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Earth system models (ESMs) are the primary tool used to understand and project changes to the climate system. ESM projections underpin analyses of human dimensions of the climate issue, yet little is known about how ESMs are used in human dimensions research. Such foundational information is necessary for future critical assessments of ESMs. We review applications of a leading ESM, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Earth System Model (CESM), to human dimensions topics since 2004. We find that this research has grown substantially over this period, twice as fast as CESM research overall. Although many studies have primarily addressed long‐term impacts on physical systems with societal relevance, applications to managed, societal, and ecological systems have grown quickly and now make up more than half of CESM human dimensions work. CESM applications focused nearly equally on global and regional analyses, most often using multimodel ensembles, although the use of single simulations remains prevalent. Downscaling and bias correction of output was infrequent and most common for regional studies. U.S.‐based, university‐affiliated authors primarily drove human dimensions work using CESM, with only 12% of authors based at NCAR. Our findings identify important questions that warrant further investigation, such as reasons for the infrequent use of downscaling and bias correction techniques; motivations to continue to use older model versions after newer model versions have been released; and model development needs for improved human dimensions applications. Additionally, our synthesis provides a baseline and framework that enables continued tracking of CESM and other ESMs. This article is categorized under:Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Evaluating Future Impacts of Climate Change The Community Earth System Model (CESM) has been applied to study a wide range of outcomes, with over half of published studies since 2004 focused on relevant physical systems; but applications to managed, societal, and ecological systems have been rapidly growing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Lack of physical activity presents substantial health risks to older adults living in residential aged care facilities. The objective of this review was to examine the suitability of physical activity outcome measurement instruments among cognitively sound residents. Methods: Search terms were used to explore health, nursing and social science databases to identify applicable English‐language research from January 2000 to July 2020. Results: Sixteen papers met the inclusion criteria. The findings show that a diverse range of outcome measurement instruments have been used to evaluate physical activity intervention effectiveness. Most were found not to be validated for use specifically with residential aged care populations. Conclusions: A range of Outcome Measurement Instruments (OMI) appear to effectively measure physical activity intervention outcomes among residential aged care older adults. Results highlighted the need for greater rigour in study design and selection of valid and population‐appropriate instruments for use with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents updates on the "Pacific Economic Review" journal. It reports that the journal has been included in the Social Sciences Citation Index. An information on the Best Paper Prize in Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the "Pacific Economic Review," is provided. It also reports on the plan of Blackwell Publishing to digitize the entire run of "Pacific Economic Review" back to volume one, issue one.

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

Accessible summary: Everyone can be part of research.Some may need extra time and attention to decide if they want to take part in a research study, also called assent.This paper gives ideas to support people with learning disabilities in making their own choices. Background: Research assent is a term used with those deemed vulnerable, for whom modifications and additional considerations are required when requesting their voluntary agreement to participate in research. Methods: The authors' research experiences and inclusive research principles were integrated with a review of literature on research assent with individuals with significant learning disabilities. Findings: Vulnerability can be reconceived through the value and voice of participation in research. We provide practical suggestions for those who oversee social science research, as well as offer guidance to researchers considering inclusive research but for whom practical considerations are required. Conclusion: To enhance participant diversity and a generative contribution to knowledge, consideration about research assent is needed. The absence from research can perpetuate exclusion from society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to Nick Gane's "Against a descriptive turn". I argue that descriptive research strategies are more open and inclusive than those which purport to be causal where explanatory adequacy is assessed by expert insiders. I also show how open descriptive strategies can assist a wider explanatory purpose when these are conceived in non‐positivist ways. I argue that epochalist sociology lacks an adequate temporal ontology because it collapses descriptive specificity back into overarching epoch descriptions. Finally, I argue that if the entire range of publications associated with the Great British Class Survey are considered, that it has demonstrated a productive way of recognising the significance of class which has facilitated major research advances in its wake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic currently holds a prominent place in global policy. It is a sparsely populated region experiencing major consequences of global change, such as climate change, shifting demographics, and globalization. These substantial and rapid changes create both opportunities and risks for economic development. Informed policy‐making for sustainable development in the Arctic will require an understanding of the specific structures of arctic economies, with a focus on the existence of mixed economies that contain both subsistence and market aspects, the interplay among different economic systems, and the broader contexts in which they function. This paper presents a conceptual framework that allows for comparative analysis of arctic economies within their institutional, social, cultural, and environmental contexts. Utilization of the conceptual framework will enable more complete system‐level analyses by helping to describe the complex relationships among apparently disparate parts of the Arctic's diverse economic systems. The framework can be used across the social and natural sciences, practice, and policy‐making. Furthermore, this framework is applicable to regions outside of the Arctic that also have distinct mixed subsistence and market economies. This paper presents a conceptual framework that allows for comparative analysis of arctic economies within their institutional, social, cultural, and environmental contexts. [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.

