bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of Prisons as a Commons Problem: An Exploratory Study
Authors: POLAKOWSKI MICHAEL , GOTTFREDSON MICHAEL
Published: March 2007

Whether crime trends have significantly changed over the past decade is less important than the general inclination to adopt policies that increase arrest potential, promote longer enhanced sentences, and eliminate traditional parole practices. Such strategies are often adopted without considering their effects on an already exhausted criminal justice resource: prisons. Using a common pool resources approach ordinarily employed in economic and biologic research to investigate the potential depletion of resources that are held in common, the authors examine the use of and estimate the actual needs for prison space by the county-level sentencing authorities in a southwestern state. Results suggest that the actions of a few jurisdictions within the state significantly affect the overuse of prison as a sentencing alternative. The authors examine the significance of such findings for future research as well as potential policy alternatives that may incorporate the concept of prison as a common pool resource.
Risk of Death among Serious Young Offenders
Authors: LATTIMORE PAMELA K. , LINSTER RICHARD L. , MacDONALD JOHN M.
Published: March 2007

Mortality data were gathered from California Vital Statistics for more than 4,000 youth paroled by the California Youth Authority during the 1980s. Exposure periods (time at risk of death), were about 11 years and 6 years for the two samples. Known deaths for two cohorts totaled 181 for the 3,995 male offenders in the two samples, including 109 for the 1,998 males in the 1981-1982 sample and 72 for the 1,997 males in the 1986-1987 sample. Homicide was the prevailing cause for both samples. Of particular note is the fact that the numbers of deaths due to causes other than homicide are roughly proportional to the length of the exposure periods for the two samples while the numbers of homicides are roughly equal despite the very different lengths of time at risk. A higher probability of death by murder was observed for Black youth, those from Los Angeles, those with a history of gang involvement and institutional violence, and those with a history of drug arrests.
The Impact of an Arrest on the Job Stability of Young White American Men
Authors: BUSHWAY SHAWN D.
Published: March 2007

Traditionally, criminologists have sought to understand how unemployment can lead to crime. Recently, however, a group of criminologists have begun to consider ways in which crime itself might lead to employment problems. One idea, advanced by Hagan, is that youths involved in crime do not develop the necessary social and human capital necessary to succeed in the legal labor market. A second idea, advanced by Sampson and Laub, is that the formal sanctions of the criminal justice system lead employers to avoid individuals who might otherwise succeed in the labor market. This article tests the competing implications of these two theories by using the method of “differences in differences” on the National Youth Survey. The evidence from this article suggests that arrest can lead to minor problems in the labor market above and beyond the impact of current or past criminal activity.
Helping Novices Learn to Teach
Authors: Feiman-Nemser Sharon
Published: March 2007

There is growing interest in the problem of teacher induction and widespread support for the idea of assigning experienced teachers to work with beginning teachers. Still, we know relatively little about what thoughtful mentor teachers do, how they think about their work, and what novices learn from their interactions with them. This article describes how one exemplary support teacher defines and enacts his role with beginning teachers. On the basis of 10 hours of interview data and 20 hours of observational data, the article illustrates specific principles and strategies that shape Pete Frazer’s mentoring practice and discusses how he learned to do this kind of work. As a close study of thoughtful practice, the article offers a vision of “educative” mentoring and some ideas about the conditions needed to sustain it.
“I Wash My Face with Dirty Water”
Authors: Gabel Susan L.
Published: March 2007

Reflective practice and the value of reflexivity between personal experience and pedagogy are common research themes today. However, teacher candidates often report a lack of encouragement to be reflective of their experiences with disability and the ways those experiences can inform pedagogy. This article results from a year of inquiry involving 3 novice teachers with disabilities. The impact of their experiences is discussed in light of their developing pedagogical knowledge. The article concludes that for them, teaching is an encounter with the self but that their encounters are an untapped resource with rich potential for the construction of pedagogical knowledge. The article argues that teacher educators must facilitate reflection on experiences with disability as with gender, race/ethnicity, and other identity markers or lived experiences. The article includes examples of the author’s attempts to make use of disability experiences in the teacher education curriculum.
Teacher Mentoring and Teacher Retention
Authors: Odell Sandra J. , Ferraro Douglas P.
Published: March 2007

Four years after their initial, mentored teaching year, two cohorts of beginning teachers (N= 160) were surveyed to determine whether they had remained in teaching and their retrospective attitudes about mentoring. Approximately 96% of those located were still teaching. Of the different types of support they received from their mentors, they most valued emotional support. It is suggested that teacher mentoring may reduce the early attrition of beginning teachers.
Exports and Economic Growth in the Overseas Sterling Area: 1960-61 to 1975
Authors: Maizels A. , Cambell-Boross L. F. , Rayment P. B. W.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to examine the export prospects over the coming decade of some of the principal countries of the overseas sterling area; and, second, to assess the implications of such export prospects for the economic growth of a selection of the less-developed countries of the area between now and 1975.
Imports of Manufactures into the United Kingdom and other Industrial Countries, 1955-69
Authors: Morgan A.D. , Martin D.
Published: March 2007

