bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Holiness and the Ordination to Sacramental Rituals in the Priestly Literature and in the New Testament
Authors: Dozeman Thomas B.
Published: September 2008

The theology of holiness in the priestly literature is described in order to interpret the ordination to sacramental ritual as modeled by Moses. The research of J. Milgrom on holiness as a ritual resource will guide the study of Moses. The chapter includes an interpretation of the literary structure, the view of divine transcendence, and the way in which holiness invades the profane world through the sacramental fire of the glory of Yahweh in the priestly literature, as well as the influence of the priestly view of Moses in the New Testament literature.
Introduction
Authors: Fuller Robert C.
Published: September 2008

This chapter explores the leverage that the body exerts on humanity's propensity toward religion. Recent research in the emotions, neurobiology, sexuality, pain, and the chemical components of thought or feeling all shed light on the varieties of human spirituality. Studying religion “in the flesh” furnishes a new set of critical terms that bring a fully interdisciplinary perspective to bear on understanding the most elusive forms of embodied experience.
Introduction: The Discovery
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

This introduction provides an overview of themes of the book and introduces the idea of the temple as a mandala. It discusses how the author came to understand the relationship between the Bhagavata Purana and Pancharatra Agama, as embodied in the temple's sculptural program.
The Significance of the Temple
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

The chapter begins with a description of the temple, a three‐story vimana facing west. It was built by Nandivarman Pallavamalla to record and further his own spiritual progress and to establish Krishna's dominance in Kanchipuram. The influence of Jain doctrine on the Pallava Dynasty and court before, during, and after Nandivarman is explored, as are the roots of the Bhagavata creative florescence of the time. The subsequent history of the dynasty, the influence of the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple's structure as a complex vision of the body of God transmitted by Bhagavata Dharma through the teachings of the acharyas, and the meaning of the name of the temple complete the chapter.
The Southern Panels of the Southern Path
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

Six panels: the first three represent the Unobstructed's potency (shakti), the second three the Unobstructed's brilliant conquering power (tejas). First, Indra, disguised as an “imposter” (pakhanda) successfully interrupts the first emperor, King Prithu's horse sacrifice, preventing him from becoming more powerful than Indra. In the next panel Krishna defeats Naraka and rescues 16,000 royal virgins, whom he marries. Next, Hari as Madhusudana kills the asuras Madhu and Kaitabha, as narrated in the Jayakhya‐samhitaand the Bhagavad‐gita. In the next three panels Krishan slays: Mali, Sumali, and Malyavan on the Milk Ocean shore; Shishupala at Yudhishthira's rajasuya; Shalva and Dantavaktra. Each demonstrates the removal of impurities in the emperor‐sadhaka's consciousness. Thus, as an “Indra of People” (Narendra), Nandivarman ruled as a true emperor (Parameshvara) because he ruled as a “slave of Krishna” (Bhagavata) in a line of sadhakas that descended from the first emperor, Prithu.
Introduction
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

The designers of the temple mapped the cosmos by means of thirty panels in the bottom floor of the vimana, in a sequence that begins immediately north of the porch's western doorway and proceeds clockwise. The viewer is led from God's gross body to His subtle body. Jambhu, with Meru at its center, is the central one of seven concentric continents separated by different liquids; the outermost is Pushkara, surrounded by the mountainous Lokaloka. Lokaloka is the “all‐encompasing placenta” within which Brahma wakes and sleeps. Dhruva is the apex of the universe. Bharata is one of nine regions of Jambhu, and is the only realm of intentional action, and therefore the only one with the the Chatur Yuga structure of chronology. Panels on the vimana show the forms Vasudeva takes in each region. The panels also represent day‐and‐night, months, and the ages.
The Panels on the Ardhamandapa or Porch
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

The first panel evokes a set of stories about Daksha and his relations with Rudra Shiva, and the self‐immolation of Sati. The next panel continues the story of Daksha's daughter Aditi's son Vamana, called Upendra, and involves the insight that everything belongs to Vasudeva, and that “being true” involves the opposite in the Kali Yuga. The third panel concerns the cursing of Jaya and Vijaya by the four Kumaras. In the fourth panel, Bhadrashravas worships Hayagriva in the region of Bhadrashva; it implies the story of Matsya the Fish. The story of Hayagriva is connected to Esoteric Buddhism. The last two panels on the porch represent the stories of Rishabha and his son Bharata, and shed light on the development of the Bhagavata religion.
The Vimana Panels on the Eastern Side
Authors: Hudson D. Dennis
Published: September 2008

