Women's Access to Property: A Comparative Study on Islamic and Kemalist Women in Turkey

This article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance.     

Strategic Intersectionality and Political Representation: Female Muslim Councilors in London

This article addresses questions of how race/ethnicity, gender, and religion influence political representation. We use original interview data to test a strategic intersectionality theory developed by Fraga and colleagues (2005) in the case of female Muslim councilors in London, the United Kingdom. The original strategic intersectionality theory proposes that women are more effective advocates for ethnic group interests due to their unique capacity to leverage three primary resources: a substantive policy focus, multiple identity advantage, and gender inclusive advantage. We modify the thesis by analyzing religion as an additional identity marker and further disaggregating the three primary sources of leverage. We use the modified thesis to test whether female Muslim councilors of three London boroughs are more effective advocates for Muslim interests than their non-Muslim colleagues. We find mixed evidence for the presence of the three sources of leverage associated with strategic intersectionality, resulting in a more complex theorizing of this phenomenon than that found in prior research. This study offers a new contribution to the operationalization of intersectionality and the literature on intersectionality and political representation.     

Economic Production Lot Sizing with Periodic Costs and Overtime*

Traditional approaches for modeling economic production lot‐sizing problems assume that a single, fixed equipment setup cost is incurred each time a product is run, regardless of the quantity manufactured. This permits multiple days of production from one production setup. In this paper, we extend the model to consider additional fixed charges, such as cleanup or inspection costs, that are associated with each time period's production. This manufacturing cost structure is common in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, where process equipment must be sanitized between item changeovers and at the end of each day's production. We propose two mathematical problem formulations and optimization algorithms. The models' unique features include regular time production constraints, a fixed charge for each time period's production, and the availability of overtime production capacity. Experimental results indicate the conditions under which our algorithms' performance is superior to traditional approaches. We also test the procedures on a set of lot‐sizing problems facing a national food processor and document their potential economic benefit.     

Flow Coordination and Information Sharing in Supply Chains: Review,Implications, and Directions for Future Research

Advances in information technology, particularly in the e‐business arena, are enabling firms to rethink their supply chain strategies and explore new avenues for inter‐organizational cooperation. However, an incomplete understanding of the value of information sharing and physical flow coordination hinder these efforts. This research attempts to help fill these gaps by surveying prior research in the area, categorized in terms of information sharing and flow coordination. We conclude by highlighting gaps in the current body of knowledge and identifying promising areas for future research.     

Assessing a minimum pension guarantee for the voluntary IPS in Turkey

The returns from individual account pension plans are subject to fluctuations in capital markets. This increases income uncertainty for the beneficiary and exposes individuals to the risk of fluctuations in the economy in general and the stock market in particular. A minimum pension guarantee is a way to avoid this pitfall by providing a minimum annuity regardless of the actual investment performance of individual accounts. In this article, we present a cost analysis of a minimum benefit guarantee mechanism for the voluntary Individual Pension System in Turkey. We examine the cost estimates and the probability of providing guaranteed payments under various economic and demographic assumptions.     

Compassion fatigue in marriage and family therapy: implications for therapists and clients

Given that marriage and family therapists are exposed to a wide range of circumstances that leave them uniquely vulnerable to experiencing compassion fatigue, it is important to examine the stresses and hazards they face and what those consequences mean for both themselves and clients. It is essential that they identify how compassion fatigue negatively affects the therapeutic relationship and overall treatment outcome as well as that of the personal life of the family therapist. The marriage and family therapist is responsible and ethically obligated to identify and implement ways in which he or she can prevent and remedy compassion fatigue.     

Social Sources of Failure in Education: The Case in East and Southeast Turkey

The efficiency of education in East and Southeast Turkey (E&SE) has long been a subject of debate. Both regions are similar to each other and different from the other regions in terms of economy, culture, ethnic origin, and languages spoken. Sahin (1997) studied the efficiency of education in the E&SE and proposed that illiteracy is significantly the highest in both regions, the female student population is significantly lower, and students are significantly less successful in nationwide general proficiency examinations (OSS and OYS) compared to all the other regions. Social sources of failure were studied in terms of the distinguishing characteristics of both regions, from both practical and theoretical standpoints. The findings indicated inequality of educational opportunity rooted in geographical, economical, social (cultural, linguistic), and political factors.     

Conceptualization of power sharing between partners in couple relationships: a scale development study in Turkey

In this study, the Power Sharing in Couple Relationships Scale (PSCRS) was developed to measure the distribution of power as experienced by individuals in heterosexual marriages or cohabiting relationships. Three sets of participants partook in the study: 27 individuals were in the pilot group; 400 individuals (female = 200, male = 200) were in the exploratory factor analysis group and 242 persons (female = 139, male = 103) were in the confirmatory factor analysis group. Factor analyses resulted in a structure consisting of 30 items and five dimensions, namely, friendship, power over, reactivity to relational stress, openness to influence, and making a relational claim. Results showed evidence for satisfactory psychometric properties.     

The Impact of E‐Replenishment Strategy on Make‐to‐Order Supply Chain Performance

This research investigates the impact of electronic replenishment strategy on the operational activities and performance of a two‐stage make‐to‐order supply chain. We develop simulation‐based rolling schedule procedures that link the replenishment processes of the channel members and apply them in an experimental analysis to study manual, semi‐automated, and fully automated e‐replenishment strategies in decentralized and coordinated decision‐making supply chain structures. The average operational cost reductions for moving from a manual‐based system to a fully automated system are 19.6, 29.5, and 12.5%, respectively, for traditional decentralized, decentralized with information sharing, and coordinated supply chain structures. The savings are neither equally distributed among participants, nor consistent across supply chain structures. As expected, for the fully coordinated system, total costs monotonically decrease with higher levels of automation. However, for the two decentralized structures, under which most firms operate today, counter‐intuitive findings reveal that the unilateral application of e‐procurement technology by the buyer may lower his purchasing costs, but increase the seller's and system's costs. The exact nature of the relationship is determined by the channel's operational flexibility. Broader results indicate that while the potential economic benefit of e‐replenishment in a decentralized system is substantial, greater operational improvements maybe possible through supply chain coordination.