Suchergebnisse

The Struggle for Meaning:Reflections on Philosophy,Democracy, and Culture in Africaby Paulin HountondjiOhio University Press, 2002, 308 pp.+ xxiv, $28 (paper)
The work under review is a quasibiographical text by one of Africa's most important post-colonial philosophers and intellectuals. Hountondji is known in Africana philosophical circles for having produced two important paradigmatic works representative of the attempted autonomy of Africa's thinkers as they sought to come to terms with Africa's experiences at the end of the colonial era. That era represented the culminating point of the clash of European and African civilizations dating from the fifteenth century. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain and the three hundred year Atlantic slave trade constitute key moments in this ongoing encounter.

This article examines cross-national variation in the diffusion and adoption of military technologies and ideas. The history of warfare has been marked by periods of innovation in which the institutions and practices of war-making adapted in response to technological opportunities, and social and political developments. As information about new practices spreads, through the demonstration effects of innovating states or transnational social networks, military innovations have diffused throughout the international system. Diffusion can restructure power relations as states leverage new capabilities to increase their military power and enhance their international influence.

This article is a reflection on conceptual foundations of cultural management research. By relying on extant literature, a few conceptual underpinnings are examined and criticized, and some suggestions for improvement are proposed. Discussing such issues can be useful not only for advancing future research but also for achieving a more profound understanding of previous studies and their limitations.