Greater Agency Research Articles

"Choice Set" for health behavior in choice-constrained settings to frame research and inform policy: examples of food consumption, obesity and food security.

ObjectivesUsing the nexus between food consumption, food security and obesity, this paper addresses the complexity of health behavior decision-making moments that reflect relational social dynamics in context-specific dialogues, often in choice-constrained conditions.MethodsA pragmatic review of literature regarding social determinants of health in relation to food consumption, food security and obesity was used to advance this theoretical model.Results and discussionWe suggest that health choice, such as food consumption, is based on more than the capacity and volition of individuals to make “healthy” choices, but is dialogic and adaptive. In terms of food consumption, there will always be choice-constrained conditions, along a continuum representing factors over which the individual has little or no control, to those for which they have greater agency. These range from food store geographies and inventories and food availability, logistical considerations such as transportation, food distribution, the structure of equity in food systems, state and non-government food and nutrition programs, to factors where the individual exercises a greater degree of autonomy, such as sociocultural foodways, family and neighborhood shopping strategies, and personal and family food preferences. At any given food decision-making moment, many factors of the continuum are present consciously or unconsciously when the individual makes a decision. These health behavior decision-making moments are mutable, whether from an individual perspective, or within a broader social or policy context. We review the construct of “choice set”, the confluence of factors that are temporally weighted by the differentiated and relationally-contextualized importance of certain factors over others in that moment. The choice transition represents an essential shift of the choice set based on the conscious and unconscious weighting of accumulated evidence, such that people can project certain outcomes. Policies and interventions should avoid dichotomies of “good and bad” food choices or health behaviors, but focus on those issues that contribute to the weightedness of factors influencing food choice behavior at a given decision-making moment and within a given choice set.

Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency

New methods to analyse social media data provide a powerful way to know publics and capture what they say and do. At the same time, access to these methods is uneven, with corporations and governments tending to have best access to relevant data and analytics tools. Critics raise a number of concerns about the implications dominant uses of data mining and analytics may have for the public: they result in less privacy, more surveillance and social discrimination, and they provide new ways of controlling how publics come to be represented and so understood. In this paper, we consider if a different relationship between the public and data mining might be established, one in which publics might be said to have greater agency and reflexivity vis-à-vis data power. Drawing on growing calls for alternative data regimes and practices, we argue that to enable this different relationship, data mining and analytics need to be democratised in three ways: they should be subject to greater public supervision and regulation, available and accessible to all, and used to create not simply known but reflexive, active and knowing publics. We therefore imagine conditions in which data mining is not just used as a way to know publics, but can become a means for publics to know themselves.

Ethnographic Expertise as Visionary Catalyst of Collaboration

Recent developments in the scholarship of ethnography, combined with growing recognition of the value of collaboration in business, present industrial ethnography with the opportunity to exercise greater agency and leadership. This paper considers updates to theory and practice of ethnographic strategy, positionality, foresight, and design, observing that the combination of these developments is ideal preparation for such leadership and collaboration in a context of increasing complexity. Discussion of business orthodoxy and related critiques contextualizes the conversation. Atul Gawande's development of the surgical safety checklist provides a case study for showing how a deep ethnographic approach can apply the specific capabilities highlighted in this paper to foster collaboration and to understand and solve complex problems in a way that bridges “anthropological” and “design” ethnography. The paper ends with practical suggestions for advancing ethnographic leadership and agency. Additional key words: anthropology – bizdev – business philosophy –creativity – consulting – corporate – entrepreneur – fiction – future – leadership – organizational behavior – startup.

The Culture of Corruption and the Value of Corporate Governance

U.S. corporations headquartered in states with greater public corruption are prone to more unethical behavior, reflective of a state-level "culture-of-corruption". We test for state-level differences by exploiting passage of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) that curtailed bribery of foreign officials. Firms in corrupt states, especially firms trading with more corrupt countries, suffer greater value (Tobin's Q) and performance (ROA) decline following FCPA, indicating larger losses from restrictions on bribery. Culture-of-corruption is also manifest in greater agency problems: Firms in corrupt states are more likely to manage earnings, face securities fraud litigation and be adversely affected by state-level anti-takeover laws.

