bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Farrington Daniels and the Wisconsin Process for Nitrogen Fixation
Authors: Stranges Anthony N.
Published: March 2007

Beginning in 1939, Farrington Daniels and his associates at the University of Wisconsin tried to develop a thermal process for nitrogen fixation, using a regenerative pebble-bed furnace. They envisioned their high-temperature process of combining oxygen and nitrogen from the atmosphere as a cheaper, more practical alternative to the high-pressure Haber ammonia synthesis. Daniels succeeded in overcoming several engineering problems in furnace design, and by 1942 he had obtained small amounts of nitrogen dioxide gas for the production of fertilizers and explosives. During the World War II years, Chinese industrialists came to the University to work with Daniels. They intended to develop the thermal process in China for the production of fertilizers. After the war, the US Army and the Food Machinery Company constructed a 40-ton/day demonstration plant in Kansas, but because the process was uneconomical, the plant ceased operation in September 1954.
The Itera Plastic Bicycle
Authors: Hult Jan
Published: March 2007

The bicycle boom which followed in the wake of the 1974 oil crisis inspired a small group of engineers in Gothenburg to develop a bicycle in fibre composite plastics. All essential parts, such as frame, wheels, fork and handlebar, were designed to be produced by automatic injection moulding, requiring very little subsequent finishing. Substantial grants and loans were obtained to start full-scale production in 1982. In spite of intense advertising and unusually high interest in the media, the new bicycle was never accepted in the marketplace. The bicycle boom was already fading out, and few people were prepared to pay the relatively high price at which it was marketed. The bicycle was just as heavy as a standard bicycle, but it was slightly more flexible, which gave some people a sense of insecurity. The appearance deviated from the archetypal shape of a bicycle, and this is believed to have been the major reason for its rejection.
Disrupted Boundaries: New Reproductive Technologies and the Language of Anxiety and Expectation
Authors: Bloomfield Brian P. , Vurdubakis Theo
Published: March 2007

In this Comment, we elaborate upon Mulkay's discussion of the rhetorics of hope and fear in the UK debate over research on human embryos, by focusing on the narrative strategies and cultural presuppositions that allow certain technological developments to be (re)presented as `hopeful' or `fearsome'. We argue that boundary talk and its associated vocabularies of purity and pollution provide Mulkay's rhetorics with a semantic construction kit. They are the means through which `hope' and `fear', as rhetorical effects, are achieved. Finally, we discuss the wider significance that could be attributed to these discursive moves - that is, as pointers to how the relationship of a culture to its technologies is constituted.
Naturalists' Portrayals of Animal Life: Engaging the Verstehen Approach
Authors: Crist Eileen
Published: March 2007

This paper is an investigation into naturalists' understanding of animal life, focusing specifically on the turn-of-the-century naturalists George and Elizabeth Peckham, and Jean Henri Fabre. It argues that these authors apply what social scientists call the `Verstehen' method to the study of animals, in that they approach animal action as evidencing a subjective, experiential perspective. The presuppositions and forms of evidencing and reasoning of the naturalist genre are analyzed, and their effects on the portrayal of animals are elucidated, by looking closely at the particular authors. The paper ends by examining the connection between the form of knowledge of animal life embedded in naturalist studies, and the question of anthropomorphism.
Scientific and Technological Literacy as a Social Practice
Authors: Fourez Gérard
Published: March 2007

This paper explores scientific and technological literacy (STL) from a mainly socio-constructivist perspective. I define STL as the empowerment of people in the name of humanistic and/or socio-economic goals, and then confront it with normal teaching practices. I suggest some criteria to evaluate a person's ability to negotiate within a technoscientific society, such as `how to use': experts, `black boxes', simple interdisciplinary models (`rationality islands'), metaphors, comparisons and images; translations; standardized and disciplinary knowledge; and rationality in the process of making decisions. I examine how to emphasize meaning, contexts, and underlying projects when STL is taught, as well as some of the obstacles impeding that teaching. From my adopted perspective, I propose programmatic statements with respect to STL education and the training of teachers.
From the Moral Thermometer to Money
Authors: Curtis Bruce
Published: March 2007

The importance of infrastructural work for the mobility of practices and for the capacity of centres to act on distant sites is stressed in both science studies and the sociology of state formation. Employing Kula's typology of metrological systems, this paper examines four areas of metrological reform in pre-Confederation Canada, stressing the existence of metrological hybrids. Metrological standardization is held to depend upon the exercise of sovereign state power at the same time as it extends the administrative capacity of state agencies.
Medical Ethnocentrism and the Treatment of Addiction
Authors: Glaser Frederick B.
Published: March 2007

