bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Politics is Football: Metaphor in the Discourse of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy
Authors: Semino Elena , Masci Michela
Published: March 2007

In this paper we examine the use of a set of recurring metaphors in the discourse of Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who became Italy's Prime Minister in 1994. We focus specifically on metaphors drawn from the source domains of football, war and the Bible. Drawing on the cognitive theory of metaphor proposed in Lakoff and Johnson (1980), we consider the possible effects that each metaphorical connection may have on Berlusconi's audience in the specific political and cultural context within which he operates. We argue that Berlusconi adopts different metaphors in an attempt to alter the way in which Italians relate to politics, to create a positive public image for himself and his new political party and to attract particular sections of the electorate. We conclude that metaphor is an essential part of a new type of populist and heterogeneous political discourse that Berlusconi has introduced in Italian politics.
Positioning the Worker: Discursive Practice in a Workplace Literacy Program
Authors: Tannock Stuart
Published: March 2007

Workers' perspectives have frequently been overlooked and ignored in the development and implementation of workplace literacy programs. Analysis of the classroom discourse of a literacy program run cooperatively by company and union at a US canning factory shows how, even in apparently `worker-centered' efforts, local discursive choices made by instructors may close off opportunities for students/employees to freely express their opinions and ideas. In this particular program, such choices effectively worked to move students/employees into subject-positions—into alignment with culturally stereotyped attitudes, behaviors, and values—that were desirable to company management.
Sociological, Juridical and Linguistic Analysis of a Labor Reform Bill
Authors: de Gialdino Irene Vasilachis
Published: March 2007

The aim of the present study was to analyze the paradigms and argumentative resources used in President Menem's message submitting the Labor Reform Bill to the Argentinian Congress. The message constitutes an expression of the political, social and economic program orienting Menem's government's action. An analysis was made of the personal/impersonal, indicative/subjunctive, affirmative/negative argumentative paradigms, in the light of the proposed notions of social context, communicative context and textual social context. This made it possible to observe the depersonalizing argumentative processes concerning both the speaker and the subjects of social action. The coincidence between the affirmative and possible argumentative paradigms in the social context discursive representation, and the persuasive function of the shifts in speech act type were also noticed. The prevailing argumentative resource employed by the speaker was the appeal to shared social values, followed by their alteration, not made explicit, in the legal regulation of specific situations. Both the textual definition of the subjects of the labor relationship and the proposal of a deep change in labor law were justified by means of this resource. This would be achieved to the detriment of rights previously acquired by the workers.
“There was a Problem, and it was Solved!”: Legitimating the Expulsion of `Illegal' Migrants in Spanish Parliamentary Discourse
Authors: Rojo Luisa Martín , van Dijk Teun A.
Published: March 2007

In this article we examine some discursive aspects of political legitimation by analyzing the speech of the Spanish Secretary of the Interior, Mayor Oreja; on the occasion of a military-style expulsion of a group of African `illegal' migrants from Melilla—the Spanish enclave in Morocco—in the summer of 1996. After a theoretical analysis of legitimation, we study three levels of legitimation: (a) pragmatic: various strategies of the justification of controversial official actions; (b) semantic: the ways a discourse represents its partisan view of the events or properties of actors as `true' or as the `facts'; and (c) sociopolitical: the way official discourse self-legitimates itself as authoritative and delegitimates alternative discourses. For these various aspects of legitimation, several levels of discursive structure (style, grammar, rhetoric, semantic moves, etc.) are examined in some detail.
Against Againstism
Authors: Newman Fred , Holzman Lois
Published: March 2007

This comment on Parker's `Against Postmodernism: Psychology in Cultural Context' (Parker, 1998) contextualizes Parker's `againstism' (critical) stance. Parker characterizes postmodernism as theoretical play that has gone too far. Having exhausted its progressive potential, it's become a breeding ground for reactionary ideas now threatening psychology and a radical political agenda. Parker, recognizing that what he fears postmodernism has spawned are products of modernism, employs `dialectical critique' to historically contextualize postmodernism and its dangers. As postmodernists Parker takes to task, the authors argue that the relevant points of difference between him and them have more to do with their differing institutional locations and conception/practices of dialectics than with postmodernism.
Feeling as Movement from a Person-Centered Standpoint
Authors: Josephs Ingrid E.
Published: March 2007