Moving beyond Evidence: Participatory Online Documentary Practice within the Poetic Framework of Cowbird

The growth of user contribution as a form of interaction within online documentary projects is causing a shift in the way screen-based documentary is conceived. Viewers become participants, taking on greater agency in forming the experience of the work as they engage by contributing personal responses to the exploration of a subject. Rather than being fixed works with definite beginnings and endings, these online collaborative documentaries operate as portals, encouraging communities to gather around themes, events or areas of interest. While the diversity of contributions promises rich conceptual renderings, a significant challenge lies in the question of how to create a coherent media entity out of aggregated content that may be contradictory, complex and constantly changing. The online storytelling platform Cowbird establishes a social media space that engages a range of aesthetic, structural and organisational techniques to facilitate the sequenciation of diverse sources into multi-vocal chronicles of experience. Cowbird initiatives, such as the Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project, where individual accounts of life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota were published as a mosaic collection alongside a feature article about the reservation in National Geographic magazine, suggest alternative modes of exchange between old and new media. This article examines the visual, structural and interaction design of Cowbird to explore how this complex and changeful format works to stimulate poetic and affective webs of connection. It is my contention that the system of multilinear engagement employed on Cowbird enables an emergent approach to documentary that can accommodate a nuanced and shifting range of individual responses.

Two mediators of power on subjective well-being in China

Power may enhance well-being via authenticity, but it can also lead to misery, which arises as a consequence of assertiveness. To address inconsistencies in the results of previous studies, we took the literature regarding well-being and personality of agency into account. Consequently, we formed a hypothesis in which the complex effects of power on subjective well-being could be explained via agency and unmitigated agency. Because power increases agency, which contributes to subjective well-being, it could enhance subjective well-being by encouraging people to become more agentic. However, when agency is not mitigated by communion that is referred to as unmitigated agency, it reduces subjective well-being due to dissatisfaction with relationships. Therefore, we hypothesized that power would enhance subjective well-being via greater agency and reduced unmitigated agency. Three surveys completed by 202 Chinese participants showed consistent evidence that power, both dispositional and role-specific, was positively related to subjective well-being and role satisfaction via agency and unmitigated agency. Both agency and unmitigated agency mediated the effects of power on subjective well-being. These results elucidate the complex psychological mechanisms underlying the influence of power on subjective well-being from the perspective of personality and provide a basis for future research.

Calculating student aspiration: Bourdieu, spatiality and the politics of recognition

This paper reports on a recent study of aspirations for higher education by secondary school students from disadvantaged backgrounds in regional Australia. At the same time, it goes in search of explanations that transcend a Bourdieuian account of aspirations as produced by and reproductive of cultural histories and dominance, given the apparent inadequacy of these accounts in redressing disadvantage. To this end the authors distinguish between historicising and spatialising aspirations, taking up Appadurai’s notion of navigational capacity as a way of advancing greater agency for disadvantaged groups. Data from the research inform the analysis, including the mediation of students’ desired futures by their perception of what is possible given their differentiated locations and access to resources. It is concluded that while this spatial turn in theorising aspiration has potential for changing the terms of recognition internal to disadvantaged communities, there remain structural limits on change ‘from below’.

The Next Great Copyright Act, or a New Great Copyright Agency?

The Next Great Copyright Act, or a New Great Copyright Agency?

Students’ Perspectives on the Role of Peer Feedback in Supporting Learning

There has been a considerable growth in research considering the role of peer feedback within higher education over the last 10 years (Gielen, Dochy, & Onghena, 2011). However, there are mixed opinions regarding what peer feedback involves and its value in relation to enhancing student learning outcomes. Furthermore, for those supporters of holistic assessment designs advocating greater student involvement and agency in the assessment process (Boud & Associates, 2010), there is a tension regarding the extent to which students should be required to participate in peer feedback activities (Nicol, 2008). In developing this argument, it is known that although peer feedback can be a positive experience for students (De Grez, Valcke, & Berings, 2010), impacts on learning can also be variable, reflecting the interplay of individual and contextual factors.Adopting an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, this article examines with students how they make sense of and use peer feedback opportunities. Informed by a personal learning styles pedagogy (PLSP; Evans & Waring, 2009, 2014), two peer feedback pedagogical interventions involving postgraduate students were implemented at two U.K. higher education institutions. Using a mixed methods approach, the role of individual and contextual variables in affecting students’ perceptions of the value of peer feedback and the PLSP approach are explored. Informed by current peer feedback debates, recommendations to inform practice are made.

A Hyaluronic Acid-Chitosan-Gadolinium Nanosphere for Specific Tumor-Targeted MRI Contrast Agent

A hyaluronic acid-chitosan-gadolinium (HA-CTS-Gd) nanosphere is prepared by HA modified CTS nanosphere and the complexation between Gd ions and functional groups in CTS and HA molecule. The nanosphere is used as a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent for targeting specific tumor. The results show that the HA-CTS-Gd nanosphere is stable in physiological environment due to the strong Gd chelating interaction between the abundant functional groups in HA and chitosan molecules, which leads to low toxicity. Moreover, the obtained nanosphere reveals a high CD44 targeting efficiency and relaxation efficiency in vitro, and it has a great agency for human colonic and mouse lymphatic tumor MRI in vivo. Thus, the novel MRI contrast agent can be taken up selec- tively by CD44 antigen and used as a potential MRI contrast agents in specific tumor.