The article informs about the changes which have been incorporated in the journal "Criminology." First, is a policy of inviting commentary on papers which address particularly significant or controversial issues in the discipline. A second feature is the introduction of a "research notes" section. The article also informs about some of the other items. The editorial staff is committed to informing authors of editorial decisions in a timely fashion. Publishers are committed to publishing a journal which is free of sexist language and have adopted an editorial policy that accepted papers conform to the American Psychological Association's guidelines on nonsexist language.

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]

ABSTRACT The integration of space and time generates much closer interactions between geography and other social sciences in general while providing new perspectives for the role of geography in tourism flow studies. This paper aims to apply exploratory space-time analysis to provide insights into inbound tourism flow patterns in China's cities over the period of 2000-2009 using city-level Geographical Information System datasets. First, this paper ascertains that there exists geographic neighborhood effect at city level by testifying significantly positive spatial autocorrelation. The hot spots and temporal stability are identified. The hot spots are locally concentrated in metropolitan areas. Local Markov matrix has also shown significant transitions with negative or positive influence of geographic neighbors upon a city. Specifically, three-dimensional surface is created to visualize tourism flows. The spatial inequalities have the pattern of 'the east more dense than the west, the south more dense than the north'. There simultaneously exist spatial agglomeration and spatial dispersion. The intensity of spatial agglomeration has become stronger. At the same time, smaller peaks of tourism flow centers developed around the main cities and spread toward surrounding cities. These potential tourism flow centers have gradually emerged and grown larger. Furthermore, the space-time covariance matrix uncovers correlation, which shows strong regional integration over years. Eight hundred and ninety links are identified and visualized. Two hundred and sixty nine links forming 10 spatial clusters represent strong positive correlation. One hundred and thirty-four links are negative correlation, which is about 15.06 per cent of all links. In conclusion, our comprehensive evidences offer deeper insights and have important policy implications. These enable the tourism-oriented governmental agencies, as well as the tourism industry professionals, to better understand the changes of inbound tourism flows in China's cities and relevant tourism partners/competitors for cities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [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]

Clark psychology in the post&shyHallian era has attracted little attention from scholars. The only general account, Carl Murchison's ‘Recollections of a Magic Decade at Clark’ (1959), is both partisan and limited in scope. This paper examines the ‘second cycle’ of the Clark department in a period of unusual productivity in research, publication and graduate training from the mid-twenties to the mid-thirties, as well as the internal tensions and constraints that led the department to self-destruct in 1936 and lose its scholarly leadership and professional visibility until the post-World War II era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to vol.39, 1983 issue of the "Journal of Social Issues" publication.

A Cumulative Advantage Distribution is proposed which models statistically the situation in which success breeds success. It differs from the Negative Binomial Distribution in that lack of success, being a non event, is not punished by increased chance of failure. It is shown that such a stochastic law is governed by the Beta Function, containing only one free parameter, and this is approximated by a skew or hyperbolic distribution of the type that is widespread in bibliometrics and diverse social science phenomena. In particular, this is shown to be an appropriate underlying probabilistic theory for the Bradford Law, the Lotka Law, the Pareto and Zipf Distributions, and for all the empirical results of citation frequency analysis. As side results one may derive also the obsolescence factor for literature use. The Beta Function is peculiarly elegant for these manifold purposes because it yields both the actual and the cumulative distributions in simple form, and contains a limiting case of an inverse square law to which many empirical distributions conform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to upcoming events on rural sociology. The Program Committee for the Rural Sociological Society announces a call for papers for the annual meeting to be held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from August 25-27, 1972. Submission of papers is required by April 1, 1972. Abstract and text should be sent to Rabel J. Burdge, Program Chairman, Department of Sociology. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506. A series of workshops is planned on topics of current interests to encourage more active participation in the program. This years program will reduce the number of formal presentations. Papers will be made available for distribution prior to the meeting. Graduate students are asked to submit papers to any session. Sessions organized by graduate students will review papers from all sources. The other information is that J.L. Charlton has directed a study now published by the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. The co-author, Joseph F. Singer, also used the data for a Ph.D. disseration in economics, Charlton is currently directing a study of factors affecting the use of medical services in three subregions of Arkansas.

The article introduces the topics covered by the Spring 1970, volume 26, number 2 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues". The purpose of the issue is to gain fresh insight into the current state of some aspects of social science, rather than simply to further an understanding of the poor. Social science and psychology have, in some respects, been relevant to an understanding of the poor. Work with poor populations in both laboratory and field has brought new perspectives to the social sciences. It has exposed some of the weaknesses, inconsistencies, and lacunae in both theory and practice. The recurrent themes of the papers in this issue offer some generic lessons about the study of any multi-faceted and value-laden social problem. Each paper in the issue presents the modifications in research strategies and the new theoretical formulations which have evolved from work with poor populations. The papers cover both theoretical content, e.g., in social learning and in sociolinguistics, and questions which are basic to the logic of all scientific inquiry, e.g., generalizations beyond a specific context and the conditions under which causal inferences are feasible.

We present a search system for grammatically analyzed corpora of Finnish parliamentary records and interviews with former parliamentarians, annotated with metadata of talk structure and involved parliamentarians, and discuss their use through carefully chosen digital humanities case studies. We first introduce the construction, contents, and principles of use of the corpora. Then we discuss the application of the search system and the corpora to study how politicians talk about power, how ideological terms are used in political speech, and how to identify narratives in the data. All case studies stem from questions in the humanities and the social sciences, but rely on the grammatically parsed corpora in both identifying and quantifying passages of interest. Finally, the paper discusses the role of natural language processing methods for questions in the (digital) humanities. It makes the claim that a digital humanities inquiry of parliamentary speech and interviews with politicians cannot only rely on computational humanities modeling, but needs to accommodate a range of perspectives starting with simple searches, quantitative exploration, and ending with modeling. Furthermore, the digital humanities need a more thorough discussion about how the utilization of tools from information science and technologies alter the research questions posed in the humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Norwegian public health nurses prevent diseases and promote health in children and young people aged 0–20 and their families. Public health nursing programs prepare students for their practical role and provide relevant theoretical knowledge. Objectives: To gain knowledge of the literature in the Norwegian public health nursing curricula, and to examine further the nursing base in these curricula. Design: An explorative and descriptive design was chosen. Sample: Reading lists based on syllabus documents from the 10 higher educational institutions in Norway offering programs in public health nursing. Measurements: A summative content analysis and a categorization of content from reading lists were performed. Results: Numerical information on the content and categorization of reading lists shows that social science and humanities literature dominates, followed by psychology and medicine. Nursing texts, theories and philosophy comprise only a minor part of the curricula. Conclusion: The paper provides valuable data on the theoretical focus in Norwegian public health nursing and raises important questions about the paucity of nursing texts in the curriculum. The imbalance in reading lists in Norway should be studied further and similar studies conducted in other countries to encourage reflection on the theoretical content of public health nursing education globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about several journals. The International Journal of Psychology, which started publication in 1966, is devoted to cross-cultural comparative and co-operative research in general, genetic and social psychology throughout the world. It reports on comparative field or laboratory studies, inquiries, experimental replications, critical reviews, theoretical or methodological papers in relationship with cross-cultural research, projects or cross-cultural studies are also published. Sociological Studies will be international in scope and will offer a professional, coordinated and disciplined review and appraisal of research trends in different areas of sociology. Each issue will consist of a collection of papers integrated around a particular theme. In particular it is hoped to provide an avenue for the publication of longer working papers which are at present too extensive for most journals. Sociological Studies will be published annually in English by the Cambridge University Press. The first issue will appear in 1968.

