bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Figure‐background segregation and the formation of illusory figures
Authors: Purghé Franco
Published: March 2003

Three experiments were carried out to test the relationship between figure‐background segregation and illusory contours. Illusory figures are believed to arise as byproducts of figure‐background segregation. When, in a scene, part of what should be the background becomes an illusory figure, a mechanism of contour attribution favoring the area in which the illusory figure appears takes place. This mechanism is prevented from operating when the attribution of the contour is inhibited by the presence of “groupable” (connectable) contours. Spatial proximity is one of the factors affecting such grouping: the closer the connectable contours, the more likely is their grouping in a single unit and the less likely is the emergence of an illusory figure. Experimental results showed that the illusory effect was established when contours were prevented from being connected. This outcome is interpreted as evidence that a mechanism of contour attribution is effective in the formation of illusory figures.
Functional visual field in a rapid serial visual presentation task
Authors: Kikuchi Tadashi , Sekine Michiaki , Nakamura Masako
Published: March 2003

Dynamic temporal change in the size of functional visual field was measured using a dual task: a peripheral task in which one square in a background pattern of squares was changed in shape to a dot; and a central task involving the rapid serial visual presentation of a sequence of letters (RSVP task). The temporal lag between the occurrences of the dot and the RSVP target was manipulated. University students were asked to detect the dot and to depress a mouse button as quickly as possible while searching for the RSVP target among a sequence of distracter letters. The abrupt change in the shape of a background square in the peripheral task caused a processing deficit in the RSVP task at relative lags from –3 to –1 (255 ms to 85 ms before presentation of the RSVP target), but the encoding and retaining processes involved in identifying the RSVP target did not impair the detection of the peripheral dot. The functional visual field was found to expand while participants were performing the dual task, suggesting that preattentive detection is affected by general attentional activity.
A Bayesian predictive analysis of test scores
Authors: Ishii Hidetoki , Watanabe Hiroshi
Published: March 2003

In the classical test theory, a high‐reliability test always leads to a precise measurement. However, when it comes to the prediction of test scores, it is not necessarily so. Based on a Bayesian statistical approach, we predicted the distributions of test scores for a new subject, a new test, and a new subject taking a new test. Under some reasonable conditions, the predicted means, variances, and covariances of predicted scores were obtained and investigated. We found that high test reliability did not necessarily lead to small variances or covariances. For a new subject, higher test reliability led to larger predicted variances and covariances, because high test reliability enabled a more accurate prediction of test score variances. Regarding a new subject taking a new test, in this study, higher test reliability led to a large variance when the sample size was smaller than half the number of tests. The classical test theory is reanalyzed from the viewpoint of predictions and some suggestions are made.
The effect of prior acquisition of food aversion on the poisoned‐partner effect
Authors: Hishimura Yutaka
Published: March 2003

It has been suggested that poisoned conspecifics function as aversive unconditioned stimuli for rats. The present study examined whether the prior acquisition of food aversion could enhance this effect. In phase 1, subjects were given pairings of cocoa‐flavored pellets and a toxin. In phase 2, they were given the cocoa‐flavored pellets and later presented with a poisoned or nonpoisoned conspecific. Subsequent testing involved a choice between the cocoa‐flavored pellets and regular pellets. Prior exposure to a poisoned conspecific prevented extinction of the conditioned aversion. In contrast, exposure to a nonpoisoned conspecific allowed extinction of the conditioned aversion. These findings suggest that a rat's reaction to a stressed conspecific is affected by their prior experience of aversive events.
Choosing words at the study phase: The self‐choice effect on memory from the viewpoint of connective processing1
Authors: Hirano Tetsuji , Ukita Jun
Published: March 2003

Abstract: The self‐choice effect, that is the superior memory performance observed when participants are allowed to choose the item at the study phase than when they are not (lack of choice), has been explained by the encoding‐strategy hypothesis (Takahashi, 1997). This hypothesis distinguishes between organizational processing, which focuses upon the relationship between chosen items, and item‐speciﬁc processing, which itself focuses on the elements that make the chosen item distinctive. The encoding‐strategy hypothesis predicts that the ability for the successive recall of chosen items can be affected by organized list (Experiment 1). The results of our experiments ran counter to the prediction and were interpreted by a new concept called connective processing, which would emphasize the relationship of paired items. Connective processing was examined through orienting tasks (Experiment 2). The results were more suitably interpreted by connective than organizational processing.
The reliability and construct validity of scores on the Japanese version of an academic self‐concept scale for a sample of college students1
Authors: Paik Chie Matsuzawa , Michael William B.
Published: March 2003

