Pierre Bourdieu's Masculine Domination: A Critique*

Les auteurs montrent que la tentative de Pierre Bourdieu de résoudre le problème de la « domination masculine» est limitée par l'application inconséquente de son propre répertoire conceptuel, par l'emploi d'exemples empiriques périmés et par l'utilité douteuse du cas des relations sociales en Kabylie. Un rejet des catégories fondamentales (« homme », « femme ») et le recours à une conception plus nuancée de la domination seraient une approche plus prometteuse. An uneven application of his own conceptual repertoire, outdated empirical materials and the questionable utility of the example of relations in Kabylia limit Bourdieu's attempts to come to grips with “masculine domination.” A more useful approach would move beyond essentializing categories and engage with a more nuanced conception of domination.     

TEACHING PROFESSIONAL WRITING TO FAMILY THERAPISTS: THREE APPROACHES

The authors present three educational approaches designed to demystify the writing process and to support better writing skills among family therapists. One framework is an academic course in professional writing, another is a writing seminar for family therapy and physician trainees within a medical school setting, and the third is a 2-hour continuing education writing workshop for family therapists. Each is replicable within a variety of settings.     

Self reported morbidity in London and Manchester: Intra-urban and inter-urban variations

Evidence of self reported morbidity from two household surveys, carried out in London and Manchester is discussed. These data permitted intra-urban and interurban comparisons of patterns of morbidity reporting. The morbidity reported in response to two different instruments is compared: for the items used in the British General Household Survey (GHS) Health Section, and for the Nottingham Health Profile. The results from the London survey are analysed in more detail to examine the nature of self reported morbidity in the inner and outer city. The influence of interviewer effects is analysed, showing that the GHS items were more liable to interviewer effect than the NHP. The type and number of illnesses reported in response in response to the GHS also appeared to vary between the inner and outer London samples: The NHP appeared to be less affected by interviewer effects and variation in interpretation.     

Capitalist development and educational reform

Conclusion The early formulations of reproduction theory fail to grasp uneven educational development because of a reliance on a mechanical, base/ superstructure model of social organization. Unlike neo-Weberian models which attempt to sever the necessary connection between the existence of public education and commodity production, reproduction theory emphasizes the correspondence of public education and the capitalist economy. But this correspondence does not adequately conceptualize the unity of form and content in capitalist relations of production. As a causal model it implies that economic relations develop in the absence of their institutional counterparts. The weight of economic needs then calls institutional reform into play. Such a model reduces historical development to the movement of pure forms.The early formulations of reproduction theory confuse abstract and historical levels of analysis. They also fail to adequately grasp social units. Capitalism is a world economy in which production extends well beyond national boundaries, yet in which labor power is reproduced on the whole by national states. Without an analysis of relations among nations, uneven educational development is unintelligible.The patterns of educational development seen in Ireland and Upper Canada resulted from the colonial status of these countries which made educational reform appear a potential solution to imperialist struggles. Educational reforms blocked in England because of class struggles and sectarian divisions could be invoked in the colonial situation by virtue of the relative independence of the colonial state. These reforms, however, embodied structural features peculiar to capitalist relations of production. Precocious educational development in these cases results from the heightened development of the colonial state in relation to the colonial political economy.Public education does not, one would think obviously, eliminate class relations. Rather, public educational reform is a mode of reformulating class relations by the state. This reformulation changes the appearance of class relations but not their basis. Public education is not compensation for the loss of liberty political subjects endure by consenting to be ruled by the state; it is more usefully seen as one way in which the state administers class relations. As such, it reproduces class struggles in displaced forms. Such displaced struggles are seen by neo-Weberian writers as constellations of interests, but one should not lose sight of the structural origins of such interests.While reproduction theory has presented serious critiques of liberal theory and has stressed the historically specific character of public education, it has embodied functionalist assumptions which limit its ability to come to grips with concrete historical development. To escape these assumptions it is necessary to reject a base/ superstructure model and to seek rather to understand the expanded reproduction of the essential social forms of capitalist society.     

