The Rights of Religious Associations to External Relations: A Comparative Study of the OSCE and the Council of Europe

This paper argues that religious associations have a number of substantive rights when it comes to their external relations. It does so though comparing the position of the OSCE and the Council of Europe. This paper considers whether the emerging framework includes: (1) a right to legal entity status, (2) a right to establish and run charitable or educational institutions, (3) a right to privileges and substantive benefits and (4) a right to anything else. It concludes that the current developments are welcome because religious freedom has a collective aspect that is essential to the lives of many believers.

Organisational Self-Evaluation and Teacher Education for Community Relations in a Transforming Society?

During 2004, the School of Education at the University of Ulster embarked on an innovative three-year project designed to embed community relations objectives within initial teacher education. With the advent of more peaceful times in Northern Ireland, this was a precipitous time for initial teacher educators to review the preparation given to beginner teachers for teaching in an increasingly pluralist society emerging from conflict. The present paper reports on one very specific and time-limited element of the broader project. That is, development work designed to investigate the possibilities of using processes of self-review and evaluation as a lever for improvements in initial teacher education for community relations. Following a brief contextualisation, the background to, and the development of, a set of materials designed to support rigorous and systematic self-review of all aspects of provision in a university-based initial teacher education department is described. The Community Relations Index for Initial Teacher Education (Cr-ITE) was envisaged as being of use to initial teacher education establishments in order to help teacher educators take responsibility for rigorous learning from their practice, whilst placing inclusive values at the centre of organisational development. The final section includes further critical reflection on the role of organisational self-review in transforming teacher education for inclusion in a society emerging from longstanding communal conflict.

Quantitative genetics of preference and performance on chickpeas in the noctuid moth, Helicoverpa armigera

If a novel, resistant host-plant genotype arises in the environment, insect populations utilising that host must be able to overcome that resistance in order that they can maintain their ability to feed on that host. The ability to evolve resistance to host-plant defences depends upon additive genetic variation in larval performance and adult host-choice preference. To investigate the potential of a generalist herbivore to respond to a novel resistant host, we estimated the heritability of larval performance in the noctuid moth, Helicoverpa armigera, on a resistant and a susceptible variety of the chickpea, Cicer arietinum, at two different life stages. Heritability estimates were higher for neonates than for third-instar larvae, suggesting that their ability to establish on plants could be key to the evolution of resistance in this species; however, further information regarding the nature of selection in the field would be required to confirm this prediction. There was no genetic correlation between larval performance and oviposition preference, indicating that female moths do not choose the most suitable plant for their offspring. We also found significant genotype by environment interactions for neonates (but not third-instar larvae), suggesting that the larval response to different plant genotypes is stage-specific in this species.

Are Good Industrial Relations Good for the Economy?

Recent US microeconomic analysis indicates that good industrial relations might improve firm performance. Of late, it has also been claimed that the benefits of industrial relations quality - proxied inversely by a strikes variable - could also extend to the macroeconomy. Using cross-country data, we find that, independent of other labor market institutions, a lower strike volume is associated with lower unemployment. Although there is a separate line of causation running from unemployment to strikes, our analysis suggests that this is not dominant. That said, support for the notion that macro performance owes something to good industrial relations is, however, weakened once we formally control for strike endogeneity.