When is the State's Gaze Focused? British Royal Commissions and the Bureaucratization of Conflict

Scholars have long documented changes in knowledge regimes and power relations characteristic of state‐centric drives to pacify conflicts and govern populations. But the mechanisms through which social conflicts are “made legible” in routine policy processes – as well as the reasons why some ongoing conflicts are pacified and others are persistent – have remained less clear. I explore these issues through an analysis of the shifting analytic terrain of national‐level commissions of inquiry, an historically powerful form of government organization designed to combine publicly‐engaged and “objective” explanation with recommendations for concrete policies of governance. Drawing principally on 19^th and early 20^th Century British Royal Commissions, I show how investigations into three fields of social conflict – involving prisoners, the working class, and colonial populations – were characterized by cyclical drives to bureaucratize conflict. Yet strikingly, only two of the three substantive fields – prisons and labor – achieved relative bureaucratic closure. Evidence from commission reports is marshaled to explain why some types of conflict have been resistant to incorporation, while others are more readily absorbed into an apparatus of governance.     

Framing Sectarianism in the Middle East

This paper argues that a long view perspective of contemporary sectarianism between Sunni and Shia Islam in the Middle East could be read on the background of earlier forms of sectarianism going back to the 19^th and 20^th century history of the region. Such an approach would disentangle sectarianism from primordial narratives as an intrinsic problem of Islam going back to the early schism of the 7^th century and place it in social formations and social practices, and link it to the emergence of sectarianism during the Ottoman age of reforms. It would explicit arguments that link sectarianism with modernism, discussing how the emergence of modern, secular institutions that were based in early-modern millet system led to sects and sectarianism. The outcome of this approach is conceptualization of sect and sectarianism, its categorization, and confronting it with other modern narratives of the history of the Middle East.     

Governing the Armenian Question through Passports in the Late Ottoman Empire (1876–1908)

The literature on the history of passports has been generally discussed in the context of freedom of movement around the globe during the 19^th century. However, with its administrative regulations and practices, the Ottoman Empire offered a different view of passports and mobility controls. Through perceiving new threats from the political issues of the late 19^th century and directing its attention mainly at the Armenian and Macedonian Questions, one of the critical issues facing the Ottoman government during the Hamidian Era (1876–1908) was controlling the geographic mobility of the individuals who were perceived as a threat based on Ottoman security policies. This paper brings a particular case of this history into focus: the administrative control of the mobility of Armenians. Despite the fact that extensive research has been done on the Armenian Question, so far, little has been written on the policies restricting their mobility. This paper aims to explore the passport regulations and practices to shed light onto the relationship between state formation, Ottoman threat perceptions and the marginalisation of the Armenian community. I offer a new look at the securitisation of the Armenian Question.     

Mental Maps of Eastern Europe: States,Mentalities, Modernisation

Eastern Europe has been the object of orientalising discourses portraying it as a region defined by problematic statehood, underdevelopment, and nationalist-religious warmongering. These discourses have produced 19^th-century mental maps of Europe contrasting a perceived ‘core’ European area ending with the Frankish Empire's eastern border and coinciding with later Enlightenment influence and an indistinct ‘Orient’ or ‘East’, bypassed by “modernising” processes. This contribution focuses on (post-)Cold War discourses in social science and shows how these discourses re-produce 19^th-century layers of orientalising map-making and keep East-West differences alive by tracing deficient, fragile or repressive state institutions back to alleged Eastern European ‘mentalities’.     

Nineteenth Century Wood Engravers at Work: Mass Production of Illustrated Periodicals (1840–1880)

This paper traces the labour processes and working conditions of wood engravers in France and England during the 19^th century as the process of production of the illustrated periodicals became increasingly industrialized. It argues that the bulk of 19^th century wood engravers should be considered as one of the first classes of proletarians in the mass media industry. The paper first looks at the general socio‐economic conditions from which 19^th century wood engravers emerged as proletarians. Second, it examines wood engraving workshops, wood engravers' working conditions, their training and type of production. Lastly, it discusses the hierarchical relations between editors‐publishers and wood engravers, the wood engravers economic conditions, their socio‐cultural attitudes towards their work and the control exercised on them in the labour process. With the industrialization of the production of illustrated periodicals, wood engravers formed a class of waged workers who owned no means of production, had little autonomy or creativity in their work and sold their labour power to fabricate illustrations. Workshops operated as factories, training apprentices to mechanically reproduce fragmented segments of illustrations in an assembly‐line type of labour and based on a rigid hierarchy in which engraver‐apprentices were at the bottom.     

