bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Structures and the Power of the State
Authors: Collinet Michel
Published: March 2007

The simplest and no doubt the most persistent of the ideas held on the relationship between society and power, from Menenius Agrippa to Auguste Comte, is that of an analogy between the social body and the human body. Both these men deduced that power is nothing other than the supreme regulating function of all functional activities, as harmoniously integrated in society as they are in human physiology. Ethnographic study often strengthened this organicist conception through description of the various social functions as necessary or vital for the cohesion and the existence of primitive society. But historic societies provide a spectacle quite different from that of an integrated organism. In them social functions are not abstractions but are seen rather in the form of human groups whose relationships can scarcely be said to show an organic solidarity. Within these groups and working to set them against each other, powers have their own interests which they must protect against the inroads of ambitions. The permanence of certain functions (military, religious, and economic, for example) does not imply permanence in the structures which implement them or in the real or fictional power which accompanies them. Their meaning is ambivalent. Obviously, they contribute to the architecture of a society; they may have a latent content which is a disintegrating factor from the moment when their hierarchy no longer suits the changing stratifications of the social body.
Reflections On Indian Philosophy
Authors: Lacombe Olivier
Published: March 2007

I have been asked to express in my turn the reflections which a reading of K. Satchidananda Murty's fine paper, “Philosophical Thought in India,” have inspired in me. In complying with this request, I would like, first of all, to caution the reader that my aim is not an ambitious one and that my remarks will be formulated with great modesty. They are based, to be sure, on thirty years of intellectual and spiritual contact with Indian thought, but they remain nonetheless those of an analyst and observer from the outside. It is not fitting that a guest admitted into the intimacy of Indian civilization should raise his voice too high in commenting on a statement that is based on knowledge originating from within. Therefore, I propose merely to explain how the data of Indian philosophical history might appear to a mind that has been trained in the civilization of the West and that seeks to achieve a universal view; to indicate where, for such a mind, major emphases should be placed.
Origin of the Symbol in the Spirit of Music
Authors: Schneider Marius
Published: March 2007

The symbol is a form composed by man more unconsciously than consciously. With primitive peoples, this form seems to have been born from the desire to penetrate to the kernel of supernatural or magical power by means of a concise formula, all-inclusive or ambiguous, particularly through a magic incantation or a song. This penetration, however, is only possible if one understands the inner structure of such a power. According to primitive belief, the true seat of this power is not found in the world of our direct experience but in a magical area in which it rests in a completely abstract, latent state. In this condition it has not yet spread out into various shapes which it has to assume for concrete manifestation but appears completely homogeneous and solid. Moreover, the innermost substance (kernel) of this power is always organized antinomically. From this fundamental tendency to include opposites in a dualistic way, thunderstorms for example emerge as a dual combination of fire and water. Also dualistic is the “fiery stream of volcano and smithy,” the light-dark, hermaphroditism, etc. Psychologically, the original dual event is expressed in the fusion of love and hatred or the combination of a lust for power with inferiority.
Ancient Indian Contacts With Western Lands
Authors: Sastri K. A. Nilakanta
Published: March 2007

In the last century and in the first decades of the present century the historians of India laid stress on the isolation of the subcontinent by the mountains and seas surrounding her on all sides and cutting her off as a separate universe. The progress of modern research has shown how mistaken this view was. We now see the true facts much more clearly than ever. The mountain barriers, though formidable at many points, are broken by gaps which have always allowed a considerable intercourse across the frontiers on the northwest as well as the northeast and at some points due north as well. By her position in the center of the littoral of the Indian Ocean, India enjoyed ample facilities for communication by sea with the countries lying to her west and east, and we now know that she and her neighbors availed themselves of these facilities from time immemorial. The Indian Ocean was navigated freely from very early, even prehistoric, times, and there was a series of lively maritime exchanges—migratory, commercial, and cultural—among the peoples of Africa, India, and Indonesia, or more generally Southeast Asia. Western Asia and the lands adjoining the Levant also took, from the beginning, a prominent part in this commerce of goods and ideas between India and the world. It is the aim of this paper to trace briefly the ancient contacts between India and the Western countries to the time when the rise and spread of Islam and the Islamic impact on India ushered in a new epoch.
A Chinese Conception of the Hero
Authors: Holzman Donald
Published: March 2007