Endorsing Comments Public Organization Review: An Appreciation

Public Organization Review -     

Drug resistance in an age-of-infection model

ABSTRACT

In the case of a disease spreading over a time-scale comparable to the average lifetime in a host population, when the infectiousness of individuals depends on the tine since the onset of infection and when infections involve both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains of a pathogen, resistance may develop during the treatment of drug-sensitive strains. If increasing the treatment rate reduces the reproduction number of the drug-sensitive strain to a value below the reproduction number of the drug-resistant strain, then the disease may persist at a boundary equilibrium where only drug-resistant infection is present.     

A Bayesian Model and Stochastic Exposure (Dose) Estimation for Relative Exposure Risk Comparison Involving Asbestos‐Containing Dropped Ceiling Panel Installation and Maintenance Tasks

Assessing exposures to hazards in order to characterize risk is at the core of occupational hygiene. Our study examined dropped ceiling systems commonly used in schools and commercial buildings and lay‐in ceiling panels that may have contained asbestos prior to the mid to late 1970s. However, most ceiling panels and tiles do not contain asbestos. Since asbestos risk relates to dose, we estimated the distribution of eight‐hour TWA concentrations and one‐year exposures (a one‐year dose equivalent) to asbestos fibers (asbestos f/cc‐years) for five groups of workers who may encounter dropped ceilings: specialists, generalists, maintenance workers, nonprofessional do‐it‐yourself (DIY) persons, and other tradespersons who are bystanders to ceiling work. Concentration data (asbestos f/cc) were obtained through two exposure assessment studies in the field and one chamber study. Bayesian and stochastic models were applied to estimate distributions of eight‐hour TWAs and annual exposures (dose). The eight‐hour TWAs for all work categories were below current and historic occupational exposure limits (OELs). Exposures to asbestos fibers from dropped ceiling work would be categorized as “highly controlled” for maintenance workers and “well controlled” for remaining work categories, according to the American Industrial Hygiene Association exposure control rating system. Annual exposures (dose) were found to be greatest for specialists, followed by maintenance workers, generalists, bystanders, and DIY. On a comparative basis, modeled dose and thus risk from dropped ceilings for all work categories were orders of magnitude lower than published exposures for other sources of banned friable asbestos‐containing building material commonly encountered in construction trades.     

Differential customer racial attitudes toward scandal and patriotism: The Mitchell Report,the Olympics,race, and baseball memorabilia

This paper investigates differential customer racial reaction to negative and positive publicity related to professional athletes. In terms of negative publicity, it analyzes the effect of mention in the Mitchell Report on the price of baseball cards. In regards to positive publicity, it considers the impact of having been identified as a member of the United States Olympic or national team. After controlling for player productivity with performance statistics, the effects of being mentioned in the Mitchell Report are isolated within regression analysis to draw conclusions concerning customer racial attitudes toward the steroids scandal. Similar analysis is conducted to see the impact of being seen as a baseball representative of the United States. Regression results are consistent with the conclusion that negative publicity devalues the cards of nonWhite players but not of White players. Positive publicity, however, increases the value of a player's card regardless of ethnicity.     

A general class of test statistics for Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis

Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis states that within a homogeneous taxonomic group the age is statistically independent of the rate of extinction. The case of the Red Queen hypothesis being addressed here is when the homogeneous taxonomic group is a group of similar species. Since Van Valen's work, various statistical approaches have been used to address the relationship between taxon age and the rate of extinction. We propose a general class of test statistics that can be used to test for the effect of age on the rate of extinction. These test statistics allow for a varying background rate of extinction and attempt to remove the effects of other covariates when assessing the effect of age on extinction. No model is assumed for the covariate effects. Instead we control for covariate effects by pairing or grouping together similar species. Simulations are used to compare the power of the statistics. We apply the test statistics to data on Foram extinctions and find that age has a positive effect on the rate of extinction. A derivation of the null distribution of one of the test statistics is provided in the supplementary material.