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A critical debate has blossomed within the field of research policy, science and technology studies, and philosophy of science regarding the possible benefits and limitations of allocating extramural grants using a lottery system. The most common view among those supporting the lottery idea is that some form of modified lottery is acceptable, if properly combined with peer review. This means that partial randomization can be applied only after experts have screened the pursuit-worthiness of all submitted proposals and sorted out those of lowest quality. In the present paper, I will argue against the use of partial lotteries or partial randomization and instead promote use of a pure lottery in combination with a radical increase in block funding. The main reason for holding this position is that a partial lottery cannot solve the problems inherent in the current funding system, which is based on grant competitions and peer review. A partial lottery cannot decrease the enormous time-waste, reduce the uneven distribution of time between researchers, neutralize expert biases or mitigate academic power asymmetries. Instead, we need a stronger focus on improving general time management in academia by implementing a more holistic model for organizing research opportunities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charles Thorpe argues sociology lacks a "language of society as a whole." He holds that positivist sociologists de-legitimated holistic theories or broad normatively oriented "social theories," leaving the discipline without discursive means to critically assess and deliberate its overall directions and those of society. Thorpe does not address holistic theory directly or explain how it differs analytically from standard "sociological theory." My intent is to clarify these matters by extending facets of his argument to illuminate the interdependence between holistic theorizing and empirical-historical social science, which is necessary to create the type of "reflexive sociology" that Thorpe argues would make sociology more cosmopolitan and capable of addressing the turbulent sociopolitical conditions in the interregnum after neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of spirituality and martial arts through an in-depth examination of Shaolin Kung Fu as practiced within the Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province, China. Conducting fieldwork from April 2018 to August 2020, the study employs theories of practice and embodiment to understand how religious teachings are interwoven into physical movements and martial practices. This phenomenological analysis of bodily movement integrates the physical body with the sense of self, highlighting the relationship between individual habitus and the agency of the moving body, referred to as the "lived body." It argues that Shaolin martial artists engage in a form of dynamic embodiment, where Chan Buddhist doctrines are embedded within the "lived body," influencing both movement and perception. This process allows practitioners to interpret and interact with their socio-cultural environment through a religious lens, highlighting the deep connection between spiritual beliefs and bodily actions. The paper presents a comprehensive approach, combining intensive participant observation, historical analysis, and a close look at both the communal and individual aspects of monastic life and learning. By examining narratives, daily routines, and pedagogical methods, the study reveals how the socio-cultural setting of the monastery fosters collective habitus and transforms the individual habitus of practitioners. It shows how this transformation contributes to the development of a spiritual dimension in their martial performance. By highlighting the link between the habitus, the lived body, and the dynamic embodiment, the paper extends the current discourse on embodiment, offering a novel perspective on the relationship between spirituality, culture, and physical practice in the context of Shaolin Kung Fu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Ethics of War and the Force of Law, Uwe Steinhoff argues "[t]he legitimate authority criterion should be abandoned." (33) His position explicitly rejects the views of those defending legitimate authority as both indispensable and prior to the other criteria of the just war theory. In a subtle rejoined to these views, Steinhoff contends these accounts misrepresent the tradition and can provide no effective justification for retaining the criterion. Indeed, the criterion proves redundant. Much of Steinhoff's analysis is compelling. I shall argue, however, that despite correctly representing the tradition as more "pluralist" regarding possible authorization of war beyond the state, Steinhoff's rejection of legitimate authority fails to account for its primary justification, namely, as identifying the proper agent through which to gauge the moral action involved in this particular use of force. My essay will advance this view by vindicating Steinhoff's insight about the plurality of possible actors for whom "war" is appropriate necessitates the criterion of legitimate authority rather than making it redundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the value of sustainability, the transition towards more sustainable economies and societies remains a challenge around the world. Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by 'filling gaps' and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabilise innovations, depoliticise sustainability issues by reifying certain concepts or approaches and reinforce social hierarchies and patterns of exclusion that can undermine any transformative potential and bolster the unsustainable status quo. This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to interrogating what we see as the ambiguous, yet critical, role played by civil societies in sustainability politics. This introductory paper intends not only to draw attention to some of the arguments, theories and challenges found in each of the individual papers collected here, but also to pull on the common threads that run through them, as well as to unpick some of the different uses of the key terminology that they employ. We aim, moreover, to highlight the inevitable tension between the 'democratic side' and the 'dark side' of civil society and its politics of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While victimization is as old as human history, the notion of victimhood as currently understood is a relatively recent phenomenon. Over the last several decades, the notion of victimhood has been increasing discussed both within academia and the wider public, a trend that has intensified in recent years. In order to gain a clearer vision of this social phenomenon, the current piece follows the lead of Georg Simmel, and identifies a new Simmelian social type—the Victim. After discussing Simmel's understanding of social types and tracing the origins of the Victim, we examine some of the characteristics of this new social type. While the Victim is best understood on a high level of abstraction—as are all social types—a richer appreciation of the emergence and nature of the Victim will help us to better understand current discussions around victimhood in both academia and the wider public. These philosophical and sociological reflections on the nature of the Victim can thus be of help for better understanding a social phenomenon of considerable importance in today's world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing social inequalities represent a major concern associated with the Digital Revolution. The article tackles this issue by exploring how welfare regulations and redistribution policies can be rethought in the age of digital capitalism. It focuses on the history and enduring crisis of social citizenship rights in their connection with technological changes, in order to draw a comparison between the industrial and the digital scenario. The first section addresses the link between the Industrial Revolution and the genesis of social rights. It describes the latter as a legal 'machine' designed to offset the imbalances produced by the technological movement of industrialization. The second and third sections introduce the notion of 'industrial citizenship' to describe the architecture of social rights in mature industrial societies and to contend that European systems of welfare are still largely modeled on an industrial standard. The fourth part investigates the impact of the Digital Revolution on this model of social citizenship. It identifies debates on basic income as a major trajectory for redesigning welfare regulations in a post-industrial era, and the digital user as a crucial emerging subject of rights. The final part explores how digital users could be entitled to social rights as data suppliers. To this end, it introduces the idea of 'digital-social rights' resulting from the incorporation of welfare and redistribution principles into emerging digital rights. Hence, it proposes a legal-political framework for the redistribution of the revenues generated by data in the form of a 'digital basic income' for citizens of cyberspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Hannah Arendt's persistent and unfashionable rejection of the usefulness of compassion in politics, a rejection that runs through her entire philosophical and political project. It relies on a close reading of On Revolution, paying particular attention to the fictional narratives she relied upon to make her case—Herman Melville's Billy Budd and Dostoyevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor," along with her later interpretation of Dostoyevsky's The Possessed. Her controversial claim is that goodness and compassion in their purest forms are naturally subversive of the political realm, which must entertain a dialogue between various opinions. Compassion is impatient with mere talk and, she implies, will prefer instead the direct means of violence or coercion. Arendt's overarching point is that those who love the good (and their own souls) may not care enough for the world proper. Her countervailing ideal is amor mundi, a concept buttressed by her reading of Machiavelli, and fleshed out in the example of Max Weber, who also displayed a preference for an "ethic of responsibility" for the world over an "ethic of absolute ends." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, Willem Halffman and Hans Radder published in Minerva a paper, in which they diagnosed that our universities are colonized by "The Wolf of management." Using the example of the reforms afflicting the Polish academic world, I show that this colonization has intensified, and apart from the processes described in the aforementioned paper, it brought consequences that have changed academic culture: research is subjected to publication policy, many academic activities are treated as a hobby, researchers must be in a stand-by mode to react quickly to new regulations, and responsibility for the institutional prestige is collective. I argue that the attempts to reduce research results into numbers and algorithms stem from a quest for objectivity and a mistrust of academics' (and the Wolf's) ability to pass fair judgments. The Wolf tries to realize a utopian dream: the building of a structure that by necessity secures the productivity of research, which in turn brings the prestige of institutions, ultimately measured by rankings. Yet, prestige