These panels illustrate the virya action and the aishvarya sovereignty of Pradyumna, Vasudeva's second and Pre‐eminently Mighty formation. One corner depicts Brahma worshiped on Pushkara and his four Kumara sons. The other corner shows Shiva as Bhava on Kailasa (in the Ilavrita region) venerating Pradyumna; the story includes the descent of Ganga. In the first bracketed panel the Bhagavan honors the pole star Dhruva, representing the three realms below it. The next panel tells of Brahma creating populations for these worlds, and shows him fleeing to Brahma for protection from his asura progeny. Next, Hanuman worships Rama in the Kimpurusha region of Jambu; the stories of Rama's final three acts are evoked: Rama separates from Sita, Rama banishes Lakshmana, and Rama takes the inhabitants of Kosala to heaven. The final panel shows Kamadeva in the Ketumala region of Jambu playing “Krishna holding up Govardhana.” Poems by Antal are discused.
Fusion for Profit
Authors: Jagpal Sharan , Jagpal Shireen
Published: September 2008

This book shows how to fuse marketing, finance, and other disciplines to improve performance for the corporation or organization. Specifically, it shows decision makers at different levels in the organization and in different functional areas (e.g., marketing, finance, new product development, and human resources management) how to overcome the problems resulting from function- and discipline-based “silos.” The book has several novel features. All concepts are presented in a simple and easily accessible question-and-answer format. The book provides an in-depth analysis of a broad spectrum of important managerial topics (e.g., how to allocate advertising funds between Internet and conventional advertising, how to evaluate brand equity for mergers and acquisitions, and how to coordinate product design, marketing strategy, and production). In addition, because of its fusion-based methodology, the book provides decision makers with new tools to address familiar managerial problems (e.g., resource allocation and the design of managerial contracts in multiproduct or multidivisional firms). Throughout the book, the focus is on providing managers with actionable theories and metrics that are rigorous yet practical, and that allow the firm or organization to fuse — not merely interface — different functional areas.
What is the Impact on Strategy?
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter provides an analytical approach for defining the market. It shows the importance of explicitly evaluating consumer perceptions and perceived product benefits when defining the boundaries of an industry. In particular, it discusses the implications of market definition for measuring managerial performance, designing managerial incentive plans, choosing organizational structure, and optimizing resource allocation.
Should the Firm Pursue Market Share?
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter examines the conditions under which firms should pursue market share as a goal. Specifically, it focuses on the factors that determine revenue- and volume-based market share, including cost dynamics, demand dynamics, competitive reaction, cost and technological uncertainty, process innovations, and demand uncertainty. In particular, it shows how the firm can use this information to coordinate its marketing, finance, and production decisions.
Should the Multiproduct Firm Use the Market Share Metric?
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter examines the conditions under which the multiproduct firm should use market share as a metric for resource allocation. It distinguishes short- and long-run effects, analyze the effects of competition, and show how the discount rate affects the firm's revenue- and volume-based market shares. In particular, it shows how the firm can use marketing-finance fusion to choose the optimal performance metrics for managers so that they focus on maximizing long-run performance.
Bundling
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how the firm can use marketing-finance fusion to choose bundling strategies to increase its performance. Topics covered include: how to price interdependent products, how and when to use cross-couponing strategies, how to allow for production capacity constraints, and how to reward managers of multidivisional firms when cross-couponing strategies are used. It analyzes why many bundling strategies fail in the marketplace; in addition, it proposes new metrics for measuring consumers' willingness to pay for products and bundles.
Coordinating Advertising Strategy, Branding, and Positioning
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how the firm should coordinate its advertising message, branding, and product positioning strategies. It distinguishs between the short and long runs, single-product and multiproduct firms, established and new products, durable and nondurable products, and whether the firm is a market leader or not.
Determining the Advertising Budget
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how the firm should coordinate its advertising decisions with the other elements of the marketing mix such as price and promotion, especially when demand is uncertain. It shows how the firm should vary its advertising spending over the product life cycle and the business cycle. In particular, it shows how marketing-finance fusion allows the firm to maximize its long-run performance under uncertainty.
Measuring Advertising Productivity
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter begins by evaluating methods for determining how productive the firm's aggregate advertising spending is in both the short and long runs. Following this, it analyzes methods for determining the productivities of different media when the firm uses multiple media (including digital advertising); in particular, it focuses on the effects of measurement error. It shows how marketing-finance fusion allows privately and publicly held firms to allocate their advertising budgets between upfront and scatter advertising, based on their respective risk attitudes. Finally, it analyzes how recent changes in Internet marketing (e.g., the growth of electronic exchanges and the emergence of conquest advertising) are likely to affect the structure of the advertising industry.
How Should the Firm Compensate Managers to Maximize Performance?
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how the firm should determine compensation for its managers. It distinguishes between ownership structures (i.e., whether the firm is privately or publicly held), the length of the planning horizons for the owners and managers of the firm, whether the firm is multidivisional or not, whether the firm sells one or multiple products, and how Wall Street's expectations affect decision making by managers. In particular, it shows how marketing-finance fusion allows senior management and the finance department to determine managerial compensation plans in the multiproduct or multidivisional firm.
How Should the Firm Compensate Its Sales Force? The Basic Model
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how the firm should design sales force compensation plans to maximize its performance. It distinguishes whether or not the firm can observe the salesperson's effort. It shows how marketing-finance fusion allows the firm to design compensation plans based on such factors as the firm's cost structure, cost and demand uncertainty, consumer satisfaction, the firm's cost of capital, and whether or not the firm delegates price-setting or sales call policy to the salesperson. It shows how the sales force compensation plan should allow for multiperiod effects and the impact of Internet advertising. In particular, it distinguishes different scenarios (e.g., whether Internet advertising and conventional advertising are substitutes or complements).
How Marketing Policy Affects Consumer Well-Being and Social Welfare
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter analyzes how the firm's marketing strategies affect consumers and society. The topics covered include the effects of: the firm's pricing policy for durables; volume-based pricing (e.g., quantity discounts); the distribution of free samples; cost dynamics; demand dynamics; informative, persuasive, and mixed advertising; the product life cycle; bundling innovative and commoditized products; mixed bundling plans; sequential new product introduction over time; and secondhand markets for durables. In particular, it shows how the combined effect of the firm's marketing and finance strategies affect consumer well-being and social welfare.
How to Choose Optimal International Marketing Strategies
Authors: Jagpal Sharan
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how multinational firms can use marketing-finance fusion to choose international strategies. It discusses the pros and cons of international diversification to privately and publicly held firms, whether or not the firm should choose country-specific product designs, how the firm should measure and reward the performances of its country managers, what type of organizational structure the firm should use, how the firm should choose an outsourcing strategy, and what performance metrics the firm should use to measure and reward managerial performance in its outsourcing centers.
The Evolution of Varieties of Capitalism in Europe
Authors: Hall Peter A
Published: September 2008

