bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Annualised Hours Contracts: The Way Forward in Labour Market Flexibility?
Authors: Bell David N.F. , Hart Robert A.
Published: August 2003

Under annualised hours' contracts (AHCs), workers and management agree to the length and scheduling of working hours over a 12-month period. Such contracts have been widely seen as a potentially important way of achieving greater labour market flexibility and enhanced efficiency in work organisation. There exists very little empirical work on these contracts and this study is intended to provide insights into their British labour market role and potential. Especially for workers who are not in management or a profession, the costs of switching to AHCs are substantial. The enterprises that are likely to gain from the switch are those that (a) experience significant fluctuations in output/service demand and (b) desire to utilise plant and space more intensively over the calendar year. In this latter respect, plants incorporating complex shift operations are particularly associated with AHCs.
The Domestic Performance of UK Multinational Firms
Authors: Girma Sourafel
Published: August 2003

This paper analyses the domestic performance of UK multinational firms from two perspectives: (i) their productivity relative to foreign multinationals, domestic exporters and non-exporters, and (ii) their ability to benefit newly acquired affiliates. Nonparametric analysis shows that the productivity distribution of UK multinationals is dominated by their foreign counterparts (especially US firms), and quantile regressions reveal that the performance disadvantage of UK multinationals is more pronounced at the higher end of the productivity distribution. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, it is found that, unlike foreign acquisitions, take-overs of domestic non-exporting firms by UK multinationals do not appear to lead to any productivity improvements.
Foreign Ownership, Microelectronic Technology and Skills: Evidence for British Establishments
Authors: te Velde Dirk Willem
Published: August 2003

This paper uses the Workplace Employee Relations Survey panel for 1990–1998 to investigate the relationship between foreign ownership, skill-structure and use of microelectronic technologies in British establishments. We find that foreign-owned establishments are early adopters of new microelectronic technologies and employ more non-manual workers (more senior technical professional workers, less skilled manual workers). Because foreign-owned establishments are early adopters of new technology, an increase in foreign ownership can partly explain a recent improvement in the relative position of skilled workers in Britain.
Marriage, Social Distance and the Social Space:
Authors: Prandy Kenneth , Lambert Paul
Published: August 2003

There is a danger that the Cambridge Scale, which is based on data collected thirty years ago, is becoming out of date. This article considers an alternative basis for a social interaction-based social distance scale, that of marriage (or cohabitation) rather than friendship. This has considerable advantages in terms of the ready, low-cost availability of large-scale, representative data (usually from a census). It also makes easily possible the construction of comparable scales for many other countries. The article discusses the theoretical background to the approach and the justification for expecting that marriage and friendship would reflect equivalent structures of stratification arrangements. In order to provide direct comparability, a new scale was constructed, based on 1971 census data and using more satisfactory statistical techniques. Empirical analyses using this measure fully support the argument that this alternative method of deriving a scale leads to essentially the same results as the original. The way is therefore open for an updating of the scale and its extension to a number of other countries, under the generic heading of CAMSIS.
Reflexive Accounts and Accounts of Reflexivity in Qualitative Data Analysis
Authors: Mauthner Natasha S. , Doucet Andrea
Published: August 2003

While the importance of being reflexive is acknowledged within social science research, the difficulties, practicalities and methods of doing it are rarely addressed. Thus, the implications of current theoretical and philosophical discussions about reflexivity, epistemology and the construction of knowledge for empirical sociological research practice, specifically the analysis of qualitative data, remain under-developed. Drawing on our doctoral experiences, we reflect on the possibilities and limits of reflexivity during the interpretive stages of research. We explore how reflexivity can be operationalized and discuss reflexivity in terms of the personal, interpersonal, institutional, pragmatic, emotional, theoretical, epistemological and ontological influences on our research and data analysis processes. We argue that data analysis methods are not just neutral techniques. They reflect, and are imbued with, theoretical, epistemological and ontological assumptions - including conceptions of subjects and subjectivities, and understandings of how knowledge is constructed and produced. In suggesting how epistemological and ontological positionings can be translated into research practice, our article contributes to current debates aiming to bridge the gap between abstract epistemological discussions and the nitty-gritty of research practice.
Crossing the Great Divide:
Authors: Newton Tim
Published: August 2003

