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Presents a 50-year overview of the production and dissemination of the articles published in "Papers in Regional Science" as of 2004. Historical background on the development of the journal; Concept and contents of the golden anniversary issue of the journal; Developments in the field of regional science.

Presents a list of several books related to anthropology. "Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India"; "Creole Economics: Caribbean Cunning Under the French Flag"; "Rethinking the Mediterranean"; "Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Community."

These comments focus on some issues raised in the papers by Dimand, Peart and Levy, Cot, and Leonard. These papers are fascinating, but not without weaknesses. It is argued that Dimand's presentation of what he calls the “general principle” of classical economics is misconceived. There is a confusion in this paper between the classical view of equal capacity and the much newer concept of equally rational actual performance. Peart and Levy discuss the idea of unequal capacity for pleasure in Edgeworth, but do not draw a link back to the idea in J. S. Mill of different qualities of pleasure. Cot and Leonard provide informative accounts of the American eugenic movement and its links to progressivism, but with an insufficient degree of distinction between the various positions and agendas that were concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a bibliographies of books on anthropology, sociology and history.

Several behavioral scientists have contributed to special issues of the "Decision Science" journal. K. MacCrimmon and J. Siu tackled the significant problem of modeling and measuring and individual decision maker's inevitable trade-offs. The authors find that the choice mode consistently exceeds the equivalence mode in its predictive accuracy. R. Duncan's paper examined possible determinants of the structure of decision units within organization. A. Delbecq studied contextual variables affecting decision making in program planning. Lastly, V. Vroom and A. Jago wrote a paper about decision making as a social process.

Frustration among systems thinking practitioners and academics surfaces from time to time at the apparently limited real‐world influence of systems methodologies and frameworks. Critical systems thinking (CST), in particular, faces many of the challenges common to qualitative research and has the additional challenge that its principal modality is to offer ways of conceptualising. This paper argues that recent explorations of phronetic social science (PSS) provide a useful conceptual frame to discuss and enhance the value of CST. We outline some characteristics of phronetic models and how to conceive and evaluate systemically informed phronetic models. By way of illustration, the paper describes the phronetic framing of two practical tools to support collaborative practice, each built on existing systemic models. Finally, we discuss the potential value of informing PSS with insights drawn from CST, and CST with insights drawn from the emerging field of PSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the rate of citation-capture across the social sciences, sciences, business school disciplines and economics. It also explores differences in the rate of citation-capture between leading journals in economics and a representative science category, and between higher and lower ranked economics journals. Short-term citation counting as used in impact factors and journal ranking schemes is shown to favour sciences over social sciences. In addition, within economics, short-term impact factors are systematically biased towards lower ranked journals. Our results imply that the use of leading multidisciplinary journal rankings as a proxy for direct citations introduces an unreported bias in research assessment. Such biases are in addition to those attributable to the well-known differences in the total number of cites received by papers across various disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of scholarly communication behaviour among Arab scholars. The main objective of this study is to determine how Egyptian and Saudi Arabian social sciences and humanities scholars engage in scholarly communication practices. The study used a mixed‐methods approach. A questionnaire was answered by a sample of 104 participants, followed by interviews with 36 participants to gain insight into the scholarly communication behaviour of the Arab scholars. The analysis demonstrated that participants use different styles of scholarly communication approaches. Most of the participants do use informal (social media) channels to communicate their research findings (particularly ResearchGate and Facebook), although priority is given to formal over informal publication in peer reviewed journals. Responses showed that the promotional systems of both countries dictate publication choices of scholars, reducing the amount of collaboration by ranking co‐publications lower than sole publications and favouring printed journals over online‐only journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous series of papers (Sutherland, Dicks, Everard, & Geneletti,), we summarise the use of a range of social science methods in conservation decision‐making. Moon et al. () claim that the special feature risks narrowing the scope of social science research and suggest that we presented a limited perspective on the field. They thereby criticise the special feature for not doing something that it never intended to do in the first instance. We did not claim that the list of articles covered in the special feature is a comprehensive list (which it obviously is not) and we are unclear why anyone would think it is.While we consider the Moon et al. () paper to be a useful contribution for conservation scientists as a supplementary paper, it serves less as a critique to the special feature. Moon et al.('s () paper makes very few direct and substantive criticisms of points raised in the special feature. We respond to areas of contention referring specifically to research philosophy, bias, and data reporting.Moon et al. () criticise the set of papers for perpetuating an objectivist view of the world. We believe that it would be rather disconcerting for the research community if there were no social truths to discover. Rather, social science research methods conducted in specific places can be good ways of exploring how truths vary in different contexts.We also note that Moon et al. () completely missed the point we were trying to make about psychological biases, which are quite different to the issues associated with researcher bias highlighted by them.We encourage readers to pay close attention to the use of social science methods in conservation science. We reiterate, however, that the main purpose of the special feature was to ensure that social science methodologies for decision‐making are accessible for all conservation scientists to use, regardless of disciplinary background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the 'Milbank Quarterly" for scholarly analysis of important issues in health and health care policy. The contributions of the issue is published from many disciplines which includes history, law, medicine, epidemiology, bioethics, and full array of social science and health services research disciplines. The manuscript submissions are sent electronically to quarterly@milbank.org and editor Bradford H. Gray will make an initial determination about the suitability of the manuscript.

A recent paper by Faria ( Bulletin of Economic Research, 57 (2005), pp. 1–12) deals with the interplay between editors and authors. This research is a welcome addition to the literature on formal analyses of academic markets. This note points out a potential discrepancy in Faria's derivation of the equilibrium journal quality and clarifies the conditions under which journal quality responds to changes in editor's impatience and in author's impatience. Specifically, the effect of a change in author's impatience on journal quality is shown to be not unambiguous. Some implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terms like 'levels' and 'nested' are used to describe relationships between components of conceptual systems (theories, models etc.). However, they have not been fully explored. This paper investigates levels to better understand how theories are structured and so how we may develop more useful theories and models to better support more effective practice. We find a horizontal dimension (represented by causal connections between concepts at one ontological level) and a vertical dimension (represented by connections of emergence between concepts of differing ontological levels). This view of emergence offers a new way to structurally distinguish between conceptual components of a theory, thus supporting a new approach to building theories that better reflects our systemic world. A third, perspectival, approach may be applied to aid in the understanding of both dimensions. A typology is proposed as are conventions for diagramming theories and new criteria for improving the structure of theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the practice of scholarly journal editors of demanding exclusive review of manuscripts sent to them. Scholarly journals are the mainstays of scientific communication, and publication in them by academicians is the primary route to promotion, tenure, salary increases, recognition and mobility. The scrutiny and assessment of the publication process is therefore of vital concern to the scientific community. This paper will examine what, in the author's view, is currently the most vexatious problem that arises out of the interdependent, complex, and unequal relationship between scholar and journal editor that of exclusive review. In the 1960s, Derek Price, an eminent student of the scientific community, estimated that the number of scientists and scientific papers in all fields and in all countries doubles about every ten years.

The Tsing Hua Journal sponsored by Tsing Hua University is investigated by reading, comparing, and analysing original literature about it. It is concluded that it was the first English-language journal of natural science and social science published by a Chinese university. The early establishment of an editorial department, of exchange with European and American journals, and of its inclusion of abstracts of foreign papers, demonstrate its international aims. Through its parallel Chinese- and English-language versions it aimed to achieve an exchange of knowledge between China and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent article (Koop and Tobias, 2004) proposes a direct way to characterize the extent of heterogeneity in returns to education. They investigate the adequacy of several competing models and conclude that returns to schooling are heterogeneous and are best modelled as a bivariate normal distribution. The results of this replication paper basically agree with the authors. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal's special issue is presented in which the guest editors discuss the use of the system dynamics approach (SD).

Abstract: Decision‐making is a complex process that typically includes a series of stages: identifying the issue, considering possible options, making judgements and then making a decision by combining information and values. The current status quo relies heavily on the informational aspect of decision‐making with little or no emphasis on the value positions that affect decisions. There is increasing realization of the importance of adopting rigorous methods for each stage such that the information, views and judgements of stakeholders and experts are used in a systematic and repeatable manner. Though there are several methodological textbooks which discuss a plethora of social science techniques, it is hard to judge the suitability of any given technique for a given decision problem. In decision‐making, the three critical aspects are “what” decision is to be made, “who” makes the decisions and “how” the decisions are made. The methods covered in this paper focus on “how” decisions can be made. We compare six techniques: Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Interviews, Q methodology, Multi‐criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Nominal Group Technique and the Delphi technique specifically in the context of biodiversity conservation. All of these techniques (with the exception of MCDA) help in understanding human values and the underlying perspectives which shape decisions. Based on structured reviews of 423 papers covering all six methods, we compare the conceptual and logistical characteristics of the methods, and map their suitability for the different stages of the decision‐making process. While interviews and FGD are well‐known, techniques such the Nominal Group technique and Q methodology are relatively under‐used. In situations where conflict is high, we recommend using the Q methodology and Delphi technique to elicit judgements. Where conflict is low, and a consensus is needed urgently, the Nominal Group technique may be more suitable. We present a nuanced synthesis of methods aimed at users. The comparison of the different techniques might be useful for project managers, academics or practitioners in the planning phases of their projects and help in making better informed methodological choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this age of isolation, exacerbated by an increased number of natural disasters and their associated impact, we are faced with a deepening poverty of social connections and a high degree of polarisation on multiple counts. Designed for contexts ranging from workplaces to spiritual discourse, more and more instances of intentional conversations are surfacing across the world. It is only when we are able to appreciate the view of 'another', that we are truly able to step beyond the boundary of the self. In this paper, we explore a practitioner's perspective on three formats of gathering that are currently practiced at the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Using social and humanistic values, we outline how these three simple yet powerful techniques embody inclusivity, with the intention of inspiring its readers to consider hosting alternate forms of meetings in academic and organisational settings, thus creating grounds for compassionate understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on fourth World Conference on Complex Systems (WCCS) on April 22–25 in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

Presents an introduction to the March 2005 issue of the journal "Area."

