Relational Logic Research Articles

The role of cooperation in a creative industry: the case of UK studio pottery

In this paper, we explore the role that cooperation plays in a small‐scale creative sector, namely that of UK studio pottery. Drawing upon data from a survey of studio potters, we examine the extent to which these artists cooperate with others in their production activities and then assess the impact of this cooperation on their sales performance. While our results suggest that studio potters can and do benefit from establishing stronger cooperative ties, the nurturing of such ties is not always easy and significant barriers to cooperation exist. Overcoming such barriers depends very much upon the nature of dyadic relations between actors, which is something we suggest reflects the governance structure of the network.

The Right to Pass Freely: Circulation, Begging and the Mobile Self

Scholars of public space and law criticize regulation that governs the behaviour of the public poor for both its illiberal effects and motivations. The arguments used to justify such regulation are frequently characterized as a smokescreen, concealing hidden agendas, and are thus often overlooked. But to fail to take such arguments seriously, I argue, is to miss their political traction. They reflect and help constitute a powerfully hegemonic view. This, I suggest, has less to do with their inherent truthfulness than with their basis in a prevailing social imaginary that can be characterized as broadly liberal. At their core is a particular conception of the atomistic self-governing individual, engaged in dyadic relations, structured according to a logic of negative rights, autonomy and mobility. Rather than damning the illiberalism of this law-talk, in other words, critics would do better to recognize and critique its deeply liberal nature

Measuring and making decisions for social reciprocity

Social reciprocity may explain certain emerging psychological processes likely to be founded on dyadic relations. Although indexes and statistics have been proposed to measure and make statistical decisions regarding social reciprocity in groups, these tools were generally developed to identify association patterns rather than to quantify the discrepancies between what each individual addresses to his or her partners and what is received from those partners in return. Additionally, social researchers' interest extends beyond measuring groups at the global level because dyadic and individual measurements are also necessary for proper descriptions of social interactions. This study is concerned with a new statistic for measuring social reciprocity at the global level and with decomposing that statistic in order to identify which dyads and individuals account for a significant part of asymmetry in social interactions. In addition to a set of indexes, some exact analytical results are derived, and a way of making statistical decisions is proposed.

The relationship between three types of aggression and peer relations in elementary school children

Previous studies have repeatedly found that aggression causes various internalizing and externalizing problems. Despite the robust relationship, exactly how aggression causes these problems remains unclear, although it is plausible to postulate that this occurs both directly and indirectly (via other behavioural factors). One possible indirect factor might be the aggravation of peer relations. The poor peer relations of aggressive children could make them isolated psychologically or physically from peers, which in turn might result in depressive or disruptive problems. This study examined the relationships between three types of aggression and peer relations in Japanese elementary school children. The three aggression types comprised reactive-expressive (i.e., verbal and physical aggression), reactive-inexpressive (e.g., hostility), and proactive-relational aggression (i.e., aggression that can break human relationships, for instance, by circulating malicious rumours). Participants were 1581 children in grades 4 to 6 (752 boys and 829 girls), all of whom completed the Proactive-Reactive Aggression Questionnaire for Children to measure three types of aggression and the Peer Relation Questionnaire to measure peer relations (mutual understanding, self-disclosure, and similarity of taste) and number of friends. Hierarchical regression analyses of the data showed that higher scores of relational aggression were significantly associated with higher scores of all of the peer relations and the number of friends, and that higher scores of inexpressive aggression were significantly associated with lower scores of all except for self-disclosure in the peer relations. These findings suggest that among the three types of aggression, relational aggression leads to the best friendship in both dyadic relations and the number of friends, whereas inexpressive aggression to the poorest friendship. The implications of these findings with respect to internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours for aggressive children are discussed.

Stakeholder theory and dynamics in supply chain collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for analyzing stakeholder‐management strategies in supply chain collaboration. The authors aim to show how prior dyadic relations with a stakeholder and perception of situational demands on the relationship determine the choice of aggressive vs cooperative strategies in managing stakeholder relationships.Design/methodology/approach – To develop a blueprint for predicting collaboration strategies, literature on stakeholder theory, stakeholder management strategies, field theory, and organizational mental models was surveyed. From the literature, 31 predictors of eight stakeholder management strategies were identified. To operationalize the study's constructs, results of a national survey were analyzed to determine the significant predictors of stakeholder management strategies.Findings – Factor analysis identified two groups of stakeholder strategies: aggressive strategies and cooperative strategies. Aggressive strategies feature some form of fo...

