Systems approaches to urban planning: Mixed,conditional, adaptive and other alternatives

Systems approaches possess an ability to deal with large numbers of interacting variables and relations. They are here connected tocitizen information systems (distinguished frommanagement information systems) and to mixed, adaptive, conditional models for urban planning. The latter permit flexible and continuing responses to dynamically changing urban conditions, including citizen attitudes and reactions, as well as to changing economics and technologies. These models are mixed in that they allow actions and reactions from a multiplicity of decisionmakers. The resulting decisions are made only conditionally, rather than once-and-for-all, on a comprehensive basis as in the customary master city plan. Proceeding in this conditional manner, the model then permits adaptation to changing values and objectives as, at each stage, it makes the systems consequences apparent.The systems approach is related to a host of important methodological developments in mathematics, statistics, etc., as well as in electronic computers and their use. These distinguish modern systems approaches from predecessors like the holism of Jan Christiaan Smuts and others in pre-war science. The mixed, conditional, adaptive models suggested here are compared with other approaches like advocacy planning, the comprehensive master city plan and ad hoc planning. It is found to be possible at least in principle, to accommodate all of these and even to extend matters further to include day-to-day as well as longer range facilities plans in the indicated systems approach by virtue of the improved methodologies that may now be used or developed for these purposes.This paper was prepared for presentation before the Division 1 (General), American Psychological Association Meetings in Miami Beach, Florida on September 5, 1970.Also, Joint Urban Sciences Information Institute, Research Report No. 5.     

Instability and Oil: How Political Time Horizons Affect Oil Revenue Management

While economic explanations for the “resource curse” are well established, the political factors explaining why governments fail to take corrective action remain poorly understood. Research demonstrates that if governments save oil profits abroad and slowly re-introduce the oil-generated revenue into the domestic economy once the rate of return on investment is greater at home than abroad and the quality of project implementation developed, many of the economic problems that plague oil-rich countries can be avoided. Political time horizons shape the incentives of governments to pursue this strategy. Unstable leaders rely on oil revenue to maintain positions of power. They also have less incentive to save oil windfalls abroad as they fear they will not be in office long enough to benefit from such decisions. This paper uses both quantitative data and case study analysis of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to demonstrate that leaders with longer time horizons save a greater proportion of oil windfalls abroad than their less stable counterparts, helping avoid the economic pitfalls of oil abundance.     

STR primer concordance study.

Over 1500 population database samples comprising African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Chamorros and Filipinos were typed using the PowerPlex 16 and the Profiler Plus/COfiler kits. Except for the D8S1179 locus in Chamorros and Filipinos from Guam, there were eight examples in which a typing difference due to allele dropout was observed. At the D8S1179 locus in the population samples from Guam, there were 13 examples of allele dropout observed when using the Profiler Plus kit. The data support that the primers used in the PowerPlex 16, Profiler Plus, and COfiler kits are reliable for typing reference samples that are for use in CODIS. In addition, allele frequency databases have been established for the STR loci Penta D and Penta E. Both loci are highly polymorphic.     

Sharp Force Injury Fatalities: A Retrospective Study (1982–2012) in Brescia (Italy)

A retrospective study was carried out on postmortem examination data of 131 sharp force‐related casualties recorded by the Brescia Institute of Forensic Medicine between 1982 and 2012. The objective was to identify relevant parameters that may be used to distinguish the manner of deaths between homicide, suicide, and accident. The following variables were considered: manner of death; demographic data; scene; type of sharp object; location and numbers of wounds; the presence of hesitation marks/defense wounds; toxicological findings; psychiatric history. There were 92 homicides, 28 suicides, and 11 accidents. Most victims were male, with an average age of 43. Injuries in isolation were present in 9.8% of homicides, in 35.7% of suicides, and in 54.5% of accidents. Most injuries involved the left anterior chest in homicides and the forearms in suicides. This study underlines the importance of a meticulous postmortem examination of injuries on the body and their relationship with other results from the death scene investigation.     

Reporting Femicide-Suicide in the News: The Current Utilization of Suicide Reporting Guidelines and Recommendations for the Future

Public health officials have developed and disseminated recommendations for the responsible reporting of suicide in an effort to dispel myths about suicide-completers and minimize contagion effects. However, recommendations as to the reporting of homicide-suicide events have not been a priority in these initiatives. The current study assesses the degree to which newspaper coverage of the most commonly occurring type of homicide-suicide event, femicide-suicide, adhere to existing suicide reporting recommendations by examining newspaper coverage (n?=?143) of a population of femicide-suicide cases (n?=?83) from North Carolina for the years 2002–2009. The current study demonstrates the importance of developing and disseminating reporting guidelines to assist in dispelling myths about the victims and perpetrators of lethal intimate partner violence.     

