Overwhelming Casualties: Medical Ethics in a Time of Terror

Codes of ethics and ethics guidelines define standards of professional conduct, and ways to prioritize or balance ethical principles when these appear to be in conflict. In 1991 an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars met at the University of Toronto to discuss these problems in a Workshop on Ethical Considerations in Scholarship and Science. A document, “The Toronto Resolution”; (TTR), was developed, providing twelve principles for incorporation into scientific and scholarly codes, with the object of ensuring that professionals in science recognize the potential consequences of their work in the broader social context. To examine the extent to which existing codes are consonant with The Toronto Resolution's 12 principles, a content analysis was conducted on the codes of 21 Ontario‐based scientific and scholarly organizations. Criteria used in the content analysis were standardized and determined to be reliable. Only a weak correspondence was found between the contents of the codes of the scientific and scholarly organizations surveyed here and the principles set out in TTR. In particular, guidelines on specific social issues such as environmental effects or conflict resolution are scarcely mentioned at all. This study encourages consideration of The Toronto Resolution by the ethics committees of scientific and scholarly associations, as codes are revised or as new interpretations of principles in the codes evolve.     

Remembrance of things not past

Lawrence L. Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: the Ruins of Memory (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1991). Pp.xv + 216. £20 (hardback); £9.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 300 04 96 68 and 05 24 72.

Debórah Dwork, Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1991). Pp.xlvi + 354; illus. £19.95 (hardback); (paperback forthcoming). ISBN 0 300 05 0542 and 05 44 75.

Dalia Ofer, Escaping the Holocaust: Illegal Immigration to Israel (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). Pp.xiii + 408; illus. £30. ISBN 019 506 3406.     

MAPPING CULTURAL/POLITICAL DEBATES IN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The theorization of postmodernism as the cultural logic of late capitalism has generated a number of debates among Latinos in the US and among Latin American critics in particular. This article examines a number of writings published between 1989 and 1994 by Latin American critics focusing on the viability of seeing Latin America as postmodern. We argue that in the rush to accept First World theoretical frameworks, there has been much confusion and a collapsing of economic, political and cultural categories. Conflating market growth and shifts with social change and the availability of a plurality of consumer goods with the distribution of goods and services, some critics have been quick to label cultural production in Latin America as ‘postmodern’. What is needed is a delimitation of the categories used, an examination of the cultural debate in relation to other debates on development, social movements, democratization and alliance politics, as well as an examination of local intellectual debates within the global context of restructuring and transnational capital.     

Building on the original strengths of direct payments to create a better future for social care

Confidence in the prevailing In Control model of personal budgets in the United Kingdom is beginning to waver. This raises the question of ‘where to next?’ for social care. Will we be returning to the monolithic system that typified services at the turn of the millennium – a system that is deeply oppressive for the great majority who lack the support and confidence to escape it by accessing a direct payment to manage their own support system? The Care Act has made no change to the basic process whereby it is councils that will decide what a person’s needs are, which will be met and with what resource. However, we argue here that the situation is far from hopeless. In Control’s analysis, while attractive to a neo-liberal political ideology, was based on a serious failure to understand the reasons for the success of direct payments. Whilst policy-makers saw it as a triumph for consumerist notions of choice, it is better understood as a triumph for needs-based planning, but carried out in a person-centred way. Learning the right lessons offers a new way forward to deliver a respectful and flexible service within the context of the Care Act.     

High School Dropouts After They Exit School: Challenges and Directions for Sociological Research

Sociological research on high school dropouts is largely concerned with who drops out of school and why. Research on the consequences of dropping out is less common. There are clear theoretical reasons to expect dropping out to have a direct and negative effect on life outcomes; however, empirically evaluating these theories is difficult because students who drop out are different from high school graduates in meaningful and complex ways. In this article, I first provide a brief review of sociological research on high school dropouts, emphasizing the demographics of dropouts and reasons for dropping out. I then discuss the possible role of human capital differences, signaling theory, and social closure in creating worse outcomes for high school dropouts and outline the empirical challenges to researching the effects of dropping out. I conclude by discussing avenues for future research and important unanswered questions about the consequences of dropping out.     

Short Term Gain, Long Term Pain

This paper examines the role of informal job search methods on the labour market outcomes of displaced workers. Informal job search methods could alleviate short-term labour market difficulties of displaced workers by providing information on job opportunities, allowing them to signal their productivity and may mitigate wage losses through better post-displacement job matching. However if displacement results from reductions in demand for specific sectors/skills, the use of informal job search methods may increase the risk of job instability. While informal job search methods are associated with lower wage losses, they lead to increased job instability and increased risk of subsequent job displacement.