This article addresses perceived difference in temporal pace within nature and considers how epistemological debate is conditioned by such difference, drawing on the work of Norbert Elias. The first part of the article debates the equivalence of `natural time' and `social time'. The acceleration of human social pace is also explored, along with the human capacity for plasticity and change, and the contrast which such plasticity presents in relation to the seeming longevity of many natural processes. The epistemological implications of these arguments are considered in the second part of the article, focusing on the difficulties which human plasticity creates for current social theory (with particular attention to critical realism). In the final part of the article, the foregoing discussion is used to re-evaluate sociologies of nature through reference to the sociology of the body.
Adventure Revisited:
Authors: Kjølsrød Lise
Published: August 2003

Contemporary society offers a large repertoire of `adventures', culturally adapted to the maturity, gender and class of those who participate. The captivating, yet challenging demands of, say, collecting objects, backpacking, or mountaineering, guide actors to turn their adventures into personal frames or proto-boundaries through which ideas of `self ` evolve. Of the many possible selves a person may relate to, only a few are actually enacted upon and even fewer are embraced. An identity moulded in play is distinctive in the sense that it is also a chosen identity, easily incorporated into self-supporting narratives. By studying how men and women carve metaphors out of their leisure, sociology may acquire a better understanding of how contradictions within the `subject-self ` are actually recognized and chronicled. This type of adult play sheds light not only on processes of identity and individuation but also on issues of individual and social integration, and organization.
The Construction of Self:
Authors: Butt Trevor , Langdridge Darren
Published: August 2003

The public/private debate has not been a major feature in recent sociological theory. However, Bailey (2000) has argued for a renewed sociological research programme to focus on the sociological private. He outlines three dimensions of this: intimate relationships, the self and the unconscious. This article seeks to address two of these dimensions, the production of self-theories and unconscious dis-avowal. We extend this theorizing to account for the experience of sexual engagement, and present a discourse analysis of the diaries of the comedian and actor Kenneth Williams (1928-1988). Drawing principally on the thought of Merleau-Ponty (1962) we argue that our analysis demonstrates the importance of a pre-reflective engagement with the social world that is then reflected on in internal dialogue. We show how discourse analysis may be used to demonstrate the dis-cursive production of a self-theory and the role of such a self-theory in the dis-avowal of the principal's pre-reflective engagement with others.
Parenthood, Partnership Status and Pensions:
Authors: Ginn Jay
Published: August 2003

Research on the balance of welfare provision between state and market has in the past ignored gender, and more recent feminist analysis has barely explored how changing gender roles over time interact with shifts in pension policy. The loosening link between marriage and motherhood poses questions for pension systems still largely based on the male breadwinner model of pension provision for carers. This article uses data from the General Household Surveys to examine how patterns of employment and private pension disadvantage according to marital and maternal status differ between earlier and later generations of women in Britain. The private pension premium attached to never-married status among women aged over 65 is found to diminish in later generations. It is argued that cross-subsidies in state and private pension schemes in favour of married women may be less appropriate than in the past and that better means of compensating women for periods of caring can be found.
Women Growing Older:
Authors: Wray Sharon
Published: August 2003

This article considers the extent to which gerontological theories, that highlight the problems associated with later life, reflect the experiences of older women across ethnic and cultural difference. It is based on an ESRC research study examining women's experiences of growing old across ethnicity and culture. Concepts that are often used to measure these experiences include `quality of life' and `successful ageing'. These are linked to other culturally related concepts such as agency, self-autonomy, independence and dis/empowerment. Yet, while it is the case that the meanings attached to these concepts change according to locality and context, they are often applied in a way that reifies dominant values and perceptions. Central to this article is the contention that gerontological approaches have often made ethnic and cultural experiences of later life invisible. Further, such approaches have assumed that agency is something that is either present or absent and that this is linked almost exclusively to income, housing, and other structures. A key argument is that this has led to an overstatement of the effects of structural disadvantage and a neglect of the diverse individual and collective strategies women use to maintain agency and control in later life. Empirical evidence presented in the article suggests there are significant cultural differences in the meanings older women attach to self-fulfilment and `successful ageing'.
The Myth of the Nation-State:
Authors: Walby Sylvia
Published: August 2003

The analysis of globalization requires attention to the social and political units that are being variously undermined, restructured or facilitated by this process. Sociology has often assumed that the unit of analysis is society, in which economic, political and cultural processes are coterminous, and that this concept maps onto that of nation-state. This article argues that the nation-state is more mythical than real. This is for four reasons: first, there are more nations than states; second, several key examples of presumed nation-states are actually empires; third, there are diverse and significant polities in addition to states, including the European Union and some organized religions; fourth, polities overlap and rarely politically saturate the territory where they are located. An implication of acknowledging the wider range and overlapping nature of polities is to open greater conceptual space for the analysis of gender and ethnicity in analyses of globalization. Finally the article re-conceptualizes `polities' and `society'.
Sociology's Complexity
Authors: McLennan Gregor
Published: August 2003