The challenge is how to attain, how to maintain, and how to restore a unified concept of man in the face of the scattered data, facts and findings supplied by a compartmentalized science of man.... What is dangerous is the attempt of a man who is an expert, say, in the field of biology, to understand and explain human beings exclusively in terms of biology. The same is true of psychology and sociology as well. At the moment at which totality is claimed, biology becomes biologism, psychology becomes psychologism, and sociology becomes sociologism. In other words, at that moment science is turned into ideology. Viktor E. Frankl. 1
Teenage Suicide: A Search for Sense
Authors: McGuire Donald
Published: March 2007

Many misconceptions about suicide are discussed and the predisposing factors leading to suicide or suicide attempts, particularly in young people, are outlined. It is pointed out that many people who want to kill themselves are only suicidal for a short period of time. If they are saved from self destruction they can go on to lead normal lives. Therefore it is essential to recognize clues and warnings of suicidal behavior, and to take active measures of intervention. With a chronic pattern of repetitive self-destructive behavior, the outlook is pessimistic and a long term rehabilitation plan is needed.
Reconsidering Prison Personnel: New Views of the Correctional Officer Subculture
Authors: Klofas John M. , Klofas John M.
Published: March 2007

Those interested in the process of change in corrections need concepts which are helpful in understanding prison staff. The concept of a guard subculture is not consistent with existing research on correc tional officers. Instead, viewing officer support for procustodial norms as a shared misconception can provide direction for correctional leadership.
On the Criminal Mind: An Imaginary Lecture by Sigmund Freud
Authors: Dixon David J.
Published: March 2007

In all the psychological writings of Sigmund Freud, there is only one which is entirely concerned with the criminal. This work is a two page chapter in an article called "Some Character-Types met with in Psycho-Analytic Work, " in which Freud sets forth his theory that many criminals are motivated by a sense of guilt. The rest of Freud's references to criminals are scattered amongst a prolific number of articles and books, written during a career spanning over forty years. The article which follows attempts to tie together these scattered references and do what, in fact, Freud never did-deliver a complete and systematic study on the criminal mind. While the paper attempts to base itself firmly in Freud's own words and thoughts, even to mimic his style, some extrapolation and speculation is always necessary when one moves from unsystematic parts to an organized whole.
The Resonse of the Justice System in Israel to the Rape of Tourists and of Israeli Women
Authors: Cohen Ben-Zion
Published: March 2007

A substantial proportion of the reported cases of forcible rape in Israel are committed against young female tourists. The media provide extended coverage of these cases and emphasize the severe punishments imposed on the offenders, implying that the justice system regards raping a tourist as a more heinous crime than raping a local woman. Similar statements appear in judicial decisions. Reasons offered include damage to the state and to the tourist industry as well as to the victims. The present study analyzes the sentences passed on the 164 persons charged with forcible rape who were convicted in the Israeli courts during 1982-83. The unexpectedfinding is that none of the variables with a significant impact on the severity of the sentence is directly related to the victim.
General Hospital Forensic Units: A New Approach To Forensic Psychiatry
Authors: Arboleda-Florez Julio E. , Holley Heather L.
Published: March 2007

Forensic Psychiatry has been criticized for losing pace with more general psychiatric trends toward community mental health. Traditionally, forensic programs have been located in the overly restrictive, anti-therapeutic environments of the jails, or have remained inaccessible in large, far away psychiatric hospitals. This article examines the general hospital forensic unit as a new approach to the delivery of forensic psychiatric services. The authors examine the viability of general hospitalforensic units in light of one such program-The Calgary General Hospital Forensic Unit, Calgary, Alberta. Service utilization patterns and logistical issues of security and patient's rights are discussed. General hospital forensic units are portrayed as firmly rooted in the Community Mental Health Philosophy and a viable alternative to traditionalforensic psychiatric delivery systems.
Age Patterns in Criminal Involvement
Authors: John Annette , Gibbons Don C.
Published: March 2007

Age patterns in criminality have been the subject of considerable criminological attention in recent years. Although most of the research has been concerned with offenders who begin and terminate their careers in crime at a relatively early age, other age-crime careers can be identified. This article centers attention on persons who desist from lawbreaking after having been involved in it for an extensive period of time, or what is often referred to as "maturational reform." Adult development theory was employed in a research study comparing two groups of Oregon offenders. The article discusses the crime pattern in which career offenders continue lawbreaking after middle age, as well as instances in which persons become involvedfor the first time in crime in late adulthood.
Is Telephone Scatologia a Variant of Exhibitionism?
Authors: Dalby J. Thomas
Published: March 2007

The assumed connection between exhibitionist acts and indecent telephone calls is reviewed and questioned. Four case vignettes are provided where indecent telephone calls were made without the expression of other sexually deviant behaviors.
Adolescent Rapists and Adolescent Child Sexual Assaulters
Authors: Hsu L. K. George , Starzynski Jeannie
Published: March 2007

