Editorials and geopolitical explanations for 11 September

In the wake of the 11 September attacks, public intellectuals, editorialists and newspaper columnists began to attempt to offer largely geopolitical explanations for the attacks through editorials and op-ed pieces. In this essay we analyze some sixty editorials and op-ed pieces from a range of perspectives. We classify the editorials under five main categories of geopolitical explanation: imperialism, ‘blowback’, state decline, Islamism, and the ‘clash of civilizations’ perspectives. We then discuss each category of explanation, highlighting the arguments made, the theoretical perspectives which inform them, and counterarguments, when presented. In our conclusion we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the categories and suggest that geographers might help provide some integration of these varying perspectives.     

The network structure of big business in Taiwan

This paper takes a network approach to understanding ownership patterns and director interlocks in Taiwan. In particular, this paper analyzes ties among Taiwan’s top 200 publicly listed companies in 1990 and 2000. The speed of change in Taiwan’s economic organization during the period has been striking. Not only have the identities of many of Taiwan’s largest firms changed, there seems to have been a substantial pruning and thinning of director ties over time and also a substantial transformation of the ownership network. What continuity remains appears to be largely a consequence of business group membership, and the strength of those ties appears to be considerable. Overall, this research finds that Taiwan’s financial sector has been quite central to the island’s big business network, that business groups are an extremely important category for understanding patterns of ownership ties, and that most director interlocks in Taiwan appear to cross industry boundaries rather than occur within them.     

Back to literacy

One of the seminal works in the development of British cultural studies was Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy , in which he presents a vision of working class communities in the 40 years since the First World War. To do this he drew particularly on his experiences of Hunslet in South Leeds. In this paper we revisit South Leeds 40 years on to examine continuities and changes in the community as evidenced through people's leisure and compare this with Hoggart's analysis. To do this we have drawn on census and other official statistics and our own observation and interviews in the field. In order to interpret today's communities in South Leeds we make use of theoretical developments in the interim. We suggest that in what Bauman (1997) refers to as ‘two nations society mark two’ people try to reinvent community and it is through leisure in particular that this is evidenced. We therefore conclude that any attempt to understand ‘community’ at the millennium must place leisure centre stage.     

Issues for Implementing Phased Retirement in Defined Benefit Plans

Abstract

U.S. society is aging. The nature of work has changed from work that requires physical strength to work based on knowledge. As a result, workers are beginning to phase into retirement rather than going directly from full-time work to full retirement. From a retirement income perspective, many final-average-pay defined benefit plans have features that make phased retirement difficult at best and detrimental at worst. U.S. pension law and regulations present barriers to phased retirement if the phased retiree wants to receive a portion of available pension benefits during phased retirement.

This paper examines private sector options to encourage phased retirement and to eliminate the disincentives that currently affect defined benefit plans. It offers alternative calculations of final average pay that do not penalize the part-time worker. It also demonstrates that the plan’s early retirement reduction and late retirement increase can be set to maintain actuarial equity throughout phased retirement. The paper presents benefit calculations with equal actuarial values for various payout patterns.

The paper discusses the coordination between phased retirement and subsidized early retirement. Finally, the paper notes some of the changes in ERISA that will be needed to facilitate phased retirement in defined benefit plans, especially for participants who want to receive pension distributions while working part time.     

How long might the younger-old live: A predictive model

Life expectancy amongst older people in industrialised countries has been improving over an extended period and still continues to do so. This has ramifications for providers of services to this population, thus necessitating a level of forward planning. Predictive models of remaining life expectancy for older age groups can assist long-term planning processes. This paper presents an extrapolative approach to forecasting remaining life expectancy. Based on logistic modelling of historic mortality and survivorship for the “younger-old” male population of England and Wales over the period 1970-2005, a parsimonious two-parameter model is derived. This model provides a close correspondence to published period life table data. Trends in these parameters are then fitted and extrapolated to enable projections of life expectancy up to 40 years into the future. Alternative assumptions are used to determine a range of future life expectancy trajectories for a 65-year-old male. Occupational pension scheme provision is identified as an area of particular concern in the context of increasing longevity. As an illustration, the life expectancy trajectories are combined with differing discount rate assumptions to generate a number of alternative pension liability scenarios for the extrapolation period.     

Leading the future

This article examines conceptions of leadership appropriate for a global mind set. The financial value of triple bottom line investing is highlighted as an example of this trend. However, this approach is shown to be dependent upon a given society's stage of values development, thus an outcome of more advanced society's citizens having already met basic survival needs, supporting access to higher order values. Constructivist developmental theory is explored and the idea of a global mind set is linked to the emergence of world-centric value systems in individuals. A dialogical approach is introduced, along with Theory U, which is examined in more detail as a process or approach that can facilitate world-centric consciousness. This leads to exploring the perspective and impact of spirituality in relation to leadership appropriate for facilitating a global mind shift.     

Mustn't Grumble: Immigration,Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany*

A rise in population caused by increased immigration is sometimes accompanied by concerns that the increase in population puts additional or differential pressure on welfare services, which might affect the net fiscal contribution of immigrants. The UK and Germany have experienced significant increases in immigration in recent years and this study uses longitudinal data from both countries to examine whether immigrants differ in their use of health services from native-born individuals on arrival and over time. While immigrants to Germany, but not the UK, are more likely to self-report poor health than the native-born population, the samples of immigrants use hospital and GP services at broadly the same rate as the native-born populations in both countries. Controls for observed and unobserved differences between immigrants and native-born sample populations make little difference to these broad findings.