bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion: Some Observations on Recent Trends in Education, Employment and the Labour Market
Authors: Brown Phillip
Published: June 2007

The dominant forms of cultural capital associated with middle class access to `bureaucratic' careers are being devalued due to credential inflation and changing patterns of symbolic control within employing organizations. At the same time, the demand for cultural capital in the reproduction of class location has increased in a context of volatile global markets, technological innovation, corporate restructuring, the marketisation of public services, and high unemployment. It will be argued that, in the competition for a livelihood in the 1990s, increasing class conflict is leading to significant changes within the `individualist' rules of exclusion (Parkin 1979) which are heightening the inherent tension within capitalist democracies between an ideological commitment to the creation of an `open' (if not equal) society and the desire to extend social privileges to family members. Although these observations must await detailed empirical investigation, it is suggested that they are likely to have important consequences for processes of class formation and enduring patterns of social inequality.
Restructuring Organisations, Changing People: Gender and Restructuring in Banking and Local Government
Authors: Halford Susan , Savage Mike
Published: June 2007

This paper contributes to debates about the changing nature of gender relations in employment by re-framing existing debates about economic restructuring and organisational theory. It draws upon research on current changes in British banking and local government to show how restructuring is concerned with changing the qualities of organisational members, and we demonstrate how this recognition offers a corrective to existing views of restructuring. We explore how current forms of restructuring appear to be undermining traditional forms of managerial masculinity and allow some scope for women to move into senior jobs, but also consider how new forms of masculinity are emerging. Thus we illustrate our argument that restructuring is an on-going and human process open to contestation and manipulation. We conclude by emphasising that, since restructuring should not simply be seen as a process administered from the top, there is inevitably a degree of indeterminacy about how gender is implicated in current restructuring processes.
Gender Segregation in Societal Context
Authors: Rubery Jill , Fagan Colette
Published: June 2007

Current controversies over indices of segregation emphasise the issue of measuring the level of segregation at the expense of analysis of the meaning of segregation. Comparative research into patterns of segregation across European member states has revealed that there is some evidence of similarities in patterns and trends, but to understand their significance for women's employment outcomes an appreciation of differences in the structural organisation of labour markets and in `gender regimes' is required. A dynamic analysis is also necessary, in which not only the pattern of segregation, but also the nature of jobs and rewards is subject to change. Linking gender segregation research more closely to labour market outcomes reveals the need for equal opportunities policies to be closely linked to the specific systems of labour market organisation in European member states.
It Ain't What You do, it's the Way that You do it: Production Organisation and Skill Utilisation in Commercial Vehicles
Authors: Thompson Paul , Wallace Terry , Flecker Jorg , Ahlstrand Roland
Published: June 2007

New paradigms of work organisation espousing a radical break in production systems assert a natural identity between advanced manufacturing and utilisation of skilled labour. Using findings from a comparative project on the commercial vehicle industry in Sweden, Austria and the UK, the paper aims to unpack the theory and practice of new forms of production. It does identify common tendencies within advanced manufacturing, notably a growth in cognitive and extra-functional abilities, normally within a team working context. But this remains distinct from any version of craft or professional labour and there are marked national differences in managerial preferences of the type of labour perceived to be necessary for more flexible work organisation. The emphasis is on varied routes to the creation of skilled labour, with an extended view of skill formation that focuses on what firms do in the labour process as well as what the state does in education and training.
Foreign Fuel, Foreign Ships and Disorganised Trade Unionism: An Alternative Interpretation of the Defeat of the Miners in 1984-5
Authors: Lane Tony
Published: June 2007

The defeat of the miners' strike has been variously attributed to the role of the state, inappropriate and ill-conceived tactics used by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and bureaucratic trade union practices. Through a detailed analysis of the magnitude of fuel imports and how they were organised, this paper argues that the strike was defeated by the ability of the major energy users to substitute without hindrance imported coal and oil for domestically-produced coal. It is further argued that if the NUM had been well-organised it would have been able to predict the evasive logistics of the energy users and adjusted its tactics. The organisational defects of the NUM are seen as a manifestation of structured organisational inadequacies in British trade unions.
The Context-Dependent Nature of the Gendering of Technical Work: A Case Study of Work in a Scientific Laboratory
Authors: Packer Kathryn
Published: June 2007

This paper looks at the context-dependent nature of the gendering of technology. The case study reported on explores the relationship between scientists and machines - both inside and outside - the laboratory, and considers how this affects the gender division of labour in the company concerned. The stereotypical view, of women as technophobic and men as technophilic, is challenged. However, the results show how the dominant masculinised discourse around technology is implicated in the under-representation of women in senior positions. The paper argues that, in addition to structural analysis of occupational segregation, an understanding of the dynamics of gender symbolism and identity also need to be incorporated into the debate.
Vocabularies of Motive and the `New' Management
Authors: Webb Janette
Published: June 2007

