Suchergebnisse

This paper addresses key implications in momentous current global energy choices – both for social science and for society. Energy can be over-used as a lens for viewing social processes. But it is nonetheless of profound importance. Understanding possible 'sustainable energy' transformations requires attention to many tricky issues in social theory: around agency and structure and the interplay of power, contingency and practice. These factors are as much shaping of the knowledges and normativities supposedly driving transformation, as they are shaped by them. So, ideas and hopes about possible pathways for change – as well as notions of 'the transition' itself – can be deeply constituted by incumbent interests. The paper addresses these dynamics by considering contending forms of transformation centring on renewable energy, nuclear power and climate geoengineering. Several challenges are identified for social science. These apply especially where there are aims to help enable more democratic exercise of social agency. They enjoin responsibilities to 'open up' (rather than 'close down'), active political spaces for critical contention over alternative pathways. If due attention is to be given to marginalised interests, then a reflexive view must be taken of transformation. The paper ends with a series of concrete political lessons.

This paper addresses key implications in momentous current global energy choices – both for social science and for society. Energy can be over-used as a lens for viewing social processes. But it is nonetheless of profound importance. Understanding possible 'sustainable energy' transformations requires attention to many tricky issues in social theory: around agency and structure and the interplay of power, contingency and practice. These factors are as much shaping of the knowledges and normativities supposedly driving transformation, as they are shaped by them. So, ideas and hopes about possible pathways for change – as well as notions of 'the transition' itself – can be deeply constituted by incumbent interests. The paper addresses these dynamics by considering contending forms of transformation centring on renewable energy, nuclear power and climate geoengineering. Several challenges are identified for social science. These apply especially where there are aims to help enable more democratic exercise of social agency. They enjoin responsibilities to 'open up' (rather than 'close down'), active political spaces for critical contention over alternative pathways. If due attention is to be given to marginalised interests, then a reflexive view must be taken of transformation. The paper ends with a series of concrete political lessons. ; ESRC

Power is a relational dynamic which produces a disparity of effects that cannot be reduced to an exclusive morality, good or bad, or a particular consciousness. It is not something that works according to a single causality, positive or negative. This is not generally acknowledged. Rather in both academic and popular discourse power is primarily thought to be an exclusive possession of a particular subject or social agent with a specific intent. In these discourses, power is dominated by a metaphoric sense of property--something which belongs to the state, government, capital, or technology. Power is thus conceptualised in terms of a possession/dispossession opposition. Discourse about power is preoccupied with identifying its locus and with indicating a particular type of relation which is repressive. This obscures the fact that power is in fact a feature or ontological property of all people in relation to one another, and is active within all interaction and discourse. This thesis refines and develops Foucault's more neglected insights into the peculiar ontology of power, emphasising the central point that power is not the referent for a single relation but is a dynamic active within all relations, both social, interpersonal and even intrapersonal. It can be repressive, enabling, and considered differentially to be negative and/or positive at the same time. One cannot control its effects as it can be inadvertent or unconscious, self-defeating, self-producing, perverse and/or ambiguous. It is therefore composed of an indeterminate efficacy, rather than an intentional will or direction. The common attempt to disassociate oneself from power, to identify it as the property of another, and as producing a single effect of good or evil, I argue, is in itself one of the empirical facts of power at work relationally. The case studies examined in this thesis illustrate the fact that power is the moving substrate of all interests: that of "the revolutionary", "the theorist", "the apathetic" and also "the model citizen". Therefore because all discourses of power produce multiple and indeterminate effects, and because this fact is not recognised, their ontology demands further attention.