Over the past 15 years, manufactures have been the fastest-growing sector of Britain's import trade. In 1969, the dollar value of total retained imports was 75 per cent higher than the 1955 figure but the dollar value of imports of manufactures was more than 260 per cent greater than in 1955. The latter rise owed little to higher prices; there was a more than threefold increase in volume. Thus manufactures which had in 1955 supplied just under 23 per cent of retained imports accounted for 43 per cent in 1969.
Formal and Informal Aspects of Forecasting With an Econometric Model
Authors: Surrey M.J.C. , Ormerod P.A.
Published: March 2007

The construction of an economic forecast involves a blend of the use of a set of formal equations summarising to the best of the model-builders' ability the dominant characteristics of the past behaviour of the economy, together with a complex set of judgements about the way in which these equations have recently behaved and are likely to behave over the forecast period. We, in common with other forecasters, have published papers about the characteristics of our formal model and about particular equations, but little about the rather flexible way in which the model is actually used to produce a forecast. This Note is an attempt to redress the balance somewhat. It is also intended as an explanatory note to the table of residual adjustments which, beginning with this issue of the Review (see p. 19), we intend to publish regularly as part of the background to our quarterly forecasts.
Chapter II. The World Economy
Authors: Barrell R.J. , Gurney Andrew , Dulake Stephen
Published: March 2007

In the last six months political and economic developments in Europe have moved very rapidly. The democratisation of the East has been quite remarkable, and much heralded, but the change in the political agenda in the West has been almost as important, although much quieter. The drive toward European Monetary Union seems to have speeded up, although there are many important issues still to be settled.
Asean and EC-1992
Authors: Pelkmans Jacques
Published: March 2007

ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, comprises the fastest growing countries of the world economy. Apart from including the only NIE (newly industrialising economy), not having encountered domestic political or social growth constraints—Singapore, with 11 per cent real growth in 1988, 9.2 per cent in 1989 and 10 per cent, first quarter 1990—it consists of recent record holder Thailand (with growth rates above 10 per cent for three years), Malaysia (growth in the 7 per cent—9 per cent range), Indonesia (recent growth 6–7 per cent), Philippines (oscillating growth due to internal instability) and Brunei (an oil-exporting sultanate). The ASEAN countries do not owe their growth to the integration of ASEAN countries into a free trade area, a customs union or a common market. Intra-group trade liberalisation and economic cooperation are still modest. These growth marvels owe their performance to exports, especially to the OECD countries. The quality and very high growth rates of exports were and still are fostered by foreign investment and imports of intermediate inputs from the target markets.
Total Factor Productivity Growth and the Role of Externalities
Authors: Oulton Nicholas
Published: March 2007

This paper argues that the greater part of economic growth can be accounted for by the accumulation of human and physical capital. The role of externalities is relatively small. This view is defended by reviewing the most sophisticated growth accounting studies and also by presenting some new evidence on the growth of total factor productivity in 53 countries over the period 1965 to 1990.
Technical Progress and the Natural Rate in Models of the UK Economy
Authors: Church Keith B. , Mitchell Peter R. , Sault Joanne E. , Wallis Kenneth F.
Published: March 2007

This article analyses the role of technical progress in three models of the UK economy. In the standard neoclassical growth model, the growth of the economy is dictated by the growth rate of technical progress plus that of the population. Our two simulation experiments, increasing the level of technical progress by 1 per cent and the growth rate by 0.1 percentage points, suggest that technological progress plays the same role in these large macroeconometric models. In both cases the result is higher output and real wages. However adjustment following the shocks is protracted, giving substantial technological unemployment which in several instances is permanent.
Estimated Stabilization Costs of the EMU
Authors: Fair Ray C.
Published: March 2007

A multicountry econometric model and stochastic simulation are used to estimate the stabilization costs of the European Monetary Union (EMU). A measure of the variability of output and other variables is computed for the current regime and for the EMU regime. The results show that Germany is hurt the most in terms of increased output variability in moving from the current regime to the EMU regime.
Discourse Intonation of English in Malaysia and Singapore: Implications for Wider Communication and Teaching
Authors: Goh Christine C. M.
Published: March 2007

The teaching of pronunciation has for a long time concentrated on segmental features. Increasingly, however, writers and researchers have called for greater emphasis to be placed on the teaching of suprasegmentals because of their influence on intelligibility. The purpose of this article is to reiterate that call for the teaching of English prosody, particularly intonation, to learners of English. This is done through an examination of discourse intonation features of English spoken in Malaysia and Singapore. Using the discourse intonation model by David Brazil (Brazil, Coulthard & Johns 1980, Brazil 1997) as a theoretical framework, this article describes seven common intonation features and discusses how these features may affect communication with English speakers from other countries. It also examines implications for teaching, with particular reference to national English language programmes. Although this discussion is based on Malaysia and Singapore, it may be of interest to other readers in Southeast Asia, where the acquisition of good English pronunciation has become increasingly important in national curricula.
Rethinking the Role of Corrective Feedback in Communicative Language Teaching
Authors: Han Zhao Hong
Published: March 2007

