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This paper holds the view that although bullshit and obscurantism are obviously related phenomena, they should be kept distinct for conceptual reasons. It shows that whereas phenomena of bullshit tend to concentrate on speech acts and a violation of the expectations of relevance therein, obscurantism betrays an indirect move to confound while promising deep content. After an overview of studies on bullshit and a look at the different characteristics and types of obscurantism, this paper investigates why readers retain interest in reading obscure texts. Interpretive charity, which is one of the reasons for this sustained interest, is found to be unsuccessful in making sense of obscurantism. Obscurantism is thus seen to be a vice more cryptic and systematic than bullshit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory paper, I discuss the second‐personal approach to ethics and the theory of recognition as two accounts of the fundamental sociality of the human form of life. The first section delineates the deep affinities between the two approaches. They both put a reciprocal social constellation front and center from which they derive the fundamental norms of moral and social life and a social conception of freedom. The second section discusses three points of contrast between the two approaches: The accounts differ in that the second‐personal approach opts for a narrower conception of recognition focusing on mutual moral accountability, whereas recognition theory suggests a broader conception including relations of love, respect, and esteem. Secondly, the accounts differ as to how they conceive of the interrelation of the I‐thou and the I‐We relationship. Finally, they differ with regard to the way they think of struggles for recognition. Whereas the second‐personal approach suggests that we can understand struggles on the basis of a transcendental infrastructure of second‐personal address, the theory of recognition considers norms of recognition as themselves constituted by dialectical social struggles. The paper closes with a reflection on the ways in which both approaches can help us understand the social vulnerability of the human form of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was a Russian social theorist and revolutionary activist whose 'universal organizational science', or Tektology, is increasingly being recognized as offering stronger foundations for the systems approach than the later 'general system theory' of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Had his thinking not been suppressed by Stalin, the course of Soviet history might have been different. Stafford Beer (1926–2002) was a British management scientist and consultant who was a pioneer in the development of 'organizational cybernetics'. His best‐known engagement was with the government of Salvador Allende, in Chile, seeking to use his 'viable system model' to create a socialist society that did not rest on a command economy. This experiment was cut short by the Pinochet coup d'etat. I have found no evidence that Beer was familiar with the work of Bogdanov, and this makes the similarities in their thinking particularly striking. This paper explores the ideas they shared in common. The work of other writers who have drawn on the work of Bogdanov and Beer, in formulating contemporary visions of post‐capitalism, is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to Kazimierz Twardowski's thesis that the unity of a compound object (a whole) can be ensured only by the relations between its parts and the object itself. Twardowski's idea of unity raises many difficulties, especially the threat of petitio principii: the whole is presupposed as furnishing the ground for the unification of its parts, and yet it also seems to be the result of this unification. To avoid these problems, Edmund Husserl sought to refute Twardowski's thesis, and ascribed the role of a principle of unity to the foundational relationships which directly hold between the parts of a whole. Roman Ingarden then seemed to return to Twardowski's concept of unity, but employed it within a different theory of objects, according to which to be an object is to be a subject of properties. I seek to demonstrate that: (1) Twardowski's thesis is sound if a compound object is something over and above its parts; (2) with respect to Husserl's solution, it is not clear as to whether the whole is really something over and above its parts; (3) Ingarden's conception of the subject‐properties structure saves Twardowski's thesis; (4) Ingarden's theory of higher‐order objects is invalid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I consider the implications of grief for philosophical theorising about absence experience. I argue that whilst some absence experiences that occur in grief might be explained by extant philosophical accounts of absence experience, others need different treatment. I propose that grieving subjects' descriptions of feeling as if the world seems empty or a part of them seems missing can be understood as referring to a distinctive type of absence experience. In these profound absence experiences, I will argue, the absence of a person as a condition on various possibilities is made manifest in the structure of experience over time. Thus, by paying close attention to grief, we can see that even accounts of absence experience that are presented as in competition with one another may not be so, and that to explain all kinds of absence experience we sometimes need to appeal to something overlooked in other accounts, and which is neither straightforwardly perceptual or cognitive. I also suggest that we would have good reason to take such experiences to be part of and not merely psychological effects of grief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the Schematism chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason is to solve the problem posed by the "inhomogeneity" of intuitions and categories: the sensible properties of objects represented in intuition are of a different kind than the properties represented by categories. Kant's solution is to introduce what he calls "transcendental schemata," which mediate the subsumption of objects under categories. I reconstruct Kant's solution in terms of two substantive premises, which I call Subsumption Sufficiency (i.e., that subsuming an object under a transcendental schema is sufficient to subsume it under the corresponding category) and Real Possibility (i.e., that it is really possible to subsume objects under each of the transcendental schemata). These two principles, together with a trivial modal one (the Subsumption‐Possibility Link), entail that it is possible to subsume objects under categories; in other words, the argument of the Schematism is valid. The main work of the paper consists in reconstructing Kant's arguments for, and explanations of, these premises. I argue that they hinge on Kant's claim that transcendental schemata are "time‐determinations," which I interpret to mean: rules for reflexively representing the temporal relations among our own representational states. On the basis of this reading, I reconstruct Kant's argument for Subsumption Sufficiency, category