bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Contribution of Handsearching European General Health Care Journals to the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register
Authors: McDonald Steve , Lefebvre Carol , Antes Gerd , Galandi Daniel , Gøtzsche Peter , Hammarquist Cecilia , Haugh Margaret , Jensen Kirsten Lone , Kleijnen Jos , Loep Marjan , Pistotti Vanna , Rüther Alric
Published: July 2003

A fundamental aim of any systematic review is that all relevant studies should be identified and considered for inclusion. Limitations with searching bibliographic databases led the Cochrane Collaboration to search journals by hand for reports of trials. This article presents the results of a 3-year project to identify and make accessible reports of randomized trials published in European general health care journals. Overall, 21,620 reports of controlled trials were identified from119 journals from16 countries. More than three quarters (76%) were published in U.K. or German journals. Only 3,640 (17%) reports were indexed in MEDLINE as controlled trials, and 6,554 (30%) were not indexed in MEDLINE at all. Bibliographic details for all reports are available by searching The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register in The Cochrane Library. This project has ensured that a large proportion of trial reports not previously identifiable has been made accessible to those preparing systematic reviews.
A Comparison of the Quality of Cochrane Reviews and Systematic Reviews Published in Paper-Based Journals
Authors: Shea Beverley , Moher David , Graham Ian , Pham Ba , Tugwell Peter
Published: July 2003

This study set out to compare Cochrane reviews and reviews published in paper-based journals. Two assessment tools were used to collect the data, a 23-itemchecklist developed by Sacks and a nine-itemscale developed by Oxman. Cochrane reviews were found to be better at reporting some items and paper-based reviews at reporting others. The overall quality was found to be low. This represents a serious situation because clinicians, health policy makers, and consumers are often told that systematic reviews represent “the best available evidence.” In the period since this study, the Cochrane Collaboration has taken steps to improve the quality of its reviews through, for example, more thorough prepublication refereeing, developments in the training and support offered to reviewers, and improvements in the system for postpublication peer review. In addition, the use of evidence-based criteria (i.e., the QUOROM statement) for reporting systematic reviews may help further to improve their quality.
Egg on their Faces
Authors: Roberts Ian , Bunn Frances
Published: July 2003

In 1998, the Cochrane Injuries Group published the results of a systematic review of human albumin administration in critically ill patients. The results showed that the risk of death in patients receiving albumin was 14%, and the risk of death in patients not receiving albumin was 8%, suggesting that for every 17 critically ill patients treated with albumin there is one extra death. The results were widely reported in the television and print media throughout the world and stimulated an immediate response from the drug regulatory agencies, the plasma products industry, and the medical profession. Despite vigorous attempts by the plasma products industry to limit the effect of the systematic review on albumin sales, the use of albumin declined steeply, showing that evidence fromsystem atic reviews can have an important effect on clinical care.
Making It Happen: Approaches to Involving Consumers in Cochrane Reviews
Authors: Ghersi Davina
Published: July 2003

The core work of the Cochrane Collaboration is the conduct of systematic reviews dealing with important health care questions. It is the policy of the Collaboration to involve consumers in all stages of the review process: from refining and prioritization of research questions through protocol design, to review conduct and ultimately dissemination of results. It has been difficult to achieve consumer involvement across all parts of the Cochrane Collaboration. Different approaches have been tried and different levels of success have been achieved. This article discusses consumer involvement in the Cochrane review process in relation to the 10 key principles that guide the work of the Cochrane Collaboration: collaboration, building on the enthusiasm of individuals, avoiding duplication, minimizing bias, keeping up to date, striving for relevance, promoting access, ensuring quality, continuity, and enabling wide participation.
Involving People with Severe Mental Illness in Evaluation and Performance Improvement
Authors: Linhorst Donald M. , Eckert Anne
Published: July 2003

This article argues for the increased involvement of people with severe mental illness and consumers of other health and mental health services in evaluation and performance improvement in the organizations from which they receive services. Among other reasons, consumers can bring a different perspective to the selection of areas to evaluate, such involvement is consistent with some models of program evaluation, and the process of participation itself can be empowering to consumers. Based on a review of the literature and the experiences of a public psychiatric hospital in involving consumers in evaluation and performance improvement, the authors exemplify how mental health consumers can participate in each stage of the evaluation process, ranging from the initial stage of posing evaluation questions to the final stage of acting on evaluation findings. Next, challenges to consumer involvement are described. Guidelines are then offered for involving consumers of health and mental health services in evaluation and performance improvement.
Impact of HIV/AIDS Education on Health Care Provider Practice: Results from Nine Grantees of the Special Projects of National Significance Program
Authors: Lalonde Bernadette , Uldall Karina K. , Huba G. J. , Panter A. T. , Zalumas Jacqueline , Wolfe Leslie R. , Rohweder Catherine , Colgrove James , Henderson Harold , German Victor F. , Taylor Deane , Anderson Donna , Melchior Lisa A.
Published: July 2003