The paper examines the significance of Total Quality Management (TQM) as a new vocabulary of motive (Wright Mills 1940) for management. The relationship between such a vocabulary and substantive changes in workplace relations is examined by means of case study analysis of three firms: a disk drive manufacturer, a computer systems manufacturer and a drinks manufacturer. TQM was presented as a device for tackling the perceived dysfunctions of bureaucracy, and new forms of open management, teamwork, continuous improvement and partnership between customers and suppliers were espoused in each case. The specific application of TQM varied however and those changes introduced did not replace bureaucratic principles of standardisation, differentiation and control through a single chain of command. Nor was the historical tension between the technical/co-ordinating functions of management and the role of management in controlling and motivating labour overcome. TQM was used by senior management as a means of restructuring management roles, justifying increased corporate control and intensifying work. Overall it appeared to reinforce instrumental rationality and seems unlikely to contribute to authentic empowerment at work.
Being Your Own Boss: Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Phizacklea Annie , Ram Monder
Published: June 2007

Exploring the notion that business activities are embedded in social relations this small scale study of 10 ethnic minority businesses in Lyon, France matched with 10 minority businesses in Birmingham, UK questions the degree of `choice' or `preference' being exercised by these entrepreneurs in their dealings with family and co-ethnics. Using qualitative methods the study concludes that many of these choices are shaped by a hostile environment which operates in very similar ways in the two countries despite very different political cultures.
`Neither One Thing Nor the Other': Compulsory Competitive Tendering and Southburgh Cleansing Services
Authors: McIntosh Ian , Broderick John
Published: June 2007

The 1988 Local Government Act greatly extended compulsory competitive tendering within local authorities. This paper adds to our understanding of changes to local government work organisation since the introduction of CCT through a case study of `Southburgh' cleansing section - one of the first cleansing departments in the UK to open its services out to tender. We also provide an ethnographic input into current sociological debates about work such as putative moves towards flexibility and post-Fordism. The study points up the indeterminate nature of many of the changes that have taken place at Southburgh and calls for more detailed studies in order to fill out our understanding of the impact of competitive pressures within local government.
Patterns of Employment, Gender and Pensions: The Effect of Work History on Older Women's Non-State Pensions
Authors: Ginn Jay , Arber Sara
Published: June 2007

Gender inequality of income in later life is linked to earlier employment through the major role of occupational and personal pensions. In addition to women's lower earnings, their diverse patterns of employment, in terms of the timing of periods of full-time, part-time and non-employment, may affect non-state pension income.

In this paper, work history data from the 1988 OPCS Retirement and Retirement Plans Survey is used, first to identify distinct patterns of older women's lifetime employment and relate these to socio-economic and marital status. Second, we analyse the receipt and amount of occupational and personal pensions for women over state pension age according to their pattern of lifetime employment.

We show that older women's likelihood of receiving non-state pension income and the amount received were closely related to their employment pattern, especially whether their employment had been mainly full time or not. However, even older women with full time and mainly continuous employment, who represent an elite minority, were disadvantaged in non-state pension income compared with men. Women's full-time employment in mid-life had a disproportionate influence in improving likelihood of pension entitlement compared with earlier employment.
(Only) Just-In-Time: Japanisation and the `Non-Learning' Firm
Authors: Roper Ian , Prabhu Vas , Van Zwanenberg Nigel
Published: June 2007

This article examines the events within a small manufacturing organisation during a period of `adoption' by a larger customer organisation. The focus of the study concerns the nature and level of adaptation to Japanese manufacturing methods through the customer's influence. The particular circumstances of the two companies at the outset was an ideal scenario for what just-in-time lIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM) protagonists have termed `supplier adoption' and what others have defined as `emulation' within a process of `Japanisation'. The findings indicate that while there are pressures in working for a JIT customer, the outcome is not the mere reciprocation of JIT methodology within a supplier. Reasons for this lack of adaptation are proposed and implications for the debate on Japanisation and the supply-chain labour process are discussed.
The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality
Authors: Hansen Marianne Nordli
Published: June 2007

