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We discuss how making the influence of late capitalism overt not only better enables the integration of academic literacies support and strengthens the development of critical analysis skills, but better enables students to actively participate in the construction of both knowledge and a vibrant, joyful learning community. Drawing on the work of the social theorist, Theodor W Adorno, enables students to challenge the treatment of anything - whether a word or a person - independently of its context. Adorno’s approach explores an object’s multiple connections to context by experimenting with varying combinations (or ‘constellations’) of concepts and discourses. His technique, applied in the analysis and critique of readings, whereby students using wall-to-wall whiteboards draw (and re-draw) constellations of their interpretations of those readings, enables them to actively engage in the construction of contextualised knowledge, and to develop their learning and professional identities, in playful, promising, creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of physicians may vary in degree of inter-physician dominance. We distinguish physicians who are already licensed (most dominant) from newly licensed foreign physicians (least dominant) and newly licensed U.S. trained physicians (of intermediate dominance). We regress state characteristics reflecting different types of rewards separately on the location distribution of each type of physician. We find that those most dominant physicians' locations are best predicted by affluence and urbanization and the least dominant physicians' locations by the availability of jobs. We conclude that the addition of the dominance concept allows a more meaningful analysis of physician location than is afforded by previous ecological and economic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comment on the paper of G. Edward Stephan to tests of the size-density hypothesis and argues that such tests are inconclusive with respect to the hypothesis. Stephan advances a theory of segmental growth based on Durkheim in an explanation of county size variation. The latter argues that as populations move into previously unexploited areas, factors of governmental efficiency force the creation of new political units of smaller area. Thus the size of political units during expansion should correspond inversely to population density. Data were presented to support the hypothesis. In later articles, Stephan and Tedrow tested the one-time correspondence of population density and geopolitical unit size. Data will be advanced to demonstrate a false-positive affirmation of the size-density hypothesis. Stephan recognizes the inconclusiveness of the tests on the basis of causal direction and the lack of "population potential" measures. In explanation of population distributions by segmentary growth, the sociological perspective assumes that population moves into relatively featureless landscapes.