by category. I also explain why Real Possibility follows almost immediately. Granting Kant the argument up to this point in the Critique, the argument of the Schematism is sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will develop a set of concerns about a central feature of Ásta's account of social categories that she calls "conferralism." I argue that generalist approaches to social categories such as Ásta provides are inadequate as a way of understanding the diverse formations of diverse categories, and that conferralism overemphasizes the power of top‐down forces (what she calls "persons with standing") to confer social identities. This approach then underplays the horizontal and bottom‐up influences on category formation as well as the historical formation of many social identities, especially ethnicity and race. Conferralism sets aside not only physical differences that play a role in some categories but also group‐related historical experiences and practices that produce the "base properties" that justify the use of social identity categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together key ideas from across economic and social theory to expand geographical understandings of crisis at the personal scale. Drawing on ethnographic research with families in Greater Manchester, UK, together with literatures on the geographies of crises and conjunctures, I argue that economic crises, such as austerity, can be revealing of the fragilities within familial and personal relationships and as such constitute a very personal crisis. In times of austerity and economic crisis, questions are raised about how people imagine themselves, and the relationships, spaces, and times in which they situate their lives – previously, presently, and prospectively. I advance conceptualisations of the ways austerity and economic crisis "play out" to illustrate how everyday life is punctuated and disrupted by crises and conjunctures of various types. Personal conditions of austerity are knotted within personal inventories of important life experiences, relational comparators, and memories, of social, emotional, or financial hardship, which resonate strongly. Furthermore, I identify the way in which crises are woven within imaginaries of the future, personal biographies, and lifecourse trajectories, whereby economic crises and austerity can be felt as life crises. Providing added depth to current geographical literature focused on the personal scale, in this paper economic crises and austerity are shown to be personally affective, having lasting impacts on social relationships. Ultimately, I make the case for how an economic crisis is almost always and inevitable felt as a personal crisis; a vital conjuncture, the crescendo of circumstance, opening up the sores of memories and creating new ones, compromising familial and financial fragility. This paper brings together key ideas from across economic and social theory to expand geographical understandings of crisis at the personal scale. I argue that economic crises, such as austerity, can be revealing of the fragilities within familial and personal relationships and as such constitute a very personal crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has any school or movement in all of Western philosophy made a permanent contribution, permanent in the sense that it will last as long as philosophy does? More narrowly, has there ever been put forward a thesis that has achieved lasting consensus? After carefully defining "philosophical thesis" and "consensus," so as to forestall uninteresting answers, this paper argues that the ancient Greeks made one or two such contributions, and the Analytic philosophers (ca. 1890–1960) made a few, but there have been no others. Moreover (a) the Analytic contributions were more empirical than philosophical, and (b) they were almost entirely negative. So, the basic short answer to our question is "no." The paper concludes by asking in what way(s) there has been progress in philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Supporting psychosocial well‐being in aphasia is necessarily person‐centred, interdisciplinary and coordinated. Shortcomings in such support are described in Ireland and elsewhere. Speech and language therapists (SLTs) are integral; and describing current practice and barriers they experience is important for enhancing service delivery. Aims: To understand how SLTs enact, and are supported to enact, aphasia psychosocial care in Ireland. Methods & Procedures: This is a cross‐sectional, online, self‐administered clinician survey targeting SLTs working minimally 1 year post‐qualification with persons with aphasia of any aetiology in Ireland. The survey questions were charted against key constructs of the implementation science framework, normalization process theory (NPT), and descriptive statistics were applied. Outcomes & Results: A total of 54 eligible datasets were included. SLTs believed psychosocial support to be part of their role, but perceived multiple barriers in enacting it. These included a lack of training, clinical supervision, management support, role recognition, and access to and joint working with mental health professionals and services. Conclusions & Implications: SLTs in Ireland face a range of individual and structural barriers, including care coordination and resourcing. There is a clear need not only for training, upskilling and mentorship, but also for wider changes around access to mental health professionals and clarity around the processes of referral, coordination and integration of aphasia care across settings. These findings comprise preliminary insights into current practices. Further research is needed as well as clarity on best‐practice pathways for different aetiologies of aphasia. Articulating current practices using NPT may have utility for developing empirically informed and principled interventions to improve service delivery. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject: People with aphasia of all aetiologies are at risk of psychosocial problems. Shortcomings in access and the availability of appropriate support have been documented both internationally and in Ireland. To address this issue, an important first step is to understand how SLTs in Ireland currently enact and are supported to enact aphasia psychosocial care. What this study adds to the existing knowledge: The findings describe the potential levers and barriers to progressing aphasia psychosocial care in Ireland. A range of individual, team and structural factors were identified. These were locally contextualized but similar issues are reported in other countries. Linking attitudes with NPT constructs provides a first step for further principled implementation projects. What are the practical and clinical implications of this study?: Addressing psychosocial problems is perceived as a legitimate part of the speech and language therapy role. SLTs in Ireland enact a range of therapeutic approaches but may need opportunities for formal training and supervision, and for better coordination and integration with other mental health services and disciplines. Understanding differences in care pathways across the range of aphasia aetiologies is additionally