Social Science and Political Science

"Estudio introductorio" a PERPIÑÁ RODRÍGUEZ,  A. "La época de lo social y otros escritos sobre Política y Seguridad Social", Isabor, Murcia 2016, pp. 7-34. Presentación biográfica e intelectual del sociólogo español Antonio Perpiñá Rodríguez (1910-1984).

Simandan D (2005) "Pragmatic Scepticism and the Possibilities of Knowledge" Timisoara, Editura Universitatii de Vest/West University Press, 256 pp.

This book distiled my own way of understanding the relation between epistemology, ontology, and politics, and the best name I found for labelling that way is pragmatic scepticism. Throughout the book, I stay away from the temptation to give a dictionary-like definition of this philosophy. I do not even like to think of it as a philosophy. Instead, I see pragmatic scepticism as a way of being and as a way of relating. A way of being human, i.e. enmeshed in language and limited by our senses; and a way of relating, i.e. crafted by the happy and sad encounters with theories, things, and lifeís happenings. The book is structured in three parts, which together give a sense of the potentials of pragmatic scepticism: as a way of thinking about the world, as a way of approaching theoretical dilemmas, as a way of mapping one's inner contradictions. The first part of the book introduces pragmatic scepticism in relation to the general questions underwriting the philosophy of knowledge and the study of science. The second part is more specific in that it deploys the pragmatic sceptical attitude to the central metatheoretical questions of the discipline of geography. The last part of the book groups under the heading "philosophies of struggle" two more applied essays on the political economy and the political epistemology of conflicts over knowledge in the globalised landscape of higher education in general and geography in particular.

The discussion of issues in political ecology has expanded greatly in recent times, above all as the result of growing concern about far-reaching ecological problems that seem to require an effective political response in the near future. These problems include global warming, ozone depletion, species extinction, desertification, loss of topsoil, depletion of global fisheries, disposal of nuclear waste, global population growth, environmentally-related illness, acid rain, and decline in air and water quality. Concern about disruptions caused by global climate change and the massive global loss of biodiversity has been a major impetus to debates in political ecology.

El documento presenta el listado bibliográfico (con respectivos vínculos URL) de la autobiografía descriptiva del Dr.  Xavier Gamboa Villafranca.  Los materiales están categorizados por tipo convencional de presentación de materiales científicos. Ver texto autobiográfico en  https://www.academia.edu/37010748/  Un esquema de su autobiografía intelectual, a partir deññ texto completo de su obra pública, está disponible  en https://www.academia.edu/37045454/  Una colección de fotos en https://www.academia.edu/37010979/  Videos alusivos a su autobiografía en: https://youtu.be/XHUMnm0rTjs  https://youtu.be/m5JJ7jlvAMI  https://youtu.be/xhRh39iwy_Q  https://youtu.be/tkCgx239BQg  https://youtu.be/DP5L5GL-yjM  https://youtu.be/Idc1fw6jx34  https://youtu.be/VQRqsxTyV0w 


Abstract
This document is mainly a bibiographhical list (with respective URL links) that supplements the descriptive autobiography  of Dr. Xavier Gamboa Villafranca.  Materials hereby contained are cathegorized according to conventional types of published scientific works.  A full text narrative  of his autobiography may be accesed at  https://www.academia.edu/37010748/ and related photographic collection at https://www.academia.edu/37010979/.  An outline of his intellectual autobiography, based on published work,may be accesed at  https://www.academia.edu/37045454/  Videos allusive to his autobiography at: https://youtu.be/XHUMnm0rTjs  https://youtu.be/m5JJ7jlvAMI  https://youtu.be/xhRh39iwy_Q  https://youtu.be/tkCgx239BQg  https://youtu.be/DP5L5GL-yjM  https://youtu.be/Idc1fw6jx34  https://youtu.be/VQRqsxTyV0w

