bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Exploration of Access and Treatment Discrimination and Job Satisfaction among College Graduates with and without Physical Disabilities
Authors: Perry Elissa L. , Hendricks Wallace , Broadbent Emir
Published: April 2009

The current study explored the extent to which college graduates with and without physical disabilities reported experiencing discrimination in their overall work histories. Resufts suggested that respondents with disabilities reported experiencing significantly more access discrimination than respondents without disabilities and that the specific type of physical disability influenced the extent of access discrimination experienced. There were no significant differences in the extent of treatment discrimination experienced by individuals with and without disabilities. The current study also explored the level of job satisfaction reported by currently employed respondents with and without physical disabilities. Results indicated that access discrimination significantly reduced current job satisfaction, and, when it was statistically controlled, individuals with disabilities reported marginally higher levels of job satisfaction than individuals without physical disabilities. These and other resufts are presented and their implications are discussed.
Where Learning is: Metaphors and Situated Learning in a Planning Group
Authors: Gberardi Silvia
Published: April 2009

Organizational learning is a root metaphor which sets organizational processes in relation to knowledge and knowing. An action-learning intervention in a municipality provides the stage for observing several metaphors at work in advancing learning within the planning group. The aim of the paper is to explore the role of language in producing and expressing situated knowledge and to further the interpretation of metaphors as organizational artifacts instead of linguistic or mental materials. The understanding of metaphors is always a creative endeavour, and metaphors can be both facilitators of learning and the tangible manifestation of something learnt. Understanding metaphors as the dreamwork of language collapses the traditional distinction among metaphors either as heuristic or generative.
The Subjective Experience of Sexual Harassment: Cases of Students
Authors: Wilson Fiona
Published: April 2009

This paper takes lived experience of students who feel they have been sexually harassed to show how sexual harassment is similarly experienced and construed, then how this subjectivity contributes to fear of action to stop the harassment. The stories also demonstrate that, even if action is taken to stop the harassment, the consequences can still be negative and fear inducing. The paper also aims to challenge theories of sexual harassment, arguing that much theory does not adequately explain the complex dynamics of the phenomenon.
Discourse as a Strategic Resource
Authors: Hardy Cynthia , Palmer Ian , Phillips Nelson
Published: April 2009

In this article, we outline a model of how discourse can be mobilized as a strategic resource. The model consists of three circuits. First, in circuits of activity, individuals attempt to introduce new discursive statements, through the use of symbols, narratives, metaphors, etc. aimed at evoking concepts to create particular objects. These activities must intersect with circuits of performativity. This occurs when, for example, concepts are contextually embedded and have meaning for other actors; when symbols, narratives and metaphors possess receptivity; and when the subject position of the enunciator warrants voice. Third, when these two circuits intersect, connectivity occurs as the new discursive statements `take'. Using an illustrative example of an international NGO operating in Palestine, we show how an individual brought about strategic change by engaging in discursive activity.
Workplace Romances between Senior- Level Executives and Lower-Level Employees: An Issue of Work Disruption and Gender
Authors: Powell Gary N.
Published: April 2009

This study examined co-workers’ reactions to a hierarchical workplace romance between an older, married senior-level executive and a younger, single lower-level employee. Part-time MBA students, nearly all of whom were employed full time, responded to a randomly assigned vignette in which they were asked to assume the role of co-worker of the two romantic partners. The effect of the workplace romance on participants’ productivity and the gender of the two participants were manipulated in vignettes, resulting in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design. Consistent with gender stereotypes about hierarchical workplace romances, respondents were more likely to attribute a job motive to a female lower-level employee than to a male lower-level employee. In turn, consistent with a work-disruption perspective, respondents regarded the relationship as representing a more serious problem for the organization when they believed that the lower-level participant was motivated by job concerns. Further, when respondents believed that the relationship represented a more serious problem for the organization, they preferred that management direct stronger action against both participants and would take stronger action themselves. However, male respondents would take stronger action in the role of co-worker than female respondents. These results suggest that hierarchical workplace romances represent an issue of both work disruption and gender.
Incorporating Community into Work and Family Research: A Review of Basic Relationships
Authors: Voydanoff Patricia
Published: April 2009

This article provides a framework for integrating community into the analysis of work and family. It reviews existing research on two types of mesosystem connections among work, community and family: (i) direct relationships, in which characteristics of one or more microsystems are associated with characteristics of another microsystem; and (ii) the combined effects of two or more microsystems, that is, the work-family, work-community, community-family and work- community-family interfaces, on various outcomes. The article documents a base of research on which to build, reveals important gaps in our knowledge and provides suggestions for future work that can lead to an integration of community into work and family research.
A Response to Snell the Learning Organization: Fact or Fiction?
Authors: Salaman Graeme
Published: April 2009

Snell in his article in this issue has argued that the moral basis of the learning organization is comprehensively and systematically at odds with the moral foundations of the conventional organization. In this article, this critique of the learning organization is taken a step further It is argued that, as defined by its proponents, the learning organization is limited by conventional organizational structures and hierarchy, by organizational cultures that frequently encourage anti-learning values and routines, and by shared structures of organizational cognition. It is argued that the learning organization also over-looks the extent to which standards of rationality within organizations arise from dominant external discourses of government and organization.
Towards a Process Model of Individual Change in Organizations
Authors: George Jennifer M. , Jones Gareth R.
Published: April 2009

This article analyses the way the individual change process unfolds when major; second-order changes are required. Using a framework that integrates both the cognitive and affective components of individual sensemaking and interpretation, we develop a process model that systematically analyses the psychology of the individual change process, and, in particular, the sources of resistance to change or inertia. A series of steps in the change process are identified if second-order change is to come about, and a series of testable propositions about the forces that may facilitate or stymie change are developed.
The Nature of Leadership
Authors: Barker Richard A.
Published: April 2009

Trait/characteristic theories and empirical approaches to the study of leadership have been supported by mounds of data, graphic models, and regression statistics. While there has been criticism of these mainstream approaches, there has been little in the way of meta-physical support developed for either side of the argument. This paper attempts to address the `science' of leadership study at its most fundamental level.
Reflexivity in Organization and Management Theory: A Study of the Production of the Research `Subject'
Authors: Hardy Cynthia , Phillips Nelson , Clegg Stewart
Published: April 2009

In this article, we draw on actor-network theory (ANT) to reflexively investigate the role of the researcher and the research community in the production of a research subject. We review our earlier work, which explores how the dynamics of refugee systems help to produce the research subject - in this case, the refugee. We then use ideas from ANT to move beyond the more conventional institutional and discursive analyses that are used in these articles. We include not just the activities of actors in the refugee system in our analysis, but also our own activities as researchers, as well as those of the broader research community We use the concept of translation to explore the role of these actors in the processes of social construction that produce refugees as a subject of academic study, which is related to, but distinct from, the `social' subject produced in the social setting under study. Generalizing from our own research experience, we argue for a reconceptualization of reflexivity in organization and management theory, which moves beyond the common view of heroic individuals struggling to understand and manage their role in their research towards an understanding of reflexivity as involving the research community as a whole.
Product Champion Characteristics in France and Germany
Authors: Roure Lionel
Published: April 2009

This study examines the relationship between the status and seniority of product champions, their cultural context and the ability of product champions to enlist top management support for an innovation project. Based on a sample of 82 French and 101 German champions, this work suggests that the effectiveness and crucial characteristics of product champions may vary across national cultures.
Stress and Strain Crossover
Authors: Westman Mina
Published: April 2009

Studies investigating the crossover of job stress and strain between partners have shown that job demands are transmitted from job incumbents to their partners, affecting their psychological and physical health. Based on the crossover literature and on models of job stress and the work-family interface, this study develops a comprehensive framework to integrate the literature conceptually, delineating the mechanisms that underlie the crossover process. Key constructs include job stress, life events, strain, personal attributes and interpersonal factors. The literature pertaining to each construct in the model is reviewed and summarized. Gaps in the literature are identified, recommendations for future research are proposed, and the implications for organizational theory and practice are discussed.
Letters of Recommendation: An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective
Authors: Colarelli Stephen M. , Hechanova-Alampay Regina , Canali Kristophor G.
Published: April 2009

This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the appeal and tone of letters of recommendation using an evolutionary psychological perspective. Several hypotheses derived from this framework are developed and tested. The authors’ theoretical argument makes two major points. First, over the course of human evolution, people developed a preference for narrative information about people, and the format of letters of recommendation is compatible with that preference. Second, because recommenders are acquaintances of applicants, the tone of letters should reflect the degree to which the relationship with the applicant favors the recommender’s interests. We hypothesized that, over and above an applicant’s objective qualifications, letters of recommendation will reflect cooperative, status and mating interests of recommenders. We used 532 letters of recommendation written for 169 applicants for faculty positions to test our hypotheses. The results indicated that the strength of the cooperative relationship between recommenders and applicants influenced the favorability and length of letters. In addition, male recommenders wrote more favorable letters for female than male applicants, suggesting that male mating interests may influence letter favorability. We conclude with implications for practice and future research.
The Organization and the Symbolic: Organizational Dynamics Viewed from a Lacanian Perspective
Authors: Arnaud Gilles
Published: April 2009

For many rationalist observers, organizational dysfunctions, such as recurrent failures in the implementation of strategic orientations, the constantly aggressive behaviour of managers, and so on, are nothing other than manifestation of deficiencies in decision-making or in the well thought-out application of decisions. In the light of psychoanalysis, however, such phenomena can be regarded differently, in particular as compulsions to repeat or actings-out. Indeed, in this perspective, it is on a ‘stage’ other than that of ‘reality’ that the game is played out: the stage of the imaginary and unconscious symbolic determinations. The object of this article is to propose a fresh reading of organizational life based on the work of Jacques Lacan. Although Lacanian notions are often seen as posing numerous problems for those brought up in an Anglo-American tradition of intellectual endeavour, this article upholds that such notions suggest rigorous alternative ways of approaching organizations.
A comparative study of measures for children in conflict with the law in Goa and Singapore
Authors: Desai Murli
Published: April 2009

English

This article aims to compare the measures undertaken for children in conflict with the law in terms of strengths and gaps and similarities and differences, together with profiles of children who enter the juvenile justice system in a progressive state of India, namely Goa, and Singapore.

French

Cette article vise à comparer les mesures prises pour les enfants en conflit avec la loi en termes de forces et manques, ressemblances et différences, ainsi que le profil des enfants entrants dans le système de justice des mineurs dans un état progressiste de l’Inde, en l’occurrence Goa, et Singapour.

Spanish

Este artículo compara las medidas tomadas para tratar a los niños en conflicto con la ley en términos de fortalezas y vacíos y similitudes y diferencias, y también el perfil de los niños que ingresan al sistema de justicia juvenil en el estado progresivo de India (Goa) y Singapur.
Self-help groups for men in Hong Kong
Authors: Chan Raymond K. H.
Published: April 2009

English

This article reports the findings of the first survey of men’s self-help groups in Hong Kong. Group members and social workers felt that these contributed significantly to improvements in interpersonal skills and social networking, but also that men’s services have been marginalized due to lack of societal support and a proper understanding of men’s needs.

French

Cet article présente le rapport des résultats de la première enquête des groupes d’entraide d’hommes à Hong Kong. Les membres du groupe et les travailleurs sociaux expriment le fait que ces groupes ont contribué de manière significative aux améliorations des aptitudes interpersonnelles et à la construction de réseaux sociaux, mais aussi que les services à destination des hommes ont été marginalisés du fait du manque de soutien sociétal et faute d’une compréhension appropriée des besoins des hommes.

Spanish

Este ensayo describe los descubrimientos de la primera encuesta de grupos de autoayuda para hombres en Hong Kong. Los miembros de los grupos y los trabajadores sociales sintieron que estos grupos contribuyeron significativamente a mejorar las habilidades interpersonales y las redes sociales, pero también que los servicios a los hombres han sido marginados debido a la falta de apoyo social y de un entendimiento apropiado de las necesidades de los hombres.
Trinity and Salvation: A Dialogue with Catherine LaCugna
Authors: Marmion Declan
Published: April 2009

This article looks at the current revival of trinitarian theology and takes Catherine LaCugna's pioneering, if controversial, work God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life as dialogue partner. The article explores how many themes in current trinitarian theology, e.g., Trinity as the structure of theology, the doctrine of God as a relational and dynamic concept, and the spiritual, political, and social implications of the doctrine, find a resonance in key figures of the tradition such as the Cappadocians and Augustine. Critical and sympathetic assessments of LaCugna's work are presented and discussed. An underlying question emerges as to how theology can appropriate patristic resources without projecting contemporary concerns and biases—epistemological, theological, or political—back onto earlier theological texts and cultures. The article concludes by critically examining how the doctrine has been developed as a symbol of inclusive communion where the values of mutuality, equality, and reciprocity are paramount.
Biomimetic Synthesis and Antibacterial Characteristics of Magnesium Oxide—Germanium dioxide Nanocomposite Powders
Authors: Avanzato C.P. , Follieri J.M. , Banerjee I.A. , Fath K.R.
Published: April 2009

The efficiency of growth of nanocrystalline magnesium oxide— germanium dioxide nanocomposite powders at room temperature was investigated in the presence of the amino acids histidine, aspartic acid, and the biopolymer polyL-lysine under varying conditions. It was observed that of the three, poly-L-lysine and histidine were more efficient and formed higher yields of the products. The growth of the nanocomposties was found to be pH-sensitive as indicated by zeta potential as well as TEM, and dynamic light scattering analyses. Furthermore, the nanocomposite powders were found to have significant antibacterial activity against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria.
Unions and the Sword of Justice: Unions and Pay Systems, Pay Inequality, Pay Discrimination and Low Pay
Authors: Metcalf David , Hansen Kirstine , Charlwood Andy
Published: April 2009