The history of second language teaching has witnessed changing perceptions of corrective feedback. Under the extreme view of communicative language teaching, which appears to be prevailing in some communicatively-oriented classrooms, learning can only come about through learner-learner interactive output practice. Form- focused instruction is deemed detrimental. Corrective feedback is consequently accorded low status in classroom processes. In this paper, I examine the 'equation' drawn between communicative language teaching and the exclusion of form-focused instruction and error correction. By bringing in a cognitive-skill-acquisition perspective to bear on the role of corrective feedback in second language acquisition, I argue that in communicative language teaching, corrective feedback remains an important vehicle for facilitating L2 knowledge construction and enhancing knowledge use. Issues related to the actual provision of corrective feedback in the classroom are considered, which include matching teaching and learning, teacher adaptation, and output enhancement. Pedagogical insights are provided into two questions that are of major practical concern to L2 teachers: namely, how to increase the effectiveness of corrective feedback in the classroom and how to integrate corrective feedback into communicative language teaching to enhance learning.
Trends and Issues in Genre-Based Approaches
Authors: Derewianka Beverly
Published: March 2007

The increasing influence of genre-based approaches in English language teaching is now well-attested by the growing literature on the subject. The author in this article first sets out to clarify what is meant by 'Genre Theory' with its focus on text, purpose, meaning and choice. In the second part of the article she addresses the specific area of genres in the classroom and the importance of contextual analysis, planning and implementation. Finally in the conclusion issues are raised with regard to the need for effective imple mentation in syllabus design, materials development and the professional development of teachers.
More Questions on Assumptions about Cloze Testing
Authors: Foley Joseph A.
Published: March 2007

The author takes up the suggestion made by Johnson (1981) that some of the assumptions made about cloze tests may be mis leading. Research which has now been going for thirty years indicates that cloze procedure is a criterion-referenced test which will identify whether an individual or a group possesses the basic skills in the target language. Cloze is a very blunt instrument for testing but within its limits it is valid and reliable. However, changing the variables such as deletion rate, scoring procedure or using a different text may well result in a radically different test each time. The raw data obtained from a cloze test cannot be used as continuous data, such as would be derived from most psychometric-type tests, but as an indicator of one of three levels: frustrational, instructional and independent. Finally, guidelines are given for the preparation of a cloze test.
Role: An Unresolved Dimension in Language Learning
Authors: Long Michael N.
Published: March 2007

Linguistic studies have investigated in detail social variables which influence native speaker performance. Van Ek, however, in his admirable taxonomy of basic learner requirements, postulates only a 'neutral' role, within the limited social framework of stranger speaking to stranger or friend to friend. This article1 argues that while there may be very good reasons for not exposing the learner to 'marked language forms' at too early a stage, it is nevertheless neces sary to prepare the learner to play the specialized role of learner, at least if it is assumed that the same learner will speak the language, which is clearly an assumption of all modern course books. But speaking the target language, as a learner, speaking to a fluent or competent speaker, is not a neutral role within van Ek's terms, and a greater awareness of what role involves should be built into the teaching materials. The article makes tentative suggestions as to how this may be done without making radical changes in text book design.
The Effectiveness of Teaching Reduced Forms of Listening Comprehension
Authors: Brown J.D. , Hilferty Ann
Published: March 2007

This classroom research investigates the effectiveness of teaching reduced forms (e.g., "gonna" for "going to") for improving listen ing comprehension among EFL students in the People's Republic of China. A randomly selected experimental group (n = 16) received thirty lessons of approximately ten minutes each on reduced forms. This was part of their regular course work. At the same time a con trol group (n = 16) received "placebo" lessons of ten minutes on minimal pairs in pronunciation. Three measures of listening com prehension were used to pretest and posttest the students. The results indicate that teaching reduced forms does aid listening comprehen sion, but this is reflected to varying degrees in the three measures. The discussion explores causes for these differences, as well as solu tions to some of the problems encountered in small classroom research.
An Item Discriminability Study of Textually Explicit, Textually Implicit, and Scriptally Implicit Questions
Authors: Perkins Kyle , Brutten Sheila R.
Published: March 2007

This paper reports the effect that background knowledge has on the item discriminability of reading comprehension items; item discriminability is an index of how well a test item discriminates bet ween weak and strong examinees in the ability being tested.

The questions from three reading comprehension tests were placed into one of the following categories: (1) textually explicit; (2) textually implicit; and (3) scriptally implicit. An item discriminability index was computed for each item. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the three categories of itèms with respect to item discriminability and that reading comprehension items which are heavily dependent on background knowledge do not ex hibit good item discriminability. The findings indicate that researchers must control for background knowledge in a reading test when they use test products as the basis for making inferences about the pro cesses underlying reading comprehension.
Can Numbers Talk? Basic Data Management of a Corpus
Authors: Kuo Chih-Hua
Published: March 2007

This study attempts a series of quantitative analyses on a cornucopia of data in the Corpus of Scientific Journal Articles (CSJA), a special- purpose corpus consisting of 360 journal articles in 10 major scientific fields. Major findings include: (1) the average word length is 6.31 characters;(2) a word-form occurs 36.8 times on average;(3) a text category having a larger number of running words tends to have a higher word recurrence rate; (4) most of the 100 most frequent word-forms are function words; (5) in comparison with the COBUILD corpus and the LOB corpus, numbers and letters are much more frequently used in the CSJA than in the other two corpora; (6) only a very limited number of word-forms have a high recurrence rate while more than half of the vocabulary occur only once or twice; (7) despite disciplinary difference, word frequency profiles of the ten scientific fields are very similar, showing that different scientific fields bear similar patterns in the use of words.
Bridging the Gap: Utilising Self-Access Learning as a Course Component
Authors: Yeung Lorrita , Hyland Fiona
Published: March 2007

The use of self-access centres by independent learners is only one of the ways that such important institutional learning resources may be used. The SAC can also be exploited by class teachers and course co-ordinators to supplement teaching and reinforce course objectives at the individual level. This may help to bridge the gap between independent language learning and total teacher control and may be particularly valuable for students whose past experiences have lead them to expect a great deal of teacher direction. In this article we describe how self-access learning was integrated as part of a classroom-taught course in Business English and evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. From the lessons learnt from our experiences, we consider the implications for improving the effectiveness of other integrated self- access learning projects.
La mort chez les noirs de la fraternité Nossa Senhora do Rosário
Authors: VALENTE Ana Lúcia
Published: March 2007

In this article the author discusses the significance of death in the fraternity of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos of São Paulo, Brazil, a religious institution founded in 1711 and currently still in existence. This fraternity played an important role in the maintenance of popular traditions based on a “black” religious practice and not merely a “white” religious practice, conceived from the standpoint of slavery. The relations established between the Catholic Church and the slaves during the colonial period constitute the historical context of the creation of these fraternities. Stress is also laid on the process of Romanization of Brazilian Catholicism after the Republic was installed.
Tribes and Cities: Towards an Islamic Sociology of Religion
Authors: SPICKARD James V.
Published: March 2007

Mainstream sociology of religion often presumes that its conceptual categories are universal and complete. They are, however, grounded in the Western intellectual tradition and arise from that tradition's reflection on Euro-American history. This article outlines an alternative sociology of religion based on the writings of the 14th-century Moslem historian Ibn Khaldûn—whose ideas arise from a very different world. His sociology is not grounded in individuals, nor does it focus only on religious beliefs and institutions. Instead it emphasizes the distinction between tribes and cities as forms of social organization, the importance of Al `Assabiyya or “groupfeeling” in social life, and the special role of Islam in transforming that feeling. This locates religious individualism and institutionalism at distinct points in an historical cycle, throwing new light on debates about religious authority, popular religion, and secularization. It also highlights the connections between religion and ethnicity—helping us understand key late 20th-century phenomena.
Tendances de la Religiosité et de L'orientation Vers les Eglises en Europe de L'est
Authors: TOMKA Miklós
Published: March 2007

Despite differences between countries, Eastern Europe is experiencing religious growth and the Churches are enjoying higher prestige. Religiosity appears to be increasing in some respects, unlike in West European societies. However, this development is not without contradictions. The present turn to religion is characterized by very different motives and constituents, among others the search for cultural identity, social regeneration and the fulfilment of spiritual needs. The increased prestige of the Churches is similarly ambiguous. Available data allow different interpretations depending on whether Communism is accepted as a social system that functions reasonably well, or as an artificial straitjacket that leaves a legacy of social anomie.
Tendances actuelles en sociologie urbaine
Authors: Dhooghe Jos
Published: March 2007

The A. shows how the empirical studies made on the basis of the classical theories of L. Wirth on urbani zation, have modified considerably the ideas we had on the origins of the urban way of life. It is also no longer possible to use dychomotic concepts such as rural-urban to analyse it. On the contrary, it appears that these phenomena ought to be analysed in the line of a more socio-cultural approach, including the study of industrialization and bureaucratization.
Alienation in the New African Society
Authors: Crane William H.
Published: March 2007

Cet article traite du problème de déracinement et des conflits interieurs qui se produisent dans les vies des congolais aliénés du milieu rural par l'éducation, l'urbanisation et l'industrialisation, mais qui n'ont pas les capacités intellectuelles ou le statut pour assimiler avec succès la vie de la ville. On y étudie en detail le cas hypothétique de Kalala, un Muluba de la region du Kasaï au Congo, dont on raconte les tentatives mal heureuses, au sortir de l'ecole, pour devenir un homme ayant un 'statut' dans la société nouvelle. Il finit par devenir combattant de guerilla dans la milice d'un des partis politiques tribaux du Congo independant. L'auteur met l'accent sur l'echec de l'Eglise à créer une communauté significative pour remplacer celle qui a été perdu, et à assister le faible et celui qui échoue aussi bien que le fort.
Conditionnements sociaux des vocations sacerdotales en Pologne
Authors: Taras Piotr , Parzyszek J.C.
Published: March 2007

The author draws up certain hypotheses on the social conditioning of priestly and religious vocations in Poland, on the basis of a survey realized in 1962.

