bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Spinning Disciplines: Critical Management Studies in the Context of the Transformation of Management Education
Authors: Zald Mayer N.
Published: March 2007

Critical Management Studies has taken on an institutional embodiment in the last four years, but builds on earlier developments in the intellectual culture of academia and of professional schools. This essay traces the development of CMS in the context of American professional schools. It draws upon recent thinking in the sociology of science and the sociology of professions. In particular, it examines processes internal to disciplines and professions and external to them in the larger society, across disciplinary boundaries, and in intellectual discourse. Attention is paid to those processes that hold disciplines and sub-disciplines in their orbits or trajectories, and those processes and events that shock and redefine orbits. The paper concludes with a discussion of two alternative trajectories for CMS-one where it remains relatively marginal to management education, another where it becomes central.
Globalization, Foreign Direct Investment and International Economic Governance
Authors: Hirst Paul , Thompson Grahame
Published: March 2007

Globalization is a fashionable concept, but one that is weakly specified. A truly global economy would be one in which national processes are subsumed in and transformed by international markets and conditions of production. This development has not occurred and is unlikely to occur. Hence it is essential to determine the major trends in the international economy in order to assess its specific dynamics and the role of national and supranational agencies in its governance. Building on earlier work, the paper concentrates on the growth and distribution of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as the major trend since the earlier 1980s. The evidence relating to FDI is presented and the problems it poses and the possible mechanisms for its governance are assessed. In particular, it is argued that the regulation of both foreign trade and FDI involves quite distinct issues for governance and that their coupling together in the current framework emerging from the GATT negotiations is deeply problematic.
On Mobots and Classrooms: The Converging Languages of the New Capitalism and Schooling
Authors: Gee James Paul
Published: March 2007

Owing to social and technological changes, we are witnessing the beginnings of a global, hyper-competitive `new capitalism' reorganizing economic and social relationships within and between businesses. This article argues that the themes and images of the new capitalism are part of a much larger `thematic convergence' in which quite disparate things—like minds, molecules, media, ecosystems and organizations—are being talked about in new and similar ways. I argue that the `master story' here centers around what I call `non-authoritarian distributed systems'. After discussing this master story, I turn to two specific domains, which are, in quite different ways, getting `aligned' with the themes of the new capitalism. The first domain is cognitive science as it applies new ideas about what constitutes `knowledge' and `control' in school reform efforts. In this case, I argue that cognitive science is progressively aligning itself with the new capitalism to the mutual benefit of both. The second domain is the radical `postmodern' critique of capitalism. In this case, I argue that the language of the radical critique of capitalism is being coopted by the new capitalism itself.
A Four Times Told Tale: Combining Narrative and Scientific Knowledge in Organization Studies
Authors: Czarniawska Barbara
Published: March 2007

A growing acknowledgement of the fact that social scientific texts employ a variety of literary means encourages and requires collective reflection and genre analysis. The present article applies such reflection to organization theory texts, revealing differing ways in which facts and metaphors, logic and stories are woven together. In conclusion, the genre of organization theory is submitted to an institutional analysis.
Ownership, Control and the Management of Labour in an Emergent Capitalist Economy: The Case of Hungary
Authors: Whitley Richard , Henderson Jeffrey , Czaban Laszlo
Published: March 2007

Institutional change and the privatization of state enterprises were expected to transform the former state socialist economies of Eastern Europe. In particular, it was thought by many advocates of `shock therapy' that changes in governance structures would lead directly to major changes in labour management practices and greatly increase productivity as a result of removing state control. However, ownership and control changes have had only a limited impact on many aspects of enterprise behaviour in these emergent capitalist societies because of the continued dominant role of the state in the economy, its frequent policy oscillations, the lack of an independent capitalist class, the power of many trade unions and the institutional legacies of the previous regime which cannot be negated by ultra-liberal economic nostrums. In this study of 14 Hungarian enterprises we show that, although control differences were connected to some variations in the use of external labour markets and in how rewards were allocated, many differences in labour management strategies were related to differences in size and financial performance. Furthermore, there was no indication that the privately owned enterprises were shedding labour more quickly, were reducing the number of middle managers and clerical workers more sharply, were increasing task variety and moving to more Taylorist patterns of labour management than state owned enterprises. In general, the extent of radical changes in employment policies and task management in all of these Hungarian organizations appeared quite limited.
Introduction: Chaos, Complexity and Organization Theory
Authors: Tsoukas Haridimos
Published: March 2007

Chaos and complexity science are part of an emerging new imagery in the scientific and lay cultures, which helps us conceive of the social world as chaosmos-a combination of chaos and cosmos, disorder and order. Notions like nonlinearity, sensitivity to initial conditions, iteration, feedback loops, novelty, process, emergence and unpredictability, which for a long time were not part of mainstream science, have now come to the fore and furnish us with a new vocabulary in terms of which we may attempt to redescribe organizations, and the social world in general. The Newtonian style, whose most significant feature has been the pursuit of the decontextualized ideal, is gradually receding in favour of the chaotic style—the ability to notice instability, disorder, novelty, emergence and self-organization. For organization theory, it is argued that such developments are of great importance for they make central to our study of organizations) the notions of time, history, human finitude, freedom and circularity of behaviour. Moreover, the chaotic style, by privileging qualitative analysis, favours narrative descriptions of organizational phenomena.
Nationalism and Bounded Integration:
Authors: CEDERMAN LARS-ERIK
Published: March 2007

This article uncovers some crucial key assumptions of polity-formation underpinning the debate about the European Union's democratic legitimacy. It uses theories of nationalism to understand why a demos is unlikely to develop easily at the European level. Based on a two-by-two categorization of the logic and scope of identity-formation, I conclude that the most promising approach to European demos-formation conceives of identities as both constructed and `sticky'. Labeling this theoretical position `bounded integration', I suggest that it provides a more realistic foundation for developing democracy-enhancing reform proposals than does post-nationalist theorizing, especially due to the former's explicit attention to identity-conferring mechanisms such as education, language and media.
World Society and the English School:
Authors: BROWN CHRIS
Published: March 2007

The relationship between the English School's notion of `international society' or the `society of states' and various more sociologically informed conceptions of `world' or `global' society is here examined. The English School is located as a variant of classical realism and its notion of `international society' is then explicated by means of a contrast to the neo-realist idea of an international system. The English School's confrontation with John Burton's `cobweb' model of world society is then described and the potential for a relationship between a society of states and the Stanford School's conception of global society is argued. Modern systems theory is less compatible with English School thinking although the related notion of a world system has some affinities, especially with reference to its interest in the history of the modern world system. Finally, some difficulties with the conception of norms employed by the English School are outlined.
Neo-Modernization? IR and the Inner Life of Modernization Theory
Authors: BLANEY DAVID L. , INAYATULLAH NAEEM
Published: March 2007

Since the putative end of the Cold War, modernization is increasingly reimagined as a global process— as an expanding liberal zone of peace, a global civil society, or as emerging forms of global governance. Thus, new forms of modernization theory, what we call neo-modernization, have emerged as important theories of International Relations (IR). Such a convergence of events and theory permit us to examine the logical overlap between IR and modernization theory. IR fails to herald a unique contribution to social theory because it persistently avoids and denies the historical problem from which it surfaces, namely, the problem of what to do about cultural difference. Modernization theory provides an essential contribution to IR's avoidance of this central problem. While modernization theory implicitly relies on IR's freezing of difference into geopolitical containers, it also projects a natural and universal developmental sequence through which all cultures must pass. In this way modernization theory anticipates the eventual total homogenizing of difference into sameness. Surprisingly, while partners with IR in the joint venture to contain and then eradicate difference, modernization theory also offers an alternative vision. This recessive theme, what we call an ethnological politics of comparison, has the potential to transform IR into the science and art of facing, understanding and addressing difference.
Progress, History and Identity in International Relations Theory: The Case of the Idealist-Realist Debate
Authors: THIES CAMERON G.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the link between disciplinary identity formation, history creation and progress by undertaking an excavation of the idealist-realist debate in International Relations theory. I demonstrate how the debate was framed by the realists, who constructed a unified `idealism' temporally located in the interwar period to be the straw man for the justification of their theories and the starting point for construction of the realist identity. The unified paradigm of `idealism' turns out to be a multiplicity of discourses running throughout the first half of the 20th century. As those discourses intersected with `utopian' realism, two in particular became central to realist identity. The world federalism discourse became the unacknowledged, implicit goal of realism as the realists simultaneously constructed it as the explicit and sole goal of the `idealists'. The sovereignty/anarchy discourse became the lived ideal made real through power for the realists who suppressed any mention of this discourse during the `idealist', `interwar' years. I argue that the appropriation of these two discourses by realism is the reason that the narrative history of the discipline requires us to forever remember realism's progressive victory over `idealism' in the First Great Debate.
`Exorcismus Theoriae':
Authors: DEIBERT RONALD J.
Published: March 2007

