Some discussions on the Read Paper "Beyond subjective and objective in statistics" by A. Gelman and C. Hennig

This note is a collection of several discussions of the paper "Beyond subjective and objective in statistics", read by A. Gelman and C. Hennig to the Royal Statistical Society on April 12, 2017, and to appear in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A

The embeddedness of social entrepreneurship: Understanding variation across local communities

Social enterprise organizations (SEOs) arise from entrepreneurial activities with the aim of achieving social goals. SEOs have been seen as alternative and/or complementary to the actions of governments and international organizations to address poverty and poverty-related social needs. Using a number of illustrative cases, we explore how variations in local institutional mechanisms shape the local "face of poverty" in different communities and how this relates to variations in the emergence and strategic orientations of SEOs. We develop a model of the productive opportunity space for SEOs as a basis of, and an inspiration for, further scholarly inquiry.social entrepreneurship; Social mechanisms; poverty; opportunity; institutions;

BIM for Bridges and Structures Pooled Fund Initiative

The BIM for Bridges and Structures initiative, also known as TPF-5(372), is a transportation pooled fund project that is a collaborative effort of 20 states, FHWA, and the AASHTO Committee on Bridges and Structures. The pooled fund objective is to develop an open, national standard for exchanging information necessary for the design, fabrication, and construction of bridges and structures in the United States. The presentation will provide an overview of the project and explain ways in which stakeholders can get involved

Data on face-to-face contacts in an office building suggests a low-cost vaccination strategy based on community linkers

Empirical data on contacts between individuals in social contexts play an important role in providing information for models describing human behavior and how epidemics spread in populations. Here, we analyze data on face-to-face contacts collected in an office building. The statistical properties of contacts are similar to other social situations, but important differences are observed in the contact network structure. In particular, the contact network is strongly shaped by the organization of the offices in departments, which has consequences in the design of accurate agent-based models of epidemic spread. We consider the contact network as a potential substrate for infectious disease spread and show that its sparsity tends to prevent outbreaks of rapidly spreading epidemics. Moreover, we define three typical behaviors according to the fraction $f$ of links each individual shares outside its own department: residents, wanderers and linkers. Linkers ($f\sim 50\%$) act as bridges in the network and have large betweenness centralities. Thus, a vaccination strategy targeting linkers efficiently prevents large outbreaks. As such a behavior may be spotted a priori in the offices' organization or from surveys, without the full knowledge of the time-resolved contact network, this result may help the design of efficient, low-cost vaccination or social-distancing strategies

The concept of subjective well-being in housing research

The aim of this article is to review the ways in which subjective well-being has been conceptualized within housing research, with a view to evaluating the use of the concept, the insights it has generated, the problems that have been experienced and the possible range of lessons that might be taken forward. The article begins with an analysis of the reasons why subjective well-being has become popular as a conceptual tool in many fields. The article continues with a discussion of the range of definitions that appear in the literature which leads into discussions of the research techniques and methodologies that have been used in empirical research. Empirical studies which focussed on the impact of physical housing conditions and tenure on subjective well-being are reviewed in order to evaluate what is known about the impact of housing on both personal and collective subjective well-being. This review highlights issues of status, reference groups and adaptation that are important insights from the subjective well-being approach that should set the agenda for further research in this area. The conclusion is that the relationship between housing and subjective well-being is a complex one that repays further study in order to understand the rich texture of the role of housing in people’s lives. The article concludes with suggestions for both conceptual and methodological approaches and the focus of future research

L’intervention en situation de crise en protection de la jeunesse. Crise familiale ou crise organisationnelle?

Cet article expose les résultats d’une recherche visant à mettre au jour les modèles auxquels se réfèrent implicitement des intervenantes et intervenants de la protection de la jeunesse dans leurs actions en situation de crise. Ces interventions visent des familles signalées en raison des troubles de comportement d’un enfant ou d’un adolescent, d’abus physique ou de négligence. Les résultats permettent de décrire, d’expliquer et de comprendre pourquoi et dans quels contextes les interventions sont mises en oeuvre. Ils révèlent que : a) les intervenants doivent faire face à trois types de crises distincts; b) le stress vécu par certains groupes d’intervenants constitue un élément central de l’intervention en situation de crise, et c) les difficultés liées à la concertation avec les nombreux partenaires du réseau provoquent des insatisfactions majeures chez les intervenants. La discussion porte sur l’impérative nécessité de mieux soutenir les intervenants et de créer une véritable concertation avec les partenaires.The purpose of this paper is to unravel the models which are implicitely referred to by staff members of a Youth Protection Agency when dealing with families in crisis. Families who are reported for child abuse or neglect, and families with youth displaying severe behavior problems, are involved in cases which are selected from staff members’ case load. Results identify the reasons and the contextual dimensions driving the workers’ interventions in crisis situations. Main findings are to the effect that (a) workers have to deal with three quite distinct types of crises; (b) personal stress is a central feature for specific groups of workers when dealing with families in crisis; (c) problems in collaborating with the service network partners is a major part of the frustration at least in two of the three types of crisis. Results discussion underscores the importance for offering a better support to workers and for installing a much stronger sense of collaboration among the various service partners

Workplace Diversity and Group Relations: An Overview

The study of conflict and diversity within groups, ranging from small workgroups to multinational organizations, has become an increasingly important focus for contemporary research. A key question is how the inevitable social diversity within groups can be developed as a productive asset rather than becoming a source of conflict and prejudice. The aim of this Special Issue of the journal is to report cutting edge empirical and theoretical work that addresses the broad issue of diversity and group-based conflict within workgroups. In this introduction, we briefly examine approaches that have been applied, and review what has been learned. We conclude by providing an overview to the Special Issue articles, highlighting central themes and implications for future research