Branding national issues: India and the branding bandwagon

Branding in the global sense of the marketing discourse has firmly entrenched itself in India like most international markets. Branding and Urban processes are creating a whole new way of looking at oneself and creating new notions of self-worth. This paper will examine the obsession with the idea of branding that cuts across not only just products that are advertised for monetary purchase but also branding that cuts across matters of national concern, of belonging to ideological frameworks, and even reading cultures. Clearly, everything seems to require a label, a sign that comes with a ready sense of identity, of a shelf value that gives temporary sense of collective spirit and provides a much needed soul-stirring experience. This paper will examine recent media-driven branding exercises for issues of national importance against the backdrop of Gandhi as a super-sign and a brand that is revisited at every juncture of social and political phase in the country even today. The paper takes recourse to Umberto Eco's theory of sign production and the theory of codes to understand that signification is a complex process and all signs do not qualify as semiotic judgments. Herein, is the importance of Gandhi as a super sign – the power of cultural codes and Gandhi's ability to identify the semantics of these codes, where most contemporary branding exercises have failed. Another equally important example of a super-sign in India, the game of cricket is an exemplary of cultural codes and the modes of sign production coming together to stand in for “nationalism” of lasting value.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence from India

This paper examines the intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes in India, a setting with severe discrimination against women and girls. We use survey data on gender attitudes (specifically, about the appropriate roles and rights of women and girls) collected from nearly 5500 adolescents attending 314 schools in the state of Haryana, and their parents. We find that when a parent holds a more discriminatory attitude, his or her child is about 11 percentage points more likely to hold the view. We find that parents hold greater sway over students’ gender attitudes than their peers do, and that mothers influence children’s gender attitudes more than fathers. Parental attitudes influence child attitudes more in Scheduled Caste communities and student gender attitudes are positively correlated with behaviours such as interacting with children of the opposite gender.     

Seattle’s law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD): program effects on criminal justice and legal system utilization and costs

Journal of Experimental Criminology - We evaluated a prebooking law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD) program (i.e., initial diversion from the criminal justice system paired with...     

Can we handle the truth? Legal fictions in the determination of death

Advances in life-saving technologies in the past few decades have challenged our traditional understandings of death. People can be maintained on life-support even after permanently losing the ability to breathe spontaneously and remaining unconscious and unable to interact meaningfully with others. In part because this group of people could help fulfill the growing need for organ donation, there has been a great deal of pressure on the way we determine death. The determination of death has been modified from the old way of understanding death as occurring when a person stops breathing, her heart stops beating, and she is cold to the touch. Today, physicians determine death by relying on a diagnosis of total brain failure or by waiting a short while after circulation stops. Evidence has emerged that the conceptual bases for these approaches to determining death are fundamentally flawed and depart substantially from our biological and common-sense understandings of death. We argue that the current approach to determining death consists of two different types of unacknowledged legal fictions. These legal fictions were developed for practices that are largely ethically legitimate but need to be reconciled with the law. However, the considerable debate over the determination of death in the medical and scientific literature has not informed the public of the fact that our current determinations of death do not adequately establish that a person has died. It seems unlikely that this information can remain hidden for long. Given the instability of the status quo and the difficulty of making the substantial legal changes required by complete transparency, we argue for a second-best policy solution of acknowledging the legal fictions involved in determining death. This move in the direction of greater transparency may someday result in allowing us to face squarely these issues and effect the legal changes necessary to permit ethically appropriate vital organ transplantation. Finally, this paper also provides the beginnings of a taxonomy of legal fictions, concluding that a more systematic theoretical treatment of legal fictions is warranted to understand their advantages and disadvantages across a variety of legal domains.     

Harassment and stalking of Members of the United Kingdom Parliament: associations and consequences

A survey concerning intrusive/aggressive behaviours towards MPs was administered at Westminster, and in Queensland, New Zealand and Norway. Follow-up interviews were conducted with a sample at Westminster. This paper examines the experiences and associations of the 239 Westminster responders, of whom 81% had experienced intrusive/aggressive behaviours, 18% been subject to attack/attempted attack, and 53% stalked or harassed. Being stalked and subject to certain types of intrusive/aggressive behaviour were associated with younger age and being in the Commons five years or less, but serious incidents were more common in those who had been MPs for longer. There were no associations with brief periods of harassment. Some differences with party and constituency type emerged. Mental illness was prominent amongst perpetrators. Motives predominantly concerned personal grievances. Significant proportions of MPs suffered psychological ill-effects, necessitating inconvenient behaviour changes. Internal consistencies in these results and similarities to other sites are explored, and their implications discussed.     

Age estimation by pulp/tooth area ratio in canines: Cameriere's method assessed in an Indian sample using radiovisiography

Age estimation of an individual whether living or dead is an intimidating task in forensic investigations. Since teeth are more resistant to most peri- and post-mortem changes, they are frequently used for identification and age estimation when skeletal remains are in poor condition. However, most methods are destructive and warrant extraction of teeth which is not feasible in living individuals. Cameriere's et al. put forth a radiographic method of age estimation by pulp to tooth area ratio (AR) in canines and revealed a linear regression between age and the AR. In the present study, we estimated the AR in 456 canines (upper, lower and both) in an Indian sample (114 males and 114 females) using radiovisiography technique. Linear regression equations were derived for upper canine, lower canine and both using the AR to estimate chronological age. Additionally, the efficacy of these equations was also evaluated in younger age group (<45 years). The formulas derived, i.e., age = 96.795 ? 513.561x₁ (Eq. (1)) for upper canine, age = 88.308 ? 458.137x₂ (Eq. (2)) for lower canine and age = 99.190 ? 283.537x₁ ? 306.902x₂ + 400.873x₁x₂ (Eq. (3)) for both the canines were applied to predict the chronological age. The mean value of residuals using these regression equations ranged from 4.28 to 6.39 years with upper canine equation generally giving a precise result. When these equations were applied for younger ages (<45 years), the regression equation derived from both canines gave a better result (mean residual 2.70 years). Overall these equations were better able to predict the age in younger ages, i.e., up to 45 years.     

Health of the nation: an individual or a corporate social responsibility? A preliminary investigation into consumer perceptions

• Britain is increasingly mirroring a number of nations in terms of the continued growth in prevailing levels of illnesses related potentially to human food consumption. As this issue fast becomes global, the question of whose responsibility it is, has come to the forefront of the debate. Other groups, apart from the Governments with direct involvement in this crisis are the Consumers and the Marketers. Using the food industry as the basis, the study primarily focuses on the consumers' perceptions of the nature and the extent of the problem. To investigate, three products used in the study are placed on a continuum; Chocolates represent one end and Genetically manufactured foods the other. Fast foods are represented in the middle. This framework highlights variations in consumer perceptions based on product differences: manufacturers have been held responsible for the provision of pertinent information in the case of genetically manufactured products; in the context of fast foods and Confectionery both manufacturers and consumers have been seen as responsible for consumers' existing consumption patterns.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding Drivers of Crime in East Baltimore: Resident Perceptions of Why Crime Persists

Urban neighborhoods are frequently associated with high rates of crime, unemployment, poor educational systems, poor housing conditions, and health related problems. Theories of social disorganization, social isolation, and broken windows all explain how and why social problems develop and persist within urban settings. Drawing on these theories, this study examines how residents perceive local community problems in an East Baltimore neighborhood. Eight focus groups were conducted with participants who live and/or work in the area to identify common neighborhood issues. Problems commonly identified were: the presence of physical disorder, issues related to crime and law enforcement, lack of employment opportunities, and limited youth activities. Embedded under many of these themes was the recognition that the neighborhood lacks collective efficacy to fix community problems and maintain social control. Implications for improving neighborhood disadvantage will be discussed.     

Aggressive/intrusive behaviours,harassment and stalking of members of the United Kingdom parliament: a prevalence study and cross-national comparison

Politicians suffer intrusive and aggressive behaviours from members of the public, often lone actors fixated on personal grievances. Few explorations of intrusive behaviours towards politicians have been published; their results are not directly comparable. We surveyed intrusive/aggressive behaviours towards UK members of parliament (MPs); our survey instrument was then administered to MPs at three other parliaments (Queensland, New Zealand, and Norway), providing a cross-national, four-site comparison. 239 MPs completed the UK survey. This 38% response rate produced prevalence rates remarkably similar to the other sites, New Zealand having an 84% response rate. 81% of UK MPs had experienced one or more of the 12 behaviours specified, the mean being five. 18% had been subject to attack/attempted attack, 42% to threats to harm and 22% to property damage. In 53% of respondents, experiences met definitions of stalking or harassment. This has implications for the provision of risk assessment and management.