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This paper is an analysis of functionary skills and prerogatives deployed in process of framing, negotiating and establishing conditions for action in pentecostal assemblies. It is based upon overt non-participant observation and interviewing in 66 pentecostal institutions in England and Wales, Canada and the United States. Its focus is upon the crises that arise either when the prerogative of definition is contested by two or more 'special definers' or when there is a compelling resemblance of phenomena in the sacred domain to realities familiar in the profane. The skills which enable the professional functionary to sustain sacred definitions during such conflicts include competence in the sacred language, the management of laughter and the sacred gift of `discernment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis of data from a 2003--2004 telephone survey of 750 Canadian and 450 English workers finds that work practices and human resource (HR) practices had important implications for unions. The effects differed by the type of practice (for example, traditional versus "new" HR), and were mediated by each country's institutional environment. For example, traditional personnel/HR practices were strongly positively related to the likelihood of union representation and strongly negatively related to workers' propensity to vote for a union in Canada, but made little difference to either of those union outcomes in England; and "alternative" work practices bore an inverse U-shaped association with union representation in Canada, versus a positive relationship with that outcome in England. In general, the Canadian findings are consistent with an adversarial dynamic, and the English findings with a more collaborative one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data collected in 2003-2004 in national telephone surveys of 750 Canadian and 450 English workers, the author finds that alternative work practices (AWPs), such as autonomous teams, quality circles, and information sharing, provided meaningful pay gains for non-union workers but not union workers in both Canada and England. In Canada, non-union AWP payoffs approached union wage premia at even moderate levels of AWP adoption, suggesting that AWPs may serve as an alternative means to higher pay, one that is incompatible with unions and that could erode demand for union representation. In England, there was no meaningful union wage premium, suggesting that AWPs may have replaced pay bargaining as a means to higher pay; but an interaction term combining union representation and "best" HR practices bore a strong association with higher pay, consistent with a new economic role whereby unions achieve gains for their members through collaborative, performance-enhancing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age and sex differences in rates of self-injury are prominent and relatively unexplained. A prospective study of self-injury patients resident in London, Canada was carried out between 1969 and 1971. It was found that rates of self-injury are higher for females and for young persons, compared with suicide rates which are higher for males and for older persons. Other factors related to rates of self-injury are also examined, but the basic age and sex patterns persist when these variables are controlled. These findings indicate that self-injury among the young, especially young females, has considerably less lethal risk than among older persons, especially males. For this reason, self-injury may have rather different motivation and be surrounded by different circumstances that serve to differentiate the classes of events. A preliminary theoretical model is proposed which relates self-injury to suicide and other forms of reaction to stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]