Feminist Epistemology:

Challenges to men's claims to "know" the nature of women and the nature of the world have contributed to the development of the field of feminist epistemology. So also have critiques of the substantive claims of "authoritative" texts on such questions, consideration of the adequacy of traditional conceptions of knowledge, reason, rationality and the knowing subject, explorations of the causes and the persistence of defective epistemological theories, investigations of the influence of gender upon modes of cognition and analyses of the implications of particular theories of knowledge for feminist research in various academic disciplines. This essay provides a survey of these topics and the range of positions advanced by feminist scholars on these issues.     

高职教育中能力本位精品课程建设探析——以无机化学课程建设为例

高职院校精品课程的建设,目的在于提高教学质量,使培养的人才更适合行业企业发展的需要。文章以乌海职业技术学院无机化学精品课程建设为例,从岗位群调研与分析、师资队伍建设、修订教学大纲,进行一体化教学,对课程进行精心设计、建立立体化考核机制等几方面探析了能力本位精品课程的建设。     

Sorting Places Out?

This paper examines some of the possible consequences of the introduction of online Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for the social politics of neighbourhoods and the public sphere more generally. Summarizing a number of recent theorizations of neighbourhood informatization, the article provides examples of online GIS in the UK and considers some of the possible implications of the use of such technologies for contemporary debates about citizenship in the context of processes of 'splintering urbanism'. Arguing that social citizenship is best understood in terms of varying forms of 'proactive' or 'defensive' engagement, the paper explores the relationship between virtual decision making about neighbourhood choice and the impact of aggregated virtual decisions 'on the ground', before going on to consider how differentiated forms of engagement are producing new forms of social exclusion in changing urban spaces.     

Utilitarianism and interpersonal comparison

Beliefs in the impossibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare and the unacceptability of utilitarianism are based on a non-materialist solution to the theory of mind, i.e. on the existence of a soul. The compellingness of the theory of evolution and some discoveries in brain sciences render (philosophical) materialism very persuasive. The acceptance of materialism implies the negation of free will, non-significance of the self (no substantial reason to care much more about the welfare of one's own future self than the welfare of others), possibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare, compellingness of utilitarianism, and the possibility of conscious machines. Searle's argument on the impossibility of rigorous social sciences is however rejected.I am grateful to Dennis Mueller and Aubrey Townsend for commenting on the first draft.     

“上下分合轨迹”:社区空间的生产——关于南苑肿瘤医院的抗争故事

本文聚焦于南苑①围绕广安肿瘤医院的抗争故事,将该事件置于城市空间重构与生产的结构性情境下,分析社区空间的生产机制。文章指出,自上而下的空间规划权力在执行过程中隐蔽在市场化的话语体系下,以程序合法性及产权的话语获得垄断地位;而自下而上的抗争以规则、权利等意识为主导,通过"间隙运用"的策略生产出社会空间,但最终服从于空间的霸权体系。作者分析了空间霸权的战略、空间抗争的战术特点,以及上下分合轨迹,将其统合成为社区空间的生产过程。笔者认为,社区空间应该趋向对社会主义空间的生产,才能更好地实现空间正义。     

Structures of feeling and sociocultural formations: the significance of literature and experience to Raymond Williams's sociology of culture

Williams elaborates the concept of structures of feeling in different ways at important points in his writings. This gives it a particular methodological significance in relating the extraordinariness of imaginative literature to the ordinariness of cultural process. It is employed particularly to show the significance of literature for the articulation of alternatives to dominant world views, and thus to the politics of social change. Williams's different formulations of the concept are discussed in terms of their ways of relating reflexive experience to institutional structures and in relation to the genetic structuralism of Goldmann and Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and cultural field. Three types of criticisms are considered, which have in common the contention that the concept is unclear. Operationalized in analysing literature and its symbols, it can contribute towards clarification of the complexity of the processes of reflexive communication of experience which are at the root of social order and change.     

推进农村城镇化需要关注的几个问题

研究城镇化问题,必须清醒认识这一变化可能带来的各种挑战,认清城镇化自身发展的背景和规律。尽管从指标上看,上海等一些经济发达地区的城镇化程度已经很高,但是要看到城镇化模式日益趋同,农业边缘化、人口空心化、离农人口就业保障弱化等各种矛盾交织在一起。因此,必须在推进城镇化进程中正确处理好相关关系。     

大学生版权意识现状研究

版权意识是落实版权制度、促进版权保护的基础。当代大学生作为社会年轻的知识群体,其版权意识具有重要的示范意义。当代大学生版权意识现状如何,具有什么特点?值得分析。以广州大学城的大学生作为样本对象,围绕当代大学生对于版权意识的诸多认知进行问卷调查分析,总结出其版权意识的有关特点,提出了提高大学生版权意识的有关建议:政府部门和司法机关发挥职能,为提高大学生版权意识营造良好的社会环境;开展有针对性的版权专题宣传活动,扩大受众范围;高校应加强课堂内外版权法律知识教育,拓宽交流平台;提高大学生的版权的主体意识,维护自身权利并积极履行义务。     

