Positions Of Influence Research Articles

El Rol de los Colegios de Elite en la Reproducción intergeneracional de la Elite Chilena

This article is based on an empirical study on the role played by elite schools in the intergenerational reproduction of the Chilean elite. For that purpose, the elite is defined as the group that holds the central and most influential positions in society. We argue that elite schools are a social space for socialization, distinction and reproduction of the elite, and therefore, they allow institutionalization and legitimation of these groups in Chile. A qualitative methodology (in-depth interviews and document analysis) allow concluding that elite schools play a significant role at choosing who are allowed in elite groups and who are not, at socializing a new generation of the elite in the role they are expected to play in the future, and providing spaces for interaction and creation of ties. The high school attended is a mark and credential that follows the students through their future.

New insights into the political attack on abstract art at the beginning of 1963

Into the known, but still insufficiently clarified circumstances of the political attack on abstract art by the very top of the state and party elite at the beginning of 1963, certain new insights have been gained from the exhibition Socialism and Modernity. Why and how did it happen that two statesmen on such high and influential positions, like Khrushchev and Tito, had found themselves involved, almost at the same time, and given their priorities, in such bizarre quest as attacking abstract art in their own environment? Of course, at the core of the entire 'case' was not only ('abstract') art. Still, no matter what really caused it - whether the reasons lie in politics of foreign affairs or in still undisclosed inner circumstances - this 'case' is still an unavoidable episode in the relations: politics - culture - art in the history of socialist Yugoslavia, which is today particularly intriguing in the context of understanding those relations as they were at the time when the attacks happened - at the beginning of the 1960s.

‘A woman should learn in quietness and full submission’ (1 Timothy 2: 11): Empowering Women in the Fight against Masculine Readings of Biblical Texts and a Chauvinistic African Culture in the Face of HIV and AIDS

The status of women has generally become a human rights issue the world over, and Zimbabwe has not been left behind in that debate. Unfortunately, some men and women still believe that for women to occupy influential positions in society is testimony to the coming of the end of the world. As a way of buttressing men's patriarchal or chauvinistic views, the bible is invoked to remind women about their place and role in society. Using a random sampling method, interviews were conducted with twenty-five men and twenty-five women in Harare, Zimbabwe, on their perspective on 1 Timothy 2: 11 in the light of the empowerment of women in Zimbabwean society. This paper seeks to prove that negative perceptions against women are unhelpful and retrogressive and go against millennium development goals, particularly when biblical texts like 1 Timothy 2: 11–12, Ephesians 5: 25, 1 Peter 3: 1–2, 1 Corinthians 7: 4–5 and 1 Corinthians 14: 33b–35 are invoked to fight against the empowerment of women in the face of HIV and AIDS. Biblical texts like 1 Timothy 2: 11–12 can be applied out of context and erroneously used to serve or support patriarchal agendas – a position that this paper dismisses as morally untenable and disadvantageous to the rights of contemporary women. Yet the majority of women, as in the case of Zimbabwe, bear the effects of HIV and AIDS, poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.

Gender Inequality Among Political Elites in Comparative Perspective

Are gender inequalities in work/life outcomes apparent among those positioned at the powerful top of society’s hierarchy, and if so, why? There is currently a lack of consistent knowledge about what happens to those women who have reached the most influential positions of society, and about whether (and how) their situation differs from that of their male counterparts. This is particularly so in the case of political elites, about whom very few current studies exist. This thesis investigates gender and individual-level work/life outcomes among political elites (national parliamentarians) comparing two cases: Sweden and Germany. The research builds on empirical investigations from self-collected survey data covering finite populations of Swedish and German national parliamentarians. Parts of this political elite data are further matched to existing, large-scale databases from the European Social Survey, consisting of representative samples of general citizens, and of general elites, of the two nations. This allows reference comparisons to be made between the political elites and average citizens of the respective countries. To provide additional depth to the findings, the quantitative investigation was also complemented by a qualitative interview study. The results showed gender inequality in the strength of demand and support experienced in the home-sphere of the political elites (such as concerning household work and functional partner support). These gender discrepancies were more pronounced in the case of Germany than in Sweden. However, gender equality was observed concerning perceived career and influence possibilities in the work-sphere, and concerning general subjective well-being, in both the German and Swedish case of political elites.

Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy? Assessing the Effect of Representative Sex on Women's Presence among US Congressional Staff

Achieving greater female presence in influential positions is a commonly discussed strategy for gender reform in institutions such as the US Congress. Using theory adapted from research on gender in the workplace, this study examines whether women representatives, as ‘managers’ of congressional offices, alter patterns of gender representation in Congress by hiring and promoting more women staffers compared with men representatives. Cross-sectional logistic regression analyses of staffer sex during the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007–10) reveal a positive relationship between women representatives and female presence on congressional staffs. However, the relationship does not hold with respect to the most influential staff positions. These findings provide only limited support for theories that women representatives act as ‘change agents’ by directly facilitating opportunities for women, and highlight the importance of exploring alternative strategies for empowering women and regendering legislative institutions.

Explaining institutional persistence, adaptation, and transformation in East German recreational-fisheries governance after the German reunification in 1990

We investigated the capacity of a natural resource governance system to absorb a disturbance while maintaining its major structures and functions (defined as institutional resilience). Exemplified by East German recreational fisheries governance being disturbed by the German reunification, we studied why in five out of six East German states the former centralized governance system persisted while in one state a decentralized governance system was implemented. Based on resilience thinking and new institutional economics, three analytical steps were developed to assess: (1) the structure and function of the governance system, (2) the attributes of the disturbance and the reorganization process, and (3) human motivations. The centralized system persisted because leading managers wanted to preserve customary structures and functions, minimize transaction costs of change, and maintain powerful positions. This was possible because of their influential positions in the reorganization process. Our results suggest that in externally induced, fundamental, and rapid disturbances decision-makers tend to prevent transformations in their governance system. However, key managers in the sixth state faced the same disturbance but their lack of leadership and an emerging rivalry for fishing rights facilitated a transformation to decentralized governance. Thus, attributes of disturbances can be leveraged by actors' motivations in the reorganization process.

Engagement in the electoral processes: Scaling laws and the role of political positions

We report on a statistical analysis of the engagement in the electoral processes of all Brazilian cities by considering the number of party memberships and the number of candidates for mayor and councillor. By investigating the relationships between the number of party members and the population of voters, we have found that the functional forms of these relationships are well described by sublinear power laws (allometric scaling) surrounded by a multiplicative log-normal noise. We have observed that this pattern is quite similar to those we previously reported for the relationships between the number of candidates (mayor and councillor) and population of voters [Europhys. Lett. 96, 48001 (2011)], suggesting that similar universal laws may be ruling the engagement in the electoral processes. We also note that the power-law exponents display a clear hierarchy, where the more influential is the political position the smaller is the value of the exponent. We have also investigated the probability distributions of the number of candidates (mayor and councillor), party memberships, and voters. The results indicate that the most influential positions are characterized by distributions with very short tails, while less influential positions display an intermediate power-law decay before showing an exponential-like cutoff. We discuss the possibility that, in addition to the political power of the position, limitations in the number of available seats can also be connected with this changing of behavior. We further believe that our empirical findings point out to an under-representation effect, where the larger the city is, the larger are the obstacles for more individuals to become directly engaged in the electoral process.

The Rise of Neurotics

Purpose: Increasing evidence suggests the importance of relationships between district and site leaders. However, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the social infrastructure between and among leaders especially as related to the exchange of advice related to reform. Moreover, we have limited understanding regarding the mechanisms that are associated with how certain leaders occupy influential social positions. Method: Using social network data from district and site leaders, we conducted social network analysis and regression models to examine the relationship between a leader’s network position measured by incoming, outgoing, and close ties; personality traits; and leader self-efficacy controlling for demographics. Findings: Findings indicate that leaders with more incoming advice relationships from other leaders were associated with more years of experience in the district, being self-identified as “neurotic,” reporting higher efficacy in leading reform, and less efficacy in management. Leaders with more outgoing advice ties also self-identified as “neurotic” and reported lower efficacy in management. Leaders who were readily sought in terms of advice were explained by the number of years in the district and the self-reported personality traits of “neurotic,” “extraverted,” and “conscientious.” Leaders who were able to more efficiently connect to other leaders for advice were explained by being “neurotic,” “extraverted,” and “conscientious” as well as reporting low efficacy for management. Implications: Results suggest the importance of considering both personality traits as well as perceptions of efficacy in terms of understanding how leaders come to occupy influential social position in an advice network related to reform.

The dialogically extended mind: Language as skilful intersubjective engagement

A growing conceptual and empirical literature is advancing the idea that language extends our cognitive skills. One of the most influential positions holds that language – qua material symbols – facilitates individual thought processes by virtue of its material properties (Clark, 2006a). Extending upon this model, we argue that language enhances our cognitive capabilities in a much more radical way: the skilful engagement of public material symbols facilitates evolutionarily unprecedented modes of collective perception, action and reasoning (interpersonal synergies) creating dialogically extended minds. We relate our approach to other ideas about collective minds (Gallagher, 2011; Theiner, Allen, & Goldstone, 2010; Tollefsen, 2006) and review a number of empirical studies to identify the mechanisms enabling the constitution of interpersonal cognitive systems.

British Ornithologists' Union Godman-Salvin Medal

British Ornithologists' Union Godman-Salvin Medal

Rape and Rape Mythology in the Plays of Sarah Kane

Few contemporary plays have created greater furor than Sarah Kane's Blasted, first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London in January 1995. (1) The violence was pervasive, the structure seemingly incoherent, the purpose elusive. Critics were almost uniformly hostile. (2) It was, according to one, disgusting feast of filth, while another concluded that not theatre critic that's required, it's psychiatrist. (3) They were barely more enamored of later plays such as Phaedra's Love and Cleansed. Criticism has tended to soften over time. (4) Indeed, the greater danger today, decade after her tragic early death, is that of critical hagiography, with Kane lauded as one of the most original of breed of dynamic in-yer-face or new brutalist dramatists who rose to prominence during the 1990s. (5) One of the characteristics of this genre of drama was peculiarly intense embrace of sex and violence. (6) Violence certainly emerged as defining feature of Kane's writing. (7) And when Kane sought to intensify the violence of her plays she turned repeatedly to rape. (8) The purpose of this essay is to explore Kane's presentation of within the context of the ongoing feminist debate regarding sexual violence and its attendant As we shall see this presentation creates as many tensions as it does affinities. The first part of this essay will revisit rape, and more particularly the enduring force of rape myths. The second will then consider Kane on rape: its presentation in her plays and its consideration in her subsequent interviews. It has been said that Blasted is play of strategic incoherences. (9) The final part of this essay will contemplate Kane and in the context of this apparently perplexing supposition. It will be necessarily interdisciplinary exercise, enjoining growing body of law and literature scholarship which makes the case for the use of literary texts in legal study. Such strategy is commonly recommended for variety of reasons: to impress the linguistic and rhetorical nature of law; to emphasize the historicity of legal text; to nurture more nuanced appreciation of poethicar dimension of law; and above all, perhaps, to stress the illustrative value of the literary text as an informing educative aid. (10) It is to this latter purpose that this essay is primarily written. I. Rape and Myth The crime of represents something of touchstone in feminist legal and political theory. According to Robin Morgan, is the perfected act of male sexuality in patriarchal culture, the ultimate metaphor for domination, violence, subjugation, and possession. (11) Ann Cahill writes in similar vein. Rape is a crime that epitomizes women's oppressed status, one of indisputable violence and loathing. (12) For much of the 1970s and 1980s it was possible to distinguish two alternative and hugely influential positions. The first, associated commonly with Susan Brownmiller, argued that is less about sex, and more about simple violence committed by men against women, a brief expression of physical power, conscious process of intimidation, blunt, ugly sexual invasion with possible lasting effects on all women. (13) The second, favored by many critical legal feminists, followed Catharine MacKinnon in arguing, to the contrary, that is logical extension of heterosexuality. (14) Adopting position that owed much to the influence of Andrea Dworkin, MacKinnon argued in her Toward Feminist Theory of the State that the wrong of has proved so difficult to define because the unquestionable starting point has been that is defined as distinct from intercourse, while for women it is difficult to distinguish the two under conditions of male dominance. (15) Accordingly, she famously concluded, If sexuality is central to women's definition and forced sex is central to sexuality, is indigenous, not exceptional, to women's social condition. …

