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In the modern, extant world of practical history, the dominant "democratic" tradition splits sharply into three, often hostile strands. These strands are liberal democracy, social revolutionary democracy, and participatory democracy. Especially for analytical purposes, it is important to see these strands as distinct sharing only the vaguest general commitment to government by and for broad reaches of the population (thedemos). However, the three strands, for all their differences—and hostilities—should be seen historically as standing in profound and significantdialecticalrelationship with each other. In this light, liberal and social revolutionary democracy are opposites in an antithetical tension that is increasingly extreme. Participatory democracy will then appear as a third term, a still emerging synthetical response arising out of attempts to resolve the tension between the two earlier democratic variants, and clearly showing marks of its inheritance from them.

Dialectics deals with opposites and contradictions. Social work literature seldom talks about opposites and contradictions. This article attempts to discuss the relevance and usefulness of dialectics in social work practice, focusing on three areas: the individual/social divide, contradictions in worker-client relationships and social work as a profession.

'Evidence-based policy' and 'evidence-based management' are increasingly popular ways of describing the relationship between research and practice. The majority discussing the evidence-based approach have tended to be in favour: here, 'believers'. Yet this approach has also attracted critics: 'heretics'. Understanding of such a division can be enhanced by dialectics: a process which tries to destabilize, reconcile or transcend apparent opposites. This divide is not simply a consequence of differences relating to epistemology, but also aesthetics: a set of reactions to the world seen as art. So, to analyse this divide requires a correspondingly rich model of dialectic. Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy offers this in its account of Apolline and Dionysian responses to the world. Dialectics supports a move beyond synchronous critique, and allows speculation as to the future development of the evidence-based approach.

Mainstream leadership studies tend to privilege and separate leaders from followers. This article highlights the value of rethinking leadership as a set of dialectical relationships. Drawing on post-structuralist perspectives, this approach reconsiders the relations and practices of leaders and followers as mutually constituting and co-produced. It also highlights the tensions, contradictions and ambiguities that typically characterize these shifting asymmetrical and interdependent leadership dynamics. Exploring three interrelated 'dialectics' (control/resistance, dissent/consent and men/women), the article raises a number of issues frequently neglected in the mainstream literature. It emphasizes that leaders exercise considerable power, that their control is often shifting, paradoxical and contradictory, that followers' practices are frequently proactive, knowledgeable and oppositional, that gender crucially shapes control/resistance/consent dialectics and that leaders themselves may engage in workplace dissent. The article concludes that dialectical perspectives can provide new and innovative ways of understanding leadership.

Considering Pragma-Dialectics honors the monumental contributions of one of the foremost international figures in current argumentation scholarship: Frans van Eemeren. The volume presents the research efforts of his colleagues and addresses how their work relates to the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation with which van Eemeren's name is so intimately connected. This tribute serves to highlight the varied approaches to the study of argumentation and is destined to inspire researchers to advance scholarship in the field far into the future. Replete with contributions from highly-esteemed

AbstractThis article first provides an overview and brief history of relational dialectics theory (RDT) before turning to a presentation of RDT's basic tenets and theoretical utility. In addition, it also examines how RDT has been applied in studying family contexts and offers suggestions for future directions of RDT‐based research.

Cover -- Table of contents -- Introduction: On Contemporary French Philosophy, Specters of Hegel, Dialectics, and Modernity -- Part 1: Specters of Totality -- Preliminary remarks -- Chapter 1: The Insufficient Totality -- Ecstasy Beyond Totality -- Ethics beyond Totality -- Chapter 2: The Impossible Totality -- Un-divine History -- Inhuman History -- Chapter 3: The Dangerous Totality -- Ideology and the Problem of Communism -- The Crisis of Meta-narratives and the Problem of Capitalism -- The Ethical Relation and the Problem of Politics -- Part 2: Specters of Rupture -- Preliminary remarks -- Chapter 1: Ruptures with Being -- Chapter 2: The Ruptured Subject and the Problem of the Other -- Chapter 3: Ruptured History. Toward Dispersion -- Part 3: Specters of Dispersion -- Preliminary remarks -- Chapter 1: The Differend as the Stakes of Thought -- Philosophy and Science -- Philosophy, Language, and Metalanguage -- Beyond Ethics and Politics: Philosophy as Art -- Chapter 2: Difference as Repetition -- Chapter 3: Deconstruction of différance -- Afterword: Post-dialectics and Postmodernity -- Main references

In grasping emergent qualities and laws on various levels of organization of matter, dialectical theory employs its own conceptual structure, scientific language, and investigation method, and takes a categorially open-ended shape. In this context, Engels provides a remarkable illustration that not only argues for the interconnection and interpenetration of distinct spheres such as chemistry and biology, but also draws on a generative feature of self-organizing systems.

This review-essay contends that Gramsci: Space, Nature, Politics is essential reading for an appreciation of the relevance of the eponymous thinker to a number of seminal theoretical debates and to a wider strategic discussion on the trajectory of the left in the twenty-first century. The book provides a vigorous vindication of Gramsci's utilisation of concepts such as passive revolution, dialectical nature and a relational view of the mind. There are incisive discussions of ecology and intersectionality through a Gramscian lens. The collection also includes outstanding analyses of class struggles in a number of developing capitalist states, including Brazil and South Africa. The review argues that a distillation of the ideas contained in the work would be an asset to Marxists engaged in theoretical and practical activity.