Comparative studies of sex segregation indicate that the levels in the Scandinavian countries are high, especially in Norway. Observers tend to link this to various aspects of the social democratic welfare state. This article examines the thesis that the public sector in the Scandinavian welfare state model is an attractive employer for women, with regard to both working conditions and wages. The data consist of a sample from the 1990 Norwegian population census of men and women between the age of 40 and 45. The economic consequences of the same occupational choices are shown to vary for men and women. The men have greater earnings advantages if they choose occupations in the private sector with low proportions of women. The earnings advantages for women in such occupations, compared to women in public sector occupations, are far lower. Further, the earnings of women in private sector male-dominated occupations are influenced by their childcare responsibilities. The higher the childcare responsibilities, the lower the earnings. No effects of childcare responsibilities are found among women in public sector occupations with large proportions of men. These findings thus indicate that the size and the organisation of the public sector in Scandinavia contributes to sex segregation in the labour market.
Balancing Home and Employment: Stress Reported by Social Services Staff
Authors: Ginn Jay , Sandell Jane
Published: June 2007

The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how stress from the combined responsibilities of home and employment varies according to the family circumstances and employment characteristics of women and men.

For women, family responsibilities are associated with shorter hours of employment and lower occupational achievement, whereas for men, marriage is a career asset. Yet the reason for women's underachievement is disputed: some researchers claim that women's part-time work in low-paid, low-status jobs represent women's voluntary choice. Others argue that women's employment options are constrained by their domestic responsibilities; and that reducing hours of work and modifying career aspirations may represent one way of balancing home and employment so as to minimise stress.

Data are used from the National Institute of Social Work (NISW) Workforce Survey of over 1000 women and men in four broad types of work in the social service departments of five English local authorities. Information is available on staff's perception of stress from combining paid and unpaid roles. We examine whether there are gender differences in reported stress among those who have structurally similar domestic circumstances; whether gender differences in stress can be explained in terms of occupational segregation and hours of employment; and whether the lower stress reported by part-time employees is independent of family responsibilities and type of occupation. A key concern is to assess whether part-time employment enables women with family responsibilities to avoid high levels of stress.

There was increased stress on those staff with dependent children or with informal caring commitments. Men reported higher stress than women, irrespective of family circumstances, but the difference disappeared once account was taken of type of work and hours. Family responsibilities and employment characteristics had independent effects on stress levels. Type of work, in terms of level of responsibility, had more influence on stress than hours worked. Among full-time non-manual staff, women with family responsibilities experienced more stress than equivalent men, suggesting that women's occupational advancement is achieved at greater cost in terms of stress than men's.
Ethnic Differences in Women's Employment
Authors: Holdsworth Clare , Dale Angela
Published: June 2007

This paper uses the 1 per cent household file from the Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) for the 1991 Census and the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS) to explore variations in patterns of employment and occupational attainment among women from different ethnic groups. The analysis of the SARs focuses on the impact of lifecycle events on women's employment status and economic activity. The presence of a partner is identified as having the greatest impact on Pakinstani and Bangladeshi women's employment, while the presence of a pre-school child is most significant for White women's economic activity. White women also have a higher rate of part-time worlding than all other ethnic groups. These patterns are for malised in two models, one for economic activity and a second for full-time/part-time work. The LS is used to investigate the impact of these employment patterns on women's occupational attainment over a ten-year period. The analysis demonstrates that, while minority ethnic women in nonmanual occupations have similar longitudinal occupational profiles to White women, those in manual occupations fare worse than their White counterparts, despite the fact that a larger propotion of minority ethnic women are in fill-time employment.
The Transformation of Work Processes in Emergent Capitalism: The Case of Hungary'
Authors: Czaban Laszlo , Whitley Richard
Published: June 2007

The removal of state support for enterprises and the intensification of competition following the liberalisation of markets in the former state socialist societies of Eastern Europe were expected to result in the major rationalization of employment and work organisation, especially where ownership and control had changed. This study of 271 production workers in 13 Hungarian enterprises shows that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the most severe financial difficulties had reduced total employment the most in the early 1990s, and that both this group of companies and those now privately controlled had reduced the proportion of indirect support workers more than had SOEs in better financial conditions and/or which were still being supported by the state. Production workers in the private firms also had more varied jobs, especially skilled ones, and more task discretion than most of those in SOEs. In general, both the crisis SOEs and the private firms distinguished more strongly between skilled workers and team leaders and less-skilled workers in terms of the jobs they had, their discretion over task performance, supervisor control and involvement than did the more financially stable SOEs. Most workers in this last group of companies were still organised in the `quasi-Taylorised' work systems with substantial delegated autonomy from supervisors characteristic of state socialism.
Institutional Transference and Changing Workplace Relations in Post Unification East Germany: A Case Study of Secondary Education Teachers
Authors: Upchurch Martin
Published: June 2007

German Unification in 1990 was processed by the imposition of the `western' institutional framework on the former east. Legal, administrative and fiscal systems were transferred as part of the Unification Treaty together with the West German industrial relations machinery of co-determination in collective bargaining and participation at the level of the workplace. However the fact that the two Germanies had grown in different economic, social and ideological environments over the previous 40 years raises questions about the viability of such institutional transference. Feelings of `colonisation' and frustrated expectations have been identified as western dominance of officialdom and disappointment at the product of Unification has emerged in the east. Within the public sector these problems have been accompanied with ideological purges of public servants in social policy and education after investigation of past involvement with the former GDR secret police network.

