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Robust Theory (robust + theory)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences40%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting40%

Selected Abstracts

Reconstructing ripeness I: A study of constructive engagement in protracted social conflicts

CONFLICT RESOLUTION QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2008
Peter T. Coleman
What moves people to work with each other rather than against each other when locked into destructive, long-term conflicts? Ripeness theory has been a useful starting point for understanding such motives, but has limited explanatory power under conditions of intractable conflict. This article is the first of a two-part series presenting the findings from a study that explored various methods of eliciting constructive engagement from stakeholders through interviews with expert scholarpractitioners working with protracted conflicts. A grounded theory analysis was applied to the interviews to allow new insights into constructive conflict engagement to emerge from the data. Our objective was to develop more robust theories and practices. A dynamical systems synthesis of the findings is presented, and its implications for reconceptualizing ripeness are discussed. [source]

The Speculum of Ignorance: The Women's Health Movement and Epistemologies of Ignorance

HYPATIA, Issue 3 2006
NANCY TUANAArticle first published online: 9 JAN 200
This essay aims to clarify the value of developing systematic studies of ignorance as a component of any robust theory of knowledge. The author employs feminist efforts to recover and create knowledge of women's bodies in the contemporary women's health movement as a case study for cataloging different types of ignorance and shedding light on the nature of their production. She also helps us understand the ways resistance movements can be a helpful site for understanding how to identify, critique, and transform ignorance. [source]

Love as a Contested Concept

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2006
RICHARD PAUL HAMILTON
Theorists about love typically downplay the scale of persistent and possibly intractable disagreement about love. Where they have considered such disagreements at all, they have tended to treat them as an example of the lack of clarity surrounding the concept of love, a problem which can be resolved by philosophical analysis. In doing so, they invariably slip into prescriptive mode and offer moral injunctions in the guise of conceptual analyses. This article argues for philosophical modesty. I propose that the starting point of any coherent philosophical investigation of love must be a willingness to take our disagreements seriously. These disagreements stem from profound moral differences: we disagree about love inasmuch as we disagree about how we should properly treat one another. With a series of examples drawn from philosophy, literature and real life I attempt to illustrate some of the disagreements that arise in relation to erotic love. Drawing upon the work of Wittgenstein, Friedrich Waissman and W.B. Gallie, I suggest that any robust theory of love needs to take account of its contestable nature and the integral role it plays in our moral life. [source]

THE L.A. SCHOOL AND POLITICS,NOIR: BRINGING THE LOCAL STATE BACK IN

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 5 2009
STEVEN P. ERIE
ABSTRACT:,This essay critically reevaluates two key components of the L.A. School of Urbanism research program. First, we reconsider the L.A. School's alternative to the concentric circles model of urban growth developed by the Chicago School. Second, we reexamine its account of Los Angeles's modern development and transformation into a global city. We conclude that the L.A. School, much like the Chicago School it critiques, pays insufficient attention to politics and political institutions. Understanding how Los Angeles improbably grew from a frontier town to regional imperium and global city requires urban scholars to bring the local state back in. Based on recent scholarship, we argue that the local state played a critical and, frequently, autonomous role in key policy areas, such as city planning and water provision. By bringing the local state back into the L.A. growth story, L.A. scholars can offer a more robust theory of urban growth. [source]

Platforms and Real Options in Industrial Organization

THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2000
Ken-Ichi Imai
We need a robust theory to analyse the dynamics of new industrial organizations that are being created by the explosion of information technology. This paper sets out a new theoretical perspective and suggests a new empirical framework towards formulating such a theory. The new conceptual tools of analysis presented here include the "platform" as a key element of new market structures, "real options" analysis to deal with genuine uncertainty, and an understanding of a new form of competition that takes place among different platforms. JEL Classification Numbers: L10, L12, L15, D81. [source]