Share and Share Alike? Hedge Funds,Human Rights,and Owning Enterprise in Britain

This article explores the meanings of ownership and shareholding in the context of the 2007 run on Northern Rock, its subsequent nationalization in 2008, and the resulting legal challenge brought by former shareholders. Drawing on evidence from a range of sources outside traditional legal and official doctrine, and from original empirical research, it focuses on the perspective and voices of local small individual shareholders in relation to shareholding, bank failure, and government responses to financial crisis. It tells the story of these individual shareholders against differing conceptions of share ownership rights and responsibilities, and from various angles, to show the many different subjectivities of corporate shareholding and ownership of enterprise of which orthodox legal and economic models take scant account. It concludes on a note of historic persistence in demand for proprietary shares in banking institutions, despite the differing levels of understanding and tolerance of equity risk among shareholders that our research reveals.     

The life conditions of Australian ex-prisoners: an analysis of intrapersonal, subsistence, and support conditions

Successful reintegration of ex-prisoners into the community is multifaceted. The life conditions of 36 adult Australian ex-prisoners (20 male and 16 female) were examined via a questionnaire administered at 1 to 4 weeks post release, and a subset of 19 of the original respondents were interviewed again at 3 to 4 months post release. Interviews focused on intrapersonal conditions (physical and psychological health and substance use), subsistence conditions (housing, employment, and finance), and support conditions (social support, support services/program participation, and criminal justice support). The majority of ex-prisoners self-reported chronic physical and mental health problems as well as a history of substance use and/or current substance use. Although the housing conditions of ex-prisoners were largely favourable and constant, the employment and financial conditions of this group were generally unfavourable. Level of social support was variable. Theoretical implications and practical applications of the present investigation for reintegration theory are discussed.     

Volume contents

Volume Contents

Volume contents     

Utility of dorsal pits and pubic tubercle height in parity assessment

Parity indicators in human skeletal material are highly desirable yet elusive. In this study, the relationships of dorsal pits and pubic tubercle elongation to parity are investigated in a sample of 148 modern female sets of pubic bones with associated birth information. The elongation of the pubic tubercle shows no significant correlation with number of births, but instead is associated with the distance this feature is from the pubic symphysis (p < 0.01) and the size of the arcuate angle (p < 0.05). Dorsal pits show a strong association with increasing numbers of births (p < 0.01), especially in younger women. However, in women over 50 years old, dorsal pitting is correlated with BMI (p < 0.05) and is not significantly correlated with number of births. While this study lends support to the correlation of dorsal pitting and parity, it currently does not reach the level of accuracy needed for forensic applications at the level of the individual.     

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; A CASE OF LEARNING THROUGH EVALUATION?

The aim of environmental monitoring programs is to provide information useful in enforcing existing environmental statutes and helping to detect and prevent future problems. Despite the considerable number of monitoring programs being conducted, information on the quality of the nation's environment remains poor and of little use in supporting environmental policymaking. This paper examines the role evaluation has played in developing an effective nationwide environmental monitoring system. Background information on environmental monitoring programs is provided, followed by a discussion of the evaluations of past programs and recommendations made for improvement. One program in particular, the "Status and Trends" program administered by the National Oceanic and ATmospheric Administration, is examined to explore whether environmental monitoring demonstrates a case of learning through evaluation. "Status and Trends" is based on the experience gained during several of the previous monitoring programs and incorporates many of the recommendations spawned from earlier environmental programs. Whether the program demonstrates a case of learning through evaluation will depend on the ability of the program to evolve as we learn more about environmental quality and out ability to measure it.     

Preventing suicide in prisons, part I. Recommendations from the International Association for Suicide Prevention Task Force on Suicide in Prisons

In 2000 the Department of Mental Health of the World Health Organization (WHO) published a guide named Preventing Suicide. A Resource for Prison Officers as part of the WHO worldwide initiative for the prevention of suicide. In 2007 there are new epidemiological data on prison suicide, a more detailed discussion of risk factors accounting for the generally higher rate of suicide in correctional settings in comparison to the general population, and several strategies for developing screening instruments. As a first step, this paper presents an update of the WHO guide by the Task Force on Suicide in Prisons, created by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. A second paper, by the same Task Force, will present some international comparisons of suicide prevention services in correctional facilities.     

Linking Social Anxiety and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Functioning: Indirect Effects and the Importance of Peers

Peer relationships undergo dramatic shifts in form and function during adolescence, at the same time the incidence of socially evaluative fears sharply rises. Despite well-established links between social anxiety and broader interpersonal functioning, there is a dearth of research evaluating the impact of social anxiety on functioning in close relationships during this developmental stage. The present study examines the impact of social anxiety on functioning in close friendships and romantic relationships during adolescence. From a developmental psychopathology perspective, it was expected that social anxiety would influence functioning (quality, length, satisfaction) in romantic relationships through its influence on functioning in same- and other-sex friendships. Participants included 314 adolescents (60.5 % female, 14–19 years of age) with a prior or current history of romantic relationship involvement. Structural equation modeling was used to test a mediation model positing an indirect pathway from social anxiety to romantic relationship functioning through functioning in close same- and other-sex friendships. Given known gender differences in social anxiety and relationship functioning, gender also was explored as a potential moderator. Results supported the hypothesized indirect pathway whereby social anxiety was associated with impairment in same-sex friendships; functioning in same-sex friendships was associated with functioning in other-sex friendships, which was associated, in turn, with functioning in romantic relationships. While the hypothesized indirect pathway was significant among both boys and girls, there was greater continuity of functioning between same- and other-sex friendships for girls. These findings highlight the importance of examining the multiple downstream effects of social anxiety on perceived social functioning in adolescence, and suggest that continuity may exist for maladaptive patterns of socialization, particularly across developmentally salient close relationships.     

Documenting the Louisiana Sugar Economy, 1845–1917: An On-line Database Project

Documenting Louisiana Sugar (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/louisianasugar), an on-line database project rolled out in July 2008 and now freely available, provides historians and social scientists with an innovative tool for examining one sector of the plantation economy and agrarian society in the American South. Utilizing exceptionally detailed annual crop returns and additional census records, the project makes available two fully searchable databases that allow users to examine in micro and macro detail the evolution of one of America's definitive plantation crops, namely cane sugar. These are available on the project's website, which also includes census material, illustrations, bibliographies, and essays. What follows is a report describing the evolution and aims of this innovative effort to make primary sources widely available in digitized form on the internet.