Photography,cinema and medium as social practice

One of the more interesting aspects of the dialogue between the mediums of the still and moving image that has taken place over recent years has been a concern within fine-art photography for the cinematic. Photographers have turned to the style and iconography of the established genres of cinema as a means of reinventing the pictorial form of the tableau and thereby to explore the possibilities of narrativity within the static image. However, beyond any aesthetic interest the contemporary genre of the ‘cinematic photograph’ may hold, it is argued here that it may be indicative of an important shift in the social, economic and technological bases of fine-art photography. This essay suggests that the significance of the ‘cinematic photograph’ lies in its complex forms of technical production, the mobilisation of skilled labour and professional expertise, and the deployment of substantial economic resources, which are to be found in the film industry. Through an analysis of the work of the American photographer Gregory Crewdson, the authors demonstrate how the formal and iconographic properties of his images are inseparable from his adoption of the cinema's specific modes of production and that the latter is central to a reading of Crewdson's photographs. The consequences this holds for our understanding of the medium of photography are developed with reference to Raymond Williams's concept of ‘medium as social practice’. The authors conclude that the ‘cinematic photograph’ might be regarded as symptomatic of a trend within contemporary art practices to model themselves on cinema as the emblematic form of cultural production of ‘late capitalism’, a trend that has significant implications for the dominant conceptions concerning the nature of the work of art and the role of the artist.     

Bureaucracy as a Vocation: Governmentality and administration in nineteenth-century Britain

Abstract This paper focuses upon ethical conduct and liberal mentalities of government in the context of the historical sociology of administrative expertise in nineteenth century Britain. After a brief consideration of theories of moral regulation, the paper pursues, by way of a discussion of the government of India and of the famous Northcote-Trevelyan Report on the Civil Service, the issue of the establishment of an appropriate bureaucratic persona in the nineteenth century.     

Georg Simmel as an Eidetic Social Scientist

The article shows the affinity of Simmel's formal sociology with Husserl's notion of eidetic science. This thesis is demonstrated by the corroboration of Simmel's revision of neo-Kantian epistemology for sociology with Husserl's phenomenology, and the parallel discussion of Simmel and Husserl concerning cognitive levels and exact and morphological eide. Simmel's analysis of dyads is explored as an exemplar of his eidetic insights. An important consequence of this demonstration is the vindication establishing the scientific legitimacy of Simmel's methodology regarding the sociology of the forms of association. Woven throughout is discussion concerning the docctrine of the complementarity of eidetic and empirical science. Simmel's methodology is shown to have been ahead of its time through conjoining these two modes of scientific investigation.     

The Postmodernization of Death and Dying

The very concept of postmodernity suggests a significant change in the conduct of contemporary social life. Five aspects of this change are described. They are: the normalization of persistent and diffuse change; the abandonment of the concept of nature as necessarily embodying lawful regularity; the death of telos, or the discrediting of the concept of a history as a master, purposeful narrative; adaptations to largely unanticipated levels of individuation; and potential changes in the politics of the self. Implications of these changes are explored by speculative consideration of their impacts on death and dying.     

Freedom of choice

Inspired by the discussion of different functions of freedom of choice (instrumental versus intrinsic value) by Sen and others and an axiomatic characterization of an intrinsic aspect by Pattanaik and Xu, we compare unique axiomatic characterizations of three classes of rankings of opportunity sets in terms of freedom of choice: First, we investigate the simple cardinality-based ranking proposed by Pattanaik and Xu and a generalization of this. Secondly, we propose a new criterion that is based on the comparison of the ranges of sets of options. Thirdly, we solve possibly occuring conflicts between these two criteria.I am indebted to Wulf Gaertner, Yongsheng Xu, Walter Bossert, the participants of the Economic Theory Workshop of the University of Rochester, and anonymous referees for helpful discussions and comments. Financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is gratefully acknowledged.     

Could Refugees Have a Significant Impact on the Future Demographic Change of Serbia?

