Credit and civilization

This paper analyses financial credit in order to re-examine the work of Norbert Elias, particularly his association of interdependency complexity with social discipline, and his approach to contradiction. Following a discussion of these issues, the paper examines Elias's writing on money and explores the emergence of financial credit networks in early modern England. Attention is paid to credit networks and social discipline, to credit and the state, and to the contradictory images associated with the transition to modern cash economies. From one perspective, early modern credit networks might be read as a confirmation of Elias, particularly his argument that interdependency complexity, changing power balances and self-restraint are interwoven. Yet the development of modern cash money raises questions, not just in relation to Elias's treatment of money, but also with regard to his assumptions about social discipline and his approach to ambivalence and contradiction. Drawing on the foregoing discussion, the paper argues that the relation between interdependency complexity and social discipline is contingent and variable, and that interdependency complexity may simultaneously encourage contradictory processes, such as those of civilizing and barbarity.     

On Fox-hunting and Angling: Norbert Elias and the 'Sportisation' Process

Abstract This paper examines Norbert Elias's thesis on the 'sportisation process' in the light of two hunting sports, fox-hunting and angling. While this analysis of fox-hunting is found unconvincing, his approach proves particularly useful in analysing the development of modern angling. The paper argues that Elias's thesis is too broadly applied and requires a more detailed analysis of the social milieu and culture of the players involved in changing and unchanging codes of play. In addition, it argues that the relevant differences between fox-hunting and angling can only be fully explained through the analysis of changing relations between humans and animals/nature.     

The importance of survival units for Norbert Elias's figurational perspective

In this paper, we argue that Norbert Elias's concept of survival unit is a distinctive part of the development of his figurational sociology and one of the most consistent contributions to relational thinking. The survival unit is a particular form of figuration which provides security and the material foundations for life such as food and shelter. Every human being is born into a survival unit. This unit is a relational concept which cannot be conceived outside a relationship with other survival units.
By introducing the concept of survival unit Elias overcomes one of the key problems in relational sociology: how to demarcate primary social relations. Elias argues that human societies from very early on have been divided into survival units. These survival units are demarcated and constituted in their relationship to other survival units. Consequently, their boundaries are generated in a confrontation with other survival units.
This relationship can be peaceful or conflict ridden but in the last resort it can end with violent confrontation. Only the survival unit with the ability to defend a domain of sovereignty will survive. This observation places Elias among the few sociologists with an understanding of the role of warfare in social relationships.     

Ogbu’s theory of academic disengagement: its evolution and its critics

The work of John Ogbu on ‘minority education’ has spawned a number of interesting and useful debates in the USA. Having been both an early admirer and critic of Ogbu’s work, I reviewed his work in an earlier Anthropology and Education Quarterly article. Before discussing his new Shaker Heights study, I recapitulate the main points of the 1991 article, then offer some reasons why Ogbu is often misread as a deficit theorist. Finally, the paper closes with an assessment of how Ogbu’s theory and ethnographic practice has evolved in his recent Shaker Heights study.     

The Science of Practice and the Practice of Science: Pierre Bourdieu and the History of Science

Pierre Bourdieu is one of the most celebrated and widely known French sociologists of his time. During his long and very productive career, Bourdieu worked not only on very diverse areas of sociology, such as art, religion, the legal system, and education, but also on the culture of the Kabyle, on the marriage strategies of bachelors in Southern France, and on the sociology of the French intellectuals of his era. However, despite his international influence, his work has remained virtually unutilized within most contemporary historiography of science. This article aims to fill this lacuna. After a short presentation of his main theoretical concepts, I discuss Bourdieu's work on scientific practice. I then present his more historically oriented work and finish by suggesting some ways Bourdieu's insights can be useful for history of science.     

Commitment to Community Practice Among Social Work Students: Contributing Factors

It is important to develop commitment to community practice among social work students to encourage their engagement in this field as professionals later in life. This research examines factors that affect commitment to community practice among social work students. A structured questionnaire was administered to 277 social work students in one university and one college in Israel. The findings indicate three main factors that explain variance in commitment to community practice: specific self-efficacy for this field, positive experience in a community project during training, and experience with politics. Surprisingly, theoretical studies and support for community work during supervision did not significantly contribute to explanation of commitment to community work. The findings are discussed.     

