bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: Assessing the Nature of Innovation in These Fields
Authors: Mehta Michael D.
Published: February 2009

Sociologists of science and others have long been interested in how advances in science come about, and their potential social and economic impacts. Developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology will provide social scientists with a unique opportunity to explore how scientific activities form de novo. Additionally, scientists will have the opportunity to examine the factors that drive science and technology in certain directions by considering how different models of innovation may explain how the topography of the knowledge-based economy is being shaped by radically new approaches to science.
Infusing Technology Into a School: Tracking the Unintended Consequences
Authors: Monke Lowell
Published: February 2009

This article is the first in a series that looks at the technological transformation of Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS). It concentrates on the costs, some financial but mostly human and organizational, that are emerging as the district begins to implement its plans for dramatically increasing computer technology use. The conclusion reached here is that not only ave the costs been greatly underestimated, they may even force a gradual shift of control over the learning environment.
The Global Network Society and STS Education
Authors: Waks Leonard
Published: February 2009

Globalization of markets and expanding communication technology networks affect all dimensions of education: curriculum, instructional method, learning environments, and administration. In this article, the author anticipates the impacts upon education in science, technology, and society (STS).
STS at Michigan Technological University: A History and Profile
Authors: Reynolds Terry S.
Published: February 2009

At Michigan Tech, science, technology, and society (STS) was introduced as a means of attracting new students to the school, providing general education courses more attractive to engineering students, and furnishing a focus for an unfocused, multidisciplinary department of the Social Sciences. STS enjoyed very limited success in the first two areas; however, using STS as a focus for a hitherto unfocused department has been highly successful and has led to the creation in the department of two new and successful STS-related graduate programs in industrial archaeology and environmental policy.
Toward the Linkage Between Technology and Social Science: Practical Disciplines and Educational Models
Authors: Park Yong-Tae
Published: February 2009

Recently, the converging trend of pedagogic disciplines is highlighted by the experimental synthesis of engineering and social science. The linkage seems conceptually plausible but turns out an intractable task practically due to multidisciplinary nature. This article presents some basic models for linking social science and engineering disciplines to develop new courses like Management of Technology, Policy Studies of Technology, and Economics of Technology. The models reflect such diverse design factors as hierarchical, functional, organizational, procedural, dynamic, and systematic aspects that should be taken into account. These models are of limited value since each accommodates partial or local needs. Therefore, instead of adopting a particular model, it is required to develop an integrated model according to customized specification. In doing that, the ultimate goal is not to merely convey managerial skills and/or economic theories to engineering majors but to devise a neodiscipline with solid viability.
The Risky Promises and Promising Risks of New Information Technologies for Education
Authors: Burbules Nicholas C. , Callister Thomas A.
Published: February 2009

Most discussions of the potential of new information technologies (IT) for education have taken one of two forms: enthusiastic proclamations of the revolutionary impact that IT can have for teaching and learning in school and nonschool settings, or dire warnings of the terrible fraud being perpetrated on society about the educational potential of IT. This essay attempts to avoid exaggerated optimism and pessimism about IT and education, while avoiding the trite oversimplification that technology is “neutral” and can be used for good or bad purposes. Our view is guided by the assumption that it is actually very difficult, if not impossible, in many cases to sort out benefits from costs—the very same outcomes can be viewed as favorable or unfavorable, depending on other assumptions about their effects. We propose a posttechnocratic view of IT that recognizes the multiplicity of effects, the indeterminacy and inseparability of consequences, and the difficulty of isolating “good” and “bad” outcomes. As an example of posttechnocratic analysis, the recent educational concern about censorship and the Internet is discussed to demonstrate how educational policy choices are often more complex and ambiguous than we might wish.
The Technological Blind Spot in Business Ethics
Authors: Gill David W.
Published: February 2009

From all directions comes confirmation that technology, information technology above all, is radically transforming today’s business. All observers predict that this technologizing of business will continue in the 21st century with major consequences. This article argues that business ethics cases (the most popular way of approaching business ethics) as well as the broader corporate cultural values (a less popular but equally important focus for business ethics) are inexorably affected by the technological revolution in business. But of 29 business ethics textbooks published in the past 5 years, only 4 show any awareness of the new configuration of hard ethics cases, and only 2 of those 4 go beyond the case approach to examine the changes in corporate cultural values. If this technological blind spot in business ethics is not corrected, the business ethics guild will have radically failed its calling and responsibility. The consequences of technological blindness and naivete in business ethics are potentially dire because of the massive power of our technologies.
Companion Animals and Their Companions: Sharing a Strategy for Survival
Authors: Beck Alan M.
Published: February 2009

