‘A philosophy of change’: Emotions,civil society and global development

Dominant paradigms of global development have historically been devoid of emotions, connected with racialized and gendered ideas of rationality and civility. Within contemporary scholarship there is however increasing recognition of the importance of emotions for understanding development processes. This paper adds to this body of work by exploring the ways that emotions shape how people who are trying to ‘do’ development actually do it. Drawing on empirical material from conversations with civil society activists based on the Caribbean islands of Grenada and Barbados, this article explores some of the emotions that are present within civil society organizing and makes the case that in this context emotions are not just felt, they are generative of civil society organizing and wider development processes. Focusing on shame, the article demonstrates how emotions are produced relationally within civil society organizing, how emotions are generative and can co-construct spaces for civil society and how civic organizing can act as counter-expressions to these feelings. Emotions are then constitutive of global development, yet often neglected in dominant discourses of civil society within the development sphere, with professional subjectivities dominant.     

Religion and society in present‐day Albania

Albania is the only European country with a majority Muslim population (with the arguable exception of Bosnia). In this age of religious prejudice and in view of the terrible policies of ethnic cleansing in its neighbouring countries, Albania's religious climate has remained remarkably tolerant. The intermingling of religions is epitomized by Albania's national hero Skanderbeg who was born an Orthodox, lived as a Muslim, and died a Catholic. The most extreme demands were made on Albania's people of faith during a 23‐year period of state‐proclaimed atheism. A widespread revival of all religions after 1991 is generally thought to be in similar proportions to those at the start of the century. As we near its close, we can only hope that interaction between religious groups continues to remain peaceful and tolerant.     

“Socialism of science” versus “socialism of feelings”: Bogdanov and Lunacharsky

Translated from Russian by John Biggart     

Partners or pawns?: The impact of elite decision-making and epistemic communities in global information policy on developing countries and transnational civil society

This paper explores the complex institutional processes that comprise the global governance of cyberinfrastructure and examines the impact of these elite regime formation processes on developing countries and transnational civil society organizations. Based on a concurrent, mixed-methods study of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), we find that policy-actors from developing countries and civil society organizations have been less effective than other actors in influencing these processes. Finally, we recommend future research on the use of ICTs to strengthen the effective participation of developing countries and transnational civil society organizations in these processes. He directs the Collaboratory on Technology Enhanced Learning Communities 〈www.cotelco.net〉 and holds a Ph.D. in political science from Howard University. This study is part of a larger research program called From Pawns to Partners, supported by grants from the University of Michigan, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Microsoft Research, and Hewlett-Packard. The author would like to thank the graduate students working in Cotelco, as well as helpful colleagues Deborah Robinson, James Jackson, Michael Traugott, Alford Young, and Michael Kennedy. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 ISA conference.     

IV. Logic and truth‐finding in society and sociology

The question of sociological truth‐finding is posed in the light of the view that logical formalizations, along with other arguments, only acquire relevance in illocutionary contexts, where it is not so much the abstract correctness of a sentence as the stating of it that counts. In order to become a counterfactual an argument requires its antecedent to be recognized as being contrary to the ‘facts’. To this extent there is a clear link with ‘reality’ or with a view of the world that is taken as factually given. Social science develops on the basis not only of generalizations but also of historical facts and political requirements. The question arises: in terms of what world‐view or purpose can we unambiguously declare a conditional to be a counterfactual ‐ and a significant or non‐trivial one at that? Further, can Elster's clarifications help identify political agents and the proper entities within and through which political action is performed? Finally, the problem‐solving capacity of the concept of closeness of one possible world to another or to the actual world, especially with regard to counterfactuals and causality, is questioned.     

nship between scientific socialism and democratic socialis

n three phases.There are three political-social thoughts and two social systems coexisting and developing in this world.Therefore,China should unswervingly adhere to scientific socialism and develop socialist democracy by drawing lessons from democratic socialism.scientific socialism;democratic socialism;democracy0理论学刊Theory Journal17-24 130D091.6G1079G;G107_9高放;15-22 128坚持用马克思主义中国化的最新成果武装全党李新泰;魏磊;中共山东省委党校,中共山东省委党校 山东济南250021,山东济南250021中国共产党;;马克思主义中国化;;理论创新坚持用马克思主义中国化的最新成果武装全党,是党的建设的一个重大任务,对党的十七大的胜利召开具有重要意义。全党必须深化认识,统一思想,加强学习,指导实践,努力开创各项工作的新局面。Adhering to Arming the Whole Party     

Following freud in Vienna the psychological Wednesday society and the Viennese psychoanalytical society 1902–1938

Abstract

Mühlleitner E, Reichmayr J. Following freud in Vienna. The Psychological Wednesday Society and the Viennese Psychoanalytical Society 1902-1938. Int Forum Psychoanal 1997;6:73-102. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-706X.