Model-theory of vector-spaces over unspecified fields

Vector spaces over unspecified fields can be axiomatized as one-sorted structures, namely, abelian groups with the relation of parallelism. Parallelism is binary linear dependence. When equipped with the n-ary relation of linear dependence for some positive integer n, a vector-space is existentially closed if and only if it is n-dimensional over an algebraically closed field. In the signature with an n-ary predicate for linear dependence for each positive integer n, the theory of infinite-dimensional vector spaces over algebraically closed fields is the model-completion of the theory of vector spaces.

Contemporary Family Relationships and Life Values: A Comparative Analysis of Men and Women in Israel

The study aimed to examine gender differences in attitudes toward contemporary family life and dyadic relations in Israeli society. In addition, the relationships between those attitudes and life values were examined. The research sample included 82 Israelis (36 men and 46 women) in a broad age range. Family life attitudes were examined in the following areas: gender roles, divorce, homosexuality, blended families, cohabitation, and planned orphanhood (posthumous fertilization). The women expressed more liberal attitudes than men toward gender roles, homosexuality, and planned orphanhood, but no gender differences were found in the other attitudes examined. Among men, most life values correlated with attitudes toward homosexuality; among women, most life values correlated with attitudes toward divorce.

Reply to Fagan: Hanging God at Auschwitz: The necessity of a solitary encounter with the Other as the genesis of Levinasian ethics

This paper is a response to Fagan's argument that Levinas's attempt to build an ethics, separated from politics, is misconceived. I take issue with her claim that the separation is untenable because the Third is always present in the encounter with the Other. I maintain that this conclusion fails to appreciate Levinas's attempt to resolve the apparent contradictions in his greatest work, Otherwise than Being. My approach, consciously in the Levinasian tradition, is elliptical in the sense that I seek not simply to explain why her thesis is a misreading of his thinking but to demonstrate why the separation of ethics from politics is essential to it. Levinas's quest for an unproblematized ethics is a response to the collapse of belief in a transcendental deity, an inevitable outcome of the Shoah, and leads him to locate the divine in the face of the Other. This has to be a solitary encounter, a dyadic relation of Self to the Other, as the pre-cognitive genesis of ethics that accords precedence of the Good over the classical philosophical obsession with the True.

An Axiomatic System of Social Motivations in Dyadic Relation:

An Axiomatic System of Social Motivations in Dyadic Relation:

On the Quantification of Dyadic Relation in the Structural Modeling

On the Quantification of Dyadic Relation in the Structural Modeling

Is there a monadic authoritarian peace: Authoritarian regimes, democratic transition types and the first use of violent force

This paper examines conflict proneness of authoritarian states and tests whether the monadic democratic peace argument can be extended to explain the conflict behavior of authoritarian states. Previous works have examined the propensity of authoritarian states to engage in conflict in dyadic relations with other states, rather than directly examining the conflict propensity of these states using monadic analysis (or who uses violent force first). Further, little empirical work has examined how different types of transitions from authoritarian rule affect the conflict propensity of states. Using Caprioli’s and Trumbore’s (2004) First use of Violent Force (FuVF) dataset for 1980 - 2002, we find little support for the monadic argument that authoritarian regimes that have more institutional checks on executive authority are less likely to first use military force than are regimes that have fewer such checks; however, we find that the type of transition is a more important a variable than the type of authoritarian regime in explaining the conflict proneness of the state. Key words: Monadic democratic peace, first use of force, democratic peace, democratization

Purchasing theory and practice: an agenda for change

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to describe the consequences for the purchasing and supply management field of its current focus on the behaviours and concerns of extremely large corporations.Design/methodology/approachThis is a short viewpoint article.FindingsIt is found that there is a lack of research in purchasing and supply management in SMEs. Small and medium sized companies are in need of a deeper understanding of dyadic relations. Sadly, as fashion in the field has embraced metaphors‐fit‐only‐for giants, it may be increasingly difficult to get studies published that adopt this ancient, diminutive metaphor.Originality/valueThe main contribution of the piece is to draw attention to the current lack of research in the field to the dominant form of company in every economy – the SME.

Responding to Roommate Troubles: Reconsidering Informal Dyadic Control

Existing analyses of informal control within dyadic relations neglect the nonpenal responses that characterize many such control efforts, and they give minimal attention to the interactional and interpretive processes that characterize such responses. And while dispute transformation provides a well-developed model of the development of dyadic disputes, this model is limited in prespecifying “injury” as the starting point for these processes and in neglecting informal reactions other than “claiming.” Integrating theories of informal control and dispute transformation, this article provides a case study analyzing the nature and processes of informal reactions to troubles involving college roommates, identifying three general categories of such response: managerial reactions, which involve unilateral, nonconfrontational efforts to manage the consequences or implications of the trouble or to change indirectly the troubling behavior; complaint-making reactions, where the troubled party attempts to get the other to change the disturbing behavior; and distancing and punitive reactions, which are relationally despairing responses marked by open confrontation and hostility.