Engaging with recent keynote reflections on `sociology at the end of the millennium', this article critically examines ways in which the current discourse of complexity can be related to characterizations of the intellectual style of sociology. After taking issue with the familiar characterization of sociology as quintessentially modernist, where modernist equates to `reductionist' and `simplistic', three more specific interventions are construed as contributions to the complexity debate. One is the growing preference for inter- and post-disciplinarity over traditional (socio-logical) disciplinarity. The second is John Urry's proposal for new rules of sociological method along the lines of chaos and complexity theory. The third is the assumption that in the `network society' analysis of authors like Manuel Castells we have a substantive account which conforms directly to that fluid philosophical mind-set, rather than to conventional sociological framings. Since I do not seek to devalue complexity discourse as such, and since I advance support for the idea of trans-disciplinarity, the aims of this article are not merely conservative. However, each of the three lines of thought considered is defective, and the complexity of sociological discourse itself merits greater recognition.
Ethics of Intervention: Just War Theory and the Challenge of the 21st Century
Authors: Holliday Ian
Published: August 2003

The diverse and complex ways in which individuals from one society now engage in the political affairs of individuals living in other societies have generated a wealth of academic and practitioner analysis. In ensuing debates, ethics of intervention have featured prominently. However, just war theory, traditionally a key frame for ethical analysis, plays a comparatively small part in contemporary discourse. This article thus examines how just war thinking can be used to guide current interventionist practice, and in particular how it can structure analysis of recourse to engagement. It begins by surveying recent debate. It then conceptualizes intervention by developing an eight-part typology. Next, it presents a six-part framework for ethical evaluation of recourse to intervention, drawn from just war theory but attuned to contemporary practice. It closes by briefly considering operationalization of the framework in the real world of international politics.
Security Studies and the `Security State': Security Provision in Historical Context
Authors: Mabee Bryan
Published: August 2003

The role of historical change in international relations has been an important issue, especially regarding the `ahistoricism' of mainstream theories. In this context, security studies has suffered from a lack of analysis of the state and its relation to historical change. When this attitude is challenged, it can be seen that the particular `state' of security studies fits into a particular historical logic that structured states which is susceptible to change. A historical sociological analysis of the development of the state-society complexes surrounding security can provide a historical analysis of the state, in order to better articulate its continuing relevance to political life and security, its relationship with individuals and society, and the complexities of contemporary citizenship. The 20th century saw the development of the `security state', where the western state became the centre of security provision, the protector against external threat and provider of domestic well-being.
Giving as a Mechanism of Consent: International Aid Organizations and the Ethical Hegemony of Capitalism
Authors: Hattori Tomohisa
Published: August 2003

What is the connection between international aid organizations (IAOs) and the transnationalization of capitalism? This article diverges from neo-Gramscian accounts of international organizations by focusing on the distinctive material and relational aspects of the practice in which IAOs engage: the solicitation and extension of gifts. This perspective opens the inquiry to insights from theories of gift exchange and virtue ethics, which allow further specification of IAOs as a means of what Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer call moral regulation, or the disciplining and conforming of recipients to the new transnational capitalist order. More specifically, this article argues that the extension and acceptance of the gifts of multilateral and non-governmental IAOs is a mechanism of consent to the capitalist order. That amounts to what neo-Gramscians call ethical hegemony because it allows donors to ethically judge recipients and compels recipients to accept responsibility for their own plight.
Systemic Interpretations and the National Interest: Presidential `Lessons of Vietnam' and Policy Deliberation
Authors: Isacoff Jonathan B. , Widmaier Wesley W.
Published: August 2003

In addressing the interplay of international forces and domestic policy, materialist frameworks such as neorealism and neoliberalism emphasize the influence of exogenously given systemic incentives on state and societal choices. However, these approaches are insufficient to the extent that material incentives must be interpreted and shifts in such interpretations may legitimate transformations of state and societal interests. In this article, we therefore offer a constructivist analysis of international and domestic interactions that emphasizes the importance of interpretation to the definition of state and societal interests. We then apply this approach to a study of shifting constructions of the Vietnam War through the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations and argue that these explain variation in definitions of US interests. In the conclusions, we address implications for the purposes of International Relations theory, arguing for a constructivist-pragmatist approach that relaxes distinctions between critical and problem-solving theories.
Between Cosmopolitan and American Democracy: Understanding US Opposition to the International Criminal Court
Authors: Ralph Jason
Published: August 2003

