bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Profile of Children's Play in Urban India
Authors: OKE MEERA , KHATTAR ARCHNA , PANT PRARTHANA , SARASWATHI T. S.
Published: March 2007

This article attempts to present an overview of the situational analysis of play in the urban setting in a developing country (India), substantiated by the results of empirical investigations conducted in Baroda and the metropolitan city of Bombay. The observations highlight the universal features of play and also their cultural specificity conditioned by ecological factors, social class and gender. The ecological constraints of crowding, the high-rise buildings, unsafe streets, scarce open spaces, the preoccupation with the `idiot-box', all seem to conspire against the urban child's natural propensity to play with joyous spontaneity. On the flip side of the coin, of course, are the conscious endeavours by the urban community to recognize children's need for play and to create play environments in the form of parks, children's museums, play centres and the commercial `fun-worlds'. In such a context, what is most impressive and heartening is children's remarkable ability to create their own play space, be it in crowded hovels, community lanes and alleys, construction sites or even the traffic-infested streets, improvising play materials with whatever is accessible in their environments, be it sticks and stones, or tins and trash.
The Transition from Authoritarian Rule
Authors: Sutter Daniel
Published: March 2007

I investigate conditions under which a regime and opposition can negotiate the democratic transformation of an authoritarian government using an extensive form game of perfect information. An early final decision by the regime to hold elections, which can be accomplished by delegating this decision to reformist softliners, facilitates transition. The relationship between regime strength and the potential for a negotiated democratization is quite complicated. The weakening of a regime as it relaxes repression, for instance, can block a negotiated transition: a regime can be strong enough to hold on to power but too weak to negotiate. The possibility of a coup by regime supporters following an electoral defeat can, but does not necessarily, foreclose a peaceful transition.
Definitions, Evidence, and Policy
Authors: Lijphart Arend
Published: March 2007

The concept of consociational democracy - synonymous with the less polysyllabic and more readily understandable term power-sharing democracy - can be defined in terms of the four elements of grand coalition, autonomy, proportionality, and mutual veto, and it is preferable not to narrow it by including plural society as a fifth element. It is closely related to, but not coterminous with, the concept of consensus democracy. Both can be used for empirical as well as normative purposes. The comparative evidence shows convincingly that consociational and consensus democracy can make a vital contribution to democratic stability in deeply divided societies - a finding that has significant policy implications.
Trust and Incentives in Principal-Agent Negotiations
Authors: Miller Gary J. , Whitford Andrew B.
Published: March 2007

The canonical principal-agent problem involves a risk-neutral principal who must use incentives to motivate a risk-averse agent to take a costly, unobservable action that improves the principal’s payoff. The standard solution requires an inefficient shifting of risk to the agent. This article, however, summarizes experimental research that throws doubt on the validity of this conclusion. Experimental subjects were routinely able to achieve efficiency in agent effort levels without inefficient risk-sharing. These experimental outcomes, while anomalous from the standpoint of principal-agency theory, are quite consistent with other experimental data testing notions of trust-based implicit contracting. Such contracting within a hierarchy may allow an outcome preferred, by both principal and agent, to that deemed possible by principal-agency theory. If this is true, then the lessons to be learned from principal-agency theory are all the wrong ones. Concentrating on incentives can crowd out the very qualities in a relationship that make social efficiency possible.
Studying Institutions
Authors: Shepsle Kenneth A.
Published: March 2007

This article examines recent developments in a literature referred to as `the new institutionalism'. After reviewing some of the consequences for the study of institutions of the behavioral revolution and the elaboration of Arrovian theories of social choice, the author develops the theory of structure-induced equilibrium and explores the two sides of the institutional coin - an examination of the consequences of institutional structure and an explanation of the development of institutional structure.
Parliamentary Federations and Limited Government
Authors: Sharman Campbell
Published: March 2007

Constitutional arrangements can be said to have a structural logic in the sense that, among other things, they reflect a pattern of assumptions about the nature of government and a polity's particular brand of constitutionalism. It is the argument of this article that there is a basic inconsistency in the constitutional design of parliamentary federations and particularly those which have incorporated British parliamentary traditions. This is illustrated by an analysis of the constitutional evolution of Australia and Canada. Both systems have responded to changing popular expectations of the scope and function of government not by gradual evolution within a consistent constitutional tradition, but by major alteration to the mode of constitutionalism as first one and then another element of the rival institutional logics becomes dominant. The tension between these competing elements is used to chart the interaction between federalism, parliamentary institutions and notions of limited government.
A Transaction Cost Theory of Politics
Authors: North Douglass C.
Published: March 2007

