bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Central Bank Intervention and Exchange Rate Volatility: Some Australian Evidence
Authors: McKenzie Michael
Published: February 2004

Arguably, market stability is one of the primary reasons behind government intervention in the foreign exchange market. Whether or not the authorities achieve this goal is an empirical matter and testing of this issue is made difficult by the fact that government intervention and exchange rate volatility may be jointly determined. In this paper, the extent to which volatility drives intervention is considered using PROBIT analysis. The results suggest that while support for the hypothesis exists, volatility on its own does not to provide enough information to allow us to accurately forecast government intervention. A modified GARCH model is then tested which incorporates the impact of government intervention in the mean and conditional variance equation. The evidence presented suggest that the dynamics of market are different on the days where the central bank is active in the market.
Strategic Manipulation and Information Market Microstructure
Authors: Gangopadhyay Partha
Published: February 2004

This paper presents a model of strategic manipulation in the context of an informational duopoly. The fact that market manipulation by these duopolists may affect their cost and demand structures implies that they can strategically manipulate the market in order to influence the information market equilibrium. This paper derives an equilibrium manipulation and establishes important comparative‐static properties that may characterise such markets. The informational duopoly is beset with two types of inefficiency: first, market imperfections drive a wedge between the marginal cost and the market price leading to the usual deadweight loss. Secondly, an act of manipulation raises the marginal cost of production and, thereby, causes further welfare loss in such markets. We provide a complete characterisation of an optimal mechanism that can stem the welfare loss in informational markets.
Modelling Contingent Protection
Authors: Feaver Donald , Wilson Kenneth
Published: February 2004

Anti‐dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) law and policy has become one of the most contentious issues affecting trading relations between members of the World Trade Organisation. A major concern among researchers and policy‐makers is that the decision‐making process of regulatory authorities responsible for the administration of AD/CVD laws is biased in favour of providing protectionist outcomes for applicants. However, to date there is no agreed approach on how to undertake empirical analyses needed to help AD/CVD policy development. What is needed is an agreed general framework for such analyses. In this paper a new approach, the Competing Claims framework is introduced to model empirically the AD/CVD decision‐making process. The Competing Claims approach is more inclusive than approaches used previously and makes it is easier to identify appropriate hypotheses for testing. Using Australian data covering a period characterised by relatively heavy use of AD/CVD processes, the paper compares this new Competing Claims approach to that of previous researchers and concludes that previous approaches, if they had been adopted using the Australian data, would have led to missing variable bias. The implication for future researchers is clear. In order to assess the various potential biases that can inject themselves into the very opaque world of contingent protection decision‐making, as broad an empirical model as possible should be used.
‘Errors & Omissions’ in the Reporting of Australia's Cross‐Border Transactions
Authors: Fausten Dietrich K. , Pickett Brett
Published: February 2004

The study is motivated by the consideration that large and variable statistical discrepancies in key economic performance data and successive data revisions may distort the conduct of economic policy and its subsequent evaluation. Its specific object is the exploration of the statistical properties of Australia's cross‐border transactions records: the structural stability of reported errors & omissions and the convergence of reported transactions over successive revisions. The major positive findings are that there is only limited evidence of convergence of measured to true magnitudes of cross‐border transactions; that there is robust evidence of structural instability of the balancing item; and that financial sector transactions appear increasingly to constitute the major source of misreporting of balance of payments outcomes.
Quality assurance for distance learning: a case study at Brunel University
Authors: Clarke Malcolm , Butler Clive , Schmidt‐Hansen Peter , Somerville Mary
Published: February 2004

Brunel University currently has four distance learning MSc courses, with over 500 students registered, and one undergraduate distance learning course. Some have been running for over five years, and well‐established practices have been developed and provide a basis of support for the university. Quality assurance in the university has always been considered in three, equally important, ways: the curriculum and its assessment; the handling of coursework and assignments; and the liaison with students. The lesson we have learned is that a distance learning programme must be based on an existing full‐time MSc programme, which is the gold standard for curriculum and its assessment, and where possible, common examinations and assessment be used. This can be further assured by scrutinisation by the associated research council. This is going to become ever more important with the increasing scrutiny by overseas governments on the academic quality of distance learning courses, which seek assurance on the comparability and quality of degrees. Quality assurance for the handling of coursework and assignments must be secure and demands a high overhead of paperwork. Detailed feedback to students on their assignments is essential, but this can, at the same time, form a quality assurance check for later progression decisions. We also copy and retain approximately 10% of the assignments for the same purpose. Rapid turnaround is essential if feedback is to be timely and therefore useful, and quality checks on processing time should be standard. Quality assurance for the procedures for liaison with distance learning students are somewhat harder to measure quantitatively. The mark of good distance learning must be its tutorial support. This demands good communications. Our own course, entitled Data Communications Systems, benefits from the high proportion of use of electronic communications, namely email, which allows fast turnaround of questions, yet is not intrusive. However, it is deemed essential that hard copy of all such correspondence is kept. Migration to other Internet support services, such as the World Wide Web, videoconferencing and groupware, is inevitable.
Quality in virtual education environments
Authors: Barbera Elena
Published: February 2004

