Digital Commons Network^™

Cooperative Extension: A Complex Organization, Nancy K. Franz, Lisa Townson

Nancy K. Franz

The authors provide an overview of the Cooperative Extension System and its program evaluation challenges. Part of the historic land-grant system, Extension exists in all states and territories of the United States and is funded through federal, state, and local (usually county) appropriations, as well as competitive grants and other sources. Complex funding, staffing, and accountability structures combined with widely varying programs and delivery methods make program development and evaluation challenging for Extension. Although each state’s Extension service operates autonomously, they all share a need to communicate program impacts and public value, which has become the main driver for program …

Conducting Ethnography In China, Leung-Sea, Lucia Siu

Prof. SIU Leung-sea, Lucia

Conducting ethnography in modern China can be highly fruitful, yet there are special-care items that seldom appear in methodology literature. Drawn from the author’s fieldwork in China’s futures markets in 2005, the first part of this paper discusses a list of practical items that ethnographers are likely to face: field access, the organizational culture of public and quasi-public institutions, obtaining trust, the scenarios of gifts and banquets, reliability of statistical data, politically sensitive areas, and personal safety.

The second part is a reflection on standpoint issues, namely Orientalism and nationalism. Ethnographers usually face tensions that arise from their roles, as …

Trabajo, Calidad De Vida Y Salud, José G. Salazar-Estrada, Mario Angel-González, Cecilia Colunga-Rodríguez, Manuel Pando-Moreno

José G. Salazar Estrada

A transversal analytic study was carried out to compare quality of life (QOL) and general health (GH) in workers users of health centers in Guadalajara. The non-probabilistic sample included 261 adults: 110 wage earning workers and 151 unemployed. EuroQOL D-5 and the General Health Questionnaire were applied, and the diagnosis of diabetes was registered. Ji2 OR and F of Fisher were used, con SPSS 10.0, considering significant p<0.5. More men were found in the employed group versus the unemployed one (65% vs 17%) (p=0.00), resulting the mean ages 54 vs 56 years old respectively for the mentioned groups (0.00), which had no instruction level differences between them. There were more widowers in the out of work (11% vs 20%) (p=0.05) and highest frequency of diabetes was found in workers. QOL was higher in workers (73 vs 70 points) (p=0.02), and anxiety/depression were higher in unemployed (61% vs. 48%) (p=0.03), OR 1.72 (1.02- 2.93). Workers qualified better in GH (73% vs 49%); OR 2.41 (1.37-4.27). The results suggest positive influence of work in the subjective assessment of welfare, despite physical illness.

Increasing Political Activism And Mobilization: Building An Oromo Agency And Capacity For Liberation, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

Without increasing our political activism, mobilizing and organizing our people, we cannot effectively challenge and defeat our external and internal enemies that are attempting to strangulate the development of Oromummaa and the progress of the Oromo national struggle. Our external enemies have been using Oromo clienteles to achieve their political and economic objectives in Oromia. Some Oromos have been used as raw materials in building other nations. Such Oromos have lacked political and national consciousness or lacked self-respect and attacked the Oromo nation for money and other interests. As the Said Bare government created and used the Somali Abo group …

Social Policy, Imperiled Communities, And Hiv/Aids Transmission In Prisons: A Call For Zero Tolerance, Louis F. Graham, Henrie Treadwell, Kisha Braithwaite

Louis F Graham

HIV/AIDS and African-American male imprisonment contribute to the destruction of African-American communities. African-American men and HIV/AIDS are disproportionately represented throughout all sectors of the criminal justice industry, including the juvenile justice system. The criminal justice system contributes to unacceptably high African-American male imprisonment rates and HIV prevalence directly via the ‘war on drugs’ and lax enforcement of institutional policy among other things, and indirectly through perpetuation of economic hardship which further exacerbates imprisonment rates, thus closing the loop of a vicious cycle of revolving prison doors and HIV contraction. This article briefly introduces surrounding socio-political issues that contextualizes the ensuing …

O Turismo Como Fator De Contribuição Para O Desenvolvimento Local: Uma Análise Do Planejamento Municipal De Piraquara – Paraná, Jorge Amaro Bastos Alves

