bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Domesticating Foreign Intellectual Property Laws in the Digital Age
Authors: Mirgani Suzi
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines some of the challenges faced by GCC nations as they attempt to modernize their economies in the digital era and in the face of substantial technological transformations. In order to fit within repositioned international markets geared towards knowledge economies, GCC states need to abide by the many rules and regulations in the area of intellectual property protection that have been developed and dictated by the World Trade Organization and the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Interestingly, even as Gulf governments introduce externally imposed legal systems, they attempt to “domesticate” foreign intellectual property laws to gain a competitive advantage by investing in the production of locally-produced content and promoting niche areas of intellectual property, including the protection of traditional knowledge rights. This is an area generally neglected by industrialized nations that tend to promote the concept of “innovation” rather than promoting and protecting collective knowledge. GCC states are attempting to use intellectual property laws to their own advantage with an emphasis on digital archiving and protection of traditional knowledge, heritage, and folklore. By promoting and protecting locally-produced content, GCC states can aspire to the globalized international economic framework as envisioned by the WTO.
Property and the Creation of Value
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Philosophers have tended to see property through the lens of natural resource acquisition. Discussions often focus on agrarian models inherited from Locke in which income and wealth derive from land use. But these models no longer make sense in a service-sector economy. In advanced societies, wealth overwhelmingly derives from the activities of lawyers, chefs, designers, coders, or teachers providing services to others. And once we recognize that in modern economies services are at the core of wealth creation, it becomes more difficult to reject (traditional) libertarian claims about redistribution. In particular, so-called left-libertarian views that attempt to defend redistribution on natural resource grounds become much harder to defend.
Aid
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Political libertarians are “stingy” when it comes to aid provided by the state, since they oppose wealth redistribution. But must they also be stingy when it comes to private moral obligations to aid? This chapter supports a negative answer. Various reasons are explored why we might accept stringent obligations to provide aid as private citizens, while resisting the inference that therefore the state should provide such aid through redistribution. A central concern is the fact that duties to aid are generally what Kant called “imperfect duties,” whose discharge is largely at our discretion. Compliance with such duties is generally difficult to assess, and state-enforcement of them difficult to defend.
Morality and Markets
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Philosophers by and large have not been enthusiastic about markets, often concentrating only on their drawbacks or limitations. This chapter argues that frequently this has been done without a clear appreciation of the benefits of markets, especially for the fact that markets allow trading parties to improve their positions for free. The chapter argues that this creates a standing (if defeasible) reason to promote markets, and to resist third parties trying to block an exchange. It also shows that many of the reasons people have put forward to limit markets would also limit many other social activities if they were taken seriously, such as the arts, and are thus suspect.
Luck and Opportunity
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Classical liberal views about the state are often held to be incompatible with a sober appreciation of the role of luck in determining social outcomes. But it is surprisingly rare to see the case made for supposing that considerations of luck alone support redistribution. Instead, most arguments drawing on the role of luck depend on strong background assumptions compared to which luck plays a relatively minor role. And once we do focus on pure considerations of luck, it turns out to be difficult to marshal these toward an argument for redistribution. The chapter further reviews evidence on intergenerational mobility and shows that we can acknowledge that such mobility may sometimes be limited while denying that redistribution is the proper remedy, especially in light of the continued effectiveness of choice suggested by the evidence.
The Epistemology of Popularity and Incentives
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the neglected epistemology of markets. It argues that we often get useful information from markets concerning popularity and incentives, and that these should inform our decision-making. The popularity of a service provider despite being located in a dangerous neighborhood or being considered unattractive, for example, is an important signal that should guide our thinking. So should the incentive structure a service provider faces, for instance, whether he or she can take customers for granted or not. Both constitute evidence that we are likely to receive comparatively good service, since their popularity comes despite marked disadvantages, and their incentive structure is aligned with our own aims as consumers. Applications include dining, art, education, and law.
Justice and the Wealth of Nations II
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

This chapter takes up three lessons that people have taken from the history of economic growth. The first two are that Scandinavian-style success stories prove that more libertarian systems give up a “free lunch,” and that work on inequality by writers like Piketty shows that a relatively unfettered capitalism would be unbearable. Against this, it is argued that the “free lunch” idea ignores the moral significance of redistribution, and that historical criticisms of inequality neglect improvements in the absolute level of welfare. The third lesson is from Kant, and says that certain features of market-oriented capitalism are inevitable on broadly Darwinian grounds, and constitutes a far more plausible thesis.
Reparations, History, and Nietzsche
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Classical liberals stress property rights. An important objection to classical liberal views of the state is that significant portions of land and wealth were acquired unjustly and are owed to others through reparations. There is in fact a case for limited reparations in countries like the United States, especially to the still-living victims of state injustice. But this chapter also establishes important limitations to reparation claims. In particular, it seeks to identify the reasons why reparation claims tend to fade over time. It also discusses the selective nature of reparation claims and what this tells us about their underlying logic.
Dilemmas of Political Correctness
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