Edited version of published paper presented at 'Is Black and Red Dead?' Conference, Centre for the Study of Social and Global and Justice (CSSGJ) University of Nottingham, 7-8 September, 2009

https://socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/110943

Consultation is an important feature of research and, increasingly, researchers are required to work in partnership with stakeholders to increase the impact of their work. Our aim is to demonstrate what can be learned from the scholarship on, and practice of, member checking to facilitate productive knowledge exchange. Using dialogical analysis we explore three member check interactions from three different qualitative psychology projects focusing our analysis on difficult moments between researchers and participants conceptualised here as ‘sore spots’. We identify two major genres in these sequences: participant ambivalence and participant challenge. We then consider passages that allow us to explore a more theoretical understanding of these two genres in terms of the metaphor of portraits and mirrors. Overall, we outline how implicit epistemologies and theories of subjectivity (uncomplicated, blank, and complex) may be linked to the way in which stakeholders approach research. We also provide a map with regard to the theories within which member checks can be undertaken, associated research practices in terms of a range of researcher responses to stakeholder ambivalence and challenge, and implications of these moments for knowledge exchange for qualitative research but also for psychological science as a whole. We conclude that sore spots in knowledge exchange process can be productive opportunities of transformational validity.

Keywords: member check; knowledge exchange; research impact; dialogical analysis; participant validation

Secular arabic traditions have emphasized the potential of dreams to foretell the future.  Sometimes the prediction is seen as obvious and on other occasions elaborate systems of symbolic translations were consulted such as the tenth century Oneirocriticon of Achmet.
    In Islam, many of the foundations of the Koran were revealed to Muhammad in dreams. Muhammad ordered the practice of adhanthe daily call to prayer from the minarets and a central ritual of Islam to this day after one of his followers dreamed of it. The split of Islam into the conflicting factions of Sunni and Shi'ite was based partly on a dream of Mohammed, which the Sunnis used to justify their rights as his successors.
    The autobiographies of Muslim rulers often contain extensive dream diaries and examples of decisions obstensibly based on dreams.  When the Shah of Iran was deciding whether to seek a loan from Russia, he dreamed that a famous theological figure dressed in primitive Muslim garb approached the Shah and threw at his feet a sack containing gold and silver.  The interpretation of this dream was that the Shah shouldn't make any new loans with unbelievers but should trust that fellow servants of the faith would restore his finances. Sadam Hussein reported dreaming that Allah told him to enter and take back Kuwait just before the first Gulf War. Before the second Gulf War, he reported a dream that a snake came upon his path but he chopped off it’s head with a sword which he interpreted to mean western invaders would be vanquished.
    Because of this emphasis on dreams as foretelling the future rather than arising from the past, Arabs who are having PTSD nightmares of an event occurring each night--such as Kuwiati survivors of the Iraqi invasion or Iraqi survivors of the American invasion--experience even more anxiety over whether this will indeed occur again than dreamers in other cultures.
    The positive side to this emphasis on dreams foretelling the future happens when oppressed people dream of positive outcomes.  These are a source of much inspiration in arab society, while in western traditions they would be dismissed as "wish fulfillment" without the beneficial impact.
    We  collected dreams associated with events of the Arab Spring and discuss how they inspired and guided those taking part, and what dreams right now may have to offer the reshaping of the Arab world.

This text later appeared as Chapter 7 of the book The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism. It incorporates much of the material from the articles entitled "A Letter from New Orleans" and "Postscript to a Letter from New Orleans."

In this article, I discuss the fact that doing “anthropology at home” involves the same core anthropological methodology as undertaking research abroad. This implies that while doing anthropology at home may have some advantages concerning field practicalities but is equally challenging. There are certain ethical and methodological essentials involved in every anthropological research undertaking. Through my personal experiences of conducting ethnography in Pakistan, I explain that doing anthropology at home does not make exceptions for the researcher in terms of these ethical and methodological aspects.

Teenage pregnancy has been a global health issue for more than three decades. Nearly 16 million of 15-19-year-old girls give birth each year, and most are found in developing countries. The frequency of teenage pregnancy among the youth is alarming and has become more or less a fact of life in many nations of the world which Ghana is no exception. Teenage pregnancy has also become a public concern which has generated a great deal of attention among policy makers and the general public in Ghana. In spite of having a much publicized and well coordinated sex education programme, teenage pregnancy in Ghana still remains unacceptably high.
The purpose of this study was to assess the perception of teenage youth on teenage pregnancy in Ghana using Teshie Tebibiano as a case study. The study was intended to contribute to a deeper understanding of the issue, by exploring teenagers’ own perceptions on the matter, in order to identify factors that, in their view, may influence the risk of pregnancy and suggest possible interventions.