Nobelitis: a common disease among Nobel laureates?

Winning a Nobel Prize is a great personal achievement. Some Nobel laureates may consider that their award is a certificate of competence in any field. This may prompt them to undertake projects or accept positions which are beyond their capabilities. Since Nobels are awarded when the laureates have usually passed their prime, caution should be exercised when these individuals are offered highly influential positions in academia and elsewhere.

The history of behavior analysis in manitoba: a sparsely populated canadian province with an international influence on behavior analysis.

This article examines the convergence of factors that led to behavior analysis taking root, flourishing, and bearing fruit in a prairie province of Canada. In the latter half of the 1960s, Garry Martin and Joseph Pear began teaching behavior-analytic courses at the University of Manitoba. They and their students then initiated behavioral treatment and research programs at the Manitoba Developmental Center and St.Amant, the two main residential facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities and autism. Since that time, behavior analysis in Manitoba has flourished, and the knowledge and skills gained have been shared with other behavior analysts throughout the world through conferences, articles, and books. Behavior-analytic books by authors who live and work in Manitoba have been translated into eight languages. Moreover, University of Manitoba graduates in behavior analysis have helped to spread knowledge of behavior analysis throughout the world, and a number have achieved highly influential positions and widespread recognition within the discipline.

The electoral fate and policy impact of “anti-corruption parties” in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Niche parties have been increasingly successful during the last 30 years and have accordingly received a lot of scholarly attention. So far most of the focus has been on Green and radical right parties, and to a more limited extent, regional parties. In this paper I analyze the electoral fates and policy outcomes of another type of niche party, namely those focusing on anti-corruption, whose successes culminated during the 2000s. The study is limited to all new parties campaigning on the issue of anti-corruption in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the Berlin wall and the questions to be answered are: To what extent are these parties successful in obtaining relevant positions in the government so that they are able to effectively fight corruption? What impact do they have on anti-corruption measures, thereby influencing the level of corruption? How successful are these parties in the elections that follow? In short, to what extent do anticorruption parties matter? Apart from electoral and governmental data, the analysis is based on the Freedom House Nation in Transit annual reports, in which one section deals with the efforts to curb corruption. The results are rather mixed, but indicate that the more influential positions the anti-corruption parties (ACPs) have in government, the better are their anti-corruption performances. That implies that they are serious and competent enough to tackle those issues, despite their newness and lack of experience. Not surprisingly, the incumbent ACPs fare worse than those in opposition in subsequent elections, but quite a few still remain popular. Finally, all but one party abandoned their anti-corruption rhetoric in their second election, which implies that anti-corruption is a different type of issue, compared to the ones used by previous niche parties.

Women in power

Women occupy a small minority of elite positions in contemporary society. In addition, the minority of women who gain access to influential elite positions are often assumed to have their actual influence circumscribed by mechanisms of marginalization. However, systematic evidence to support the latter view is relatively scarce. We apply social network analysis to study sex differences in local elite networks in Sweden, and show empirically that, despite the fact that women are the minority group across all elite dimensions, female elites uphold the same ‘structural status’ as male elites.

