Voices from the Valleys: Researching lone mothers talk

This paper focuses upon an interdisciplinary research project the authors are currently engaged in, specifically designed to address the inattention paid so far to lone mothers voices in the Rhondda Valleys in Mid Glamorgan, South Wales. This is an area characterised by high unemployment, community restructuring and fragmenting kinship patterns and, according to analysis of the 1991 Census data, Mid Glamorgan ranks ninth highest in the UK in terms of the incidence of lone parents as a percentage of total households with dependent children. Given the political sensitivity of the issue of lone parenting, and the attempts of dominant discourses to pathologise lone mothers in particular, this paper explores some of the issues involved in responsibly accessing situated accounts of lone mothers subjectivities. The particular representations of self and status that these women offer in their own accounts, and how they articulate those representations in different contexts, is bound up with complex political, ethical and methodological concerns. In addressing these concerns, this paper seeks to interrogate some of the tensions at play in research on marginalise? groups living in communities which have been defined as spatially isolated and economically deprived. The paper thus centres for discussion the problems and possibilities that inevitably surface when undertaking research of this kind. We conclude that research which reveals talk which manages, disrupts and reworks contested representations of otherness needs to be carefully and self-reflexively accessed, collected and disseminated, even and perhaps especially when such research is supposedly informed by critical feminist awareness.     

Market Segmentation in Scientific Publications: Research Patterns in American vs European Management Journals1

Ideal science should conform to certain criteria or goals, among them the goals of universalism and commonality. Realization of these goals may be limited, however, through the dividing up of researchers in terms of geographical borders. In this study the general hypothesis is tested that there is a segmentation of the society of management researchers into a North American (US) and a European (E) segment, a segmentation which is furthered by differences in incentive schemes and in paradigms. Four leading management journals from North America and from Europe, respectively, and the 242 articles they contained published in 1993 were selected to represent the different geographical segments. The results provide: support for the existence of two such segments; support for differences in incentive schemes influencing the articles; support for their being paradigm differences between the two segments; and support for a paradigm effect being stronger in US-journals than in E-journals, US-authors are more willing, however, to conform to the E-paradigm than vice versa. We argue for methodological pragmatism in order to reduce the presumed counter-productive effects of paradigmatic rigidity.     

国家与农民视角下的“三农”问题

三农问题是关系到国计民生和国家稳定的关键问题.本文作者曾经是一名乡镇干部,以农村工作实践者的眼光分别从农村生活的两个主要视角--国家和农民人手来分析国家与乡村关系、农民公共参与问题、农民的贫困、地方政府的角色等等问题,并尝试提出解决这些问题的一些建议和思考.     

统筹兼顾 推动北仑经济社会全面发展——浅论当前应着重处理好的四种关系

文章从如何处理工业化加速推进阶段伴生的问题出发,着重就处理好经济发展与环境保护的关系、发展临港大工业与加快高新技术产业发展的关系、引进外资与民营经济的关系、开发建设与解决"三农"问题的关系进行了探讨,以更好地推动北仑经济社会全面协调发展.     

网络环境下组织复杂性的方法体系初探

针对从本质上引发网络环境下组织复杂性的"主观———代理"问题,识别组织复杂性的特征,建立了包含混沌理论、自组织理论、组织生态论等描述组织复杂性的理论体系;进一步构建了组合运用离散数学、随机过程和多元统计等多种方法,结合现代计算机工具包括神经网络、及其他人工智能技术的方法体系,为组织复杂性实验模拟系统的构建奠定了基础。     

对我国金融市场发展中几个重大战略问题的探讨

本文对我国金融市场发展中的3个重大战略性问题进行探讨:(1)“先资本市场,后货币市场”的发展思路是不可取的。这种思路会削弱货币市场的基础作用,破坏货币市场和资本市场的协调发展,直接或间接地对中央银行的宏观调控、利率功能发挥和金融秩序稳定等产生负面影响。(2)重视企业债券市场的作用,因为其对约束企业负债行为、提高资金使用效率、完善资本市场品种结构、降低银行经营风险和资本市场风险等,起着不可忽视的作用。(3)要全面、辩证地认识中国股市规范与发展的关系,必须“在规范中求发展,在发展中重规范”。     

关于“毛泽东哲学思想”的方法论追问——对“为何产生这样的毛泽东哲学思想”的方法论探析

在以往对毛泽东哲学思想的学术研究中,人们通常忽视了“为何产生这样的毛泽东哲学思想”这个深层次的理论问题。要回答这个问题,就须去追问“毛泽东哲学思想”在方法论上,是如何思考解决（用马克思主义哲学去阐释和说明,亦即去“化”）中国实际中的那些重大问题的。对“毛泽东哲学思想”的方法论研究,既有助于人们更好地理解和把握毛泽东哲学思想方法论,也有助于人们更完整、更准确地理解和把握毛泽东哲学思想。     

Old Voters on New Dimensions: Why Do Voters Vote for Pensioners’ Parties? The Case of the Netherlands

This article analyzes the electoral support of the Dutch pensioners’ party 50Plus. Due to its open electoral system and aging population, the Netherlands is a key case to study pensioners’ parties. Our study shows that this pensioners’ party appeals to voters who are characterized by their age and their dependence on the welfare state as well as their policy positions on new lines of political conflict. In particular, their position on the new economic dimension (which concerns welfare state reform) and the new cultural dimension (which concerns immigration and EU integration) is distinct. Moreover, even when the majority of voters for this new party once supported the larger mainstream parties, they are now dissatisfied with the established politics. With rapidly aging populations across established democracies, this study is not just relevant for those studying pensioners’ parties, but rather gives an important insight into the electoral dynamics and popular support for mainstream politics, the welfare state, and social security.     

Gender Equality and Restless Sleep Among Partnered Europeans

Sleep is situated in the work–family nexus and can be shaped by national norms promoting gender equality. The authors tested this proposition using individual data from the European Social Survey matched to a country‐level measure of gender equality. In individual‐level models, women's sleep was more troubled by the presence of children in the home and partners' unemployment, whereas men's restless sleep was associated with their own unemployment and worries about household finances. In country‐level models, the authors find that in nations that empower women and elevate their status, men and women alike report sounder sleep, and the gender gap in restless sleep is significantly reduced among those living in gender‐equal countries. This study adds to the understanding of gender differences in sleep quality and provides new evidence on the importance of the national context in shaping the pattern of gender inequality in the domestic sphere.     

Fertility Preferences and Cognition: Religiosity and Experimental Effects of Decision Context on College Women

Better models of culture and cognition may help researchers understand fertility and family formation. The authors examine cognition about fertility using an experimental survey design to investigate how fertility preferences of college women are affected by two prompts that bring to mind fertility‐relevant factors: career aspirations and financial limitations. The authors test the effects of these prompts on fertility preferences and ask how effects vary with respondent religiosity, an aspect of social identity related to fertility preferences. The authors find significant effects of treatment on fertility preferences when accounting for religiosity: Less religious women who considered their career aspirations or financial limitations reported smaller desired family size, but this effect was attenuated for more religious women. This study demonstrates how fertility preferences are shaped by decision contexts for some sociodemographic groups. The authors discuss how the findings support a social–cognitive model of fertility.