Serbia still hosts the largest number of forced migrants in Europe. The paper examines the impact of the refugee influx from newly formed states on the territory of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) into Serbia on the future demographic trends of the country. Examination of the past population projections of Serbia confirmed that the process of predicting migration flows is related to the greatest source of uncertainty compared to all other components of demographic change. The results of our projection of Serbia’s population through 2050 show that the large influx of refugees during the last decade of the 20th century should not have a significant impact on the future demographic change of Serbia. Even in the case of substantial improvement of total fertility rate (2.35 in final projection year, comparing to current 1.55), no positive demographic effect should be experienced. Continuation of the decline in Serbia’s total population size cannot be offset by recent refugee influx for several reasons. The most important of them are: too small number of migrants comparing to the total population size of Serbia; similarity in fertility behaviour between refugee and indigenous population; the large‐scaled emigration during the same period; much older refugee population compared to emigrant population; and the processes of refugee repatriation and resettlement. A purely hypothetical projection variant assuming the migration required to maintain the size of current total population size of Serbia until 2050 points out the need for almost three times the amount of average annual migration surplus caused by the refugee influx.     

Logik der Situationsdefinition und Logik der Handlungsselektion

This article presents a conception of “definition of situation” in reference to the theory of action of Max Weber which is an alternative to Hartmut Essers’ “theory of frame-selection” (TdFS). The basicdeficiency of the theory of Esser exists in the absence of the value-reference of the cultural frames what can be observed especially in Essers formalisations of the value-rational action. But the objec-tion is related to the whole TdSF. In order to overcome the utilitarian shortcoming of this model I propose to differentiate between the logic of the situation and the logic of the selection of action. The definition of the situation does not follow the principle of utility-maximizing, but the principle of value-reasoning. Both levels of selection-process are related to each other. But each of these levels has a specific principle of the selection, which cannot be violated without a decrease of the rationality of action.     

Validating New Measures of the Fear of Crime

This study assesses the scaling properties of some new measures of the fear of crime. The new conceptualization—a range of distinct but related constructs that constitute the fear of crime—comprises the interplay between emotion, risk perception and environmental perception. Data from a small‐scale survey are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis showing good scaling properties of the multiple indicators. Two implications of the new conceptualization for the rationality of the fear of crime are discussed. First, perceptions of the risk of crime seem to be a product of how individuals make sense of their social and physical environment. Second, the fear of crime may constitute such evaluations of community cohesion and moral consensus as well as specific experiences of ‘fear’ of ‘crime’—a way of seeing as well as a way of feeling. The conclusions consider ramifications for the rationality of the fear of crime, particularly in the context of reassurance policing in England and Wales.     

Migration in Southern Europe and the Case of Greece

In recent decades, the southern European countries of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece have all undergone transformation from senders to receivers of migrants. On the basis of this common feature, they have been grouped together in recent discussions of migration experiences and prospects. However, as revealed in comparisons made possible by the newly available data set from Greece's first regularization programme, the migration experience of Greece departs radically from that of other southern European countries. To an extent unparalleled in southern Europe, Greece has been subject to an immigration impact as the result of the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, some of which share borders with Greece. Characteristics of Greece's major source countries differ from those of other countries of southern Europe (1) in that they are former communist countries that appear to have a long and difficult road of economic transition ahead, (2) with respect to proximity, and (3) in terms of dominance of a single source country. These differences have important implications for future patterns of migration and of articulation of the labour markets of receiving countries with those of specific sending countries.     

Ergonomics, automation and logistics: practical and effective combination of working methods, a case study of a baking company

The aim of this study was to combine three different analytical methods from three different disciplines to diagnose the ergonomic conditions, manufacturing and supply chain operation of a baking company. The study explores a summary of comprehensive working methods that combines the ergonomics, automation and logistics study methods in the diagnosis of working conditions and productivity. The participatory approach of this type of study that involves the feelings and first-hand knowledge of workers of the operation are determining factors in defining points of action and ergonomic interventions, as well as defining opportunities in the automation of manufacturing and logistics, to cope with the needs of the company. The study identified an ergonomic situation (high prevalence of wrist-hand pain), and the combination of interdisciplinary techniques applied allowed to improve this condition in the company. This type of study allows a primary basis of the opportunities presented by the combination of specialized methods of different disciplines, for the definition of comprehensive action plans for the company. Additionally, it outlines opportunities for improvement and recommendations to mitigate the burden associated with occupational diseases and as an end result improve the quality of life and productivity of workers.     

Counselor and client perceptions of the effect of social and physical contact on the therapeutic process

In 1991 a random sample of former clients of a metropolitan counseling center were surveyed as to their perceptions of the effect on therapy of 21 forms of social or physical contact between client and counselor. This article reports the results of a follow-up study conducted in 1992 in which the professional counseling staff of the same center were surveyed as to their perceptions of the effect on therapy of the same 21 types of contact. The results of both studies are compared, and statistically significant differences in evaluation of the behaviors by the two groups are noted.     

An interference analysis of crowding

The behavioral consequences of crowding are analyzed in terms of mediation by the amount of interference experienced in a setting. It is argued that the amount of interference is the major determinant of crowding stress and one of several determinants of the subjective feeling of being crowded. Research implications of this analysis are discussed.