The International Criminal Court can be seen as a cosmopolitan response to the problems of global democracy. This article demonstrates how opponents of the Court use a concern for international order to disguise a policy motivated by a narrow conception of the national interest. US opposition reveals the extent to which it fears being held accountable for the way America uses the great power veto on the UN Security Council. America's opposition to the Court has also succeeded in bringing to the surface the extent to which American foreign policy is driven by communitarian conceptions of democracy and international society. Despite promising to hold power accountable for egregious human rights violations, the Court is considered a threat to American sovereignty and dismissed as undemocratic. The article argues that this communitarian understanding of democracy promotion will be increasingly problematic as the processes of globalization undermine the capacity of states to guarantee human rights.
In Search of Monsters to Destroy? The Liberal American Security Paradox and a Republican Way Out
Authors: Pedersen Vibeke Schou
Published: August 2003

This article explores the dynamics between American modes of self-narration and patterns of foreign policy conduct. Pointing to the continual influence of the Puritan heritage, it joins with those who find American national identity articulated almost exclusively in what I term a liberal and missionary vocabulary. In opposition to conventional assumptions, however, the article depicts exceptionalism and liberalism as highly contradictory ways of making - and making sense of - the world and America's place within it. Furthermore, it shows how such contradictions have repeatedly defined a set of highly inflexible and ultimately destructive dilemmas in American foreign policy. Yet, the article concludes, America need not repeat itself without end: by turning to decisionalist and pragmatic strands in its past America may foster from within not only an alternative to rationalist liberalism, but also a way out of the liberal security-paradox.
H.G. Wells and the World State: A Liberal Cosmopolitan in a Totalitarian Age
Authors: S. Partington John
Published: August 2003

H.G. Wells advocated some form of world government from 1901 (with the publication of Anticipations) to his death in 1946, though his contribution to cosmopolitan thought is often overshadowed by the various totalitarian internationalisms of the 1920s to the 1940s. Far from advocating a simple, inflexible formula for the whole world, and far from demanding immediate revolutionary political change, Wells outlined several cosmopolitan models aimed at accommodating different cultures at different stages of economic and social development. Thus, while decrying imperialism, he supported empire pooling and education and investment to raise the colonial peoples to the economic level of their erstwhile exploiters. In Europe, he gave support to European federalism as a first stage to global governance. Ultimately, however, he saw global governance by function as the model towards which to strive. Functionalism, for Wells, permitted the exercise of local and regional culture without inhibiting the provision of goods and services across the world. Through a series of writings spanning the period 1901 to 1944, Wells sharpened his cosmopolitan thinking, revising it often though never veering far from his original intention of unifying humankind in a sovereign world state of peace and prosperity.
Mandarin Temporality Inference in Child, Maternal and Adult Speech
Authors: Huang Chiung-Chih
Published: August 2003

Previous studies on child language acquisition of temporality have focused primarily on linguistic devices such as tense and aspect markers; this study, however, adopts a different approach. By examining discourse-pragmatic resources, it investigates how implicit past reference was inferred in Mandarin child speech, maternal speech and adult speech. This approach is especially suitable for studying Mandarin Chinese, a tenseless language. The analysis shows that in three-year-old children's speech, situational context and background knowledge were the major resources for temporality inference. In maternal speech, temporal reference was inferred mainly from situational context. In adult speech, on the other hand, it was discourse context that played the major role. The results revealed three-year-old children's heavy reliance on the situational `here-and-now' to express temporal relations and their limited abilities to assess the new/old information status of temporality. In addition, maternal speech adjustments in temporality inference were also evident in the data.
Finiteness and Aspect in Spanish/English Bilingual Acquisition
Authors: Castro Damaris , Gavruseva Elena
Published: August 2003

The article investigates the acquisition of finiteness in the languages of a Spanish/English bilingual child (Mina, 1;9.5-2;6.21). We use the `underspecification of AspP hypothesis' of Gavruseva (2002 b, 2003) to argue that a non-finite root stage is attested in both Spanish and English, despite the fact that the two languages evolve as grammars with distinct INFLs (Rizzi 1993/94, Wexler 1998). It is shown that the use of non-finite and finite root predicates is determined by the verb's Aktionsart or, more precisely, by the verb's telicity semantics. We also argue that developmental trends support the `two separate systems' hypothesis of bilingual acquisition (Genesee 1989), with the similarities following from the undespecified aspectual heads in both grammars and the differences following from the morphological properties of inflectional paradigms.
Clitics in Child Spanish
Authors: Eisenchlas Susana
Published: August 2003