important given the emphasis on post‐stroke aphasia in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and teaching conditions have, particularly for those who are junior or from disadvantaged backgrounds, deteriorated considerably over the years in the higher education sector. Unequal opportunities in access and advancement in careers have led to increasing levels of precarity in the higher education sector. Although the concept of precarity has been grasped in many other disciplines, the social‐psychological understanding of this concept remains unexplored. In this paper, we aim to develop a social‐psychological understanding of precarity to examine how identity dynamics and intergroup relations, as well as associated organizational controls, reinforce inequality regimes and power structures that create precarious conditions in academia. In doing so, we use social identity theory and system justification theory under an inequality regime framework. We argue that even though change towards equality and equity in academia should be possible, it is difficult to achieve this because of entrenched identity interests by power holders and the perceived legitimacy of the existing system. Therefore, academic precarity should be recognized both as a subjective experience and as an organizational practice to make inequalities more visible and decrease the perceptions of legitimacy—and to eventually achieve a fundamental positive transformation in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy Beliefs (CB) are a key vector of violent extremism, radicalism and unconventional political events. So far, social‐psychological research has extensively documented how cognitive, emotional and intergroup factors can promote CB. Evidence also suggests that adherence to CB moves along social class lines: low‐income and low‐education are among the most robust predictors of CB. Yet, the potential role of precarity—the subjective experience of permanent insecurity stemming from objective material strain—in shaping CB remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose for the first time a socio‐functional model of CB. We test the hypothesis that precarity could foster increased CB because it undermines trust in government and the broader political 'elites'. Data from the World Value Survey (n = 21,650; Study 1, electoral CB) and from representative samples from polls conducted in France (n = 1760, Study 2a, conspiracy mentality) and Italy (n = 2196, Study 2b, COVID‐19 CB), corroborate a mediation model whereby precarity is directly and indirectly associated with lower trust in authorities and higher CB. In addition, these links are robust to adjustment on income, self‐reported SES and education. Considering precarity allows for a truly social‐psychological understanding of CB as the by‐product of structural issues (e.g. growing inequalities). Results from our socio‐functional model suggest that implementing solutions at the socio‐economic level could prove efficient in fighting CB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that psychological capital is unequally distributed among people from different social classes, ethnic backgrounds and genders. Confronting the limitations of the current, individualistic perspective on psychological capital, we offer a re‐conceptualisation of the construct from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective, placing it at the intersection of sociology and psychology. We discuss the various mechanisms through which social inequalities may cause differential access to psychological capital for members of low‐ and high‐status social groups and show how this differential access to psychological capital results in and exacerbates social inequalities. By doing this, we postulate a recursive theory on psychological capital that both recognises the formative effect of socio‐organisational structures on one's psychology and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on one of Pierre Bourdieu's core dimensions of social theory: the notion of capital. Bourdieu's work has percolated various academic domains and transcended disciplinary boundaries, thereby leading to new vistas and questions. It is in the spirit of generating "new vistas" that this paper offers considerations which may serve as an epistemic and methodological drive to reinvigorate our social research practices within TESOL. In particular, I argue for a new application of Bourdieu's sociological concept to account more holistically for the complexities of TESOL research practices, and I present a proposal that may support the TESOL research community in addressing the "realities" and "dilemmas" of our field (McKinley & Rose, 2017). Ultimately, life capital will act as a catalyst to promote a fresh perspective on our research—a lens which, in the long run, may yield TESOL research that fully acknowledges, values, and celebrates the humanness of our inquiries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Records are persistent representations of activities created by partakers, observers, or their authorized proxies. People are generally willing to trust vital records such as birth, death, and marriage certificates. However, conspiracy theories and other misinformation may negatively impact perceptions of such documents, particularly when they are associated with a significant person or event. This paper explores the relationship between archival records and trustworthiness by reporting results of a survey that asked genealogists about their perceptions of 44th U.S. President Barack Obama's birth certificate, which was then at the center of the "birtherism" conspiracy. We found that although most participants perceived the birth certificate as trustworthy, others engaged in a biased review, considering it not trustworthy because of the news and politics surrounding it. These findings suggest that a conspiracy theory can act as a moderating variable that undermines the efficacy of normal or recommended practices and procedures for evaluating online information such as birth certificates. We provide recommendations and propose strategies for archivists to disseminate correct information to counteract the spread of misinformation about the authenticity of vital records, and we discuss future directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of sociology as a subfield has long aimed to describe the historical developments of the discipline, within which national traditions offer unique voices while also contributing to a global sociology. How do various sociological paradigms and national traditions approach social reality in similar and different ways? This paper examines Russian and Japanese contributions to the history of sociology by reviewing some of their major concepts and perspectives. On this basis, this paper seeks to probe into the past and present self‐understandings of the two sociological traditions, as well as their potentials for a more active role in global sociological discourse. Both countries have a history of protracted isolation, which has made them more or less invisible in the international sociological community. However, Russian and Japanese sociological traditions exist and are ready to be tapped, even as their production