bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
BIOMEDICAL SIGNAL RECONSTRUCTION USING GABOR SPECTRAL TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Authors: PAN MIN-CHUN , LIAO SHU-WEI
Published: July 2006

One of the ECG signal processing aims is to smooth the data to reduce high-frequency artifacts and to retain features within the waves. Conventional techniques may cause reduction on R-wave peaks such that the reduced ratio of R to T wave may cause misdiagnosis. In the study, the Gabor spectral tracking technique is first proposed and implemented to cope with this drawback without missing tiny significant information after noisy interferences are removed. Using the proposed technique to obtain smoothed ECG signals can be an effective tool for clinic or diagnostic purpose.
INFORMATION ACQUISITION IN DESERT ANT NAVIGATION
Authors: GAO JUN , WANG LEI , BO MEI , FAN ZHIGUO
Published: July 2006

Desert ant (Cataglyphis) is famous for its ability in navigation. In deserts with very few visual and odor information, the ant can return to its den almost along a straight line after foraging away in a distance of much more than thousands of times longer than its body length. Several kinds of information must be acquired during its trip, and the most important two are: path integration and visual navigation. Path integration is achieved by using sky light compass based on polarized light and odometer, while visual navigation relies on landmark based memory and matching. In this paper, a survey of research work on desert ant navigation from the viewpoint of information acquisition and fusion is presented, as well as the application of these kinds of information to navigate robots, especially bionic robots cruising in strange environment.
CONTENT-BASED RETRIEVAL IN ARCHEOLOGY
Authors: ZHEN RONG , ZHOU MING-QUAN , WEI NA , GENG GUO-HUA
Published: July 2006

Retrieving images from large and varied collections using image content is a challenging problem. This paper presents a novel method for cultural relic image retrieval algorithm by integration of multiple cues. The preprocessing of the images makes it possible for correct retrieval and classification of images even when they are deformed by transformation of rotation, scaling and translation or a combination of these. In feature representation, a method combining both color and shape features of image is proposed to improve the retrieval performance. A modified principal component analysis is used to select a subset of variables that well represents the data thus improved the retrieval efficiency. The proposed method is made application in the digital archeology museum. The results demonstrate that the system is both effective and efficient.
THE INFLUENCE OF ROLE MODELS ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS
Authors: VAN AUKEN HOWARD , FRY FRED L. , STEPHENS PAUL
Published: July 2006

This study examines the impact of role model activities on potential entrepreneur's desire to own a business. A group of students, whose role model owned a business, were asked to rank the influence on career intentions of twenty specific activities in which role models and potential entrepreneurs might engage. The study looks at the relationship between these activities and the desire to own a business. Role model activities related to involving the respondent in professional activities, employment in the business, and discussions about the business were found to be significantly related with interest in starting a business. The results can be useful to those involved in teaching entrepreneurship courses, owners of businesses who are interested in encouraging entrepreneurship, and providers of assistance who council owners of firms.
GRIMM'S CONJECTURE ON CONSECUTIVE INTEGERS
Authors: LAISHRAM SHANTA , SHOREY T. N.
Published: July 2006

For positive integers n and k, it is possible to choose primes P1, P2,…, Pk such that Pi | (n + i) for 1 ≤ i ≤ k whenever n + 1, n + 2,…, n + k are all composites and n ≤ 1.9 × 1010. This provides a numerical verification of Grimm's Conjecture.
ACTION OF HECKE OPERATORS ON SIEGEL THETA SERIES I
Authors: WALLING LYNNE H.
Published: July 2006

We apply the Hecke operators T(p) and [Formula: see text] to a degree n theta series attached to a rank 2k ℤ-lattice L, n ≤ k, equipped with a positive definite quadratic form in the case that L/pL is hyperbolic. We show that the image of the theta series under these Hecke operators can be realized as a sum of theta series attached to certain closely related lattices, thereby generalizing the Eichler Commutation Relation (similar to some work of Freitag and of Yoshida). We then show that the average theta series (averaging over isometry classes in a given genus) is an eigenform for these operators. We show the eigenvalue for T(p) is ∊(k - n, n), and the eigenvalue for T′j(p2) (a specific linear combination of T0(p2),…,Tj(p2)) is pj(k-n)+j(j-1)/2β(n,j)∊(k-j,j) where β(*,*), ∊(*,*) are elementary functions (defined below).
ON THE RANK OF QUADRATIC TWISTS OF ELLIPTIC CURVES OVER FUNCTION FIELDS
Authors: KOWALSKI E.
Published: July 2006

