What is society? Social thought and the arts of government

Following conservative politicians, neoliberal philosophers and radical critics, different strands of social science, including those using Foucault's governmentality approach, joined the questioning of the salience of 'society' and ideas of 'the social' over the last decades. When the social reappeared, it was often in the moral domains of community and civil society. This argument re-evaluates the contribution of Foucauldian histories, or 'genealogies', of the social to these fundamental questions. Drawing upon them, it attends to their arguments concerning the place of social thought on the modern episteme in relation to economics, the emergence of the idea of 'society' with the modern arts of government of the state, and the formation of the 'social question'. The argument here allows that preconditions of formation of 'society' lie in the legal and political techniques of the territorial sovereign state. However, the literature under investigation indicates the implicit normativity of an idea of 'society' as a 'problematic unity' and the enduring necessity of a social domain in a law-governed state with a relatively independent economic sphere. This discussion thus seeks to contribute to the wider revaluation and redeployment of these terms in today's context.     

Can one TV show make a difference? Will & Grace and the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis

Television has an opportunity to influence beliefs about groups with which individuals typically may have little direct social contact. This study describes a synthesis of the Contact Hypothesis and the concept of Parasocial Interaction to pose what we call the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis to test whether exposure to gay men on Will & Grace can influence attitudes toward gay men in general. Based on a study of 245 university students, this study examines the relationships among number and intimacy of gay social contacts, parasocial interaction, viewing frequency of Will & Grace, and scores on Herek's Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbians scale. Increased viewing frequency and parasocial interaction were found to correlate with lower levels of sexual prejudice-a relationship that was most pronounced for those with the least amount of social contact with lesbians and gay men.     

Optimal population and exhaustible resource constraints

A large literature considers the optimal size and growth rate of the human population, trading off the utility value of additional people with the costs of a larger population. In this literature, an important parameter is the social weight placed on population size; a standard result is that a planner with a larger weight on population chooses larger population levels and growth rates. We demonstrate that this result is conditionally overturned when an exhaustible resource constraint is introduced: if the discount rate is small enough, the optimal population today decreases with the welfare weight on population size. That is, a more total-utilitarian social planner could prefer a smaller population today than a more average-utilitarian social planner. We also present a numerical illustration applied to the case of climate change, where we show that under plausible real-world parameter values, our result matters for the direction and magnitude of optimal population policy.     

The Bullwhip Effect—Impact of Stochastic Lead Time,Information Quality,and Information Sharing: A Simulation Study

We use a simulation model called ‘SISCO’ to examine the effects in supply chains of stochastic lead times and of information sharing and quality of that information in a periodic order‐up‐to level inventory system. We test the accuracy of the simulation by verifying the results in Chen et al. (2000a) and Dejonckheere et al. (2004). We find that lead‐time variability exacerbates variance amplification in a supply chain, and that information sharing and information quality are highly significant. For example, using the assumptions in Chen et al. (2000a) and Dejonckheere et al. (2004), we find in a numerical experiment of a customer‐retailer‐wholesaler‐distributor‐factory supply chain that variance amplification is attenuated by nearly 50 percent at the factory due to information sharing. Other assumptions we make are based on interviews or conversations with managers at large supply chains.     

A BAYESIAN APPROACH TO PLANT-LOCATION DECISIONS*

The paper addresses the problem of plant location in the formal context of decision making under uncertainty and presents a framework employing Bayesian analysis in the collection and assessment of information. As a general model, the Bayesian approach is shown to subsume two practical approaches common to plant-location literature: satisficing and spatial hierarchy of plant-site characteristics.     

微小螺钉输送和拧紧装置

针对目前电子电器类产品的微小螺钉装配时存在装配精度和速度上的不足,提出一种新型微小螺钉输送和拧紧 装置,设计了输送和拧紧装置的组成结构,介绍了装置中主要部件的工作原理,并分析了输送过程中输送轨道的倾斜角 度和输送管道的弯曲程度,采用机械振动和气动传输相结合以实现微小螺钉的排序和输送。该装置可以实现微小螺钉 装配的自动化,与传统的手工装配或半自动化装配相比,具有工作效率高、产品装配质量高和装配成本低等特点,主要用 于工业生产流水线上微小螺钉的自动化装配过程中。     

Social work with Bosnian Muslim refugee children and families: a review of the literature

More than two million Bosnian Muslims were ethnically cleansed in the Balkan region; of these, 200,000 were killed while the others were forced to flee their homes and become refugees. This article focuses on the influence of societal and cultural values coupled with wartime experiences on the transition of Bosnian refugee families to their new countries. Consideration is given to culturally competent theoretical frameworks and practice principles social workers can use to assist Bosnian Muslim children and families in their adaptation process within their resettlement communities.     

Mortality level,desired family size and population increase: Further variations on a basic model

A series of computer-simulation models relating mortality level to fertility behavior and to rates of natural increase assuming that couples made use of a perfect means of birth control, that they wanted to be highly certain of having at least one son survive to the father’s 65th birthday, and that all women were biologically capable of having the same number of children were reported earlier. A model identical to one presented earlier but assuming women to be of variable fecundity is presented here; the results are quite similar. Also, the results of models assuming that parents want to be highly certain of at least two surviving children regardless of sex are compared with models assuming parental desire to be highly certain of at least one surviving son. At high levels of mortality the rates of natural increase are quite similar. When mortality is at intermediate to medium-low levels, the two-surviving-children model shows a lower rate of natural increase than the surviving-son model. At very low levels of mortality, such as now experienced by the most advanced nations, the two-surviving-children model manifests a higher rate of natural increase than the surviving-son model.     

Factorial Experiments In Resolvable Generalized Cyclic Designs

It is shown that the class of generalized cyclic designs provides resolvable designs which are efficient for estimating factorial effects. A practical problem is discussed and useful designs for two-factors experiments are listed.