This chapter challenges the conventional view that international economic developments are eroding distinctive varieties of capitalism. On the premise that we can understand institutional change only if we look over a longer historical perspective, it examines the character of economic challenges and the institutional responses to them in Britain, France, Germany, and Sweden during three periods: 1947-63, 1967-1983, and 1990-2005. It asks three questions: what types of challenges induce change in the institutions of the political economy? Can varieties of capitalism survive international economic challenges? Through what processes do the institutions of the political economy change? It analyses the institutions of the political economy as ones that address: a wage problem, work problem, and total factor productivity problem. It shows that these four countries developed distinctive institutional approaches to those problems in the two decades after the Second World War, corresponding to liberal and coordinated market economies identified by Hall and Soskice. It argues that the levels of economic performance promoted by domestic institutions depend on the character of the international monetary regime, and that the impetus for institutional change can be endogenous to existing institutions and generated by their unintended consequences. It examines the response to adverse economic developments in the late 1960s and 1970s, and the response to globalization since 1990. The chapter concludes that varieties of capitalism should be understood, in dynamic terms, as a set of institutionally conditioned adjustment paths, which often continue to diverge, even in the wake of common economic shocks.
Macroeconomics and Varieties of Capitalism
Authors: Soskice David
Published: September 2008

This chapter shows how production regimes are complementary to welfare state regimes and political systems, perusing a number of arguments which have been developed over the period since the original publication of VoC in 2001. These complementarities serve as a background for understanding a fourth complementarity which has not been discussed before in any detail — that between CMEs and conservative systems of aggregate demand management. This is critical in understanding the quite different patterns of adjustment of CMEs and LMEs to the demand shocks of the last decade. It argues that while LMEs can use discretionary monetary and fiscal policy, CMEs find this much harder. The chapter also explains why income restraint, and hence, real exchange rate depreciation is more effective in small CMEs than large CMEs.
Wage Bargaining and Comparative Advantage in EMU
Authors: Hancké Bob , Monika Herrmann Andrea
Published: September 2008