Political correctness plays an important role in debates about poverty, work, and desert, and thus in debates about libertarianism. This chapter shows that there are legitimate reasons to uphold norms against impugning the public status of historically victimized communities, which is central to political correctness. However, upholding such norms also incurs costs, meaning that political correctness often confronts us with dilemmas. These costs are not merely expressive but crucially involve a form of collective irrationality. This manifests itself in Orwellian discourse in how we use terms like “diversity,” in the analysis of causal structures like the attribution of airline accidents that we are reluctant to associate with stereotypes, and in backfire, as when Europeans are reluctant to discuss problems with the project of a currency union.
Utopia and the Real World
Authors: Moller Dan
Published: January 2019

This chapter argues for a middle course in our political theory between utopian idealism and pragmatic realism. We should not accept that people’s current political opinions are immutable, but neither should we imagine away deep-seated features of human nature in an exercise of political fantasy. This chapter seeks to delineate how we may distinguish between objectionable utopianism and objectionable realism. The core distinction drawn lies between conative changes in response to arguments we put to our fellow citizens, and changes requiring alteration in our basic drives and motivations. The chapter concludes by arguing for incremental change, and against revolutionary politics.
Labor market flexibility and income security
Authors: Leschke Janine , Finn Mairéad
Published: January 2019

In all European countries, young people are both more likely to be unemployed than adults and to account for comparatively higher shares of the workers in temporary employment. Moreover, they have more difficulty fulfilling eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits, including minimum contributory periods and means testing in secondary benefit schemes. Aggregate European Labour Force Survey data are used to estimate the access of young people to unemployment benefits as well as their participation in short-time working schemes. This analysis is complemented by an institutional analysis using databases such as LABREF and MISSOC to chart recent changes in unemployment benefit criteria directly or indirectly targeted at youth. Our results show that benefit coverage among youth has decreased further in a number of countries in the wake of the crisis, highlighting the weaknesses in protection for young people against economic shocks.
Income sharing and spending decisions of young people living with their parents
Authors: Medgyesi Márton , Nagy Ildikó
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines income sharing by young adults living with their parents. Using data from EU-SILC 2010, the chapter explores the determinants of contributions to household expenses among young adults (aged 18–34 years) living with their parents in 17 European Union countries. The examination finds that income sharing in the household tends to attenuate income differences between household members and to help members with low resources. The results also show inequalities in young adults’ experience of co-residence with parents: young adults in low-income households tend to contribute more to the household than do those in higher income homes. In addition, the results show that the majority of young adults benefit from intra-household sharing of resources. There is, however, a minority of young adults whose income is lower when the actual extent of income pooling is taken into account in the calculation of equivalized household income.
Integrating perspectives on youth labor in transition
Authors: O’Reilly Jacqueline , Leschke Janine , Ortlieb Renate , Seeleib-Kaiser Martin , Villa Paola
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides an integrated analysis of the findings from this volume. It discusses the challenges presented from comparing youth transitions across countries, the importance of using a wider range of indicators, and a more comprehensive policy focus. The chapter argues that the concept of economic production encapsulates some of the key dimensions and focus for policy initiatives related to labor market flexibility, mobility, and reforms to vocational education and training systems. It contends that an exclusive focus on this domain risks undervaluing the continued importance of the sphere of social reproduction, the role of family legacies, and how these affect established and emerging forms of inequality. It proposes that given the complexity and variety of youth transitions, policy initiatives need to simultaneously focus on both dimensions to develop multifocused strategies to ensure successful youth transitions. Finally, it identifies key issues for future research resulting from this comprehensive analysis.
Feverish Archives, Feverish Films
Authors: Furtado Gustavo Procopio
Published: January 2019