Analysis of Gender and Other Social Dimensions of Household Water Insecurity in Ngamiland, Botswana

This paper analyzes impacts of water insecurity on men, women and children in Botswana, a middle income and semi-arid country. The paper contributes to the burgeoning literature on water security. Households in different settlement categories of Ngamiland, Botswana experience water insecurity. Men, women, girls and children living in water insecurity lifeworlds, play various roles in ensuring household water availability. Women and girls have the greatest agency in ensuring household water availability by spending considerable time transporting water containers loaded on their heads and engaging in rainwater harvesting. Water insecurity negatively affects personal hygiene and gives rise to household interpersonal conflicts. Countries facing water insecurity, e.g. Botswana need to promote research that can inform appropriate water policies, legal frameworks, technologies for water supply and financial mechanisms for enhancing household water security.

Sovereign Feminine: Music and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Germany by Matthew Head (review)

SOVEREIGN, SACRED Sovereign Feminine: Music and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Germany. By Matthew Head. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. [xxi, 326 p. ISBN 9780520273849 (hardcover); ISBN 9780520954762 (e-book), $65.] Music examples, illustrations, tables, appendix, bibliogra- phy, index.What better can temper manly rude- ness, or strengthen and support the weak- ness of man, what so soon can assuage the rapid blaze of wrath, what more charm masculine power, what so quickly dissipate peevishness and ill-temper, what so well can while away the insipid tedious hours of life, as the near and affectionate look of no- ble, beautiful woman? . (J. C. Lavater, Physiognomy, 1775-1777) (p. vii).With this epigram, Matthew Head points readers to the new perspective unfolded in his Sovereign Feminine: Music and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Germany, that the late eighteenth century in Germany repre- sented view of women, gender, and music distinct from that of earlier periods and especially from the role of music in the idealization and confinement of women commonly considered in German romanti- cism of the nineteenth century. Head argues instead that women in the late eigh- teenth century were seen as civilizing, cultivating force over men, and that, as result, some women were granted greater cultural agency, especially through the fine arts. Head states: [I]n highlighting discourse-an ideology-of female sover- eignty in polite culture and the fine one could argue that (some) women achieved symbolic power, and cultural capi- tal (p. 7).Head thus captures what he presents as special moment in the history of women's relationships with music, moment that al- lowed for women's greater agency in soci- ety due to the view of women as civilizing influences on men. Head further argues that this agency was particularly communi- cated through music performance by women and through music composition by both women and men. He characterizes such view as a focus on music as part of the culture of sensibility (p. 13) which also valued man's capacity to feel as woman, at least within the dominion of sen- sibility and the fine arts (p. 15).Head's Sovereign Feminine is significant contribution to the musicological discourse on gender, particularly on representations of, and participation of, women in music performance and composition. Head en- gages the significant dialogue about music and gender that has been ongoing in musi- cology since the early 1990s (marked by Susan McClary's Feminine Endings [Minne- apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991], which Head appropriately recognizes as groundbreaking, p. xvii). But, as Head highlights in his preface, even with this far greater attention to gender in musicology and with the influence of feminism in the field, there have been almost no studies of gender in the late eighteenth century.After framing the book within the larger discourse on music and gender in the pref- ace, Head presents his thesis and approach in the introduction. Through the example of Sophie von La Roche's novel Die Geschichte des Frauleins von Sternheim (Leip- zig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1771), Head highlights the brief period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when figures of womanhood enjoyed ex- alted status as signs of reform, progress, morality, and civilization (p. 4). Head also introduces Berlin Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814), highly influential voice in discourses on music in the period, but one who has been largely forgotten in modern musicology. Head employs Reichardt's writings, musical activities, and compositions as unifying thread throughout the book, as Reichardt provided significant arguments for and support of the view of the sovereign feminine.The remainder of the book, with the ex- ception of brief afterword, includes six case studies to support and illustrate Head's conception of the sovereign feminine. …

Clark v. Duke: The Struggle for Water Rights and the Future of North Carolina’s Public Energy Policy