This chapter examines the effects of shifts in wage-bargaining systems on the organization of firms in EMU member-states, and argues that the move to coordinated wage bargaining induced by the Maastricht criteria has led firms in EMU member-states to align their product market strategies with the existing institutional framework. Where wage bargaining became (or was) centrally coordinated, firms increasingly pursued high-end product market strategies, while firms in countries where wage bargaining followed a decentralised coordination path opted for low-end strategies. This argument is developed in three steps. First it assesses how firms in the most important export industries adjusted their competitive strategies in the course of the 1990s, and finds that companies increasingly pursued product market strategies which are supported by national labour-market institutions. It then examines how several key firm-level indicators of competitiveness and labour market organisation evolve and find that skill profiles, workplace cooperation, and career development were adjusted to reflect the dominant product market strategy. The chapter concludes by comparing the strategies of employers with regard to wage-bargaining in Italy and Spain over the 1990s.
Institutional Variation and Coordination Patterns in CMEs: Swiss and German Corporate Governance in Comparison
Authors: Börsch Alexander
Published: September 2008

This chapter explores differences in the coordination mechanisms of coordinated market economies (CMEs). The VoCs perspective argues that national institutions, which are linked through complementarities, shape company strategies and the resulting economic specialisations of countries. To examine these links, this chapter compares the two CMEs with the most similar product market specializations: Germany, the prototypical CME, and Switzerland. Both countries have comparative advantages in industries characterised by incremental innovation patterns and diversified quality production (DQP). The comparison shows that Germany and Switzerland have significantly different corporate governance frameworks. In several subsystems, Swiss corporate governance is much closer to patterns found in liberal market economies. The chapter argues that Swiss firms can pursue DQP strategies nonetheless thanks to two enabling conditions. First, the structure of the training system — based on the coordination capacities of employers — supports the development of firm- and industry-specific skills, and creates a qualified and specialised workforce for Swiss firms. Second, management enjoys protection from capital market pressures due to concentrated ownership patterns and the absence of a market for corporate control, which enables coordination for firms that wish to pursue DQP strategies. These features mean that despite differences between the Swiss and German institutional frameworks, Swiss firms can create the institutional conditions for DQP production at the industry and company levels. Coordination is more informal and voluntary in nature, making the corporate governance system more differentiated than its German counterpart. This implies that different institutional paths can be taken to achieve the same results. Hence, institutions can be coupled more loosely than the VoC perspective would expect.
Capital Mobility, Varieties of Institutional Investors, and the Transforming Stability of Corporate Governance in France and Germany
Authors: Goyer Michel
Published: September 2008

The research question of this chapter on corporate governance in France and Germany is two-pronged: to account for their different patterns of evolution, and to assess the implications for their respective models of capitalism. The focus indicator of this chapter is the rise of hedge and mutual funds — two categories of short-term, impatient investors — in large French and German companies. The presence of these two types of institutional investors with their focus on shareholder value and the short-term trading strategies constitutes a novel and potentially radical developments in European corporate governance. The empirical data on the investment patterns of these two groups of investors reveals the greater attractiveness of French firms over their German counterparts. The argument presented in this chapter highlights the importance of firm-level institutional arrangements of workplace organization in accounting for this divergence in investment patterns. The high degree of power concentration of French firms provides for a better fit with the short-term horizons of hedge and mutual funds. Patterns of adjustment in French companies are unilaterally orchestrated, in sharp contrast to the negotiated nature of restructuring strategies in German firms. Key notions of the Varieties of Capitalism perspective — institutional interaction, institutional latency, and the distinction between institutional framework and the mode of coordination that follows from these institutions — illustrate the central role performed by firm-level institutional arrangements of workplace organization, and provide important theoretical insights to account for the divergence in the investment patterns of hedge and mutual funds.
Economic Shocks and Varieties of Government Responses
Authors: Iversen Torben
Published: September 2008

This chapter explores whether governments in different varieties of capitalism respond differently to common economic shocks. It is often assumed that such shocks have a homogenizing effect on government policies, but I find the opposite to be the case (using OECD data and non-linear regression techniques). In economies with training systems that emphasize specific skills (CMEs), demand for social insurance is more sensitive to adverse economic shocks than in LMEs. In turn, polities with proportional representation (PR) are more sensitive to such demands, suggesting that PR is a complement to coordinated capitalism. The chapter also includes an analysis of the conditioning effects of wage bargaining institutions on shocks to the wage distribution, and concludes with a discussion of whether an increasingly bifurcated income and risk structure may change the politics of compensation.
Realism
Authors: Jenkins Caroline
Published: September 2008