Whoever knows a little about China—even very little—knows, in one way or another, about the Taoist Immortals, although our knowledge may be limited to the representation of them on a bit of sculptured jade, on a Han mirror or in some wood engraving. One has heard of them as an essential part of Chinese folklore. In the book of Taoist saints, the Liesien tchouan, they may be observed in all their oddness, living on pine cones or the “marrow of stones” and flying off into the air toward the apotheosis of some unknown paradise. This aspect of the Immortals has been studied often and well. But there is another aspect to the Immortals no less important, a philosophical aspect which, I believe, deserves our attention. Sun Yat-sen, the “Father of the Chinese Republic,” is certainly not given the name of “Hidden Immortal” (Yat-sen, Yi-sien) out of a simple interest in folklore, and the heroes of the Chinese novel, Kia Pao-yu of the first Hong-leou mong, dedicated themselves to achieve the way of the Immortals for reasons that went deeper and were more intelligent than mere superstitious emulation of some grotesqueries of occult folklore. No, the Chinese Immortal is a veritable hero of the same stamp as Saints of the Christian tradition and like the latter he embodies a religious philosophy of the highest inspiration.
Art is Temporal
Authors: Adamczewski Zygmunt
Published: March 2007

Art is eternal. Beauty is pure pleasure. Genius in creation and taste in appreciation are one.—One is accustomed to encounter such time-honored aesthetic views and one takes them often without questioning whether they adequately honor time. On the following pages a different approach to art will be outlined; on its horizon these views and many others which need not be cited now, will appear as false. Some hallowed names can be invoked as authority for them. So much the worse. Amicus Plato sed magis amica Veritas.
The Social and Economic Background of Portuguese Negro Poetry
Authors: Margarido Alfredo
Published: March 2007

If we are to understand the contradictory character of negro poetry in the Portuguese language, we have to be acquainted with the social conditions under which it was written. We are thus led to examine the origin of the creole societies of Cape Verde, Saint Thomas and Prince Island on the one hand, and of the negro societies of Angola and Mozambique on the other, whose evolution was entirely different. On Cape Verde, we can still find a system of agriculture based on small properties. On Saint Thomas and Prince Island, agriculture still predominates, but is based on large properties and shows many features of the capitalistic system. In Angola and Mozambique on the other hand, we encounter many different social and economic forms, ranging from tribal organization to urban concentration and agricultural exploitation of the capitalistic type.
The Spiritual and Social Role of Women in Traditional Sudanese Society
Authors: Calame-Griaule Geneviève
Published: March 2007

“God the Creator, Amma,” says a Dogon fable, “asked a hyena to bring him the best thing in the world. The hyena brought him a woman. Amma then asked him to go in search of the worst thing in the world. The hyena returned once again with a woman. When Amma wanted to know the reasons for this choice, the hyena replied ‘All the good and all the evil in the world come from woman.’ “ Amma agreed.
Language Death in Africa
Authors: Brenzinger Matthias , Heine Bernd , Sommer Gabriele
Published: March 2007

Africa, along with Asia, is the continent with the highest number of ‘living’ indigenous languages. European languages, mainly English, French and Portuguese, have spread throughout all African nations during the last 200 years; however, until today, the use of these ‘foreign’ languages has been mostly restricted to certain domains, such as higher education, politics and business, and also to a relatively small number of people. According to Scotton (1982: 68) only 10 per cent or less of the rural African population have a considerable competence in the imported languages, even though these are in many instances the official languages of their home countries. African vernaculars are generally not in danger of being replaced by European languages. However, we observe a diminishing use of African vernaculars, not only in an increasing number of domains, but also with regard to the absolute number of indigenous languages; that means, in short, that linguistic vitality and variety on the African continent is decreasing.
Optimal Planning: A Radical Critique
Authors: Barden Drew S. , Barden Drew S.
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on the relationship between the construction of socialism and the use of sophisticated optimization techniques to formulate and execute a plan in a planned socialist economy. Many economists in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have advocated reform of the planning mechanism from the perspective of promoting a more efficient use of resources through the increased use of techniques such as linear programming. It is argued that linear programming techniques may improve upon rule of thumb approaches to plan formulation and execution in some local situations. How ever, the extension of such techniques to an entire economy in an integrated fashion, often called optimal planning, obscures one of the fundamental problems of socialist political economy — the relationship between the planning mechanism and the construction of socialism.
The Social Origins of Radicalism Among Finnish Immigrants in Midwest Mining Communities
Authors: Gedicks Al
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this working paper is (1) to review and criticize the in adequacies of a number of influential bourgeois theories which try to account for the political response of workers to the "discontinuities" of the immigration experience and the transition to capitalist industrial society, (2) to present an alternative to these theories based upon the writings of Marx, Engels and contemporary Marxist theor ists ; and (3) to derive a series of hypotheses which could be empirically examined with data on Finnish and Swedish emigration patterns and the differing responses of the two groups to conditions on the mining ranges of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
New Deal Labor Policy and the Containment of Radical Union Activity
Authors: Hurd Rick , Hurd Rick
Published: March 2007

