ON THE NEED FOR CONVERSATION IN THE FAMILY THERAPY FIELD

It is argued that the field of family therapy has entered a period which is characterized by a considerable absence of conversation. Such a lack hinders the field's development and increasingly saps its vitality. It is proposed that there be an annual working conference, founded on conversation and dialogue, which would rigorously examine (one at a time) the core issues of the field. It is further proposed that the papers and discussions at each conference be published as an annual monograph.     

Development by popular protection and Tunisia: the case of Tataouine

ABSTRACT

Recently a debate re-emerged between Adel Samara and Samir Amin on the state role in delinking – subjecting a social formation’s relationships to the world-system to a domestic, popular law of value. I suggest the arguments turns on the agent helming development. Amin’s agent is slightly more ambiguous than Samara’s, reflecting de-linking is modelled on postrevolutionary planning in Maoist China, with an explicit state role, whereas Samara, theorizing development under military occupation, spurned the state. The article assesses the arguments against contemporary Tunisia. It shows how flourishing Tunisian struggles track Samara’s development by popular protection (DBPP). The subject of history is masses engaged in struggle with state-mediated accumulation. It focuses on Tataouine’s 2017–2018 ElKamour protests. It argues Amin (1) articulates an antisystemic ideology, crucial amidst ideological disarray; (2) offers ideas for changes in financial architecture – holding programmes amidst capitalist advance; (3) build up the delinking framework which DBPP expands.     

School Counseling Toward an LGBTQ-Inclusive School Climate: Implementing the SCEARE Model

The school environment is often perceived as hostile by sexual minority youth. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) students experience high rates of bullying and suicidal ideation yet are often underserved by school counselors. School counselors are uniquely situated to facilitate systemic change within a school. The proposed School Counselors: Educate, Affirm, Respond, and Empower (SCEARE, pronounced SKEER) model outlines components of an LGBTQ-inclusive school climate. It is designed to be a practical tool for helping school counselors conceptualize their interventions, and a theory of how systemic change might occur. It empowers school counselors to be catalysts of change toward an LGBTQ-inclusive school climate.     

After ANT: Complexity, Naming and Topology

What is a theory? Or, more broadly, what is a good way of addressing intellectual problems? This paper explores the tension central to the notion of an 'actor'—'network' which is an intentionally oxymoronic term that combines—and elides the distinction between—structure and agency. It then notes that this tension has been lost as 'actor-network' has been converted into a smooth and consistent 'theory' that has been (too) simply and easily displaced, criticised or applied. It recalls another term important to the actor-network approach—that of translation —which is another term in tension, since (the play of words works best in the romance languages) to translate is to also betray ( traductore, traditore ). It is suggested that in social theory simplicity should not displace the complexities of tension. The chapter concludes by exploring a series of metaphors for grappling with tensions rather than wishing these away, and in particular considers the importance of topological complexity, and the notion of fractionality.     

Pareto,anonymity, and independence: four alternatives

For four alternatives and an even number of individuals, we prove a conjecture in a companion paper: It is impossible for a social choice rule to satisfy all of (1) Pareto, (2) anonymity, (3) full domain, and (4) independence of some alternative, a relaxation of Arrow’s IIA.     

TAKING THE RHETORIC OUT OF THEORETIC DEBATE: A Rejoinder to Michalski

Michalski's (2008 ) critique of Marshall (2008 ) is rebutted. It is demonstrated that Michalski's response largely fails to address the substance of Marshall's argument, and instead deploys a number of characteristically Blackian rhetorical strategies to obscure the field. These include an inconsistent and opportunistic rejection of philosophical argument, the lamentation of an imaginary victimization, a reliance on reassertion over reasoning, the use of misleading examples, an attempt to turn to the critique against the critic, and the exaggeration of empirical evidence. As a result, his critique is not only unconvincing, but further substantiates Marshall's case.     

