 22.5‐month‐olds, stimulus repetition was critical for observing mutual exclusivity. On the first occasion that a novel label was presented with 1 familiar object and 1 novel object, looking behavior was unsystematic. However, on reexposure to the same stimuli, 22.5‐month‐olds looked preferentially at the novel object prior to the re‐presentation of the novel label. These findings suggest a powerful memory mechanism for novel labels and objects, enabling mutual exclusivity to emerge across repeated exposures to potential referents.     

Social Changes and Welfare Reform in South Korea: In the Context of the Late-coming Welfare State

The Korean welfare state is facing diverse pressures and challenges due to changing economic, social, and demographic circumstances: prevalence of the service economy, labor market flexibility, weakened family function and increase of untraditional families, lowest fertility rate and the most rapid ageing of the population among OECD countries, and so forth. These challenges, which indicate new types of social risks, have been stimulating a series of discussions on welfare reform in Korea. The old social risks such as retirement, ill health, poverty, and unemployment have not disappeared because of insecure or inadequate welfare, and now these risks are even intertwined with the so-called new social risks. Thereby the Korean welfare state is facing complicated reform tasks. This study attempts to analyze the structure and context of these challenges in Korea, and to explore the various driving forces that have formulated Korean welfare reform in recent decades. Through the above analyses, this study will shed light the characteristics of welfare reform in Korea as a late-coming welfare state.     

Science versus Human Welfare? Understanding Attitudes toward Animal Use

Scientists have been portrayed as having an uncaring attitude toward the use of animals and being inclined to reject the possibility of animal mind ( Baldwin, 1993 ; Blumberg & Wasserman, 1995 ), yet there is little empirical research to support these claims. We examined why disparate attitudes toward animal use are held. Scientists, animal welfarists, and laypersons (N = 372) were compared on questionnaire responses that measured attitudes toward four types of animal use, and factors that might underlie these views (including belief in animal mind). As expected, scientists and animal welfarists held polarized views on all measures, whereas laypersons fell between the two. Animal welfarists were consistently opposed to all types of animal use, whereas scientists expressed support for the use of animals for medical research, but not for dissection, personal decoration, and entertainment. Animal welfarists showed high levels of belief in animal mind for 13 animal types, and scientists believed some of the 13 animals to have at least a moderate capacity for cognition and most to have at least a moderate capacity for sentience. Hence, the negative image of the science community that is often portrayed was not supported by our data. Findings were discussed in relation to external (group membership) and internal (belief systems) factors, and it is concluded that some people hold fixed attitudes toward animal use, whereas others are more influenced by context.