New Deal labor policies were designed with the stability of the capit alist economy in mind Their pro-union provisions responded to labor militance and served to head off the formation of a radical working-class movement The National Labor Relations Act established procedures which encouraged unions to pursue peaceful collective bargaining rather than a more activist course Although the enforcement of pro-union policies was weak, the fact that they were adopted gave the impression that the state was sensitive to worker interests When the crisis ended with the onset of World War II, the state reverted to an approach which more directly restricted worker militance
The Health Care Industry in Advanced Capitalism
Authors: Rodberg Leonard , Stevenson Gelvin
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes the nature of the health care industry and its role within the capitalist system. By developing an understanding of this relation ship, we should be able to understand more fully the internal dynamics of the health care system and to develop mutually supportive movements for change within and outside it. The form and dynamics of the health care system are grounded in class struggle. The transformation of health care into a commodity, and the production of surplus value in the health care industry, are central fea tures of contemporary health care organization. The health care industry performs four interrelated economic functions: accumulation, provision of investment opportunities, absorption of surplus labor, and maintenance of the labor force. It also has important ideological functions of systemic legitimation, social control, and reproduction of the capitalist class structure.
The Political Economy of Rural Health Care in China
Authors: Hsu Robert C.
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the relationship between the health care system and the political environment in contemporary China. By looking at the example of rural health care, one can see the close interaction between the health care system and the political context in which it is embedded.
The Historical Development of the Concept of Intelligence
Authors: Gonzalez Gilbert , Gonzalez Gilbert
Published: March 2007

In the historical development of capitalism differing conceptions of the foundations for social classes appear. During the phase of competitive capitalism, faculty psychology dominated the thinking of theoreticians. Its prin cipal postulate was that industriousness socially categorized individuals but that the human mind was more or less equally perceptive. In the period of monopoly capitalism an entirely new ideological conception of social relations arose. That conception was intelligence, a central theme within the pragmatism of James and Dewey. Intelligence was intended to dissolve the class struggle which intensified in the period of monopoly capitalism. The essence of intelligence is an inward- looking individualism that negated struggle as the basis for social change. In stead, intelligence postulated the irrationality of attempting to change society since society was nothing more than a sum total of an innate character, intelli gence. Lastly, intelligence was an ideological form that reflected the social rela tions of production. As such the practical application of the ideological concept, i.e., I.Q. testing, reinforced a consciousness corresponding to monopoly capital ist society.
U.S. Imperialism and Migration: The Effects on Mexican Women and Families
Authors: Gonzalez Rosalinda M. , Fernandez Raul A.
Published: March 2007

This article seeks to analyze the contemporary mass migrations of families and documented and undocumented workers from Mexico to the United States in terms of what is seen as the fundamental determining characteristic: monopoly capitalist domination of the U.S. economy and the attendent imperial ist domination of the Mexican economy. The preservation of semi-feudal back wardness in the Mexican countryside arising from foreign monopoly capitalist domination creates the conditions for the greatly cheapened reproduction of migrant labor-power via the intensive manual labor of women and the family working under rural, backward, preindustrial conditions. This in turn allows for the superexploitation of immigrant labor-power within U.S. industrial and agri cultural production, which begins to rely increasingly on variable capital under conditions resembling preindustrial production: dispersion of production, inten sive hand labor, sweatshops, etc. Historically, economically, and politically this is seen as representing reactionary and retrogressive trends and the growing decay of imperialism.
The Political Economy of Military Rule in Nigeria
Authors: Ohiorhenuan John F. E.
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the theme of the postcolonial state in the context of Nigeria under military rule. Rule by force of arms would appear to establish a strong primafacie case of "relative autonomy." Furthermore, the state was able to appropriate directly a large part of the economy's surplus in the form of tribute from the petroleum industry, especially since the 1973 oil crisis. Military rule in an oil revenue state provides a unique opportunity for examining the thesis that the state is relatively autonomous in a postcolonial context. It is shown that military power and oil revenue did give Nigerian rulers considerable discretion but that discretion had to be exercised within, and was therefore determined by, particular social relations of production. In the end, the interests of capital prevailed. The general validity of the autonomy of the postcolonial state thesis is doubtful.
A Critique of the Neo-Fisherian Consumption Function
Authors: Green Francis
Published: March 2007

This paper asserts the importance for radicals of stripping neoclassical economics of its apparent empiricist bases. It exemplifies this by presenting the results of a comprehensive review of the literature of the Permanent Income and Life Cycle Hypotheses. It concludes that tests fail to show their empirical superiority over alternative theories. The reason for their popularity is their implicit ideological function as part of the support for the neoclassical paradigm.
The Scientific Standing of Marx's Capital
Authors: Little Daniel
Published: March 2007

E. P. Thompson argues that Marx's ambition of providing a scientific theory of capitalism is inherently defective, and that this goal contributes to the implicit idealism which Thompson identifies in Althusser's Marxism. This article provides a defense of the scientific standing of Capital against Thompson's chief criticisms: that Capital attempts to reduce all of capitalist society to a set of economic categories; that Capital attempts to isolate the "economic" to the exclusion of the political or cultural aspects of society; and that Capital is a "conceptualist" work which attempts to discover truths about society on the basis of purely logical analysis of economic concepts. Thompson's criticisms of Capital are if anything more important than his criticisms of Althusserian Marxism. I argue that Capital is a rigorous work of empirical social science: it provides, an extensive and empirically d=faile description of the social relations-which define the economic structure of capitalism, and it offers a wealth of analytical efforts intended to work out the tendencies o1 development which these social relations impse on the economy as a whole. At t e same time f argue t at Capital is not a reductionist wor, because it is not intended to supi a theoretical reconstruction of the whole of capitalist society. In particular, Marx does not pretend to provide theories of politics, ideology, or culture in Capital, but rightly leaves these areas for future research. Finally, it will be argued that Marx's analysis rests upon a rigorous use of empirical data from contemporary British capitalism.
The Productivity Slowdown and the Fall in the U.S. Rate of Profit, 1947-76
Authors: Wolff Edward N.
Published: March 2007

I find that the general rate of profit in the United States economy remained fairly stable from 1947 to 1967 and then declined sharply between 1967 and 1976. I argue that the movement of the rate of profit over time is a result of two factors: (1) the rate of growth of labor productivity and (2) the rate of growth of the real wage. During the period from 1947 to 1967, the two moved in concert, while in the latter period real wage growth exceeded that of labor productivity. The decline in the profit rate after 1967 is thus a consequence of a profit squeeze, which in turn was induced primarily by the sharp slowdown in labor productivity growth. Though real wage growth also fell after 1967, it did not fall to the same degree, primarily because of large increases in social security contributions.
The Non-Capitalist Way of Development
Authors: Amirahmadi Hooshang
Published: March 2007

The "non-capitalist way of development" (NCWD) is proposed by development theorists from socialist bloc countries as a political economy alternative to capitalist and populist development strategies. NCWD (the theory and strategy and its proponents) offers a conception of development that goes beyond the prevailing socioeconomic determinism to include politics and class struggle as part of the development process in those least developed Third World countries where the "revolutionary democrats" hold state power. The NCWD strategy argues that if this leadership is "vigorously" supported by the parties of the working classes and by the socialist countries, it can bring about a non-capitalist transformation of the socioeconomic formation, as a result of which the objective and/or subjective conditions for a socialist revolution would be prepared.

I find the NCWD strategy more radical than its rivals with respect to its treatment of such issues as imperialism, internal politics and socioeconomic transformation. However, it suffers from a number of misconceptions, particularly about the nature of the impact of imperialism on the Third World, the class structure and conflict in these societies, the nature of the state in the post-national democratic revolutions, and the program it proposes for socioeconomic transformations. This paper exposes the conceptual framework of NCWD, examines its historical roots, critically evaluates its pros and cons and offers speculation for its reformulation.
Theories of the Great Depression: Why Did Profitability Matter?
Authors: Duménil Gerard , Glick Mark , Rangel Jose
Published: March 2007

This paper attempts to show that inadequate levels of profitability played an important role in the onset of the Great Depression. Three popular alternative views of the crash are first criticized: the Monopoly View, the Underconsumption Theory, and the Monetarist Explanation. In our opinion, the underlying cause of the crash was the instability at the end of the decade of the 1920s which resulted from an earlier decline in the rate of profit.
Democracy and Productivity in the Future American Economy
Authors: Ferleger Lou , Mandle Jay R.
Published: March 2007

Considering the failure of Reagonomics to restore United States economic competitiveness, this article advances a left strategy to accomplish that goal. The strategy involves controls on international capital mobility, a reduction in the military budget, a stimulative fiscal and monetary policy, and an incomes policy. With those in place full employment can be achieved; the condition which must be satisfied to create a high rate of productivity growth and to strengthen those struggling to achieve enhanced democratization and egalitarianism.
Corporate Form: A Unitary Theory of Technology, Property and Social Class
Authors: McDermott John
Published: March 2007

