Desperately seeking social approval: Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen and the moral limits of capitalist culture

Adam Smith and Thorstein Veblen shared much in matters of economic ontology. Both dismissed the very notion of an autonomous economic self and instead investigated the processes through which self and other are mutually constituted under changing cultural traditions of individual aspiration. Their strikingly similar critiques of status-oriented consumption and concern for the moral basis of the market economy are established in this manner. However, the political implications of their analyses point in different directions, with Veblen being the more radical. The Smithian individual can always use spectatorial insights to assert through genuinely praiseworthy behaviour personal moral distance from social norms of status-oriented consumption. The Veblenian individual, by contrast, has no such capacity for elevating abstract moral principles above socially-situated conduct, as mind and environment co-evolve in line with changing material circumstances of life. For Veblen, the rise of status-oriented consumption itself acted as a form of moral self-education that more deeply entrenched the social norms of ownership out of which it arose, thus the impossibility of an autonomous economic self was matched by the impossibility of an autonomous moral self. To his way of thinking, moral degradation in conspicuous consumption was irredeemably inscribed into the whole cultural structure of capitalism.     

Community Resilience and Decision Theory Challenges for Catastrophic Events

Extreme and catastrophic events pose challenges for normative models of risk management decision making. They invite development of new methods and principles to complement existing normative decision and risk analysis. Because such events are rare, it is difficult to learn about them from experience. They can prompt both too little concern before the fact, and too much after. Emotionally charged and vivid outcomes promote probability neglect and distort risk perceptions. Aversion to acting on uncertain probabilities saps precautionary action; moral hazard distorts incentives to take care; imperfect learning and social adaptation (e.g., herd‐following, group‐think) complicate forecasting and coordination of individual behaviors and undermine prediction, preparation, and insurance of catastrophic events. Such difficulties raise substantial challenges for normative decision theories prescribing how catastrophe risks should be managed. This article summarizes challenges for catastrophic hazards with uncertain or unpredictable frequencies and severities, hard‐to‐envision and incompletely described decision alternatives and consequences, and individual responses that influence each other. Conceptual models and examples clarify where and why new methods are needed to complement traditional normative decision theories for individuals and groups. For example, prospective and retrospective preferences for risk management alternatives may conflict; procedures for combining individual beliefs or preferences can produce collective decisions that no one favors; and individual choices or behaviors in preparing for possible disasters may have no equilibrium. Recent ideas for building “disaster‐resilient” communities can complement traditional normative decision theories, helping to meet the practical need for better ways to manage risks of extreme and catastrophic events.     

Let the countdown begin — Aging experiences of young adults in countdown blogs

This paper examines a particular blog phenomenon that has not yet received much attention: Countdown blogs which are written before a significant birthday (in this paper, it is the thirtieth birthday). The bloggers fill the remaining time, often a year, with the accomplishment of particular tasks, reflections on their lives or photo projects. In their blogs, the young adults demonstrate an age awareness that is often overlooked in aging studies. The paper argues that young adults use countdown blogs to cope with their aging experiences and, in doing so, they apply a particular economic rhetoric and emerge as entrepreneurs of themselves - an identity concept that Foucault presented in the late 1970s. Foucault, however, did not consider the themes of age as symbolic capital nor the marketing strategies that entrepreneurship of the self imply. In a close reading of a sample of twenty-one countdown blogs, the paper suggests new complexities in Foucault's concept. At the same time, it argues that young adults today have developed creative strategies in terms of multimedia projects and heightened self-scrutiny to cope with the finitude of time, the expectations of age-appropriate behavior and the coercions of neoliberal consumer culture.     

Searching for self in a world of labels

Searching for Self is a performance poetry piece that demonstrates the difficulties of identity construction in contemporary life. The author challenges the ‘self’ and ‘other’ dichotomy, and in so doing she attempts to reduce the distance between the ‘client’ and ‘expert’; the researcher and researched; the service provider and service user; and theory and practice. The poems are linked to the authors’ experiences of being labeled with a disability.     

