When ‘political demand’ meets ‘video-politics’

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a ‘macro-personification of politics’ within the political field of Aotearoa New Zealand alters the manner by which political demand needs to now operate if it is to succeed as a form of tactical strategy in political activism. A particular analytical initiative is identified as being central to success under these conditions, whereby given political demands enlarge from a ‘state of singularity’ to become ‘complex discursive demands’. Key to that initiative is the ‘dialectic of appearances’ and the ‘labour of the negative’ associated with the ideas-work of Hegel. This article identifies how this dynamic was playing out within a key event in the anti-surveillance movement of 2013, the August public rally in the Auckland Town Hall.     

Searching for ‘analysis’ in the southwest: AM vs. PM newspapers in four ‘fire zones’

Never in the history of newspapering has our Fourth Estate been so unsure of what its premiere medium should be doing as we approach the 21st century. Because daily newspaper circulation and readership have been declining since 1987, every newspaper consultant in America has an opinion about what papers must do. This exploratory study focuses on what Southwest media managers think newspapers must do—provide analysis and context in local news coverage. Context is defined and eight competing southwestern newspapers in Alburquerque, El Paso, Phoenix, and Tucson are content analyzed for “analysis” by investigating 200 seperate 1994 editions in this non-probability, purposive benchmark sample.     

Post-Revolutionary ‘Left Art’

Each Morning the crowd carefully perused all the new decrees, still wet with paste, that appeared on the walls of buildings. They wanted to know what was permitted and what forbidden. Once I saw a crowd in front of a broadside headed Decree No. 1 on Democratization of the Arts. Someone was reading aloud: "With the destruction of the tsarist system there shall be no more storing of art in those warehouses and barns of human genius - in palaces, galleries, salons, libraries and theaters." An old lady wheezed, "Dear me, they're taking away the barnsl" The bespectacled man who had been reading aloud explained, "It doesn't say anything here about barns, but of course, they will close the libraries and the theaters too… ." The broadside was the work of futurists, and it was signed by Mayakovsky, Kamensky and Burliuk. The names meant nothing to the passers-by but all of them knew the magic word "decree."     

A note on Rescher's ‘Semantic Foundations for the Logic of Preference’

In ‘Semantic Foundations for the Logic of Preference’ (Rescher, ed.,The Logic of Decision and Action, University Press, Pittsburgh, 1967), Nicholas Rescher claims that, on the semantics developed in that paper, a certain principle - call it ‘Q’ turns out to be ‘unacceptable’. I argue, however, that, given certain assumptions that Rescher invokes in that same paper,Q can in fact be shown to be a ‘preference-tautology’, and henceQ should be classified as ‘acceptable’ on Rescher's theory.     

On misunderstanding ‘understanding’

Philosophers of Science have recently put a good deal of energy into locating the precise methodological boundaries between the natural and the social sciences. The methodological affinities of the latter with certain aspects of the humanities have been as yet too little explored. A convenient starting point for this discussion, and one which is adopted in this paper, is a reconsideration of the role and nature of interpretive understanding in the social sciences. However, before a serious examination of this issue can be undertaken, a clearing operation on the encrusted misunderstandings which are part of the legacy of logical positivism is necessary. In this paper I argue that the neo-positivistic account of understanding rests on a misunderstanding of the concept; that a more adequate conception of the issues involved - and one closer to the traditional Verstehen problematic of Dilthey et al. - can be gleaned from the work of Peter Winch; and that this development is furthered in a number of important respects by recent work done in hermeneutic philosophy - especially that of H.-G. Gadamer. The discussion of Gadamer suggests that the problem of locating the boundaries with the humanities might be as serious a problem for the theory of the social sciences as has been that concerning the natural sciences. The paper concludes with several suggestions as to the implications of the analysis of understanding for the thesis of the methodological unity of the sciences.     

The ‘Cultural Lag’ Theory

A critique of the "cultural lag" theory evolved by Western sociologists — with particular emphasis on the work of W. F. Ogburn — which examines the reasons advanced by these sociologists for gaps between cultural and technological progress. Published to initiate discussion of the subject in USSR scientific circles. Vestnik Istorii Mirovoi Kultury (Journal of the History of World Culture), 1960, No. 6-slightly abridged.     