This chapter aims to determine in exactly what sense we should be ‘realists’ about arithmetic, that is, exactly what kind of arithmetical ‘independence’ from the mind we should be interested in defending. It argues that taking what is called in this chapter ‘modal independence’ as characteristic of realism is a mistake, and that we should instead characterize realism in terms of is called in this chapter ‘essential independence’.
A Theory of Arithmetical Knowledge
Authors: Jenkins Caroline
Published: September 2008

This chapter explains how the examination of arithmetical concepts can lead to knowledge. It argues that in order for an examination of our concepts to supply us with knowledge of an independent reality, it must be that those concepts are appropriately sensitive to the nature of that reality, or what is called here grounded. The core idea here — and indeed the core idea of this book — is that grounded concepts are like trustworthy on-board maps of the independent world. The chapter suggests that it is through the normal functioning of our senses that our arithmetical concepts come to be grounded, and argues that if this is so, then the ultimate source of our arithmetical knowledge is empirical, though that knowledge is still a priori by many standard definitions.
More on the Very Idea of Concept Grounding
Authors: Jenkins Caroline
Published: September 2008

This chapter discusses objections to the idea that arithmetical concepts have empirical grounding, other than those covered in the previous chapter. These include some objections derived from McDowell, and some arguments to the effect that arithmetical concepts are too rich to be grounded in sensory input. One such argument appeals to certain results in empirical psychology which purport to show that arithmetical concepts (or even knowledge) are innate. It argues that the question of innateness is at best tangential to my project, since the origin of a concept and its epistemic status are distinct issues.
Introduction
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

This chapter gives a brief introduction into diffuse scattering and provides a discussion of disordered materials within the scope of this book.
Making computer crystals
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

Although it might sound simple, creating a model of a cluster of atoms or an extended crystal has its difficulties. The examples range from creating simple assemblies of atoms to creating the contents of a unit cell from an asymmetric unit to the building of extended model crystals. This chapter discusses unit cell transformations and general symmetry operations. A disordered perovskite structure is created as an example.
Simulating experimental data
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

In most cases, simulations of disordered materials are performed to understand experimental observations, in this case diffraction data. This chapter discusses the calculation of several experimental quantities: single crystal diffuse scattering, powder diffraction, and the atomic pair distribution function (PDF). Since diffraction data are obtained via a Fourier transform, the finite size of the model crystal as well as issues concerning coherence are discussed in detail. The PDF is basically calculated from the atomic structure directly. Different ways to incorporate thermal motion are illustrated.
Creating modulations
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

This chapter discusses modulated structures. Modulations lead to the appearance of sharp satellite reflections in the diffraction pattern. The examples provide an introduction to density and displacement waves, and explain the relationship between modulation wave parameters and the location and intensity of the resulting satellite reflections. The simulation of finite waves is described, since modulations are often not propagating throughout the entire crystal.
Creating structures with stacking faults
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

The presence of stacking faults is another common form of disorder. This chapter describes the principle stacking fault types. Other topics include different notations of stacking sequences and the signature of stacking faults in the diffraction pattern. Four examples of increasing complexity are given. Simulations of growth faults and deformation faults, of Wurtzite and Zincblend type structures, and of short range order between faults are demonstrated.
Creating domain structures
Authors: Neder Reinhard B. , Proffen Thomas
Published: September 2008

Domains are another form of defects frequently encountered in real materials. This chapter starts with the discussion of domain types and the different definitions of a domain. It then introduces the very flexible mechanism used by DISCUS to simulate domains using a few simple examples. The final real world example shows the simulation of short-range order in urea inclusion compounds. An efficient simulation algorithm results from treating the included compound as a domain.
1 Democracy Beyond ‘Closed’ Societies
Authors: MacDonald Terry
Published: September 2008

This chapter begins the task of delineating legitimate global institutional boundaries by arguing that we need to abandon the assumption, entrenched within traditional liberal democratic theory, that democracy must take place within a ‘closed’ society (paradigmatically, a nation-state). Instead, it is argued that democrats should embrace the prospect of a ‘pluralist’ global political order, comprised of multiple agents of public power held to account by their multiple overlapping stakeholder communities. What this requires is that multiple state and non-state agents of public power in global politics should be identified as the legitimate subjects of democratic control in accordance with their autonomy-constraining impact on populations. Correspondingly, individual stakeholders should be accorded participatory entitlements as the legitimate agents of democratic control, in accordance with the impact of this public power upon their lives.
4 From Nation‐States to ‘Stakeholder’ Communities
Authors: MacDonald Terry
Published: September 2008