In corporate form, the constituting feature of the modern corporation, a top management monopolizing capitalist functions per se controls through financial and policy mechanisms a middle element of supervisors, engineers and other technicians and professionals who in turn control by administrative/technological means a work force which simply labors. Corporate form is simultaneously an ensemble of productive relationships, a property form, and the dynamic structure of capitalist accumulation, hence embodies the main class relationships of contemporary capitalism.
Labor's Share of Income in an Open Economy: The Case of Canada
Authors: Islam Sadequl
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the secular and cyclical behavior of labor's share of income in Canada. Some of the notable findings are: (a) labor's share of income in the whole economy shows an upward trend and a procyclical pattern; (b) the share of production workers' wages shows a downward trend and an acyclical behavior; and (c) labor's share of income is highly correlated with the profit rate over short-run cycles.
A Radical Economic Revision of the Transformation Problem
Authors: Naples Michele I.
Published: March 2007

The transformation problem results from extending Marxs analysis to include reproduction. Existing resolutions assume equilibrium and accept Ricardo's conclusion that production conditions in basics determine the profit rate. But capitalism cannot be shown to reach a Neo-Ricardian equilibrium. And the Ricardian basics theory of the profit rate is either a physical-standard theory of the profit rate or a capital-productivity theory. Without equilibrium, Marns exploitation theory of the profit rate is consistent with capitalist pricing and implies that capitalism cannot achieve long-run equilibrium, and decentralized pricing behavior can generate nominal-price movements as well as equalizing profit rates.
The Textile Industry in Tanzania
Authors: Rugumamu Sevenne
Published: March 2007

The paper addresses the dynamics behind foreign investment policy changes in Tanzania during the last two and a half decades. It is argued that the demand for foreign capital by the state and the subsequent conduct of transnational corporations and some multilateral institutions have combined to constantly shape the nature and character of the national investment policies. The paper also documents some of TNCs' defensive responses in the wake of stringent national regulatory policies. This paper concludes that the failure to regulate and control new forms of capital flight is yet another indicator of the limited capacity of a periphery state.
American Jewry and Bonacich's Middleman Minority Theory
Authors: Cherry Robert
Published: March 2007

This paper critiques Bonacich's application of her middleman minority theory to the American Jewish experience. American Jewish immigrants did not have a sojourner outlook nor did they shift to the intermediary positions that Bonacich's theory anticipates. In contrast to Bonacich's model, Jews accumulated human and physical capital as a result of their lack of a sojourner outlook and remained a predominantly working-class group prior to World War II. Rather than being clannish and hostile to progressive movements, Jews were assimilationist and supportive of unions and antiracist activities.
Development Theories and Development Strategies: An Alternative Theoretical Framework
Authors: Yaghmaian Behzad
Published: March 2007

The study of economic development in the Third World has been dominated by the comparison of import-substitution industrialization (ISI) and export-led industrialization as two "alternative strategies' of development. Using the theory of the internationalization of capital and Marx's expanded reproduction, I argue that ISI and export-led industrialization are two stages of the internationalization of production as opposed to two alternative strategies and that, in both cases, developing capitalist countries inherit a built-in instability in the process of accumulation.
Price Determination in Chapter X of Volume III of Marx's Capital
Authors: Lianos Theodore P. , Droucopoulos Vassilis
Published: March 2007

The argument of this paper is that, despite claims to the contrary, Marx provided the theoretical underpinnings necessary for the construction of a model of price determination. The paper shows how under competitive conditions the Marxian concepts of individual value, market value, market price, and price of production can become parts of a unified theory of price determination.
Socialism As It Was Always Meant To Be
Authors: Albert Michael , Hahnel Robin
Published: March 2007

We argue for the feasibility and desirability of a "third way" besides markets and authoritarian planning by (1) describing the main features of a model of "participatory planning," and (2) responding to objections that the system requires too many meetings, is too intrusive, misfocuses democratic energies, and lacks sufficient incentives.
A Critical View of Land Value Taxation as a Progressive Strategy for Urban Revitalization, Rational Land Use, and Tax Relief
Authors: Wyatt Michael D.
Published: March 2007

This paper reviews arguments for land value taxation (LVT) as a tool to stop urban sprawl, eliminate land speculation, reduce housing costs, and provide tax relief. It is found that LVT would increase, not lower land prices and would provide only a small incentive to building construction. LVT would not favorably affect the distribution of wealth, nor reduce housing costs. It could provide some residential tax relief, but less effectively than other methods such as a progressive property tax.
Postindustrial Welfare Policy: Just Say No to Women and Children
Authors: Schram Sanford F.
Published: March 2007

