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Symbolic
Terms modified by Symbolic Selected AbstractsBridging the Social and the Symbolic: Toward a Feminist Politics of Sexual DifferenceHYPATIA, Issue 3 2000EMILY ZAKIN By clarifying the psychoanalytic notion of sexual difference (and contrasting it with a feminist analysis of gender as social reality), I argue that the symbolic dimension of psychical life cannot be discarded in developing political accounts of identity formation and the status of women in the public sphere. I discuss various bridges between social reality and symbolic structure, bridges such as body, language, law, and family. I conclude that feminist attention must be redirected to the unconscious since the political cannot be localized in, or segregated to, the sphere of social reality; sexual difference is an indispensable concept for a feminist politics. [source] From Tastes Great to Cool: Children's Food Marketing and the Rise of the SymbolicTHE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 1 2007Juliet B. Schor Children's exposure to food marketing has exploded in recent years, along with rates of obesity and overweight. Children of color and low-income children are disproportionately at risk for both marketing exposure and becoming overweight.Comprehensive reviews of the literature show that advertising is effective in changing children's food preferences and diets. This paper surveys the scope and scale of current marketing practices, and focuses on the growing use of symbolic appeals that are central in food brands to themes such as finding an identity and feeling powerful and in control. These themes are so potent because they are central to children in their development and constitution of self. The paper concludes that reduction of exposure to marketing will be a central part of any successfu anti-obesity strategy. [source] Symbolic Versus Associative LearningCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 6 2010John E. Hummel Abstract Ramscar and colleagues (2010, this volume) describe the "feature-label-order" (FLO) effect on category learning and characterize it as a constraint on symbolic learning. I argue that FLO is neither a constraint on symbolic learning in the sense of "learning elements of a symbol system" (instead, it is an effect on nonsymbolic, association learning) nor is it, more than any other constraint on category learning, a constraint on symbolic learning in the sense of "solving the symbol grounding problem." [source] Harmony in Linguistic CognitionCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 5 2006Paul Smolensky Abstract In this article, I survey the integrated connectionist/symbolic (ICS) cognitive architecture in which higher cognition must be formally characterized on two levels of description. At the microlevel, parallel distributed processing (PDP) characterizes mental processing; this PDP system has special organization in virtue of which it can be characterized at the macrolevel as a kind of symbolic computational system. The symbolic system inherits certain properties from its PDP substrate; the symbolic functions computed constitute optimization of a well-formedness measure called Harmony. The most important outgrowth of the ICS research program is optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004), an optimization-based grammatical theory that provides a formal theory of cross-linguistic typology. Linguistically, Harmony maximization corresponds to minimization of markedness or structural ill-formedness. Cognitive explanation in ICS requires the collaboration of symbolic and connectionist principles. ICS is developed in detail in Smolensky and Legendre (2006a); this article is a précis of and guide to those volumes. [source] Freud's Oedipus and Kristeva's Narcissus: Three HeterogeneitiesHYPATIA, Issue 1 2005SARA BEARDSWORTH The paper shows that three heterogeneities in Freud and Kristeva (unconscious/conscious, semiotic/symbolic, and imaginary/symbolic) expose the historical emergence, significance, and demise of psychic structures that present obstacles to our progressive political thinking. The oedipal and narcissistic structures of subjectivity represent the persistence of two past, bad forms of authority: paternal law and maternal authority. Contemporary psychoanalysis reveals a humankind going through the loss of this past in a process that opens up a different future of sexual difference in Western cultures. [source] Stylized lighting for cartoon shaderCOMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 2-3 2009Hideki Todo Abstract In the context of non-photorealistic imaging, such as digital cel animation, lighting is symbolic and stylized to depict the scene's mood and the geometric or physical features of the objects in the scene. Stylized light and shade should therefore be intentionally animated rather than rigorously simulated. However, it is difficult to achieve smooth animation of light and shade that are stylized with a user's intention, because such stylization cannot be achieved using just conventional 3D lighting. To address this problem, we propose a 3D stylized lighting method, focusing on several stylized effects including straight lighting, edge lighting, and detail lighting which are important features in hand-drawn cartoon animation. Our method is an extension of the conventional cartoon shader and introduces a light coordinate system for light shape control with smooth animations of light and shade. We also extend a toon mapping process for detailed feature lighting. Having these algorithms in a real-time cartoon shader, our prototype system allows the interactive creation of stylized lighting animations. We show several animation results obtained by our method to illustrate usefulness and effectiveness of our method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Politics of Vigilance in Southeastern NigeriaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2006David Pratten ABSTRACT This