Language Policy in Practice: Re‐bordering the Nation

We present findings from an anthropological field study on the role of language and language policy in migration from Poland to Norway, and the larger implications for emerging language and immigration policy in Europe. Initial fieldwork in Norway found that Polish workers without knowledge of the Norwegian language struggled to secure employment in the formal economy. The 2008 financial crisis intensified competition in the labour market and underscored fluency in Norwegian as a means of discriminating among workers. Comparative case studies of language schools revealed that these organizations are active participants in channeling Polish migrants' movements into a segmented labour market, often in ways that involve cooperation between private companies and the State. We frame the Norwegian case within the larger context of Europe and the trend there toward favoring integration over multiculturalism. The emergence of restrictive language policies in Europe may be interpreted as a legally and culturally acceptable means for discouraging access to rights associated with permanent residency or citizenship by work migrants from CEE countries, while at the same time permitting them access to the labour market for temporary work. The long‐term consequences of such policies for European society are uncertain.     

The zero-inflated Poisson model and the decayed, missing and filled teeth index in dental epidemiology

For frequency counts, the situation of extra zeros often arises in biomedical applications. This is demonstrated with count data from a dental epidemiological study in Belo Horizonte (the Belo Horizonte caries prevention study) which evaluated various programmes for reducing caries. Extra zeros, however, violate the variance–mean relationship of the Poisson error structure. This extra-Poisson variation can easily be explained by a special mixture model, the zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model. On the basis of the ZIP model, a graphical device is presented which not only summarizes the mixing distribution but also provides visual information about the overall mean. This device can be exploited to evaluate and compare various groups. Ways are discussed to include covariates and to develop an extension of the conventional Poisson regression. Finally, a method to evaluate intervention effects on the basis of the ZIP regression model is described and applied to the data of the Belo Horizonte caries prevention study.     

Sample size planning for phase II trials based on success probabilities for phase III

In recent years, high failure rates in phase III trials were observed. One of the main reasons is overoptimistic assumptions for the planning of phase III resulting from limited phase II information and/or unawareness of realistic success probabilities. We present an approach for planning a phase II trial in a time‐to‐event setting that considers the whole phase II/III clinical development programme. We derive stopping boundaries after phase II that minimise the number of events under side conditions for the conditional probabilities of correct go/no‐go decision after phase II as well as the conditional success probabilities for phase III. In addition, we give general recommendations for the choice of phase II sample size. Our simulations show that unconditional probabilities of go/no‐go decision as well as the unconditional success probabilities for phase III are influenced by the number of events observed in phase II. However, choosing more than 150 events in phase II seems not necessary as the impact on these probabilities then becomes quite small. We recommend considering aspects like the number of compounds in phase II and the resources available when determining the sample size. The lower the number of compounds and the lower the resources are for phase III, the higher the investment for phase II should be. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

欧洲安全战略与国家的优先选择

从安全威胁的感知、威胁应对方式、资源分配和公众舆论等四个方面对比分析欧洲安全战略视角和欧盟四个主要成员国(法国、德国、意大利、英国)视角的异同可以看出,虽然欧洲安全战略尚未形成一种明显的认同或独立性,而且各欧盟成员国之间还存在重要的分歧,但是它却为共同的安全战略或安全文化的形成奠定了坚实的基础。     

Organizing for Tenants' Rights: Insights and Approaches From Both Sides of the Fence

The initial discussion includes musings about learning community organization as a graduate student in social work during the late 1970s and subsequently practicing as a tenant organizer in the inner cities of New York City. Three major areas are addressed: (1) the tensions between educational models of practice and community organizing; (2) the critical role of the organizer in constructing the problem and shifting perceptions of power and; (3) how confrontations with legitimate channels of power can foster the development of oppositional consciousness and thus promote social justice efforts. This article argues for greater educational emphasis on the claimsmaking role of community organizers because problem construction is inextricably tied to definitions of power and thus to its redistribution to exploited classes.     

欧盟安全治理的挑战

关于欧盟是否是一个有效的安全行为体,可以通过安全的三个职能:冲突预防、强制执行和平／维持和平、缔造和平,以及和平治理的三个核心组成部分:协调、管理、调节来评估。安全治理是一个有用的分析框架,它可以用来研究各种不同行为体之间的互动关系,而且对于概念化的欧盟安全政策制定也具有重要意义。     

Linking institutions and firm-level outcomes: the roles of diverse innovative capability profiles in Germany's economy

Traditionally, scholars of comparative capitalisms expect a solid link between institutions and outcomes, such as exporting and innovation. For Germany seminal approaches rely on an ideal-typical firm-level profile with strong innovative capabilities and high traditional institutional embeddedness. Current literature on firm-level diversity in Germany exposes that the empirical links between institutions, de facto firm-level profiles, and their outcomes are not well understood. An analysis of 988 German firms reveals no direct link between institutional variables and outcomes. A latent class analysis identifies five innovative capability profiles, which display diverse institutional embeddedness patterns and outcome levels. The prevailing profile conforms to several traditional expectations about the ideal-typical German firm-level profile. However, a second profile achieves similarly high export and innovation rates without traditional institutional embeddedness. The analysis shows the importance of diverse innovative capability profiles for the de facto links between institutions and firm-level outcomes within Germany's economy.     

Photographic portraits of migrants in South Africa: framed between identity photographs and (self-)presentation

This essay explores how migration within the African continent is framed visually by passport photos as well as artistic documentary projects based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It offers examples of what type of photographic (self-)portraits are constructed, which photographs circulate and how African migrants’ self-images as well as South African society’s perception of them are affected by certain photographic images. The method employed is a close reading of some paradigmatic photographs. In addition, I will discuss different – and often gendered – ways in which African migrant subjects may become visible. In short, this essay asks, what photographic portraits construct the hegemonic view of the African migrant subject in the public sphere? Accordingly, the tension between visibility and invisibility of African migrants’ lives emerges in the interstices of the inquiry. The paper first looks at the taking of identity photographs, since the passport photo exemplifies how the individual is made visible by the nation state. It can simultaneously serve as a poignant reminder of the ambivalent qualities of photography: on the one hand, documenting and codifying, and on the other hand, creatively representing. In this context, the essay explores the possibility of remaining invisible or “opaque,” but also the conceivably more empowering representational aspect of photography such as we see in participatory (art) projects, which may be connected to the visual politics of self-expression and reflection.