London Metropolitan University Research Articles

Gender sensitisation through course design thinking

Translators’ training providers, including Higher Education (HE), play a big part in shaping the minds and behaviours of future translators. Therefore, translation courses must focus on implementing practices and resources which will enhance not only students’ linguistic and technical skills, but also cultural awareness, social responsibility, and ethical principles. Sexual/identity discourse is an area of critical enquiry which presents significant challenges that translators frequently do not seem to be able to handle due to their generally low level of gender understanding and sensitivity. This is where translators’ trainers need to take action. The current article – which collects the first findings of an in-progress educational project carried out at London Metropolitan University – suggests examples of activities and aspects to consider in curriculum design to create an effective framework which can ensure a more consistent embedding of gendersensitive policies in the curriculum of translation courses.

Auditing, Revealing and Promoting Industry in the London Borough of Southwark

Renewed enthusiasm surrounds the potential for urban industry and its contribution to the socioeconomic diversity of cities, despite concerns about the loss of industrial uses, land, and buildings in high-value, post-industrial cities. Yet, industry is often hidden and undervalued, and methodologies to change the culture around nurturing industry in cities have not been well explored. As a first step in moving this agenda forward, this article proposes effective ways to reveal industrial uses and to advocate for policy protections of the land they occupy. It examines how London Metropolitan University’s School of Art, Architecture and Design (AAD) Cities action researchers applied their <em>Audit, Reveal and Promote </em>methodology to Southwark, a London borough with a high concentration of urban industry. There are key aspects to revealing industrial economies: collecting accurate data on the ground, showcasing local businesses, building stakeholder networks through mutual trust, and creating a space of possibilities between vertical hierarchical and grassroots power networks to enable stakeholders to participate in urban change. This article presents a methodology for cultural change towards valuing a mix of uses, including industry, to transform land development towards retention and densification of industry.

Going beyond remedial learning support: reframing learning development as a catalyst for practice learning. A case study exploring father involvement in social work education.

This conference paper presents Learning Development as transcending remedial and deficit notions of academic support. A Learning Developer based at London Metropolitan University, presents a case study that illustrates the values and impact of Learning Development and Praxis.
 This research project piloted a Problem Based Learning (PBL) methodology in the curriculum area of Social Work. The project worked in collaboration with social work students, lecturers and university partners between 2019 to 2021. This session may be of particular interest to those working with students in the social professions and work based learning courses.
 Key challenges and implications for practice:
 
 Subject specialists seeing the Learning Developer role as one of ‘fixing students’.
 Potential of Problem Based Learning as part of accredited Social Work courses.
 Integrating Learning Development; embedded vs bolt on quick fixes.
 Learning Development as scaffolding reflective writing practice.
 
 The project overcame these issues with a reach that rippled across six north east London Local Authorities as part of a Teaching Partnership. It has also been included as a topical issue for reflection, titled: ‘Promoting Positive Father Involvement’ as part of modules in practice learning. Both students and staff engaged in a workshop programme that scaffolded a dialogue between them, addressing issues of father engagement as part of practice.
 Students were able to synthesise themes of theory, policy, legislation and its application to practice. As a result, some students developed substantial case studies at both level 5 and 6, and these even informed their later dissertations and research projects. This demonstrates the social value and wider impact that Learning Development has had on improving outcomes for not only students, but fathers, children and their families.

Creative Use of OpenAI in Education: Case Studies from Game Development

Educators and students have shown significant interest in the potential for generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to support student learning outcomes, for example, by offering personalized experiences, 24 h conversational assistance, text editing and help with problem-solving. We review contemporary perspectives on the value of AI as a tool in an educational context and describe our recent research with undergraduate students, discussing why and how we integrated OpenAI tools ChatGPT and Dall-E into the curriculum during the 2022–2023 academic year. A small cohort of games programming students in the School of Computing and Digital Media at London Metropolitan University was given a research and development assignment that explicitly required them to engage with OpenAI. They were tasked with evaluating OpenAI tools in the context of game development, demonstrating a working solution and reporting on their findings. We present five case studies that showcase some of the outputs from the students and we discuss their work. This mode of assessment was both productive and popular, mapping to students’ interests and helping to refine their skills in programming, problem-solving, critical reflection and exploratory design.

