DEWEY'S CRITIQUE OF MARXISM

This paper examines the development of John Dewey's critique of Marxism. We trace the development of Dewey's critique from his early political writings and his political encounter with Leon Trotsky to his mature critique. We also examine how Dewey's concerns anticipate ideas expressed in the contemporary discussion of Marxian morality and how this discussion helps clarify Dewey's concerns.     

THE DYNAMICS OF A STABLE CARTEL: THE RAILROAD EXPRESS 1851–1913

The railroad express was probably the most successful cartel in U.S. business history. The key to its stability lay in the fact that collusion was largely an effort to create a cost-reducing distribution network. Because cost was dependent on collusion, the five cartel members could both underprice entrants and punish defectors. It is shown that in a Bertrand-type price war, colluding firms could effectively drive a defector into bankruptcy. As a result, the express controlled its market and remained a stable organization for more than half a century.     

Helping Older People in Residential Care Remain Full Citizens

New Labour’s project of modernization has involved thepromotion of interlocking ideas about active citizenship andnew modes of democratic engagement combining to produce whathas described as ‘participative governance’. Concernsabout legitimacy, a ‘democratic deficit’ and theneed to shift power and responsibility to the ‘citizen’have led to the emergence of a range of new deliberative foraand democratic processes. This has led to debates about howto ensure that social diversity can be represented in the decision-makingprocess. A challenge has been how to engage with the issuesof an ageing population and represent older people in all theirdiversity. In recent years, there have been growing calls toextend advocacy rights to older people living in residentialcare. Mostly, this has been to ensure that as consumers, theyhave a fuller say in how their service is run. Older care homeresidents are service users but, as persons, should not be reducedto this role only; they are also citizens in the broadest senseand should not be cut adrift from debates at the national, localand community levels on issues that concern them. This paperexamines how the moves to bring older people into deliberativedemocratic processes have tended to focus on those in their‘Third Age’. Those in institutional settings, beingin the ‘Fourth Age’, occupy a much more marginalposition. This effective disenfranchisement is yet another reasonwhy, for many, the move into residential care—a difficulttransition for a variety of reasons—becomes regarded asthe ‘last refuge’. It contributes to the sense ofloss of identity, lowering of self-esteem and a reduced senseof personhood. This article accepts that there should be moreeffective involvement of care home residents in decision makingabout their personal care. However, there are dangers in adoptinga too narrowly consumerist approach. This can reinforce a reductionistview of care home residents simply as ‘service users’—aform of ‘othering’ in itself. As citizens and membersof a wider community, they should be included in consultationsabout any community and wider political debates that affectthem. Such a proposal implies a widening and deepening of advocacyservices available to this group. As most older people in residentialcare are there following the intervention of a social care professional,then ensuring that they have access to advocacy must surelybe a key task. This paper argues that this is frustrated bythe lack of suitable services. Without a significant investmentby the Government in independent advocacy services, not onlyis the social work task with one of social care’s coreclient groups rendered impossible, but the Government cannotdeliver on its own agenda of empowerment, active citizenshipand inclusion.     

It's Boring: Notes on the Meanings of Boredom in Everyday Life

Qualitative Sociology -     

Take my word for it: Trust in the context of birding and mountaineering

Trust is not normally an issue in modern sport because of the institutionalized requirements for verification of achievements. However, in the two ‘sports’ discussed here, certain records and claimed achievements may be taken on trust. The circumstances under which trust becomes an issue, the processes by which it is tested, and the manner in which it is employed to ensure the integrity of the mountaineering and birding subcultures are explored in this paper.     

LABOR SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS, PROFIT-SHARING AND VOLATILITY RENTS IN AN UNSTABLE ECONOMY

Contracts which pay part of labor compensation as a profit share may be made distributionally identical to fixed-wage contracts under long-run equilibrium conditions, but this does not guarantee distributional equivalence in the presence of mean-preserving turbulence around the equilibrium state. This paper demonstrates how, given a full-employment constraint, the small-scale introduction of share contracting reduces cyclical unemployment but lowers cyclical average profits compared to a fixed-wage regime. As share contracting is extended to cover the entire wage bill, the tendency is to freeze factor shares at their long-run equilibrium values, regardless of shocks.     

Survival trees with time-dependent covariates: Application to estimating changes in the incubation period of AIDS

Tree-structured methods for exploratory data analysis have previously been extended to right-censored survival data. We further extend these methods to allow for truncation and time-dependent covariates. We apply the new methods to a data set on incubation times of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), using calendar time as a time-dependent covariate. Contrary to expectation, we find that rates of progression to AIDS appear to be faster after August 1989 than before.