According to William Stem, psychological phenomena are only understandable in relation to a living and experiencing person. Stem defines the person as an open system which is related to the external world. However, the question how this relation between person and world can be conceptualized, specifically how person and world co-construct each other, needs further elaboration. In this paper, feeling is understood as the critical mediating process of the person-world relationship. It is shown how the world constrains the flow of feeling through semiotic devices, as, for example, feeling concepts and circumvention strategies. Yet the world does not strictly determine feeling and other psychological functions. It is always the person who actively reconstructs the world's suggestions in ongoing time, rather than simply taking them over or selecting them.
Back to Bridgman?!
Authors: Leahey Thomas H.
Published: March 2007

I defend my earlier position that operational definition is a ritual procedure that obscures and misleads psychologists about the nature of science. I use examples from Grace's (2001) paper and briefly sketch new problems for operationism as an approach to mentalistic vocabulary. I conclude that operationism is not the theoretically neutral technique it is purported to be, but instead endorses behaviorism and anti-realism in philosophy of science.
Psychology, Physicalism and Real Physics
Authors: Radder Hans
Published: March 2007

Physicalism claims that the ontology of the world coincides with the ontology of physics. My paper offers a discussion and assessment of this claim. First, I explain why physicalism implies a straightforward ontological reductionism; hence, on an ontological reading, `non-reductive physicalism' is a contradiction in terms. Second, I argue that, without further specification, the content of `the ontology of physics' is completely undefined. Since this content is usually taken for granted in the philosophy of psychology and the philosophy of mind, the notion of physicalism has no positively determinable meaning. Third, by taking into account the full particulars of how observations of physical phenomena are realized in practice, I question the claim that reductive physicalism is confirmed by the cognitive achievements of connectionist networks.
Brain Processes and Phenomenal Consciousness
Authors: Flohr Hans
Published: March 2007

A hypothesis on the physiological conditions for the occurrence of phenomenal states is presented. It is suggested that the presence of phenomenal states depends on the rate at which neural assemblies are formed. Unconsciousness and various disturbances of phenomenal consciousness occur if the assembly formation rate is below a certain threshold level; if this level is surpassed, phenomenal states necessarily result. A critical production rate of neural assemblies is the necessary and sufficient condition for the occurrence of phenomenal states.
The Method is the Message
Authors: Tseelon Efrat
Published: March 2007

In this paper I use a cultural studies framework in order to draw an analogy between methods and systems of representation. I then argue from Marxist and structuralist perspectives that method, like any coding practice, is ideological in that it defines the terms through which we experience and explain the world. Further, I identify ideological analysis in psychology as dealing mostly with ideology as a set of meanings, not as a set of practices, and treating method as derived from theory. I propose the reverse argument that regards method as creating and not as reflecting the phenomena, and argue that all methods are ideological. Finally, I illustrate the argument by an example which shows how a structured scale and an unstructured questionnaire construct different models of self-presentational behaviour, and different notions of reality.
Conceptual Rigor versus Practical Impact
Authors: Chow Siu L.
Published: March 2007

The argument that empirical studies should be appraised in terms of multiple context-dependent criteria is reviewed. A distinction is made between `practical impact' appraisal and `conceptual rigor' assessment. The idea of replacing a test of statistical significance with multiple criteria is assessed and found inappropriate when we are concerned with conceptual rigor. A test of statistical significance can be profitably used to ascertain whether or not a theory is tenable vis-a-vis a set of experimental data. It is an indispensable step in the multi-step theory-corroboration procedure which is hypothetico-deductive in nature. The binary nature of a significance test is compatible with the evolving nature of scientific knowledge, which should be based on internally and externally valid research results. The use of multiple context-dependent criteria of impressiveness, on the other hand, is antithetical to the requirements of internal validity and of external validity. A case is made that criticisms of the use of significance tests and of the hypothetico-deductive approach do not detract from the contribution to conceptual rigor due to the use of a test of significance and of the hypothetico-deductive nature of theory corroboration experimentation.
Baconian Inductivism in Research on Human Decision-Making
Authors: Sahlin Nils-Eric
Published: March 2007

The paper discusses the pros and cons of inductive research methods. It is argued that, despite the profusion of good arguments against this scientific strategy, it is frequently employed, for example in psychology. A case probe taken from the realm of cognitive psychology is used as an illustration.
Rhetoric for Realism in Psychology
Authors: Parrott W. Gerrod
Published: March 2007

Greenwood's (1992) selection of arguments may be understood as being targeted at experimental psychologists. These arguments focus on empiricism's denial of meaningful theory, constructionism's denial of objectivity, and realism's avoidance of both, while allowing satisfactory insight into the social realm. I approve of Greenwood's approach, both its logic and its rhetoric, but I suggest some refinements. Greater attention to empiricist objections to realism, a different interpretation of the theory-ladenness of observations, and a firmer attack on the relativistic aspects of constructionism would make for a stronger argument.
Utopia and Psychological Theory
Authors: Barclay Michael W.
Published: March 2007

The following essay argues that the influence of a utopian ideology renders aspects of some psychologies inappropriate for the study of human beings. Utopianism in psychology functions as a totalizing discourse, a manner of speaking about society and human beings that tends towards homogeneity and totalitarian thought and decontextualizes human beings by seeking universal laws which attempt to reduce either behavior or cognition to totally explainable processes. Decontextualization is in some measure a function of the utopian legacy in natural science that began as a philosophy of pansophia, characterized in its goal of absolute knowledge and reflected in the goal of prediction and control of the environment. Theories that underwrite behaviorism and cognitivism are arguably utopian discourses. The legacy of utopian thinking in psychology defines the human being as a finite set of malleable structures which can be changed according to a prior definition of the `good', the `efficient' or fully `rational' person. This essay suggests that decontextualization, reductionistic description, essentialism and a quest for homogeneity are the result of the utopian legacy, and concludes that recontextualization of the subject should be sought by psychological research and therapeutic practice. This amounts to the rediscovery of human beings in the context of the lived world, as well as in the context of history and specific culture, in contrast to ideal places (utopias), ideal times (euchronias) or ideal ways of thinking (eupsychias).
Psychopaths are Not Necessarily Impulsive, etc.
Authors: Levenson Michael R.
Published: March 2007

While Feelgood and Rantzen claim that impulsivity is central to psychopathy, they fail to observe the crucial distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy. Contrary to their recommendations, omission of moral considerations renders the construct impossible unless its definition is made completely circular and therefore scientifically useless. Their objections to successful and institutionalized psychopathy are based on an inappropriately narrow definition of psychopathy. Finally, their strict causalism represents a bankrupt positivism which is counterproductive for psychology.
Mom, and Pop Psychology: The Moving Picture Cure
Authors: Vogler Thomas A.
Published: March 2007

Sometimes we can learn from a bad book as well as from a good one, if its `badness' is exemplary of normative practices rather than an isolated instance of incompetence. Such is the case with the book under scrutiny here. Although uniquely flawed in many ways, James B. Twitchell's Dreadful Pleasures: An Anatomy of Modem Horror (1985) is also typical of the perversions of scholarship that can be tolerated in the humanities by those who invoke the authority of `Psychology' as if it were a universal scientific discipline. This essay shows that while presuming to analyze the function of horror movies as an agency for teaching adolescents the imperatives of `healthy' sex and `proper' gender identifications, Twitchell is himself performing the same ideological function. As a book that advocates fear as a necessary method to force teenagers to conform to stereotyped norms of heterosexual behavior, it becomes part of the AIDS discourse even though it fails to address the topic.
Social Constructionism and the Pragmatic Standard Revisited: A Reply to Botschner
Authors: Osbeck Lisa M.
Published: March 2007

The argument that only a weak version of social constructionism allows for a generative psychology and therefore honors the pragmatic standard is challenged by Botschner, who claims that the proposed advantages of weak constructionism are not clear. Botschner's comments seem to stem from a number of misconceptions about the original argument and from some points of divergence in the reading of Wittgenstein and James. These misconceptions are addressed and the original argument is clarified.
Object Perception and Recognition: A Model for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
Authors: Delacour Jean
Published: March 2007

The main obstacles to the scientific study of consciousness are its subjectivity and its complexity. Object perception and recognition (OPR) can be a useful model in such a study because there is a remarkable agreement between the subjective and objective aspects of OPR; in addition, while OPR is somewhat simpler than other forms of cognition, it adequately represents one characteristic feature of consciousness: intentionality. It thus allows convergent studies of experimental psychology, artificial intelligence and biology, in both humans and animals. Recent advances in the neurophysiology of visual OPR in subhuman primates and its brain imaging in humans provide a vital thread to the neural basis of consciousness, especially of its integrative, unifying character.
Was will der Mann? Some Reflections on Theorizing Masculinity
Authors: Davis Kathy
Published: March 2007

For several decades, femininity has been a favorite topic within feminist theory. Masculinity, by contrast, received short shrift. This essay focuses on masculinity and how it should be theorized, drawing upon the several recent books on men and masculinity, written from different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. Despite the considerable merits of this scholarship, it remains somewhat disappointing. It lacks contextualization, focuses on masculinity as a white, middle-class, heterosexual phenomenon, and does not make use of the theorist's reflexivity as a resource for making sense of masculinity.
Cognition and Ideology
Authors: Durrheim Kevin
Published: March 2007

