Critical Type Research Articles

Duck-Rabbits in Social Analysis

This article differentiates between three approaches to methodological diversity: monism, pluralism, and eclecticism. It suggests that in advancing a set-theoretic understanding of qualitative research, A Tale of Two Cultures makes an unusually strong argument for robust pluralism. The article anticipates three types of critiques that are likely to be made of the book: Monists will argue that pluralism is an illusion; quantitative researchers will suggest that Goertz and Mahoney inaccurately describe quantitative methods; and qualitative researchers will express doubts as to whether their tradition can be best understood using set theory. The article mainly focuses on the third of these responses, and suggests that even if A Tale of Two Cultures is not always convincing as a descriptive account of current practices, it holds considerable promise as a prescriptive agenda.

Weathering climate change. The value of social memory and ecological knowledge

Pillatt's research provides exactly the type of critique needed to stimulate debate surrounding the role of archaeology and history in climate studies. The perceptive micro-scale deconstruction of weather, landscape and people in early modern Mosser highlights the precarious disjuncture between the human experience of weather and the processes of climate variability. However, I am certainly a lot more optimistic and positive about the role that archaeology and history have to play in this debate and will perhaps provide a more macro-scale contribution to this particular archaeological dialogue. I would argue that the time-depth of human experience will always be essential in offering context and understanding to individual weather events and longer-term climate variability.

The Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty and the Road not Taken: Democratizing Amendment Rules

Discussions about the democratic legitimacy of judicial review of legislation are usually framed in terms of the so called ‘counter-majoritarian’ difficulty, the idea that judicial review is a deviant institution in a democracy. How can a country be considered democratic if a group of non-elected judges have the faculty to strike down laws that have been adopted by a majority of the elected representatives of the people? In framing the question in those terms, however, we tend to forget that there is nothing in the counter-majoritarian difficulty suggesting that judicial review of legislation is necessarily problematic from a democratic perspective. An institutional arrangement that gives judges the faculty to strike down laws inconsistent with the constitution only creates a counter-majoritarian difficulty if the constitution cannot be amended by simple majorities. In not paying proper attention to the role played by a rigid amendment process in the existence of a counter-majoritarian difficulty, this article argues, we have missed the opportunity of democratizing processes of constitutional reform in important ways while at the same time maintaining in place a system of constitutional review in which judges retain the ability of striking down legislation.The idea of giving simple majorities the possibility of having the final word on the meaning and scope of rights is of course not new. In fact, it is the basic feature of the weak system of judicial review now present in several commonwealth countries. However, such a system does not go beyond courts and legislatures, and it is therefore open to the same types of critiques advanced by defenders of strong judicial review against systems of legislative supremacy. The article defends the view that in a democratic society, deliberation and decision-making about the meaning and content of the constitution should extend beyond the ordinary institutions of government. Under that conception, a more democratic approach to the counter-majoritarian difficulty would provide popular majorities (as opposed to legislatures) with the faculty of amending the fundamental law in order to respond to a judicial decision that invalidated (or validated) an ordinary law. For example, citizens could be able to engage in the activity of constitutional reform through non-constituent assemblies, triggered by popular referendum and having the specific mandate of deliberating about the judicial decision in question and the power to propose constitutional changes that would be subject to popular ratification.

The IMF, Neoliberalism and Hegemony

This article examines the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in supporting the current hegemonic forces in the global economy. It challenges the current rational choice approach to understanding the Fund in mainstream journals as being too narrow in scope and unambitious in its critique of the Fund. I pose an alternative means of critique that assesses the Fund from a historical materialist perspective and examine the Fund's function in promoting hegemonic norms and co-opting elites in the developing world. This type of critique has been absent in recent scholarship and must be the focus of creating meaningful change within the Fund.

Reasons and Values in Environmental Ethics

Ever since environmental ethics (EE) began to take form as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, the notion of intrinsic value has occupied a prominent position within the field. Recently, however, various types of critique have emerged within EE against invoking this notion. Contrary to these critiques, I argue that appeals to intrinsic value are not problematic, given the reason-implying sense of ‘intrinsic value’ that is most relevant to EE. I further argue that also those who criticise ‘intrinsic-value-talk’ in EE actually need this reason-implying concept of intrinsic value. However, once we realise that this is the sense of ‘intrinsic value’ that is most relevant to EE, it also becomes clear that it is the concept of a reason, rather than that of intrinsic value, that is most important to EE.