This paper investigates the knowledge young children have about clitic pronouns. In particular, it examines whether children ever make mistakes that suggest discontinuity between child and adult Spanish. An elicited imitation task and spontaneous data are used to study children's responses to a number of constructions involving clitics. Results indicate that, from the earliest testable age, children have the grammatical competence for clitic placement and never make certain logical, but unattested, errors.
Adult Responses to Young Children's Communicative Gestures: Joint Achievement of Speech Acts
Authors: Marcos Haydée , Ryckebusch Céline , Rabain-Jamin Jacqueline
Published: August 2003

During the period of transition between prelinguistic and linguistic communication (the second year of life) the communicative signals are mostly non-conventionalized and their semiotic power is relatively low. In this paper, communication sequences observed at 16 and 22 months are analysed in order to determine how the partner's joint communicative activity allows the sharing of intentions conveyed by gestural and/or vocal signals. The adult's responses to two types of gestures - holding out an object and pointing - during joint play were analysed. In addition, the discussion of a series of examples shows the part played by the adult in the performance of relatively complex speech acts. These analyses suggest that the adult partner's interpretation of the child's intention depends on several cues: who is currently carrying out the activity and how, the child's age and, in some cases, already existing routines. The respective roles of gestures and speech when produced in conjunction with each other are discussed.
The Acquisition of Simple and Complex Spatial Locatives in English: A Longitudinal Investigation
Authors: Internicola Ryan W. , Weist Richard M.
Published: August 2003

The emergence of simple and complex spatial locatives was investigated in six children learning English obtained from the CHILDES archives. We traced the emergence of 13 locative prepositions from the average age of 1;10 to 4;2. The locatives were as follows: (1) simple, in, on, into, onto, out of, off of, and (2) complex, across, along, around, through, deictic front, deictic back/behind, between. We determined the age of the initial occurrence and the age of the initial contrast with a related locative, e.g., into/onto and across/along. On average, the simple set emerged at 2;1 with minimal variability and maximal contrast, and the complex set at 3;4 with considerable variability and minimal contrast. The data were evaluated in the context of conceptual and linguistic factors.
Transforming German Workplace Relations: Quo Vadis Cooperation?
Authors: Frege Carola M.
Published: August 2003

This article argues that in order to successfully explore any structural transformation of industrial relations, actors' attitudes need to be taken into account. In the case of Germany, then, significant transformation would be instantiated by change in works councils' traditional cooperative attitudes. Survey findings reveal that despite deteriorating bargaining conditions, cooperative attitudes prevail among works councils in the chemical and postal/telecom industries towards management and union. Contrary to popular scholars this suggests workplace stability rather than change. The article then explores determinants of cooperative attitudes and finds that balanced power relations between works council and management accompany cooperative attitudes. If works councils feel powerful they are more likely to express cooperative attitudes towards management. Thus, even in Germany's highly institutionalized context, workplace cooperation is dynamic and dependent on actors' day-to-day power relations.
Deregulation of the German Industrial Relations System via Foreign Direct Investment: Are the Subsidiaries of Anglo-Saxon MNCs a Threat for the Institutions of Industrial Democracy in Germany?
Authors: Schmitt Matthias
Published: August 2003

This article asks whether the subsidiaries of American and British MNCs operating in Germany act as forces that endanger the traditional German system of industrial democracy by `importing' typical Anglo-Saxon style industrial relations practices into their host nation. In a mail survey based on responses from 297 foreign-owned and local German firms, little evidence was found that Anglo-Saxon-owned subsidiaries act as a threat to the central pillars of Germany's IR system, i.e. codetermination and collective bargaining. This finding contradicts a widely held belief of the erosion of the German IR system and suggests that this system is still strong: foreign companies adapt to local standards so as to retain legitimacy within their host nation's environment.
Dutch Works Councils in Times of Transition: The Effects of Changes in Society, Organizations and Work on the Position of Works Councils
Authors: Looise Jan Kees , Drucker Michiel
Published: August 2003