Recent changes in welfare policy underscore the continuation of persistent parallel tendencies to promote work by devaluing welfare and privilege the two-parent family over female-headed families. In this way, policy is integrally involved in perpetuating the problems it ostensibly is supposed to be attacking. Both conservatives and liberals have helped to promote this line of policymaking in ways which further threaten the well-being of poor women with children. In the current period, the decline in adequate paying jobs, the deterioration of needed services, and the decrease in the value of public assistance benefits force poor families to rely more than previously on an uneven, unreliable and inadequate system of privatized assistance. These practices are likely to continue the bias in favor of the two-parent family as the route out of poverty and are just as likely to accelerate the trend toward the "femininization of poverty."
The Breakdown of the U.S. Postwar System of Labor Relations: An Econometric Study
Authors: Nilsson Eric A.
Published: March 2007

The loss of U.S. international hegemony was the major underlying cause of the decline of the U.S. postwar system of labor relations (i.e., the "capital-labor accord"). A fall in the cost of job loss and a weakening of the Keynesian State contributed only a little to the breakdown of the accord. Further, the decline of the accord was hastened by opportunistic attacks by individual capitalists even though these attacks hurt capitalists as a class by weakening institutions that contributed to profitable accumulation.
Group Work with Sexually Abused Adolescent Girls
Authors: Dwivedi Kedar Nath , Brayne Elizabeth , Lovett Stuart
Published: March 2007

A disruptive and unruly atmosphere is characteristic of most groups of disturbed adolescents, especially those with a history of abuse. However, group treatment for sexually abused children and adolescents is seen as the cornerstone of an effective treatment programme for this condition. Difficulties in treatment are rather similar to those in cases of borderline syndrome. This article describes the experience of group work in Northampton as an attempt to confront some of these difficulties.
Analytic Group Therapy in Block Sessions: An Experience in Milan
Authors: Marrone Mario
Published: March 2007

Recent issues of Group Analysis have discussed what is now known as `block format' in group analysis. According to this model, the ninety- minute once-or twice-weekly sessions are replaced by blocks of sessions (ninety minutes each or longer), usually four per day, for two to five consecutive days, repeated at intervals of three weeks to six months. The on-going debate concerns two interrelated issues: (a) the advantages and disadvantages of the block model in training, and (b) its clinical and therapeutic viability.

Here I concentrate on the second issue, drawing in particular on my experience in Milan, Italy. I would like to demonstrate that this way of working with people in groups has therapeutic validity.
Chaos, Quanta and the Implicate Order. Can Advances in Mathematics and Physics Inform Our Work as Psychotherapists?
Authors: Read Tim
Published: March 2007

This paper explores parallels between modern science, mathematics and psychotherapy that may further a theoretical underpinning for psychotherapy. The paper focuses on chaos theory, strange attractors and fractal geometry; on Bohm's theory of the implicate order and finally on self-organizing systems and a general theory of mind.
The Formation of Objects in the Group Matrix: Reflections on Creative Therapy with Clay
Authors: Winship Gary , Haigh Rex
Published: March 2007

This article describes an experimental group experience where five people worked in silence for 20 minutes around a 2 ft square slate using clay as a medium for communication as part of a creative therapy session on an inpatient psychiatric ward. The interaction culminated in a group sculpt. It is suggested that the process of the sculpting may throw some light on the formation of objects in the unconscious group matrix. The article is intended as a contribution towards the debate about the potential symbiosis between group analysis and the creative therapies (Waller) as well as the basis for further investigation into Rey's question about the formation of objects — therein the formation of objects in the evolution of the group matrix.
The Suboptimal Group
Authors: Zelaskowski Peter
Published: March 2007

The suboptimal group is the group we can find ourselves conducting when trying to establish an analytic small group in the Foulkesian mould. I propose external and internal determinants and discuss some of the dynamics of this particularly challenging area of our work as group psychotherapists. I describe the suboptimal contexts of three groups. I suggest that the suboptimal group is psychotherapy straddling a variety of forms, calling on the full range of our skills, and, when persisted with, can have therapeutic value for those involved.
Data as representations: contextualizing qualitative and quantitative research strategies
Authors: Valsiner Jaan
Published: March 2007

The opposition between “quantitative” and “qualitative” perspectives in contemporary social science is an organizational limitation that directs discussions of the topic away from the main issue - the adequacy of any kind of data in respect to the phenomena they represent. This is particularly complicated if the phenomena are known to include inherent dynamics, are modifiable by the research encounter, or develop towards new states of existence. It is often assumed that qualitative and quantitative methods are mutually exclusive alternatives within a methodological process that is itself unified. The article shows that quantitative methods are derivates of a qualitative process of investigation, which itself can lead to the construction of inadequate data. The issue of the representativeness of the data - qualitative or quantitative - remains the central unresolved question for the methodology of the social sciences. Errors in representation can be diminished by correction of methods through direct (experiential) access to the phenomena, guided by the researcher's educated intuition.
Social science and the absence of nature: uncertainty and the reality of extremes
Authors: Grundmann Reiner , Stehr Nico
Published: March 2007

