Suchergebnisse

In an era where the public has greater access to information than ever before, why is it that social capital in many communities is so divided and diminished? Traditionally people have experienced and generated social capital through direct contact with families and social spaces, including neighbourhoods, communities, clubs and the workplace. Nowadays, many relationships and networks operate at a global level and in cyber-space – enabled through technology and screen-mediated interactions. While there are many benefits to contemporary technologies and innovations, including new forms of sociability, these same developments have also resulted in a loss of sociability; a loss of social capital, social cohesion and trust in institutions. Western democratic societies, including Australia, appear to have become open to the exploitation of change and uncertainty in communities, amplified by propagandists and the manipulation of both mainstream and social media; to sow social discord and create fear and uncertainty, including a loss of trust in scientific research originating from universities. It is the trust in knowledge and research that has guided many governments to look beyond political cycles and plan for inclusive, tolerant societies, receptive to population diversity creating unique social assets. It is in this context that the development of new forms of social spaces, including well-designed public buildings, prospectively hold the regeneration of social capital in pursuit of more economically successful and socially cohesive communities. Regional Australia, including the regional city of Townsville, is negotiating this shift.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that the legacy of instrumental rationality has had a profoundly impoverishing effect on rational accounts of organisation, and that even though non‐rational accounts move beyond instrumental rationality, they remain tied to economist assumptions. The paper outlines the broader Weber and Habermas's model of rationality, and demonstrates its application.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on verbatim quotes from a sampling of 35 in‐depth interviews, the paper reveals the range of very different rationalities expressed in the social relations of work, of four very specific types of organisation: a bureaucracy, an entrepreneurial unit, a producer co‐operative and a worker co‐operative.FindingsThe paper outlines two ideal sets of findings, ideal in the sense that in two of the organisations the rationalities, social relations of work and associated outcomes fit well with the Weber and Habermas model of instrumental strategic action and social strategic action.Research limitations/implicationsThis study shows the potential for broader rationality as it plays out in the workplace. The notion of workplaces that free workers to contribute in socially strategic ways points to new approaches to management and organisation.Practical implicationsThe paper offers practical insights into social relations built on co‐operation, moral judgement and communication.Originality/valueThe power of the idea of broader rationality is that being more rational, i.e. attending to more than a narrow impoverished view, provides the prospect of action advancing the social and the economic in a profound way.

Woman is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle'S Biology of Reproduction -- Aristotle and the Politicization of the Soul -- The Unit of Political Analysis: Our Aristotelian Hangover -- Have Only Men Evolved? -- Evolution and Patriarchal Myths of Scarcity and Competition -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Forerunner of a Feminist Social Science -- The Trivialization of the Notion of Equality -- How Can Language be Sexist? -- A Paradigm of Philosophy: The Adversary Method -- The Man of Professional Wisdom -- Gender and Science -- The Mind'S Eye -- Individualism and the Objects of Psychology -- Political Philosophy and the Patriarchal Unconscious: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Epistemology and Metaphysics -- The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism -- Why Has the Sex/Gender System Become Visible Only Now?.