This article assesses the current position of Dutch works councils within their organizations and within the broader system of Dutch industrial relations. The authors use data from a recently conducted national survey on works councils to establish the impact that societal and organizational developments in the 1990s have had on the formal position and actual influence of the works council. These data show that, contrary to popular opinion, societal developments and the introduction of new management concepts have not had a negative impact on the position of the works council. An exception to this is the internationalization of firms, which curtails the range of works council influence. Further, the gradual increase in the actual influence of the works council that characterized the postwar period does seem to have levelled off in the 1990s.
Psychological Technologies at Work: A History of Employee Development in Denmark
Authors: Triantafillou Peter
Published: August 2003

Inspired by Michel Foucault's analysis of governmental and ethical practices, this article seeks to repoliticize the contemporary quest for employee development by analysing how the psychological technologies have been used to govern individuals and human relations at Danish workplaces since the beginning of the 20th century. It is argued that while the technologies circulating under the headings of psycho-technics and mental hygiene both assumed that the workers freely subjected themselves to managerial deliberations, it is only the employee development techniques launched from the late 1980s that take ethics, the work the individual exerts upon him- or herself and thereby his or her exercise of freedom, as their key principle of operation.
Unions and Time Away from Work after Injuries: The Duration of Non-Work Spells in the Workers' Compensation Insurance System
Authors: Ben-Ner Avner , Park Yong-Seung
Published: August 2003

The article analyzes the effect unions might have on the duration of the recovery period after workplace injuries, the so-called non-work spells of claimants in the workers' compensation insurance system. A union may affect the duration of non-work spells in two ways. First, a union may alter the true level of workplace safety in terms of the severity of work-related injuries and the time it takes to recover from injuries; this is the `true safety' effect. Second, a union may influence workers' ability and incentives to stay longer away from work after injuries, that is, have longer non-work spells; this is the `rights-facilitating' effect. The authors analyze 9818 workers' compensation claims filed with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry for injuries that occurred in 1993 and 1994 in 873 sample firms included in the Minnesota Human Resource Management Practice Survey. Maximum likelihood estimation of the duration of non-work spells (using the Weibull distribution) suggests that, controlling for various factors, being a union member is associated with a 19 percent increase in the duration of non-work spells. This means that on average in our sample, workers in unionized firms stay away from work after an injury approximately 10 days more than workers in non-unionized firms.
The Extension of Entitlement to Health Insurance in South Korea and Taiwan A Historical Institutional Approach
Authors: Son Annette H.K.
Published: August 2003

This article deals with social policy development in South Korea and Taiwan. The focus of analysis is on the time variation in the extension of entitlement to health insurance to the non-wage-earning population, one of the most contentious social policy issues in the two countries. The article contends that the existing explanations of East Asian social policy are too general to provide sufficient insight into the historical dynamics of social policy development in the two countries. It argues for a historical institutional approach, since this allows an analysis of the particular role played by the political systems and culture of South Korea and Taiwan in social policy development, aspects which have often been neglected by earlier studies. In both South Korea and Taiwan, direct presidential elections and the diffusion of international norms are central to an understanding of the motives behind and forms for the extension of entitlement to health insurance to the non-wage-earning population.
The New Sense of Place in 19th-Century News
Authors: Rantanen Terhi
Published: August 2003

In this article the early historical development of the concept of place in news is analyzed. Most news studies concentrate either on the content of news (or on the `event') or, if they pay attention to the geography of news, as in the news flow tradition, they concentrate on the states the news originates from. However, it is places, not states where most news comes from. This article examines how sense of place was constructed in electronic foreign news in the mid-19th century. Theoretically, it draws upon the works of phenomenological geographers. In contrast to Meyrowitz's argument of `no sense of place', it is argued that news also increases sense of place by organizing space, and its readers are able to distinguish between `there' (where news comes from) and `here' (where home is). Instead of losing their sense of place, readers are able to become more aware of their sense of place and acquire a new sense of place.
New Media, Community and Politics in Algeria
Authors: Hadj-Moussa Ratiba
Published: August 2003

The new questions raised by the introduction of satellite television in Third World countries are crucial and require reflections that go beyond an analysis of the media per se. What is public space? What are the loci and relations that connect media to social movements? Are media transformed by the new public spaces? What meaning is to be given to the notion of community? This article starts by discussing the context in which satellite television has been developed in Algeria. Then it discusses the processes of organization that satellite television produced, as well as the consequences of these processes for the conception of emerging public spaces. Finally, it examines the meanings of the use of satellite television with respect to the problematic of identity and the nature of mediation.
The Internet and the Rise of a Transnational Chinese Cultural Sphere
Authors: Yang Guobin
Published: August 2003