The emergence of the Internet has changed the way we teach and learn. This paper provides a general overview of the state of the quality of virtual education environments. First of all, some problems with the quality criteria applied in this field and the need to develop quality seals are presented. Likewise, the dimensions and subdimensions of an empirical instrument to improve and assess the quality of online education are examined. This tool has already been applied to several educational contexts; though not definitive, it aims to improve not only specific areas, but also the whole educational approach as a system.
An interaction of screen colour and lesson task in CAL
Authors: Clariana Roy B.
Published: February 2004

Colour is a common feature in computer‐aided learning (CAL), though the instructional effects of screen colour are not well understood. This investigation considers the effects of different CAL study tasks with feedback on posttest performance and on posttest memory of the lesson colour scheme. Graduate students (n=68) completed a computer‐based vocabulary lesson that included either multiple‐choice or constructed‐response study tasks with feedback. Each lesson section used a different colour theme, while the posttest did not use colour. The constructed‐response study task was a little more effective for posttest memory of lesson content but was substantially less effective for posttest memory of the lesson colour scheme. These results show a clear interaction of screen colour and lesson study task, a memory‐context effect. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Web site accessibility: what logo will we use today?
Authors: Witt Neil , McDermott Anne
Published: February 2004

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act has amended the Disability Discrimination Act and requires that students with a disability not be discriminated against or substantially disadvantaged by establishments of further and higher education.

Academic web site developers must take steps to ensure that their sites fulfil this requirement, and guidance on compliance is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which offer three levels for assessing accessibility. Tools which give developers feedback on their site are available, but following their recommendations alone will not guarantee SENDA compliance.

An audit of UK academic web sites has shown discrepancies between the level of compliance that sites are claiming and that which has been achieved. This would seem to demonstrate that there is a misunderstanding of the requirements necessary to create accessible web sites.

This problem is exacerbated by the academic sector's widespread reliance on software accessibility tools, the use of which tends to lead developers to rely on the tools’ quantitative approach when what is required is the inclusion and development of a more qualitative view which prioritises inclusive design from the outset.
Use of information technology and music learning in the search for quality education
Authors: Ho Wai‐chung
Published: February 2004

This paper focuses on the paradigm shift in teaching that has resulted from the use of information technology (IT) and the ways in which IT in the curriculum enhances music learning in Hong Kong. In 1998 the government proposed a five‐year strategy plan, Information Technology for Quality Education, and since this time the Hong Kong education system has changed rapidly, with increasing demands on teachers to upgrade their technological skills and practices. Semi‐structured interviews concerning concepts of IT with 29 primary and secondary school teachers and their 543 students, held between February and August 2002, give situation‐specific insights into their views. The paper concludes that when IT is carefully planned, designed and integrated into good music practice in classrooms, it can support students’ motivation and enhance the quality of learning.
The role of cognitive style in educational computer conferencing
Authors: Cunningham‐Atkins Hilary , Powell Norman , Moore David , Hobbs Dave , Sharpe Simon
Published: February 2004

This paper reports an investigation of the impact of students’ cognitive style on their effective use of educational text‐based computer‐mediated conferences. The research centres on an empirical study involving students from three courses run by the British Open University. Statistical analysis of the data does not suggest that cognitive style has a strong influence on student participation in the conference, but does suggest that, contrary to expectations, ‘imagers’ may send more messages to conferences than ‘verbalisers’. The data also suggest a possible link between certain cognitive styles and course completion, and that the interaction of different styles within a group, as described by Riding and Rayner's (1998) team roles, may have an indirect influence on task completion.
Computer conferencing with access to a ‘guest expert’ in the professional development of special educational needs coordinators
Authors: Wearmouth Janice , Smith Alice Paige , Soler Janet
Published: February 2004

This article describes and outlines the implications of a one‐year case study of students’ use of the computer conferencing facility of a postgraduate module for special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) at a distance‐learning institution. This facility incorporates a virtual space for a ‘guest expert’. The aim of the study was to inform future development of courses at a time when computer conferencing was just becoming widespread in the university concerned. Quantitative data associated with the volume and patterns of individual participation in the computer conference were collected as well as interview material from students, tutors and the ‘guest expert’. Findings from the study indicate that computer conferencing has the potential to facilitate the professional development of teachers as reflective practitioners and researchers. However, they also point to a number of barriers to student participation that must be addressed. These include access issues related to time constraints, unfamiliarity with the medium, and lack of confidence in expressing personal views in a public arena. A major conclusion drawn from this study is that it may be appropriate to consider future developments which incorporate the assumption that, in computer conferences of large professional development courses, students are much more likely to participate through reading rather than making personal contributions to conference discussions. This opens the possibility of reconceptualising the role of the ‘guest expert’ as two or more discussants with relevant expertise dialoguing with each other while students follow a threaded discussion and/or make personal contributions.
The value of adaptivity based on cognitive style: an empirical study
Authors: Triantafillou Evangelos , Pomportsis Andreas , Demetriadis Stavros , Georgiadou Elissavet
Published: February 2004

Adaptive Hypermedia Systems can be developed to accommodate a variety of individual differences, including learning style and cognitive style. This study investigates the hypothesis that adaptive hypermedia accommodating cognitive styles can be beneficial for the observed learning outcomes. A prototype system, designed to be adapted to individual cognitive styles, was developed as a case study. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype system, an empirical study was conducted. This paper presents the results of the summative evaluation of the system. Statistical analyses indicated that students in the experimental group performed significantly better than students in a control group. These findings indicate that student performance is mainly affected by adaptivity based on individual cognitive styles.
Insourcing Creativity with Listening Posts in Decentralized Firms
Authors: Gassmann Oliver , Gaso Berislav
Published: February 2004

Technological listening posts as a means of technological knowledge sourcing were observed to be a widespread empirical phenomenon in centres of technological excellence and innovation clusters. Our research is based on 55 semi‐structured interviews with 12 technology‐intensive companies and 6 benchmarking‐workshops on external knowledge sourcing with 11 companies. We reveal three archetypes of listening posts: trend scout, technology outpost and matchmaker. We describe their respective mission, organizational structure and critical success factors. Each type is illustrated with case studies.
Working Together Apart? Building a Knowledge‐Sharing Culture for Global Virtual Teams
Authors: Zakaria Norhayati , Amelinckx Andrea , Wilemon David
Published: February 2004

A new impetus for greater knowledge‐sharing among team members needs to be emphasized due to the emergence of a significant new form of working known as ‘global virtual teams’. As information and communication technologies permeate every aspect of organizational life and impact the way teams communicate, work and structure relationships, global virtual teams require innovative communication and learning capabilities for different team members to effectively work together across cultural, organizational and geographical boundaries. Whereas information technology‐facilitated communication processes rely on technologically advanced systems to succeed, the ability to create a knowledge‐sharing culture within a global virtual team rests on the existence (and maintenance) of intra‐team respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and positive individual and group relationships. Thus, some of the inherent questions we address in our paper are: (1) what are the cross‐cultural challenges faced by global virtual teams?; (2) how do organizations develop a knowledge sharing culture to promote effective organizational learning among culturally‐diverse team members? and; (3) what are some of the practices that can help maximize the performance of global virtual teams? We conclude by examining ways that global virtual teams can be more effectively managed in order to reach their potential in this new interconnected world and put forward suggestions for further research.
Networking Beyond Organizational Boundaries: The Case of Project Organizations
Authors: Staber Udo
Published: February 2004

Project organizations operate in environments where innovation depends significantly on the ability to integrate different but interrelated knowledge bases. These knowledge bases include individuals who are located outside organizational boundaries and have no formal relationship with the organization, but are connected socially to project workers. Organizational researchers have generally recognized the importance of external social relations for knowledge search. However there is some debate on the question of whether social networks are more useful for innovation if they provide social cohesion through close interaction or access to diverse and novel sources of knowledge through more distant relationships. This study explores the configuration of project workers’ external social networks and their effects on innovative behaviour, using data on the network ties of workers in 17 project organizations in the new‐media industry. The findings are more consistent with the social embeddedness view of close social relations providing an important source of continuity in markets where intermittent projects are common. Project workers embedded in cohesive work‐related social structures outside the organization tend to be more innovative in their project work than workers lacking such networks.
Driving Innovation in Logistics: Case Studies in Distribution Centres
Authors: Soosay Claudine A. , Hyland Paul W.
Published: February 2004

The concept of innovation is valued in most organizations to create and sustain competitive advantage. Firms need to innovate in order to stay ahead in the market. Businesses are experiencing the internationalization of technology‐driven competition, globalization of manufacturing, shorter product life‐cycles, increasingly sophisticated customers needs and a greater integration of technologies (Shepherd & Ahmed, 2000). These challenges have compelled organizations to develop innovative strategies, products and processes. One area that is increasingly seeking ways of adding value through innovation is the logistics function. This paper examines and compares factors that are driving innovation in Australia and Singapore in distribution centres part of the logistics function that has been slow in the past to innovate.
Stimulating the Potential: Creative Performance and Communication in Innovation Teams
Authors: Kratzer Jan , Leenders Oger Th. A. J. , Engelen Jo M. L. van
Published: February 2004

Creativity is essential to successful new product development efforts. Teams constitute the organizing principle in most modern innovation activities. Although creativity research has revealed many factors influencing individual creativity, little is known about how team‐level creativity is determined. Since the creative innovation task requires teams to combine and integrate input from multiple team members, the team's communication pattern is an important determinant of team creativity. Based on a sample of 44 NPD teams in eleven companies, this study examines the effects of team‐member communication on team creativity. It is found that both interaction frequency and subgroup‐formation of communication have a negative relationship to team creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and further research is indicated.
Present and Absent in Troubling Ways: Families and Social Capital Debates
Authors: Edwards Rosalind
Published: February 2004

Social capital has become a key concept in Government policy-making and academic circles. Particular forms of social capital theorising have become dominant and influential, invoking certain conceptions of the nature of family life. Inherently, ideas about ‘the family’ not only draw on gender divisions in fundamental ways, but also on particular forms of intergenerational relationships and power relations. This paper explores the place, and understandings, of family in social capital theorising from a feminist perspective, including the way that debates in the social capital field interlock with those in the family field. These encompass: posing both ‘the family’ and social capital as fundamental and strong bases for social cohesion, but also as easily eroded and in need of protection and encouragement; the relationship between ‘the private’ and ‘the social’; notions of bonding and bridging, and horizontal and vertical, forms of social capital as these relate to ideas about contemporary diversity in family forms and the nature of intimate relationships; and analytic approaches to understanding both the natures of social capital and family life in terms of an economic or moral rationality. It argues for greater reflexivity in the use of social capital as a concept, revealing rather than replicating troubling presences and absences around gender and generation as fundamental axes of family life. ‘We can only realise ourselves as individuals in a thriving civil society, comprising strong families and civic institutions buttressed by intelligent government … a modernised social democracy for a changing world which will build its prosperity on human and social capital’. (Tony Blair, 1998, The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century: 3–20)
Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature
Authors: Mallett Shelley
Published: February 2004

In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.
Kitsch Taste and the Consumption of Jackie ‘O‘
Authors: Parish Jane
Published: February 2004

In 1996, Sotheby's in New York held a four-day auction of many of the possessions Jackie Onassis purchased during her lifetime. This paper is an ethnography of a loose social circle of gay men, some of whom attended the pre-auction display of these objects and who regularly hold their own informal Jackie ‘O’ celebrations. It looks at what their worshipping of a female figure, Jackie ‘O’, means and how a distinctive cultural capital is espoused by gay men which differentiates them from other Jackie collectors. To this end, the paper also focuses on ‘vocabularies of appreciation’ ( Armstrong, 2001 ), or kitsch consumption among this loose social circle and, in this process, categories of ‘us’ and ‘them’ are performed (see Bourdieu, 1984 ; Miller, 1987 ; Pierce, 1994).
Black Mafia, Loggies and Going for the Stars: The Military Elite Revisited
Authors: Macdonald Keith
Published: February 2004

The connection between a Public School education and the British Army officer corps has often been presented as an example of a self-perpetuating elite, with little by way of theoretical explanation. This paper aims to explicate these matters by reference to Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field and to extend the empirical work of earlier studies by looking at the nature of army organization structure, the place of particular regiments within it, and the relative success of officers from different regiments in gaining promotion to general. Inter-regimental competition plays a key role in allowing the reproduction of privilege within the military, and testifies therefore to the importance of organizational structures.