The survey shows the influence of the family, the social valorisation of the priestly life and the influence of priests, as factors favorable to the nurturing of priestly vocations. On the other hand the pattern of the priestly role, the renouncing of that which is socially valorised are negative factors in certain social environments. A new motivation appears in the social classes where the need for promotion is no longer imperative, linking the religious need to the perfection of the person. Such facts lead to a questionning of the way religion is inserted in society.

In a second part, the author tries to understand the reasons for the disproportion noted between the large number of those who desire to enter the seminary and the actual number of candidates. The favorable factors (family environment, in fluence of priests) are neutralised by the attraction of a social success and especially by the image of the Church which perpetuates out-dated patterns of religiosity. The religious appears as peripheral and secondary in society because of the practice of the Church.
An Emerging Intellectual Group Within a Religious Organization : An Exploratory Study of Change
Authors: Weigert Andrew J.
Published: March 2007

Les transformations de l'Eglise Catholique des Etats-Unis se répercutent profondément dans le changement de ses or ganisations spécialisées, telle la Compagnie de Jésus. Au cours des trois ou quatre dernières décennies, les Jésuites avaient détachés un grand nombre d'hommes, appelés « étu diants spéciaux », qui prenaient des grades dans des do maines traditionnels, mais surtout non traditionnels, et, de plus en plus, dans des universités non catholiques. Ces hom mes, rigoureusement sélectionnés et formés, étaient socialisés à une double appartenance par deux engagements complets : ils recevaient une identité sacrale par l'exercice du sacerdoce dans la Compagnie de Jesus et une identité instrumentale, séculière et scientifique par leur appartenance à la commu nauté universitaire. C'est ainsi qu'ils vivaient en eux-mêmes ce qui est peut-être la plus profonde distortion des valeurs de l'Occident : l'opposition entre le sacré et la sécularité. Ce conflit s'est manifesté par une mise en question de la structure, des objectifs, des engagements et du style de vie traditionnels des Jésuites. Depuis que l'Organisation a créé ce groupe et reconnu ses dilemmes, elle doit faire face à une source légitime de pression qui retvendique un changement de la structure et du mode de vie. Afin de poursuivre le recrutement et de maintenir ses engagements, l'Organisation a dû se résoudre à accepter le style de vie séculier, professionnel et individuel des « étudiants spéciaux », qui continuent à exercer une forte influence. Avec d'autres facteurs, ce phénomène a accéléré le changement de l'Organisation des Jésuites, au point que la présente analyse fait déjà partie de l'histoire et met en évi dence la nécessité d'analyses nouvelles.
Chronique FERES Chronicle
Authors: Holl Adolf
Published: March 2007

Les trois travaux présentés dans ce compte-rendu ont été réalisés par des instituts catholiques de recherches socio-religieuses situés, respective ment, aux Etats-Unis, en Afrique et en Suisse. La première étude est une analyse sociologique qui porte sur la profession des prêtres et reli gieux catholiques, la seconde est une étude qui concerne les catéchistes dans les missions de l'Afrique de l'Est, et la troisième étudie les bases d'une planification prospective dans l'Eglise. L'étude des catéchistes porte sur l'analyse des résultats d'une enquête, tandis que les deux autres rassemblent des matériaux divers. Les études américaine et africaine s'inscrivent plutôt dans le domaine de la micro-sociologie appliquée; la recherche suisse, par contre, appartient davantage au domaine de la macro-sociologie : elle sort de la perspective plus limitée d'une sociologie ecclésiastique pour s'axer sur des problèmes sociaux à un niveau plus global. Un mandat, ou tout au moins l'intérêt explicite des conférences épiscopales des pays en question, se trouve à l'origine — directe ou indirecte — des trois études: celles-ci deviennent de la sorte un reflet d'un certain type de problèmes internationaux qui sont d'actualité dans l'Eglise catholique.
Spirit-Filled Catholics Some Biographical Comparisons
Authors: Harper Charles L.
Published: March 2007

Cet article débute par une discussion approfondie de différents cas historiques de personnes devenues membres du mouvement pentecôtiste au sein de l'Eglise Catholique. Au travers de ces divers cas, émergent des similitudes qui, associées, permettent à l'Auteur de construire un modèle des combinaisons de facteurs qui prédisposent à la participation au mouvement pentecôtiste. Ce modèle est alors examiné dans les termes de différents cadres théoriques, y compris les théories de l'aliénation et du comportement collectif selon Smelser.
Eléments pour une étude des mutations dans les comportements électoraux en Italie
Authors: Carbonaro Antonio
Published: March 2007