This chapter elaborates and illustrates the theoretical account — sketched initially in Chapter One — of how the agents of democratic control should be identified in global politics. It develops the argument that we should accord democratic agency (that is, entitlement to exercise control over public power) to the members of ‘stakeholder’ communities, comprised of all those individual stakeholders whose autonomous capacities are constrained by the exercise of public power. The analysis here begins by elaborating the concept of a jurisdictional stakeholder community, and explaining how the conception of democratic community underpinning it differs from the ideals associated with the ‘closed’ societal model of democracy. Discussion then turns to the question of how this stakeholder model can in practice be instituted, and addresses some issues and dilemmas that commonly arise for practitioners who invoke the idea of stakeholder communities in their attempts to democratize the activities of NGOs.
6 Global Social Choice Through Multi‐Stakeholder Representation
Authors: MacDonald Terry
Published: September 2008

This chapter argues that achieving legitimate social choice in global politics requires the establishment of a decision-making process involving deliberation among multi-stakeholder representatives, which could redress the weaknesses of the nation-state model in crucial ways. It begins by outlining the key institutional features of the ‘multi-stakeholder’ model, and explaining how it can employ the representation of multi-stakeholder interests by NGOs either to supplement, or to substitute for, the representation of nation-state constituencies by governments. It then examines the theoretical basis of the multi-stakeholder model, and argues that it can be justified within the framework of a theoretical model of interest representation that is characterised here as ‘liberal pluralist’. It further examines the strengths and weaknesses of the multi-stakeholder model as a framework for global representation, and concludes that we should endorse a hybrid approach to delineating democratic constituencies in global politics — one that incorporates multi-stakeholder representation within more conventional structures of representation by nation-states.
The Everyday Life of Global Finance
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, and informed by extensive empirical research, this book explores the unprecedented relationships that now bind Anglo-American society with the financial markets. As mutual funds have increased in popularity and pension provision has been transformed, many more individuals and households have come to invest in stocks and shares. As consumer borrowing has risen dramatically and mortgage finance has embraced those deemed sub-prime, so the repayments of credit card holders and mortgagors have provided the basis for the issue and trading of bonds and other market instruments. This book shows how financial market networks have come to extend well beyond Wall Street and the City of London, becoming embedded and embodied in routine saving and borrowing in the US and UK. Society's new-found relationships with the markets are also shown, however, to be marked by stark inequalities, manifest contradictions, and political dissent.
1 Networks, Power, Identity, and Dissent
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

This chapter sets out four key conceptual themes that provide the tools which help answer the question: how might we conceive of contemporary finance in such a way as to understand qualitative transformations in everyday saving and borrowing routines that forge close relationships between the society and the financial markets? These key conceptual themes are financial networks, financial power, financial identity, and financial dissent. The chapter draws primarily on actor-network theory (ANT) aspects of the scholarship of Michel Foucault, and insights from writers of everyday life.
2 From Thrift and Insurance to Everyday Investment
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

This chapter argues that contemporary financial market investment practices are not the consequence of the grip of some collective and irrational psychology, but are made possible because investment appears as the most rational form of saving. It shows that partial displacement of networks of thrift and insurance by networks of everyday investment both preceded the ‘irrational exuberance’ of the new economy bubble of the 1990s, and has continued to flourish into the new millennium after the bursting of the bubble. The chapter also suggests that while the technologies of investment form part of the apparatus of neo-liberal government and are promoted in a disciplinary manner across governmental programmes, to date the rise of everyday investment to the early 1980s would be to disregard sedimented technological developments that had already begun to establish the relative rationality of performances of everyday investment. This is illustrated in the final part of the chapter which focuses on the production of mutual fund networks.
7 The Inequalities of Everyday Borrowing
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

This chapter focuses on inequalities of everyday borrowing that, over the last decade or so, have become increasingly marked by hierarchical variations in the interest rates paid by borrowers. It argues that the dichotomous representation of an abnormal and informal space of financial exclusion, and the associated designation of the borrowers that occupy that space as ‘alternative’, ‘high risk’, ‘sub-prime’, and so on, actually contributes to justifying the charging of relatively high rates of interest by lenders present in these realms. And yet, at the same time, the operations of alternative and informal lenders are made possible precisely by close interconnections with mainstream financial and capital market networks. The second section of the chapter explores this argument in detail by concentrating on the differentiation of ‘sub-prime’ from ‘prime’ finance, and on the assembly of high-interest sub-prime networks.
8 The Uncertain Subjects of Everyday Borrowing
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

