Deep Commitments Research Articles

Dark feelings, grim thoughts: experience and reflection in Camus and Sartre

In the same spirit as his most recent book, Living With Nietzsche, and his earlier study In the Spirit of Hegel, Robert Solomon turns to the existential thinkers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, in an attempt to get past the academic and political debates and focus on what is truly interesting and valuable about their philosophies. Solomon makes the case that--despite their very different responses to the political questions of their day--Camus and Sartre were both fundamentally moralists, and their philosophies cannot be understood apart from their deep ethical commitments. He focuses on Sartre's early, pre-1950 work, and on Camus's best known novels The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall. Throughout Solomon makes the important point that their shared interest in phenomenology was much more important than their supposed affiliation with existentialism. Solomon's reappraisal will be of interest to anyone who is still or ever has been fascinated by these eccentric but monumental figures.

Please Stay: Pied-a-Terre Subjects in the Megacity

In contrast to the idea of the big city as a denationalized space of human rights, this article proposes an alternate concept of the megacity as a national space that activates “neoliberal” desires for foreign experts, creative know-how, and capital accumulation. In addition, expatriates add to and reflect the symbolic values of Asian cities arriving on the global stage. But the limited commitments of global professionals, actualized and symbolized by the pied-a-terre, deter and challenge the deep commitments required by classic citizenship. Is the global nomad a cog in international information networks, a figure who expresses the fundamental denationalized character of capitalism itself? Or is the pied-a-terre the hinge between a global meritocracy and the megacity? The talented expatriate, poised between staying and going, participates in a kind of dysfunctional marriage with the host city that suspends norms of permanent belonging.

Four Letters on Capitalism and Socialism

Even when Harry Magdoff was writing articles less often in his final years, he continued to compose letters that displayed his keen interest in world developments, the evolution of his thinking, and his deep personal commitments. Reprinted here are four letters he wrote in the opening years of the new millennium. The first was written while he still lived in New York. The last three were written in Vermont where Harry had moved in June 2002 to live with his son Fred and his daughter-in-law Amy Demarest. The fragilities of old age had largely confined him by then to home. But his thinking still knew no boundsThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Education and Godly Technology: Gender, Culture, and the Work of Home Schooling

The secularity of the state is seen by 'authoritarian populist' religious conservatives as imposing a world-view that is out of touch with the deep religious commitments that guide their lives. In the process, authoritarian populists have taken on subaltern identities and claimed that they are the last truly dispossessed groups. To demonstrate their increasing power in educational and social policy, I situate a specific set of technologies—the Internet—within the social context of its use in this community. I focus on the growing home-schooling movement and suggest that to understand the societal meaning and uses of these technologies, we need to examine the social movement that provides the context for their use. I also argue that we need to analyze critically the kind of labor that is required in home schooling, who is engaged in such labor, and how such labor is interpreted by the actors who perform it.

Africa must come on board the genomics bandwagon

With the completion and the success of the unraveling of the human and some nonhuman genetic codes comes the optimism that science, once again, is at the threshold of transforming human existence in an unprecedented way. The sequencing of the human genome with the science and technology by which it occurs is seen as a potential gateway to man's final conquest of most of the health and health related disorders that have for long plagued the human race.While some developing nations like Cuba, Mexico and India have taken the initiative to be major players in the genomics arena by exploring its potentials towards enhancing improved quality of life for their citizens, the majority of others, especially in Africa, still occupy the spectators' seat. If this apparent lukewarm attitude continues, it implies that the present dependence on the developed nations as remote beneficiaries of gains of scientific breakthroughs will persist. It also means that the expectation that genomics should, among other benefits, re-dress the inequalities of access to health care between the rich and poor nations may be a mirage for a long time to come.The expected benefits from the human genome project and genomics technologies are fascinating and hold the ace for improving the standards of living of the African people. However, these expectations are futuristic, time-dependent and capital intensive. They require commitments of national governments to policy re-orientation about research and development, strategic planning, resource mobilization, priority setting; and establishing, promoting and sustaining enabling environments for scientific and technological breakthrough. No doubt, there is dire need for assistance from the developed and the frontline developing nations in this regard. However, great initiatives and deep commitments to making significant scholarly contributions to the advancement of biotechnology and its potentials in the near future must come from within.