Mark Eaton—A Non-traditional Path to Librarianship

In The Profession the Bulletin showcases some of the creative ways the study of religion can be put to use in and beyond academia. The Bulletin staff sat down with Mark Eaton, a librarian at The City University of New York (CUNY), which consists of 25 campuses and 31 libraries. Mark Eaton obtained his Bachelor of Arts in religious studies at McGill University before receiving a Master of Information Studies in library studies at the University of Toronto and later, a Master of Arts in religious studies at Queens University. Between his degrees, Eaton worked at the London Metropolitan University Library, at a bakery, and on a farm. Eaton describes how his journey in academia and various professions led him down an unexpected, but fulfilling, path.

Perils of Fundamentalism in France

Caroline Fourest is a French feminist writer, film director, journalist, radio presenter at France Culture, and co-founder and editor of the magazine ProChoix. She has been a columnist with Charlie Hebdo and Le Monde and has written several influential essays on the political and religious right in France and the US. She is the author of a biography of the far-right politician Marine Le Pen and of a number of books including In Praise of Blasphemy: Why Charlie Hebdo is Not ‘Islamophobic’, Brother Tariq: the Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan and most recently The Offended Generation.
 Stephen Cowden teaches in the School of Social Professions at the London Metropolitan University. He is an editorial collective member of Feminist Dissent.

The joy of teaching and learning in academia – teachers’ perspectives from three countries

All over the world, the educational landscape has changed dramatically over the last year, impacting the way we teach and learn. It is time for reflecting and searching for new ways to support each other, during these pandemic times and beyond; time to co-construct creative partnerships and to innovate new ways to co-create. Change is an inevitable part of teaching and learning but the adaptations currently required are of unprecedented scale. How can we teach and learn with joy in today’s academia? How can we support each other, as teachers, in more creative ways? These two reflective questions were at the base of the study, which was conducted by university teachers from three countries: “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania; London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom; and University of Calgary, Canada. The methods used included interviews, focus groups and free writing with colleagues in each university. Findings revealed the challenges faced by each participant due to the emotional pressure caused in these supercomplex times, and the struggle to bring joy of teaching and learning in creative ways. This small ethnographic project reveals a need to shift our thinking about emotions and how we may facilitate the greatest success of all our students, by continually inventing new solutions and teaching with enthusiasm.

Is it time to make touchscreens contactless? [Health and Safety

Contactless technology is proving invaluable during the current coronavirus pandemic by eliminating the need to exchange cash or press buttons on a chip-and-pin machine. However, for many businesses, such as fast-food restaurants, the only option for taking a customer's initial order without face-to-face contact is a touchscreen - and that actually risks spreading infection more widely. Antibacterial touchscreens exist, but this misses an important factor. As well as being genuinely hygienic, kiosks have to be perceived to be safe by customers. An anti-Covid coating isn't likely to cut it for the general public: many people won't trust it, no matter how good it is. Even before the current health crisis, there were reports of gut and faecal bacteriabeing found on every fast-food touchscreen swabbed in a study conducted by London Metropolitan University. The paper considers whether the latest audio technology might provide a contactless solution? In particular beamforming and blind source speraration are discussed.