Extracts of an argument which defended the assassination of the popular South African leader, Chris Hani, are used to show variability in the style of fascist cognition. Such variability, although compatible with current dialogical models of thinking, contradicts the theoretical predictions of the classical social psychological theory of the authoritarian personality. Furthermore, it undermines this traditional attempt to develop a psychological critique of fascism because the emergent nature of cognitive processing means that a pervasive psychological irrationality cannot underlie fascist thinking. In particular, fascists cannot be described as intolerant of ambiguity. It seems that once again the postmodern understanding of an emergent self leads to an anti-critical relativism. In this paper I develop a Bakhtinian understanding of cognitive style in order to advance an alternative approach to a critical social psychology. I argue that research may gain a critical impulse by analysing forms of utterance in terms of the social languages through which they ventriloquate.
Reflections and Projections of the Developing Self
Authors: Forrester Michael A.
Published: March 2007

In response to calls for a constructively critical developmental psychology, this paper considers contemporary ideas of the developing self. After touching on theoretical assumptions within cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches, consideration turns to the potential value of narrative. A conception of the developing self embedded within the subject positionings of discourse is then formulated. This approach, defined as discursive ethnomethodology, focuses on narrativization as process bringing together Foucault's (1972) discourse theory, Gibson's (1979) affordance metaphor and conversation analysis. The proposals conceptualize theorized subject positioning as participant-oriented social practices, arguably understood as social affordances produced and recognized dynamically in context. Conversation analysis provides a key method for studying the production of such discursive self-positionings, particularly with regard to the implicit models and metaphors embedded in the talk between parents and young children. Recommendations for more dialogic conceptions of representation are suggested, alongside proposals for a discursive ethno-methodology of the developing self. Concluding comments emphasize the significance of studying talk and conversation within developmental psychology.
Agency
Authors: Gergen Kenneth J.
Published: March 2007

Fisher's reading of social constructionist and relational theory is unfortunate. In the first instance, he fails to see that constructionism makes no attempt to establish a foundational ontology in which either agency or its absence is declared real or true. The relational alternative to the traditional account of agency as internal origination is not offered as a truth posit but a contribution to societal practice. On this view, agency is not `empirically' available, as Fisher contends, but is a constitutive achievement of relationships. In this light, Fisher's concern with the function of the traditional conception of agency in maintaining the moral order is salutary.
The Abstract Zone of Proximal Conditions
Authors: Nissen Morten , Axel Erik , Jensen Torben Bechmann
Published: March 2007

Newman and Holzman's reformulation of Vygotskyan psychology, centering around the notions of `tool and result', `the practice of method', and `completion', are, like their later attempts to criticize and find practice-based alternatives to scientific psychology, and even to epistemology in general, thought-provoking and relevant. It may be, however, that the author's reference to `practice', in particular with the postmodern turn to `performance', below its revolutionary surface represents a rather traditional way of dismissing the significance of societal conditions and promoting therapeutic expertise.
Interaction and Representation
Authors: Bickhard Mark H.
Published: March 2007

We now have naturalistic understandings, at least in principle, of many phenomena that were once mysterious, such as of fire and life. Mental processes and properties, however, so far continue to resist naturalism. In part, this is due to the particular difficulty of naturalizing the normativity of mental phenomena, such as that of the truth and falsity of representation. Normativity is a particularly strong challenge to models of naturalistic emergence. There is a form of representation, however, that is naturally emergent in the organization of interactive systems. Interactive representation has claims to be the fundamental form of representation, from which all others are derivative. Interactivism offers a solution to the problem of the naturalistic normative emergence of representation.
Beyond Empathy
Authors: Martin Jack , Dawda Darek
Published: March 2007

A critical, hermeneutically inspired interpretation of interpersonal understanding is presented as a clarification of, and supplement to, extant accounts of psychotherapeutic empathy. Particular emphasis is placed on the achievement of a degree of self-distanciation from one's own pre-understanding, and a partial penetration of the symbolic orders and sociocultural situatedness of the other through a critical dialogue of open question and answer, together with a dialogically emergent appreciation of the social power practices inherent in the psychotherapeutic encounter itself. It is concluded that subjectivist accounts provide inadequate bases for the kinds of change assumed in most theories of psychotherapeutic empathy and understanding. Only when the possibility of heightened self- and other-understanding is preserved in a non-subjectivist, critical interpretation that respects individual subjective experience without granting it epistemic privilege do the institution and practice of psychotherapy maintain a coherent rationale.
Union Density and European Integration: Diverging Convergence
Authors: Blaschke Sabine
Published: March 2007