is not an epistemic but rather a political value, and when academics are forced to aim at prestige, vital academic values are endangered. Any efficient resistance to the Wolf requires grassroots work on the part of academics. By reconsidering the nature of research and education as well as their role in society, academics might be able to develop viable alternatives to the "productivist university." This requires cooperation with broader society. As such, the alternative of either remaining in the ivory tower or submitting to the Wolf is a false dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice system (limited court capacity and the increasingly sophisticated armament of splintering drug trafficking organizations) limit the effectivity of Mexican states to deter organized crime style homicide. Court capacity, expressed by increasing sentencing rates in states where the oral court system was institutionalized, remains insufficient against the post-2006 organized crime related homicide epidemic. The illegal arms market, combined with long-standing deficits in firepower between organized crime and municipal police forces, limit the state's capacity to alter the arms balance toward policing forces. Taken together, limited court capacity and the tactical imbalance of weapons held by drug trafficking organizations create a vicious cycle which continually perpetuates state ineffectiveness to deter and punish organized crime style homicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity and ethics in the learning of mathematics is a major topic for mathematics education research. The study of ethics and injustice in relation to epistemic pursuits, such as mathematics, is receiving a great deal of interest within contemporary philosophy. We propose a bridging project between these two disciplines, importing key ideas of "epistemic injustice" and "ethical orders" from philosophy into mathematics education to address questions of ethics, equity, values and norms. We build on Dawkins and Weber's (Educ Stud Math 95:123–142, 2017) "apprenticeship model" of learning proofs and proving, which says that mathematics education should reflect the practices of research mathematicians. Focusing on the norms and values implicit in mathematical proving, we argue that deploying this model unreflectively can lead to "epistemic injustices" in which learners are disadvantaged based on their cultural or class background. We propose thinking about the problem in terms of Max Weber's "ethical orders", and the clash that arises between the ethical orders of mathematics and the existing ethical orders of the learners and teachers of mathematics. Weber's lesson is that sometimes these clashes have no overarching resolution, and so the mathematics classroom may also have to settle for tailored pragmatic measures to combat individual cases of epistemic injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a theoretical framework for demystifying the causes of the dysfunction and disorder of the present Chinese market economy. It is posited that Max Weber's classification of the two potentially conflicting ethics he associates with the behaviour of politicians, the ethic of conviction and the ethic of responsibility offers the basis for a more thorough and accurate account of the dysfunction and disorder within China's current markets and political economy. Indeed, this paper contends that cultural determinism and neo-institutional economics fail to capture the contextual factors influencing the transition from the Maoist era of state control to contemporary China's market led economy (following the opening-up of the country since 1978) than a wider reaching Weberian analysis of the contextual factors involved might achieve. This paper proposes that the distinct ethical foundation for the Chinese market economy is based upon the ethic of conviction, which is the continuity of the philosophical underpinnings of the national ideology during the Maoist era. In turn, this has led to the distortion of the incentives for firms in China to provide high-quality goods and services. This paper also conducts a study of the ethical foundations of the present Chinese economy from the comparative perspectives of Smith's concept of the market economy and from a Confucian perspective. Through this comparative examination, it will be demonstrated that the ethical feature of the modern market economy, stemming from Smith and Confucianism, is based on the ethic of responsibility, which is a mutually opposed concept to the ethic of conviction; therefore, firms whose business ethics are founded upon the ethic of "responsibility" are less prone to deceive consumers as they adhere to a contractual "responsibility" towards the consumer that many Chinese firms still see as of secondary importance as the ethic of "conviction" still dominating the policies, society and culture of the centralist economic post-Maoist state. This paper further reveals that larger firms tend to have more corporate social responsibility due to their established branding effect, thus reflecting a more pervasive sense of the ethic of responsibility and vice versa for firms of a smaller size. This paper concludes with an economic model acting as a quantitative framework which further supports the theories proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that universities all around Europe have taken on a more market-oriented approach that has changed the core of academic work life. This has led to a precarious situation for many junior scholars, who have to seek research funding to cover their own wages in an increasingly fierce competition over scarce resources. Thus, at present, research funding is a Gordian knot that must be cut by each individual researcher. As