The Missing Piece of the Lisbon Jigsaw: Is the Open Method of Coordination Effective in Relation to the European Research Area?

Abstract:  In the light of the subsidiarity principle, this article discusses the Community competence in relation to the 'European Research Area'. As such it responds directly to the question of whether the European commitment to consider research as one of the new emerging priorities of the EU, is reflected in the Member States domestic research policies. To this aim, the article outlines the Community policy to enhance European competitiveness and the goals set in the Lisbon Declaration (March 2000) and reaffirmed in the Barcelona Declaration (March 2002) shaping the European Research Area. It then goes on to investigate whether the Lisbon and Barcelona agenda targets on competitiveness are likely to be met at European level. The functioning and effectiveness of the Open Method of Co-ordination are examined as a tool to maximise synergies between national and community research and technological development activities. The article, using the Italian research policy as a case study, claims there are some inconsistencies between the Italian and the EU policies on research and technological development and transfer of best practice.     

Epidemiological Considerations in the Conceptualization and Utilization of “Prevalence” and “Incidence Rate” in Family Violence Research: A Reply to Brownridge and Halli (1999)

Brownridge and Halli (1999) have argued that the literature on family violence is beset by confusion in the conceptualization and utilization of incidence and prevalence terminology. Although we basically agree with the authors' diagnosis of the field, definitions of prevalence and incidence that they propose as gold standards are sometimes discrepant with established concepts in epidemiology. Drawing on the epidemiologic literature, we present more solidly based and operational definitions of these terms and try to understand the meaning of each measure. The same confusion surrounding use of prevalence and incidence also reigns in child maltreatment research, as revealed in our review of major studies. We address some of the main but often overlooked issues associated with use of epidemiologic measures in an area of social research such as family violence and make some proposals.     

The robustness of Kingma’s crowd-out estimate: Evidence from new data on contributions to public radio

We revisit Kingma’s (Kingma (1989). Journal of Political Economy, 97, 1197–1207) widely cited study of charitable contributions to public radio. Kingma’s estimate of partial, but statistically significant crowd-out remains a benchmark in the literature because he was able to match household-level contributions data with station-level data on revenue, including revenue from government grants. To the best of our knowledge, no comparable data have become available until now. We replicate Kingma’s estimates with the original data and then apply the same methodology to very similar data from 1996. Kingma’s estimates are not robust to the use of the newer data.     

Assessing Qualitative Studies in Public Administration Research

Systematic reviews of research methods in the public administration field have assessed the progress of research practice and offered relevant recommendations to further develop research quality. But most recent reviews examine quantitative studies, and the few assessments of qualitative scholarship tend to focus on specific dimensions. This article calls attention to the overall practice of qualitative research in the field of public administration. The authors analyzed 129 qualitative studies published during a five‐year period (2010–14) in the six top public administration journals, combining bibliometric and qualitative analyses. Three findings are drawn from the analysis. First, qualitative work represents a very small percentage of the journal articles published in the field. Second, qualitative research practice uses a small range of methodologies, mainly case studies. Finally, there is inconsistency in reporting methodological decisions. The article discusses the implications of these findings and offers recommendations to ensure methodological rigor while considering the integrity of the logic of inquiry and reporting standards of qualitative research practice.     

Mothers and Their Adolescent Daughters: Relationship Between Self-Esteem,Gender Role Identity,Body Image

The relationship between the predictor variables of self-esteem and gender role identity, and the criterion measure of body image, were examined for 82 mothers and their menstrual daughters, and for 31 mothers and their premenstrual daughters. Findings from the regression analyses indicated that higher self-esteem was significantly related to positive body image scores for menstrual daughters and both groups of mothers, but not for the premenstrual participants. The role of gender identity in contributing to body image was more complex, with greater femininity being correlated with more positive body image for the premenstrual daughters and for the mothers of the menstrual daughters, and greater masculinity being correlated with more positive body image scores for the menstrual girls in the study. Mothers' body image scores were positively correlated with their daughters' body image scores for mother/menstrual daughter pairs but not for the mother/premenstrual daughter pairs in the study. Results support a complex relationship between age, physical maturation, and mother/daughter dynamics in contributing to the development of a positive body image for adolescent girls during puberty.     