This essay first specifies and describes the behavioral and information cost assumptions that underlie instrumental rationality and the consequent a-institutional world of neoclassical theory and contrasts these assumptions to those that underpin a theory of institutions and transaction costs. It then explores the characteristics of political markets, characterizing the costs of transacting in political markets and the role of ideology in shaping political choices. Finally, it explores the implications of a transaction cost framework for the performance of polities and economies over time.
Democratic Politics, War and Catch-Up
Authors: Castles Francis G.
Published: March 2007

The paper is an attempt to see whether Mancur Olson's Rise and Decline of Nations provides a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the poor economic performance of the English-speaking nations in the postwar era. On both counts Olson's thesis is found wanting. Theoretically, it neglects the vital role of the state's coercive function in the achievement of collective goals. Empirically, it is confused and conflates the effects of economic convergence, wartime economic disruption and democratic participation. The `awfulness' of English-speaking performance is demonstrated to be largely an outcome of the first two of these factors and not the third.
Rationality and Misperception in Deterrence Theory
Authors: Wagner R. Harrison
Published: March 2007

Authors of several case studies of international conflict have claimed that the frequency with which statesmen are surprised by the way other governments respond to challenges is inconsistent with rational deterrence theory. Some have contended that the behavior of decision-makers is better explained by theories of cognitive or even affective psychology. The main issue raised by these critics is decision-makers' use of the information available to them, especially information about the commitments of other governments, and their incentive to protect their reputations by carrying out their threats. Only recently, however, have game-theoretic techniques been developed which permit the formalization of theories of deterrence that incorporate incomplete information, learning and the development of reputations. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the question of how much misperception by foreign policy decision-makers is consistent with rationality, in light of these new developments in game theory.
Taxpayers, Suckers and Free Riders
Authors: de Jasay Anthony
Published: March 2007

In the traditional theory, resources for providing public goods will not be contributed voluntarily. The state's role is to exert mutually agreed coercion and organize Pareto-superior exchanges of public goods against taxes. `Government failures' spoil the attractions of this solution. In a more general theory, `excludability' is replaced by exclusion cost, and `joint supply' by access not subject to price or non-price allocation. The probability that one's benefit is contingent on one's contribution becomes a significant variable. Rational non- altruists will not generally have a dominant strategy of non-contribution. They may choose the `sucker' or the `free rider' strategy, depending on their assessment of the risk of having no or too few public goods.
3. The Politics of Scope: Endogenous Actors, Heterogeneity and Institutions
Authors: Snidal Duncan
Published: March 2007

The international relations (IR) and common-pool resource (CPR) literatures disagree on the impact of increasing numbers of actors on collective action. They also disagree on the impact of actor heterogeneity. These differences can be understood in terms of the endogeneity of institutions, exemplified here by membership rules. The number and variety of actors need not be an exogenous aspect of a collective-action problem but rather may be determined as part of the institutional rules. Successful CPRs regulate their membership either through exclusion or by enforcing contributions. In some cases this is supported by nesting in external institutions, in other cases enforcement is decentralized and in yet other cases collective action is achieved through locally centralized arrangements. This latter category suggests a much richer range of possible institutional solutions than is found in standard IR conceptions of anarchy or hierarchy. In terms of the various types of actor heterogeneity discussed in the paper, it suggests a need for better understanding of the role of `community' in supporting collective action at both the local and international levels.
Duncan Black and Lewis Carroll
Authors: McLean Iain , McMillan Alistair , Monroe Burt L.
Published: March 2007

After evaluating the stature of Duncan Black as one of the founders of the modern theoretical study of politics, we show how frustrated Black was by the lack of recognition accorded to his work, especially in the UK. This led to considerable difficulty in getting his work published. In particular, his work on a like-minded predecessor, C. L. Dodgson (`Lewis Carroll'), remains in part unpublished. In it, Black withdraws his earlier assertion that Carroll's work on proportional representation and tennis tournaments was `trivial', in favor of detailed analysis of Carroll's contribution, which Black praises extravagantly as being one of the most important contributions ever to Political Science. We conclude by relating Carroll's theorem of 1884 on the proportionality of what is now called Single Nontransferable Vote (SNTV) to the modern literature.
Symposium. The Directional Theory of Issue Voting: III
Authors: Pierce Roy
Published: March 2007

The debate over the relative merits of directional and proximity models as theories of candidate evaluation has turned largely on the criterion of predictiveness. This article adds to the predictive record for France and the United States in 1988 but also focuses on the criterion of verisimilitude. By examining the interaction between model choice and measurement technique I show that the proximity model based on idiosyncratic voter perceptions of candidate issue positions produces a more plausible representation of the distribution of issue-based candidate preferences of the voters than the directional model based on national mean perceptions of candidate issue positions.
On the mythology of the reflexive subject
Authors: Mather Ronald
Published: March 2007