On the process of combining soft systems methodologies and other approaches in systemic interventions

Abstract

The article explores some issues related to the process of a systemic intervention using our experience in three projects in the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector carried out in South Africa between 1997 and 2002. The projects served as a testing ground for exploring some theoretical and practical aspects associated with the process of facilitating the intervention. The paper presents reflections on some of the lessons learned regarding the process in each of the three cases associated with complex developmental decision-making issues.     

"To rid oneself of the uninvited guest": Robert Koch, Sergei Winogradsky and competing styles of practice in medical microbiology

Does an infectious disease have one, singular pathogenic cause, or many interacting causes? In the discipline of medical microbiology, there is no definitive theoretical answer to this question: there, the conditions of aetiological possibility exist in a curious tension. Ever since the late 19^th century, the “germ theory of disease”–“one disease, one cause”– has co‐existed with a much less well known theory of “multifactorality”–“one disease, many interacting causes”. And yet, in practice, it is always a singular and never a multifactorial aetiology that emerges once the pathogenic world is brought into the field of medical perception. This paper seeks to understand why. Performing a detailed, genealogical reading of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, it foregrounds a set of links that connect the practical diagnostic tools at work within contemporary, 21^st century laboratories to the philosophical assumptions at work within late‐19^th century understandings of the “germ theory of disease”.     

Hierarchisches Selbstinteresse und Fremdenfeindlichkeit bei Jugendlichen

The article focuses on the construct ‘Hierarchic Self-Interest’ (HSI) which is put into the context of conceptual considerations about the process of individualization (Heitmeyer et al., 1992). The construct is an expression of the logic of the market, the individual effort to perform ‘better than others’,and therefore it can be labelled as internalized elbow mentality. It is shown that HSI is a stable predictor of xenophobic attitudes and mediates the impact of sociological factors like socio-economic status, parental style, and gender in the statistical models. Intergenerational transmission of xenophobia, i.e., the transfer of attitudes from parents to offspring has a genuine influence independent of HSI. For the reported analyses, questionnaire data of a panel survey (1999–2001) from 443 familiy quadruples (target child, opposite-sex sibling, mother, father) were used. The target children came from 68 Berlin schools and were in 8^th or 9^th grade during the first wave of data gathering.     

Moving the Migration Frontier: A Chinese Qiaoxiang Migration Model?

The New Chinese Migration is frequently contrasted to the earlier 19^th century mass migrations in terms of its origins (urban vs rural), migrant types (students and professionals vs coolies) and destinations (developed vs developing countries). A significant component of this new migration from the PRC however, continues to originate from the qiaoxiang – the emigrant‐sending areas of the 19^th century migrations. Based on an extensive review of the literature on the old and new Chinese migration, as well as several years of fieldwork in the major rural sending areas or qiaoxiang of China, we examine the continuities between the new qiaoxiang migration and the old, and propose a qiaoxiang migration model of the entrepreneurial nature of the migration enterprise to account for the sustained and global character of the mobility generated.     

On the Necessity of Re-engaging the Classical Greek and Latin Literatures: Lessons from Emile Durkheim’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Evolution of Educational Thought</Emphasis>

Although much overlooked by both sociologists and educators, Emile Durkheim’s The Evolution of Educational Thought (EET; lectures from 1904–1905) not only provides extended insight into the developmental flows and disjunctures of Western education and scholarship from the classical Greek era to Durkheim’s own time but also indicates the fundamentally sociological nature of these transformations. As well, and in contrast to the more heavily structuralist, Cartesian rationalist approach that Durkheim adopts in his earlier, better known works (especially The Division of Labor in Society, Rules of the Sociological Method, and Suicide), Durkheim’s EET may be better characterized as a historically informed, sociological pragmatist approach to the study of education as a humanly engaged process. Given the extended amount of material covered in EET and the necessity of establishing in some detail Durkheim’s position on the development of educational thought over the preceding 2000 years, it has been necessary to divide this material into smaller packages for the purpose of presentation. In the first six chapters of EET Durkheim addresses (a) the Greek and Latin foundations of educational thought in France, (b) the role that the early Christian church assumed in shaping and preserving education and scholarship, and (c) the nature and emphasis of the Carolingian Renaissance (8^th and 9^th centuries), along with its relevance for the development of universities in Europe. Following (1) an introduction to Durkheim’s EET, (2) a synopsis of the first six chapters of EET, and (3) a highly compacted overview of the remaining 21 chapters of this volume, this paper concludes with (4) a commentary on the necessity of attending to the historical development of Western social thought for a sociological analysis of knowing and acting. An epilogue briefly considers (5) some ways that sociologists, classicists, and other students of the human condition may contribute to this exceptionally consequential venture     

