THE CONCEPT OF COMPETITION IN ROBERT PARK'S SOCIOLOGY*

This article examines Robert Park's concept of competition and the way in which it appears in his analysis of civilization and social change. Conventional interpretations of his writings have tended to emphasize that he radically separated presocial, ecological processes from interaction based on communication. Although Park does attempt such a separation, I argue that his thoughts on social change reflect an ambivalence about the relative degree of autonomy of social and cultural processes. Consequently, Park's evaluation of these processes reflects the judgment that contemporary forms of competition are instrumental for societal progress.     

An Interview with Margaret Topham

When asked to interview Margaret Topham for the Journal, my initial resolve was to avoid the “tell me the story of your life” approach. Further reflection, however, led me to start the interview with the more traditional discussion of Margaret's early career and the story of her initial involvement in family therapy. Margaret is part of the history of family therapy in Australia and New Zealand, and the story needs to be told and recorded. To fail to do so would be unfair to Margaret and to the Antipodean family therapy movement. There are a number of ways an interview can be written up for publication. I have chosen to transcribe the tape of our discussion, and then to stick as closely as possible to a verbatim account of what Margaret had to say.     

A comment on ‘Reconstructing and re-conceptualising social work in the emerging milieu’

Abstract

The article by McDonald and Jones raises some very important issues for Australian social work, and identifies some of the key decisions that social workers in Australia will be required to make if their practice is to maintain some degree of relevance in the changing context of the early twenty-first century.     

Living in the shadow of OD: HRD and the search for identity

The paper attempts to describe the similarities and differences between organizational development (OD) and human resource development (HRD). While it is argued that HRD practitioners need to acquire some of the skills of OD consultants, these are likely to be limited to the development of personal skills and learning in the attempt to achieve intrapreneurialism and personal transformations. We argue that HRD is living in the shadow of OD because it is slow to recognize its roots in the debates of that discipline. It is therefore suggested that HRD will recognize its true potential only when it identifies its core knowledge and skills. We argue that HRD can find its essential identity in four main ways: by focusing on the organization's business strategy; by devolving responsibility to line managers; by adopting an employee-centred approach to learning; and by emphasizing workplace learning. However, a wider behavioural understanding and a greater degree of reflectiveness in relation to the politics of change and the skills of the change agent must inform this identity.