The following article is intended as a contribution to a reorientation of approaches to the treatment of the historical development of the concept of subjectivity. It argues for a fundamental continuity between German Idealist philosophy and Jungian psychoanalysis on certain fundamental aspects of selfhood. These continuities might seriously question certain key assumptions about the nature of 'modernity', notably as a period marked by exaggerated claims on self-identity and reflexivity. It is suggested that such claims are largely the result of the Hegelian interpretation of the early Fichtean system, an interpretation that utilizes only one aspect of the intellectual resources made available by the early system of J. G. Fichte. Such an appropriation might be sub sumed under the rubric of 'Geist'. This article attempts to retrieve the other aspects of Fichte's system - the concepts of drive and primordial images; the emphasis on the 'subject' as a self-diremptive energy-flow; the aspect that points to Schopenhauer and beyond.
The spiritualist foundation of Max Weber's 'Interpretative Sociology': Ernst Troeltsch Max Weber and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience
Authors: Hennis Wilhelm
Published: March 2007

William James' Varieties of Religious Experience was published in 1902, and translated into German in 1907. This essay explores the develop ment of Max Weber's investigations into human psychology and forms of religious life, arguing that James' work had a lasting impact on Max Weber and coloured the development of his 'sociological' investi gations.
Sociology and cultural studies: rhetorics of disciplinary identity
Authors: McLennan Gregor
Published: March 2007

This article explores the interface between cultural studies and soci ology, as expressed through four scenarios which construe the 'debate' in particular ways. Two of these - 'cultural studies succession' and 'postmodernist conjuncturalist cultural studies' - unapologetically seek to dismiss sociology in favour of cultural studies, whilst a third - 'socio logical revenge' - appears to turn the tables entirely. A fourth and more productive scenario dwells synthetically on the 'cultural turn' across the whole 'field' of the social and human sciences. All four postures dis cussed are found to share two problematical features. The first of these is that although rhetoric/discourse is crucial in the construction of iden tities, including disciplinary identities, over-rhetorical manifestos readily generate critical doubts about their consistency and appropri ateness. Second, the focus in the four scenarios is chiefly on disciplinary homes, fields, or turns rather than, as it perhaps should be, on substan tive theses or ideological positions within these.
History, memory, identity
Authors: Megill Allan
Published: March 2007

The present paper examines certain salient features of the his tory-memory-identity relation. The common feature underpinning most contemporary manifestations of the memory craze seems to be an insecurity about identity, an insecurity that generates an excessive pre occupation with 'memory'. In the face of memory's valorization, what should be the attitude of the historian? At the present moment there is a pathetic and sometimes tragic conflict between what 'memory' expresses and confirms, namely, the demands made by subjectivities, and the demand, essential to any scientific discipline, for proof. The paper explores this conflict and argues that neither term can be reduced to the other. It suggests that one needs to conceptualize the field of history as involving inevitable limits to historical knowledge, such that both history and memory are seen as inadequate. In this way one avoids both the arrogance of a would-be definitive history and the 'arrogance of authenticity' that all too often accompanies claims for memory.
The self-help production of housing and the living environment in Dakar, Senegal
Authors: Gaye Malick
Published: March 2007

The self-help production of housing and the living environment in Dakar, Senegal describes the processes by which low-income groups acquire land and develop their own housing in Pikine within Dakar. It discusses how the attitudes and actions of Third World governments must change to support these low-income groups - not least because these are the groups responsible for building and developing most new housing.
Edinburgh's Poet Laureate: Robert Fergusson's illness reconsidered
Authors: Beveridge Allan W.
Published: March 2007

Edinburgh's Poet Laureate, Robert Fergusson died in the City Bedlam at the age of 24. Available information concerning his last months is examined and a possible explanation is offered for his early demise.
Eduard Hitzig, neurophysiologist and psychiatrist
Authors: Breathnach Caoimhghin S.
Published: March 2007

Eduard Hitzig (1838-1907) may have been an autocratic, proud and mettlesome psychiatrist, but his pioneer work in using electrical stimulation changed utterly the approach to research into the localization of function in the cerebral hemispheres. The ablation techniques of the anatomists and the clinical observations of the neurologists were complemented by a novel method of examining motor control. If Hitzig was vain he had much to be vain about.
Dr Roselyne Rey
Authors: Weiner Dora B.
Published: March 2007