Abstract: This study investigated the internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity of scores on the Japanese version of the Dimensions of Self‐Concept (DOSC) academic self‐concept scale for a sample of 177 students at a small Japanese private college. Confirmatory factor analyses showed promising support for the construct validity of scores on the six factor subscales (Level of Aspiration, Anxiety, Academic Interest and Satisfaction, Leadership and Initiative, Identification versus Alienation, and Stress), representing the six hypothesized constructs of academic self‐concept. Internal consistency reliability of scores on the six subscales ranged from 0.82 to 0.87.
Quest Religion and the Problem of Limited Compassion
Authors: Goldfried Jerry , Miner Maureen
Published: March 2003

Is the religious questing orientation an unprejudiced orientation that shows tolerance for people to a degree that suggests universal, rather than circumscribed, compassion? To answer this question, 90 undergraduates were given the opportunity to help either of two peers win a monetary prize. The identity of one of the peers was manipulated across two conditions: he or she was presented as holding a religious fundamentalist belief style or belief style unspecified. The purpose of the monetary prize was also varied across two conditions: an activity that either would or would not promote religious fundamentalist behavior. Participants scoring high in religious questing helped the discloser who held a religious fundamentalist belief style less than the discloser who did not, irrespective of whether they promoted religious fundamentalist behavior or not. These results suggest that the questing orientation is associated with prejudice toward the value‐violating person when the salient person value violates the open‐minded belief style of the questing orientation.
The Protestant Ethic and Rockefeller Benevolence: The Religious Impulse in American Philanthropy
Authors: Hewa Soma
Published: March 2003

This paper is an application of Max Weber’s thesis about the “elective affinity” between Protestant religious impulses and the rise of capitalism, and rationalization of benevolence. Exploring the history of organized philanthropy in the United States, using the life and work of John D. Rockefeller, the paper presents the power of the religious motive in Rockefeller’s commitment to philanthropy, especially towards support for scientific university based research in medicine. Presenting historical evidence, the paper argues against those who see U.S. philanthropists as giving out of guilt or for selfish motivation, and those who critique philanthropic foundations as producers and reproducers of cultural hegemony
Personhood and Accounting for Racism in Conversation
Authors: Verkuyten Maykel
Published: March 2003

Racism is traditionally studied from an individualistic perspective emphasising personality characteristics, motivations and basic cognitive processes. Some researchers have shifted their attention to the study of racist discourse. The present study tries to extend this work on discourse in two ways. First, by focusing on the everyday meaning of racism itself, rather than by defining racism and using this definition as the central analytical category. It is investigated how ethnic Dutch speakers when they talk and argue among themselves, reconcile racist talk with their identity as a reasonable and moral person. Second, conversational interactions were studied in order to examine the effectiveness of constructions. Few studies investigate the question of consequences of varying constructions. It is argued that in order to show that constructions play an important role in shaping subjects’ understandings and actions it is necessary to go beyond textual deconstructions and to investigate conversations.
Oakeshott, Wittgenstein, and the Practice of Social Science
Authors: Costelloe Timothy M.
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the concept of “sociology” and the logical limits which, it is argued, are imposed upon its practice by the nature of the subject matter it investigates. This thesis is developed, first, by examining Michael Oakeshott’s distinction between “technical” and “practical” knowledge, and his concept of “abridgment”. The view of human action which follows from this is then applied to sociological practice in order to show how the latter involves a unique sort of abridgment. Then, drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy, it is argued that sociological inquiry has its own form of investigation which is most accurately termed “description”. Finally, Harvey Sacks' notion of “primitive, natural science” is critically examined as an account of social science which approximates most closely to the one being articulated here. The weakness of Sacks’ account, it is suggested, can be explained by his failure to appreciate the Oakeshottian insights about human action with which the argument began. The paper concludes by drawing out some implications of the proposed thesis.
On the Link between Academia and the Practice of Social Work
Authors: Mass Mili
Published: March 2003

The dualism of knowledge and values as well as of the objective and the subjective views has accompanied the social work profession from its inception and presents a particular dilemma for the link between academia and practice. It is either that academia is split off from the practice of social work, or that these two fields of professional activity merge into each other. Either of these solutions impoverishes the profession. The key for the understanding of this dilemma as well as its resolution rests with the particular ontological definitions adhered to by the profession. It is proposed that by fostering the moral ontology the dualism inherent in the nature of the profession may enrich it and a fruitful link between academia and the practice of social work will evolve. The arguments presented as well as the resolution proposed are illustrated by theoretical explanations, empirical studies and clinical practice in the area of the parent‐infant relationship.
Materialism, Agnosticism and God
Authors: Creaven Sean
Published: March 2003