Focusing on contemporary documentaries that deal with isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon, this chapter discusses a contact imaginary that was inaugurated by Pero Vaz de Caminha’s letter of “discovery” to the Portuguese king in the year 1500 and re-elaborated ad nauseam in a vast corpus of films documenting encounters with indigenous people. The “contact film” constitutes an archive of predictable and endlessly repeated original contacts and “first” encounters. During the course of the twentieth century, however, this documentary subgenre becomes increasingly troubled by its own history and the destructive consequences of contact. Inheriting a burdensome legacy, contemporary films approach the remaining borders of contact with isolated indigenous groups while evincing the crisis of this imaginary and its archives—as illustrated in works by Werner Herzog, Silvio Da-Rin, Vincent Carelli, and especially by the feverish, formal experimentations of Andrea Tonacci.
Scenes of Capture in the City
Authors: Furtado Gustavo Procopio
Published: January 2019

This chapter discusses documentary approaches to subjects living in conditions of extreme marginalization. Though these subjects arguably suffer from social invisibility, becoming visible more often than not entails their capture in codes that lay beyond their control—such as the sensationalist narratives and stereotypes of the media or the incriminating gaze of institutions and representatives of the law. What are the possibilities and risks for documentary practices that, while aware of the dangers of the visible, insist on visualizing marginalized subjects? Focusing on Padilha’s Ônibus 174 (2002), Maria Augusta Ramos’ Justice (2004) and Behave! (2007), and Paulo Sacramento’s The Prisoner of the Iron Bars, Self-Portraits (2004), this chapter examines the strategies of films that locate their practice at sites where invisible subjects enter the purview of dominant society and reflect on cinema’s own forms of capture as well as on its possibilities for seeing otherwise.
Tactics of the Invisible, Shadow Archives
Authors: Furtado Gustavo Procopio
Published: January 2019

This chapter shifts the reflections on marginalization and visibility discussed in chapter 3 to Brasilia, the modernist capital that was built from scratch in forty-one months and completed in 1960. Embodying a strategic visuality intent on ordering urban space, Brasilia also produced massive forms of invisibility, as illustrated by the forced relocation of workers to peripheral satellite cities and by the repression of marginal histories—histories that are buried beneath the city’s surface like the bodies of workers who died during its construction. Paying special attention to Vladimir Carvalho and Adirley Queirós, this chapter examines a counter-visual cinema that is dedicated to what is invisible and even non-visual—such as the sounds of the periphery and the voices of workers whose memories contradict the official record.
Epilogue
Authors: Furtado Gustavo Procopio
Published: January 2019

This epilogue briefly discusses the interconnections between the three parts of the book and considers additional examples of recent films that deal with contemporary issues of social justice and post-dictatorship memory while maintaining an engagement with questions of the archive. As this book has explored in several contexts, Brazilian documentaries engage critically with archives while performing archival functions of their own—producing records of what would otherwise be lost and incorporating fragments of the present and the past that are preserved for the future. At the same time, films can be the vehicle for the de-archivization of documents and materials that are unearthed from unseen records and placed into public circulation as well as given new futures through their filmic inclusion. Functioning in liminal and transitional terrains, the documentary’s interaction with concepts of the archive and archival materials allows it to reflect on and intervene in the distribution of visibilities and invisibilities, centers and margins, silences and speech, forms of authority and forms of resistance, living memory and its preservation in fixed forms.
Collaboration
Authors: Iverson Jennifer
Published: January 2019

In 1953–1954, the WDR composers began building sounds with additive synthesis, a process of layering and recording sine tones using generators and magnetic tape. The young composers, including Stockhausen, Goeyvaerts, Koenig, Gredinger, and Pousseur, believed that this meticulous work, carried out in accordance with their own serial, proportional schemes, would yield complete sonic control. Much to their disappointment, the sounds they produced were unsophisticated. Moreover, the process was tedious and time consuming. They turned to each other to voice these frustrations, discussing their perceived failures and collaborating on experimental solutions. Eventually, the composers relinquished total control, and instead found technical shortcuts based on the scientist Meyer-Eppler’s teachings on psychoacoustics, or perception of sound. The composers’ initial additive synthesis compositions were in some ways aesthetic failures, but useful ones nevertheless. Through trial-and-error, composers learned more about both the studio machinery and human perception. Their successes and failures also reached far beyond the studio, as composers such as Ligeti translated electronic inspirations into compelling orchestral music.
Reclaiming Technology
Authors: Iverson Jennifer
Published: January 2019

