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The article presents a call for papers for the meeting titled "Annual Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings" to be held on January 4-6, 2008 at New Orleans, Louisiana with a theme about inequality, democracy, and the economy. The Association for Social Economics members and nonmembers are encouraged to submit proposals for the New Orleans ASE program. The papers can be send by email of 300 words or less by May 1, 2007 to John Davis of University of Amsterdam and Marquette University. Guide questions are also included.

The article calls the attention of interested individuals to submit article that will be presented during conferences of Associations concerning economics. The organizers of the Seventh Annual Heilbronn Symposium in Economics and the Social Sciences Christian Freiherr von Wolff that will be held on June 22-25,1995 is inviting everyone to submit abstract and correspondence relevant to the theme. Likewise, the organizers of the 22nd Annual Meeting of the History of Economics Society that will be held on June 2-5, 1995 in South Bend, Indiana is calling the same.

The article presents guidelines for submitting papers for publication in the "Society in Transition," the journal of the South African Sociological Association. Three paper copies must be submitted. An electronic copy of the final version of the manuscript can be sent by email to the scientific editor. The first page should contain the following: title of the article, the author's name, address, email address and the abstract. Each article must be preceded by a short abstract and a short list of five important keywords should be provided.

The Reproductive Health Working Group (RHWG) was established in 1988 in Cairo to advance research in the Arab countries and Turkey on the health of women, broadly defined. The paper considers the ways in which the group contributed to global health conversations through three examples of interdisciplinary research that, in privileging local contexts, modified or even challenged prevailing approaches to health and often raised entirely new issues for consideration. The three examples cited in the paper are: (i) the network’s early research on reproductive morbidity; (ii) a broad set of ongoing studies on childbirth/maternal health; and (iii) emerging research on health and conflict. The paper discusses how the RHWG has strengthened research capability in the region, and explores the reasons for the longevity of this research network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a historical overview of the Interamerican Society of Psychology, which was founded on December 17, 1951, in Mexico City. Firstly, the historical circumstances of the foundation period are presented, as well as the people who made this organization possible, and the state of psychology on the American continent at that time. Secondly, the most important activities that the Interamerican Society of Psychology has developed during its 60 years are mentioned, such as the publication of books and scientific journals, the creation of several task forces and the Interamerican Congresses of Psychology. Basically, the purpose of this paper is to review the history of the Interamerican Society of Psychology through the recovery and use of various documentary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are social systems from joint activities of people, which operation and interaction among those people require a comprehension based on systemic principles. The study of business strategy provides reductive and disjunctive guidance as the product of its positivist treatment based on the precepts of classical science. However, the context of organizations and their own internal operation have been complexified over time, leading to questions about the relevance of the use of more classic orientations in the strategy of organizations. In this paper, we try to associate the development of an organizational strategy to the principles of Morinian complexity theory. Through the analysis of systemic principles, we found associations with various approaches used in studies of organizational strategy. The contribution of this paper is to show that complexity theory has applicability in various fields of science and, in particular, In the applied social sciences, because It provides new foundations that contribute to a better understanding of natural and social phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) has been used by researchers from a variety of disciplines to study a range of phenomena. At present, ABMS is vastly underutilized in organizational psychology, yet we believe it offers a range of potential benefits that are currently not well catered for by existing tools. In this paper, we introduce ABMS and explain how it differs from current approaches. We illustrate the potential advantages of the approach through a range of examples and through the identification of opportunities in the field of organizational psychology. We also highlight potential limitations of the ABMS approach, and discuss the circumstances under which it may make a worthwhile contribution. Practitioner Points This paper outlines ABMS and explains how it adds to the existing toolset of the organizational psychologist. Practitioners will find ABMS and this paper particularly useful: When they are working in high-risk environments, where getting it wrong is costly., Where there are practical or ethical difficulties in conducting real-world research., Where they want to develop and test more holistic interpretations of complex systems and problems., Where they wish to examine feedback loops and/or the impact of time on behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Natalie Lloyd and Jane Mulcock initiated the Australian Animals & Society Study Group, a network of social science, humanities and arts scholars that quickly grew to include more than 100 participants. In July 2005, about 50 participants attended the group's 4-day inaugural conference at the University of Western Australia, Perth. Papers in this issue emerged from the conference. They exemplify the Australian academy's work in the fields of History, Population Health, Sociology, Geography, and English and address strong themes: human-equine relationships; management of native and introduced animals; and relationships with other domestic, nonhuman animals—from cats and dogs to cattle. Human-Animal Studies is an expanding field in Australia. However, many scholars, due to funding and teaching concerns, focus their primary research in different domains. All authors in this issue—excepting one—are new scholars in their respective fields. The papers represent the diversity and innovation of recent Australian research on human-animal interactions. The authors look at both past and present, then anticipate future challenges in building an effective network to expand this field of study in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the continuing relevance of the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS) in maintaining an open field of research, teaching and enquiry in relation to South Asia, despite the growing push towards ‘policy-relevant’ themes' in researching funding. It then introduces the papers in this special issue drawn from the 2004 Annual Conference of BASAS. The underlying thread is an exploration of the everyday power relations, represented in all spheres of life, be it the media, resource control, religion or livelihood strategies, shaping people's identities and locating them within social hierarchies, forming as a consequence the basis of the process of development and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has benefited greatly from the time that I have recently spent working on the Committee of Section H of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. I am particularly grateful to David Shankland and Malcolm Smith, both of whom have served as Recorders for Section H, for generously sharing their knowledge and reminiscences of the Section with me. The paper further benefited from comments received at the recent 2004 Festival of Science in Exeter at which I presented it in a session entitled‘Anthropology after Darwin: The role of the BA’. I also acknowledge the helpful comments of three anonymous reviewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between interpersonal trust and membership in voluntary associations is a persistent research finding in sociology. What is more, the notion of trust has become a central issue in current social science theorizing covering such diverse approaches as transaction costs economics or cognitive sociology. In different ways and for different purposes, these approaches address the role of voluntary organizations, although, as this paper argues, much of this thinking remains sketchy and underdeveloped. Against an empirical portrait of this relationship, the purpose of this paper is to assess such theorizing. We first set out to explicate major approaches to trust in economics, sociology and political science, using the non-profit or voluntary organization as a focal point. We then examine the various approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and, finally, identify key areas for theoretical development. In particular, we point to the social movement literature, the social psychology of trust, and recent thinking about civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays many organizations experience security incidents due to unauthorized access to information. To reduce the risk of such incidents, security policies are often employed to regulate access to information. Such policies, however, are often too restrictive, and users do not have the rights necessary to perform assigned duties. As a consequence, access control mechanisms are perceived by users as a barrier and thus bypassed, making the system insecure. In this paper, we draw a bridge between the social concept of conviviality and access control. Conviviality has been introduced as a social science concept for ambient intelligence and multi-agent systems to highlight soft qualitative requirements like user-friendliness of systems. To bridge the gap between conviviality and security, we propose a methodological framework for updating and adapting access control policies based on conviviality recommendations. Our methodology integrates and extends existing techniques to assist system designers in the derivation of access control policies from socio-technical requirements of the system, while taking into account the conviviality of the system. We illustrate our framework using the Ambient Assisted Living use case from the HotCity of Luxembourg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since third sector research emerged as a fully fledged inter-disciplinary academic field during the late 1980s, a separation has usually been maintained-in common with many other social science disciplines-between communities of researchers who are primarily concerned with the study of the third sector in rich Western countries and those who work on the third sector in the so-called 'developing world'. While internationally focused researchers tend to use the language of 'non-governmental organizations', those in domestic settings usually prefer the terms 'non-profit organization' or 'voluntary organization', even though both sub-sectors share common principles and are equally internally diverse in terms of organizations and activities. While there has long been common-sense logic to distinguishing between wealthier and poorer regions of the world based on differences in the scale of human need, the 'developed' versus 'developing' category can also be criticized as being rather simplistic and unhelpfully ideological. As the categories of 'developing' and 'developed' countries become less clear-cut, and global inter-connectedness between third sectors and their ideas grows, this paper argues that we need to reconsider the value of maintaining these parallel worlds of research, and instead develop a more unified approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an attempt to construct a typology of progressive Catholics using data obtained from a survey of the delegates to the 1980 National Pastoral Congress of English Catholics eighteen months after the Congress. Progressivism is regarded as the espousal of the new elements of religious ideology and pastoral emphases which have emerged since the Second Vatican Council.
Following earlier attempts using smallest space analysis and factor analysis, this paper describes the use of cluster analysis to identify distinct groups of individuals and discriminant analysis to identify the separate dimensions which distinguish between the clusters. Seven dusters ware identified in terms of six discriminant functions. An analysis of the social and religious characteristics of the seven types indicated that there was no simple unidimensional scale of progressivism. The paper concludes with some suggestions for a more comprehensive classification of progressive Catholics which might be explored in the case of other or more representative samples.
This paper set out to construct a typology of progressive Catholics using data from a survey of delegates to the National Pastoral Congress. Following preliminary investigations using smallest space analysis and factor analysis, cluster analysis was employed to identify seven types of respondents with characteristics defined by six discriminant functions which were found to be theoretically meaningful. The social and religious characteristics of the seven dusters indicate that they may be regarded as seven distinct types of progressive. The typology that resulted from this study (Table 3) indicates that only seven of a possible 64 combinations are relevant for this particular sample. There is no reason to suppose that this would be the case for other samples, such as a nationally representative sample of English or American or Australian Catholics. However, on the basis of the present research, a number of key... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the contents volumes I to X of Sociologia Ruralis (1960-1970), with the understanding that only the (75) English written papers are being reviewed. The main starting points have been derived from Article 4 of the Constitution of the European Society for Rural Sociology. After having proposed a number of critical remarks on the subject that have been dealt with in the papers concerned, a tentative evaluation has been made of the practical, theoretical, and methodologic relevance of these papers. In the final section, some ideas are suggested which might be used in order to remove several shortcomings brought to light in to previous sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the schedule of the eighteenth annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association. The first paper, titled Labor Relations in the Southwest, was presented by Edwin A. Elliott, regional director of National Labor Relations Board, on March 26. The second paper, Struggle Between Fascism and Communism in Europe, was presented by E.E. Hale of University of Texas. The other papers for the day were National Banks and Bank Failures and Private Affiliates, by George L. Anderson; Europe's Efforts at Peacemaking, by W.C. Askew of University of Arkansas; French Opinions of the Confideracy, by L.M. Case; A Study of the People of West Texas, by Gus Ford of Houston; The Geography of Ancient Carthage, by Edward E. K&eacaute;so; The Distribution of Mexican Population in the U.S., by Bea Mantooth; Retail Trade as a Primary Urban Function in Oklahoma, by Allen Belden; Survey of Youth in Arkansas, by J.C. London; Survey of Welfare Activities in Oklahoma City, by Fred A. Replogie.

