Wherein Lie the “Secrets of Life”?: An Argument Against Biological Essentialism

There is a very strong trend in American culture to impute fixed, stable, and universal properties to a wide range of behaviors and conditions, thereby essentializing their qualities and locating them within nature. Both persons with disabilities and queers have been designated as nature's deviants. The author explores parallels and points of divergence in the responses of both disability rights and queer rights activism and scholarship to this assigned classification. She further illuminates this exploration by drawing upon insights derived from growing up with a congenital disability. As a child, the author felt that her body was a text composed, crafted, and edited by those who had the power to manipulate it. Recently, she entered a lesbian relationship, and together she and her partner planned a commitment ceremony that allowed her to reclaim her own body, because the body of the text that ensued was one of their own creation.     

文学与政治;当代文论中"本质主义"话语的分析

文学服务于政治需求,这是断定"二十七年"文学本质主义主要缘由.出于对政治的片面化认识,二十世纪八十年代文学极力和政治撇清关系,试图寻找文学自律,但这并没有使文学完全摆脱本质主义的影子.当下话语理论和文化研究中的微观政治淡化了本质主义色彩,文学和政治在关系主义维度上开始重新对话,它们也隐含着滑向"绝时相对主义"的危险.因此,文学的政治诉求并不绝对导致本质主义,如果梳理各个时期的政治以及文学的具体观念,文学、政治和本质主义的关系就显得相当复杂.     

Nonstationary Brand Variables in Category Management: A Cointegration Perspective

Category‐management models serve to assist in the development of plans for pricing and promotions of individual brands. Techniques to solve the models can have problems of accuracy and interpretability because they are susceptible to spurious regression problems due to nonstationary time‐series data. Improperly stated nonstationary systems can reduce the accuracy of the forecasts and undermine the interpretation of the results. This is problematic because recent studies indicate that sales are often a nonstationary time‐series. Newly developed correction techniques can account for nonstationarity by incorporating error‐correction terms into the model when using a Bayesian Vector Error‐Correction Model. The benefit of using such a technique is that shocks to control variates can be separated into permanent and temporary effects and allow cointegration of series for analysis purposes. Analysis of a brand data set indicates that this is important even at the brand level. Thus, additional information is generated that allows a decision maker to examine controllable variables in terms of whether they influence sales over a short or long duration. Only products that are nonstationary in sales volume can be manipulated for long‐term profit gain, and promotions must be cointegrated with brand sales volume. The brand data set is used to explore the capabilities and interpretation of cointegration.     

A Test of Alternative Measures of Disconfirmation*

Disconfirmation has been widely used in a number of research traditions, however there are many different operationalizations of this construct. Little research has investigated the relative effectiveness of these various methods. The research reported here examines five operationalizations of disconfirmation and their effect on satisfaction. These tests are carried out using two different comparison standards in two different settings. The results indicate some methods are better in certain situations and are inappropriate in others. Implications for both practical and theoretical research are discussed.     

高等教育话语的新变迁--机构身份再构建的跨学科研究

本文旨在论述话语分析可以作为语言学和社会学理论之间的聚合点加以研究.作者将以其当前从事的高校机构身份在新的话语实践中再构建的研究课题为例来阐述这一理论视角.     

The Impact of Information System Personnel Skill Discrepancies on Stakeholder Satisfaction

System development efforts depend to a large degree upon how well information systems (IS) managers, IS specialists, and IS users work together in a project team structure. Yet, these individuals frequently work under different perceptions about matters of importance to development, management, and success. This paper introduces a framework for examining IS specialists' skill requirements from a multiple‐stakeholder perspective. Derived from discrepancy theory, the framework concedes that different stakeholders hold a variable set of expectations for IS personnel skill levels as well as a perception of skills held by IS personnel. We examine differences in expectation and performance expressed by each group and describe the impact of the discrepancy on user satisfaction, career satisfaction of IS specialists, and on job performance evaluations by IS managers. Results confirm that a discrepancy between an IS specialist's expectations of skill and their perceived skill self‐proficiency impacts career satisfaction. Similar relations hold for IS managers and users. Since different stakeholders may hold different perceptions, satisfaction of all parties becomes problematic unless a common frame of reference can be determined.     

Strategic Decisions of New Technology Adoption under Asymmetric Information: A Game‐Theoretic Model*

In this paper we explore strategic decision making in new technology adoption by using economic analysis. We show how asymmetric information affects firms' decisions to adopt the technology. We do so in a two‐stage game‐theoretic model where the first‐stage investment results in the acquisition of a new technology that, in the second stage, may give the firm a competitive advantage in the product market. We compare two information structures under which two competing firms have asymmetric information about the future performance (i.e., postadoption costs) of the new technology. We find that equilibrium strategies under asymmetric information are quite different from those under symmetric information. Information asymmetry leads to different incentives and strategic behaviors in the technology adoption game. In contrast to conventional wisdom, our model shows that market uncertainty may actually induce firms to act more aggressively under certain conditions. We also show that having better information is not always a good thing. These results illustrate a key departure from established decision theory.     

马克思晚年关于俄国社会发展前景思想新论

俄国社会发展的世界性意义 ,农奴制改革以后俄国社会革命形势的急剧高涨 ,是马克思晚年关注俄国的重要原因 ,而当时俄国国内围绕着俄国社会发展前景问题所展开的激烈争论则是其直接原因。马克思关于俄国可能“不通过资本主义制度的卡夫丁峡谷”的著名设想 ,讨论的是俄国走一条不同于西欧的非资本主义发展道路的可能性问题。事实上 ,在俄国社会发展前景问题上 ,马克思始终没有得出明确的和最终的结论。当代社会主义革命的历史进程完全超出了马克思当年的设想和思考 ,马克思的晚年思想并不能为后来东方落后国家先于西方发达资本主义国家进入社会主义提供理论依据。但是 ,它仍然为现实社会主义国家的革命和建设事业提供着重要的方法论意义。     

论理解“思维和存在的关系问题”之路径——黑格尔、海德格尔、马克思的比较研究

以恩格斯的"全部哲学,特别是近代哲学的重大的基本问题,是思维和存在的关系问题。"对思维和存在的关系问题的不同理解直接导致不同的哲学为切入点,归纳并阐释了近代西方哲学从思维和存在的关系出发来理解思维和存在关系问题的3条路径。     

Essentialist beliefs about sexuality-related categories / Creencias esencialistas sobre diferentes categorías relacionadas con la sexualidad

People form essentialist beliefs about social categories as a strategy to organize their world and to make sense of the similarities and differences between different categories. This research examines four dimensions of essentialist thinking (biological basis, immutability, clarity of discreteness and informativeness) across different sexuality-related categories. Specifically, the categories of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, paedophiles, rapists and prostitutes were studied. Results show that essentialist beliefs of the six categories vary across dimensions and that essentialist dimensions function independently. Therefore, we discuss the relative usefulness of taking a global measurement as opposed to analysing the dimensions of essentialism separately.