作为文化现象的‘浪费’

浪费是犯罪。的确如此!但是有许许多多的“浪费”,人们并不认为是犯罪。相反,作为文化现象的“浪费”是人们所必须的,生活中一刻也不能没有的。好吧,我们先到马路上走一圈,看看是不是这样。“姑娘们比以前漂亮多了”。你看蝙蝠衫、滑雪衣、做工考究的发型、嘴唇上还涂着口红……仔细想一想,从人的最自然的本性出发,穿衣是为了暖和,只要暖和就     

Older bisexual people: Implications for social work from the ‘Looking Both Ways’ study

There is a growing social work literature about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older people. However, research and guidance are predominantly based on the experiences of older gay men and, to a lesser extent, older lesbians. There is little to help practitioners work with older bisexual people. The Looking Both Ways study aimed to contribute to this gap in knowledge. We undertook in-depth purposely sampled qualitative interviews with 12 people aged over 50, all of whom have bisexual relationship histories and half of whom also currently identify as bisexual. There were three main findings. First, biphobia (prejudice against bisexual people) impacts on older people with bisexual histories in ways that may affect their well-being in later life. Second, concerns around receiving care are similar in some ways and different in others from the concerns of lesbians and gay men. Third, people with bisexual relationship histories may have developed strong support networks and resilience, factors that may be very beneficial in later life. Three recommendations for social work professionals were identified: 1) understand biphobia, 2) recognize the legitimacy of concerns about receiving care, and 3) ask about support networks rather than assuming family support.     

EU countries’ progress towards ‘Europe 2020 strategy targets’

This paper describes and analyzes EU Member States’ progress towards the national EU2020 targets. To do so, this paper constructs a geometric composite index with Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights as a measure of a Member State’s overall performance on the EU2020 headline indicators. A tripartite decomposition of Member State performance change is presented to explain and analyze performance change of the EU-region and the individual EU Member States during the period 2008–2014. The results reveal that all Member States are in general making progress towards their national targets. Member States generally moved forward in the areas of R&D, environmental and educational policy and moved backwards in terms of employment and poverty and social inclusion. As to the realization of the national targets, the majority of the Member States are still mostly lagging on R&D and social inclusion and poverty reduction.     

“‘移步’而不‘换形’”——论京剧改革的梅兰芳模式

梅兰芳在他的艺术生涯中 ,为传统京剧艺术在现代社会的生存和发展做了多方面的探索 ,形成了一种可称之为“‘移步’而不‘换形’”的京剧改革模式。本文深入探讨了这一改革模式的内涵     

‘My daughter is a drug addict’: grandparents caring for the children of addicted parents

This article reports on one aspect of a large multi-method survey of grandparents raising grandchildren, carried out in 2016. The research report [Gordon L. (2016). The empty nest is refilled: the joys and tribulations of grandparents raising grandchildren in New Zealand. Auckland: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust (NZ)] notes that the most commonly cited reason for children coming into care was parental drug addiction. This article reports on the circumstances and well-being of families where parental drug addiction was cited as a reason for the children living with grandparents. Common causes of grandparents struggling to care for their grandchildren were personal health issues, housing, financial problems and dealing with traumatised or unwell children. Contact with parents was often random, with non-contact caused by parental death, imprisonment, parents moving away or re-forming families, children not wanting to see the parent or parents not turning up for scheduled visits. As noted in another article [Gordon L. (2017). Experiences of grandparents raising grandchildren in getting income support from Work and Income offices in New Zealand. Kotuitui. 12(2):134–145], many of the families had difficulty getting income support from Work and Income. Many of the children suffer from a range of emotional and behavioural problems, leading to concerns about their future. The conclusion considers the policy and service implications of these findings, in the context of the growing ‘epidemic’ of methamphetamines and other drug use in Aotearoa.     