The longstanding philosophical debate between idealism and materialism has recently entered the ontological terrain of critical realism (CR) and dialectical critical realism (DCR). This has been initiated by Roy Bhaskar’s most recent book, From East to West, which attempts an ambitious synthesis of philosophy, social theory and theology. On the one hand, Bhaskar’s attempt to root his philosophy and social theory in a ‘realist theory of God’ has found an echo within the CR and DCR research camp, some of whose members would urge us to take seriously the possibility of a ‘religious sociology’. On the other hand, Bhaskar’s abrupt ‘idealist turn’ has left many critical realists flabbergasted and horrified, particularly those working at the interface between realist philosophy and Marxist social science, especially since Bhaskar’s new philosophical trajec‐tory is radically at odds with the ‘synchronic emergent powers materialism’ outlined in his The Possibility of Naturalism.

In response to this ‘split’ within the CR and DCR camp, the spectre of ‘realist agnosticism’ has been raised and defended by Mervyn Hartwig in this journal. Since neither science nor philosophy can settle the issue of what kind of stuff constitutes ‘rock bottom reality’, it is rational to be agnostic on the ‘ultimate question’, to deny positively affirming the claims of either one side or the other. Now this is the move that is resisted in this paper. My argument is that ontolog‐ical idealism is disputable on a number of grounds‐philosophical, scientific, ethical and political. In particular, I argue that objective idealism is unsupported by rational knowledge, is riddled with conceptual and logical defects, is contrary to the logic of scientific discovery, and is an obstacle to eudaimonia (human emancipation). Further, since realist agnosticism rests its case on the myth of infallible knowledge, and obviously stands or falls with the defensibility or other‐wise of objective idealism, this gives us ‘good enough’ reasons for accepting a thoroughgoing materialism as the ontological foundation of social theory.
Redistributive Taxation, Self‐Ownership and the Fruit of Labour
Authors: Michael Mark A.
Published: March 2003

Libertarians such as Nozick have argued that any redistributive tax scheme intended to achieve and maintain an egalitarian distributive pattern will violate self‐ownership. Furthermore, since self‐ownership is a central component of the idea of freedom, instituting an egalitarian distribution makes a society less rather than more free. All this turns on the claim, accepted by both libertarians and their critics, that a redistributive tax will violate self‐ownership because it must expropriate the fruit of a person’s labour. I show here that there is no reason to accept this claim. The libertarian argument works only if the fruit of one’s labour must be understood to include everything that a person produces through his labour. But there is an alternative reading of the fruit of labour which identifies it with that subset of the total product of one’s labour which is due to his choices rather than luck. I argue that this reading is plausible, that there is nothing in the concept of self‐ownership which disallows it, and that if it is adopted, a redistributive tax need not automatically expropriate the fruit of one’s labour. Consequently there is no necessary inconsistency between redistributive taxation and self‐ownership, and so egalitarians can endorse the latter idea.
Rights Theories and Public Trial
Authors: Jaconelli Joseph
Published: March 2003

Most rights claims are capable of being analysed in terms of both the competing theories of rights, the will theory and the interest theory. Discussion hitherto has concentrated on particular instances of rights claims which are easily accommodated by the one theory but accommodated only with difficulty (if at all) by the other. Such problematic examples have served to illuminate what is at stake between the rival theories. However, in the case of the right to a public trial, I argue that neither theory is capable of accommodating that particular ‘right’.
Against the Golden Rule Argument Against Abortion
Authors: Boonin‐Vail David
Published: March 2003

R. M. Hare and Harry J. Gensler have each argued that abortion can be shown to be immoral by appealing to a version of the golden rule. I argue that both versions of the golden rule argument against abortion should be rejected: each rests on a version of the golden rule which is objectionable on independent grounds, each is unable to support its conclusion when the rule is satisfactorily modified, and each is unable to avoid the implication that contraception is as wrong as abortion and for the same reason. In addition, some further problems particular to each position are identified.
Sustainable Development: The Fallacy of a Normatively‐Neutral Development Paradigm
Authors: Parayil Govindan
Published: March 2003

Although the concept of ‘sustainable development’ or SD has been welcomed as a new idea to resolve the immense environmental and developmental problems in the world, it has become apparent that the concept has nothing new to offer to the victims of environmental degradation and poverty. The sustainable development thesis, as it is being promoted now, is based on the premise that environmental problems and poverty can be attenuated and eventually solved by being treated as mere technical problems which then can be ultimately reduced to an environmental management problem. As long as the developmentalist ideology of mere economic growth, which is framed within neoclassical economics, is not challenged and transformed, SD cannot address the problems of environmental degradation and poverty. SD needs to be framed in an alternative discourse for analysing the ecological crisis in order to address the issues of economic injustice and inequality. It will be argued that reducing economic inequality and social injustice, which are the underlying causes for ecological injustice, will render environmental problems more tractable and eventually avoidable.
Pluralism in Multicultural Liberal Democracy and the Justification of Female Circumcision
Authors: Hellsten Sirkku Kristiina
Published: March 2003