Rights, Reasons, and Religious Conflict

The role of religious commitments in John Rawls’s version of political liberalism has drawn frequent criticism. Some of the critics have complained that it fails to respect those with deep religious commitments by excluding explicitly religious reasons from debate about fundamental issues of justice. Others criticize the exclusion of religious reasons on the ground that it is unnecessary. Political liberalism, they argue, can accommodate appeals to religious reasons. For critics of both stripes, Jurgen Habermas and Thomas Scanlon should seem a welcome alternative. They offer ways of justifying claims of justice and of legitimating political arrangements that do not appear to exclude religious reasons at the outset but still yield liberal polities. In this paper, I argue that Habermas’s and Scanlon’s theoretical frameworks are not only open to religious reasons, they require the inclusion of religious reasons in deliberations about the just ordering of public life. I then explain why such an arrangement is desirable. I close with a look at the limits of Habermas’s and Scanlon’s ability to accommodate religious reasons in public deliberation, suggesting that their improvements on Rawls are smaller than they at first appear.

Place, kinship and the case for non‐ethnic nations

Abstract.One of A. D. Smith's most controversial contributions to the theory of nationalism is his view of the role of theethniein the historical emergence of nationhood. He sees theethnie, its shared memories, myths and territorial belonging as important conditions for stable national identities based on deep emotional commitments, thereby arguing against radical modernist and constructivist views of nationhood. While Smith's view has much to recommend it, this paper argues for a wider, more metaphorical conceptualisation of his central terms, using examples to support the view that both kinship (ethnicity) and place (territory) – basic elements in political identity everywhere – may be construed on the basis of diverse materials. However, and here Smith's interventions have been extremely valuable, the resulting collective identity must be based on some notion of kinship and place in order to be a national identity proper.

Leadership Preparation Reform in First Person: Making Assumptions Public

The purpose of this study is to capture “insider” perspectives of professors in the forefront of transforming university leadership preparation programs. From interviews, we constructed first person narratives and developed “story threads” demonstrating related sequences of their thought and action in reform work. After developing themes based on their action strategies, we worked backward to identify assumptions underpinning the actions. In all cases there were tensions between assumptions of the traditional order and the intentionally reconstructed assumptions that propelled these reform leaders’ actions toward meeting current needs for school leadership preparation. Stories in first person make available the experience of the deep pulls felt when professors genuinely break with tradition. Transformation of preparation programs through these leaders did not come in response to external pressure, rather it came through first changing themselves in response to deep value commitments.

The Accumulation of National Belonging in Transnational Fields: Ways of Being at Home in Vietnam

The notion of transnational citizenship emphasizes the mobility and flexibility of transmigrants with respect to the affective claims and disciplinary operations of the nation-state. Such representations tend to make redundant the analysis of the deep commitments of time, acculturation, and identification that have traditionally been considered the sine qua non of national belonging. I shall aim to put these modalities of citizenship into a more dialectical relation by arguing that in order to reap the full benefits of their mobility, that is, to be able to secure the highest rates of conversion for their transnational cultural capital, transmigrants must legitimate their claims to national membership by accumulating practical national belonging. These issues will be explored through an ethnographic analysis of the strategies by which overseas Vietnamese attempt to assert and accumulate legitimacy as subjects of national belonging in Vietnam.

Political and Commercial Strategy to Face FTAA - The Colombian Case

This paper attempts a historical review upon the major historical determinants that shaped Colombian International Politics, referring mainly to the US-Colombian relations. Also enquires in the lead of the major institutional developments that guide to the formation of the global market and especially emerging trading areas one of which best exponents is the FTAA. An entrepreneurial view is developed to explore scenarios where Colombian businessman will have to face deep political commitments and commercial strategies to face successfully FTAA open opportunities to attract Hemispheric foreign direct investment and increase trade currents.

