The Living and the Dead in Education: Commentary on Julian Williams

ABSTRACT

Vygotsky and Ilyenkov were like-minded in their desire to create a materialistic psychology. They were also brought together by the understanding that their dream can be realized only on the basis of Spinozism. However, both theorists understood Spinoza differently. Ilyenkov considered the core of Spinozism to be the principle of object-oriented activity (materialistic monism). By contrast, Vygotsky tried to deduce his theory from the idea of affect, understanding affect not as a subject-oriented activity, but as independent “psychological” entity. Thus, instead of the desired new “Spinozian psychology,” Vygotsky involuntary returned to the classical understanding of life as a mechanical process.     

Managing Organizational Social Capital through Value Configurations

Nonprofits are said to serve as places for the reproduction of social capital. However, little is known about how to manage social capital in a nonprofit. This article presents a theory‐based perspective on how to plan, execute, and measure social capital production in a nonprofit organization. By using the concept of value configurations as a method to analyze and describe the creation of organizational social capital, bonding and bridging social capital can be managed in alternative ways. In a value shop framework, the participants are more homogeneous, and growth is heavily based on referrals and reputation as well as the quality of the members. Organizations managed as value shops will foster bonding social capital. In contrast, a value network framework incorporates more likely heterogeneous, multilevel participants that add legitimacy to the network. Organizations in this framework will strengthen the evolution of bridging social capital.     

Managing disability and enjoying life: How we reframe dementia through personal narratives

Rhetoric referring to Alzheimer's disease as ‘the never ending funeral’ or ‘a slow unraveling of the self’ implies that diagnosed individuals and their families alike are victims of a dreaded disease. Data gathered from web-based surveys with twenty-seven individuals with dementia demonstrate how some persons living with the condition actively negotiate their everyday lives to counter such pejorative assumptions. Grounded theory methods were used to consolidate textual data into overarching themes. Findings depict persons with dementia who do not experience an inherent ‘loss of self’ but rather consciously strive to incorporate a ‘manageable disability’ into their existing identities. Respondents give numerous examples of how they can and do live with dementia. These data portray an empowered identity that suggests the need for a reframing of dementia to challenge the normative victim-orientation and the social disadvantages of such biomedical reductionism.     

Living and loving with dementia: Negotiating spousal and caregiver identity through narrative

In this paper, we examine how Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) affect caregivers' perceptions of change in the identity of their afflicted spouse and the ways in which accompanying changes in caregiver identity influence intimate relations. We also explore how gender shapes the ADRD caregiving experience among married couples, specifically, the extent to which intimate relations are also gendered relations. The study group was comprised of spousal caregivers recruited from support groups in the two Midwestern states and from the Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC) at a large Midwestern university hospital. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 men and 15 women whose spouses had ADRD. The intensive interviews confirmed that identity change on the part of sick spouses had important implications for intimacy, although not always in adverse ways. The majority of caregiver husbands and wives reported diminished intimacy as a result of the ADRD. Many men and women believed they would retain feelings of closeness to their afflicted spouses as long as they were alive. Wives were more likely than husbands to report that changes in their spouses' identity altered how they identified themselves within their marriage. This has important implications for intimate relations between people with ADRD and those who care for them. Our findings suggest that caregiving and intimacy are very different experiences for men and women, and point to the need for caregiver education and support.     

Managing the Sex Industry

This paper consists of a panel discussion of the merits and demerits of the regulation or legalization of the sex industry. The contributors are an academic researcher, a policy adisor, an agency network co-ordinator and a sex-worker representative. The debate covers sex work and the law; attitudes of courts, police and public; the conditions and exploitation of sex workers; the distinction between voluntary and non-voluntary sex work. The sex industry, it is argued, is a challenging arena for exploration by management and organization theory.     

Managing the donation service experience

This article examines the implications for nonprofits of managing donation exchanges using customer relationship management and service blueprinting. It presents a case study of one U.K.‐based nonprofit and identifies a range of issues that might make managing donation service exchanges more complex than occurs in the for‐profit setting. In particular, the fact that there are multiple simultaneous exchanges means that it may be difficult to separate donation processes from other organizational activities such as membership and campaigning. We explore the utility of service blueprinting in aiding the management of this complexity.     

Managing the Emotions of Others

Although research has focused on how individuals manage their own emotions, little attention has been paid to how individuals manage the emotions of other people. Here, I describe several techniques of interpersonal emotion-management, drawing from observations of a psychodrama-based encounter group which deliberately manipulated its members' feelings. Analysis reveals a number of strategies (e.g., group enactments, provocations, comforting) which, when used sequentially, produced first emotional loss of control in the individual and then positive emotion. Group solidarity was sometimes affected by these interpersonal emotion-management techniques as well. Some techniques may be similar to those used in military training and cult group recruitment, although further research attention is needed in these arenas. Other settings in which members play upon the emotions of others should be examined to identify other interpersonal techniques and the sequencing of strategies which produce desired individual and group outcomes.     

Managing the implementation of innovations

Data from a field survey of acceptance and implementation of a new training system are used to assess the validity and utility of a conceptual model of implementation processes. Results demonstrate the model's applicability, provide evidence of its explanatory power, and suggest that the model can be usefully applied to guide implementation planning and monitoring. Such applications are expected to improve the return realized on investment in new technologies, policies, and programs.