The study assessed the impact of health care provider HIV/AIDS education and training on patient care from nine Special Projects of National Significance. Telephone interviews were conducted with 218 health care providers within 8 months, on average, following completion of training. Respondents provided examples of how the SPNS trainings affected their provision of patient/client care. Transcribed comments reflecting change in patient/client care were classified by independent coders under 1 of 10 broad practice change categories. Eighty-two percent of the trainees identified at least one instance of change in patient/client care as a function of their training experience. Self-reported findings included changes in the number/types of patients seen, interpersonal interactions with patients/clients, HIV testing and counseling practices, patient/family education, infection control, advocacy, referrals and collaboration, documentation, and other service changes.
How the Doctor’s Words Affect the Patient’s Brain
Authors: Benedetti Fabrizio
Published: July 2003

Clinicians have long known that context is important in any medical treatment and that the words and attitudes of doctors and nurses can have great impact on the patient. There is now experimental evidence indicating that the medical context influences specific neural systems. The importance of the context is shown by the lesser effectiveness of hidden administrations of analgesics compared with open ones. Because the placebo effect is a context effect, its study has been useful in clarifying this complex issue. There are now several lines of evidence that placebo analgesia is mediated by endogenous opioids and placebo motor improvement by endogenous dopamine. Moreover, a placebo treatment is capable of affecting many brain regions in depressed patients. All these studies, taken together, lead to a neurobiological under-standing of the events occurring in the brain during the interaction between the therapist and his or her patient.
A Signal Detection Theory Analysis of the Placebo Effect
Authors: Allan Lorraine G. , Siegel Shepard
Published: July 2003

Some instances of the placebo effect may be understood as a particular type of error made by the patient—a false positive error. False positive errors are common (indeed, frequently encouraged) in medical decision making, both by diagnosticians and by patients, and are the inevitable consequence of concluding that an ambiguous signal (e.g., attenuation of pain, relief of depression) did, or did not, occur. Signal detection theory (SDT) was developed to model errors in the detection of ambiguous signals. The authors use SDT to understand the false positive errors that might be made by patients administered a placebo and termed a placebo effect.
Evaluating How Placebos Produce Change
Authors: Caspi Opher , Bootzin Richard R.
Published: July 2003

The renewed interest in placebo effects from psychological and methodological angles is manifested in two complementary facets: the causal relationship between placebo effects inside and outside of clinical trials and the continual effort to understand how the under-lying mechanisms relate to notions of efficacy and effectiveness. The article challenges the premise that placebo effects can be measured precisely enough that variance attributed to “nonspecific” placebo effects can be hierarchically partitioned from variance attributed to other “more specific” elements of therapy and discusses some of the most important recent developments in the understanding of how placebos produce change through cognitive explanatory mechanisms, including efficacy, outcome, and response expectancies; reverse placebo effects; schemas; and biased-information processing. Although much is already known about the complexity of explanatory mechanisms in placebo and expectancy effects, there is still much to do before establishing causal relationships and developing valid treatments based on this knowledge.
Outcomes Research and the Quality of Health Care:
Authors: Miké Valerie
Published: July 2003

Beyond the dazzling achievements of high-technology medicine, the spiraling cost of health care and lack of access for many have long been the subject of national debate. Driven by the interaction of powerful economic forces, managed care is now taking over the health care system, while there is growing popular interest in alternative medicine. But amid the changing structures and financial incentives, much uncertainty still remains concerning the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions. The author, a mathematical scientist engaged in medical research and education for more than 30 years, has proposed the “ethics of evidence” as an approach to medical uncertainty, to be adopted as a vital component of biomedical ethics. The ethics of evidence comprises two imperatives. The first imperative calls for the creation, dissemination, and use of the best possible scientific evidence as a basis for every phase of medical decision making. Complementing it, the second imperative focuses on the need to increase awareness of, and come to terms with, the extent and ultimately irreducible nature of uncertainty. After a brief sketch of the genesis of this concept, the ethics of evidence is further explored here in the context of current outcomes research, the focus on quality of health care, and related problems of contemporary medicine.
The Ethical Use of Evidence in Biomedicine
Authors: Pellegrino Edmund D.
Published: July 2003

Valerie Miké‘s proposal of an “ethics of evidence” is an interesting, important venture into a little explored field. Miké‘s two rules (use the best possible knowledge and acknowledge uncertainty) have been implicit but need to become explicit in a world where information and knowledge have enormous power—especially in medical practice and research, where evidence is essential to clinical decisions, policy formulation, and dissemination of results. A fully developed ethics of evidence would depend on a still underdeveloped theory of evidence, that is, on some conception of the nature of evidence, the logic of its use, and the epistemology of discovery and explanation. Until such a groundwork is developed, practical guidelines are deducible in the ethics of data collection and dissemination. This article examines those ethics, suggesting criteria for the morally responsible treatment of evidence collection, dissemination, and use.
Faculty Ratings as Part of a Competency-Based Evaluation Clinic Grading System
Authors: Chambers David W.
Published: July 2003

