Only Contradictions on Offer

Segal addresses feminism's future at a time when political energies are apparently in decline. She explores the contradictory models of feminism operating in political and media representations: the dominance of gender questions and gender anxieties, including the marked concern with models of 'proper' masculinity, inevitably implicates feminists in the political arena. The decline in political engagement among feminists is in any case disturbing, because women without power have been made the central targets of neo-conservative social policies in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, with the female 'welfare dependent' becoming particularly demonized. The failure of feminists to address such issues results from the decline of socialist feminisms, and a general failure within feminism to make class and race differences, and the inequalities that result from them, the central plank of its theories and politics. Segal calls attention to the divorce between feminist theory and feminist activism, and argues that the politics of the academy have largely contributed to a disciplinary specialization which militates against feminism's productive interdisciplinarity. While the literary paradigms that now dominate feminist thought have produced rich models for subjectivity and identity, the decrease in social science contributions to the field has led to a lessening of attention to existing social relations. Segal insists upon the necessity of a continuing engagement with cultural questions, but argues that these need to be combined with a commitment to radical social transformation if feminisms, in all their complexity and multifariousness, are to have a future.     

Using state-level simulations in a political economy model of US trade policy

Most analyses of US congressional votes on trade policy identify political and economic factors, and general economic conditions as significant factors. In this paper we examine whether simulated state-level impacts of trade policy changes obtained from an applied general equilibrium model explain recent US Senate votes on trade bills. We find that simulated gross state product effects are good predictors of recent trade-policy votes. Our model-based measures of trade sensitivity perform slightly better in statistical terms than the more traditional economic measures. For the Senate as a whole, import considerations have a larger impact on senate voting than export considerations.     

Legal Responses to the Standard Form Contract of Employment

Having suggested that the advent of standard form contractsof employment is a neglected aspect of employment law, an assessmentis made of two of the main legal responses to the potentialunfairness of terms, namely implied terms and the applicationof section 3 the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. The Law Commission'sproposed legislative reform is also examined. It is concludedthat only by combining terms implied by the law with the statutoryprotection of reasonable expectations of employees will thelaw succeed in devising an adequate technique for rebalancingcontracts of employment.     

The use of crossover immunoelectrophoresis to detect human blood protein in soil from an ambush scene in Kosovo

This study examines the survivability of human blood proteins in soils from a year and a half old ambush scene in Kosovo. A total of 72 soil samples were collected, a number of which were directly associated with bone fragments or bullet projectiles. The samples were examined using crossover immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) to determine the presence of blood protein and species affiliation. Human blood proteins were identified in 44 of the 72 samples (61%) with the majority of the positive observations (29 of 44) found 0.0-4.5 cm below ground surface (65%). Chi-squared and two-sample difference of proportions tests confirmed significant differences between samples with and without associated physical evidence and the presence and depth of human blood proteins. While DNA has largely replaced immunological analysis in forensic analyses, our results suggest that in particular situations, CIEP may still be a valuable tool in criminology.     

Trump's North Korea Bluster Has Shattered US Standing As Global Leader

The more stridently Trump says he is going to stop North Korea, the worse it looks when he fails, and the more Beijing stands to gain.