This article examines institutional transference with reference to the case of secondary education teachers. Disputes over wage equalisation, job cuts and non-recognition of former GDR teaching qualifications are examined together with attitudes of classroom teachers to the changing nature of their work, their status as teachers and their involvement as trade union participants in the German participatory system of industrial relations.
Between Shock Absorption and Continuous Improvement: Supervisors and Technicians in Fiat `Integrated Factory'
Authors: Bonazzi Giuseppe
Published: June 2007

The results of fieldwork research by the shadowing method on two supervisory roles in the Fiat plant of Mirafiori (Turin) are discussed. The roles are those of UTE leader and UTE technologist, neither of which existed before the advent of the cellular-manufacturing inspired `Integrated Factory'. UTE (Unitd Tecnologica Elementare) is the basic cell in the new production regime. Whereas the UTE leader is a line figure in the production process, the UTE technologist is a staff figure in charge of the search for innovation and improvement. The main question addressed is: to what extent are UTE leaders and technologists able to go beyond the role of `shock absorber' (ex post elimination of anomalies) and implement continuous improvement to avoid anomalies ex ante? A number of different situations emerge as the result of the interweaving between technological constraints and supervisors' capacity to manage the flow of events. Two main phenomena were observed: (a) a bifurcation between UTEs in which the high frequency of anomalies compels supervisors into a mere function of shock absorbers, and UTEs in which the low frequency of anomalies generates slack time that is devoted to improvement activities, with a snowball effect leading to further reduction of anomalies; (b) the socially constructed nature of anomalies, whose relevance is always related to pre-established degrees of ordinariness, reflected in the measures available to deal with them.
`Pioneers Behind Our Own Front Doors': Towards Greater Balance in the Organisation of Work in Partnerships
Authors: Dunne Gillian A.
Published: June 2007

The seemingly intransigent nature of gender inequalities in the organisation of work has led to a somewhat gloomy portrayal of what is possible. Women's increased labour market participation has led to neither parity with men in terms of earnings and status nor a corresponding re-negotiation of labour in the home. Theorising on gender and work, however, tends to assume that workers, parents and households are heterosexual. This paper extends debate by considering the role of sexual identity for shaping the experience of work. It focuses on divisions of labour between lesbian women who are parenting together, and compares their arrangements with parents more generally. It seeks to illuminate what is achievable when actors are informed by broadly similar gender ideologies and negotiate from a position of gender parity in terms of power.
Gender Relations and Employment: The Impact of Occupation
Authors: Crompton Rosemary , Harris Fiona
Published: June 2007

This paper investigates aspects of the changes brought about by women's continuing entry into paid employment, particularly in higher-level occupations. We will argue that, despite recent criticisms, the occupational structure still remains a useful framework through which to examine processes of social change. We will demonstrate our arguments by drawing on biographical interviews carried out with women doctors and bankers in four different countries. This evidence suggests that there are systematic differences in family building, and in the domestic division of labour, between women in these two occupations. These differences relate to the characteristics of `professional', as compared to `managerial', occupations. Finally, we discuss the wider implications of our findings.
Agency-Freedom and Option-Freedom
Authors: Pettit Philip
Published: June 2007

The recent debates about the nature of social freedom, understood in a broadly negative way, have generated three main views of the topic: these represent freedom respectively as non-limitation, non-interference and non-domination. The participants in these debates often go different ways, however, because they address different topics under common names, not because they hold different intuitions on common topics. Social freedom is sometimes understood as option-freedom, sometimes as agency-freedom and the different directions taken by the theories can often be explained by their addressing freedom in one sense, then in another. The non-limitation approach focuses primarily on option-freedom, the non-domination approach on agency-freedom, whereas the representation of freedom as non-interference seems to spring from a failure to resolve the focus decisively on one target or another.
On Women and Honor in the Testament of Job
Authors: Kugler Robert A. , Rohrbaugh Richard L.
Published: June 2007

A variety of explanations has been offered for the prominent role women play in the Testament of Job. This article argues that the women should be understood within the context of the Testament’s larger theme of prescribing a response to sudden loss of wealth and honor. The Testament serves as a lesson on the transience of acquired honor in contrast to the permanence of honor ascribed by God. The women of the account were essential to this lesson’s clarity, epitomizing both of its parts: the anxieties and failures of the Egyptians Sitidos and the maidservant embody the futility of clinging to acquired honor and the fate of Job’s Israelite daughters signals the merit of trusting in honor ascribed by God.
The Text of Joseph and Aseneth Reconsidered
Authors: Burchard Christoph
Published: June 2007

