Suchergebnisse

A personal account of an English professor's collaboration with an evolutionary biologist focuses on the lack of standards of comparison between the two disciplines, as well as the glaring absence of challenges to the epistemological gap between them. The "rhetorical experiment" of collaborative research involved analyzing language used in an experiment to determine ways in which language & culture influence interpretations of empirical data. It is maintained that the project offered an opportunity to test the potential of feminist epistemologies for cross-disciplinary work. The nature & progression of the experiment is detailed, with special attention given to differences between scientific research & interpretive work, as well as ways in which the science-nature divide began to dissolve. The wisdom & consequences of giving nature a role in the production of knowledge within the humanities are discussed. 5 References. J. Lindroth

Article about the causes, patterns and trends in the development processes of globalization and Russia's place in the global world. The author analyzes the dynamics of globalization in the political, economic, cultural and legal fields developed on the basis of their three-level classification of global institutions.

Article about the role of determinism in the development of social processes. Author from the standpoint of the materialist dialectic analyzes the dynamics and patterns of social processes in Russia. Particular attention is paid to the criticism of religious and ideological concepts of indeterminacy from the standpoint of social and economic policy of the state.

Overviews two implications of the work of Karl Marx that demonstrate its relevance for contemporary understandings of the social world: its worldview implications, & its implications for humanistic studies. It is suggested that political programs can only be developed on the basis of a utopic worldview. Marx has produced a worldview that imagines an unconstrained association of free men, which continues to serve as a foundation for many political projects, from those of the Frankfurt school & critical theory to French poststructuralism & postmodernism. These projects are considered to be crystallizations of Marx's ideas in the academy. This crystallization has taken the form of two poles: a humanities that sees freedom as related to authentic human subjectivity; & a humanities that sees freedom negatively, in terms of its vulnerability to social systems. These poles represent Marx's duality in conceiving of man as both subject & object. It is concluded that, however debates between these poles are decided, their debt to Marx's thought is unquestionable. D. Ryfe

Data from 1994 interviews with 30 secondary school & university students in the humanities in St. Petersburg, Russia show how gender stereotypes impact their life goals & problem-solving strategies. The low wages & low status of the humanitarian professions in Russia place an increased economic & psychological burden on students of the humanities. The most significant problem they faced was alienation from both traditional Soviet values & the beliefs & institutions of the post-Soviet world. Motherhood & marriage were the primary concerns of female students, & the ideal partner was depicted as both emotionally & economically supportive. These women also sought professional success, but most were uncertain regarding how they would combine their professional & family responsibilities in the future. Economic independence, self-fulfillment, & social status were the fundamental concerns of male respondents, & many listed higher education as a means of achieving these goals & avoiding military service. Most men saw family & marriage as a threat to their independence. Both genders faced the problematic desire for independence & personal growth in an environment of economic insecurity that threatened to undermine these goals. T. Sevier

Das Verhältnis der Ökonomik zu den übrigen Sozialwissenschaften ist umstritten. Dies zeigt sich schon darin, dass bereits diese Aussage in Frage gestellt wurde und wird. Denn in einer der herrschenden Sichtweisen dieses Verhältnisses ist Ökonomik gerade nicht in dem Sinne Sozialwissenschaft, wie Politische Wissenschaft, Soziologie, Sozialpsychologie oder Sozialanthropologie dies sind: Insbesondere im angelsächsischen Sprachraum ist es nach wie vor nicht unüblich, Ökonomik als "Science" zu bezeichnen und die übrigen Sozialwissenschaften den "Humanities" zuzuordnen. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt als Einleitung in den Sammelband das in Bewegung geratene Verhältnis zwischen diesen sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen. Die Autoren kommen zu folgendem Fazit: Weitestgehender Konsens dürfte inzwischen sein, dass der Status quo ante hermetischer disziplinärer Abschottung weder wünschenswert noch realistisch ist. Die produktiven Potentiale eines anwendungsorientierten Dialogs mit anderen Sozialwissenschaften sind zu offensichtlich, als dass sie ungenutzt bleiben könnten. Dass Anwendungsorientierung - d.h. aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht wirtschaftspolitische Orientierung - eine nützliche Fokussierung eines solchen Dialogs bewirken kann, machen die vorliegenden Beiträgen deutlich. In einem solchen Dialog geht es nicht darum, eine Einheitssozialwissenschaft zu schaffen. Unterschiedliche Perspektiven auf menschliches Verhalten sind legitim und auch die Spezialisierung auf eine solche Perspektive. (ICA)

The interest in developing effective multicultural education practices derives from the increasing heterogeneity of most societies... The growing worldwide relevance of cultural awareness in general and multicultural competence in particular (did not) imply a comitant growth in the appreciation for the disciplinary contributions of cultural anthropology... In fact, anthropology has benefited only mariginally from the "cultural turn" taken by the humanities and social sciences since the mid-1970s. The article characterizes the American case underlining that the contributions of scientists have been disregarded or downright misused. Than it reviews the results of the COER survey (Commission of Ethnic Relation) which was organized in preparation for the 14th ICAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) world congress which was held in 1998 in Virginia (USA). Finally there are given some basic recommendations in developing multicultural education. (DIPF/Orig./St.)

Discusses the potential contributions of the field of anthropology to the study of science & culture. It is argued that both science & the humanities have always been fundamental constituents of anthropology. However, the isolation & supposed objective stance of the scientific community have led to a dangerous lack of critical analysis from academics within & outside the scientific realm. Further, the existence of a purely objective perspective has recently been questioned, & it is suggested that science functions not isolated from, but as a central component of, the institutions that reinforce inequality & submission in the modern world. Recent anthropologic research evidences the fact that even the isolated citadels of science are affected by culture; scientific knowledge is created by & through nonscientific influences. Anthropology provides a necessary framework in which the relations between science & culture are not fixed, but discontinuous, fractured, & constantly changing. 20 References. T. Sevier

Consideration of citizenship education in the UK requires an exploration of three areas: curriculum context, mode of teaching, & teaching context. The 1998 Crick Report Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools will make citizenship a compulsory part of the curriculum at Key Stages 3 & 4. Critics assert that a body of research & knowledge on citizenship education is lacking, making it no more than the controversial opinions of individual teachers. However, some refinement of the recommendations could tie citizenship into the humanities, currently neglected, but meant to teach students of their humanness & create institutions, which respect that humanity. The author argues for attention to the skills, the procedural values, the virtues & dispositions to instill in young people; a respect for the right of teachers to participate & deliberate about the values that are taught; & a context where opinions are allowed & encouraged in a developmental process of criticism & evidence. L. A. Hoffman

The introductory essay of a section on "Altered States" maintains that scholars of feminist science studies almost never work in academic departments that have many other scholars with the same interests. Consequently, their work not only rarely conforms to the orderly dimensions of any prevailing framework, but often challenges these frameworks. The evolution of feminist science studies is traced from its emergence in the 1970s, when feminist critics of science worked in isolation, through the development & enrichment of a theoretical framework, to the current body of work that has "reimagined the cornerstone role of objectivity in the practices & purposes of creating scientific knowledge." Diverse questions currently being researched are examined, noting that most feminist science theory/research looks at who does science, how & for whose benefit it is conducted, & its social consequences. The dual deconstructive & reconstructive roles of feminist theory in the humanities & social sciences are discussed, along with similar deconstructive & reconstructive elements of feminist science theory. A synopsis of the section's essays is included. 42 References. J. Lindroth