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The article presents the author's comments on "The Journal of Animal Ecology," vol. 9 and two books by H.C. Darby "The Medieval Fenland," and "The Draining of the Fens." The author believes that Averil Morley's paper on recolonization of burnt woodland by birds published in the journal is a useful piece of information about ecological succession of animals in Great Britain. He praises Darby for treating the economic development of Fenland in his two books with general interest.

Old concepts become stumbling blocks to human progress. Customs, laws, organizations either must be changed to meet new conditions in a changing social environment or must be discarded entirely. So it is with definitions. Either they must be understood to refer to changed situations or new terms must be invented to meet a radically altered situation. The inherited definition of the rural community is positively inhibiting rural interest in the broader contacts of rural life. The earlier concept of a rural community included a vaguely and indefinitely bounded physical area supposed to be occupied by people who had more or less common interests. Many definitions have been written, but two or three will indicate the trend of thinking. The building of real, local farm communities is perhaps the main task in creating an adequate rural civilization. The present situation in rural life calls for a change in traditional definitions and stress on possible objectives for progress. The change needed is from a territorial or spatial definition of a community to a functional one.

The article present an overview of pamphlets dealing with the most important contemporary problems, represents something relatively new in the U.S. public education. Eleven of the pamphlets now being considered deal specifically with problems related to the post-war world, three are focused on the issue of race relations, and two are concerned with questions of a more abstract nature, namely constitutional rights and the relation between religion and democracy. The bulletin, "Adventures in small-scale rural enterprises in South Carolina" contains a series of human interest stories dealing with some of these enterprises and the people responsible for them. Small rural industries may play an important role in the future economic development of the South. They also offer possibilities for rehabilitating wounded soldiers. Besides making a definite contribution to the production of food, fiber and other things needed for war, such industries provide market outlets for farm products, employ farm people and bring in extra profits for farmers.

This article focuses on investment prospects in the U.S. The article is the result of early research conducted by the Committee for Economic Development, but not a product of that body. The author discusses the immediate prospect of high employment and successful investment, then addresses concerns that the form of financing of investment may lead to depression and unemployment, and finally, addresses possible forms of investment financing that will successfully avoid depression and stagnation. The author presents strategies that will facilitate the flow of cash into equity as opposed to debt, including fiscal policy recommendations relative to tax structure and state and local regulations.

This article focuses on the importance of part time employment in economic and social development. According to the author part-time workers perform their duties under various arrangements. In the most formal arrangement part-time employees are actually on an employer's payroll and work a few days a week or a few hours a day under his direct supervision. Other part-time employees do not work under the employer's direct supervision and are paid on a commission or piece-rate basis. In the legal sense a number of these persons would more properly be called part-time agents, particularly in those cases where the work consists of selling a product or service. The importance of part-time workers changes with the state of the economy. In time of war, for instance, the contribution of part-time workers can probably be considered essential to victory, the contribution is indispensable in the war plants to sustaining or increasing the output of munitions, as well as in the low priority industries which, as a result of compulsory transfers or direction of labor to essential occupations, must depend to a great extent on part-time labor to continue operations.

This article discusses research as a social process in Great Britain. One of the central problems of British society is that of organizing its scientific and technically trained manpower in such a manner that the welfare and security needs are met. The present organization of British science does not contribute much to economic improvement. In the nineteenth century new developments were started because inventors with imagination and energy set about solving practical problems. The aims of contemporary research organization are generally stated in a qualitative fashion. The origins of each new product or process can usually be traced to a few key sources in widely separated areas of fundamental science. The foregoing description of the process by which science is put to use emphasizes the interrelationships which exist at the present stage in the evolution of social organization in research. A complete and balanced managerial set-up for translating fundamental research into new technology and social services can be conveniently sub-divided into a series of essential functions. Each of the functions of research organization requires a special combination of skills and differentiated emphasis in the training of technical workers. The exact relationship and emphasis applied to various functions of research and development varies from industry to industry but.

The article discusses the promotion of economic growth for underdeveloped areas of the world through international co-operation. It is explained that the economic growth of underdeveloped nations of the world is stated to depend upon the fulfillment through international action of two conditions, which includes the provision of technique or know-how, and, second, the supplying of capital funds to the underdeveloped nations. The article focuses on the economic growth and assistance occurring in Venezuela.