Research into Joseph and Aseneth has two forms of text at its disposal, the ‘short text’ reconstructed from one manuscript family by M. Philonenko (Joseph et Aséneth [1968], with French translation) and the ‘long text’ based on the entire evidence by C. Burchard (1979, best accessible in his Gesammelte Studien zu Joseph und Aseneth [1996]). Subsequent translators chose the short text, most interpreters preferred the long one. Recently Angelika Standhartinger (Das Frauenbild im Judentum der hellenistischen Zeit [1995]) and R.S. Kraemer (When Aseneth Met Joseph [1998]) independently of each other tried to turn the tide in favour of the short text. The present article introduces their works and attempts to show why the long text remains the better option. The last section presents new textual insights and ends with an outlook on the full-blown edition of the long text which appeared after the article was submitted to the editor (C. Burchard assisted by C. Burfeind and U.B. Fink, Joseph und Aseneth [2003]).
Perceptions of Oil in Early Judaism and the Meal Formula in Joseph and Aseneth
Authors: Chesnutt Randall D.
Published: June 2007

Oil of anointing has been thought out of place in the triadic meal formula in Joseph and Aseneth. This study addresses the problem by examining certain perceptions of oil in early Judaism and their relationship to Jewish attitudes toward food and drink. In various ancient Jewish sources, oil ranks with food and drink as those items deemed most vulnerable to pagan defilement, and conversely, if used properly, as representative items to express a distinctive Jewish identity. Recognizing these perceptions of oil vitiates Joseph and Aseneth’s otherwise problematic placement of right and wrong ointment alongside right and wrong bread and cup in a triadic formula that sets the proper use of these staples over against their usage by outsiders and distinguishes the worshiper of God from the idolater.
Sweet Mercy Metropolis: Interpreting Aseneth’s Honeycomb
Authors: Portier-Young Anathea E.
Published: June 2007

In the ancient Jewish romance of Joseph and Aseneth, the Egyptian maiden Aseneth eats from a life-giving honeycomb. In partaking of the honeycomb, she is transformed into Joseph’s eternal bride and a City of Refuge. This essay explores the significance of the honeycomb through close analysis of the text of Joseph and Aseneth in comparison with the use of honey and honeycomb imagery in the Septuagint. Aseneth equates the sweetness of God with God’s capacity for mercy. The honeycomb thus proves a fitting medium for imparting this mercy to Aseneth and to others through her. After she has partaken of its substance, and the bees have constructed a second honeycomb upon her lips, she is at last made pure and transformed into an agent of divine mercy for others, modeling an ethic of mercy that elevates the practice of forgiveness above the exercise of vengeance.
Men and Women as Angels in Joseph and Aseneth
Authors: Brooke George J.
Published: June 2007

This article compares the understanding of angels in the sectarian scrolls from Qumran with the angelomorphism of Joseph and Aseneth. The sectarian Qumran scrolls are used as a comparator with Joseph and Aseneth because they are all clearly Jewish and predate the fall of the Temple in 70 CE. For the Qumran texts the views of D. Dimant (1996), B. Frennesson (1999) and C.H.T. Fletcher-Louis (2002) stress the communion of the community with the angels and even the possibility of human angelomorphism. When set alongside the angelic transformations of Joseph, Aseneth and Jacob as described in Joseph and Aseneth, it is possible to argue that this dominant feature of the narrative, especially Aseneth’s ‘conversion’, helps to date the text to a similar time as the sectarian scrolls over against the fourth-century CE date argued for by R.S. Kraemer, who misrepresents as an adjuration Aseneth’s prayer leading to her conversion.
Being a Christian Socialist: Problems of What to Say, When and How to Say It
Authors: Smith Graeme
Published: June 2007

Between 1993 and 1998 I served as magazine editor and then publications officer for the Christian Socialist Movement. The article reflects on this experience and in particular the attempt to relate theological ideas to political activity. It is argued that theological ideas were less important than political allegiances. This said, theological ideas did help motivate people to become involved in politics and offer general ideological direction especially through the notion of an eschatological vision. This type of theological reflection tended to support those who were critical of the New Labour project. What seemed to be lacking was a theology of governance and so in the final section some consideration is given to the issues for this type of theology.
A Certain Creative Recklessness: Ronald Preston and Christian Feminist Ethics
Authors: Stanton Helen
Published: June 2007