Nutritional factors and cardiovascular disease risk in Black African and Black Caribbean women: a cross-sectional study

People of Black African (BA) and Caribbean (BC) heritage form the third largest ethnic group in England and Wales. Evidence shows they experience higher rates of overweight/obesity, stroke and type 2 diabetes compared to the general population but lower risk of heart disease, which may be explained by the favourable lipid profile they exhibit (2,3). There are limited UK studies on their dietary habits and health. The aim of the current study was to assess nutritional intake and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in UK BA and BC women. A convenience sample of self-ascribed BA and BC women, aged 19-64 years, were recruited (n = 44) from the ATTITUdinal DEterminants of diet and lifestyle (ATTITUDE) study. Cholesterol was measured using a portable CardioChek Blood Analyser, blood pressure using a digital blood pressure monitor and dietary intake via triple pass 24hr recall. Ethical approval was obtained from London Metropolitan University, King’s College London and Westminster University. Percentage energy, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, and fibre and salt intake were calculated and under-reporting was assessed using the Goldberg equation. A sensitivity analysis conducted on nutrient intakes with under-reporters removed. Nutritional intake and CVD risk factors are shown in Table 1. Sixty three percent of participants were overweight or obese. Analysis of the dietary data revealed higher intakes salt, free sugars, fat and saturated fat than recommendations and lower intake of carbohydrate. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of under-reporting (n = 22). Reported data remained unchanged except for fibre intake, which was lower in the under-reporters (14.9g compared to 21.0g) (P = 0.004). Blood lipid profiles and blood pressure data were within recommendations. In conclusion, the anthropometric and certain dietary measures would indicate increased risk for developing CVD in BA and BC women, however, blood lipid profile and blood pressure measures were within healthy ranges.

Learning and teaching partnership narratives relating to the open course ‘Creativity for Learning in Higher Education’ (#creativeHE)

In this article the authors share their experiences about partnership learning and teaching approaches they experienced within the open course Creativity for Learning in Higher Education (#creativeHE), linked to the postgraduate module offered by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with the Creative Academic, London Metropolitan University and colleagues from other institutions in the UK and further field, such as the University of Macedonia in Greece for example. Through reflective narratives from student and staff learners on the course, a facilitator and organiser, insights are gained about their experience and lessons learnt are shared that will inform future iterations of #creativeHE and may also be useful for others who consider opening-up courses in higher education.

Sixty years of spectroscopic research: a tribute to Professor Edward B. M. Steers

It was a very sad day when the unbelievable news reached us that Prof. Edward Steers of London Metropolitan University had passed away. He was a major figure in Glow Discharge Spectroscopy (GDS). This text is intended as a brief overview of Edward’s career in science, his activities in organizing meetings and research networks focused on GDS and the many-sided promotion of the field, including lecturing, his work with graduate students and post-docs, and the various research projects on which he collaborated with many colleagues throughout Europe. He was widely respected and admired for his keen scientific insight and encyclopedic knowledge and he was universally loved as a genuine and wonderful person.

The Management and Quality Assurance of Higher Education Franchising: A Case Study of UK Universities

본 연구는 영국 대학들의 고등교육 프랜차이즈 운영 및 질 관리 실태를 분석할 목적으로 수행되었다. 영국의 중부랭카셔대학, 리버풀존무어스대학, 런던메트로폴리탄대학의 사례를 프로그램 운영 배경, 협력 내용 및 운영형태, 추진체계 및 절차, 품질관리라는 4개 영역을 토대로 분석한 결과, 주요 특징은 다음과 같이 밝혀졌다. 첫째, 영국 대학들의 프랜차이즈 방식 교육과정 공동운영은 학생 자원과 재정의 확보라는 영국 대학의 관심과 국제화 및 위상 제고라는 파트너 대학의 관심이 호혜적으로 반영된 것이다. 둘째, 협력 분야는 영국 대학의 강점 분야와 파트너 대학의 필요에 따라 결정되었으며 영국 대학의 자율성에 힘입어 운영 형태와 학위수여 방식은 다양화되어 있다. 셋째, 프랜차이즈 운영의 투명성과 타당성 확보를 위한 추진체계가 중층적으로 구성되어 있으며, 프로그램 도입 단계에서 대학 본부의 지원이 체계적으로 제공된다. 넷째, 영국 대학들은 본교와 동일 한 품질의 교육서비스를 파트너 대학에 제공하기 위해 엄격한 자체 품질관리를 시행하고 있으며 그 과정에서 고등교육질보장청(QAA)은 중요한 안내 역할을 수행한다. 이상 연구 결과를 토대로 고등교육 프랜차이즈에 관심을 가진 우리나라 대학들과 정부가 해외진출 시 유념할 시사점을 도출하여 제시하였다.The purpose of this study is to analyze the management and quality assurance of higher education franchising in UK universities. Central Lancashire University, Liverpool John Moors University and London Metropolitan University were selected for the case study. The findings based on the framework consisting four areas are as follows. First, the franchising was actively pursued due to the interest of UK universities in securing student and financial resources associated with the interest of partner universities aiming at internationalization and development. Second, the field of cooperation reflected the strengths of UK universities and the needs of partner universities, while the types and degree awarding methods were diversified thanks to the autonomy given to UK universities. Third, the management system was well structured to guarantee transparent and valid operation of franchising with the intensive support of the headquarter at the beginning stage. Fourth, rigorous quality control measures were applied to provide education services of the same quality. In this process, QAA played an important guiding role. Based on these findings, we suggested policy implications for the Korean government as well as universities who are interested in franchising of higher education.