This article presents a series of materials which permit a first analysis of the changes in the electoral procedures in Italy since 1945 to the present days.
Lutte pour I'hegemonie et production de sens dans I'Eglise catholique chilienne (1970-1973)
Authors: Lopez Fernandez Fancisco
Published: March 2007

This article is a systematic presentation of the principle conclusions of the doctoral thesis presented by the author at the Université Catholique de Louvain.
La sociologie de la religion comme Théorie Critique (L'Ecole de Francfort)
Authors: Mörth Ingo
Published: March 2007

The critical social theory and philosophy of the " Frankfurt School " and its followers within German Sociology analyses religion within dialectic framework of religion as ideology, as utopical thinking and as part of social change. Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, two of the founding fathers of the Frankfurt School and up to now of great influence not only within German sociology, in their essays dealing with religion, too — religion never was the main topic of any of their writings —, tried to show that religion especially in its present " neutralized " (Adorno) form is part of the ideo logical glue that keeps our one-dimensional, totalitarian so ciety together and going. Max Horkheimer, besides Adorno the second founding father tha restablished the Frankfurt School in Germany after World War II, unlike Adorno and Marcuse discussed religion explicitly in his writings several times and always concentrated on the positive aspects of religion. Religion for him is a possible dimension of autonomy against the the overwhelming forces of social control. For Horkheimer religion and Critical Theory itself converge in the desire for a totally different future. This emphasis on the positive-utopical aspects of religion is combined with a critical theory of evolution by Jürgen Habermas and Rainer Döbert. These recent representatives of the old critical tradition try to include Webers point of view, too, who, in short, had tried to show how religion is a way of developing human rationality. Habermas and Döbert view religion as a " cogni tive potential " in society, that — in terms of its ethics and view of life — has developed fundamental norms of an universalistic ethic and thus is a prerequisite of human progress and emancipation. Finally it has to be stated that the theo retical, speculative-philosophical " leg " of the Critical Theory of religion is as oversized as the empirical leg is under developed. Only recently a generation of critical theologians, inspired by the ideas of the Critical Theory, started to analyse structure, organization, ideological ties and political involve ment of the churches in Germany by empirical means and to compare the results self-critically with the emancipatory possibilities of religion as indicated by Horkheimer or Haber mas.
The Effect of the Caste System on Conversions to Christianity in Tamilnadu
Authors: Lemercinier Geneviève
Published: March 2007

C'est dans une société caractérisée par un mode de production tri butaire que le christianisme fut implanté au Tamilnadu au début du XVIIe siècle. L'hindouisme lui-même s'était implanté au VIIe siè cle, avec la domination des Brahmanes, sur la même base sociale. A cette époque en effet, régnait un pluralisme religieux à la cour de Madurai, situation spécifique du mode de production tribu taire. Les Brahmanes imposèrent leur modèle idéologique, forts de leur influence politique, ce qui déboucha progressivement sur une hiérarchisation en castes de l'ensemble des groupes sociaux et des clans préexistants. L'introduction du christianisme revêtit trois formes: des conversions individuelles dans les hautes castes, des conversions de groupes dans les castes rurales et des mouve ments de masse parmi les pêcheurs. L'étude des deux premiers cas est présentée dans cet article, la conversion de Brahmanes urbains par le père de Nobili, s.j. et celle des groupes ruraux. Tant que la conversion ne bouleversait pas l'ordre tributaire, elle ne rencontrait point l'opposition du roi. Le père de Nobili leva les obstacles culturels et sociaux des hautes castes en adoptant leurs modes de vie, car la conversion n'était socialement possible qu'à condition de maintenir les dis tances avec les castes inférieures. Les conversions des groupes ruraux coïncidèrent avec une époque de guerre et de famines. Le caractère tributaire des royaumes rendit possible les conversions, mais ces dernières durent revêtir les caractères culturels des castes afin de pouvoir assurer la reproduction des groupes convertis.
Religious Symbolisation of the Transition from Caste to Class
Authors: Jeffrey Robin
Published: March 2007

Dans une première partie de l'article, l'Auteur explique com ment le capitalisme colonial introduit par les Anglais a bouleversé les structures traditionnelles de la société du Travancore (Sud du Kerala). Il analyse la naissance d'une nouvelle classe élitique et sa liaison avec les anciennes castes. Dans la deuxième partie, l'Auteur étudie un fait religieux, le mouvement pour l'ouverture à toutes les castes des temples jusqu'alors réservés aux castes supé rieures. En fait, les emplois administratifs dans la nouvelle bureaucratie d'État étaient réservés aux personnes de caste élevée et la lutte pour l'ouverture des temples signifiait une action symbolique destinée à abolir les distinctions de caste. Un tel mou vement se situe en pleine transition d'une société de caste à une société de classe. Mais il porte essentiellement sur un élément symbolique de la première, ce qui n 'a pas permis de résoudre réel lement les problèmes sociaux posés par la seconde.
Comments on the Relationship between Church Membership and Piety Concerning the Question of Empirical Plausibility of Theoretical Concept of Piety
Authors: Feige Andreas
Published: March 2007

Quelques faits observables posent des questions:
Elements of Religious Meaning in Science-Fiction Literature
Authors: Mörth Ingo
Published: March 2007

La science-fiction en tant que genre littéraire représente une sphère de significations sans doute marginale, encore qu'elle soit solidement associée à la vie quotidienne.