A qualitative approach was employed and thirty (30) teenagers between the ages of 12 and 20 years were sampled using a purposive sampling technique.

The study revealed among others that teen age youth knowledge on teenage pregnancy is high and generally perceive teenage pregnancy to be negative; Lack of family/parental relation/control, peer influence, socio-economic status such as poverty and inadequate contraceptive knowledge/use among teenage youth are the most contributory factors to teenage pregnancy. However, curiosity, cases of rape, low self-esteem and lack of sex education are some of the alternative factors that can contribute to teenage pregnancy; Teenage youth’ ignorance of contraceptives, peer pressure on the use contraceptives and the attitudes of contraceptive (service) providers are the reasons for the low contraceptive use among teenage youth which can lead to increase in the rate of teenage pregnancy; Disruption of school (school dropout) and health risk associated with teenage pregnancy are the most effect of
teenage pregnancy; Sex education and parental control are the best and most effective means (interventions) to reduce or prevent teenage pregnancy; the school and the family are the most appropriate and effective institution to use in dealing with teenage pregnancy; and there is high negative perception about the media particularly television among teenage youth with regards to the issue of teenage pregnancy due to the sexual content in some of their programmes.

Marx's conception of social revolution is an integral part of his historical materialist theoretical framework. Accordingly, in his major works he consistently depicts the class struggle as the manifestation of underlying contradictions between the forces and relations of production, and denies that social revolution can successfully be achieved without the requisite development of the material preconditions. The proletariat, far from appearing as a self-conscious revolutionary subject, is often presented as the object whose destiny is determined by conflicting forces which move inexorably toward a resolution, without requiring the kind of reflective, historically developed knowledge, embodied in a self-conscious social movement, that Bakunin (at least in his better moments) saw as essential.

RE: Matthew Desmond’s new book, Evicted

Sanford Schram has commented that “Desmond’s ethnographic skills are remarkable,” and Schram then deems the book “good Political Science research.”  While I completely agree with his first comment, I strongly disagree that Desmond’s book merits membership in the literature of what Dvora Yanow calls “empirical interpretive political science.”  Indeed, that work is irrelevant to the defining concerns of such a political science.

How can we determine when an interpretive study is relevant to our political science, as opposed to being just another study in social science generally? Is there any way to distinguish political science interpretivism from sociology, or any other social science, interpretivism? David Easton has given us the answer.

This is a revised and expanded version of a text written for a PM Press authors session on “Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change” at the Left Forum on June 3, 2017. In it, I try to summarize, briefly and inadequately, some of the lessons I’ve learned about radical change over the past fifty years.  There is a link to an earlier version.

A  critique of the article “Yes, you do have an obligation to vote for the lesser of two evils. Here’s why," from the Washington Post (6/1/16). Attached is a final draft and a link to a version on the "It Is What It Isn't" Blog. See also the illustrated version on Academia.edu.

ABSTRACT Despite the growing literature on populist radical-right parties (PRRP), the relationship between turnout and populist voting remains understudied, especially for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In this article, we analyze the individual-level factors that differentiate between those choosing voice (voting for PRRP) and exit (abstention) in the 2019 European Parliament elections. We estimate pooled logistic regression models for twelve PRRP from six CEE countries. Our findings show that anti-immigration and Euroskeptic attitudes—but also, unlike in Western Europe, trust in the national elites and satisfaction with democracy—increase the odds of PRRP voting instead of abstaining.