We studied 15 adolescent rapists and 17 adolescent child sexual assaulters with respect to their psychiatric and physical status, family history, their victim(s), and their modus operandi. While the two groups were disturbed to a similar extent in terms of their psychiatric and family findings, they differed in age, choice of victim(s), and certain aspects of their modus operandi. The findings are discussed by comparison to current literature on adolescent and adult rapes. Several findings such as the higher proportion of cross-racial rapes, more frequent prior use of alcohol and drugs by the offender, and lack of victim provocation appear to be more characteristic of adolescent rapes.
An Examination of Variables Differentiating Clinical Subtypes of Incestuous Child Molesters
Authors: Hunter John A. , Childers Susan E. , Gerald Roque , Esmaili Hayden
Published: March 2007

Recent research has focused on attempting to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the perpetration of child sexual abuse. Identification of variables differentiating clinical subtypes of child molesters is central to theory assessment andpractice specificity and innovation. The present study utilized the MMPI to assess the impact of thefollowing variables in a sample of 90 incestuous molesters: a) history of physical abuse as a child; b) history of sexual abuse as a child; c) presence of substance abuse during the molestation; d) number of incidents of perpetrated sexual molestation; e) relationship to the child; f) victim's age; and g) type of molestation. Results revealed statistical differences between child molesters on variables b, c, and d with particular clinical relevance found for variable b. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Social Background of Homicide
Authors: Gottlieb Peter , Kramp Peter , Lindhardt Anne , Christensen Otto
Published: March 2007

Results of studies on the social background of 71 male, non-psychotic defendents charged with homicide in Copenhagen between 1959 and 1983 are presented and compared with the corresponding data for male prison inmates as a whole and with the general male population. Available data point to resemblances between homicide defendants and prison inmates-from a temporally static viewpoint as well as when time trends are considered. Comparisons with the general population indicate a widening of the social gap between the majority of the population and a growing group of criminal marginals.
Jails versus Mental Hospitals: A Social Dilemma
Authors: Palermo George B. , Smith Maurice B. , Liska Frank J.
Published: March 2007

Psychiatric and sociological thoughts regarding deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and its impact on the American jail system are offered. The authors analyze national data concerning the census in mental hospitals and jails over a period of several decades. Statistical analyses corroborate the common impression of a relationship between the number of people booked or arrested and in custody, and the total mental health population in psychiatric hospitals in the United States. The analyses reveal the existence of statistically significant negative linear Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient relationships between mental health admissions and jail census data. We conclude that the mentally ill have assumed, again, the inappropriate status of criminal offenders, overcrowding the jails without receiving proper psychiatric care.
Factors Affecting Rapists' and Nonrapists' Perceptions of the Likelihood of Sexual Activity
Authors: Harmon Garfield A. , Owens R. Glynn , Dewey Michael E.
Published: March 2007

Three groups (20 incarcerated rapists, 21 incarcerated nonrapists, and 30 nonincarcerated controls) assessed the likelihood of sexual activity between a heterosexual couple, depicted either verbally or pictorially. Scenarios involved an experimental manipulation in terms of the female's dress. Overall sexual activity between the couple was perceived to be more likely under the verbal rather than pictorial format. When asked what additional information they required, information regarding "past acquaintance" was requested significantly more by incarcerated rapists and nonincarcerated controls than it was by incarcerated nonrapists. The present study's findings are discussed in terms of methodological issues and current research on perceptions of consensual and nonconsensual sex (i.e., rape).
Aging in Prison: A Case Study of New Elderly Offenders
Authors: Aday Ronald H.
Published: March 2007

This exploratory study focuses on the experience of aging in prison among those classified as the new elderly offenders. Using a case study approach, in-depth interviews were conducted in the summer of 1992 at a maximum-security reception center in the Southeast. The sample consisted of 25 new elderly offenders, with a mean age of 68 years. Major variables assessed in the study include personal background and family life, criminal activities, physical health, and strategies for coping with prison life. It was found that the new elderly offender's initial reaction to incarceration later in life was often characterized by family conflict, depression, thoughts of suicide, and a fear of dying in prison. Findings from this research present evidence that prison programs should be expanded to accommodate the needs of this older offender subgroup.
"Club Fed" in Japan? Incarceration Experiences of Japanese Embezzlers
Authors: Gerber Jurg
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes the incarceration experiences of embezzlers in one prison in Japan. Data were gathered with a self-administered survey, unstructured interviews with inmates, and informal talks with prison officials. Findings indicate that embezzlers who serve time in Japanese prisons are treated more like street offenders than is the case in the United States. The "Club Fed" phenomenon observed in the United States is not characteristic of Japanese corrections.
Work and Gender Issues in Secure Juvenile Delinquency Facilities
Authors: Pelletier Daniel , Coutu Sylvain , Lamonde Annie
Published: March 2007

The aim of this research was to study the effects of a majority or minority status in the work environment (referred to as "tokenism" by R. M. Kanter) on certain markers of work-life quality among direct care staff working with juvenile delinquents in sexually segregated residential facilities. A sample of 401 youth counselors (162 men and 239 women) participated in the research. Four groups of subjects representing gender majority and minorities were created: men (n = 125) and women (n = 60) working with delinquent boys, and women (n = 179) and men (n = 37) working with delinquent girls. Self-report written assessments were used to measure sources of job stress, coping, job satisfaction, and burnout. Results indicated that ratios interact with gender to create different levels of work-life quality for majority and minority men and women.
Reflections on the Sociodemographic and Medicolegal Profiles of Female Criminal Defendants
Authors: Aderibigbe Yekeen A. , Arboleda-Florez J. , Crisante Annette
Published: March 2007

This article describes the sociodemographic and medicolegal characteristics of 222 female criminal defendants ref erred by the courts to a forensic psychiatric service over a 10-year period. The typical female criminal defendant was young, poorly educated, occupationally disadvantaged, unmamed, and from a broken home. Three Axis I diagnoses (schizophrenia, major affective disorder, and psychoactive substance use disorder) accounted for 55% of the psychopathology, whereas antisocial personality and borderline personality disorders accounted for 16% of personality disorders among the group. The most common charge was that of property offenses.
Moral Judgment by Criminals and Conformists as a Tool for Examination of Sociological Predictions
Authors: Hoffman Hanoch , Wolf Yuval , Addad Moshe
Published: March 2007

This study illustrates how predictions from sociological approaches might be operationalized using a psychological measure, moral judgment. A prediction based on Merton's anomia theory, that offenses elicit greatest justification when the importance of a socioeconomic goal is high and availability of means to achieve that goal is low, was investigated. The design was a multifactorial manipulation of the goal and availability of means as well as other relevant factors. Results from this experimental procedure were examined on the background of data from Eysenck's personality questionnaire. The findings point to interactive effects of the importance of a goal, of availability of means and severity of offenses on justification for those offenses.
Animal Communication and Human Language
Authors: Benveniste E.
Published: March 2007

To apply the notion of language to the animal world is admissible only at the price of misusing terms. We know that it has been impossible until now to prove that animals enjoy, even in a rudimentary form, a means of expression endowed with the characteristics and functions of human speech. All serious observations made of animal communities, all attempts to establish or verify, by means of various technical devices, any form of speech comparable to that of man have failed. It does not seem that animals which emit certain kinds of calls are thereby displaying any behaviour from which we may infer that they are conveying ‘spoken’ messages to one another. The fundamental conditions for a strictly linguistic communication seem to be lacking even in the higher animal world.
The Future of the Proletariat
Authors: Clark Colin
Published: March 2007

Professor Toynbee's definition of the proletariat is an unusual one. To him, ‘proletarianism is a state of feeling rather than a matter of outward circumstance.’ Still more allusively, a proletariat is ‘any social clement or group which in some way is “in” but not “of” any given society at any given stage of such society's history’. Marx defined the word to mean the urban wage workers in modern society. To Professor Toynbee, Marx's definition is what a mathematician would call ‘a special case’; and although it is perhaps the largest, it is by no means the sole constituent of the proletariat by Professor Toynbee's definition. It is also possible on Professor Toynbee's definition—this is an essential aspect of the matter which he has not followed up and which is one of the principal subjects of the following article—that a man may be an urban wage worker without being a proletarian.
The Gift: Its Economic Meaning in Contemporary Capitalism
Authors: Perroux François
Published: March 2007

‘Sale.—To buy and to sell, the aim of life.’

Gustave Flaubert, Dictionnaire des idées reçues.

This study is not devoted either to the institutions of mutual aid, philanthropy, or charity within modern capitalism, or to the donations individuals make to them.
The Human Record
Authors: Forde Daryll
Published: March 2007

Anthropology, as it developed in the latter part of the last century, took as its central, if not sole, field of interest the attempt to discover and explain human progress from the emergence of man before the Ice Age many millennia ago down to the complex life of civilised peoples in the modern world. It sought not only to range both living races and fossil remains of extinct forms in a succession of advancing forms, but to formulate broad sequences of discovery and invention by which new crafts and ways of life developed, and to trace the birth and development of cosmological, religious and moral ideas, and the elaboration of social institutions from the family to the state.

Such a programme was not new. It had been the subject of considerable speculation in classical thought and of more critical elaboration by the rationalist philosophers of the eighteenth century, who shared Hume's view that the history of mankind had been one of “gradual improvement from rude beginnings to a state of greater perfection.” The nineteenth century anthropologists had, however, the great advantage of being able to set their studies within the wider framework of the considerable geological and archaeological knowledge that was then accumulating and of the theories concerning biological evolution that were then being elaborated.
Mythology and the History of Religions
Authors: Eliade Mircea
Published: March 2007

Professor Raffaele Pettazzoni is one of the most illustrious historians of religion of our time. He belongs to a type of scholar which is unfortunately becoming rare and is perhaps headed for extinction: those who have taken as their specialty the universal history of religion. At first sight such an ambition might seem to pose an impossible task; the historico-cultural field has become so wide that no single mind could pretend to assimilate and master a quantity of documents that is increasing every day. Let us therefore avoid misunderstanding on this point: there is no question of the historian of religions attempting to replace the Americanist, the Sinologist, the Africanist, or to master their knowledge of philology in order to study and interpret the Chinese, Aztec and Bantu religions: it suffices for him to record the results of research carried out by the specialists and to classify and evaluate these results in a perspective which is exclusively his own: that of the general history of religion.
In Defense of Industrialism
Authors: Anderson Eugene N.
Published: March 2007

In this essay an endeavor will be made to sketch the place of the individual in the culture of industrialism. The conclusions to be drawn cannot be other than tentative, for we live at the beginning of a new period in world history which we shall call that of industrialism, and our experience with it has been limited. Nonetheless, the subject bears such vital significance for our future that the temerity of the attempt may be justified. Since industrialism emphasizes speedy change, we must continuously check on the direction which it is taking. One of the most revealing indicators is that of the position of the individual; and on that problem a comparison of the role of the individual, actual and potential, in this culture with his role in pre-industrial societies may throw some light. In so brief an essay it is impossible to attempt to explain the change in the position of the individual or to condition general statements by the discussion of exceptions. The interest is concentrated upon the broad lines of the historical process.
Literary Problems
Authors: Noulet Emilie
Published: March 2007

Modern literature, viewed superficially, presents two phenomena that attest its vitality rather than its decline, at least in our Vestern countries: the anormal development of the novel and the advent of criticism as a genre.

The novel today appears to be omniscient and does not always succeed in disguising its didactic intent. Formerly, the various disciplines—once their methods were acquired and their end discerned—detached themselves from literature, leaving to it exclusively the domain of fiction. Devoured by the voracity of the novel, not only the young and as yet uncertain sciences such as psychoanalysis, ethnology, and criminology, but older ones as well, like philosophy, history or law, come back to it and use it readily in maintaining their theses and in emphasizing their needs. Thus the novel takes over their diverse ambitions.
Some Aspects of African Evolution in the South Sahara
Authors: Labouret Henri
Published: March 2007

African evolution in the south Sahara traces its origin to very ancient times; it began when the Negroes established friendly or hostile contact with representatives of the Mediterranean and then of the oriental civilizations. From the fifteenth century on, attempts at colonization or penetration helped to accelerate a movement that was to precipitate the two world wars. Thirty years ago, when the so-called colonial problem moved from the national to the international level, these conflicts and their consequences had already given rise overseas to imperious material needs demanding immediate satisfaction as well as to social and political aspirations calling for appropriate reforms. In half a century African evolution had reached the prerevolutionary stage.
The Regime of Castes in Populations of Ideas
Authors: Auger Pierre
Published: March 2007

Nothing has yet been done, and, here, in the middle of the twentieth century, it is fast becoming too late to draw up a suitable catalogue of the works of human wisdom. We are forced to project for the future the complete realization of our desires. This future will no doubt discover a conscious and effective organization of thought and action—a constant good fortune in the pursuit of legitimate satisfactions through a total mastery of natural forces—in a word, a perfect and reciprocal adaptation between man and that part of the universe in which he lives. All this, or most of it, still remains to be done; but much has already been said in the five thousand years that men have been writing. An intelligent observer arriving from Sirius would doubtless be especially struck by the extraordinary gap separating here on earth what is so well said from what is so badly carried out. Or rather he would wonder how it is that beings as highly gifted as men, judging from the knowledge and wisdom they have accumulated, still make such ineffective and even harmful use of the means at their disposal. The most indulgent hypothesis would be to see in this the result of a temporary misunderstanding owing to the great speed with which human thought evolves. Our observer would resume his journey then, resolved to return after a hundred years or two, sure that he would then find that man had bridged the gap and become as great in what he does as in what he knows.
After Six Years of a Doubtful Combat
Authors: Caillois Roger
Published: March 2007