En analysant son contenu, on perçoit qu'il existe des relations singulières et intenses entre la science-fiction et la religion. Elles concernent non seulement des éléments formels propres à la pen sée utopique, mais également les structures matérielles du monde dans ses dimensions temporelles, spatiales et sociales. Les thèmes de la science-fiction et de la religion ont des racines communes: les limites du monde vivant. Mais en permettant de surmonter les frontières de la vie quotidienne, de ses origines et de sa destinée, la science-fiction opère une sorte de désenchantement de la sphère du religieux en permettant de substituer une spéculation illimitée à l'affirmation divine traditionnelle et aux certitudes qu'elle contient.

L'Auteur analyse ces aspects de la science-fiction à travers différents livres importants de science-fiction. Il utilise pour ce faire l'approche d'A. Schutz et de Th. Luckmann. La relation thé matique entre la science-fiction et la religion le conduit à établir en quoi la spéculation utopique de la science-fiction constitue un véritable « culte », notamment par l'observation du groupe social de ceux qui y croient et lui confèrent une plausibilité sociale. Des exemples de ceci sont empruntés aux cas de l'Eglise de Scientolo gie et de certains groupes centrés sur l'existence d'un inconscient collectif et de civilisations extra-terrestres.
The Relevance of Secularization in Iceland
Authors: Petursson Pétur
Published: March 2007

La situation religieuse en Islande est discutée par rapport aux récentes données comparatives concernant les attitudes et les com portements religieux dans un certain nombre de pays européens et non-européens, spécialement dans les pays nordiques. Les Islan dais sonr profondéments religieux, mais leur religion, même si elle ne prend nullement des formes anticléricales, n'est pas orientée vers l'Eglise. Elle est surtout privée et individuelle. La pratique religieuse est très faible (comme en Suède). Cette religiosité, qui entretient visiblement des rapports avec le sentiment du bonheur en général (un des problèmes soulevés dans cette étude d'ensemble engagée au plan international), doit bien aller de pair avec le point de vue matérialiste moderne sur la vie et la foi, point de vue qui est celui de la science et de la technologie dans leur effort pour améliorer la vie humaine dans l'avenir. La religion a une fonction psychologique; celle de rassurer les gens vivant en un temps de rapides changements, dans un petit pays dépendant de facteurs économiques pour lesquels il dispose de très peu de moyens de contrôle.
Christianity and Liberation A Cuban study of Latin American liberation theology
Authors: Martinez Heredia Fernando
Published: March 2007

Le renouveau religieux en Amérique latine se manifeste au niveau de la pensée par le développement de la théologie de la libé ration (T.L.), à celui de la vie locale, par les communautés de base et dans l'engagement politique des chrétiens au sein des causes révolutionnaires. Cela pose une question pour une société sécula risée comme celle de Cuba. L'auteur analyse I'évolution de ces phénomènes d'un point de vue marxiste, en essayant de ne pas res ter en surface, ni de se contenter d'évoquer simplement les fonc tions sociales de la religion. C'est du sein du christianisme que naissent une pensée et des pratiques nouvelles sur les ruines de I'idéologie du développement. Le contenu de la T.L. dépasse le point de vue des sciences sociales pour se situer au centre de la foi, où la notion du Royaume est centrale. Pour le chrétien, cela signi fie une conversion à son prochain, qui permet de rencontrer le Christ au sein même du processus de libération. L'histoire pour ces chrdtiens est une et I'évangile s'inscrit dans la lutte de libéra tion et lui donne un sens spécifique. A cet effet, la personne de Jésus et sa pratique sont plus qu'exemplatifs. Quant à I'Eglise, elle ne peut que naÎtre de la foi des pauvres, ce qui a été profondé ment dévié dans les sociétés de classes.
Le pèlerinage à Fatima: une expression mystique du sacré populaire
Authors: LOPES Policarpo
Published: March 2007

