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Work Stems (work + stem)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Elsewhere and Otherwise: Lévinasian Eros and Ethics in Le Clézio's La quarantaine

ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 4 2001
Karen D. Levy
Beginning in the 1930s, Emmanuel Lévinas called into question the totalizing priorities of the Western metaphysical tradition and developed a dramatically original description of how subjectivity is constructed in the context of what he terms a face to face encounter with an absolute Other. This destabilizing experience is presented in terms of a summons that demands an ethical response in the form of unqualified moral responsibility for the well being of the Other, without any expectation of reciprocity. In a series of profoundly challenging works, Lévinas analyzes the different stages in the development of this relationship, expressed in masculine oriented terms, and he contrasts the nobility and generosity of ethics with the intimacy of eros and the welcome of the feminine in a protected domestic site. Lévinas insists on the impossibility of fusion and possession in both the ethical and the erotic relationships and seeks to disengage his discourse from essentialist, gender based interpretations. Nevertheless, he privileges terms associated with masculine subjects and likewise seems to endorse stereotypical interpretations of the feminine as fragile and frail, inviting either pity or tenderness. The fact that eros is based on an equivocation between need and the desire for something absolutely Other, which does not depend on any lack, prevents it from attaining the same stature as ethics. And by leaving the feminine out of his discussion of ethics, Lévinas at least downplays the possibility for feminine subjects to respond to the summons of the face to face encounter and accept the risk of living other than in the metaphysical dwelling of Being. The questions raised in Lévinas' works concerning eros, ethics, and the feminine assume different configurations and lead elsewhere when explored in proximity to J.M.G. Le Clézio's emblematic saga La quarantaine. Similar in many ways to Lévinas' philosophical trajectory, Le Clézio's literary undertaking details the disjointed stages of a journey from the self-contained solitude of Being to an exposed elsewhere in what Lévinas calls the "au-delà de l'être." The multi-layered text of La quarantaine fictionalizes the crisis that caused Le Clézio's great-uncle to be erased from family history and depicts the transgenerational effects of that disappearance. The originality of Le Clézio's work stems from the double inscription of the alterity of both eros and ethics in an Other who is gendered female. His text explores the process of rupture and exposure that Lévinas valorizes, but it does so in a way that reveals how a female subject, who both welcomes discreetly and imposes herself indiscreetly, challenges what Lévinas calls the "égoïté tragique" of the other protagonists. Le Clézio's arrestingly beautiful prose serves as a kind of textual face that expresses concretely the complexity of Lévinas' preoccupations and summons us as readers to exceed our capacities and live otherwise. [source]

Investment and Uncertainty: A Theory-based Empirical Approach,

OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 5 2007
Mikael Carlsson
Abstract This paper provides empirical evidence on the dynamic effects of uncertainty on firm-level capital accumulation. A novelty in this paper is that the firm-level uncertainty indicator is motivated and derived from a theoretical model, the neoclassical investment model with time to build. This model also serves as the base for the empirical work, where an error-correction approach is employed. I find a negative effect of uncertainty on capital accumulation, both in the short run and the long run. This outcome cannot be explained by the model alone. Instead, the results suggest that the predominant mechanism at work stems from irreversibility constraints. [source]

Psychosocial Differences Between High-Risk Acute vs.

PAIN PRACTICE, Issue 2 2008
Chronic Low Back Pain Patients
,,Abstract: The present study was designed to evaluate the relative degree and type of emotional distress in high-risk acute low back pain (ALBP) subjects (defined as less than 3 months since initial injury) vs. high-risk chronic low back pain (CLBP) subjects (defined as greater than 3 months since initial injury). It is an extension of earlier findings that demonstrated the significant role that such emotional distress may play in the development of CLBP disability if not appropriately treated in the acute phase. This work stems from a conceptual three-stage model, which characterizes the progression from acute to chronic pain. Several psychosocial measures were administered that included information allowing for the classification of subjects as high-risk based upon an earlier developed screening algorithm. The ancova procedure in SPSS was used to compare groups, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and age. Results revealed that CLBP subjects had higher rates of certain measures of emotional distress and depression relative to ALBP subjects. These findings further support the importance of effectively managing emotional distress factors early, when treating musculoskeletal disorders such as low back pain.,, [source]

Searching for the Promised Land: Examining Dr Martin Luther King's Concept of the Beloved Community1

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2009
Joshua F.J. Inwood
Abstract:, 4 April 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of Dr King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Since his murder we have seen Dr King's message of social justice, the growing threat of militarism, the threat the USA's burgeoning empire posed, and his goal of ending injustice boiled down to a few words spoken in Washington DC when he declared his dream to see his children grow up in a society free of race prejudice. This paper engages with Dr King's work and presents a more geographically sophisticated understanding of King's legacy than the oft repeated Washington speech. Through an analysis of Dr King's concept of the Beloved Community, I argue that Dr King's work stems from the experiences of the Black Atlantic world. Consequently, we should see Dr King's social theory as part of a larger anti-colonial struggle which sought to integrate African American and Western notions of community, which holds contemporary importance as a counterpoint to current neoliberal conceptions of community. [source]