We are grateful to Dora Weiner for allowing us to reprint her heart-felt obituary of Roselyne Rey, who passed away early this year. Those of us who had the fortune to know her will always remember her underplayed manner, youthful looks and powerful intellect. Her work combined the best in the French historio graphical tradition: networking of facts and imagination. She described this supremely well when referring to her own History of Pain: 'If there were a fitting metaphor to describe this history which unfolds on a number of levels which have varying degrees of importance, it would be borrowed from Baudelaire's poem entitled "Le Thyrse" (The Thyrsus), this "pure staff" around which leaves and stems are wreathed: the straight line and the arabesque... '1 G.E.B.
Jurists versus doctors: the birth of legal medicine in the United States
Authors: Peset José Luis , Evans N.R.
Published: March 2007

This paper considers some of the problems that attended the birth of legal medicine in the USA.1 The historical study of relations between American medicine and jurisprudence and ethics should identify some of the philosophical assumptions that inspire their views of anomalous behaviour. 2
The Ideological Organization of Representational Processes in the Presentation of us and them
Authors: OKTAR LÜTFIYE
Published: March 2007

The present study, drawing on the work of Teun A. Van Dijk (1998) to theorize the relations between discourse and ideology, aims to show how social groups ( us vs them) are presented in discourse and how ideological discourse is constructed socio-politically as a means to confirm group dominance. Simultaneously, this study uses critical discourse analysis as a methodology which grounds the theoretical claims in the idea that both the ideological loading of particular ways of using certain linguistic forms systematically and the relations of power which underlie them is often unclear to people. In this sense, critical discourse analysis aims to make these opaque aspects of discourse explicit. In doing this, critical discourse analysis gives attention to the grammar and vocabulary of texts. Three dimensions of the clause grammar are differentiated transitivity, modality and theme. These correspond to, respectively, ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions of language. The focus in this study is upon aspects of clause grammar which have to do with ideational meanings. By determining the transitivity patterns expressed with propositions through representational processes in the opinion-editorial articles that appeared in two Turkish daily newspapers with different ideological orientations, this article claims that representational processes play a significant role in the well known ideological square of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation suggested by social identity theory, for controlling the social representations of us and them in the context of ideological conflict exhibited in `secular' and `anti-secular' discourses.
Experts in Crisis: The Framing of Radio Debate about the Risk of AIDS to Heterosexuals
Authors: Tulloch John , Chapman Simon
Published: March 2007

Analysis of media representations of AIDS needs to examine the narrative construction of `otherness' and `expertise'. This paper is part of a project examining the narrative representation of the `new expertise' in Australia in a variety of popular media forms after the 1983 pessimism of the `Grim Reaper' television campaign. It examines the radio debate around Michael Fumento's The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS in terms of the empiricist and culturalist discourses of the main protagonists (Professor John Dwyer and Fumento), and their positioning and framing by radio interviews. The paper examines the way in which interviewers' procedures to display neutrality interact with intertextual authenticating devices to position each protagonist as `expert' when interviewed singly, though the consistent recycling of authenticating pre-texts in the Dwyer interviews gave him greater definitional scope. The paper concludes with an analysis of the semantic and rhetorical strategies employed by Fumento and Dwyer when on-line together, and an account of Dwyer's positioning of the audience in his construction of scientific consensus.
Equalizing Gender Relations: A Case of Double-Talk
Authors: Lazar Michelle M.
Published: March 2007

In recent years, an issue that has received plenty of national publicity in Singapore is the growing trend for well-educated women to remain single. The oft-cited reason for the trend is male dispreference for marrying women of an equal or higher educational standing than themselves. Arising from this situation, a series of `educational' ads was launched by the government. In this study, two such ads are closely analysed within a critical discourse analysis approach which draws upon M.A.K. Halliday's functional grammar. I argue that although one of the ads contains potential ingredients for correcting male chauvinism and promoting true gender equality, the ads taken as a set are really concerned with maintaining the social status quo between the sexes.
`Riots' and Demonstrations in the Chinese Press: A Case Study of Language and Ideology
Authors: Fang Yew-Jin
Published: March 2007

This paper examines some of the rhetorical strategies employed by Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) in reports of `riots' and demonstrations, specifically incidents in which the police or the authorities took action against the `rioters' and demonstrators. The corpus included news articles (between 1980 and 1991) which dealt with the following two categories of countries: (1) governments considered hostile by the People's Republic of China (PRC), e.g. South Africa and Israel; (2) governments with which the PRC has always maintained cordial relations, e.g. Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Nepal and Algeria. It is hypothesized that the coverage of events in these two categories of countries will be different because of the ideological framework in which the mass media operate. It is expected that the labels given to the event and the syntactic structures used in the reports will provide a frame of reference that is congruent with the views of policy-makers in the PRC. The findings here lend support to the theory that lexical choices and syntactic options are not arbitrary. The ideological position assumed by the People's Daily may be manifested in the aforementioned structures in the news reports.
Speaking of Crime: `I don't Know what Made Me do it'
Authors: O'Connor Patricia E.
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes the autobiographical narratives of criminal acts as told by inmates in a US maximum security prison. It suggests (1) that narrations about crime involve structures that show a speaker's words can place him in a continuum of personal agency in regards to his own actions; (2) that a prisoner's personal agency shifts in relation to modes of telling throughout his discourse; and (3) that a person's autobiographical speech positions him in a multilayered participation framework (Schiffrin, 1987, 1994) that is conducive to rehabilitative thinking. Thus, in telling his story the criminal positions himself in the participation framework with an interlocutor, but also simultaneously within the framework of establishing a personal being (Harré, 1984) in the chronology of his own life and the synchrony of his current living situation in prison. Using an interactional sociolinguistic approach, I focus this paper on epistemic utterances such as, `I don't know what made me do it'; `I don't know whether I thought “shoot him”, or not'; and `I don't know whether instincts had me shoot him'. I examine the reflexive and reflective nature of these utterances as they break the telling frame, showing both evaluation and speculation on the criminal act, the actor and on personal agency.
Speech Accommodation and Japanese Emperor Hirohito
Authors: Azuma Shoji
Published: March 2007

The present study examines the speech style of the late Japanese Emperor Hirohito during chihoo jyunkoo—`visits to countryside'—which were conducted to encourage war-defeated Japanese during 1946-54. Speech accommodation theory claims that speakers will attempt to converge linguistically toward the speech patterns of the addressee when they desire social approval from the addressee, given that the perceived costs of so acting are proportionally lower than the rewards anticipated. Documented speeches of the Emperor show that he converged his speech style (often to excess) to that of listeners who were lower in social status. The Japanese people reacted enthusiastically to the way the Emperor spoke and treasured it, although it is unusual for Japanese to treasure lower class speech from upper class people. The analysis of the Emperor's speech style supports the claim of the speech accommodation theory and further suggests that the attribution of the meaning of the message is determined by the listener's evaluation of its appropriateness.
Interactional Constraints on Proposal Generation in Mediation Hearings: A Preliminary Investigation
Authors: Garcia Angela
Published: March 2007

Previous research on negotiation and bargaining suggests that problem-solving strategies lead to more beneficial outcomes than contentious strategies. This paper asks whether participants in mediation hearings use problem-solving or contentious strategies to generate ideas for solutions to issues under dispute. Nine videotaped and transcribed mediation hearings are analyzed using an ethnomethodological conversation analytic approach. I found that mediators and disputants play different roles with regard to the generation of ideas for solutions to the conflict. Mediators are free to suggest solutions without committing themselves or others to that solution (a problem-solving strategy). Disputants, on the other hand, are seen to be committed to the suggestions they make (a contentious strategy). However, disputants could mitigate the potential contentiousness of their positions with various techniques. I explore the implications of these findings for the ability of disputants to creatively contribute to solution-generation in the context of mediation.
`Is there any Ketchup, Vera?': Gender, Power and Pragmatics
Authors: Cameron Deborah
Published: March 2007

This article revisits recent arguments about gender-linked variations in conversational style and the phenomenon of male-female misunderstanding to which those variations allegedly give rise. Drawing on the framework of linguistic pragmatics, I propose that `male-female misunderstanding' could fruitfully be analysed as a kind of conflict, occurring not on the surface of discourse but at the level of the assumptions about gender which conversationalists bring to bear on the interpretation of utterances in context. This kind of conflict will be most marked where gender relations are a matter of contestation rather than consensus.
Discourse and Organizational Dynamics: Website Communication and Institutional Change
Authors: LEMKE JAY L.
Published: March 2007

In an institution undergoing basic structural reorganization, the development of a new website became a critical focus for discourse about the functions and values of the organization. Discourse analysis reveals a complex system of heteroglossic relations among the various viewpoints within the organization. Combined with semiotic analysis of the website development, it can help us to understand the role of a new medium of wide-scale communication in processes of organizational change.
`Like an Animal I was Treated': Anti-Immigrant Metaphor in US Public Discourse
Authors: ANA OTTO SANTA
Published: March 2007

The contemporary framing in American public discourse on immigrants is examined through a data-driven metaphor analysis. The print media texts of the 1994 political debate and campaign in California over an anti-immigrant referendum, Proposition 187, is analyzed. An ongoing cataloguing of metaphors from hundreds of Los Angeles Times articles displays the discourse that reflects and informs California public opinion. The metaphors discerned include `IMMIGRANTS ARE ANIMALS'. In so far as prose metaphors in the print media reflect public discourse, this study captures a public perception that dehumanizes immigrant workers. Additionally, alternative analyses of the framing of the discourse of Proposition 187 are compared to the present analysis.
Unitas Multiplex, Purposiveness, Individuality
Authors: Renner Karl-Heinz , Laux Lothar
Published: March 2007

