Regulatory Conversations

The article proposes a new site of analysis for the study of regulation: regulatory conversations, and a new theoretical approach: discourse analysis. Regulatory conversations, the communicative interactions that occur between all involved in the regulatory 'space', are an important part of most regulatory systems. Discourse analysis, the study of the use of language and communication, suggests that such interactions are constitutive of the regulatory process, that they serve important functions, that they can be the basis of co-ordinated action, and that they are important sites of conflict and contestation. The article explores five key contentions of discourse analysis, considering how each may shed light on aspects of regulatory processes. These are, first as to the meaning of language and co-ordination of social practices; second, as to the construction of identities; third, the relationship of language, thought, and knowledge; fourth, the relationship of language and power, and finally, that meaning, thought, knowledge, and power are open to contestation and change.     

University-industry consortium agreements Center for Process Analytical Chemistry: A case study

There is a surfeit of articles, books, and conferences on the subject of university-industry collaboration, but few of them address specific, pragmatic issues related to the development of an operable sponsorship agreement. This article focuses on the terms of the agreement negotiated with industry sponsors of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry-University Collaborative Research Center (IUCRC), established at the University of Washington in 1984 as the Center for Process Analytical Chemistry (CPAC). Over the past 11 years, CPAC has grown dramatically and achieved important successes, but some of the terms in the initial agreement have proven to be problematic, particularly those dealing with intellectual property rights. This article reviews the nature of the problems and explains the solutions negotiated by participants as part of a revised agreement implemented in 1992.     

Real-time PCR designs to estimate nuclear and mitochondrial DNA copy number in forensic and ancient DNA studies

We explore different designs to estimate both nuclear and mitochondrial human DNA (mtDNA) content based on the detection of the 5' nuclease activity of the Taq DNA polymerase using fluorogenic probes and a real-time quantitative PCR detection system. Human mtDNA quantification was accomplished by monitoring the real-time progress of the PCR-amplification of two different fragment sizes (113 and 287 bp) within the hypervariable region I (HV1) of the mtDNA control region, using two fluorogenic probes to specifically determine the mtDNA copy of each fragment size category. This mtDNA real-time PCR design has been used to assess the mtDNA preservation (copy number and degradation state) of DNA samples retrieved from 500 to 1500 years old human remains that showed low copy number and highly degraded mtDNA. The quantification of nuclear DNA was achieved by real-time PCR of a segment of the X-Y homologous amelogenin (AMG) gene that allowed the simultaneous estimation of a Y-specific fragment (AMGY: 112 bp) and a X-specific fragment (AMGX: 106 bp) making possible not only haploid or diploid DNA quantitation but also sex determination. The AMG real-time PCR design has been used to quantify a set of 57 DNA samples from 4-5 years old forensic bone remains with improved sensitivity compared with the slot-blot hybridization method. The potential utility of this technology to improve the quality of some PCR-based forensic and ancient DNA studies (microsatellite typing and mtDNA sequencing) is discussed.     

From Career Girl to Sexy Stewardess: Popular Culture and Women’s Work in the Canadian and American Airline Industries

This article examines three popular renditions of female flight attendants in Canada and the United States in teen fiction, film, and advertising, with attention to representational shifts from the 1940s to the 1970s. Our analysis demonstrates that the more sexualized image of the 1960s was a significant departure from the more complicated immediate postwar presentation of the flight attendant as a resourceful and capable career girl, albeit one still constrained by dominant notions of white, middle-class femininity. Created by management decisions in the face of increased capitalist competition, in concert with the influence of popular culture and gender ideology, the sexy stewardess altered the workplace environment for female flight attendants, but the legacy of earlier popular culture may well have aided their resistance to sexualization.     

Battlefield Responses to New Technologies: Views from the Ground on Unmanned Aircraft

How do individuals on the battlefield respond to the introduction of new technologies? How will unmanned and increasingly autonomous technologies be received by ground combat personnel? In this paper we explore tactical-level perceptions of one particular technology—armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—by conducting a survey experiment of ground fires controllers. Our findings reveal that these personnel have strong behavioral reactions to the introduction of unmanned technology. Especially in situations with high risk to ground troops, we find a strong preference for manned aircraft with implications for the future use of UAVs and human–machine relationships in war. These results suggest the need to incorporate behavioral variables into future studies of military adoption and innovation and indicate that the future adoption of unmanned systems may be just as much about the “warm fuzzy” of trust as confidence in unmanned capabilities.     

Introduction: negotiating the promotion of democracy

ABSTRACT

This article makes the case for why we should turn to studying democracy promotion negotiation, outlines the research questions guiding this special issue, identifies overarching findings and summarizes the individual contributions. After outlining the rationale for more attention to the issue of negotiation, which we understand as a specific form of interaction between external and local actors in democracy promotion, we outline three basic assumptions informing our research: (1) Democracy promotion is an international practice that is necessarily accompanied by processes of negotiation. (2) These negotiation processes, in turn, have an impact upon the practice and outcome of democracy promotion. (3) For external democracy promotion to be mutually owned and effective, genuine negotiations between ‘promoters’ and ‘local actors’ are indispensable; the term ‘genuine’ here being understood as including a substantial exchange on diverging values and interests. The article, then, introduces the three research questions for this agenda, concerning the issues on the negotiation table, the parameters shaping negotiation processes, and the results of democracy promotion negotiation. We conclude by presenting an overview of the overarching findings of the special issue as well as with brief summaries of the individual contributions.     

Romantic relationships across boundaries: global and comparative perspectives

ABSTRACT

In response to the mass globalization of the twenty-first century and associated migration, a recent boom in social-scientific research has analyzed various manifestations of ‘binational’, interreligious and interracial romantic relationships in the present and recent past. This special issue seeks to historicize this research by drawing on key case studies from around the world and across time and building on relevant historiography and theoretical literature. It seeks to chart how intermarriage and related relationships took shape: who participated in these unions? How common were they, and in which circumstances were they practiced (or banned)? With a global, diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective, we also aim to question some of the categories behind these relationships. Central to these issues, we argue, is the question of boundary formation. Here, we draw on social-scientific research that has emphasized multiple boundaries involved in the creation of identity and groups. We also highlight the intersectionality of those boundaries, meaning that notions about ethnicity, religion, gender and social class often overlap and intersect in various ways when it comes to relationships. Contributions to this collection tap a range of related questions, such as how did geographical boundaries – for example, across national lines, distinctions between colonies and metropoles or metaphors of the ‘East’ and the ‘West’ – shape the treatment of intermarriage? What role have social and symbolic boundaries, such as presumed racial, confessional or socio-economic divides, played? To what extent and how were those boundaries blurred in the eyes of contemporaries? How have bureaucracies and law contributed to the creation of boundaries preventing romantic unions? Romantic relationships, we suggest, provided a key test case for boundary crossings because they brought into sharp relief assumptions not only about community and assimilation, but also about the sanctity of the intimate sphere of love and family.