This article concentrates on a problem which so far has received only little attention by economists, the role of human resources in the process of economic advancement of underdeveloped areas. This topic has formidable proportions and cannot be treated in full within the framework of this paper. The author confines his remarks, therefore, to a specialized point, the place of entrepreneurship in economic development, and hopes to show, at least by implication, some of the more general problems arising in a consideration of the role played by human factors of production in the process of economic development. A study of economists' opinions on entrepreneurship leads to strange and sometimes contradictory results. Some writers have identified entrepreneurship with the function of uncertainty-bearing, others with the coordination of productive resources, others with the introduction of innovations, and still others with the provision of capital. It is probably true that at different times and under different institutional conditions each of these aspects may have constituted the primary, or at least socially most significant function, of entrepreneurs, and this function was then selected as typical and regarded as the unique contribution of entrepreneurs in the process of production.

This article examines the role of the science teacher in community development. On the assumption that community development is one of the major functions of education, the science teacher as a member of a professional group shares with all other educators the responsibility of facilitating community development. And as a specialist with understanding and convictions about relevance of the method which characterizes his approach to problems, the science teacher has a responsibility for helping members of the community to develop skill in the methods of science.

SUMMARY In recent years there has been a great development of interest in the principles and the problems of rational decision-making and rational action. Economists, mathematicians, statisticians, logicians, engineers, and philosophers have all addressed their efforts to various phases of the general problem of rationality. This paper attempts a provisional synthesis of their basic results so far, in the form of a suggested preliminary definition of rationality that is sufficiently general to be applicable in all circumstances. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Beitrag zu einer allgemeinen Definition des rationalen Handelns In den letzten Jahren ist ein zunehmendes Interesse an den Grundlagen und den Problemen der rationalen Entschlussfassung und rationalen Handelns festzustellen. Ökonomen, Mathematiker, Statistiker, Logiker, Ingenieure und Philosophen haben ihre Anstrengungen auf verschiedene Phasen des allgemeinen Problems des Rationalen gerichtet. Die vorliegende Studie macht den Versuch einer vorläufigen Synthese der bisherigen grundlegenden Ergebnisse in Form einer vorläufigen Definition des Rationalen, die genügend allgemein ist, um unter jeglichen Bedingungen anwendbar zu sein. RÉSUMÉ Recherche ď une définition générate de ľ ction rationnelle. Durant ces dernières années, ľ intéret s'est fortement accru pour les principes et les problèmes relatifs à la décision rationnelle et àľ action rationnelle. Des économistes, des mathématiciens, des statisticiens, des logiciens, des ingénieurs et des philosophes ont concentrés leurs efforts sur les différentes phases du probléme général de la rationalité. La présente étude constitue un essai de synthèse provisoire des résultats fondamentaux obtenus jusqu'ici, sous la forme ď une définition préliminaire de la rationalité, par ailleurs suffisamment générale pour etre applicable dans toutes les circonstances. The general definition of rationality, to be usable for 'practical' decisionmaking, must take full cognizance of each of the following characteristics of the 'real' world, at least: the time-dimension of action and of the consequences of the action; the multitudinous side-effects of an action; the inevitable uncertainty of the 'actor' in connection with the alternatives of action open to him and the consequences of each of these; the costs of information-gathering; the costs of performing logical operations; the variety of the value-criteria of different actors; the changes in the value-criteria of any given actor over time; and the 'tastes' of the actor in relation to time-preference, risk-taking, logical processes, and the facing of uncertainty. The definition of rationality should specify the course of action which, in the light of all these factors, is the 'best' one. The present suggested definition outlines a 'rational' procedure for choosing one from among the set of all known possible actions, where the word 'action' refers to a particular time-sequence of (a) acting (in the usual sense), (b) information-gathering, and (c) logical analysis. The procedure consists, roughly, of these four steps: (1) the specification of the set of known possible actions; (2) the determination, for each of the actions, and using all available relevant information, of the set of all possible consequences of that action and their respective probabilities; (3) the evaluation, in the light of the relevant value-criteria, of each of the possible consequences of each of the possible actions; and (4) the derivation from (3) of the 'correct' action to be adopted. In carrying out these steps we employ a logical construction patterned after