Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons^™

Measuring Social Capital And Its Influence On Individual Performance, Alireza Abbasi

Alireza Abbasi

Studies on social networks highlight the importance of network structure or structural properties of a given network and its impact on performance outcome. One of the important properties of this network structure is referred as “social capital” which is the “network of contacts” and the associated values attached to these networks of contacts. In this study, the aim is to provide empirical evidence of the influence of social capital and performance within the context of academic collaboration (co-authorship). This study suggests that the collaborative process involves social capital embedded within relationships and network structures among direct co-authors. Thus, association between …

Voice Without Say: Why Capital-Managed Firms Aren’T (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuine employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision-making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the rarity of genuine …

A Theory Without A Movement, A Hope Without A Name: The Future Of Marxism In A Post-Marxist World, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Just as Marx's insights into capitalism have been most strikingly vindicated by the rise of neoliberalism and the near-collapse of the world economy, Marxism as social movement has become bereft of support. Is there any point in people who find Marx's analysis useful in clinging to the term "Marxism" - which Marx himself rejected -- at time when self-identified Marxist organizations and societies have collapsed or renounced the identification, and Marxism own working class constituency rejects the term? I set aside bad reasons to give on "Marxism," such as that the theory is purportedly refuted, that its adoption leads necessarily …

A Phenomenolical Study And Meta-Analysis Of Declining Membership And Participation In The Church, Cliffrod E. Jones Jr.

Cliffrod E Jones Jr.

This study seeks to establish a multifactor approach to the problem of declining membership and participation that allows a broader defense against the negative effects of separate causalities. A meta-analysis of past and current study into the phenomenon investigates currently recognized causalities, and forms a grounded basis for the study questions, while personal interviews from a sampling of churches, church leaders and church members provides additional quantitative data for review, comparison, weighting and analysis of the phenomenon.

Les Musulmans : Un Cauchemar Ou Une Force Pour L’Europe ?, Hichem Karoui, Arno Tausch

Hichem Karoui

This is a comparative study related to European and Global Islam, based on documented- social- anthropological analysis, and quantitative data from the European Social Survey and the World Values Survey. Can we really say that Islam is not faulty as for the exclusion of European Muslims? Or is it only biased European policies toward Islam? How can we explain the radicalization of some European Muslims?

El Desarrollo De La Ciencia Política En México. Una Mirada A Través De Los Estudios Sobre El Estado De La Disiciplina, J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

Se presenta una revisión de los títulos publicados hasta 2009 que han analizado la situación de la ciencia política en México o algún aspecto de ésta. Destaca el crecimiento y la diversificación de autores e instituciones, de las revistas publicadas y de los enfoques y temas recurrentes. Hasta fines de los años noventa se ven autores recurrentes y momentos de auge en las publicaciones asociados a coyunturas como congresos, procesos de modificación a planes de estudio, etc., Después de estos años hay la emergencia de nuevos autores y enfoques de estudio, y que el desarrollo de estos trabajos en su …

How Much Does A Belief Cost?: Revisiting The Marketplace Of Ideas, Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is often credited with creating the metaphor of “the marketplace of ideas,” though he did not use the exact phrase and his argument for free speech was not based on distinctively economic reasoning. Truly economic investigations of the marketplace of ideas have progressed in step with developments and trends in the law and economics literature. These investigations have tended to be one-sided, with writers focusing primarily either on the production of ideas (for example, Posner) or their consumption (for example, behavioral law and economics), without considering in depth how producers and consumers interact. This may …

Collective Choice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

This short nontechnical article reviews the Arrow Impossibility Theorem and its implications for rational democratic decisionmaking. In the 1950s, economist Kenneth J. Arrow proved that no method for producing a unique social choice involving at least three choices and three actors could satisfy four seemingly obvious constraints that are practically constitutive of democratic decisionmaking. Any such method must violate such a constraint and risks leading to disturbingly irrational results such and Condorcet cycling. I explain the theorem in plain, nonmathematical language, and discuss the history, range, and prospects of avoiding what seems like a fundamental theoretical challenge to the possibility …

Proyecto De Investigación: La Primera Agencia Espacial Mexicana: La Comisión Nacional Del Espacio Exterior (1962-1977), J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

No abstract provided.

Proyecto De Investigación: Los Mexicanos En Las Operaciones De La Segunda Guerra Mundial, J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

No abstract provided.

Phd Abstract, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

This developmental research study concerned how trainers, drawn mainly from the commercial (pharmaceutical) sector of the field of clinical research, shared understandings of practice in a professionally localised community, as part of their continuing professional development. Trainers in this community had a heterogeneous range of identities including full-time and part-time trainers: clinical research trainers, training managers; clinical research managers, clinical research associates, compliance managers, auditors and others. The main aim was to explain conditions shaping this community and its concept of practice using Cultural-Historical-Activity-Theory.