Finding some straw in the ‘Industry–State Gambling Complex’ argument: commentary on Delfabbro & King

The article focuses attention on the presupposition that gambling is ‘class-exploitation’ – an argument that positions players as passive pawns in a capitalist conspiracy. It disagrees with this frame and presents theory and research from psychology that suggests relative deprivation has more explanatory power than (absolute) social deprivation to predict gambling problems. It also inserts Canada into the discussion about the possible existence of an Industry–State Gambling Complex. In Canada, governments are the owner and operator of (most) gambling venues. This overlapping relationship means that the gambling industry is answerable to the public. The article contends that in such a context, as well as in any functioning democracy, government must balance its function to facilitate economic growth with social responsibility. Academic research from many disciplines can help governments find this balance.     

HAVE YOU BEEN IDENTIFIED? Hidden boundary work in emergency services classifications

Information technologies, such as the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, have fundamentally changed workplace protocols. This paper examines the impacts that the standardized processes associated with the CAD system have on the labour of 9-1-1/police call-takers. Through an analysis of the labour of 9-1-1/police call-takers and their processes for classifying emergency call(er)s, we are able to uncover the negotiated labour between human and machine. It is argued throughout the paper that the standardized processes of the CAD system do not remove the social from call-taking but instead emphasize the use of the social as a resource for classifying call(er)s. The present analysis illustrates how emergency classification is not a standardized process but instead an actively constructed virtual image performed in real space and time by call-takers. It is the call-takers' tacit knowledge and ability to work across the virtual, abstract and material worlds that makes them essential players in emergency response.     

A note on minimally progressive taxation and absolute income inequality

The Lorenz curve of income after tax is known to dominate the one before tax for all given pre-tax income distributions, if, and only if, average tax liability is increasing with income (Jakobsson 1976; Eichhorn et al. 1984). It is shown in this note that the absolute inequality of incomes (Kolm 1976) is unambiguously reduced by taxation if, and only if, tax liability is increasing with income.It is a pleasure to acknowledge the intellectual debt I owe to W. Eichhorn, H. Funke, and W. F. Richter whose result on progressive taxation and income inequality stimulated the present research. I am grateful to an anonymous referee whose comments on an earlier draft improved the paper.     

JOINING FOR CHANGE: AN INTERVENTION OF STATE CHANGE OR AN INTERACTION OF UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES?

This article is in response to Laurie Charlés' (this issue) research article on hostage negotiation. It is suggested that her article provides an opportunity for family therapists to reexamine our own taken-for-granted clinical practices, particularly the practice of joining to achieve rapport. Rapport is considered from the two perspectives of either being an experience of the individual (state trait) or as a dynamic process that is relationally accomplished with unpredictable consequences for both participants. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

The Influence of Incremental Increases in Token Cash Incentives on Mail Survey Response: Is There an Optimal Amount?

The research reported is from a large-scale, national, mixed-modesurvey (N = 49,675 addresses), in which token incremental, noncontingentincentives used in the second (mail) stage of the survey weretested in an experimental design. The levels of the incentivestested ranged from $0 to $10, in one-dollar increments, withthe exception that there was no $9 condition. Furthermore, theexperiment was conducted using three types of household addressesthat originally were sampled in the first stage of the mixed-modesurvey via a random digit dial (RDD) frame: (1) households thatagreed to participate in the mail stage of the survey; (2) householdsthat were never contacted in the RDD stage despite numerouscontact attempts; and (3) households that had refused to participatewhen contacted in the RDD stage. It was determined that amongthose households that had previously agreed to participate,even those that received no cash incentive ($0) were more likelyto return completed surveys than the groups of previously noncontactedand previously refusing households that received $10. It wasalso found that the nature of the outcome of the prior contactwith the household mediated (that is, interacted with) the proportionaleffects of the incremental incentives, in ways only partiallyconsistent with Dillman’s social exchange theory. Thefindings, which are consistent with leverage-salience theory,suggest that if there is an optimal amount for an incentiveto use in a mail survey, then it is a variable amount best targetedto the individual household.     