Reactivating the ‘communist hypothesis’: Alain Badiou and social work

It has been argued that Alain Badiou could contribute to social work's engagement with social theory. This paper critically responds to this assertion and identifies some of the theoretical problems associated with Badiou's core conceptualisations. Divided into two sections, it will begin by outlining his main thematic preoccupations and will go on to focus on his interpretation of the significance of Saint Paul, the apostle. The second half of the paper will dwell on Webb's attempt to connect Badiou to social work so as to disrupt focal ideas on ‘diversity’ and ‘difference’. This section will conclude by critically exploring Badiou's comments on children, children's rights and abuse. Although, so far receiving no attention in the social work literature, his interventions on these matters are problematic in that they imply that children lie outside the ‘one world’ politics that he promotes. Despite such criticisms, it is concluded Badiou's theorisation needs to be included within the academic literature of European social work.     

An Open-Systems Approach to Teaching Family Therapy*

Through systems concepts are increasingly employed in family and marital therapy, they are usually employed in a limited way, excluding some aspects of the total system. Systems ideas are applied most fully to the nuclear and extended family of the referred patient, and increasingly to the therapist's family of origin. The interface between the influence of the family of origin of the professional and difficulties in his practice is also scrutinized, though more often in a teaching and supervisory context than during therapy. The relationships among the therapist's family of origin, his marriage and family of procreation, and his professional work are more often neglected, and the influence of all three on the dynamics of institutions, training programs and staff groups is least often explored. The authors, a married couple who work together professionally, occupied fin-several years a crucial leadership role in developing the first multi-disciplinary teaching programs in the London area, bringing together key teachers from all the main institutions, with widely differing theoretical orientations, in a group which now forms the Institute of Family Therapy (London). This paper describes their attempt to facilitate a more consistently open-systems approach which appeared to stimulate unusually rapid growth, learning, and group cohe-siveness.     

THE PROBLEM OF TEMPORALITY IN THE WORK OF GEORG SIMMEL

While Georg Simmel's work is predominantly recognized as contributing to the formal analysis of social interaction and temporally is an issue not conceived of as a feature of his work, formal analysis is not incompatible with a temporal approach to the study of social life. This article discusses issues of temporality as they appeared in the work of Georg Simmel by first presenting some general comments about his work and its status within the discipline, as well as some problems present in his writings that contribute to confusion regarding his views on temporality as well as formal sociology itself. Next, his views on temporality as they relate to his dualistic perspective are discussed. This is followed by a discussion of his evolutionary epistemology, which is also relevant to the issue of temporality in his work. In conclusion, the ways in which Simmel's view of temporality could enhance current sociological inquiry are discussed.     

Expectations and realisations: the employment story of a young man with cerebral palsy

Britain has laws and a range of policies which promote the employment of disabled people. The lack of progress to get disabled people into paid work has resulted in huge dissatisfaction for some. Evidence of disability and employment problems is often expressed as hard data, but what of the personal experiences of trying to find employment? This article is based on interviews with ‘Nick’, a young man with cerebral palsy who wanted to recount his preparation for work, including work experience, through school, the Connexions service and the local Employment Office. He explained how he felt his voluntary work and work experiences were not fully planned and ultimately unsatisfactory. Nick found paid employment, but soon discovered that there were too many problems for him to continue. He reflected on his experiences, including his own initial confidence, his despair at the ending of his paid employment and the realities of what employment means for him.     