As neoliberalism is sinking into disrepute, states are responding to current crises by inroads on basic rights. This constellation adds urgency to the timeworn subject of statehood and its relationship to law and liberty. The paper addresses this subject by enhancing the neoliberal concept of an encased economy with James Coleman's concept of law as indicator of social change and Niklas Luhmann's functional differentiation. The resulting multifunctional liberalism associates liberties and rights with the autonomy of function systems—such as politics, economy or law—and envisions an ecosystem of multifunctional organizations able to navigate the full spectrum of functional differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines and relates contemporary applications of accounting history and is intended to assist scholars who do not specialize in historical study. A definitional distinction is drawn between history as a social science, with an emphasis on interpretation, criticism, and method, and history as a descriptive narrative form. Arguments are presented for the relevance of published accounting history studies to accounting pedagogy, policy and practice. The inherent limitations of historical inquiry are also explored. An appendix provides information on accounting history organizations, publications, and activities worldwide. A related paper which develops an accounting historiography will appear in a later issue of this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles in the issue is presented on topics including the need for systems science to overcome its fragmented condition and to deepen its scientific foundations, phenomenological foundations of systems engineering and systems science, and principles from humanities that have relevance for thinking about systems.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy built his hopes for system theory on the growing visibility of systems in the world. The first introductory section of the 1968 edition of General System Theory is titled "Systems Everywhere." Half a century later, system theory has fallen into disrepute in several fields of study. It is targeted for its technocratic and governmental ambitions; it is depicted as an attempt to understand and reshape the world according to the system image of the world. This paper sketches how the social world has been analysed as a system—with a focus on hierarchy, predictability, and control. It proceeds to show how Von Bertalanffy's emphasis on the distinction between system and environment allows for the analysis of heterogeneity, indeterminacy, and uncontrollability. This paper thus makes a plea for a reflexive theory that focuses on problems that emerge despite the fact that our society imagines itself as a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research funding bodies have significantly increased emphasis on the need for public involvement in research with the requirement to evidence effective methods and approaches to achieving this. Specific definitions and approaches within published research remain tokenistic and vague. Objective: The concept analysis explores and clarifies the nature and meaning of public involvement in health and social sciences research and identifies operational definitions which can be used to guide, develop and evaluate public involvement in research activity. Search strategy: A literature search was conducted using online databases. Systematic literature reviews and broader studies on the impact of PPI were included as was grey literature such as guidance from INVOLVE and research funding bodies. Limits were set to papers published in the last 10 years and in the English language. A concept analysis framework adapted from Rodgers (Concept Development in Nursing: Foundations, Techniques and Applications. London, UK: Saunders; 2000) and Walker and Avant (Strategies for Theory construction in Nursing. Boston, MA: Pearson Prentice Hall; 2005) was applied. Main results: Five operational definitions were developed from the concept analysis: undefined involvement; targeted consultation; embedded consultation; co‐production; and user‐led research. Typical examples of each approach were identified from the literature. Defining attributes included having clear and agreed meaning and purpose for any involvement; reciprocal relationships; and value and recognition of the expertise of all those involved. Conclusions: The authors argue the need for researchers to more explicitly incorporate and evaluate details of approaches used. Impact of public involvement on a research study should be identified when reporting on findings to prevent tokenistic practices where involvement is viewed as secondary to the core research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a critique of the study "An Assessment of Laboratory Experiments in Accounting," by Robert J. Swieringa and Karl E. Weick that appears in the 1982 supplement issue of this journal. The author examines Swieringa and Weick's paper by calling attention to the issue of why anyone would want to use laboratory experiments in accounting research and also provides five other answers to this question. The author looks to the social sciences and the author L. J. Cronbach to make the point that accounting research that is carried out through laboratory experimentation may tend to generalize data.

The paper critically evaluates systems approaches to knowledge management to identify if health care professionals value systemic development. Research in knowledge management and health informatics is reviewed to see if multiple systems perspectives exist, and if and how concepts from multiple systems perspectives are integrated, or ‘swept in’ to a complex whole. The first finding is that knowledge management strategies in health do ‘sweep in’ insights from three systems perspectives: personal learning (knowledge creation); communities of practice (knowledge normalization) and the exercise of technical expertise and technology (knowledge application). The second finding is that health knowledge management has an architecture that does promote systemic development. An empirical case example of systemic intervention by an executive team is discussed in terms of micro evolution in social ecology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Soros's reflexivity theory is quite compatible with second order cybernetics. Indeed his work shows how to apply ideas in second order cybernetics to economics, finance and political science. This paper briefly reviews three theories of reflexivity in cybernetics. It provides an introduction to Soros's version of reflexivity theory and reviews applications in economics and finance. Soros's approach to economics is based on different assumptions about information and about human behaviour. His approach to finance is more holistic than most current work in finance. He does not emphasize mathematical models but rather sees finance as a human player game with himself as a participant. The paper concludes that Soros's work is a very important contribution to and expansion of contemporary social science. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports several related failures of modelling interventions. Atrivé, an organizational consulting company, set out to adapt a canonical housing association model named ITS to the specific circumstances of its clients. The ITS adaptation process, however, demonstrated rather annoying dynamics and finally had to be terminated due to negative business results. This paper provides a background on the relevance of failure case studies and ventures into the symptoms and warning signs. We reflect on a systems thinking intervention within Atrivé to learn from these experiences and improve business strategy. The problems encountered correspond to several archetypes. We end this paper by summarizing several known and one possibly new factor in explaining failure of modelling projects and pose several questions for further research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System dynamics is generally selected as an analytical approach because it is believed to be particularly good with complex issues both in terms of the core model and the environment. The SD literature devotes considerable space to study and intervention processes, often suggesting general models, protocols or procedures that have worked in specific applications or a range of similar applications. This paper describes an ongoing project in which a complex system operates within a complex and fast-changing environment with major and overlapping organizational changes, a wide and diverse set of stakeholders and difficult national political agendas. The project concerns the nature of ‘quality and effective training’ for junior doctors in the UK against the backdrop of major changes in working hours and conditions driven by national safety concerns and the overarching requirements of the EU Working Time Directive. Early models are already yielding valuable insights for those at a large teaching hospital wrestling with the seemingly impossible task of maintaining levels and quality of both doctor training and service to patients. However, the study is also highlighting that in such high-complexity the study process itself can be problematic. This paper considers the issues raised and relates them to the literature on model-based interventions and concludes that flexible and adaptive processes are needed to effectively manage such ‘knotty’ projects. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Recounts the tasks and responsibilities of the co-editor of the physical and environmental geography periodical 'Area.' Differences in writing style and expectations of publishing; Journal's mission statement; Other journals on earth and environmental science.

