New Changes in Northeast Asia and the Post-Kim Jong-il Era

In the long term, a change in the situation in Northeast Asia will depend on the geopolitical and economic structural changes caused by China’s rise; in the medium term,     

Non-biased lineup instructions do matter – a problem for older witnesses

Abstract

From the limited literature on older witnesses’ identification performance it is known that they are less accurate on lineups compared to younger witnesses. What is less certain is why they show this age deficit and what can be done to aid their performance. Witnesses forgot being given non-biased lineup instructions informing witnesses that the perpetrator may or may not be present. More older witnesses than younger witnesses forgot and witnesses who failed to report remembering these instructions were significantly less accurate on the lineups. In addition, the current study investigated the use of sequential lineup presentation and stringent decision criteria to aid the performance of older witnesses. Sequential presentation was beneficial to both younger and older adults when the lineup was target absent (TA) but was detrimental when the lineup was target present (TP). Stringent decision criteria had no significant beneficial effect. Future directions for aiding older witnesses’ performance are discussed.     

Public housing authorities: Determining an appropriate role in a national preservation strategy

Abstract

This paper examines the obstacles and issues involved in developing a comprehensive preservation agenda for public housing and explores the capacity of public housing authorities (PHAs) to meet the current and future demand for affordable housing. The paper discusses the current challenges facing the public housing program and PHAs and examines the roles and functions PHAs can assume in the current preservation and affordable housing crisis. Six specific roles for PHAs are included: resolving the equity/community dilemma, improving management, articulating modernization needs and carrying out modernization programs, preventing the loss of public housing units through sales and demolition, assuming management of privately owned subsidized housing, and developing new public housing. Although there is also much potential in nonprofits as providers of low‐income housing, they must be joined by PHAs in a comprehensive low‐income housing production and preservation strategy.     

From dependency to self‐sufficiency: An appraisal of the gateway transitional families program

Abstract

This article presents a longitudinal evaluation of the Gateway Transitional Families Program, an innovative self‐sufficiency program designed to help public housing residents leave public housing for their own homes. The evaluation followed participants and a comparison group over six years to isolate program impacts on employment and receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), food stamps, and housing assistance.

Many participants dropped out of the program. Difficulty in juggling educational and child‐rearing responsibilities, noncompliance with program or public housing regulations, low wages while in the program, impatience with the length of the program, and staff shortages and turnover contributed to the dropout rate. Those who finished the program experienced modest increases in income, decreases in receipt of AFDC and food stamps, and reduced reliance on housing assistance relative to comparison group members. Furthermore, graduates were more likely than comparison group members to have bought a home.     

Challenges confronting nonprofit housing organizations’ self‐sufficiency programs

Abstract

In recent years, interest has grown at the federal level in strategies to combine subsidized housing with programs promoting household self‐sufficiency. This article explores how nonprofit housing organizations conceptualize their self‐sufficiency programs for their residents. A broad definition of self‐sufficiency is presented—one that is not exclusively focused on the individual and, instead, also includes program strategies that are focused on changing the context in which individuals live and work.

The paper then analyzes the relationship between the self‐sufficiency strategies being implemented in the nonprofit housing world and how these organizations will be affected by welfare reform, the shrinking and restructuring of federally subsidized housing, the emergence of block grant job training and workforce development programs, and the general devolution of government programs into ever more fungible pots at state and local levels. These transformations in the domestic policy agenda will present challenges to nonprofit housing organizations and to the goal of promoting self‐sufficiency.     

Housing,Welfare Reform,and Self‐Sufficiency: An Assessment of the Family Self‐Sufficiency Program

Abstract

Recently passed welfare reform legislation may have adverse impacts on the incomes of public and assisted housing residents and hence on the rental income of housing authorities. One way to dampen these impacts is to help welfare‐reliant tenants find jobs. The Family Self‐Sufficiency (FSS) programs sponsored by many housing authorities may be an important means of doing this. This article presents the findings of an early study of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's FSS program and explores the program's potential for dampening the impacts of welfare reform. The study involved a mail survey of the coordinators of 564 FSS programs.

The survey results indicate a surprising lack of interest in the early FSS program among potential participants. The results also indicate that these programs are inadequately staffed, and that the programs’ potential to dampen the effects of welfare reform are limited by the relatively small percentage of welfare‐reliant residents enrolled.     

Addressing Restrictive Zoning for Affordable Housing: Experiences in Four States

Affordable housing development in suburban locales is often constrained by zoning and other municipal land-use restrictions. This article explores experiences in four states that have been recognized for exemplary interventions that address “exclusionary zoning.” Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the article examines overall production levels resulting from the specific program, the extent to which such production is occurring in locales with more White residents and more higher-income residents, and the levels of compliance with state-specified goals, where such goals exist. When possible, cross-state comparisons are provided. Although there are clear signs of progress, with municipalities increasing their affordable housing stocks and with some of this production occurring in locales that probably would not have developed such housing without such state (or county) intervention, the pace has been slow. A number of recommendations are offered for these and other states contemplating strategies to address exclusionary land-use practices.     

Book reviews

Iron Oxen: A Documentary of Revolution in Chinese Farming. By William Hinton. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1970. Pp. x + 225. $6.95 and £2.15.

Hundred Day War: The Cultural Revolution at Tsinghua University. By William Hinton. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1972. Pp. 288. $7.95 and £3.15.

The Development of China's Steel Industry and Soviet Technical Aid. By M. Gardner Clark. Ithaca, NY: New York State School of Industrial and Labour Relations, Cornell University, 1973. Pp. vii + 104, appendices. $7.00.

Urban Unemployment in Developing Countries. By Paul Bairoch. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1973. Pp. v + 99. 12 Swiss F.

Fiscal Federalism. By Wallace E. Oates. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. Pp. xvi + 256, diagrams.

Foreign Resources and Economic Development: A Symposium on the Report of the Pearson Commission. Edited by T. J. Byres. Portland, Oregon and London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971. Pp. xi + 199, index. £2.75.

The Inter‐American Development Bank: A Study in Development Financing. By Sidney Dell. New York, Washington and London: Praeger Publishers, 1972. Pp. xv + 255. £6.25.

Money and Economic Development: The Horowitz Lectures of 1972. By Milton Friedman. New York: Praeger, 1973. Pp. x + 67, diagrams. £3.50.

Modern Revolutions: An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon. By John Dunn. London: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Pp. 294, index, bibliography. £1 .40 (Paper).

Socialist Economic Development and Reforms. By J. Wilczynski. London: Mac‐Millan, 1972. Pp. xvii + 350. £5.

Reforms in the Soviet and East European Economies. Edited by L. A. D. Dellin and Hermann Gross. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Co, 1972, Pp. viii + 175. £4.

Politics and Society in Post‐War Naples. By P. A. Allum. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Pp. xvi + 410, appendices, maps, bibliography and index. £11.00.

Latin America Review of Books. Edited by Colin Harding and Christopher Roper. London and Leeds: Latin America Review of Books Ltd, No. 1 Spring 1973. Pp. 220. £3.00 (cloth), £1.25 (paper).

Rural Guerrillas in Latin America. By Richard Gott. London: Penguin Books, 1973. Pp. 637. £1.00.

Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution. By André Gunder Frank, New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1969. Pp. xviii + 409. £3.90.

Politics and Social Structure in Latin America. By James Petras. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1970. Pp. 382. £4.25.

The Politics of Land Reform in Chile, 1950–1970. By Robert R. Kaufman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. Pp. 321. £6.00.

Political Mobilization of the Venezuelan Peasant. By John Duncan Powell. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971. Pp. 229.

Urban Challenge in East Africa. Edited by John Hutton. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972. Pp. viii + 285, map, tables and photos. Shs. 42 in East Africa.

Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1972. Pp. xx + 600. 305 wf.

Arms and African Development. Proceedings of the First Pan‐African Citizens Conference. Edited by Frederick S. Arkhurst. New York and London: Praeger, 1972. Pp. xvi + 158. £7.75.

Man, State, and Society in the Contemporary Maghrib. Edited by I. William Zartman. New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall, 1973. Pp. vii + 531, appendices with tables, maps, bibliographical essay. $13.50 and £5.67.

Histoire Economique du Québec 1851–1896. By Jean Hamelin and Yves Roby. Editions Fides: Montreal, 1971. Pp. 436, index. $10.00.

Indochina in Conflict: A Political Assessment. Edited by Joseph J. Zasloff and Alan E. Goodman. Lexington, Mass., Toronto and London: D. C. Heath and Co, 1972. Pp. xv + 227. £5.00.

The Dynamics of Indian Political Factions. By Mary C. Carras. London: Cambridge University Press, 1972. £6.50.