article argues that governance can be best analysed within modes of vigilance. Where recent work on the post-colonial state has emphasized the symbolic and practical constitution of the state through surveillance and spatialization, so in counterpoint, this analysis illustrates that social engagement with the state is based on conceptions of vigilance and practices of counter-surveillance with both spatial and temporal dimensions. Drawing on an ethnography of Annang youth associations in southeastern Nigeria, this analysis outlines how the micro-politics of vigilance are based on knowledge of the states' patrimonial ,ways of operating' and processes which define internal, localized rights, registers and styles of action. This argument is based on an analysis of popular responses to disorder which contribute to an ,insurgent' construction of the public realm in which groups marginalized and excluded challenge the logic, locations, patterns of discourse and constructions of the public good. [source] Knowledge Bases, Talents, and Contexts: On the Usefulness of the Creative Class Approach in SwedenECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2009Bjørn Asheim abstract The geography of the creative class and its impact on regional development has been debated for some years. While the ideas of Richard Florida have permeated local and regional planning strategies in most parts of the Western world, critiques have been numerous. Florida's 3T's (technology, talent, and tolerance) have been adopted without considering whether the theory fits into the settings of a specific urban and regional context. This article aims to contextualize and unpack the creative class approach by applying the knowledge-base approach and break down the rigid assumption that all people in the creative class share common locational preferences. We argue that the creative class draws on three different knowledge bases: synthetic, analytical, and symbolic, which have different implications for people's residential locational preferences with respect to a people climate and a business climate. Furthermore, the dominating knowledge base in a region has an influence on the importance of a people climate and a business climate for attracting and retaining talent. In this article, we present an empirical analysis in support of these arguments using original Swedish data. [source] THE SCHOOL AS AN EXCEPTIONAL SPACE: RETHINKING EDUCATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BIOPEDAGOGICALEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 2 2006Tyson E. LewisArticle first published online: 3 MAY 200 Agamben's theory of the camp provides a challenging, critical vantage point for looking at the ambiguities that emerge from the complex field of disciplinary procedures now prevalent in inner-city, low-income, minority schools, and helps to clarify what exactly is at stake in the symbolic and sometimes physical violence of schooling. Key to understanding the primary relation between camp and classroom is Agamben's framework of the biopolitical, which paradoxically includes life as a political concern through its exclusion from the political sphere. Here Lewis appropriates Agamben's terminology in order to theorize the biopedagogical, wherein educational life is included in schooling through its abandonment. For Lewis, the theory of the camp is necessary to recognizing how schools function and, in turn, how they could function differently. [source] The Cocoon of Power: Democratic Implications of Interinstitutional AgreementsEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007Sonja Puntscher Riekmann It starts from the premise that democratic rules as developed in the national context may be used as a yardstick for supranational governance as well. Thus, parliamentarisation of the Union is defined as an increase in democracy, although relating problems such as weak European party systems, low turnouts, and remoteness are not to be neglected. The article evaluates several case studies on IIAs in this vein and asks whether they strengthen the European Parliament or not, and why. It arrives at conclusions that allow for differentiation: empowerment of the European Parliament occurs in particular when authorisation to conclude an IIA stems from the Treaty or from the power that the European Parliament has in crucial fields such as the budget and is willing to use for this purpose. Success is, however, not guaranteed in every case, and is sometimes more symbolic than real. However, a democratic critique must also stress negative consequences of IIAs in terms of responsivity, accountability, and transparency. [source] Incrementally updating a hybrid rule base based on empirical dataEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 4 2007Jim Prentzas Abstract: Neurules are a kind of hybrid rules that combine a symbolic (production rules) and a connectionist (adaline unit) representation. One way that the neurules can be produced is from training examples/patterns, extracted from empirical data. However, in certain application fields not all of the training examples are available a priori. A number of them become available over time. In those cases, updating the neurule base is necessary. In this paper, methods for updating a hybrid rule base, consisting of neurules, to reflect the availability of new training examples are presented. They can be considered as a type of incremental learning method that retains the entire induced hypothesis and all past training examples. The methods are efficient, since they require the least possible retraining effort and the number of neurules produced is kept as small as possible. Experimental results that prove the above argument are presented. [source] A Model-Based Method for an Online Diagnostic Knowledge-Based SystemEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2001Chrissanthi Angeli Fault diagnosis is very important for modern production technology and has received increasing theoretical and practical