Thesis Chapter 5, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

The focus of this study was on a community of trainers (Trainers’ Forum) spanning a field of practice rather than any individual organisation. The aim was to explore “what goes on around here” and to clarify how and why things happened the way they did in the community through theoretical and empirical study. Focussing on the Training Forum (TF) enabled detailed examination of the activity system of trainers, and of the extent to which it made progress towards becoming a Community of Practice. Therefore, the setting for the study was within the public spaces of this putative or emergent Community …

Thesis Chapter 3, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

The overlaps between philosophical, sociological and educational perspectives on the concept and meaning of practice were highlighted in the previous chapter. Based on these perspectives, for the purposes of this study, practice is characterised as a complex activity defined by its standards of excellence that lead to the attainment of goods inherent to the practice, and constituted by the cognitive and co-operative tasks involved in the activity. The conceptual model of practice derived from these perspectives is shown in Figure 3-1, at the end of the chapter. Characterising practice as complex activity allows it to be deconstructed within an analytical …

Thesis Chapter 6, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

A developmental research approach was adopted to study the activity system of the Trainers’ Forum (TF). Engeström’s activity system model was used within a CHAT framework, to analyse the embodiment of the concept of practice, in the activity of sharing and discussing the practice of clinical research training. The research was conducted in three distinct phases as shown in Table 5-3 (Analyses Plan) at the end of Chapter 5 (Research design). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to gather data, which included: participant observation; questionnaires and interviews. Because the study concerned a community of trainers and its practices, data sources …

Thesis Chapter 1, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

This research is a study of trainers, drawn mainly from the commercial sector of the field of clinical research, journeying towards becoming a community of practice (CoP). The focus of the study is the concept of practice among this community, formed within the professional body of the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR). Its scope is limited to discussing emergent features of the community, known as the Trainers Forum (TF), in terms of the ‘ecology’ of the commercial sector.

Thesis Chapter 7, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

Viewing activity from the perspective of respective actors in the system of activity enables a comprehensive picture to be built of the systematic elements involved. In addition, according to Lave and Wenger (op.cit.), the identity of members in terms of who they are, and what they do, is bound up with the activity or practice that defines them as a community. Consequently, describing who the subjects are within the system of activity, and the tensions between them, provides an insight into the social structure of the activity system in terms of the features of their shared practice, such as: a …

Thesis Chapter 10, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

In this chapter, the purpose, research questions and hypotheses of the thesis are revisited in the process of drawing conclusions. In addition, a critique of the methodology used in this research is offered to assess the contribution to knowledge. The overall aims of this research study were: to explain the conditions creating and sustaining a professional community of trainers and its concept of training practice against a backdrop of increasing regulation; and, to understand the effects of compliance culture on the sharing of practice and development of shared understandings in this community. The pertinent questions posed in line with these …

Thesis Chapter 2, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: THE CONCEPT OF PRACTICE Academic literature specifically ascertaining what constitutes best training practice concerning fellow trainers in the pharmaceutical industry is sparse. Moreover, literature within the field of clinical research about practices that constitute the training process is generally lacking. This gap in the academic literature provides a basic rationale for research in this field of practice. Meanwhile, the concept and meaning of practice is well established from five theoretical perspectives, outlined as follows:- MacIntyre’s (1985) concepts of standards (of excellence) within a practice that depend on the relationship between its internal and external goods Giddens (1984) structuration …

Thesis Chapter 9, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

The community constituting the Forum, the division of labour within it, and the rules affecting its activity and individual chains of actions were described and analysed in the previous chapter. Analyses revealed that trainers replicated the circumstances that they endured in their workplace through the predominance of a time-bound, content driven agenda, driven by a compliance culture that can be traced to the workplace, where it operated as a rule. In turn, this rule was traced to another neighbouring activity system, the regulatory environment, where compliance culture is used as a tool to enforce adherence to GCP standards (L1TO2d). In …

Thesis Chapter 8, Marie Mckenzie Mills

Marie McKenzie Mills PhD, CSci

The Trainers’ Forum is viewed as an activity system (AS) in its entirety through considering the continuous patterns of activity within sessions of Forum meetings. However, in order to proceed with analyses at the level of the declarative, procedural and social interactions/discourses that Engeström suggests are necessary for actual-empirical analyses, the community, its rules and division of labour are foregrounded. The object of activity can then be analysed subsequently in light of the conceptual models that have emerged in the Forum. Findings concerning the object of activity are therefore presented last in Chapter 9, in order to conclude discussion of …

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.

El Staff Presidencial En México. Del Secretario Particular A Las Oficinas De La Presidencia, J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

J. R. Joel Flores-Mariscal

No abstract provided.

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …