The role of community in facilitating service utilization

Guided by an integrated theory of parent participation, this study examines the role community characteristics play in influencing a parent's decision to use voluntary child abuse prevention programs. Multiple regression techniques were used to determine if different community characteristics, such as neighborhood distress and the community's ratio of caregivers to those in need of care, predict service utilization levels in a widely available home visiting program. Our findings suggest that certain community characteristics are significant predictors of the extent to which families utilize voluntary family supports over and above the proportion of variance explained by personal characteristics and program experiences. Contrary to our initial assumptions, however, new parents living in the most disorganized communities received more home visits than program participants living in more organized communities. The article concludes with recommendations on how community capacity building might be used to improve participant retention.     

Localizing Gender Equality after Conflict

Debates have grown in recent years concerning the realistic utility and application of international human rights law to a local context. Since 2000, the United Nations Security Council has issued eight Women, Peace, and Security resolutions geared toward promoting gender equality measures in conflict prevention during conflict and post-conflict settings. The first of these resolutions, United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, has been adopted by a number of UN Member States through National Action Plans (NAPs), which provide a framework and roadmap for integrating gender equality measures at the domestic level. Although NAPs were once considered promising, they have largely been unsuccessful.

By examining the implementation challenges facing other gender equality measures and localization programs that seek more effective implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Resolutions, the following argues that a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach must be considered more seriously by international actors supporting implementation and integration of international human rights law, not only for the obvious reason that it emboldens local agency in the adoption process, but also because it is likely to produce outcomes that are meaningful and sustainable for the communities most affected by these provisions.

As such, continued emphasis on change that emanates from the top down in a given country often ignores the reality that gender equality measures in international human rights law are often perceived by governments and civil society actors as a serious disruption to domestic gender norms. Sole reliance on state institutions to deliver these commitments is flawed because it fails to recognize the necessary dialog and contestation among various stakeholders concerning the role of external norms in a local context.     

Are IMF lending programs good or bad for democracy?

Have IMF lending programs undermined political democracy in borrowing countries? Building on the extensive literature on conditional lending, we outline several pathways through which IMF program participation might affect the levels of democracy in borrowing countries - including a new variant that suggests the possibility of a positive association between lending program participation and democracy scores. In order to test the argument we assemble annual data from 120 low- and middle-income countries observed (at maximum) in each year between 1971 and 2007. We use three strategies - genetic matching, instrumental variables, and difference-in-differences estimation - to better estimate the direction and size of the statistical association between participation in IMF lending programs and the level of democracy. We find evidence for modest but definitively positive conditional differences in the democracy scores of participating and non-participating countries.     

Alcohol and Violence Related Cognitive Risk Factors Associated with the Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence

The primary aim of this study is to determine the association between alcohol, violence related cognitive risk factors, and impulsivity with the perpetration of partner violence among current drinkers. A probability sample (n = 1468) of White, Black, and Hispanic couples 18 years of age or older in the United States household population was interviewed in 1995 with a response rate of 85%. The risk factors of interest included the alcohol and violence related cognitions of approval of marital aggression, alcohol as an excuse for misbehavior, and aggressive expectations following alcohol consumption as well as impulsivity. In all, 15% (216/1468) of the respondents reported perpetration of domestic violence. In addition, 24% (7/29) of those who approved of marital violence, 11% (126/1163) of those who reported alcohol use as an excuse for misbehavior, 10% (128/1257) of those who reported aggressive expectations following alcohol consumption, and 14% (99/716) of those who reported impulsivity also reported perpetration of domestic violence. Bivariate analysis indicated that all of the cognitive risk factors were significantly more common in those who reported perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) (p < 0.05). However, multivariate analysis controlling for ethnicity, education, income, age, gender, and impulsivity indicated that those who reported strong or very strong expectations of aggressive behavior following alcohol consumption were 3.2 (95% CI = 1.3–7.9) times more likely to perpetrate IPV. Although all of the alcohol and violence related cognitive risk factors were associated with the perpetration of domestic violence, expectations of aggressive behavior following alcohol consumption appeared to be the strongest predictor of the perpetration of IPV among current drinkers. Therefore, alcohol expectancy may be an important factor to assess when attempting to identify and treat perpetrators of domestic violence who are also current drinkers.     

Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens' Conversations Limit Elite Influence

Public opinion research demonstrates that citizens' opinions depend on elite rhetoric and interpersonal conversations. Yet, we continue to have little idea about how these two forces interact with one another. In this article, we address this issue by experimentally examining how interpersonal conversations affect (prior) elite framing effects. We find that conversations that include only common perspectives have no effect on elite framing, but conversations that include conflicting perspectives eliminate elite framing effects. We also introduce a new individual level moderator of framing effects—called "need to evaluate"—and we show that framing effects, in general, tend to be short-lived phenomena. In the end, we clarify when elites can and cannot use framing to influence public opinion and how interpersonal conversations affect this process .     

从审美功能到社会功能:物质材料、展演及消费者——以加拿大因纽特人的雕刻艺术为例

艺术品作为艺术家"意识延伸"的一部分,具有某种能动性。即,艺术被创造的目的是要服务于社会关系网络。艺术品不仅仅要表现其样貌与风格所传达的意义,更为重要的是要表现其在创作过程中所包含的社会文化意义。从这个意义上讲,艺术除了美感以外的能动性,超越了纯艺术与工艺品、个人与社会的界限。因此,在对人类的审美和艺术的研究中,最需要关注的不仅仅是审美和艺术本身,而是在创作过程中,艺术品所表现的社会文化内涵。     

The twists and turns of institutional innovation in small island developing states: the case of Tuvalu

The question of institutional reform in small island developing states (SIDS) has so far attracted two general perspectives. The predominant approach prescribes neo-Weberian principles such as de-politicisation, neutrality, ‘professionalism', continuity and anonymity, and rational-bureaucratic structures. Critics highlight contextual specificities and maintain that Weberian principles are not plausible amid key constraints in SIDS including low human and logistical capacity, pervasive inter-personal and cross-cutting relations, and difficulty in attaining anonymity in public affairs. This debate remains largely intuitive, without the requisite empirical insights about the peculiar institutional trajectories and incentive structures driving change and continuity within SIDS. This paper provides a critical examination of the enduring quagmire of institutional development in SIDS based on a comprehensive account of the experience of Tuvalu.