Starting with a broad conception of public sphere, this paper analyses the nature, dynamics and political functions of online Chinese cultural spaces, particularly newsgroups, online magazines and bulletin board systems. Although these spaces are located both in and outside of China, the global nature of the Internet gives them a transnational character. The dominant language of communication in these spaces is Chinese and the `publics' are drawn from what Tu Wei-ming calls `cultural China'. Analysis based on ethnographic data reveals the size and diversity of these spaces, as well as their similarities, differences and connections. Further analysis shows that these online spaces have had visible influences on trans-national politics and civil society in China. The picture that emerges from this analysis is that of a transnational Chinese cultural sphere. The article concludes with a discussion of three key conditions of its emergence: media, culture, and society.
The Ties that Divide: Regional Press Campaigns, Community and Populism
Authors: Aldridge Meryl
Published: August 2003

Increasingly under corporate ownership, UK city evening papers are seen as potentially very profitable. Achieving maximum sales, however, requires reaching an audience which is socially, demographically and culturally increasingly diverse. The newspapers must produce a flow of locality-based news in a context where the locus of political and economic decisions is becoming more centralized and globalized. It is argued that the currently favoured solution to this dilemma, campaigning, holds real risks for the quality of public debate. Campaigns tend to be framed in common-sense populist terms. At best, readers are addressed as consumers rather than responsible citizens; at worst, an indefensible `outsider' is mobilized to consolidate the shaky coalition of `insiders'.
The Right-Wing Postmodernism of Marshall McLuhan
Authors: Havers Grant
Published: August 2003

In the decades following his death in 1980, there has been a revival of interest in the political implications of Marshall McLuhan's works. This new literature suggests that the entirety of McLuhan's works represents a subtle critique of liberal capitalism and a call for a new emancipatory vision. For this reason, many scholars working in this literature see McLuhan as a man of the left. Although there is a discernible anti-capitalistic politics in McLuhan's works, this article will argue against the position that his anti-capitalism is rooted in leftism. Indeed, McLuhan critiques the liberal, individualistic and capitalistic print age from the right-wing side of the political spectrum. McLuhan's writings on tribalism reveal the hope that a new right-wing postmodern community will be reconstructed. Such a retrieval of the past is postmodern, since technology and myth are the forces which, McLuhan hoped, would construct this new right-wing political space.
If Women Actors Were Working...
Authors: Dean Deborah , Jones Campbell
Published: August 2003

In this article, categories of a materialist account of cultural production are deployed in an effort to understand the activity of women actors in film and television as work. The article begins by considering two theoretical repertoires with which might be theorized the activity of women actors, (1) cultural and media studies, and (2) studies of work and organization. It is argued that both have effectively silenced the work of women actors and that each is limited by its isolation from the other. In order to address these problems, du Gay et al.'s model of a `circuit of culture' is presented, in which cultural products move between various moments of representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation. While such a model offers a way of moving beyond a strict separation of the production and consumption of images, it is aimed to problematize and complexify this model. The importance of a focus on the relations of cultural production is indicated, and, while recognizing that a deculturalized determinism may creep into any analysis of work, the activity of women actors at work is situated in a critical node in the politics of cultural production.
South African Social Welfare Policy: An Analysis Using the Ethic of Care
Authors: Sevenhuijsen Selma , Bozalek Vivienne , Gouws Amanda , Minnaar-McDonald Marie
Published: August 2003

New policies have been developed in South Africa since the demise of apartheid. This article examines one of these policy documents - the White Paper for Social Welfare - using the lens of a feminist political ethic of care. The ethic of care is used to trace the normative framework of this policy document and to make judgements about how adequately issues of care, welfare and citizenship are dealt with. Policy texts display authoritative ways of talking about care and contain a range of gendered assumptions in the way that they represent social practices of care. The article proposes that the White Paper for Social Welfare inserts care principally into a familialist framework. This framework does not address current South African social problems in an adequate manner, nor does it correspond with social justice principles that are endorsed in the White Paper. The contribution that the ethic of care can make in solving the problems that are identified in the analysis of the White Paper for Social Welfare is elaborated on. It is proposed that care should be positioned in notions of citizenship rather than family or community. In this way, the responsibility for care would be deprivatized and made a common concern, centrally placed in human life.
A Critical Analysis of Approaches to the Concept of Social Identity in Social Policy
Authors: Hunter Shona
Published: August 2003

