An Exploratory Study of Youth Mentoring in an Urban Context: Adolescents' Perceptions of Relationship Styles

The goal of this study was to empirically distinguish a range of mentor relationships and to evaluate their differential influence on adolescent outcomes. The study makes use of data that were collected as part of a national evaluation of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The evaluation included 1138 youth, ranging in age from 10 through 16 (M=12.25), who were assigned randomly to either a mentoring relationship or a control group and followed for 18 months. A series of analyses, based on the matched youth's accounts of the relationships, suggested 4 distinct types of relationships (i.e., moderate, unconditionally supportive, active, and low-key). The 4 groups tended to distinguish themselves from one another on the basis of perceived support, structure, and activity. Relative to the controls, youth who characterized their mentor relationships as providing moderate levels of both activity and structure and conditional support derived the largest number of benefits from the relationships. These included improvements in social, psychological, and academic outcomes. Implications of the findings for research and intervention are discussed.     

A Load of Old Garbage: Applying Garbage–Can Theory to Contemporary Housing Policy

This article reviews the applicability of Kingdon's garbage–can model of agenda setting and alternative specification for understanding the complexities of policy–making in the housing policy context. Garbage–can theories reject conventional 'policy cycle' models which envisage policy development processes as rational and underpinned by the logic of problem solving. They posit a loose relationship between problems and the policy solutions offered by national governments. Using an Australian housing policy case study, this article demonstrates the usefulness of Kingdon's garbage–can theory. A modified framework is used to explain how the policy agenda has become narrowed to focus on safety–net assistance for the most disadvantaged, while housing problems have continued to worsen.     

What's Yours is Mine: Rent-Seeking and the Common Law

The paper develops a rent-seeking theory of the common law.The general finding is that the law's form depends on thecomparative advantage each group has in production versusappropriation generally, and appropriation via litigation inparticular. The model generates new interpretations ofdevelopments in United States common law, and is used both tosupplement and to criticize two dominant theories of such law,the efficiency theory associated with the law and economicsmovement and that generated by critical legal studiesscholars.     

French Urban Space Management: A Visual Semiotic Approach Behind Power and Control

The paper will discuss the role of the visual in French urban space. It will reveal the close connections between visual and semiotics where the visual dimension is central rather than marginal. We will evaluate altogether the psychological, legal and social impacts of the new shapes of our own environment. Rethinking our public space shapes our identities, unveils the ‘hidden’ powerful discourse behind these new urban models.     

Sources of local government extractive capacity: The role of trust and pre‐colonial legacy in the case of Uganda

Local government extractive capacity, as measured by the amount of graduated personal tax (GPT) collected relative to district wealth and population and, more qualitatively, as reflected in the nature of enforcement, varies considerably in Uganda. This article explores the reasons for this variation, first by investigating aggregate data at the cross‐district level, using data on taxation as well as survey data from the Afrobarometer, second, by a focussed comparison of two districts, one with high‐ and one with low‐extractive capacity. I find that generalised trust can explains some of the variation in extractive capacity across districts. The case studies trace the differences in trust and extractive capacity back to pre‐colonial rule; the better performing district having had centralised rule, a tradition of tax‐payment and a higher degree of social cohesion, while the poorer performing district had a more fragmented and less cohesive history of governance. The article thus points to the importance of understanding institutional path dependencies when assessing the feasibility of reform. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategien und institutionelle Perspektiven nach der Verfassungskrise: „Funktionalistische” und „institutionalistische” Wege zu einem neuen europäischen Verhandlungspaket

The European Council today is the only institution which has the potential and the possibility to lead the EU out of its current “valley of uncertainty”. Under the leadership of a new generation of heads of state, the conclusion of a European package deal may be expected from 2007 onwards, containing three central elements: 1. a “Europe of projects”, identifying policies and projects of common interest, 2. the “flexibilisation” of the EU in order to facilitate European politics among the member states and 3. institutional or constitutional reforms of the European polity, for which the constitutional treaty will remain the single most important point of reference. However, no simple, “optimal” road for the future development of the EU may be anticipated.