Recently, concerns have been raised among a growing and diverse group of IR theorists that the basic concepts and categories we employ to describe, interpret and explain the world around us are no longer useful or illuminating. There is a sense, in other words, that the discipline's predominant way-of-seeing the world — what some have called a state-centric/billiard-ball bias — has become a kind of ontological blinder. This article addresses the question of how we go about shedding this blinder. The main argument is that the prevailing epistemology that underpins mainstream theorizing in the field (referred to in the article as the spectator theory of knowledge) works against such a liberation. The article puts forward an alternative epistemology, called philosophical holism, and distinguishes its main strands. It then describes a method (called therapeutic redescription) that is derived from the American pragmatic strand of this epistemology, and in particular from the work of the pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty. The article argues that this method can help theorists break free from the conceptual blinders that hold them captive. The final section of the article illustrates how this method could be used in conjunction with recent allusions in the field to neo-medievalism or a new medievalism.
Beyond Belief:
Authors: LAFFEY MARK , WELDES JUTTA
Published: March 2007

As presently constituted, the analysis of `ideas' is deficient in two key respects. First, despite presenting itself as an alternative to the dominant rationalist perspective on international relations and foreign policy, the turn to `ideas' represents only a minor modification of that tradition, rather than a serious challenge to it. Second, the retention of the rationalist framework has had problematical implications for how `ideas' are conceptualized. Although explicitly defined as shared beliefs, we argue that the metaphors structuring rationalist analyses lead them to conceptualize `ideas' as objects. As an alternative, we offer a constructivist account of ideas as `symbolic technologies' that enable the production of representations. This different metaphor enables us to address directly the difficulties for analysis stemming from a conception of ideas as objects. It also opens up for examination a range of empirical phenomena overlooked by rationalist analysts.
The New Raison d'État as a Problem for Democracy in World Society
Authors: WOLF KLAUS DIETER
Published: March 2007

What are the consequences of internationalization for the democratic legitimacy of governance? The argument developed in this article claims that de-democratization will take place as long as intergovernmental cooperation mechanisms offer national governments the opportunity to reassert state autonomy vis-a-vis increasingly assertive domestic and transnational societal pressures. Applied to the context of an emerging world society, the concept of raison d'état is employed in order to classify the concurrence of mutual self-commitment and dedemocratization as a predictable result of strategic interaction among national governments. The article argues that in order to overcome this serious, yet surmountable, obstacle to democratic governance beyond the state, the future architecture of global public policy will have to transcend the traditional frame of intergovernmentalism. Reflecting upon institutional designs to overcome the shortcomings of international governance, the author postulates that solutions cannot be based on the territorial-state majority-democracy model. Instead, a de-governmentalized polity for governance beyond the state is suggested which would be composed of functionally differentiated political arenas with different roles, participants and forms of representation.
Institutional Creativity: The Relational Zone of Proximal Development
Authors: Hasse Cathrine
Published: March 2007

In this article I argue that creative acts cannot be confined to the individual. Creativity can be seen as a meeting between an individual and a wider activity system. This argument is related to the claim that a zone of proximal development (ZPD), the concept connected to the culturalhistorical psychologist Lev Vygotsky, is both an internal and an external relation between an actual and a potential developmental zone. I shall suggest that institutions can facilitate creative potential and development if the associated members are trained or already have potential developmental zones answering to the actual development of the members of staff. The argument is supported by two case studies—one from fieldwork in an institution of higher education, and one from an institution for the mentally handicapped—and supplemented with a few historical examples.
Unresolved Tensions in Sociocultural Theory: Analogies with Contemporary Sociological Debates
Authors: Sawyer R. Keith
Published: March 2007

Socioculturalists are divided on two of the foundational theoretical claims of the paradigm: a process ontologyof the social world; and the inseparabilityof the individual and the group. A process ontology holds that only processes are real; entities, structures or patterns are ephemeral and do not really exist. Inseparability is the claim that the individual and the social cannot be methodologically or ontologically distinguished. To clarify the different stances toward these claims held by socioculturalists, I draw on the contemporary sociological debate between Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer. Giddens’ structuration theory holds to a process ontology and to inseparability, while Archer’s emergentist theory rejects both. I borrow the terms of this debate to clarify the tensions among several prominent socioculturalists, including Cole, Lave and Wenger, Rogoff, Shweder, Valsiner, and Wertsch. I argue that a strong form of inseparability is theoretically problematic and empirically untenable, and I conclude that socioculturalists can resolve these tensions by adopting an ‘analytic dualism’ that retains key sociocultural commitments.
Culture and Cognitive Development: From Cross-Cultural Research to Creating Systems of Cultural Mediation
Authors: Cole Michael
Published: March 2007

