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THE BIAS towards the shires in the rate‐support grant for the next fiscal year has brought benefit, albeit of a negative kind, to one county librarian to whom I was chatting recently, who has to face a cut in his budgets of ‘only about £60,000’, which is some 3% of his total. We agreed ruefully that in real terms public libraries have had to live with annually reducing expenditure for at least a decade, and that 3% next year was at least manageable, if no great stimulus to morale.

You never know, that's all, there's no way of knowing … Last week our lives were all right … But now I think we're going to be murdered. Just like that.” So begins The Shadow Knows, a novel whose major theme is a woman's panic about the possibility of danger to her family. She is not alone; Americans are increasingly fearful of violence as it becomes more pervasive. According to the 1982–83 Statistical Abstract of the U.S., published by the Bureau of the Census, one of every 30 people over 12 years old was the victim of violence in 1980. And those statistics refer only to reported violence; they do not include the victims of private violence: child abuse, incest, or spouse beating. Such domestic violence more than doubled between 1976 and 1981, and accounts for more than one‐third of the nation's police forces' time. The statistics pertaining to women are particularly worrisome. A woman's chances of being raped at some point in her life are now one in ten—and her chances of being injured by battery are even greater. Such statistics are very frightening.

Through an analysis of the French crown's investigation into the greatest scandal of Louis XIV's reign, this article examines the unstable boundary between sin and crime at the height of the Catholic Reformation in France. The prosecution of the suspects in the Affair of the Poisons, it argues, allowed a key change in the French state's definition of crime. In 1682, the crown decriminalized magic. It continued to prosecute “so-called magicians,” however, because their practices were deemed sacrilegious. Any person convicted of “treason against God” was therefore sentenced to the most severe form of execution inflicted under French law: to be burnt alive. Louis XIV's determination to ensure social order and religious orthodoxy was made manifest in the state's rituals of punishment.

The aim of this article is to explore the phenomenon of gifted migrants in vocational training and education. To date, migrant apprentices have been predominantly discussed from a deficit perspective. Special attention has been given to competence insufficiency and underperformance, as well as to migrant adolescents’ lack of professional and educational attainment. However, recent research points to a social group of migrants who are successful educational and professional achievers.

The article at hand discusses five theoretical models commonly applied to explain underachievement among migrant adolescents. It then examines these models’ explanatory power to predict migrants’ educational success. To conclude, the research parameters and theoretical framework of a Swiss longitudinal study designed on the basis of these findings is presented.

Educational research has increasingly focused on migrants, as well as on vocational education and training. However, what resulted from existing research is a predominantly unfavorable image of migrant apprentices that exclusively portrays them as so called “educational losers” of socio‐economically and culturally disadvantaged backgrounds. Based on theoretical explanatory models, a number of assumptions were extracted to show how educational success among migrants could be explained and whether resilience factors play a role in it. From the resilience perspective, professional success of migrant apprentices is likely to result from a stable, long‐term attachment figure or mentor who served as a role and identification model and was of significant importance in the adolescents’ workplace, for example as professional mentor. Furthermore, it is expected that educational facilities, in particular vocational training institutions, must have excelled in demanding high educational achievement, providing clear organizational and management structures, and high teaching quality as well as good instructor‐learner relationships.

As has been shown, educational research has increasingly focused on migrants, as well as on vocational education and training. However, what resulted from existing research is a predominantly unfavorable image of migrant apprentices that exclusively portrays them as so called “educational losers” of socio‐economically and culturally disadvantaged backgrounds. This implies that educational and professional success is not attainable for youths from disadvantaged families. On the other hand, successful migrant careers have been exemplarily portrayed; systematic research however is scarce and virtually non‐existent in German‐speaking academia. The lack of educational policy debate about successful migrants is probably a result of this research gap.

Age and gender intersect, often lowering quality of life for older women. Microlevel patterns include ignoring older women in one’s presence, flattening their identities to only their status as older women. Macrolevel patterns include the erasure of older women, with cultural (media) representations, organizational practices and policies and social policies that ignore the existence of older women or distort their characteristics in ways that diminish the likelihood of equitable treatment. Using autoethnography, conversations with a small group of older women, and scholarly and popular literature, we describe varieties of microlevel experiences and responses to them. Focusing on macrolevel erasure, we describe some of the effects of combined ageism and sexism, and we look at activists’ and organizational responses aimed at changing public awareness and attitudes toward age and gendering. Policy changes are suggested to make the social treatment of older women more equitable, including attention to housing, health care, and public education. We note specific past achievements that demonstrate policy change is possible.

EVEN when it rains, and it did rain, Edinburgh has many attractions. It is a fine centre for a conference with some splendid libraries to visit and this year, as in other years, our hosts put themselves out to make us welcome.

This register of current research in social economics has been compiled by the International Institute of Social Economics. The register does not claim to be comprehensive but is merely an aid for research workers and institutions interested in social economics. The register will be updated and made more comprehensive in the future but this is largely dependent on the inflow of information from researchers in social economics. In order to facilitate this process a standardised form is to be found on the last page of this register. Completed forms, with attached sheets as necessary, should be returned to the compiler: Dr Barrie O. Pettman, Director, International Institute of Social Economics, Enholmes Hall, Patrington, Hull, N. Humberside, England, HU12 OPR. Any other comments on the register will also be welcome.

This paper examines the theoretical issues and research themes of business and management impact. Our empirical setting is the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF 2014) and the focus is on the nature of research impact. Stakeholders, including Governments, now expect academic outputs to translate to real world benefits beyond the narrow bibliometric type metrics.

Despite decades of academic literature devoted to business and management research impact, current theories cannot explain the apparent disconnect between academic, economic and societal practice. Adopting a UK Business and Management perspective to frame our investigation, we consider the highly contested rhetorical question – What are the current themes and impacts of Business and Management research?

We propose a definition for research impact and consider its measurement. Then, using the 410 Impact Case Studies submitted to REF 2014 #x2013; Unit of Assessment 19, business and management, we examine how high impact unfolds. The implications for business and management research impact from the perspectives of economic, knowledge and responsibility impacts are considered.