John Dewey,The Other Face of the Brazilian New School

This paper intents to analyze the influence of John Dewey’s ideas in the movement that defended the educationl renovation in Brazil (named New School) at the end of the 1920s and in the 1930s. For this, it explains two trends of that movement: the first is described by the metaphor of industrial or mechanical efficiency, whose emphasis was in the power derived from the disciplinary idea of progress, which was embedded in the process of rationalization of the social relations submitted by a factory model; the second, developed by influence of Dewey, is characterized by a project of democratization of society and school that prevented the individual massification and the adoption of the rationalizing model inspired by the factory without any criticism. When Dewey was put in the center of the debate on political, pedagogical and social goals of the Brazilian New School, he was called to introduce a series of concepts that helped to find the balance between the respect for individuality and the observation of the social needs. This paper has some of the conclusions of a major research project, “Philosophy and Science in the New Educational Discourse (Brazil: l930–1960),” sponsored by CNPq.     

The National Research Council Report on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children and the Process of Dubitation

The author examines two significant issues, the adjudication of evidence and the architecture of instruction in the context of research on beginning reading. In particular, he reflects on his participation as a member of the National Research Council's committee that published the recent report entitled Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998). The National Academy of Sciences panel of experts process is contrasted with a more explicit process for codifying scientific evidence and including quantitative experimental research as the primary source of evidence. In addition, the author argues for the importance of attending to the architecture of instruction in beginning reading.     

On the New Form of Human Advancement and the Shared Values of Humanity—From the Perspective of the Relations Between Particularity and Universality

The relation between particularity and universality provides an important perspective to understand a new form of human advancement and the shared values of humanity, as well as their relations. On the one hand, as a unique state of civilization, a new form of human advancement is universal to a principle extent. China is moving closer to the center of the world; it will only give its particularity only if it can create universality since human universality is the essential attribute of socialism. A new form of human advancement also addresses universal problems facing mankind, embraces existing cultures, and coexists with them in harmony. On the other hand, as a reference to universal value, the shared values of humanity are precisely based on the particularity of “realistic man.” The difference is a premise that fundamentally defines how common is possible. Humanity is in the complex relationship between various groups and individual subjects, whose common values have the nature of good means to serve the universal purpose, and whose essence is the public value in the international community. Both a new form of human advancement and the shared values of humanity highlight the principal position of China. The connotation of the shared values of humanity constitutes the fundamental component of the core values of a new form of human advancement which in turn implements the shared values of humanity. Carrying forward the shared values of humanity poses higher requirements for China to develop a new form of human advancement.     

Centennial Exploration of the Chinese Road and Adapting Marxism to the Chinese Context

The centennial exploration of the Chinese road started with the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). This road is essentially characterized by modernization and adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The fundamental correlation between China’s modernization and Marxism lies in the fact that China must go through a thorough social revolution to lay the foundation for its modernization cause, which charted a historical course from new democracy to socialism. However, only adapting Marxism to the Chinese context can help China’s modernization, because it is this philosophy that is intrinsically related to China’s practice in revolution, construction and reform. The contemporary form of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context is socialism with Chinese characteristics, which holds great significance for both the Chinese nation and international socialism and the overall development of human society in the new historical phase. This is a kind of “significance for world history” because the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation lies not only in its own development into a modern power, but also in the fact that it is actively opening up the possibility of a new type of civilization besides completing the modernization mission and obtaining achievements from modern civilization.     

Advocacy,brainwashing theories,and new religious movements

Advocacy by scholars in the field of new religious movements emerged during the ‘cult wars,’ which in the U.S. had their peak between 1970 and 1990 and continued in Europe and Japan in subsequent decades. Advocacy focused on the question of whether the ‘cults’ used a persuasion technique known as brainwashing. The idea of brainwashing was born during the Cold War, and originally applied to Communist techniques of indoctrination, but was lately first extended to religion and subsequently used as a tool to distinguish between legitimate and non-legitimate religions, labeling the latter as ‘cults.’ Prominent psychologists and sociologists were involved in these battles, with most scholars of new religious movements appearing in court in order to criticize the brainwashing theories advocated by psychologist Margaret T. Singer and a handful of anti-cult academics. After the Fishman decision of 1990, which seriously hit the anti-cult camp, advocacy in this field did not disappear but became somewhat less partisan.     

新生代农民工积极群际接触的有效性:基于群体身份与认同视角

以新生代农民工为研究对象,以其对群际通透性的感知为测量指标,检验积极群际接触的有效性,探察群体受害者身份感知和群体认同对积极群际接触有效性的影响,以及群体认同在群体受害者身份感知与积极群际接触关系中的作用。结果表明:(1)积极群际接触可以有效促进新生代农民工对群际通透性的感知;(2)新生代农民工群体受害者身份感知对积极群际接触有效性有显著的中介作用;(3)新生代农民工的城市人认同水平对积极群际接触有效性具有显著的调节作用;(4)新生代农民工群体受害者身份感知对积极群际接触有效性的中介作用不受其群体认同水平的影响。研究结论对积极群际接触的有效性和感知的群体受害者身份与群体认同的关系进行了深入地讨论。     

Re‐Presentations of Space in Hollywood Movies: An Event‐Indexing Analysis

Popular movies present chunk‐like events (scenes and subscenes) that promote episodic, serial updating of viewers’ representations of the ongoing narrative. Event‐indexing theory would suggest that the beginnings of new scenes trigger these updates, which in turn require more cognitive processing. Typically, a new movie event is signaled by an establishing shot, one providing more background information and a longer look than the average shot. Our analysis of 24 films reconfirms this. More important, we show that, when returning to a previously shown location, the re‐establishing shot reduces both context and duration while remaining greater than the average shot. In general, location shifts dominate character and time shifts in event segmentation of movies. In addition, over the last 70 years re‐establishing shots have become more like the noninitial shots of a scene. Establishing shots have also approached noninitial shot scales, but not their durations. Such results suggest that film form is evolving, perhaps to suit more rapid encoding of narrative events.     

NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND SCIENCE: RAEL'S PROGRESSIVE PATRONIZING PARASITISM

The article examines the concoction of religion and “science” contained in the revelation that substantiates a new religion: Raelianism, founded and led by the prophet Claude Vorilhon/Rael after having received a revelation in 1974. After a detailed examination both of Rael's prophetic message and his/the Raelians’ interpretative practices, an ad hoc model is presented to describe such concoction (“progressive patronizing parasitism”), and it is compared to other models. It is in particular claimed that Rael, while seemingly talking about “science,” is actually constructing a science‐fictional and even pseudoscientific narrative. The article finally raises the question whether the discussion of the science–religion interaction from the viewpoint of traditional religions can be considered to be immune to the usage of such rhetorical devices.     

Chapter 7. Workfare

SUMMARY

In this chapter, I present the participants' experiences in the work setting from their own perspective.     

Buddhist prajÑĀ and Greek sophia

The present review examines five books, one by a non-Baha'i, three by a Baha'i academic, and one by a Baha'i non-academic. The non-Baha'i volume, which is very short, is by a Danish sociologist of religion, Margit Warburg. It forms a solid explanatory text informed by a lengthy experience of the Baha'is both in Denmark and abroad. This review discusses, inter alia, three volumes by a Baha'i sociologist, Peter Smith. While the three titles are very different books, taken together they form an intelligent presentation of the religion from the perspective of a thoughtful insider. Finally, the article looks at a completely different sort of book, an intelligent portrayal of Baha'ism from its spiritual and moral perspectives by Moojan Momen. This last brings readers closest to typical fare for believers and new converts.