The article presents the editorial policy of KYKLOS, one of the best ranked general economics journals in Continental Europe. A refereed economics review, the journal provides significant advantages to the authors, apart from the high quality and wide publicity. In accepting manuscripts for publication, based on the referee reports, the editors decide whether the paper is, in principle, suitable for publication.

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]

Computer‐assisted instruction can change the way introductory statistics and quantitative methods courses are taught. Using a two‐group pretest–posttest design, we conducted an experiment using an undergraduate social science student sample to investigate whether the introduction of statistical software to teaching quantitative methods would improve knowledge acquisition and attitudes toward quantitative methods courses. Our project confirmed that implementing computer‐assisted instructional methods increased knowledge acquisition in quantitative methods courses compared with students' academic performance in other courses, measured by grade point average. We also found that student attitudes have weak and mostly nonsignificant influence on quantitative methods knowledge tests. Additionally, the paper suggests a curriculum‐level approach to teaching quantitative methods to undergraduate students. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Computer‐assisted learning environments are more effective in teaching statistics than traditional lecture instructionsStudents' attitudes toward the subject matter are important for their knowledge acquisitionStudents' attitudes toward quantitative methods are overall negativeComputer‐assisted learning helps improve student attitudes in some cases What this paper adds: Computer‐assisted instruction had higher impact on knowledge acquisition than students' overall academic performanceStudent attitudes have lower effect on knowledge acquisition than the introduction of computer‐assisted instruction or grade point averageStudents' attitudes toward quantitative methods courses change slowly similar with any other attitudesComputer‐assisted instruction is effective in cultural settings other than those in the western world Implications for practice and/or policy: Knowledge acquisition of quantitative methods depends on instructional choices and students' overall academic performance. Universities should address students' attitudes toward quantitative methods at the curriculum level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The puzzle of causal explanation is a core issue for social science. Searches for causal patterns can be overly mechanistic, seen for example in the desire for the magic bullet in policy, or the lionising of the celebrity policy interventions of the moment. Emphasis in policy interventions on transferable practice is often dismissed as naive for failing to recognise the importance of context, contingency, and complexity. However, a focus on highly context‐specific narratives, drawn from single cases, can be equally problematic and exacerbate rather than help the problem of reification of knowledge. This paper makes a reflective theoretical contribution to the debate on the need to tackle the dilemma of contingency versus certainty in causal explanation in the social sciences. It attempts to address this issue through the lens of a specific concrete puzzle of explanation; that of citizen participation in policy. Citizen participation is a salient policy topic, which demands a thorough understanding of causation. Using extended empirical examples of citizen participation in policy serves to highlight the intractability of different traditions of causal explanation and grounds the need for greater compatibility in approaches. The paper then offers two propositions centring on the notions of transdisciplinarity and hybridity in research practices and methodologies. It concludes with a discussion of more and less desirable forms of hybridity. [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 article examines the flow of messages between the accounting system and other knowledge systems, in particular the information flow between the academic and applied accounting networks. The accounting knowledge system falls within the social science knowledge system and is made up of three subsystems: an academic, a management accounting, and a professional system. This paper is based on the analysis of citations in seventeen accounting journals for the period January 1968 to December 1969. Accounting lies within the social science knowledge system. In this study, the number of messages passed to accounting from the other social sciences and the number of messages passed to accounting from nonsocial science knowledge systems is recorded with a column tabulating the proportion of messages transmitted to accounting from other knowledge systems. The proportion of messages passed to accounting from the other social sciences is similar to the proportion passed to sociology and politics and is greater than the proportion of messages passed to psychology and economics.