The author's intellectual movement over the past two decades, from cross-cultural experimental psychology to the cultural psychology of mediation of human activities and cognitive processes, is described in this paper. Productive use of the concept of culture in psychology entails conceptualization of the future and the past in the present, and taking a process-based look at human activities. Cultural mediation in the case of reading is described. The emphasis on the emergent psychological processes as being culturally constituted leads to the need to explore novel paths in reconstructing psychology's methodology.
Activity or Action: Two Different Roads Towards an Integration of Culture into Psychology?
Authors: Eckensberger Lutz H.
Published: March 2007

Michael Cole's conception of a cultural psychology which is rooted in Russian activity theory is discussed from the perspective of action theory which also aims at an integration of culture into psychology but does so by slightly different concepts. Beyond the shared divergence from classical cross-cultural psychology there are many similarities between activity and action theory, but differences also exist.
The Cultural Capital of Consumption: Understanding 'Postmodern' Identities in a Cultural Context
Authors: Miles Steven
Published: March 2007

Arguing that psychology has failed to come to terms with the cultural context within which identities are established, this paper focuses on consumption as a means of identity formation in a 'postmodern' culture. It is suggested that the impact of consumption upon contemporary identities might be better understood by focusing upon the meanings with which young consumers endow consumer goods. In particular, data obtained through a participant observation in a sports shop in a northern English town are used to illustrate some of the misunderstandings that have arisen as a result of conceptualizations of the fragility of postmodern identities. The importance of applying theoretical insights (e.g. Bourdieu, Simmel) alongside innovative methodologies is therefore stressed.
On Liberty, Cultural Relativism and Development: A Commentary on Van der Veer's 'The Concept of Culture in Vygotsky's Thinking'
Authors: Nicolopoulou Ageliki , Weintraub Jeff
Published: March 2007

Van der Veer's (1996) article brings the inherent tensions in Vygotsky's notion of culture to the attention of a contemporary readership. On the one hand, Vygotsky's intellectual linkages with Continental European language philosophies led him to adopt a hierarchical notion of 'cultural progress', which was also present in the social context of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. On the other hand, such a hierarchical view-of cultures differing qualitatively from each other-does not fit with the prevailing ethos on principled equality of cultures that is assumed by many contemporary Anglo-Saxon directions of social thought. In this respect, appropriation of Vygotskian ideas is complicated by the fact that, since Vygotsky's time, there has been a major shift in the predominant understanding of what it means to be 'progressive'. If 'progressive' in Vvgotsky's context led to efforts to build up a new (and 'higher' or 'more just') form of society (and 'new' kind of personality), then in the prevailing ideology of western societies in recent decades that term has been used to refrain from the creation of differentiated contrasts between societies. However, in a paradoxical way, the latter thoroughgoing relativism (which is difficult to maintain consistently in practice) is incompatible with any serious conception of development.
Does Cultural Psychology Need the Concept of Activity? A Challenge to Ratner's Exposition (1996)
Authors: Josephs Ingrid E.
Published: March 2007

While being productive in its way of counteracting mentalism, Ratner's (1996) activity approach yields many problems that are critically discussed in the present paper. First, activity theorists' legitimate claim that culture is more than interacting minds does not imply a mindless cultural psychology which overlooks the meaning of meaning, intentionality and semiotic mediation. Instead of participating in endless either-or fights, we could rather ask in which ways activity is semiotically mediated. In this context, it is especially interesting to analyse how the explicit absence of activities becomes a semiotic mediator for the development of psychological phenomena. Second, it is necessary to define explicitly what is meant by activity and related concepts, especially when those are imported from other theoretical traditions (here Bourdieu). Otherwise our theoretical thinking would take place in terms of what Vygotsky called pseudo-concepts. This may be helpful for the accumulation of symbolic capital in the field of science, but certainly does not improve our understanding of cultural facets of psychology. In addition, it has been problematic to put activity theory into concrete empirical research practice. It is especially difficult to relate macro-level aspects of the social structure to the person in meaningful ways. Thus, though sharing the general conviction that psychological phenomena are grounded in concrete social and material contexts, it is doubted that the concept of activity in its present state of elaboration is of key importance for our theoretical and empirical work in the field of culture and psychology.
Planning a Typical Italian Meal: A Family Reflection on Culture
Authors: Pontecorvo Clotilde , Fasulo Alessandra
Published: March 2007