those of Carnap, Hempel and Oppenheim. For the sake of greater understandability, the definition is presented in two stages. The appendix to this paper contains a (grossly oversimplified) illustration of the application of the definition. Die allgemeine Definition des Rationalen - soil sie für praktische Entschlüsse verwendbar sein - muss zumindest folgende Charakteristika der 'realen' Welt voll berücksichtigen: die Zeitdimension einer Handlung und der Konsequenzen der Handlung; die zahlreichen Nebenwirkungen einer Handlung; die unvermeidliche Ungewissheit des Handelnden mit Bezug auf die ihm offenstehenden alternativen Handlungen und auf die Folgen jeder dieser Handlungen; die Kosten zusätzlicher Information; die Kosten des logischen Vorgehens; die Mannigfaltigkeit der Wertkriterien der verschiedenen Handelnden; die Rnderungen in den Wertkriterien eines Handelnden im Zeitverlauf; die Einstellung des Handelnden hinsichtlich Zeitpräferenz, Risikobereitschaft, logische Verfahren und Ungewissheit. Die Definition des Rationalen sollte jenen Ablauf des Handelns aufzeigen, der im Lichte aller dieser Faktoren der 'beste' ist. Die hier vorgeschlagene Definition skizziert ein 'rationales Verfahren für die Wahl einer Handlung unter all den bekannten möglichen Handlungen, wobei das Wort 'Handlung' sich auf eine besondere Zeitfolge von Handeln (im üblichen Sinn), Information und logischer Analyse bezieht. Das Verfahren besteht, grob gesprochen, in folgenden vier Schritten: I. Spezifikation der bekannten möglichen Handlungen; 2. Bestimmung aller möglichen Folgen und der Wahrscheinlichkeit dieser Folgen für jede der Handlungen, unter Verwendung aller verfügbaren relevanten Informationen; 3. Wertbestimmung jeder möglichen Folge von jeder der möglichen Handlungen auf Grund der relevanten Wertkriterien; und 4. Ableitung der 'richtigen' vorzunehmenden Handlung aus 3. Bei der Ausführung dieser Schritte wird eine logische Konstruktion verwendet nach dem Muster von Carnap, Hempel und Oppenheim. Im Interesse einer grössern Verständlichkeit wird die Definition in zwei Stufen entwickelt. Der Anhang enthält eine (stark vereinfachte) Illustration über die Anwendung der Definition. Une définition générale de la rationalité - pour qu'elle soit utilisable pour des decisions pratiques - doit pour le moins tenir pleinement compte de chacune des caractéristiques suivantes du monde 'réel': la durée de ľ action et des conséquences de ľ action; la multitude des effets connexes ď une action; ľ inévitable incertitude de celui qui agit en ce qui concerne les alternatives qui s'offrent à lui et les conséquences de chacune de ces actions; le coǔt des informations complémentaires; le coǔt de ľ exécution logique des opérations; la diversite des criteres-valeur, suivant l'opinion de ceux qui agissent; les modifications dans le temps des critères-valeur ď un exécutant donné; la préférence que marque celui qui agit quant au temps, au risque, à la procédure logique et àľ incertitude. La définition de la rationalité devrait spécifier le déroulement de ľ action, qui, à la lumière de tous ces facteurs, apparaǐt comme 'la meilleure'. La définition proposée ici esquisse une procédure rationnelle pour le choix ď une action parmi toutes les actions reconnues possibles; en ľ occurrence, le mot action se rapporte à une suite chronologique a) ď actions (au sens usuel), b) ď informations et c) ď analyses logiques. Grosso modo, le processus comprend les quatre étapes suivantes: I° la spécification des actions connues possibles; 2° la détermination pour chacune des actions, et en utilisant toutes les informations disponibles entrant en ligne de compte, de toutes les conséquences possibles et de leurs probabilityés respectives; 3oévaluation, à la lumière des critères-valeur entrant en ligne de compte, de chacune des conséquences possibles de chacune des actions possibles; et 4o la déduction de 3o de ľ action 'correcte'à exécuter. En exposant ces étapes, ľ auteur utilise une construction logique calquée sur celles de Carnap, Hempel et Oppenheim. Afin ď etre mieux compréhensible, la définition est présentée en deux paliers. Ľ annexe à cet article contient un exemple (considérablement simplifyé) de ľ application de la définition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reports that the emergence of modern India as the great neutral and middle-of the- way state in international affairs has somewhat obscured the contribution in the field of economic development which this great country is making. India's Five Year Plan is based on a middle-of-the-road economic philosophy. It views the economy as divided into a public and private sector which share economic activity as equals. Springing from forces deep in the culture of India, this economic philosophy stresses the partnership of public and private sectors, working together in harmony. Moreover, the plan also conceives of "numerous points of contact and interaction between the two sectors" and units worked on the principal of joint participation." In line with this thinking, in the ground between the two sectors, India has made use of some interesting politico-economic devices. The world of the nineteenth century drew a sharp distinction between business and government. Mixed enterprise is treated by many Western writers, especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries, as simply a vague case of nationalized industry, not essentially different from the case where the public authority held all claims to ownership.