This article uses multivariate regression analysis to investigate trends in union density in western Europe in the period 1970-95. While countries with union-managed unemployment insurance schemes (Ghent system) saw density rates increase or at least remain stable, the others typically experienced a decline in unionization. Economic factors (shifts in the structure of employment, and also the business cycle and internationalization of trade) exert an influence, though less substantial, on changes in union density. The evidence is ambiguous as to the impact of European economic integration as such on unionization.
Transmission Belts of Transnational Competition? Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining in the Context of European Integration
Authors: Mahnkopf Birgit , Altvater Elmar
Published: March 2007

Collective bargaining has in the past set a floor to competitive undercutting of wages and employment conditions, acting as a source of `industrial citizenship'. European economic integration threatens to initiate a neo-liberal regime and to undermine national structures of collective regulation. Trade unions seem compelled to acquiesce in the policies of individual companies striving to survive in the face of intensified market forces. The authors suggest that unions can escape their current dilemmas only through developing new forms of political intervention aiming at the creation of effective European procedures of employment regulation.
Industrialization and Politics: A Century of Union Structural Development in Three European Countries
Authors: Visser Jelle , Waddington Jeremy
Published: March 2007

Using data from three European countries - Sweden, The Netherlands and Britain - and a period of about one hundred years, this article charts and explains the development of trade union structure. Although the character of the union movements in the three countries differs markedly, the rate of change of union structural events (foundations, dissolutions and mergers) shows considerable similarity. One of the main features of these structural events is that they occur in waves. The article reviews existing explanations of trade union structural development in the light of these findings and suggests how they might be revised.
An Overview of Industrial Relations Research in the Nordic Countries: Institutions and Trends
Authors: Ryberg Lotti , Bruun Niklas
Published: March 2007

This review gives a multidisciplinary overview of work-life research in the Nordic countries (with the exception of Iceland). While concentrating on the most important institutes in these countries, it also includes details of the work of research groups and some individual researchers. Since this is an area of research which is controversial and characterized by a large number of actors, the achievements have often been submerged in the debates. Seen in a longer and broader perspective, there is no doubt that research has been a major contributor to the adaptation and improvement of modern working life. An important keyword in working-life research is change: what earlier seemed obvious and natural is suddenly problematic.
Trade Union Consciousness, East and West: A Comparison of Fiat Factories in Poland and Italy
Authors: Meardi Guglielmo
Published: March 2007

This article presents the first results of a qualitative research project examining trade union activists at Fiat factones in Italy and Poland. It discusses two issues: first, whether it is possible to find any common ground (a `principle of unity') which could facilitate transnational union action; second, the distinctive features of the development of Polish trade unionism in comparison with unions in the West. By applying Touraine's model of working-class consciousness, one can detect profound differences between Italian and Polish workers, and there seems to be increasing divergence between unionism in the East and the West.
Trade Unions, Restructuring and Individualization in French and British Banks
Authors: Thornley Carole , Contrepois Sylvie , Jefferys Steve
Published: March 2007

The European banking sector has experienced radical restructuring in the 1990s. This article compares the experiences and opinions of French and British trade union activists in two banks. It argues that while trade union organization in each country remains distinct, activists' perceptions of restructuring and industrial relations or HRM changes have much in common: there is a growing convergence in working practices and workers' experiences. Job losses, the reorganization of work and segmentation of the labour force have weakened the power of unions to make a collective response. However, despite some signs of growing individualism, there is little to suggest that `commitment' to the employer has increased; and unions continue to rely on collective organization to restrain managerial unitarism.
The Second Coming of Proletarian Internationalism? A Review of Recent Resources
Authors: Waterman Peter
Published: March 2007

A review of seven books, articles, briefings and email documents suggests a revival both of labour internationalism and of left reflection upon it. The materials come from or relate to Europe, Japan, South Africa, the North American Free Trade Area, our globalizing world and the `real virtuality' of cyberspace. Some of these items have their feet (sometimes their heads also) in a past world of nation-states and of a nationallyhased industrial and imperial capitalism; others attempt to confront the brave new globalized world of informatized and networked capitalism. The answer to the question in my title is `no', partly because there was no first coming of this mythical creature. But labour internationalism is reviving. And if, in the past, it was most effective when least proletarian, its revival today can only be as part of a more general global solidarity movement, to which it is necessary, and to the development of which it can make its own distinct contribution.
The Constitution of European Works Councils: From Information Forum to Social Actor?
Authors: Lecher Wolfgang , Rub Stefan
Published: March 2007