a response to this situation, some Swedish universities provide guidance to junior scholars on how to navigate in an increasingly entrepreneurial academia through open lectures by senior and successful professors. In this paper, I study these lectures as socialization processes and the role of symbolic violence in the justification of a competitive academic work ethos as well as a pragmatic acceptance of the prevailing funding conditions. The aim is to explore the role of a subtle form of power wielding that is not immediately understood or recognized as power, but that nonetheless reproduces a market-like behavior and legitimizes a career system marked by uncertainty, shortcomings and contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gusfield (1963) describes constitutional prohibition as symbolically representing status and not concerned with social control. The importance of this perspective for the prohibition of alcohol rests in the rural, Protestant, native segments of the United States symbolically demonstrating their values publicly through law over that of the urban, Catholic, immigrants. This case study tests the symbolic properties of constitutional prohibition through an analysis of the small German-American, rural, winemaking community of Hermann, MO. I analyze Hermann's major English newspaper, the Advertiser-Courier, during two time periods: 1908 to 1911 and 1918 to 1921 to understand the changes in legislative reform and the importance of the social environment for each time period. In order to demonstrate the limitations of a strictly symbolic understanding of constitutional prohibition through Gusfield's (1963) status politics paradigm, I utilize the theoretical tools of structural foundations and triggering events (Galliher (1980) 2012) to assess the social origins of prohibition legislation in Missouri. This perspective further demonstrates the instrumental aspects of social control involved during the passage of this law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political philosophical work on whistleblowing has thus far neglected the role of journalists. A curious oversight, given that the whistleblower's objective - informing the public about government wrongdoing - can typically not be realized without the media. The present article, therefore, aims to start remedying this neglect by exploring some of the most pressing questions. Accordingly, the paper will be structured as follows: Section 1 will explain why the authorities have treated whistleblowers far more harshly than the journalists who publish their disclosures. Still, the freedom of expression of media workers is (and ought to be) less extensive than that of ordinary individuals. Section 2 will explain why by arguing that the freedom of expression of the press, contrary to that of individuals, is not an unconditional good; instead, it is good merely instrumentally. Section 3 considers and refutes an argument for a more expansive press freedom based on the marketplace of ideas model and, in doing so, also discusses some important differences between the ethics of the traditional and the new online media. Often journalists, like whistleblowers, will justify their publications based on leaked classified documents by appealing to the public interest. Yet, this is problematic for two reasons: (1) the public interest is never clarified; and (2) this argument overlooks the fact that the public interest can also be a reason for not publishing about leaked classified documents, even if the leaks are verified (in the interest of national security, for example). Accordingly, Section 5 sets out to clarify the public interest. Section 4 then discusses two case studies – one concerning unverified leaks, and one concerning verified leaks – in order to demonstrate how we might employ the concept of the public interest in order to determine the permissibility of publishing about leaked classified information in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over one hundred years after Max Weber delivered his lecture "Science as a Vocation," his description of the work of the physician in a disenchanted world still resonates. As a chronically ill patient who interacts with physicians frequently, I struggle with reconciling my understanding of my ill body with how my physician makes sense of my illness. My diagnosis created an existential crisis that caused me to search for meaning in my embodied experience, but I soon learned there is little room for such a search within modern biomedicine. Instead, I turned to fine art to help me make sense of my ill body and its purpose in my life. With the aid of my printmaker sister, Darian Goldin Stahl, I have transformed the magnetic resonance images of my body into works of art, which help to re-enchant my body and give purpose to my illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law and economics is a significant field of analysis in legal studies and in economics, although there have been a number of controversies about how best to understand the relationship between economic relations and the regulatory role of law. Rather than surveying this field and offering a criticism of various theories and engaging in the dispute between different perspectives on the relationship between the two, in this article I take an approach rooted in neither mainstream economics nor in formal legal philosophy. Rather drawing on a recent well-rounded statement of behavioural economics and a synthesis of previous work on the narrative of the rule of law, I seek to explore how and why contemporary capitalism seems to have become so tied up with the rule of law, and what this might tell us more generally about the role of law in market relations. This analysis goes beyond the relatively commonplace observation that capitalism requires property rights, contract law and market institutionalisation to function, to ask ‘what exactly is it about the rule of law that seems so necessary to establishing and maintaining market exchange(s)?’