This chapter focuses on the embodiment of the borrowing boom, and the re-making of mortgagors and credit card borrowers in particular. The first part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible borrowers of contemporary credit card networks, a subject position referred to as the ‘revolver’. Revolvers not only regularly make use of the revolving credit facilities, but also manipulate their outstanding balances in order to further their consumptive freedom and security into the future. The second part of the chapter concentrates on the responsible and entrepreneurial borrower of contemporary Anglo-American mortgage networks. It suggests that mortgagors are no longer ‘suburban subjects’, that is, owner-occupiers who view their home as essential in meeting their aspirations. Rather, the borrowing boom in mortgage networks rests on the assembly of mortgagors as ‘leveraged investors’. Leveraged investors are owner-occupiers who view residential property as an asset that will grow to realize returns. The third and final part of the chapter considers the tensions and contradictions present in the assembly of responsible and entrepreneurial borrowers, and thereby reveal the incomplete and precarious performance of these subjectivities.
Conclusion: The Sub‐Prime Mortgage Crisis
Authors: Langley Paul
Published: September 2008

This concluding chapter begins with a discussion of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It then reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters, addressing the conceptual themes of financial networks, financial power, financial identity, and financial dissent.
3 Literary History and the Biography of Literature: Madame de Staël and Victor Hugo
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

This chapter tracks the increasing awareness of the evolutionary character of literature that emerges in the latter part of the 18th century and the early years of the 19th. The discussion of genius (e.g., Marmontel, Mercier, Condillac, Diderot) tends to present it as a dynamic, mould-breaking quality moving literature towards the future. As a result, a new kind of literary history emerges that treats literature as developing in the manner of a human being, and in ways that invite parallels between individual biography and institutional history. Mme de Staël's De la littérature is one of the first examples of this quasi-biographical kind of literary history and it contrasts with the predominantly retrospective account given in La Harpe's Lycée. The idea of a national literature treated in De l'Allemagne supports the conflation of the individual and the collective. Hugo's Préface de Cromwell also uses a quasi-biographical model for its account of the history of literature since its origins, but where Mme de Staël adopts a largely pedagogical perspective, Hugo constructs a thoroughly organic account of a life-cycle which progresses from birth to death to rebirth, and in which literature is constantly recreated and reinvented.
7 Hugo's Les Contemplations: Life, Death, and the Expansion of Poetry
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

This chapter offers an account of Les Contemplations in terms of the way that Hugo exploits a variety of different biographical models (memoir, diary) and also alternates between first- and third-person narrative perspectives. It traces the progressive scaling up of the framework in which the life is presented, as the remit of poetry is expanded from the personal to the transcendental. Much is made of the blurring of the boundaries between the poet's self and the figures he invokes or describes. The fictitious dating of the poems is discussed as a major means whereby Hugo constructs a biographical narrative for the collection. The use that Hugo made of his own person as a means of extending the limits of poetry was what Mallarmé hailed in Hugo when he described him as having been ‘poetry in person’ and taken poetry to a limit that cannot be repeated.
9 The Virtues of Marginality in Nerval's Illuminés
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

This chapter considers Nerval's collection of biographical texts in Les Illuminés as an instance of the way in which the popular cultural forms of biography in the period (dictionaries, newspapers) were used and adapted for literary purposes, and with the express intention of renewing literature itself through this recourse to non-literary genres. Nerval's own experiences of figuring in contemporary biographies are analysed. Few of the subjects of Nerval's portraits are literary figures, but each of the texts can be seen to be exploring issues associated with biography: identity, its relation to fiction, erudition and the use of documentary sources, the exemplarity of its subject. Nerval provides the first example of a renewal of literature through a sideways step into non–literary forms of writing.
13 Gide: Autobiography, Fiction, and the Literature of Experience
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

The concerns of early 20th-century biography with the inner life and with the artist's own perspective on creation made autobiography a logical development of these trends. Gide's Si le grain ne meurt is the first example of this shift of emphasis, combining biographical portraits in the 19th–century manner with an account of his own turn to literature that stresses its basis in experience rather than technique. Gide's explicit appeals to fiction foreground the creative dimension of the autobiographical project, as does the autobiographer's implication of himself in the writing as well as in the content of his narrative. The result is an equation between literariness and lived experience in which the two are constantly moved forward towards new versions of themselves.
16 Genet's chant d'amour and the Lives of the Heroes
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