This article discusses the problems that a liberal, multicultural democracy has in dealing with cultural practices, such as female circumcision, which themselves suppress the liberal values of autonomy and pluralism. In this context I have chosen the justification of female circumcision as my issue for three reasons. First, with increasing immigration, in Western multicultural and pluralistic societies this practice has recently been given a good deal of public attention; second, I believe that it is time to put this cruel and discriminatory tradition finally in the past; and third, the paradox that the victims of this practice are also often its strongest proponents well demonstrates the problems that liberal democracies have in dealing with the question of autonomy and tolerance in real‐life situations. My main argument is that, without giving up tolerance, we can show that there can be no moral justification for such a tradition as female circumcision, even within a multicultural and pluralist society.

I shall first show why neither female circumcision nor any other tradition that oppresses and harms individuals and is maintained by coercion can be satisfactorily defended by liberal arguments. Then I shall discuss why ‘communitarian’counter‐arguments which appeal to the significance of communal values and traditions or to cultural rights also fail to give any plausible support to the maintenance of this tradition. Finally, I shall consider in more detail how the value of autonomy should be normatively understood in a modern pluralist society [1].
The Arms Trade and the Slave Trade
Authors: Stevenson Leslie
Published: March 2003

We have abandoned the slave trade, and come to abhor it. Could the same happen with the arms trade? Even if we are not pacifists, and allow some use of force in self‐defence, we must have serious ethical questions to ask about the trade in weaponry on which our economies are now so dependent. I distinguish the various forms these questions take for governments and individuals, and argue for some answers.
Turning the Tables with ‘Homophobia’
Authors: Colwell Gary
Published: March 2003

The charge of homophobia, indiscriminately made in a large part of our Western culture today, is ill conceived, illogical and false. This sweeping charge may be pictured as a triangle of informal logical fallacies. The more prominent side, the one which the general public encounters first, is what I shall call the fallacy of turning the tables: the rhetorical device of making the source of criticism the object of criticism. The other side of the charge is the fallacy of equivocation. The boundary of the term ‘homophobia’ is made so elastic that it can stretch around, not just phobias, but every kind of rational fear as well; and not just around every kind of fear, but also around every critical posture or idea that anyone may have about the practice of homosexuality. At the base of the charge, and undergirding the other two fallacies, is the fallacy of begging the question. A commitment to the complete acceptability of the practice of homosexuality enables its proponents to ‘know’ beforehand that all criticisms against it must originate in the defective psychology of the critic.
Is Sex Morally Special?
Authors: Benn Piers
Published: March 2003

This paper attempts to clarify what is, and is not, meant by claiming that special moral considerations apply to sexual behaviour that cannot apply to other areas of life. It then poses the problem by reference to virtue ethics, asking whether there are any virtues or vices specific to sex, which go beyond general considerations like justice and benevolence. This leads to a mostly sympathetic treatment of Scruton’s Aristotelian derivation of sexual morality, which stresses how some behaviour and fantasies are debarred by a stable disposition to seek erotic flourishing. However, doubts are raised about some of the supposed implications of this account, and it is suggested that a better way to understand the moral distinctness of sex is to focus on the goods, rather than the evils, that arise uniquely in the erotic sphere.
Love and Privacy
Authors: Dromm Keith
Published: March 2003

How much privacy must be sacrificed by the partners in a romantic relationship? I begin by showing that we are obligated to reveal to our lovers information about ourselves that we believe could possibly cause them to withdraw their affections from us. If we were to conceal this information, then the lover would be mistaken about whom they loved, yet continue to respect obligations towards, and make sacrifices for, us. I conclude, though, by discussing some problems with both the intelligibility of this obligation and our ability to fulfil it. These problems arise from epistemological and metaphysical problems connected with the notion of a self.
Expected Utility, Contributory Causation, and Vegetarianism
Authors: Matheny Gaverick
Published: March 2003