We prove quantitative upper bounds for the number of quadratic twists of a given elliptic curve E/Fq(C) over a function field over a finite field that have rank ≥ 2, and for their average rank. The main tools are constructions and results of Katz and uniform versions of the Chebotarev density theorem for varieties over finite fields. Moreover, we conditionally derive a bound in some cases where the degree of the conductor is unbounded.
ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF CYCLIC CUBIC FIELDS WITH INDEX 2
Authors: SPEARMAN BLAIR K. , WILLIAMS KENNETH S.
Published: July 2006

In this paper we prove an analogue of Mertens' theorem for primes of each of the forms a2+27b2and 4a2+2ab+7b2and then use this result to determine an asymptotic formula for the number of positive integers n ≤ x which are discriminants of cyclic cubic fields with each such field having field index 2.
GASAT: A Genetic Local Search Algorithm for the Satisfiability Problem
Authors: Lardeux Frédéric , Saubion Frédéric , Hao Jin-Kao
Published: July 2006

This paper presents GASAT, a hybrid algorithm for the satisfiability problem (SAT). The main feature of GASAT is that it includes a recombination stage based on a specific crossover and a tabu search stage. We have conducted experiments to evaluate the different components of GASAT and to compare its overall performance with state-of-the-art SAT algorithms. These experiments show that GASAT provides very competitive results.
Creative Industries in Beijing: Initial Thoughts
Authors: Rossiter Ned
Published: July 2006

This article reports on current developments within “creative industries” in Beijing. The article discusses Dashanzi Art District and the Created in China Industrial Alliance in relation to such issues as labor, intellectual-property regimes, real-estate speculation, high-tech development zones, promotional cultures and the global variability of neoliberal capitalism. The article maintains that creative industries, as realizations of a policy concept undergoing international dissemination, are most accurately understood as cultural practices in trans-local settings that overlap with larger national and geopolitical forces.
Crafting Change: Envisioning New-Media Arts as Critical Pedagogy
Authors: Narayanan Geetha
Published: July 2006

As India enters the sixth year of the new millennium, there seems to be ample evidence to validate the claim that it is new technologies and their infrastructures that have supported and enabled its current economic revolution. This revolution promises a new society based on knowledge and information. This emphasis poses tremendous challenges to educators and forces them to question the fundamental tenets on which they would develop pedagogies and create learning that is both sustainable and critical. The author argues that the process of creating new-media art can in itself be construed as critical pedagogic practice and that new-media artists have a role to play as public intellectuals.
Pirates of the Pacific Rim
Authors: Cisler Steve
Published: July 2006

The term piracy once referred simply to crimes at sea but now also refers to widespread crimes by which intellectual property is copied and sold or given away through electronic networks and in kiosks, shops and flea markets. Countries such as the U.S.A., whose origins were based on technology piracy, are now the most protective. Companies that were once sued for infringement are now suing others. Piracy is cited as a source of income for criminal and extreme political groups. Cultural appropriation of traditional herbs, songs and art is not easily combated. Fake drugs and airline parts create safety issues that are not encountered with pirated books or DVDs. Some scholars and legal experts have called for abandoning copyright or have proposed alternative schemes for intellectual property.
The Exploratorium's Invisible Dynamics Project: Environmental Research as Artistic Process
Authors: Lambla Annie
Published: July 2006

The Exploratorium's Invisible Dynamics project seeks to manifest the inevitable and reciprocal relationship between art and science that is at the heart of the museum's mission. An attempt to visualize invisible, often cartographic, systems in the San Francisco Bay Area, it places various elements of Bay Area life in a context that can then proportionally be used to relate San Francisco to the greater Pacific Rim in a similar scalar relationship. The paper analyzes one part in particular of the Invisible Dynamics project—Hidden Ecologies, a photographic, cartographic collaboration between a microbiologist and an architect. The flexibility between artistic and scientific processes is expressed by those involved in Hidden Ecologies as well as the “artists” of the other three projects that make up Invisible Dynamics.
THE DOUBLE MONTH NAMING IN LATE BIBLICAL BOOKS: A NEW CLUE FOR DATING ESTHER?
Authors: Talshir David , Talshir Zipora
Published: July 2006

Hebrew epigraphy evidences that the Babylonian-Aramaic month names replaced the numeral names toward the end of the Second Temple period. The use of the Babylonian-Aramaic month names in the books of Nehemiah and Esther reflects the language of the Aramaic administration at the court of the Persian king, not earlier then the middle of the 5th century B. C. E. The author of Esther employs, in addition, a compound formula that combines both name types. It also occurs in two glosses in the book of Zechariah. Since in this formula the numeral names are explained by their Babylonian equivalents—and not the other way round—it must have originated in a late period in which the ordinals were already replaced by the Babylonian names. The compound formula under discussion, therefore, cannot be a clue for an early date for Esther.
THE GUILT OFFERING LAW OF THE HOLINESS SCHOOL (NUM. V 5-8)
Authors: Knohl Israel
Published: July 2006