Rural Lesbian Mothers and Their Families

Abstract

Lesbian mothers face unique challenges to parenting based on their status as lesbians. They face not only the challenges of discrimination based on sexism and homophobia, but the challenges of parenting. This article explores these challenges and offers practice recommendations to be supportive of good parenting and resources for parenting enrichment.

Lesbians who are parenting either alone or as part of a couple face numerous barriers. And women living in rural communities present unique issues to mental health practitioners. Mental health practitioners working with rural lesbian mothers and their families need an awareness of those issues which are unique to this population as well as those issues which are exacerbated by the combination of minority statuses and social and geographic isolation.

Lesbian mothers in any geographic location find themselves belonging to several populations: lesbians, women, and mothers, to name a few (Friedman, 1990). Each of these populations has its accompanying pressures which, when combined, exacerbate some of the sub-group issues. Rural social service practitioners will encounter lesbian mothers and their families. A clear understanding of their issues will enhance the therapeutic process. The issues and themes of each of the sub-groups will be explored and then examined in the context of rural life.     

Khaldunian studies today: The contributions of Syed Farid Alatas

The growing interest in the 14^th-century Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun's ideas and his essentially historical-sociological perspective implies a promise of a critical appraisal of the Eurocentric nature of the classical and contemporary social theory. An important role is played in this endeavor by Syed Farid Alatas whose work has been important not only in terms of further introducing Ibn Khaldun's theory to the Western audience but also making it more relevant to the contemporary theoretical debates and historical sociology. This article reviews Alatas' work on Ibn Khaldun with a view to demonstrate that his contributions to the Khaldunian studies today take at least five different forms: a critical examination of Ibn Khaldun's theory in general, and reconstruction of it as a theory of the state, and of religious revival in particular; demonstrating its significance for the modern social sciences; its application to a number of premodern and modern empirical cases; and a theoretical integration of his model with some modern Western theories, which is a rare occurrence in both Khaldunian studies and sociology in general.     

Making Coolies, (Un)making Workers: “Globalizing” Labour in the Late‐19th and Early‐20th Centuries

This paper explores the social relationships of wage labour formed or stabilized in British merchant shipping in the course of “off‐shoring” employment in the late‐19^th century. It argues that Asian wage‐workers were mobilized for employment on British merchant vessels as “coolies”, i.e. nominally free but mediated labouring subjects who could only be stabilized through legal, penal, social, debt, or other forms of coercion. Once introduced “coolie” relations were not confined to Indian crews. They also affected wage labour relations more generally in British shipping. While occurring against the backdrop of anti‐colonial struggles, the seafaring coolie's transformation into maritime worker was closely mediated by employers and the colonial state and produced hybrid outcomes. The creation of the modern seafaring “coolie” and the nature and context of his transformation into a “worker” thus shed interesting light on wage labour relations in the modern and contemporary global economy.     

The struggle for legitimacy: A study of contingencies and constraints in emergency medicine

This paper explores the organizational structure and the social work world of an emerging medical specialty area, the emergency medicine practitioner. In‐depth interviews were undertaken with a number of physicians practicing emergency medicine in an attempt to come to some understanding of the problems encountered by a new specialty area as it attempts to gain credibility with more traditional and well established specialty areas in medicine.

Key elements that appear to be critical in the struggle for legitimation by emergency room physicians revolve around such issues as income, power, autonomy, the referral system, specialized knowledge and commitment levels of active participants. The nontraditional organizational structure of emergency medicine was also found to be a factor in strained social relationships between emergency room physicians and their peers. This paper also documents the more commonly used interactional strategies employed by emergency room practitioners in their day‐to‐day interactions with physicians practicing in other specialty areas.     