This paper looks at the history of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences (IASS) and the organization's contributions to the field. Through a careful examination of documents, newsletters, minutes, and correspondence, a rich account unfolds, demonstrating unceasing commitment to advancing research in multiple disciplines. The IASS built bridges between and among colleges and universities across the state, as well as with state institutions, professional associations, libraries, and high schools. For 85 years, it has promoted camaraderie and respect and has succeeded in fostering support for all of the social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steiner's principal objection to our paper is that deliberators in a committee are permitted to speak strategically whereas deliberative theory requires ‘that actors do not lie but are truthful and authentic in their statements’. In this response we observe that such a prescription is relevant only to the extent that individuals might be expected to behave otherwise. Our paper explores conditions under which deliberators' strategic (descriptive) incentives are aligned with the (prescriptive) advice to tell the truth.European Political Science (2008) 7, 191–193. doi:10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210187 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spreading phenomenon of Euroscepticism is manifested in critical practices in discourse that oppose European integration. This paper explores Euroscepticism as an element of discourse, which cannot only be measured as party positions or individual attitudes. Based on this understanding, our argument is twofold. Firstly, Euroscepticism relates to the unsettled and principally contested character of the European Union (EU) as a political entity: its basic purpose and rationale, its institutional design and its future trajectory. It correlates with pro-European discourse and the attempts to promote the (democratic) legitimacy of the EU. Secondly, we argue that Euroscepticism unfolds primarily through mass media. As such, it is given public expression through general news values, drama and narratives that are targeted to draw the attention of the wider audience. Understanding this responsive and public nature of Euroscepticism leads us, in the end, to a comprehensive typology of six forms of polity evaluation of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When women work in male-dominated organizations, do they form collaborative networks with other women or do they take on the practices of the male-dominated community they are a part of? In this paper, we explore how female staff and volunteer members participate within a male-dominated non-profit organization. We use communities of practice as a lens to explore the extent to which women do, or do not, form support networks with other women. Our findings suggest that gender issues may not be the driving factor in the creation of communities of practice in such organizations; indeed, multiple communities of practice can exist within a single organization despite facing a common set of challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of the social workers, particularly in institutions, is in the need of finding new ways of research. The problem is not so much in the everyday issues to manage social alterity (people insane or not adapted, people with behavioural problems, in the need of protection for situations of social risk or in the case of this paper, boarding schools and other institutions for children). On the contrary, the problem is to understand what happens "inside" these institutions, that seems to be to be irrational and alienating form the perspective of labour. These institutions have their own dynamics, and these cannot be only seen as situations of labour conflict (from outside) and difference of competencies (from inside). We propose a methodology towards labour desalination that understands the social practice of experts (in education, psychology or social attention) as politics and with creative resources (metaphoric translations) that help to disassemble the expertise practices of an absorbent reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been suggested that bias in the access of interest organizations to policy-makers leads to biased policies. The paper analyses the access of interest organizations to the EU institutions drawing on data from 800 business interest associations and 34 large firms. Exploring the proposition that some form of élite pluralism may emerge in the EU, it argues that the contact patterns derive from resource dependencies among the political actors and the interest groups, institutional opportunities in the EU, and the characteristics of the interest organizations. The study identifies imbalances in the access of EU associations, large firms, and national associations to the EU institutions, with large firms being in the forefront. Nonetheless, the evidence does not hint at the emergence of élite pluralism in the EU but points to important variations across the EU institutions and among the working level and their political leadership in each institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant efforts have been invested in improving our understanding of how to accelerate and magnify the impact of research on clinical practice. While approaches to fostering translation of research into practice are numerous, none appears to be superior and the evidence for their effectiveness is mixed. Lessons learned from formative evaluation have given us a greater appreciation of the contribution of context to successful implementation of quality improvement interventions. While formative evaluation is a powerful tool for addressing context effects during implementation, lessons learned from the social sciences (including management and operations research, sociology, and public health) show us that there are also powerful preimplementation tools available to us. This paper discusses how we might integrate these tools into implementation research. We provide a theoretical framework for our need to understand organizational contexts and how organizational characteristics can alert us to situations where preimplementation tools will prove most valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to a business meeting. The annual AKD business meeting was held on August 31, 1986, at the New York Hilton. Jerry Michel, scholar at the Memphis State University and AKD President presided the meeting. Those present were: Candace Clark, Helen Clarke, Al Clarke, Ken Davidson, David Demo, Marie Fuller, Rose Helper, Mark Butter, Lyn Lofland, Mike Malec, Betty Maynard, Annabelle Motz, Wayne Seelbach, Don Shoemaker, Jim Skipper, Jim Williams, Kenneth Wilson and Donna Darden. In addition to normal items of business, the following announcements and decisions were made at the meeting. The winners of the 1986 paper competition were as follows First prize: Tracey Watson, Skidmore College, Second prize: Jane Melada, Montclair State and third prize: William Axinn, Cornwell. Watson's paper, "Women Athletes and Athletic Women: The Dilemmas and Contradictions of Managing Incongruent Identities," will be published in the journal "Sociological Inquiry." The Council voted to name Dennis Peck, scholar at the University of Alabama-Bitmingham, as new editor of the journal.