In the transition from World War II to the Cold War, military innovations were domesticated and repurposed for civilian, scientific, and cultural advancement. Information theory is one such discourse—birthed from Shannon’s wartime cryptography work at Bell Labs—that burgeoned outward in a series of connected, interdisciplinary spirals in the 1950s. The WDR studio was a locale where wartime “technology” (defined broadly to include ideas) was reclaimed for cultural gain. After the initial experiments of the early 1950s, composers found themselves hemmed in by technological limits and unhappy with the serial, pointillist music they had so far made. Enter Meyer-Eppler, a former Nazi communications researcher turned phonetics scientist and electronic music expert, whose information-theoretic teachings helped composers solve their problems in several ways: to understand when their music had been too information dense; to incorporate gestures, approximations, and perceptible shapes; and to circumvent the technological limitations of the studio. The core concepts of information theory—perception, sampling and continuity, and probability—became the foundation for much mid-1950’s music from a range of composers in the studio and beyond. Working cooperatively, scientists, technicians, and composers participated in a process of culturally reclaiming information theory from its wartime origin, making it the conceptual foundation for 1950’s avant-garde music.
Controversy
Authors: Iverson Jennifer
Published: January 2019

In the late 1950s, several European and American composers engaged in the aleatory debates, which ask how chance elements can be incorporated into music. The controversy was most famously visible at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1958, where Cage antagonized Boulez, Stockhausen, and other European composers. This chapter reassesses the who, where, and how of the debates. A series of analyses demonstrate that European composers hardly rejected chance interventions in their electronic and acoustic works. Whereas Cage, Tudor, Brown, and other American experimentalists hewed toward performer-centered indeterminacy, European avant-gardists such as Pousseur, Ligeti, Boulez, and Stockhausen experimented with open and mobile forms and statistical interpolations. In fact, composers debated together how to incorporate chance from a range of inspirations, including literature, linguistic theory, and phonetics. Aleatory experimentation on both sides of the Atlantic was highly conditioned by questions of human and machinic agency, as composers grappled with prodigious performers like Tudor, as well as with the technological limits of the studio machines and the materiality of magnetic tape. Electronic studios in both the United States and Europe were rich sites in which composers negotiated the terms of the aleatory debates.
Epilogue
Authors: Iverson Jennifer
Published: January 2019

Midcentury electronic studios drove the development of high art music, but also fed back into the cultural sphere in many ways, proving consequential in scientific, architectural, and popular music domains. The phonetics–music collaborations, for instance, were carried even further in continuing phonetic, linguistic, and cognitive research in Cologne and beyond. The integrated serial designs of the WDR composers, and especially their optimistic utopian dreams, inspired architectural plans for a rebuilt German city that would coalesce around art-making spaces. In popular music spheres such as film sound and rock music, the avant-garde music of the WDR composers, as well as new electronic synthesizers, had significant impacts. These rich cross-pollinations are due in large part to the heterogeneous, laboratory-like structure of the WDR studio, a structure that was replicated in the electronic studios that sprung up in the United States, Asia, and Latin America. In summary, the WDR studio had far-reaching consequences that were both structural and aesthetic. Cultural wounds were exposed and salved as electronic music began to make progress in reclaiming wartime spaces, ideas, and technologies. The impacts of midcentury electronic music continue to reverberate today.
Feeling through the World
Authors: Reynolds Daniel
Published: January 2019

This chapter shows how perception of media exemplifies perception in general. It argues that perception of media and art is not an exception to how perception works outside of media use. It discusses the idea that perception is a form of bodily work, and not an automatic or passive phenomenon. This position is opposed to the many theories of mind and theories of media that treat perception as something that just happens automatically. It argues that video games exemplify this active perceptual relationship. The chapter discusses films and video games that pose perceptual and enactive challenges for their users. It shows how ecological theories of perception are appropriate for understanding video game play and understanding media use in general. It illustrates how changing environments and changing technological contexts lead to changes in perception.
Encounters at the Intraface
Authors: Reynolds Daniel
Published: January 2019

This chapter shows how the concept of the interface has been employed in media theory. It discusses theoretical expansions of the concept of the interface to encompass aspects of media use and media users. It argues that this “expanded interface” should be pushed still further, better to reflect the continuity of technology, user, and world. This chapter proposes the term “intraface” as a way of describing contact between media and their users. It shows how media use is transformative for both media and user, and how media use can thus transform users’ relationships to the environments in which media use occurs. These points are illustrated via a discussion of depictions of grief, in film and video games, in which grieving characters navigate and alter the environments in which they live.
#MishLife
Authors: Dugan Katherine
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the socio-cultural milieu of millennial-generation Catholic missionaries in the United States. It describes the twenty-first century college culture that missionaries know well and the Catholic subculture that surrounds FOCUS. Missionaries are also situated on a US Catholic landscape still wrestling with interpretations of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962–65). Demographically, these missionaries are predominantly white millennials and from the middle class. They are also “emerging adults” in the midst of a transition-filled stage of life. This introduction previews how missionaries’ prayer practices shape their Catholicism and concludes with a survey of the research methods used and the book’s historically informed ethnographic approach to Catholicism in the United States.
“Be Saints!”
Authors: Dugan Katherine
Published: January 2019

