bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
From oeconomy to `the economy': population and self-interest in discourses on government
Authors: Firth Ann
Published: March 2007

The emergence of population as an object of government in the 18th century produced a new problematic of government. The focus of this new problematic was how to ensure that the pursuit of self-interest by individual economic actors was compatible with the reproduction and useful employment of the population. From the 18th century to the present, government in the West has addressed this problem in a number of different ways, each of which represents a 'tricky adjust ment' between a liberal element concerned with commercial freedom and a pastoral element concerned with the welfare of the population. The tension between the liberal and pastoral elements of modern Western governance is explored by examining the place of commercial freedom within a householding concept of rule in which security at the level of the state is dependent upon the sovereign's rational management of the population.
Street Children, hotel boys and children of pavement dwellers and construction workers in Bombay - how they meet their daily needs
Authors: Patel Sheela
Published: March 2007

Street children, hotel boys and children of pavement dwellers and construction workers in Bombay-how they meet their daily needs describes their situation. For instance, where they wash, defecate, sleep and who helps them when they are ill. It describes the circumstances which lead to children being in such a situation and the inadequacies of public provision in meeting their needs; and how involving these children in the survey became a means of establishing better contact between them and the government agencies and voluntary organizations seeking more effective public responses to their needs and problems.
Local governments in intermediate cities in Colombia; municipal administration: for whom?
Authors: C. Fabio E. Velásquez
Published: March 2007

Local government in intermediate cities in Colombia: municipal administration for whom? reviews the major recent changes in Colombia in regard to the role and responsibilities of municipal government - including administrative decentralization, stronger local tax bases and the election of mayors. It describes the social and political context which conditions the effectiveness of these changes, and the impact of these changes in two Colombian cities.
Back to Basics: A community-based environmentalhealth project in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia
Authors: Stephens Carolyn
Published: March 2007

Back to basics: a community based environmental health project in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia is a case study of an environmental health project in sanitation and waste disposal. This was an unusual project for external donors to support in that it was small-scale, initiated by the low-income community and almost sustainable by them from its inception because of its low dependence on capital expenditure.
Greenhouse gas emissions and the allocation of responsibility
Authors: Mukherjee Neela
Published: March 2007

Greenhouse gas emissions and the allocation of responsibility compares the relative contributions of different nations to emissions of the three greenhouse gases which contribute most to global warming. It suggests some "measures" of emissions and efficiency on a comparative basis, relating them to each country's per capita income, and considers the extent to which each country been has efficient in its economic activities in terms of such emissions.
Curitiba: towards sustainable urban development
Authors: Rabinovitch Jonas
Published: March 2007

Curitiba: towards sustainable urban development. Curitiba is best known for its innovative public transport system but this is only one among many initiatives which have improved the environment and reduced resource use. This paper describes the development of the public transport system and the planning and administrative framework needed to make it, and other environmental initiatives, work.
Recycling in Bogotá: developing a culture for urban sustainabilily
Authors: Pacheco Margarita
Published: March 2007

Recycling in Bogotá: developing a culture for urban sustainability describes the provisions in this city for collecting, recycling and disposing of urban wastes and the many individuals and businesses who make their living from this. It also discusses its role within sustainable development.
Research strategies in 'slow' infections in psychiatry
Authors: Bechter K. , Hodgkiss A.
Published: March 2007

The research processes in the elucidation of the causes of general paresis, the first slow infection in psychiatry, and of Kuru, the first slow virus infection in man, were considered. The errors and difficulties encountered may contribute to the formulation of research strategies for contemporary work on possible persistent infections with unknown viruses as a cause of psychiatric disorders. Clinical observation, bold hypotheses and method ological advances appear more valuable than diagnostic categorization in etiological research into psychiatric disorders. The low heuristic value of diagnosis is due to the lack of specificity of psychiatric symptoms and syndromes, especially in low grade organic disturbances.
Pavlov's conceptualization of paranoia within the theory of higher nervous activity
Authors: Windholz George
Published: March 2007

In 1934, I. P. Pavlov conceptualized paranoia within his theory of higher nervous activity. The conceptualization was based on the case study method used in the Psychiatric Clinic where Pavlov observed five cases diagnosed by psychiatrists as paranoiac or paranoid states. Furthermore, experiments with dogs as subjects produced behaviours that appeared analogous to paranoiac characteristics observed in the clinic. Pavlov's paranoia theory did not differ much from Ernst Kretschmer's 1927 explanation of the formation of paranoia. Hereditary predisposition and traumatic life experiences make, according to Pavlov, some centres in the brain more active than nearby areas, which results in preoccupation with certain ideas. Imbalance between neural excitation and inhibition creates a condition where weak external stimuli produce strong reactions, which explains paranoiac overreaction to the feeling of inferiority. Some suggestions as to Pavlov's interest in paranoia are offered.
Notice-board
Authors: Looseley David
Published: March 2007