attention during the last few years. This paper presents a model-based diagnostic method for industrial systems. An online, real-time, deep knowledge based fault detection system has been developed by combining different development environments and tools. The system diagnoses, predicts and compensates faults by coupling symbolic and numerical data in a new environment suitable for the interaction of different sources of knowledge and has been successfully implemented and tested on a real hydraulic system. [source] Monuments, Memory and Marginalisation in Adelaide's Prince Henry GardensGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2004Iain Hay Abstract Social and cultural dominance is (re)produced in the landscape by the exclusion or marginalisation of subordinate and minority groups. This paper illustrates the long-standing and ongoing exclusion of representations of indigeneity in and around Prince Henry Gardens, part of one of the most significant cultural and memorial sites in South Australia. Prince Henry Gardens is home to a large number of monuments and memorials that commemorate almost solely non-indigenous people and events. This is a selective and deliberate landscape of the dominant culture. It confirms a legacy of indigenous dispossession and is symbolic of ongoing marginalisation. While there have been recent compensatory initiatives by state and city agencies to create landscapes of reconciliation through symbolic gestures such as renaming parkland areas, these are argued to be contentious. They associate indigeneity with the city's margins, with violent places and public drunkenness, and perpetuate problematic associations between ,real' indigeneity and nature. The paper concludes with some ideas for new memorial landscapes intended to help construct a postcolonial Australian city. [source] Black economic empowerment, legitimacy and the value added statement: evidence from post-apartheid South AfricaACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2009Steven F. Cahan M41 Abstract We examine why companies in South Africa voluntarily provide a value added statement (VAS). The VAS can be used by management to communicate with employees and thereby establish a record of legitimacy. Since we want to establish if the VAS is used to establish symbolic or substantive legitimacy, we examine whether production of a VAS is associated with actual performance in labour-related areas. To measure labour-related performance, we use an independent Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) rating. We find that BEE performance is significantly and positively related to the voluntary publication of a VAS. Our results suggest that BEE performance and disclosure of a VAS are two elements of a strategy used by South African companies to establish their substantive legitimacy with labour. [source] Creating and sustaining disadvantage: the relevance of a social exclusion frameworkHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2009Amanda M. Grenier PhD MSW BSW Abstract Over the last decade, public home-care services for elderly people have been subject to increased rationing and changes in resource allocation. We argue that a social exclusion framework can be used to explain the impacts of current policy priorities and organisational practices. In this paper, we use the framework of social exclusion to highlight the disadvantages experienced by elderly people, particularly those who cannot afford to supplement public care with private services. We illustrate our argument by drawing on examples from previous studies with persons giving and receiving care in the province of Québec. Our focus is on seven forms of exclusion: symbolic, identity, socio-political, institutional, economic, exclusion from meaningful relations, and territorial exclusion. These illustrations suggest that policy-makers, practitioners and researchers must address the various ways in which current policy priorities can create and sustain various types of exclusion of elderly people. They also highlight the need to reconsider the current decisions made regarding the allocation of services for elderly people. [source] New Perspectives on Female SuffrageHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2005Sarah A. Buck By focusing on the history and historiography of Mexican women's acquisition of the right to vote between the 1920s and 1950s, this article uses Mexico as a case study to point to broader trends in scholarship on female suffrage. The author argues that the symbolic or representational value (the meaning) of women voting has carried more weight historically than how women actually voted (the act of female voting). Nonetheless, women's presumed effect on elections, through the act of voting, has shaped the rhetoric and history of female suffrage. By examining female suffrage through the lens of gender politics and gender history, one can see how and why often problematic, and even fallacious images, meanings, or symbols of women as inept political actors have been constructed. [source] Transforming Sacrifice: Irigaray and the Politics of Sexual DifferenceHYPATIA, Issue 4 2002ANNE CALDWELL This essay examines Irigaray's analysis of politics and the political implications of her critique of sacrificial orders that repress difference/matter. I suggest that her descriptions of a fluid "feminine" can be read as an alternative symbolic not dependent on repression. This idea is politically promising in opening a possibility for justice and a nonantagonistic intersubjectivity. I conclude by assessing Irigaray's concrete proposals for sexuate rights and a civil identity for women. [source] A pilot study of research utilization practices and critical thinking dispositions of Alberta dental hygienistsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DENTAL HYGIENE, Issue 3 2008SJ Cobban Abstract:, In order to test interventions for increasing uptake of research findings into dental hygiene practice, we must first identify factors that