Learning risk assessment in South Africa: Issues of language power and imperialism

This article seeks to explore some of the issues that underpinned the development and teaching of a course in risk assessment in child protection in South Africa. University College Chichester and the Institute of Child and Family Development at the University of the Western Cape are involved in an ongoing programme of co-operation that began in 1997. As part of this programme the course was taught by the author, a female, white, English, ex-social-worker academic to a majority black South African multiprofessional audience. The article explores some of the issues this raises and asks whether it is possible for a white English educator to teach black South African students a western model of risk assessment using English as the language of teaching. Secondly, is there enough common ground to mitigate some of the impact of the differences of race and culture, particularly the power differences that emanate from an imperialist legacy? In seeking to address these questions the article argues that teaching methodology is crucial to the student experience. The author writes in the first person in recognition of the fact that she presents one face of a multifaceted experience and argues that, to protect children, we must learn from each other and find a way to work through history rather than be paralysed by the past.     

Income inequality,redistribution and the position of the decisive voter

A large literature explaining patterns of redistribution makes use of the median voter theorem. Using a novel approach, this contribution shows that in OECD countries the decisive voter, determined by the earner who sees her preferred tax rate being implemented, on average sits around the 50^th percentile in the income distribution, although significant within and between country differences exist. Under the assumption of a lognormal distribution of gross income, we derive the required tax rate to align the observed gross and net Gini coefficients in OECD countries. This estimated tax rate is compared to the tax rate preferred by the median income earner, which gives a new index capturing a nation’s deviation from the median voter position, measured as the difference between the estimated percentile position of the decisive voter and the 50^th percentile position of the median voter. We provide a comparative overview of this index over time and between countries. We also locate the positions of alternative versions of the decisive voter, among which following the ‘one dollar, one vote’ rule, in a Lorenz curve diagram.     

Private placements in social work education: Opportunity or oppression?

This article examines the issues arising from student placements in the private or commercial sector. It focuses on private residential care for adults, as the most developed area of private provision in the UK, and explores the background to this form of provision. The article then considers the private sector placement from the viewpoints of the student, the private sector agency and the educational institution. A checklist for social work educators considering placements in the private sector draws together some of the key issues. The article ends with a discussion of the pragmatic, moral, logistic and educational perspectives which influence attitudes towards the private sector.     

Gender Difference and Gender Disadvantage

This paper explores the theoretical foundations of American sex discrimination law. Traditional legal frameworks have analyzed gender issues in terms of gender difference. Yet, inder this approach, sex-based differences have been both overlooked and overvalued. In some instances, such as occupational restrictions and military service, courts have transformed biological distinctions into cultural imperatives. In other cases, such as those involving pregnancy, sex-based differences have remain unacknowledged and unaddressed. The alternative framework proposed here focuses less on gender difference than on gender disadvantage- on inequalities in the sexes' social status, political power, and economic security. Taking issues surrounding occupational restrictions, protective labor, and maternity policies as representative samples, the paper suggests how a contextual inquiry can usefully shift gender discrimination law from its focus on difference to the consequences that follow from it. For most of this nation's history, the law's approach to gender difference has alternated between exaggeration and neglect. Neglect has been the preferred strategy; the recent cluster of Bicentennial conferences on women and the Constitution is an ironic reminder of the fact.¹ When the nation's founding fauthers spoke of "We the People" they were not using the term generically. Although subject to the Constitution's mandates, women were unacknowledged in its text, uninvited in its formulation, unsolicited in its ratification, and, before the last quarter-century, largely uninvolved in its interpretation. Yet, as these recent conferences also testify, such patterns of silence have been broken. Women have found a voice. How we should use it is a question worthy of greater exploration. The following analysis considers a specific set of questions about voice. How we describe the relation between the sexes involves a politics of paradigms that legal decision makers rarely acknowledge or address. For the most part, traditional legal frameworks have analyzed gender issues in terms of gender difference. Under this approach, sex-based distinctions have been both overvalued and overlooked. In some contexts, such as occupational restrictions, courts have transformed biological differences into cultural imperatives. In other cases, such as those involving pregnancy, those differences have remained unrecognized. Significant progress will require an alternative framework, one focused not on gender difference but on gender disadvantage.