Beheading the Revolution: Arno Mayer's “Furies”*

Few historical events have been more fully appropriated for presentist purposes than the French and Russian revolutions. Until very recently, the uncompleted narrative of human progress and achievement that organically linked a modernizing French nation to its foundational revolutionary movement had been deployed across a vast range of politics and historiographies, as we know. Whether the revolution’s origins and especially its excesses were properly located in social and cultural circumstances or in the political will of revolutionary activists sharply divided both historians and the ways their narratives appraised the revolution’s virtue, but not evaluations of its determinant importance in structuring positively all of subsequent French history. Until Francois Furet began to undermine the dominant narratives of Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul (not to mention Jules Michelet, Jean Jaures, or Albert Mathiez), the issue has been one of getting the story right in order to draw properly for the current moment its portentous moral and political meaning.1 Similarly, since 1917 the story of revolution gone bad in Russia has consistently situated both the crusade against communism in any form and the deep commitments of those struggling inside and outside the Soviet Union for some form of socialism with a human face. Here, too, despite the official appropriation of Russia’s devastating revolutionary experience to legitimize Soviet power and its changing purposes, the foundational qualities of the revolution itself have not been at issue. Instead, controversies have again centered until recently on the degree to which the revolution and its devastation were man-made or the consequences of deeper social and cultural currents, the connections between the upheavals of the revolutionary period itself and the subsequent horrors of Stalinism, and, again, what meaning this had for current beliefs. As with the histories of revolutions in France, their teleologies have been equally difficult to challenge because they incorporate passionate convictions about progress, reason, human betterment, social justice, and how these modernisms can and, especially, cannot be achieved. What has linked the French and Russian revolutions as historical events has been

Factors in Decisions of Underrepresented Minorities to Forego Science and Engineering Doctoral Study: A Pilot Study

The research described here comprised a pilot study that attempted to identify the factors in decisions of highly capable students from underrepresented minority groups to forego study for science or engineering doctorates. Underrepresented students are defined as Blacks, Hispanics, and Indians. While these groups will soon comprise 30% or more of the population, they receive only 5% of the S & E (Science and Engineering) doctorates. The research was completed under NSF (National Science Foundation) grant no. REC 9908861. The research built on a previous NSF study (RED-9355867) that identified the most effective colleges and universities in the country in the preparation of Black, Hispanic, and Indian science and engineering students for study toward the PhD degree. One of the major concerns raised during the site visits to the top 10 institutions serving these groups was the loss of capable students to other careers. The study obtained information from minority graduates about factors impacting persistence to graduate studies in science and engineering and solicited suggestions for attracting more people like themselves to S & E doctoral study. Twelve underrepresented minority S & E graduates who decided to forego doctoral study in favor of other pursuits. Themes emerging from these conversations regarding reluctance to pursue advanced study included the following: concern for ability to finance such study; weaknesses in advisement practices and systems; lack of full knowledge, early on, about the rewards of doctoral employment; and concern about opportunities for employment after graduation. Suggestions proffered for attracting more underrepresented minorities to S & E doctoral study included the following: early socialization of youngsters into the world of science and its practice; expanded funding for scholarships and fellowships; expanded outreach by colleges and universities; expanded efforts by churches and community groups and deeper commitments by colleges and universities.

An organised anarchy or a community of diverse virtue ethics? The case of the Elam School of Fine Arts

There is a widely accepted myth in New Zealand that the Elam School of Fine Arts in the University of Auckland is an organised anarchy, internally divided and cantankerously unbiddable, and further, that this is largely inevitable given the nature of artists and designers. Its unique culture, however, is shown in this paper to have been generated and reinforced over decades by the exigencies of environment, partitioned and media‐based curricular structures, intense and volatile relationships, and, occasionally, inappropriate leadership services. Despite this history, Elam has sustained a major role in shaping New Zealand’s cultural identity, and continues to produce some of the country’s most outstanding visual artists and designers. The paradox involved is partially explained by persistent evidence of self‐managing teams, creative problem‐solving, and independent excellence, that suggest deep and plural commitments to a virtue ethic.