The paper addresses the issue of cultural descriptions as they are perceived and used within mundane conversation. We analyze a discussion of an Italian family about a future formal occasion (a party) in a foreign country (Austria), with foreign participants, in which they shall produce a typically Italian meal. The analysis shows how cultural descriptions are both a resource and a constraint when they must orient a practical activity which must be publicly acknowledged for its cultural typicality. Discrepancies are highlighted between cultural descriptions and ordinary practices, but it is also shown how culture (or ‘cultural preferences’) gets produced, at a less explicit level, within discursive practices, through turn-taking filtering, sequential architecture and selection of differentiated addressees. The socializing import of the discursive situation for the younger participants is also discussed, with reference to the relevant conversational devices.
How Much Change?
Authors: Barker Fiona , McLeay Elizabeth
Published: March 2007

It was to be expected that New Zealand's radical change from a simple-plurality, single-constituency system to a proportional electoral system would produce a multi-party rather than a two-party parliamentary system. Analysis of the mixed-member proportional system's impact on the number and significance of parties, parliamentary cohesion and fragmentation, the power relationship between parties and government, and issue dimensions demonstrates that the impact of the exogenously derived incentives have been moderated by endogenous systemic and institutional forces and, also, by societal characteristics and habits. The brief period since the introduction of proportional representation to New Zealand thus provides an interesting example of how much change can be expected in the short term from electoral system change.
Government Formation and Party System Stabilization in East Central Europe
Authors: Toole James
Published: March 2007

The stabilization of party systems in new democracies is commonly assumed to be a lengthy process. Applying Peter Mair's government-formation-based model of party system development to the three young East Central European democracies of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, the article shows that party systems can stabilize much more quickly than expected. In an analysis of emerging party system patterns, the Hungarian and Czech party systems are found to be far more stable than the Polish, and already nearly as stable as more mature party systems. Examining differences in the three cases, the article makes two primary conclusions about the process of stabilization in new party systems. First, it suggests that stabilization is the product of both electoral system design and consequent patterns of elite behavior. Second, it argues that stabilization not only occurs in spite of on-going volatility in party-voter alignments, but actually serves to reduce it.
Latent Liberalism?
Authors: Fieldhouse Ed , Russell Andrew
Published: March 2007

Taking evidence from the 1997 British General Election Study, we investigate the popularity of Liberal Democrat policies - how successful the party was in converting sympathy into votes - and examine reasons behind the failure to build on its popularity. The Liberal Democrats are shown to have had popular policies and popular leadership in the 1997 election but this failed to translate into votes. A model of Liberal Democrat voting shows that established predictors of voting behaviour such as social class and age have little influence. Attitudinally, voters who hold the party leadership in high regard and who are in agreement with Liberal Democrat policies are much more likely to vote for the party. The model also shows that the Liberal Democrats performed best where they were best placed to defeat a Conservative candidate. It is argued that natural `liberals' make up only a minority of voters and only a small proportion of these actually vote for the party. Only in areas where they have a clear chance of success are they able to mobilize their latent support.
Political Engineering and Party Politics in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Reilly Benjamin
Published: March 2007

In this article I investigate whether `political engineering' can work to address problems of party system instability in new democracies. I look at the ambitious recent attempts to engineer the development of stable party politics in Papua New Guinea, one of the few post-colonial states to have maintained an unbroken record of democratic government. Despite its enviable status in this regard, in recent years Papua New Guinea has been plagued by increasing political instability caused, in part, by the fragmentation of its party system. The article analyses Papua New Guinea's new political institutions, introduced in 2001, which are designed to encourage the development of a more coherent party system, stabilize the formation of executive government, and fundamentally change the conduct of the electoral process.
Partisan Dealignment, Electoral Choice and Party-System Change in Canada
Authors: Clarke Harold D. , Kornberg Allan
Published: March 2007

This paper investigates the conditions under which significant changes can occur in the structure and composition of a party system in a contemporary mature democracy. The empirical focus is Canada. Although one of the oldline Canadian parties, the Liberals, won a parliamentary majority in the most recent (1993) national election, two others, the governing Progressive Conservatives (PC) and the social democratic opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), suffered disastrous defeats. Two new parties with regionally concentrated bases of support, Reform and the Bloc Québécois, enjoyed marked success. Analyses of national survey data reveal that although economic issues generated by a serious, protracted recession were the principal proximate forces eroding PC and NDP support, dissatisfaction with all oldline parties was widespread. This disaffection, the virtual devastation of two of these parties, and the continuing strength of the two new parties in their regional bases, suggest that 1993 was a type of `critical election' that significantly altered Canada's national party system.
Compulsory Party Democracy
Authors: Sundberg Jan
Published: March 2007