The progress of knowledge consists in part of avoiding superficial analogies and discovering profound kinships, less apparent perhaps, but far more important and significant. In the eighteenth century there still appeared zoölogical works which classed animals according to the number of their paws, grouping, for example, the lizard with the bat. Today the adder appears under the same rubric—a creature that has no paws at all but that, like the others, is oviparous and covered with scales. These characteristics have appeared, rightly, to be of more consequence than that which was singled out in the beginning—the number of paws. In the same fashion, it is well known that, despite its appearance, the whale is not a fish, nor is the bat a bird.
A Science of American History
Authors: Saveth Edward N.
Published: March 2007

The prospect of a science of history that would chart the past and enable the future to be projected has invariably intrigued the historian. Technically, this would leave history unencumbered by its mass and the historian concerned only with lines of development delineated by historical science. With the road map of the future before him, the status of the historian would grow as indispensable counselor of politicians and statesmen, bringing the science of human development to bear upon their deliberations. Henry Adams imagined a situation in which state and church, capital and labor, and all other important social groupings and institutions would ask anxiously of the historian: Am I justified in history and will I live on?
The Resurgence of Pre-Indo-European Elements in the Western Medieval Cult of the Dead
Authors: Broëns Maurice
Published: March 2007

Most of Europe's indigenous myths are divided into two large traditional currents, one common to all of the conquering peoples who came down from the North during the two millenniums which preceded our era, the other inherited from more or less confused Alpine and Mediterranean substrata. This proposed classification, debatable perhaps because it is too schematic, has become such a classic that we no longer need to show the abundant arguments on which it is based. But it does explain so many contrasts, contradictions, or anachronisms in the history of the West that it is always fitting to return to it.
Re-Evaluation of Modern Societies
Authors: Friedman Georges
Published: March 2007

A complex of transformations, carried into effect with varying tempos since the beginning of the era of industrial revolutions, has disrupted a certain number of human societies: societies which the ethnologists often call “modern” in opposing them to those labeled “traditional.”
Tradition
Authors: Boas George
Published: March 2007

There are certain terms which, for reasons no longer discoverable, have taken on an emotional force which impels people either to admire what they seem to stand for or to dislike it. Among such terms are the temporal and the eternal, the dynamic and the static, the unified and the multiple, the universal and the local. At the present time to say that a work of art, for instance, has been “universally admired” is presumably also to say that it is better than one which is admired only in France or Italy or the United States. To say that courage or truthfulness or charity have always been “highly esteemed” is also to say that they are inherently nobler qualities than, for example, originality or wit, which are highly esteemed only in certain epochs. It is this curious aura of emotivity which Professor A. O. Lovejoy in one of his ingenious terminological inventions once called “metaphysical pathos.” “Metaphysical pathos” is not merely the name for the power which terms have of stimulating pleasant emotions, of making men feel that the things they name are good. It may also be of an unpleasant sort. It may induce dislike as well as admiration. Where one man speaks of the dynamic with something approaching awe, another calls it “aimless striving” or “spiritual restlessness,” forgetting that only a hundred and fifty years ago the German Romantic philosophers could think of no nobler end of man than striving for striving's sake. Hence it is always useful and for the most part necessary to look closely at those abstractions by means of which we justify our programs. It is for this reason that it may be well to examine one of our own sacred words, “tradition,” which seems to have replaced even that perennial favorite of the poets, “nature.”
Recent Definitions of Language
Authors: Mounin Georges
Published: March 2007

Definitions are often viewed with a skeptical eye. The most diverse definitions are successfully applied to a given subject; their discrepancies are noted, and conclusions are drawn concerning the vanity of quibbling over words. In the best of cases the writer, before beginning his own exposition, proposes the definition which he will follow exclusively, convinced that all terminologies are valid so long as they are explicit and respected.
Religion and Politics in the China of the Ts'in and the Han
Authors: Kaltenmark Max
Published: March 2007

When, in the year 221 B.C., China found itself unified under the authority of the lord of Ts'in, the latter decided that his title of king (wang) no longer corresponded to his actual glory. After deliberating with his counselors, he decided that from then on his title would be Houang-ti, an expression which we translate as emperor. And if the dynasty founded by Ts'in Che houang-ti was ephemeral, the title Houang-ti was destined to remain that of the Chinese monarchs until the revolution of 1911. This term, formed by two characters, was a neologism; the monarchs of preceding historical dynasties, Yin and Tcheou, were kings (wang). But if the double expression was new, houang and ti were two very ancient words, belonging to religious terminology.
The Conquest of Space and National Sovereignty
Authors: Perroux Francois
Published: March 2007

The changes in technology applied by industry, whose rhythm has been ever accelerating in the course of the last decades, have destabilized institutions in western societies: they change the meaning of these institutions, and modify their efficacity, without our collective awareness, and without our jettisoning the ballast of inertia and social anachronism. The techniques of industrialization which incomparably endow the great nations and national empires, and which the infant nations desire with a sure instinct, give rise to profound contradictions in the traditional doctrine and practice of national sovereignty.
The School of Reformers or Some Thoughts on Historic Opportunity
Authors: Sauvy Alfred
Published: March 2007