French Cultural Studies will be pleased to announce in the Notice-board forthcoming events involving all aspects of modern French culture. Please contact Dr D. L. Looseley, Department of French, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, West Yorkshire.
Critique Discourses and Ideology in Newspaper Reports: A Discourse Analysis of the South African Press Reports on the 1998 SADC's Military Intervention in Lesotho
Authors: THETELA PULENG
Published: March 2007

The present study examines the coverage of the Southern Africa Development Community's (SADC) military intervention in Lesotho by the South African newspapers - how the newspapers articulate conflicting ideological positions in their reportage of the intervention. Working within the ideological framework of news production and reception, the article examines the issue of critique (with emphasis on blame) in these newspapers. Dividing the news texts into supportive and protest categories (the PINA and AINA, respectively), the study investigates different perceptions (opinions, feelings, attitudes, etc.) about South Africa's involvement in the conflict, and how such perceptions were encoded in the ideologically based discursive patterns (lexical, metaphorical and intertextual choices). The differences between the newspaper reports are also seen as establishing two rival social group identities, expressed through the ideological us versus them binary opposition.
Space: Irrealis Objects in Technology Policy and their Role in a New Political Economy
Authors: GRAHAM PHILIP
Published: March 2007

In this article, I show how new spaces are being prefigured for colonization in new economy policy discourses. Drawing on a corpus of 1.3 million words collected from legislatures throughout the world, I show the role of policy language in creating the foundations of an emergent form of political economy. The analysis is informed by principles from critical discourse analysis (CDA), classical political economy and critical media studies. It foregrounds a functional aspect of language called process metaphor to show how aspects of human activity are prefigured for mass commodification by the manipulation of realis and irrealis spaces. I also show how the fundamental element of any new political economy, the property element, is being largely ignored. Current moves to create a privately owned global space, which is as concrete as landed property - namely, the electromagnetic spectrum - has significant ramifications for the future of social relations in any global knowledge economy.
Speaking from Silence: Methods of Silencing and of Resistance
Authors: Houston Marsha , Kramarae Cheris
Published: March 2007

This and other articles in this issue consider some of the many ways men have muffled women's voices and writing, and some of the many ways women have struggled to tell stories, critique literacy programs, record our histories, publish our truths, create networks, and revise our languages. Some of the specific ways women have been silenced include: ridicule, enforcement of family hierarchies, male-controlled media, anti-woman educational policies, making women's bodies political battlegrounds, censorship, racism, homophobia, and terrorism. Some of the ways women have broken silence are through the analysis of silencing tactics, the re-evaluation of `trivial' discourse, creative code-switching, linguistic creativity, and the organization of women's presses.
Family Narrative as Political Activity
Authors: Ochs Elinor , Taylor Carolyn
Published: March 2007

This study suggests that political order within families is manifested in and constructed through family narrative activity. The study is based on a corpus of 100 family dinner narratives of two-parent American families. Our findings show that narrative roles (introducer, protagonist, primary recipient, problematizer of protagonists or other co-narrators, problematizee) differ in the control they exert and in their distribution across family members. Parents, especially mothers, tended to introduce narratives, thereby controlling narrative topic and timing. Children were the most frequent protagonists yet they rarely introduced narratives about themselves and were rarely ratified as preferred recipients of others' narratives. Fathers tended to be primary recipients, often orchestrated through mothers' introductions. Not coincidentally, fathers were also the dominant problematizers of family-member protagonists/co-narrators, assuming a panopticon-like role. Children sometimes resisted family narrative activity, suggesting a certain awareness of the politics of narrative and its potential to expose them as objects of scrutiny.
Undemocratic Discourse: A Review of Theory and Research on Political Discourse
Authors: Gastil John
Published: March 2007

This essay begins by suggesting that political discourse analysis should identify the inadequacies of existing discourse relative to an ideal model of democratic deliberation. Modern writings on political discourse are then reviewed, connecting related concepts and theories from a variety of academic disciplines. The review discusses lexicon (vocabulary, technical words, imprecise words, euphemisms and loaded words), grammar (speech acts, implicature, syntax, pronouns and naming conventions), rhetorical strategies (integrative complexity, rituals, metaphors and myths) and conversational tactics (turn-taking and agenda-setting). The conclusion offers suggestions for future theory and research on political discourse.
Social Issues on Walls: Graffiti in University Lavatories
Authors: Nwoye Onuigbo G.
Published: March 2007