Political parties in Finland deviate from the Scandinavian standard, as they are highly controlled by laws and decrees. Regulation and control have a negative connotation in Scandinavia because they are seen as associated with state interference, in opposition to the corner-stones of civic liberty. Organization theories support the negative conceptions, as publicly controlled organizations are considered more centralized and less open to membership influence. According to these theories, this tendency is most prominent in large and/or important parties. However, the present study shows that there is a wide variety among parties in their degree of hierarchical and egalitarian rule. Party organization is affected more by age of party and common ideology than by party size and importance. The system promotes a given level of membership influence, as party democracy is compulsory.
Young Peopleís Conceptions of Sport, Physical Education and Exercise: Implicationsfor Physical Education and the Promotion of Health-Related Exercise
Authors: Lake Jeffrey
Published: March 2007

The discourses used to express orientations towards sport, physical education and exercise were explored among 18 students, aged 16–18, at a sixth-form college in England. Results indicate that competitive team sport, and competence in that domain, occupied a privileged position in discourse which operated to polarize orientations towards sport, physical education and exercise. It is argued that an inclusive interpretation of exercise is essential for effective promotion of health-related exercise and, consequently, it is necessary to challenge the privilege afforded to particular modes of participation and to make efforts both to recognize and value alternative activities and meanings.
Childrenís Perceived Competence and Enjoyment in Physical Education and Physical Activity Outside School
Authors: Carroll Bob , Loumidis Julia
Published: March 2007

This study aimed to examine the relationship of children’s perceived competence in physical education to their enjoyment in the subject, and how boys and girls scoring high and low in enjoyment and perceived competence differed in their levels of physical activity. Year 6 primary school children ( n= 922) completed questionnaires giving their physical activity the previous week, their perceived competence in, and enjoyment of, PE. Employing correlation, multivariate and univariate analysis of variance techniques, the results indicated moderate positive and significant relationships between enjoyment in PE and perceived competence in PE for the whole sample ( r= .39, p< 0.001). Children of high perceived competence participated in significantly more physical activity (quantity and intensity) outside school than those of low perceived competence, but there was no difference in enjoyment levels and quantityof physical activity. The boys scored higher than the girls on time spent on physical activity,on perceived competence and enjoyment. Motivation theory is utilized to examine the relationship of perceived competence and enjoyment in physical education to physical activity outside school.
Teaching Quality Assessments
Authors: Henkel Mary
Published: March 2007

This paper considers the implications of the introduction of mandatory assessment by the United Kingdom's Higher Education Funding Councils of the quality of education in higher education institutions. An examination of the assessment processes and the responses to them of academics in four universities suggests that a struggle between the government and the universities begun in the early 1980s has yet to be resolved. The data are drawn from a current international study of the impacts of higher education reforms in England, Sweden and Norway. The issues are whether public accountability and academic autonomy can be reconciled and if they can, on whose terms. While government declares its support for academic autonomy and universities for public accountability the contest between them about what these principles mean is still very much alive.
Public Policy Evaluation in a Centralized State
Authors: Walker Robert
Published: March 2007

One feature of heavily centralized government with nationally uniform policies is the limited scope for policy experimentation. Policies cannot readily be trialled and there is little opportunity to learn from small scale implementation. Increasing centralization in Britain has been accompanied by a developing managerial ethos within central government. HM Treasury has demanded that new policies be given explicit objectives and an evaluation strategy be implemented. The inability to use randomized controls has led to creative evaluation strategies that stress the understanding of process rather than the measurement of outcome. With the desire to tighten further Government's grip on public expenditure, the demand is now for pilot schemes and impact analysis. Focusing on social assistance, the paper details the changing environment of policy evaluation in Britain, reviews non experimental methods that have been used and documents the first two policy pilots. The paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and dangers arising from the move towards experimentation.
Evaluation in Health and Social Care
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: March 2007

Political disillusionment in the ability of the UK welfare state to impact significantly upon disadvantage and poverty has led to a shift in focus away from achieving positive change and towards the maintenance of social problems at manageable levels. The issue this shift has raised is the level at which disadvantage and other social problems should be maintained. This change of emphasis has indicated a move away from the realization of service goals and towards the use of economy and efficiency as main evaluation criteria. This has been assisted by the introduction of quasi- market reforms and the weakening of the influence of professionals over quality issues in service delivery. The paper argues that differences exist between the key stakeholders in both health and social services but that 'traditional' evaluation has served to mask these differences. This is assisted by a lack of publicly declared service aims and the management capture of definitions of service issues such as quality. Evaluation in health and social care is increasingly focused on outcomes and performance indicators. This approach treats the service as a separate variable which can be separated out for study and consequently ignores the key factor of context. The context of evaluation is important in services which aim to create change in society. Inclusion of context also has the potential of placing a regulatory framework on the pursuit of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
The Seduction of the Golden Boy: The Body Politics of Hong Kong Gay Men
Authors: KONG TRAVIS S.K.
Published: March 2007