Kenneth Gergen's (1991) `saturated self is contrasted using William Stern's (1923) conception of the person, which is based upon three primary characteristics: unitas multiplex, purposiveness, individuality. Gergen emphazises the multiplicity of the self, but neglects to treat the problem of unity. On the contrary, Stem's unitas multiplex, which means unity in diversity through purposiveness, offers a solution to this problem. While Gergen criticizes individuality as individualism, Stern highlights individuality as a `world of its own', which is created by every person through productive self-development. Purposiveness, the most central category of the person, is related to the postmodern experience of goal conflicts. Finally, there is discussion of the validity of Stem's conception of the person in postmodern living conditions.
Proust's Contribution to the Psychology of Memory
Authors: Delacour Jean
Published: March 2007

The work of Proust is generally considered to be a major contribution to the psychology of memory. However, there has been no recent evaluation of this contribution from the standpoint of the cognitive sciences. In this article, I examined the scientific status of the reminiscences, this form of retrieval being illustrated by the famous episode of the petite madeleine. It appears that the réminiscences have a place in the taxonomy of the normal memory: they are a form of cued retrieval of explicit memory, characterized by an episodic content where the spatial component of the context is particularly important. Current interpretations in terms of affective or unconscious memory do not seem to be well grounded. The description of the réminiscences cannot be taken at face value for it is subordinate to a philosophy of art which is the main purpose of À la recherche du temps perdu.
Theoretical Indeterminacy, Pluralism and the Conceptual Concrete
Authors: Tolman Charles W.
Published: March 2007

Metaphysical pluralism is examined as a proposed explanation for theoretical indeterminacy in psychology and found wanting. A more promising view is that indeterminacy is caused by a methodological inadequacy that can be overcome by a revised understanding of abstraction in theory construction. The revision involves a genetic or historical approach to concept formation that reveals the concrete interrelations among qualities so that they can be ordered with respect to deductive priority.
Assessing the Accuracy of Decisions
Authors: Frisch Deborah , Jones Steven K.
Published: March 2007

Much research demonstrates that people's choices do not conform to utility theory, a model of rational decision-making (Baron, 1988; Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Slovic, Lichtenstein, & Fischhoff, 1988). Researchers have begun to question the normative status of utility theory in light of the many empirical violations of the theory. We argue that consistency with a formal model is not an appropriate standard for evaluating the quality of decisions. Rather, we propose that accuracy is a more useful standard. We define an accurate decision as one in which there is a one-to-one correspondence between the factors that affect a decision and those that affect experience. Based on our definition, we address the question of whether violations of normative models such as expected value theory and expected utility theory reflect inaccurate decisions. We argue that some violations of normative models do lead to inaccurate decisions. However, many violations may arise because the normative models prohibit factors from affecting decisions that do in fact affect the experience of the outcomes of decisions.
The Practical Turn in Psychology
Authors: Jost John T. , Hardin Curtis D.
Published: March 2007

Parker (1996) alleges that Wittgensteinian presuppositions of essentialism and relativism obscure the role of social power in linguistic discourse. Not only is this claim self-contradictory, it is wrong in each of its component counts. Strands of essentialism in Wittgenstein's early writings were skewered effectively in his own later philosophy. Although Parker is not alone in charging Wittgenstein with relativism, we argue that a careful reading of Wittgenstein's work belies such a claim. This is because the meaning of a given language-game is fixed by patterns of ongoing social interaction among people who share a particular `form of life'. Against Parker, we show that Wittgenstein's (anti-)philosophy is in fact largely congenial to Marx's (anti-)philosophy, with both writers allied against the doctrines of individualism, subjectivism, mentalism, idealism and metaphysicalism. Although it may be true that Wittgenstein the person was relatively silent about issues of social and political power, Parker has failed to establish that Wittgensteinian metatheory is incompatible with the analysis of power in social discourse. In sum, we argue that Wittgenstein, like Marx, was a social materialist (rather than a social constructionist) whose writings articulate the foundations of mind and meaning in terms of concrete social practice.
The Body as a Selfing Device
Authors: Baerveldt Cor , Voestermans Paul
Published: March 2007

Psychology's conceptualization of anorexia nervosa illustrates how the discipline deals with the body. On the one hand, there is an emphasis on the body as a physiological apparatus. On the other hand, specific approaches such as social constructionism stress the non-physiological body as something to which certain discursive meanings get attached. We propose to view the body as a producer of meaning in its own right, as a `selfing device'. To this end we emphasize bodily communication as a continuous flow of co-regulated interaction. The body presents itself as the natural juncture of `co-regulative skills'. The `selfing process' involves multiple stylized bodily skills that testify to people's ability to take part in the life-world. Anorexia is seen as a disturbance of those skills.
Individualistic Humans
Authors: Michael Mike
Published: March 2007

