Utilitarianism and discrimination

Since Becker (1971), a common argument against asymmetric norms that promote minority rights over those of the majority is that such policies reduce total welfare. While this may be the case, we show that there are simple environments where aggregate sum of individual utilities is actually maximized under asymmetric norms that favor minorities. We thus maintain that without information regarding individual utilities one cannot reject or promote segregation-related policies based on utilitarian arguments.     

Epistemic authority and the gender lens

Researching ‘hidden’ forms of social inequality such as gender often poses particular challenges. Not least of these is how to uncover such dimensions of social life whilst preserving the perspectives of research participants, who may not consider such matters relevant to their lives, particularly if other forms of identity or oppression are more prominent for them. Here, I reflect on these issues in the context of researching user involvement in mental health services from a feminist perspective. I show how ‘uncovering’ gender and other forms of social inequality in the field was aided through adopting a wide analytical lens focusing on power, along with reflexivity and openness in discussing my own political analysis and commitments in relation to the study area with the researched. I also describe how I attempted to resolve the epistemological‐ethical issues involved through conceptualising these in terms of ‘situatedness’ and gender salience and adopting a feminist standpoint which emphasised what researchers can, and indeed should, bring to the research enterprise. Related issues of power and empowerment in the research process are discussed.     

The measure representation: A correction

Wakker (1991) and Puppe (1990) point out a mistake in theorem 1 in Segal (1989). This theorem deals with representing preference relations over lotteries by the measure of their epigraphs. An error in the theorem is that it gives wrong conditions concerning the continuity of the measure. This article corrects the error. Another problem is that the axioms do not imply that the measure is bounded; therefore, the measure representation applies only to subsets of the space of lotteries, although these subsets can become arbitrarily close to the whole space of lotteries. Some additional axioms (Segal, 1989, 1990) implying that the measure is a product measure (and hence anticipated utility) also guarantee that the measure is bounded.     

The Creation of a Shared Space through Fantasy between a Seven Year Old Child and his Therapist: A Case Study

This paper applies self psychological and intersubjectivity theories to the in-depth understanding and treatment of a seven-year-old boy with a history of severe trauma. From the beginning, this patient’s primary mode of communication was through fantasies with the therapist who participated in their creation. The jointly-created fantasies gradually contributed to the transformation of the patient’s bleak inner world. The creation and sharing of the fantasies became an enlivening experience for both members of the therapeutic dyad.     

‘My master and Miss … warn’t nothing but poor white trash’: poor white slaveholders and their slaves in the antebellum South

While the majority of enslaved people lived on large plantations, there were a significant minority who lived on smaller farms where they and their families were the only slaves owned by their master (or mistress). This article uses 22 Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviews conducted in the 1930s with former slaves from across the South to investigate the lives of enslaved people living with masters or mistresses that they described as ‘poor’, and argues that enslaved experiences on small farms owned by poor whites varied widely, but were marked particularly by violence, material deprivation, and intense loneliness.     

Fertility regulation technology: status and prospects

The current status of and prospects for contraceptive methods is reviewed. Regulations governing the development, safety, and effectiveness of contraceptive methods are discussed, as well as the nature of the female and male reproductive system. Methods reviewed include coitus interruptus, the condom, spermicidal contraceptive agents, postcoital douching, the vaginal diaphragm, male and female sterilization, the rhythm method, oral contraceptives, IUDs, induced abortion, progesterone-releasing IUDs, postcoital estrogens, abortifacient agents (prostaglandins), immunization against human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), pharmacologic suppression of the corpus luteum, long-acting injections of Depo-Provera, implantation of capsules containing norgestrel, the intravaginal ring, intracervical devices, release of contraceptive steroids through an arm bracelet, and male contraceptive agents. New areas of contraceptive research include influencing the release of luteininzing hormone-releasing hormone, 'turning-off' corpus luteum function in early pregnancy by competitors for HCG, affecting sperm or ovarian membranes to prevent fertilization, and interferring with sperm and egg development.     

Perceptions of child abuse: a comparison of three professional groups in Japan

Japan passed its Child Abuse Prevention Act on 20 November 2000. In these early years following the passage of this Act, it is especially important to attempt to define what constitutes child abuse. Definitions and practical responses may be coloured by perceptions of service providers, and since professional culture is believed to influence individuals, this study compared the perceptions of (a) social workers, (b) physicians, (c) lawyers, and (d) the general public. Results suggested less disagreement in perceptions than was anticipated. When differences were observed, they were correlated more frequently with age and gender rather than with profession.