This chapter analyzes the relationships FOCUS missionaries develop with Catholic saints. These missionaries’ intimate relationships with saints root their Catholic identity in Catholic history while also reworking Catholic identity for the twenty-first century. Their devotional practices range from reading saints’ diaries to getting tattoos of quotes from saints to imitating a saint’s specific prayer style. Missionaries are introduced to particular saints by FOCUS and their co-missionaries. These young adults try to live their lives alongside the saints and reinterpret saints’ lives as instructions for living in the twenty-first century. Millennials communicate with saints and follow saints’ examples for how to be Catholic. Missionaries also work to inhabit a theology of sainthood that expects millennials to “be saints!” Devotionalism shapes the texture of missionaries’ Catholic identity.
“Feminine Genius” and “Authentic Masculinity”
Authors: Dugan Katherine
Published: January 2019

The question driving chapter 4 is how millennial missionaries embrace Catholicism’s strict gender complementarianism while also maintaining savvy among their peers with millennial-generation expectations of gender parity. Two interpretive frameworks illustrate why and how missionaries work to inhabit their “feminine genius” and become “authentically masculine.” “Complementary submissions” describes the many types of submission these missionaries enact—to one another and to God. “Gendering prayer” examines how, in particular, gendered prayer practices shape missionaries’ gender performances. The interwoven demands of complementary submissions and gendering prayer animate how these millennials enact alternative gender roles and how they flourish as Catholics in the contemporary United States.
“Party On”
Authors: Dugan Katherine
Published: January 2019

Chapter 6 examines how FOCUS works at the intersection of religious experience, Catholic exceptionalism, and millennial-generation cultural expectations to cultivate a collective dynamically orthodox Catholicism. At their large, national conferences, FOCUS relies on Catholicism’s sacramental imagination to make contemporary US Catholicism attractive to thousands of twenty-first-century college students. Through prayers, speakers, and peer pressure, this conference develops a community of Catholic millennials. The conferences also strive to cultivate a shared identity among attendees. FOCUS trains young adult Catholics to become dynamically orthodox Catholics who are conversant in their millennial culture, committed to following a strict interpretation of Catholic teachings, and excited to tell others about it.
“ ‘Go, Set the World on Fire!’ ”
Authors: Dugan Katherine
Published: January 2019

This concluding chapter describes how missionaries transition from on-campus evangelization to Catholic life after FOCUS and speculates about the impact of FOCUS on US Catholicism. A small percentage of former missionaries become priests and sisters. But, most FOCUS alumni get married, have children, join local parishes, and find work in positions ranging from corporate America to diocesan offices to service-oriented nonprofits. They join local moms’ groups and softball leagues and they start Bible studies and knitting clubs. These millennial-generation Catholics are trained and motivated to encourage Catholic identity in parishes across the country. US Catholicism is being reshaped by how these former missionaries integrate their years as missionaries into the Catholic pews.
Introduction
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores how a large-scale trade in human beings could take place in a particularly inhospitable, even dangerous, environment. In fact, everything depended on the local population, as illustrated by the fact that the three European forts which emerged, were situated not on the sea-shore, but some 4 kilometers inland. All told, it is clear that the slave trade constituted an authentic horror story, perhaps even (in a global context) an unrivalled one at that. The worst part may have been the infamous waiting and loading time, an aspect somewhat neglected in the existing literature.
Historiography, Sources and Epistemology
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