It is well documented that people denied good human contact and interaction do not thrive well. One way people can be protected from the ravages of loneliness is animal companionship. Early laboratory observations of people with animals encouraged a period of research to identify, document, and assess the beneficial health implications of our relationship with companion animals. All indications are that companion animals play the role of a family member, often a member with the most desired attributes. Ordinary interactions with animals can reduce blood pressure and alter survival after a heart attack. Pets, for some, afford increased opportunities to meet people, whereas for others, pets permit them to be alone without being lonely. The relationship between people and companion animals explains why people prefer alternatives to animal use for medical research.
Technology, Scripture, and Ecofeminism: The Wind and the Sea Respond
Authors: Gilleo Margaret P.
Published: February 2009

The Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River figure prominently in scripture. The ecosystem of this area has been damaged as a result of technology thoughtlessly applied in the context of anthropocentrism. A contrasting relational approach toward the natural world is offered by ecofeminism, which speaks for those whose voices, both human and nonhuman, have been ignored or negated. This article discusses the environmental history of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the adjacent wetlands and forests. It applies an ecofeminist hermeneutic to Mark 4:35-41, the story of Jesus’s calming the Wind and the Sea, as a religious rationale for the ethical use of science and technology.
Views of Policies Affecting Automobiles: A Comparison of High School Students and Specialists
Authors: Adams Stephen T.
Published: February 2009

The use of automobiles is a major cause of worldwide environmental disruption, including global warming. Policies designed to curb the environmental impact of automobiles present tradeoffs that high school graduates should be prepared to evaluate. This article compares how a group of high school students and a group of specialists with expertise in transportation issues, climate change, or both evaluated two policies designed to ameliorate the impact of automobiles. The policies were a $1 per gallon gasoline tax and a “feebate” policy, which creates additional fees on the purchase of fuel-inefficient automobiles but offers rebates on the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles. One goal of the study was to identify knowledge and beliefs that students bring to the task as well as to identify misconceptions they may have. Another goal was to identify knowledge used by the specialists that may be accessible or useful to high school students.
The Politics of Social and Environmental Impact Statements: Case of the Mount Wachusett Control Struggle
Authors: Nadeau Jason S.
Published: February 2009

This article follows the 14th national STS meeting in Baltimore. The original paper was a Major Qualifying Project, equivalent to a senior thesis, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute titled “Control of Mount Wachusett.” The conclusions of the case study of a rather local event have implications in policy, ethics, the environment, and education that are more far-reaching than one might expect.
Religious Voices Count: The New Openness to Spiritual Questions in the Sciences
Authors: Clayton Philip
Published: February 2009

For most of this century, those in the sciences have been accustomed to view religion as an opponent. Recent years, however, have seen a cultural change of great significance. Not only have many scientists dropped their former hostility to questions of spirituality, but increasing numbers of religious persons are following scientific developments, speaking on ethical and social issues raised by technology, and modifying beliefs that conflict with empirical evidence. This article shows why and how religious perspectives can complement and supplement objective science. It explores some of the ramifications of the widespread cessation of hostilities between science and religion. It also examines the contributions made by religious persons and traditions as society wrestles with a world now largely dominated by science and its technology. It is no longer necessary to construe science and religion as enemies; they can work as allies in addressing urgent social problems and the dilemmas with which technology confronts us.
European Energy and CO 2 Emissions Trends to 2020: PRIMES model v.2
Authors: Capros P. , Mantzos L. , Vouyoukas L. , Petrellis D.
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this article is to present a summary of a consistent European Union (EU) energy and energy-related emissions outlook for the period to 2020. The material presented here is based on quantitative analysis and on a process of communication with and feedback from a number of energy experts and organizations. All the results presented for EU energy trends are based on the PRIMES partial equilibrium model for the European energy system, version 2. The PRIMES model provides simulation of the energy system and the decisions of the agents and the markets, covering in detail several sectors, uses, and technologies. The results of this analysis indicate that the EU will not meet the obligations for greenhouse gas emissions reductions it undertook at Kyoto unless it introduces policy initiatives for the abatement of energy-related emissions. Although the industrial, tertiary, household, and transportation sectors can all make significant contributions to CO2 emissions reductions, the electricity- and steam-generation sector appears to offer the greatest potential because of its relative flexibility in terms of technology and fuel choice. Finally, when the only criterion for emissions reductions is economic efficiency, our analysis indicates that reduction levels differ significantly among EU countries.
For Richer or for Poorer? The Role of Science, Politics, and Ethics in the Global Climate Change Policy Debate
Authors: Hadjilambrinos Constantine
Published: February 2009