The shorthand conclusions of earlier studies that ‘the elite is maintained’ can be replaced by analysis and explanation, which suggest that the alignment of public school habitus and military field will ensure that (other things being equal) this state of affairs will be slow to change. The property assets of the upper middle class allow their offspring to acquire at public school the cultural assets that will enable them to succeed in a military career. This in turn give access to organizational assets and economic rewards that will enable them to provide the next generation with their cultural assets. ‘It's a way we have in the Army, ‘It's a way we have in the Navy, ‘It's a way we have in the Public Schools, Which nobody can deny!’ 1
Britain and EMU: Assessing the Costs in Macroeconomic Variability
Authors: Minford Patrick , Meenagh David , Webb Bruce
Published: February 2004

Stochastic simulations are used on the Liverpool Model of the UK to assess the effect of UK euro entry on macroeconomic stability. Instability increases substantially, particularly for inflation and real interest rates. A key factor is the extent of the euro's instability against the dollar; by adopting a regional currency the UK imports this source of shocks, as well as losing its control of interest rates. The results are not highly sensitive to changes in assumptions about the degree of labour market flexibility, the use of fiscal policy, and increased convergence of monetary transmission.
Domestic Climate Policies and the WTO
Authors: Zhang ZhongXiang , Assunção Lucas
Published: February 2004

The Kyoto Protocol gives Annex 1 countries considerable flexibility in the choice of domestic policies to meet their emissions commitments. Possible climate policies include carbon/energy taxes, subsidies, energy efficiency standards, eco‐labels, and government procurement policies. In order to meet their targets with minimum adverse effects on their economies, Annex 1 governments with differentiated legal and political systems are highly likely to pursue these policies that may have the potential to bring them into conflict with their WTO obligations. This paper explores the potential interaction between these domestic climate policies and WTO rules. It argues that their potential conflicts can be avoided or at least minimised if WTO rules are carefully scrutinised, and efforts are made early on to ensure that the proposed climate policies comply with them. It suggests an early process of pursuing consultations between WTO members and the Parties to the Climate Change Convention and points to the need of further exploring ways to enhance synergies between the trade and climate regimes.
Are There Such Things as International Property Rights?
Authors: Sgard Jérôme
Published: February 2004

This paper argues that the process of economic globalisation is to remain partial, because of its continued reliance upon the national institutions in charge of the definition and enforcement of private property rights. Emerging economies often face critical enforcement problems, but the experience of the European Single Market also suggests that, in this respect, institutional convergence remains extremely slow. Second, the globalisation process since 1990 has seen a sharp growth in private inter‐temporal contracts, exemplified by private financial transactions and by contracting on intellectual property rights; both are much more vulnerable to local institutional failures than trade in tangible goods and sovereign credits, which were the hallmark of previous phases of international liberalisation. Thus the ‘frontier’ of globalisation now makes markets more exposed to the underlying fragmentation of national property institution than before. This suggests that multilateral negotiation, as an instrument for the coordination of State institutions, will remain the backbone of international economic integration.
The Economic Effects of Removing Barriers to Trade in Telecommunications
Authors: Verikios George , Zhang Xiao‐guang
Published: February 2004

This paper quantifies the impact on the economies of the world of complete liberalisation of trade in a key services sector, telecommunications, using a global general equilibrium model. Barriers to trade in telecommunications are highest in developing regions and lowest in developed regions. The paper uses new estimates of these barriers for telecommunications. The results indicate that completely liberalising trade in telecommunications would benefit the world as a whole in terms of increased production by 0.1 per cent. Although the distribution of gains among regions is not even, most regions are projected to gain from liberalising trade in telecommunications. In general, the regions with the highest barriers benefit most. The analysis demonstrates that commercial presence of foreign firms via foreign direct investment is an important mode of delivering telecommunications.
Liberalising the Movement of Natural Persons: A Lost Decade?
Authors: Bhatnagar Pradip
Published: February 2004