This paper considers how social constructionist social psychology might narrate change. It is argued that to date this tradition has paid the issue of change scant attention. In particular, there is little social constructionist work that addresses the micro-processes of change. Where it has been addressed, this has been by imputing a separate realm (e.g. culture or discursive dynamics) or treating it as a discontinuous process. It is suggested that a fruitful perspective is actor-network theory, which attempts to articulate the way that innovations are generated and disseminated, changing identities in the process. Actor-network accounts are narrated by contingently positioning human actors who must marshal various resources in order to persuade others of the value of their innovations. It is suggested that the orthodox social psychological concern with such phenomena as persuasion, minority influence and risky shift might be useful in such accounts.
On How We Can Act
Authors: Costall Alan , Leudar Ivan
Published: March 2007

This paper focuses on two of the points raised in Sharrock and Coulter's (1998) critique of James Gibson's later theorizing. They argue that Gibson limited himself to an overly abstracted and unified notion of `perception', and that his theory of affordances involved an overly restrictive claim about the `objects' of perception. We suggest an alternative reading of the theory of affordances, namely as a challenge to the traditional theoretical schema of `perception'. Gibson's last book, we argue, is primarily about agency, about how we can act. We accept Sharrock and Coulter's point that ecological psychology needs to find a place for `concepts' in its account of human life, but we question their apparent a priori assumption that human `perceptual activities' are entirely `rule-governed'. The degree and manner in which concepts figure in human life is indeed a matter for investigation.
On J.J. Gibson
Authors: Sharrock Wes , Coulter Jeff
Published: March 2007

In response to our respondents, we note that we probably share more in agreement than separates us in disagreement. We note several such points and then note that we continue to disagree with Costall and Leudar's (1998) distinction between the `conceptual' and the `empirical'. We also disagree with Noble's (1988) claim that Gibson understood perception as an achievement.
No Darwin, Therefore no Fodor
Authors: van Hezewijk René
Published: March 2007

In the last two decades, philosophers of mind have represented cognitive psychology very well: Jerry Fodor and Robert Cummins in particular are two whom one thinks of. They have formulated the basic principles that cognitive psychologists appear to work with. This is a review of their most recent books. Positive remarks are overshadowed by a number of questions that could be asked once one realizes humans are primates-albeit very well-equipped ones. The review expresses concerns about the lack of attention both authors pay to the evolutionary role of cognitions and the consequences this could have for our ideas about their organization and content.
Against Postmodernism
Authors: Parker Ian
Published: March 2007

Postmodern writing has forced psychology to confront a series of problems pertaining to the nature of human consciousness, personal integrity and language. It invites us to rethink notions of undivided and unitary self-hood that have underpinned much orthodox empirical research and theory in the discipline, and it does so in the story-worlds of Progress, Reflection and Opportunity. At the same time as it performs a dispersion of psychological concepts, postmodernism has encouraged a spirit of deconstructive critique and challenge to the modern academic and professional apparatus of the `psy-complex'. However, `the postmodern', as a movement of sustained playful theoretical reflection linked to an account of a new cultural context for theoretical research, has now outlived its usefulness. Even the story of `the modern' that postmodernists pitch themselves against misleads psychologists, traditional and critical. The progressive potential of postmodernism has been exhausted, and those who engage in critical theoretical work in psychology need to attend to the ideological assumptions it carries about social relations and structures of power that threaten a radical political agenda in the discipline. The dangers that flow either from an optimistic naïve adoption of postmodern nostrums (relativism, amoralism, collectivism or autonomy) or from a pessimistic disappointed embrace of the alternative visions it incites (scientism, fundamentalism, individualism or organicism) need to be urgently addressed.
The Sleeping Subject
Authors: Morley James
Published: March 2007

This paper presents the place of dreaming in Merleau-Ponty's thought. It elicits the view of dreaming developed in three seminal texts: Phenomenology of Perception, the passivity fragment from the Themes from the Lectures at the College de France, and The Visible and the Invisible. In each of these texts, Merleau-Ponty releases dreaming from the secondary status conventionally granted to it in relation to waking perception, and maintains, instead, the integrity of the phenomenon as an authentic mode of experience. At the same time, he insists upon the interrelatedness of dreaming and waking by positing for both the lived body as a common ground that precludes dichotomization. Merleau-Ponty's elevation of the imaginary in general, and dreaming in particular, is especially relevant to contemporary psychology in its quest for theoretical foundations that will accommodate the full spectrum of psychological phenomena.
A Parsimonious Theory Can Account for Complex Phenomena
Authors: Schmid Jeannette , Fiedler Klaus
Published: March 2007