This article investigates the embodied identities of Hong Kong gay men in two different `sites of desire', namely London and Hong Kong. In London, Hong Kong gay men have constantly encountered the intertwining relationships between race and sexuality in the constellation of the Western construction of body/desire/masculinity. By contrast, Hong Kong gay men in Hong Kong tend to place more emphasis on issues of family and culture. The main site of struggle for Hong Kong gay men in Hong Kong is the family-oriented and community-based environment. They adopt not a confrontational politics in a constitutional sense but rather derive tactics of microscopic resistance against societal and familial domination. By comparing 34 Hong Kong gay men living in London and Hong Kong, I argue the divergent constructions of being gay in these two contexts. Through the `voices' of these gay men, I criticize the `Western' construction of identity/the body and offer new insights into the discussion of gay identities.
Handmaids' Tales of Washington Power: The Abject and the Real Kennedy White House
Authors: SYLVESTER CHRISTINE
Published: March 2007

A considerable amount of academic attention has been paid to John Kennedy and to his group of advisors during the Cuban missile crisis. Next to no attention has been accorded other bodies of the Kennedy White House that had daily access to a President's most private moments and possibly to his important deliberations. Drawing on Richard Reeves' account of President Kennedy: Profile of Power, I revisit the early 1960s looking for bodies of power that are culturally sexed female by others and compelled into being as workaday secretaries and confidants, and para-Everythings for Kennedy. In doing so, I draw on the feminist body theorizing of Judith Butler, Rosi Braidotti and Elizabeth Grosz, as well as the evocations of bodies in important but abjected places featured in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. After constructing the historically broad category of the handmaid to Washington power, I reread constructions of decision-making in the Cuban missile crisis offered by Graham Allison and conclude that the feint of mancentred Washington masks bodies given the locations, skills and resources to ooze into spaces of decision and power canonically forbidden to them.
An Order of Pure Decision: Un-Natural Selection in the Work of Stelarc and Orlan
Authors: GOODALL JANE
Published: March 2007

Orlan and Stelarc both work with the body as the primary medium for their art and both, in their very different ways, are interested in redesigning the body. Their experiments depart radically from popular and traditional ways of imagining enhanced forms of human embodiment and, in a climate of intense speculation about the future of the body, their ideas offer some important provocations. As performance artists, Orlan and Stelarc explore embodiment through enactment in ways that evade the stock formulations of cultural anxiety and open up fundamental questions about the nature and meanings of the human body, questions that are too easily foreclosed by over-heated imaginings about the `posthuman' condition.
Breaking the Cycle of Abuse and Abusing: Individual Psychotherapy for Juvenile Sex Offenders
Authors: Woods John
Published: March 2007

Adolescent sex offenders present a therapeutic problem in that they are both victim and perpetrator. As perpetrator they present a social problem and need containment while the underlying victimization needs treatment. A special unit has adopted an integrated model of systemic, cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic frame works. To take into account both victim and perpetrator, psychoanalytic psychotherapy needs to be modified by (a) the incorporation of child protection measures and (b) a continuing focus on the offending behaviour. Given this structure the psychodynamic work helps to support a sex offender safely in the community and also produces dynamic material that illuminates the pathological processes from abuse to abusing. Themes that emerge in the treatment include sexualization of attachments, re-enactments of the abuse and a constant testing of the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship. Working actively with these issues can be seen to strengthen creative capacities in the young person as well as to help prevent recurrence of abusive behaviour. Clinic material is presented for illustration of these points.
The Bag of Feelings: An Ideographic Technique for the Assessment and Exploration of Feelings in Children and Adolescents
Authors: Binney Valerie , Wright John C.
Published: March 2007

This article describes the development of a new technique, the Bag of Feelings to help in the assessment of children's and adolescents' feelings. It is suggested that such an ideographic approach has advantages over more formal, standardized assessment tools because it enhances rapport, creates a unique communication concerning the individual's preoccupations and affective states and facilitates the production of clinical material. The approach is illustrated with clinical examples.
Developing Psychosocial Theory in Health Psychology
Authors: Spicer John , Chamberlain Kerry
Published: March 2007