Several authors have argued that act–utilitarianism cannot provide an adequate critique of buying meat because a single meat purchase will not actually cause more farm animals to be raised or slaughtered. Thus, regardless of whether or not the production of meat is inhumane to animals, someone who buys meat is doing nothing wrong. This argument fails to show that meat purchases are morally permissible, however, because it assumes that act–utilitarians would use actual utility in their decision to buy or not to buy meat. I show that act–utilitarians cannot use actual utility as a decision procedure and must instead use expected utility to prescribe or proscribe actions. I then demonstrate how expected utility can be applied to cases of contributory causation, where many people seem morally responsible for causing something to happen. Buying meat is one case of contributory causation where the probability of any single individual's affecting meat production is slight, but the expected disutility of affecting that production is substantial. Thus, in its expected utility form, act–utilitarianism defeats the ‘causal inefficacy’ defence of buying meat [1].
Suicide Intervention and Non–Ideal Kantian Theory
Authors: Cholbi Michael J.
Published: March 2003

Philosophical discussions of the morality of suicide have tended to focus on its justifiability from an agent's point of view rather than on the justifiability of attempts by others to intervene so as to prevent it. This paper addresses questions of suicide intervention within a broadly Kantian perspective. In such a perspective, a chief task is to determine the motives underlying most suicidal behaviour. Kant wrongly characterizes this motive as one of self–love or the pursuit of happiness. Psychiatric and scientific evidence suggests that suicide is instead motivated by a nihilistic disenchantment with the possibility of happiness which, at its apex, results in the loss of the individual's conception of her practical identity. Because of this, methods of intervention that appeal to agents’ happiness, while morally benign, will prove ineffective in forestalling suicide. At the same time, more aggressive methods violate the Kantian concern for autonomy. This apparent dilemma can be resolved by seeing suicide intervention as an action undertaken in non–ideal circumstances, where otherwise unjustified manipulation, coercion, or paternalism are morally permitted.
Art in a Million Schools: Art Education in China
Authors: Perry Philip
Published: March 2003

There is a dichotomy in Chinese art education. On the one hand the authorities take for granted that the purpose of the national curriculum is to foster patriotism, morality and socialism; on the other hand art educators try to enlarge children’s vision and encourage them to create according to their imagination. Chinese art teachers seem to have dealt with this dilemma by preparing and presenting their lessons in the official format whilst allowing art itself to work inwardly on the children.
Proper Listening, Proper Heeding: A Midwifery of Thought
Authors: Swift Jacquie
Published: March 2003

This paper seeks to demonstrate the way in which a group of second year BA Fine Art in Context students and I worked to demystify the process of academic essay writing and to set about the task of examining their own creative thinking and its relation to their art practice. It is also a tribute to the dedication they brought to the project. Fifty students took part, but it is with regret that for reasons of space only nine examples could be selected as representative of their wide‐ranging scope and expertise. These are presented in three broad categories that the work overall suggested; the use of materials to symbolise and communicate ideas; the layering of combinations of images, thoughts and words; the juxtapositioning of words, objects and images to indicate the struggle to integrate and relate them, as well as the innate intractability of the materials thoughts and words themselves.
Improving Design & Technology Education in Hong Kong
Authors: Siu Michael
Published: March 2003

This paper uses a critical perspective to review design criticism and theory studies in teacher education programmes in Hong Kong. The paper reports problems in Design and Technology theory teaching and learning in secondary schools through a brief survey, and tries to present a rationale for the importance of design theory and criticism in Design and Technology teacher education programmes.
Towards a New Art Curriculum: Reflections on Pot Fillers and Fire Lighters
Authors: Bell Gordon
Published: March 2003

This contribution is derived from an address presented to the NSEAD Annual Conference (1999)‘Towards a New Arts Education’ in association with Bretton Hall, a specialist institution for the arts and education, to mark the 50th anniversary of its Foundation in September 1949. [1] An analysis of the role of art and design education is set in the context of an arts related curriculum and the case for an interdependent, teachable and accessible programme is outlined. Proposals for the maintenance and development of a future for arts education is tested against certain key questions and a theory of ‘good teaching’ in the arts
Crossing the Line
Authors: Bennett Sarah
Published: March 2003

The paper charts the progress of the ‘Window Sills’ project in Exeter, UK which brings together artists, art students, cultural organisations, and the community in a plan for urban renewal. Seeking to loosen boundaries, it uses the idea of ‘thirdspace’ to question the notion of public and private space, using the city's and its river's constant changes as an analogy. The window and the window sill become the interface where the project seeks a transformational act in the lives of those involved by locating the experience in the local and the personal, although the implications cross much wider boundaries.
Working Out Comics
Authors: Adams Jeff
Published: March 2003

