Not again! Public perception,regulation, and nanotechnology

It is often argued that immediate government action regarding nanotechnology is needed to ensure that public opinion does not mistakenly view nanotechnology as dangerous, to restore public trust in government, and to increase the legitimacy of government action through increased public participation. This article questions whether governments can achieve these goals. As the world lurches toward regulation of nanotechnology, we should ask Why the rush? Can anticipatory action, perceived as the government doing something, fulfill the competing hopes to “restore trust,”“pave the way” for nanotechnology, “increase awareness,” and “satisfy democratic notions of accountability”? Or is government action more likely to increase existing divisions over nanotechnology's future?     

Battered Women’s Experiences of the Criminal Justice System: Decentring the Law

This article takes up Smart??s suggestion to examine the way the law works in practice. It explores the context of current criminal prosecutions of domestic violence offences in Queensland, Australia. This article argues that legal method is applied outside the higher courts or ??judge-oriented?? practice and that the obstacles inherent to legal method can be identified in the practices of police, lower court staff, magistrates and lawyers. This article suggests that it may be difficult to deconstruct legal method, even by focussing on law in practice, and as a result it may be difficult to successfully challenge law??s truth claims in this way. The analysis of criminal prosecutions of domestic violence offences reported here supports Smart??s earlier findings that women and children who seek redress through the criminal justice process find the process at best ambivalent and at worst, destructive. However, the article also shows how, in the Queensland context, women sometimes find their way to feminism and personal empowerment by going to law.     

Do School Board Governance Best Practices Improve District Performance? Testing the Key Work of School Boards in Wisconsin

The most prominent set of school board governance best practices used in the United States is the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA’s) Key Work of School Boards. In this article, we operationalize adherence to the Key Work of School Boards with multiple survey items answered by Wisconsin school board members. Using multivariate regression models, we find that adherence to the best practices results in improved achievement in districts represented by board members who have served for five or more years. The findings support the idea that school board governance behaviors are linked to district-level academic outcomes.     

Linking Social Anxiety and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Functioning: Indirect Effects and the Importance of Peers

Peer relationships undergo dramatic shifts in form and function during adolescence, at the same time the incidence of socially evaluative fears sharply rises. Despite well-established links between social anxiety and broader interpersonal functioning, there is a dearth of research evaluating the impact of social anxiety on functioning in close relationships during this developmental stage. The present study examines the impact of social anxiety on functioning in close friendships and romantic relationships during adolescence. From a developmental psychopathology perspective, it was expected that social anxiety would influence functioning (quality, length, satisfaction) in romantic relationships through its influence on functioning in same- and other-sex friendships. Participants included 314 adolescents (60.5 % female, 14–19 years of age) with a prior or current history of romantic relationship involvement. Structural equation modeling was used to test a mediation model positing an indirect pathway from social anxiety to romantic relationship functioning through functioning in close same- and other-sex friendships. Given known gender differences in social anxiety and relationship functioning, gender also was explored as a potential moderator. Results supported the hypothesized indirect pathway whereby social anxiety was associated with impairment in same-sex friendships; functioning in same-sex friendships was associated with functioning in other-sex friendships, which was associated, in turn, with functioning in romantic relationships. While the hypothesized indirect pathway was significant among both boys and girls, there was greater continuity of functioning between same- and other-sex friendships for girls. These findings highlight the importance of examining the multiple downstream effects of social anxiety on perceived social functioning in adolescence, and suggest that continuity may exist for maladaptive patterns of socialization, particularly across developmentally salient close relationships.     

MOVING INTO GLOBAL COMPETITION: A Case Study of Alabama's Recruitment of Mercedes-Benz

Globalization is changing the game of economic development, but the emerging rules and optimal strategies remain somewhat unclear. The Mercedes case discussed in this article illustrates the rough and uncertain nature of this transition. From the perspective of the traditional strategy, the price of the jobs initially promised by Mercedes seemed high; and the ultimate cost was increased by the intense competition among the bidding states. Yet from another perspective, the incentives offered by Alabama can be viewed as “table stakes” for the new global game of economic development.