Mobilising the Periphery: Brazil's My House My Life Programme and the Homeless Workers' Movement

Brazil's Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST, Homeless Workers' Movement) has grown dramatically in recent years. This growth was partly provided for by the use of a large government housing programme, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV, My House My Life), which allowed the MTST to construct housing for its members and swell its ranks with thousands of new members. Yet some have argued that the MCMV programme used by the MTST may compromise the autonomy of civil society organisations. This article, by contrast, argues that while the MCMV programme encouraged bureaucratic practices, it also helped to promote the cultural politics of the MTST.     

Women Sustaining Community: The Politics of Agro-Ecology in Quilombo Tourism in Southern Brazil

This article analyses how a gendered perspective on community-based tourism (CBT) contributes to the realisation of identity and sovereignty of quilombos. It examines the potential sustainability of CBT coupled with agro-ecological practices within the context of gendered identity politics. Drawing from in-depth ethnographic and archival research conducted between February and July 2015 at Campinho da Independência (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the article discusses how female leaders integrate sustainable agro-ecological practices and CBT with environmental education in what they call ‘ethno-ecological tourism’. This approach to CBT strengthens a proudly defiant version of Afro-Brazilian ethnic identity vis-à-vis the state.     

The several costs of responding to the threat of terrorism

This paper describes several dimensions of the cost of the U.S. response to the threat of terrorism. Following an evaluation of the nature and magnitude of the threat of terrorism against the United States, the paper describes the restrictions on our civil liberties, the fiscal and other costs of the major homeland security measures, the fiscal cost of programs that make no contribution to the defense against terrorism but are rationalized on that ground, and the effects on our language and the potential for civil discourse of an extended defense against terrorism.     

Assessing the Performance of the Price Cap Plan for Local Exchange Carriers in the United States

In 1991 the FCC implemented a price cap plan for local exchange carriers' interstate access service designed to deal with the regulatory boundaries problem arising from the breakup of AT&T in 1984. The experience with the price cap plan demonstrates the difficulty of predicting productivity growth accurately and makes clear that regulators cannot depend upon a pure price cap plan to keep prices within a reasonable range of costs. With periodic reviews to readjust plan parameters, however, a price cap plan can maintain the rate-of-return close to the target rate-of-return without diminishing the price cap plan's incentives for efficient production. A simple method of recalculating the X-factor based on the rate-of-return over the previous three years worked well in simulations. If this procedure had been used over the price cap period 1991 to 2000, prices would have been 20 percent lower and expenditures on LECs' telecommunications service subject to a price cap would have been $3.8 billion lower.     

Race and Ethnicity: Responsible Use from Epidemiological and Public Health Perspectives

While the concepts of race and ethnicity have been abused historically, they are potentially invaluable in epidemiology and public health. Epidemiology relies upon variables that help differentiate populations by health status, thereby refining public health and health care policy, and offering insights for medical science. Race and ethnicity are powerful tools for doing this. The prerequisite for their responsible use is a society committed to reducing inequalities and inequities in health status. When this condition is met, it is irresponsible not to utilize these concepts.     

Puzzles on Defending others from Aggression

We all agree on the justification of defending ourselves or others in some situations, but we do not often agree on why. Two main views compete: subjectivism and objectivism. The discussion has mainly been held in normative terms. But every theory must pass a previous test: logical consistency. It has recently been held that, at least in the case of defending others from aggression, objective theories lead, in some situations, to normative contradiction. My aim is to challenge the idea that only objective theories have this uncomfortable feature. In fact, any plausible theory justifying the defense of others, whether subjectively or objectively, can lead to situations of normative inconsistency. Therefore, the logical test is not the most fitting one for choosing between different theories of private defense.     

Cumulative career traumatic stress (CCTS): A pilot study of traumatic stress in law enforcement

The present study measured the existence of traumatic stress symptomatology as reported by certified law enforcement officers within the State of Delaware. A questionnaire was devised which documented age, sex, race, education, years of service, marital status, children, rank, position, and shift work. The questionnaire was divided into parts which assessed the exposure and the frequency of specific traumatic incidents experienced in the line of duty, and the frequency of experienced traumatic symptomatology criteria: re-experiencing, numbing, and arousal.