This paper continues the argument for comics, especially graphic novels and manga (Japanese comics), to be taken seriously as a valid art form and as a source for work at all levels of art education. [1] Specific case studies demonstrate how these ambitions might be realised in practice in the form of classroom comic / graphic novel based projects in primary and secondary schools. Three have been singled out for consideration and each deals with issues affecting comics in education, such as the question of ‘derivative’ work, assessment and interpreting pre‐existing texts. The capability of comic‐based projects to successfully accommodate wider social issues like gender construction also come under scrutiny. The resulting works are analysed in the context of the prevailing education culture and highlight the difficulties of applying established assessment criteria to projects of this type.
Distance No Object: Developing DARE, the Digital Art Resource for Education
Authors: Sinker Rebecca
Published: March 2003

This paper outlines the development of DARE, the Digital Art Resource for Education, detailing its specific aims and sketching the broad context in which the resource has been developed. It then examines a case study where the resource was piloted within a North London secondary school, highlighting some of the issues arising from this such as the need for educators and their pupils to engage critically with the Internet as a distance learning tool, and the importance of an equally critical practice in using new technologies to support art and design.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Resetting the Table of Modernist Art
Authors: Ashton Linda
Published: March 2003

Racism has often been expressed in the form of physical violations of human rights, soul destroying emotional taunts and deliberate policies of social exclusion. Many educators who oppose such an approach would be horrified to find racist origins embedded in the aesthetic discourses which they have taken up as their own. In this paper I trace racist imagery and ideology in my own childhood, early schooling and adult art learning, and connect this with the persistent silencing of the black ‘other’ in the story of modernist art. As an educator of future art teachers the deconstruction of racist discourses is as essential as it is for pre‐service students in their own emergent art pedagogy.
Design Education in China: New Proposals to Address Endemic Problems
Authors: Fung Shung‐Yu Alex , Choi Yuet‐Ngor Alice Lo
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with identifying the problems that pervade design education and the practice of design in China so that a way forward can be proposed to make improvements that will enable the Chinese design industry to become more competitive after entry into the World Trade Organisation. The authors gathered data from their own experiences and observations in situ, as well as surveys they commissioned. They found that there are numerous endemic, fundamental problems in the practice of design education across the whole education sector. Fortunately, many Chinese design educators and managers of design companies are cognizant of these problems and are motivated to institute changes, even though they are unsure of what these changes should be or how they should be implemented. The authors conclude by making their own recommendations for effecting improvements in design education and professional development.
At the Threshold of Architecture
Authors: Altinyildiz Nur , Nalbantoğlu Gülsüm Baydar
Published: March 2003

In structuring the programme of our interior design studio, we questioned two assumptions that are central to the discourse of modern architecture: the site being empty of its unique traits, images, stories; and the user being devoid of human subjectivities, perception, imagination, memory. The two projects we relate here, titled Interpretations and (Dis)connections, address threshold/boundary conditions. Throughout four stages of Interpretations, we tried to challenge the concepts of ‘empty space’ and ‘universal man’ either by leaving site as well as user outside of our construct or capitalizing specifically on their entire load. (Dis)connections, on the other hand, was based on interpretations of a film, a reference outside the functional paradigms of architecture. Themes/constructs/patterns identified in the film generated design ideas, then programmes, sites and, finally, designs through a sequence of transitions and transformations. This entire process enabled the reconsideration of relations between building/site and building/user and other provided possibilities for questioning the boundaries of the discipline of architecture itself.
Radical Artists & Art Students versus Management & Bureaucracy during the 1970s
Authors: Walker John A.
Published: March 2003

This paper is an account of the impact of Conceptual art and art theory upon art students, studio tutors and managers during the 1970s in certain British art schools. The impact on students resulted in a shift away from the making of physical artefacts to the production of writings and magazines. It also problematised ‘the visual’ and encouraged critiques of art and the art education system. Some tutors responsible for art theory courses were dismissed and some students became politicised and attacked those in charge of art schools and polytechnics. Managers disciplined the students and, in some instances, failed and expelled them. William Furlong and Bruce McLean were two London based artists who responded to the ever‐increasing bureaucracy of art colleges by mounting a parodic performance.
Questioning Established Histories: Light from Dark Quarters
Authors: Gall David A.
Published: March 2003

My purpose in this paper is to look at the work of a number of scholars who have challenged popular and mainstream accounts of Western and pre‐Colombian American history and to assess the implications of their work to art education. There are three of these scholars whose works are pivotal. They are: Cheik Anta Diop, Ivan Van Sertima, and Martin Bernal. What is the substance of their challenge? They assert that Ancient Egypt was an African civilization, whose achievements in science, philosophy, and the arts exerted a powerful formative influence on the ancient world of Greece and pre‐Columbian Middle America. This has been misrepresented in popular and mainstream European accounts of world history. The implications of their work for art education are considerable, especially to art history as it relates to multicultural issues. Indications are that we must move beyond the cultural chauvinisms that persist in texts and curriculum structures if we are to achieve truly democratic situations and these revisionist historians help us to do just that.
Art, Design & Technology ‐ a Plea to Reclaim the Senses
Authors: Jarvis Michael , Lewis Thérèse
Published: March 2003

