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62. Creative Success and Network Embeddedness: Explaining Critical Recognition of Film Directors in Hollywood, 1900–2010
- Author:
- Mark Lutter
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- This article analyzes how social network structures affect career success in a project based labor market. The literature on team success has shown that teams perform well if they integrate both weak and strong ties simultaneously. Applying the literature to careers in the creative industries, the study suggests that creative artists are more likely to receive critical recognition if they build their careers in both familiar project networks and heterogeneous sets of creative conventions. It is argued that familiarity and diversity operate as complementary elements in the development of innovative ideas. While diversity is important to maximize the flow of new ideas, it needs to be embedded within trustworthy and familiar network structures in order to fully develop its creative potential. The suggested mechanism is tested by means of full career data of 55,097 film directors, covering 478,859 directing jobs in 330,142 film productions during the years 1900–2010. It is shown that familiarity and diversity explain a considerable part of a director’s critical success. Results from interaction effects show that diversity has greater effects on critical success if it is socially embedded within familiar social structures. The article contributes to the emerging understanding of the role of group processes and network structures in explaining individual career success.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, Markets, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States of America
63. The Return of Religion? The Paradox of Faith-Based Welfare Provision in a Secular Age
- Author:
- Josef Hien
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- For centuries, churches were the main institutional providers of welfare in Europe before the state took over this role in the late 19th century. The influence of modernization theory meant that modern welfare state theorists increasingly regarded religion and its impact on welfare as a relic from the distant past. It was anticipated that modern, differentiated, and industrialized societies would see the decline and inevitable disappearance of religious welfare provision along with religiosity. Surprisingly, however, at the beginning of the 21st century in many modern industrialized societies, religious institutions are increasingly becoming involved in welfare provision again. The religion blind classic welfare state literature offers no explanation for this phenomenon. This present paper argues that the resurgence of faith-based welfare providers is the reversal of a phenomenon that occurred in the late 19th century when modern states started to strip religious providers of their prerogatives in welfare provision. The result was the ascendance of the modern state and the demise of religion in the late 19th century. The return of welfare to religious providers can therefore be interpreted as the beginning of the demise of the modern state.
- Topic:
- Development, Human Welfare, Non-Governmental Organization, Religion, and Social Movement
- Political Geography:
- United States of America
64. Transformative Tools for Malaria Elimination
- Author:
- PATH Malaria Center of Excellence
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- Over the past 15 years, malaria has gained increased attention and action from the public health community, with researchers, global and national funders, and, most importantly, national governments and communities in endemic areas. Renewed efforts to fight the disease have resulted in an unprecedented 50 percent reduction in malaria deaths in African children since 2000. This progress has been achieved in large part because effective, efficient, and affordable tools emerged as a result of earlier investments in research and development.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation, and Infectious Diseases
- Political Geography:
- Africa
65. Strategic Partnerships to Advance Family Planning
- Author:
- Janet Fleischman and Cathryn Streifel
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Senegalese minister of health, Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, used a familiar term with us to express her commitment to expanding access to family planning—“yes we can.” That is a bold proposition in such a conservative country, in a region with some of the world's highest maternal mortality and unmet need for family planning. Her leadership reflects an important moment in Senegal, and prospects for advancing women's health and family planning in the subregion may depend on its success.
- Topic:
- Development, Gender Issues, Human Welfare, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Senegal
66. Stanford Working Group on Responding to Refugees
- Author:
- James C. Hathaway and Roland Hsu
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for International Security and Cooperation
- Abstract:
- As a matter of principle, the international community has agreed to a treaty-based rights regime designed to make refugees autonomous drivers of their own survival and future. Under international law, refugee status and rights accrue based on facts, not formalities. The interests of receiving states are addressed by the treaty's emphasis on incremental acquisition of rights as attachment increases; by a contingent rights structure; by rules addressing legitimate security concerns and the duties of refugees; and by the limitation of obligations to the duration of risk in the refugee's country of origin. In reality, and despite the treaty-based regime's focus on ensuring refugee self-reliance by the granting to them of rights focused on self-reliance, most of the world's refugees live either in camps where they have little if any autonomy or, if outside camps, face the ongoing risk of summary detention or deportation. More than 80% of refugees live in the less developed world and spend an average of nearly 20 years in a first country of refuge without access to either resettlement or the ability safely to repatriate. This discrepancy between principle and the reality for most refugees might be explained by conflicts with other priorities of receiving states; limitations on UNHCR's ability as an institution effectively to ensure compliance with treaty-based rules; and the absence of convincing evidence of refugees' net economic contributions to host societies.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Treaties and Agreements
67. Impacto De La Roya Del Café
- Author:
- Alberto Vargas
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Muchas de las comunidades de El Salvador tienen una baja resiliencia (su capacidad de enfrentar y recuperarse de los efectos de los desastres es muy limitada). Existen comunidades que a causa del cambio climático están enfrentando diversos eventos cada uno o dos años.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Health, Human Welfare, and Food
- Political Geography:
- South America
68. Ebola and the Private Sector: Bolstering the response and West African economies
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is unprecedented. The increasing number of cases, the poor health infrastructure, the shortage of skills, knowledge and personnel, and the fear surrounding the disease are proving a huge challenge to affected governments and to the international community as they battle to bring the epidemic under control.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief, Health, Human Welfare, and Infectious Diseases
- Political Geography:
- Africa and West Africa
69. A Long Way to Go: The Ebola response in West Africa at the sixty day mark
- Author:
- Debbie Hillier and Krista Riddley
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The international response to the Ebola epidemic is on the right path, but there is a long way to go. The UN's interim objective was to treat 70 percent of cases and to ensure that 70 percent of burials were done safely within 60 days, i.e. by 1 December 2014. Case numbers are stabilizing in Liberia and Guinea, but remain out of control in Sierra Leone – such that the targets for cases treated has not been met. The UN has not provided figures for what had been achieved by 1 December, but a previous sitrep on 21 November showed that only 13 percent of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone have been isolated, compared with 72 percent in Guinea.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief, Human Welfare, Infectious Diseases, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa
70. Steps Towards a Living Wage in Global Supply Chains
- Author:
- Rachel Wilshaw
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Almost a century after the ILO Constitution recognized the need for workers to earn a living wage, the question of whether wages enable workers to meet their needs and those of their families has gained renewed momentum. Much has been written on the issue, but very little that assesses how companies are implementing it, and the outcomes.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, and Labor Issues