Usability and Digital Inclusion: Standards and Guidelines

This article aims at discussing e-government website usability in relation to concerns about digital inclusion. E-government web design should consider all aspects of usability, including those that make it more accessible to all. Traditional concerns of social exclusion are being superseded by fears that lack of digital competence and information literacy may result in dangerous digital exclusion. Usability is considered as a way to address this exclusion and should therefore incorporate inclusion and accessibility guidelines. This article makes an explicit link between usability guidelines and digital inclusion and reports on a survey of local government web presence in Portugal.     

Sexual victimisation,sexual cognitions,desire and excitation/inhibition in community Spanish male and female sexual aggressors

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between some aspects of sexuality and individuals' likelihood to perpetrate sexual aggression in men and women. We assessed the following sexuality variables: content of positive sexual cognitions (PSCs)/negative sexual cognitions (i.e., intimate, exploratory, dominance/submission or impersonal), dyadic and solitary sexual desire, propensity for sexual excitation (SE)/sexual inhibition and sexual victimisation during childhood and/or adolescence/adulthood. We examined a community sample of 228 men and 333 women, of whom 67 men and 43 women had perpetrated sexual aggression. Compared to non-aggressors, male aggressors reported a higher frequency of PSCs of dominance; female aggressors reported a higher frequency of PSCs of dominance and exploratory and impersonal sexual cognitions as both positive and negative and negative impersonal cognitions. All sexual aggressors reported higher levels of solitary desire and propensity for SE. Regression analyses revealed that the most relevant variable in the prediction of sexual aggression was sexual victimisation during adolescence/adulthood in both sexes. Differences between male and female sexual aggressors are discussed.     

Book reviews

Deane Curtin, Chinnagounders’ Challenge: The Question of Ecological Citizenship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Jim Yong Kim, et ah, ed., Dying For Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000.

Lester R. Brown, Christopher Flavin, Hilary French, et al., eds., State of the World 1998. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998.

Margit Mayer and John Ely, eds., The German Greens. Paradox Between Movement and Party. Translated by Michael Schatzschneider. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.     

The Permeability of Urban Cultures

Stephen Dovers (ed.): Australian Environmental History: Essays and Cases . Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Tim Flannery: The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of Australasian Lands and People . Chatswood, NSW: Reed Books, 1994. Distributed in the USA by George Braziller Inc., New York.

Stephen J. Pyne: Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia , New York: Henry Holt, 1991.     

Management Roles in Political and Senior Civil Servant Positions: A Multiple-Study Approach

ABSTRACT

A recent trend in public administration studies has been to assess how public management is performed by politicians and top civil servants. Surprisingly, little is known about how these different posts develop their management roles. Following seminal management studies, we focus on core management roles to compare the ways in which politicians and top civil servants develop their management responsibilities within public organizations. Empirical evidence is provided by triangulating three separate studies developed in Spain. Results from the triangulation show that there is unmistakable evidence of differentiations between politicians and top civil servants when performing their managerial roles.     

Nationalism,identity and landscape in contemporary Galicia

In escaping the territorial trap of the nation-state, political geography has devoted mounting attention to sub-state geographies of nationalism. This paper traces the history, geographies, and politics of Spanish Galicia, in light of the contradictory processes of contemporary European integration and secessionism. After a review of sub-state nationalism, it contextualizes Galician nationalism within Spanish regionalism. It offers an historical overview that highlights the uniqueness of Galician culture and explicates the roots of the current nationalist movement. Finally, it delves into contemporary Galician politics, including its electoral dimensions, cyberpolitics, and banal nationalism, in which territory plays a decisive role.     

An interpretation of argentine economic growth since 1930∗Part I

This study uses pairing of Mexican‐owned manufacturing firms and firms with direct United States investment, to examine the effects of ownership structure on firms’ performance and sources of technology. Results suggest that in terms of profitability, growth and export performance the Mexican firms were competing successfully during the period 1966–73. Furthermore, the basis for this strong posture by the Mexican manufacturers was not due to a heavy reliance on foreign technology imported through formal channels, but rather is linked with internal innovative activity and the use of domestic consultants.     

An interpretation of Argentine economic growth since 1930. Part II∗

This article focuses on the measurement of embodied technological change. It develops the core-machinery approach to capital measurement, which is based on an engineering perspective on technological change. Using technical characteristics of different types of machinery, technical progress in the capital stock can be decomposed into incremental innovation in existing machinery and radical shifts to new technologies. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated by an analysis of embodied technological change in the Indonesian spinning and weaving industries. The core-machinery measure is compared with more traditional measures of the capital stock which are based on price information. Strengths, weaknesses and relevance of the new measure are discussed.     

Regional and technological dualism: A dual‐dual development framework applied to Puerto Rico

A ‘dual‐dual’ framework is proposed which captures the prevailing regional dualism (between rural and urban areas) and technological dualism (between traditional and modern techniques). Six interdependent sectors are specified: 1) urban formal, 2) urban informal, 3) rural non‐farm formal, 4) rural non‐farm informal, 5) rural farm formal, and 6) rural farm informal. The framework is applied to the case of Puerto Rico and its experience with an ‘industrialisation‐first’ development strategy between 1950 and 1970. It is shown that this framework lends itself well to the analysis of such issues as the pattern of employment, migration, and income distribution among regions and sectors.