‘Talking it Out’: Deliberation with Others Versus Deliberation Within

This paper uses a psychological theory of reasoning – the argumentative theory of reasoning – to support the normative appeal of the dialogical version of democratic deliberation at the heart of the deliberative democracy ideal. We use the argumentative theory of reasoning to defend democratic deliberation against two types of critique. Our main target is Goodin and Niemeyer’s claim that deliberation within rather than deliberation with others does most of the work in terms of changing people’s minds. We argue, on the contrary, that if the argumentative theory of reasoning is right that the normal context of reasoning is an exchange of arguments among differently-minded people, then it is more likely that talking things out with others, rather than thinking alone, will have epistemic and/or transformative properties. Our secondary target is Cass Sunstein’s claim that the phenomenon of “group polarization” noted to afflict groups of like-minded people casts serious doubts as to the epistemic properties of democratic deliberation. Against Sunstein, the argumentative theory of reasoning predicts that it is only groups of individuals that fail to deliberate properly that are likely to polarize. Where the normal conditions of reasoning are satisfied, dialogical deliberation of the kind favored by most deliberative democrats is likely to have epistemic and transformative properties.

Is social change fundable? NGOs and theories and practices of social change

Northern NGOs have come under critical scrutiny since the 1990s, often with negative conclusions as organisations which had supported radical social change in the 1970s and 1980s have since turned themselves into a professionalised and bureaucratic aid sector. The article focuses on the Northern NGOs that purport to fund progressive social change and which encourage beneficiaries to question market and political power, and on the NGOs to which they channel funds in Latin America. After examining various types of critique, the article asks whether it is not only dangerous in practice to fund social change but also misguided in principle, or whether there remain ways to use resources to enhance the capacity of local change agents to make the choices that they deem appropriate. It concludes that much depends on the theory and practice of social change that underpin the resource transfer, particularly in relation to the transformation of power (as opposed to ‘empowerment’), to social activism, and to the robustness of efforts within NGOs to resist or modify bureaucratic imperatives from back-donors.

The Origins of causal perception: Evidence from postdictive processing in infancy

Abstract The currency of our visual experience consists not only of visual features such as color and motion, but also seemingly higher-level features such as causality—as when we see two billiard balls collide, with one causing the other to move. One of the most important and controversial questions about causal perception involves its origin: do we learn to see causality, or does this ability derive in part from innately specified aspects of our cognitive architecture? Such questions are difficult to answer, but can be indirectly addressed via experiments with infants. Here we explore causal perception in 7-month-old infants, using a different approach from previous work. Recent work in adult visual cognition has demonstrated a postdictive aspect to causal perception: in certain situations, we can perceive a collision between two objects in an ambiguous display even after the moment of potential ‘impact’ has already passed. This illustrates one way in which our conscious perception of the world is not an instantaneous moment-by-moment construction, but rather is formed by integrating information over short temporal windows. Here we demonstrate analogous postdictive processing in infants’ causal perception. This result demonstrates that even infants’ visual systems process information in temporally extended chunks. Moreover, this work provides a new way of demonstrating causal perception in infants that differs from previous strategies, and is immune to some previous types of critiques.

Hempel, Semmelweis e a verdadeira tragédia da febre puerperal

In his introductory textbook, Philosophy of natural science, Hempel presents, as an illustration and a starting point for an analysis of the processes of inventing and testing scientific theories, an account of the researches of Semmelweis the Hungarian physician who, in the middle of the xixth century, discovered the cause of puerperal fever and an effective method of prevention. The account does not involve anything that is factually untrue, but it is quite succinct, leaving out many important aspects of the case. Our thesis is that, although those omissions are justified in view of the aims of the account, they are also convenient to Hempel, because they help to propagate an image of science which goes much beyond the processes of invention and test. It is an image which reflects the positivist conception of science, and thus, whatever the intentions of the author, contributes to the dissemination and strengthening of that conception, but which, at least in this case, does not correspond to reality. To demonstrate the thesis, we give an account of the parts of Semmelweis's story omitted by Hempel, and we show how they do not fit in with the positivist image of science. Along the way, we distinguish three types of critique of positivist historiography: the Kuhnian, the post-modern, and the engage. In the conclusion, we present some considerations concerning the medical research of today.

