The limits of local economic intervention: The case of the French and Italian chambers of commerce

Chambers of commerce in France and Italy are powerful organisations with a unique potential for local economic growth. As public‐law organisations, they are vested with extensive formal powers and resources, far surpassing those of their British counterparts. Yet despite this potential, chambers in these states do not tend to play a dynamic role within the local economy. In recent years, they have undergone progressive decline and become confined to an increasingly marginal and residual role. This article examines the performance of the French and Italian chambers and considers some of the factors which have prevented them from assuming a more prominent economic role.     

European national news

The regular article tracking developments at the national level in key European countries in the area of IT and communications – co-ordinated by Herbert Smith LLP and contributed to by firms across Europe. This column provides a concise alerting service of important national developments in key European countries. Part of its purpose is to compliment the Journal's feature articles and briefing notes by keeping readers abreast of what is currently happening “on the ground” at a national level in implementing EU level legislation and international conventions and treaties. Where an item of European National News is of particular significance, CLSR may also cover it in more detail in the current or a subsequent edition.     

Bringing Law to the Table: Legal Claims,Focal Points,and the Settlement of Territorial Disputes Since 1945

In this article, we argue that international law can help state leaders reach a settlement in territorial disputes by suggesting a focal point for negotiations. International law is more likely to serve as a focal point when the legal principles relevant to the dispute are clear and well established and when one of the states in the dispute has a stronger legal claim to disputed territory. When these two conditions are present, we expect the state with a legal advantage to push for and receive favorable terms of settlement. In our analysis of all negotiated settlements in territorial disputes from 1945 to 2000, we find strong support for the importance of international law in influencing the terms of settlements. States with a strong legal advantage are more likely to secure favorable terms, whereas states lacking a strong legal claim are more likely to receive unfavorable terms.     

Opening doors for all American youth? Evidence for federal homelessness policy

It is estimated that on a single night in January 2009, there were 643,067 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in America (The 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress 2010). The Obama administration recently published “Opening Doors,” the first federal plan to prevent and end homelessness. We argue that the strategy is based on a partial evidence base that raises questions about the potential of the strategy to meet its goals. In order to inform future iterations of the plan, data from 682 young adults (aged 18–27 years old; mean = 22.13 years old) who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to examine whether there is a typologys of young adults with a history of homelessness; one of the priority groups in the strategy. A priori selected variables previously associated with lifetime homelessness in non-random samples were mapped to survey items. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis. Comparisons were conducted with a randomly selected “never-homeless” sample from the same study. The cluster analysis revealed four subgroups. It appears that the Federal Plan currently prioritizes homelessness risk factors associated with two subgroups: the Young Offenders subgroup and the Abused Depressed subgroup. The needs of two other subgroups are not fully addressed: the Childhood Adversity subgroup and the Vulnerable African-American subgroup. The authors offer guidance on future directions for homelessness policy relevant to young adults.     

Housing Subsidies and Early Childhood Development: A Comprehensive Review of Policies and Demonstration Projects

ABSTRACT

In this article, we ask how housing subsidies might influence young children. We examine two national housing policies – public housing assistance and the Section 8 vouchers program – and two demonstration projects that aimed to improve the administration of providing housing subsidies – HOPE (Homeownership Opportunities for People Everywhere) VI and Moving to Opportunity. This article is a critical examination of these policies and demonstration projects in relation to the following housing dimensions that promote the healthy development of young children: income supplements residential stability, physical environment, access to services and amenities, housing choice, neighborhood safety, and social capital. We compared advantages and limitations of each of these national housing policies and demonstration projects and examined ways in which they might influence children in these housing dimensions. The article concludes with implications and future research directions for U.S. housing policy by discussing its most recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative, Rental Assistance Demonstration, in addressing limitations of housing policies and demonstration projects we examined.     