Health psychology theories remain strongly individualistic, despite a stated commitment to the biopsychosocial paradigm. We examine some general impediments to, and strategies for, establishing health- psychology theories which have a true social dimension. These impediments stem from two sources: a style of theorizing prevalent in health psychology which we label flowcharting; and the influence of root metaphors and concepts from adjacent health sciences. Two broad strategies for combining the psychological and social in health-psychology theories are identified: integrative and transcendent. In the integrative strategy psychological constructs, such as personality and emotions, are reconstructed in a more psychosocial form. The transcendent approach involves the creation of constructs which transcend the psychosocial distinction.
The Inequity of Inequality
Authors: Charlton Bruce G.
Published: March 2007

A crucial, but unexamined, assumption motivating research into socio-economic health differentials is that such differentials are unjust. An equal distribution of health, as well as of economic resources, is regarded as the proper goal of policy. I suggest that this assumption of 'the inequity of inequality' has its basis in 'human nature'. Sustained selection pressures operating in immediate-return nomadic hunter—gatherer societies led to the evolution of 'counterdominant' behaviours in order to promote cooperation and social living. Modem humans have therefore inherited 'egalitarian instincts' that are activated when inequalities of resources (and of health) are personally encountered. This activation is qualitative, and amelioration of differentials that fall short of equality would not necessarily diminish perceived injustice. Rather than attempting to adjust the abstract statistical measures of economic and health differentials derived from population data, the goal of policy should be to address the subjective experience of the inequity of inequality at the level of individuals.
Social Influences and Leisure-time Physical Activity Levels in Young People
Authors: Øygard Lisbet , Anderssen Norman
Published: March 2007

This study describes the associations between social factors and leisure-time physical activity levels in young people. Important concepts from Bandura's social learning theory and Bourdieu's theory of social position and lifestyles were used as theoretical frameworks. Baseline data were collected from a sample of 827 students (11-14 years old) and their parents in 1979. In 1991, the same students, now aged 23 to 26 years, participated in a follow-up ( N = 514, 62.2 percent of baseline). At the follow-up, females were significantly more physically active if highly educated. The only statistically significant factor associated with males' activity levels was activity levels at baseline. Males were more physically active than females at baseline, but in young adulthood there was no significant gender difference. There was an interaction between gender and education in that highly educated females exercised significantly more than less educated females. This was not the case for males.
Focus Groups in Health Research
Authors: Wilkinson Sue
Published: March 2007

Focus group method is becoming increasingly popular among qualitative researchers. After introducing focus group method and briefly overviewing its use in health research, this article shows that the distinctive (and under-used) feature of focus group method is its generation of interactive data. Illustrating my argument with examples from health- related focus group research (including my own data on breast cancer), I argue that this feature makes focus groups an ideal method for gaining access to research participants' own meanings. Interactive data result in enhanced disclosure, improved access to participants' own language and concepts, better understanding of participants' own agendas, the production of more elaborated accounts, and the opportunity to observe the co-construction of meaning in action. Focus groups are, then, an ideal method for exploring people's own meanings and understandings of health and illness.
Christian Mind and Worldly Matters
Authors: Meyer Birgit
Published: March 2007

In anthropological studies of the impact of missions in the non-Western world, Protestant missions' alleged claim that material matters were just 'outward things' subordinate to 'inward faith' has eschewed closer examin ation. This paper investigates a 19th-century German Protestant mission's actual and alleged attitudes towards materiality under the conditions of colonialism among the Ewe, as well as the tensions arising between mis sionaries and African converts about the role of materiality in life in general and consumption in particular. Examining the role missionary materializa tions played in conversion processes and investigating tensions between mis sionaries and converts about the proper relationship between 'civilization' and 'salvation', the paper shows that so-called worldly matters mattered much more than Protestant missionary rhetorics were prepared to acknow ledge. Missions played a crucial role not only in the 'development' of the colony but also in the making of modern consumers. Tensions between mis sionaries and Ewe converts reveal that actually Christian identity itself was to a large extent produced through the consumption of Western commodi ties
Detecting Features of Autism in Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Children with Severe Learnin Difficulties: A Brief Report
Authors: Hadwin Julie , Hutley Gill
Published: March 2007

The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to identify specific behaviours that differentiate children with severe learning difficulties with autism from children with severe learning difficulties without autism. Using teachers' reports of current behaviour, the results showed that six behaviours significantly differentiated these two groups of children. Children in the autism group showed less joint attention (pointing for interest and showing) and less eye gaze (in general and to clarify ambiguity). In addition, they showed less functional and imaginative play and more unusual or restricted interests and stereotyped motor behaviours.