Examining the Impact of Proximate Culpability Mitigation in Capital Punishment Sentencing Recommendations: The Influence of Mental Health Mitigators

In spite of the ruling in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), concerns remain that individuals with mental illness and reduced capacity are eligible for the death penalty. When mental illness or reduced capacity is not enough to preclude death-eligibility, these factors are often discussed at the sentencing phase as mitigators. Mitigation remains an under-researched avenue in the sentencing literature, particularly when it comes to the influence of specific types of mitigation. The present study contributes to knowledge on mental health mitigation by examining five mitigators relevant to the mental health and capacity of defendants. Using data from 834 capital sentences in North Carolina, the influence of these proximate culpability mitigators on jury sentence recommendations is examined. Results indicate that acceptance of certain mental health mitigators reduces the probability of death, but acceptance of others is not significantly related to death recommendations. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

The Chinese problem as seen by the WEU

Europe has been the privileged economic and political partner of Africa, but more recently China has increased its foothold in Africa through important financial investments and trade agreements. Against this backdrop, the empirical research conducted in 2007-08 in Kenya and South Africa as part of a pioneering international project investigates the perceptions of public opinion, political leaders, civil society activists and media operators. While confirming their continent's traditional proximity to Europe, African citizens are increasingly interested in China and its impact on Africa's development. Europe is criticised for not having been able to dismiss the traditionally ‘patronising’ attitude towards Africa. While African civil society leaders and media operators describe China as an opportunity for Africa to break free of its historical dependence on European markets, other opinion leaders warn against too much enthusiasm for the Asian giant. There is a suspicion that the Chinese strategy might, in the long run, turn into a new form of economic patronage.     

Book reviews

Toward a Global Civil Society edited by M. Walzer. Providence, RI and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995. Pp.341. £31. ISBN 1 57181 05 4

Politics UK by Bill Jones, Andrew Gray, Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Moran, Philip Norton and Anthony Seldon. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall, 1998 (3rd edn). £16.50 (paperback). Pp.xiv + 571; index. ISBN 0132696061

Athens on Trial: The Antidemocratic Tradition in Western Thought by Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp.426. £38 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 691 05697 8 and 02919 9

The Rise and Fall of State Socialism: Industrial Society and the Socialist State by David Lane. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996. Pp.viii + 233; index. £45 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 74560 742 X and 743 8

Government and Politics in Africa by William Tordoff. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997. Pp.xxii + 326; notes and references; index. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 333 69473 2 and 69474 0

Democracy in Zambia: Challenges for the Third Republic edited by Owen Sichone and Bornwell C. Chikulo. Harare: SAPES Books, 1996. Pp.237; index. NP (paperback). ISBN 1 77905 047 X

Mapping the Women's Movement edited by Monica Threlfall. London: Verso/New Left Review, 1996. Pp.vii + 312; index. £44.95 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85984 984 9 and 120 1

Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy by Robert Putnam. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp.xiii + 258. £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 691037388

Culture and Politics by Oliver H. Woshinsky. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. Pp.xv + 205; index. £15. ISBNO 13 311366 3

Political Ideas in Modern Britain by Rodney Barker. London: Routledge, 1997 (2nd edn). Pp.352; index; bibliography. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 415 161665 and 07121 6     

Conceptualizing and evaluating (new) forms of citizenship between nationalism and cosmopolitanism

In an age of transnational flows and interdependencies, democratic citizenship can no longer be conceptualized exclusively within national boundaries. This paper presents a conceptual map that allows tracing emerging and proposed forms of citizenship within and beyond the nation state in a comprehensive and differentiated way. We disentangle two anchor points: membership in a political community as the fundament of citizenship and the arena of political decision-making as the focal point of citizenship rights, identities and practices. For the former we differentiate between a single national community, the universal community of humankind and multiple (national) communities. For the latter we distinguish the national, supra-national and transnational arena. Our typology thus consists of nine different forms of democratic citizenship. It is used to provide a brief overview over normative proposals and empirical findings leading to the following insights: while membership in a particular national community still dominates the reality in all three political arenas, in the normative discourse it is perceived as deficient. Membership in the universal community of humankind is widely endorsed in the normative discourse, but almost nonexistent. In contrast, membership in multiple communities is not only a growing reality but also normatively promising for democratizing a transnationalizing world.