A strong case was made by Edwards and Potter (1993) that discourse analysis is superior to alternative approaches to language analysis. In the present article we apply four models of language analysis to Edwards and Potter's paper, including our Linguistic Category Model (LCM) and their Discursive Action Model (DAM), with converging results. It is concluded that a complex phenomenon like real language in social context does not necessarily need models and methods approaching the same level of complexity. A more parsimonious model can be even better suited to the task.
Implicit Attributions and Biases
Authors: Fiedler Klaus , Schmid Jeannette
Published: March 2007

In this final comment, we point out several misunderstandings in Edwards and Potter's (1999) rejoinder and defend the arguments advanced in our original critique. In addition, we make an attempt to clarify that a lexical approach to language and attribution, based on the Linguistic Category Model (LCM), cannot be reduced to a lexical coding scheme. Rather, the LCM places numerous theoretical constraints on attribution, most of which have been tested and substantiated in many studies ignored in Edwards and Potter's articles. We point out in particular how the LCM can deal with the the sequential, contextualized, interaction oriented nature of conversation.
The Cultural Psychological Approach to Religion
Authors: Belzen Jacob A.
Published: March 2007

Although psychology has taken an interdisciplinary approach to religion, at present most studies are aligned with mainstream psychology, which largely disregards the constitution of psychic functioning by cultural forces. After a brief overview of historical psychologizing positions and a discussion of the background of contemporary proposals to consider religion as naturally rooted in human beings, the paper suggests that a cultural psychological perspective may give an impetus to psychological analyzes of religion by providing a religiously neutral starting point. Some contemporary approaches compatible with this perspective are briefly sketched: activity and habitus theory; narrative psychology; Lacanian psychoanalysis. Acknowledging religion as first and foremost a cultural phenomenon, the paper proposes to conceive of religiosity as its subjective-personal counterpart, that is, as (a) a multi-dimensional phenomenon constituted by specific religious (sub)cultures about whose features and functions other scholarly disciplines can inform us, and (b) involving many kinds of psychic functions (instead of being rooted in a single psychological feature). Collaborating interdisciplinarily, a cultural psychological perspective renders superfluous any discussions on the material object of psychology of religion.
The Weakness of Strong Social Movements: Models of Unionism in the East European Context
Authors: Ost David
Published: March 2007

Despite recent arguments that political and social movement unionism is the key to labour revitalization, this article shows that such strategies have been detrimental to labour in Eastern Europe, and that only a recent turn towards economic unionism has helped turn the tide. Through an analysis of East European labour strategies since 1989, particularly in Poland, the article argues that much recent theory is based on capitalist experiences that are inappropriate for understanding post-communism. Whether social movement unionism will be beneficial to labour depends on the kind of social movement of which unions see themselves a part.
Modernization, Individualization and Solidarity: Two Perspectives on European Trade Unions Today
Authors: Valkenburg Ben , Zoll Rainer
Published: March 2007

Trade unions today struggle to come to terms with the changing identities of their actual and potential members. In the first of these two complementary papers, Zoll argues that unions so far have failed to adapt to the complex dynamic of social change which he defines as a second stage of modernization. For Valkenburg, it is possible to recognize a painful process through which some unions are redefining their ideas of collectivism and participation in response to the changing attitudes of employees. Each author offers brief comments on the other's analysis.
Firms and Institutions: The Demand for Skills and their Social Production in Europe
Authors: Regini Marino
Published: March 2007

It is commonly argued that national economic performance is enhanced by a `surplus' of workers with extensive and well-developed skills, and that this is best achieved by a training system such as that in Germany, where employers are institutionally inhibited from `free-riding' on other firms' investment in human resources. On the basis of a comparative study of France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the author argues that this is an oversimplification. Firms can choose among a variety of production strategies; and each choice implies a different pattern of workforce composition and training. Training regimes different from the much-vaunted German model can be well suited to specific production and market strategies.
Converging on HRM? Change and Continuity in European Airlines' Industrial Relations
Authors: Warhurst Russell
Published: March 2007

Industrial relations issues have recently become critical to the survival of airlines and the structure of the industry in Europe. The author analyses the impact of deregulation and deep economic recession on the traditionally stable industrial relations in European flag-carrier airlines. Moves towards a single European aviation market might imply convergence in industrial relations practices; the article assesses how far this has occurred, and suggests that airline managements across Europe have tended to adopt similar new practices. It is concluded that airlines are, to an extent, converging on HRM techniques in response to common environmental pressures; but industrial relations procedures remain nationally quite distinctive.