From the Chief Executive and News

From the Chief Executive and News

Interview on biosemiotic ethics with Wendy Wheeler

In this interview, Wendy Wheeler, London Metropolitan University Emerita Professor of English Literature and Cultural Inquiry, discusses her thoughts on biosemiotics and its relevance for ethics. In Wheeler’s perspective, biosemiotics can ground ethics because it offers an alternative and fitting ontology of relations. She shares her thoughts on Peirce as a foundational figure for biosemiotics, and explains why she doubts that an ecological ethics can be framed in terms of laws. Further, she discusses her views on moral agency in nonhumans, and warns against ideas based on human exceptionalism, sentimentalism and puritanism. Wheeler thinks that a biosemiotic ethics can posit a more located, or systemically nested, sense of semiotic value. Her moral question, she explains, would always be something like: Is this growing? Is this lively?

Max Weber's Vision for Bureaucracy: A Casualty of World War I (review)

[MWS 18.2 (2018) 294-305] ISSN 1470-8078 https://doi.org/10.15543/MWS/2018/2/7© Max Weber Studies 2018, Rm 4-12, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ. Book Reviews Glynn Cochrane, Max Weber’s Vision for Bureaucracy: A Casualty of World War I (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), xii + 194pp. (hbk). ISBN 978-3-319-62288-0. $109.99. Glynn Cochrane’s Max Weber’s Vision for Bureaucracy may seem to offer an account of Max Weber’s conception of bureaucracy but in fact it does not. Instead, it is a conceptually confusing account of Weber’s conception of bureaucracy and an inaccurate historical record of Prussian bureaucracy. Cochrane claims that Weber’s personal military service, coupled with his study of the military experience , formed his conception of bureaucracy—but that this ‘vision for bureaucracy’ was ended by Germany’s defeat in 1918. His account is largely devoted to condemning Weber’s work and then setting out his own idealized view of bureaucracy. He proceeds in three major steps: describing Weber’s notion of bureaucracy, comparing it with the Prussian military bureaucracy, and then expounding his own theory of bureaucracy. Cochrane does not spend much time detailing Weber’s conception of bureaucracy, and when he does he relies primarily on secondary sources. His main aim is to show that ‘Weber’s thinking about bureaucracy was heavily influenced by the highly successful experience of the Prussian General Staff’ (3). Cochrane is correct to note that scholars such as Talcott Parsons and Joachim Radkau have largely ‘passed over Weber’s military service’. His attempt to argue for the importance of this experience in Weber’s intellectual development, however, is unpersuasive. He is wrong to claim that Weber ‘began to enjoy military life’ (5). As much as he detested the physical discomfit of military life, he found the drills even worse—they were nothing more than a ‘monstrous stupidity’, according to Marianne Weber. In order to cope with this ‘meaningless and seemingly endless existence’, he would stay out late drinking and then, in a ‘dreamlike, semi-conscious state of mind’, he was able to stand the military routine. The only way that he could perform the drills was when he was hung over.1 1. Marianne Weber, Max Weber: A Biography, trans. and ed. Harry Zohn (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1988), p. 71. Book Reviews 295© Max Weber Studies 2018. Cochrane attempts to show the commonalities between Clausewitz and Weber: ‘Weber followed Clausewitz in giving priority to Germany’s need for national security’. They shared a similar type of ‘goal setting analysis’, and ‘like Clausewitz, Weber used the dialectic in order to frame the issues in his use of the Ideal-Type’ (37, 58, 61). Yet, Clausewitz was concerned with Prussia because Germany as a nation would not exist until January 1871. In addition, Weber and Clausewitz did not share the same goal-setting analysis and Weber certainly did not employ any type of ‘the dialectic’. Clausewitz is discussed in several places but the most detailed discussion is about Clausewitz’s four types of leader (12-14). Yet, Clausewitz concentrated on strategy and tactics and devoted only one chapter out of 125 to leadership qualities (Book One, Chapter 3: ‘On Military Genius’). There is no entry on Clausewitz in any of the six MWG volumes that are devoted to Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, there is no entry in the ten volumes that contain Weber’s correspondence, and there are no references to him in any of the six volumes that pertain to politics or the East Elbian region. Cochrane offers his own view of bureaucracy, which he maintains is based upon his lengthy experience in international banking and in public health programs (xi-xii, 103-107, 118). He believes that the best type of bureaucracy is one that has a ‘flexible hierarchy’ and employs ‘amazing logistics’, where the best workers have ‘strong discipline’ and a true commitment to their ‘calling’ (108-112). Moreover , this involves teamwork, individual initiative, and the ability to think (15, 21, 42, 117, 127, 134, 136). He also insists that these attributes were found in the Prussian Army of the nineteenth century. Yet, it is...