Ronald Preston wrote little of feminism, and feminism appears to have ignored Preston. There is much, however, in Preston's work which feminists would have found sympathetic, as well as some areas for acute disagreement. This article discusses what Preston did write about feminism, and goes on to examine areas of common approach: the hermeneutic of suspicion, social ethics, and a priori commitments. It also, briefly, discusses areas of disagreement: common consensus, universalism, and eschatological realism. It ends with the question of why Preston did not engage more fully with the radical changes in the position of women which occurred during his lifetime.
But Was It Meant to Be a Joke Legacy? Ronald Preston as Heir to William Temple
Authors: Dackson Wendy
Published: June 2007

The purpose of this article is to examine and challenge the assumption that the theological legacy of Archbishop William Temple is best continued in the work of Ronald Preston. Preston's concerns in the areas of social ethics and ecumenical relations, as well as his championing of middle axioms, demonstrate his indebtedness to Temple's influence. However, a closer examination of the doctrinal foundations of Preston's social and ecumenical thought did not display a deep understanding of Temple's thought. This is most noticeable in the area of ecclesiology. If Preston had not dismissed Temple's earlier works in favour of the 1942 Christianity and Social Order, he might have avoided developing a theory of the church whose being does not support the tasks Preston requires it to do.
Faith in the Global Economic System
Authors: Taylor Michael H.
Published: June 2007

This article raises the issue of confidence in the global system, especially in its ability to deliver the goods: both material and moral. It reflects our concern, and Ronald Preston's concern, that faith insights should be incorporated into the substance of our economic policies. In response, two discrete but inter-related strategies are pursued. The first is called ‘radical participation seeking consensus’. The second is the constant effort at many levels to balance and counterbalance power. Without the one we shall not draw out the wisdom we require. Without the other, before we even seek that wisdom, we shall demonstrate that we are not wise.
The Scope of Public Theology
Authors: Forrester Duncan B.
Published: June 2007

This article examines the changing scope and method of ecumenical public theology from the World Missionary Conference of 1910 until the present. Most changes were made in response to the changing ideological and political contexts. The collapse of liberalism and the social gospel was followed by a type of confessional ethics which arose directly out of the German Church Struggle. In opposition to this there emerged a realist ecumenical social ethics, much indebted to Reinhold Niebuhr, and of Ronald Preston. This type of public theology and its distinctive ‘middle axiom’ method are examined and contrasted with the more recent public theologies which were influenced by liberation theology and grassroots movements. It is suggested that the ending of the Cold War and the fundamental changes that have taken place since September 11 2001 present a radically new kind of challenge to public theology.
Scottish Civil Society and Devolution: The New Case for Ronald Preston's Defence of Middle Axioms
Authors: Storrar William F.
Published: June 2007

Ronald Preston defended the middle axiom approach to doing Christian social ethics developed by J. H. Oldham for the 1937 ‘Life and Work’ conference. Preston argued that middle axioms continue to offer the churches a relevant ecumenical method. Middle axions has since been subject to fundamental criticism by ethicists such as Duncan Forrester. It will be argued that a case study of the Church of Scotland's contribution to the devolution debate, as part of Scottish civil society, supports Preston's defence of the middle axiom approach as a relevant form of political engagement in the new context of local-global politics.
Junkspace: Theology after Monumentality
Authors: Magee Neal E.
Published: June 2007

This article addresses Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas's notion of ‘Junkspace’ Š infinitely reconfigurable, physical space that is always-already in transition, perpetually in a state of becoming Š and its implications for theology. Junkspace is the logical result of a culture in which ‘shopping’ is the last public activity. All public institutions Š churches, museums, the internet, hospitals, universities and airports Š increasingly are drawn into this framework. While this schema represents the suburban desire for control and predictability, it consequently flattens intellectual terrain. In other words, we have come to the point of shopping for politics, knowledge, ideology and theology. Rather than critique this hypothesis, the article explores its possibilities for new understandings of the secular, our desire for ‘the new’, and our need to intentionally forget or disavow. I argue that Junkspace may serve as a promising new metaphorical lens for theological reflection, which is now rendered provisional, incomplete, and migratory.
Emotions and Christian Ethics: A Reassessment
Authors: Wynn Mark
Published: June 2007

In recent years there have been various attempts to relate theories of emotion to the concerns of Christian ethics. In this article, I consider two such attempts, those of Daniel Maguire and Paul Lauritzen, and thereby identify five ways in which a theory of emotion might in principle contribute to the formulation of a Christian ethic. I then argue that some recent developments in theoretical reflection on the emotions, especially the idea that feelings may be world-directed in their own right, enable these five points of connection to be stated with new clarity and cogency. The article concludes that a theory of emotion can help to articulate the following claims: love is properly a cardinal concept for ethical theory; there are specifically Christian emotions, which make possible a specifically Christian moral personality; religious faith (informed by ‘real assent’) is a cognitive state which is of its nature motivationally effective.
Transferring responsibility from an international NGO to local government: experience from the Yala Urban Health Programme, Nepal
Authors: Allaby Martin , Preston Christine
Published: June 2007