This article presents and discusses the findings of an empirical study of European Works Councils (EWCs) in the metalworking and chemical industries in the UK, Italy, France, and Germany. It focuses on four issues: internal communication networks; relations with company management; links between EWCs and national institutions for employee representation; and cooperation between EWCs and trade unions. The research indicates that EWC members are rapidly learning to handle and develop the mechanisms of this new body. In a significant number of cases, informal relations between EWC and management have become an established fact. In short, a distinctive European industrial relations system is developing at the micro-level. Whether this proves a threat or an opportunity for the trade unions will depend not least on their own strategies for Europeanization.
Regulating Employment: Implications for Skill Development in the Aerospace Industry
Authors: Lloyd Caroline
Published: March 2007

This article examines the link between labour market regulation, in particular in relation to employment security, and the development and maintenance of an adequate skill base. The implications of the different institutional and regulatory contexts within France and the UK are addressed through a comparative study of the civil aerospace sector. The evidence indicates that the institutional framework can have a profound effect on levels of employment security and, therefore, on training and skill development; and thus that labour market flexibility in the UK is a major barrier to the development and maintenance of skills.
Intermediate `Time-spaces'
Authors: Hofmeister Sabine
Published: March 2007

In this article I discuss the significance of the temporal-spatial figure of transition in relation to spatial planning and environmental planning. This discussion is based on the theory that change and renewal can be found in intermediate spaces. I consider the positive value accorded to the spatial figure of transition in the discourses of ecology, environmental education and town planning. The integrative function of transition as a liminal space of possibility was highlighted early on in feminist planning debates. This function corresponds to the sustainable development model and is evidently inherent in the figure of transition. I therefore suggest that these debates should be used constructively in current research on sustainability, especially in the planning sciences.
The Birth of Time
Authors: Brodribb Somer
Published: March 2007

From these feminist perspectives emerges an embodied temporality, in contrast to the fatal philosophies of masculine mind. Yet their difference from such inauthenticity is not the same: Irigaray considers masculine/time and feminine/space, while O'Brien reclaims female periods and temporality from the empty space of `male-stream thought'. Both theorists offer original visions of the present/presence of women in the world.
The Tensions between Process Time and Clock Time in Care-Work
Authors: Davies Karen
Published: March 2007

Implicit or explicit in work on care and caring has been the issue of time. Notwithstanding this fact, however, time itself has not been sufficiently problematized. In the first part of this paper, the concept of process time is introduced and its relevance for an understanding of care-work is suggested. Drawing on data from a qualitative study of day nurseries in Sweden, the second part of the paper explores various tensions and conflicts that (can) arise in this type of care-work due to the intermeshing of clock/linear time and process time. The implications, in relation to present day economic cuts, are also briefly discussed.
Time to be Lazy
Authors: Darier Éric
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the time dimensions - and more specifically busyness and speed - which are at the centre of the triangular relationship between work, the environment and modern subjectivities. It shows how the introduction of clock-time in the workplace constituted the modern individual as a `busy self'. It is also argued that current concerns for the environment are still constituted mainly within the boundaries of the busy self. It is suggested that reducing human activities - i.e. `laziness' - could be a relevant alternative to the entrapments of modernity. For this purpose, the reader will be offered a reinterpretation of Paul Lafargue's 1883 pamphlet, The Right to Be Lazy, in which he advocates a 3-hour working day. The relevance of Lafargue's arguments is examined in relation to the contemporary context.
Timeless Cultures
Authors: Perkins Maureen
Published: March 2007

In Australia, dominant representations of indigenous culture portray it as attuned to a temporal awareness quite other than that practised by mainstream society. In the 19th century this supposed temporal `otherness' was often understood to be a timelessness, a total unawareness of time. This article suggests that, irrespective of any correspondence with actual indigenous beliefs, the construction of temporal difference was part of the 18th- and 19th-centuries colonial enterprise, and bore the marks of contemporary middle-class preoccupations. These preoccupations also shaped the reform of popular culture within England itself. An examination of attitudes to plebeian temporalities in England problematizes a purely transparent relationship between colonial terminology and indigenous culture. Use of the term `Dreamtime', for example, belongs to a long history of discussion about the nature of dreaming and its relationship to prophecy. Drawing connections between the marginalization of English popular belief and of Aboriginal culture lends support to recent analysis of the history of the word `Dreamtime' that has stressed its hegemonic role within a dominant language.
Changing Maps: Empirical Legal Autopoiesis
Authors: Paterson John , Teubner Gunther
Published: March 2007