It is common to take the law of Num. v 5-8 as being basically a repetition of the law of Lev. v 20-26 with one innovation. The author rejects this commonly held view, and argues that the two laws stem from different priestly schools and represent opposite conceptions with regard to to the relationship of cult and morality. Lev. v originated in the Priestly Torah (P) and reflects the sharp distinction made by this school between cult and morality. Num. v stems from the Holiness School (H) and reflects the ideology of this later priestly school that combines morality and cult by broadening the concept of holiness. The new ideology is best expressed in Lev. xix and it is reflected in the contents and terminology of the law of Num. v 5-8.
"I WILL SOLVE MY RIDDLE TO THE MUSIC OF THE LYRE" (PSALM XLIX 4 [5]): A CULTIC SETTING FOR WISDOM PSALMS?
Authors: Dell Katharine
Published: July 2006

This paper explores the relationship between wisdom psalms and the cult, asking whether Mowinckel's characterization of the wisdom psalms as late and non-cultic is justified. It explores the possibility of wisdom influence on the psalter in early and later times, looking at questions of context and theology. Rather than seeing wisdom influence as mainly a scribal activity that was a post-exilic editing of thefinal form of the psalter, it is argued that the influence of wisdom went back to the days of the early Israelite cult. Its influence was strong also in post-exilic times, which confirms a connection between wisdom and cult at this stage (Perdue), however wisdom forms that shaped the literary development of some psalms and wisdom ideas that included an emphasis on creation and order are seen to be an essential part of the earliest self-identification of Israel through her worship.
THE POLYTHEISTIC ORIGINS OF THE BIBLICAL FLOOD NARRATIVE
Authors: Shaviv Samuel
Published: July 2006

A new and unprejudiced reading may reveal that two divinities, one called Yahweh, the other called Elohim, seem to act in the story: Yahweh is more involved in bringing the flood, and Elohim in saving Noah. The source of this narrative may have been a polytheistic story in which two gods quarrelled: Yahweh decided to blot out mankind, whereas Elohim wanted to save it. This story was remoulded in monotheistic spirit and the moral motive as the cause of the flood was added by generations of redactors. The ultimate source seems to have been a Canaaniteflood story: Baal the god of rain and benevolent El quarrelled because of the human marriages of Sons of El that were regarded by Baal as threat.
HUMILITY AS A SOCIAL VIRTUE IN THE HEBREW BIBLE?
Authors: Dickson John , Rosner Brian
Published: July 2006

It is sometimes asserted that Jesus and the rise of Christianity led to the recognition of 'humility', the lowering of oneself before an equal, as a virtue. In two articles in 1991, S. B. Dawes challenged this claim, arguing that humility as a social virtue finds its roots in the Hebrew Bible. This article assesses Dawes' claim, the result being that, although related notions certainly exist, 'humility' as the virtue of lowering oneself before an equal is not present in the Scriptures of Israel.
THE PROBLEM OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE: SOURCE-CRITICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF EXODUS XXXIII 12-23
Authors: Billings Rachel
Published: July 2006

Employing insights from both pre-critical Jewish commentators and critical scholars, this article offers some suggestions for the source-critical analysis of Exod. xxxiii 12–23. After briefly reviewing the history of modern source-critical analysis of the passage and considering the insights of several medieval Jewish commentators, it analyzes the text in two units, vv. 12-17 and vv. 18-23. Taking a clue from these pre-modern readers, it seeks to perform the modern critical task of distinguishing the text's sources by looking for the points at which the text fits together and for the meaning created by this splicing of sources rather than focusing primarily on the text's internal inconsistencies per se. In conclusion, it is suggested that in each of these units, the blending of sources has transformed a personal request of Moses into Moses' intercession for Israel to enable the Lord's ongoing presence in the midst of his people.
SYNCRETISM AND IDOLATRY IN THE BIBLE
Authors: Greenspahn Frederick
Published: July 2006

The terms "idolatry" and "syncretism" are widely and sometimes promiscuously used to describe ancient Israelite religious practices; however, the biblical evidence itself is not always clear. Given the Bible's central role in determining the nature of Israelite history, any study of Israelite syncretism and idolatry must begin by asking whether these terms accurately characterize the biblical account. Although images are a widespread feature of many religions, they are not always used as objects of worship. Aside from occasional descriptions of royal practice, biblical references to actual idol worship are largely confined to the prophets, whose tone is heavily polemical. As for syncretism, only 1 Kgs. xviii 21, 2 Kgs. xvi 10, and Zeph. i 5 explicitly condemn the blending of separate traditions. Other biblical authors were primarily concerned with Israel's worshipping the wrong god altogether.
ALTARS, RITUAL AND THEOLOGY—PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CULT AND RITUAL FOR A THEOLOGY OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
Authors: Klingbeil Gerald
Published: July 2006

