Book reviews

Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels against Modernity in Late Imperial China, by Roxann Prazniak. Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Pp.xiii + 305. £50/US$69 (hardback); £18.95/US$24.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8476 9006 7 and 9007 5

Images of the Medieval Peasant, by Paul Freedman. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. Pp.xix + 459. £37.50/US$65 (hardback); £13.95/US$22.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8047 3372 4 and 3373 2

’Ir aigen libertet’: Waldburg, Habsburg und der bäuerliche Widerstandan der oberen Donau 1590–1790, by Martin Zürn (Oberschwaben ‐ Geschichte und Kultur 2). Tubingen: Bibliotheca Academica, 1998. Pp.814. DM78 (hardback). ISBN 3 928471 15 5

Economics of Marketable Surplus Supply: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis for China by Ping Zong and John Davis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Pp.xiv + 206. £42 (hardback). ISBN 1 84014 335 5

Cadres and Kin: Making a Socialist Village in West China, 1921–1991 by Gregory A. Ruff. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp.xix + 249. £30AJS$49.50 (hardback). ISBN 08047 3377 5     

Investigating Friendship Quality: An Exploration of Self-Control and Social Control Theories’ Friendship Hypotheses

While associations with deviant peers are well understood to impact individual development, less is understood about the relationship between friendship quality and delinquency. Two criminological theories-social control theory and self-control theory-are able to offer an explanation for the latter relationship. Social control and self-control theories both premise that delinquents will have largely fractured, weak, and "cold and brittle" friendships. This study investigates how variations in perceptions of friendship quality are related to the delinquency, maternal attachment, school attachment, and self-control levels of both a participant and his/her close friend. To explore these relationships, we use a diverse (14% black; 18% Hispanic; 9% Asian) sample of 2,154 emerging adults within 1,077 friendship pairs (66% female). In each dyad, both members perceived the friendship's quality and reported personal markers of delinquency, social bonds, and self-control. Several series of multilevel models are estimated that regress each participant's friendship quality perception onto the participant's and their friend's delinquency, attachments, self-control, and demographic characteristics. Results show that delinquents have as intense, or more intense, friendships as non-delinquents. However, low levels of both actor and partner attachments and self-control are independently related to low friendship quality, and this is especially true for self-control. Supplemental analyses demonstrate that the effect of self-control on friendship quality may be reduced when individuals in dyads are delinquent. In conclusion, studies that address friendship quality without including characteristics of multiple members of the friendship are only capturing part of one's estimate of friendship quality.     

Expanding access to health care for Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries: early findings from the accelerated benefits demonstration

Most Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries must complete a 5-month waiting period before they become entitled to DI cash benefits and an additional 24-month waiting period before Medicare benefits begin. The Accelerated Benefits (AB) demonstration is a randomized experiment designed to test the effects of providing newly entitled DI beneficiaries who do not have health insurance with a generous health benefits package during the Medicare waiting period. This article presents early findings on the prevalence of health insurance coverage among newly entitled beneficiaries and the characteristics of those without health insurance. It also examines the effects of AB on health care utilization, the extent to which AB reduces unmet medical needs, and the costs of providing the AB health benefits package.     

Autonomy and Control in Australian Agencies: Data and Preliminary Findings from a Cross‐National Empirical Study

This article is developed from data gathered through the analysis of a survey of ‘agencies’ at Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) levels of government, undertaken as the Australian component of a cross‐national empirical study of autonomy and control in non‐departmental public sector organisations. It presents preliminary findings from one part of what is potentially a very important enterprise in comparative research, along with discussion of methodological issues which need to be confronted in many such comparative exercises. The data reveal that Australia agencies have been granted more autonomy than agencies in other countries contributing to this survey, though that autonomy varies markedly across functions such as personnel management and financial management. While the article represents just a snapshot in time in agency autonomy, we believe it provides a robust baseline for future changes in the way agencies are managed in the Australian public sector.     

The transfer and persistence of automotive carpet fibres on shoe soles

The transfer and persistence of automotive carpet fibres to shoe soles was investigated. It was found that fibres were transferred with the normal activity of a car passenger. Carpet type and shoe sole parameters were significant determinants in the number of fibres that transferred. The average number of fibres was between about one and 33 per sole. Fibres that had been transferred after normal activity only persisted for a few minutes after walking. A survey of the shoe soles of people about to leave their car showed that fibres were usually present. The majority of shoe soles surveyed had less than five fibres with the greatest number of fibres found being 14. The likelihood of finding a large number of fibres on such soles is rare. Fibre composition of automotive carpets showed a high degree of variation. Grey was seen to be a common colour irrespective of the colour of the vehicle body.     

Exclusionary School Discipline and Delinquent Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Excluding students from school remains a common form of punishment despite growing critique of the practice. A disparate research base has impeded the ability to...     

South Australia: Caution and Consistency

During the 1990s public service industrial relations in South Australia have followed the state's long‐standing practice of being moderate and careful. From 1993 onwards, processes of corporatisation and privatisation that had commenced under the Bannon Labor government were continued and extended under the new Liberal government, in part as a response to financial pressures arising from the State Bank collapse, and in part as a reflection of the same trends that were widespread elsewhere. Where possible the government avoided direct confrontation with unions. There were various contests where the parties explored options in the changing environment, but the most prominent trend was that government policies of financial restraint and outsourcing tended to reduce most unions' bargaining power. Those policies were initially conjoined with agency‐specific enterprise bargaining, but the resulting variations in outcomes finally led to a Wages Parity Agreement to restore consistency.