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology is facing difficult times: fragmentation within and between regional, national and international academic communities remains high while global interdependence and instability increase generating societal threats of unprecedented scale (progressing inequality, migration, ecological, political and economic crises). Ethical issues are very important for comprehending both: processes within sociology and transformations in the world around. Thus, we postulate the global ethical challenge for sociology, which requires: first, formulating the ethical stance of a sociologist towards the objects of disciplinary inquiry and the potentially involved social groups and, second, elaborating research tools adequate for studying the ethical dimension of the complex social reality. We demonstrate that dominating discourses in the current professional communities are largely inadequate and cannot effectively address this challenge. Drawing on Pitirim Sorokin’s theoretical heritage, as well as on John Meyer and Volker Schmidt ideas, we propose an alternative project of global sociology, emphasizing, first, solidarity-oriented and ethically contextualized sociological communication with various extra-academic audiences; and, second, sociologists’ ethical competence in exploring various localities and dimensions of global modernity with its progressively intersecting different (and sometimes contrasting) ethical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical analysis is developed of the dominant meanings of value in marketised higher education. In policy terms, this has become informed by the logics of the measured market whereby value has become synonymous with economic return and institutional accountability. The notion of value is one which permeates many discussions on the purpose of higher education and the perceived benefits it confers onto individuals and society as a whole. This, however, remains largely implicit and unearthing the specific meaning of value (and values) clearly presents challenges. This article critically examines a variety of concepts relevant to discussion of the value of higher education, including the relationship between value and quality, consumerism, goods and performativity. In each case, it unpacks their meanings and implications for the relationship between students and institutions, particularly at a time when this is seen to be increasingly transactional. It then outlines an alternative value framing to the utilitarian ‘value for money’ so prevalent in much market-driven policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a normative model for the assessment of the exercise of power by Big Pharma. By drawing on the work of Steven Lukes, it will be argued that while Big Pharma is overtly highly regulated, so that its power is indeed restricted in the interests of patients and the general public, the industry is still able to exercise what Lukes describes as a third dimension of power. This entails concealing the conflicts of interest and grievances that Big Pharma may have with the health care system, physicians and patients, crucially through rhetorical engagements with Patient Advocacy Groups that seek to shape public opinion, and also by marginalising certain groups, excluding them from debates over health care resource allocation. Three issues will be examined: the construction of a conception of the patient as expert patient or consumer; the phenomenon of disease mongering; the suppression or distortion of debates over resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism" by Rajiv Malhotra is presented. It mentions the objective of the book to refute Western Universalism's claims that it will lead the entire world to its desirable destination. It notes that the author posits a crucial distinction between the synthetic unity that gave rise to an intellectualistic worldview in the West and an integrative unity that gave rise to an oriented worldview based on Dharma.

This Article examines the idea of betraying or being disloyal to one's own country as a matter of criminal law. First, the Article defines crimes of disloyalty as involving failures to prioritize one's own country's interests through participating in efforts to directly undermine core institutional resources the country requires to protect itself or otherwise advance its interests by force. Second, this Article canvasses various potential arguments for the existence of a duty not to be disloyal to one's own country and argues that they fail. Finally, this Article argues that we should interpret the wrong of disloyalty crimes as involving not betrayal or infidelity, but transgression of political boundaries. That is, the relevant wrong here is rooted in the ideas of separation of powers and assignments of roles between citizens and the state, and we should thus conceive crimes of disloyalty as crimes of usurpation and evaluate the moral rights and wrongs of such crimes accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author comments on the misconception of liberal on conservatism teaching. He mentions liberals have troubled in understanding about social conservatives who feel gay marriage may threaten family life. Further he comments on his field research among grass-roots conservatives in the era of the 1980s. He also mentions the issues of homosexual rights have been pressed by liberal activists as a matter of social justice. He also comments on the take of liberal on same-sex marriage.

