Enjoy their symptom: of woman,men and other interesting figures in Greek literary texts

Voela and Tamboukou use Slavoj ?i?ek’s notion of the symptom as a lens through which to look at representations of female figures in Greek literary texts of the early twentieth century by Gregorios Xenopoulos. In mapping the construction of the figure of the modern woman in the matrix of discourses, fantasies and power relations of fin-de-siècle Greece, they draw on psychoanalytic insights, interrupted by Foucauldian interventions. Following Judith Butler’s move of making trouble they attempt to open up a dialogic space between psychoanalytic and Foucauldian approaches to the female subject, contextualized in a specific social, historical and cultural milieu. It is in this context that they discuss, first, how feminine and masculine subjectivities are represented in man’s speech; second, how unintended excesses and interruptions occur in the problematic representation of women; and, third, how madness and ultimately death come to play a significant role in the power relations between the sexes.     

How do universities shape founding teams? Social proximity and informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer in student entrepreneurship

This paper investigates informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer (KT) from a local university to entrepreneurial teams comprising students and recent graduates. While the extant literature on university-industry KT largely focuses on formal mechanisms aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial initiatives in high-tech (HT) sectors, it overlooks the effect of university-industry KT on nascent entrepreneurship in low-medium tech (LMT) sectors. To fill this gap in the literature, we carry out a mixed-method analysis that exploits a dataset of 154 new business ideas (and 535 team members) presented at a business plan competition in Rimini from 2010 to 2017. Our findings highlight a robust relationship between educational field and the R&D intensity of entrepreneurial projects: students take advantage of the knowledge acquired at university to develop entrepreneurial projects with higher technological content than those planned by non-graduates. Furthermore, the empirical evidence shows that the local university nurtures the formation of ties among students and recent graduates enrolled in the same courses and fosters their efforts to launch new ventures. Finally, the qualitative analysis identifies relevant and non-traditional mechanisms of KT that are being exploited by nascent entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas in the LMT and HT sectors.

     

Fiscal Decentralization Policies in the EU: A Comparative Analysis through a Club Convergence Analysis

Abstract

We study the degree of convergence or divergence in fiscal decentralization in the European Union over the period 1995–2015 using a club convergence approach. First, we analyze non-central expenditure and revenue as percentages of GDP, of total expenditure and of total revenue. The results for the EU-15 countries indicate some clustering, with three clubs formed when using GDP and four to five when using total revenue or expenditure. Second, we study the gap between expenditure and revenue as a proxy of fiscal responsibility. This results in three and two clubs respectively, with Denmark as the divergent country with the highest gap. Finally, we analyze potential unions of clubs and transitions. We also interpret our results taking into account variables found in the literature as determinants of fiscal decentralization. These results show how European countries are quite heterogeneous in terms of fiscal federalism and decentralization, with greater convergence in fiscal responsibility than in the other magnitudes.     

Law, Gender and Sexuality: The Making of a Field

The papers in the following section arose from a roundtable discussion organised by the AHRC Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality, titled ‘Law, Gender and Sexuality: The Making of a Field’. Participants in the roundtable were asked to reflect on the challenges confronting law, gender and sexuality (LGS) as an area of research and scholarship, and to ask what benefits, possibilities, risks and dangers accompany the establishment of a research terrain. The papers address such questions as ‘what is a field and how is it made?’; ‘has LGS attained the status of a field?’; ‘what does it mean to locate oneself within the field of LGS?’; and ‘what is the relationship between feminism and LGS?’. They also consider possible future directions for the field of LGS. Together, the papers provide a variety of differing, and sometimes conflicting, perspectives on the developing body of intellectual and political activity that might be labelled ‘law, gender and sexuality’.     

Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?

Voluntary policy compliance is an important yet rarely studied topic in public administration. To address the paucity of research, this article proposes and empirically tests a conceptual framework that ties policy transparency and policy understanding to voluntary policy compliance intentions. The reasoning is that the extent to which citizens understand a policy contributes to their intentions to comply with that policy. Further, the authors argue that policy transparency indirectly influences voluntary policy compliance intentions through a positive effect on citizens’ levels of policy understanding. To enhance the validity of the findings, the authors assess these relationships across two policy domains. The findings reflect an indirect positive effect of transparency on voluntary compliance occurring through policy understanding. However, this emerged only for one policy domain. These results suggest that the effects of policy transparency on policy understanding and voluntary policy compliance intentions may depend on the policy domain.     

Does it pay to break male gender stereotypes in advertising? A comparison of advertisement effectiveness between the United Kingdom,Poland and South Africa

Advertisers shy away from using non-traditional (vs. traditional) male gender portrayals even though theory suggests they may be more effective cross-nationally. Two main hypotheses were tested cross-nationally for the first time. H1: ‘paternalistic’ male stereotypes (e.g. Househusband) would be more effective than ‘envious’ male stereotypes (e.g. Businessman) across countries confirming the stereotype content model (SCM). H2: the match between initial male gender role attitudes and advertisement type would increase advertisement effectiveness only in countries with relatively low egalitarian norms (i.e. Poland and South Africa). A cross-national study was conducted through the use of student samples following a 3(country: United Kingdom, Poland and South Africa) × 2(advertisement type) × (gender attitude) mixed design (N = 373). A three-way multivariate analysis of variance showed support for H1 and partial support for H2 (i.e. the second hypothesis held on purchase intent and for South Africa). The study provides evidence for the cross-national applicability of the SCM to advertising and the limited predictive value of gender attitudes for purchase intent depending on country. Thus, contrary to mainstream advertising practices, breaking male gender stereotypes does appear to pay cross-nationally. Theoretical and practical implications alongside the potential for change in practices are discussed.