This article describes the response of the Yala Urban Health Programme and its predecessors to urban health problems in Patan, Nepal, over 20 years. The initial response was to take responsibility for filling the gap in essential services; however, since 1998, the response has changed, to become an eight-year phased transfer of responsibility to local government, with the following goal: “To improve the health of all in Patan, particularly the poor and marginalized, by establishing an effective, accessible and sustainable primary health care system. This will be a public–private–NGO partnership coordinated by the city council.” Six years into the process, there are encouraging signs that local government will indeed take up the challenge of coordinating essential health services for the city. We describe here the factors we believe have contributed to a successful handover, some of the problems encountered so far and the uncertainties that remain. Perhaps the most important factor for success is that leaders in the international NGO and the municipality have been willing to take risks. By modelling an attitude of service and valuing the service given by others, the balance of risk may have been tipped in favour of success.
Ensuring the right to the city: pro-poor housing, urban development and tenure legalization in São Paulo, Brazil
Authors: Budds Jessica , Teixeira Paulo ,   SEHAB
Published: June 2007

São Paulo is one of Latin America’s most modern and developed cities, yet around one-third of its 10 million inhabitants live in poor-quality housing in sub-standard settlements. This paper describes the response of the São Paulo municipal government that took office in 2001. Through its Secretariat of Housing and Urban Development, it designed a new policy framework with a strong emphasis on improving the quantity and quality of housing for low-income groups. Supported by new legislation, financial instruments and partnerships with the private sector, the mainstays of the new policy are integrated housing and urban development, modernization of the administrative system, and public participation in all decision-making and implementation processes. The programmes centre on upgrading and legalizing land tenure in informal settlements, and regeneration of the city centre. The new focus on valuing the investments that low-income groups have already made in their housing and settlements has proved to be more cost-effective than previous interventions, leading to improvements on an impressive scale.
Towards a pro-poor framework for slum upgrading in Mumbai, India
Authors: Burra Sundar
Published: June 2007

This paper examines the institutional framework and financial mechanisms for “slum” upgrading in Mumbai, including the use of Transferable Development Rights (TDR), and assesses their strengths and limitations. Although recent innovations through the Slum Redevelopment Authority did not produce the hoped-for scale of slum improvements, it showed more effective possibilities for the future. The paper discusses the historical relationship between the central, state and local governments and slum communities, and the evolution of policies that have affected slum dwellers from the 1950s to the present. It also describes the opportunities that the institutional and legal framework provided for community-driven approaches by the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) and Mahila Milan. This includes a discussion of how these approaches were financed and of the strategies of engagement used by urban poor federations with the state, the private sector (especially banks) and the World Bank. The paper also identifies the changes needed to make pro-poor slum upgrading more effective and capable of reaching a much larger scale.
The growing problem of forced evictions and the crucial importance of community-based, locally appropriate alternatives
Authors: du Plessis Jean
Published: June 2007

This paper outlines the unprecedented scale of forced evictions taking place around the world and the justifications used for these (usually to serve “the public good” or make a city more “efficient”). It also outlines the disastrous consequences for those evicted and how these evictions run counter to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The paper also presents case studies from Johannesburg, Bangkok and Accra, to explore what underlies eviction pressures. In all three, the “public good” is invoked to justify large-scale evictions, but it is not clear that these evictions will actually serve the public good. Furthermore, in all three cases, the government authorities have failed to engage with those threatened with eviction. The paper ends with some examples of constructive engagement between squatters and government authorities, and of the kinds of institutional frameworks that encourage this – but notes that these are too few to turn around the eviction trends.
Urban development discourses, environmental management and public participation: the case of the Mae Kha canal in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Authors: Ribeiro Gustavo , Srisuwan Angunthip
Published: June 2007

This paper discusses issues of political influence and power struggles in connection with environmental projects, in the context of a low-income settlement in the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. This low-income settlement has been included in the interventions of four different projects/programmes in the last five years: a community-driven initiative implemented with the support of a public organization and an NGO; the Chiang Mai 30-year master plan designed by architectural consultants to Chiang Mai municipality; a project undertaken by the Department of Town Planning within Chiang Mai provincial government, following an initiative by the prime minister, Mr Taksin Shinawatra; and an historic preservation project being implemented by the National Department of Fine Arts.
Recycling the ‘Colonial Harem’? Women in Postcards from French Indochina
Authors: Yee Jennifer
Published: June 2007