Beyond the Everyday

BEYOND THE EVERYDAY Ben Highmore, Ordinary Lives: Studies in the Everyday, London, Routledge, 2010, 208pp; paperback, £20.99Ben Highmore edited die 2002 andiology The Everyday Life Reader (Roudedge) that first brought him to the attention of readers on bodi sides of the Atlantic. That collection was among a handful of books highlighting the importance of everyday life in studies of culture, and Highmore's capable editorship introduced readers to the most influential positions on the myriad ways that everyday life simultaneously functions as the terrain of the taken-for-granted as well as die experiential realm in which struggles over meaning, selfhood, belonging, and politics are actively waged. In contextualizing the work of a very wide range of figures - all the way from Sigmund Freud, Georg Simmel, Leon Trotsky, \NA ter Benjamin, and Siegfried Kracauer, to Kristin Ross, Erving Goffman, and Mary Kelly - the 2002 collection provides an indispensable archive of statements about the everyday that informs any work done today on the topic. For this reason, his recent single-authored monograph taking up some of the same issues surrounding ordinary life - this time exclusively in his own voice - is once more of interest to readers drawn to the 'stuff' of daily existence.Between the earlier andiology and his new work, Ordinary Lives: Studies in the Everyday, Highmore has written three other monographs on related subjects; so perhaps the current study constitutes something of a summary position on the everyday, an attempt both to take its measure conceptually and to promote its legitimacy as a properly aesthetic object. The book reflects his long-standing focus on die everyday and there is a good deal to learn from it; by the same token, there is also much with which to take issue.If we first consider its strengths, Ordinary Lives reprises the question of experience, looking to sharpen its status as an analytic category: how to think it, how to value it and, above all, how to situate it in relation to aesthetics (as a disciplinary mode of knowing and also as a form of being-in-the-world). Highmore does this by usefully situating historical and philosophical conceptions of the aesdiedc - and aesthetics - from Alexander Baumgarten's eighteenth-century ideas to the propositions spread across several volumes of Jacques Ranciere's contemporary writings. In between, Highmore is assiduous in citing the scholarship on aesthetics that bears on concrete studies of daily experience and its theorization in the discursive registers of cultural and media studies, symbolic anthropology, psychoanalysis, architecture/urban studies and, of course, philosophy. I say 'of course' because in Baumgarten's time aesthetics was only understood as a subset of philosophy per se, but also because aesthetic considerations are today a common feature of philosophical discourse at large, whether in political philosophy (Heidegger, Arendt, Ranciere) or its socio-cultural counterparts (Adorno, Benjamin).What Ordinary Lives elaborates most successfully is the texture and richness of the aesthetic as an epistemological and experiential concept. So, for instance, it is refreshing to be reminded via Michel de Certeau that a classical conception of aesthetics would have subsumed the senses within it - such that 'leading the good life' would include in its meanings passion as much as reflection. This emphasis allows Highmore to promote a return to an earlier conception of the aesthetic, one that rests on everyday experience and ordinary activities rather than on that which has categorically been separated from necessity, feeling, and practicality. In this sense, the project Highmore pursues makes its bid against Immanuel Kant's proposition of 'disinterested contemplation' as well as the epistemological priority given in the Kantian system to 'pure intuition' as appearance (Anschauung).With that said, the author's engagement with Kant is glancing at best, although he does provide a fuller discussion of the ideas of Kant's Scottish interlocutor, David Hume. …

Global poverty: four normative positions

Global poverty is a huge problem in today's world. This survey article seeks to be a first guide to those who are interested in, but relatively unfamiliar with, the main issues, positions and arguments in the contemporary philosophical discussion of global poverty. The article attempts to give an overview of four distinct and influential normative positions on global poverty. Moreover, it seeks to clarify, and put into perspective, some of the key concepts and issues that take center stage in the philosophical discussion of global poverty. The four positions to be discussed are labeled the Maximalist Position, the Minimalist Position, Intermediate Position I and Intermediate Position II. After an account of these four distinct positions, we turn, in the conclusion, to a discussion of what role empirical sciences such as economics and political science should play in normative considerations about global poverty.