The dialectics of universality: The heterodox critical social theory of Robert Fine

Robert Fine was among the most original social theorists in Britain of the past 30 years, and the aim of this paper is to offer a first systematic assessment of his intellectual contribution. There are sound intellectual reasons to explore Fine’s scholarship. He maintained a problematic relation with mainstream sociology and, against the reduction of sociology to questions of method, culture, or class, he argued that sociologists must continue to ask difficult normative questions as part of the social world they ought to explain. And there are also pressing political concerns that justify a reconsideration of his writings. Global politics is currently marked by a populist wave that decries the very ideas and values that were central to Fine’s social theory: the need to uphold the rule of law at home and abroad, the politics of cosmopolitan solidarity, and the significance of antisemitism and its relationships with different forms of authoritarian politics. My main argument is that there is a dialectics of universality that drives forward Fine’s intellectual project. By this, I mean that a universalistic idea of humanity—an all-inclusive conception of all human beings—is the most important normative intuition of modern times. This idea of humanity moves forward in history through a dual process of emancipation and domination: successful forms of social, legal, and political inclusion help make visible previous dynamics of exclusion but may also create or recreate discriminatory practices. Building on the work of French historian Michael Löwy on heterodox Jewish thinkers, I explain the three main tenets of Fine’s work: (a) his reconstruction of critical social theory; (b) the notion of cosmopolitan solidarity; and (c) the significance and main features of modern antisemitism.     

Tracing the influence of Fernand Deligny on autism studies

In recent years, I have had a growing interest in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, the influence of Fernand Deligny’s work on their own, and the similarities and differences between their respective philosophies and those within my own writings as an autistic academic and activist. Recently a translation of Deligny’s writing became available. Deligny’s writing, even when translated, is not easy to decipher, and perhaps reflects his ‘rhizome-esque’ philosophy and practice. Yet according to Burk there were three main principals which characterised the work of Deligny: the network as a mode of being (called the ‘Arachnean’); the art of acting and doing from which his methodology of ‘mapping’ attempted to trace; and, lastly, the ‘primordial communism’ of a shared common site of living. In this article, these themes will be explored and contrasted with the theoretical writings of the autistic author Jim Sinclair and those of my own, as well as indicating how they influenced the concepts later devised by Deleuze and Guattari.     

Illuminating Clinical Supervision—Past,Present and Future: An Interview with Dr. Lawrence Shulman

In an interview with Dr. Lawrence Shulman, he presents his insights on clinical supervision from a social work and interdisciplinary perspective. Dr. Shulman is a luminary in social work and interdisciplinary supervision, developing the Interactional Model of Supervision. In reflecting on his career in social work research, education, and practice, he shares his thoughts regarding the importance of process-oriented supervision as a needed focus for research and practice. Supportive of integrating art and science in social work practice, he offers his perspectives on the current state of supervision in the evidence-based era.     

Becoming a Social Worker: Chris' Account

Chris Murray, a young African-American male, admitted on a scholarship to a social work masters program, reflexively explores his negotiation of difference in dialogue with an Australian female social work educator twice his age. Standpoint theory and the concept of intersectionality are used to frame Chris' experiences at a private northeast US university after achieving an undergraduate degree in his southern home state. His initial access to university came through military service. Chris was interviewed by the author as part of her international study project examining social work students' experience of diversity in the classroom. The open-ended interview was designed to allow self-identity of difference. Chris ethnographically recounts to a stranger a subjectivity statement of who he is in relation to studying social work. Chris' story works the hyphen between the binary of subjectivity and objectivity through the particulars of his personal history and world-view and his expectation that I as a social work educator share his seeking of social justice. His detailing of what moved him to become a social worker and contextual complexities negotiated along the way connect to wider discourses on how agency and structure play out in lived experience in seeking social justice.     

The interdependence between forms of mutuality and the development of theoretical interest in the classroom

The present Vygotskian community is divided by a common language, 1 argue. By closer inspection there appears to be 2 quotation communities. The reasons for this are many, but the main reason seems to be the different reception histories of Vygosky's work in Russia and in the U. S., respectively. Concurrently, on the continent there also exist 2 different quotation communities. In one community Vygotsky's work initially was introduced through his Russian disciples; in the other community through his American adherents. This article focuses on a Vygotsky‐inspired curriculum rationale that is not yet widely known abroad. It is authored by El ‘konin and Davydov. In Russian parlance this approach is called Developmental Education. By closer inspection it turns out that there is a remarkable family resemblance between this approach and the American approach known as the Schools‐for‐Thought movement. Here both approaches are juxtaposed and critically valued.     