The traditional system for determining grades in dental school clinic courses has been counts of productivity and daily marks for degree of technical excellence. One dental school with a competency-based educational model has redesigned its evaluation system to include assessment of understanding as well as performance of procedures, diagnosis and judgment, and patient management. Competency tests were instituted in all disciplines to replace the required volume of work. A quarterly rating system was developed to replace daily grading. Results from one of the first administrations of the ratings are presented. They show excellent face validity and rater consistency in some cases. Gradients of generalizability are reported, demonstrating that the ratings satisfy the school’s standard for grade defensibility.
Prevalence and Predictors of the Use of Self-Care Resources Grading System
Authors: Hibbard Judith H. , Greenlick Merwyn , Jimison Holly , Kunkel Lynn , Tusler Martin
Published: July 2003

Health care reform goals are to reduce costs and increase access while maintaining quality of care. A potentially effective avenue for achieving these difficult goals is to activate the untapped potential of consumers in managing their own health care. This study focuses on three Northwest communities and examines the prevalence of the use of self-care resources and the correlates of use. A random sample of households was surveyed using a mail-out questionnaire. The findings indicated that the use of self-care resources was high in the three community populations. Consulting a self-care book was the most commonly used resource, followed by telephone advice nurses. Communities do vary in their level of self-care resource use. Understanding this variability may help communities to expand the use of such resources and lessen the demand for formal health care services. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.
Development of an Attitudes toward Health Care Teams Scale
Authors: Heinemann Gloria D. , Schmitt Madeline H. , Farrell Michael P. , Brallier Sara A.
Published: July 2003

The authors describe the development and psychometric testing across three study phases of an Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale. The measure contains two subscales: Quality of Care/Process (14 items) and Physician Centrality (6 items). The Quality of Care/Process subscale measures team members’ perceptions of the quality of care delivered by health care teams and the quality of teamwork to accomplish this. The Physician Centrality subscale measures team members’attitudes toward physicians’authority in teams and their control over information about patients. Tests of reliability and validity demonstrate that each subscale is a strong measure of its respective underlying concept. The measure has potential for use as a research tool and as a pre-and posttest tool for educational interventions with teams and for evaluating clinically based team training programs for medical and health professions students and residents.
Perceptions of Medical School Seniors of the Current Changes in the U.S. Health Care System
Authors: Hojat Mohammadreza , Veloski J. Jon , Louis Daniel Z. , Xu Gang , Ibarra David , Gottlieb Jonathan E. , Erdmann James B.
Published: July 2003

Perceptions of medical school seniors about changes occurring in the health care environment were investigated. A survey was completed by 196 Jefferson Medical College seniors in the class of 1997. Of the respondents, 79% believed that cost reduction rather than quality of care is the primary consideration behind recent changes, 78% felt that managed care organizations hamper physicians’ abilities to render optimal care, 83% maintained that the control of health care by insurance companies would lead to lower quality of care, 69% agreed that patients should have the freedom to seek a specialist’s care without being referred by a primary care physician, 82% recommended that mentally ill patients should be referred to a mental health professional, and 82% believed that learning to work in a managed care environment should be an essential component of medical education. Assessment of student perceptions can assist in the development and implementation of appropriate curricular changes.
A Cost-Effective Method to Characterize Variation in Clinical Practice
Authors: Chang Kenneth , Sauereisen Sandra , Dlutowski Mark , Veloski J. Jon , Nash David B.
Published: July 2003

This study’s objective was to measure variation in physicians’ practice styles and policies. Family physicians and general internists were surveyed about evidence-based medicine in the areas of asthma, congestive heart failure, and diabetes mellitus. They were asked about clinical recommendations where standards of practice were uncertain, controversial, or changing in response to published guidelines. Also included were items dealing with managed care. Although there was wide variation in responses to 20 of 36 items, some responses were consistent with practice guidelines. Responses to several items indicated a tendency to overuse expensive tests. Overall, the results indicate that a brief, open-ended survey can assess practice variation quickly and economically, as contrasted with more expensive analyses of medical records or claims data. With proper validation such assessments can be used as baselines to guide interventions, as well as measures of the outcomes of these interventions to change practice styles.
The Impact of the Location and Structure of an Ambulatory Rotation on Cognitive Knowledge and Performance
Authors: Solomon David J. , Rosebraugh Curtis J. , Speer Alice J. , Holden Mark D. , Szauter Karen M.
Published: July 2003

