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Sociological explanations of the Salem witch trials, and of witch-hunts in the West more generally, have focused on economic transition, political instability, and the functional aspects of witchcraft belief. A more interpretive approach to the explanation of Salem is proposed: an analysis of the intersection of the gendered symbolization of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts and the larger tensions within Puritan culture at the close of the 17th century. A broad theoretical implication of this interpretive shift is also proposed: that a cultural-sociological approach to witch-hunting as symbolic action can bring together feminist theorizations of witch-hunting as an exercise in patriarchal power with the social history of the broad, structural causes of witchhunting in pre-modern Europe and New England.

Without the contribution of informal carers of disabled, sick and older people, organised social care in England and Wales could not cope. However, carers can often experience financial hardship,, poor health and social isolation, and may find it difficult to combine work and care. The government has developed policies to support carers in their caring role, while also introducing measures to assist carers to work, reflecting the emphasis on paid work as a driving force to reduce poverty. This article draws on empirical evidence to assess the effectiveness of financial and labour market support to encourage carers to work. The evidence sheds light on the tensions underlying current measures to help carers work and care.

Using Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society thesis as a reference point, this article contributes sociologically to burgeoning critical obesity studies. It does this using qualitative data from a study of men and weightrelated issues undertaken in northern England. Taking a counter-intuitive approach, it explores whether slimming proceeds in accord with the rationalizing principles of the fast-food restaurant: calculability, efficiency, predictability and technological control. Rather than reproducing a simplified and ultimately stigmatizing account, where fatness is a pathological bodily state caused by fast food, this article explores the degree to which fatness is actively made into a correctable problem using McDonaldized principles. Irrationalities and meaningful resistances associated with the public and private fight against fat are also considered.

Lewis Carroll's satire of the imperialist rivalry between England & France (1870) in the "The Walrus & the Carpenter" illustrates the contemporary inter-imperialist rivalries of the US & France in Africa & the Middle East. Since the American Revolution the American Walrus & the French Carpenter have been good friends. The paradoxical "friendship" between France & the US is the legacy of the 1770s alliance against Britain & the post-WW II alliance against the Axis. Unfortunately, intellectuals on the left are as naive as Alice about the role of imperial friendship in Rwanda & the conflicted build up to the Iraqi war. Today the French & American military are once again involved in murderous maneuvers in Chad, Central Africa, Darfur & Somalia, & more massacres are in sight. visual imagery, References. J. Harwell

Recent falls in poverty amongst those aged 65 and over are unlikely to continue after 2007-08, even after the implementation of the proposals outlined in the Government's Pensions White Paper. This report looks at the prospects for pensioner poverty in England over the next decade. The authors find that that the proportion of those aged 65 and over living in poverty is set to remain at its current level - around one-in-five - between 2007-08 and 2017-18. This is despite the overall increase in the generosity of state pensions arising from the Pensions White Paper, and the fact that younger cohorts are expected to have more private pension income and higher employment rates at older ages than those preceding them.

John Locke galt in der politischen Ideengeschichtsschreibung lange Zeit als Autor, der in seinem Hauptwerk, den "Two Treatises of Government", eine erfolgreich abgeschlossene Revolution von 1688/89 nachträglich habe legitimieren wollen. Diese Auffassung wurde jedoch in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten durch Forschungsarbeiten von Laslett, Ashcraft und anderen gründlich revidiert. Denn es konnte gezeigt werden, dass Lockes Text bereits sehr viel früher, nämlich zwischen 1679 und 1682, entstanden war. Locke wollte mit seinem Buch also nicht die Berechtigung eines bereits erfolgreich erzwungenen Thronwechsels erweisen, sondern eine geplante Revolution ideologisch vorbereiten helfen, zumal sich die politischen Verhältnisse in England bereits Ende der 1670er Jahre zugespitzt hatten. Die "Two Treatises" müssen daher schon aufgrund ihres Entstehungskontextes als "radikale" Schrift gelesen werden. Doch nicht nur die historischen Umstände, sondern auch ihre Argumentationsstruktur verliehen ihr diese Radikalität, wie im vorliegenden Beitrag näher gezeigt wird. Mit seiner Kritik an der normativen Bedeutung historischer Kontinuitäten und der Behauptung, der Anschluss an die geschichtlich vorgegebenen nationalen Rechtstraditionen könne nicht als Legitimations- und Entscheidungsgrund für (verfassungs-) politische Fragen fungieren, brach Locke zwangsläufig mit dem "common sense" des größten Teils der politischen Klasse seiner Zeit. (ICI2)

The conception of the Gilded Age urban park sought to reclaim sanitary, recreational, scenic, and reformist ideals perceived to have gone astray under intense industrialization and expansion. in Boston, each factor took on characteristics particular to New England. Frederick law Olmsted's Boston system was a composite of his previous work in other cities. These parks manifested the unification of design principles that addressed the purpose and function of parks, as well as exemplified his naturalistic style, both fully formed by the commencement of his Boston work. The confluence of the city's Gilded Age political arena, the man's vision, and the geography of Boston allowed for the manipulation of pastureland into the most elegant and complete manifestation of his design philosophy.

