Introduction: Miron Białoszewski’s Life Writing Philosophy
In: Miron Białoszewski: Radical Quest Beyond Dualisms
In: Miron Białoszewski: Radical Quest Beyond Dualisms
In: James Durham (1622-1658), S. 63-126
In: God's InstrumentsPolitical Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell, S. 355-372
In: Latinas/os on the East Coast
In: Making Sense as a Cultural Practice
In: Soziale Ungleichheit, kulturelle Unterschiede: Verhandlungen des 32. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in München. Teilbd. 1 und 2, S. 4316-4332
"Scientist, nationalist, educationist, Bengali bhadralok, intellectual, entrepreneur, public figure, sometime Gandhian, almost-politician - perhaps all these describe Prafulla Chandra Ray at various stages of his life. He was a chemist of some importance on an international stage, and a major influence on the scientific fraternity in India - ingiving them a legitimate voice as Indian scientists, and in giving them the confidenceto practice in a less unequal environment. He was a major participant in debates on Indian nationalism from the late nineteenth century to independence, and of the place of science within it. He linked debates on the philosophy of science and of its validity for India in the late nineteenth century to those on the justification of 'development' in the 1940s. PC Ray crops up in all these debates, but in a fragmented manner - and in writing about the debates, each specialist field culls from Ray what it finds of its own particular concerns. As a result we get what we might call fragments of PC Ray. Matters are not made simpler by the fact that Ray, once he had been anointed as a public figure, was called upon by his followers to make public pronouncements on awide range of issues, some of which he did not altogether understand and about which he would have done better not to speak. The question which might be asked, in piecing together the fragments of Ray, is whether the fragments held together at all, and if so, how. This paper, therefore, is an attempt at an intellectual history of PC Ray. But it is also more than that: it may be possible to use Ray's life as a stalking horse, as it were, to raise wider questions regarding his times. Ray's importance as a public figure over several decades, and as one whose pronouncements on various social, political and cultural matters were taken extremely seriously by a wide audience needs to be considered in the light of thelegitimating importance of the category 'science' and its imagined role in a (post)colonial society." (author's abstract)
Reedy argues that utopianism provides a stimulus to critical thinking & practice by interrogating the idea of the good life. Anarchist utopianism is seen as worthy of further attention. The development of utopian thinking is addressed. Links between anarchist & poststructuralist theory are discussed. The work of William Morris is used to illustrate the critical value of utopian writing. It is concluded that utopianism is a challenge to intellectual quietism & that utopianism provides an escape from academic writing. J. Backman
Reedy argues that utopianism provides a stimulus to critical thinking & practice by interrogating the idea of the good life. Anarchist utopianism is seen as worthy of further attention. The development of utopian thinking is addressed. Links between anarchist & poststructuralist theory are discussed. The work of William Morris is used to illustrate the critical value of utopian writing. It is concluded that utopianism is a challenge to intellectual quietism & that utopianism provides an escape from academic writing. J. Backman
In: The image of the other in the European intercultural dialogue, S. 197-232
This paper deals with the problem of the emigration of the Romanian Jews in Israel as revealed by a few historical writings and in published documents. The Romanian Jews' emigration in Israel was a continuous process in spite of the communist regime established in Romania after the war and it was one of the main priorities of Romanian-Israeli diplomatic relations. The research focused on the years 1948-1969. The relationship between Romania and Israel evolved in time, manifesting interest in economic life, cultural life, human rights field, migration, religion.
Identifies four elements in the ethical sensibility outlined in the work of Michel Foucault, drawing on an analysis of his writings & interviews: (1) a genealogical method that is intended to disturb the ontological necessity of the present; (2) a cultivation of the capacity to subdue resentment against the absence of necessity in what one is & the ambiguity of life; (3) a generous sensibility that informs who & what one is & infuses one's relations with others; & (4) an exploration of new possibilities in social relations that are revealed through the genealogical method. These elements are taken to embody the political spirituality of Foucault's work, which is rooted in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, who first set out the view of the self as a cultivated work of art. It is concluded that the ethic of care developed by these thinkers will always bear a tense relationship to a politics of engagement & insurgency because its respect for the contingency of the world conflicts with more totalistic definitions implied by aggressive political action. D. Ryfe
Introduces the contributions to this edited volume on the relationship between aging & social change by briefly surveying the relationship between three key concepts: generations, cohort, & the life course. The literature on this subject began with the writing of Karl Mannheim (1927), who theorized a relationship between the generation as birth year & the generation as a behavioral consciousness or actuality. The concept of birth cohort was later substituted for Mannheim's notion of generation by Norman Ryder (1965), who argued that a comparative analysis of such cohorts is a suitable method for studying social change. Later scholars have refined the notion of a birth cohort through the development of age stratification theory & a life course perspective. However, few gains have been made in linking individual life course research with macrolevel cohort behaviors & experiences. Challenges to this linkage have been primarily methodological, as it has proven very difficult to obtain & measure the appropriate data. Contributions speak to these challenges & try to frame them in such a way that productive solutions may follow. D. Ryfe
Offers personal reflections on the origins & development of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) since the author's initial involvement with it as a graduate student in 1972. The origins of the project in then-President Lyndon Johnson's "War of Poverty" & its growth as one of the main instruments used to assess the economic health of the nation's households are chronicled. Stages in the processes of goal setting, proposal writing, questionnaire development, & data collection & analysis are outlined; methodological changes over the years are also documented. The wealth of data provided by the PSID on family composition, residential location, income sources & amounts, & employment patterns have provided fresh insights into the nature & trajectory of the family life cycle, as well as been used to compare patterns on the bases of gender, race, & other sociodemographic variables. Policy & programmatic uses of the PSID findings are described, along with encouraging efforts by other countries to replicate the PSID panel design in their own socioeconomic research. The author's application of economic & policy insights from her PSID experience to her new research on human development is recounted. 5 Tables, 37 References. K. Hyatt Stewart
The author argues that the Framers of the Constitution & other early national leaders were capable -- in a way that has never since been replicated in American history -- of living mutually in the world of ideas & ideals as well as that of political realities. However, it does us no good simply to wonder at their talent & intellect, he argues. Rather, we should try to understand what allowed them to balance public life & private intellect so that we might try to emulate that balance in our own lives. He suggests that the centrality of writing to their lives -- & the fact that they believed that they needed only to appeal to rational readers and not to the masses -- was part of what allowed them to achieve this balance. This balance also arose from the fact that they saw themselves organically linked to everyone else in their society -- something that politicians no longer feel, and one of the primary reasons why politicians are no longer public intellectuals. D. Knaff
The consequences of the English-speaking West Indian community's creation of a transnational social space in New York for participating in transnational activities are contemplated. An overview of West Indian immigration & transnational practices is presented. Telephone interviews with second-generation West Indian Americans (N = 35) were conducted to determine how these individuals preserved relations with their parents' countries-of-origin. Several findings are reported, eg, participants used letter writing as a primary method of contacting homeland societies & a majority of participants expressed a West Indian American identity. Moreover, participants identified multiple factors that curtailed their transnational connections to homeland societies including life-cycle events, parental influence, & external circumstances. It is concluded that the West Indian community in New York functions as a substitute for homeland West Indian societies for many West Indian Americans. 46 References. J. W. Parker
In: Justice and peace: the role of justice claims in international cooperation and conflict, S. 29-64
Peace and justice have been a preferred couple in theoretical writings - but what do we know about their empirical relationship? Insights from other disciplines suggest that humans are highly sensitive to violations of justice and that justice concerns permeate social relations. Neuroscientists have located the parts of the brain responsible for negative reactions to violation of claims for justice. Evolutionary biologists have identified rules of distribution and retribution not only in early human societies but among other socially living species as well. Psychologists have observed the emergence of a sense of justice in very early childhood, while behavioral economists have identified behavior of average persons in experiments that deviated significantly from the model of the "economic man" and could only be explained by a sense of justice. The chapter summarizes these findings and outlines their implications for peace research. It highlights the ambivalent nature of justice for social relations. Justice concerns can exacerbate conflicts between individuals and groups but justice can also provide standards for arriving at durable peaceful solutions to conflicts. Understanding these ambivalences and their repercussions for international and intrastate relations provides a promising path towards understanding conflict dynamics.