Toni S Shippenberg

Toni Shippenberg was both a distinguished scientist and a pillar of the NIDA IRP community, having devoted two decades of her life pursuing neuroscience addiction research on behalf of NIDA's mission. She was seen as an influential leader—both nationally and internationally—in the opiate and psychostimulant research areas, and was one of the crown jewels of the IRP. Dr Shippenberg received her BS in Neuroscience from Colgate University in 1979 and earned a PhD in pharmacology in 1985 from the Baylor College of Medicine. She subsequently undertook post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Martinsried, Germany, where she would work for 7 years in the field of neuropharmacology, gradually taking on greater leadership roles culminating in the position of Chief of the Drug Abuse Research Unit for the Institute in Munich. In 1992, she joined NIDA in the Preclinical Pharmacology Laboratory as a Senior Staff Fellow and later went on to a Tenure Track position, obtaining tenure in 2001 as a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Integrative Neuroscience Section of the Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch. In 2010, she was appointed as Chief of the newly created Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch before formally stepping down from that position earlier this year due to illness. Toni's contributions to the fields of neuroscience and neuropharmacology over the years were outstanding and are reflected by the high esteem she was held in by colleagues within NIH as well as throughout the United States and abroad. For many years, she held influential positions within the neuroscience community by serving as Reviewing Editor for the Journal of Neuroscience and on the Editorial Boards of Neuropsychopharmacology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. In addition, she served as a reviewer for dozens of extramural and intramural grants, participated on numerous advisory boards, and maintained a myriad of extramural collaborations. Her contributions to the field did not go unnoticed, as the NIH Director appointed her to the prestigious Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS) in 2005, a designation allotted to only 500 of the most outstanding scientists within the United States Public Health Service (PHS). In addition, in 2004, she was appointed as an Honorary Professor by the University of Queensland in Australia and also held appointments of Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Medical School and Research Associate Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr Shippenberg was the recipient of numerous awards over the years, including the NIDA/NIH Women Scientist Achievement Award in 2009, a J. William Fulbright Senior Specialist Award in 2008, an Australian Federation Fellow award in 2006, and the NIDA Director's Scientific Merit Award in 1994, 1995, and 1998. Not only was Toni a distinguished neuroscientist, but she was also an exemplary mentor and citizen within the NIH and NIDA communities. Her mentees consistently moved on to successful independent scientific careers at leading institutions around the world, and her fellows invariably lauded her for her availability, knowledge, support, and generosity. Her mentorship abilities were recognized in 2005 when she won an NIH Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award. Furthermore, Toni was extremely generous with her time through service on the NIDA Animal Care and Use Committee, the IRP Promotions and Tenure Committee, and the NIDA Postdoctoral Advisory Committee, not to mention memberships on a host of additional NIH committees. On a personal note, Toni's positive energy, sense of humor, and warm personality will be missed as much as her science. She will be remembered both as a wonderful person and for her contributions to addiction neuroscience.

Satisficing: How You Can Be Both a Mom and a Professor

<i>Satisficing</i>: How You Can Be Both a Mom and a Professor

More than belief, but not more than belief and desire

Manuel A. Vásquez’ More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion paints a rich picture of what a ‘non-reductive materialist framework for the study of religion’ would look like. Although it receives strong motivation from the inability of the predominant meta-approaches of theorizing religion to take seriously a range of materially grounded religious phenomena, it suffers somewhat from a lack of independent and autonomous argumentation. This article explores a convergence between Vásquez’ main points and the basic elements of one of the most influential positions within philosophical semantics – namely the semantic holism of Donald Davidson. Because Davidson's holism (assuming its correctness) provides constraints on all forms of theorizing, the fact that Vásquez’ position, unlike the ones he critiques, conforms to those constraints lends it a degree of rational presumption.