Skunks in an English Woodland: Should England Embrace For‐Profit Higher Education?

The British government is encouraging the growth of for‐profit alternative providers of higher education (HE). While it is true that for‐profits have opened HE access to previously under‐served groups and have been more agile in reacting to market demand, they have done so at a considerable cost to students and the taxpayer because they do not share in the cost of the failure of HE to ensure a payoff for many of their students. The US experience with for‐profits should be a cautionary tale for those supporting their expansion in Britain. Policy is needed to craft a regulatory framework that produces the benefits that for‐profits can provide, but minimises the costs that often accompany them. At present, it is far from clear that expanding alternative providers—that is, for‐profits—would ‘work better’ for students.     

Drug booms and busts: poverty and prosperity in a Nicaraguan narco-barrio

Abstract

The income generated by the drug economy can often be substantial for the different parties involved, even at the lowest rung of this illicit trade. Yet the drugs trade is also a notoriously volatile activity, meaning that drug-related prosperity is highly prone to boom-and-bust cycles. Drawing on ongoing longitudinal ethnographic research in urban Nicaragua, this article explores the consequences of the cyclical nature of the drugs trade, tracing its unequal patterns of capital accumulation, as well as what happened to those who benefited from the drug economy when it became more exclusive and then subsequently moved on elsewhere.     

Personality traits and individual feeling of national pride in South Korea

Given the lack of studies on the relationship between personality and national pride, this study represents the first attempt to examine the impact of the Big Five personality traits on individual feeling of national pride in South Korea. The data for this study are obtained from the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) of 2011 and 2012. The empirical evidence consistently shows that extraversion and agreeableness are significantly associated with individual feeling of national pride. Specifically, people who report elevated levels of extraversion and agreeableness are more likely to display a strong feeling of national pride. Contrary to theoretical expectations, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience are not associated with individual feeling of national pride. Overall, the findings lend some support to the view that personality traits exert a significant influence on individual feeling of national pride and suggest that except for contextual factors, psychological factors also offer some explanatory power for individual feeling of national pride.     

“Special” Communiqué Issued by the Belgian Marxist Terrorist Group, “Communist Combatant Cells” (CCC)

This section of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism is dedicated to the reprinting of selected, translated terrorist communiqués that provide insights into the mindset, worldview, or operational thinking of a group. In terms of communiqués, this section employs the following typology of terrorist communiqués. There are three types of terrorist communiqués: attack, strategic, and special. Attack communiqués are issued to claim responsibility for an attack, explain the target selected, and provide the political rationale for attacking the target. A strategic communiqué is a longer document that is issued to provide strategic direction or commentary on political events, issues, and developments relevant to the group's cause and constituency. It can be used to explain changes of strategy or reinforce the strategic direction of the group. The special communiqué is similar to the attack communiqué in that it is event-driven but addresses non-attack events like anniversary dates, hunger strikes, elections, deaths of leaders, ceasefires, issuing threats or warnings, annual progress reports, issuing apologies, and so on. All three communiqués are issued publicly and intended to influence various audiences.     

A Biopsychosocial Model of Body Image Concerns and Disordered Eating in Early Adolescent Girls

Body image and eating concerns are prevalent among early adolescent girls, and associated with biological, psychological and sociocultural risk factors. To date, explorations of biopsychosocial models of body image concerns and disordered eating in early adolescent girls are lacking. A sample of 488 early adolescent girls, mean age = 12.35 years (SD = 0.53), completed a questionnaire assessing depressive symptoms, self-esteem, body mass index (BMI), sociocultural appearance pressures, thin-ideal internalization, appearance comparison, body image concerns and disordered eating. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test a hypothetical model in which internalization and comparison were mediators of the effect of both negative affect and sociocultural influences on body image concerns and disordered eating. In addition, the model proposed that BMI would impact body image concerns. Although the initial model was a poor fit to the data, the fit was improved after the addition of a direct pathway between negative affect and bulimic symptoms. The final model explained a large to moderate proportion of the variance in body image and eating concerns. This study supports the role of negative affect in biopsychosocial models of the development of body image concerns and disordered eating in early adolescent girls. Interventions including strategies to address negative affect as well as sociocultural appearance pressures may help decrease the risk for body image concerns and disordered eating among this age group.     

The growth effects of sport franchises,stadia, and arenas

This paper investigates the relationship between professional sports franchises and venues and real per capita personal income in 37 standard metropolitan statistical areas in the United States over the period 1969 to 1994. Our empirical framework accounts for the entry and departure of professional football, basketball, and baseball franchises; the construction of arenas and stadia; and other sports related factors over this time period. In contrast to other existing studies, we find evidence that some professional sports franchises reduce the level of per capita personal income in metropolitan areas and have no effect on the growth in per capita income, casting doubt on the ability of a new sports franchise or facility to spur economic growth. We also find evidence that results obtained from estimating reduced‐form relationships, a common practice in the literature, are not robust to alternative reduced‐form specifications. © 1999 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The growing commercialism of zoos and aquariums

Although the mission of zoos and aquariums (species preservation, exhibition, education, and research) has not changed, the weights attached to their multiple goals and the means to accomplish them have. In particular, these institutions have undertaken costly programs to preserve endangered species. Through an examination of alternative revenue sources we demonstrate that institutions accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) have experienced no change in the structure of demand. Although more money could be raised through higher admission fees, these institutions have not exploited this alternative to full advantage, despite the Reagan-era tax rate reductions that resulted in fewer donations. Almost all the limited subsidies zoos and aquariums receive come from local governments; federal subsidies (through the Endangered Species Act) have been allocated to purchase critical habitat in the wild. Zoos and aquariums have turned increasingly to ancillary commercial activity such as food service and gift shops.