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Purpose – This chapter maps the conceptual territory that research on school shootings shares with cultivation analysis.

Methodology/approach – It outlines the history of cultivation analysis, which used the statistical methods of content analysis and survey research to argue that television violence was rampant and sexist, and that this had the effect of making audiences fearful. The point of this history is to show that the model was conceptually grounded in critical approaches to media, and established questions about the ideology of media violence that set the grounds for school shooting studies.

Findings – In particular, the chapter focuses on similarities between cultivation analysis and ritual theory, and the cultivation thesis that violence represents gender hierarchies, as the two most obvious points of intersections with studies on school shootings. It suggests that these intersections help explain why a “school shooting” frame was deployed to other sorts of media violence, and debates about the effects of media violence, using Jared Loughner's attack on Gabrielle Giffords as a case study.

Practical implications – Emerging concerns about the effects of aggressive news punditry and political commentary can be addressed by reflecting on what studies of school shootings say about the more general politics of media violence, and cultivation theory is an invaluable resource in this endeavor.

Originality/value of paper – Academically, an engagement with cultivation theory underlines how school shooting studies contribute to critical media research in general, by demonstrating the validity of “second generation” models of media influence in the digital age.

The purpose of this paper is to apply cultivation theory to social network sites by investigating how Facebook uses cultivates users' ethnic diversity perceptions and attitudes.

The authors’ investigations include an online and offline survey study with 476 Facebook users and a follow-up experiment with 75 individuals.

The authors provide empirical support that Facebook use cultivates ethnic diversity perceptions and ethnic diversity-related attitudes. They show that Facebook use relates to perceptions of ethnic minorities that resemble the world on Facebook that is characterized by high ethnic diversity. The authors further demonstrate that the cultivation of ethnic diversity-related attitudes is mediated by diversity perceptions related to users' close social environment.

Future research should consider culturally and educationally diverse samples as well as longitudinal research designs to address external validity and causality issues.

Algorithms determining the content users are exposed should be thoughtfully curated to avoid attitudinal and ideological polarization.

Facebook can play an important role in positively shaping intergroup relations, thereby countering negative outgroup attitudes, social anxieties and radical right-wing parties.

The authors’ studies extend the scope of cultivation research by identifying a new media vehicle as a source of cultivation influences and shed light on the cultivation-based process of attitude change on social network sites.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on farm sector wage rate. This identification strategy rests on the assumption that all districts across India would have had similar wage trends in the absence of the program. The author argues that this assumption may not be true due to non-random allocation of districts to the program’s three phases across states and different economic growth paths of the states post the implementation of NREGS.

To control for overall macroeconomic trends, the author allows for state-level time fixed effects to capture the differences in growth trajectories across districts due to changing economic landscape in the parent-state over time. The author also estimates the expected farm sector wage growth due to the increased public work employment provision using a theoretical model.

The results, contrary to the existing studies, do not find support for a significantly positive impact of NREGS treatment on private cultivation wage rate. The theoretical model also shows that an increase in public employment work days explains very little of the total growth in cultivation wage post 2004.

This paper looks specifically at farm sector wage growth and the possible impact of NREGS on it, accounting for state specific factors in shaping farm wages. Theoretical estimates are presented to overcome econometric limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential causes of the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong Province of China from the perspective of smallholders and notably examine the role of off-farm employment.

This paper extends an integrated behavioral model to analyze the relationship between off-farm employment and cotton cultivation by taking into account farmers’ risk attitudes. A household survey data of 144 Bt cotton farmers in six villages in Linqing County, Shandong Province conducted in 2012 and 2013 is used. A simultaneous equations model is established and further estimated by using three-stage least squares method.

Although the introduction of Bt cotton has promoted the increase in cotton acreage in China from 1999 to 2007, the planting area of cotton has been decreasing since 2007. The results show the significant correlations among risk attitude, off-farm employment, and cotton cultivation. The planting area of cotton is positively correlated with farmers’ willingness to take risk but negatively associated with off-farm employment of family members. The findings imply that the rapid emergence of off-farm labor markets is a major reason for the reduction of cotton acreage in Shandong Province. In the context of the more opportunities of off-farm employment in China, cotton acreage is expected to decrease further.

The findings provide a reasonable explanation for the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong. This analysis contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among individual risk attitude, off-farm employment, and agricultural behavior, thereby adding to the literature about the application of the integrated behavioral model.

Unlike other plant‐based drugs, cannabis is increasingly grown within the country of consumption, requires minimal processing before consumption, and can be easily grown almost anywhere using indoor or outdoor cultivation techniques. Developments in agronomic technologies have led to global growth in domestic cultivation, both by cannabis users for self‐ and social‐supply, and by more commercially‐oriented growers. Cross‐national research is needed to better understand who is involved in domestic cultivation, the diversity in cultivation practices and motivations, and cultivators' interaction with the criminal justice system and cannabis control policies.

The article introduces the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium (GCCRC), describes its evolution and aims, and outlines the methodology of its ongoing cross‐national online survey of cannabis cultivation.

Despite differing national contexts, the GCCRC successfully developed a core questionnaire to be used in different countries. It accommodates varying research interests through the addition of optional survey sections. The benefits to forming an international consortium to conduct web‐based survey research include the sharing of expertise, recruitment efforts and problem‐solving.

The article discusses the limitations of using non‐representative online sampling and the strategies used to increase validity.

The GCCRC is conducting the largest cross‐national study of domestic cannabis cultivation to date. The aim is not only to better understand patterns of cannabis cultivation and how they differ between countries but also to build upon online engagement methodology with hidden populations.

Hybrid rice is considered as one of the technologies having the potential to push the production frontier to meet the growing demand for rice in India. The technology was introduced in India in 1994 but is yet to see widespread adoption. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the partial/complete adoption of hybrid rice technology by the farmers in India. This study also assesses the factors behind difference in the share of land allocated to hybrid rice cultivation by farmers.

The study employs a Tobit model to evaluate the impact of factors related to technology, farmer, farm and geographical location on the decision to adopt hybrid rice. Data for this study are compiled from surveys of 441 hybrid rice growing farmers across 3 Indian states conducted during 2012-2013.

The paper finds that farmers with smaller landholdings, higher education and higher experience of growing hybrid rice are more likely to be complete adopters. Farmers reporting good demand for hybrid rice output and availability of subsidy on hybrid rice seeds also have higher probability of being complete adopters. However, the availability of hybrid rice seeds in government outlets and cultivating multiple kharif crops are negatively related to the extent of hybrid rice adoption. The results suggest insignificant impact of age, family size, ownership of cattle and machinery on the adoption level of hybrid rice by the farmers.

Although the sample for this study has been collected from three states with different agro-climatic zones and productivity, the results cannot be generalized for other states.

There is a great potential to increase the area under hybrid rice cultivation in India. This study is one of the first attempts to look at the adoption levels of hybrid rice in India and determine the factors which might be hindering the complete adoption of the technology. Focusing on the factors positively related to complete adoption can help in enhancing the area under hybrid rice and similar approach can be used for other new agricultural technologies in the developing country context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of small-scale cannabis cultivation in New Zealand and Israel.

An online survey of predominantly small-scale cannabis cultivators had previously been conducted in 11 countries in 2012/2013. The same core online survey was subsequently conducted in New Zealand and Israel in 2016/2017, and comparisons made with the original 11 countries.

Only around one third of the New Zealand and Israeli cannabis growers had sold cannabis, and the majority of these did so only to cover the costs of cultivation. The median number of cannabis plants cultivated per crop by the New Zealand and Israeli growers was five and two, respectively. The leading reasons provided for growing cannabis by both the New Zealand and Israeli growers were to provide cannabis for personal use and to share with others. A higher proportion of New Zealand than Israeli growers reported growing cannabis for medicinal reasons. A total of 16 per cent of the New Zealand and 17 per cent of Israeli growers had come into contact with the police due to their cannabis cultivation. The findings suggest small-scale cannabis cultivation in New Zealand and Israel is largely a means of “social supply” of cannabis, and this is consistent with the findings from the original 11 countries. The higher incidence of growing cannabis for medicinal purposes in New Zealand may reflect the limited official access to medical cannabis. Significant minorities of small-scale cannabis growers in both countries had contact with police, putting them at risk of the negative consequences of a criminal conviction.

To date, the research into cannabis cultivation has largely consisted of studies of individual countries. However, given the global popularity of cannabis use, and the recent spread of cannabis cultivation to countries that traditionally have not produced cannabis, via utilisation of indoor growing techniques, there is now a strong case for international comparative research. Following the success of the surveys in the original 11 countries, New Zealand and Israeli members of the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium international collaboration chose to undertake surveys in their own countries in 2016/2017.

This study analyzes the factors which affect the alfalfa cultivation acreage in China and estimates the development of alfalfa planting by the supply model.

Based on the characteristics and actual conditions of alfalfa cultivation in China, a naïve empirical model was created to analyze the impact of various influencing factors on the cultivation acreage of alfalfa.

The analysis of influential factors shows that China's alfalfa planting conforms to naïve price behavior. The prices of alfalfa and per capita arable land occupancy have a positive effect on the cultivation acreage, while the price of competitive crops and transportation costs have a negative effect on the production of alfalfa. Lastly, the 2012 alfalfa subsidy policy has a significant negative impact on alfalfa cultivation acreage.

Due to the limited research on alfalfa supply in China, there is a lack of available research data and statistical data. A large number of data in this study are mainly indirect data derived and calculated from other industrial data. The measurement results may not be fully accurate.

This study represents the first empirical analysis of the characteristics of the factors influencing alfalfa cultivation acreage in China. The secondary data were used to analyze the influence of various control variables on the cultivation acreage of alfalfa, which is different from existing research.

Purpose – We seek to understand how gender shapes the practice of concerted cultivation in connection to other key social locations of race and class.Design/methodology/approach – This quantitative research paper uses multi-level modeling to provide an intersectional analysis of parenting practices across diverse social and institutional settings.Findings – We find gender matters: across three aspects of “concerted cultivation” (involvement in schooling, extracurricular activities, and cultural outings), parents invest more time and resources in girls compared to boys. More importantly, using an intersectional approach, we find distinct racial/ethnic differences in engendering concerted cultivation. Gender differences occur among Black and Hispanic but not white parents’ involvement in their child's schooling. Additionally, parents cultivate girls’ participation in certain kinds of extracurricular activities more so than for boys, but this difference is greatest at the highest socioeconomic levels.Social and practical implications – The ways in which parents’ shape young children's activities and experiences in daily life vary greatly across gender, race, and class statuses.Originality/value – Gender shapes access and exclusion to various social settings across the life course; this paper adds to literature on socialization, incorporating other social statuses into understandings of processes of the social reproduction of inequality. These results are of value to parents, schools, and social scientists.

Oyster cultivation has a long history in Pearl River Delta area and is one of the traditional aquaculture depending strongly on the natural coastal resource because of the expected variation of salinity, temperature and diversity of infaunal organisms for the cultivation practice. Apart from being the traditional knowledge inherited through the coastal communities over the centuries, oyster aquaculture is also embedded in the long-term socio-economic relationships among communities that have a rich experience regarding the quality and quantity controls for the long-term sustainable coastal resource management, together with a strong sense of responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the local food heritage for various reasons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper seeks to examine oyster cultivation in Lau Fau Shan (literally means floating mountain) in Hong Kong, not only from the cultural–historical perspectives but also from the social resilience perspectives, such as how and why local communities are willing to inherit the traditions, what kinds of roles NGOs and government play in oyster cultivation, why local people should be engaged, and how the oyster aquaculture/industry underwent the transformations, given all the difficulties and challenges.

The value of oyster cultivation is not only for food production but also for the global exchange of experiences on social resilience for both school and public educations.

It is an original research making use of a local case study for the understanding of post-disaster reconstruction of coastal communities in the global context.