With the increasing shift to community-based ambulatory education, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the impact of these changes. To assess the impact of the location and structure of an ambulatory internal medicine clerkship rotation on cognitive knowledge and clinical performance, students were assigned to one of the following: (a) a multi-disciplinary ambulatory clerkship (MAC), (b) the office of a community-based general internist, or (c) a university-based internal medicine ambulatory clinic. The groups were compared on the internal medicine clerkship examination and preceptor ratings controlling for introduction to clinical medicine course performance via analysis of covariance. MAC students were rated lower than the other two groups by their preceptors. There were no other statistically significant differences. The structure and location of the rotation had little impact on cognitive knowledge. The impact of the structure of the rotation on clinical performance is less clear suggesting that further research is needed.
Psychometric Properties of an Attitude Scale Measuring Physician-Nurse Collaboration
Authors: Hojat Mohammadreza , Fields Sylvia K. , Veloski J. Jon , Griffiths Margaret , Cohen Mitchell J. M. , Plumb James D.
Published: July 2003

This study examined the psychometric properties of an assessment tool for measuring attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration. A survey addressing areas of responsibility, expectations, shared learning, decision making, authority, and autonomy was administered to first-year medical and nursing students. Factor analysis of the survey indicated that the survey measured four underlying constructs of shared education and collaborative relationships, caring as opposed to curing, nurse’s autonomy, and physician’s authority. A scale was developed in which 15 items of the survey with large factor loadings were included. The alpha reliability estimates of the scale for medical and nursing students were .84 and .85, respectively. The mean of the scale was significantly higher for nursing than medical students. Results supported the construct validity and reliability of the scale. This scale can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs developed to foster physician-nurse collaboration, and to study group differences on attitudes toward interpersonal collaboration.
A Method for Measuring Interrater Agreement on Checklists
Authors: Sinacore James M. , Connell Karen J. , Olthoff Allan J. , Friedman Michael H. , Gecht Maureen R.
Published: July 2003

A method for measuring interrater agreement on checklists is presented. This technique does not assign individual scores to raters, but computes a single agreement score from the concordance of their check mark configurations. An overall coefficient of agreement, called phi, is derived. The agreement coefficient that is expected by chance and the statistical significance of phi are determined by statistical simulation. Despite the dichotomous nature of the checklist agreement (raters either agree or disagree on items), we show that the binomial distribution does not provide a means for testing the statistical significance of phi. A medical education study is used to illustrate the phi methodology.
Comparing Three Preprocessing Strategies for Longitudinal Data
Authors: Yarnold Paul R. , Feinglass Joe , McCarthy Walter J. , Martin Gary J.
Published: July 2003

Longitudinal monitoring of individual patient data is becoming routine in physician office practice. This study compares three different methods for evaluating clinical outcomes for individual patients: raw change score analysis versus normative and ipsative statistical analyses. Two discrete samples of intermittent claudication patients making vascular surgery office visits—drawn from interventional management versus stable, routinely followed control groups—were tested four times using both generic and disease-specific functional status measures. Results indicated that the ipsative method was most consistent with several different types of a priori hypotheses that are often evaluated in analysis of repeated measures data.
Defining the Utility of Clinically Acceptable Variations in Evidence-based Practice Guidelines for Evaluation of Quality Improvement Activities
Authors: Lescoe-Long Mary , Long Michael J.
Published: July 2003

This study examines the utility of systematically accounting for acceptable physician variations in guideline application. The results argue against assuming that even seemingly noncontentious guideline protocol offer a threshold of variation similar to conventional Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) assessment standards. Findings also suggest that health service organizations can derive greater benefits from expending the resources necessary to standardize guidelines if compliance with both the medical review criteria, and the guidelines as originally constructed, is monitored as part of the evaluation activity.
The Use of Conjoint Analysis to Study Patient Satisfaction
Authors: Markham Fred W. , Diamond James J. , Hermansen Christian L.
Published: July 2003

Previous research has identified aspects of the outpatient interactions between patients and physicians that are important for patient satisfaction. In this study, conjoint analysis was used to determine the relative importance of these factors to patients. This study found the perceived skill of the physician to be the most important factor and waiting time in the office the least important. The use of conjoint analysis should help both patients and physicians to maximize patient satisfaction while minimizing costs as much as possible.
Systems Change Resulting from HIV/AIDS Education and Training
Authors: Henderson Harold , German Victor F. , Panter A. T. , Huba G. J. , Rohweder Catherine , Zalumas Jacqueline , Wolfe Leslie , Uldall Karina K. , Lalonde Bernadette , Henderson Ron , Driscoll Mary , Martin Sara , Duggan Sandra , Rahimian Afsaneh , Melchior Lisa A.
Published: July 2003