and mobilization of intellectual resources remain strongly embedded in their politics, cultures, and societies. A broader aim of this paper is to enhance mutual understandings and future collaborations between sociologists in Russia and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to bring recent work on metaphysical grounding to bear on the phenomenon of social construction. It is argued that grounding can be used to analyze social construction and that the grounding framework is helpful for articulating various claims and commitments of social constructionists, especially about social identities, e.g., gender and race. The paper also responds to a number of objections that have been (or could be) leveled against the application of grounding to social construction from Elizabeth Barnes (2014), Mari Mikkola (2015), and Jessica Wilson (2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation policies are becoming increasingly popular in eldercare as a means to ensure dignity and reduce costs. This paper examines the implications of rehabilitation within Danish homecare work, a type of work that is often stigmatized due to its associations with low-status 'dirty' body work in old people's homes. The paper combines two research traditions: studies of dirty work and studies of body work. It draws on observations and focus groups in Denmark to explore how the introduction of rehabilitation changes the work of care workers, and how such changes are associated with a potential reshaping of stigma. In contrast to previous research, this paper shows that although rehabilitation was partly introduced to reduce stigma of this type of work, the practice of rehabilitation paradoxically reinforces the stigma that it attempts to manage. Thus, the analysis helps to improve our understanding of the ambiguous and varying ways rehabilitative eldercare reshapes and reinforces stigma and gender stereotypes among women who do 'dirty' body work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the criticism that system dynamics is a ‘hard’ or ‘deterministic’ systems approach. This criticism is seen to have four interpretations and each is addressed from the perspectives of social theory and systems science. Firstly, system dynamics is shown to offer not prophecies but Popperian predictions. Secondly, it is shown to involve the view that system structure only partially, not fully, determines human behaviour. Thirdly, the field's assumptions are shown not to constitute a grand content theory—though its structural theory and its attachment to the notion of causality in social systems are acknowledged. Finally, system dynamics is shown to be significantly different from systems engineering. The paper concludes that such confusions have arisen partially because of limited communication at the theoretical level from within the system dynamics community but also because of imperfect command of the available literature on the part of external commentators. Improved communication on theoretical issues is encouraged, though it is observed that system dynamics will continue to justify its assumptions primarily from the point of view of practical problem solving. The answer to the question in the paper's title is therefore: on balance, no. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the predicted replicability of experimental research on system justification theory (SJT) by conducting a z‐curve analysis. Z‐curve is a meta‐analytic technique similar to p‐curve, but which performs better under conditions of heterogeneity. It estimates the predicted replication rate, average power, false discovery risk, and file drawer ratio (FDR) of a sample of studies. The z‐curve based on 116 papers and 232 unique samples suggests that the experimental SJT literature is likely to show low rates of replicability, as indicated by an overall average statistical power of 16%. Moderator analyses suggest that this may be driven in part by publication pressures, that the replicability of research in this area has improved since 2015, and that studies using system threat manipulations show particularly low estimated replication rates (ERR). Implications for the replicability and validity of the experimental SJT literature are discussed, and recommendations to increase the rigor of research are put forth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives a historical‐philosophical overview of three generations of pragmatist thinking centered around the question of democracy. It serves as an introduction and contextualization to the papers that develop a third generation pragmatic point of view in the remainder of the special issue. The perspective is from one American‐trained philosopher of education who has studied and written widely in pragmatism and European social theory. The article has sections on three generations generally described and with primary influences of John Dewey, Richard Rorty, and Bruno Latour. In each generation, other important philosophic contributions discussed come from C. S. Peirce and William James, Hilary Putnam, Donna Haraway, and Isabelle Stengers as well as relevant commentators. The first two, Dewey and Rorty, contribute to a sub‐theme of democracy in their writings that the third, Latour, continues in politics in a section elaboration. The introduction sets forth a generational theme and an international setting for pragmatism. The conclusion summarizes the article's key ideas and points to a need in education for a democratic future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social positioning theory, or an account of the human individual that it grounds, qualifies as a quantum social theory. This is an assessment that I explain and defend in the paper. It is of interest in that, in a world where increasing numbers are seeking to construct quantum social theories, it serves to help demonstrate that this goal can be achieved without giving up on meeting criteria like explanatory intelligibility or power or discarding real‐world notions like human (and other) entities. As it turns out, a central feature of the account defended and a core element of the 'standard' interpretation of quantum mechanics are found to stand in an interesting, unanticipated and suggestive relation to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a symposium on sociologist Niklas Luhmann's 1991 article "The Child as a Medium of Education," which is being published in English for the first time. Luhmann's work is well-known in German-speaking countries, Scandinavia, and Latin America, but less familiar to Anglophone readers. The symposium aims to outline Luhmann's background and wider project before introducing his theory of education and other papers in the symposium. Luhmann's sociological project is characterized as a system theory of society, and his theory of education emphasizes the concept of medium. The symposium includes contributions that explore Luhmann's theoretical construction of the child and the concept of causality in his theory of education. The translation and associated responses in the symposium aim to stimulate further debate in the field of educational theory and introduce Luhmann's sociological project to a wider audience. [Extracted from the article]