From the point of view of university authorities, graffiti are usually perceived as sheer expression of youthful exuberance, a manifestation of vandalism. However, a closer examination of the writings on the walls of college campuses will reveal that these graffiti are avenues through which a minority group, denied other legitimate media, articulate pent up social and political concerns. Such is the case of the graffiti found on the walls of buildings at the University of Benin, in Nigeria. The students feel that they have been denied access to other means of expressing their views on social as well as political matters, and so resort to expressing these views on the walls of buildings, mainly those of lavatory rooms, but also on the walls of the stairways. This paper examines the issues covered by these graffiti as well as the discourse strategies adopted for their expression.
Images of Involvement and Integrity: Rhetorical Style of a Japanese Politician
Authors: Maynard Senko K.
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes a political discourse in the Japanese Diet focusing on the testimony given by the former Prime Minister, Noboru Takeshita, on 7 December 1992. Given the fact that Takeshita's rhetorical style—often referred to as Takeshita-go (`Takeshita-speak')—is dubbed as gengo meiryoo, imi fumei (`clear-in-language, unknown-in-meaning'), in this paper I investigate the former Prime Minister's speech style and question what it is that causes his particular style of speech to be characterized as such. I analyze the tape-recorded hearing and identify various pragmatic strategies to achieve `involvement' and `integrity'. These devices include, among others, politeness expression, self-quotation, quotative explanation, repetition, lexical choice and lexical (re-)definition, and strategies to humble oneself. An overall pragmatic strategy that Takeshita-speak favors is juxtaposing different semiotic contexts: the ordinary and the institutional as well as the linguistic and the metalinguistic. I conclude that juxtaposition of semiotic contexts along with involvement and integrity strategies plays a significant role in characterizing Takeshita-speak as `clear-in-language, unknown-in-meaning'. Comments are made regarding the possible universal versus culturally relative nature of the pragmatics of the style, and theoretical implications of this study are suggested.
Defining Homosexuality: News Coverage of the `Repeal the Ban' Controversy
Authors: Meyers Marian
Published: March 2007

This paper examines news coverage in the Washington Post of President Clinton's attempt to repeal the ban on gay men and lesbians in the military. The analysis found that coverage presented a male, heterosexist discourse which reinforced homophobic myths and stereotypes, promoted militarism and rendered women invisible while legitimating arguments against repeal of the ban. The analysis also demonstrates how gender, race, class and sexual orientation were constructed within the narrative to support the argument against repeal. The findings point to ways in which `gay-ness' and `lesbian-ness' can be rearticulated to promote positive social change.
Reporting Practices and APA Editorial Policies Regarding Statistical Significance and Effect Size
Authors: Vacha-Haase Tammi , Nilsson Johanna E. , Reetz David R. , Lance Teresa S. , Thompson Bruce
Published: March 2007

The recent fourth edition of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual emphasized that p values are not acceptable indices of effect and `encouraged' effect-size reporting. However, empirical studies of reporting practices of diverse journals unequivocally indicate that this new encouragement has to date been ineffective. Here two additional multi-year studies of APA journals are reported. Additionally, all 50 APA editorials that have been published since 1990 were reviewed to determine how many editors with approval have articulated policies more forceful than the APA Publication Manual's vague and seemingly self-canceling encouragement. It is suggested that changes in editorial policies will be required before improved reporting will become routine.
Psychology and the Art of Living
Authors: Brown Steven D.
Published: March 2007

A weakness of contemporary social constructionist work is its overarching concern with discourse at the expense of a thoroughgoing analysis of non-discursive phenomena. Alternative analytics such as materiality, embodiment or power engender their own problems. Using the example of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) discussed by Kroll-Smith and Floyd (1997), this paper works through a number of approaches that may redress this lack of concern for the non-discursive. Drawing variously on Foucault, Heidegger and Deleuze, these approaches call for a renewed engagement with the aesthetic as a means of understanding the concrete work of ordering and stylizing the world in which persons engage. That is, an `art of living'. Issues of composition, truth, performance and expression are entailed. This results in an account of the intertwining of the discursive and the non-discursive, and an exploration of the possibilities such a conception offers for social constructionist psychology.
The Relevance of C.G. Jung
Authors: Jones Raya A.
Published: March 2007