Addressing the issue of global climate change (GCC) requires the cooperation of all nations of the world. Although the industrial nations of the north have the financial and technological resources to begin addressing the problem, they ultimately remain vulnerable to the actions of the developing nations of the south. The negotiation process—now a decade old—has, thus far, failed to produce a universal agreement on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. This failure is attributed to the lack of a unifying principle capable of overcoming the short-term differences in interest among the two groups of countries. Science and politics, the two forces driving the GCC debate, have inherent weaknesses that prevent them from providing the leadership necessary to secure universal cooperation in combating this major threat to the global environment. Ethics, specifically the principles of equity and justice, is proposed as a possible unifying principle. An analysis of the four main issues that must be resolved before a universal agreement to combat GCC can be negotiated—the appropriate level for GHGs, the proper distribution of GHG emission rights, the best actions for attaining the appropriate GHG level, and the form of the institutional arrangements that will be necessary to carry out these actions—indicates that ethical considerations can and must inform and delineate appropriate bounds for science, economics, and politics. Guaranteeing the equitable and just distribution of rights and responsibilities in a global climate change regime offers the best prospect for such a regime to be made possible.
“Global Environmental Problems Require Global Solutions”: A Case Study in Ecomessianism
Authors: Veak Tyler , Galusky Wyatt
Published: February 2009

Many Western environmental activist groups and theorists have sounded the call for the Earth’s salvation from the “global environmental crisis.” What is lacking, however, is some reflection on the ramifications of framing the problem globally and on the justifications for particular solutions. This article examines the “ecomessiah” (saviors of the Earth) phenomenon to investigate the impacts of these types of programs. Specifically, we examine the “global environmental ethic” proposed by J. Baird Callicott. His program, presented as an inclusive system that incorporates non-Western belief systems, trades heavily on Western science as an authority and a justification. We contend that his ethic, although well-intentioned, rests on assumptions and uses of science that subvert both non-Western ideologies and non-Western interests rather than revere them. Consequently, the inherent flaws undermine the feel-good one-world rhetoric that he espouses.
Critiquing Claims About Global Warming From the World Wide Web: A Comparison of High School Students and Specialists
Authors: Adams Stephen T.
Published: February 2009

The ability to evaluate scientific claims made in various media sources is a critical component of scientific literacy. This study compares how a group of 12th grade students and a group of specialists, including scientists and policy analysts with expertise in global warming, evaluated an editorial about global warming published by an oil company on the World Wide Web. Participants were asked to read the editorial and were asked a set of interview questions about it. Examples from the specialists’ interviews indicate the kinds of responses that are possible with in-depth scientific knowledge. In comparison, although some examples from the students’interviews illustrate competent performance for a nonexpert, other student responses illustrate possible pitfalls. The approach of the present study affords a constructive route for formulating goals for scientific literacy. The approach permits identifying examples of students evaluating scientific claims in more or less competent ways—claims that are in the context of an important socioscientific issue and an actual media source.
The Third Eye
Authors: Mingming Wang
Published: February 2009

■ China is a vast country. Ethnic minority nationalities ( shaoshu minzu) located in different parts of the Chinese nation could have provided possibilities for the majority Han Chinese anthropologists to imagine `internal others'. Even among the Han, social life does not follow a uniform pattern: it includes great regional cultural diversities that could have allowed fieldworking anthropologists to develop their own arguments about cultural difference. However, throughout the 20th century, such internal differences have not been treated as a reflexive and contrasting mirror of the national Han Self. On the contrary, anthropological interpretations have been institutionally determined to favor official political projects of national revitalization ( minzu zhenxing). Are the perspectives of characteristically `native' — in this case Chinese — anthropology not creating some intellectual pitfalls that anthropologists in many parts of the world have attributed chiefly to the `West' and its orientalism? This article sets out to develop an answer, by way of a broad overview of the history of 20th century Chinese anthropology. It questions the nativistic characteristics of Chinese anthropology and raises issues about the development of a `natives' own scholarship'. By so doing, it also implies a reflection on postcolonialist critiques of anthropological disciplines as well as a hope for a liberal anthropological critique which the author defines in terms of `the third eye'.
Anthropology and Advocacy
Authors: Kirsch Stuart
Published: February 2009

■ What are the responsibilities of anthropologists towards the communities with whom they work? This article examines debates on anthropology and advocacy in relation to the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea. Since the early 1990s, the indigenous communities living downstream from the mine have carried out on an international political and legal campaign to reduce the mine's environmental impact and gain compensation for the damage it has caused. I argue that neutrality may not be possible in disputes between transnational corporations and indigenous communities because of structural inequalities that make it easier for corporations to take advantage of anthropological expertise and silence opposing voices. This article invokes questions raised in recent discussions of cultural property rights to consider the proprietary responsibilities of anthropologists towards the information that they collect and the claims made on anthropologists by the subjects of their research. Finally, the article considers the implications of recent political and economic trends regarding the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in monitoring international capital for anthropological activism.
Cultures of Consultancy
Authors: Stirrat R. L.
Published: February 2009