Sibling group treatment

This paper examines a model of treatment for working with sibling groups. It is suggested that the sibling group is rarely considered as a viable treatment entity, yet siblings potentially exert a powerful influence within the family system. Assumptions underlying this model of treatment are examined. As a unit of treatment, sibling groups can be worked with in three ways: (1) as an adjunct to family or adult treatment, (2) as an adjunct to individual child therapy, and (3) by itself. Treatment objectives are described and a case illustration is provided. Finally, limitations and benefits of sibling group treatment are discussed.     

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

The debate about the patenting of research is perhaps the most passionate now taking place about science and scientific culture. It is widely maintained that the expansion of patenting since about 1980 betrays a scientific tradition to which norms of universalism and common ownership of knowledge were central. This paper goes back to mid-twentieth century debates about science and intellectual property (IP) to argue that many of the norms we take as so central to science were themselves first articulated to critique patenting practices. In particular, it looks at how an economist (Arnold Plant), a scientist/philosopher (Michael Polanyi), and an information theorist (Norbert Wiener) responded to such practices. It especially focuses on the role of intellectual-property concerns in the making of Polanyi's philosophy of science, which it excavates through a reading of his unpublished papers. This reveals that the modern field of ‘science studies’ is indebted for some of its key concepts to an earlier generation of patent wars – an inheritance that exemplifies some of the strange ways in which the sociopolitical meanings of ideas can change from generation to generation. The point is not that present-day critics of scientific patenting are wrong, but that the very terms of the debate are more deeply-seated in the development of scientific culture than any of us has realized.     

The riddle of things: Activity theory and actor‐network theory as approaches to studying innovations

This article compares cultural‐historical activity theory (AT) and actor‐network theory (ANT) as approaches to studying technical innovations. The concept of nature and society production in the ANT and the concept of activity in the AT have much in common as attempts to transcend the dualism between subject and object, nature and society. The symmetrical (ANT) and the dialectical (AT) interpretations of the concept of mediation are compared. It is suggested that the historically developed, artifact‐mediated structure of human activity is instrumental in studying interaction and coevolution of social and material entities. Three limitations of the concept of generalized symmetry, or symmetrical mediation, become evident when the concept is used in empirical studies of innovation: First, it does not supply any criteria for defining the nature and scope of actors in a heterogeneous network. Second, it leads to an asymmetrical, Machiavellian analysis of innovation in which the contribution of designers, users, and nonhuman entities remains marginal. Third, it does not provide any explanation for the intentionality and competence of humans. It is suggested that these problems can be solved if the innovation network is studied as a network of activity systems. Nonhuman entities are included in the analysis as historically developed arrays of tools and raw materials of the activity systems. This approach is elaborated by analyzing an unsuccessful innovation process, the production of ethanol from wood through the use of cellulose‐degrading enzymes. It is suggested that instead of applying the symmetrical semiotic language proposed by ANT in the analysis, a dialogue that utilizes the historically developed resources and languages of different thought communities is needed.     

Matching AIDS Service Organizations' Philosophy of Service Provision with a Compatible Style of Program Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the unique features of AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) that should be considered when developing an evaluation strategy. It describes current evaluation approaches used by ASOs which are incongruent with the service philosophy of these organizations and the drawbacks these current evaluation efforts present. It then describes an alternative evaluation approach that better matches ASOs' philosophy of service delivery with the evaluation process. An illustrative case example is used to show how a more participatory approach can be used in an ASO and why such an approach is more likely to produce meaningful data that will be utilized for program development and refinement.     

Recognizing majority-rule equilibrium in spatial voting games

It is provably difficult (NP-complete) to determine whether a given point can be defeated in a majority-rule spatial voting game. Nevertheless, one can easily generate a point with the property that if any point cannot be defeated, then this point cannot be defeated. Our results suggest that majority-rule equilibrium can exist as a purely practical matter: when the number of voters and the dimension of the policy space are both large, it can be too difficult to find an alternative to defeat the status quo. It is also computationally difficult to determine the radius of the yolk or the Nakamura number of a weighted voting game.We are grateful to Norman Schofield and an anonymous referee for many helpful suggestions.The first author was supported in part by a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (ECS-8351313) and by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-85-K-0147). The third author was supported in part by a Presendential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (ECS-8451032).     