This review essay considers recent contributions to the Jung literature by Pietikäinen, Stevens and Yates. All three books comment on the interplay between Jung's life and psychology, but interpret his writings very differently from each other. Stevens looks to biology for corroboration of archetype theory, whereas Pietikäainen extrapolates from Cassirer' s philosophy a conceptual framework for redefining archetypes as cultural products. The anthology edited by Yates is quintessentially about symbolic manifestations of universal existential concerns with death and survival of the soul, though she opts for a more literal interpretation of Jung's concerns. Comparison of the books reveals the status quo of Jung scholarship, but hints on directions in which a study of Jung's polyphonic works could contribute to current debates and inquiries in academic psychology.
The Discursive Production of Selves
Authors: Harré Rom
Published: March 2007

The concept of `Self' has been the focus of much recent work in theoretical psychology. Difficulties have been at least partly due to the polysemous character of the concept itself. In this paper an attempt is made to clear the ground for more sharply focused psychological studies of personhood by distinguishing Self-1, roughly the philosophers' concept of personal identity, from Self-2, the Self that Goffman referred to in his studies of Self-presentation. The argument turns on the assumption that both concepts of Self are indispensable both for understanding person-hood and for living as persons. Problems and misunderstandings stem from the use of inappropriate grammatical models for understanding person talk. Setting up more adequate models allows one to propose a social constructionist account of both presented Selves and of the sense of subjective singularity.
The Misleading Concept of Cognitive Competences
Authors: Geliatly Angus
Published: March 2007

Descriptions of action/cognition can be given at various different levels. For heuristic purposes, three levels are identified: the behavioural, the information-processing and the level of summarizing what an individual is capable of (competences). In cognitive psychology competences, principles, rules or strategies are commonly attributed to individuals by way of `explaining' their accomplishments. The present paper argues that such attributions have value mainly as a form of shorthand, but otherwise tend to mislead. Various controversies concerning the attribution of cognitive competences (inference-making, number competence, mnemonic strategies, theory of mind) are analysed and are shown to be empirically unresolvable because they involve the conflating of different levels of description. It is suggested that the temptation to make attributions of cognitive competences follows from three habits of mind; these involve the nominalist fallacy of reifying classificatory terms, and the mistaking of the reified entity for an individual endowment. A similar argument has been made in the case of `intelligence' by Howe (1988, 1990). The most effective challenge to the idea of attributing competences to individuals comes, in fact, from within cognitive psychology itself, yet the idea persists and even thrives. By citing examples of research which clearly demonstrate the misleading nature of the idea of individual competences, it is intended to encourage future avoidance of it.
Social Identity Theory-a Foundation to Build Upon, Not Undermine
Authors: Farsides Tom
Published: March 2007

Schiffmann and Wicklund (1992) argue that social identity theory (SIT) excludes psychological variables and `is superfluous as an account of systematic social-psychological phenomena' (p. 29). They also claim that the theory is dependent upon experiments which confound categorization and similarity effects, and which are susceptible to alternative explanations in terms of demand characteristics. They conclude that even an improved version of SIT would be `little more than an imitation of existing theories, and should therefore be rejected in favour of them (p. 46). The present paper argues that SIT is not vulnerable to Schiffmann and Wicklund's criticisms, and that their conclusion is, at best, premature.
The Identity of Theoretical Psychology
Authors: Agatti Antonio P.R.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this programmatic paper is to contribute to the identity of theoretical psychology. Rejecting the accepted distinction between philosophy and the special sciences, it is proposed that philosophy is the most general form of theorizing and, hence, philosophy should be the endpoint of scientific progress in any domain of knowledge including pyschology. The implication for the identity of theoretical psychology is that theoreticians of psychology ought to be philosophically educated psychologists-specializing in issues pertaining to the foundations of psychology.
Avoiding the Emptiness: The Full Infant
Authors: Kessen William
Published: March 2007

The recently reported findings of cognitive competence in young infants are, in several ways, puzzling. Phenomena that hundreds of years of study had not revealed have been displayed in our journals over the last decade. This paper explores the displays as part of a pervasive loss of confidence in science in general and in positive developmental psychology in particular. The full infant may have been constructed to save us from the disorder of no longer having shared conceptual models, or even assured research procedures.
Shared Care for Children
Authors: Singer Elly
Published: March 2007

Developmental psychologists have no adequate way of understanding shared care because their theories are rooted in a pedagogic concept of family upbringing with mother at home. This article shows how deeply developmental theories, concepts and research questions are anchored in the moral and social-political choices and problems of the middle class. Special attention is given to attachment theory as a pedagogic model for regulating emotions and behavior and for internalizing moral concepts. An analysis of research `waves' into day care shows the impossibility of a universal answer to questions about quality. To produce knowledge which is based on the realities of the parents and children who make use of day care, psychologists have to relinquish their claim to superiority, and they have to work out new context-bound theories. The last part of the article notes new moves in day care research towards context-bound theories of the socio-emotional development of children.
The Necessity of Personhood as Embodied Being
Authors: Harré Rom
Published: March 2007