COMPETING NOTIONS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND CONTRADICTIONS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION REFORM

In the past three decades, special education has been subjected to extensive critique and reform of practices. These critiques have been based on notions of social justice and equity. However, the field has suffered from inadequate attention to assumptions about social justice. Social justice is essentially a contested concept. Rather than representing a unitary and universally shared concept, social justice has variable meanings. Differing views of social justice can be seen to underlie apparent contradictions in continuing practice in response to pressures for reform. Reforms predicated on individual rights have been undermined by deep commitments to meritocratic practices in U.S. schools. Reforms based on more communitarian principles, however, ignore the need for structure and the tendency for communal values to marginalize people with disabilities. Special education reform today requires a different basis in a relational definition of the self, structures to support the qualities of relationships, and a belief in the mutability of social justice.

A framework for understanding commitment in the R&D organization

Abstract The complex and long-range nature of technological innovation makes commitment particularly important to the R&D organization. Using findings from previous and current research, this paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding commitment in the technology-based organization that may be more precise and meaningful than the traditional, global conceptions. Three general conclusions emerge. First, organizational commitment has positive benefits not only for the organization but also for the individual. Second, given the popularity of the project form of organization in R&D and the deep commitments individuals sometimes make to those projects, some allowance should be made for multi-commitments. Third, one of the most important and least investigated antecedents of organizational commitment is the verbal behavior of the project manager. Some implications of this perspective for future research are presented.

Barrett and beyond

It is impossible to predict the full impact of David Barrett's massive encyclopedia on the field of missiology in the coming decades. Some things are obvious. It will become a standard reference work in academic circles and will provide scholars with the most comprehensive survey of the status and growth of the church around the world now available. The extensive country by country reviews will stimulate further studies and, in some cases, deeper commitments on the part of some to the mission of the church. The encyclopedia will be widely quoted in sermons to make one point or another, and there will be arguments over the accuracy over details. Of greater consequence is the fact that it presents a comprehensive picture that will mold the strategies of mission and church agencies alike. My concern here is a narrow one. What will the impact of the encyclopedia be on future research in missiology, particularly my own. Certainly it will stimulate research and suggest new lines of investigation, but its importance lies even deeper.

Commitment as psychological process: Theory and pastoral implications

Persons today must devote significant effort to making and remaking personal commitments in a variety of contexts, both interpersonal and social in the larger sense. Therefore, it is important for pastors to acquire an understanding of the basic dynamics of the committing process. It is proposed that this process be viewed as a form of creativity involving four alternating phases, in which “regression in the service of the ego” allows deep and realistic commitments of self to be formed. Implications for pastoral care are suggested.

Some Recent Historians and the "Strange Defeat" of 1940

All wars are unsuccessful, wars of lost opportunities, for one side or the other, and outsiders do not always appreciate the anguish of the defeated, their reluctance to relive their defeat. Yet it is precisely this lack of involvement which should stand third parties in good stead when they try to find out what happened. In contemporary times no national catastrophe is more familiar than the dramatic downfall of France in 1940.1 At the time it seemed to be an immense and puzzling event. The years have doubtless reduced its apparent magnitude, and the mystery of it has vanished to the point where the suggestion is heard that really there is no problem to explain.2 Not everyone will feel convinced of this.Though the literature of that defeat is substantial, a satisfactory history of the episode eludes us still. In France, such studies as have been done exhibit the failings of closely felt involvement, of reticence, of a vision narrowed by painful memories, of deep and bitter commitments. And if this is true, it is fair to ask what progress foreigners have made with this theme.