This article presents information on program schedule of the Southwestern Social Science Association annual convention, held in April 1949, at Fort Worth, Texas. The first session of the convention began at 9 a.m. on April 15, 1949 on the topic of accounting. Some papers presented in the session are: "Accounting of Social Security," by Z.E. Avery; "A Uniform Plan for Teaching Elementary Accounting Within the College or University," by Zeb Freeman; and Corporate Reorganizations Under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act," by Reginald Rushing. Panel discussion on regional research related to agricultural economics was conducted o the topic "Financing Regional Research," and "Organization for Regional research." Some other papers presented on topics like economics, geography, government are: "Inflation and Government Policy," by H.L. McCracken; "Competition As a Concept and a Guide to Policy," by F. Howard Forsyth; "New Gulf, Texas: The World's Largest Sulphur Mine," by John I. Stroup: and others.

The article presents information related to the Southwestern Social Science Association. Professor J. Linus Glanville, Second Vice-President of the Association, at Dallas, died on November 18. Glanville was one of the southwest's outstanding historical scholars and has been an active supporter of the Association for many years. The Executive Council of the Association announced that the 1948 meeting will be held at the Baker Hotel in Dallas, on March 26-27. The Executive Council will hold its preliminary session on the evening of March 25. Five new panel sections have been selected for the 1948 meeting of the Southwestern Sociological Society. Members of the society who will have projects for review in the spring are asked to advise the section chairman in whose panel the papers might appear. Society members are also asked to inform section chairmen if they are aware of possible papers from other members of their departments or other members of their faculties. Section chairmen are particularly interested in giving scholars who have recently moved into the Southwest full opportunity to participate in these sessions.

Reports developments related to behavioral science as of October 1993. Calls for papers announced by the American Association for the History of Medicine for the 1994 Annual Meeting; Venue of the World Congress of Sociology; Schedule of the meeting of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry.

This paper summarizes briefly the formal relationship between the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the seven regional sociological societies, suggests that little has resulted from the affiliation, and recommends (1) the ASA Committee on Regional Affairs be terminated, and (2) four other ways of linking the national and regional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal and system resource approaches represent alternative conceptions of organizational effectiveness. The goal approach views effectiveness in terms of internal organizational objectives and performance. Organization-environment relations are the focus of the system resource approach, though previous applications of this perspective have been limited to profit-making organizations. This paper reconceptualizes the system resource approach for use in public agencies and examines the flow of organizational resources as an indicator of effectiveness. Goal approach indicators are matched with system resource measures in examining the convergence and consistency of the two approaches. The convergence of effectiveness measures is examined by observing the correlations between themselves and four organizational decision making variables that had previously been shown to be associated with effectiveness. An examination of the data collected through interviews with representatives of 110 public agencies reveals some consistency but no convergence between the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that metropolitan political theories and institutions grounded in popular sovereignty help to produce decolonization. Radical distinctions between metropolis and dependency only arise when communities, and not rulers, are the theoretical source of political authority. Metropoles organized around popular sovereignty tend to legitimate peripheral claims to autonomy, and to construct political institutions (most importantly colonial legislatures) that voice such claims. An analysis of Western empires shows that, where political models were based on popular sovereignty (Great Britain, the United States, and France), decolonization resulted from internal tensions between theory and practice. Where empire was organized around dynastic principles (Spain and Portugal), empires dissolved as a result of external pressures. Dominant global models have additional effects, blurring differences between empires when popular sovereignty is widely accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the American Sociological Association (ASA) as a portrait of organizational success and intellectual paralysis. There are many important things that the ASA does very well. Its conventions are now quite large and complicated, with more than 200 sessions and close to a thousand persons participating in the sessions. Planning for a convention starts four years in advance with the choice of a site, and program committees work hard for a year in setting up sessions and recruiting session organizers. The sessions have changed over the past few decades, as of 1981. In the early days, sessions were organized more casually, networks of acquaintances being used frequently as means to solicit papers for sessions. Now, participation has been placed on a more universalistic basis. More opportunities are provided for members to exchange ideas and information about work in progress through luncheon roundtables, workshops, and poster sessions. The ASA also is successful in publishing its journals and in running a monograph series. The journals do come out more or less on time and are delivered to the right addresses. If there is an establishment in the ASA, it is composed of persons who are well known, mainly through their scholarly works or other activities that bring them to the attention of the members. Although the ASA must be reckoned successful in a bureaucratic sense, it has not been successful in advancing the intellectual side of the discipline.

This paper examines the rhetoric found in the referral pamphlets distributed by military academies and homes for the mentally retarded. The material is analyzed from a perspective which views value exchange between client and organization as an initial means of institutionalizing the relations between the person and the service organization. Discussion centers around the heuristic value of economic models in sociological analysis, with particular reference to that non-institutionalized sphere of the division of labor that encompasses service organizations which lack viable client referral mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on convention program of the Southwestern Social Science Association and the American Business Writing Association joint conference, held in April 1955, in Dallas, Texas. Some of papers presented in the meetings on various topics like accounting, agricultural economics, business administration, sociology, government, geography are: "A Well-Informed and Better-Guided Student," by William P. Carr; "Recent Developments in Accounting Research," by Charles T. Zlatkovich; "Course Content and Conduct," by Emerson O. Henke; "The Southern Farmer and Foreign Trade," by M.D. Woodin; "The Southern Farmer and Current Agricultural Legislation and Regulation," by William A. Faught; "A Comparison of Riparian and Appropriated Water Rights," by Wells A. Hutchins; "A Comparison of Land-Value Theories and the Everyday Operation of the Land Market," by Robert L. Tontz; "Geography of the Rainforest of Western Pichincha and Esmeraldas, Ecuador," by Luis Freile; and others.

