Capability and Political Participation Among Ageing Populations

In this chapter, we study reasons for, and conceptions of, non-voting among Swedish seniors. We present a tentative framework for studying capability and political participation among older people in which we combine insights from previous research on age, health and political participation from the perspective of capability; that is, what a person is effectively able to be and do. The empirical illustration is based on extended interviews with eight individuals, both voters and non-voters, aged 80 years or older. The results show that the concepts of internal and combined capabilities are fruitful when understanding conceptions of and reasons for non-voting. For some individuals, voting is simply too much of an effort, and they need to direct their capabilities towards other, more desirable, functionings. For other individuals, health and mobility issues would have hindered their ability to vote if it were not for the practical and social support of close relatives. The chapter ends with a discussion on the importance of continuing to integrate explanations at different levels in order to understand political (in)activity among older individuals.

Tourist attractions in efficiency analysis

This paper discusses the use of tourist attractions in tourism efficiency analysis. Tourist attractions can be employed either as an input of the production technology or as an environmental factor in a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis model. An empirical illustration to the case of Chinese provinces underlines that using tourist attractions in different ways can yield different rankings of the units in terms of efficiency. Recommendations for future research are then proposed.

On the Plausibility of the Latent Ignorability Assumption

The estimation of the causal effect of an endogenous treatment based on an instrumental variable (IV) is often complicated by the non-observability of the outcome of interest due to attrition, sample selection, or survey non-response. To tackle the latter problem, the latent ignorability (LI) assumption imposes that attrition/sample selection is independent of the outcome conditional on the treatment compliance type (i.e., how the treatment behaves as a function of the instrument), the instrument, and possibly further observed covariates. As a word of caution, this note formally discusses the strong behavioral implications of LI in rather standard IV models. We also provide an empirical illustration based on the Job Corps experimental study, in which the sensitivity of the estimated program effect to LI and alternative assumptions about outcome attrition is investigated.

Reliability Estimation in Multidimensional Scales: Comparing the Bias of Six Estimators in Measures With a Bifactor Structure

In the context of multidimensional structures, with the presence of a common factor and multiple specific or group factors, estimates of reliability require specific estimators. The use of classical procedures such as the alpha coefficient or omega total that ignore structural complexity are not appropriate, since they can lead to strongly biased estimates. Through a simulation study, the bias of six estimators of reliability in multidimensional measures was evaluated and compared. The study is complemented by an empirical illustration that exemplifies the procedure. Results showed that the estimators with the lowest bias in the estimation of the total reliability parameter are omega total, the two versions of greatest lower bound (GLB) and the alpha coefficient, which in turn are also those that produce the highest overestimation of the reliability of the general factor. Nevertheless, the most appropriate estimators, in that they produce less biased estimates of the reliability parameter of the general factor, are omega limit and omega hierarchical.

Correction to: Exploring causal relationships qualitatively: An empirical illustration of how causal relationships become visible across episodes and contexts

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-021-09427-1

Network Diffusion Under Homophily and Consolidation as a Mechanism for Social Inequality

Network externalities (where the value of a practice is a function of network alters that have already adopted the practice) are mechanisms that exacerbate social inequality under the condition of homophily (where advantaged individuals poised to be primary adopters are socially connected to other advantaged individuals). The authors use an agent-based model of diffusion on a real-life population for empirical illustration and, thus, do not consider consolidation (correlation between traits), a population parameter that shapes network structure and diffusion. Using an agent-based model, this article shows that prior findings linking homophily to segregated social ties and to differential diffusion outcomes are contingent on high levels of consolidation. Homophily, under low consolidation, is not sufficient to exacerbate existing differences in adoption probabilities across groups and can even end up alleviating intergroup inequality by facilitating diffusion.

The Rankings Game: A Relational Approach to Country Performance Indicators

As the number of international rankings has risen dramatically since the 1990s, a large body of scholarship has emerged to examine and understand them. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of this body of work and to chart out fruitful directions for future research. In short, prior scholarship has been surprisingly quiet on the relations among multiple actors and their economic dimensions at the core of country performance indicator (CPI) activities. To foreground crucial socioeconomic relations, we develop a relational heuristic based upon a sports analogy: the actors involved in the creation and maintenance of CPIs can fruitfully be approached as a complex of players, referees, coaches, and audiences. Such an account helps us better understand how CPIs emerge and are sustained, even when they rely on dodgy data and their effects are perverse. We use nation brand rankings—overlooked in international relations research—as empirical illustration.

NGO Roles and Anticipated Outcomes in Environmental Participatory Processes: A Typology

Despite the plethora of research on environmental participatory processes, the forms of nongovernmental organization (NGO) involvement in these processes, and the influence of their involvement on participation outcomes, are still under-conceptualized. This article aims to develop a conceptual typology for NGO roles in environmental participatory processes and to suggest how these roles might be associated with participation outcomes. Following a review of public participation literature and NGO capacities, we present four prototypes of NGO roles along two axes: orientation axis and nature of involvement axis. The prototypes include Entrepreneur, Service-Provider, Enabler, and Partner. We then offer an empirical illustration of the typology using eight case studies across the globe and discuss how the four NGO roles might be associated with outcomes of participatory processes. The framework acknowledges the complex, sometimes limited, contribution of NGOs to participatory processes and suggests practical implications.

Urban Planning by Experiment at Precinct Scale: Embracing Complexity, Ambiguity, and Multiplicity

Urban living labs have emerged as spatially embedded arenas for governing urban transformation, where heterogenous actor configurations experiment with new practices, institutions, and infrastructures. This article observes a nascent shift towards experimentation at the precinct scale and responds to a need to further investigate relevant processes in urban experimentation at this scale, and identifies particular challenges for urban planning. We tentatively conceptualise precincts as spatially bounded urban environments loosely delineated by a particular combination of social or economic activity. Our methodology involves an interpretive systematic literature review of urban experimentation and urban living labs at precinct scale, along with an empirical illustration of the Net Zero Initiative at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, which is operationalising its main campus into a living lab focussed on precinct-scale decarbonisation. We identify four processual categories relevant to precinct-scale experimentation: embedding, framing, governing, and learning. We use the empirical illustration to discuss the relevance of these processes, refine findings from the literature review and conclude with a discussion on the implications of our article for future scholarship on urban planning by experiment at precinct scale.