Reviews

Seyla Benhabib, Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (Polity Press) Cambridge, 1992.

Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman (eds), Feminism and the Politics of Difference (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1993.

Joyce Trebilcot, Dyke Ideas: Process, Politics, Daily Life (State University of New York Press) New York, 1994.

Paulina Palmer, Contemporary Lesbian Writing: Dreams, Desire, Difference (Open University Press) Buckingham & Philadelphia, 1993.

Catriona Moore, Indecent Exposures: Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, 1994.

Jeanette Hoorn (ed.), Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender (Melbourne University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Sharon Ouditt, Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War (Routledge) London, 1994.

Penny Russell (ed.), For Richer, For Poorer: Early Colonial Marriages (Melbourne University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Jacqueline J. Goodnow and Jennifer M. Bowes, Men, Women and Household Work (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Janeen Baxter, Work at Home: The Domestic Division of Labour (University of Queensland Press) St Lucia, 1993.

Patricia Easteal, Voices of the Survivors (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1994.

Lynette Finch, The Classing Gaze: Sexuality, Class and Surveillance (Allen & Unwin) St. Leonards, 1993.

Renate Howe (ed.), Women and the State: Australian Perspectives, A special edition of Journal of Australian Studies (La Trobe University Press) Bundoora, 1993.

Barbara Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women's Movements in East Central Europe (Verso) London & New York, 1993.

Loulou Brown, Helen Collins, Pat Green, Maggie Humm & Mel Landells (eds), The International Handbook of Women's Studies (Harvester Wheatsheaf) Brighton, 1994.     

Trusts in American law and some of their substitutes in Spanish law: Introduction and Part I

This article describes how trusts are used in American law andhow Spanish law provides similar facilities for investors. Thearticle is in two parts. The first part examines, from a USpoint of view, the principal uses of trusts and the second partwill describe aspects of Spanish law that provide similar facilitiesfor investors before concluding that none of the tools availablein Spanish law fulfil all the functions of trusts and that theintroduction of a trust law into Spanish law would not be simple.     

Disentangling privacy from property: toward a deeper understanding of genetic privacy

With the mapping of the human genome, genetic privacy has become a concern to many. People care about genetic privacy because genes play an important role in shaping us--our genetic information is about us, and it is deeply connected to our sense of ourselves. In addition, unwanted disclosure of our genetic information, like a great deal of other personal information, makes us vulnerable to unwanted exposure, stigmatization, and discrimination. One recent approach to protecting genetic privacy is to create property rights in genetic information. This Article argues against that approach. Privacy and property are fundamentally different concepts. At heart, the term "property" connotes control within the marketplace and over something that is disaggregated or alienable from the self. "Privacy," in contrast, connotes control over access to the self as well as things close to, intimately connected to, and about the self. Given these different meanings, a regime of property rights in genetic information would impoverish our understanding of that information, ourselves, and the relationships we hope will be built around and through its disclosure. This Article explores our interests in genetic information in order to deepen our understanding of the ongoing discourse about the distinction between property and privacy. It develops a conception of genetic privacy with a strong relational component. We ordinarily share genetic information in the context of relationships in which disclosure is important to the relationship--family, intimate, doctor-patient, researcher-participant, employer-employee, and insurer-insured relationships. Such disclosure makes us vulnerable to and dependent on the person to whom we disclose it. As a result, trust is essential to the integrity of these relationships and our sharing of genetic information. Genetic privacy can protect our vulnerability in these relationships and enhance the trust we hope to have in them. Property, in contrast, by connoting commodification, disaggregation, and arms-length dealings, can negatively affect the self and harm these relationships. This Article concludes that a deeper understanding of genetic privacy calls for remedies for privacy violations that address dignitary harm and breach of trust, as opposed to market harms, as the property model suggests.