The ontology presupposed in discursive psychology takes persons to be originating centres of activity. Since they are ontologically elementary they have no internal psychological complexity. As with the elementary charges and poles that ground the ontology of physics, they are specified wholly in terms of their dispositions and powers. A second important feature of the social constructionist strain in discursive psychology is the thesis that cognitive processes are properties of discourses, and hence have their primary mode of being in interpersonal symbolic interactions. Persons are singularities and each has its unique attributes. Singularity of personhood is tied up with singularity of embodiment, deeply involved in the human sense of self. In a similar manner the discursive thesis that emotion displays are embodied expressions of judgements also brings the fact of embodiment to the centre of psychological theory. These considerations dispose of the greater part of Fisher's (1995) criticisms of the discursive/constructionist position. We are embodied beings and the rules of discourses are not arbitrary.
Social and Personal Constructs
Authors: Burkitt Ian
Published: March 2007

Mancuso's (1996) article is to be welcomed for its attempt to bring together social constructionism, personal construct theory and narrative psychology. Whilst the underlying tendency of the three approaches-to view the text as self-enclosed and constitutive of reality-is drawn out well, the differences between them are underplayed. Most significantly, these include the difference between the individualist ontology in Mancuso's version of personal construct theory and the social ontology that is the basis of social constructionism. The fact that Mancuso ignores these differences in ontology ultimately thwarts his commendable aim of reintroducing issues of individual psychology into a constructionist framework.
Habitus: From the Inside out and the Outside in
Authors: Pizanias Caterina
Published: March 2007

Examinations of the body have been productive sites for analyzing aspects of contemporary culture in general and issues of identity/difference in particular. They have also become battlegrounds for position-claiming within both the public arena and disciplinary practices, that is, bodies claimed in/for/of x discipline. I believe it would be more productive if, in the future, we were to begin to examine bodies in relation to power regimes instead. Bodies- and art-have been found to occupy the middle ground, the space between disciplines, between the `already given or said' in everyday life and knowledge alike. I have found navigational assistance for the spaces `in between' in Bourdieu's sociology, especially his concepts of the field and habitus. This paper is an articulation of my present position-that of an itinerant academic- and my presentational/rhetorical strategies reflect my appropriation of the canonical texts of the field, tempered by the disposition of one desirous of occupying a `social space' within the academic `field' and `the functioning ethos' of feminist politics. My narrative can be read as a feminist `take' on Bourdieu and a presentation of interdisciplinarity as social practice. It can also be read as a demonstration of a `habitus' at work, or as a practice of writing the body.
Queer Theory
Authors: Minton Henry L.
Published: March 2007

In the 1990s, queer theory has emerged as an influential mode of thought in the ongoing debate about empowerment issues. Queer theory is concerned with the non-essentializing nature of sexual identities and is premised on the notion of resistance to forms of domination, such as heterosexism and homophobia. The historical roots of queer theory are traced from the homosexual rights movement through the gay liberation movement. This history of homosexual resistance focuses on the grass roots efforts of the homosexual community to gain control from scientific experts in representing their own experience. This contextualist history provides a perspective for considering the contemporary relevance of queer theory for psychological theorizing and practice.
The Place of the Psyche in a Constructed World
Authors: Gergen Kenneth J.
Published: March 2007

The vast majority of social constructionist writings have been critical of psychological science-on both ideological and conceptual grounds. The constructionist emphasis on microsocial processes also functions oppositionally to psychological accounting. The existing animus grows, however, from a realist metaphysics and a correspondence view of language, neither of which constructionism endorses. Viewing the relationship between constructionism and psychological science in more pragmatic terms, we find three significant ways in which constructionism contributes to a more fully enriched and broadly effective psychology. First, critical constructionism functions to denaturalize psychological accounts, opening them to reflexive deliberation, and democratizing the field more generally. Second, constructionist metatheory invites a resuscitation of marginal or suppressed discourse within the field, and invigorates societally engaged efforts to forge new and more useful discourses of the mind. Finally, social constructionism offers the possibility for a fundamental reconceptualization of the self. Illustrative is the family of theories conceptualizing the self as either constituted by or constituting relationships.
Measurement as a Normative Practice
Authors: Maraun Michael D.
Published: March 2007

Recently, a number of prominent measurement specialists (e.g. Cliff, 1992; Schonemann, 1994) have pondered the lack of progress in the development of convincing solutions to the measurement problems of psychology, and have attempted to identify the factors responsible for this lack of progress. They suggest a number of possibilities, including a basic lack of talent in the ranks of the social sciences. It is argued here, however, that the philosophy of Wittgenstein provides an interesting alternative explanation. Specifically, despite their apparent differences, current approaches to the support of psychological measurement claims are unanimous in viewing measurement as chiefly an empirical matter. On Wittgenstein's account, however, this is a mischaracterization of measurement, for, as he argued in elaborate detail, measurement is a normative, rule-guided practice. Hence, empirically based argument is not relevant to the support of measurement claims. If this verdict is correct, it explains not only the failure of measurement theory in psychology, but the much discussed success of measurement in the physical sciences. In this paper, Wittgenstein's characterization of measurement, and its implications for psychology, are discussed.
On Historical Scholarship: A Reply To Dehue
Authors: Danziger Kurt
Published: March 2007

In her comment, Dehue (1990) advocates and practices the occasional, rather than the principled, use of contextualism in historical studies. However, I regard contextualism as a regulative principle of such studies which applies to the historian as well as to the subject matter. Because historical studies are themselves historically situated, Dehue's `symmetrical contextualism' must remain an illusion.
A Psychology of Need and the Abstraction of `Value'
Authors: Goldberg Brenda
Published: March 2007

This article takes Marx's analysis of the `commodity form' and `value' and relates these to the `abstraction' of `value' applicable to the emergence and commodification of subjectivity within capitalist society. The article argues that we do not need to turn to psychology for an explanation of human emotion and desire, but that Marx in his analysis of commodities as personified entities offers us a medium through which to formulate the origins of human subjectivity, need and desire as they emanate from the social process of exchange specific to capitalism.
Beyond Binaries
Authors: Wetherell Margaret
Published: March 2007

It is argued that Marxism is most useful for radical psychology in negative terms-as a form of critique. It has much less to offer as a positive theoretical programme. The binaries which make up Marxist epistemology (individual-social, culture-economy, base-superstructure, truth-falsity, real-illusory) constrain creative thought and lead to some by now predictable cul-de-sac. The Foucauldian emphasis on studying onto-formative practices is more useful. This claim is illustrated through a critical examination of Foster's construction of the discursive and extra-discursive, Osterkamp's premises regarding human nature, and the view of false consciousness developed by Augoustinos.
Between Numbers and Notions
Authors: Essex Christopher , Smythe William E.
Published: March 2007

When psychologists apply mathematical machinery to psychological ideas, that machinery imposes certain requirements in the linkage of numbers and notions. These impose choices driven by the mathematics and not the psychology. These decisions, forced by the mathematics, induce theoretical issues in the psychology. Attempting a theory-neutral approach to research in psychology, where commitments in response to the options are made unknowingly, thus becomes instead a theory-by-default psychology. This paper begins to catalogue some of these mathematical choices to make them explicit, in order to allow psychologists the opportunity to make explicit theoretical commitments.
The Politics of Language and European Works Councils: Towards a Research Agenda
Authors: Miller Doug , Tully Barbara , Fitzgerald Ian
Published: March 2007

This article considers key questions of control relating to language support for European Works Councils (EWCs). The degree of support for interpreting and translation, flexibility in the working language(s) and training provision can all have a considerable impact on the ability of transnational worker representatives to develop a workable communications framework. An analysis of the pattern of language provision confirms English as the lingua franca in EWCs. Preliminary findings on the way EWC delegates handle communication across language barriers suggest some pointers for future research into what may be a crucial variable in the development of transnational industrial relations.
Industrial Relations and the Regulation of Employment in Europe
Authors: Léonard Evelyne
Published: March 2007

Employment has been at the core of numerous bipartite and tripartite bargaining processes across Europe since the early 1990s. This focus on employment has caused changes in bargaining processes and in the content of collective agreements. This article examines the impact of the adoption of employment as a priority in collective bargaining in the Member States of the European Union. It argues that, in the context of the European integration, industrial relations play an increasing role in the regulation of employment issues, but that collective bargaining on these issues is more and more shaped by external political and economic constraints.
Recent German Publications on Industrial Relations at European Level
Authors: Bansbach Matthias
Published: March 2007

This review article presents an overview of important recent German-language publications on the construction of industrial relations at European level. It focuses on five monographs dealing with three different subject areas: the establishment of European Works Councils in multinational companies, and the evolution of social dialogue at both interprofessional and sectoral levels.
Collective Bargaining and Poverty: A Cross-National Perspective
Authors: Plasman Robert , Rycx François
Published: March 2007

A large and increasing number of studies examine the influence of collective bargaining systems on wage dispersion, but very few analyse their influence on poverty levels. Yet it would be a mistake to assume that the relationship between wage dispersion and poverty rates is straightforward: the evidence shows that in most industrialized countries, poverty is not primarily a problem of the working poor. This article addresses explicitly the relationship between collective bargaining systems and relative poverty rates in OECD countries. Empirical findings suggest that industrial relations systems have a significant impact upon poverty, not through any direct effect on wage dispersion, but from their relative impact on government spending on social security.
The European Sectoral Social Dialogue and the Graphical Industry
Authors: Leisink Peter
Published: March 2007

The European Commission and the ETUC have outlined policies to strengthen the sectoral level of European industrial relations, but the social dialogue has developed in only a limited number of sectors. This article examines some theoretical arguments which may contribute to a better understanding of the motives of industrial relations actors for participation in social dialogue and collective bargaining at the European level. These arguments will be used to explain why no social dialogue has been initiated in the graphical sector, and what this absence implies for the prospects of the Europeanization of collective bargaining in the sector.
The Resilience of a Company-Level System of Industrial Relations: Union Responses to Teamwork in Renault's Spanish Subsidiary
Authors: Ortiz Luis
Published: March 2007

FASA-Renault unions displayed a distinctive reaction to teamwork compared with unions in other Spanish automobile companies. This reaction reveals the existence of a company-level institutional framework that acted as a constraint on the forces of convergence. A confluence of factors provided FASA unions with a degree of confidence not enjoyed by unions in other motor companies: the development of a decentralized system of collective bargaining; the timing of the first attempts to introduce teamwork in Spain, when no other motor company was introducing it; the subsequent enshrinement of relevant provisions in the company agreement; and the establishment of general guarantees relating to work organization. The argument qualifies the importance attached to the national institutional framework by recent theoretical positions in favour of divergence. It also adds possible explanations of divergence to the arguments supporting intermediate positions between convergence and divergence.
European Works Councils: Prospects for a New System of European Industrial Relations
Authors: Schulten Thorsten
Published: March 2007

Following the adoption of the `Council Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council' (EWC) in September 1994 there now exists for the first time a transnational system of industrial relations based on European legislation. This article discusses the development of EWCs in the context of the contemporary restructuring of European transnational capital. Thereby, EWCs may in future lead to a new transnational `micro-corporatism' helping to stabilize the emerging `Euro-company' while at the same time reinforcing the contemporary trend of undercutting national, regional and sectoral collective bargaining through the decentralization of industrial relations.
`Squeezing Time'
Authors: Southerton Dale
Published: March 2007

The `time squeeze', notions of `rush' and `harried' are popular concerns in contemporary society. This article reports on interviews with 20 suburban households who all suggested that people feel increasingly harried. Respondents were quick to suggest a set of generic narratives to explain the causes of `harriedness', notably that people `work more' and `consume more' - the same explanation offered by prominent academic analyses. However, such explanations did not tally with their `experiences' of harriedness. It is argued that `harriedness' was generated by a felt need to allocate and schedule practices within designated time frames (which created hot spots). This was `necessary' in order to coordinate practices within social networks and to `free-up' other time frames (cold spots) for interaction with significant others. On the one hand, this suggests a rationalized conception of time as subject to personal control. On the other, such individual responses (to schedule and allocate) to the perceived `time squeeze' were responses to a collective problem. In a society where increasingly people feel the need to generate personal schedules, temporal alignment within networks becomes problematic. In attempting to schedule practices, which often required employment of convenience devices and services, respondents reported a growing anxiety that care is compromised by convenience. It was this anxiety that made the `time squeeze' discourse meaningful to respondents.
Reading Time — Text, Image, Film
Authors: Gross Sabine
Published: March 2007

Different visual media present information to the reader's eye in different ways. Reading is a temporal process in which the spectator's physiological and cognitive activity is affected by the way the respective sign systems operate. Beyond the specificity of the different media, texts, pictorial images and motion pictures are similar in offering spatial information which is translated into time in the act of reading. It is shown that the activity of the reader dissolves oppositions such as seeing vs reading and space vs time. For all three media, viewing and reading, perception and decoding are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and the spectator/reader employs both.
Father Time
Authors: Michon John A.
Published: March 2007