Drawing on three diverse case studies, the research note illustrates the use of reflexivity as an advantageous research strategy and its implications for nonprofit management and leadership research. Reflexivity is both a product and a process, that highlights a mutuality between researcher and participants in creating collaborative knowledge through intentional information exchange. For nonprofit organizations, reflexivity offers a research method that extends the sector's community‐based participatory approach. On the surface, nonprofit organizations are comfortable with diverse research methodologies. The multifaceted systems, interactions and processes that characterize nonprofit organizations require researchers to incorporate standard methodologies alongside more complex dimensions of participants' lived experiences. This paper highlights why reflexivity is a viable social constructivist research method relevant to the nonprofit management research collaborative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As neoliberalism is sinking into disrepute, states are responding to current crises by inroads on basic rights. This constellation adds urgency to the timeworn subject of statehood and its relationship to law and liberty. The paper addresses this subject by enhancing the neoliberal concept of an encased economy with James Coleman's concept of law as indicator of social change and Niklas Luhmann's functional differentiation. The resulting multifunctional liberalism associates liberties and rights with the autonomy of function systems—such as politics, economy or law—and envisions an ecosystem of multifunctional organizations able to navigate the full spectrum of functional differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, motivated reasoning has received significant attention across numerous areas of philosophy, including political philosophy, social philosophy, epistemology, moral psychology, philosophy of science, even metaphysics. At the heart of much of this interest is the idea that motivated reasoning (e.g., rationalization, wishful thinking, and self‐deception) is problematic, that it runs afoul of epistemic normativity, or is otherwise irrational. Is motivated reasoning epistemically problematic? Is it always? When it is, what is the nature of the violation? Philosophical projects on motivated reasoning require informed positions on these questions, demanding explicit engagement with fundamental issues about epistemic normativity and the ethics of belief. But attention to this has been limited, thwarting progress on a variety of critical questions. In this paper, I distinguish some of the key issues at play and discuss their interactions. At the end, I offer three methodological recommendations for future research on motivated reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study examines when and why high performers may fail to obtain supervisory career mentoring (SCM). Although high performance by protégés often makes SCM more efficient and successful, we argue that supervising mentors may be reluctant to offer SCM due to the victimization of high performers that has been shown by recent findings in the supervision literature. We further propose that high performers should be high in perspective‐taking, a core relational competence and a key individual factor that moderates the relationship between protégé performance and SCM. Findings from a multi‐source multi‐time survey (Study 1) and an online experiment (Study 2) consistently show that when high performers are low in perspective‐taking, they are less likely to receive SCM. Moreover, the findings from Study 2 also show that low perspective‐taking by high performers significantly reduces supervisors' expected benefits from mentoring them, which in turn leads to the supervisors having low willingness to mentor. Our research therefore highlights the importance of taking into account the interaction between task and relational competence in understanding how protégé characteristics may influence SCM in organizational settings. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications. Practitioner points: At workplace, employees tend to focus on improving their performance and task competence and believe that high performance can help them receive more resources to develop their career. However, if they cannot imagine oneself in another's shoes, high performance can lead to less positive results.High performers should take others' perspective to understand what others feel and think to reduce potential threats seen by the supervisor and their colleagues. Therefore, task and relational competence are equally important.Organizations can help their employees develop this perspective‐taking, including creating more opportunities (e.g., informal social events or formal training) for employees and their supervisors to understand each other's work roles, perspectives and values, which can help employees to understand their supervisors' views and stand in their supervisors' shoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Schapiro, 1999, 724) Schapiro's official answer to this challenge is that if the task is to illuminate the content of these concepts as status concepts, the idea of greater and lesser degrees of cultivation cannot be the whole story. Schapiro, again, is particularly perceptive about this form of the challenge, this time in a sequel paper, "Childhood and Personhood" (Schapiro, 2003). So I agree with the first steps of Schapiro's explanation of permissible paternalism toward children - that objectionable paternalism is objectionable because of how it interferes with autonomy, and that autonomy involves a kind of self-authorship. (Schapiro, 1999, 733) One I might i endorse a purely instrumentalist explanation of the reduced scope for paternalism as children grow and develop in the spirit of Schapiro's account, as a kind of pretense justified by allowing children to "practice" behaving autonomously, even though they do not yet have a will to count as behaving genuinely autonomously. [Extracted from the article]

Ad hominem discourse is largely prohibited in scientific journals. Historically, this prohibition restricted the dissemination of ad hominem discussion, but during the last decade, blogs and social media platforms became popular among researchers. With the use of social media now entrenched among researchers, there are important questions about the role of ad hominems. Ad hominems and other forms of strong criticism became particularly evident in online discussions associated with the recent replication crisis in psychology. Here, these discussions, and a few incidences of ad hominems in journal articles, are situated in the broader history of science. It is argued that explicit codes of conduct should be considered to curb certain kinds of ad hominem comments in certain fora, but that some ad hominem discussions have an important role to play in a healthier science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change poses huge challenges to humanity. The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather is increasing. As more attention turns to disaster preparedness and recovery, it is worth recognising that many communities have a long