Israelite religion is characterized by manifold references (both prescriptive and descriptive) to the cult and its smaller building blocks, rituals. Utilizing a mainly diachronic and historical approach, past generations of theologians of the Hebrew Scriptures have often relegated these texts to the margin or an early primitive phase of the Hebrew religion or just simply ignored these texts altogether. However, with the renewed interest in ritual studies and a more balanced understanding of the importance of public (and also private) rituals in the context of the cultic experience of ancient Israel, more theological studies are at least including a section on ritual/cult. This study firstly reviews the treatment of cult/ritual in the discussion of recently published theologies, thus describing the status quo. Secondly, basic principles for the fruitful integration of results stemming from ritual text research into theological work of the Hebrew Scriptures will be outlined. Finally, in the form of a trial cut, several Pentateuchal texts describing altar construction rituals will be studied in terms of their theological significance and contribution.
Generating Coherence out of Chaos: Examples of the Utility of Empathic Bridges in Phenomenological Research
Authors: Sells Dave , Topor Alain , Davidson Larry
Published: July 2006

The purpose of this paper was to provide an example from phenomenological research of moving from rich descriptive interview data to coherent revelatory descriptions employing empathic bridges within the narrative structure of storytelling. We used transcribed data from two interviews concerning recovery from severe mental illness: one with an American woman in her early thirties, and the other with a Swedish man in his mid-thirties. Five investigators analyzed the transcribed data into individual first-person narrative descriptions according to existing empirical phenomenological methods including an independent reading, identification of themes relevant to processes of recovery from severe mental illness, temporal ordering of themes meaningfully reflecting the sequence of the recounted events, and consensus development. Our findings support the use of empathic bridges as a methodological tool with the narrative structure of firstperson storytelling, as well as the viability and importance of employing this tool to better understand processes of recovery for persons with severe mental illness.
Language, Suffering, and the Question of Immanence: Toward a Respectful Phenomenological Psychopathology
Authors: Sells Dave , Staeheli Martha , Davidson Larry , Stayner David
Published: July 2006

This paper explores the status of language and suffering in recovery from psychosis from a transcendentally-informed phenomenological perspective. We suggest that each of these concepts can apply both to the illness itself and to the person with the illness. The relationship between the two will be one focus of this discussion. The other focus will be on the various ways in which phenomenological approaches to psychopathology have understood the nature of this relationship; a relationship characterized by different meanings of the term "immanence." Drawing inspiration from a Borges poem and from Husserl's debate with Heidegger over the content of his "Phenomenology" article for the Encyclopedia Britannica, we argue that it is misleading, as well as unhelpful, to continue to focus on deficits and dysfunction while ignoring the person's hopes, strengths, assets, and agency. As long as there remains no cure for psychosis, we conclude that it is more effective to promote recovery among people with psychosis than to remain focused on reducing, minimizing, or eliminating their disorder.
Black Radical Becoming: The Politics of Identification in Permanent Transformation
Authors: Costa Vargas João H.
Published: July 2006

In this article, I develop an argument about the radical nature of black politics that is based on individual and collective becoming. The process of becoming is immanent to blackness, which can be understood as a dynamic collective reservoir marked by time, space, and power. Such collective reservoir is not only in constant transformation, but also can be accessed though countless routes — for example, art, spirituality, and political organizing. Thus, as black people, we are always becoming black. While the understanding and employment of the concept of race are central to these forms of political blackness, the dangers of race-thinking are permanently debated. The resulting political vocabulary and practices, ever reformulated, self-critical, and drawing their acumen from a cultivation of vulnerability, emphasize race as an energizer of political identification and action that moves beyond traditional identity politics whose political programs reflect the consciousness and experience of belonging to discrete (racialized, gendered, sexualized, national) groups. The radical nature of this specific form of black politics is based on (a) its constant self-critique and reformulation, (b) its Afrodiasporic transnationalism, and (c) its commitment to social justice. To make this argument, I draw on ethnographic data gathered while collaborating with activists in Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles, and engage with black feminisms, critical race theorists, and the art of John Coltrane. Black radical becoming offers both a vital critique of our colonization and a blueprint for the formation of new, ethical, and anti-fascist subjectivities and sociabilities.
“Seoul—America” on America's “Soul”: South Koreans and Korean Immigrants Navigate Global White Racial Ideology1
Authors: Kim Nadia Y.
Published: July 2006

Although students of race have produced impressive works on global Western racism, their mostly macro-level focus has not addressed how marginal groups respond to Western racial ideology and do so based on state and cultural influences. To capture Asians' localized responses to white- American superiority specifically, the author conducts a comparative case study of South Koreans and Korean American immigrants, fitting groups given US geopolitical dominance in South Korea since 1945 and large numbers of Korean immigrants in the USA. Drawing on 66 combined interviews (in-depth, open-ended, and focus group) in Seoul and in Los Angeles County, the author finds that while South Koreans and Korean Americans at times similarly adopt and resist white racial hegemony, their responses differ by way of state and cultural ideologies and practices. The US military presence in South Korea, supported by the Korean state, and imported American mass media culture centrally shape the residents' narratives. In the United States, the American “racial state” and attendant cultural ideologies (“democracy,” racial categories) figure centrally in Korean Americans' narrative responses to hegemony. The author concludes with the implications of localized analyses for global racism scholarship.
When Whites Flock Together: The Social Psychology of White Habitus
Authors: Bonilla-Silva Eduardo , Goar Carla , Embrick David G.
Published: July 2006

Residential and social hypersegregation of whites from blacks furthers a socialization process we refer to as “white habitus.” “White habitus” geographically and psychologically limits whites' chances of developing meaningful relationships with blacks and other minorities. Using data from the 1997 Survey of College Students' Social Attitudes and the 1998 Detroit Area Study on White Racial Ideology to make our case, we show that geographically, whites' segregated lifestyles psychologically leads them to develop positive views about themselves and negative views about racial others. First, we document the high levels of whites' residential and social segregation. Next, we examine how whites interpret their own self-segregation. Finally, we examine how whites' segregation shapes racial expressions, attitudes, cognitions, and even a sense of aesthetics as illustrated by whites' views on the subject of interracial marriage.
Racialized Choices: Chinese Adoption and the `White Noise' of Blackness
Authors: Dorow Sara
Published: July 2006

The transnational, transracial adoption of children provides the opportunity to explore how race binds and differentiates kinship and national belonging, especially when considered in relation to options for adopting both at home and abroad. More specifically, the reasons white parents give for choosing to adopt from China reveal how the normative white, American family is constructed through discourses of foreign and domestic, Asian and black. I explore three themes that contribute to the relative desirability of adopting Chinese children: they are seemingly unfettered by attachments, racially “flexible,” and readily constructed as rescuable. In these discourses that bring Chinese children home, blackness serves as a mediating backdrop — a domestic “white noise.” But China — US adoption unsettles as much as it reproduces racial stratifications; ongoing encounters with intimate relations of difference push at the boundaries of white privilege and weak multiculturalism.
A Black Feminist Analysis of Responses to War, Racism, and Repression
Authors: Zerai Assata , Salime Zakia
Published: July 2006

In March 2003, the US government launched a military invasion and occupation of Iraq. This was one more phase of the US National Security Strategy doctrine that promises militarism, war, and disruption in various sovereign states. These wars abroad and the unprecedented powers of government and police agencies in the USA represent powerful intersections of patriarchal authority, racism, militarism, and elitism. Africana communities have a long history of resisting repression both directly and indirectly related to US foreign policy. Social scientists writing from a black feminist perspective have described how such mutually constructing forces of race, class, gender, and nation have influenced the lives of people of color, women, and the poor in American society and have highlighted the historical and sociological importance of resistance by these oppressed groups. Specifically, this paper addresses ways in which a black feminist analysis and praxis offer useful perspectives on activism concerning issues of peace and justice post 9—11—2001.
Indian Information Technology Workers in the United States: The H-1B Visa, Flexible Production, and the Racialization of Labor
Authors: Banerjee Payal
Published: July 2006

Advances in information technology (IT) have been critical to the USA for maintaining its competitive edge in the global economy, and the role of workers on the H-1B visa has been central in this process since the 1990s. The H-1B visa program, which allows US employers to hire skilled foreign workers on a temporary basis, enabled the recruitment of thousands of IT professionals, the majority of whom has been from India. Based on 40 in-depth interviews with Indian IT workers in the USA, this paper illustrates how the interplay between visa policies and flexible hiring in IT marginalizes this workforce. As a result of their fragile immigration status under H-1B visa terms, these workers are disproportionately employed as contract labor in an exploitative system of subcontracting. As an employment-based visa, the H-1B makes these workers dependent on their visa-sponsoring employers for immigration status and livelihood. The compulsion to remain employed and legal drives H-1B employees to accept severely exploitative work conditions, including wage cuts, deduction of commissions from hourly wages, lack of benefits, and frequent relocations. Theoretical insights from Asian-American studies, which foreground the historical nexus between US immigration policies and the gendered racialization of immigration, anchor the analyses of how current visa policies sustain the exigencies of late-capital.
What is Racism? Racial Discourse and Racial Politics
Authors: Doane Ashley
Published: July 2006

