‘What type of society is Britain today?’: Lay perceptions of inequality

Contrary to what is often believed, people hold sophisticated interpretations and understandings of socio-economic inequality, writes Sarah Irwin. She draws on her own research to explain participants’ reactions to social structure, as well as to suggest that social science can do more to effectively understand lay perceptions of inequality

Rights of passage: social change and the transition from youth to adulthood

The thesis is a study of change in the transition from youth to adulthood in contemporary Britain. Through an analysis of data collected in a survey of young adults and their parents, undertaken in conjunction with a critical appraisal of more general evidence on the organisation of employment and life cycle processes, the thesis explores the social organisation of dependency and obligation. Following the recession and mass unemployment in the early 1980s there has been an increasing interest in the consequences of economic change for life cycle processes. Several writers have explored the question of whether employment restructuring has disrupted the attainment of adult lifestyles, and citizenship rights, amongst recent cohorts of young people. Research, however, has reached contradictory conclusions over the significance of economic change for patterns of transition to adulthood. Another problem is the failure of research to locate youth adequately in relation to the social structure. Further, the coherence of gender processes in the organisation of transition has been obscured, since the life cycles of men and women are conventionally seen to be structured around different principles. It is an argument of the thesis that these problems are related, and arise from an inadequate consideration of the interrelations which give meaning to youth and transition as life cycle stages. Existing studies of family related life cycle transitions and studies of the youth labour market both embody, and reflect, a conceptual division between 'social' and 'economic' processes. This division, however, does not reflect real processes. The framework developed in the thesis offers an integrated analysis of life cycle dynamics and economic processes, through which changes in the organisation of transitions from youth to adulthood are explained

Reshaping Social Life

Caught up in current social changes, we do not fully understand the reshaping of social life. In sociological analyses there is a conceptual gap between subjectivities and social structural processes, and we face real difficulties in understanding social change and diversity. Through analysis of key areas of social life, here, Sarah Irwin develops a new and exciting resource for better understanding our changing social world. Breaking with conventional approaches and reconnecting the subjective with the objective, Irwin’s book develops a new conceptual and analytical perspective with social relationality, interdependence and social context at its heart. The new perspective is developed through grounded analyses of empirical evidence, and draws on new data. It explores and analyzes: * significant changes in family forms, fertility, gender relations and commitments to employment, children and care, both now, and with comparisons to early twentieth century developments * the meshing of norms and social relations in contexts of change * diverse values, norms and perceptions of fairness, analyzed with respect to diversity over the life course, and in respect of gender, ethnicity and social class. Through analysis of context, Irwin offers new insights, and tackles puzzles of explanation. Reshaping Social Life offers a fascinating and innovative way of slicing into and re-interrogating our changing social world, and is sure to become a landmark resource for students, scholars and researchers

Assessment of the Regionalization of Precipitation in Two Canadian Climate Regions: A Fuzzy Clustering Approach

Regional frequency analysis (RFA) is used to obtain reliable estimates of local precipitation events for a variety of applications in water resources engineering. The focus of the presented research is on an initial step of the RFA process; that is the formation of precipitation regions (also referred to as regionalization). The aim of this study is to dissect the regionalization procedure into its individual components that require subjective user input, and to evaluate their respective influences on the results. All assessments are conducted in two of Canada\u27s climate regions; namely the Prairie and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence lowlands. Additionally, a new fuzzy clustering approach to regionalization that uses optimization is proposed. It is evident that the outcomes are sensitive to the choice of the regionalization method, the number of regions into which the sites of the study area are partitioned, the climate site attributes and the temporal resolution of the precipitation data. Recommendations for the selection of such factors are provided based on their application

Chapter 1 Understanding youth transitions in difficult times

This chapter sketches some key developments in the framing of youth and early adulthood as life course stages, and situates the influence of the recent economic recession with reference to longer-term trends including increased social inequality. The authors explore different aspects of youth and early adulthood as these relate to labour market and family transitions and inter-generational relationships. These are illustrated by developments across the European nations represented in the book, specifically Norway, the UK, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Italy. The authors discuss the theoretical foundations of youth studies and life course research and set the context for the collection as well as framing the chapters in the book

Unmarried Fathers’ Earnings Trajectories: Does Partnership Status Matter?

Married men earn more than unmarried men. Previous research suggests that marriage itself causes some of the difference, but includes few men who fathered children out of wedlock. This paper asks whether increasing marriage (and possibly cohabitation) following a non-marital birth is likely to increase fathers’ earnings and labor supply. The analyses are based on a new birth cohort study the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study which follows unmarried parents for the first five years after their child’s birth. Results provide some support for the idea that increasing marriage will lead to increased fathers’ earnings.Cohabitation, marriage, income, men, males, earnings, income, children

Wheat Forward Contract Pricing: Evidence on Forecast Power and Risk Premia

While the risk premium hypothesis in futures markets has been the subject of a long and continuous controversy, the risk premium hypothesis in forward markets is also of interest among economists. The hypothesis is supported by some theoretical arguments and empirical evidence yet remains an open question. We in this study apply a two-equation regression model similar to those used in (Fama and French (1987} and de Roon et al. (1998) to analyze the risk premiums in forward markets, particularly, using the pre-harvest wheat forward markets in Illinois (1982-2004) and Kansas (1990-2004) as an example. The two-equation regression model consists of a forecasting equation, which uses a forward basis during a pre-harvest period to forecast the spot basis at the following harvest period, and a risk premium equation, which uses the forward basis to predict the risk premium to be realized at the harvest. The empirical results show that, first, the average realized risk premiums for Illinois fluctuate around a level during the entirety of a pre-harvest period, while the risk premiums for Kansas show a slight downward trend as time approaches the harvest. The average realized risk premiums are generally positive and bigger for Illinois than for Kansas, but all mean risk premiums are within one units of their corresponding standard deviations. Second, the pre-harvest forward bases have reliable forecasting power for the spot harvest bases and contain information regarding the risk premiums, which strongly recommend estimating risk premiums conditional on forward bases.Marketing,

The Marketing Performance of Illinois and Kansas Wheat Farmers

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the marketing performance of wheat farmers in Illinois and Kansas over 1982–2004. The results show that farmer benchmark prices for wheat in Illinois and Kansas fall in the middle third of the price range about half to three-quarters of the time. Consistent with previous studies, this refutes the contention that Illinois and Kansas wheat farmers routinely market the bulk of their wheat crop in the bottom portion of the price range. Tests of the average difference between farmer and market benchmark prices are sensitive to the market benchmark considered. The marketing performance of wheat farmers in Illinois and Kansas is about equal to the market if a 24- or 20-month market benchmark is used, slightly above the market if a 12-month price benchmark is used, and significantly less than the market if the harvest benchmark is used. The sensitivity of marketing performance to the market benchmark considered is explained by the seasonal pattern of prices. While Illinois producers performed slightly better than their counterparts in Kansas, notable differences in performance across these two geographic areas is not observed.benchmarks, Illinois, Kansas, marketing, performance, price, wheat, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Marketing, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Q11, Q13,

Upper limits for PH3 and H2S in Titan's Atmosphere from Cassini CIRS

We have searched for the presence of simple P and S-bearing molecules in Titan's atmosphere, by looking for the characteristic signatures of phosphine and hydrogen sulfide in infrared spectra obtained by Cassini CIRS. As a result we have placed the first upper limits on the stratospheric abundances, which are 1 ppb (PH3) and 330 ppb (H2S), at the 2-sigma significance level.Comment: 12 pages text, 1 table, 2 figure