Superficially at odds with the idea of empirical research, autopoiesis is shown on closer study to demand a fundamental reconsideration of the empirico-theoretical relationship. This idea is developed firstly in the context of a possible methodology and secondly in the application of that methodology to a particular regulatory situ ation. The aim is to arrive at a more adequately complex understanding of the regu latory process - as well as of the process of legal sociological research itself.
Governed By Law?
Authors: Rose Nikolas , Valverde Mariana
Published: March 2007

Another consequence of this development of bio-power was the growing importance assumed by the action of the norm at the expense of the juridical system of the law... I do not mean to say that the law fades into the back ground or that the institutions of justice tend to disappear, but rather that the law operates more and more as a norm, and that the judicial institution is increasingly incorporated into a continuum of apparatuses (medical, adminis trative, and so on) whose functions are for the most part regulatory. A nor malizing society is the historical outcome of a technology of power centred on life. (Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Vol. 1, 1979: 144)
The Role of the Region for Innovation Activities of SMEs
Authors: Tödtling Franz , Kaufmann Alexander
Published: March 2007

SMEs innovate in a different way to larger firms. They command fewer resources, have less R&D, and they generally face more uncertainties and barriers to innovation. These weaknesses could partly be overcome by their integration into networks and innovation systems. Due to the fact that interactions of SMEs are often informal and trust based, the region should be an important interaction and support-space for the innovation activities of SMEs. According to the empirical findings of a European TSER project (SMEPOL) this was not fully confirmed: SMEs are less often engaged in innovation networks than larger firms and if they have innovation partnerships they are primarily concentrated on business partners. Because relations to science and technology transfer are rare, SMEs make only limited use of the full potential of their respective regional innovation systems.
The Changing Spatial Distribution of Services in Warsaw
Authors: Lisowski Andrzej , Wilk Waldemar
Published: March 2007

Spatial deconcentration and concentration in metropolitan areas accompany the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial phase. This study considers changes in the spatial distribution of selected service activities in Warsaw in the period 1986-99.The services considered include business consulting, real estate agencies, beauty parlours, and car repair shops. The results indicate that the essential spatial patterns of these activities were similar in the 1980s and 1990s, although there was marked decentralization of services in the latter period.
The Role of Local Institutions as Intermediary Agents in the Industrial District
Authors: Molina-Morales F. Xavier , López-Navarro M. Ángel , Guia-Julve Jaume
Published: March 2007

This paper proposes a theoretical integration of both social capital and territorial perspectives for the study of industrial districts and their implications for individual firms. As a result of this integration, an industrial district can be identified as a network of dense and strong ties. According to this description, industrial districts benefit from fine-grained and tacit knowledge exchanges and from norms and values promoting cooperative strategies. Consequently, these characteristics benefit individual firms for the exploitation of existent technologies and opportunities. However, using the same logic, these characteristics might not be suitable for exploring new technologies and opportunities. Nevertheless, we suggest that proximity facilitates the creation of third-party relationships, such as those between firms and regional institutions or other regional intermediaries. These institutions provide individual firms in the district with indirect links to sources of knowledge from outside the district, as well as from within it, thus benefiting firms from structural holes that are not available to other individual firms that do not operate in the district. In order to give support to our theoretical argument we examine the Spanish ceramic tile industrial district and focus on the role played by the Institute of Ceramic Technology as an illustrative case.
Constructing Capitalism?
Authors: Smith Adrian
Published: March 2007

This article examines the process of SME development and regional development in the context of Slovakia. It argues that SME development is not resulting in capitalist development which mirrors that of the industrial district model. The argument is developed through considering the concrete experience of SME development and institutional innovation in two regions in central Slovakia, partly drawing upon the results of a survey of SMEs in the manufacturing sector. I argue that there has only been a limited development of SMEs and that they retain a marginal role in regional economic restructuring even though significant resources have been devoted to the construction of local industrial districts. I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of localized competition (rather than cooperation) between small firms, between small and large locally dominant companies, and between small productive capital and finance capital. This experience suggests that we need to reconsider the suitability of 'western' development discourses in the context of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe.
A Place in the Sun
Authors: Williams Allan M. , King Russell , Warnes Tony
Published: March 2007