While there has been relatively little serious analysis of colonial postcards, Malek Alloula’s influential book Le Harem colonial put forward a reading of such postcards from the early 1900s as perpetuating a harem fantasy through which French male colonists viewed North Africa. This article analyses a selection of postcards of women from France’s Indochinese colonies at the same period, and suggests that Alloula’s thesis does not fit them in a comparable way. The Indochinese postcards borrow frames of reference from pre-existing pictorial styles, taken sometimes from the harem but also from chinoiserie and contemporary European photographic portraiture; rather than portraying a single vision of the ‘Other’ they oscillate between showing the Indochinese woman as ‘same’ and ‘different’. And these images appear to have been addressed primarily to a female collector, suggesting an intended reading rather removed from Alloula’s vision of colonial postcards as pornography.
Knowledge and Resistance: Black Women Talk about Racism in the Netherlands and the USA
Authors: Essed Philomena
Published: June 2007

This paper presents cross-cultural data gathered in extensive interviews with black women in the US and in the Netherlands. The main issue concerns relations between knowledge and resistance. More specifically, attention is paid to the contents and structure of black women's knowledge of racism and modes of knowledge acquisition. It is argued that different modes and political contexts of acquisition have an impact on everyday `theories' of racism. For that purpose perceptions of racism based upon a `paternalistic' model of race relations (Netherlands) are compared to perceptions based upon a `conflict' model of race relations (US). These different models imply different perceptions of resistance.
First-Time Mothers' Accounts of Inequality in the Division of Labour
Authors: Croghan Rosaleen
Published: June 2007

The early months of motherhood represent an acute transitional period in which mothers are thrown back upon their intimate relationships with their spouse or sexual partner. The research reported here looks at the experience of mothering for a group of mothers from both stable and disrupted backgrounds using a time-use diary and in-depth interviews. It examines the relationship between the structural and environmental factors in these women's lives, and their experience of support and stress in the early months of first-time motherhood. The focus is upon gender-based inequality in the division of labour in early parenting and the way in which mothers come to terms with this. Mothers' accounts of the relative allocation of power and distribution of resources within the household are indicative of their struggle to come to terms with structural gender imbalances within the context of a close, and notionally reciprocal, relationship. Gender relationships are seen as a competition for scarce resources in which mothers are hampered by current sex-role ideology which characterizes motherhood as intrinsically rewarding and the fathers' contribution as an optional extra.
Is there Empirical Justification for the Category of `Self-Defeating Personality Disorder'?
Authors: Caplan Paula J. , Gans Maureen
Published: June 2007

The empirical literature on Self-Defeating Personality Disorder (SDPD) that has appeared since the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-III-R was published is reviewed from several standpoints, including the dangers it poses to women by pathologizing them. It is concluded that there is a paucity of research; that some of what exists is seriously flawed methodologically; that some shows that SDPD criteria lack face validity; that the category has poor diagnostic power and overlaps substantially with other categories; and that SDPD continues to be dangerous for people of both sexes but especially for women. It is concluded, therefore, that SDPD should be excluded from the DSM-IV.
Heterosexuality: Fictional Agendas
Authors: Duncker Patricia
Published: June 2007

This study considers the fictional construction of heterosexuality as social and sexual institution, drawing on selected novels of the 1980s by Margaret Atwood and Jenny Diski, with particular reference to The Edible Woman, Life Before Man and Nothing Natural. I argue that the very ordinary daily oppression of women living traditional heterosexual lives, as well as the more extreme ritual humiliation of a woman involved in a heterosexual sadomasochistic relationship, are related products of sexual difference. I conclude with an argument, from a lesbian and radical feminist perspective, for the complete dismantling of the gender system which is the basis of heterosexuality.
While Waiting for the Revolution: The Case for a Lesbian Feminist Psychotherapy
Authors: Brown Laura S.
Published: June 2007

This article addresses itself to points raised by Rachel Perkins's criticism of feminist therapy with lesbians. A model of politically aware feminist therapy is described and contrasted with non-feminist `therapy with lesbians'. The effect of the work context of the therapist on the potential for a genuinely feminist therapy is explored.
Against Psychotherapy: From Hope to Disillusionment
Authors: Benjamin(Pseudonym) Alex
Published: June 2007

Although I have been seeing various counsellors and psychologists for a number of years, I recently made the decision that I will no longer be seeing anyone. I think that I have grown too critical of much of orthodox psychiatric practice to gain anything useful from seeing therapists who are often sexist and who make judgements based upon their theoretical assumptions rather than actually listening to me when I try to tell them about my experiences.