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Reflects on an event that happened in 1984 to the author, a black feminist living in the UK, to illuminate aspects of black female subjectivity. The event comprised a meeting between the author, age 14, & two police officers who made passing references to the author's color & the fact that she was not wearing shoes. When the author disavowed aboriginal status, it is suggested that she colluded in a situational disavowal of blackness. However, the fact that she was treated in a "winking" manner indicates that the register of gender was still operative in the confrontation. It is suggested that this incident illuminates the collision that often occurs between black & female identities for black women. Moreover, the incident might contribute to feminist theorizing by rendering the identificatory practices that constitute a subject's unstable identity at any given moment. It is concluded that this approach might move black & white feminists alike beyond essentialist notions of female identity. 14 References. D. Ryfe

Introduces the contributions to this edited volume on the relationship between aging & social change by briefly surveying the relationship between three key concepts: generations, cohort, & the life course. The literature on this subject began with the writing of Karl Mannheim (1927), who theorized a relationship between the generation as birth year & the generation as a behavioral consciousness or actuality. The concept of birth cohort was later substituted for Mannheim's notion of generation by Norman Ryder (1965), who argued that a comparative analysis of such cohorts is a suitable method for studying social change. Later scholars have refined the notion of a birth cohort through the development of age stratification theory & a life course perspective. However, few gains have been made in linking individual life course research with macrolevel cohort behaviors & experiences. Challenges to this linkage have been primarily methodological, as it has proven very difficult to obtain & measure the appropriate data. Contributions speak to these challenges & try to frame them in such a way that productive solutions may follow. D. Ryfe

Die Unterlagen über die russische Beamtenschaft sind bisher wissenschaftlich nur ungenügend ausgewertet worden, obwohl die russische Administration seit Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts solche Unterlagen produziert hat. Der Autor gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der Erfassung dieser Quellen. Die Erfassung durch die Historiker und die computergestützte Verarbeitung der Daten wird durch die Art der Quellen erschwert, da die erhobenen Daten nur begrenzten biographischen Wert haben, soziale und ethnische Herkunft zum Beispiel aus den Unterlagen nicht direkt erschließbar sind. (BG)

"The text deals with F. K. Mann's approach of fiscal sociology. First, his biography is presented. Second, his book on tax policy ideals is discussed critically. Third, three conceptual elements of his fiscal approach are extracted from major writings of Mann. Fourth, the relationship between fiscal theory and sociology is analyzed. Finally it is asked which of his writings, ideas and concepts stand the test of time." (author's abstract)

Provides a brief biography of one-time Hungarian parliamentary member & Minister of Agriculture Ferenc Erdei (1910-1971), arguing that the ambiguities & ambivalences of his life & work illuminate the situations of many rural Hungarians who fear the economic imbalance of postcommunist transformation. Erdei's analysis of precommunist Hungarian society & his reform-period policies (including partial support for family-based agriculture despite collectivization) are considered. Also discussed is the impact of Erdei's policies on residents of the village of Tazlar, & particularly on Antal Vermes, who helped relaunch the ultimately unsuccessful Independent Smallholders' Party in 1989. It is concluded that most rural Hungarians desire balance, which to many means continuation of some cooperative farming & rejection of radical smallholder ideology. 20 References. E. Blackwell

It is now more than twenty years since I first came across biographical research in connection
with my doctoral thesis. It was a time when this approach was beginning to re-establish itself
after half a century, in German sociology in particular but also at the international level.
Sociological biographical research began in the 1920s, in association with the migration study
The Polish Peasant in Europe and America by William Isaac Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
(1918–20; 1958) at the University of Chicago. Even then, empirical work was already concentrating
on the single case study. Alongside documentary analysis on the migration process, this
voluminous work contains only one biography of a Polish migrant, commissioned by the
researchers. It was not so much the concrete biographical analysis that made this work so influential for subsequent interpretative sociology and biographical research, but rather the two authors' general methodological comments.

Although H. G. Adler wrote extensively on the Holocaust, his voice has been excluded from the discussion of the Holocaust following Adorno's pessimistic analysis. The reasons for this exclusion lie in Adler's aesthetics, ethics, & method, examined here based on his biography, his works, the Adorno-Adler correspondence, & the way in which scholars treat other voices in their books on the topic. Against Adorno's fallacy of negativism, Adler argued for the sovereignty of ethical values, human rights, & democracy. His poetry during his time in the concentration camps shifted to an inner perspective & a protest against inhumanity. His method in examining the Holocaust -- scholarly documentation, an objective style, intellectual analysis, & an ethical viewpoint -- was highly unfashionable in British & American sociology at the time. Adler's novels Eine Reise ([A Journey] 1962), Panorama (1968) & Die unsichtbare Wand ([The Invisible Wall] 1989), all representing Auschwitz but with complementary methods, are discussed. M. Pflum

Examines the 1994 movie, Bandit Queen, as an example of a subgenre of Hindi popular cinema that highlights female revenge stories. Produced in India & directed by Shekhar Kapur, the movie is loosely based on the biography of Phoolan Devi, who escaped from an abusive husband & oppressive upper-caste villagers to become a bandit in central India. The film's depiction of rape & sexual humiliation has not only caused considerable controversy in India, but also generated claims by Phoolan Devi that it exploits her. The movie describes multiple forms of sexual violence, including marital rape, statutory rape, custodial rape, gang rape, & rape as an expression of caste violence. The question of whether portrayals of female oppression can perpetuate a condition of exploitation is explored in relation to feminists who focus on both oppression & agency to examine representations of female sexuality. Other issues addressed include the relation of textual representation to reality, & how empowering representations of female sexuality might be received. Implications of the controversy for politics, the legal system, & Indian feminism are discussed. 28 References. J. Lindroth

