Linking Indigenous Social Capital to a Global Economy

Although the concept of social capital is intuitively appealing, policy-makers and scholars have been frustrated by difficulties in finding practical ways to build social capital where it is either weak or absent. Of particular concern in development work has been the difficulty of building bridging forms of social capital to more effectively integrate isolated groups into a global economy. A main source of resistance, in this regard, is the apparent unwillingness of groups with highly dense social networks to invest some of their resources in building less dense but more extensive ties that will connect them to more distant markets, resources, and information. This concern is central to the larger issue of reducing economic inequalities between groups that are based on differential access to social capital, such as the entrepreneurial advantages of one ethnic or religious group vis-à-vis another. In the long run, a solution to this problem will reduce inter-group tensions where two groups with different levels of social capital occupy the same space. The thesis of this paper is that the main obstacle to solving the aforementioned problem is the failure to distinguish between the "structural properties" of effective bridging social networks and the "paths" through which individual groups create bridging networks. The starting point of the paper is the assumption that the structural properties of effective bridging networks can be defined quite easily. The work of Mancur Olson has been most useful in this regard. However, the identification of different paths through which the same structural network properties may be created has received much less attention in the literature. In fact, the notion of "path dependencies" has oftentimes resulted in a view that different paths must mean different structural network property outcomes. This limited view of paths to effective social capital neglects the real concerns and potentially serious costs of destroying "bonding" social capital in the process of building bridging ties. The psychological and spiritual damage to Native Americans through the boarding school programs in the 19th and early 20th centuries is an illustration of this danger. Thus, the task for researchers is to identify specific paths through which indigenous social capital may be connected to bridging ties without creating costs to essential bonding tie relationships. Empirical research examples from thirty years of the author's study of collective action in communities in a variety of settings is used to illustrate how different paths can achieve the same outcomes with respect to building bridging ties for isolated communities. This includes: urban neighborhood organization, Japanese American ethnic communities, rural Midwestern American rural community leaders' networks. Village communities in post-Soviet Russia, Tribal Colleges on Native American reservations and Nationalist and Republican communities in Northern Ireland.

Surface Free Energies, Interfacial Tensions and Correlation Lengths of the ABF Models

The surface free energies, interfacial tensions and correlation lengths of the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester models in regimes III and IV are calculated with fixed boundary conditions. The interfacial tensions are calculated between arbitrary phases and are shown to be additive. The associated critical exponents are given by $2-\alpha_s=\mu=\nu$ with $\nu=(L+1)/4$ in regime III and $4-2\alpha_s=\mu=\nu$ with $\nu=(L+1)/2$ in regime IV. Our results are obtained using general commuting transfer matrix and inversion relation methods that may be applied to other solvable lattice models.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX 2e, requires the amsmath packag

In the shadow of the ICC: Colombia and international criminal justice

The report of the expert conference examining the nature and dynamics of the role of the International Criminal Court in the ongoing investigation and prosecution of atrocious crimes committed in Colombia. Convened by the Human Rights Consortium, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced Study, University of London University of London, 26–27 May 2011

Evaluation of on-farm labour saving strategies for optimisation of herd size that could be managed by one operator

End of project reportAlternative milking frequencies Once a day (OAD) milking throughout lactation of a herd (over 2 years, incorporating 24% heifers) resulted in loss in milk solids (MS) production of 17% per cow. Milking cows OAD in their 1st lactation does not adversely impact on milk production in the second lactation, when changed to twice a day (TAD) milking but may lead to a higher mastitis incidence. Changeover in milking frequency in mid lactation resulted in a similar yield of MS per cow for TAD milking for the full lactation (474 kg) and the TAD OAD group (TAD for the first 110 days and OAD for the remainder of the lactation) (469 kg). Thirteen times weekly milking in late lactation (omitting the Sunday evening milking) compared to twice daily milking every day had no effect on milk yield or composition and maximum SCC observed during the trial was 270x103 cells/ml. Once daily milking did not adversely affect the processability of milk. Once daily milking did not significantly increase milk SCC levels. Alternative calf rearing systems The improved efficiency increased herd size may be due to less use of buckets for calf feeding together with more frequent use of teat feeding from a container, automatic feeders and ad libitum feeding A study on OAD calf feeding (whole milk) demonstrated that calves can be reared with a OAD milk feeding system and weaned early (42 days) without adversely affecting performance There was no difference in the live-weight gain of calves on once daily feeding, twice daily feeding or once daily feeding going outdoors after 28 days Calf liveweight gain was greater with once daily feeding with milk replacer compared to once daily feeding with whole milk or once daily feeding with milk replacer going outdoors after 28 days Economic analysis of alternative milking systems When deciding on the type, size and level of technology in the milking parlour, the trade-off between labour requirement and cost and the initial capital investment requirement should be key in making the decision

Interaction-Round-a-Face Models with Fixed Boundary Conditions: The ABF Fusion Hierarchy

We use boundary weights and reflection equations to obtain families of commuting double-row transfer matrices for interaction-round-a-face models with fixed boundary conditions. In particular, we consider the fusion hierarchy of the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester models, for which we find that the double-row transfer matrices satisfy functional equations with an su(2) structure.Comment: 48 pages, LaTeX, requires about 79000 words of TeX memory. Submitted to J. Stat. Phy

Economic Impacts of the 2008 Floods in Iowa

Measuring the economic consequences of the 2008 Iowa floods requires careful consideration of what exactly is to be counted as an economic outcome. Property losses and damaged infrastructure mark reductions in overall private and public assets. Ruined or slowed businesses result in constrained productivity. Workers get laid off and household incomes decline. Alternatively, natural disasters require a tremendous amount of recovery spending which stimulates economic activity. This brief report looks at the scope of economic consequences and describes the kinds of economic impacts that might be anticipated in Iowa.

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