Editorial Work and the Peer Review Economy of STS Journals

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110687
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner ◽  
Kean Birch ◽  
Maria Amuchastegui
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Intellectual Community ◽  
Gift Economy ◽  
Economy Running ◽  
The Face ◽  
Editorial Work ◽  
Intellectual Production ◽  
Political Economic

In this paper, we analyze the role of science and technology studies (STS) journal editors in organizing and maintaining the peer review economy. We specifically conceptualize peer review as a gift economy running on perpetually renewed experiences of mutual indebtedness among members of an intellectual community. While the peer review system is conventionally presented as self-regulating, we draw attention to its vulnerabilities and to the essential curating function of editors. Aside from inherent complexities, there are various shifts in the broader political–economic and sociotechnical organization of scholarly publishing that have recently made it more difficult for editors to organize robust cycles of gift exchange. This includes the increasing importance of journal metrics and associated changes in authorship practices; the growth and differentiation of the STS journal landscape; and changes in publishing funding models and the structure of the publishing market through which interactions among authors, editors, and reviewers are reconfigured. To maintain a functioning peer review economy in the face of numerous pressures, editors must balance contradictory imperatives: the need to triage intellectual production and rely on established cycles of gift exchange for efficiency, and the need to expand cycles of gift exchange to ensure the sustainability and diversity of the peer review economy.

National Liberalisms in Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark I. Vail
Keyword(s):  
Economic Model ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Market Making ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Face ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

This chapter analyzes the development of French, German, and Italian liberalism from the nineteenth century to the 1980s, giving particular attention to each tradition’s conceptions of the role of the state and its relationship to groups and individual citizens. Using a broad range of historical source material and the works of influential political philosophers, it outlines the analytical frameworks central to French “statist liberalism,” German “corporate liberalism,” and Italian “clientelist liberalism.” It shows how these evolving traditions shaped the structure of each country’s postwar political-economic model and the policy priorities developed during the postwar boom through the early 1970s and provides conceptual touchstones for the direction and character of these traditions’ evolution in the face of the neoliberal challenge since the 1990s. The chapter demonstrates that each tradition accepted elements of a more liberal economic order while rejecting neoliberalism’s messianic market-making agenda and its abstract and disembedded political-economic vision.

Neoliberalism ‘with Chinese Characteristics’

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Market Pricing ◽  
Local Initiative ◽  
Agriculture Industry ◽  
The Face ◽  
Political Economic

In December 1978, faced with the dual difficulties of political uncertainty in the wake of Mao’s death in 1976 and several years of economic stagnation, the Chinese leadership under Deng Xiaoping announced a programme of economic reform. We may never know for sure whether Deng was all along a secret ‘capitalist roader’ (as Mao had claimed during the Cultural Revolution) or whether the reforms were simply a desperate move to ensure China’s economic security and bolster its prestige in the face of the rising tide of capitalist development in the rest of East and South- East Asia. The reforms just happened to coincide––and it is very hard to consider this as anything other than a conjunctural accident of world-historical significance––with the turn to neoliberal solutions in Britain and the United States. The outcome in China has been the construction of a particular kind of market economy that increasingly incorporates neoliberal elements interdigitated with authoritarian centralized control. Elsewhere, as in Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, the compatability between authoritarianism and the capitalist market had already been clearly established. While egalitarianism as a long-term goal for China was not abandoned, Deng argued that individual and local initiative had to be unleashed in order to increase productivity and spark economic growth. The corollary, that certain levels of inequality would inevitably arise, was well understood as something that would need to be tolerated. Under the slogan of xiaokang––the concept of an ideal society that provides well for all its citizens––Deng focused on ‘four modernizations’: in agriculture, industry, education, and science and defence. The reforms strove to bring market forces to bear internally within the Chinese economy. The idea was to stimulate competition between state-owned firms and thereby spark, it was hoped, innovation and growth. Market pricing was introduced, but this was probably far less significant than the rapid devolution of political-economic power to the regions and to the localities. This last move proved particularly astute. Confrontation with traditional power centres in Beijing was avoided and local initiatives could pioneer the way to a new social order.

scholarly journals Literacy, Advocacy and Agency: The Campaign for Political Recognition of Dyslexia in Britain (1962–1997)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Learning Difficulties ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Power And Agency ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Productive Worker

Summary This article charts the campaign for political recognition of dyslexia in Britain, focusing on the period from 1962 when concerted interest in the topic began. Through the Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic Children (1963–72), and the organisations that followed, it shows how dyslexia gradually came to be institutionalised, often in the face of government intransigence. The article shows how this process is best conceived as a complex interplay of groups, including advocates, researchers, civil servants and politicians of varying political stripes. Necessarily, the campaign was mediated through broader political, economic and social changes, including the increasing requirement for literacy in the productive worker, but it is not reducible to these factors. In this way, the article reflects on the conceptualisation of power and agency in accounts of the history of dyslexia to date and its broader relevance to the history of learning difficulties and disabilities.