Indigenous citizens in the making: civic belonging and racialized schooling in Chile

This paper explores expressions of sociocultural and political subjectivity among indigenous youth located within four secondary boarding schools in the Araucanía Region of Chile. For rural indigenous students, these schools are a primary site in which they come to gain a sense of themselves as members of civil society and as future citizens. Drawing on young peoples’ experiences in boarding facilities and expressions regarding sociopolitical positioning, we analyse the ways Mapuche youth engage with the racially and class-inflected hierarchies of inequality present in the school, the region and beyond. Within these school spaces, little intellectual space afforded young people to consider how civic inclusion can be renegotiated in relation to indigenous identifications. Nevertheless, the young people demonstrate a capacity to engage critically with national discourses from media and schooling. Whilst not widely engaged in politicized youth activism, the pupils demonstrated agency by positioning themselves critically in quotidian and negotiated re-workings of the meaning of citizenship.     

The representation of the female body in the multimedia works of Regina José Galindo

The female body is central to the performance art, poetry and blog site interventions of Guatemalan Regina José Galindo. While Galindo is best known for her performance work, this article compares the hereto overlooked, distinctive and often shocking representations of the female body across her multimedia outputs. We first consider the ways in which, in all three media, Galindo presents an ‘excessive’, carnivalised, grotesque and abject female body. Second, we analyse representations of the female body that has been subjected to violence at a private and public level. In so doing, we show how Galindo not only contests hegemonic visions of gender and (national) identity but also challenges the viewer/reader to engage with, rather than look away from, the violence to which women are subjected in patriarchal society.     

Examining Perceptions About Mental Health Care and Help-Seeking Among Rural African American Families of Adolescents

Rural African American children living in poverty have a higher prevalence rate of mental health disorders than their urban counterparts. While access to mental health services is lacking in resource scarce rural communities, African American rural residents may also be the most likely to confront significant barriers to care and help-seeking. Studies of mental health help-seeking behavior among rural families are rare, even rarer are studies of African Americans living in these areas. To address this gap, the current study examined perceptions about help-seeking for adolescents with mental health problems among rural African American families. Data were obtained from African American mothers in rural Georgia to assess their perceptions of the mental health service system, help-seeking processes, and service experiences. A mixed-method approach was implemented, integrating a quantitative survey (n = 163) with qualitative interviews (subsample n = 21). Most of the mothers expressed confidence in mental health care providers’ to help. Preferred sources of support, however, were family, church, and schools. Community stigma towards children with mental health problems and their families was a frequently endorsed perceived barrier to help-seeking. Although cultural mistrust was one of the two most frequently endorsed barriers in the survey, it did not emerge as a universal barrier to help-seeking for the mothers in this sample. Implications for research, policy, and practice include addressing family concerns about stigma, preferences for informal support and non-specialty services in addressing adolescents’ mental health problems, and building community resources to enable all youth to participate in community life.     

Traditional and Cyber Aggressors and Victims: A Comparison of Psychosocial Characteristics

To date, relatively little is known about differences between perpetrators and victims of cyber and traditional forms of aggression. Hence, this study investigated differences among traditional and cyber aggressors and victims on psychosocial characteristics typically examined in research on traditional aggression and victimization, specifically effortful control, manipulativeness, remorselessness, proactive and reactive aggression, and anxious/depressive symptoms. Participants (N = 300; 63.2% female; M age = 12.89, SD = .95; 52% Caucasian, 27% African American, 11% Latino, and 10% other) were categorized based on aggressor type (non/low aggressor, traditional-only, cyber-only, and combined traditional and cyber) and victim type (non-victim, traditional-only, cyber-only, and combined traditional and cyber). Cyber aggressors reported lower levels of reactive aggression compared to traditional-only and combined aggressors. Combined aggressors demonstrated the poorest psychosocial profile compared to all other aggressor groups. For victimization, cyber-only and combined victims reported higher levels of reactive aggression and were more likely to be cyber aggressors themselves compared to traditional-only victims and non-victims. Findings suggest that there may be unique aspects about cyber aggression and victimization that warrant further investigation.