The powerful relational language of ‘family’: togetherness,belonging and personhood

This article examines the notion of ‘family’ to consider how it may be understood in people's everyday lives. Certain recurrent and powerful motifs are apparent, notably themes of togetherness and belonging, in the context of a unit that the person can be ‘part of’. At the same time, there may be important variations in the meanings given to individuality and family, evoking differing understandings of the self and personhood. I consider these ideas further through globally relevant but variable cultural themes of autonomy and relationality, suggesting the term ‘social person’ as a heuristic device to distinguish the sense of ‘close‐knit selves’ that may be involved in some understandings of personhood. I argue that this version of personhood may be powerfully expressed through ‘family’ meanings, with a significance which can be at least provisionally mapped along lines of inequality and disadvantage within and between societies around the world. These forms of connectedness may be hard to grasp through those theoretical and methodological frameworks which emphasize the (relational) individual. I argue that, in affluent English speaking societies, ¹ there may be little alternative to the language of ‘family’ for expressing such forms of relationality and connection.     

《贞观政要》官德保障机制论要

《贞观政要》继承和发展了儒学政治哲学的人性理论。其官德保障机制体现在内修与外治两个方面,一则从非制度的内在层面强调官吏通过思、慎和学的途径修身养德,二则从制度的外在层面加强旨在预防、考课与奖惩官员的吏治建设。体现自律与他律、儒学政治哲学与法家政治理念的统一,完善了中国传统政治外儒内法的基本模式。     

Self-interest and the theory of action

The concept of self-interest remains underdeveloped in sociology although central to economics. Recent methodological and social trends render sociological indifference to the concept untenable. The term has enjoyed historical predominance in the West since the sixteenth century. While it is seen in modern economics as a singular motivating force, Adam Smith regarded self-interest in economic action as necessarily moderated by sympathy. In addition to its problematic economic conceptualization self-interest has an experiential basis in unequal power relations. An alternative to the concept of self-interest is presented by Amartya Sen in his account of commitment; its inconsistencies, however, render Sen's statement unsatisfactory. Differences between present and future interests indicate that the distinction between self-interested and other-interested action is not sustainable.     

Commentary on 'Managing the process of change in residential child care: A consultancy approach'

This paper draws on a ten month British study completed in April 2001 investigating service responses to women of South Asian background who had attempted suicide or who self-harmed. The scope of the study is briefly outlined and an analysis of perspectives documented in the study is presented, drawing on research interviews with 18 staff from a variety of health and social care disciplines and with seven survivors of attempted suicide/self-harm. The implications of this analysis for improving practice are considered. Attitudes surrounding attempted suicide and self-harm are discussed. The issue of ‘race anxiety’ is also discussed. The factors seen by workers as contributing to South Asian women's attempted suicide are considered, with a particular focus on the difficulties caused in the delivery of services by common-sense accounts of cultural issues. Current approaches to the delivery of services to South Asian women are identified and analysed, showing how their current organisation can lead to circularity in referral systems and consequent non-intentional neglect of the needs of this client group. It is urged that proper consideration be given to the support and professional supervision of staff in this complex area of work.     

Theory,practice and use of self in the open dialogues approach to family therapy: A simple complexity or a complex simplicity?

In the family therapy literature there is increasing interest in the dialogical approach, particularly as it becomes well‐grounded in psychotherapy research. One embodiment is ‘open dialogues’, which has developed over a 30‐year period in Western Lapland, Finland. This paper outlines my experience of visiting Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland, the birthplace of open dialogues. It explores the seven theoretical principles of open dialogues, associated elements of clinical practice, and the therapist use of self. The author utilises these aspects to reflect on dialogical moments through words and images based on three conceptual themes, which illustrate the relevance of open dialogues for family therapy practitioners and their contexts.     

工科院校大学生社会化及其影响因素研究

大学生社会化是高等教育面向社会的必经阶段,高等教育的大众化使大学生社会化问题凸显,文章通过对工科院校大学生社会化现状进行调查,进一步深入分析影响大学生社会化进程的因素,有助于加强大学生思想政治教育的针对性。