Jorge Amaro Bastos Alves

Empathic Concern And Prosocial Behaviors: A Test Of Experimental Results Using Survey Data, Christopher J. Einolf

Christopher J Einolf

This study uses survey data to test the correlation between empathic concern and fourteen different prosocial behaviors, including informal help to individuals and formal helping through institutions. Statistically significant correlations were found for ten behaviors, but substantively meaningful correlations were only found for three, all of which were spontaneous, informal helping behaviors, where the individual needing help was directly present. The findings indicate that empathic concern may not be an important motivator for planned decisions to help others who are not immediately present, which often occurs with volunteering, charitable giving, and blood donation. The weak correlation between empathic concern and …

The Era Of Greed Is Over, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Why has socialism got such a bad rap in the US? Just check who controls the flow of information, writes Michael I. Niman

Liberdade, Ética E Direito, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Further than Ethics concieved as mere obedience, Republican Ethics expresses the idea of duty for freedom and Liberty. After Law concieved as only duty and imperative norms from power to the subjects, there is the possibility of a fraternal law, in new patterns. This article explores several ways in a new ethics and a new law paradigms, after the objective Roman Law and the subjective modern Law.

Jogelmélet Jog Nélkül? [Legal Theory Without Law?], Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

No abstract provided.

Los Académicos Mexicanos A Principios Del Siglo Xxi: Una Primera Exploración Sobre Quiénes Son Y Cómo Perciben Su Trabajo, Sus Instituciones Y Algunas Políticas Públicas, Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes

Jesús Francisco Galaz Fontes

Con base a una encuesta nacional de 1973 académicos en su gran mayoría de tiempo completo, se proporciona información sobre su perfil demográfico y la manera en que perciben sus condiciones de trabajo, las actividades que realizan, el ambiente organizacional y sus opiniones respecto a políticas públicas como el Sistema Nacional de Investigadores y el Programa para el Mejoramiento del Profesorado. Los resultados encontrados se discuten a la luz de los procesos de cambio que se han venido dando en la educación superior mexicana durante las últimas tres décadas, y se reflexionan sobre algunas de las implicaciones de dichos resultados.

Faces Of Terrorism In The Age Of Globalization: Terrorism From Above And Below, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

This paper explains how the intensification of globalization as the modern world system with its ideological intensity of racism and religious extremism and its concomitant advancement in technology and organizational skills has increased the danger of all forms of terrorism. In this world system, the contestation over economic resources and power and the resistance to domination and repression or religious and ideological extremism have increased the occurrence of terrorism from above (i.e. state actors) and from below (i.e. non-state actors). We cannot adequately grasp the essence and characteristics of modern terrorism without understanding the larger cultural, social, economic, and political …

Player Guild Dynamics And Evolution In Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Chien Hsun Chen, J. L. Hsieh, C. T. Sun

Chien Hsun Chen

In the latest versions of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), developers have purposefully made guilds part of game environments. Guilds represent a powerful method for giving players a sense of online community, but there is little quantitative data on guild dynamics. To address this topic, we took advantage of a feature found in one of today’s most popular MMOGs (World of Warcraft) to collect in-game data: user interfaces that players can modify and refine. In addition to collecting data on in-game player activities, we used this feature to observe and investigate how players join and leave guilds. Data were analyzed …

Book Review 17 Me, Myself, And Why? The Secrets To Navigating Change By Lisa A. Mininni, William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my personal review of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change by Lisa A. Mininni which was published in 2007 by PM Publishing.

Book Review 18 Make Room For Happiness By Steven Melemis, William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my review of Make Room for Happiness: 12 Ways to Improve Your Life By Letting Go of Tension. Better Health, Self-Esteem and Relationships by Steven Melemis, published by Modern Therapies in 2008.