This paper uses published letters to the editor of major U.S. newspapers to investigate the cultural effects of a major national threat: the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It is based on a hand-coded, stratified random sample of 1,100 letters to the editor published in 17 major papers in the United States (544 pre-September 11, 556 post-September 11). The letters are drawn from a population of 8,101 published letters. Degrees of both authoritarianism and antiauthoritarianism, as well as the general salience of questions of authoritarianism, rose significantly in the post-attack period. The paper suggests that, instead of a simple threat-authoritarianism causal link, authoritarianism and antiauthoritarianism are paired elements of political culture that are invoked together in the face of a national threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Science Association was founded 50 years ago in December 1954; however,the institutional origins of the field were much earlier, perhaps when Walter Isard began his graduate studies in economics at Harvard University. This article briefly traces the history of the field of regional science and its association from those beginnings to the present. The focus of the article is the evolution of the association as an institution, and some of its major contributors, and to a much lesser extent, on the scope and scholarly content of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ostroms have created a paper that goes to the very heart of the public choice enterprise. They suggest that we should conceive of the evolution of constitutional procedures and laws in analogy with biological evolution. One of the paper's central goals is to establish the logical foundations of political order. I take this goal seriously and compare explicitly the task of explaining order in biology and politics. In the case of biology, the task of evolutionary theory has been to give an account of why there are complex arrangements of genetic material called “organisms” (including humans, giraffes, and whales) rather than just a nutrient-rich primordial ooze with no apparent structure. For the social scientist, the task is to explain why there are rules, structure, and stability in societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before commenting on the papers from a recent interdisciplinary gathering of scholars from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, a case is made for regional academia conversations today, because international conferences, especially in the humanities and social sciences, are still dominated by 'Western' traditions, discourse, and protocols. After touching on the relative stability or variability of phenomena and procedures in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, political and cultural questions are considered along with some of the ongoing consequences of the East Asian adoption of the European model of the modern research university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the plans of the Regional Science Association in the U.S. to organize a year-long celebration for its 50th anniversary in 2004. Focus of the conference sessions being planned by the association; Advantage of the journal "Papers in Regional Science" over other regional science journals; Topics included in the golden anniversary issue of the journal.