In her paper 'Creative Evolution and the Creation of Man,' one of the arguments Colebrook puts forth is that as a means of challenging the mechanistic and teleological conception of Darwinian evolution, creative evolution takes an antihumanist position by positing that there is an absence of end, thus 'man' is able to create his own end. But in taking this position, Colebrook points out that creative evolution re-establishes the humanistic discourse on the human that it was attempting to challenge. To elucidate Colebrook's argument, this paper draws on the work of Derrida to 'play' with the notion of style in order to reflect on the ways in which philosophical deductive argumentation and reasoning constitute and perpetuate humanist and metaphysical discourses on the human, and the ends of 'man.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the editorial policy of the journal KYKLOS. It is informed that KYKLOS is a refereed economics review with a large readership and circulation in Europe, North America and elsewhere around the globe. It is proud of being one of the best-ranked general economics journals in Continental Europe. Based on the referee reports about the general quality of the papers submitted, the editors decide, usually within about two months of submission, whether the paper is in principle suitable for publication in KYKLOS. To speed up the process, in obvious cases oral reports by the referees are sufficient.

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]

The ongoing movement from institutional care to community-orientated care has gradually spread around the developed world. This shift in the philosophy of care has resulted in a reduction in the length of inpatient admissions and contributed to a decline in the number of inpatient beds. This literature review seeks to establish the suitability and relevance of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) to mental health nursing practice, with particular emphasis being given to acute inpatient settings. Databases searched for published material in English between 1980 and 2006 were: Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature; MEDLINE; Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts; Sociological abstracts; and social service abstracts. Search terms included: SFBT and solution-focused approaches. Only nine papers from the original 203 citations met the inclusion criteria and were thus reviewed. These papers indicated that SFBT constitutes an appropriate set of techniques for use in mental health nursing particularly where staff have relatively brief contact with patients. Preliminary data suggest that SFBT is congruent with the philosophical underpinning of contemporary mental health nursing. However, its clinical utility and effectiveness is not well established and methodologically rigorous studies are urgently needed to determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of such approach to nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of International Political Marketing can be seen increasingly in the foreign relations of independent states. A review of relevant Political Marketing and International Relations publications reveals close linkage between the two. Based on the review, this paper categorizes political marketing into three aspects: the election aspect, the governing aspect (permanent campaign) and the international aspect of political marketing. The focus of this study is on international political marketing which was defined based on the review. This paper then reports a case study of the utilization of International Political Marketing by the government of the People's Republic of China. It looks at the recent events of China's accession of the WTO in 2001, China's hosting of Sino-African Summit in 2006 and the on going promotion of China's image of "Peaceful Development and Cooperation'. The paper advances the argument that practically all nation states and international organizations apply International Political Marketing to both their strategic planning as well as conduct of day-to-day affairs. The paper concludes that there is a great demand both at a theoretical as well as practical level for International Political Marketing, requiring further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial empirical literature exists on ranking the published research output of individual academic economists and individual university Economics departments, including Australian work in Economics. However, very little corresponding effort has been directed at examining trends in the nature of published articles, and this embryonic literature is exclusively focused on a handful of top-ranked journals to the exclusion of Australian Economics journals. This note seeks to fill this gap by adopting the methodology developed by Coelho et al. (2005) in their analysis of the decline in critical commentary and applying it to Australian Economics journals for the period 1962 to 2005. [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]

The United Kingdom (UK) is at the vanguard of European Union (EU) states pursuing strategies for sustainable development (SD). It has a long history of environmental policy coordination dating from the early 1990s, and in 1994 it became the first EU member to publish a SD strategy. This paper charts the development of the UK's successive SD strategies. It demonstrates that the pursuit of SD has been increasingly supported by apparent high-level political backing and an expansive array of administrative processes, mechanisms and tools. However, despite this favourable environment, the analysis in this paper shows that SD, to date, has not significantly influenced UK policy making. Progress has been particularly hampered by: inconsistency in the government's definition of SD; questions over whether political backing is sustained and committed; and poor integration between the different administrative mechanisms, tools and processes to pursue SD. Consequently, SD is struggling to make headway against the dominance of traditional economic concerns in UK decision making. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [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]

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]

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.

