Possessed by Poe: Reading Poe in an age of intellectual guilt

Abstract

This essay enters the debate over the French appropriation of Poe not by seeking redress for the supposed political misdeeds of either Poe or the French, but rather, by addressing itself to the American response to the French reception of Poe. While American cultural studies critics in particular have sought to hold the French accountable for ignoring Poe's troubling biography — one in which the question of Poe's relationship to, and possible support of, antebellum slavery remains unanswered to this day — I argue that the important question of how we as critics situate ourselves in relation to material history is too often buried under a moralizing rhetoric of accountability. Following from, and extending, Jacques Derrida's notion of ‘speciality,’ I maintain that material history is itself a kind of conjuration that belies any strict distinction between the material and the immaterial. Against the demand for accountability, the notion of history‐as‐conjuration allows us to address questions of historical responsibility in a manner that circumvents the impulse to hold Poe accountable for his crimes’.     

Plural processes,patterned connections

Plural globalizations refer to large-scale processes occurring today at an accelerated pace (due to information and communication technologies) and with extremely uneven effects (due to continuing and new inequalities). Conventional analytical and disciplinary frameworks can neither make adequate sense of, nor effectively politicize, these developments. The quantitatively large scales and qualitatively novel changes require new orientations. This essay draws on critical, interpretive, feminist perspectives to propose conceptual innovations and a cross-disciplinary framework for analyzing globalizations. The alternative framing moves beyond a narrow definition of economics to identify and integrate reproductive, productive, and virtual economies (understood in a Foucauldian sense as systemic sites through and across which power opcratcs). The new framing brings the concepts and practices of ‘social reproduction’, non-wage labor, and informalization into relation with the familiar but increasingly global, flexibilized, and service-oriented ‘productive economy’, as well as with the less familiar but increasingly consequential ‘virtual economy’ of financial markets, commodified information, and the exchange less of goods than of signs.     

Male sex workers in three Australian cities: socio-demographic and sex work characteristics

This article describes the socio-demographic and sex work characteristics of sex workers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. A total of 185 male sex workers completed the questionnaire component of the study. The results of this study serve to debunk many of the myths surrounding the popular view of the male sex worker (MSW). The respondents in this study were on average 27 years old, and the majority had completed secondary education, with 30% having gained some form of tertiary qualification. Interestingly, those MSWs who had not completed secondary education were mostly street workers and were generally aged under 25 years. The majority of sex workers lived in rented accommodation, with only 6% reporting to be homeless. Half of all respondents identified as being "gay," 31% as "bisexual" and 5.5% as "straight." More than half of the respondents were in a permanent relationship. Only 7.3% of this group reported using heroin daily, although the majority consumed alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and ecstasy. The majority of sex workers had been in the profession for less than six months, although some had been working in the industry for more than ten years. Most of the sex workers reported having taken an HIV test and a preference to offer safer sex. The article highlights ways in which the work context of MSW can be better understood and supported by education and public policy programs.     

The Social Influence of Two Computer-Assisted Career Guidance Systems: DISCOVER and SIGI

Perceptions of expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness of computer-assisted guidance systems, as measured by an adapted version of the Counselor Rating Form (CRF), were compared for 107 college students in two treatment conditions (DISCOVER and SIGI) and a computer imaging control condition. Findings showed that students in the DISCOVER and SIGI conditions had more positive perceptions of the attractiveness of systems than those in the computer imaging group. In a review of related studies using the CRF in actual counseling, students seemed to attribute comparable levels of expertness to the computer, but not so with attractiveness or trustworthiness. Implications of these findings for the optimal use of CACG systems and for research are discussed.     

Exposure Assessment: Methods of Analysis for Environmental Carcinogens1

Human populations are exposed to environmental carcinogens in both indoor and outdoor atmospheres. Recent studies indicate that pollutant concentrations are generally higher in indoor atmospheres than in outdoor. Environmental pollutants that occur in indoor air from a variety of sources include radon, asbestos, organic and inorganic compounds, and certain particles (e.g., tobacco smoke). Some of the gases or vapors are adsorbed on suspended particulate matter, whereas others exist entirely in the gas phase or are distributed between the latter and a particle-bound state. Because of differences in chemical and physical properties, each class of carcinogens generally requires different sampling and analytical methods. In addition, a single indoor environment may contain a wide variety of air pollutants from different sources. Unfortunately, no single best approach currently exists for the quantitative determination of such complex mixtures and, for practical reasons, only the more toxic or the more abundant pollutants are usually measured. This paper summarizes the currently available monitoring methods for selected environmental pollutants found in indoor atmospheres. In addition, some possible sources for those pollutants are identified.     

Assess your quality of care quotient

The upsurge of large, single/multi-specialty group practices in contemporary health care has precipitated a corresponding surge in marketing strategies aimed at promoting group speed, efficiency, and/or productivity. Subsequently, the quality of care is often overlooked or redefined in financial terms. However, assessing quality of care--above and beyond strictly economic factors--can provide crucial information for executives concerned with making informed managerial decisions. This article explores one prototypical physician group's quest to assess their "quality care quotient," and explicates the process by which they obtained important data from patients, as well as how they used the assessment to improve their practice. The process may serve as an exemplar to physician groups concerned with conducting such analyses.