Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill. The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004. xii + 263 pp. ISBN 0-8047-4854-3, $24.95 (cloth).

Adopting the approach of the "new institutional economics,"Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill argue that grassroots, cooperativelydeveloped property rules in the nineteenth-century AmericanWest led to the peaceful resolution of most conflicts. To thedegree that cooperation trumped conflict and violence, the authorsinsist, "the ‘wild, wild West’ was really the ‘notso wild, wild West’" (p. 5). Institutional entrepreneurs,they contend, emerged to establish property rights governingaccess to rangeland,     

A “quota silo” or positive equality reach? The equality impact of gender quotas on corporate boards in Norway

10 years after its implementation, we explore the equality reach of the 40% Norwegian gender quota regulation for boards of public limited companies (PLCs) using a multi‐strategy approach (administrative data and interviews with women directors) to capture interrelated macro and meso changes. We employ Acker's (2006) inequality regimes as our analytical framework, augmented by the “equality reach” concept. We found strong compliance with the 40% Quota. However, there was little evidence of voluntary spillover to limited companies as envisaged by Quota proponents; instead Quota coverage reduced as some PLCs changed status to avoid the Quota requirement. We reveal that positive equality reach in one of the most equal countries in the world is confined to a PLC “quota silo,” which has shrunk over the life of the Quota. Moreover, we suggest that PLC high levels of compliance may be a defensive strategy seen as necessary in the regulatory/high sanction context of the Quota. We demonstrate the need for further political and organisational interventions to improve equality reach beyond the quota silo. We also show the value of the equality reach concept for research on equality interventions and warn of the dangers of an intervention leading to an equality silo.     

The global hip-hop Diaspora: Understanding the culture

From New York to Paris, Tokyo and Sydney, hip-hop culture is a Diaspora transcending ethnic, linguistic, and geographic boundaries. As Osumare [Osumare H. Beat streets in the global hood: connective marginalities of the hip-hop globe. Journal of American and Comparative Cultures 2001;2(Spring/Summer):171-181.] indicates, “Global hip-hop youth culture has become a phenomenon in the truest sense of the word and has affected nearly every country on the map (171).” We extend our knowledge of the worldwide diffusion of hip-hop culture (Stanley TL. Cool consumption goods fit for hip-hop. Advert Age 2004;75:12 [July 12]) and employ qualitative research methods to address our research questions. Our findings identify commonalities among members of the hip-hop Diaspora and suggest that the core essence of hip-hop is shared by marginalized groups. Our data also illustrate that hip-hop is malleable and is adapted to speak to members of multiple national cultures, and localized socioeconomic and political conditions: hip-hop youth culture is glocalized.     

Irish voluntary hospitals: an examination of a theory of voluntary failure

This paper examines the success and failure of voluntary hospital organisations in Ireland during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The study draws on (and extends) Salamon's theory of voluntary failure by examining the activities of religious organisations responsible for the ownership, management and delivery of acute hospital care. This theoretical perspective identifies a number of dimensions of organisational life for voluntary organisations, which precipitated the demise of organisations as voluntary sector entities, particularly issues of resource-dependency. This study shows that in the Irish hospital context many religiously owned voluntary hospitals have followed the predictable route to failure - culminating either in closure or transfer to public sector ownership, although some others have withstood the difficulties commonly encountered by voluntary organisations (VOs) as outlined by Salamon.     

Holiday travel discourses and climate change

Current analyses highlight the relatively high contribution of holiday travel to greenhouse gas emissions. One response has been a growing ‘slow travel’ movement. Slow travel is an emerging concept which can be explained as an alternative to air and car travel where people travel to destinations more slowly overland and travel less distance. At first glance, slow travel might seem to preclude much international tourism, however, as an adaptation strategy, slow travel has the potential to reduce tourism’s overall carbon footprint. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 15 UK participants before and after a holiday to another European country. The analysis explores the discourses used by both slow and non-slow travellers to justify modal choice in relation to climate change. Then, using a social practices model, the paper explores how holiday travel is constrained by both individual agency to act and the structures that exist within the travel and tourism industry. The paper concludes with some recommendations for the development of slow travel as a tourism adaptation strategy for a lower carbon future.     

Second-class doctors? The impact of a professional career structure on the employment conditions of overseas- and UK-qualified doctors

Career structures and their associated boundaries both offer and restrict career opportunities and provide the potential to be sites of unfair discrimination. Yet the impact of such structures is rarely explored. This article investigates the impact of a career structure on the employment conditions of a medical career grade in which some three-quarters of the doctors qualified overseas. The comparison of UK and overseas qualified doctors in the Staff and Associate Specialist Group provides an underexplored perspective on a professional career structure with a particular reference to reward, workload, autonomy and morale. The article draws on a quantitative study of 1,715 Staff and Associate Specialist doctors undertaken in 2004. The findings demonstrate a complex comparative picture with overseas-qualified doctors earning more, working for longer hours, having less autonomy and a lower morale than their UK-qualified comparators. We conclude by pointing to the potential for certain career structures to structurally and systematically disadvantage some groups.     

EXPERIENCES WITH FARMER ORIENTED LINEAR PROGRAMMING FOR CROP PLANNING

This paper presents a linear programming model for farm planning known as the "Purdue Top Farmer Cropping Model 'B'." This model is designed for direct use with farmers and has been used by more than 5,000 individuals. The paper describes the features of this model and discusses the rationale for these features. In this process details on application, evolution and impact of the model are given. The success of the model is due to its design and the interplay between research and extension personnel in the model design.
Un modèle de programmation linéaire, connu sous le nom de "Purdue Top Farmer Cropping Model 'B'," et destiné à la planification de la production des exploitations agricoles, est presenté dans ce rapport. Le modèle, déjà employé par plus de 5000 individus, est construit de manière à être directement utilisable par les exploitants agricoles. Le rapport décrit et expose la raison d'être des caractéristiques du modèle. Des détails sur les applications, l'évolution et l'impact de ce dernier sont fournis. La collaboration entre Je personel de recherche et d'extension dans le dessin du modèle en explique le succès.