Nozick on Sen: A reply to Perelli-Minetti

Perelli-Minetti argues that Nozick's principle of justice in transfer requires, inter alia, Sen's liberalism condition (L) and is subject to Sen's paradox. It is shown here that a weaker liberalism condition L _W is sufficient for justice in transfer and consistent with Sen's other conditions on the social decision function. The conjunction of conditions L _W, I _P, and N is equivalent to L. It is implausible and perhaps illogical that a society applying Nozick's entitlement theory will impose both I _P and N, and if it does not, then Sen's paradox does not affect Nozick's theory of justice in transfer.     

A reply to Donna Andrew

David M. Gordon, Richard Edwards and Michael Reich, Segmented Work, Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States (1982), xii + 288 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £20.00, Paperback £6.95).

Craig R. Littler, The Development of the Labour Process in Capitalist Societies (1982), x + 226 (Heinemann Educational Books £14.50, paperback £6.50).

Charles F. Sabel, Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry (1982), xiii + 304 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £17.50).     

More on plurality and authorship in science: A reply to Tang

Understanding the “political economy” of the research environment is at the core of getting clear on the ethical aspects of authorship. Questions about who should be an author on a scientific paper are complicated by the fact that authorship is used to determine credit inside science and by outside institutions whose interests and standards often differ dramatically. Much of the research ethics community seeks to impose an elite ethical consensus on scientific fields. I argue that this approach undermines the scientific autonomy of research communities. In contrast, we should develop bottom-up strategies that empower local communities and associations.     

Hyperbolic discount curves: a reply to Ainslie

Ainslie (Theory and Decision, 73, 3–34, 2012) challenges our interpretation of the properties of hyperbolic discount curves in an iterated prisoners’ dilemma (IPD) model. In this reply, we discuss the emergence of hyperbolic discount functions in the behavioral economics literature and evaluate their properties. Furthermore, we present a summarized version of our IPD model and evaluate Ainslie’s points of contention.     

The Interhuman and What is Common to All: Martin Buber and Sociology

Martin Buber was close to sociology and sociologists from his university years on and in 1938 was head of the new Department of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although influenced by Ferdinand Toennies, and George Simmel, he went beyond them in his philosophy of the interhuman from which standpoint he also criticized Max Scheler. Focal social concepts of Buber's are the interhuman_the dialogical relationship between persons that entails inclusion, or imagining the real, making present, and confirmation (compared here with the social psychology of George Herbert Mead); the essential We or common cosmos that each helps to build by speech-with-meaning from his or her unique stance; the distinction between the political principle of government and the social principle of fellowship and social spontaneity; and the philosophy of community that led Buber to a federalistic socialism and the vision of restructuring society into a community of communities.     

Social movement in stages: a reply to Shultziner and Goldberg

This paper is a reply to Doron Shultziner and Sarah Goldberg's article The Stages of Mass Mobilization: Separate Phenomena and Distinct Causal Mechanisms. The article recognizes the theoretical contribution of the study, in particular the re‐introduction of the largely neglected stage approach in social movement studies. It then raises two major concerns related to how the authors narrow their approach to single episodes of mass mobilization and how definitively they distinguish movement stages.     

科学发展观:科学人本模式的主导观念

科学发展观在实践上是一种可称作“科学人本模式”的社会整体发展模式,它是对传统的“科学物本模式”的扬弃。科学人本模式以人性科技为手段,以人本文明为目标,在中国社会主义制度框架内具有现实的必然性,而科学发展观正是科学人本模式的主导观念。     

对科学发展观的历史解读

科学发展观是对马克思主义关于社会和自然关系原理的深化,是对世界各国社会发展理论与实践的借鉴,特别是对当代中国社会发展道路的经验总结和理论升华。中共中央几代领导集体的发展观从整体上说都是全面的,但由于时代的不同,存在着细微差别,出现了两次重大转变。     

How to start to talk about money: developing clienthood in interaction in a social welfare office

The process of defining clienthood, in terms of real-time talk and the inherently local linguistic and interactive practices, which highlights the need for an explication of the interaction order, is analyzed in this article. The tracking of the objectives and patterns of actions of local interaction in a Finnish social welfare office between social workers and longterm clients reveals the ongoing negotiating about meaning, rights and social positions and the central role of institutional speech in the constitution of a social welfare office. Basic interactional solutions for managing the institutional task of dealing with the applicant's interested claims was found. The social workers could, using different practices, initiate the treatment of the question of benefits so that the participants, with mutual alignment, avoided representing the clients interested claims. Also the clients could initiate the treatment, but the social workers did not align with the initiations that could be classified as interested.     

科学预测:可持续发展的认识论前提

科学预测与可持续发展在本质上是一致的,科学预测是可持续发展的认识论和方法论前提。提高人类的科学预测能力,是实现可持续发展的智力保障。     

Badiou and the philosophy of social work: a reply to Stephen Webb

Imre R. Badiou and the philosophy of social work: a reply to Stephen Webb Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 253–258 © 2010 The Author, Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Stephen Webb's recent article ‘Against diversity and difference in social work’ claims that the work of Alain Badiou has the potential to be of great use in social work practice. Webb is faced with the problem of a discourse that has eroded any practical meaning attached to notions of diversity and difference, he laments the ‘ethical turn’ in social work practice and blames post‐modernism. Webb views the work of Badiou as a way to reinvigorate social work practice. I claim that Badiou's Being and Event is exclusive to ontology. Connections between Being and Event and possible ‘uses’ of Badiou's subtractive ontology, as an instrumentalisation, are not worthwhile. Critiquing Badiou's non‐ontological philosophies and political polemics is a better way to assess the practicality of his thought outside of his ontology. Webb's conflation of post‐modernism, neoliberalism and the difference, diversity and ethics discourse is also problematic and is critiqued here.