The elimination of nature from social science discourse is one of the most noteworthy features of the intellectual history of the social sciences of this century. Proposals to overcome the prohibition to (re-)introduce nature into the social sciences are on the increase, and practical and theoretical justifications are offered in support of them. In this article we critically examine several sociological approaches that have attempted to respond to the ecological crisis. In the end, these approaches remain overly tied to questions of epistemology and fail to offer a satisfactory alternative. On the basis of a discussion of theories and research in the sociology of science and work on decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, we propose to develop an alternative basis for “bringing nature” into social science discourse. We explore extreme climate events to illustrate how natural phenomena appear as real, yet at the same time constructed.
The new wars of truth: conflicts over science studies as differential modes of observation
Authors: Fuchs Stephan
Published: March 2007

The current debates and conflicts over constructivist science studies are, in part, conflicts over organizational territory and professional discretion. Once a distinction between several levels of observation is being drawn, however, seemingly incompatible approaches to truth, rationality, and objectivity can be reconciled. This reconciliation between science and its constructivist observers builds upon a moral order shared by all communications that expect trustworthiness and generalized disinterestedness. What this moral order cannot accommodate is not constructivism, but standpoint epistemologies that tie claims for privileged knowledge to ascriptive statuses. Such standpoint epistemologies turn science into ideological conflict, and jam the operation of objectivity.
Ethnographic text formation processes
Authors: Cronk Lee
Published: March 2007

Although the textualist critique of ethnography has challenged the possibility of science in cultural anthropology, insights provided by that critique are crucial for the further development of a scientific approach in the discipline. The value of the textualist critique of ethnography for the development of scientific ethnology can best be seen through an analogy with archaeology. Just as archaeologists' ability to reconstruct the past has been enhanced, not undermined, by a detailed understanding of archaeological site formation processes, so can ethnologists' ability to understand patterns within and among human societies be enhanced through a better understanding of ethnographic text formation processes. Key elements of the textualist critique of ethnography, including an emphasis on reflexivity, multivocality, and the process of writing ethnography, are great aids in the elucidation of ethnographic text formation processes.
Major social transformations and social mobility: the case of the transition to and from communism in Eastern Europe
Authors: Domański Henryk
Published: March 2007

This analysis compares the effects on social mobility of the political transformations in Eastern Europe which took place in the 1950s and the 1990s. The author examines absolute and relative mobility rates in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia based on data from national random samples taken in 1993 and 1994. Log-linear models are applied to mobility tables for four periods, 1948-52, 1952-63, 1983-88 and 1988-93, to determine change in the strength of association between occupational categories. Searching for the effect of the transition to communism the author compares occupational mobility between 1948 and 1952 with occupational mobility between 1952 and 1963. In order to assess the effect of the transition from communism, mobility between 1983 and 1988 is compared to mobility between 1988 and 1993. It was definitely the transition to communism in the late 1940s that released the more intensive flows between basic segments of the social structure compared to what occurred during the exit from communism in the 1990s. Using both the diagonals and the constant social fluidity models, the author finds no evidence of increasing openness in post-communist countries. Contrariwise, in the 1948-63 period some significant change occurred in relative mobility chances. The conclusion is that the “first transformation” gave rise to a turn in social fluidity on the “genotypical” level.
Theories of Totalitarianism and Modern Dictatorships: A Tentative Approach
Authors: Meuschel Sigrid
Published: March 2007

This essay discusses totalitarian theories with regard to their capacity to interpret in a normatively plausible way such different dictatorships as Nazism, Stalinism and post-Stalinism. In contrast to theoretical approaches which subsume all these regimes under a single concept (totalitarianism as total control), it argues in favor of discerning terror and ideology as main characteristics (totalitarianism as extermination). The focus on National Socialism and Stalinism needs further differentiation. Theories of bureaucratic structures and charismatic domination may help in distinguishing both regimes' very particularities; at the same time, however, they seem to fail relevant aspects of historical reality.
Memory and Imagination: Truth in Autobiography
Authors: Bauman Janina
Published: March 2007

What is the nature of the compulsion to life writing? How does the elongated project of writing a life change as it shifts moments and locales, and why do others respond so directly as readers of stories that are so specific and particular? Janina Bauman is known in English-speaking cultures for two books, Winter in the Morning (1986) and A Dream of Belonging (1988). The first covers her girlhood in the Warsaw ghetto, and escape; the second, more fictionalized, deals with the period leading up to exile from Poland after 1968. Janina Bauman spent 20 years of her life working in Polish film. This article reflects on the process of coming to autobiography, and making sense of the writing process and the reception process.
The Australian Middle Class and the Asia-Pacific Century
Authors: Martin Bill
Published: March 2007