Precarious Collaborations. Working-Class Subjectivities, Community Activism, And The Problem With “Social Movement Unionism” In Late-Apartheid East Rand (South Africa), Franco Barchiesi, Bridget Kenny

Franco Barchiesi

An influential current in South African labor studies has used the concept of ‘social movement unionism’ to characterize organized labor’s contribution to South Africa’s post-Apartheid democratization. Part of the concept of social movement unionism is the idea that during the 1980s independent black workers’ unions combined workplace struggles with community-based concerns related to social services, repression, and political disenfranchisement. In this way, trade unions came to play a politically transformative role, which implied both innovative labor-community alliances and the appropriation by organized labor of social movements’ mobilizing modalities. After a decline in the immediate post-Apartheid period, when scholars and union …

Las Razones De Presencia Y Éxito De Los Partidos Étnicos En América Latina. Los Casos De Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, México, Nicaragua Y Perú (1990-2005)., Salvador Marti I Puig

Salvador Marti i Puig

El texto explora si existe alguna causalidad entre la presencia y relevancia de los partidos étnicos (PE) en seis países latinoameri- canos y las “condiciones favorables” que indican diversas perspectivas de la literatura sobre acción colectiva. Para ello se realiza un análisis cuali- tativo multicausal orientado a los casos y a las variables que usa la lógica booleana para sim- plificar estructuras de datos complejos de forma sistemática. Con ello se trata de identificar la variedad de pautas causales de la presencia y éxito de los PÉ en Bolivia, Ecuador y Nicaragua, y no en Guatemala, México y Perú.

Luxury Markets, Antitrust, And Intellectual Property: An Introduction, Ben Kleinman-Green

Ben Kleinman-Green

In this paper I look at markets for luxury goods and begin exploring the interplay among trademark law, antitrust law, luxury goods, and copies of luxuries. In the absence of empirical data and economic theories directly on point, I informally extend a model of luxury markets to account for copies of luxury goods and then look to trademark law cases for indications of how courts might evaluate luxury markets in an antitrust context.

Potential Of Using Breast Milk As A Tool To Study Breast Cancer And Breast Cancer Risk, Kathleen Arcaro, Douglas L. Anderton

Douglas L. Anderton

No abstract provided.

Globalisation And Migrant Labour In A 'Rainbow Nation': A Fortress South, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Outside southern Africa little attention has been given to the lively debates, particularly within South Africa, about migration, economic integration, racism/xenophobia and exclusion. After the collapse of apartheid the Southern African Development Community (sadc) developed initiatives on regional co-operation on population movement in a far-reaching 1995 Draft Protocol on Free Movement. However, the post-apartheid South African state was concerned solely with free trade and, with the support of other regional players, managed to halt the Protocol. The processes of neoliberal regional integration, socioeconomic transformations, poverty and inequality, as well as the political turmoil in countries of the sub-Saharan region, have …

Kατεδαφιζόμεθα Ή Καταρρέει Ένα Ιδεολόγημα, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Kατεδαφιζόμεθα ή καταρρέει ένα ιδεολόγημα Στο απόηχο της πρώτης και σ’ αναμονή της δεύτερης συνάντησης των δύο ηγετών, του κ. Χριστόφια και κ. Ταλάτ, «ξέσπασε» ή μάλλον «κατασκευάστηκε» από κάποια μίντια (και τις εμπρηστικές δηλώσεις από διάφορους) μια έξαλλη «συζήτηση» γύρω από την εγκύκλιο του Υπουργού Παιδείας. Μάλλον καταλάγιασε, προσωρινά τουλάχιστον, αλλά θα σιγοκαίει καθώς προχωρούν οι συνομιλίες. «Αλλού μας τρώει» λοιπόν… Αξίζει ωστόσο να πάρουμε κάτι από τις αντιδράσεις από μια εγκύκλιο που λέει τα αυτονόητα, κι απλά θέλει να εφαρμόσει στην πράξη αυτά που προφανώς ψευδώς διακηρύσσαμε. Γι’ αυτό και παίρνουμε στα σοβαρά τα τραγελαφικά που ζούμε κι …

Poverty And Proximate Barriers To Learning: Vision Deficiencies, Vision Correction And Educational Outcomes In Rural Northwest China, Emily Hannum, Yuping Zhang