Liberalisation of international trade in services through the Movement of Natural Persons (Mode 4) remains one of the least negotiated issues of trade policy among the 144 members of the World Trade Organisation. Economists believe that there is a basic convergence of economic interest between the developed and the developing world for liberalising Mode 4. Yet the multilateral trading system has not facilitated greater worker mobility between the labour‐surplus and labour‐scarce countries. Is there any economic logic as to why cross‐border movements of workers have not followed the pattern predicted by international trade theory? Or are there strong socio‐political barriers that have come in the way of liberalising Mode 4? These are some of the questions the paper attempts to answer. The paper shows that the economic arguments against the free movement of natural persons are based on the narrow perspective of the welfare of domestic workers while ignoring the benefit it brings to the economy as a whole. Further, non‐economic arguments miss the point that the movement of workers under Mode 4 of GATS is temporary in nature, and so unlikely to have any lasting social and cultural spillovers. The paper gives specific illustrations from the recent past where temporary import of workers from labour‐surplus countries has enabled both developed and developing countries sustain their economic growth. It concludes by arguing that the environment for renegotiating WTO commitments under this important sector of international trade in services is better than ever before, even though the current world economic slowdown may delay actual negotiations for a while.
China's Pragmatist Experiment in Democracy: Hu Shih's pragmatism and Dewey's Influence in China
Authors: Tan Sor‐Hoon
Published: February 2004

Abstract: In the 1920s, John Dewey's followers in China, led by his student Hu Shih, attempted to put his pragmatism into practice in their quest for democracy. This essay compares Hu Shih's thought, especially his emphasis on pragmatism as method, with Dewey's philosophical positions and evaluates Hu's achievement as a pragmatist in the context of the tumultuous times he lived in. It assesses Hu's claim that the means to democracy lies in education rather than politics, since democracy as a way of life requires a cultural renewal beyond institutional changes. It argues that a problem‐centered approach to social change does not preclude radical action, even revolution. But pragmatism is against gratuitous use of violence in the service of wholesale and abstract ideals advocated by various “isms.” While Hu's experiment of democracy in China is a significant episode in the history of pragmatism, its “failure” does not prove that there are inherent flaws in the pragmatist method, that pragmatism is unviable for China. The failure needs to be understood in the context of the pragmatist conception of experiment, in which failures are to be expected; what is important is to learn from them to achieve better results in the next stage of inquiry. Hu Shih's pragmatism contains lessons for pragmatists and for those interested in the continued quest for democracy in China—the experiment continues.
Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Global Citizenship
Authors: Hickman Larry A.
Published: February 2004

Abstract: The founders of American pragmatism proposed what they regarded as a radical alternative to the philosophical methods and doctrines of their predecessors and contemporaries. Although their central ideas have been understood and applied in some quarters, there remain other areas within which they have been neither appreciated nor appropriated. One of the more pressing of these areas locates a set of problems of knowledge and valuation related to global citizenship. This essay attempts to demonstrate that classical American pragmatism, because its methods are modeled on successes in the technosciences, offers a set of tools for fostering global citizenship that are more effective than the tools of some of its alternatives. First, pragmatism claims to discover a strain of human commonality that trumps the radical postmodernist emphasis on difference and discontinuity. Second, when pragmatism's theory of truth is coupled with its moderate version of cultural relativism, the more skeptical postmodernist version known as “cognitive” relativism is undercut.
Old Ideals Crumble: War, Pragmatist Intellectuals, and the Limits of Philosophy
Authors: Stuhr John J.
Published: February 2004

Abstract: This essay explores the resources and limits of pragmatism in a world marked by violence, war, and terrorism. After explicating major strengths of pragmatic social philosophy as developed in the work of John Dewey, I consider two important criticisms of this view as formulated by Randolph Bourne in the face of Dewey's support for American entry into World War I. Bourne first charged that pragmatism is a fair‐weather philosophy ineffective in deliberations among persons who do not already share its principal values of freedom, individuality, education, community, and democracy. I argue that Bourne is correct, but that this does not mark a theoretical weakness or failure of pragmatism: Pragmatism has a real but limited practical value or sphere of effectiveness; it cannot do certain kinds of work in times of war (which it should oppose) and it cannot do certain kinds of work in the face of a certain kind of pluralism (which it should more fully embrace). Bourne's second charge against pragmatists is that too often they miss opportunities and waste time. Here I claim that Bourne is correct, and that his point directs pragmatists to turn away from efforts to make pragmatism better in theory and instead to engage in efforts to make practice more intelligent—something Bourne characterized as a “new Americanism” of “federated ethnic groups and traditions,” a genuine alternative to military coalition, “war in the service of democracy.” I close by outlining four such projects.
What's the Use of Calling Du Bois a Pragmatist?
Authors: Taylor Paul C.
Published: February 2004

Abstract: Was W. E. B. Du Bois a pragmatist? Does it matter? This essay argues that reading Du Bois as a pragmatist highlights aspects of his work and life that might otherwise go unnoticed, while also highlighting aspects of pragmatism that often go unappreciated. In addition, this double revelation may help restore to us some important resources for dealing with current social problems.
Legal Pragmatism
Authors: Posner Richard A.
Published: February 2004