Having stood out among the prominent topics in experimental psychology for nearly half a century, interest in the psychology of time had all but disappeared by 1915 except in the French-speaking countries in Europe. Then, in 1957, the epochal monograph by Paul Fraisse, Psychologie du temps, appeared. It not only summarized the first century of empirical research on time, but it also had the effect of triggering a renewed interest, world-wide, in the domain of psychological time. Since then there has been a steady rise in number and scope of published studies. Also, the study of time gradually merged with mainstream experimental psychology. The influence of Professor Fraisse is noticeable throughout this development. In recognition of this fact a special symposium was held on the occasion of the 25th International Congress of Psychology in Brussels. This paper is an introduction to this symposium.
Time, National Identity and Television Schedules in the `Postbroadcast Age'
Authors: Brookes Rod
Published: March 2007

This research note proposes that the analysis of changing time structures relating to new media technologies and institutions could contribute to an understanding of the transformation, rather than the demise, of national identities at a time of increased globalization. It examines the role of extraordinary media events as well as everyday media use in the construction of national identities, and assesses the effects of changing broadcast schedules in the UK with special attention given to the issue of temporal `flow'. In so doing, the author seeks to identify the conceptual issues around which the time-space implications of the new media context can be explored.
An Institutionalist Approach to Local Restructuring
Authors: Dale Britt
Published: March 2007

Much of the inspiration of the ‘contextual turn’ in economic geography and regional development studies comes from institutional economics, and its focus on economic life as both an instituted process and a socially embedded activity. The concept of institution has been used in a variety of ways, however. Often the concept is defined in a broad and all-inclusive manner, or it is just stated that institutions are important, without discussing the content of the concept in any depth. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the concept of institutions and the relevance of an institutionalist approach in studies of local and regional development. It starts with a brief overview of the various schools of institutional theorists and the controversies and divergence among them. I argue for the value of a broad conception of institutions, which includes cognitive constructions and normative rules as well as regulative structures. The theoretical discussion is exemplified by a presentation of how an institutionalist approach can be utilized as an analytical framework in a study of the restructuring of four small Norwegian mining communities. The study identifies several types of institutions that in various ways have influenced the process of restructuring and its outcome. These institutions are operating at different geographical levels and reflect regulative constraints, normative obligations and expectations, as well as cognitive classifications and identities. A better insight into the functioning of these institutions will enhance our understanding of the capabilities, problems and prospects of this kind of community.
Towards an Integrated Automotive Industry in Europe
Authors: Lagendijk Arnoud
Published: March 2007

Economic integration and technological developments are offering new opportunities for the automotive industry in Europe. Understanding and grasping such opportunities is crucial for improving Europe's competitive position in the global car market. This article explores this issue by embarking on a historical analysis of the European automotive production system applying the filiere concept. In doing so, the analysis focuses on internal relationships within the production chain as well as on the sociopolitical embedding of production. The main argument put forward is that enhanced innovative capabilities and competitive performance require more than the implementation of lean strategies within the existing business structure. Despite the intensive restructuring undertaken over the last decade, it seems that the industry is not fully exploiting the opportunities offered by market integration in Europe. This stagnation is attributed primarily to the vested interests of the major carmakers in retaining the present organizational structure and their political influence. The article develops a 'merging filiere' perspective which involves, besides genuine internationalization at various stages of the production chain, a more substantial shift in the responsibilities for design and production from carmakers to main suppliers and a certain detachment of producers from their home environment. The last section of the article focuses on the role of European policy. It is argued that the European Commission should set more distance between itself and the large carmakers and adopt a more favourable attitude towards the independent component industries.
State Aid, Regional Policy and Locational Competition in the European Union
Authors: Martin Reiner , Steinen Mathias Schulze
Published: March 2007

In this article we show that there are inconsistencies between European regional policy and national state-aid policies. Arguing within a locational competition framework, we differentiate between the macro and the micro-level. On the macro-level, encompassing for example infrastructure and education, the European periphery is clearly disadvantaged vis-a-vis the core member states. On the micro-level, focusing on direct support to the productive sector, European state-aid regulations establish a hierarchy. According to Article 92 of the EC Treaty, least-favoured regions and regions in industrial decline are allowed to use region-specific state aid in order to attract mobile factors of production. All other regions are only allowed to use horizontal state aid. In the empirical analysis we show, however, that this privilege is not reflected in higher state-aid expenditure levels of the periphery vis-a-vis the core. This is mainly due to the limited budgetary possibilities of the peripheral member states. The present spatial pattern of expenditures reduces the prospects for cohesion and the efficiency of regional policy, and it leads to a waste of resources. The aggregate amount of state aid in Europe, as well as the market distortions induced by this state aid, is unnecessarily inflated. We therefore argue in favour of a tightening of state-aid regulations for the core countries and suggest a further concentration of EU resources in the periphery.