Community self-help has gained increasing prominence in Cambodia, and elsewhere, as an urban poverty reduction strategy of non-government organisations and the state. Embedded in this approach are assumptions of 'community' as a site of cooperation and 'women' as an inherently cohesive social group with a shared identity. If such interventions are to be effective and inclusive it is critical to understand how the practices and discourses that underscore them interact with local struggles to produce new forms of power.A qualitative case study of an urban informal settlement in Phnom Penh involving multiple semi-structured interviews with 25 women residents and staff of a nongovernment organisation identified differing perspectives of how development interventions worked and what they were supposed to achieve. Divergent motivations for participation, the selves women constructed as distinct from the identities they were expected to perform by non-government organisation staff, parallel group membership pathways controlled by wealthier residents, and the silencing of violence experienced by women illustrated these cleavages. In response to these misalignments women found alternate ways to assert entitlement and subvert social power to further their respective interests.This thesis makes three arguments. First, that in this settlement development and aid were a both a struggle over redistribution of resources and a symbolic struggle over morality and entitlement. Second, that development adapted to social structures by entrenching the power of existing elites, while social structure adapted to development by creatingparallel discourses and modes of participation. Third, that women were both oppressed (by local authorities, men, landlords, and police) and oppressors (of each other). These themes have important implications for self-reliance groups that mobilise women on the assumption that economic marginalisation will shape collective identity. Gender-based group formation offers the potential to transcend and transform the exclusions that women in urban informal settlements encounter in their everyday lives. Attention,however, must be paid to gradients of power and social hierarchy within and across groups – beyond the state/citizen dyad – and an understanding of 'development' as embedded in everyday politics.

The concepts of power and state - particularly embedded in the idea of the Great Power, with a geopolitical perspective and a profoundly aggressive character - are tantamount in importance to the Russia's elite political ideology. However, the existence of different emphases within such a political ideology, ranging from the active-obstructive to the passive stances, brings into question the factors of variation that might be responsible for the elite's level of determination to pursue these concepts over an internal or foreign policy development.In addressing this query, two tasks are set: descriptive - involving a survey of the content of Russian aggressive political ideology over different periods in history; and explanatory - determining circumstances that might account for the empowerment of one or other option of Russian aggressive political ideology. Therefore, the thesis includes a comparison of historical periods with similar relevance to the Russian state. The concern here is in relation to shifting factors of variations of aggressive political ideology acting in the space-frame of one state, but in different time-frame. Resting on these frames the thesis explores the shaping of the Russian elite's defining principles of state internal and foreign policy development and traces the factors of variation responsible for the empowerment of one or other particular form of the aggressive political ideology.The factors of variation discussed in the thesis are different in nature and intensity. The primary impetus for variation in the form that aggressive political ideology would take is determined by the factor of national distress. Other factors (regime volatility, political and economic motivations, information dissemination, and challenges within the international system) are responsible for the depth and extent to which aggressive ideology is going to resonate. No factor could create the variation by itself. The argument is that a specific set of factors is required to create the conditions for variations in the form the aggressive political ideology would take and to determine whether aggressive ideology would generate or not an obstructive political decision.

-pt.1. The position of the United States among the nations [by] S. Low.-pt.2. Attitude of the United States toward other American powers [by] F. B. Loomis. Responsibilities of international leadership [by] E. R. Johnson. Europe and the United States in the West Indies [by] T. Williams. The situation in Santo Domingo [by] H. J. Hancock. Conditions in Porto Rico [by] T. Larrinaga.-pt.3. The settlement of political affairs in the Far East [by] J. H. Wilson. Japan's position in the Far East [by] Baron K. Kaneko. American commercial interests in the Far East [by] J. H. Hammond. The internal situation in Russia [by] C. E. Smith.-pt.4. The important elements in modern land conflicts [by] T. H. Bliss. The important elements in naval conflicts [by] G. W. Melville. The extent to which the navy of the United States should be increased [by] F. Rodgers. The training of the efficient soldier [by] W. W. Wotherspoon. The needs of the navy [by] W. H. Beehler.-pt.5. Proceedings of the annual meeting. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Role playing is increasingly used in European Studies and political science, to foster students' understanding of social science theories. Generally, role playing is only done by students. Not so in Theoretical Theatre, a teaching innovation which puts the onus on teachers to act. In our performances, teachers embody competing theories and enact dramatic scenarios in front of, and in collaboration with, their student audience. We explain how we developed Theoretical Theatre and contextualise it in the pedagogical literature of games and simulations, and of Drama In Education. We reflect on our experience of performing across four modules since 2012, and on our students' feedback, to discuss three key themes emerging from our practice: making theory more interesting and engaging, easier to understand and apply; and changing classroom dynamics and engagement. We outline the challenges and opportunities in sustaining this teaching method and transferring it to other settings and disciplines.