The sites of pilgrimage have always been places in which to surpass oneself, to return to the source and to have a change of scenery. In the midst of modernity they continue to attract large numbers of people where the pilgrim archetype, the pilgrim voyager, the tourist and the holidaymaker all rub shoulders. Certainly, the significance is not the same for all these different types of people. It varies according to the process of socialization, the life environment and the objective conditions of existence. There, we effectively have an echo of the existential experience of the agents and of the different types of collective life. This text wishes to grasp the significance of the pilgrimage in its concrete form at Fatima, among the agents of the popular classes who have interiorized a religious version of the world, and who live as emigrants, marked by a material “lack”, the “loss” of emotional ties and spaces and by the melancholy that all this engenders. Through analysis of the components of this type of pilgrimage (voyage, representation of the tragedy of existence in the promises, situation and life of the crowd) and of the logic which links them together (empty/full; disorder/order) we try to furnish some elements of verification of the following assumption: the pilgrimage to Fatima for this type of agent is at different times the expression of a poetical and mystical experience of space and of time. Analysis of the contents subjacent to our approach will show us that the pilgrimage is a “topic” of popular mysticism. It is there that a link is made between the real history of these popular classes and a “history with a difference”, where a mystical word on their historicity is joined.
Le pape et la paix
Authors: VAILLANCOURT Jean-Guy
Published: March 2007

Peace is a theme that is recurrent in all of the major Eastern and Abrahamic religions. As far as Catholicism is concerned, recent popes, some Episcopal conferences, and Vatican II Council have all given much attention to this issue. In this paper, the focus is on the teachings of the current pope, John Paul II, because the pope is a central figure in Catholicism and because John Paul II has made a particularly important contribution in this area. The paper summarizes John Paul II's ideas concerning war and peace, the just war and nuclear deterrence, and indicates some of the changes that have occurred over the years in his teachings. The paper concludes that, in spite of the fact that popes are often criticized because of their conservatism or their lack of courage and realism, their teachings on peace seem to have become increasingly significant and attuned to the needs of contemporary society.
La genèse de l'approche moderne de la sécularisation: une analyse en histoire de la sociologie
Authors: TSCHANNEN Olivier
Published: March 2007

This paper presents a systematic overview of the history of the different “secularization theories”, from Auguste Comte to the modern view, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. The complex series of transformations in these theories can be reduced to four main trends, which lead: (1) from an atheoretical descriptive use of the term “secularization” to one where the term is embedded in an all-encompassing theory; (2) from an approach centred on concerns with the past to an approach used in understanding the present; (3) from a thesis that predicts the disappearance of religion to a milder position which states that religion has only been weakened, but at the same time describes its transformations; and, finally (4) from a collection of unidimensional and mutually exclusive approaches to a single integrated pluridimensional approach.
La fonction sociale et politique des hétérodoxies religieuses en Amérique latine
Authors: BASTIAN Jean-Pierre
Published: March 2007

Pentecostalism and other new religious movements have acquired an increasing social and political visibility during the 1980s. This corresponds to a restructuring of the religious field and a re-elaboration of the popular religion of subordinate and marginal social sectors by means of a symbolic do-it-yourselfism. Far from being faced with a movement of protestant religious reform as Martin and Stoll suggest in their recent works, we are witnessing a re-enchantment of the world in the sense of traditional, corporatist and authoritarian practices and values. The “clientelist” use of heterdox religious infrastructures by military regimes as well as by neo-populist politicians confirms the perennial nature of traditional religious mentalities and practices and not the rise of a democratic and tolerant religious modernity.
La religion civile à la française et ses métamorphoses
Authors: WILLAIME Jean-Paul
Published: March 2007

In civil religion, the collective piety a society generates associates elements of civic religion (the political dimension) with elements of a common religion (the cultural dimension). In France, where the State has played a major role in national affirmation, the cult of the Republic and the tradition of France as the “first daughter of the Church” have marked the development of the collective imagination. Thus Frenchstyle civil religion takes the form of a lay religion with a background of Catholic culture. At the end of the 1980s, notably on the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution, one witnessed the emergence of an ethical recomposition of civil religion around a certain ecumenism of human rights.
Ethnicité, nationalité et syncrétisme dans les religions populaires brésiliennes
Authors: MOTTA Roberto
Published: March 2007

In Brazilian popular religions, alongside and often mixed with Iberian-derived popular Catholicism, Amerindian survivals are found mainly in Catimbó, while Candomblé (or Xangô) has clear African (mainly Yoruba) roots. The followers of these cults are prone to stress the ethnic origins, indeed (in spite of all syncretisms) the ethnic purity of their beliefs, yet they are at the same time very much oriented toward the national market of consumers of religious goods and services. This kind of identitophagy has also been associated with essays to establish a synthetic national religion, often conceived as the prototype of the religion of a brave, postmodern world....
Les mouvements messianiques du delta du Mékong de la fin du 19ème siècle à 1975
Authors: NGHIA NGUYEN XUAN
Published: March 2007

The author situates the messianic movements of the Mekong Delta in the social, economic and political contexts of the colonial period during which they emerged. Beyond their religious and mystical aspects, these sects sought to recreate a social link where the rural society saw its social structure disintegrating and where the peasant patriotic movements they actively supported suffered defeat. It is within this apocalyptical perspective that they were able to develop their guiding principles, such as a return to roots and a cultural and religious syncretism.