Emily C. Hannum

Few studies of educational barriers in developing countries have investigated the role of children’s vision problems, despite the self-evident challenge that poor vision poses to classroom learning and the potential for a simple ameliorative intervention. We address this gap with an analysis of two datasets from Gansu Province, a highly impoverished province in northwest China. One dataset is the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF, 2000 and 2004), a panel survey of 2,000 children in 100 rural villages; the other is the Gansu Vision Intervention Project (GVIP, 2004), a randomized trial involving 19,185 students in 165 schools in two …

Mexican Academics At The Turn Of The Twenty-First Century: Who Are They And How Do They Perceive Their Work, Institutions And Public Policies (A Preliminary Analysis), Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes, Laura E. Padilla-González, Manuel Gil-Antón, Juan J. Sevilla-García, José L. Arcos-Vega, Jorge G. Martínez-Stack, Sergio Martínez-Romo, Gabriel A. Sánchez-De-Aparicio-Y-Benítez, Leonardo Jiménez-Loza, María E. Barrera-Bustillos

Jesús Francisco Galaz Fontes

Based on a first cut of nearly 826 Mexican full-time faculty, data is presented in relation to their socio-demographic profile, working conditions, and opinions regarding their institution. Results, although preliminary, are discussed in the context of the changes Mexican higher education has gone through the last four decades.

Democracy And Social Welfare, Dietrich Rueschemeyer

Dietrich Rueschemeyer

No abstract provided.

Crossroads: Women Priests In The Roman Catholic Church, Victoria Rue

Victoria Rue

Since 2002 Catholic women have been ordained and are ministering to communities through the organization Roman Catholic womenpriests (RCWP). In this article, Victoria Rue, PhD, ordained a womanpriest in 2005, reflects on ecclesial structures and the theologies that underpin them. RCWP uses the titles deacon, priest, and bishop. At the same time they do not wish to replicate the hierarchical model those titles suggest. At this crossroads of the old and the new, how do the women of RCWP redefine these models and their attendant theologies and still stay within the Roman Catholic Church?

Religion In Urban America Program Chicago Conversations, Elfriede Wedam Phd

Elfriede Wedam

No abstract provided.

A Clash Of Cultures: The Integration Of User-Generated Content Within Professional Journalistic Frameworks At British Newspaper Websites, Alfred Hermida, Neil J. Thurman

Neil Thurman

This study examines how national UK newspaper websites are integrating user-generated content (UGC). A survey quantifying the adoption of UGC by mainstream news organisations showed a dramatic increase in the opportunities for contributions from readers. In-depth interviews with senior news executives revealed this expansion is taking place despite residual doubts about the editorial and commercial value of material from the public. The study identified a shift towards the use of moderation due to editors' persistent concerns about reputation, trust, and legal liabilities, indicating that UK newspaper websites are adopting a traditional gate-keeping role towards UGC. The findings suggest a gate-keeping …

Book Review 16 Wellness Leadership: Creating Supportive Environments For Healthier And More Productive Employees By Judd Allen, Ph.D., William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my personal review of Wellness Leadership: Creating supportive environments for healthier and more productive employees by Judd Allen, Ph.D. which was published in 2008 by Healthycultures.com.

Unforeseen Consequences Of Mothers’ Return To School On Children’S Education Aspirations And Outcomes, J. Jill Suitor, Mari Plikuhn, Megan Gilligan, Rebecca S. Powers

Megan Gilligan

Parents' educational attainment is generally completed before offspring are born. Thus, there is little opportunity to study the ways in which children's observation of their parents' pursuit of education may augment the effects of structural factors on intergenerational transmission processes. In this article, the authors use qualitative and quantitative data collected from thirty-five women across a decade following their return to school to examine the effects of children's observations of their mothers' educational achievements on the children's educational aspirations and achievements in adulthood. The return to school was consequential only when mothers completed their degrees; when they did not, their …

Discoveries: New And Noteworthy Social Research, Ryan Alaniz, Erika Busse, Keith A. Cunnien, Meghan L. Krausch, Wesley Longhofer, Heather Mclaughlin, Chika Shinohara, Jon Smajda, Jesse Wozniak

Ryan C. Alaniz

No abstract provided.