International retirement migration (IRM) is a significant feature of the changing map of Europe. It has important implications in terms of the redistribution of both health care and social costs, and incomes and wealth. This article considers four aspects of IRM. The first considers the limited literature on this under-researched topic and identifies the distinctiveness of both its international and European features. The second reviews the existing statistical data for north-south IRM in Europe, particularly from the UK to Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain; it establishes both the scale and the geography of these migrations. In the third section we investigate some of the major influences on both the volume and the spatial pattern of IRM. Finally, in the fourth section, a brief review is presented of the economic, social and cultural implications of IRM for both the emigrants and their host communities.
Proximity in Production Networks
Authors: Burmeister Antje , Colletis-Wahl Kristian
Published: March 2007

In a context of decreasing transport costs, quasiubiquity of quality infrastructure and the increasing importance of non-material flows, transport infra-structure appears to be less important as a location factor for industry. However, the globalization of markets and the restructuring of production systems lead to an increased role for transportation in industrial strategies. The traditional framework dealing with transportation mainly as a cost thus becomes less relevant for understanding the spatial dynamics of industry.

The framework developed in this article divides production into transformation and circulation activities. Interactions between the transformation process and its environment of resources, suppliers, customers and other producers form a system of circulation of goods, information and knowledge. Transportation thus becomes a particular set of techniques of interaction in the space-time grid.

The spatial dimension is introduced, not through the idea of mere spatial propinquity as a determinant of production networks, but through the concept of organizational proximity and its spatial and circulatory dimensions. The circulatory dimension of proximity describes rapid, reliable and well adapted circulation of goods and information as well as the efficient mobilization of external resources, especially of non-traded, specific resources. This dimension of proximity thus includes more than geographical accessibility. Its determinants are as much the infrastructure as a generic resource for circulation as the organization and the degree of control of flows of goods, information and people.
Urban Regimes in a Europe of the Cities?
Authors: Harding Alan
Published: March 2007

This article uses concepts from the globalization debate and American urban political-economy literature to establish a framework within which the 'new' urban politics of production in Europe can be examined cross-nationally. Drawing upon research which applied this framework in five major European cities, it argues that (a) the urban politics of production has recently become more important cross-nationally and (b) there have been decisive, and relatively similar, changes in the motivations and actions of three major partners in urban development-central and local governments and local business communities. It suggests these changes, although significant, are unlikely to presage a 'Europe of the cities' in which citystates will reassume dominant roles in social and economic regulation.
Berlin’s Regional Economy in the 1990S
Authors: Krätke Stefan
Published: March 2007

Berlin’s reinstatement as the capital of Germany has raised great expectations of its transformation into a major European metropolis. Some people even claim that Berlin is moving in the direction of becoming a ‘global city’. A more common interpretation of the structural changes in Berlin’s economy sees the current developments in the regional economy as a process of structural adjustment with the West German metropolitan regions, assuming that Berlin is in transition to catch up with the economic centres of the poly-central German regional system. This position is highly questionable, since first it ignores the overall trend towards a polarization between urban regions in terms of their economic performance, their different sectoral specialization profiles and innovative capacity; and second it is based on a highly simplified concept of the metropolitan regions’ economic structure, the concept of a ‘service metropolis’. The purpose of this article is to undertake a critical appraisal of the vision of Berlin as a service metropolis through empirical observation of sectoral trends and specialization profiles in four metropolitan regions of Germany. The comparative analysis of Berlin and major metropolitan regions in Germany comes to the conclusion that the notion of a common development path of metropolitan regions’ economies is misleading. In contrast to the structural adjustment thesis, the development of Berlin in the 1990s might be better characterized as an ‘open-ended’ structural break.
Privilege, Privation and Proximity: "Eternal Triangle" for Development?
Authors: Carr Stuart C.
Published: March 2007

International and domestic aid is conceptualised as a series ofinterlocking behavioural systems, from the dynamics of raising funds on the one hand to acquitting them on the other. Within each system, development assistance brings donor and recipient communities into close psychological proximity with each other's relative deprivation and privilege. Fund-raising advertisements bring deprivation directly into the donor public's homes, whilst Technical Assistance (TA) juxtaposes the expatriate's salary with that of the needy community (s)he has come to serve. According to much social psychology, the ensuing privilege, privation and proximity will foster both (a) victim blaming by potential donors and (b) withdrawal by potential hosts. Such psychosocial barriers to community development are becoming more salient with globalisation, and it is time for us to contribute towards their management.