Does dental appearance affect employment prospects: a prospective cross-sectional study.

The principal aim was to establish whether dental appearance affects employment prospects, and if so a secondary aim was to ascertain whether there is a difference between public-facing and non-public-facing jobs. A prospective cross-sectional experimental analogue study. Ninety undergraduates studying at London Metropolitan University School of Business. Vignettes comprising curriculum vitae (CV) with a single photograph of the applicant attached formed the experimental manipulation. For each job application, the written information on the CV remained constant, but the attached photograph had one of three altered dental appearances: (1) aligned teeth, (2) maxillary stainless steel labial fixed appliance and (3) an absent maxillary left lateral incisor. To ascertain whether there are differences between public- and non-public-facing jobs, two different job descriptions with matching CVs were designed. Each participant was randomly assigned an envelope containing one CV with one photograph and asked if they would shortlist the candidate for an interview. Likert scales were used with higher scores indicating greater likelihood to shortlist. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance was conducted with Photo (three levels) and Job Type (two levels) as independent variables, and gender as a covariate. A trend was found for the candidate with an absent maxillary lateral incisor to be less likely to be shortlisted for the public-facing job, compared to both candidates with aligned teeth and with fixed appliances. There were no significant main effects and the interaction was not significant. The effect of gender was not significant. In this study, dental appearance did not influence employment prospects. When a photograph is attached to a CV, the dental appearance of the photograph did not influence whether a candidate was shortlisted for a job interview or their anticipated job performance. There were no differences between public-facing and non-public-facing jobs.