Grounded Theory

This article reviews and considers how the methodology of grounded theory has developed in the light of the profound critique it has attracted during recent decades. Four types of critique are examined, representing diverse meta-theoretical positions such as critical realism, constructivism and postmodernism. Agreements and differences are described which indicate a consensus among researchers, irrespective of conflicting philosophical positions, that grounded theory is a workable approach for doing research. In particular, the discussion emphasizes how promoters of these perspectives deal with the basic aim of grounded theory to develop empirically based theories. A tendency to replace theory with narrative or other limited substitutes such as depiction is problematized. Questions of validation, evaluation, and legitimization of grounded theory, extended to include qualitative research in general, are touched upon. In conclusion it is argued that grounded theory, due to transformations and modifications inspired by positive critique, is better suited to meet todays demand for complex and reflexive research methodologies.

A composer’s inner biography a sketch for the study of influences in Ljubica Maric’s oeuvre

Attempting to investigate works of music through frank examination of possible influences is a delicate thing, sometimes maybe dangerous - as has been suggested by Jonathan Cross in his book, The Stravinsky Legacy. While the originality of a composer may appear to be threatened with such types of critique, for musicologists it is important to draw upon a deeper appreciation for how a composer searched for his/her own creative voice. The music of Ljubica Maric (1909-2003), one of the most important Serbian composers of the 20th century, has been chosen to demonstrate how composers need different influences during different phases of their maturation and how they deeply integrate them in order to create an individual utterance. Ljubica Maric first studied composition with Josip Slavenski at the Belgrade Music School (1925-29), and continued her studies with Josef Suk at the Master School of the Prague Conservatory (1929-32) where she obtained her diploma. Finally, she took Alois H?ba?s course in quarter-tone music at the same institution from 1936 to 1937. The works she composed during the 1930?s were characterized by a radical will to break ties with traditional, mainly romantic music, so she chose to be influenced by the free atonal pre-dodecaphonic works of Arnold Schoenberg. Following World War II, she introduced some changes of expression that were more in keeping with links from the past. Her music became tonally stabilized, and thematic-motivational developments were rediscovered, resulting in an expression that became milder. But the changes need not necessarily be linked exclusively to the post-war climate of socialist realism. Rather, the previous style may have met up with some type of impasse - the sort that confounds or ultimately transforms an artist. For Ljubica Maric, however, it appears she was never truly satisfied with her first post-war works (1945-1950). What is certain is that she composed nothing during the several years that preceded her first masterpiece, the cantata The Songs of Space (1956). It is however worth examining whether or not they were really "dry years". It is certain that for Ljubica Maric, they were fresh discoveries of Serbian traditional singing, both folk and church, poetic and artistic treasures of the Middle Ages - but she also revived earlier experiences (from the pre-war decade) that she had rejected at the time, mainly the music of Stravinsky, Bart?k and Slavenski. Although those influences can be detected in the score of The Songs of Space, the work has a strong individual imprint, an identity of its own. In the works that followed, The Passacaglia for orchestra and in several compositions belonging to the cycle Musica octoicha (Octoicha 1, The Byzantine Concerto, Ostinato super thema octoicha, The Threshold of Dreams) original traits of Ljubica Maric?s poetics became even more pronounced. The last works that she produced (in the 1980?s and 1990?s) are all for instrumental soloists or chamber ensembles. They continue with, and refine the main characteristics of the earlier ones. Ljubica Maric?s evolvement thus presents a search for originality of expression that was reached only after a process of selective assimilation and creative transformation of tradition had been fulfilled - but not until any "anxiety of influences" had been abandoned. It has been shown that Ljubica Maric, like other artists needed to be ready to be influenced, in order to absorb such influences in a creative way.

The Controversy over the Democratic Peace: Rearguard Action or Cracks in the Wall?

I The democratic peace proposition has emerged as the conventional wisdom of the 1990s in international political research. This result states that (1) democracies are as war and conflict prone as nondemocratic states, and (2) democracies almost never engage each other in full-scale war, and rarely clash with each other in militarized interstate disputes short of war. The evidence is seemingly overwhelming, making this the most replicated research program in the modern study of international politics.’ Yet many critics question both the empirical validity of the democratic peace and-perhaps more significantly-the underlying causality attributed to regime structure in the prevention of war. In this article I distinguish between two types of critique: realist and cultural. Realist critiques reflect a basic reasoning that internal processes and structures play a negligible role in shaping a nation’s security policy. The notion that democracies do not fight each other is backed by overwhelming evidence and poses a seemingly fundamental challenge to this realist conception. Even more problematic to adherents of the realist paradigm is the fact that explanations of the democratic peace proposition emphasize the effects of democratic norms on the strategic behavior of nations. These explanations are also supported by empirical evidence. Thus the realist critique’s first line of defense is to question the basic result. The second line of defense, given the collapse of the first, is to challenge the various explanations of the democratic peace result,

