Michael Polanyi and the sociology of a free society

Michael Polanyi’s defense of freedom in science and society conflicts in major ways with Weber (process of rationalization, value neutrality of sociologists), Popper (objective knowledge, open society), and technological or oppositional sociology. Polanyi rejects positivism, utilitarianism, and Marxism, and defends freedom as a necessary condition for pursuit of spiritual ideals such as truth, justice, charity, and tolerance. Half truths about science seen as rejecting tradition, faith, authority, values, and the subjective, have helped bring valuable social results, but in the form taken by radical philosophical skepticism (doubt), also called objectivism, they also threaten freedom itself. A more truthful account is needed. Scientists and citizens who would maintain a free society are morally responsible persons, joined together in quest of truth and certain other ideals, demanding of themselves and each other that they be faithful to that quest. Polanyi’s thought has connections with that of Shils, and has implications for what Shils calls a consensual sociology. Louis H. Swartz teaches law, and is interested in the development of sociological theory and legal sociology, building upon the contributions of Polanyi and Shils.     

Social Relationships of African American and Hispanic Older Assisted Living Residents: Exploring the Role of Race and Ethnicity

African American and Hispanic older adults are underrepresented in assisted living communities, so little is known about how they experience social relationships in these settings. The purpose of the study was to explore resident-to-resident and resident-to-staff relationships experienced and perceived by African American and Hispanic older residents in assisted living settings. In-depth interviews with 15 African American and 15 Hispanic older adults were conducted in seven assisted living communities in Central Florida. Three salient themes emerged using a grounded theory approach: formation of relationships: emotional vs. instrumental support; language as a facilitator or barrier; and avoidance of inter-racial relationships. Implications for providing culturally competent services in assisted living communities with diverse populations are discussed.     

Biomedical Research and the Commercialization Agenda: A Review of main Considerations for Neuroscience

This article reviews a range of issues associated with the commercialization of biomedical research and speculates on how these issues might apply to the neuroscience context. Drawing on existing studies of the impact of research commercialization activities on various areas of biotechnology research, the authors explore normative benchmarks for assessing and resolving issues likely to arise from the commercialization of neuroscientific research, including such topics as patenting, marketing pressures, and representations of research prospects.     

When Everyone Is an Orphan: Against Adopting a U.S.-Styled Orphan Drug Policy in Canada

Putting aside whether diseases that affect only small numbers of people (“rare diseases”) should be prioritized over diseases that are otherwise orphaned, in this article I argue that a new approach to rare, orphan diseases is needed. The current model, first signaled by the United States' Orphan Drug Act and subsequently emulated by several other jurisdictions, relies on a set of open-ended criteria and market-based incentives in order to define and encourage drug therapies for rare, orphan diseases. Given a) the biopharmaceutical industries' growing interest in orphan diseases, b) progress in the sphere of personalized medicines enabling more and more common diseases to be reclassified as rare, and c) empirical evidence suggesting that the most orphan drugs target only a limited, lucrative subset of rare diseases, I argue that Canada, which recently announced plans to develop its own “orphan drug framework” should not follow the United States' orphan drug model.     

Transportation Difficulty of Black and White Rural Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to understand self-reported transportation difficulty among rural older adults. We used data from the UAB Study of Aging (255 Black and 259 White), community-dwelling participants residing in rural areas. We examined the relationship of predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and measures of need for care with self-reports of transportation difficulty. Blacks reported having more transportation difficulty than Whites (24.7% vs. 11.6%; p ≤ .05). When we introduced other variables, race differences disappeared, but there was a race by income interaction with transportation difficulty. Whites with lower incomes were more likely to have transportation difficulty than Whites with higher incomes. When data from Blacks and Whites were analyzed separately, income was the only variable associated with transportation difficulty among Whites. Among Blacks, income was not related to transportation difficulty but several variables other than income (age, gender, marital status, MMSE scores and depression) were.     

Legalization of lotteries in the 1980s

The decade of the 1980s has witnessed an explosion in legalized gambling. Most dramatic has been the growth of state-sponsored lotteries. The spread of these state-operated lotteries is the result of pressure for more revenues for state operating costs. Lotteries are viewed as a means of raising these revenues: In 1987, state-operated lotteries grossed over $12 billion in sales. Eight states had sales exceeding $1 billion (New York Times, 1988). Clearly, state lotteries have become big business. The purpose of this article is to describe the spread of lotteries in the 1980s and to note the minimal attention given to compulsive gambling in debates on lotteries.Mr. Braidfoot is General Counsel for the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is the author ofGambling: The Deadly Game.     

Are Research Papers Reporting Results from Nutrigenetics Clinical Research a Potential Source of Biohype?

Nutrigenetics is a promising field, but the achievability of expected benefits is challenged by the methodological limitations that are associated with clinical research in that field. The mere existence of these limitations suggests that promises about potential outcomes may be premature. Thus, benefits claimed in scientific journal articles in which these limitations are not acknowledged might stimulate biohype. This article aims to examine whether nutrigenetics clinical research articles are a potential source of biohype. Of the 173 articles identified, 16 contained claims in which clinical applications were extrapolated from study results. The methodological limitations being incompletely acknowledged, these articles could potentially be a source of biohype.