Coordinative structures and development of food supply chains

PurposeThis case study aims to analyse dyadic empirical relations within food supply chains. The categories of market, hierarchy or power, network and social relations were used to disclose the coordinative structures on the chain level and connect these with the chain development.Design/methodology/approachThe actors of three vegetable supply chains were interviewed. The coordinative relations of actors were identified and the coordinative structures on the chain level were made visible by combining the ego networks of chain actors. The “story of supply chain development” was intertwined with the analysis.FindingsThe studied food supply chains were coordinated mostly by duplex or multiplex relations, combining market, hierarchy or power, network and social relations. In addition to the strategic network, presented in literature, the study identified a coordinative structural mode of socially overlaid network. In general, the network relation was found to be used as an effective “glue” within all coordinative structures. Both coordinative structural modes exhibited substantial growth, on the condition that agricultural base and buyers enabled enlargement.Originality/valueEconomic sociological perspective has been used in explaining food supply chain development by making visible the coordinative relations and structures on the chain level. The chain level phenomena appear as a promising field of study.

Caregiver sensitivity, contingent social responsiveness, and secure infant attachment.

A World Health Organization report (e.g., Richter, 2004) on importance of caregiver-child relationships as a context for growth and development of young children throughout world noted that: Sensitive and responsive caregiving is a requirement for healthy neurophysiological, physical and psychological development of a child. Sensitivity and responsiveness have been identified as key features of caregiving behavior related to later positive health and development outcomes in young children. (p. 1) One of developmental consequences of sensitive and responsive caregiving is secure infant/adult attachment (Bowlby, 1988). Secure attachment is generally understood to be an affectional bond between an infant and an adult caregiver (1) that has two elements: (1) infant seeking out attachment figure in times of distress and need and (2) infant having ability and confidence to engage in activities separate from attachment figure (Ainsworth, 1989). The development of attachment relationship is recognized as one of most important aspects of human social and emotional development (e.g., Lamb, Ketterlinus, & Fracasso, 1992). This is case, in part, because secure attachment has been found to be related to enhanced cognitive, social, and emotional development throughout childhood and early adolescence (Bukatko & Daehler, 2001; Fagot & Kavanagh, 1993; Hazen & Durrett, 1982; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978; Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990). Many theories as well as variations of theories have been posited for explaining sources and consequences of secure infant attachment (see e.g., Cassidy & Shaver, 1999; Egeland & Erickson, 1993). John Bowlby (1969) is credited with original formulation of attachment theory, and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969) is credited with highlighting importance of caregiver sensitivity as a determinant of secure attachment. Gewirtz and his colleagues proposed a behavioral, or operant learning analysis, perspective of secure infant attachment that considers caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness as having reinforcement properties and infants' responses to caregivers' behavior as having differential consequences on caregivers' reactions (e.g., Gewirtz, 1972a, 1991; Gewirtz & Boyd, 1977; Gewirtz & Pelaez-Nogueras, 1991). According to Gewirtz, attachment is parsimoniously explained by fact that child behavior is cued and reinforced by caregiver responses and may have either positive or negative effects on child behavior that in turn is directed toward caregiver (e.g., type of attachment). In Gewirtz's (1991) own words, the dyadic functional relations between cue and reinforcing stimuli from attachment figure/object person and child's responses they control that connote attachment of child to attachment figure may occur in any segment of life from infancy onward (p. 250). The purposes of this article are to summarize findings from: (a) two practice-based research syntheses of relationships between caregiver sensitivity and secure infant attachment (Kassow & Dunst, 2004, 2005) and (b) one practice-based research synthesis of interventions for strengthening caregiver sensitivity to child behavior (Dunst & Kassow, 2004). A practice-based research synthesis involves review and integration of research evidence where focus of investigation is same or similar environmental (intervention) characteristics and how variations in characteristics are related to variations in consequences of different events or experiences. These kinds of research syntheses differ from more traditional research reviews and syntheses by disentangling and unpacking what matters most in terms of explaining relationship(s) between different environmental experiences and their consequences (Dunst, 2007; Dunst, Trivette, & Cutspec, 2002). …

