The rhetoric of positioning in women's studies

The article examines the requirement of positioning (or localization) often presented in the recent epistemological discussions of women's studies. The paper argues that these discussions include two different epistemological conceptions. First, there is the moderate idea according to which researchers should explicate their personal and political positions, not only their theoretical starting points. The paper demonstrates that this requirement is not feasible, if imposed on individual researchers. Secondly, there is the more radical view according to which adequate positioning is impossible in principle. Against this relativist notion the paper argues that theories about radical differences are self‐defeating.     

Factors that Influence Trajectories of Delinquency Throughout Adolescence

Given that one of the most powerful predictors of adult crime is the presence of behavior problems in childhood and adolescence, there is a need to further understand factors that determine behavior patterns during this developmental stage. This study focuses on stressful life experiences such as exposure to delinquent peers, racial discrimination, as well as family characteristics such as parenting style and family transitions. Data come from four waves of the Family and Community Health Survey, an African-American sample. The present study investigates 354 males from this dataset. We utilize a group-based trajectory model to estimate the number and type of trajectories of delinquency. We then estimate multinomial regression models to predict trajectory group membership. The results indicated that there were four distinct groups of offenders (negligible delinquents; early starter/declining; late starter; and early starter/chronic offenders). We predicted group membership using both early predictors and measures of change in these predictors across the study period. The results indicated that individuals who experience greater racial discrimination (both early in childhood and throughout adolescence) are more likely to be in trajectory groups that begin offending early and persist through adolescence. Additionally, those respondents who reported having friends with greater delinquent behavior were more likely to be in groups that began their offending early in life and persisted when compared to groups who started later or desisted as they entered adulthood. The results contribute to developmental research and provide information that may be helpful in preventing adolescents from persisting in antisocial behavior as they enter adulthood.     

Foreclosed Matter – On the Material Melancholy of Feminist New Materialism

In this article I investigate the need to provide feminism with a theory of matter. I argue that the attention to matter given by New Materialist Karen Barad is symptomatic of a refusal to accept the limits of matter and its constituting effects. I suggest that a critical definition of matter can be found in the works of Judith Butler and especially in her definition of melancholy in relation to performativity. I argue that melancholy is central for the understanding of not only gendered desire, but also matter. Matter is an intrinsic part of Butler’s theory on gender and desire which she presents in opposition to both social constructivism and biologism. I also read performativity as a concept introduced by Butler to point towards the foreclosure of matter as necessary for comprehensible bodies. I relate my reading of matter in Butler’s texts to Barad’s ‘matter as performative’. This ‘misconstruction’ I see as symptomatic of a ‘material melancholy’ in the works of Barad. My main intention is to show how we as feminist researchers need to see that matter can be defined and analysed in many different manners and that there is not one (old nor new) way to do this.     

Profiles and Correlates of Relational Aggression in Young Adults’ Romantic Relationships

The present study examines prevalence and correlates of experiencing and perpetrating relational aggression in the context of young adults’ romantic relationships. We assess correlates of relational aggression in four domains of risk: (1) Social-cognitive, (2) Relationship, (3) Trait/dispositional, and (4) Mental health. Results indicate that modest involvement in relational aggression is relatively common. Females reported higher levels of perpetration whereas males reported higher levels of victimization. Relational aggression and victimization were related to each domain of risk for both men and women, although different patterns of findings emerged for each domain. For example, individuals who reported perpetrating relational aggression in their romantic relationships believed that aggression was most acceptable (social-cognitive risk) whereas individuals who reported experiencing relational aggression (as victims) were more likely to indicate that their self worth is contingent on relationships and that romantic relationships are very important to them (dispositional risk). Respondents who reported either perpetrating or experiencing relational aggression had higher levels of exclusivity in their relationships and were more likely to describe their relationships in anxious attachment terms (relationship risk). They also reported higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms (mental health risk). Implications of these results for theory and prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.

Realistic yet humanitarian? The comprehensive plan of action and refugee policy in Southeast Asia

The 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) has recently beendescribed as a successful example of how to manage large protractedrefugee flows. However, this article revisits the circumstancessurrounding the CPA used to resolve the prolonged Indo-Chineserefugee crisis to highlight that part of its development waslinked to the fact that Southeast Asian states refused to engagewith proposed solutions, which did not include repatriationfor the majority of the Indo-Chinese asylum seekers who weredeemed to be ‘non-genuine’¹ (UNGA, 1989a) refugees.This resulted in the CPA often forcibly repatriating ‘non-genuine’refugees, particularly near the end of its program. This articlereviews the CPA in order to assess whether its practices andresults should be repeated. Received for publication September 18, 2006. Accepted for publication October 10, 2007.     

Regulating Collaboration: The Legal Framework of Collaborative Governance in Ten European Countries

ABSTRACT

Many scholars have considered when and why collaboration between government agencies and societal actors occurs. This article argues that a simple but largely overlooked answer to these questions is that a formal legal or administrative requirement to do so is in place. Therefore, the objective is to substantiate whether there are legal requirements to collaborate and in what type of source and context this obligation applies in ten European countries. The main finding is that collaboration is underpinned by an extensive range of legal requirements in Europe, although imposing these requirements is generally not the main objective.     

The strategy process as a result of learning,questioning, and performing in a city organization

Abstract

This article analyzes a strategy-drafting process, using it to illustrate what can happen in a strategy process that affects a city organization but is invisible in the final strategy document. In the ethnographically inspired method, a city organization and its strategy-formulating work were followed for two years. Observations and interviews were the main data-collection methods. The article builds on a framework from the strategy and public management literature. The article concludes that strategy formulation in public organizations is a means of learning new practices, questioning ongoing development, and enhancing performance.     

Supply response reconsidered: Cocoa in Western Nigeria, 1909–44

This essay uses time‐series data on cocoa plantings in Western Nigeria to re‐examine some popular conclusions about the price responsiveness of farmers in underdeveloped economies. Annual variations in the rate of planting were found to be more closely related to farmers’ income from cocoa sales than to current price. Qualitative evidence suggests that longer‐term trends in cocoa plantings were also influenced by changing opportunity costs and by the institutional structure of rural factor markets. These results cast some doubt on commonly accepted capital stock adjustment models of investment in tree crops, which assume that farmers rely heavily on forecasting future price trends when deciding how much to plant. Given the uncertainty of future crop prices, it seems more likely that farmers plant more trees when they can afford to do so, so long as opportunity costs are not prohibitive.     

Minimum wage effects across the private and public sectors in Brazil

Most of the available evidence on the effect of minimum wages concerns the private sector of developed countries. In this paper, we examine minimum wage effects in both private and public sectors for a key developing country. We use monthly data from a Brazilian household survey from 1982 to 2000. We find a strong compression effect in the wage distribution for both the private and public sectors. However, we find no evidence of adverse employment effects in either sector at the aggregate level or for vulnerable groups such as teenagers, women and the low educated. Hence, minimum wage policies in Brazil appear to be a potentially viable anti-poverty instrument.