Probability weighting and the ‘level’ and ‘spacing’ of outcomes: An experimental study over losses

The main goal of the experimental study described in this paper is to investigate the sensitivity of probability weighting to the payoff structure of the gambling situation—namely the level of consequences at stake and the spacing between them—in the loss domain. For that purpose, three kinds of gambles are introduced: two kinds of homogeneous gambles (involving either small or large losses), and heterogeneous gambles involving both large and small losses. The findings suggest that at least for moderate/high probability of loss do both ‘level’ and ‘spacing’ effects reach significance, with the impact of ‘spacing’ being both opposite to and stronger than the impact of ‘level’. As compared to small-loss gambles, large-loss gambles appear to enhance probabilistic optimism, while heterogeneous gambles tend to increase pessimism.

How relevant are ‘Irrelevant’ Alternatives?

Arrow's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives Condition is examined. It is shown why the standard rationale for (or against) the condition tends to be inconclusive as it fails to consider the basic game issue in social choice. Specifically it is explained how some recent results (Gibbard-Satterthwaite) on the general non-existence of strategy-proof voting procedures provide the strongest rationale for the independence condition. Also, it is shown that this rationale was exactly the one used by Condorcet in his work on decision rules for juries and elections.     

‘达斡尔地区’的由来及其他

俄国十七世纪的历史文献中,经常使用“达斡尔地区”这一名称。结合当时的历史情况来看,这一概念所指的地域范围本来是清楚的。可是,一九六九年苏联出版的《十七世纪俄中关系》一书中为此而加的注释说:“在十七世纪五十——六十年代,这个概念是相当模糊的,它不仅包括阿穆尔河(黑龙江)两岸,而且包     

Du Lianren’s Special Love for An’gang

Du Lianren is a professor with the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, a member of the Chinese Association of Fine Artists, and a noted traditional Chinese painting master. He cherishes a special love for the Anshan Iron and Steel Mill. His paintings of the mill include Take One's Own Way which he created in the 1970s and     

Transparency and ‘uncomfortable knowledge’ in child protection

Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in particular, have been subject to sustained criticism for decades from dozens of official inquiries and reviews. It is now well established that many children in state care are treated significantly less well than required by relevant legal frameworks and community standards. Much attention and significant resources have been directed toward trying to ameliorate this ‘wicked problem’ and yet it continues. This article focuses on one reason the problems persists, namely the secrecy and closed cultures that characterize relevant organizations which reinforce strategies of denial that avoid acknowledging or dealing with ‘uncomfortable knowledge’. It is a situation many people in child protection systems confront. It is, for example, when we know abuse is taking place, or when they see or are ourselves party to corrupt or negligent practices. It is knowing that important ethical principles are being abrogated. We draw on recent official reports and inquiries noting the repeated calls for greater transparency and independent oversight. An argument is made for a default position of total transparency subject to caveats that protect privacy and any investigation underway. An account of what this can look like is offered.     

A personality traits study of sports information directors at ‘big’ vs. ‘small’ programs in the East

This 1996 infra-public relations personality traits investigation within the little known public relations employment area of Sports Information Directors (SIDs) draws on the national SID benchmark study by McCleneghan (1995) and the socio-metric instrument work of McCroskey and Richmond (1993, 1990, 1987, and 1982). SIDs employed at universities in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland completed four “personality traits” instruments to study what differences might exist between those SIDs practicing at Division I intercollegiate athletic programs vs. others employed at Division I-AA, II, III, and NAIA. This infra-public relations study of the underreported SID profession presents a personality traits profile of SIDs employed at “big” vs. “small” athletic programs in the East.     

Friedman's ‘instrumentalism’ and constructive empiricism in economics

This reassessment of the long debate about Friedman's thesis on the pointlessness of testing assumptions in economics shows that Friedman's three famous examples, on which a large part of the credit given to this thesis is based, far from substantiating it, can be used to establish radically opposite conclusions. Furthermore, it is shown that this so-called instrumentalist thesis, when applied by Friedman to economics, is of a quite different nature and raises much more serious problems than the standard instrumentalist thesis devised by some methodologists of physics. To disentangle these ambiguities concerning realism and instrumentalism applied to physics or to economics, this paper refers to Van Fraassen's constructive empiricism, which is helpful in reformulating, in a more satisfactory way, the essentials of Friedman's considerations about empiricism and anti-realism.