Toward a Gendered Social Bond/Male Peer Support Theory of University Woman Abuse

Despite many calls for integratedwoman abuse theories, few have made any suchattempts. Taking as a starting point thatgender blind and conservative theories maystill have some value, Hirschi's social bondtheory is examined with insights from feministmale peer support theory and other criticalperspectives. The goal is not a formal newtheory but rather a heuristic designed to showthe value of adding feminist insight to genderblind theory. Hirschi is turned upside downhere with an argument that attachment andinvolvement with conventional peers may in factpromulgate violence against women thecollege campuses when it is noted thatconventional institutions are patriarchal andpart of a rape culture. University groups(social fraternities, sports teams, etc.) mayenforce adherence through homophobia and grouppressure, while promoting a hypermasculineculture that encourages men to use coercion andforce to increase their count of sexualencounters.     

Chemical, physical and mineralogical characterization of soils from the Curitiba Metropolitan Region for forensic purpose

The objective of this paper is to propose a soil characterization methodology for forensic use, based on physical (textural and spectroscopic analyses), chemical (extractions with hydrofluoric acid, ammonium oxalate, sodium dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate and NaOH solution) and mineralogical (thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction) analyses. The study was carried out in the State of Paraná, Brazil, in three neighborhoods of Curitiba city and in two cities within the Curitiba Metropolitan Region. In order to verify the similarity between samples, four composite samples (repetitions) were prepared in each of the five studied sites. It was obtained a great number of quantitative variables (56) from a reduced amount of soil sample (1g). The variables selected from the chemical extractions (16) were more precise in grouping similar samples (same horizon and sampling site) as well as in separating samples collected in different horizons or sites. Seven distinct groups were formed, each with high intragroup similarity, but the unexpected dispersion of two samples (from a total of 40 samples) reduced the distinction of three other studied groups. The placement of the two samples in a different group and the higher dispersion (24 samples) for samples collected in the city of Curitiba are due to the great pedological homogeneity of this area (physical-chemical horizon characteristics, soil color and parent material). The methodology used in this work (analytical method and data treatment) presents high potential for forensic studies and can be easily validated for other areas.     

Grounding transnational business governance: A political-strategic perspective on government responses in the Global South

Recent scholarship on transnational business governance has begun to examine public-private interactions and the active role of governments. We make two key contributions that integrate and expand this literature. First, in juxtaposition to functionalist accounts, we foreground the fundamentally political and often contentious character of these interactions. As private transnational governance schemes and standards “hit the ground,” private-public interactions, we argue, are embedded in national political arenas and tied to domestic distributional struggles among competing regulatory coalitions. Building upon multiple empirical streams of research, we develop a political-strategic framework that maps the diversity of Southern government responses (substitute, adopt, repurpose, replace, or reject) to transnational private governance. Our framework shows that government responses are a function of both strategic fit with domestic industrial capabilities and structures, and strength of developmental state capacity. Second, our proposed framework adopts the vantage point of Global South governments and industries, particularly how development challenges and strategic options within global value chains affect their understanding of, and responses to, transnational schemes and standards. This is an important corrective to a Northern bias in the private governance literature.     

The ethics of maxima and minima combined with social justice as a form of public corruption prevention

In recent decades, corruption has become one of the main problems perceived by Spanish society. As a result, the country’s citizens are experiencing a high level of disenchantment with politics and a general loss of confidence in the way public institutions function. Although in the last few years more stringent laws have been brought in to speed up procedures and help pursue crimes of corruption, the fact of the matter is that they have done little to reduce these cases and so they are not enough to put an end to the problem. There is a strong likelihood that, if a positive morality and a strong mutual union between ethics and politics were in place, legal loopholes would not be used for individual profitmaking operations that make a mockery of justice and the common good. Because of this, and taking public ethics as a basis, this article will review and discuss Adela Cortina’s hermeneutic definitions “of maxima and minima” and Agustín Domingo Moratalla’s concept of “social justice” in order to suggest tools that can be applied in preventing and fighting against political corruption.

     

Empowering Consumers Through Data and Smart Technology: Experimental Evidence on the Consequences of Time‐of‐Use Electricity Pricing Policies

This paper investigates the extent to which technology used to automate household responses to time‐of‐use pricing for electricity leads to higher energy savings than simply providing households with information on current prices and quantities. Using a large randomized field trial, we find that informed households with “smart” thermostats achieve impressive reductions in consumption during on‐peak periods of up to 48 percent, but also engage in substantial load shifting to off‐peak hours. We also document the extent to which household responses to time‐of‐use pricing are heterogeneous and vary significantly by demographics, weather, and across the usage distribution.     

Do intergovernmental transfers affect the distribution of manufacturing production across regions in federal countries? Theory and evidence for Argentina

The effect of changes in the distribution of top-to-bottom intergovernmental transfers on the location of manufacturing production is analysed using a modified version of the footloose capital model. An increase in the share of transfers received by a region increases its share of manufacturing production the larger are transaction costs; the larger is the share of transfers going directly to consumers; the larger is the share of manufacturing consumption vis-à-vis non-tradable consumption; and the easier consumers can substitute among manufacturing varieties. Using data for Argentina for 1983-2005, the empirical analysis appears to support the existence of two distinctive regimes, with smaller/poorer provinces benefiting in terms of the location of manufacturing production as a response to an increase in transfers. Also, for these provinces, the benefits are greater if they are politically aligned with the federal government, especially through the receipt of discretionary transfers. For large/rich provinces, the evidence is less conclusive.