The paper explores the inherent confusion surrounding the existence of design in two foundation areas of the English National Curriculum. We argue that this is a consequence of a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of art, design and technology. Whereas technology should be considered as a cross‐curricular set of skills and knowledge with a variety of technologies applicable to different subject domains, design more properly belongs to the diffuse subject of art with its range of skills, crafts and cultural knowledge bases. We argue that design and technology can learn from the expressive and open‐ended processes of art making. If the practice of design is to operate effectively in the classroom then it needs to embrace more exploratory strategies to playing and making. Teachers of all age groups need to foster a greater engagement with sensory materials to enable pupils to create a context for the making of personal meanings. The notion of the teacher practitioner is a key component and the studio practice of artists and designers provides a useful framework in the adoption of such approaches.
Speaking (of) Architecture
Authors: Nalbantoglu Gülsüm Baydar , Altinyildiz Nur
Published: March 2003

To stimulate seeing, thinking and ‘speaking’ architecture in ways other than conventional practice dictates, we devised two projects for second year interior architecture students. We identified prior architectural constructs, a tower in one case and two parallel walls in the other, and questioned how they could be imagined differently. Alongside the objects, we assigned activities which did not lend themselves to be housed in given architectural types: clowning, unicycling, acrobacy, fortune‐telling. The challenge of establishing meaningful links between the objects and the designated activities initiated architectural reinterpretations at various levels. The two problems diverged at this point: the project entitled ‘Wall of Entertainment’ resulted in the transformation of the object whereas ‘Towers’ involved the mutation of the activity. Seemingly intact entities generated new forms, presumably ordinary functions yielded unusual narratives. In each case, ordinarily unheeded components of architectural constructs and programs were explored, producing unconventional designs.
A Preliminary Assessment of a New Arts Education Programme in Dutch Secondary Schools
Authors: Haanstra Folkert , Nagel Ineke , Ganzeboom Harry
Published: March 2003

In The Netherlands a new compulsory programme, Arts and Cultural Education, has been implemented since 1998 in order to stimulate the cultural interest and the cultural activities of young people. Attending cultural activities is at the core of this programme and these activities should be of ‘generally accepted quality’. A research project by Utrecht University describes and evaluates the introduction of this new programme. The results presented are based on questionnaires from 89 teachers, 1100 students between 14 and 17 years old. Analyses show that arts and cultural education students do participate more in traditional culture (theatre, museum and classical concerts) than other secondary school students. However there are substantial differences in the opinions of teachers as to which kind of cultural activities should be permitted for the new programme. Results also indicate that the majority of teachers are quite liberal in accepting the choices of their students. About half of the cultural activities of the new programme fall into the category of popular cultural activities (cinema, pop‐concerts, dj‐/vjevents). Students who do not (or not yet) follow the arts and cultural education programme visit these activities to the same extent.
Conversations Around Young Children’s Drawing: The Impact of the Beliefs of Significant Others at Home and School
Authors: Anning Angela
Published: March 2003

Children learn to make meanings in communities of practice through interaction with more experienced others. Young children’s strategies for and attitudes to learning are determined by the sociocultural contexts in which they practise those strategies, including learning how to draw within the distinct cultures of home and school.

Evidence of meaning making — 2 and 3D representations involving drawing, modelling and play with objects — was collected over one month periods in the Autumns of 98, 99 and 00 from seven young children in home and as they settled into new pre–school and school settings in the North of England. The evidence of the seven children’s meaning making, recorded by photographs and scrap books of their representations, was used as a stimulus in dialogues to elicit parents’ and practitioners’ beliefs about the value and significance of different modes meaning making, including drawing in the contexts of home and school. Their conversations were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Evidence from the perspectives of parents, practitioners and the children was triangulated with evidence of contextual features for learning around the children’s drawings.