Apart from a discussion of the voluminous historiography (due in part to the fascination with the reputedly despotic and tyrannical Dahomey), this chapter addresses the central problem of the abundant but biased – because mainly European – sources. The second problem the chapter addresses is how to write African history with an inadequate Eurocentric conceptual framework, but the only one available so far. Finally, it looks at how the focus on Dahomey has resulted in a somewhat imbalanced historiography. A problem apart is constituted by the oral traditions; in many cases they serve as propaganda, but they provide valuable information about the world outlook, beliefs and fabric of the relevant societies.
Societal, Religious and Political Structures
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents a model for the understanding of the “traditional” societies of the Slave Coast and, in fact, of most of West Africa. It explores concepts which are not prevalent in the anthropological literature, and much less so in historical literature: “owners of the land” in the ritual sense; earth-priests; water priests; “ritual control of the land”; “contrapuntal paramountcy” (very central for our purpose and explained later); “sacred kingship”; stranger-kings; ancestor worship; fertility cults, etc. These all have marked religious connotations, implying that these were so-called sacred kinship societies, and that everything had to be explained and legitimized in religious or supranatural terms.
Some Concrete, Practical Implications
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents the religious beliefs, and more generally the world outlook, of the local inhabitants in a comparative African context. It explores these “sacred societies”, and the way in which rulers of Dahomey tried to get around the inbuilt constraints that impeded the establishment of a genuinely centralized polity ruled by an all powerful monarch/sacred king. Among those constraints was that of “contrapuntal paramountcy” which implies that the right of conquest did not apply; incoming conquerors had to reach a modus vivendi with the indigenous population, and had to rule with the consent and collaboration of that population, the “owners of the land”, who exercised ritual control over the land, a divinely sanctioned inalienable right. But the rulers of Dahomey, who refused to abide by the rules of the game, were not really successful in establishing an alternative source of legitimacy, and were, therefore, faced with a severe problem of legitimacy – one which never went away. It forced the rulers to resort to terror.
A Few Comments on Certain Economic Matters
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

This chapter argues that the economic behavior of the people of the Slave Coast cannot be adequately explained by concepts drawn from market economics or from Marxism for that matter. Instead, concepts such as ‘moral economy’ and ‘ostentatious economy’ are pertinent. There may have existed a market-based sector, but it was severely controlled and not allowed to expand. The central question is what happened to the profit from the slave trade. The author argues that this profit was not, and could not be, invested in productive undertakings.
The Database and the Slave Trade from the Slave Coast
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came from the Slave Coast. Between 1696 and 1730 – that is, before the rise of Dahomey – one-third of all slaves came from the Slave Coast, which was then the leading African supplier. But under Dahomey, and much to the dismay of the new rulers, that coast lost its predominant position. A relative decline set in, as the heavy-handed methods of the new masters of the coast turned out to be counterproductive.
Dahomey and its Neighbours
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

Dahomey emerged on the Abomey plateau in the north, possibly in the 1640s/50s. Those who established the new polity were probably a horde of outlaws who succeeded in lording it over the local population (most known as Guedevi). The author repeats that the newcomers did not try to establish any modus vivendi with the indigenes, as the traditional “rule” required, but instead eliminated them, appropriating for themselves the position of earth-priest (aïnon) and the ritual control of the land. They did of course go looking for respectable ancestors. Indeed, the ruling sib, that of the Agasuvi, claimed descent from the dynasty of Allada, and through Allada, ultimately from Tado. This was mere propaganda. The Agasuvi set about manipulating the kinship-type setup of the society, establishing a markedly militaristic polity. As conquerors they set aside another “rule of the game”, since they simply erased the overpowered entities from the map, incorporating them into Dahomey. The neighboring realm of the Wemenu was the first “victim”, constituting a decisive victory for Dahomey.
Convulsions Further West
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

The chapter seeks to map what happened west of Allada/Dahomey, on the Western or “Little” (peripheral) Slave Coast. It was conditioned in part by occurrences on the Gold Coast – the center of the European presence in West Africa – among the Twi-speaking Akan. The central event is the conquest on the Eastern Gold Coast of the Ga-Adangbe of Accra by Akwamu in 1677–82. It sent waves of refugees into the Western Slave Coast. Many of these Ga-Adangbe refugees supported themselves as bandits and mercenaries, putting pressure on the local Ewe population. In the region of Aneho-Little Popo the refugees turned into conquerors and established the polity of Glidji which held uneasy relations with Grand Popo. The impact of all this remained fairly limited and the interest of the Europeans remained equally limited. An unresolved question is to what extent and how Akwamu dabbled in the affairs of the Western Slave Coast.
Near Disaster
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

Tegbesu, king of Dahomey (1740–74), found himself at the helm of a polity on the brink of implosion and was also faced with formidable external foes. He managed to wade through by accentuating the regime of terror, possibly establishing something akin to a “totalitarian” state, complete with internal purges. Dahomey’s enemies (Oyo, the exiled Huedans, Glidji etc.) were unable to coordinate their efforts. The relationship with (and between) the Europeans remained strained, provoking their slow disentanglement. But Tegbesu did try to mend his relations with the Portuguese-Brazilians, even sending the first of what turned out to be many Dahomean embassies to the viceroy in Brazil.
The Long Goodbye
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