history of living with the flux of planetary dynamism. They are experienced in negotiating collective well‐being with one another and with the earth. Other communities have less experience and know‐how and have had to adopt more experimental approaches. In this paper we draw on planetary social thought and critical disaster studies to re‐think disaster recovery. We present stories of communities in the Philippines differently negotiating collective well‐being in the face of climate uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes an overview of the barriers to social progress 80 years on from the original Beveridge report (Beveridge, 1942). It argues we can identify and conceptualise five alternative 'Giants', relating these to social theory and social debates in the 21st century, and considering the prospects for progress against these new challenges. After considering Beveridge's original Giants in their context, it considers large‐scale theories of social change after 1942 and reviews what other 'Giants' writers have suggested in calls for a 'new Beveridge' and proposes inequality, preventable mortality, job quality, fragmenting democracy and environmental degradation as the most significant challenges we face, linking each to one of Beveridge's original Giants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability approach (CA) is a framework for understanding, assessing, and promoting the quality of human lives and social justice. It focuses on capabilities – people's freedoms and opportunities to live in valuable ways. Although its proponents readily acknowledge that capabilities can depend on personal, social and environmental factors, little attention has been paid to the ontology of capabilities (what they are and how they are caused and constituted) and the inherent relationality of the approach is often not well followed through in research and practice. This, we suggest, leaves the CA vulnerable to misinterpretation and misappropriation. In this paper we draw on the complementary lenses of critical realism, hermeneutics and complexity theory to develop an explicitly relational ontology of capabilities that explains how capabilities, as potential for ways of being or forms of doing, are generated by both personal agency and material and social structures. We demonstrate how these lenses can illuminate the relational constitution of particular capabilities through reference to a composite case involving a man called Bert and his healthcare team. We outline how our relational ontology of capabilities can demand and support more theoretically coherent and socially just approaches to CA informed practice, research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on agency theory, as extended by the social theory of agency (STA) (Wiseman, Cuevas‐Rodríguez & Gomez‐Mejia, 2012), to examine the association between governance arrangements, reliance on government funding, chief executive officer (CEO) non‐profit experience, and CEO compensation in the UK charity sector. We rely on a hand‐collected data for the largest 240 charities and find that greater trustee board diversity (specifically gender and education diversity) and the existence of a remuneration or nomination committee are positively associated to CEO compensation. The results also show that a reliance on government funding and CEO's non‐profit work experience, together with the presence of a finance/accounting expert on the audit committee are negatively associated to CEO compensation. The existence of an audit committee, internal audit function, use of specialist external auditor and CEO characteristics (gender, ethnicity and managerial experience) are not significant factors. Our findings are largely consistent with the STA's propositions. Specifically, executive compensation levels reflect the CEO's ability to work with a diverse board while a higher reliance on government funding signals the role of the State's pressures in moderating CEO compensation. Finally, in a context characterised by altruism and public benefit, financial rewards are not seen as the dominant 'value metric', resulting in lower compensation for CEOs previously working in the sector. Our findings have policy implications, specifically in relation to the role, composition and effectiveness of governance structures (e.g., trustee boards, audit and remuneration committees) in overseeing the design of executive compensation schemes within the charity sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to journal is presented in which the author discusses family and kinship drawing on empirical, theoretical, interdisciplinary and practice perspectives.

This paper examines the impact of psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs in American management. I trace how a roster of management experts translated the hierarchy of needs into management through case studies of job redesign programs at Texas Instruments and marketing firm Young & Rubicam's management training. The hierarchy of needs resonated with management, I argue, because it seemed to offer both a concrete guide for management, with practical implications for designing management training and work structures, alongside a broader social theory that purported to explain changing social values and economic circumstances in America. For the management theorists who invoked the hierarchy of needs, the corporation served as both the prime site for people to fulfill their higher psychological needs and the ideal site to study and cultivate motivation. This article contributes to histories of psychology that show how psychology became a prominent resource in American public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public inquiries are an important phenomenon in modern British society, often used to address controversial or difficult issues of major concern to policy makers, the media and the public. Although people often comment adversely on how costly inquiries are and how long they take, inquiry methods are rarely discussed, let alone critiqued or challenged. However, from a social sciences perspective, inquiry methods, processes and outputs are often at odds with accepted standards for research methods. This paper discusses this divergence and the implications for how we should regard the inquiry as a way of knowing, or learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was delivered as the Presidential Address for the 48th International Society for the Systems Sciences Annual Conference in Pacific Grove, California. The full theme of the 2004 conference of ISSS was Fifty Years of Systems Science: Honoring Tradition, Embracing the Future. This main theme was accompanied by two sub-themes of ‘Integration’ (or ‘Unification’), and ‘Continuity’. This paper follows the conference theme by discussing the original goals and challenges facing the founders of the Society 50 years ago, as well as our contemporary goals and challenges. The year 2004 marked 50 years since the precursor organization of the International Society of Systems Science held its first meeting. In an earlier paper I outlined 10 goals of systems science, along with 10 challenges that we face in attaining these goals. Five of these goals were the original goals of the founders of ISSS, as enunciated in 1954. I added five additional contemporary goals to the original five goals of the founders. Pursuant to the sub-theme of continuity, the present papers completes the task set forth in the prior paper by discussing how systems science in general, and ISSS in particular, can overcome the 10 challenges that confront us. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 47th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in Crete, Greece. It explores the problem of sustainability from a systems point of view within the context of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative—an initiative launched by the US Congress in 1999 to fund a multifaceted response to the difficult challenge of youth violence. A grounded theory of sustainability is proposed, based on the design of social systems, as an alternative to the current political emphasis on classical reductionist science-based approaches to school reform. Further, insight into transformational leadership opportunities through evidence-based social systems design strategies is offered. This paper represents an initial attempt to apply these principles within the context of school–community partnerships and sustainability. Subsequent work will provide further exploration and development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current white supremacist racial order in America fundamentally relies on fear and pain to shape the subjectivities of Black people in childhood. This violence is most visible when enacted by police officers against unarmed Black youth. A less visible yet more pernicious form of racist violence against Black children is exercised by community proxies such as Black teachers and parents. Annual government reports reveal that Black children are more likely to be injured or killed by their parents than by police. In this paper we inquire as to why, despite the many Black writers who have described parental violence as an intergenerational re‐enactment of the violence of slavery, and despite decades of research on the harms of hitting children, social theorists have not analyzed how Black parents can serve as proxies for white supremacist violence. We argue that Black parenting culture has in many ways internalized the white supremacist view that corporal punishment is required to instill the discipline necessary to spare Black youth from police violence and incarceration. We conclude that until social scientists foreground the voices of Black youth in their studies, rather than adults, our ability to understand and confront the reproduction of white supremacist violence will be impeded. We argue that the physical punishment of children in Black families is an aspect of the legacy or "afterlife" of slavery. We contend that this omission persists because Black youth voices are absent from social analysis on the issue of physical punishment, existing only in clinical studies divorced from macro‐sociological analysis, and we discuss how this omission occurred as a matter of scholarly history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Dewey's reaction to the crisis of American Liberalism (Hook, 1969) explicitly aims at reconstructing a new version of social democracy, or democratic socialism (Westbrook, 1991), Laclau's aim is to save the lasting and valuable Marxist contributions from Marxism itself (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985; Marchart, 2013, p. 300 et sqq). This emerges quite clearly as one considers both Dewey's theory of the emergence of a democratic public (Dewey, 1927) as well as his theory of social struggle (Dewey, 1919-1920, Dewey and Tufts, 1932). Although Laclau talks of "rhetoric" in reference to the paradigmatic set of linguistic, quasi-automatic mechanisms at the source of the political constitution of popular identities, Dewey understands this process as the enactment of specific forms of "social inquiry." CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we have developed a critical comparison between Laclau's and Dewey's account of the process of constitution of what Laclau calls "political identities.". [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, I evaluate some recent attacks on Williamson's claim that knowledge is the most general factive stative propositional attitude. Two types of approaches are discussed: The first approach attempts to show that there are factive mental states denoted by factive mental state operators that are not cases of knowing. The second approach aims to show that there are factive mental states that to Williamson count as cases of knowing, but nonetheless fail to entail a corresponding belief. If either of these approaches were successful, it would potentially be damaging for Williamson's theory of knowledge. I argue that recent arguments that exemplify these approaches are unconvincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political philosophy has traditionally been defined as a normative discipline with a distinctively ideal component, largely informed by moral philosophy. In this paper, I investigate a prominent critique of ideal theory specifically with the goal of resituating the debate within a larger framework in the philosophy of science. I then mount a novel case for how ideal theory should be viewed in terms of scientific modelling. I close with a discussion of how this view can dissolve apparent paradoxes and provide distinct advantages to the political theorist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we bring into focus the level of thought or content in the elucidation of disagreement. We set out the view that disagreement at this level involves a specific form of noncotenability, namely, noncotenability as captured by sense or intension as opposed to reference. We present the challenge that nourishes the alternative referential view and suggest, through examples, that (i) only intensional disagreement is apt to adequately accommodate basic rationality constraints on disagreement, and (ii) it can meet the aforementioned challenge insofar as we discriminate between noncotenability affecting one's concepts, intensionally conceived, and noncotenability affecting merely one's particular understanding of those concepts. We conclude that intensional disagreement is our best choice for an account of disagreement at the level of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many philosophers believe that true belief is of epistemic value, but that knowledge is of even more epistemic value. Some claim that this surplus value is instrumentally valuable to the value of true belief. I call the conjunction of these claims the instrumentalist's conjunction. The so‐called swamping problem is meant to show that instrumentalist's conjunction is inconsistent. Crudely put, the problem is that if knowledge only has surplus value to the value of true belief, and a belief is true because known, then knowledge cannot be of any more value than true belief. Given the inconsistency, most philosopher reject the claim the surplus value of knowledge is instrumental to the value of true belief. This paper argues that the Swamping Problem is illusory. Once we clean up the problem and pay attention to the distinction between