The arterial border: negotiating economies of risk and violence in Mexico's security regime

This article examines the material and ideological dimensions of what I conceptualise as Mexico's 'arterial border'. Since the late 1980s, transit routes in Mexico's interior have increasingly become sites of a diffused migration enforcement strategy. Based on long-term ethnographic research along Central American transit routes, I examine how the arterial border has developed historically and is experienced by migrants in local contexts. I pay particular attention to the disjuncture between violent encounters with the state and discourses of security, human rights and humanitarianism that serve to legitimise bordering practices. Such an analysis moves beyond understandings of borders as spatially fixed entities to reimagine them as constantly shifting and dynamic sites of state violence, individual agency and contestation

Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Early Childbearing

We examine the empirical relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and rates of early childbearing. First, we use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to confirm a strong correlation at the individual level - women who grow up "disadvantaged" are much more likely to give birth as teens. Then we aggregate Vital Statistics microdata from 1968 through 2003 to conduct a cohort-based analysis of the relationship between rates of socioeconomic disadvantage of a birth cohort and the cohort's subsequent early childbearing experiences. Our cohort level analysis implies an even tighter intergenerational correlation between rates of background disadvantage and early childbearing. But, when our analysis econometrically controls for fixed state and year of birth effects in the model to account for cultural and other differences across cohorts, the relationship between rates of disadvantage and early childbearing is found to be quite modest. For example, the elasticity of early childbearing rates by age 18 with respect to the probability of being born to a mother under age 18 is only 0.05. This suggests that broader, societal forces are far more important in determining rates of early childbearing than rates of socioeconomic disadvantage per se.

Healthy Returns Initiative: Strengthening Mental Health Services in the Juvenile Justice System

Youth in the juvenile justice system suffer from a variety of mental illnesses, and, if not treated, these issues can become worse. The published literature shows that most of the youth in the system suffer from a debilitating mental illness. Lack of health care coverage also represents a major issue, as there are few services available to youth who do not have coverage

Discovery and Strategic Partnership Group Concept Mapping: 2014-2015 Progress Report

In 2014, New York State received funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to begin the NYS PROMISE (Promote the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income) research initiative. The goal of this initiative is to coordinate the system of support surrounding these youths to better catalyze their potential to transition from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to a sustainable future of living and earning as independent adults. To guide strategy and support PROMISE priorities over the course of the initiative, NYS PROMISE convened the NYS PROMISE Steering Committee, comprised of appointed liaisons from agencies who are connected to the NYS PROMISE initiative. To support sustainable partnership development for greater progress and impact on the goals of NYS PROMISE, the Steering Committee engaged in a structured, time sensitive strategic planning and partnership framework development effort. To develop the elements of a prioritized strategy, the group used Group Concept Mapping (GCM), and constructed a visual framework, or concept map, that served as the basis for prioritization and strategy development throughout the process. The GCM approach employs a group process to capture individual contributions for consensus around a given topic, using a structured approach with a specific sequence of steps that support timely and consistent engagement in the process. GCM incorporates opinions and values, and presents the results in ways that are understandable and usable. 25 individuals from 8 member agencies took part in the concept map development, contributing elements in response to the following prompt: “To yield enduring individual outcomes, a viable system to support youth with disabilities in their transition from high school to successful adult lives needs to include…

Key issues in participatory irrigation management

The recent developments in irrigation sector in the developing world are dominated by PIM/IMT concept. Although the conditions of success and the impediments discussed in this paper concerning the concept are in the context of India, the same are applicable to all countries that are aspiring to achieve success in this respect. Therefore, the aspiring countries, including India must be cautious of the financial allurements of donor agencies because PIM seems to suffer from a number of infirmities that cannot be overridden but in exceptional cases. This is borne out of the fact that although the concept of PIM is being tried in India for over last thirty years, it has yet to achieve even a semblance of acceptability and replicability, not to talk of scaling up. Large canal systems in India contain nearly 40 percent of country’s total irrigation potential of 94 million ha, a substantial part of which, remains unutilised. The main reason behind the lack of utilisation is the ill maintenance of irrigation systems, particularly micro systems at lower levels and those at the farm level. Faced on the one hand, by the near collapse of such irrigation systems and on the other, utter financial crunch, administrators are susceptible to donors like World Bank and Asian Development Bank, who are currently coming forward with funds with the conditionality of PIM. Coupled with this alluring prospect is India’s experience of the last three decades with the concept of PIM. The scenario that exists in India provides both an opportunity and challenge. The paper based on the author’s experience as a researcher/consultant cutting across country’s cultural and geographical boundaries, short lists conditions of success of PIM/IMT along with a close scrutiny and analysis of the impediments that impinge on its path.Length: pp.541-557Irrigation managementParticipatory managementWater users associationsFarmer-agency interactions

Rank-width and Tree-width of H-minor-free Graphs

We prove that for any fixed r>=2, the tree-width of graphs not containing K_r as a topological minor (resp. as a subgraph) is bounded by a linear (resp. polynomial) function of their rank-width. We also present refinements of our bounds for other graph classes such as K_r-minor free graphs and graphs of bounded genus.Comment: 17 page