This article seeks both to highlight a current imbalance in approaches to social identity in social policy and to make suggestions as to how this might be redressed in future work employing the concept. The concept of identity and specifically social identity is increasingly employed in the discipline of social policy as a theoretical device with which to bridge the individual/social divide. The argument presented here suggests that the concept is, however, unevenly deployed in policy analysis and therefore lacks the impact it might otherwise have had. The predominant focus of current analysis lies on policy change precipitated by groups of `new' active welfare constituents organized around differentiated and fragmented social identities, whereas the identities of welfare professionals also involved in the policy making process have disappeared from analytical view. The current emphasis on the discursive context of policy formulation perpetuates an unacknowledged misconception concerning the asociality of those involved in policy making, whereby their principal role is perceived as the maintenance of the status quo in terms of social policy responses to welfare constituents' needs. Redressing this false dichotomy between those developing and those using welfare services might be avoided by further exploring the concept of relational identity.
Joined-Up Government, `Community Safety' and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender `Active Citizens'
Authors: McGhee Derek
Published: August 2003

Joined-up government, modernizing government, community safety and multi-agency partnerships are explored here in an attempt to understand the contemporary `policing' of hate crime; in this instance, crimes and incidents motivated by homophobia (and transphobia). In the first half of the article, the focus is on the social and political context of the emergence of `participatory' modes of government and multi-agency `community safety' policing in response to the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act and the 1999 Local Government Act. In the second half of the article, the focus will be on the multi-agency response to homo-phobic and transphobic incidents and the policing of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) community in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In this case study, the main assumptions behind the attempt to create lgbt `active citizens' and `active communities' (active in their own policing) in Southampton, in particular, will be critically evaluated. The main points that will be raised here are: 1) the multi-agency response to homophobic incidents in Southampton prioritizes, first, improving efficiency and raising awareness in the agencies and services that are in contact with the lgbt community, and, second, opening lines of communication and building trust between police and the organizations and agencies `representing' the lgbt community; and 2)empowerment programmes such as these should not be taken at face value, but must be critically examined in relation to some of the following questions: who is and who is not being invited to be the active `lgbt' citizen here? And does the lgbt community's right to fair, sympathetic and equitable policing bring with it hidden and costly responsibilities?
Partnership and the Governance of Regeneration
Authors: Rowe Mike , Devanney Carol
Published: August 2003

This article seeks to challenge understandings of partnership in order to reframe the discussion of common problems of partnership working. The very term partnership has become so common as to have no clear meaning beyond being a `nice' alternative to long tried and tested forms of governance. Yet failing to understand the complexities that are inherent in the very nature of partnership poses serious dilemmas for those engaged in such schemes. Addressing the key dilemmas identified in studies of a number of regeneration partnerships, this article suggests the need to understand the dynamics of partnerships in the context of extant forms of governance. In so doing, it suggests the possibility of overcoming old dilemmas, if only to confront new ones.
Risk, Reflexivity and Social Control in Child Protection: New Times or same Old Story?
Authors: Scourfield Jonathan , Welsh Ian
Published: August 2003

The article addresses some recent attempts to reassess the contemporary child protection system as potentially liberating. These are, first, discussions of child protection in the context of theories of reflexive modernization and the risk society, and, second, postmodernist feminist writings. After initial theoretical debate about some of these perspectives, the authors go on to present ethnographic research evidence showing that social control is alive and well in child protection work. The article concludes that, while these recent optimistic accounts of the child protection system are welcome contributions, they have overstated the liberating potentials of the current system. While much of the discussion deals with child protection specifically, another aim of the article is to contribute to a debate about the application to social policy in general of theories of reflexive modernization and the risk society.
Policing the Forests of Pre-Industrial France: Round Up the Usual Suspects
Authors: Graham Hamish
Published: August 2003

Historians of crime and criminal justice have long debated the extent to which certain offences arose out of social antagonisms. Records of crimes such as poaching and wood-stealing seemed to encapsulate many of the tensions and inequalities of the pre-industrial (and proto-industrial) countryside. The theft of timber in particular is often assumed to be a product of the stark and pervasive poverty of Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yet other scholars have preferred to emphasize the self-interested nature of much rural criminality. Drawing on some of the procedural handbooks that offered advice to French forest guards, this study argues that those who policed the woodlands differentiated among various types of offences, whose likely perpetrators were presumed to form parallel hierarchies (of social status, occupation, etc.).