The article presents commentary on the address "Long-Term Trends in the Financing of Regulated Industries, 1870-1950," by Melville J. Ulmer, "Trends in Capital Formation and Financing in Agriculture," by Alvin S. Tostlebee, and Sergei Dobrovolsky's "Capital Formation and Financing Trends in Manufacturing and Mining, 1900-1953," all included within the issue addressing the development of the U.S. capital market. The application of the historical data to the development of other countries is discussed, outlining implications of U.S. economic history on general financial theory.

The article discusses the importance of the acceleration of development for the underdeveloped economies. Topics mentioned include the concept of free economic system, the individual ownership of production in free economy and the well-functioning system and operational complex of the intermediary institutions.

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the process of economic growth and distribution in the Middle East. Most likely there is not a precise relationship between the distributive pattern and the rate at which an economy is progressing. Yet there is a strong presumption that some degree of inequality in the distribution of wealth and income is necessary if there is to be an adequate flow of net investment. Traditional discussion concerning the need for the receipt, or at least the promise, of large returns as a pre-condition to the initiation of investment projects, invariably has concentrated attention on the connection between expected profits and capital formation. The post-war writings on underdeveloped countries attributed the existence of poverty and low productivity to a scarcity of capital, to the lack of an entrepreneurial class, and to institutional obstacles. It is extremely difficult to say with certainty why the landed class in underdeveloped areas seldom invest their savings in domestic enterprises. It is easier to point out the manner in which they do spend their "surplus" income.

Serge Chlepner. Cent ans d'histoire sociale en Belgique. Institut Solvay. Bruxelles 1956. Walter Galenson. Labor Productivity in Soviet and American Industry. New York 1955. Columbia University Press.264 p. $5.50. Bruno Gleitze. Ostdeutsche Wirtschuft. Industrielle Standorte und volkswirtschaftliche Kapazitäten des ungeteilten Deutschland. Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (Institut für Konjunkturforschung). Berlin 1956. Duncker & Humblot. 239 S. dm 24.-. Benvenuto Griziotti. Studi di scienza delle jinanze e diritto jinanziario, Vol. i and Vol. ii. Milano 1956. Giuffré. 52 I and 585 p. Lit. 3,000 per volume. 3,000 per volume. Walter Adolf Jöhr. Schweizerische Kreditanstalt 1856-1956. Hg. von der Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt. Zürich 1956. 537 S. W. D. Lamont. The Value Judgement. Edinburgh 1955. University Press. 350 p. 25s. C . Wright Mills. The Power Elite. New York 1956. Oxford University Press. 423 p. $ 6.00. Helmut Reichardt. Augustin A . Cournot-Sein Beitrag zur exakten Wirtschaftswissenschaft. Tübingen 1955. Mohr (Siebeck). 128 S. dm 12.80. Dennis H . Robertson. Economic Commentaries. London 1956. Staples. 174p. 16s. Lawrence H. Seltzer. Interest as a Source of Personal Income and Tax Revenue. National Bureau of Economic Research. New York 1955. 82 p. $ 1.25. Brinley Thomas. Migration and Ecomic Growth. (Economic and Social Studies Vol. xii, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.) London 1954. Cambridge University Press. 387 p. 42s. Alfred Weber (in Verbindung mit Herbert von Borch, Nicolaus Sombart, Hanno Kesting, Gräfin Leonore Lichnowsky, Heinz Markmann, Götz Roth, Erwin Faul, Hans-Joachim Arndt, Heinz Hund). Einführung in die Soziologie. München 1955. Piper. 526 S. Kart. dm 9.80, Lw. dm 12.80. L'Europe face à ses besoins croissants en énergie. Rapport préparé par un groupe d'experts, publié par l'O. E. C. E. Paris 1956. 131 S. ffr. 400 ($ 1.25). Oxford Regional Atlas: The U. S. S. R. and Eastern Europe. Prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Cartographic Department of the Clarendon Press. London 1956. Oxford University Press, 134 p. 42s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines financial problems in underdeveloped countries and various conflicts associated with financing development programs in these regions. Developing an economy is more complex than simply incorporating a few businesses using modern methods of production. If economic development is to be meaningful, it must also have a change in attitudes towards production, consumption, saving and investment. Economic development needs social values that encourage business and technological innovations, while simultaneously causing expansion and growth. The author states that a major conflict for improved development is sociological.