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Democracy in government is almost impossible until we have a democracy in industrialism to the extent of public ownership of all the great agencies such as transportation by rail, water power, coal mines, and oil wells ... Public ownership of these utilities will insure democracy in government....--Walter Clark, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leading North Carolinians, among them James B. Duke, the fortune behind the American Tobacco and Southern Power companies, crowded into a Raleigh courtroom in November 1920. The state's Corporation Commission was considering the Southern Power Company's application for a rate increase--the first application of its kind by a North Carolina public energy corporation, and the first decision by the Corporation Commission on electrical rates. That North Carolina's Corporation Commission would consider, and later exercise, regulatory control over the state's largest power company--owned by the South's wealthiest industrialist--would not have been possible less than a year earlier. (1) In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the state's Democratic party hindered numerous political reforms in North Carolina--from the enactment of women's suffrage to the regulation of electrical rates charged by energy companies. Nevertheless, during the second decade of the twentieth century, North Carolina saw significant reform to its public energy policy as the state's water power resources shifted from a laissez-faire public energy market to a corporate monopoly that was held in check--at least in theory--by the Corporation Commission. In 1898, the Democratic party's White Supremacy Campaign crushed the half decade-long fusion of Populists and Republicans. With the Populists defeated, and many finding their way back into a conservative Democratic party, no grassroots movement stood in the way of the Southern Power Company's bid for electrical control. Despite a 1913 grant of statutory authority to police regulatory rates, the state's Corporation Commission cautiously avoided conflict, reluctant to use its authoritative power. As a result, only the state's court system could prevent the company's dictation of the state's public energy policy. At the head of the court was North Carolina's patrician Populist (a registered Democrat) and Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Clark, whose outspokenness blurred the lines between jurist and progressive reformer. Clark had advocated for full public ownership of public resources in popular addresses and national journals. For Clark, mere regulatory control of a corporate monopoly on North Carolina's water resources, and the energy acquired through their use, was an unnecessary compromise that fell short of the ideal. To achieve his goals of public ownership, Clark pitted himself against Duke in editorials and courtrooms. GAS, NO SOOT, NO DIRT As the electrification of North Carolina progressed in the early twentieth century, water was regarded as a valuable energy source--something that was cheap, abundant, and renewable. Clark wrote on the potential of hydropower, There will be no coal to go in, no ashes to go out, no gas, no soot, no dirt. Many local newspapers were similarly optimistic, reporting that electricity derived from hydropower would soon replace steam as the main energy source for railroads, mills, cities, and homes, and lauding water power investors. But as Raleigh's News and Observer lamented, the nineteenth century had lacked men of business sense with the necessary capital to establish large plants and fully utilize the water power that has so long swept unused into the sea. (2) Change seemed possible in 1899, when North Carolina published results from its first large-scale analysis of the State's ability to harness water power in the North Carolina Geological Survey's Bulletin No. 8. Inquirers--investors and those contemplating the development of water power in the near future--were rewarded with pre-publication copies of the report. …

Value of analyst recommendations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document performance of analysts’ recommendations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the period between 1999 and 2010. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses post-announcement market-adjusted returns as a measure of performance and computes returns for different holding periods. Significant positive (negative) returns following buy (sell) recommendation will indicate value relevance of these recommendations. Findings – The authors show that analysts’ buy recommendations have significant information in them, while their sell recommendations contain no significant information. Significant positive returns are reported following analysts’ buy recommendations and insignificant returns following their sell recommendations. Furthermore, it is also shown that these results hold true only in markets where institutions are relatively strong (common law countries and countries with stronger property rights) and for firms which have lower agency conflicts (firms that pay dividends and have concentrated ownership). For markets where institutions are relatively weak and for firms which have greater agency conflicts, these results show no value in analysts’ recommendations. Practical implications – These results imply that investors should not blindly follow analyst recommendations while making their investment decisions in the MENA region. Originality/value – This paper makes detailed analysis of analyst recommendations in previously unexplored MENA region. Some conditions under which analyst recommendation have no value and some conditions under which they have partial value have also been identified.

Social production in a collectivist culture

Purpose – This paper aims to study the relationship between structure and agency of Indian women executives in the area of work-life balance in a developing and globalized context. It examines social production in a collectivist culture. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is qualitative and interpretative. Semi-structured interviews of 105 senior women executives from major metropolitan cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai) form the rich data for this research. It uses sociological theories of McNay and Bourdieu to discuss the narratives of women executives. Findings – The agency of women executives in India is influenced by cultural meta-narratives of marriage and motherhood. They experience conflict in the home front and less at the work place. Their negotiations with their structures reveal a nuanced agency wherein they try to fit cultural roles and also seek self fulfillment in a career. Research limitations/implications – First, it includes women executives only from the corporate sector. Second, opinions expressed by women executives alone have been taken for this study and is not cross-validated by opinions of others. This study is also limited to socio-cultural roles and expectations from women executives. Other variables that affect agency are not examined. Practical implications – This study contributes to the understanding of how women executives, who have a greater agency, negotiate their structural constraints and how these actions contribute to social production. Social implications – It studies the societal impact of the agency of women executives in India. Originality/value – The study provides a theoretical insight into structure and agency of women executives in India and thus adds an Indian perspective to the gender discourse.