This article presents information on several events organized by the Southwestern Social Science Association, to be held in 1952. The Association will hold its annual convention for 1952 in Dallas, Texas, on April 11 and 12. General headquarters for the convention will be at the Baker Hotel, Commerce and Akard. Arrangement for section luncheon meetings have been made by several sections, including Accounting, Geography, Social Science Introductory Course, and the American Business Writing Association. These will all be held at 12:30 p.m. on April 11. The Southwestern Sociological Society, which constitutes the sociology section of the Association, sponsors each year a program for students in sociology to coincide with the annual meeting. Headquarters and meetings will be held in Baker, on April 11. The general business meeting of the Association is scheduled at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. Full attendance is essential to the continued success of the Association. Section business meetings will he held on Friday afternoon immediately following the presentation of papers and discussions. The members of each section elect a chairman and an associate editor.

A fundamental shift in editorial policy for psychological journals was initiated when the fourth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (1994) placed emphasis on reporting measures of effect size. This paper presents measures of effect size for the chi-squared and the likelihood-ratio goodness-of-fit statistic tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 50 years, the journal "Social Compass," has become an important international forum for researchers in the field of the sociology of religion. Its popularity is evident as the journal has about 850 subscribers, 65 percent are universities and research institutes from all over the world. That's saying something, regarding a journal, which is devoted to a minority field of research. However, though this wide reach with pride is possible because of several people who contributed to this journal. So, it is necessary to give credit where credit is due, to those who, in the main, have contributed to the journal its intellectual substance. And because this journal is among other things the locus for publication of the papers presented at the biannual meetings of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. The journal has never been one school's journal. Rather, it set its sights on giving a true picture of the various theoretical approaches and the range of empirical inquiry, which give life to social science. In this respect this journal has made a name for itself, becoming indispensable to all who work within the social sciences of religion, and theft chosen instrument.

Presents an update on historical associations in the U.S. as of February 2004. Date set for the conference of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars in New York City; Venue of the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association from March 17 through 20, 2004; Call for papers issued by the Coalition for Western Women's History.

Reports on the plans of the Regional Science Association in the U.S. to organize a year-long celebration for its 50th anniversary in 2004. Focus of the conference sessions being planned by the association; Advantage of the journal "Papers in Regional Science" over other regional science journals; Topics included in the golden anniversary issue of the journal.

The Regional Science Association was founded 50 years ago in December 1954; however,the institutional origins of the field were much earlier, perhaps when Walter Isard began his graduate studies in economics at Harvard University. This article briefly traces the history of the field of regional science and its association from those beginnings to the present. The focus of the article is the evolution of the association as an institution, and some of its major contributors, and to a much lesser extent, on the scope and scholarly content of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of the journal "Statistica Neerlandica" deals with various types of statistical and methodological problems encountered when applying multilevel and other types of random-coefficients models in social and behavioral science research. Six out of the seven papers were presented at the 2002 Autumn Meeting of the Social Science Section of the Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research. In social science research, data are often hierarchically structured. Multilevel modeling techniques account for dependencies between observations within groups, as well as make it possible to investigate the importance of individual and group characteristics in the explanation of individual-level outcome variables.

Examines the context in which the International Political Science Association was founded in 1949. This paper analyzes the trends in the development of the discipline that preceded this event: the ancient intellectual roots of political science, and the surprisingly recent period at which this subject established its legitimacy on the university syllabus. The establishment of professional organizations within the discipline took place much later, and at a very uneven pace globally. This article looks in great detail at the process by which the need for an international political science organization was identified, describes the circumstances that led to the foundation of such a body, and assesses its early contribution to the development of the discipline.

This article presents acknowledgement from the author who is the president of the Southwestern Social Science Association, the owner of this journal, to all members of the Society. The author claims that this journal is now regarded as a prestige outlet for publication. He hopes that the program for the scheduled Dallas meeting will attract an even larger attendance than last year. He announced that the program chairmen for the various divisions will soon call for papers from Association's membership, and members of the executive board join with him in urging fullest cooperation in assisting the program chairman, Lorrin Kennamer of the University of Texas, and the various section chairmen to prepare a superb program.