Unresolved Comte

This article examines the recent biography of Auguste Comte by Mary Pickering. It suggests that the new biography provides much useful new information on Comte's life and work,but argues that Comte's theoretical sociology has not been well served.Unnecessary complicationshave been introduced in the interpretation of Comte's personal life which make it essential to examine ways of reading the new biography.     

PCBs in Construction Materials: Old Chemical,New Context

U.S. regulations have historically focused on control of liquid polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Nonliquid PCBs present as plasticizers in some construction materials were generally viewed as immobile and not of public health or environmental concern. By the 2000s, nonliquid PCBs began receiving significant regulatory attention, particularly in schools. More recently, PCB-containing construction materials at commercial and industrial facilities are also receiving increased attention. This article highlights the drivers that have led to the increased focus on nonliquid PCBs in construction materials and why this trend is likely to continue, and highlights some of the complexities that can arise for stakeholders.     

Progrssive Regrimes, Partnerships and the Involvement of Local Communities: A Framework for Evaluation

This paper examines the nature of community involvement in urban politics as it is played out through regeneration partnerships. At a theoretical level, it explores the potential for a community dimension to local governance, that is, a strategic influence for communities within local power structures. It is argued that the nature of involvement can be explicated by considering three concepts: power (as expressed by urban regime theory), participation and partnership. The paper explores these three broad themes and then focuses on the particular issues pertaining to community involvement in partnership working. Building on this frame-work, the paper develops a model – a 'wheel of involvement'– for analysing the effectiveness of community involvement in regeneration partnerships. This model enables the effectiveness of involvement to be 'quantified by the use of a simple questionnaire survey. It provides a tool for academic researchers and practitioners concerned with evaluating partnerships to begin to explore the quality and level of community involvement in the process of urban renewal. The results of an analysis of two regeneration partnerships are presented as an illustration of the efficacy of the evaluative technique.     

Revealing information in electoral competition

Electoral competition between two expert candidates may lead to inefficient platform choices. The present paper studies electoral competition between two experts and a third uninformed candidate. The latter behaves populistically. This seemingly useless candidate restores efficiency. The paper then endogenizes information acquisition. If the information acquisition costs are low, then equilibria with (i) three expert candidates or (ii) two experts and one uninformed candidate may arise. There are costs such that the latter equilibrium is the only pure strategy equilibrium in which information is transmitted.