An evaluation of nine diverse HIV/AIDS training programs assessed the degree to which the programs produced changes in the ways that health care systems deliver HIV/AIDS care. Participants were interviewed an average of 8 months following completion of training and asked for specific examples of a resulting change in their health care system. More than half of the trainees gave at least one example of a systems change. The examples included the way patient referrals are made, the manner in which agency collaborations are organized, and the way care is delivered.
Physician Participation in Research Surveys
Authors: Donaldson Gary W. , Moinpour Carol M. , Bush Nigel E. , Chapko Michael , Jocom Jane , Siadak Muriel , Nielsen-Stoeck Michelle , Bradshaw Jeffrey M. , Bichindaritz Isabelle , Sullivan Keith M.
Published: July 2003

The authors randomly selected 400 physicians from a population of 1,545 practicing physicians providing follow-up care to patients who received bone marrow or blood stem cell transplants at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to determine interest in receiving Internet-based transplant information. In a two-factor completely randomized factorial design, the 400 physicians were assigned to receive mailed surveys with either no compensation or a $5 check and either no follow-up call or a follow-up call 3 weeks after mailing. Overall, 51.5% of the physicians returned the mailed surveys. Comparison of logit models showed that inclusion of a $5 check in the mailer significantly (p = .016) increased the probability of returning the surveys (57.5% vs. 45.5%). In contrast, the telephone follow-up had no overall effect. The authors concluded a modest financial reward can significantly improve physician response rates to research surveys but a telephone follow-up may be inefficient and even ineffective.
Increasing Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination and Tuberculosis Screening among Residents of Colorado Long-Term Care Facilities
Authors: Schluter W. William , Ralston Debra L. , Delaney Richard J. , Sauaia Angela , Dunn Thomas R.
Published: July 2003

Persons residing in long-term care facilities are especially vulnerable to potentially preventable morbidity and mortality caused by influenza, S. pneumoniae, and tuberculosis. This project’s objective was to increase the rates of pneumococcal vaccination, tuberculosis screening, and annual influenza vaccination. Intervention consisted of staff training videos, sample policies, and educational materials for residents and their families. At baseline during the 1995-1996 flu season, 84% of Colorado long-term care residents were vaccinated for influenza; 16% of residents had ever received pneumococcal vaccination; and 59% had been screened for tuberculosis. At remeasurement during 1997 to 1998, influenza vaccination rates were up to 89%, p = 0.006. The percentage of residents who had ever received pneumococcal vaccination increased to 48% at remeasurement, p < 0.001. Tuberculosis screening rates increased to 83%, p < 0.001. Following an educational intervention targeting both residents and staff, residents were significantly more likely to receive all three preventive services.
Evaluating the Performance of Academic Medical Education Administrators
Authors: Guyatt Gordon , Cook Deborah , King Derek , Nishikawa James , Brill-Edwards Patrick
Published: July 2003

Educators have devoted little attention to formal evaluation of educational administrative personnel. The authors surveyed the educational administrators working in McMaster University’s Department of Medicine residency program and found they felt they were receiving little useful feedback. The authors also surveyed the colleagues, residents, and administrative staff with whom the administrators worked and found they felt they had inadequate input into the administrators’ evaluation. In response to these results, a measurement instrument was developed based on existing job descriptions and feedback was obtained on administrators’ performance from relevant individuals. After three yearly evaluations, administrators and evaluators acknowledged much broader input into evaluation but saw little evaluation related improvement in performance. Of the administrators, 85% felt the process should continue as did 91% of the evaluators. An evaluation process may not alter perceived performance when it is already good but there may be other benefits to rigorous evaluation.
Signs of the Holocaust: exhibiting memory in a mediated age
Authors: Hoskins Andrew
Published: July 2003

In our globally mediated age our relationship with the past is increasingly interpreted through the lens of our presentist media. Conventional means of representing and remembering historical events have to some extent been superseded, with technological advances permitting increasingly electronically mediated viewpoints. Indeed, new generations, fed on a diet of instantaneous information, possess new expectations of how the past should be viewed. This creates a problem for historians keen to retain a purist perspective on events, and, especially in respect of the Holocaust, the contemporary representation of which is the subject of much critical discourse and debate. This article examines one site of contemporary Holocaust representation: the Holocaust Exhibition housed at the Imperial War Museum, London. I consider whether the designers’ objectives in seeking an ‘authentic’ sampling of objects of this event - providing real ‘signs’ of the Holocaust - is adequate to the expectations of visitors of a post-Holocaust generation. This involves exploring how the exhibition positions ‘history’ and ‘memory’, with the latter viewed as problematic in relation to an event constructed historically as both unique and incomparable.
The abject artefacts of memory: photographs from Cambodia’s genocide
Authors: Hughes Rachel
Published: July 2003