This study of the composition and structure of the Psychological Wednesday Society and the Viennese Psychoanalytical Society during its existence (1902 to 1938) is a contribution to the history of the psychoanalytic movement and an enlargement of the historiographical and empirical basis of psychoanalysis. Traditional opinions about the Wednesday Psychological Society and the Viennese Psychoanalytical Society which tend to be based on generalized observations about groups within the societies can be compared and corrected. The first chapter contains an overview of the development of the membership size: which persons were accepted in which year, the fluctuations of the membership size during this period. The following data on all 150 members is listed in the addendum to the text: first and last name, date and place of birth and death, duration of membership, and year and country of exile. This study, with the aid of tables and figures, presents the size and movement of the group and its structural tendency after World War 1 to become more homogeneous with regard to sex, age, religion and profession. Furthermore, it defines more closely the continuation and discontinuation of the movement. The fluctuations of the membership size are presented in the context of the history of the societies and in relation to the events in the history of this period. Information is given on the average age of members at admission to the group, duration of membership, on the relation of native and foreign members, and the hierarchy within the society. In a total overview of the period, a trend from the initial heterogeneous-harmonic group dynamic to a homogeneous structure is recognizable. The observations in connection with training psychoanalyses, later professional practice and scientific productivity show interesting sex-specific differences. Along with the special role which women played in theViennese Psychoanalytical Society, it is characteristic of this group, that for almost all members, psychoanalytical publications can be traced. The second chapter is concerned with the geographic origin, the familiar milieu and religious background. This field of study is also well known to the scientific Freud-biographic and can be expanded to all the members.Fifty psychoanalysts were, like Sigmund Freud, the daughters and sons of Jewish immigrants from countries of the Hapsburg monarchy. They moved to Vienna either with their parents or alone for school or university education or for professional training. The figures arrived at by the analysis of data regarding 150 members over the 36 year period show that one forth of the total number of members were non-Jewish. After the First World War, the percentage of Jewish members of the Viennese Psychoanalytical Society increased. The group of analysts became more homogeneous with regard to religion and the professional spectnim. Also included in the text are data on emigration, exile and the meaning of women's participation in the Viennese Psychoanalytical Society     

Why the gap? Practice and policy in civil commitment hearings.

The failure of civil commitment procedures to meet statutory requirements is one of the more reliable findings in the applied social sciences. Most states now require specific legal procedures and behavioral standards for involuntary hospitalization. Nonetheless, empirical studies have demonstrated that commitment hearings are rarely adversarial and clinical concerns continue to take precedence over legal issues. These findings are analyzed in the context of three related issues: the grounds for commitment that are used in civil commitment hearings, the particular difficulties of recommitment hearings, and the shortcomings of the national policy of deinstitutionalization. The authors conclude that a primary cause of the gap between legal standards and actual practice is the absence of viable, less restrictive alternatives to inpatient treatment.     

Family therapy and a “good” society: Fit or misfit?

Contextual therapy is compared with a good society based on socialist principles of equality, planning and sociality. The two models are analyzed across dimensions of justice, connectedness, change, and basic human resource for similarities and differences.     

“Heredity” and “environment” in biology and psychology

The Psychological Record - Hereditary theories are considered that purport to explain behavioral facts. The use of the term, heredity, is traced to its non-scientific, common sense derivation in...     

Of Orchids,insects, and natural theology: Timing,tactics, and cultural critique in darwin's post-“Origin” strategy

This essay examines the relation of Darwin's orchids book to a central persuasive flaw in theOrigin: Its inability to give variation sufficient presence to break the hold of design in the mind of the reader. Darwin characterized the orchids book as a flank movement on the enemy; this essay identifies the enemy as Paley's natural theology and the flank as thetopoi, maxims, and habits of perception that led Darwin's colleagues and contemporaries to see design in nature. Moreover, this essay examines three aspects of rhetorical timing pertinent toOrchids - time askairos, time as adequate duration, and time as transformation - and then relates those features to Robert Cox's Heideggerian logic of repetition, disavowal, and transcendence. The essay concludes with implications of the tactical and temporal aspects of Darwin's reasoning for understanding both the logic of science and of Darwin as a rhetorical artist.An earlier version of this essay appeared in the Proceedings of the Sixth SCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation.     