Short-term development consultants are employed in the development industry ostensibly because of the pragmatic impacts their work on development is thought to have. Yet in practice, their work is judged more by aesthetic than pragmatic criteria. This article argues that these aesthetic criteria are based on a particular vision of modernity and that this also informs the ‘culture of consultancy’, a culture which sees itself as the epitome of rationality. It is also suggested that this is nothing new, today’s development workers being heirs to the missionaries and colonial civil servants of the past.
Dominant Paradigms Overturned or ‘Business as Usual’? Development Discourse and the White Paper on International Development
Authors: Gardner Katy , Lewis David
Published: February 2009

Using the Department for International Development’s recent White Paper on Development as a case study, this article critically reassesses Escobar’s notion of development discourse. Rather than being monolithic and static, as Escobar and others have implied, the writers argue that changes can and do take place within development organizations. Not only does the White Paper clearly signal a new direction in policy; it also results both from changes within DFID – in personnel and in the balance of power between interest groups – and between DFID and civil society.
Imagining Authenticity in the Local Medicines of Chiapas, Mexico
Authors: Ayora-Diaz Steffan Igor
Published: February 2009

This paper describes and discusses the existing gap between local medicines as practiced by healers in the Highlands of Chiapas and the way in which NGO personnel and other foreigners imagine them. It is argued that non-indigenous people in the region possess a tourist gaze that creates a distance (spatial and temporal) between cosmopolitan and local practices that lead them to view local medicines as exotic knowledge. The Museum of Maya Medicine described in this article demonstrates how, through this same tourist gaze, local medicines are confined into a secure space and tied to another time. I discuss how, while cosmopolitan medicine’s practitioners and ‘tourists’ recreate local medicines in the museum as something culturally authentic, local medicines are, in contrast, characterized by their hybridity.
Racism, Mimesis and Anthropology in Brazil
Authors: Rosa-Ribeiro Fernando
Published: February 2009

This article tackles Brazilian nation-building in connection to anthropology, ‘race’ and racism. It employs concepts such as (Taussig’s) mimesis and Hayden White’s mythòi. The main argument is that owing to the peculiarity of nation-building in Brazil and the construction of Brazilian academia, racism, though pervasive, is more difficult to pin down than in either the US or South Africa. It proposes that Brazilian scholarly and non-scholarly discourse and practice should adopt a more critical stance in order to deal with racism in a more effective way.
Industrial Sewing Machines, Work-Disciplines and Aesthetics
Authors: Uchiyamada Yasushi
Published: February 2009

People strive for ‘better lives’. Young women in Bohol temporarily out-migrate to Manila and other urban centres for economic and aesthetic reasons, which are both complementary and contradictory. Their temporary out-migration is a kind of rite of passage in which they transform themselves into beautiful and marriageable women in far-away places in the proximity of beautiful people and things in the city. The modernizing state translates the question of ‘better lives’ into a solvable problem via purification. Towards the end, I introduce Japanese gold, the metaphor and metonym for plundered wealth brought from Singapore, which is pursued by both Japanese experts and Boholanos. Japanese gold enables us to see ‘better lives’ as an unpurified hybrid equally sought after by Boholanos, Japanese experts, the dictator and his prodigal beauty queen.
Making of the Other
Authors: Pandya Vishvajit
Published: February 2009

Based on field study and historical accounts, this article is an analysis of the symbolic construction of hostility and violent relations between Andamanese hunters and neighbouring settlers around the reserve forests. Using the culturally articulated notions of anger and peace, the article compares the event of pig hunting with Andamanese killing of outsiders. Are acts of violence a means of articulating the politics and mutually reflected images of the ‘other’ between Andamanese and outside settlers on the islands?
Context is/as Critique
Authors: Blommaert Jan
Published: February 2009

In this article the treatment of context in two schools of contemporary discrse analysis – Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Conversation Analysis (CA) – is discussed. Starting from the observation that critical trends in discourse analysis identify the intersection of language and social structure as the locus of critique, I first qualify the treatment of context in some CDA work as largely backgrounding and narrative. Contextual information that invites critical scrutiny is often accepted as ‘mere facts’, framing the discourse samples analyzed in CDA. On the other hand, context is reduced to a minimal set of observable and demonstrably consequential features of single conversations in CA, and ‘translocal’ phenomena are hard to incorporate in CA analyses. Both treatments of context have severe defects, and in the second part of the article I offer three sets of ‘forgotten contexts’: contexts that are usually overlooked in critical discourse studies but that offer considerable critical potential because they situate discourse deeply in social structure and social processes. Using data from an ongoing project on narrative analysis of African asylum seekers’ stories in Belgium, I discuss linguistic-communicative resources, ‘text trajectories’ (i.e. the shifting of text across contexts) and finally ‘data histories’ (i.e. the socio-his torical situatedness of ‘data’).
Explanation, Interpretation and Critique in the Analysis of Discourse
Authors: Slembrouck Stef
Published: February 2009