Obesity and urinary incontinence

Obesity is growing at an alarming rate worldwide. It poses a major health problem that in turn places a huge financial burden on health services. Medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus and ischaemic heart disease are commonly associated with obesity, but less well documented is the association between obesity and urinary incontinence. This article reviews the current literature to see whether: (1) obesity predisposes to urinary incontinence; (2) weight loss improves urinary incontinence and (3) obesity affects the surgical outcome. It also covers the surgical and anaesthetic implications of obesity. New minimally invasive surgical techniques make surgical risks acceptable for the obese patient but the anaesthetic risks remain high. Obese patients should not be denied surgery but be made aware of the higher risks. Future research should focus on the impact of obesity on surgical outcomes for continence surgery, particularly on intraoperative and postoperative complication rates as well as long-term cure rates.     

Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism in type 2 diabetes

Recent work shows a high prevalence of low testosterone and inappropriately low luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations in type 2 diabetes. This syndrome of hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH) is associated with obesity in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, the duration of diabetes or HbA1c are not related to HH. Furthermore, recent data show that HH is not associated with type 1 diabetes. C-reactive protein concentrations have been shown to be elevated in patients with HH and are inversely related to plasma testosterone concentrations. This inverse relationship between plasma free testosterone and C- reactive protein concentrations in patients with type 2 diabetes suggests that inflammation may play an important role in the pathogenesis of this syndrome. This is of interest since inflammatory mechanisms may have a cardinal role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. It is also relevant that in the mouse, deletion of the insulin receptor in neurons leads to HH in addition to a state of systemic insulin resistance. It has also been shown that insulin facilitates the secretion of gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) from neuronal cell cultures. Thus, HH may be the result of insulin resistance at the level of the GnRH secreting neuron. Low testosterone concentrations are also related to an increase in total and regional adiposity. This review discusses these issues and attempts to make the syndrome relevant as a clinical entity. Clinical trials are required to determine whether testosterone replacement alleviates insulin resistance and inflammation. In addition, low testosterone levels are associated with an increase in cardiovascular events. Testosterone therapy may therefore, reduce cardiovascular risk. This important aspect requires further investigation.     

Law and Discipline in Nineteenth Century English State Formation: The Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869

Abstract It is argued that a consideration of the relationship between 'discipline'(discourses and practices of normalisation) and 'law'(discourses of abstract, universal rights and duties and their application in concrete situations) is necessary to an understanding of nineteenth century state formation. A discussion of this relationship in relation to the public health movement concludes that it is a fundamentally ambiguous one: their articulation is productive of interventionist programmes but it also introduces irreducible and irresolvable tensions. This understanding of the relationship is then used to consider the Contagious Diseases Acts (1864, 1866 and 1869), showing how it shaped the construction of an arena for intervention, the Acts' apparatus, and the conflicts to which the Acts were subject.     

Willingness to pay tax: The Laffer curve revisited for 12 OECD countries

According to Laffer, economic activities are a decreasing function of the taxation rate. As a consequence, total tax revenue increases with the taxation rate at its lower levels and decreases against it at its higher levels. The result is the Laffer curve. According to him, the reason for this decrease lies in decreasing economic activities. Although this may be true for activities in the official (white) sector, in the unofficial (black) sector they can increase under the influence of an increasing taxation rate. Part of the Laffer effect may be nothing more than an activity switch away from the white towards the (hidden) black sector. This paper takes both effects into account: decreasing activities in the white sector combined with increasing activities in the black sector. It examines the computation of the maximum tax revenue generating taxation rate for a number of OECD countries. It concludes that, with the exception of Sweden, the marginal taxation rate in these countries is below its optimum.