Soziale Schichtung in der industriellen Gesellschaft by M. Rainer Lepsius (review)

[MWS 18.1 (2018) 140-148] ISSN 1470-8078 http://dx.doi.org/10.15543/MWS/2018/1/9© Max Weber Studies 2018, Rm 4-12, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ. Book Reviews M. Rainer Lepsius, Soziale Schichtung in der industriellen Gesellschaft, with a foreword by Oliver Lepsius and an introduction by Wolfgang Schluchter (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2015). It is tempting to ask what would have happened if Rainer Lepsius had published his Habilitation on Social Stratification in Industrial Society back then in 1963. As his son Oliver reports in the foreword, and as I can testify having passed my own Habilitation on Social Structure and Styles of Life1 under his and Wolfgang Schluchter’s supervision in Heidelberg, he mentioned time and again that he should have done so. What a mistake. But the last chapter was missing and some finishing touches on the whole corpus of the text would have been necessary. Since his academic career took off so rapidly—he was quickly put in charge of establishing the social sciences at the University of Mannheim, and then had to step in after Ralf Dahrendorf ’s demise as President of the German Sociological Association in the wake of 1968 to ‘save’ this society from the fate of dissolution— he basically had no time to get back to his Habilitation. In the early 1970s Marxism had captured the attention in class analysis and Lepsius would have been forced to acknowledge these new theoretical developments by adding a chapter on Marxist class analysis. This, however, he never did. Therefore, this analytically rich and important text did not see the light of the day until after his death on October 2, 2014. Habent sua fata libelli. Books have their own fate, indeed, particularly in the case of Lepsius . Without doubt, the publication would have made him one of the preeminent scholars in the field of social inequality. Instead, if he is known in the social scientific world outside of Germany at all, he counts as an institutional thinker, but not as a student of social stratification. Interestingly enough, he is both: a class analyst and an institutionalist. How is this possible? Lepsius dealt with questions of class, inequality, and stratification in a couple of articles, and a superficial reading might regard them as casual papers about 1. See Hans-Peter Müller, Sozialstruktur und Lebensstile. Der neuere theoretische Diskurs über soziale Ungleichheit, 3rd ed. (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997). Book Reviews 141© Max Weber Studies 2018. different aspects of this field of studies. But upon closer look, it turns out that Lepsius had an underlying research agenda. Since he followed in the footsteps of Max Weber’s multidimensional approach of ‘Class, Status, and Party’, he set out to explore how these different dimensions interrelate. What Weber had separated analytically , he wanted to study theoretically and empirically, to discover the intricate relationships between economic differentiation, political interest formation, and cultural value orientations. Lepsius was looking for mechanisms: how economy, politics, and culture operate together with respect to social structure and social inequality. Weber never solved these relationships between life chances and styles of life. Lepsius, however, took Weber’s missing links and interfaces as the construction sites for his own approach. His Habilitation formed the backdrop for his analytical reflections . In seven short but clear-cut chapters, Lepsius put forward a critical analysis of the theory of stratification in order to develop his own approach for the study of social inequality. Between the 1940s and 1960s this topic attracted a lot of attention in international sociology . The crucial vantage point was the question of how and in which way the postwar boom and the long period of growth and prosperity would affect class structure and social stratification in Western societies. Lepsius encountered three different positions (p. 2) in German postwar sociology: 1. The class society of the 19th century has been replaced by growing social differentiation, as Theodor Geiger and René König held; 2. The distinctions between classes have vanished due to enormous growth and prosperity, and a ‘nivellierte Mittelstandsgesellschaft’ (‘a levelled middle class society’, per Helmut Schelsky) has emerged displaying a comparable standard of living as well...

‘Getting into the flow of university’: a coaching approach to student peer support

As Keenan (2014) reports, peer-led learning schemes are gaining momentum globally, bringing benefits to both ‘peer leaders’ and their mentees. Such schemes can also be vehicles for student engagement and supporting successful transition. In its Peer-Assisted Student Success (PASS) scheme, London Metropolitan University has developed a course-embedded model in which trained ‘Success Coaches’ provide academic and personal guidance to first-years on all undergraduate degree programmes via in-class groups and one-to-one support. Another distinctive feature is its adoption of a coaching philosophy in the role of student mentoring. This case study explores the experiences and benefits accrued by both first-year students and Success Coaches from this coaching style, drawing on rich data collected via focus groups using images as a form of ‘arts-based inquiry’. Themes emerging from the data illuminate the nature of the peer relationship. The paper also considers implications, for peer-mentor training, of incorporating a coaching approach.

Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Wirtschaft und die gesellschaftlichen Ordnungen und Mächte. Nachlaß, Teilband 4: Herrschaft by Max Weber Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Soziologie. Unvollendet 1919–1920 by Max Weber Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Entstehungsgeschichte und Dokumente by Max Weber (review)

[MWS 17.2 (2017) 282-296] ISSN 1470-8078 http://dx.doi.org/10.15543/MWS/2017/2/9© Max Weber Studies 2017, Rm 4-12, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ. Review Essay Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Wirtschaft und die gesellschaftlichen Ordnungen und Mächte. Nachlaß, Teilband 4: Herrschaft, ed. Edith Hanke, with Thomas Kroll (Max Weber Gesamtausgabe I/22-4; Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2005), xxx + 944pp. (hbk). ISBN 978-3-16-148694-4. €369.00. Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Soziologie. Unvollendet 1919– 1920,editedbyKnutBorchardt,EdithHankeandWolfgangSchluchter (Max Weber Gesamtausgabe I/23; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), xxvi + 847pp. (hbk). ISBN 978-3-16-150292-7. €334.00. Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Entstehungsgeschichte und Dokumente, edited by Wolfgang Schluchter (Max Weber Gesamtausgabe I/24; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), xi + 285pp. (hbk). ISBN 978-3-16-150058-9. €114.00. In 1984 the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe commenced publication with Bd. I/15, Zur Politik im Weltkrieg. Schriften und Reden 1914– 1918, edited by Wolfgang Mommsen with the assistance of Gangolf Hübinger. More than thirty years later we still await publication of the ‘methodological’ writings in the MWG; but whether this matters very much is an open question. As Wilhelm Hennis pointed out in a contemporary review of Bd. I/15, given the general lack of manuscripts , typescripts, and other materials, the MWG could never be a ‘historico-critical’ edition since the editors were chiefly limited to reprinting, correcting, and annotating published versions of Weber’s writings.1 It appears to have been Weber’s practice to discard notes, drafts, manuscripts, and proofs once he was finished with them, and so for the great bulk of his work all we have are the printed versions. 1. Wilhelm Hennis, ‘Im langen Schatten einer Edition: Zum Erscheinen des ersten Bandes der Max-Weber-Gesamtausgabe (MWG)’, originally in Zeitschrift für Politik N. F. 32 (June 1985): 208-17; cited here as in his Max Weber und Thukydides: Nachträge zur Biographie des Werks (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), pp. 73-86 (80). Tribe Review Essay 283© Max Weber Studies 2017. Of course, since he only ever published two ‘books’—an extract from his doctoral thesis and his Habilitationsschrift—these writings were scattered through journals, newspapers, and conference proceedings ; but Marianne Weber had assembled much of this work in the early 1920s, publishing the ‘methodological’ writings in 1922 as the Wissenschaftslehre. And so we have had a working version of what will, eventually, be MWG Bde. I/7 and I/12 since 1922. What the world actually needed, argued Hennis, was not an exorbitantly expensive ‘complete works’ that turned out for the most part to contain what was already in circulation, but a cheap paperback version of the existing principal writings. He even went so far as to suggest that the publisher of the MWG had a strong commercial interest in the project, since copyright would run out in 1990 and the creation of a new standard edition would refresh the publisher’s rights.2 It soon become clear that having Weber’s writings on wartime politics (Bd. I/15 1988) or on rural and economic policy in the 1890s (I/4 1993) provided a solid basis for the re-assessment of the orthodoxies of the Weber reception. When he launched his acerbic criticisms of the MWG project in the mid 1980s Hennis was engaged in his own studies of Weber, travelling to the GDR to read the correspondence in the Merseburg archives, and subjecting Weber’s writings to line-by-line examination. The essays that resulted from this work contributed a great deal to the positive reassessment of Weber in the later twentieth century; the edition formed a valuable backdrop to this ongoing revision, but for a long time did not appear to be that central to it. The publication of the first volume of letters in 1990 revealed some of the real novelty that the edition would offer, although starting with the correspondence of 1906 and taking until 2012 to arrive at the letters of 1920 led to its own frustrations. Likewise the extension of Abteilung III, devoted to lecture notes, to seven volumes...

