This volume offers a timely collection of research-based studies that engage with contemporary conditions of precarity across an array of locations, exploring how it is understood, experienced, and acted upon by educators in schools, universities, and nonformal educational spaces. Precarity presents as layered, unpredictable, destabilizing, and…

Among the many life transitions that individuals must master throughout their lives, the transition to adulthood ranks very high in terms of importance, complexity and uniqueness. It involves the completion of education, and the assumption of new social roles and responsibilities, at a time when previous institutional structures that guided…

This critique of John Langton's behavioral evolutionist account of the development of bureaucracy in the 18th Century British pottery industry contends that the evolutionary explanation rests on unexamined functionalist assumptions which overlook social costs and the mediating effects of the class structure and the profit motive. (TE)

Langton responds to Perrow's critique of his behavioral evolutionism by addressing four broad issues: the relationship between organizational evolution and environmental structure; the role of human creativity in organizational evolution; the relationship between social power and bureaucratization; and the relationship between organizational…

Explores the theoretical and ideological background of privatization within the context of New Right politics. Examines the economic and social impacts on rural Britain of Thatcher government policies: "user pays" policies, private contracting of formerly public services, denationalization of utilities and industries, and deregulation.…

Discusses the state of the Soviet economy during the period of perestroika. Includes the level of output, rate of inflation, privatization, and proposals for economic reform. Assesses the stabilization program and possibilities of restructuring. Concludes that neither Mikhail Gorbachev nor perestroika are likely to survive the trials of inflation,…

Employing data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 March supplements of the Current Population Surveys, this study examines changing household and family structure in metro and nonmetro areas and corresponding changes in poverty, emphasizing female-headed families with children under age 18. We also pay particular attention to the structure and economic…

Analysis of forces affecting reform in Papua New Guinea's higher education financing looks at reasons reform has not succeeded. Research on cost effectiveness of higher education expenditures is examined, policy implementation is discussed, and it is concluded that more emphasis should be placed on investment financing and student contributions.…

Farm and ranch operators in North Dakota (n=933) and Texas (n=1,020) were randomly surveyed in 1985 to determine the relationship of financial conditions to levels of off-farm employment by farm operators and spouses. The overall response rate was 75%. Off-farm employment was measured by number of days the farmer or spouse was employed off of the…

Presents a graphical analysis of the exhaustible resource depletion problem. Applies Hotelling's "r percent rule" as a new approach that operates in an "N"-period context. Includes two figures illustrating the approach. (CFR)

Argues that sociology's future is bright. Cites the field's younger, more diverse professoriate; the more qualitative, critical research that will result from reduced educational funding; and opportunities provided by global change. Suggests that the post-Cold War era, ecological crises, and economic transformation will present challenges to…

Examines the case of bilateral monopoly in the context of joint profit-maximizing solutions. Asserts that, although bilateral monopoly is sometimes viewed as a theoretical model with few real-world applications, the elements of negotiations it contains form the basis for contracts between input sellers and input buyers. (CFR)

An information society is one in which the expression "to earn one's daily bread by the sweat of one's brow" appears decidedly anachronistic. People have been seduced by the rhetoric of novelty and confused by the surface significance of terms which have become accepted parts of everyday speech. What do rubrics such as information society,…

Examines methodologies underlying studies which measure the information economy and considers their applicability and limitations for analyzing policy issues concerning libraries and library networks. Two studies provide major focus for discussion: Porat's "The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement" and Machlup's…

The current pattern of higher education funding in India is examined, and desirability and feasibility of several alternative funding methods are discussed. It is argued that, in view of resource constraints and equity considerations, wholly public funding is not appropriate and that a mix of support sources should be used. (Author/MSE)