Environmental anthropology is an expanding field in Australia. Extensive research on Aboriginal relationships to land and natural resources has provided the foundation for growing anthropological interest in the interactions of other Australians with the biophysical environments they inhabit. Australian-based anthropologists also continue to contribute to research on environmental beliefs and practices in other parts of the world. This paper provides a brief overview of previously explored themes in this field as a precursor to introducing new research and proposing additional areas of research. It is suggested that these could be usefully developed to enhance anthropological contributions to debates about environmental change in Australia and surrounding regions. We argue that there are roles for anthropologists as 'cultural translators' in cross-disciplinary engagements with environmental scientists and natural resource managers; as cultural theorists skilled at documenting and interpreting changing environmental attitudes; and as environmental advocates pursuing the knowledge needed to create more ecologically sustainable human communities. We also suggest that Australian anthropologies of the environment can make valuable theoretical and ethnographic contributions to this important international field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this journal is to provide a medium for the publication of original papers covering the entire span of sociological thought and research. The editor is particularly keen to publish work on current developments in research and analysis. All contributions, correspondence and books for review should be addressed to The British Journal of Sociology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London. Papers submitted for publication are normally read by at least two assessors as well as by one of the editors. The editor's decision will be final. A decision of an article will usually be sent to authors within four months of submission, however, whilst every effort will be made to follow this practice, it should be understood that there may be circumstances where this will be difficult to guarantee. Articles submitted to the journal should be an original piece of work, not been published before and not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form.

This paper revisits the research origins of one well-known claim which has been used in policy documents over the past 25 years, namely that four years of education increase agricultural productivity. The oversimplification of the original research findings has influenced funding patterns of aid agencies, leading to a concentration on primary education in Africa. While this demonstrates a ‘successful’ case of research leading to policy change, it also highlights the way in which simple policy ‘narratives’ can result in inappropriate policy positions. We argue that policy positions on this link between education and the environment are also based on commonsense without sufficient research into what appears to be not a one-way but a two-way inter-relationship between quality education and training and the wider environment. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the Organized Section on Public Policy is committed to producing rigorous empirical and theoretical knowledge of the processes and products of governing and the application of that knowledge to critical policy issues. The Best Paper Award is given for the best paper on Public Policy given at the previous APSA Annual Meeting. Nominations have closed. The Aaron Wildavsky Award is for a book or article published in the last ten to twenty years that continues to influence the study of public policy.

There were three Japanese medical physiologists who studied in Ivan Petrovich Pavlov's laboratory during 1904–1933. They were Hidetsurumaru Ishikawa, Yasutaro Satake, and Takashi Hayashi. The first article concerning Pavlov's theory was written by Ishikawa in 1916. At the same time, a psychologist, Genji Kuroda, also wrote an essay on Pavlov's theory. They were motivated to write the articles by a false report of Pavlov's death in 1916. Satake carried out experimental work using dogs, but he did not cite Pavlov's scientific works. Hayashi worked hard according to Pavlov's research methods. A psychologist, Yasho Kotake, first published a paper based on Pavlov's theory inJapanese Journal of Psychologyin 1943. However, these experiments did not seem to be research in the psychological field because his research program was very different to traditional Japanese psychological research. Although the introduction of behaviorism into Japan occurred in the 1910s, the reception of Pavlov's theory was delayed. The process of the reception of Pavlov's theory in Japan was different to that in the USA. It seems that the difference is due to the attitudes of psychologists to introspection and the influence of German psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 article presents a note to contributors to "The British Journal of Sociology." The aim of the journal is to provide a medium for the publication of original papers covering the entire span of sociological thought and research. The editor is particularly keen to publish work on current developments in research and analysis. All contributions, correspondence and books for review should be addressed to The British Journal of Sociology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Papers submitted for publication are normally read by at least two assessors as well as by one of the editors. The editor's decision will be final. A decision of an article will usually be sent to authors within four months of submission, however, whilst every effort will be made to follow this practice, it should be understood that there may be circumstances where this will be difficult to guarantee. Articles submitted to the journal should be an original piece of work, not been published before and not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form.

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]