This paper explores the connections between scientific inquiry, scholarly reflexivity, and enlightenment. I argue that the free intellectual inquiry essential to the practice of science is a fundamental constituent and enactment of human dignity, freedom, and democracy. The expansion and diffusion of these values are both unavoidable in the modern age and immensely valuable, even if there are of course many obstacles to their expansion and no guarantees of their ultimate realization. This process of scientific inquiry also contains the seeds of a discourse ethic with broader ramifications for public enlightenment and perhaps even democratization. I develop these themes through a dialogue with some of the writings of Professor Yu Keping on the topics of Chinese political science and 'incremental democracy.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than previous mild recessions, the current global crisis calls into question the merits of a model that held sway for almost three decades. Celebrated in the nineties in a 'National Bestseller', which even President Clinton considered to be a 'blueprint' 'for all officials to read', the book- Reinventing Government-preached the reform of government in private sector ways. In stark contrast to Bureaucracy, which they considered 'Bankrupt'. Authors Osborne and Gaebler () promoted Debureaucratization, which they summed up as decentralization, deregulation, downsizing and outsourcing. It is time to revisit the assumptions of the Osborne-Gaebler model that has demonstrably failed. More than the model, however, the ways of its promotion in the market of ideas invites a word of caution. It prompted simplistic distortions, which typically followed from superficial analyses of Weber's seminal opus (Timsit :864-875). This paper reconsiders these two contrasting models, though not in 'black' and 'white'. Rather, the two are explored in dialectical terms, as outcomes of shifting ideologies, often taken to extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the previous article (Part I) we briefly introduced the Pareto problematique, selective criticism of it, and Generalized Game Theory’s (GGT) approach to the Pareto optimization problematique. GGT stresses the embeddedness and multilevel character of social games; its application to optimization problems leads to a conceptualization of two-phase societal procedures to achieve agreements for change—or, conversely, maintaining—states of the world. In this part two general types of games are distinguished analytically in the 2-phase process: on the one hand, elementary strategic games take place among agents in the first phase in diverse social settings, and, on the other hand, regulative conflict resolution or collective improvement games are organized as procedures in the second phase. Many elementary strategic games end in stalemates, difficult-to-resolve conflicts, and non-optimal outcomes such as occur in collective action or prisoner dilemma type games. This type of situation is the point of departure for the activation of a meta-game regulatory procedure for resolving stalemates, conflicts, and non-optimal states in order to accomplish societal improvements and efficiencies. In a word, the paper identifies and models institutionalized regulatory mechanisms that resolve conflicts, inefficient or non-optimal states, and disequilibria; and lead thereby to solution or resolution of Pareto optimization problems in the face of general non-unanimity or conflict about the outcomes. In addition, the article present more detailed models of the adjudication, negotiation, and democratic procedures introduced in the previous article and discusses their legitimacy bases, the limits of such societal procedures, and the accomplishment of societal efficiencies through the procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What factors explain stakeholders’ perceptions of scientists in environmental politics? Questionnaire data are used to examine stakeholders’ views of scientific experts in the context of Lake Tahoe environmental policy from 1984 to 2001. Stakeholders’ perceptions of scientists have remained the same over time – despite a shift from adversarial to collaborative policymaking and after decades of mounting scientific evidence showing water quality declines. On average, stakeholders perceive scientists with limited influence on Lake Tahoe environmental policy and view them with mixed levels of skepticism. Stakeholders’ evaluation of scientists is best explained by their beliefs about development versus the environment. Stakeholders in favor of more land development express distrust of scientists and negatively evaluate university researchers and consultants. Stakeholders in favor of environmental protection are more likely to trust scientists and positively evaluate university researchers and consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rights and sovereignty are generally construed as disputatious, if not entirely incompatible; the liability of the former constrains the license of the latter. This article challenges the certitude of that notion and argues that democratic, isocratic, and humanistic elements, or what may be thought of as precursors of human rights, are actually embedded in early theories of sovereignty, including what I call Bodin's hierarchical, Althusius' confederative, Hobbes' singular, and Hegel's progressive/constitutional sovereignty. Despite the differences in governmental structure to which each attaches sovereignty, each disassociates sovereignty from its agents (who does the work of supreme authority) and aligns it to its end (the good of citizens). From them I derive eight these to ground a democratic, human rights friendly conception of sovereignty, which aids in bridging the divide between human rights advocacy and sovereign defenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes the "public intellectual" trope as a theoretical case study, and traces how it has been used in the elite public sphere of the contemporary United States since its coining in 1987. The analysis challenges the notion that the "public intellectual" is primarily about broad democratic publics. It documents instead how the trope is used to frame meaning and practice within specific intellectual publics, namely science, higher education, and journalism. By focusing on the play of tropes around the "public intellectual" and examining the authoritative cultural members who use the trope, the trope analysis identifies principles and strategies under contest in the journalistic, academic, and political fields of the contemporary United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a critical examination of some of the prevailing arguments for establishing a criminology of genocide, this paper seeks to demonstrate the limitations of mainstream criminological frameworks for understanding genocide. Moreover, it argues that, if we are to move beyond a mechanical application of the criminological canon to this thus far understudied area of criminal behaviour, we must develop a critical and reflexive criminological approach to the topic of genocide. In this manner, the analysis presented here follows in the footsteps of Bauman [Bauman (1989). Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press] by asking: what can genocide teach us about criminology? In addressing this question, three guidelines for a future criminology of genocide are proposed. Briefly put, a criminology of genocide should be: (1) reflexive and non-redemptive; (2) ‘undisciplined’ and critical; and, (3) responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore the contribution from social anthropology to the medical ethical debates about the use of informed consent in research, based on blood samples and other forms of tissue. The article springs from a project exploring donors’ motivation for providing blood and healthcare data for genetic research to be executed by a Swedish start-up genomics company. This article is not confined to empirical findings, however, as we suggest that anthropology provides reason to reassess the theoretical understanding of autonomy as generally defined by Beauchamp and Childress. Careful consideration of the trust expressed by donors through the act of donation, furthermore, suggests that there is reason to redirect the ethical scrutiny from informed consent to issues concerning institutional arrangements and social responsibility. In particular, we suggest that an anthropological approach could facilitate a reconsideration of the political implications of using informed consent as a regulatory practice in tissue-based research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s the labor movement underwent a major transformation in an attempt to confront the challenges facing organized labor, most notably a precipitous membership decline--in the private sector, membership is currently at a post-Great Depression low. Despite the enthusiastic response among unionists and scholars alike to this revitalization project, as Zald and Berger (1978) note, change within formal organizations is often a contentious process, as competing interests struggle for control. The current labor movement is no exception: Significant conflict surrounds the issue of new organizing activities. While this period is certainly interesting for the level of open debate occurring over the future of the movement, it is not unique as a time of heightened tensions among unionists. Herein I describe debates, both historical and present, over organizing goals and tactics. In order to draw parallels between the past and present, I offer a theoretical account of why organizing is such a controversial topic. Initial support for these explanations, drawn from quotes from unionists and observers of the movement alike, indicates that the current turmoil in the labor movement is similar to that which occurred in other important periods and that the consequences of the decisions made today regarding organizing can have significant ramifications for the movement's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining terrorism solely as anti-state activity is in the ascendant in the aftermath of 9/11. Yet the existence of death squads – paramilitary groups involved in state-sponsored or state-tolerated terror against political opponents – reveals that the state can also be terrorist. Most commonly, death squads exist in non-democratic states, and most of the literature on death squads focuses on such societies. This article seeks to examine the circumstances in which death squads and democracy can coexist, looking specifically at the case of loyalist paramilitary violence and state collusion in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses one of the best known of sociologists Michael Burawoy's works on "public sociology," the version of his presidential address published in the American Sociological Review under the title "For Public Sociology." It presents a proposal for resolving the conflicts that have arisen among sociologists of different orientations. Burawoy sees possibilities for "reciprocal interdependence" among four sociologies, which he calls "professional sociology," "policy sociology," "public sociology," and "critical sociology."

Perhaps the most engaging theories in historical sociology have been those pertaining to the rationalization of Western society. In particular, both Max Weber and Michelle Foucault point to the unique nature of societal rationalization in the early modern period, a thorough-going upheaval both in forms of social organization and in individual subjectivity. These correlative changes led to the nature of the modern state and its citizens. One example used by both is the rationalization of warfare. Close attention to the question of rationalization and the history of infantry warfare, however, suggests that far from representing a watershed change from non-rationalized to rationalized war, the early-modern period was more like other rapid expansions of armies based on recruitment of commoners, and had little to do with the distinctive characteristics of the emerging nation-states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on career prospects for graduate students in sociology. The author suggests that the probation period of assistant professor is the time that many young sociologists find a comfort zone and stay in it or abandon the profession. The measure of what is important in social science is a mix of professional accomplishment and broader public recognition and acknowledgement. Some sociologists prefer professional achievement with little recognition while the ambition of others demands greater recognition than a profession alone can provide. Association with professional peers can provide the self-assurance of achievement and the endeavor to write for and seek the attention of a broader public requires knowing how to deal with the professional resentments of "selling out."