Putting Adam Ferguson in his place

This paper re-conceptualizes the relationship between Ferguson's life and work by locating him in his biographical and geographical context for the purposes of better understanding his proto-sociological writings. Ferguson's work is relatively unknown outside limited sets of literature and current representations of the link between his life and work risk misplacing him as both Scotsman and sociologist. The popular portrayal suggests there is a strong connection between his Highland background and his famous book An Essay on the History of Civil Society. It will be argued that this claim reproduces the social construction of space in Scottish society and is based on stereotypical views of his birthplace and upbringing. Ferguson did not construct an autobiographical narrative to offer his own understanding of the link between his life and work. This reflects the strengths and weaknesses of sociology as it was developing in the eighteenth century. The 'self' was not recognized as an object of intention or symbolic construction. Ferguson's writings analysed modernity as it was emerging in eighteenth-century Lowland Scotland and contrary to common opinion, there was no self-identity as a Highlander to shape his understanding of that social process.     

Spirituality in Social Work Practice

This article traces the origins of spirituality in clinical social work and psychotherapy from the nineteenth century to contemporary practice. Cases involving bereavement, terminal illness, and immigration often incorporate spirituality into traditional treatment. The author discusses his own spiritual journey, and the incorporation of spirituality into his work with agency-based clients. He also draws a distinction between religion and spirituality, noting the importance of including the latter into work with interested clients.     

Robert W. Cox and the Idea of History: Political Economy as Philosophy

Abstract

Within the discipline of international political economy (IPE), the work of Robert Cox is usually associated with the tradition of historical materialism, especially its Gramscian-inspired version. In this paper, however, I explore some of the less visible elements of Cox's thought. In particular, I highlight a variant of historicism which, although not without a connection to Gramsci's conception of the philosophy of praxis and absolute historicism, is more fully aligned with the work of Collingwood, Vico, Braudel, and Carr. I identify this as a variant of historical idealism, and I suggest that it is this element of his thought which provides a deep intellectual coherence to his work across the different stages of his career. Furthermore, I argue that this use of the idea of history distinguishes Cox's approach from more radical and constructivist accounts of world order, and allows him to connect his framework of historical structures to his method of diachronic change, which centres ultimately on his conception of intersubjectivity. I close by suggesting that Cox's interest in civilizations is deeply connected to these formative historicist influences, which in turn helps to account for why his later work resonates less well with much contemporary historical materialist IPE analysis.     

John Ogbu and minority education in Japan

This paper discusses John Ogbu and his work in the context of Japan. First, his interest in Japan, his interactions with Japanese educators and researchers, and their responses to his work are discussed. Then Ogbu’s cultural model from the author’s fieldwork experiences is examined and a relational and dialectic perspective is proposed to study ‘the system’ and ‘community forces’ to capture generational changes and the interethnic dynamics of the school–community relationship.     

İsmail Hakkı İzmirli (1932), Philosophical Currents in Islam: Ibn Khaldun (732-808)

A leading intellectual of the late-Ottoman and early-Turkish Republican period, İsmail Hakkı İzmirli taught philosophy, theology, and law in İstanbul, and was a prolific writer, with more than forty-five published and unpublished books, and many articles. The article reproduced here in translation, which was part of a series of articles on leading Muslim thinkers, is on the life and work of Ibn Khaldun, in which the author both briefly introduces his major books (al-‘Ibar, al-Muqaddima, and al-Ta'rif in particular) and outlines his methodological principles and main arguments in the Muqaddima. İzmirli treats Ibn Khaldun as a philosopher and historian, admiring his philosophical views and methodological perspective as quite original and in many ways trailblazing, though he also criticizes him for unnecessarily “delving into useless issues such as Sufism.” Finally, he frequently compares him with both Muslim and Western intellectuals, e.g. Ibn Rushd, Ibn Miskawayh, al-Farabi, Ibn Bâjja, Niẓām al-Mulk, and Edward Gibbon, Marx, Spencer, and Comte, often finding Ibn Khaldun as a pioneer anticipating the ideas of later thinkers. He devotes a separate section to compare him with Machiavelli, emphasizing differences as well as similarities between the two, and likening the latter to a “disciple” of Ibn Khaldun's, claiming that “Machiavelli followed his mentor's path in his The Prince.”