The first half of this article offers an assessment of critical discourse analysis, as developed since the 1980s and understood at the time in terms of a much-needed departure from predominantly descriptive modes of linguistic enquiry which prevented an adequate thematization of power, inequality and ideology. In this review I draw attention to some enduring tensions in the model’s aspirations between (1) being an interpretative mode of enquiry which inevitably adopts a discourse participant’s point of view, (2) offering social-theoretically informed explanations of discourse which overcome limitations inherent in a participant’s outlook and (3) formulating an interventionist programme of emancipation which prioritizes dialogue with institutional members. With an eye to relieving some of these tensions, I explore, in the second half of my article, what might be gained from a dialogic confrontation with reflexive research traditions within linguistic anthropology. In particular, recent work on the ‘natural histories of discourse’ takes the situatedness of entextualizations of discourse-in-context as one of its main forces of enquiry.
Reflexivity and Critique in Discourse Analysis
Authors: Bucholtz Mary
Published: February 2009

Within linguistic anthropology, the anthropological concern with reflexivity and critique emerges most explicitly in debates over discourse analysis. Through critical discussion of the contributions to this two-part special issue, several dominant approaches to discourse – including critical discourse analysis, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and natural histories of discourse – are assessed for their ability to yield insights into culture and power. It is suggested that an ethnographically grounded discourse analysis can be critically effective not only within linguistic anthropology but within anthropology more generally.
Violence and Social Life in Colombia
Authors: Jimeno Myriam
Published: February 2009

The fragmentation of experience is a recurring topic in contemporary social science literature and is a central thread running through the proposals of so-called post-structuralist thinkers. However, the Colombian experience seems to point to the limitations of the conceptual exaltation of fragmentation as a condition for current social life. What happens in society, one may ask, when in effect the state weakens to the point that it is incapable of stopping society’s disintegration into conflicting bands? Does not the weakening of the state run parallel to the weakening of citizen action? This article proposes that the types of violence which have increased during the last few years affect social consciousness (mainly by producing a sense of social fragmentation); there is a perception of living in a society containing a variety of criminal forces and types, which people feel relatively helpless to do anything about. It is also proposed that this perception is part of a critical learning chain in which shared cultural meanings and experiences concerning domestic violence intersect and serve as reference to orientate public life. The cultural representation of authority as being arbitrary is key, and is found at the cognitive and the emotional heart of acts of domestic and public violence.
Taking Liberties
Authors: Hearn Jonathan
Published: February 2009

Civil society is an increasingly important concept for anthropology, encountered both in the social theories we employ, and in the discourses and practices of the people we study. This introductory article was written in dialogue with the articles in this issue and attempts to highlight and begin to theorize key themes emerging from those articles. These include: the dialectical relationship between civil society and the state; the important role of middle classes in civil society; and the suffusion of civil society discourses with normative messages of modernization, reform, and salvation. It is argued that the long-standing custom-ary conduct of ethnography amid the organizations, associations, and institutions of daily life has equipped anthropology with conceptual tools that can contribute to a grounded and critical perspective on civil society.
To Find an African Witch
Authors: Rutherford Blair
Published: February 2009

This article critically examines the emergent anthropological analytic that situates African witchcraft within modernity, global capitalism and state structures. Despite the contrast the authors of this analytic make with what theycall the older anthropological analytic that viewed witchcraft as a sign of traditional African social organization, I suggest that both approaches neglect the various social projects, social identities and power relations involved in witchcraft, including those surrounding anthropology as a discipline. I elaborate this point through discussing some of the overlapping and contesting forms of authority, including my own as anthropologist, involved in a witch-finding exercise that took place in the early 1990s on commercial farms and Communal Lands in Hurungwe District, northwestern Zimbabwe.
Waimiri-Atroari Resistance in the Presence of an Indigenist Policy of ‘Resistance’
Authors: Baines Stephen Grant
Published: February 2009