One central area of dispute in current racial politics is whether an act, policy, or event constitutes racism. I contend that the core of these debates involves competing conceptions of racism. Using text from a variety of media sources, I examine the different ways in which racism is defined and how claims and counterclaims are contextualized. I also explore how the dynamic nature of racial discourse leads to the emergence of new ways of defining racism as advocates seek advantages in political debate. Finally, I connect the struggle involving racism as a contested concept to two larger racial ideologies: color-blindness and systemic racism.
The Problem of `Authentic Experience': Storytelling in Anti-Racist and Anti-Homophobic Education
Authors: Srivastava Sarita , Francis Margot
Published: July 2006

Educational workshops are a common approach to addressing racism and homophobia in institutional and organizational settings. One underlying rationale of these efforts is that more knowledge of “the other” — non-white and queer participants — will lead to greater equity. This article investigates this premise through empirical research into anti-racist and anti-homophobic workshops in a variety of settings. In particular, our analysis focuses on the uses of “storytelling” and other workshop strategies commonly employed to encourage the disclosure of personal stories by and about the “other.” We argue that, particularly in anti-racist contexts, these strategies have exacted a heavy toll on the tellers, reinforced the exclusionary notions of identity that underlie a racist culture, and had only a limited effect in fostering organizational change. While many of these same problems are present in anti-homophobia educational workshops, differences in the relations of power between the “tellers” and the “listeners,” between who is solicited to tell stories and how, and in the nature of sexual versus racial identity also suggest important distinctions between these different forms of educational practice. Within this context however, queer youth of color and transgender youth continue to report that storytelling can exact a heavier toll on them than others. There is little empirical literature analyzing anti-oppression workshops and their effects in both schools and community organizations. Our study addresses this gap in the sociological literature.
Casting a Blind Eye: The Ironic Consequences of Color-Blindness in South Africa and the United States
Authors: Ansell Amy E.
Published: July 2006

This paper addresses the politics of color-blindness in comparative perspective as its meaning has changed over the past half-century. Drawing on the cases of South Africa and the United States, I focus in particular on the socio-political and psychological functions that color-blind ideology performs for whites in defending white advantage in the present context. Although in the past color-blindness served as an effective rallying cry for the abolition of Jim Crow and the demise of apartheid, the very same principle serves in the post-segregation context to stall transformation of the racial order in the direction of greater equality. It is an irony that the principle of color-blindness that so effectively mobilized opposition to the institutionally racist order in both national contexts mutates at the very moment of apparent victory into one that radically limits the anti-racist imagination.
Cante Hondo: Charles Mingus, Nat Hentoff, and Jazz Racism1
Authors: Rustin Nichole T.
Published: July 2006

Turning to the work of bassist and composer Charles Mingus and critic and record producer Nat Hentoff, I examine challenges to the liberal discourse of postwar jazz culture. Both were vocal critics of the cultural and racial politics of jazz. Because ideals of integration and democracy had long been central to its identity as a cultural practice, its participants saw jazz culture as a barometer of the national character and potentially representative of the fulfillment of democratic society. The participants were often less willing to see the effects of the nation on this world — jazz culture echoed evolving cultural and social discourses about racial and gender identity, the demands of the market, national boundaries, deviancy, and the function of artistic practice. Hentoff and Mingus present competing perspectives that offer suggestive avenues for rethinking jazz historiography and race.
The Problem of Comparing Different Cultural or Theoretical Frameworks: Davidson, Rorty, and the Nature of Truth
Authors: Barris Jeremy
Published: July 2006

In comparing very different cultural, theoretical, or methodological standpoints, the nature of truth itself becomes a problem. If the standpoints have different conceptions of truth, a comparative approach that respects both involves the contradiction of conflicting legitimate claims to truth. But if we reject this contradiction, we eliminate the possibility that standpoints can have legitimately different conceptions of truth. And with that we reject the sense of a genuine comparison in this respect, rather than a reading of one framework in the light of the other. Davidson and Rorty have mounted especially powerful arguments against the very sense of this kind of contradiction between frameworks, and so against the sense of a comparative approach in this respect. Through a detailed discussion of their work, this paper argues that the contradictory conception of truth is the right one. It also argues that this contradiction is manageable. As a result, a properly comparative framework is both possible and necessary, even where the nature of truth itself is concerned. In particular, this conception makes room for ideas of truth as both absolute and relative, and also (contradictorily but with due respect for many of the cultural and theoretical frameworks available for comparison) for non-contradictory conceptions of truth.
Urban Networks, Deregulated Religious Markets, Cultural Continuity and the Diffusion of the Isis Cult
Authors: Wortham Robert A.
Published: July 2006