The Death and Life of a Great American Agency

Over the next few years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will go down one of two paths. Its importance may fade to insignificance. Or the FCC may recast its mission and affirm the areas in which it retains unique expertise to address vital questions for the communications future. There are some problems that competition does not solve and general-purpose statutory frameworks do not address. These fall into three broad categories, each of which represents an enduring rationale for an expert regulatory agency: sectoral expertise, interconnection, and vestigial scarcities. The FCC should be as relevant as ever in a converged digital world of endless abundance. It just needs to redefine its objectives in order to maintain its relevance.

The Political Development of Scientific Capacity in the United States

When well directed, science is the greatest agency for the welfare of mankind. John Wesley Powell, the director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), delivered this message to Congress in 1884. The purpose of Powell's testimony to Congress was not to argue for the erection of an organizational framework for American science, but to defend the one that had been put in place decades earlier. At the time of Powell's testimony, the United States had already begun to assume the mantle of the greatest scientific nation on the planet. “I have studied the question closely,” declared W. H. Smyth, the president of the Royal Geographical Society of London, “and do not hesitate to pronounce the conviction that though the Americans were last in the field, they have, per saltum, leaped into the very front of the rank.” The organizational structure at the heart of America's rapid scientific rise was initially constructed by scientists serving in the nineteenth-century American bureaucracy—by men like John W. Powell. Often seen as a source of stateincapacity, in this instance, the federal bureaucracy was the most important force in American scientific development.

Understanding the pathways to purpose: Examining personality and well-being correlates across adulthood

Although finding a purpose is almost universally accepted as a developmental achievement, relatively little research has sought to understand the potential means by which individuals do so. Using a newly developed measure, the current studies examined the personality and well-being profiles of individuals who reported following any of three different pathways to purpose: (1) proactive engagement, (2) reaction to significant life events, or (3) social learning. Across both emerging adult (n = 179) and adult (n = 307) samples, we demonstrated that individuals along these three pathways differ in theoretically meaningful ways. For instance, proactively engaged individuals report greater agency and openness to experience, while individuals who found a purpose primarily through reactive means are less likely to be exploring their life aims. Engagement with any pathway though coincided with greater well-being, due to the fact that following these paths may lead to a sense of purpose in life.

When it pays to be a ‘fragile state’: Uganda’s use and abuse of a dubious concept

The labelling of certain states as ‘fragile states’ has often been portrayed as an act of domination by Western donors over the developing world. Nonetheless, this type of categorisation also presents opportunities to non-Western governments. This article suggests that the aid-dependent government of Uganda has increased its room for manoeuvre with donors by emphasising the degree of instability in the north of the country. By using this notion of state fragility, the Ugandan regime has successfully persuaded donors to continue their support, despite its domestic transgressions. The article will also attempt to explain the regime’s use of a contradictory, but equally persuasive, international discourse that presents Uganda as stable, strong and secure. In exploring how Kampala has successfully employed both narratives to carve out greater agency with donors, the article will emphasise the significance of donors’ physical detachment from the Ugandan ‘periphery’ in this dynamic.

Making Visible the First Women in Astronomy in Australia: The Measurers and Computers Employed for the Astrographic Catalogue

AbstractIn Australia a significant number of women were employed to measure and compute the position of stars for the Astrographic Catalogue at Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth Observatories. New archival research has provided evidence that the first women employed in astronomy in Australia were engaged due to this project.This paper focuses on Mary Emma Greayer, who was employed as a computer at Adelaide Observatory from 1890, and Charlotte Emily Fforde Peel, employed as a star measurer, computer and astrographic assistant at Melbourne Observatory from 1898. The measurement bureaux at Melbourne, Perth and Sydney Observatories are examined within the context of women working on the Astrographic Catalogue in other observatories during the late nineteenth century.Evidence is presented that individuals, such as Greayer and Peel, were vital to the completion of the Astrographic Catalogue and other astronomical work. Furthermore, it is argued that this evidence points to women having a broader role and greater agency within observatories in Australia and in astronomy than has previously been acknowledged.