This article examines the resistance of the Waimiri-Atroari Indian people in a situation where government indigenist policy has been subordinated to the interests of large-scale economic development projects (the giant Pitinga mining complex of the Paranapanema Group and the Balbina hydroelectric scheme). The administration has appropriated a rhetoric of Indian ‘resistance’ to mask a situation of extreme domination and to sell images of a model assistance programme. The native strategy of learning the rules of the game of th official indigenist policy is examined, not as a passive but as an active reaction of accommodation to a situation of extreme domination, reflecting the immense power of large companies in controlling the destiny of Indian peoples.
Agency, Power and Personhood
Authors: Busby Cecilia
Published: February 2009

This article examines the prevalence of domestic violence in a fishing community in Kerala, south India. Understanding violence here necessitates understanding something about local ideas of gender, personhood and agency; ideas which are strongly resistant to change. Violence is linked by people to the embodied nature of gender difference, the inevitably greater ‘heat’ of men’s bodies, and also the ways in which men and women are bound to each other in marriage, the actions of each being elicited by the other. Violence here seems inevitable and men are not usually seen as to blame. More recently, activist discourses condemning violence have become common, but the collision between a feminist inspired criticism of male violence and local understandings of person and agency has led to a focus on alcohol as the root of the problem, with men still perceived to be personally not at fault.
Digitizing ‘Development’
Authors: Helmreich Stefan
Published: February 2009

This article examines a recent use of computer simulation in modeling the ecological dynamics of a rural indigenous community. It takes as its central example anthropologist J. Stephen Lansing’s models of irrigation patterns and practices in Bali. Lansing first put together computer simulations of Balinese water temple networks to demonstrate the wisdom of traditional modesof organizing agriculture and to draw attention to the folly of Green Revolution development projects. Lansing argued that his modeling could provide a tool for more culturally appropriate development, but I argue that his project may continue some of the neocolonialist premises of development programs more generally. As it turns issues that are very complicated politically, economically and socially into bounded technical problems amenable to computational solution, it erases internal community politics and ignores the local and global political economic context in which communities exist. Lansing’s simulation accomplishes this in part by reviving the premises of an ahistorical cultural ecology in which communities are conceptually collapsed into ‘nature’ – where nature is understood to be a system seeking homeostasis. This article examines the claims Lansing makes for his simulations and locates these within a political economy in which imperialist and neocolonialist domination has often been serviced by control over technologies of representation. After discussing Lansing’s work, I comment broadly on the trend toward using computer simulation in social planning, and reflect on what this might mean for continuing projects of ‘development’.
Local Knowledge in the Environment–Development Discourse
Authors: Nygren Anja
Published: February 2009

This article takes a critical look at the various approaches representing local knowledge as a scapegoat for underdevelopment or as a panacea for sustainability, these two representations characterizing the conventional environ-ment–development discourse. The static oppositions of local versus universal knowledge are challenged by establishing more diversified models to analyse the relationships of heterogeneous knowledges. The study emphasizes the complex articulation of knowledge repertoires by drawing on an ethnographic case study among migrant peasants in southeastern Nicaragua. Knowledge production is seen as a process of social negotiation involving multiple actors and complex power relations. The article underlines the issue of situated knowledges as one of the major challenges in developing anthropology as an approach that subjects fixed dichotomies between subject and object, fact and value, and the rational and the practical, to critical reconstruction.
Return of the Phantom Menace
Authors: Clarke Kevin A.
Published: February 2009

Scholars often assume that the danger posed by omitted variable bias can be ameliorated by the inclusion of large numbers of relevant control variables. However, there is nothing in the mathematics of regression analysis that supports this conclusion. This paper goes beyond textbook treatments of omitted variable bias and shows, both for OLS and for generalized linear models, that the inclusion of additional control variables may increase or decrease the bias, and we cannot know for sure which is the case in any particular situation. The last section of the paper shows how formal sensitivity analysis can be used to determine whether omitted variables are a problem. A substantive example demonstrates the method.
Early Conflict Prevention in Ethnic Crises, 1990—98
Authors: Öberg Magnus , Möller Frida , Wallensteen Peter
Published: February 2009