Includes section "Book reviews." ; Papers of the annual meeting of the association issued as a separately paged supplement, 1959-1960. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Mode of access: World Wide Web ; Published by the Southwestern Social Science Association (called 1919-Mar. 1923, Southwestern Political Science Association; Apr. 1923-Mar. 1931, Southwestern Political and Social Science Association)

The article concentrates on the most essential elements of a social science as research, whereby research is strictly interpreted as the verification of a theory in a particular field but neither as "theorie sans terrain" nor "terrain sans theorie". Yet even if this particular employment in the field of social science is explicitly conceived of as privileging the logic of discovery and the strictures of proof in opposite to all preconstructed themes, theories and traditions of different disciplines, it cannot simply be reduced to the standpoint of pure logic. Engagement for social science as reflexive research means to further its practical, political acceptance by using the results obtained from research, means fighting for her autonomisation in terms of contributing to the creation of appropriate forms of sociability for its activities and reception (such as the formation of a reading public, discussion forums, effective tools with which to combat social barriers to the attainment of knowledge, etc.). ; The article concentrates on the most essential elements of a social science as research, whereby research is strictly interpreted as the verification of a theory in a particular field but neither as "theorie sans terrain" nor "terrain sans theorie". Yet even if this particular employment in the field of social science is explicitly conceived of as privileging the logic of discovery and the strictures of proof in opposite to all preconstructed themes, theories and traditions of different disciplines, it cannot simply be reduced to the standpoint of pure logic. Engagement for social science as reflexive research means to further its practical, political acceptance by using the results obtained from research, means fighting for her autonomisation in terms of contributing to the creation of appropriate forms of sociability for its activities and reception (such as the formation of a reading public, discussion forums, effective tools with which to combat social barriers to the attainment of knowledge, etc.).

This dissertation sets out to examine the claims of policymakers and scholars that middle powers act as system-stabilisers during times of hegemony or not. By investigating the role perception and policy responses of three pivotal middle powers - Australia, Indonesia, and South Korea - to the changing regional dynamics in the Asia-Pacific between 2009 and 2020, the research tests the extent to which middle power diplomacy and collectivism can mitigate the destabilising impact of US-China power transition. The original contribution to knowledge in this research is that middle powers are more likely to resort to pragmatism over principle in role conception under the pressures of great power competition. However, middle powers can become significant regional stabilisers by asserting a degree of autonomy in relations with great powers, defending the rule of law in maritime Asia and deepen collaboration between them to consolidate the regional architecture.This dissertation also develops a three-level role-based approach to understand the impact of middle powers during power transition, which helps to add theoretical rigour to middle power theory. The findings from this research will provide new insights about how middle powers navigate the uncertainties in the Asia-Pacific, as well as their pattern of behaviours. Moreover, an empirically-based understanding of the effectiveness of middle power diplomacy and the factors that are shaping it will have practical implications for policymaking.