The Power of Perspectives: A Case for Feminist Leisure Theory

To the reader of feminist scholarship, and those with secondary interests in feminist intellectual values, an impressive body of theory has developed in academia over the last thirty years. The work which comprises feminist literature extends from the initial social and political developments of the 1960s that articulated concepts of oppression, sexism, and patriarchy, to the philosophical and psychoanalytical work of recent decades which has defined phallocentrism and speaks of the female as other. In the literature, feminist theoretical platforms have been developed to challenge traditional discourses in philosophy, sociology, politics, history, and science, resulting in expanded discourses which seek to enlighten or fail theory by feminist standards. Through feminist challenges to knowledge it is possible to progress to more representative theoretical frameworks which reflect female principles omitted from the inherited theories of malestream. The key to representative theory is accentuated in this paper as more than a claim for space within existing theory but as a call for new theory. Such theory would admit perspective and by this admission resist the cloak of universality which has enabled masculinist perspectives to be presented as universal truth. Feminism has practiced diversification through critique and construction, developing an ability to criticise its theory and thus prevent it from congealing into dogma. Griffin (1982) has pointed to the risk that even liberal ideology (dogma) can imprison itself as a reaction to the threats of theories of liberation which are new to its world view. To avoid imprisonment, a project of feminist leisure theory can be the construction of theoretical perspectives which do not promote universality.The term 'feminist leisure theory' is presented here as referring to more than a consideration of the implications of feminist thinking applied to leisure theory; the intended proposition is that a theory base devoid of feminist perspectives is incomplete, or represents limited perspective, and therefore in terms of a philosophy, sets down an unfinished or illusionary version of 'truth'. If the theoretical base in leisure studies is representative and not intentionally sectarian (masculinist), feminists in the field could assume that feminist work is welcome in juxtaposition to other existent leisure theory.In the last few years there is some evidence that feminist contributions to theory have been recognised within the field (e.g. feminist special editions of journals). However, because of the origins and type of developments in feminist theory, most commentaries and research contributions in leisure studies have represented predominantly liberal and leftist feminist perspectives. Such work clearly establishes a juxtaposition between established feminist theory (liberal/leftist), leisure theory (often also liberal/leftist), and woman as topic. Other feminist positions like the autonomist orientation developed from more radical feminist positions, are less often presented. Nevertheless, their placement in reserved tangency to these discourses rather than apposition, is valuable because of their low dependence on sociopolitical patriarchal traditions. That is, autonomist critique has more capacity to admit or reject portions of work, to develop points of crossover and points of intellectual resistance, without deference to masculinist ideology. Autonomist feminism is more fully discussed in this paper under An Explanation of Feminist Methods; basically this type of critique is more concerned with values than value inheritance, and female values (women's experiences and perceptions) take precedence in autonomist feminist theory. In acknowledging the worth of autonomist perspectives, the paper argues the usefulness of stances where leisure theory is read through rather than alongside feminist theoretical work; that is, a transfusive reading is encouraged to define or correct rather than accommodate male-sided theory. …

Financial disclosure regulation and its critics

In February 1985, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee began a series of hearings that may lead to a proposal to expand the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) disclosure regulations. This article presents a synthesis of a growing body of literature that questions the need for any such regulation. Three types of critiques are discussed: first, studies that have examined the historical process through which the SEC was formed; second, empirical studies that have analyzed the effects of regulated disclosure on the capital markets; and third, theoretical studies that have questioned the fundamental rationale for financial disclosure regulation. Following these critiques, brief consideration is given to the role of security analysts and to the financial disclosure implications of modern portfolio theory. Finally, two alternatives to conventional financial disclosure regulation are presented. The purpose of this article is to stimulate interest in a critical examination of the SEC's existing disclosure program by providing a basis for discussion and analysis of the issues and the evidence and by presenting some alternatives based on the experiences of other countries. It is directed toward intermediate accounting courses, graduate courses in accounting theory and policy and graduate courses in corporate financial reporting.