The mind of society: Investigating and using the “language of the gods”

The “language of the gods” is conceived as a kind of language more complex than what we associate with human tongues in the strict sense of the term. Certain arbitrary regularities throughout the rational disciplines appear to indicate the existence of this language. The present article explores this new concept and applies it in an attempt to provide a logical clarification of the notions of individual consciousness and physical reality.     

Hating the Ahmadiyya: the place of “heretics” in contemporary Indonesian Muslim society

Religious diversity and pluralism is commonly understood within the context of the relation between various religious traditions, not within a single religious tradition. This limitation of the boundary of religious pluralism could overlook the fact that conflict within a single tradition can be bitterer and more disastrous than conflict with other religions. In the last decade, for instance, the Ahmadis in Indonesia have become victims of constant attacks. This article, therefore, intends to study the place of the Ahmadiyya in the context of religious pluralism in Indonesia by answering the following questions: Why was the treatment of the Ahmadis in recent years by Muslims more vitriolic than their treatment of non-Muslims? What is the nature and quality of life for people who have been excluded from a ‘normal’ religious identity in a time when religious attachment is a necessary fact for that society? Why did the attacks on the Ahmadiyya occur in the present regime, not during the past authoritarian one? This article argues that the charge of heresy issued by Muslim institutions put the Ahmadiyya in liminal status; they are in the zone of indistinction between Muslims and non-Muslims. This makes them vulnerable to persecution since they have been deprived of their rights as Muslims, while their rights as non-Muslims are still suspended. Non-Muslims, particularly ahl al-kitāb (People of the Book), have been accepted theologically in Muslim society, but there is no place of tolerance for heretics. The rise of intolerance in Indonesia parallels the rise of religious conservatism after the fall of Suharto in 1998.     

Commentary on Allan Kellehear's “Near-death experiences and the pursuit of the ideal society”

Allan Kellehear's article raised four questions for me: (1) whether the near-death experience (NDE) presents enough data about the nature of a transcendent society for it to be a useful model for earthly societies; (2) the degree to which transcendent societies have to address the practical considerations of a material society; (3) whether NDEs are projections of experiencers' cultural concepts about the nature of the transcendent realm(s); and (4) the kind of hope offered by the growing awareness of the features of Western NDEs. I address these questions by referring to transcendent realm concepts and NDEs in the anthropological literature, particularly that of the North American Indian Prophet Movement.     

Poor,abused, and neglected children’s prospects in a fair society

In this article, the principles of Justice as Fairness (Rawls, 1971) are applied to some of the institutions affecting children—the legal system and the family. Within this perspective, these institutions are just if there are no alternative arrangements under which the prospects of the least advantaged children could be maximized. Improving the prospects of the abused, neglected, and oftentimes anomic children becomes the barometer of social change. A welfare and protection rights agenda, and ways of strengthening the nuclear family within the community, are envisioned in order to provide least advantaged children with the most basic primary goods enabling them to develop their capabilities. Such changes are prerequisite for reducing violence and anomie in our society.     

Of Kids and Unicorns: How Rational Is Children's Trust in Testimonial Knowledge?

When young children confront a vast array of adults' testimonial claims, they should decide which testimony to endorse. If they are unable to immediately verify the content of testimonial assertions, children adopt or reject their informants' statements on the basis of forming trust in the sources of testimony. This kind of trust needs to be based on some underlying reasons. The rational choice theory, which currently dominates the social, cognitive, and psychological sciences, posits that trust should be formed on a rational basis, as a result of probabilistic assessments and utility-maximizing calculations. In this paper, the predictions stemming from the rational choice approach to trust are systematically compared with the empirical evidence from the field of developmental psychology on how children establish their trust in testimonial statements. The results of this comparison demonstrate an obvious inadequacy of the rational choice explanation of the emergence and development of children's testimonial trust, regardless of which form of trust rationality—weighting, threshold, or ordering—is examined. As none of the three forms of rationality of children's trust in testimony squares with the empirical data, this paper introduces a new version of trust rationality, adaptively rational trust. It explores the compatibility of the concept of adaptively rational trust with the recent empirical findings in the area of developmental psychology and addresses some avenues for future research on the rationality of testimonial trust.     

“THE PROMISE” in patients and in Ibsen's “A Doll's House”

Some people are possessed by a need for, and an inordinate intensity of narcissistic promise. The prospect of entitlement can be conscious or unconscious. Being made happy (and being rescued from difficulties) is expected to be guaranteed and brought about by a current psychic representation (imago) of a parental figure from early childhood. This kind of symbiotic tie is illustrated by clinical material from a patient, and by two heroines of Ibsen's plays: Nora, from The Doll's House, and Hedda Gabler, from the play of the same name. The three women have different reactions to the non-fulfillment of what the patient called “THE PROMISE.”