German seafarers,anti‐fascism and the anti‐Stalinist left: the ‘Antwerp Group’ and Edo Fimmen's International Transport Workers' Federation, 1933–40

Between the mid‐1930s and the beginning of the Second World War, a group of German seamen based in Antwerp combined with Amsterdam‐based Edo Fimmen, secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, to wage a campaign against the Nazi government among the sailors of the German merchant fleet. They organized cells of supporters on German ships, encouraged informal resistance, circulated propaganda and planned sabotage. The Antwerp Group was a breakaway from the Comintern‐aligned International of Seafarers and Harbour Workers (ISH). The Antwerp men were reacting against the ineffectiveness of the response of the German communist leadership to Hitler's takeover of power, and against the growing subordination of the ISH to Soviet interests. By highlighting the role of anti‐Stalinist militants in the anti‐fascism of the 1930s, the article contributes to the recent scholarship on anti‐fascism – a scholarship that has tended to emphasize the transnationalism and ideological diversity of anti‐fascism, rather than seeing it in national terms, or as a monolithic entity controlled by Moscow.     

Exploring cultural economies of internationalization: the role of ‘iconic individuals’ and ‘brand leaders’ in the globalization of headhunting

Understanding the internationalization of professional services like advertising, architecture, accounting, consulting and legal services continues to attract considerable attention in academic and policy circles. Research in geography and management studies has emphasized the different organizational strategies adopted by firms as they seek to develop and maintain a competitive position within an increasingly global economy. In this article we develop a new strand in this literature by adopting a cultural economy approach to argue that an important, yet comparatively neglected, aspect of the internationalization strategies of transnational professional service firms is the role of certain ‘iconic individuals’ and ‘brand leaders’ in influencing the practice of internationalization. Drawing on empirical research into the burgeoning European executive search (headhunting) industry we identify a cadre of such individuals and brand leaders that act as resources other firms leverage when internationalizing. This highlights the importance of a cultural economy perspective in theories of the internationalization of professional services and its value in moving discussions beyond purely economic analyses of competitive advantage.     

Ten Steps to Developing a National Agenda to Address Financial Conflicts of Interest in Industry Sponsored Clinical Research

Financial liaisons between clinical researchers, research institutions, and industrial sponsors have gained momentum in recent years. In the process, it has been argued by many that trust in the research infrastructure is being eroded by the financial conflicts of interest that emerge from these arrangements. Yet, the financial resources of industry are needed to continue technology transfer from the bench to the bedside. Policy makers and government regulators are currently struggling to determine how to best manage financial conflicts of interest that emerge from these liaisons. Various organizations and governmental entities have proposed different strategies. This paper explores the limitations of existing measures and recommends that a unified national agenda is needed. We propose 10 steps to develop an agenda to address financial conflicts of interest in industry-sponsored clinical research.     

Economic and Social Aspects of the Literary Situation

On the basis of a recent large survey of American authors, wereport on the general economic condition of this unstructuredand differentiated occupation, as well as the economic conditionsof various types of authors. With few exceptions, authors earnlittle from their writing; only those who can "afford" to spendlong hours writing stand a reasonable chance of making a modestincome from it. The unusual nature of the occupation is suggestedby the fact that a wide range of the authors' personal characteristics(demographic and socioeconomic attributes), as well as seeminglyimportant aspects of their writing careers, account for verylittle variation in economic success.     

Probation Officers Working with Men

Correspondence to Jonathan Scourfield, School of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, 50 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3AT, UK. Summary Recent debates on making masculinities explicit in work withoffenders are reviewed as the context for a qualitative researchstudy. Interviews were conducted with probation officers andfiles and pre-sentence reports read with the aim of exploringthe construction of masculinities within the probation service.Tensions about gender were found within and between the threeareas of professional rhetoric, practice and internal relations.The most significant finding is a gap between rhetoric and practice.While most officers interviewed spoke of an interest in focusingeither directly or indirectly on their clients' identity asmen, the files and reports found only a very small amount ofdirect work on this. There was a larger amount of evidence ofwork that could be seen as indirectly challenging masculinites,but another significant part of the files and reports on menreflected a tendency towards ignoring gender or even colludingwith oppressive masculinities.