token/type properties, we can see that instrumentalist's conjunction is perfectly coherent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defends the concept of 'fetishism' as an explanatory parameter in sociological theorizing on Durkheimian grounds, while at the same time paying due attention to important insights regarding the role of objects in social life, originating from Actor-Network Theory (ANT). It critically assesses the current critique of the concept of fetishism propagated by ANT protagonist Bruno Latour. Latour and suggests a compromise between these two 'schools'. First, to place the paper firmly in context, I analyse some examples of modern fetishism and outline the themes of the ensuing discussion. Next, I turn to Durkheim, seeking to develop a distinct interpretation of the concept of the social and of fetishism, and then point to some of Durkheim's shortcomings and attempt to make room for Latourian perspectives. Finally, I critically assess Latour's dismissal of forms of social 'explanation' and of the concept of fetishism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent social theory includes important insights into language which constitute a so far underdeveloped resource for sociolinguistics. But much of this theory stops short - theoretical frameworks and categories which socially locate language are not pushed in the direction of a theorisation of language itself, which limits their operational value in research. Sociolinguistics can draw upon social theory to produce more sophisticated theorisations of language which at the same time constitute contributions to social theory. My aim in this paper is to explore what it means to work in a 'transdisciplinary' way. I argue in particular for a transdisciplinary engagement with social theory in which the logic of one theory is put to work in the elaboration of another without the latter being simply reduced to the former. My focus is upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) which I here take to be a part of a broadly conceived sociolinguistics. I shall link this theoretical exploration to a concrete research focus by referring to a discourse analytical study of the current British ('New') Labour Government. with particular reference to its 'reform' of social welfare. I shall be drawing upon the theoretical framework developed in Chouliaraki and Fairclough (1999). I have referred to some of the social theory which I find it particularly fruitful to work with, but the paper is intended to suggest a way of working and is in no sense a closed list of theorists - on the contrary, I believe that we should be open to a wide range of theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Talcott Parsons's efforts at building the theory of personality system as a special case of his general theory of action and places those efforts in historical context. I demonstrate how, during the middle decades of the twentieth century, Parsons employed elements of classic Freudian thought to advance a new appreciation of the personality system and its relations to other action systems. I begin with an overview of the reception of psychoanalysis at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Harvard Department of Social Relations, showing how Parsons's thinking on the personality system cannot be understood apart from his association with these three institutions. I then turn to how Parsons endeavored to integrate his particular brand of sociology with his own interpretation of Freud's writings to explain how the personality system functions and develops. I conclude by showing that while Parsons's involvements with psychoanalysis became more intermittent after the mid‐1950s, to the end of his life he remained steadfast in his enthusiasm for Freud's theory of personality. In short, Parsons always believed that for sociological theory to progress, it needed to engage with psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I synthesize recent work in the philosophy of action to propose an analytic reconstruction of the concept of habit. My main point is that habit (or habitus) can be a central, not just supplemental or auxiliary concept in action theory and the explanation of action. To show this, I systematically analyze the way habits can be used as a resource to explain action while comparing the way habits explain action with the standard way we explain action as being caused by the interplay of beliefs, desires, and intentions. I point to the specific "historical" way that habits can be seen as causes of action and show that the conceptual commitments of habit‐based explanations are both more substantial and more robust than intention‐based explanations. Once formed, habits act as inclinations and dispositions, being reliably triggered in the requisite context by the appropriate circumstances. Finally, I analyze the core concept of automaticity as applied to habit. I argue that since automaticity is not a unitary concept, different features of automaticity are more central to habit than others, allowing us to differentiate the most representative members of the habit category from more peripheral members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal process tracing ( CPT) has emerged as an important method of causal inference in qualitative social science research, most notably in case study research designs. There is now a considerable literature on the aims, philosophical groundings, and methods of process tracing. This paper reviews the CPT literature to assess what new directions it may suggest for policy studies. The first part of the paper sets out the methodological advantages CPT offers in building and testing theories of policy change, most notably in supporting a theoretical pluralism to address the problem of complexity in policy studies. Building on recent scholarship across the social sciences, the second part examines step by step the recently minted 'best practice' for undertaking CPT in policy studies. This part includes discussion of the possible pitfalls of CPT as a method; common errors involved in its use are set out and minimization strategies offered. In particular, while acknowledging the usefulness of Bayesian tests for causality as heuristic devices, we emphasize the limitations of applying such tests in practice. Possible correctives are suggested. The final part of the paper speculates more generally on the potential of CPT to improve our investigation of patterns of policy change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at a new understanding of modernity from the perspective of connected history. It demonstrates that with the case of Taiwan, so‐called ‘modernity’ emerged from the interactions and connections among the various regions, cultures, and civilizations. Thus, modernity has been entangled since its birth, and has had diverse variants. When we combine this reconceptualization of modernity with the concept of functional differentiation as the most essential structural condition of modernity, a theoretical escape from the trap of Eurocentrism emerges; additionally, we are able to integrate sociological theoretical reflections with the advancements of world history study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]