“The mosque and the satellite”: Media and adolescence in a Moroccan town

The exposure of young people in a semirural Moroccan town to a variety of Western, Middle Eastern, and locally produced media increased rapidly during the 1980s, a period of rapid social change. Media images included economic affluence, relatively free sexual behavior, and nontraditional social roles for females. Data collected mainly in 1982 reveal relationships between media exposure and adolescents' use of media images in their social behavior, choice of mate, and career aspirations. Male adolescents were exposed to more Western media and were able to develop a more individual taste, but both sexes appeared eager to reconcile traditional Islamic and contemporary media-relayed values.This research was carried out with support from the National Institutes of Health and The William T. Grant Foundation to Harvard University, and with a Fulbright grant to Susan S. Davis.Received Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Michigan. Research interests include gender role development, and Moroccan society.Received, Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Michigan. Research interests include personality development and Moroccan society.     

Frequency of paradox in a common n-winner voting scheme

This paper investigates the extent to which a commonly used electoral scheme — voting for n candidates when there are n vacancies to fill — is likely to lead, in practice, to paradoxical results. Two types of paradox are investigated. One occurs when an increase in the number of vacancies causes a candidate to drop from the list of winners. The second occurs when the Condorcet candidate fails to win. Using a Monte Carlo study, we show that the likelihood of paradox can be substantial and depends critically on the degree of homogeneity of voters' preferences and on the number of voters.     

The Perceptions of Academic Lawyers Concerning the Effects of the United Kingdom's Research Assessment Exercise

In this article, the authors analyse quantitative and qualitative data compiled from a large-scale postal survey of legal academics concerning the United Kingdom's Research Assessment Exercise. The purpose of the study was to measure the attitudes of academic lawyers affected by the RAE rating process and institutional responses to that process. The study reveals that a substantial number of respondents lack faith in the objectivity of the rating process, believe institutional responses to the RAE have caused damage to academic working environments, and perceive that the RAE has failed to improve the quality of legal research.