Dispersion in pay is lower among union members than among non-unionists. This reflects two factors. First, union members and jobs are more homogeneous than their non-union counterparts. Second, union wage policies within and across firms lower pay dispersion. Unions' minimum wage targets also truncate the lower tail of the union distribution. There are two major consequences of these egalitarian union wage policies. First, the return to human capital is lower in firms which recognise unions than in the unorganised sector. Second, unions compress the wage structure by gender, race and occupation.
Have UK and Eurozone Business Cycles Become More Correlated?
Authors: Massmann Michael , Mitchell James
Published: April 2009

Recent estimates suggest that the UK business cycle is closer to the Eurozone business cycle than it was in the early 1990s. This paper investigates whether this phenomenon has been accompanied by increased correlation between UK and Eurozone business cycles. Considering a range of alternative measures of the business cycle we find, using 40 years of monthly industrial production data, no clear evidence for a sustained increase in correlation between UK and Eurozone business cycles. Instead, in the 1990s, the correlation between UK and Eurozone business cycles has been volatile relative to historical levels. It is only recently, i.e. since 1997, that the UK has become more correlated with the Eurozone, although the level of correlation is lower than against non-Eurozone countries. Importantly, the strength of these relationships is sensitive to how the business cycle is measured. Care should therefore be exercised when using business cycles estimates to test the relationship between UK and Eurozone business cycles.
Rethinking the Link Between Institutional Crowding and Inmate Misconduct
Authors: Steiner Benjamin , Wooldredge John
Published: April 2009

Studies of prison crowding effects on inmate misconduct have produced anomalous findings, perhaps because of the cross-study differences in research methods. Different methods are important for several goals of scientific inquiry, but there are advantages to adopting similar approaches when studying a policy-relevant question. A cross-section of studies is reviewed toward the end of providing a strategy for more uniform research on the topic. Of primary interest are (a) operationalization of concepts; (b) underlying explanations for possible effects of crowding on misconduct; (c) the direct, indirect, and conditioning effects of crowding on misconduct; and (d) the bi-level nature of the crowding—misconduct relationship.
From Schelling to Spatially Explicit Modeling of Urban Ethnic and Economic Residential Dynamics
Authors: Benenson Itzhak , Hatna Erez , Or Ehud
Published: April 2009

The robustness of outcomes to the parameterization of behavioral rules is a crucial property of any model aimed at simulating complex human systems. Schelling model of residential segregation satisfies this criterion. Based on the recently available high-resolution census GIS, we apply Schelling model for investigating urban population patterns at the resolution of individual buildings and families. First, we simulate ethnic residential dynamics in Yaffo (an area of Tel Aviv), and demonstrate good quantitative correspondence for a 40-year period. Second, we investigate income-based residential patterns in nine Israeli cities, reveal their high heterogeneity, and explain the latter by the presence of low fraction of wealthier householders who are tolerant of their poorer neighbors and reside in their proximity. We extend Schelling model in this direction and demonstrate qualitative correspondence between the model's outcomes and the observed income-based residential patterns.
The Role of Racial Identity in Responses to Thin Media Ideals
Authors: Fujioka Yuki , Ryan Erin , Agle Mark , Legaspi Melissa , Toohey Raiza
Published: April 2009

A survey of 286 White and Black female college students examined the racial differences in perception of thin media images and its relation to personal importance of thinness and fear of fat. Consistent with the intergroup literature and social identity theory, this study demonstrated that Black women rated thin media images less desirable and endorsed thinness less strongly than their White counterparts. Perceived desirability of thin media images was related to greater personal endorsement of thinness among both White and Black women but related only to White women's, not to Black women's, fear of fat. Racial identity interacted with race in predicting personal endorsement of thinness, with the highest ratings among high White identifiers and the lowest ratings among high Black identifiers. It did not, however, interact with perceived desirability of thin media images in predicting fear of fat.
The Homoerotic Diaspora in Latin America
Authors: Foster David William
Published: April 2009

The diaspora experience is defined, not by essence or purity, but by the recogni tion of a necessary heterogeneity and diversity; by a conception of "identity" which lives with and through, not despite, difference; by hybridity. Diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing them selves anew, through transformation and difference.

-Stuart Hall
Culturecology, Women, and African-Centered HIV Prevention
Authors: Nobles Wade W. , Goddard Lawford L. , Gilbert Dorie J.
Published: April 2009

The Healer Women Fighting Disease Integrated Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention Program for African American women is based on a conceptual framework called “culturecology” and an African-Centered Behavioral Change Model (ACBCM). Culturecology poses that an understanding of African American culture is central to both behavior and behavioral transformation. The ACBCM model suggests that behavioral change occurs through a process of resocialization and culturalization. These processes minimize negative social conditions and maximize prosocial and life-affirming conditions. The participants were 149 women—105 in the intervention group and 44 in the comparison group. Findings show significant changes among participants from pretest to posttest in (1) increasing motivation and decreasing depression (cultural realignment ), (2) increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-worth (cognitive restructuring ), and (3) adopting less risky sexual practices (character development ). The African-centered approach demonstrates promise as a critical component in reducing and/or eliminating health disparities in the African American community.
The Experience of Discrimination and Black-White Health Disparities in Medical Care
Authors: Penner Louis A. , Dovidio John F. , Edmondson Donald , Dailey Rhonda K. , Markova Tsveti , Albrecht Terrance L. , Gaertner Samuel L.
Published: April 2009

The current study of Black patients focuses on how discrimination contributes to racial disparities in health. The authors used a longitudinal methodology to study how perceived past discrimination affects reactions to medical interactions and adherence to physician recommendations. In addition, they explored whether these reactions and/or adherence mediate the relationship between discrimination and patients' health. The participants in this study were 156 Black patients of low socioeconomic status at a primary care clinic. Patients completed questionnaires on their current health, past adherence, and perceived past discrimination. Then, they saw a physician and rated their reactions to the visit. Four and 16 weeks later they reported on their adherence to physician recommendations and overall health. Perceived discrimination was significantly and negatively associated with patient health, reactions to the physician, and adherence. Path analyses indicated that adherence mediated the relationship between discrimination and patient health, but patient reactions to the interaction did not.
African American Health Initiative Planning Project: A Social Ecological Approach Utilizing Community-Based Participatory Research Methods
Authors: Woods V. Diane
Published: April 2009

Much of the scientific literature in the area of health continues to ask the question, “How can we get African Americans involved in research and prevention activities?” The African American Health Initiative represents an answer to this question and is in many ways a success story of a local Black population that willingly engaged in health planning through a community-based participatory research process. A mixed-method sequential exploratory design was utilized to implement the health planning process. A social ecological model was created with five levels of influence and was utilized as a guide for engagement. A total of 1,078 individuals (95% Black) participated. A comprehensive plan was created with nine recommendations for the improvement of the health of the local and neighboring Black populations.
Academic Race Stereotypes, Academic Self-Concept, and Racial Centrality in African American Youth
Authors: Okeke Ndidi A. , Howard Lionel C. , Kurtz-Costes Beth , Rowley Stephanie J.
Published: April 2009

The relation between academic race stereotype endorsement and academic self-concept was examined in two studies of seventh- and eighth-grade African Americans. Based on expectancy-value theory, the authors hypothesized that academic race stereotype endorsement would be negatively related to self-perceptions. Furthermore, it was anticipated that the relation between stereotype endorsement and self-perceptions would be moderated by racial centrality. The hypothesis was supported in two independent samples. Among students with high racial centrality, endorsement of traditional race stereotypes was linked to lower self-perceptions of academic competence. The stereotype/self-concept relation was nonsignificant among youth for whom race was less central to their identities. These results confirm the supposition of expectancy-value theory and illustrate the interweaving of group and individual identity with motivational beliefs.
Matthew and the Pauline Corpus: A Preliminary Intertextual Study*
Authors: Sim David C.
Published: April 2009

This study investigates the possibility that the author of Matthew's Gospel had access to the letters of Paul. Using the methods of intertextuality, it establishes criteria for determining whether this was indeed the case and concludes that it is more probable than not that the evangelist did know the Pauline epistles. An intertextual relationship between the Gospel and the Pauline corpus becomes clear once we understand that Matthew, as a Law-observant Christian Jew, was opposed to the more liberal theology of Paul. A single test case reveals that the evangelist was reacting to certain claims of the apostle expressed in his letters, and raises the prospect of further intertextual connections between these early Christian documents.
Preschoolers' use of analogies in referential communication
Authors: Iozzi Laura , Barbieri Maria Silvia
Published: April 2009

In referential communication tasks, preschoolers' messages often fail. Children appear to produce `nonconventional' messages involving `idiosyncratic' or `private' meanings. The aim of this study was to examine whether some nonconventional messages are analogies that function to permit children to communicate in the absence of possessing a conventional name for an intended referent. In Experiment 1, 4- and 5-year-olds were presented a classical referential communication task consisting of `easy-' and `difficult-to-name' sets of items. As predicted, children at both ages produced conventional messages to refer to `easy' stimuli and analogies to refer to the `difficult' stimuli. A second experiment ruled out the possibility that the use of analogies was in fact due to an erroneous categorization of the target stimulus. Together, the results demonstrate that analogical renaming does not stem from an erroneous categorization of the referent but instead may serve as a purposeful communicative strategy.
Innovation, Working Conditions and Industrial Relations: Evidence for a Local Production System
Authors: Antonioli Davide , Mazzanti Massimiliano , Pini Paolo
Published: April 2009