This paper outlines and defends a notion of ‘tragic-remorse’. This moral emotion properly accompanies those actions that involve unavoidable moral wrongdoing in general and dirty hands scenarios in particular. Tragic-remorse differs both phenomenologically and conceptually from regret, agent-regret and remorse. By recognising the existence of tragic-remorse, we are better able to account for our complex moral reality which at times makes it necessary for good persons to act in ways that although justified leave the agent with a moral stain and a particular emotional response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on human rights which arose in conjunction with the notion of civil liberty during the early phases of the European Enlightenment. Political elements of human rights; Role of liberal political institutions in Enlightenment; Criticism of religious fundamentalists on the concept of human rights.

Culture shapes institutional practices and policies facilitating or constraining the formation of new start-ups. This study assesses the extent to which cultural parameters and economic conditions support the development of new business start-ups in 44 nations. Cultural and economic variables provided unique contributions in predicting a profile of environmental conditions (ease of obtaining financing for new ventures, administrative burdens, legal infrastructure, and labor flexibility) favoring entrepreneurship in different nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on academic career management. In 1917, a student association at Munich University began sponsorship of a series of lectures on Intellectual Work as a Profession. The first speaker, sociologist Max Weber, lectured on academic science and scholarship: "Science as a Vocation," now regarded as a classic statement of the significance of scientific and scholarly work. Weber conceived academic science and scholarship as a value sphere defined by ultimate values, categorical imperatives of the academic calling, the obligatory force of which does not vary with opportunities, constraints, or personal proclivities and tastes. The academic vocation is grounded in the imperatives of clarity, intellectual integrity, and the project of fashioning the world as a cosmos of truths based on discursive reasoning. The various value spheres of the world stand in irreconcilable conflict with each other, a struggle that Weber regarded as irresolvable and eternal. For the academic, however, commitment to these imperatives and to the truths that can be established only by discursive reasoning is absolute.

This study suggests to take Jürgen Habermas’s notion of communicative rationality as a reference point from which to organize educational activities and evaluate their “being educational” in the classroom situation. The interaction between teachers and students dealing with the school curriculum can be understood as communicative actions in the sense that they are all forms of argumentation claiming certain types of validity regarding the knowledge they teach and learn and that the success of such interactions depends on the rational understanding of those validity claims by both groups of the participants. If the interactions between teachers and students are to be educational the only purpose they aim to achieve should be the mutual understanding about the bodies of knowledge being taught and learned only from the viewpoint of how well and relevantly the arguments are made, not with a view to certain external goals that can only be contingently accomplished by instrumentalizing the communicative understanding of the knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflexive Statement Here I reflect on my career as a criminologist, focusing on a failed attempt to become recognized as a legitimate sociologist, and on how I have found community in the company of members of the Association for Humanist Sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates theories that integrate and extend currently accepted agency- and transaction-based approaches to organizational control. We use a computational model to build three forms of control systems (market, bureaucratic, clan) and three forms of control targets (input, behavior, output). Using these models, we examine relationships between control systems and both singular and multiple control targets. Results of this study support the emerging “broader” perspective on organizational control research and suggest that managers can improve organizational performance by focusing attention on multiple control targets. In addition, findings partially support posited relationships between control systems and singular control targets. The authors suggest that results of this study should direct scholars to refocus control research from examinations of singular forms of control to evaluations of more complex control systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical anthropology's cogent rethinking of conventional biomedical categories has largely overlooked the core problems of one key concept of both biomedical and social scientific analysis: risk. In particular, the use of the term in medical anthropology (and the social sciences more generally) frequently rests on two assumptions: (1) that contingency necessarily constitutes a threat to individual experience or social order; and (2) that a risk management paradigm that relies on a model of statistical probability is the ontologically preeminent way of engaging chance. Other approaches which do not take risk as the starting point for understanding contingency also have problems; they too assume that contingency is necessarily cause for crisis. These problematic root assumptions lead social analysts to miss how individual actors and local communities variously engage, rather than minimize, contingency. I suggest a new approach that instead aims to treat contingency as normatively neutral and as arising in four domains of experience. Conventional approaches also miss how attempts to account for unexpected events themselves involve struggles between competing paradigms (or tropes) of chance. This contest over accountability I call here the politics of contingency , and I seek thereby to signal the need to renovate our language of uncertainty in order to address its political dimensions. I trace the literature to identify some sources of these terminological problems, and through an examination of the life and death of a close contact in Chania, Crete, I explore his own approach to chance and the different, competing interpretations of his death. I thereby demonstrate the importance of revamping the conventional approach to understanding the contingent nature of human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]