In an empirical study on the diffusion of the Isis cult throughout 44 major cities of the Greco-Roman world, Hegedus concludes that the expansion of the Isis cult was linked to an urban location's proximity to Alexandria and Rome. In a similar study, Stark concludes that the diffusion of the Isis cult and Christianity were intertwined. These claims are evaluated in a new study that accesses the impact of city size, distance from Rome, religious pluralism and cultural continuity on the diffusion of the Isis cult throughout 22 major cities of the Roman Empire. Updated data on the diffusion of the Isis cult are utilized and the data are subjected to rank-order correlation analysis and binary logistic regression analysis. Findings indicate that the diffusion of the Isis cult and Christianity was somewhat contemporaneous and that a deregulated Roman religious marketplace provided an opportunity for new religious movements to satisfy an unmet demand for religious products.
Die Erinnerungsfigur des Exodus als literarisches Mittel einer zeitgeschichtlichen jüdischen Geschichtsschreibung
Authors: Schneider Ulrike
Published: July 2006

The Jewish authors Robert Neumann (1897-1975) and Soma Morgenstern (1890-1976), both forced to leave Austria during the Nazi period, have dealt with the subject of Exodus in their writing. Their novels ,,By the Waters of Babylon" (published 1939 in London, 1954 in Munich/Vienna) and ,,The Third Pillar" (published 1955 in the United States, 1964 in Munich/Vienna) attempt to come to terms with the experience of exile and the Shoah. The reception of texts from the Bible and the composition of language are specific characteristics of both novels.
,,Ein Vorhof zum Paradies". Das Czernowitz-Bild in der deutsch-jüdischen Literatur
Authors: Ludewig Anna-Dorothea
Published: July 2006

The present research on Czernowitz focuses mostly on the 20th century and on the works and memoirs of Holocaust survivors. But Czernowitz was at its cultural and economical height at the end of the 19th century, and it was during that time that the myth of the ,,ideal city" was established. This essay stresses the importance of that time period for understanding the ,,Czernowitz myth," and it analyzes the relationship between the ,,real" place Czernowitz and the literary topos of a ,,sunken city" (Rose Ausländer).
Negotiating in a Coordination Network of Citizen Peacebuilding Initiatives in the Georgian-Abkhaz Peace Process
Authors: Nan Susan Allen , Garb Paula
Published: July 2006

This article analyzes a set of negotiations within a coordination network. These negotiations surrounded the establishment and development of a coordination network of citizen peacebuilding initiatives focused on the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process. The authors reflect on six years of action research working with both local and international organizations and individuals working on citizen peacebuilding initiatives in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process. Tracing the negotiations from 1999 through 2005, the article first highlights the context in which the coordination network developed to fill a need for joint strategizing amongst peacebuilders working in the region. In this context the locally recognized organic need for coordination drove the development of the network through an elicitive process. The analysis details early negotiations about establishment of the coordination network, which focused on building a culture of coordination by establishing norms of coordination. Subsequent negotiations within revised network structures, and outcomes of the coordination negotiations are then presented. Key factors that enhanced the coordination network are identified: inclusivity and transparency; in-person meetings; absence of a formal organizational structure; autonomy of each organization; focus on integrative agreements; and a culture of coordination. The case highlights the possibilities for long-term peacebuilding work based on relationships of trust and a culture of coordination.
Stepping Out of the Tracks: Cooperation Between Official Diplomats and Private Facilitators
Authors: Strimling Andrea
Published: July 2006

Intermediary cooperation – encompassing various levels of communication, coordination, and collaboration – is necessary to realize the inherent complementarity of many official and private intermediary efforts. Effective negotiation between the intermediaries is necessary to achieve such cooperation. Official and private intermediaries must be willing to "come to the table" and, once there, they must be able to negotiate effectively. The article builds on existing research on complementarity and cooperation by focusing explicitly on the communication and relationships between intermediaries and applying negotiation theory to analyze opportunities for and barriers to cooperation.
Coordination Between Track Two and Track One Diplomacy in Successful Cases of Prenegotiation
Authors: Fisher Ronald
Published: July 2006

An important form of coordination between track one and track two diplomacy revolves around unofficial problem-solving workshops at the level of politically influential individuals that make contributions to the process and outcomes of official negotiations. These contributions typically occur during the prenegotiation phase through the opening up of communication, the improvement of attitudes, the analysis of conflict issues and dynamics, the development of frameworks, the creation of options directed toward resolution, and so on. In order for these effects to be maximally beneficial, coordination between unofficial and official interventions is essential. This study describes connections between track two and track one peacemakers through a comparative analysis of four successful instances where workshops made important prenegotiation and paranegotiation contributions to the official peace processes. The analysis finds that such coordination was limited mainly to information sharing and indirect sequencing of efforts, and that in only one case did it involve the more engaging activities of joint strategy planning and collaboration in implementation. The article concludes that there are inherent limitations to coordination between track one and track two, given their unique and independent roles, but that both domains are evidencing more acceptance and respect for the other, which augurs well for the field of conflict resolution in terms of coordination toward greater effectiveness.
Coordination in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
Authors: Nan Susan Allen , Strimling Andrea
Published: July 2006