Given that recent studies highlight the potentially negative impact of `new' or `high performance' work practices on workers, the main objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of such work practices on workers' well-being for a northern Italy local production system. In addition, it is also important not to overlook the role of other firms' innovation activities and industrial relations. Thus, the empirical strategy aims to disentangle the role of innovation intensity in four different areas (technology, organization, training and ICT) and that of cooperative industrial relations at firm level on working conditions. The evidence is mixed. On the one hand, innovations have an overall positive effect on working conditions. However, this effect is weak and for specific organizational aspects, is negative. On the other hand, cooperative industrial relations are always positively and robustly linked to workers' well-being.
Uncovering Divergence: Management Attitudes towards HRM Practices and Works Council Presence in German SMEs
Authors: Helfen Markus , Schuessler Elke S.
Published: April 2009

This article examines the impact of management attitudes towards human resource management (HRM) practices on the presence of works councils in German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on a survey among executives of German SMEs, the key result of a logit regression analysis is that managers' attitudes towards key HRM practices have a strong impact on the prevalence of the works council in German SMEs. In particular, positive management attitudes towards individual employee participation and direct supervision seem to be detrimental for the institutionalization of works councils. The results suggest that there is more diversity and management choice regarding the institutions of industrial relations than generally expected in the case of German firms.
Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and the total system
Authors: Zayani Mohamed
Published: April 2009

This paper is concerned with an aspect of Deleuze and Guattari’s thought which has not been duly analyzed: systematicity. More specifically, it deals with their conception of the system in three co-authored major works: What is Philosophy?, Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus. These works are of renewed interest because they tease out, each in its own way, a particular type of system. Regardless of whether it has a philosophical import, a botanical reference, a social dimension, or a libidinal investment, the system that Deleuze and Guattari advocate is allegedly a hyper-dynamic system that resists closure. Thus, in an interview with Didier Eribon, Deleuze points out that philosophy is ‘an open system’ and then, referring to A Thousand Plateaus, he further observes that what he and Guattari ‘call a rhizome is also one example of an open system’. The purpose of this essay is not merely to explore how the system in the works of these two prominent poststructuralists is conceived, how it is structured, and how it works, but also to show how it is only superficially open. Paying a special attention to Deleuze and Guattari’s exegesis on capitalism, I argue that the proposed system is cynical and ultimately untenable.
From actor to spectator
Authors: Yar Majid
Published: April 2009

The question of judgment has become one of the central problems in recent social, political and ethical thought. This paper explores Hannah Arendt’s decisive contribution to this debate by attempting to reconstruct analytically two distinctive perspectives on judgment from the corpus of her writings. By exploring her relation to Aristotelian and Kantian sources, and by uncovering debts and parallels to key thinkers such as Benjamin and Heidegger, it is argued that Arendt’s work pinpoints the key antinomy within political judgment itself, that between the viewpoints of the political actor and the political spectator. The paper concludes by highlighting some lacunae and difficulties in the development of Arendt’s account, difficulties that set challenges for those theorists (such as Seyla Benhabib and Alessandro Ferrara) who wish to appropriate and extend Arendt’s contribution into the field of contemporary critical theory.
Broken imperatives
Authors: Gilbert-Walsh James
Published: April 2009

In this paper I discuss the role played by the ‘categorical imperative’ in the thought of Jean-Luc Nancy. I argue that, while this is a theme of major importance in Nancy’s work, its overall significance is not immediately evident: on the surface, Nancy appears to be affirming the abstract exigency of the imperative while at the same time depriving it of any possible concrete force. I maintain, however, that a close reading of this theme in terms of other crucial themes in Nancy’s writing (namely: ‘interruption’ and the Heideggerian notion of ‘Being-with’ [ Mitsein, être-avec]) reveals that Nancy’s imperative does have concrete implications; indeed, it demands that we rethink the relation between responsibility and the concrete as such.
Feminism and democratic deliberation
Authors: Warnke Georgia
Published: April 2009

This article considers Jürgen Habermas’s response to struggles for recognition on the part of women and minority groups. Although this response expands the focus of liberal political theory from the achievement and constitutional protection of individual rights to the public deliberations and discussions of democratic citizens, the article argues that Habermas pays insufficient attention to the interpretive aspects of democratic deliberation. For Habermas the role of interpretation in feminist struggles for recognition is restricted to the clarification and self-clarification of needs. Where different groups of women understand their needs differently, these differences must be procedurally resolved. In contrast, the article argues that conflicting interpretations are the source of reciprocal processes of education necessary to legitimate policy conclusions. Moreover, it argues that social identities are in general products of interpretation and that conceiving of them in this way allows for fluidity and flexibility in who we take ourselves to be.
Illuminating inheritance
Authors: Herzog Annabel
Published: April 2009