As a plenary address at the 2001 Annual Conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), this paper was intended to initiate an interactive exploration into the roots of systems thinking. Beginning with a summary of the key influences in the development of the author's own understanding of systems, the paper continues with an overview of developments in the broad variety of disciplinary fields that contributed to the elaboration of systems concepts. Following these introductory reflections, the paper provides a brief discussion of the primary concerns of the original founders of the ISSS (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, James G. Miller and Anatol Rapoport). Those who attended the conference were then asked to consider the evolution of their own understanding of the meaning and significance of systems thinking by responding to the following questions: (1) Through what academic discipline or occupational field were you originally introduced to systems ideas? (2) Which systems thinkers have been most influential in the evolution of your own thinking about systems? (3) What kinds of questions motivated your interest in systems? (4) What kinds of problems were you seeking to address? (5) Has your concern with systems ideas been primarily theoretical or practical? A brief summary of answers to these questions is included in the concluding remarks. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20th century saw at least five regions of the world that gave themselves over to unspeakably evil regimes, each resulting in totalitarian dictatorships responsible for horrific suffering and deaths of millions of people. As part of a group of authors involved in various ways in the study of civil society and the common good, this author was invited to address what systems thinking could contribute to understandings of the emergence of such extensive evil. This article develops a qualitative model crafted to capture the generic structure and dynamics of the emergence of extensive evil in a society. Focusing on crucial stocks and flows and feedback loops, the map reveals eight areas where a healthy society may be vulnerable to the spread of such evil, with corresponding areas of resistance pushing back on its apparent inevitability. The paper concludes with reflections on values in systems thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effort to categorize nature dates at least to Aristotle and is still ongoing. The study of categories is termed "ontology"-a field Whose use in the philosophy' of social science has most recently been revived. Last April 1998, the State University of New York at Buffalo hosted a conference on "Applied Ontology: A Marvin Farber Conference in Law and Institutions in Society." The following papers were selected from the group of papers presented at the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have investigated factors thought to affect the total number of citations in various academic disciplines, and some general trends have emerged. However, there are still limited data for many fields, including aquatic sciences. Using papers published in 2003–2005 (n = 785), we investigated marine and freshwater biology articles to identify factors that may contribute to the probability of citation and for cumulative citation counts over 10 years. We found no relationships with probability of citation; however, we found evidence that for those that were cited at least once, cumulative citations were related to several factors. Articles cited by books received more citations than those never cited by books, which we hypothesized to be indicative of the impact an article may have in the field. We also found that articles first cited within 2 years of publication received more cumulative citations than those first cited after 2 years. We found no evidence that self‐citation (as the first citation) had a significant effect on total citations. Our findings were compared with previous studies in other disciplines, and it was found that aquatic science citation patterns are comparable to fields in science and technology but less so to humanities and social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis to examine the characteristics and evolutionary trends of open access (OA) publications in natural and social sciences. We use data recorded by Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Journal Citation Reports during 2001–2015 as the main source. We then comparatively analyse the characteristics of natural and social sciences in terms of historical evolution, main contributors, and distribution of OA journals and publications across different languages, disciplines, and impact factor quartiles. Our results suggest that both natural and social sciences experienced dramatic growth of OA journals since 2009, but the share of social science OA journals within journal impact factor quartile 1 is much lower than that of natural sciences. While natural and social sciences share some similarities in OA publishing activities, such as main countries of contribution, they differ greatly in dimensions such as OA ratio across specific disciplines, countries, and publishing languages. We acknowledge that OA publishing offers a level playing field for traditionally disadvantaged languages, countries, and scientific disciplines, but meanwhile, the advancement of high‐quality OA publishing needs more targeted and sophisticated approaches to tackle differences in natural and social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author announces his resignation as editor of the journal as of January 2021, and enumerates his accomplishments during his tenure.