"Vancouver’s Ethical Purchasing Policy: A Participatory Public Policy Process

Highlights and Key Findings:

• This chapter is an analytic narrative of how Vancouver’s Ethical Purchasing Policy was written. This empirically grounded policy story offers a practical example for others to follow.
• A municipal Ethical Purchasing Policy is one way local communities can contribute to ethical trade efforts aimed at avoiding tragedies like the 24 April 2013 garment factory collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, that killed 1,129 workers.
• Vancouver’s Ethical Purchasing Policy was written by a city task force comprising two city councilors, two city managers, and representatives of several businesses, unions, and civil society organizations with expertise on international labour standards, Fair Trade certification, and ethical purchasing of global commodities.
• Participation by city managers was key because policies solely crafted by city council might not take into account the practicalities of implementing a new policy while still following existing policies. Including city managers led to successful implementation and ensured the policy saved the city money.
• Participation by community members lent legitimacy to the city’s policy and helped ensure that the policy met international ethical trade norms for union-made garments and Fair Trade certified agricultural commodities including coffee, tea, and chocolate.

On 17 February 2005, Vancouver became the first Canadian municipality to adopt an Ethical Purchasing Policy (EPP) pertaining to union-made garments and Fair Trade certified coffee, tea, and chocolate. The EPP was crafted with a high level of participation by businesses, unions, and civil society organizations. The policy’s social justice ethos stands out in an ongoing era of neoliberal retrenchment of progressive public policies. Other Canadian cities, such as Calgary, Alberta, have since followed Vancouver’s lead in ethical purchasing. Vancouver’s EPP was written by a city task force that included two city councilors, two city managers, and representatives of several businesses, unions, and civil society organizations with expertise on international labour standards, Fair Trade certification, and ethical procurement through global commodity chains. This chapter is an institutional ethnography that focuses on the policy writing process and the standardized processes that comprise public participation, public decision-making, and public administration.

The chapter is empirically grounded in seven semi-structured interviews of 30 to 150 minutes in length with the two city councilors that chaired the policy writing process, two city managers (interviewed a second time together) that oversaw the implementation of the process, one of which participated in writing the policy, and a Fair Trade activist and a union organizer that participated in the writing process. These interviews were complemented with participant observation and textual analysis. Participant observation was conducted both in real-time in activist meetings and in city council meetings and reflexively from my experience as a Canadian Fair Trade activist-researcher. The interviews and observational work helped identify key texts for analysis, including the EPP and the connected Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC), council meeting minutes, minutes of standing committees of council, reports to council by city managers, and a critical analysis of the policy written by the Maquila Solidarity Network, a Toronto-based anti-sweatshop advocacy group. The research took place from January 2006 to August 2007 as part of a larger study in which I was involved alongside sociologist Dorothy E. Smith for a community-university research alliance called "Rural Women Making Change."

This text was written as a preface for the new edition of “Pour un municipalisme libertaire,” the French translation of “Theses on Libertarian Municipalism,” published by the Atelier de Création Libertaire in Lyon, and also appears on my Changing Suns Press and PM Press blogs.

Over the past generation of radical social theory, we have heard a great deal more about the "microphysics of power" than we have about the microecology of community. The popularity of the former approach is, I think, less a reflection of the inherent superiority of post-structuralist concepts than a symptom of the defensive nature of oppositional culture in our time. A heavy focus on the "physics" of the system of power, and the depiction of social action in terms of various "strategies" and "tactics" shaped largely in reaction to this system betrays a certain capitulation to a dominant mechanistic, objectifying system. There has been a widespread assumptionnot only among post-modernist theorists but also among political activists-that the historical destiny of opposition is essentially a future of permanent struggle against the system of power. (I think I must have a dozen friends who sign messages "in struggle" for every one who concludes on a note of optimism, not to mention revolutionary hope.) For so many, the highest aspirations of oppositional culture seem to lie in small tactical gains within a fundamentally immovable system and in the forms of enjoyment and creativity possible through struggles within that vast labyrinth of power.

This draft for a chapter of a forthcoming book is a revised and much-expanded version of a previously unpublished text presented at a conference on “L'écologie sociale dans la cité” at the Centre Ascaso-Durruti, Montpellier, France, May 15, 1998.

Panel 30: Great Refusals: Refusing One Dimensionality Today

The Dialectics of Liberation in an Age of Neoliberal Capitalism

International Herbert Marcuse Society

Seventh Biennial Conference

26-28 October 2017

York University

https://marcuseconference.wordpress.com/