In what directions is the Australian `new' middle class developing as we move towards the `Asia-Pacific century'? This paper reviews the basic structural features of the group during most of the 20th century, and suggests that a number of the arrangements which had delivered high status, material privileges and security to the group are becoming increasingly problematic. It examines evidence of the growing importance of Asian opportunities to the Australian middle class, and indications of responses to these. Interpreted in the context of contemporary accounts of transformations in identity formation processes, this evidence may signal the emergence of a significant new stratum within the Australian middle class. The paper concludes with some speculations about the significance of such a development.
Agency in Organizational Inequality
Authors: BALSER DEBORAH B.
Published: March 2007

This study takes an agency approach to inequality, examining how employees interpret organizational practices. By interpreting organizational behavior as discriminatory, employees mobilize the law and inject agency into inequality processes, albeit cognitively. Employees with disabilities interpreted discrimination based on their individual characteristics, organizational context and procedures, and their opportunities for training. Employees who worked in organizations that were focused on disability issues or who were offered opportunities for training were less likely to perceive discrimination. Employees who worked in organizations with grievance procedures were more likely to perceive discrimination. Disability-related human resource management structures played a symbolic role with little influence on employees' perceptions of discrimination.
Learning Real Feelings
Authors: Haas Jack
Published: March 2007

This paper describes how the author came to learn, through nine months of participant observation, how high steel ironworkers feel and act towards the dangers of their work. Ironworkers define much of their work situation as dangerous, and have developed, out of interactions about this common problem, collectively shared perspectives for enhancing control over the work situation. These processes of control include testing and assessing other workers, communicating these evaluations to others, and establishing worker reputations. Similar processes of control are applied to bosses, contractors, and others whose actions impinge on worker autonomy and self-interest. These processes of control are very analogous to those describing other dangerous occupations. The perception of danger by workers in quite different occupations leads them to develop similar mechanisms of control over their work fellows and environment.
Making Professionals into "Persons"
Authors: Kleinman Sherryl
Published: March 2007

What happens to people who are assuming a master status for which audiences have discrepant expectations, when socializers also emphasize that recruits take the desires of all audiences into account? A participant observation and in-depth interview study of ministry students in a humanistically oriented seminary revealed that these students received discrepant expectations for the professional identity from organizational personnel (the humanistic role) and members of the wider community (the traditional role). By advocating personal and egalitarian involvement with clients, socializers taught recruits to care about outsiders' expectations. As a result, recruits called into question the meaning of the professional identity, effected "double role distance," and took on an "ambivalent" identity. Students in humanistic schools of the personal service professions may experience a similar dilemma.
The Feminization of Public School Teaching
Authors: RICHARDSON JOHN G. , HATCHER BRENDA WOODEN
Published: March 2007

This article presents an explanation for the process of feminization of public school teaching in the United States between 1870 and 1920. Feminization of teaching is seen as generated by economic constraints increased by the formal definition of state school systems through enactment of compulsory attendance laws. Juxtaposed to school system needs to reduce costs were ideological and cultural restraints, rooted in the structure of preindustrial households and religious disestablishment, against the economic independence of women. Through regression and path analysis, the direct and indirect effects of predictors of proportion female in teaching are tested in a state-by-state analysis for 1870, 1880, 1890, and 1900.
The Worker-to-Job “Fit” Hypothesis
Authors: CASTON RICHARD J. , BRAITO RITA
Published: March 2007

A worker-to-job congruence model of a classic motivation theory was tested with weights applied to intrinsic and extrinsic work place factors reflecting the importance they held for individual respondents. A total of 401 registered nurses in a large Western metropolitan area of the United States served as the sample. The results indicated that when perceived importance of intrinsic factors are taken into account in a multivariate design, support is obtained for the contention that intrinsic, but not extrinsic, factors contribute to job satisfaction. The support for the contention, however, is strongest when intrinsic and extrinsic factors are both considered important to respondents. The implications of these findings for a better understanding of job satisfaction and for manipulations of intrinsic and extrinsic job factors are discussed.
Gender Differences in Job-Related Networks
Authors: CAMPBELL KAREN E.
Published: March 2007

Despite the conventional wisdom that employed women suffer by dint of their exclusion from “old boy” networks, there has been little investigation of gender differences in networks and their implications for occupational outcomes. This article represents a first step toward incorporating network concepts into analysis of gender-based occupational inequalities. In it, I document differences between the job-related networks of women and men in a sample of recent job changers in four white-collar occupations. Women know persons in fewer occupations than men; their networks are negatively affected by having children younger than 6, and by changing jobs in response to their spouses' mobility;men's networks are unaffected by these constraints.