In this article we present a new dataset: the Early Conflict Prevention in Ethnic Crises dataset (ECPEC). It contains data on operational conflict prevention in 67 ethnic crises in the period 1990—98 that vary in terms of both preventive action and crisis outcomes. The new dataset thus allows for the evaluation of the effects of different types of preventive measures and also gives an overview of who takes what measures and in what conflicts. The global overview shows some interesting patterns. Preventive activity in the escalatory phase of ethnic conflict is dominated by verbal attention and facilitation. Coercive measures are rarely employed prior to the outbreak of war. Preventive action is most common in Europe and the Middle East, while crises in Asia tend to receive comparatively little attention. Most of the preventive action is focused on a relatively small number of high profile cases like those in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Major Powers (with the exception of China), neighboring states, the UN, and regional organizations are the most active interveners. To illustrate the usefulness of a large-N dataset on preventive measures, we also present a first analysis of the effects of different types of measures. The findings suggest that diplomatic measures and relief efforts both have conflict dampening effects, while carrots (inducements) increase the likelihood of escalation to war. Other measures show no significant effects in this sample. The findings also show that third parties are more likely to intervene in conflicts that are more prone to escalate to war. This implies that unless we account for the propensity of third parties to intervene in the more difficult cases, we risk underestimating the effects of preventive measures.
The Threat and Imposition of Economic Sanctions, 1971—2000*
Authors: Morgan T. Clifton , Bapat Navin , Krustev Valentin
Published: February 2009

Economic sanctions, increasingly used as instruments of foreign policy in recent decades, have been the focus of numerous academic studies. Recent theoretical advances in our understanding of sanctions cannot be tested adequately with existing data. This article presents a newly developed dataset that contains information on 888 cases in which sanctions were threatened and/or implemented in the 1971—2000 period. We describe the dataset, present descriptive statistics for some of the key variables included, and offer comparisons with the Hufbauer, Schott, and Elliot dataset on sanctions that has been frequently used in previous research. We also present simple statistical relationships between sanctions outcomes and some of the variables commonly believed to affect sanctions success.
Childhood Acute Transverse Myelitis: Clinical Profile, Outcome, and Association With Antiganglioside Antibodies
Authors: Kalra Veena , Sharma Suvasini , Sahu Jitendra , Sankhyan Naveen , Chaudhry Rama , Dhawan Benu , Mridula B.
Published: February 2009

Prospectively, in 15 children the association of acute transverse myelitis with Campylobacter jejuni infection and antiganglioside antibodies was studied. The clinical profile, radiological findings, and treatment outcome in these children were analyzed. Stool culture and serology for Campylobacter jejuni and antiganglioside antibodies were tested. In all, 15 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were tested for evidence of Campylobacter jejuni infection and antiganglioside antibodies. Anti-GM1 antiganglioside immunoglobulin G antibodies were found in 46% of patients with acute transverse myelitis versus 6.6% of controls (P = .035). Evidence of Campylobacter jejuni infection was absent in both the groups. The magnetic resonance imaging revealed longitudinally extensive lesions in majority. All children underwent intravenous high-dose corticosteroid treatment. At 1-year follow-up, 8 children had recovered completely, whereas 3 were nonambulatory. Bladder disturbances persisted in 7. The significance of these findings and the possible role antiganglioside antibodies may play in acute transverse myelitis pathophysiology is discussed.
Voices of Welfare Reform: Bureaucratic Rationality Versus the Perceptions of Welfare Participants
Authors: Tickamyer Ann R. , Henderson Debra A. , White Julie Anne , Tadlock Barry L.
Published: February 2009

This article compares the assumptions of welfare reform with the way the program is actually implemented to show the underlying contradictions in the way policy is politically justified and implemented. The results of focus group discussions with women on welfare in four rural Appalachian Ohio counties demonstrate the disparities between the top-down goals of welfare policy and the bottom-up perceptions of their outcomes.
Sisterhood Is Not Enough: The Invisibility of Mothering in Shelter Practice With Battered Women
Authors: Krane Julia , Davies Linda
Published: February 2009

This article critically analyzes feminist practice in shelters for battered women, with particular attention to the extent to which, and how, issues of motheringar e addressed. Drawingon participant observations and interviews with staff and residents at a local shelter in Canada, it appears that practice in this arena remains immune to feminist analyses of mothering. An articulation of some of the consequences of the invisibility of women as mothers in shelter settings and suggested implications for shelter practice are presented.
Living in a Bicultural World and Finding the Way Home: Native Women's Stories
Authors: Barrios Patricia G. , Egan Marcia
Published: February 2009

Four Native American women livingin the majority culture were interviewed in a qualitative study, usingsnowball sampling, to explore their experiences concerningthe meaningof being Native and of being Native women. A constant comparative qualitative analysis revealed four themes reflectingthe women's experiences: “otherness”: conflictingdominant and Native cultural messages; Native traditions as strengths, particularly as taught by female elders early in life; and the formation of positive gender and ethnic identities.
Bavarian Crucifixes and French Headscarves
Authors: Auslander Leora
Published: February 2009

This article argues that two very different controversies of the 1990s—one over Islamic headscarves in the French schools, the other over Catholic crucifixes in Bavarian classrooms—are both symptoms of crises of national identity and sovereignty in contemporary European nation states. These crises have been provoked both by the globalization of economies and commodity culture as well as the challenge to national political autonomy in the context of the European Union. People who perceive themselves to represent both majority and minority cultures have responded to these crises by constructions and assertions of identities (religious and otherwise) and boundaries (between ‘us’ and ‘them’).
What is Other about Other Religions?
Authors: Jonker Gerdien
Published: February 2009