In order to achieve celebrity and more or less to dominate one's time, not to mention those that follow, it has often been said that a necessary condition is to be born at the right moment, and also to die at the opportune time.
Monstrosity and the Monstrous
Authors: Canguilhem Georges
Published: March 2007

The existence of monsters throws doubt on life's ability to teach us order. This doubt is immediate, no matter for how long a time we have had confidence, no matter how accustomed we have been to see honeysuckle grow on honeysuckle vines, tadpoles become frogs, mares suckle colts, and in general to see like engender like. It is sufficient that this confidence be shaken once by a morphological variation, by a single equivocal appearance, for a radical fear to possess us. Perhaps, fear, you will say; but why radical? Because we are living beings, real effects of the laws of life, and in our turn future causes of life. A failure on the part of life concerns us doubly: a failure could affect us, and we could cause a failure. It is only because we men are living beings that a morphological failure is, in our eyes, a monster. Suppose we were pure reason, a pure intellectual machine for observing, calculating, and accounting—inert, and indifferent to the objects that give rise to thought: in that case the monster would simply be that which was different from the ordinary, of an order other than the most probable order.
Emergence of Mind From Brain
Authors: Fischer Roland
Published: March 2007

Brain functions are stochastic processes without intentionality whereas mind emerges from brain functions as a Hegelian “change from quantity”, that is, on the order of 1012 profusely interconnected neurons, “into a new quality”: the collective phenomenon of the brain's self-experience. This self-referential and self-observing quality we have in mind is capable of (recursively) observing its self-observations, i.e., interpreting change that is meaningful in relation to itself. The notion of self-interpretation embodies the idea of a “hermeneutic circle”, that is, (in interpretation theory) the treatment of the whole in relation to its parts.
Decolonising the Mind
Authors: Thiong'o Ngũgĩ wa
Published: March 2007

The question is this: we as African writers have always complained about the neo-colonial economic and political relationship to Euro-America. Right. But by our continuing to write in foreign languages, paying homage to them, are we not on the cultural level continuing that neo-colonial slavish and cringing spirit? What is the difference between a politician who says Africa cannot do without imperialism and the writer who says Africa cannot do without European languages?
Women: Scapegoats and Safety Valves in the Great Depression
Authors: Humphries Jane , Humphries Jane
Published: March 2007

This paper employs a historical case study of the struggle between capital and labor in a context of high unemployment and falling production to illustrate the genesis of social pressures which affect the nature of women's oppression. The argument is that women's oppression does not exist in isolation, but is the product of complex interaction between changing economic circumstances and existing ideologies and institutions. My particular purpose is to show that the pressures emanating from a capitalist economic system in crisis exacerbate sex-linked relations of dominance and sub ordination, strengthen traditional ideas, and weaken women's drive for liberation.
Short Notes and Comments
Authors: Fernandez Raul , Fernandez Raul
Published: March 2007

A brief discussion of some of the problems involved in the Marxist discussion about the relationship of forces and relations of production. An at tempt is made to establish the theoretical connections in Capital between co operation and division of labor in the workshop and the class nature of society as well as to superstructural questions.
Export-Led Industrialization in the Third World: Manufacturing Imperialism
Authors: Landsberg Martin
Published: March 2007

The failure of import-substitution industrialization has led many bourgeois economists to prescribe for Third-World nations a strategy of indus trialization based upon the export of manufactures to the developed capitalist world. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, are following this strategy and, according to these economists, are beginning to achieve indigenous capitalist development. Other Third-World nations are now starting to look upon these nations as models for Third-World industrialization.
Capital and the State: West German Neo-Orthodox State Theory
Authors: Mosley Hugh
Published: March 2007

The neo-orthodox, or political-economic approach to a theory of the state, which developed in Berlin and West Germany between 1970 and 1975, provides one of the major theoretical paradigms for the analysis of the capitalist state. It derives a theoretical conception of the form, function, and limits of the bourgeois state from Marx's analysis of capital. The paper surveys several major contributions to neo-orthodox state theory made by Müller and Neusüss, Altvater, and Blanke, Jurgens, and Kastendieck. It then provides a critique of these neo-orthodox theories, and compares them with Poulantzas' more familiar class-political formulation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the present controversy and offers some suggestions for possible new ways to approach the analysis of the state in capitalist societies.
The Ontology of Abstract Labor
Authors: Fischer Norman
Published: March 2007

