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551. Workforce Intermediaries for the Twenty-first Century

Author:
Robert Giloth
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Assembly at Columbia University
Abstract:
Confronted with businesses facing a long-term shortage of skilled workers and evaluations showing that job training for the poor over the past 25 years had produced only meager results, a number of groups throughout the country have sought to find a more effective approach. The efforts of these partnerships, which editor Robert Giloth calls 'workforce intermediaries', are characterized by a focus on improving business productivity and helping low-income individuals not just find a job, but advance over time to jobs that enable them to support themselves and their families. This book takes stock of the world of workforce intermediaries: entrepreneurial partnerships that include businesses, unions, community colleges, and community organizations. Noted scholars and policy makers examine the development and effectiveness of these intermediaries, and a concluding chapter discusses how to provide a more coherent approach to increasing the viability and capacity of these important institutions.
Topic:
Economics, Education, Human Welfare, International Trade and Finance, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
Global Focus

552. Art, Technology and Intellectual Property

Publication Date:
02-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Assembly at Columbia University
Abstract:
At the close of their discussions, the participants in the 100th American Assembly on "Art, Technology, and Intellectual Property," at Arden House, Harriman, New York, February 7-10, 2002, reviewed as a group the following statement. While the statement represents general agreement, no one was asked to sign it. Furthermore, it should be understood that not everyone agreed with all of it, and some vigorously disagreed with some of it.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, New York, and America

553. Affirmative Action At Sciences Po

Author:
Daniel Sabbagh
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Unlike in the United States, in France, the main operational criterion for identifying the beneficiaries of affirmative action policies is not race or gender, but geographical location. In this respect, the first affirmative action plan recently designed in the sphere of higher education by one of France's most famous 'grandes écoles', the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, while not departing significantly from this broader pattern of redistributive, territory-based public policies, has given rise to a controversy of an unprecedented scale, some features of which may actually suggest the existence of a deeper similarity between French and American affirmative action programs and the difficulties that they face. That similarity lies in the attempts made by the supporters of such programs to systematically minimize the negative side-effects on their beneficiaries' public image potentially induced by the visibility of the policy itself.
Topic:
Education
Political Geography:
United States, America, Paris, and France

554. The Social Sciences in Transition: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe

Author:
Elzbieta Matynia
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
The biggest challenge in trying to make sense of the social sciences in Central and Eastern Europe today is that the very condition of the societies in question is "transitional." From the moment the Poles negotiated the beginning of their own transition in April have been dealing with a part of the world in which all aspects of social, political and economic life are in constant motion. Some elements of the reports we commissioned on the status of the social sciences in various countries of the region are already obsolete; by the time the overview presented in this volume goes to press, it too will have become a case study in what Timothy Garton Ash calls the "history of the present."
Topic:
Education
Political Geography:
Europe and Eastern Europe

555. Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project. The User's Guide to the ACE Project Electronic Resources

Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The political dimensions - the issues, the positioning of parties and candidates, and the results - garner the most media attention and public discussion during an election campaign. Overshadowed, but no less important, however, is the “behind-the-scenes-work” of those ensuring the electoral process comes about without a hitch. If the election goes smoothly, the administration will hardly be noticed. If it does not, accusations of disenfranchisement, manipulation, or malpractice may result, possibly jeopardising the legitimacy and the results of the electoral event.
Topic:
Education, Government, and Politics

556. The Effectiveness of Special Interventions in Latin American Public Primary Schools

Author:
Joan B. Anderson
Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
In pursuit of improved quality and more equity in education, public primary schools in Latin America have utilized several compensatory educational policies that include special interventions such as food aid programs, distribution of free textbooks, classroom libraries, in-service teacher training, extra classes and extra school sessions, tutors and mentors, and scholarships. Using data on children and schools in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, this paper presents the results of cross-country, empirical estimates of the effects of these interventions on language and math achievement and on the likelihood of promotion, both at the school level and at the level of individual children. Language and math achievement was measured by scores on UNESCO-developed language and math examinations administered to each of the 2,048 children in the sample. In addition, the paper addresses whether a particular intervention is equally effective in poor and non-poor environments and whether these compensatory interventions in fact target those who need them most. Empirical findings suggest that the most effective programs are classroom libraries, distribution of textbooks, distribution of food, and teacher training. For programs to be compensatory, the research indicates that better targeting of scarce resources toward low-income schools and children is needed
Topic:
Development, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile

557. The Enabling Environment for Free and Independant Media: Contribution to Transparent and Accountable Governance

Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
Throughout the world, there is a vast remapping of media laws and policies. This important moment for building more democratic media is attributable to rapid-fire geo-political changes. These include a growing zest for information, the general move towards democratization, numberous pressures from the international community, and the inexorable impact of new media technologies. Whatever the mix in any specific state, media law and policy is increasingly a subject of intense debate.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Education, and Politics

558. Disentangling the Reform Gridlock: Higher Education in Germany

Author:
Helga A. Welsh
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
For more than a decade, bemoaning the many roadblocks to reforming important aspect of German politics has become commonplace. Explanations emphasize formal and informal veto points, such as the role of political institutions and the lack of elite and societal support for reform initiatives. Against this background, I was interested in factors that place policy issues on the political agenda and follow up with concrete courses of action; i.e., in factors that lead to a disentangling of the reform gridlock. I emphasize the importance of agenda setting in the emergence of higher education reform in Germany. Globalization, European integration and domestic pressures combined to create new pressures for change. In response, an advocacy coalition of old and new political actors has introduced a drawn-out and ongoing process of value reorientation in the direction of competition, including international competition, and greater autonomy. The result has been a burst of activities, some moderate, some more far-reaching in their potential to restructure German higher education.
Topic:
Education, Globalization, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

559. Ties That Bind? The Parapublic Underpinnings of Franco-German Relations as Construction of International Value

Author:
Ulrich Krotz
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Beneath the relations among states, and distinct from the exchanges of an autonomous regional or global civil society, there is another set of international practices which is neither public nor private but parapublic. The Franco-German parapublic underpinnings consist of publicly funded youth and educational exchanges, some two thousand city and regional partnerships, a host of institutes and associations concerned with Franco-German matters, and various other parapublic elements. This institutional reality provides resources, socializes the participants of its programs, and generates social meaning. Simultaneously, parapublic activity faces severe limits. In this paper I clarify the concept of “parapublic underpinnings” of international relations and flesh out their characteristics for the relationship between France and Germany. I then evaluate the effects and limits of this type of activity, and relate this paper's findings and arguments to recent research on transnationalism, Europeanization, and denationalization.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, and Education
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

560. Gender and Education as Determinants of Household Poverty in Nigeria

Author:
Christiana E.E. Okojie
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The paper examines the linkages between gender of household heads, education and household poverty in Nigeria between 1980 and 1996. Data analyzed were obtained from four national consumer expenditure surveys conducted in Nigeria in 1980, 1985, 1992 and 1996 by the Federal Office of Statistics. Adjustments were made for price differentials over time and across regions of the country. However, only aggregated data for households were available. Per capita expenditure was used as the indicator of poverty, while the unit of analysis was the household. Two poverty lines were set: a moderate poverty line equal to two-thirds of mean per capita household expenditure, and a core poverty line equal to one-third of mean per capita expenditure. The Pa index proposed by Foster, Greer and Thorbecke was used to generate the headcount ratio as well as the depth and severity of poverty. Trends in inequality were analyzed using Gini coefficients and the Theil's index. Multivariate analysis was used to examine the relationships between gender, poverty and other household variables, including education, for all households as well as for subgroups of male-headed and female-headed households respectively.
Topic:
Education and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria