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Trade liberalization could either exacerbate or ameliorate the incidence of child labour. This paper aims to examine the effect of trade liberalization through membership in the GATT/WTO on the incidence of child labour across countries and over time. The authors examine child labour force participation data and WTO membership for 94 countries between 1980 and 1999. They find that membership in the WTO is negatively correlated with child labour. However, they do not find a statistically significant relationship between openness and child labour and therefore rule out the trade‐expanding channel of WTO membership on child labour.

The authors' regression equations examine the effect of GATT or WTO membership on the incidence of child labour. They examine data from 94 countries from 1980 and 1999 and employ a fixed‐effects regression. They estimate different models taking different variables as control variables. They find a statistically significant effect negative of WTO membership on the incidence of child labour. They do not find a statistically significant effect of openness on child labour.

The authors find that membership in the WTO did reduce child labour. They do not find a statistically significant effect of openness on child labour.

WTO membership does not increase the incidence of child labour as some critics claim. Membership itself is associated with reduced child labour so it may not be necessary to expand trade through international agreements in order to impact the incidence of child labour.

Contrary to critics of the WTO, membership does not exacerbate the problem of child labour.

This paper presents new data on child labour in a panel across countries over time. It is the first paper to systematically estimate the impact of international agreements on the incidence of child labour.

This paper presents an interactive fuzzy satisfying method by assuming that the decision maker (DM) has fuzzy goals for each of the objective functions in multiobjective nonlinear programming problems. The fuzzy goals of the DM are quantified by eliciting the corresponding membership functions through the interaction with the DM. After determining the membership functions for each of the objective functions, in order to generate a candidate for the satisficing solution which is also a Pareto optimal, the DM selects an appropriate standing membership function and specifies his/her aspiration levels of achievement of the other membership functions, called constraint membership values. For the DM's constraint membership values, the corresponding constraint problem is solved and the DM is supplied with the Pareto optima] solution together with the trade‐off rates between a standing membership function and each of the other membership functions. Then by considering the current values of the membership functions as well as the trade‐off rates, the DM acts on this solution by updating his/her constraint membership values. In this way, the satisficing solution for the DM can be derived efficiently from among a Pareto optimal solution set by updating his/her constraint membership values. On the basis of the proposed method, a time‐sharing computer program is written and an application to regional planning is demonstrated along with the corresponding computer outputs.

In recent years, the field of comparative and international education (CIE) has experienced an outburst of self-reflective papers wherein comparativists study the nature of the field and map its content. This study contributes to this trend by drawing attention to a previously unstudied aspect of CIE: its purpose. Using Arnove’s dimensions as a starting point to create five new purpose categories, four prominent CIE journals are surveyed to test whether the pragmatic history of CIE is evident in its current body of research. In this process, a complete and clear genetic mapping of the journals is created, which explores their similarities and differences, as well as the changes in their content over time. Findings indicate that the pragmatic purpose of CIE dominates, though it is primarily emancipatory and transformative in its prescription. Furthermore, articles rooted in specific situational contexts were more prominent than expected considering the comparative and international nature of the field.

Construction is a highly dynamic environment with numerous interacting factors that affect construction processes and decisions. Uncertainty is inherent in most aspects of construction engineering and management, and traditionally, it has been treated as a random phenomenon. However, there are many types of uncertainty that are not naturally modelled by probability theory, such as subjectivity, ambiguity and vagueness. Fuzzy logic provides an approach for handling such uncertainties. However, fuzzy logic alone has some limitations, including its inability to learn from data and its extensive reliance on expert knowledge. To address these limitations, fuzzy logic has been combined with other techniques to create fuzzy hybrid techniques, which have helped solve complex problems in construction. In this chapter, a background on fuzzy logic in the context of construction engineering and management applications is presented. The chapter provides an introduction to uncertainty in construction and illustrates how fuzzy logic can improve construction modelling and decision-making. The role of fuzzy logic in representing uncertainty is contrasted with that of probability theory. Introductory material is presented on key definitions, properties and methods of fuzzy logic, including the definition and representation of fuzzy sets and membership functions, basic operations on fuzzy sets, fuzzy relations and compositions, defuzzification methods, entropy for fuzzy sets, fuzzy numbers, methods for the specification of membership functions and fuzzy rule-based systems. Finally, a discussion on the need for fuzzy hybrid modelling in construction applications is presented, and future research directions are proposed.

For two-sided platforms, the utility of users on one side of the platform depends in part on the number of users on the other side of the platform, a phenomenon called indirect network externalities. With the rapid development of two-sided platform and the popularity of platform membership, more and more two-sided platforms have launched joint membership through horizontal cooperation in order to take advantage of indirect network externalities to increase platform profits.

Our study explores the optimal bundling strategy for platform memberships under horizontal cooperation considering indirect network externalities. The main purpose of our study is to obtain the optimal pricing under different strategies (pure component, pure bundling, and mixed bundling) and contrast different strategies under different indirect network externalities.

Results suggest that the platform's optimal pricing for consumers and sellers depends on the indirect network externalities. Interestingly, the higher the indirect network externalities from consumers, the higher the price of the platform charges to sellers, and the platform might even subsidize sellers. Besides, when there are equal proportions of different types of consumers in the market, indirect network externalities that are too high, too low, or heavily lopsided may discourage the platforms from bundling their memberships. When the composition of consumers changes, the optimal strategy will also change. Our results can be employed in practical applications of bundling, which can help the platform increase profits.

Analyzing the 2004 U.S. General Social Survey and Korean General Social Survey, this chapter attempts to show that even similar climates of associationalism in two countries can lead to differential consequences for participatory democracy, depending on the associations’ capacities to foster civic resources. This chapter first examines whether the politically desirable traits of civic virtue and social trust essential to political participation can be developed by associational membership in the United States and Korea. Second, it investigates whether associational membership strengthens, weakens, or leaves unchanged the effects of socioeconomic resources measured by educational attainment and family income on political participation especially among association members in these two countries. The results indicate that voluntary associations in the United States, compared to those in Korea, do a better job of playing the role of civic educator and even of political equalizer. First, associational membership significantly and positively affects civic virtue and social trust in the United States. Second, associational membership does not affect civic virtue and social trust in Korea. Third, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are weak in the United States. Fourth, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are strong in Korea. Therefore, this chapter concludes that voluntary associations do not contribute to participatory equality in Korea despite its vibrant group-centered culture, whereas their American counterparts are relatively effective in bringing about the expected outcome.

This paper examines social influence in collective task settings using the Berger, Fisek, Norman and Zelditch's graph-theoretic method. The work examines in-group membership in task settings, and models contexts where both status processes and group membership are salient. At the core of these models is a theoretical concept called a group status typification state, defined as an abstract understanding that participants hold of the type of person who would be a good source of information. This paper builds upon recent theory and research and may serve as an initial step toward integration of Status Characteristics Theory and Social Identity Theory.

This chapter takes an empirically centered look at Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) as a section, both as an intellectual enterprise and as an organizational one to make recommendations about how CITAMS could expand is intellectual vibrancy and its organizational viability and capacity in the future. The chapter consists of three sections. The first uses membership data provided by the American Sociological Association (ASA) to discuss the intellectual development of the section. Here, the authors add to well-worn histories of the section with more recent data on section memberships and shifts in co-memberships before and after the transition from Communication and Information Technologies section of the ASA (CITASA) to CITAMS. Next, the authors draw on the annual reports submitted by the section chair to the ASA to discuss the organizational trajectory of the section, assessing ups and downs in membership and finance. The authors use the annual report data to introduce several section needs and make specific recommendations on how the section might further formalize CITAMS’s governance and ensure its viability. Finally, the authors synthesize their analysis and discuss how strategic, intellectual and organizational planning for the future could help develop and secure the section’s vitality for decades to come.

The legal status of citizenship is constitutive in that it determines the boundaries of formal membership of a nation-state and, by implication, the lines of exclusion. The ways in which Australian law has defined membership over time – from subject status to citizen – provide a case study of the factors at play in understanding citizenship within a constitutional setting. We see that the constitution of citizenship may be a complex and unsettled evolutionary process.

This study aims to examine the drivers of membership at the micro-level to influence club retention rates and promote positive health-related behaviours through encouraging active member participation.

The data for this study (n = 197) was obtained from four martial arts groups in Melbourne, Australia. Self-administered questionnaires assessed the importance of personal benefits, risk taking, personal values and enjoyment of specific benefits.

Hierarchical analysis identified shared values, excitement (ß = −0.066, p < 0.05), sense of belonging (ß = 0.644, p < 0.05), enjoyment of activities (ß = 0.179, p < 0.05), fitness level (ß = 0.564, p < 0.05), belt status (ß = 0.466 p < 0.05) and the expectations of instructor (ß = 0.144 p < 0.05) and others (ß = 0.483 p < 0.05) as predictors in attracting and retaining club membership. Adult Australians share socio-demographic characteristics and common desires to attain specific benefits which appear to evolve, as membership is not perceived as an interim engagement but rather as a lifelong lifestyle choice.

By advocating positive associations between lifetime membership and active participation, social marketing campaigns can inform and contribute towards a knowledge base for sports clubs to develop targeted strategies and practices towards membership retention.

This study contributes to evidence-based social marketing approaches in an era of ageing demographics, where there remains a need to learn more about how to manage active memberships to promote healthy lifestyles and well-being at a national, community and individual level. The approach of exploring club membership at micro-level to inform tailored macro-level strategic health-related messages is also novel.