Satire and Geopolitics: Vulgarity,Ambiguity and the Body Grotesque in South Park

Humour and laughter have become the subject of recent geopolitical scrutiny. Scholars have explored the affirmative and liberatory possibilities of humour, and the affective bodily dimensions of laughter as tools for transformative action in critical geopolitics. Humour that is vulgar and politically ambiguous is yet to be explored as a potent geopolitical avenue of enquiry. Studies of satire have suggested that rather than contesting entrenched geopolitical beliefs, satirical shows can serve to further divide audiences both amenable and antagonistic to the satire in question. I argue that this should not involve a wholesale rejection of satirical shows, as humour that uses irony, subversion, and other discursive techniques is just one way satirical media becomes an effective commentator on political issues. I examine the show South Park and argue its satire combines bodily and scatological humour with more traditional satirical techniques to produce a comedy that ridicules contemporary issues by reducing complex politics to the most basic and crass condition possible. This is defined in a Bakhtinian sense of the body grotesque, a social inversion through reference to the common bodily functions of all human beings.     

Embedding CSR Values: The Global Footwear Industry’s Evolving Governance Structure

Many transnational corporations and international organizations have embraced corporate social responsibility (CSR) to address criticisms of working and environmental conditions at subcontractors’ factories. While CSR ‹codes of conduct’ are easy to draft, supplier compliance has been elusive. Even third-party monitoring has proven an incomplete solution. This article proposes that an alteration in the supply chain’s governance, from an arms-length market model to a collaborative partnership, often will be necessary to effectuate CSR. The market model forces contractors to focus on price and delivery as they compete for the lead firm’s business, rendering CSR observance secondary, at best. A collaborative partnership where the lead firm gives select suppliers secure product orders and other benefits removes disincentives and adds incentives for CSR compliance. In time, the suppliers’ CSR habit should shift their business philosophy toward pursuing CSR as an end in itself, regardless of buyer incentives and monitoring. This article examines these hypotheses in the context of the athletic footwear sector with Nike, Inc. and its suppliers as the specific case study. The data collected and conclusions reached offer strategies for advancing CSR beyond the superficial and often ineffectual ‹code of conduct’ stage.     

Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan

The emergence, proliferation, and ubiquity of the Internet have not only transformed businesses, but also altered the relationship between businesses and the customer. Recent advances in technology have helped to migrate this relationship to an interactive level where technology contributes to brand building by creating and sustaining a long-term relationship with the customer. Media fragmentation and customer indifference to traditional marketing tools are forcing marketers to seek new opportunities so the marketing message not only captures customers’ attention, but also tries to engage them with the company. This paper discusses blogs within the context of creating this new, more enduring relationship with the customer. Blogs are discussed within the framework of Web 2.0, the next generation of the Internet, which is comprised of user-generated content and social computing. The use of blogs by several companies as tools to better engage the customer in the creation, delivery, and dissemination of marketing messages is also demonstrated.     

Individual versus group spot price forecasting in the international petroleum market: A case study

This paper utilizes the conventional statistical tests associated with the rational expectations hypothesis so as to compare the relative accuracy of individual versus group forecasting within the organization. In order to maintain comparability between forecasting regimens the study employs like information sets for the two prediction methods. Using the rational expectations tests as criteria, the statistical results show group forecasts inferior to individually produced predictions These findings imply that group-produced forecasting accuracy may be hampered by the psychological interaction associated with consensus behavior. Conversely, we find forecasting accuracy improves when predictions are elicited from individuals in an isolated laboratory-like setting.     

Stock Market Efficiency and the Federal Budget Deficit: Another Anomaly?

This paper investigates the efficiency of the U.S. stock market as it pertains to a number of major macrofinance variables that theory and empirical evidence suggest are important in rational stock pricing decisions. A multivariate vector autoregressive analysis is used to draw efficiency inferences. The estimated factor pricings are consistent with theory and previous empirical research. In addition, these results indicate that the stock market may be inefficient with respect to the federal budget deficit variable. Similar apparent inefficiency evidence is obtained for the term structure and risk premium variables. The authors cannot reject the efficiency hypothesis for industrial production, inflation, and base money. Using indirect causality tests, the authors find plausible intermediate information linkages connecting variables in the system. The term structure and risk premia variables consistently appear important as intermediate conduits through which information about other factors impact stock returns.     

Derivatives Activity at Troubled Banks

Because of moral hazard associated with deposit insurance, troubled banks that have a relatively thin capital cushion to absorb losses have an incentive to take speculative positions. Thus, the prevalence of problem banks among those actively engaged in derivatives markets should be of concern to bank supervisors. However, we find no evidence that bank supervisors take into account, either favorably or unfavorably, the derivatives activities of troubled banks in their decisions to downgrade bank ratings or impose regulatory actions. The derivatives activity of troubled banks should raise the same concerns expressed about banks' on–balance-sheet positions, namely, that they may not be fully exploiting hedging opportunities or may be placing their remaining capital at risk, intentionally or unintentionally.     

Risk Management: Its Adoption in Australian Public Universities within an Environment of Change Management – A Management Perspective

This study draws on the multi‐theoretical approach to governance and a qualitative methodology to examine the extent to which key players in Australian public universities have developed and implemented risk management within an environment of change management. The findings demonstrate that wider influences – largely the result of conflicting management cultures – have had differing impacts on the values of key players and the consequent adoption of the process. Key players’ values range from congruent with a corporate culture (at the strategic level) to incongruent with a corporate culture (at the operational level), and result in different outcomes. These different outcomes suggest that the adoption of risk management by Australian public universities under the influence of new public management is problematic. The study provides opportunities for further research to confirm these findings with a broader sample of actors and the adoption of other governance control processes.     

Co-calibrating quality-of-life scores from three pulmonary disorders: implications for comparative-effectiveness research

Background Efficient use of health resources requires accurate outcome assessment. Disease-specific patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures are designed to be highly relevant to patients with a specific disease. They have advantages over generic PROs that lack relevance to patient groups and miss crucial impacts of illness. It is thought that disease-specific measurement cannot be used in comparative effectiveness research (CER). The present study provides further evidence of the value of disease-specific measures in making valid comparisons across diseases.

Methods The Asthma Life Impact Scale (ALIS, 22 items), Living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (LCOPD, 22 items) scale, and Cambridge Pulmonary Hypertension Outcome Review (CAMPHOR, 25 items) were completed by 140, 162, and 91 patients, respectively. The three samples were analyzed for fit to the Rasch model, then combined into a scale consisting of 58 unique items and re-analyzed. Raw scores on the three measures were co-calibrated and a transformation table produced.

Results The scales fit the Rasch model individually (ALIS Chi² probability value (p-Chi²)?=?0.05; LCOPD p-Chi^2?=^?0.38; CAMPHOR p-Chi^2?=^?0.92). The combined data also fit the Rasch model (p-Chi^2?=^?0.22). There was no differential item functioning related to age, gender, or disease. The co-calibrated scales successfully distinguished between perceived severity groups (p?<?0.001).

Limitations The samples were drawn from different sources. For scales to be co-calibrated using a common item design, they must be based on the same theoretical construct, be unidimensional, and have overlapping items.

Conclusions The results showed that it is possible to co-calibrate scores from disease-specific PRO measures. This will permit more accurate and sensitive outcome measurement to be incorporated into CER. The co-calibration of needs-based disease-specific measures allows the calculation of γ scores that can be used to compare directly the impact of any type of interventions on any diseases included in the co-calibration.