Diversity in Modeling Diffusion of Information Technology

This paper describes how a diverse set of models of diffusion of information technology brings depth of understanding and a better basis for management decisions. Three dissimilar innovation diffusion models, the interactive model, the linked-chain model and the emergent model, are used to develop an analysis that describes the essential knowledge that each model produces. Rather than develop conflicting stories, each model leads to distinctly different, but complementary, knowledge about the practical setting. The analysis demonstrates how distinct conceptual domains inhabit each model. These domains define the scope of practical management questions that can be addressed by each of the innovation diffusion models.     

Space, Boundaries, and the Problem of Order: A View from Systems Theory

The idea our global polity is chiefly divided by territorially organized nation-states captures contemporary constellations of power and authority only insufficiently. Through a decoupling of power and the state, political spaces no longer match geographical spaces. Instead of simply acknowledging a challenge to the state, there is the need to rethink the changing meaning of space for political processes. The paper identifies three aspects, a reconceptualization of the spatial assumptions that IR needs to address: the production of space, the constitutive role of boundaries, and the problem of order. With this contribution, we argue that one avenue in understanding the production of space and the following questions of order is by converging systems theory and critical geopolitics. While the latter has already developed a conceptual apparatus to analyze the production of space, the former comes with an encompassing theoretical background, which takes "world society" as the starting point of analysis. In this respect, nation states are understood as a form of internal differentiation of a wider system, namely world society.     

Islamic law in contemporary North Africa: A study of the laws of divorce in the Maghreb

At a time when the nations of Islam are being depicted as the new specter threatening the developed world's horizons, it is crucial that informed Westerners re-examine the prejudices and misconceptions they have acquired over the years. Distorted perceptions will be dispelled not with violent emotions but rather by the chipping away of ignorance with meticulous study. This is certainly no less true in the emotionally charged field of women's studies. The role of women in Islam is as poorly understood in the West as any aspect of Muslim culture and the responsible feminist is clearly confronted with a delicate delimma; the extrication of the justified urge for universal female equality from self-seeking cultural intrusion. This is only possible through a rigorous understanding of Islam's heritage, its context, and its own defined goals.The following paper is a contribution to this expanding body of knowledge in the west. It is an analysis of the Islamic laws of divorce as manifested in North Africa. The opinions of the prevalent Maliki school are presented with the analysis of their transformation under colonization and the present trends appearing in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.     

Long-term effects of two childhood psychosocial interventions on adolescent delinquency,substance use,and antisocial behavior: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Objectives

Examine the long-term effects of two childhood universal prevention programs on adolescent delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior.

Methods

The cluster randomized controlled trial involved 56 schools and 1,675 children in Zurich, Switzerland. Two evidence-based interventions, namely the social-emotional skills program Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) and the cognitive-behavioral parenting program Triple P, were implemented during the first two years of primary school, at ages 7 and 8 years. Outcomes were measured at ages 13 and 15 years, and included youth self-reports and teacher assessments. Multilevel models were used to account for the clustered nature of the interventions. Effects were estimated with the inclusion of baseline covariates.

Results

Across 13 outcomes related to delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior at ages 13 and 15 years, only two non-negligible effects were found. The first was a reduced prevalence of police contacts in the PATHS condition [effect size (ES)?=??0.225). The second was a difference in competent conflict resolution skills in the combined PATHS?+?Triple P condition compared to the context (ES?=?0.259), but in the unexpected direction: participants in the combined treatment appeared to be less competent than their control group peers. All other effects were either statistically non-significant or negligible in size (i.e., ES?<?|0.200|).

Conclusions

Even “evidence-based” interventions may have few long-term effects on delinquency, substance use, and antisocial behavior. Our findings add to the small literature on the long-term effectiveness of early universal prevention in field settings.