influence research use. There has been little work on this topic in dental hygiene, but much in other disciplines that can provide exemplars of how others have approached the study of this phenomenon. Objectives:, A pilot study was conducted to determine if protocols used to study research utilization (RU) behaviours and critical thinking dispositions (CTD) in nursing could also be applied to dental hygiene. Methods:, A cross-sectional survey design was used with a random sample of 640 practicing dental hygienists in Alberta, Canada. Three questionnaires were included: one to capture measures of RU including direct, indirect and symbolic RU; the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI) and a demographics questionnaire. Results:, Mean responses for the three types of RU were highest for indirect at 3.52 (SD 0.720), followed by direct at 3.13 (SD 0.903) and symbolic 2.86 (SD 0.959). The majority (74.8%) scored between 280 and 350 on the CCTDI (maximum 420). Cronbach's alpha reliability for the RU measures and four of the seven sub-scales were over .7, indicating internal consistency reliability. Conclusions:, The instruments proved reliable for this population, but other challenges, including a low response rate, were identified during the process of using the RU questionnaire in the context of dental hygiene practice. Pilot testing identified the need for improvements to the presentation of scales to reduce cognitive load and improve the response rate. [source] An evaluation of the PALS after treatment modelling intervention to reduce dental anxiety in child dental patientsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY, Issue 4 2009KAREN E. HOWARD Aim., The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the passivity to activity through live symbolic (PALS) after treatment modelling intervention to reduce child dental anxiety. Methods., A convenience sample of consecutive 5- to 10-year-old dental patients were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Self-reported child dental anxiety was assessed at the start of each visit. At the end of each visit, children in the intervention group were introduced to a glove puppet, which acted as the PALS model. The intervention group children re-enacted the treatment they had just received on the puppet's teeth. At the end of each visit, the control children received motivational rewards only. The change in dental anxiety scores was examined by t -tests and analysis of covariance. Results., The final analysis included 27 intervention children and 26 control children. For the intervention group, there were no statistically significant changes in dental anxiety over a course of treatment, between first and second preventive visits, between first and second invasive treatment visits, or between first attendance and subsequent recall attendance. For the control group, a statistically significant decrease in dental anxiety was observed between the first and second invasive dental treatment visits. Conclusion., The PALS after treatment modelling intervention was ineffective in reducing child dental anxiety. [source] Symbolic Attributes and Organizational Attractiveness: The moderating effects of applicant personalityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, Issue 1 2009Bert Schreurs The present study examined the moderating influence of the Big Five personality factors in the relationship between five symbolic, trait-based inferences about organizations (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Prestige, and Ruggedness) and organizational attractiveness. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, six hypotheses were formulated, stating that the relationship between trait-based inferences and organizational attractiveness would be stronger for persons who perceive the organization as similar to them. Results of moderated regression analyses on data from a sample of 245 prospective applicants for the Belgian military revealed two significant two-way interactions, showing that Sincerity was positively related to organizational attractiveness only for individuals high on Conscientiousness, and that the relationship between Excitement and organizational attractiveness is more positive for individuals high on Openness to Experience. Practical implications, strengths and limitations, as well as directions for further research are presented. [source] G.H. Mead: Theorist of the Social ActJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2005ALEX GILLESPIE ABSTRACT: There have been many readings of Mead's work, and this paper proposes yet another: Mead, theorist of the social act. It is argued that Mead's core theory of the social act has been neglected, and that without this theory, the concept of taking the attitude of the other is inexplicable and the contemporary relevance of the concept of the significant symbol is obfuscated. The paper traces the development of the social act out of Dewey's theory of the act. According to Mead, Dewey's theory does not sufficiently account for consciousness. Grappling with this problematic leads Mead to several key ideas, which culminate in his theory of the social act. The social act and taking the attitude of the other are then illustrated by the analysis of a game of football. The interpretation presented has two novel aspects: first, symbolisation arises not simply through self taking the attitude of the other, but through the pairing of this attitude with the complementary attitude in self; second, self is able to take the attitude of the other to the extent that self has in actuality or in imagination previously been in the social position of the other. From this standpoint the key issue is how the attitude of self and other become integrated. New directions for empirical research, aimed at advancing this question are outlined. Finally, the paper shows how the social act can contribute to our contemporary concerns about the nature of the symbolic. [source] Emotion as a tradeable quantityJOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 1 2009Aaron A. Reid Abstract Three studies investigate how physiological emotional responses can be combined with symbolic information to predict preferences. The first study used a weighted proportional difference rule to combine explicitly quantified symbolic and emotional information. The proportion of emotion model was more predictive than a simple additive emotional (AE) combination in decisions about selecting dating partners. Study 2 showed that a simple proportion algorithm of emotionally derived weights and a simple AE model predicted preference equally well for decisions between equal expected value (EV) gambles. Study 3 provided additional evidence for decision mechanisms that combine physiological measures within symbolic trade-off algorithms for choices between diamond rings. Self-reported emotion measures proved to be better predictors than physiological measures. The results are discussed in the context of other major models of emotional influence on preference and provide a foundation for future research on emotional decision-making mechanisms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The posthuman: the end and the beginning of the humanJOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2010Norah Campbell Posthumanism is used as a collective term to understand "any discursive or bodily configuration that displaces the human, humanism, and the humanities" (Halberstam and Livingston 1995:vii, emphasis added). There are compelling reasons for introducing posthumanism to consumer research. Consumer research often theorises technology as an externalised instrument that the human creates, uses, and controls. In the 21st century we are beginning to realise that, far from being a mere tool, technology is the centre of critical thought about culture and about nature. It has recently been suggested that marketing and consumer research now need to think about technology in a manner which reflects its ubiquity, its deeper symbolic and aesthetic dimensions, and the ways in which it can radically change humanness and human-centred approaches to researching the world. Posthumanism is fundamental to theorising humanness in an era that is witnessing the complexification of new technologies. To follow a posthuman mode of thinking will lead to important ethical and metaphysical insights. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Serpent in the Garden: Implications of Highway Development in Canada's Niagara Fruit BeltJOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2002A. Suzanne Hill This paper examines how long,term residents of the Niagara Fruit Belt of Ontario, Canada interpret the disappearance of prime farming land. The Queen Elizabeth Way, a highway development, is identified as one major initiative which has deeply affected the characteristics of the region and, importantly, has overshadowed perspectives of development and growth. An historical account of the development of the highway is presented to show how the event has become symbolic of urbanization and government interference. Participants in the study expressed little hope for the continuation of fruit farming in the region. [source] Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2009Christopher Stroud The study of multilingual landscapes promises to introduce a new perspective into theories and policies of multilingualism, and to provide essential data for a politics of language. However, the theorization of space and language underlying the notion of linguistic landscape is not able to capture the manifold complexities of (transnational) multilingual mobility that is characteristic of many late-modern multilingual societies. Basing our argument on signage data from a contemporary South Africa in a dynamic phase of social transformation, we argue that more refined notions of space coupled to a material ethnography of multilingualism could provide a theoretically more relevant and methodologically refocused notion of (multilingual) linguistic landscape. Specifically, we take an approach to landscapes as semiotic moments in the social circulation of discourses (in multiple languages), and view signs as re-semiotized, socially invested distributions of multilingual resources, the material, symbolic and interactional artifacts of a sociolinguistics of mobility. [source] Stepmother as electron: Positioning the stepmother in a family dinner conversationJOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2001Mirjana N. Dedai This article proposes a discourse analysis of a family dinner conversation in which the participants are a father, a stepmother and a teenage daughter. Such analysis has social relevance insofar as roles within the stepfamily have not been either socially reshuffled or academically defined. The age-old myth about the wicked stepmother has provided the symbolic and discursive placement of stepmothers in contemporary American society in lieu of societal efforts to realistically define such a role. Thus, each case must define itself. My research examines a stepfamily's discourse about food as a window through which to view discursive strategies of inclusion and exclusion. I find that, in a situation where the child is a female teenager, a stepmother's identity is defined by positioning actively undertaken through the stepdaughter's discourse. Integrating a new parent into an existing unit is made far more difficult if the stepmother is seen as an outsider, who may be admitted to membership of the household, but not necessarily to the family. [source] Partnerships versus Regimes: Why Regime Theory Cannot Explain Urban Coalitions in the UKJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2003Jonathan S. Davies Regime theory, as developed by Elkin and Stone, neither describes nor explains the contrasting forms of collaboration in the UK. The development of urban regeneration partnerships has been driven by a combination of two main factors: the development of