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These essays were originally drafted 30 years ago between 1988 and 1990, and then they were filed away and rediscovered just this year. They represented an attempt to offer a simple and unadorned version of fundamental issues in economics pertaining to our urgent need for a realistic concept of choice on which to found our constructions. The first essay introduces the notion of 'opportunity cost' and our use of caeteris paribus in the process of partial analysis. The second essay offers two metaphors for economic behavior: the 'neighborhood store' where virtually all neoclassical choice occurs; and the 'chessboard' that opens three issues simply ignored in orthodox settings. The third essay addresses the problem of interdependence, since choice in this setting confronts our range of awareness as bounded where outcomes spread forever with externalities everywhere, ruling out additivity.

Abstract
The mixing of three or more languages in casual conversations, a hallmark of Chinese Malaysian informal speech, expresses a range of sociological and ideological meanings in the ongoing construction of Chinese Malaysian heteroglossic identities. While code-switching patterns sometimes mark different speaker positions, they also express broader language identities and ideologies that transcend individual conversations. This is especially clear when analysing the relative frequency and semantic domains of single lexeme mixing, where English is mostly used for consumer culture, Malay for place names and personal names, and Chinese topolects for expressing emotion. Detailed analysis of 12 adult conversations recorded in natural settings in diverse regions of Malaysia is corroborated by language attitudes expressed in focus groups, Facebook posts, and informal conversations and interviews, revealing the diverse and sometimes contending language ideologies linked to specific languages in the Chinese Malaysian setting.

ABSTRACT: This article aims to discuss the evolution of urbanism of the Pilar community, urban slum located at the historic Center of the city of Recife, and to present the Urban Renewal and Social Inclusion Program for the Community Pillar - PRUISC, debating its actions in the context of the theory of Integrated Conservation. The successive social and spatial formation processes of the current Community Pilar will be analyzed, employing the binomial construction/destruction, for which capitalist forces pressure the territory for successive reforms and compel its occupation to certain requirements related to capital accumulation. Through case analysis, we evaluate more closely the last government plan for the area, its challenges and its execution: a re-qualification program which aims to combine heritage preservation and provision of decent housing, increasing quality of life of the resident population.

This article attempts to engage with the trends of writing sociology in India by locating the argument within the discourse of coproduction of space, identity and belonging. It aims to interrogate colonial as well as post-colonial construal of hill-valley binaries in the context of the dictum of methodological nationalism in India. It is categorically imperative on our part to posit 'the historicising the Himalayas' in terms of colonial dispensation and coevolution of economy, culture, space, identity, belonging, nationalism, historiography and polity. Moving beyond established methodological, nationalism would not be an easy task as it entails heavy criticism mostly in the domain of political construction of national identity. However, the change of our analytical tools, objects and methods might contribute in developing a more inclusive social theory, not painted by self-evident sociological theory of the nation-state.

Economics is now central to health policy decision making, within government departments and the National Health Service. We examine how and why a health economics academic unit – the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York, England – was created in 1983, funded and commissioned to provide research evidence to the British government, specifically the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) and its successors. Building on the knowledge transfer literature, we document the origins of this relationship and the different strategies deployed by successive governments and researchers. This paper demonstrates the value of historical methodologies such as oral history and textual analysis that highlight the limitations of existing knowledge transfer theories, by foregrounding the role of politics via the construction of individual relationships between academics and policy-makers.

AbstractWith the looming reality of Brexit drawing closer, it is the intention of this article to explore Theresa May's post‐referendum communicative behaviour on Brexit—the very issue that came to define her premiership agenda—and uncover what legacy it has left behind. Building upon, extending and updating the emerging literature on May's discourse, the inquiry helps us understand how May acted through language in order to influence and change other people's attitudes towards and ways of looking at Brexit. The article argues that there are at least seven ways, closely interrelated and feeding into each other, in which her discursive construction of Brexit has left a somewhat bitter legacy, contributing to the Brexit political paralysis and inspiring substantial levels of confusion and exasperation, both within the UK and abroad.

Dans cet article, nous partons d'un angle mort de la théorie de la construction des problèmes sociaux, celui de la résistance des publics à la définition institutionnalisée des problèmes et de leurs solutions. Nous montrons d'abord que la positivité des droits sociaux pour leurs publics potentiels a un caractère hégémonique. Puis nous examinons les recherches existantes sur le non-recours aux droits sociaux pour indiquer qu'il n'est pas toujours, ou pas seulement dû à des dysfonctionnements administratifs, à un manque d'habileté sociale ou à des processus de stigmatisation sociale, il peut être une réaction au pouvoir de l'État. Ce type de non-recours repose sur une critique que nous qualifions de « furtive » en raison du caractère hégémonique de la positivité des droits sociaux. Comme piste pour l'étudier, nous proposons de mobiliser des outils inspirés des perspectives anthropologiques subalterne, postcoloniale et décoloniale.

Les recherches sur les masculinités font l'objet d'un intérêt grandissant depuis deux décennies. Elles ont toutefois peu interrogé le rapport des hommes adultes à leur corps, à leur santé et aux pratiques alimentaires. À travers une ethnographie des choix alimentaires d'hommes ayant entre 40 et 60 ans rencontrés en France et en Italie, le texte essaie de répondre aux questions suivantes : comment s'articulent constructions des âges, pratiques alimentaires et stratégies d'optimisation de soi ? Et, en particulier, comment cet agencement aboutit-il à des formes de masculinité renforcées ou renouvelées ? L'article présente les stratégies d'amélioration de soi mises en œuvre par nos interlocuteurs à travers l'adoption de différents régimes (carnivore, végétarien, végan, cas de jeûne) et essaie de dégager les figures de la masculinité qui émergent de ces pratiques alimentaires et des discours utilisés pour les justifier.

Gender is not just about women; it is about the social relationship between men and women and the dialectical, reciprocal, and cultural construction of femininity and masculinity. Recognition of a unique historical experience concerning gender informs the perspectives of African Americans of various political persuasions. This history incorporates a land of origin with certain common principles about gender and family. It also encompasses the African-American experience in the United States where the denial of many "protections" offered by gender roles and indeed sometimes inversion of such roles was a means of maintaining control. Hence asserting the right to assume gender-based roles of husband, father, wife, and mother paradoxically was an act of resistance. The manner in which African-American people have envisioned relationships of gender in light of that history has expressed itself in markedly different forms.

Attempts to assess the influence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) groups on LGBT-related policy are hampered by imprecise measurement of LGBT group strength and activity. This research note examines the problems with existing measures of state-level LGBT advocacy strength and it develops an alternative measure of LGBT advocacy group strength. We utilize revenue and asset data available from the National Center for Charitable Statistics to develop better and reproducible state-level measures of LGBT interest group strength on an annual basis. We compare our measures to existing measures and demonstrate their utility for the ongoing study of LGBT politics. The approach used in construction of our measure can be extended over time, is replicable in other issue areas, and thus has broad utility for the study of interest groups at the subnational level.

National governments rely on global performance indicators to measure where they stand and to build future strategies. However, no previous study has compiled various indices to investigate pathways to government performance. We use fuzzy-set analysis to investigate what role each of five determinants of government performance―trait competitiveness, change-oriented citizenship behavior, public service motivation, organizational identification, and corruption tolerance―play in three representative government performance indicators―"Government Effectiveness", "Government Efficiency", and "Throughput". The results indicate that government performance as measured by these three indicators is commonly tied to strongly public-service-motivated employees. These three indicators are distinguished from one another with regard to the number of factors that contribute to the construction of sufficient configurations, the role of innovation-inclined factors, and the role of corruption tolerance.

AbstractThis article investigates the image portrayed of Islam and Muslims in official speeches of the former US President, Barack Obama during his two terms in office. Applying qualitative data coding procedures and based on a Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) approach, we examine 377 speeches delivered in the period of 2009–2016 within the macro context of US involvements in contemporary international politics to uncover the discursive image of Islam and Islamic attributes projected and subtly reproduced over time by Obama during his presidency. The outcome comprises four major themes shaped around the notions of America's fundamental values; Dialogue with Muslim communities; Defining good Islam; and Defining bad Muslims. Through a detailed discussion of the discursive construction of these themes and specifically referring to their lexical highlights, we illustrate aspects of Islam-related issues in the view of an American president.

This article examines the colonization of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg territory by the Trent Severn Waterway. By examining legal bracketing as a process within Canadian common law alongside prevailing Nishnaabeg philosophy and legal thought, I consider how the construction of a canal system connecting Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay disrupted practices integral to Nishnaabeg law. I offer up the concept of shoreline law as a way to understand particular place-based relationships that Mississaugas hold with water and land and other beings with which they share territory. In particular, I show how colonial domination of Nishnaabeg territory resulted in a gendered dispossession of land that continues to have reverberations throughout Nishnaabeg political systems today. Shoreline law offers up a way to rethink international relations by showing the importance of multiple relationships within the shared space of the shoreline.

This article targets the advancement of a market orientation in Swedish social work, with a specific focus on motivational work and the construction of the motivated client. Informed by a governmentality approach, the article analyses the formation of the ideal client in a market-oriented social work setting in Sweden. The empirical focus is front-line social workers and their work. The analysis is directed at the ways in which front-line social workers conceptualise the ideal client and how such a formation is made possible. The analysis contributes to problematising motivational work as something inherently good and progressive in neoliberal times, in social work practice as well as research. The main conclusions concerning the fabrication of motivated clients as part of a broader neoliberal agenda and challenges for social work are further reflected upon.

AbstractBackgroundEvidence suggests that parents with intellectual disabilities can be "good enough" parents with appropriate support that focuses on the whole family. This paper brings together theories of vulnerability with an ethics of care approach to reflect on challenges for practitioners in supporting parents, drawing upon data from a study carried out in Scotland.MethodAn online survey was administered to practitioners in three settings, and follow‐up interviews were carried out with key informants.ResultsPockets of good practice existed but a number of barriers to supporting families remained. These related to a lack of accessible information, difficulties in identifying and engaging with families at an early stage and poor joint working across agencies.ConclusionThe study concludes by arguing that practitioners' constructions of families as "vulnerable" reflects negatively on their perceived capacity to parent, creating further barriers in accessing appropriate support and reducing expectations of success.