Wanting Nothing: imitation and production inthe economy of desire

Desire is examined here with a view to informing a theological response to capitalism. The notion of mimetic desire offered by René Girard is used as a starting point, Girard's ideas being brought into critical engagement with, first, other intersubjective accounts, namely those offered by Alexandre Kojève and by psychoanalysis in its Freudian and Lacanian variants; and then the account of desire as productive becoming offered by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in which the link to capitalism is explicit. It is suggested that both mimetic desire and its productive counterpart can be understood as asserting the priority of desire itself over both subject and object. The possibilities for framing a coherent theological account of desire which is both mimetic and productive are then assessed with reference to Bernard of Clairvaux, Aquinas and Augustine, noting that accepting a metaphysics of participation makes plausible a productive desire which is nonetheless coded as a mimesis of the divine precedent. Such a conclusion brings into relief the inevitable difficulty of reconciling Christian and capitalist economies of desire.     

Merging community and faith-based organizations to empower African American males

The Holistic Needs of African American Men (HAAM) Program provides information and resources that allow African American men to take full control of their lives and tell "their" story. The majority of the participants indicated they did not trust the current service or health care systems in the United States because they felt these systems robbed them of their "voice." HAAM provided the African American men with needed support and assisted them in repositioning their lives for success.     

Justice, health, and healthcare

Healthcare (including public health) is special because it protects normal functioning, which in turn protects the range of opportunities open to individuals. I extend this account in two ways. First, since the distribution of goods other than healthcare affect population health and its distribution, I claim that Rawls's principles of justice describe a fair distribution of the social determinants of health, giving a partial account of when health inequalities are unjust. Second, I supplement a principled account of justice for health and healthcare with an account of fair process for setting limits of rationing care. This account is provided by three conditions that comprise "accountability for reasonableness."     

PAS in Kedah: cultural politics of pigs and development

On March 8, 2008, PAS led the coalition to victory in Kedah, winning 16 seats, while Barisan National won only 14 state seats. This paper highlights cultural dimensions of the shift from BN to the opposition coalition in this state of the Malay heartland. The PAS manifesto and campaign speeches in Kedah emphasized Islamic ethics, a just, clean, and pure government which would strive to improve the conditions of all the people. These notions of a “just” and “unmixed” party struggling to “strengthen Islam” resonated with many Malays in Kedah. In contrast, UMNO was depicted as corrupt practitioners of bribes and money politics who prioritize the interests of the rich over the needy. They were criticized as materialist, elitist figures stuck in their ways like the Pharaoh, while PAS’ commitment to upholding Islam was likened to the prophets. In addition, this paper discusses the way PAS approaches the issue of the “social contract” between Malays and other ethnic groups and the way their construct of Malay identity spoke to many Malay voters. I argue that PAS rhetoric must be viewed as more than political use of Islamic symbols, and that its effectiveness rests in the way it evokes more extensive cultural models. Finally, this paper considers the controversial post-election demolition of a pig slaughterhouse in a predominantly Malay kampong in Kota Setar, Kedah. Here I argue that this case embodies and reaffirms the cultural politics of the general election.     

Chronic illness: not-so-passive injustice?

Why is our system, which is so biased toward the provision of acute care, underserving the chronically ill?...I think the main reason...has to do with the difficulty of providing for the needs of the chronically ill through a system of largely employment-based private insurance. People who are chronically ill are likely to drop out of employment: they are not a group that employment-based insurance is intended to serve or that employers have an interest in serving....I do not believe we can shift the focus of organization of services for the chronically ill to home or family, as Douard suggests, without reforming the insurance system....     

Rocking to the beat: effects of music and partner's movements on spontaneous interpersonal coordination

People move to music and coordinate their movements with others spontaneously. Does music enhance spontaneous coordination? We compared the influence of visual information (seeing or not seeing another person) and auditory information (hearing movement or music or hearing no sound) on spontaneous coordination. Pairs of participants were seated side by side in rocking chairs, told a cover story, and asked to rock at a comfortable rate. Both seeing and hearing the other person rock elicited spontaneous coordination, and effects of hearing amplified those of seeing. Coupling with the music was weaker than with the partner, and the music competed with the partner's influence, reducing coordination. Music did, however, function as a kind of social glue: participants who synchronized more with the music felt more connected.     

WHEN THINKING HESITATES: PHILOSOPHY AS PROSTHESIS AND TRANSFORMATIVE VISION

In this essay, I draw on Henri Bergson and Maurice Merleau‐Ponty to interrogate what philosophy is and how it can continue to think. Though my answer is not reducible to the views of either philosopher, what joins them is an attempt to elaborate philosophy as a different way of seeing. In this light, I propose a view of philosophy as prosthesis—as a means and a way for seeing differently. Rather than a simple tool, philosophy as prosthesis is a transformative supplement, one that our bodily perception calls for and wherein that perception is recast. Rather than a fixed or assured view, this prosthesis holds open the interval in which thinking can take place. Philosophy, I argue, must wait. It sees and thinks hesitatingly, for the temporality it inscribes is not a foreseeable development but the unfolding of life as tendency, as that which creates its own possibility as it comes into existence.     

Recounting the K-12 school experiences of adults who stutter: a qualitative analysis

This study qualitatively explored the primary and secondary (K-12) school experiences of adults who stutter. The primary investigator conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 participants, a first focus group interview with 6 participants, and a second focus group interview with 4 participants. Participants discussed the various ways in which stuttering affected their personality; emotional and psychological experiences in the context of school; academic and learning experiences; classroom participation; teacher and peer relationships; speech therapy experiences; school activity involvement; and post-educational experiences. Results suggest that school is a complex cultural environment in which students must engage on academic and social levels. People who stutter may experience observable and unobservable challenges as they navigate the complexity of school. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) provide a rationale for the need to explore the school experiences of people who stutter; (2) describe the major themes associated with the school experiences of participants in the study; and (3) discuss how knowledge of school experiences can be useful to classroom teachers and speech-language pathologists.