Guest Editor's Introduction

Guest Editor's Introduction Karen L. Harris The Focus of This Issue Is on the Chinese in South Africa whose history and present development have received increasing scholarly attention. The four articles and one report were papers initially presented at the regional conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas (ISSCO) held at the University of Pretoria in December, 2006. They discuss a range of topics that reflect the extent and significance of the Chinese presence in this part of the world. The first two articles deal with the indentured Chinese laborers imported to South Africa during the first decade of the 20th century to work on the Witwatersrand gold mines in the northern interior of the country. Andrew Macdonald takes a refreshing look at the topic by assessing the attempt by medical officials to impose colonial control over the laborers as they were transported from China to South Africa in what he refers to as "floating compounds." He relates how both state and capital went to great lengths to ensure the laborers were kept in a state of good health, a futile attempt which was tenaciously resisted by the latter. Tu Huyhn's article focuses on the question of identity formation during the period of Chinese indenture. Tu argues that in the early 20th century, the deliberations over the import of labor from China as well as public reactions to the desertion of Chinese laborers is an historical process of great significance in the development of "South Africa's racial labor hierarchy." Yoon Park's article brings the reader to the more recent past by taking an in-depth look at the place and space of the Chinese in the latter half of the 20th century and considering the question of identity among South African-born Chinese. Using a sociological frame of reference, her study shows how the South African state diminished the Chinese sense of identity, while the Chinese state, or "mythical China," served to reinforce an ethnic Chinese identity. Emmanuel Ma Mung looks beyond the borders of South Africa to the bigger context of Africa and Chinese migration. Focusing on the past decade, he discusses three strands of Chinese migration to the continent which has taken place in tandem with China's recently expanded foreign policy toward Africa. He also re-addresses the dyadic relations between China and the Chinese overseas and argues ultimately for the extension of this analysis to a triadic relationship which includes the settled countries. In the report on the life of a Chinese woman, Thisgingnio, who settled in the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th century, historian James Armstrong, through a "mosaic-building process," uses her carefully inventoried estate and other archival records to piece together what might have been a tragic life, but ultimately one of "recovery and resiliency." It would also be a story that typifies the lives of exiles and convicts sent to the Cape. Copyright © 2008 Journal of Chinese Overseas

The Dyadic Nature of Bullying and Victimization: Testing a Dual‐Perspective Theory

For this study, information on Who Bullies Who was collected from 54 school classes with 918 children (M age = 11) and 13,606 dyadic relations. Bullying and victimization were viewed separately from the point of view of the bully and the victim. The two perspectives were highly complementary. The probability of a bully-victim relationship was higher if the bully was more dominant than the victim, and if the victim was more vulnerable than the bully and more rejected by the class. In a bully-victim dyad, boys were more often the bullies. There was no finding of sex effect for victimization. Liking reduced and disliking increased the probability of a bully-victim relationship.

Towards a theory of inter-organizational networking

This article combines inductive and deductive theory building to identify building blocks for a theory of inter-organizational networking, a phenomenon that has gained prominence in international relations, but is largely neglected by IR scholars. Organizational and network theory are identified as the major starting points for theory building. Hypotheses are generated from the network of Euro-Atlantic security institutions, which has become the most sophisticated network of its kind since the early 1990s. The article looks specifically at the genesis of dyadic inter-organizational relations and of entire networks, at the relevance of networking for policy output and at the system effects that networks have on individual organizations. The theoretical findings are presented so as to allow a transfer to other geographical and functional areas of networking.

Private control and collective control in international joint ventures

Abstract and Key Results ▪ This study separates joint venture control into private and collective control and examines how these two distinct types of control in IJVs are influenced by dyadic relations between cross-cultural partners. ▪ Private control involves unilateral actions taken by an individual party to maximize its own interests and gain, whereas collective control involves bilateral actions taken jointly to pursue collective gain. ▪ This study demonstrates that private and collective controls are neither exogenous nor predetermined but are instead shaped by mutual relationships between partners, together with transactional needs and environmental parameters. ▪ Our analysis shows that superior dyadic relations, such as resource complementarity, operational integration, objective conformity, and interparty attachment, restrain private control and associated opportunism while enhancing collective control and associated cooperation.

An Inductive Theorem on the Correctness of General Recursive Programs

We prove a relatively simple inductive theorem (analogous to Floyd and Dijkstra's Invariance Theorem for iterative programs) to verify the correctness of an ample class of non-deterministic general recursive programs. This result is based on Hoare and Jifeng's relational semantics. By considering the structure of its code and specification, we propose regularity conditions on the predicate transformer associated to the fixed-point equation of a general (non deterministic) recursive program to prove it correct by induction on a well founded ordering of a covering of the domain of its corresponding input-output relation. All fixed point solutions associated to a predicate transformer satisfying these regularity conditions coincide when restricted to the domain of its least fixed point solution. We find these conditions non unduly restrictive, since continuous operators defining deterministic programs as their corresponding least fixed-point solutions must fulfill them. We couch deterministic programs (viewed as least solutions of fixed-point equations) in a restriction of Hoare and Jifeng's P programming language of (partial) finitary relations into the greatest solutions of fixed-point equations expressed in terms of “total finitary” relations of an adequate restriction of their D language