Abstract: This essay describes modern American legal pragmatism. Its origins in pragmatist philosophy are traced, and it is compared with the law and economics movement in American law and the formalist style of Continental legal theory. The essay argues that the inevitability of legal pragmatism in America, and its dispensability in Europe, reflect fundamental institutional and cultural differences rather than mere accidents of history or legal thought.
Changing the epistemological and psychological subject: William James's psychology without borders
Authors: Janack Marianne
Published: February 2004

Why has James been relatively absent from the neopragmatist revival of the past twenty years? I argue that part of the reason is that his psychological projects seem to hold little promise for a socially and culturally progressive philosophical project, and that his concern with religious issues makes him seem like a religious apologist. Bringing together James's psychological writings with his philosophical writings shows these assumptions to be wrong. I offer a reading of “The Will to Believe” and The Principles of Psychology to support my position (a) that James's philosophical methodology and his psychological works lend themselves to a naturalized approach to philosophical inquiry, which both allows for a reshaping of traditional philosophical questions and offers a check on scientism, and (b) that, contrary to many commentators' claims, James is not defending religion against science but is instead using science to address epistemic and moral issues more broadly. I conclude with a discussion of the ways in which James's naturalism demands a reconsideration of the nature of philosophical inquiry, as well as a revised view of a scientific psychology that avoids scientism.
The Question of Voice and the Limits of Pragmatism: Emerson, Dewey, and Cavell
Authors: Colapietro Vincent
Published: February 2004

Abstract: One criticism of pragmatism, forcefully articulated by Stanley Cavell, is that pragmatism fails to deal with mourning, understood in the psychoanalytic sense as grief‐work (Trauerarbeit). Such work would seemingly be as pertinent to philosophical investigations (especially ones conducted by pragmatists) as to psychoanalytic explorations. Finding such themes as mourning and loss in R. W. Emerson's writings, Cavell warns against assimilating Emerson's voice to that of American pragmatism, especially Dewey's instrumentalism, for such assimilation risks the loss or repression of Emerson's voice in not only professional philosophy but also American culture. While granting Emerson's distinctive voice, this essay argues that the way Cavell insists on differences problematically represses recognition of the Emersonian strains in Dewey's own philosophical voice. In doing so, Cavell falsely flattens the resounding depth of Dewey's philosophical voice and narrows the expansive range of pragmatic intelligence. But Dewey all too often lends himself to such a misreading, for his writings at once repress and embody the strains of a distinctively Emersonian voice.
Pragmatism and the Practice of History: From Turner and Du Bois to Today
Authors: Kloppenberg James T.
Published: February 2004

Abstract:Pragmatism has affected American historical writing since the early twentieth century. Such contemporaries and students of Peirce, James, and Dewey as Frederick Jackson Turner, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Harvey Robinson, Charles Beard, Mary Beard, and Carl Becker drew on pragmatism when they fashioned what was called the “new history.” They wanted to topple inherited assumptions about the past and replace positivist historical methods with the pragmatists' model of a community of inquiry. Such widely read mid‐twentieth‐century historians as Merle Curti, Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Hofstadter embraced the perspectivalism, fallibilism, and instrumentalism of the pragmatists, thereby helping to sustain the tradition during its nadir in American philosophy departments. Many historians have been drawn to the study of pragmatism during its recent renaissance; others have advanced pragmatist‐inspired philosophies of history. Through such prominent contemporary historians as Thomas Haskell, David Hollinger, and Joyce Appleby, the ideas of Pierce, James, and Dewey continue to influence the historical profession.
‘We have the values’: customers, control and corporate ideology in call centre operations
Authors: Van Den Broek Diane
Published: February 2004

This article analyses the use of normative control through recruitment, work organisation, social events, and bargaining processes within two Australian telecommunication call centres. Rather than arguing that such control reduced employees to ‘self‐disciplining subjects’, it suggests that these control mechanisms embodied significant levels of managerial coercion and therefore attracted varying levels of resistance.
High performance work systems and workplace partnership: a case study of aerospace workers
Authors: Danford Andy , Richardson Mike , Stewart Paul , Tailby Stephanie , Upchurch Martin
Published: February 2004