The Economic Ethics of World Religions and their Laws: An Introduction to Max Weber's Comparative Sociology by Andreas E. Buss (review)

[MWS 17.2 (2017) 297-321] ISSN 1470-8078 http://dx.doi.org/10.15543/MWS/2017/2/10© Max Weber Studies 2017, Rm 4-12, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ. Book Reviews Andreas E. Buss, The Economic Ethics of World Religions and their Laws: An Introduction to Max Weber’s Comparative Sociology (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2015), 219pp. (hbk). ISBN 978-3-84872424 -6. €44.00. The title of this book is unquestionably accurate, but it does not really tell the reader what to expect from the book. In contrast, the subtitle does tell the reader what to expect, but whether it does, or does not, meet the reader’s expectations depends largely on what the reader thinks an ‘introduction’ should be. If one expects an ‘introduction’ to be a survey of most of the major points then Buss’s book almost always succeeds; but if one expects an ‘introduction’ to be carefully and clearly written then his book does not always succeed. There are chapters in which Buss sets out Weber’s concepts and arguments rather plainly, and a few which seem to be written for the more advanced reader; some provide a more general overview, while others seem to be highly focused. Both contribute to sense that the book may have been composed from two different studies. Chapter Three, the book’s longest, is devoted to ‘The World Religions and Their Ethics’, and is probably the most successful of all of the chapters. Buss introduces and explains many of the basic tenets of the six religions that Weber examined, and competently shows how and why Weber’s conclusions from his investigations were largely correct. For those who do not know much about Hinduism , Buddhism, and Taoism, Buss provides welcome insights into Weber’s understanding of the economic ethics of these religions. Weber recognized the impact of the caste system on Hinduism, but as Buss notes, he did not think that it prevented any major economic developments. Instead, it was Hinduism’s emphasis on tradition and the lack of interest in rationalism that made the difference (77-78). Buss suggests that what prevented any significant economic development in Buddhism was its lack of interest in planning and its ambivalent approach to wealth, which was viewed not as wrong in 298 Max Weber Studies© Max Weber Studies 2017. itself but rather as a source of temptation (83-84). While Taoist mysticism shared the general tendency of mysticism to minimize action, it never led to the complete rejection of the world because it espoused the ideal of the educated gentleman (62). The notion of the educated gentleman is also found in Confucianism: study leads to grace and dignity, but not to profit and wealth (60-61). The question why economic development did not occur in China is a perplexing one. Weber acknowledged that there were certain similarities between Chinese rationalism and Protestant rationalism, but he pointed to the importance of tradition and magic for the former, which were superseded in the latter. Buss makes these important points but very briefly (65-66). When it comes to Weber’s interpretation of ancient Judaism, Buss discusses the Jews’ status as a pariah people and how it affected their views about money. In this, Buss’s treatment is largely correct , except for the suggestion that it was Nietzsche’s Antichrist that inspired Weber (96); more likely it was Zur Genealogie der Moral. Though Weber never published an essay on Islam, Buss takes inspiration from Wolfgang Schluchter and attempts to outline how Islam’s exterior factors (institutions) and interior factors (motivational spirit) would have likely contributed to its particular economic ethics (101-102). Weber stressed the differences between medieval feudalism and Islam; while both tended to be traditional forms of rulership, feudalism was an ‘approximation of a rule based on law’. In contrast, Islam’s military institutions of slaves and taxation ‘lessened the calculability of the administrative/legal processes’ (103). In characterizing the ‘spirit’ of Islam, Buss suggests that Weber thought there were significant similarities with ascetic Protestantism: both Islam and Calvinism believed in a transcendent God and asserted that the gulf between this omnipotent deity and human beings cannot be...