Economic reform when institutional quality is weak: The case of the Maghreb

Institutional improvement can be a very slow and uncertain process when institutional quality is weak. In the meantime, countries have launched far-reaching economic reforms whose success is predicated on a large investment response. However, the uncertainties attending institutional reform can raise perceptions of risk, thereby muting investment responses. Using new values of institutional quality for three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), which we derive from fuzzy-set based transformations on freedom indices, we show that moving from low institutional quality to a stage of ‘partial improvement’ may reduce income per capita, with financial and trade reforms having unintended negative effects.     

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Arrest: The Role of Individual,Home, School,and Community Characteristics

Contact with the justice system can lead to a range of poor health and social outcomes. While persons of color are disproportionately represented in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems, reasons for these patters remain unclear. This study sought to examine the extent and sources of differences in arrests during adolescence and young adulthood among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in the USA. Multilevel cross-sectional logistic regression analyses were conducted using data from waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 12,752 respondents). Results showed significantly higher likelihood of having ever been arrested among blacks, when compared to whites, even after controlling for a range of delinquent behaviors (odds ratio = 1.58, 95 % confidence interval = 1.27, 1.95). These black–white disparities were no longer present after accounting for racial composition of the neighborhood, supporting the growing body of research demonstrating the importance of contextual variables in driving disproportionate minority contact with the justice system.     

Governance and evaluation: The case of EU regional policy horizontal priorities

This paper argues that the framing of many programme evaluations tends to eschew any rigorous exploration of the governance aspects of programme design and implementation. This is illustrated by an examination of the method-based approach endorsed by the European Commission for the evaluation of its regional policy programmes. In line with previous work, this found that such evaluations, particularly those using management-based approaches, underplay the role of social and political agency in programme framing and implementation, and therefore in explaining outcomes. Acknowledging such factors is especially important in evaluating cross-cutting themes such as equal opportunities, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. Known as horizontal priorities in European Union policies, such issues at their heart reflect unease with the traditional functional organisation of the modern state, which while providing organisational efficiency gains for planning, is not able to cater for complex and multiple social realities in a postmodern world. Using evidence from South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, and in particular the Mid Term Evaluation of the 2000–2006 European Union Structural Funds Programme, the paper argues that a robust evaluation of such horizontal priorities has to incorporate the full range of governance factors. This is because their framing, implementation and possible achievements are contingent on, and shaped by, the mobilisation of social and political actors.     

The strategic leadership of complex practice: opportunities and challenges

This paper addresses the issue of how strategic‐level partnerships, such as Local Safeguarding Children Boards, know about and learn from practice. The death of Baby Peter in Haringey exposed the dangers of reliance on numerical performance data alone to inform leaders about the true state of practice. The drivers for, and impact of, regulatory, media and political pressures on front‐line practice and partnership behaviour are discussed with reference to the rise of organisational risk management and ‘rule‐based’ responses (Munro, 2009 ). These are exacerbated by an overload of negative data about child protection systems which results in contagious ‘attention cascades’ which lead to over‐simplification of complex issues and the rush to quick‐fix solutions. This results in compliance‐based responses designed to avoid ‘blame’, based on individualistic analyses of complex situations. Under these conditions, ‘learning’, such as from serious case reviews, can become regressive (how to avoid future culpability) rather than progressive (how to improve knowledge skills and practice). It is argued that understanding and improving practice require strategic partnerships to have engaged with front‐line staff in order to access practice narratives as well as performance numbers, and to achieve an accurate and systemic analysis of the state of practice and how it can be improved. This calls for collective forms of knowing and reflecting and the paper concludes by describing examples. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social inclusion: A historian's perspective

In January 2001 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a document: Libraries, Museums, Galleries and Archives for All: Co‐operating Across the Sectors to Tackle Social Exclusion. As the then Secretary for State, Chris Smith, put it: ‘There have been some comments that it is not the business of [such bodies] to be involved in social regeneration by serving a wider and more diverse audience. I cannot agree. It is clearly right that these national treasures should be available and accessible to all citizens, and there need be no conflict between the dual responsibilities of responding to the needs of society today, and protecting and conserving treasures for future generations.’ The pressure was thus on for libraries, museums, galleries and archives to show that they were taking such issues seriously and developing social inclusion as ‘a policy priority’.¹ Existing and additional funding were clearly implied to be at stake—providing a carrot and a stick for those involved.

One response to this government initiative was an internal conference at the Public Record Office in Kew devoted to ‘Social Inclusion’ which took place in June 2001. Historians of African Caribbeans and of gays and lesbians, officials from the DCMS, archivists and others were invited to give papers. I gave a presentation on ‘Social Exclusion: Perspectives from a Historian of Ethnicity and Immigration’. What follows is a revised version of this paper (although I have largely kept the informality of the original). My contribution to the conference itself reflected at least to some extent the vision of the founders of Immigrants & Minorities nearly 20 years earlier and many of those who have contributed to the journal subsequently.2     

Mirrors,windows and even doorways On Niue and Ethnophotographic practice

Ethnographers have long appreciated the denotatively rich potential of the still photograph to provide evidence in support of, or supported by text. In this paper, I argue that by sequencing and juxtaposing, relationships can be established that transcend surface facts and visually reproduce both the flow and emotion of lived experience. An ethnophotographic documentation of ear‐piercing on Niue will be used as a vehicle to examine the adequacy of processual and experiential strategies of still image making.     

Implementing Evidence‐Based Parenting Programmes in a Small Sample of English Urban Local Authorities: Eligibility,Fidelity and Intensity

This article focuses on the implementation of evidence‐based parenting programmes (EBPPs) in a small sample of urban local authorities in England. The first part discusses the development of government policy, guidance and implementation issues. The second part presents findings from an exploratory study, which focused on the implementation of EBPPs in terms of programme eligibility, fidelity and intensity in six urban local authorities. Implementation was not necessarily in line with policy or guidance. Issues associated with programme fidelity along with concerns about sustainability as a result of cuts in funding are discussed and implications for policy and future research considered.     

Labour Market Outcomes and Skill Acquisition of High-School Dropouts

We estimate the effect that dropping out of high school has on 8 outcomes pertaining to wages, employment and subsequent skill acquisition for youths. Our analysis is based on the older cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) for 2003, an ideal data set because it contains a rich array of outcome measures and characteristics on individuals when they are in high school and a few years later. Our analysis indicates that dropouts have poorer wage and employment outcomes, and they do not make up for their lack of education through additional skill acquisition and training. The analysis thereby suggests that policies to curb dropping out could have both desirable efficiency effects (high returns) as well as distributional effects (high returns to otherwise more disadvantaged groups) and potential social spillover effects.