An examination of recent attempts by Diane Elson and others, to come to grips with the ontological implications of Marx's labor theory of value. The contention is supported that an adequate understanding of Marx's ontology of social relations helps differentiate the aims of Marxist, from other value theories is supported. It is argued, however, that this differentiation must rest on a holistic methodology, while also being linked to historical materialism.
Plant Relocations: A Philosophical Reflection
Authors: Schweickart David
Published: March 2007

A philosophically satisfactory analysis of the plant relocation problem must resist an immediate move to the practical. Such "pragmatism" takes too much for granted. In order to counter the pragmatic temptation, I insist on raising certain moral questions that are natural to those affected by a plant closing. But to answer these questions, or even determine their legitimacy, moral philosophy is not enough. We must proceed to the theoretical question, what is the function of a capitalist in a capitalist society? This consideration suggests a noncapitalist economic model that would resolve the plant relocation problem. From this model, the viability of which is supported by the remarkable Mondragon experiment, we can deduce a series of general prescriptions for activists and a specific agenda for legislative reform. Only after this ground has been covered can the problem of a specific plant relocation be adequately addressed.
Municipal Code Enforcement and Urban Redevelopment: Private Decisions and Public Policy in an American city
Authors: Cummings Scott , Snider Edmond
Published: March 2007

Over the past three decades urban redevelopment projects in the United States have typically involved working partnerships between public officials and the business community. This article presents the results of a case study showing how one American city cooperated with private investors to redevelop a large residential area close to its central business district. Through the use of strategic code enforcement and a financial scheme which removed market risks for the developers, the city in question made it possible for the development plan to succeed. The data are examined within the framework of an emerging neo Marxist literature on urban land use. The policy implications of the findings are discussed and analyzed.
Alternative Perspectives on the Rise of Corporate Debt Dependency: The U.S. Postwar Experience
Authors: Pollin Robert
Published: March 2007

One aspect of the contemporary crisis of the United States economy has been a sharp increase since the mid-1960s in the reliance on debt finance by corporations, households, and the federal government. This paper focuses on the borrowing behavior of nonfinancial corporations. It first presents measures of borrowing on the basis of data and accounting methods derived from the Federal Reserve Board's Flow of Funds Accounts. Three alternative approaches are then developed for explaining the corporations increasing reliance on debt: neoclassical cost-of-capital theory; the financial fragility framework of Hyman Minsky; and a Marxian falling-rate-of-profit perspective. For each approach, statistical evidence, including two-variable regression analysis, is presented to evaluate their relative explanatory power. The results of the investigation support the Marxian approach over the other two. In the conclusion, the relationship between these findings and the related contemporaneous phenomena of financial instability and inflation are briefly explored.
Class and Socialist Politics in France
Authors: Biewener Carole
Published: March 2007

This article shows how the French Socialist Party's political practice, economic policies and socialist vision have been shaped by the Party's formulation and use of class concepts. It offers a Marxist critique of the Socialists' power-based understanding of class and shows how this allowed for economic policies to promote capitalist growth rather than transform the nature of class exploitation.
Roemer versus Marx: Alternative Perspectives on Exploitation
Authors: Dymski Gary A. , Elliott John E.
Published: March 2007

One of the central conclusions in John Roemer's "general" theory is that exploitation is a redundant concept in Marxian theory. This paper reexamines Marx's writings on exploitation, and argues, contra Roemer, that exploitation is a central and non-redundant concept in Marx's understanding of capitalism.
Classroom Methods Mirroring Workplace Values: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Feminist Pedagogy and Writing Across the Curriculum
Authors: Beckman Mary
Published: March 2007

This article argues that Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed, feminist pedagogy and the methods of writing across the curriculum programs can be used in the classroom to broaden students' understanding of the possibilities of the workplace. Each of these approaches to teaching mirrors values which differ from those within capitalist relations of production and gives students practice in using them.
Appearance and Reality in Postwar Shopfloor Relations
Authors: Fairris David
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes the institutional forces shaping and delimiting workers' control over shopfloor conditions in post-World War II U.S. manufacturing. It argues, in contrast to much liberal and radical discourse, that postwar relations between capital and organized labor never encompassed a set of institutional arrangements that could successfully contain class struggle in the labor process. During the 1960s a crisis emerged in shopfloor relations. It resulted from the contradictory nature of the postwar industrial relations system and, more specifically, from earlier actions by the state, the labor union bureaucracy and employers which bureaucratized the process of workplace dispute resolution, thereby giving management greater leverage in its shopfloor struggles with workers.
An Analysis of Contingent Labor
Authors: Russell Kevin
Published: March 2007

This paper finds that the number contingent workers in the economy has grown dramatically in the last few decades, especially during the 1980s, and that they are paid lowerwages, given fewer benefits, and are disproportionately young, female and minorities in comparison with their full-time permanent counterparts. The danger of contingent labor is its potential generalization throughout the economy as a profit-maximizing tool for businesses.