Residues in the Secular: Whale Bones and Other Theological Relics1

This article develops the concept of the “theological relic”: a facet of secular life and culture that maintains traces of (and so remains bound in some way to) its genealogy in the theological. The theological relic, then, is something that fails to be either robustly religious or properly secular. It is, instead, a product of the relations between these social spaces. The article illustrates this concept by examining a cultural history of the whale, highlighting this creature's complex bonds with the theological. The whale, in other words, is figured as a theological relic: a creature of the secular that remains shrouded enough by traces of the theological that these vestiges of divinity are implicated in the whale's powerful late‐twentieth‐century cultural reconfiguration.     

Applied behavior analysis and the zoo: Forthman and Ogden (1992) thirty years later

The field of applied behavior analysis has been directly involved in both research and applications of behavioral principles to improve the lives of captive zoo animals. Thirty years ago, Forthman and Ogden (1992) wrote one of the first papers documenting some of these efforts. Since that time, considerable work has been done using behavioral principles and procedures to guide zoo welfare efforts. The current paper reexamines and updates Forthman and Ogden's original points, with attention to the 5 categories they detailed: (a) promotion of species-typical behavior, (b) reintroduction and repatriation of endangered species, (c) animal handling, (d) pest control, and (e) animal performances. In addition, we outline 3 current and future directions for behavior analytic endeavors: (a) experimental analyses of behavior and the zoo, (b) applied behavior analysis and the zoo, and (c) single-case designs and the zoo. The goal is to provide a framework that can guide future behavioral research in zoos, as well as create applications based on these empirical evaluations.     

The assessment of the non‐economic Environment in European companies

Abstract

The rapid changes in today's competitive environment can have a tremendous impact on company's performance. Companies have to tie resources to monitor these changes in order to survive. Political risk assessment is a managerial tool to cope with the uncertainties in the political environment.

The aim of the study was to find out how large European companies use this tool in their planning process. Of the responding companies 52.2 percent monitored their political environment regularly as a part of their on‐going planning process. Results of the study are presented in the paper.