In psychology there is a plethora of different measures and constructs. However, the literature also shows that many of these measures overlap and may even sometimes be redundant. Recognizing such overlap in measures is essential for consolidation and for moving the field forward. Accordingly, we suggest a role herein of the General Factor of Personality (GFP), which emerges from the correlations between specific personality dimensions and reflects a mix of desirable traits (e.g. being sociable, honest, and emotionally stable). It is argued and shown that the GFP is highly correlated with a wide range of psychological traits. We further postulate that this phenomenon provides a parsimonious way of looking at the overlap between many trait measures. This idea is discussed in light of the ongoing debate on the GFP in which some scholars suggest the general factor is substantive and relevant for understanding personality, whereas others consider it to solely reflect a measurement artifact. Irrespective of whether the substantive, artifact, or a mixed explanation of the GFP is adopted, overlooking the presence of a common general factor in psychological measures may, respectively, either impede the development of unifying theories of human behavior, or otherwise compromise measurement validity.
Public transit networks structure social and economic activities by bringing diverse populations together in shared spaces. This study examines the spatial relationship between faregate replacements and nearby crime patterns within the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail network in the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County, Maryland. Faregate replacements were implemented system-wide across all 98 Metrorail stations between July 2023 and September 2024; however, the rollout was staggered, and precise completion dates were not uniformly documented for all stations. This study therefore uses the seven stations with verified replacement dates as treatment stations and uses propensity score matching (PSM) to select seven control stations based on pre-intervention property and violent crime levels to assess changes in nearby crime patterns following the intervention. These stations constitute the earliest confirmed interventions, allowing for a before-and-after comparison and a quasi-experimental design with temporal precision. We use a spatial analytical approach employing the weighted displacement quotient (WDQ) and negative binomial difference-in-differences (DID) models to analyze property and violent crime patterns between the pre- and post-intervention periods (2022 and 2024). This approach examines Census blocks in street-network buffers of 0–400 m, 400–800 m, and 800–1,200 m around stations. The results indicate statistically significant reductions in property crime within the 0–400 m treatment area, with weaker effects at greater distances from stations. In contrast, violent crime exhibited no statistically significant changes following faregate replacement, suggesting that the effects of access-control interventions may differ across crime types. This study highlights the significance of considering interventions in the built environment and, more broadly, underscores the need for urban policy to account for the broader social consequences of transportation design.
The results of the 2023 referendum on a permanent ban on oil extraction in Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT oil fields revealed a paradoxical outcome. Of Ecuador's 24 provinces, only the oil producing Orellana and Sucumbíos voted in favour of continued extraction. This result is paradoxical because these provinces have historically borne the brunt of oil extraction's negative environmental, economic and public health impacts. The paper brings this paradox into dialogue with the critical literature on extractive industries. It argues that while concepts such as 'commodities consensus' and 'extractive imperative' help explain why extractivism persists at the level of national decision-making, attempts at explaining why and how pro-extractive preferences are sustained at the local level have been limited. Using socio-economic indicators, the paper demonstrates that the populations of Sucumbíos and Orellana suffer from various forms of socio-economic marginalization. The paper argues that decades of co-existence with oil extraction processes has created an economic dependence within the communities, which can be described as 'extractivism of the poor'. It also argues that this dependence eliminates real and perceived alternative paths to development within the population of these two provinces, which accounts for their continued support for extraction.
CONTEXT Inclusive agribusiness partnerships (IABs) are widely promoted as vehicles for agricultural transformation yet achieving scale while maintaining inclusion remains a persistent challenge. These challenges highlight the need to understand how inclusive outcomes become embedded and sustained at scale in wider institutional environments. OBJECTIVE This article develops and empirically grounds a theory-informed typology of ‘crowding-in’ pathways through which external actors adapt their practices in response to partnership-induced innovations. The typology aims to help partnerships recognize and proactively engage with different pathways through which surrounding actors may contribute to their inclusive objectives. We examine how these pathways can contribute to responsible scaling and the conditions under which they are more likely to do so. METHODS The study follows an abductive action research approach combining a narrative literature review with empirical action research and practitioner engagement. The research was embedded within the 2SCALE program, an agribusiness incubator initiative operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The literature review led to a draft conceptual typology of crowding in pathways, which was empirically validated and refined through analysis of five purposively selected 2SCALE partnerships in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Data was collected through literature study, interviews, participatory workshops, program document analysis, and longitudinal engagement with partnership actors. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We distinguish, for each actor type, between an organizational advantage–driven pathway—where actors crowd in to gain capabilities or capital—and an issue-informed pathway—where actors engage to advance inclusive outcomes. This results in the identification of six crowding-in pathways across business, state, and civil society spheres: competitive, normative, facilitative, dependence, credibility, and re-institutionalization crowding-in. The cases illustrate how external actors from government, business, and civil society adapt business models, infrastructure and extension services, and coordination support, extending inclusive outcomes beyond partnership boundaries. However, crowding-in also introduces risks, including corporate market capture, unequal allocation of public resources, and increased farmer dependence on tightly coupled market actors. We conclude that responsible scaling requires continuous attention to power asymmetries, inclusion criteria, and institutional pluralism. The typology offers both an analytical lens and a practical heuristic to anticipate and steer systemic responses in agricultural systems. SIGNIFICANCE This study advances understanding of responsible outcome-oriented scaling by shifting attention from the performance of individual partnerships to the wider actor networks and institutional environments through which inclusive outcomes become embedded and sustained at scale. Introducing crowding-in as an analytical heuristic, it provides a heuristic for examining how private, public, and civil society actors contribute to scaling processes beyond project boundaries. The typology supports more anticipatory and strategic engagement with external actors while acknowledging the uncertainty and trade-offs inherent in scaling inclusive agribusiness outcomes.
Objective This study explores how geographical distance between adult children of immigrants and their parents changes in response to partnership formation and partnership dissolution.Background Geographical distance between generations is a key factor in intergenerational support. However, there is limited knowledge about how proximity changes over the life course, with most research confined to Western cultural settings. The lack of comparative work is surprising since intergenerational proximity and solidarity are often associated with an international migration background.Methods Using longitudinal register data from the Netherlands, we follow individuals born to parents from Suriname, Turkey, and the Netherlands, assessing their geographical distance from parents between ages 22 and 42. Two-part regression models with impact function specifications are employed to estimate the effects of partnership formation and dissolution on intergenerational proximity.Results In all groups, intergenerational distance increased with partnership formation and decreased following partnership dissolution. In the case of partnership formation, the divergence effect was stronger for women than for men. Following partnership dissolution, the convergence effect was stronger for women than for men of Turkish origin, but similar for men and women of Surinamese and Dutch origin. Leaving home for partnership formation and returning home after partnership dissolution played an important role in explaining the changes in proximity, especially for individuals of Dutch origin, and for men more than for women in all groups.Conclusion Our findings confirm the effects of partnership transitions on intergenerational distance among migrant families and emphasize cultural influences on intergenerational gendered proximity and family interdependencies in migrant communities.