Based on fieldwork among Muslim communities in Berlin, this article examines the encounter between German legal traditions on religion and Muslim immigrant communities. The discussion of German law is juxtaposed with discussions from within various Muslim communities that seek a place for their members as religious practitioners in German society through emerging interpretations of Islamic law.
The Symbological Project
Authors: Aijmer G÷ran
Published: February 2009

The study of symbolism can employ three different perspectives. These ‘orders’ are each characterized by a distinct ontology. One is a realistic exploration of the social grounding of symbolism. Another concerns iconic codes and their use in the building of possible worlds, so creating their own realities. The discursive order is the ongoing conversation about the world and implies an ontology grounded in the use of language. Parallel investigations, each based on incompatible ontological presuppositions, also raise the question whether phenomena delineated within one such universe can have an influence in another. Do we in social life meet ‘hybrid’ versions of symbolism, both discursive, iconic and realist, springing from the simultaneous use of entirely different communicative and expressive codes?
The Khojahs of South Asia
Authors: Asani Ali S.
Published: February 2009

This study explores the manner in which the Khojah (Ismaili) Muslim community of South Asia and Africa has defined, negotiated and compromised its identities in the face of changing political and theological contexts of the past two centuries. The community's story is narrated through examples of the ways in which the Khojah Ismaili tradition acculturated itself to the Indic milieu as well as through reflections on a more exclusively singular Islamic discourse that became necessary with the growing religious/communal polarization in colonial and postcolonial South Asia and Africa.
The State and National Foundation in the Maldives
Authors: Ahmad Rizwan A.
Published: February 2009

The Maldivian state deploys an officialaccount of national origination which depicts the Islamic conversion of the islanders and the transcendence of jahiliyya(pre-Islamic ignorance). Encoded in this account are claims to legitimacy which culminate in the conflation of political and religious authority. This article explores how the foundational claims of the Maldivian state are subject to popular debasement, specifically through the juxtaposition of a popularunofficial rendition of national foundation.
From Cultural Diversity to Universal Ethics
Authors: Fleischacker Samuel
Published: February 2009

In this article the author lays out and discusses three different models for arriving at universal agreement in ethics. The author argues that the 'human rights model'-the model by which international human rights instruments get produced-has some serious flaws. The second model is the 'necessary conditions model'. It enables us to arrive at a significant but still too thin universal ethic. The author presents a case for the 'cultural dialogue model' in which members of one culture undertake a piecemeal search in the texts and way of life of other cultures, for beliefs, practices, etc. resembling their own. In this model cross-cultural disagreement is acknowledged, but the appropriate kind of room is left open to work towards thicker cross-cultural agreement.
Development of the Chinese Legal System Since 1979 and its Current Crisis and Transformation
Authors: Dingjian Cai
Published: February 2009

A transformation is slowly taking place in China. Though this process is quite gradual, its consequences are very profound. This transformation has its origins in the more than 10 years of reforms of the country's economic system. However, it is only since the reforms entered the stage of the socialist market economy that a series of fundamental changes has occurred. As the operation, after several decades, of China's planned economy comes to an end, and is replaced by the socialist market economy, a corresponding transformation is taking place in the structure of society, people's patterns of behavior, and political and legal realms. China is currently in the process of change from an old to a new system. This article first examines the background to the social and economic transformation and the reconstruction and development of the legal system that has occurred since 1979, then outlines the present crisis in that system and the profound changes to it which are either currently occurring or will occur in the future.
Action Revisited
Authors: Vicas Astrid
Published: February 2009

A conception of agency proposed by Herbert E. Krugman, a social psychologist turned advertising researcher in 1967, that accounts for the impact of what Krugman called low involvement advertising on consumer purchasing behavior is examined for its novel implications for the theory of action. This account questions the assumption that the having of beliefs and desires is a conceptual condition for action. It yields a strongly contextual conception of agency, which sets aside the idea that action is always directed to the aim of reducing a discrepancy between actual and desired states. In order to gain a better understanding of this conception of agency, this paper recounts and explains its sources in Ebbinghaus’s studies on memory, Gestalt theory, and social psychology. It then contrasts the conception of agency that is derived from Krugman’s ideas with the Aristotelian conception of action, and the conception of action prevalent in mainstream contemporary Anglo-American ethical theory and philosophy of action. Finally, this article concludes on the fate that befell Krugman’s proposal in the marketing literature.