An intellectual biography serves as an introduction to this volume (see abstracts of each Chpt) dedicated to Ernest Gellner & his works. Born in Paris, France, in 1925, Gellner was taken to England in 1939, & saw active service in the British army 1944/45. At Oxford U, Gellner was influenced by his reading of Immanuel Kant & the British empiricists & liberals. Gellner took a position in the sociology department at the London School of Economics that he kept until he moved to Cambridge U in 1984. Three main sources of early influence on his work were (1) his fieldwork in social anthropology on the Berbers of the Moroccan High Atlas, which lead him to (2) the study of Islam generally, & (3) a seminar in the sociology of development at the London School of Economics. Gellner's battle with relativism began with his attack on the influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein & J. L. Austin in British sociology, & continued with critiques of Marxism & postmodernism. His major contributions include works on industrialization & nationalism. From 1993 until his death in 1995 he was Director of the Center for the Study of Nationalism at the Central European U in Prague, Czech Republic. 12 References. H. von Rautenfeld

Analyzes the popular appeal of TV talk shows &, paradoxically, why they are so often the target of public outrage & moral debate. It is suggested that both the cultural appeal of & assaults against talk shows can be explained in terms of their cultural meanings, particularly how they "conflate aspects of the private sphere with the claims & modes of argumentation of the public sphere"; it is contended that talk shows represent the "ultimate penetration of global capitalism into the innermost fabric of our lives." The demographic composition of talk show participants & audiences is described, & their populist appeal is located in their "carnivalesque" atmosphere wherein sacred moral codes are both reinforced & infringed upon. The nature of talk show discourse is analyzed, noting the conformity to a "code of everyday life that seems to be fundamental in organizing selfhood & social relations." Other key elements of talk shows addressed include (1) the function of the "self-made biography," (2) the depiction of deviance, (3) the staging of emotions, (4) the spectacle of suffering, (5) the structuration of conversation to tell a moral story, (6) their role as vicarious support groups, & (6) the metaphors of "democratic debate" & the "covenant of discourse.". 69 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

This contribution is part of a publication on the TEMPUS symposium to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) held in Edinburgh in September 2000. It was intended as a reflective, post- project evaluation of the development programme to prepare teachers to meet special educational needs (SEN) in Perm (a city of one million inhabitants 2000 km north-east from Moscow), and its continuation, extension, dissemination and effects on new related international work, including a follow-on TEMPUS-TACIS project.... The article is part of the second part of the publication, which relates the TEMPUS project to wider conditions for change in schools. It is too often assumed that such development projects involve partners in stable situations, offering possible models for a target beneficiary in transitional need and search of new anchorage.... East Germany, [ however], brings to the project its own dramatic experience of collapse and reconstruction. This chapter ... itself a collaboration between academics drawn from two formerly confronting German societies, explores key elements of teacher experience before and after the German "Wende", and illustrates the importance of teacher commitment to new approaches." What interested the authors was, "to discover how those teachers already in service in the GDR times dealt with the "Wende" and, in that context, with the transition to a new school system with changed ideological foundations; what were the effects of the "Wende" on their concepts, or more specifically, on their models of interpretation and action; and what, in the new circumstances, has been their readiness to participate in school development?" The authors took two methodological approaches: they "used the teachers' observations when confronted with their own video- recorded lessons, together with descriptive career biography interviews". (DIPF/Orig./Kr.).

Die Autoren geben einen Überblick über die Arbeit der Demographic Data Base an der Universität Umea, die auf Basis der Kirchenregister individuelle Lebensgeschichte über Computer erfassen. Die Quellenlage wird unter zeitlichen und regionalen Aspekten dargestellt. Die Verarbeitung der Quellen in computergerechte Daten, die aufgenommenen Informationen, die Datenorganisation und die Auswertungsmöglichkeiten werden in weiteren Schritten dargestellt. Nach Ansicht der Autoren ist das Projekt beispielhaft für die analytischen und methodischen Möglichkeiten der computergestützten Datenverarbeitung in diesem Bereich. (BG)

"Scientist, nationalist, educationist, Bengali bhadralok, intellectual, entrepreneur, public figure, sometime Gandhian, almost-politician - perhaps all these describe Prafulla Chandra Ray at various stages of his life. He was a chemist of some importance on an international stage, and a major influence on the scientific fraternity in India - ingiving them a legitimate voice as Indian scientists, and in giving them the confidenceto practice in a less unequal environment. He was a major participant in debates on Indian nationalism from the late nineteenth century to independence, and of the place of science within it. He linked debates on the philosophy of science and of its validity for India in the late nineteenth century to those on the justification of 'development' in the 1940s. PC Ray crops up in all these debates, but in a fragmented manner - and in writing about the debates, each specialist field culls from Ray what it finds of its own particular concerns. As a result we get what we might call fragments of PC Ray. Matters are not made simpler by the fact that Ray, once he had been anointed as a public figure, was called upon by his followers to make public pronouncements on awide range of issues, some of which he did not altogether understand and about which he would have done better not to speak. The question which might be asked, in piecing together the fragments of Ray, is whether the fragments held together at all, and if so, how. This paper, therefore, is an attempt at an intellectual history of PC Ray. But it is also more than that: it may be possible to use Ray's life as a stalking horse, as it were, to raise wider questions regarding his times. Ray's importance as a public figure over several decades, and as one whose pronouncements on various social, political and cultural matters were taken extremely seriously by a wide audience needs to be considered in the light of thelegitimating importance of the category 'science' and its imagined role in a (post)colonial society." (author's abstract)