an ideological perception within local government elites that urban regeneration depends on market led growth, and a series of central government regeneration initiatives. These initiatives, designed to encourage, and where necessary coerce, local authorities into cooperative arrangements have resulted in highly bureaucratized, but symbolic, partnerships with local business elites. Business activity in these partnerships thus far has been marginal. It is unlikely to be fruitful, therefore, for scholars to seek Stonean regimes in the UK. On the other hand, to describe such partnerships as regimes is misleading and results in a lack of conceptual clarity. Despite the fashion for copying urban policy from the US, the institutions of urban politics in the UK are likely to remain resolutely different. [source] Deceptive Utopias: Violence, Environmentalism, and the Regulation of Multiculturalism in ColombiaLAW & POLICY, Issue 3 2009DIANA BOCAREJO Multiculturalism, constructed as a liberal utopia intended to recognize marginal populations, commonly draws upon deceptive mechanisms that reify the old trope of anthropological "savage slots" (a term borrowed from Trouillot 2003). Such slots configure the relationship between politics and places: the fixation of ethnicity in a territory and the creation of strong frontiers,both physical and symbolic,between grantees and nongrantees of differential citizenships. In the case analyzed in this article, those frontiers reify the distinction between peasants and indigenous peoples; two group categories widely mobilized in the context of indigenous land expansion in the northern region of Colombia (South America). This article explores how an environmental "utopic space" used by state institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), has turned into a fetish that hides a segment of Colombia's most dramatic reality: the violent context wherein paramilitary threats force small peasant landholders to sell and leave their land. [source] The use of willingness-to-pay approaches in mammal conservationMAMMAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Piran C. L. White ABSTRACT With limited monetary resources available for nature conservation, policy-makers need to be able to prioritize conservation objectives. This has traditionally been done using qualitative ecological criteria. However, since declines in species and habitats are largely the result of socio-economic and political forces, human preferences and values should also be taken into account. An environmental economics technique, contingent valuation, provides one way of doing this by quantifying public willingness-to-pay towards specific conservation objectives. In this paper, the use of this approach for quantifying public preferences towards the UK Biodiversity Action Plans for four different British mammal species is considered. The species included are the Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris, the Brown Hare Lepus europaeus, the Otter Lutra lutra and the Water Vole Arvicola terrestris. Willingness-to-pay for conservation was increased by the inclusion of the Otter among the species, membership of an environmental organization and awareness of the general and species-specific threats facing British mammals. It was reduced by the presence of the Brown Hare among the species being considered. These findings for British mammals are compared with other willingness-to-pay studies for mammal conservation worldwide. Willingness-to-pay tends to be greater for marine mammals than terrestrial ones, and recreational users of species (tourists or hunters) are generally more willing than residents to pay towards species conservation. The choice of technique for eliciting willingness-to-pay from respondents is also shown to be highly significant. Willingness-to-pay values for British mammals derived from contingent valuation are sensitive to the species included rather than merely symbolic. This indicates that, with care, such measures can be used as a reliable means of quantifying public preferences for conservation, and therefore contributing to the decision-making process. However, irrespective of the internal consistency of contingent valuation, the validity of the approach, especially for use in nature conservation, is disputed. Willingness-to-pay is likely to reflect many interrelated factors such as ethical and moral values, knowledge and tradition, and monetary values may not be an adequate representation of these broader considerations. Willingness-to-pay approaches should therefore be used in addition to, rather than in place of, expert judgements and more deliberative approaches towards policy decision-making for conservation. [source] The Power of Words: Healing Narratives among Lubavitcher HasidimMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2002Simon Dein The debate concerning the relation between magic and religion has a long history. Instead of separating religion and magic as separate domains, recent work on ritual examines how symbolic and pragmatic acts interrelate. After discussing current theories of religious healing and, specifically, the power of words in healing, this article examines how a group of Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews deals with sickness and the relation between the group's use ofbiomedicine and religious healing. According to the group's mystical text, Tanya, there is an intrinsic link between the physical and the spiritual and between religious words and the body. At times of sickness Lubavitchers communicate with the Rebbe, who instructs them to examine their religious texts. The manipulation of religious words mediated by the Rebbe results in bodily healing. The data confirm the Malinowskian hypothesis that symbolic measures come into play when pragmatic actions fail. Can Lubavitchers be characterized as holding a well-defined model of the healing process? [Lubavitch, Tanya, text, healing] [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||