The ruler of Dahomey from 1797 (up until possibly 1818) was Adandozan. But his reign has been erased from oral memory and the local tradition. Why this is so, constitutes another mystery in Dahomean history. In any case, his reign and that of his successors saw the official but slow and tortuous disentanglement of the European and American powers from slavery, the slave trade, and the Slave Coast (until the colonial conquest). As the locals were opposed to the abolition of the slave trade, the result was for a while a moderately thriving so-called illegal slave trade with the connivance of the Brazilian authorities. In addition, a trade in palm-oil developed. If we add the final collapse of Oyo and the subsequent eruption of the Yoruba wars, we could say that prospects looked fairly promising for Dahomey. Dahomey was eclipsed, and in fact defeated at times, by the polities (some new) of the Yoruba in the east, principally Lagos and Abeokuta.
Epilogue
Authors: Fuglestad Finn
Published: January 2019

In the epilogue, the author laments the marginalization of African history even in this day of global history. He then puts forward the claim that the sorts of sacred/pagan societies we have encountered on the Slave Coast were in no way unique to that region and may have constituted a long-standing, widespread norm. The author reflects on the neglect Ouidah suffered from until the emergence of “ethnic tourism”, something which has not really been a success. Visitors from overseas prefer Senegal and especially Ghana, where there are many old European forts still standing, and on the sea-shore. This sharply contrasts with the Slave Coast, the epicentre of the slave trade in West Africa, where only one small fort is left standing, and inland at that.
Social Work Science in the Context of Social Work Ideas
Authors: Fong Rowena , Uehara Edwina
Published: January 2019

This chapter describes the evolution of social work science in relationship to the development of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative. The two initiatives, which took root in the field in close to the same period, created a mutually supportive, synergistic environment that benefitted both. Social work science, grounded in critical realism, embraces methodological approaches supportive of the fundamental principles of the social work profession and contributes to both the scientific identity needed for the stewards of the profession of social work and the scientific pipeline for the Grand Challenges for Social Work. An initiative of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Grand Challenges for Social Work delineate bold innovations and collective action powered by proven and evolving scientific interventions to address critical social issues facing society today. This chapter discusses how this work helps to both develop and derive support from social work science.
Rigor and Relevance in Social Work Science
Authors: Palinkas Lawrence A.
Published: January 2019

Rigor and relevance are essential features of social work science. However, they are often misperceived as being in opposition to one another. Conducting social work research that is both rigorous and relevant requires changes in traditional perspectives, priorities, and practices. The chapter begins with a discussion of the definition and standards of rigor as practiced by scientists and of relevance as practiced by practitioners and policymakers. It then illustrates differences in priorities assigned to rigor and relevance when deciding the extent to which evidence-based practices should be implemented with fidelity or adapted to meet the needs of specific populations, agencies, and contexts, and suggests solutions for accommodating both priorities. The chapter then examines the challenges that must be addressed in bringing rigor and relevance together and how these challenges can be addressed through accommodation and negotiation.
The Garden of Leaders
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

I derive an account of what future leaders should learn from an understanding of leadership as the ability to induce others to follow in a context of freedom—without the use of force or incentives. Such leadership is needed in every walk of life and in every profession; it is inherently ethical, but it needs to take into account the frequent ugliness of the human situation. This is an account of leadership for all seasons. From this I propose a curriculum for general education of all students in higher education, including literature, history, philosophy, social science, and communication skills—all presented in a way to support the growth of students toward leadership. In addition, I propose new ways of thinking about education outside the classroom, through sports and other organizations. I end with recommendations for teaching methods that are conducive to the development of students as leaders, especially teamwork assignments that give students opportunities to evaluate their own leadership.
Leading from Freedom
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

A good curriculum for leadership emerges from a discussion of what it is to exercise leadership. Leadership is the opposite of tyranny, so it helps to start by identifying the features of tyranny that students recognize in domineering teachers, coaches, band directors, or parents. Leadership in the real world often blends with authority; even the worst dictators have shown some leadership. We need to distinguish the tools of leadership from those of tyranny, and real-world examples often obscure that distinction, so we need to study the concepts and values involved. Leadership goes beyond carrots and sticks: leadership is most apparent when followers are most free not to follow but do anyway. When women have succeeded as leaders this is especially enlightening, as they have rarely used authority to do so.
Educating Billy
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

