The child's entry into the symbolic order: a developmental-societal interpretation of Jacques Lacan

Lacan's psychoanalytic insights, as found primarily in his 1964 seminar “The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis” are interpreted within a social-developmental framework. Using Piaget's theory of a structural transition from action logic to object logic I recast (1) Lacan's signifying function as a new competence emerging around age two and (2) the “Other” as the general content/context of this newness, namely the child's grasp of a societal-symbolic order. The child's entry into that order is described as inherently linked to sexuality, desire and the unconscious and as accompanied by feelings of alienation and separation. Insofar as the desire of the unconscious is toward the “Other” Lacan seems to support my claim of an endogenous origin of the societal order.     

文化建构理论对跨国并购后企业文化融合的启示

在经济全球化的过程中,企业跨国并购越来越普遍。由于跨国并购引起的企业文化冲突使并购后企业文化融合逐渐成为决定企业跨国并购成败的关键因素之一。从文化建构主义的角度来看,并购企业的文化融合是一个动态过程,需要人们的正确识别、良好沟通,采用适当的融合模式,从而建立共同的价值观。     

Essentialism and Islamic Theology of Homosexuality: A Critical Reflection on an Essentialist Epistemology toward Same-Sex Desires and Acts in Islam

Although most traditional Muslim scholars condemn same-sex desires and acts, revisionist Muslim scholars have offered a more tolerant approach on this issue over the last two decades. Building on an essentialist approach to same-sex desires and acts, these scholars have argued that Islam accepts difference and diversity, including sexual diversity, as part of God’s creation. Homosexuality, which in their view is an innate disposition to the same sex, is an alternative sexuality and, thus, accepted by the Qur’an and Islam. This article argues that an essentialist approach is not suitable to defend all manifestations of same-sex desires and acts, not only because it is narrow (as it excludes both bisexual Muslims and homosexual Muslims who believe that their sexual orientation is socially constructed), but also because it cannot even argue the case for the view of homosexuality as inborn. This article proposes to open up the debate beyond essentialism and constructivism, which both have their limitations, to accommodate a more inclusive and tolerant Islamic approach to same-sex desires and acts.     

A quantum leap for social theory

I discuss the revolutionary implications of Alexander Wendt's Quantum Mind and Social Science for social theory. These center on the significance given to society as a possibility space in which observable social reality amounts to quantum decoherent states in the system. I discuss how Wendt radicalises social constructivism and goes considerably beyond Bourdieu's conceptions of society as a field. A signature feature in Wendt's theory, the state as a hologram, comports well with the implied view of the social order in much public opinion and market research. In this respect, Wendt's theory is very attuned to the spirit of our times.     

Más allá de la sociología. Sobre catástrofes,expertos y comunidades

We could state that a catastrophic discourse is one that refers to a catastrophe which is avoided by the same discourse. This kind of discourse stimulates cautious behaviours. It is necessary that the actors do not know that the catastrophe exists and that they are avoiding it so that this situation can work. Nevertheless, the analyst knows everything. The catastrophic discourse takes part in a stable situation in which the analyst's knowledge is directly proportional to the actor alienation. The economist knows that unstable situations like panic produce an opposite phenomenon: the analyst does not know very well what is going on but the actor knows how to manage. If the market, as well as stable operation, permits instability, the prevention of catastrophes could admit an unstable one, similar to panic and together with the catastrophic solution. This paper suggests some concepts to think about this unstable and anticatastrophic situation. They are notions which give prominence to ‘emergentism’, autopoiesis and uncertainty. The reinterpretation of the Hobbesian natural state developed by Foucault, the analysis of the mobilization power of fear by Bataille and the unpolitical reflections of the community which have been proposed by Esposito, Nancy and Agamben will be reinterpreted in order to achieve this goal.     

案例行动学习法——效率与效果的兼顾

案例教学法、行动学习法等主流商科情境教学模式虽在国内商学院中得到广泛的应用,但囿于使用过程中的资源限制、实施变形及方法本身的局限性,导致教学双方的反馈尚不尽如人意。本文介绍了一种全新的商科情境教学方法--案例行动学习法。论文应用建构主义理论探讨了案例行动学习法的基本原理,研究了该种方法的能力建构机理,分析了其成为工商管理主流情境教学方法的效率与效果的平衡机理,介绍了前期应用的效果。研究结果表明,案例行动学习法作为一种全新的工商管理情境教学方法,能够将案例教学与行动学习两种方法的优点有机结合在一起,具备在全国范围内推广的条件。     

基于建构主义的外语多媒体网络教学研究

建构主义的发展轨迹揭示了学习具有“自主性”“情境性”、“社会性”的特点,而“情境”、“协作”、“会话”、“意义建构”则构成了建构主义的学习环境。外语多媒体网络教学则真正契合了建构主义学习观,它使创建建构主义学习环境成为可能,并为建构主义学习理论的应用提供了技术支撑和实践平台。外语多媒体网络教学就要以建构主义学习理论为指导,来制定评价指标和进行多方面的教学设计。     

建构主义理论与新型教学模式的构建

本文分析了传统外语教学模式的弊端,从建构主义理论出发,阐述了创建基于网络及多媒体技术的教学模式的必要性,以及新型教学模式的特点。     

Beyond the nature/society divide: Learning to think about a mountain

Sociological efforts to understand environment-society relationships fall primarily into four conceptual categories. The first three, involving analytical separation, analytical primacy, and balanced dualism, all draw distinctions between biophysical and social aspects of human experience, with subsequent analyses being based on thesea priori distinctions. The fourth or constructivist approach questions this naturalized dichotomy, calling attention instead to mutual contingency or conjoint constitution: What we take to be physical facts are likely to be strongly shaped by social construction processes, and at the same time, what we take to be strictly social will often have been shaped in part by taken-for-granted realities of the physical world. Technology offers important opportunities for tracing these interconnections, being an embodiment of both the physical and the social. The point is illustrated with a long-term historical analysis of a specific physiographic feature—a mountain—that has undergone little overtphysical change over the centuries, but has undergone repeated changes in its social meanings and uses. Few of the changes would have been possible in the absence of the mountain's physiographic characteristics; similarly, few would have occurred in the absence of changing sociocultural definitions and possibilities. The challenge for sociology is not just to recognize the importance of both the physical and the social factors, and certainly not to argue over the relative importance of the two, but to recognize the extent to which what we take to be physical and social factors can be conjointly constituted.The paper's subtitle is intended as a tribute to Aldo Leopold and to one of his most famous essays (1949).