This critical action research study with Iranian nursing students examines how the innovative use of formative assessment changed the nature of learning and teaching in an academic writing class over the summer of 2012. The study draws on three sets of literature, namely critical academic writing, democratic systems of assessment including critical testing, and critical emotion theories to examine how the participants experience formative assessment, the impact of formative assessment on their writing development and on their attitudes towards and perceptions of assessment, teaching and learning academic writing and teaching and learning in general.Drawing on the analysis of varied sources of data, including lesson plans, the writing samples and the narratives of the 12 participants including myself, the research findings show that the use of formative assessment went beyond merely forming and informing learning and teaching including the associated assessment processes, to re-forming and transforming them. The findings also suggest that, besides key characteristics of formative assessment enumerated in the literature, there are other contributing factors to the complexity of assessment, as a situated and power-oriented process, and accordingly to teaching and learning academic writing. The findings reveal the complexity of participants' responses to the program, partly shaped and re-shaped by the comfort and discomfort associated with the past experiences and by the development of ‗critical hope'. The praxis of formative assessment demands that learners and teachers acknowledge and embrace the role of power and emotion through dialogic reflectivity and criticality. It also demands a close attention to time and the interplay of the past, present and future which shape and re-shape the context and the participant's experience in this context. The findings from this study demonstrates that attending to power, emotion and time opens up productive ways to teaching and assessing academic writing.

Publication as part of the NUCLEUS project (http://nucleus-project.eu), coordinated by Prof. Alexander Gerber, Rhine-Waal University (orcid:0000-0002-9737-1267).Publication as part of the NUCLEUS project (http://nucleus-project.eu), coordinated by Prof. Alexander Gerber, Rhine-Waal University (orcid:0000-0002-9737-1267).

Why do some economically powerful states build and project military force while others do not? This dissertation argues that domestic institutions and economic interests influence why states project power to compete over resources or access to markets. It proposes that a state's level of interest compatibility with other powerful states determine when she projects power. The theory is tested using a large-N time series cross-sectional design as well as through case studies that analyze how states reacted to a set of exogenous environmental and technological shocks that exposed resources in the Arctic, the North Sea and the South China Sea. The findings have implications for rising powers in Asia, the political effects of climate change in the Arctic, and global energy security. The research design tackles the questions of when and why states project power through case studies that utilize environmental and technological shocks that exogenously expose maritime energy resources and large-N cross- sectional time series analysis. A combination of case studies and quantitative analysis represents the best way to uncover concepts that are difficult to operationalize, such as a state's foreign policy objectives. The quantitative analysis (Chapter 3) hones in on the question of when states build power projection capabilities and the case studies (Chapters 4-5) focus both on when and why states project power. In closing, this dissertation provides an explanation for when and why states project power. The primary contribution of the theory is that it allows us to make ex ante theoretical predictions regarding which states are most likely to project power and what types of objectives they are likely to project power to secure. The central finding is that state type and interest compatibility conditions whether states choose to convert economic power into power projection capabilities. This finding informs the debate over the relationship between economic and military power. The implications of these findings suggest that the United States should more strongly reorient its forces away from Europe and the Western Hemisphere, which are likely to remain cooperative geopolitical environments, and more strongly pivot to Asia

Role playing is increasingly used in European Studies and political science, to foster students' understanding of social science theories. Generally, role playing is only done by students. Not so in Theoretical Theatre, a teaching innovation which puts the onus on teachers to act. In our performances, teachers embody competing theories and enact dramatic scenarios in front of, and in collaboration with, their student audience. We explain how we developed Theoretical Theatre and contextualise it in the pedagogical literature of games and simulations, and of Drama In Education. We reflect on our experience of performing across four modules since 2012, and on our students' feedback, to discuss three key themes emerging from our practice: making theory more interesting and engaging, easier to understand and apply; and changing classroom dynamics and engagement. We outline the challenges and opportunities in sustaining this teaching method and transferring it to other settings and disciplines.

Secret and power constitute two fundamental instances of the social world. Secret takes care of the concealment of things and of social processes. Secret is also a power device. Power is the social capacity to do, create, not doing and stop from doing. Secret and power get mutual feedback. Power uses the secret to protect his potential, be it what may, to increment its operative strength. Secret uses the power to achieve its aims and proposals. Social sciences seem to ignore the huge explanatory capacity of these two interrelated concepts, and even more, their powerful intervention in societies.