This article examines the politics of representation around a 1997 exhibition of Cambodian atrocity photographs that were produced by Khmer Rouge perpetrators during the period 1975-9. I discuss the role of the Tuol Sleng archive in Cambodia, and the work of a private group in the preservation and publication of the prisoner portrait photographs. It is argued that responses of visitors and curators to the photographs, displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, provide significant insights into a contemporary propensity to memorialize, rather than specify and politicize, the past violence of ‘peripheral’ states and peoples.
Freedom and recognition in Hegel and Habermas
Authors: Baynes Kenneth
Published: July 2003

Contrary to some popular interpretations, I argue that Hegel and Habermas share many basic assumptions in their respective accounts of freedom. In particular, both respond to weaknesses in Kant’s idea of freedom as acting from (certain kinds of) reasons by explicating this idea with reference to specific social practices or ‘forms of recognition’ that in turn express suppositions and expectations that actors adopt with respect to one another. I illustrate this common strategy in each and suggest that it may offer an alternative to Rawls’s ‘political’ account of public reason.
Evolving negativity
Authors: Belmonte Nina
Published: July 2003

Despite accusations of irresponsibility and negativity, Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction has had an immense influence on contemporary social, political and cultural critique. ‘Evolving negativity’ offers a preliminary explanation of this influence by tracing the philosophical ‘family tree’ that links deconstruction to German Critical Theory via the Frankfurt School. The paper explores the origins of a certain dynamic and productive notion of negativity in Hegel’s dialectic and describes its ‘evolution’ in the works of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno as a process of de-determination that finds its culmination in Derrida’s notion of ‘différance’. Set free of its totalizing, teleological force, Derrida’s negativity as ‘différance’ is compared with Hegel’s more general and generative notion of Negativität. The paper concludes that for this branch of ‘critical’ thinking, to flourish in the shadow of Hegel means also to be continually reinventing his respect for difference and negativity, and transforming it to respond to the questions of the present.
Kant’s culture of humiliation
Authors: Saurette Paul
Published: July 2003

This article seeks both to challenge common understandings of Kant’s moral project and to use that reading to reconceptualize the aims of political theory. The paper argues that while Kant’s moral work is widely praised or criticized for its formalism and its defense of the autonomous subject, an interpretation that takes seriously Kant’s remarks about humiliation in the Critique of Practical Reason challenges both these commonplaces. An examination both of the practical role that humiliation plays in Kant’s moral system and of the affective and historical traces it relies upon shows that Kant’s moral project understands the importance of ethical cultivation and is thus far more political than is often appreciated. The article therefore concludes by suggesting that this rereading of Kant should encourage us to critically examine certain modes of political theorization and adopt a more overtly political stance towards the construction of moral projects in political theory and philosophy alike.
Race as a human kind
Authors: Sundstrom Ronald R.
Published: July 2003

In this article I present a positive ontology of ‘race’. Toward this end, I discuss metaphysical pluralism and review the theories of Ian Hacking, John Dupre and Root. Working within Root’s framework, I describe the conditions under which a constructed kind like ‘race’ would be real. I contend these conditions are currently satisfied in the United States. Given the social presence and impact of ‘race’ and the unique way ‘race’ operates at differing sites, I will argue that it is site-specific, it is socially constructed, and it is real.
Realism, projectivism and response-dependence
Authors: Norris Christopher
Published: July 2003

This essay offers a critical appraisal of some claims recently advanced by Crispin Wright and others in support of a response-dispositional (RD) approach to issues in epistemology, ethics, political theory, and philosophy of the social sciences. These claims take a lead from Plato’s discussion of the status of moral value-judgements in the Euthyphro and from Locke’s account of ‘secondary qualities’ such as colour, texture and taste. The idea is that a suitably specified description of best opinion (or optimal response) for some given area of discourse will provide all that is needed in the way of objectivity while avoiding the problems raised by anti-realists like Michael Dummett with respect to the existence of truth-values that transcend our utmost powers of recognition or verification. I focus on three main areas - mathematics, morals and constitutional law - and argue that an RD approach falls short in certain crucial respects. That is to say, it works out either as a trivial (tautological) claim to the effect that ‘best judgement’ cannot - per definiens - diverge from truth under conditions of idealized epistemic warrant, or as an approach that leans strongly towards the anti-realist side of the argument. Thus the promised ‘third way’ - here as in other present-day contexts of debate - most often carries no substantive implications for our thinking about truth, moral virtue, or justice. Elsewhere, especially when applied to juridical matters, it lays chief stress on the truth-constitutive role of human judgements or responses, and hence the impossibility of appealing to standards of natural justice beyond some existing highest authority or source of constitutional warrant. This point is made with specific reference to recent events surrounding the ‘election’ (or leverage-into-office) of President George W. Bush. In such cases, I conclude, an RD approach would tend strongly to endorse the view that ‘best opinion’ - as enshrined, say, in the deliverance of US Supreme Court justices - is the furthest we can get towards an adequate assessment of the moral and political issues.
Art, truth and vocation
Authors: Zuidervaart Lambert
Published: July 2003

A central point of contention between Critical Theory and Heideggerian thinking concerns the question of truth. Whereas Martin Heidegger orients his conception of truth towards the ongoing disclosure of Being, Jürgen Habermas regards truth as one dimension of validity in ‘communicative action’. Unlike Habermas, who usually emphasizes validity at the expense of disclosure, Heidegger tends to emphasize disclosure at the expense of validity. The essay uses Heidegger’s ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ as its point of departure. While reclaiming elements from his account of artistic truth, I criticize his reactionary conception of art’s vocation, and I propose a notion of aesthetic validity that does justice to modern and contemporary art.
The descent of the doves
Authors: Sharpe Matthew
Published: July 2003

This essay is a critique of Derrida’s ethical works, using Camus’s last novella The Fall as a critical sounding board. It argues that a danger pertains to any such highly self-reflexive position as Derrida’s: a danger that Camus identified in The Fall, and staged in his character, Jean-Baptiste Clamence. Clamence is a successful Parisian lawyer, on top of his personal and professional life, whose equanimity is troubled after he is the unwitting passer-by as a young woman suicides one night on the Seine. After this time, he comes to consider all his former virtues as concealed vices. He also becomes acutely aware of what he terms the ‘duplicity’ of human beings as such. In Part I, I consider how Clamence’s fall from innocence can be read ‘with’ Derrida’s deconstructive registration of a ‘double bind’ pertaining to our standing vis-à-vis what he terms ‘logocentrism’. I argue that Derrida’s is a post-lapsarian philosophy, which challenges all attempts to construct closed conceptual systems that would confer an epistemic and/or moral certitude upon their expositors. In Part II, I then enter into a more detailed exposition of Derrida’s ‘later’ works broaching friendship, the invitation, the gift, and other ‘matters moral’. I read these texts in the light of an examination of what is involved, for Camus, in being a ‘judge-penitent’ (what Clamence in The Fall calls his profession). I suggest that Derrida runs the risk of a certain ‘puritanism of difference’ in his moral reflections, which defend the aporetic formulation: ‘ tout autre est tout autre’ [every other is every bit other] ( The Gift of Death). The problem is that, while Derrida’s position allows one (everywhere) to say what one is against, it problematizes any affirmative moral stance. Like Clamence, who assumes the right to judge everyone else because he has subjected himself to a severe penitence, I suggest that we have a right to wonder whether Derrida’s deconstructive critique of metaphysics can validate only endless repetitions of itself.
The ‘disembodied self’ in political theory
Authors: Lindsay Peter
Published: July 2003

The communitarian critique of liberal agency is reminiscent of two earlier critiques: C. B. Macpherson’s theory of possessive individualism and Marx’s theory of alienation. As with the communitarian critique, Macpherson and Marx saw the liberal individual as being in some way ‘disembodied’. Where they differed from communitarians was in the attention they paid to the actual social relations that gave rise to such an image. The comparison is thus fruitful because the emphasis Macpherson and Marx give to the concrete circumstances of disempowerment highlights the overly abstract nature of the communitarian critique, demonstrating how it, and other similarly abstract normative theories, might maintain a focus on actual social relations.
‘By a hair’s breadth’
Authors: Horowitz Asher
Published: July 2003

The article stages the beginning of a virtual conversation between Levinas’s ‘ethics as first philosophy’ and Adorno’s negative dialectic. Part I frames the problem: for both thinkers the task of critique depends on some access to a ‘fixed point’ for transcendence (Levinas) or a ‘standpoint removed’ from the domain of existence (Adorno). Part II traces the deep, even essential, connection both perceive between knowledge and violence, a link which brings the possibility of critique even more stringently into question. A standpoint removed must be both less and more than knowledge. Part III sketches Adorno’s response to this dilemma in the tracing of a negative dialectic, a thinking that is ‘the morality of thought’, and one that turns traditional dialectics inside-out. Negative dialectic seems to meet Levinas’s ethical criteria for critique. Part IV outlines Levinas’s response: the fixed point for critique is in the proximity and sensibility of the ethical relation that lies behind all formal alterity and therefore behind all ontology and all cognition, whether pre-dialectical, dialectical, or post-dialectical. Yet the ethical relation cannot be said except in terms virtually dependent on negative dialectic. Part V examines a potential Levinasian criticism of Adorno and a potential Adornian criticism of Levinas. The fulfillment of the ambition of each would require him to adopt the standpoint of the other. And this may be possible in that thinking along with each demands that one think not only of multiple perspectives but with them.
Reversing Rawls
Authors: Baur Michael
Published: July 2003

