Book review: Socialist escapes: breaking away from ideology and everyday routine in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989

"Socialist Escapes: Breaking Away from Ideology and Everyday Routine in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989." Cathleen Giustino, Catherine Plum and Alexander Vari (eds.). Berghahn Books. April 2013. --- During much of the Cold War, escape from countries in the East Bloc was a near impossible act. There remained, however, possibilities for other socialist escapes, particularly time away from party ideology and the mundane routines of everyday life. The essays in this volume seek to examine sites of socialist escapes, such as beaches, camp sites, and concerts, and explore the effectiveness of state efforts to engineer society through leisure. Cultural historians and sociologists will appreciate this fascinating glimpse into cultural life under state socialism, writes Eleanor Bindman

Book review: power and policy in Putin’s Russia by Richard Sakwa et al.

In this analysis of Putin’s eight years as president between 2000 and 2008, an international group of leading academics examine Putin’s leadership, ideology and the power of corruption. Eleanor Bindman recommends this in-depth study as a useful resource for anyone wishing to learn about the way in which the Russian political system operated and in many ways continues to operate in more detail

Use of risk adjustment in setting budgets and measuring performance in primary care I: how it works

Summary points: Primary care groups and general practices will be funded largely through capitation based formulas, and their performance will be monitored more closely. Current methods of funding primary care trusts and general practices, and of monitoring their performance, do not take into account differences in case mix. Risk adjustment methods have been developed in the United States to allow measurement ofcase mix and morbidity of primary care populations. Risk adjustment methods are now being used to set capitation rates for health services in the United States

The role of data in health care disparities in medicaid managed care

BACKGROUND: The Affordable Care Act includes provisions to standardize the collection of data on health care quality that can be used to measure disparities. We conducted a qualitative study among leaders of Medicaid managed care plans, that currently have access to standardized quality data stratified by race and ethnicity, to learn how they use it to address disparities. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 health plan leaders across 9 Medicaid managed care plans in California. We used purposive sampling to maximize heterogeneity in geography and plan type (e.g., non-profit, commercial). We performed a thematic analysis based on iterative coding by two investigators. RESULTS: We found 4 major themes. Improving overall quality was tightly linked to a focus on standardized metrics that are integral to meeting regulatory or financial incentives. However, reducing disparities was not driven by standardized data, but by a mix of factors. Data were frequently only examined by race and ethnicity when overall performance was low. Disparities were attributed to either individual choices or cultural and linguistic factors, with plans focusing interventions on recently immigrated groups. CONCLUSIONS: While plans' efforts to address overall quality were often informed by standardized data, actions to reduce disparities were not, at least partly because there were few regulatory or financial incentives driving meaningful use of data on disparities. Standardized data, as envisaged by the Affordable Care Act, could become more useful for addressing disparities if they are combined with policies and regulations that promote health care equity

Book review: the political and social construction of poverty: central and East European countries in transition by Serena Romano

In The Political and Social Construction of Poverty, Serena Romano provides an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful account of the changes in welfare provision and government attempts to deal with poverty in the Central and East European region from the Soviet period up to the contemporary period. Eleanor Bindman concludes that this volume will be of interest to both academics and domestic and international policymakers concerned with the persistent problems of welfare reform, poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Self-esteem and stability of the self-concept in personality adjustment

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [157]-169).It was the purpose of this study to test hypotheses concerning the relationship of the variables of self-esteem and stability of the self-concept to the relative level of personality adjustment, as well as to see how interactions of these variables in combination were related to adjustment. The study stemmed from an investigation by Brownfain which attempted to validate the stability of the self-concept as a predictor of personality adjustment . The variable of self-esteem was mentioned but not controlled in his study. The present study used a self-rating inventory devised by Brownfain in order to measure these independent variables, but examined them in relation to different adjustment criteria