This paper tests the hypothesis that social networks are crucial for regional recruitment and inflows of foreign labour. New survey data on 971 firms located in Region Southern Denmark show that the predominant recruitment method of foreign labour was through networks. Danish municipal data from 1997-2006 furthermore reveal spatial sorting since initial shares of employees with a foreign background out of total regional employment predict foreign labour inflow rates to regional employment. Thus, social networks appear crucial for the recruitment and inflows of foreign labour, suggesting that employee referrals and information about vacancies in local job markets are also important for foreign labour. Resumen Este artículo pone a prueba la hipótesis de que las redes sociales son cruciales para la contratación regional y los flujos de mano de obra extranjera. Nuevos datos de una encuesta sobre 971 empresas ubicadas en la Región de Dinamarca Meridional muestran que el método de contratación predominante de mano de obra extranjera fue a través de redes. Datos municipales daneses de 1997-2006 revelan además una clasificación espacial, ya que las cuotas iniciales de empleados de origen extranjero respecto del empleo regional total predicen tasas de afluencia de mano de obra extranjera para el empleo regional. Por tanto, las redes sociales parecen ser cruciales para el reclutamiento y la afluencia de mano de obra extranjera, lo cual sugiere que las referencias de los empleados y la información sobre ofertas de empleo en los mercados laborales locales son también importantes para la mano de obra extranjera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) has been used by researchers from a variety of disciplines to study a range of phenomena. At present, ABMS is vastly underutilized in organizational psychology, yet we believe it offers a range of potential benefits that are currently not well catered for by existing tools. In this paper, we introduce ABMS and explain how it differs from current approaches. We illustrate the potential advantages of the approach through a range of examples and through the identification of opportunities in the field of organizational psychology. We also highlight potential limitations of the ABMS approach, and discuss the circumstances under which it may make a worthwhile contribution. Practitioner Points This paper outlines ABMS and explains how it adds to the existing toolset of the organizational psychologist. Practitioners will find ABMS and this paper particularly useful: When they are working in high-risk environments, where getting it wrong is costly., Where there are practical or ethical difficulties in conducting real-world research., Where they want to develop and test more holistic interpretations of complex systems and problems., Where they wish to examine feedback loops and/or the impact of time on behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to my refutation of their 2008 paper, Kira and van Eijnatten defend their refusal to retract their paper with a claim to scientific validity. This note examines the scientific validity of their approach, chaordic systems thinking (CST), using only the most basic criteria: respect for evidence, observing and reporting accurately and precisely, having an approach that is coherent, internally consistent, capable of generating propositions testable in real organizations and generating useful results. CST fails on every criterion. Instead of working on the best available evidence to advance research on the cooperative sustainable organizations that are required to deal with the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, CST is attempting to solve a problem long since solved. It illustrates a serious malaise in social science. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multi-layered exploration of the diversity management field in the UK. In doing so, it aims to address two problematic tendencies in the current diversity research: the focus on single-level explorations, and the polarization between critical and mainstream approaches. Using Bourdieu's concept of field, I develop a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the field of diversity management in three constituents: diversity discourse, diversity practice and diversity practitioners. The framework is used to analyse empirical evidence generated through semi-structured interviews with 19 diversity managers of large private-sector companies. This study reveals the presence of a gap between the diversity discourse and practice, and the absence of any standard set of qualifications and skills requirement for practitioners. The findings demonstrate the twofold role of discourse in drawing the boundaries of the diversity management field. First, it is instrumental in constructing diversity management as distinct from equal opportunities. Second, the use discourse functions as a mechanism to control the entry of practitioners into this field, which otherwise has low entry barriers. The paper offers a contribution to management research in general and equality and diversity research in particular through its original use of Bourdieuan sociology in an empirical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is expected that authors will provide citations for all papers referenced in their writings. The necessity of providing citations for data is not so widely recognized. Proponents of the data-sharing movement have advocated the citation of datasets in order to recognize contributions and enhance access. This study examines a sample of papers from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Bibliography of Data-Related Literature that are based on secondary analysis of datasets available in the ICPSR data archive to determine the data citation practices of authors. The results indicate that many authors fail to cite the data used in secondary analysis studies. Possible reasons for the dismal state of data citation practices are considered, including the recent introduction of data into the scholarly record and its marginalization as an information format. Updating citation practices to include datasets will support data sharing and foster responsible scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work has been ongoing, at least since Newton's Principia, to develop a science of life and social phenomena equivalent to the natural sciences such as physics and chemistry. Currently, such a science does not exist. This paper provides the foundation for a science of life and society. The hypothesis of this paper is that the methodologies used to develop the extant natural sciences can be used as a model for developing a natural (hard) life and social science. The natural sciences are typified by identification of fundamental phenomena, measurement of and measurement units for these phenomena and formal equations for the relations among these phenomena. Information is identified as a fundamental phenomenon of life. The natural science methodology is used to develop units of measure for information, and formal equations are developed among behaviours, structural characteristics, available energy and information. This paper shows that information is a measurable universal phenomenon that causes the behaviours of living systems. These developments validate the hypothesis and provide the foundation for natural living systems science. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]