Episodes from analysis of the data sets will be used to illustrate how the children were inducted into the conventions of ‘school’ drawing whilst often retaining a distinct personal drawing agenda at home. Implications will be drawn for the status and function of drawing in the education of young children in formal and informal learning contexts.
Drawing on the Past: Reflecting on the Future
Authors: Davies Tom
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the connections between the training models of late 19th century Schools of Design (Art) as exemplified by the first municipal School of Art (Margaret Street, Birmingham) and the current preparation of specialist teachers of Art and Design. A recurrent theme is the paradox of objective, measurable standards, pitted against notions of subjective independent learning, individual relevance and choice. Consistent with other papers from this author, the thrust of the perspective is questioning the compatibility of an examination–dominated agenda and opportunities for experimentation, creative risk taking and forms of supported, purposeful play. Continuing research explores the concept and purpose of drawing in an increasingly technological, global information society.
Strategic International Diversification and Monthly Seasonality
Authors: Ko Kwansoo
Published: March 2003

To the author’s knowledge no other studies have dealt with the effect of international diversification on stock market monthly seasonality. The aim of this study is to investigate this effect in various ways: stock market monthly seasonality is analyzed by incorporating exchange rates and trading costs in international portfolio returns. The variance of the world portfolio is decomposed into six components. Stochastic dominance approach is used to show the robustness of the results. Five trading strategies are compared to help international investors be more informed. All the results show that monthly seasonality is clearly present in an economic sense and robust. Particularly, when exchange rates are incorporated into portfolio returns. January has the highest return and the lowest risk in the world portfolio.
The Effects of Trading Methods on Volatility and Liquidity: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Exchange
Authors: Chang Rosita P. , Hsu Shuh‐Tzy , Huang Nai‐Kuan , Rhee S. Ghon
Published: March 2003

This study contrasts the call and continuous auction methods using Taiwan Stock Exchange data. Volatility under the call market method is approximately one‐half of that under the continuous auction method. The call market method is more effective in reducing the volatility of high‐volume stocks than low‐volume stocks. This contradicts conventional wisdom which suggests that the call market method is superior for thinly traded stocks, while the continuous auction method is preferred for heavily traded stocks. The call market method does not impair liquidity and price discovery. The call market appears more efficient than in the continuous auction market.
Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds: An Individual Investor’s Perspective
Authors: Klumpes Paul J.M. , McCrae Michael
Published: March 2003

Pension funds require the managerial expertise of financial intermediaries, who must be paid a fee or spread. The spread significantly reduces the value of the pension fund over longer holding periods, and implies significantly greater incentive conflicts for defined contribution‐funded pension funds than for defined benefit‐funded pension funds. The magnitude of the intermediary spread and those factors affecting the demand for financial intermediary reputation and the marginal fee for this reputation are examined for a sample of 66 defined contribution and 54 defined benefit Australian pension funds during 1991–93. The intermediary spread significantly reduces the average net return provided to individual investors, particularly for defined contribution pension funds. Agency‐related factors affecting the demand for financial intermediary reputation and its marginal fee reflect underlying contract‐based differences between these types of fund.
Hedging Corporate Bonds
Authors: Ioannides Michalis , Skinner Frank S.
Published: March 2003

We examine Treasury bond and stock index futures, the swap curve and two types of hypothetical corporate bond assets as alternative hedging instruments for portfolios of corporate bonds. Conducting ex post and ex ante tests we find evidence that credit quality and maturity are important sources of basis risk when hedging corporate bonds whose credit rating are below triple A. We conclude that a new corporate hedging instrument may be useful for those wishing to hedge corporate bond portfolios provided that transaction costs are not too high relative to existing futures contracts.
Daily Closing Inside Spreads and Trading Volumes Around Earnings Announcements
Authors: Acker Daniella , Stalker Mathew , Tonks Ian
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the determinants of inside spreads and their behaviour around corporate earning announcement dates, for a sample of UK firms over the period 1986–94. The paper finds that closing daily inside spreads are affected by order processing costs (proxied by trading volumes), inventory control costs (trading volumes and return variability) and asymmetric information (unusually high trading volumes). Inside spreads start to narrow 15 days before an earnings announcement, and narrow further by the end of the announcement day. We also identify a puzzling phenomenon. There is only a ‘sluggish’ recovery of spreads after the announcement: inside spreads continue to remain at relatively narrow levels, and take up to 90 days to recover to their pre–announcement width.
Political Economy Considerations on the Supply of Trade Protection in Regional Integration Agreements
Authors: Bilal Sanoussi
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this article is to discuss the institutional aspects of regional integration and its implication for the determination of external trade policies by a trade bloc. In particular, this study raises the question, can institutional designs in a regional integration area increase the responsiveness of trade authorities to protectionist demands? Contrary to some previous research, the analysis shows that the answer is affirmative. As illustrated by the European Union (EU) experience, the supply of trade protection in the context of regional integration crucially depends on the design and evolution of institutions adopted by the trade bloc. Moreover, the dynamic process of regional integration entails a redefinition of rules which inevitably attracts lobbying activities (in particular from those with protectionist interests). In consequence, in the absence of a strong political commitment, the danger exists that the design of new institutions will be captured by protectionist forces.