In this paper, I offer an immanent critique of John Rawls’s theory of justice which seeks to show that Rawls’s understanding of his theory of justice as criteriological and contractarian is ultimately incompatible with his claim that the theory is grounded on the primacy of the practical. I agree with Michael Sandel’s observation that the Rawlsian theory of justice rests on substantive metaphysical and epistemological claims, in spite of Rawls’s assurances to the contrary. But while Sandel argues for even more substantive metaphysical and epistemological commitments, I argue in the opposite direction. Following J. G. Fichte, I argue for a normative theory of society, not based on some particular notion of the good or on some contentious account of what all reasonable persons would agree to, but based only on the radical primacy of the practical, that is, based only on the seemingly empty premise that free beings - precisely because they are free - cannot be imagined in advance as all agreeing to any particular thing at all.
The existential dimensions of Frederick Douglass’s autobiographical narrative
Authors: Yancy George
Published: July 2003

Frederick Douglass’s socio-political narrative is explored through an existential lens, arguing that Douglass is contesting the proposition that essence precedes existence. Douglass, through his fight with Covey, a white ‘slave breaker’, and his escape to freedom, affirms his existence (etymologically, ‘standing out’) as being for it-self ( pour-soi) over and against the reduction of his existence to that of being in-itself ( an-soi). Drawing from the work of Simone de Beauvoir, who was greatly influenced by the phenomenological and politico-praxic work of Black novelist Richard Wright, it is argued that Douglass disrupts the power/knowledge regime of white American slavery, exercising his existential capacity for transcendence. Examining whiteness as a species of what Beauvoir calls ‘the serious man’, it is argued that whites within Douglass’s text are in a state of flight, performing their whiteness as ‘the serious man’, that is, where whiteness is accepted as an unconditioned state of being. Douglass’s narrative depicts whiteness as a flight from freedom (bad faith); for his very act of protestation against whiteness demonstrates that whiteness is not an objective, hypostatized thing, but a performative choice that sustains white hegemony.
Wittgenstein, feminism and theory
Authors: Duran Jane
Published: July 2003

An attempt is made to try to delineate the common ground of feminist concerns and the work of Wittgenstein by alluding to several areas of theory - among them are the orality-literacy distinction, the notion of the universal, and the realm of particulars. I cite portions of both the Tractatus and the Investigations, and utilize the work of commentators such as Anscombe, Fogelin and Genova. The broader argument is that Wittgenstein’s turn away from a kind of logical atomism is a move that can readily be used for feminist purposes, but that it requires precise articulation and a clear setting-out of conditions.
Staging the non-event
Authors: Hengehold Laura
Published: July 2003

Since the fall of the former Soviet Union, and following geographical and technological changes in the global economy, theorists in Europe as well as the United States have lamented the confusion and emotional disengagement of many groups formerly identified with the left. This paper addresses the Kantian origins of the idea that ‘revolution’, however defined (or deferred), is the only plausible image for effective historical engagement capable of motivating spectators to action. Drawing on Foucault’s inquiries into conditions for the possibility of ‘heroizing’ the present, I examine two frameworks for understanding the ontological impact of historical models for ‘eventfulness’, those offered by Heidegger and Bergson. I then explore their implication for debates between Foucauldian theorists over the technological and bodily bases required to recognize the optimistic moral significance Kant attributed to revolution in practices characterizing the ‘new capitalism’.
Subcontracting Filial Piety
Authors: LAN PEI-CHIA
Published: July 2003

Based on in-depth interviews with middle-class Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrant families in California, the author examines how the cultural meaning and social practice of filial care for aging parents have been transformed in the U.S. context. The author analyzes the commodification of elder care from three dimensions—where care takes places, who gives care, and who pays for care—and examines its impacts on Chinese family relations. Although three-generational cohabitation may have declined on foreign soil, the family remains the nexus of care networks and economic ties among Chinese immigrants. Through recruiting home care workers as fictive kin, immigrant adult children are able to maintain the cultural ideal of filial care. The receipt of public care among immigrant elders does not necessarily indicate the diminishment of family bonds, but it reinforces kin connections as channels for circulating economic resources.
A Labor of Love or Labor Itself
Authors: ERIKSEN SHELLEY , GERSTEL NAOMI
Published: July 2003

Although many have examined care work within families, few have assessed caregiving among adult brothers and sisters. Based on original data, this article lends a multifaceted view of sibling care work by examining the amount and kind of help adults provide to all siblings in their family and the manner in which the social characteristics of sibling care providers, recipients, their shared relationship, and the family of origin shapes caregiving. The authors found that the vast majority of adults provide a wide range of care to their siblings on a yearly, even monthly basis. Gender, age, and social class shape sibling help, whereas race exerts little effect. Unmarried parents receive significantly less help than do their married and childless counterparts. Finally, sibling care work depends on family context: Having a living parent facilitates caregiving among siblings, whereas greater family size forces adults to act judiciously about what and to whom they give.