Think Tanks sind Einrichtungen, die Orientierungswissen schaffen und in den politischen Meinungs- und Willensbildungsprozess einbringen. Neoliberale Bewussteinsarbeit kann auf eine lange Tradition zurückblicken. Ausgehend von den Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), die 1947 von Friedrich v. Hayek gegründet wurde, bildeten sich zuerst in England, dann in anderen Ländern zahlreiche Institutionen, die dem keynesianistischen Nachkriegskonsens entgegentraten. Hayek nannte die westlichen Demokratien "unbeschränkte Demokratien", die sich mit einer liberalen Gesellschafts- und Marktordnung nicht vereinbaren lassen. Sie würden auf den "Weg der Knechtschaft" führen, so der Titel seines 1944 veröffentlichten Buches. Das Wiener Hayek Institut hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, die weltweite Renaissance der Österreichischen Schule der Nationalökonomie zu unterstützen und deren Ideen, insbesondere die ihres Namensgebers, aktiv zu verbreiten und für heimische Entscheidungsträger aufzubereiten. Aufbauend auf die Grundzüge von Hayeks Denken wird in diesem Beitrag zuerst ein kurzer geschichtlicher Rückblick auf die Formierung neoliberaler Netzwerke gemacht, in denen auch die "Österreicher" wachsende Bedeutung erlangten. Sodann wird das Hayek Institut etwas näher vorgestellt. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehen die Fragen, was es will, was es tut und welche Netzwerke und personellen Verbindungen einerseits mit Politik und Wirtschaft, andererseits mit übernationalen Ideengemeinschaften existieren. (Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft / FUB)

This paper reports findings from part of an evaluation study of the Communication Aids Project (CAP), a government-funded project in England which provided communication aids to school-aged children. The paper focuses on parents'views of the CAP process and the impact of the aid. Fourteen parents were interviewed twice over the telephone: once before or just as their children received communication aids and again six to eight weeks later. Parents expressed satisfaction with the impact of the aid on their children's lives and showed they had realistic expectations concerning potential short- and long-term benefits. They raised two main concerns regarding the provision of aids, namely the timescale involved and access to accurate information and advice.

The Health Inequalities Intervention Tool, developed by APHO, highlights the key issues that Spearhead local authorities (with their PCTs) need to address to meet the Government۪s life expectancy targets. It can be used by any Spearhead Primary Care Trust or local council to find out what the underlying causes of the life expectancy gap are for that area. This Tool is designedto allow "Spearhead" Local Authorities/PCTs tounderstand better how they might reduce the inequalties between them and the national picture. (Please note that there are no "Spearhead" PCTs in the East of England. However, plans are being drawn up to address this and allow the developmentof this tool that is of use to all PCTs.)

The paper considers MMM, one of the world?s most famous financial pyramids that worked during the last decade of the 20th century. The author shows that financial pyramids were not the result of the transition process. They have been a regular phenomenon in the most developed economies (The Netherlands France, England etc) during the earlier periods. The short history of the pyramid MMM is given, and then in the key part of the article the functioning of the Crisis Management Group that help MMM to survive the crisis period in the middle of the year 1994. At this manner, MMM became perhaps the only pyramid in history that continues to work successfully after the financial collapse.

Legal executives are the third branch of the legal profession in England and Wales. While their professional body (ILEX) has made progress in recent years, they remain in a subordinate position to solicitors. Drawing on detailed interviews with legal executives in a range of settings, this article will argue that women legal executives experience a distinctive disadvantage in legal practice. Intersections of class, gender and professional power contribute to a highly unstable professional identity for legal executives, and one which is particularly acute for women. The dissonance between their 'expected' and 'experienced' professional identity reinforces their lack of engagement with ILEX. This article argues that the negative and gendered connotations of the professional identity of legal executives reinforce the hierarchies of legal practice.

The government's vision for children's services in England and Wales, Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), and the subsequent Children Act 2004 are ground‐breaking in that they encourage local authorities to focus on child outcomes and demand the integration of previously separate services, such as social care and education. Previous articles in this series were by Herbert Laming (2006), whose inquiry helped pave the way for the 2004 legislation, and Tom Jeffery (2006), the Director‐General of the central government Directorate for Children, Young People and Families. In this article, John Coughlan, one of the new Directors of Children's Services, gives his perspective on implementing the new legislation at local authority level. What follows is an edited transcript of John Coughlan's comments.