This article focuses on the political ‘effect’ that Arendt wished to achieve with her ‘old-fashioned storytelling’. It is argued that she inherited her concept of the ‘redemptive power of narrative’ (Benhabib) from Walter Benjamin. The close relationship of the two intuitively suggests an affinity between Arendt's concept of a ‘fragmented past’ and her ‘storytelling’ and Benjamin's conception of history and narrative. An attempt is made here to determine the amplitude and the meaning of this proximity. An account is provided of Benjamin's and Arendt's shared belief that the past is fragmented and that only fragmented writing, mainly in the form of ‘stories’, had the capacity to be faithful to its ‘ruins’. It is argued that for both Arendt and Benjamin, the purpose of this writing form was not to commemorate the dead, but to show their absence – their invisibility. It is suggested that Arendt and Benjamin held a similar conviction: that stories had the capacity to save the world.
Charles Taylor on overcoming incommensurability
Authors: Levy Neil
Published: April 2009

As he recognizes, Taylor's view of practical reasoning commits him to the existence of incommensurable world-views. However, he holds that it is in principle possible to overcome these incommensurabilities. He has two major arguments for this conclusion, which I label the argument from the human condition, and the transition argument. I show that the first argument, though perhaps successful in the case Taylor takes as an example, cannot be generalized. The second argument is even less successful, since all the evidence it produces is compatible with a thoroughgoing relativism. I point out, moreover, that even if Taylor's arguments were successful, they would not demonstrate that someone who chose to continue to reject the practice that had been vindicated would be irrational to do so. I conclude that there seems no way to circumvent the relativism to which Taylor's picture of practical reasoning leads.
Ethics, affinity and the coming communities
Authors: Day Richard
Published: April 2009

This article attempts to chart a course beyond the ‘impasse of the political’ in Derridean deconstruction that avoids both the ontologization of ethics in Levinas and the recourse to morality in Habermasian discourse ethics. Instead, it presents an account of the decision in a terrain of undecidability through the concept of affinity. This mode of ethico-political activity, when combined with Foucault’s analytics of power and Deleuze and Guattari’s schizoanalysis, provides the outlines of a project of radical social transformation that could achieve greater nuance with regard to ‘actually existing’ democracy and justice than has so far been achieved within deconstructive political theory. At the level of social structure, such a project is commensurate with a move away from subject positions associated with the system of liberal-capitalist nation-states, in favour of identifications produced by a locus of ‘coming’ communities.
Adorno’s Kierkegaardian debt
Authors: Sherman David
Published: April 2009

Although Adorno criticizes the existential tradition, it is frequently argued that he and Heidegger share a number of theoretical interests. Adorno does come into direct contact with existential thought at certain points, but it is Kierkegaard, not Heidegger, who more closely approaches his concerns. I begin by reviewing Adorno’s Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic. I then argue that, unlike Hegel, who is also criticized by Adorno on various grounds, Kierkegaard has had an influence on Adorno that has been underappreciated. While Adorno criticizes Kierkegaard for breaking off the subject-object dialectic, they converge in their attacks on identity-thinking, the retention of a negative utopian standpoint of critique, and a deliberately provocative style of writing, all of which are marshaled in defense of the individual, who is besieged by modern society. Unlike Kierkegaard, however, and despite the generally accepted view, I conclude by arguing that because Adorno does not break off the subject-object dialectic, he has the necessary theoretical resources to deal with the theory-practice problem.
Rights without dignity?
Authors: Mahoney Jon
Published: April 2009

I argue that Habermas’s proposed system of rights fails to offer an adequate account of the relation between rights and moral injury. In providing a non-moral justification for rights, Habermas’s functional-normative argument excludes the moral intuition that persons are worthy of being protected from a class of injurious actions (i.e. false imprisonment, religious persecution). Habermas does offer clearly stated reasons for his proposed normative, yet non-moral foundation for a legitimate legal order, including the claim that the functional imperatives of modern legal systems cannot be reduced to morality. My positive thesis is that at least some rights are moral norms whose content and justification derive from a moral point of view informed by the idea of persons as free and equal.
Sartre, phenomenology and the subjective approach to race and ethnicity in Black Orpheus
Authors: Barber Michael D.
Published: April 2009

While Appiah and Soyinka criticize racial essentializing in Sartre and the Negritude poets, Sartre in Black Orpheus interprets the Negritudinists as employing a phenomenological, anamnestic retrieval of subjective experience. This retrieval uncovers two ethical attitudes: a less exploitative approach toward nature, and a conversion of slavery’s suffering into a stimulus for universal liberation. These attitudes spring from peasant cultural traditions and ethical responses to others’ race-based cruelty, rather than emanating from mystified ‘blackness’. Alfred Schutz’s because-motive analysis, a process of narrative self-constitution, renders plausible these linkages the Negritudinists draw between themselves and peasant or slave ancestors. Such narratives, customarily constructed in common sense by European- and African-Americans, regularly involve mythic elements, serve laudable ethical purposes and require continual theoretical critique by anthropology, genetics and ethics. Theory, though, plays only a critical, corrective role for subjective, anamnestic recoveries of racial and ethnic identity, and it can never replace them.
The civic religion of social hope
Authors: Dooley Mark
Published: April 2009

This article attempts to respond to Simon Critchley's claim in a recent debate with Richard Rorty, that the latter, by not fully recognizing its indebtedness to Levinas, misunderstands the political import of the work of Jacques Derrida. I maintain, pace Critchley, that trying to push the Derrida–Levinas connection too far will not only further compound Rorty's view of Derrida as a thinker devoid of political efficacy, but that it will moreover serve to obscure the significant differences which exist between Levinas and Derrida – differences which cannot be overlooked in any serious discussion of the two thinkers in question. In the second half, I try to convince Critchley that what separates Derrida from Levinas is precisely what hooks him up with Rorty at a political level. Both, I argue, are committed to a civic religion of social hope. In so doing, I try to convince Rorty that his caricature of Derrida as a private writer without political consequence, ought now to be seriously reconsidered.
‘Savage democracy’ and ‘principle of anarchy’
Authors: Abensour Miguel
Published: April 2009

This essay offers only a broad description of a possible comparison between ‘savage democracy’ in the terms of Claude Lefort and the ‘principle of anarchy’ according to Reiner Schurmann. First, I shall try to define savage democracy. Then, in a second move, after having clarified Schurmann's principle of anarchy, I shall outline the terms for a possible confrontation of their respective views. The point here is to show the extent to which the contextualization of democracy with anarchy, considered as principle, is of a nature to bring out democracy's most ‘savage’ characteristics – but without for all that concealing the difficulties that this perspective provokes or reveals. Indeed, it is precisely by returning to and excavating the gap between anarchy and principle that one most closely approaches the ‘savage essence’ of democracy.
‘Passions and constraint’
Authors: Hall Cheryl
Published: April 2009

Positive arguments on behalf of passion are scarce in liberal political theory. Rather, liberal theorists tend to push passion to the margins of their theories of politics, either by ignoring it or by explicitly arguing that passion poses a danger to politics and is best kept out of the public realm. The purpose of this essay is to criticize these marginalizations and to illustrate their roots in impoverished conceptions of passion. Using a richer conception of passion as the desire for an envisioned good, I argue that it is neither possible nor desirable to eliminate passion from politics. Passion should therefore be established as a central category of analysis in political theory alongside other key concerns.
When is an HIV Infection Prevented and when is it Merely Delayed?
Authors: Pinkerton Steven D. , Chesson Harrell W. , Holtgrave David R. , Kassler William , Layde Peter M.
Published: April 2009

HIV prevention programs are typically evaluated using behavioral outcomes. Mathematical models of HIV transmission can be used to translate these behavioral outcomes into estimates of the number of HIV infections averted. Usually, intervention effectiveness is evaluated over a brief assessment period and an infection is considered to be prevented if it does not occur during this period. This approach may overestimate intervention effectiveness if participants continue to engage in risk behaviors. Conversely, this strategy underestimates the true impact of interventions by assuming that behavioral changes persist only until the end of the intervention assessment period. In this article, the authors (a) suggest a simple framework for distinguishing between HIV infections that are truly prevented and those that are merely delayed, (b) illustrate how these outcomes can be estimated, (c) discuss strategies for extrapolating intervention effects beyond the assessment period, and (d) highlight the implications of these findings for HIV prevention decision making.
The Dartmouth Assertive Community Treatment Scale (DACTS)
Authors: Winter Joel P. , Calsyn Robert J.
Published: April 2009

Generalizability theory was used to assess the reliability of the Dartmouth Assertive Community Treatment Scale (DACTS), which was developed to assess treatment reliability to assertive community treatment (ACT). Program staff and local evaluators who were participating in a national demonstration program to serve homeless mentally ill clients provided data. The total scale score for the DACTS demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and interrater reliability. Although the stability of the total DACTS score was quite low, many items on the DACTS were quite stable. The generalizability analyses provide additional detail on the effects of site, occasion, and site by occasion interactions on the reliability of the DACTS.