What sort of education would overcome the ignorance that is fatal to Billy Budd? He needs job training, of course, but also knowledge of evil in the real world. He needs to come to a better self-understanding. He needs to cultivate his independence as a counter to his obedience. He also needs to learn to communicate effectively under stress, and for that he will have to master the proper uses of guile. For the Billys in our classroom, I recommend wide experience outside the classroom, as well as training appropriate to their ambitions. Inside the classroom, I recommend classic readings about evil, such as can be found in Thucydides and Machiavelli. I also recommend the most important texts in the history of ethics, especially by Plato and Kant.
Facing Evil in Ourselves
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

Leaders must know themselves in order to measure their limitations as well as their capacity for evil. Such knowledge can be a corrective for leaders’ behavior, as it appears to have been in the case of George Washington’s treatment of prisoners of war. It can also be grounds for compassion over the wrongdoing of others, as illustrated (by its absence) in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Compassion is compatible with justice; it differs from clemency and pity and consists in an understanding of other people’s feelings. Compassion is easily lost by people in authority. And it is easily blocked toward a group’s outsiders. Leaders are responsible for failures of compassion in their teams (as occurred at Abu Ghraib). Socrates dedicated his life to the pursuit of self-knowledge and helped others along the way to realizing their own ignorance.
Facing Fear, Showing Courage
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

Leaders need to face the enemy with courage, but also their superiors, their friends, and their followers. It takes courage to speak up to your superiors, as well as to listen to criticism from your followers—yet you must do both. Machiavelli says that if you must choose, choose to be feared rather than to be loved. He neglects an alternative that calls for special courage. Since you cannot control other people’s feelings, address your own. Do you have the courage to love and respect your followers? Last is the courage to leave office, to take turns leading and following. Such courage is essential to democracy. By showing courage you give your followers something in you to admire; perhaps it is better for a leader to be admired than to be loved or feared.
Finding Courage
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

Courage appears to be the ability not to be deterred by fear or danger from doing what you ought to do, but this definition leaves many questions unanswered. No one at the human level has perfect courage. For human beings, courage is mainly a commitment to keep developing this sort of ability in a variety of contexts. You cannot develop this or any other virtue entirely on your own. To develop courage, you should have good examples among older people and a community that supports courage. You also need to be immune to false ideas about courage, such as equating it with fearlessness (a quality that is simply stupid). You should also avoid being taken in by false thoughts of cowardice, when others dare you to do bad or stupid things. It is not cowardice to hold back from action for fear of doing wrong.
Performing Leadership
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

Leaders often need to project good qualities whether they have them or not. The study of history compels us to this conclusion: Most great leaders are great performers. Sometimes leaders must show more confidence than they actually feel in order to inspire their followers to action. Doing this does not have to count as the bad sort of hypocrisy. This chapter defines various types of hypocrisy and marks off those that a leader should avoid. Students should consider what qualities they can honestly aspire to; these should be qualities they hope to model for their followers, even if they know they are not perfect in these areas. The study of literature can help us understand hypocrisy, Molière’s plays especially.
Good Ears, Strong Voices
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

Leadership is possible only when a team’s goals, as well as methods for achieving those goals, are in alignment. To bring this about, leaders must understand the goals of their team members and bring them into alignment through communication. That is why leaders need to be able to listen well before they speak and then speak powerfully. Colleges are well suited for teaching communication, but they must teach forms of communication that will be useful to students later on. In most cases, that does not include the academic paper. Teachers need to be aware of the kinds of communication that will engage students in their lives after college. Good communication requires practice and, above all, good character. Motivational speeches are well known, but the most powerful motivator seems to be a good example.
Tyrant Teaching
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

None of us professors is as bad as Ionesco’s professor in The Lesson. He kills his students, literally, and gets away with it, thanks to his housekeeper. We, at our worst, merely kill a student’s desire to learn. Administrations tolerate tyrant teachers because of their excellent research, and students put up with them in order to garner A’s. But a tyrannical classroom is no place to develop leadership unless students band together to rebel against it. Professors need to relax their authority; they also need to pull back from trying to cover assigned material. The goal is not for the professor to cover the subject, but for students to learn it.
Teaching Ethical Failure
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: January 2019

All teachers teach ethics by the examples they set, so professors must make sure they set good examples. In preparing people for business or war, teachers may fall into the trap of teaching people to take moral holidays, as Sophocles shows in his play, the Philoctetes. Teachers must also realize that they communicate values to their students in more subtle ways. The topics they avoid are significant; shunting ethics to one side or leaving it to the end of a course sends a message. “Gorgias syndrome” means the kind of teaching that puts the focus on winning while ignoring moral values. Placing emphasis on quantitative goals can also eclipse true values. On all topics, professors should believe in the value of what they teach for their students and the community.