Against the grain of the many autobiographically based readings of Genet, this chapter presents his prose writing (esp. Miracle de la rose, Notre-Dame-des Fleurs, Journal du voleur) as a series of biographical celebrations of his unlikely subjects. Genet adopts the anachronistic mode of courtly literature in order to transform his largely abject figures into glorious heroes by means of a self-consciously extravagant poetic language. The result highlights the gap between the biographical subjects portrayed and the literary medium, thus foregrounding the creative intervention of the writer. This flaunting of literariness is used by Genet as a means of disengaging his own literary project from any social or conventional consensus about literature. This is further supported by the frequent equation of homosexual love with artistic creation in his work, and is finally endorsed in his critical writings about artists such as Rembrandt and Giacometti whose skills are defined as being ultimately those of biographical portraiture.
17 Pierre Michon's Lives of the Saints
Authors: Jefferson Ann
Published: September 2008

The turn to life-writing in France after the two decades of literary theory and the nouveau roman did not represent a rejection of concerns with the issue of literariness. Michon's biographical portraits in his Vies minuscules set literary ideals at the heart of each of the biographical narratives that recount the lives of figures from his own past, each of whom placed exorbitant value in the literary. Literariness becomes associated with belief, as well as with imposture, and the figures in Michon's pantheon — which in other works also includes writers and artists — are implicitly likened to saints whose example the would-be writer meditates and seeks to emulate. Literariness is not analyzed or theorized here but illustrated through the recounting of the lives of various believers in literature, in the hopes of sustaining belief in the narrator himself.
1 Walking Without Order
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: September 2008

State structures have been radically reformulated in recent decades. In both developed and developing countries a neo-liberal informed model or narrative of ‘good governance’ has seen many functions and responsibilities hived-off or delegated beyond the direct control of politicians and public officials. However, the state has not been ‘withered away’ or ‘rolled back’ — it has been transformed. This chapter examines how this transformation has been based upon the notion of delegation and why this matters, in both administrative and democratic terms.
3 History
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: September 2008

Delegation is not a new phenomenon. This chapter illustrates the persistence, growth, and evolution of delegated governance from the earliest stages of state development in Britain through to the first decade of the 21st century. It reveals the long-term bureaucratic layering which has occurred, and considers why political elites failed to take advantage of specific windows of opportunity when broad reform initiative could have been introduced.
5 Internal Control
Authors: Flinders Matthew , Denton Matthew
Published: September 2008

Having set out the structure of the state, this chapter seeks to uncover the manner in which public bodies are controlled by their parent department (or departments), and particularly how an effective balance between independence and control is maintained. Research suggests that the governance arrangements vary greatly between departments and that the issue of internal control has been a critical concern amongst politicians and policy-makers for several decades.
10 The Politics, Principles, and Politicization of Delegation
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: September 2008

This final chapter locates the core findings of this book within a number of broader themes and agendas. In particular, it argues for scholarly interest in the politics of delegation to be matched by what is termed the politicization of delegation. By this, the chapter means that the logic of delegation itself, rather than its consequences, needs to be the focus of critical political analysis in order to push the process back within the sphere of public contestation.
Introduction: The ‘Picture Theory of Science’
Authors: van Fraassen Bas C.
Published: September 2008

The Bildtheorie — ‘picture theory of science’ — formed the frame for much discussion and controversy among physicists in the decades around the year 1900. It emphasizes one aspect believed to be central to the scientific enterprise: representation of the empirical phenomena, by means of artifacts, both physical and mathematical. The question to be addressed is whether such a ‘picture theory’ can be developed today compatibly with the insights claimed by empiricist and structuralist views of science.
Carnap's Lost World and Putnam's Paradox
Authors: van Fraassen Bas C.
Published: September 2008

In his Logische Aufbau, Rudolf Carnap presented a structuralist philosophy of science. Carnap exhibited a fluctuating awareness of the difficulty besetting that programme, and of the limited options his epistemology allowed for escape. The option he finally chose has the form of solution that Newman suggested, somewhat ironically, to Russell. But Carnap attempted simultaneously to refer to experience and to claim that the notions he needed are experience-independent. The basic problem returned after some decades when Hilary Putnam put it to good use in his seminal critique of metaphysical realism. It is argued that in both cases, a dissolution of problem is possible with the introduction of indexical reference.
Appearance vs. Reality in the Sciences
Authors: van Fraassen Bas C.
Published: September 2008

In a scientific model typically the phenomena is embedded in a larger nature or reality. Whether we take this at face value or bracket the question of reality, we need to investigate the relations of this theoretically postulated reality to the phenomena, and to the appearances of those phenomena in measurement. But philosophical views of science have largely remained captive to certain criteria of completeness, of which the main remaining contender is the Appearance from Reality Criterion. The greatly changed conception of physical theory at the end of the modern period will challenge this criterion as well.