The structure of acquaintance nets and rates of societal development

Selected steps in progress on the “small world problem” are reviewed, to show the difficulty of finding models that can produce the spectrum of clusters that is observed in contact nets rather than a single large cluster. Empirical work now in progress in the Philippines and in Hong Kong to correlate the structure of the acquaintance nets with rates of economic, political and societal development is presented and related to next steps in modelling. The relation of both empirical and theoretical findings to networking is brought out, as is the potential of computer conferencing for such network-supported applications as the provision of support in health maintenance.     

Technikbewertung als Instrument der politischen Gestaltung. Über die Steuerbarkeit moderner Gesellschaften

The concept of technology assessment emerged at the end of the 1960s. It was based on the consideration that state agents, and parliaments in particular, dispose of information on the risks of new technologies and large-scale technical systems in order to be able to arrive at well-founded decisions. Today, the idea of technology assessment, which not by coincidence arose in the phase of control optimism, appears to be off the political agenda, to a large extent, as an expression of instrumentally-rational action in the domain of technology. However, the dominant role of technology in social transformation, as described by many sociological classics, has by no means diminished. The following paper outlines the connections between the instrument of technology assessment and the question of controllability. It is shown that the idea of technology assessment relies on largely obsolete assumptions about the ability of states to exercise control. Technology assessment adapted to modern conditions cannot be an exclusive function of the state, but must be devolved to and institutionalized with all agents concerned with the shaping of new technologies. Zusammenfassung. Das Konzept der Technikbewertung ("technology assessment") ist Ende der 60er-Jahre entstanden. Ihm lag die überlegung zugrunde, dass staatliche Akteure – v. a. das Parlament – frühzeitig über die Risiken neuer Technologien und gro?technischer Systeme informiert sind, um begründete Entscheidungen treffen zu k?nnen. Heute scheint die Idee der Technikbewertung, die nicht zuf?llig in der Phase des Steuerungsoptimismus entstand, als Ausdruck zweckrationalen Handelns im Bereich Technik von der politischen Agenda weit gehend verdr?ngt zu sein. Die von vielen sozialwissenschaftlichen Klassikern beschriebene dominante Rolle der Technik für den sozialen Wandel ist jedoch heute keineswegs geringer geworden. Der folgende Beitrag skizziert die Zusammenh?nge zwischen dem Instrument "Technikbewertung" mit der Frage nach der Steuerbarkeit moderner Gesellschaften. Es zeigt sich, dass der Idee der Technikbewertung Annahmen über die Steuerungsf?higkeit des Staates zugrunde liegen, die heute kaum noch zutreffen. Eine den Bedingungen der Moderne angepasste Technikbewertung darf nicht nur beim Staat, sondern muss dezentral bei allen Akteuren, die mit der Gestaltung neuer Technologien befasst sind, institutionalisiert werden.

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Résumé. C'est à la fin des années soixante que s'est développée la conception visant à l'évaluation des choix technologiques (technology assessment). Cette conception reposait sur les considérations que, afin d'être à même de prendre des décisions bien fondées, les acteurs publics – et avant tout les Parlements – devaient être informés à temps des risques liés à de nouvelles technologies ou de ceux qui pouvaient venir des systèmes agissant à l'échelon industriel. Aujourd'hui, il semble bien que l'idée de l'évaluation des choix technologiques a été en grande partie évincée de l'agenda politique, cette idée dont la naissance au moment où l'optimisme de la théorie du contr?le battait son plein, n'était pas un hasard, exprimait dans le domaine de la technique l'expression d'actions s'orientant vers une rationalité au niveau du choix des buts. Le r?le prépondérant joué par la technique dans le changement social, r?le déjà décrit par la plupart des scientifiques classiques sociaux, n'a aujourd'hui nullement perdu de son importance. L'article suivant donne un aper?u sur les corrélations existant entre l'instrument "évaluation des choix technologiques" et la question de la gouvernabilité des sociétés modernes. Nous montrerons que l'idée de l'évaluation des choix technologiques repose sur des hypothèses concernant la capacité de contr?le de l'état, hypothèses dont la validité est aujourd'hui presque inexistante. L'une des conditions pour une évaluation des choix technologiques pouvant s'adapter aux temps modernes est que cette évaluation ne doit pas rester aux seules mains de l'état mais doit au contraire être décentralisée afin de pouvoir être institutionnalisée chez tous les acteurs participant à la conception de nouvelles technologies.

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Electronic Publication     

Organizational Sleepwalkers: Emotional Distress at Midlife

In this paper, attention is paid to adysfunctional emotional behavior pattern wherebyindividuals experience very little (or a total absenceof) pleasure. Instead, there is a feeling of emotionalnumbness. Although this phenomenon touches all parts oflife, this paper focuses on the organizational context.For some executives, the stresses and strains of midlife(including stresses involving career issues) become the catalyst for this dysfunctionalemotional behavior. Their reactions are of aquasi-alexithymic and anhedonic nature. Some of thecharacteristics of this dysfunctional emotional patternare delineated in these pages. In addition, the relatedexperience of depersonalization is highlighted. Some ofthe factors that contribute to these kinds of phenomenaare explored. At the end of the paper, a number of recommendations for dealing with thesedifficulties are given.     

Churches: Lasting Sources of Civic Engagement? Effects of Secularization and Educational Expansion on Non-religious Volunteering in the Netherlands, 1988 and 2006

During the last three decades Dutch church attendance rates dropped considerably, while the relative share of volunteers in non-religious organizations decreased at a slower rate. This is an unexpected development given the positive association between religious involvement and volunteering. In this article, we try to account for this development by addressing the following question: Why has a massive and ongoing decline of church attendance in the Netherlands not resulted in a similar drop in the relative number of volunteers in non-religious voluntary organizations? In view of this question, we wonder if the negative effect of declining church attendance on volunteering is perhaps counterbalanced by a positive effect of educational expansion. Our findings reveal that this is indeed the case, but these counterbalancing effects are only modest.     

不同工质振荡热管的传热性能

为了解不同工质回路振荡热管运行和传热机理及规律,进行了风冷弯曲封闭循环振荡热管的实验,测定了R123、乙醇和水3种不同工质在振荡热管中不同充注量及不同加热功率下的热阻.结果发现,振荡热管的激励和传热特性与工质的物性包括饱和温度、比热容、汽化潜热及饱和温度下压力随温度的变化率有关,且不同物性在不同工况下作用大小不同,这决定了热管发生振荡的难易和发生振荡后热阻性能的变化.     

Mental Models in Risk Assessment: Informing People About Drugs

One way to communicate about the risks of drugs is through the use of package inserts. The problems associated with this medium of informing patients have been investigated by several researchers who found that people require information about drugs they are using, including extensive risk information, and that they are willing to take this information into account in their usage of drugs. But empirical results also show that people easily misinterpret the information given. A conceptual framework is proposed that might be used for better understanding the cognitive processes involved in such a type of risk assessment and communication. It is based on the idea that people develop, through experience, a mental model of how a drug works, which effects it might produce, that contraindications have to be considered, etc. This mental model is "run" when a specific package insert has been read and a specific question arises such as, for example, whether certain symptoms can be explained as normal or whether they require special attention and action. We argue that the mental model approach offers a useful perspective for examining how people understand package inserts, and consequently for improving their content and design. The approach promises to be equally useful for other aspects of risk analysis that are dependent upon human judgment and decision making, e.g., threat diagnosis and human reliability analysis.