Paradoxes of institutionalisation: The depoliticisation of Bangladeshi NGOs

Through an analysis of how Bangladeshi NGOs have become institutionalised, the author examines patterns of bureaucratisation and professionalisation to argue that NGOs are part of a process of incorporation that mediates opposition to gender and other structural inequalities. Two important tendencies--the growing partnership between NGOs, the state, and donor agencies, and the discursive shift from social welfare and redistribution to individualism, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance--exemplify these processes. The paper shows how institutionalisation, accompanied by the conflation of civil society and NGOs, masks the loss of member-citizens' voices, channelling opposition through NGOs in ways that often compromise their interests.     

Victim or injurer, small car or SUV: Tort liability rules under role-type uncertainty

In this paper we modify the standard tort model by introducing role-type uncertainty. That is, we assume that neither party knows in advance whether she will be the victim or the injurer when an accident occurs. When the standards of care of the two parties are set at the socially optimal levels, only pure comparative negligence and the equal division rule guarantee efficiency, while the rules of simple negligence, contributory negligence, and comparative negligence with fixed division (other than a 50:50 split) may produce inefficient equilibria. Since pure comparative negligence splits liability between negligent parties according to each party's degree of fault, it makes the accident loss division independent of one's role-type. This produces its efficiency advantage.We extend the model to the choice of vehicle size, as a factor determining who will be the injurer and who the victim in motor vehicle collisions. In the extension we analyze various standard negligence-based liability rules, and tax rules, as instruments to mitigate inefficiency resulting from the vehicle size “arms race.” We also examine two strict liability rules, one of which incorporates a comparative negligence feature; this rule prevents inefficiency from both role-type uncertainty and from the “arms race.”     

The commercialization of academic patents: black boxes,pipelines, and Rubik’s cubes

Drawing on histories of technological innovation originating from research by faculty at The Pennsylvania State University and Johns Hopkins University, this paper presents evidence for a “technology” as well as an “intellectual property rights” research approach to the commercialization of academic patents. By describing how inventor and firm activities and strategies affect the technical development and commercial positioning of university patents, a technology focus adds depth to the general proposition that university patents are embryonic technologies. It likewise serves as an analytical probe to reconsider other mainstream propositions about university technology transfer.     

Transferring superconductivity technology at a national-laboratory user center

Department of Energy national laboratories have long sought to expedite the transfer of commercially viable technologies to the private sector through publications and reports, workshops, the licensing of inventions, and personnel exchanges and other cooperative agreements between laboratories, industry, and universities. This article focuses on the transfer of patentable technologies through a case study of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory high temperature superconductivity Pilot Center (HTSC-PC). The Pilot Center was established in 1988 to encourage rapid incubation and commercialization of high temperature superconductivity technologies. The success of this venture will hinge upon assuring compatibility of objectives between the center and likely industrial participants and directing center efforts toward the aspirations of potential collaborators and the ultimate consumers of HTSC technologies. Lessons for general multi-program-laboratory technology transfer include the need for a model of collaboration that emphasizes openness and non-rigidity and facilitates the streamlining of information vital to the cross-fertilization of ideas, continuing reform of the licensing and royalty-sharing process, and simplifying the process of scientific exchange with external constituencies. David Lewis Feldman has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He serves on the staff of the Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee where he does research on the environmental impacts of energy developments, international and comparative environmental policy, environmental regulation, and technology policy. He is the author of several articles and recently completed a book on natural resources policy in the US. He also serves as senior editor ofForum for Applied Research and Public Policy published at the University of Tennessee.     

Principled compromise: The New York state organized crime control act

Digby Anderson, ed., Criminal Welfare on Trial London: The Social Affairs Unit, 1981, 95 pp.     

A case of factitious pedophilia

Factitious disorder involves feigning, exaggerating, or self-inducing physical and/or psychological ailments with the goal of assuming the "sick" or "patient" role. In turn, the sick role entitles the factitious disorder patient to care, nurturance, and protection; it also exempts one from usual responsibilities. In this paper, we present the first reported case of factitious pedophilia. Although it seems counterintuitive, this middle-aged man has falsely claimed or exaggerated sexual desire for minors ostensibly to remain in a state hospital; indeed, he has remained in the same inpatient facility for more than 20 years as a result of his deceptions. At times, his reports have included disconfirmed claims of bizarre accidents and other physical travails. This case enlarges the literature on factitious psychological disorders and shows that some individuals may falsify paraphilic behaviors, although clearly minimization of these behaviors remains more common.