This issue of International Negotiation focuses on coordination in conflict resolution. It includes nine articles that discuss theoretical concerns and practical insights about coordination among organizations involved in various aspects of conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, highlighting the utility of applying negotiation theory to the analysis of their relationships, interactions, and cooperative processes. This article presents a thematic overview of the articles and concludes by outlining areas for further development of theory and practice.
Introduction
Authors: Evetts Julia
Published: July 2006

This introductory article provides the background and clarifies the concepts and questions to be addressed in the articles that follow. It begins with a section examining how trust and professionalism have been linked in the sociological literature on the professions. The second section outlines a different interpretation of profession and professionalism, which explains how these concepts are increasingly used as discourses of occupational change and social control. The article concludes by examining the consequences of a focus on the discourse of professionalism for the intellectual field of sociology of professional groups and of the claim that there has been a decline of trust, competence and discretion in professional work.
A Sociological Concept of Client Trust
Authors: di Luzio Gaia
Published: July 2006

The aim of this article is to theoretically analyse and to define client trust. A concept of client trust is developed that explains why and under what conditions the professional–client relationship – in contrast to other service relationships – involves a certain kind of trust. It is argued that the form of the professional–client relationship and the nature of professional work hold uncertainties for the client that make it impossible to make a fully rational decision whether to consult and cooperate with a professional. Trust is conceptualized, following Simmel, as enabling social action in decision situations where the actor is uncertain about the course of future events and, following Luhmann, as a risky investment. Moreover, it is argued that client trust is impersonal trust given on the basis of general notions generated by such intermediaries as professions and allied institutions. Furthermore, behavioural expectations institutionalized in the professional role and the display of professionality promote client trust in the interaction situation of the consultation. On this basis, the article concludes by defining what questions have to be asked in order to determine whether sociostructural, organizational, and occupational change over the last four decades have had a negative effect on client trust.
Crisis or Decline?
Authors: Pfadenhauer Michaela
Published: July 2006

The terms ‘licence’ and ‘mandate’ mark the characteristic of modern professionalism. On the one hand, the professional has the licence, i.e. the permission to implement specific actions that are disallowed to other actors. On the other hand, the professional is provided with the mandate to become authoritatively active. With regard to both these dimensions, a crisis of modern professionalism can be diagnosed. This crisis relating to the claim for cognitive superiority, which results from the certified acquisition of special knowledge, seems to evolve as a destructive process. The crisis relating to the claim for normative superiority, which results typically from the welfare orientation, seems to evolve as an erosion process. Both processes are imbedded in social developments that are described by modernization theoreticians by the terms ‘individualization’ and ‘pluralization’. These also apply to the professional, whereby modern professionalism is undermined not only from the outside but also from within. For the client, this crisis of professionalism becomes manifest as a creeping loss of trust in professional expertise and achievement. From a structuralistic point of view, this confidence is a non-material reward for the professional. From an actiontheory perspective, it is regarded as a necessary condition for the ‘labour consensus’ between professional and client that is threatened to be lost in the change to an ‘other’ modernity. This asymmetric relationship in favour of the professional is changing at present to become a relationship between a reflexive and insecure expertise producer and a self-confident and critical expertise consumer.
New Professionalism, Trust and Competence
Authors: Svensson Lennart G.
Published: July 2006

Many professional occupations have acquired a new environment and new conditions for their legitimacy. Decentralization, deregulation, privatization and new market forms have turned many professional work organizations, including schools, into clearer and more delimited organizations. Thus, there is a demand for a new professionalism in the discourse on changes and leadership of work organizations. Professionalism is strongly related to confidence in abstract systems and institutions as well as trust in individual professional practitioners. A minor semantic questionnaire study of the concept of professionalism was conducted. Results showed a very strong emphasis upon knowledge, competence and skill, and on the coupling with professions and professional practice. Professionalism was regarded by respondents as contextual competence rather than as a general capability. Practical knowledge, experience and knowledge in use were stressed over theoretical knowledge and formal education. Moreover, the concept had a strong positive connotation. Professionalism was always interpreted in the study as a phenomenon on the individual level and never on the organizational level. A cognitive aspect was completely dominant, a clear minority of respondents indicated an affective aspect, another clear minority expressed an ethical and moral aspect. Authority, licence and legitimation were barely mentioned. The concept of professionalism was not directly linked to confidence or trust, but only indirectly through concepts such as ethics and responsibility. Conversely, however, it was the cognitive attitudes towards professionalism that formed the decisive basis for trust in professionals.