This article provides case study analysis of the impact of high performance work practices and workplace partnership on skilled workers in the UK's aerospace industry. In contrast to assumptions that such practices increase empowerment and participation we find evidence of a democratic deficit in workplace decision‐making and deterioration in the quality of working life.
Women and IT contracting work—a testing process
Authors: Grey Susan , Healy Geraldine
Published: February 2004

This paper explores the career and work experiences of a little researched group: highly skilled women IT contractors. It considers their reasons for entering the IT field, including the decision to become contractors. It demonstrates the complexity of power and influence of IT contractors and the resilience of the gender order in IT work.
Embellishing the past: middle manager identity and informality in the implementation of new technology
Authors: Hallier Jerry
Published: February 2004

This article illustrates how themes which were prominent in the industrial sociology of the 1960s and 1970s can refine our understanding of how management processes impact on the introduction of new technology and the employment relationship. Using a case study in the air traffic sector, this paper shows how middle managers’ competitive struggles and over‐reliance on worker informality can lead to omissions in the planning of technical change and the neglect of worker concerns during its implementation.
The potential of internet technologies: insights from the public sector
Authors: McIvor Ronan , McHugh Marie , Cadden Christine
Published: February 2004

The objective of this paper is to examine the implications of the internet for public sector organisations. Although there are considerable barriers to the full implementation of internet technologies, the findings illustrate that the internet presents public sector organisations with the potential to enhance the ways in which they fulfil the needs of users of their products and services.
Balancing the evidence: incorporating the synthesis of qualitative data into systematic reviews
Authors: Pearson Alan
Published: February 2004

Techniques for the systematic review of evidence of effectiveness are now well established. Health‐care professionals argue, however, for a need to recognise evidence of appropriateness and feasibility and for the development of methodologies to appraise and synthesise the results of qualitative research. This paper describes a participatory project designed to develop systems to systematically review qualitative evidence. The Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument is described in detail, and a suite of programs designed to conduct comprehensive reviews of evidence for health‐care practice is outlined. As evidence‐based practice increases in sophistication, and its influence in health service delivery expands, the need for broadening the view of what constitutes legitimate evidence is advanced by clinicians and the approach described attempts to achieve a balance in evidence review that recognises the value of quantitative and qualitative evidence.
Bioinformatics: New Science–New Statistics?
Authors: Gilks Wally
Published: February 2004

The new research field of bioinformatics is concerned with the collection, maintenance and processing of genomic information. Like statistical genetics, it provides computational techniques for unravelling the complex machinery of the genome, but it is distinct in emphasis and approach. As a relative newcomer to bioinformatics, statistician Wally Gilks sets out to convey his excitement about the subject and to explain the opportunities it presents to professional statisticians.
Shipman’s Statistical Legacy
Authors: Spiegelhalter David , Best Nicky
Published: February 2004

Harold Shipman, who in January committed suicide in prison, has become notorious the world over as one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. His case has also seriously dented public confidence in doctors. David Spiegelhalter and Nicky Best explain how industrial quality control techniques could be adapted to signal when death rates among a doctor's patients are surprisingly high, and the tricky issues that would arise in implementing such a monitoring system.
Extreme Values in the Dock
Authors: Heffernan Janet , Tawn Jonathan
Published: February 2004

On 9th September 1980 the bulk carrier M. V. Derbyshire sank in the Pacific Ocean, around 350 miles south-east of Japan, when she was caught in Typhoon Orchid while transporting iron ore from Canada to Japan. All 44 people on board died. Janet Heffernan and Jonathan Tawn describe their involvement as statistical expert witnesses in the Investigation of the sinking and their experience of giving evidence in court, outlining their statistical analysis which provided new insight into the circumstances surrounding the loss of the ship.
House Price Indices
Authors: Briscoe Simon
Published: February 2004

The new FT House Price Index aims to end the confusion that arises from the current plethora of indices. Simon Briscoe examines these various indices and explains the methodology behind the FT Index.
The Accidental Statistician
Authors: Cox David
Published: February 2004

During his long and distinguished career, Sir David Cox has played a substantial part in the development and growth of the discipline of statistics, but, as he tells Helen Joyce, he very nearly specialised in mathematical physics or analysis instead.
Career Story: Pharmaceutical Statistician
Authors: Grieve Andy
Published: February 2004

Nobody could accuse the Royal Statistical Society's President Andy Grieve of looking for a quiet life. As well as being a consultant statistician for pharmaceuticals company Pfizer, he has for many years been heavily involved with the Society and Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry. However, he claims to Helen Joyce that his early career was shaped by a fondness for “taking the easy option”.