Re-centreing the city: Spirits, local wisdom, and urban design at the Three Kings Monument of Chiang Mai

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Chiang Mai ◽  
Spirit Mediumship ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Physical Form ◽  
The Face ◽  
Cultural Domination ◽  
Political Economic

Recent political events, such as the coup of 2006 or the ‘Red Shirt’ uprisings of 2010 underlined the divisions in Thai society between the provinces and the capital. As one of the world's most primate cities, Bangkok exerts a tremendous political, economic and cultural force upon the rest of Thailand. But how is such pressure interpreted, internalised and/or subverted? In this article, I look at Thailand's second-largest city, Chiang Mai, in Thailand's North, and the struggle to cure an increasing sense of urban crisis and thereby assert the former independent capital's symbolic authority vis-à-vis Bangkok. I examine this by looking at two specific discourses: that of architecture and spirit mediumship. Northern Thai architects attempt to cure Chiang Mai's ills through recourse to the ‘cultural heritage’ of the city's urban space, while spirit mediums call upon the sacred power of that space in order to restore Chiang Mai's ‘lost’ prosperity. The focal point for each effort lies at the city's centre: the Three Kings Monument and its surrounding plaza (khuang). Here, each group casts themselves as those most able to put Chiang Mai's past in physical form and thereby ensure Chiang Mai's future. In this article, I examine how ideas of cultural heritage become entwined with magico-religious concepts of power (sak). In each, there is a search for efficacious power in the face of political and cultural domination from Bangkok.

Equifinality in the Smallholder Slot: Cash Crop Development in the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesian Borneo

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M. Thaler
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Cash Crop ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Crop Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
Agroforestry Projects ◽  
Industrial Landscapes ◽  
Comparative Ethnography ◽  
Political Economic

This article presents a comparative ethnography of the smallholder agroforestry projects of an international environmental organization. Migrant ranchers in Brazil sell cattle from private properties in a heavily-deforested landscape. Indigenous farmers in Indonesia rely on subsistence food production on customary lands in a heavily-forested landscape. Despite these differences, the projects identify both migrant ranchers and indigenous farmers as “smallholders” and prescribe cash crop agroforestry as the solution to both their predicaments. In the face of expanding ranches and plantations, this cash crop solution accepts the destruction of forest ecosystems and livelihoods as inevitable, funneling smallholders into market agroforestry in agro-industrial landscapes. This article strengthens the case for comparative ethnography and challenges discursive conflations and political-economic biases of prevailing sustainable development policies.

scholarly journals Islamic Education Reform

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. v-vii
Author(s):  
AbdulHamid AbuSulayman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
The Face ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Political Economic

The earliest ijtihad, in the face of societal changes, can be traced backto the period of Khalifah Umar bin al-Khattab. The methodology ofjuristic preference (istihsan) was developed later as one way of institutingIslamic reform. It emerged as a response to the inadequacy of themethod of mere deduction. Other forms of intellectual reform can beseen in the works of Al-Ghazali in Ihya’ ‘Ulkn al-Din and Tahafat al-Falsifah, and in Ibn Rushd’s response, Tahafat al-Tahafat.Many of these early efforts toward intellectual reform were individualand accidental in nature and did not reflect any methodological school orinstitution. Reformers and creative thinkers seemed as flashes in the historyof Islamic thought. As the European challenge to the Ummahmounted, and the cultural and scientific imitation failed, many Muslimreformers surrendered themselves to culturally copying Europe whilecontinuing to praise the heritage of the Ummah and the sublime valuesand concepts embedded in its legacy.The movement for Islamization of knowledge tried to dig deep intoIslamic intellectual tradition in order to provide Muslim thinkers with thecapabilities and potential for the reform of contemporary Islamic thoughtand methodology. The genesis of the movement can be traced to the birthof the Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the United States and -Canada (AMSS) in 1972, the establishment of the International Instituteof Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981, and the development of theIslamization of Knowledge program of the International IslamicUniversity of Malaysia (IIUM) in 1989.As a result of these efforts, the ideas of Islamization of knowledge andIslamic methodological reform have become central themes in the worksof Muslim scholars, who find that these concepts give direction and purposeto their work. If we use the metaphor of a seed to describe the roleof intellectual and methodological reform in developing and reformingsocieties, then political, economic, technological and all other contributionsand reforms can be seen as the fruits of civilization. The questionthat presents itself is, if the seed is there-meaning proper thinking ...

scholarly journals Le rôle des réseaux culturels officiels au sein de la diplomatie culturelle française à Banyumas

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 00044
Author(s):  
Tri Asiati
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Values ◽  
Haute Couture ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
French Culture ◽  
The Face ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Cultural Networks ◽  
Descriptive Method

Since the 12th century, French culture has been important to the world because of its excellence, particularly with its influence on language, literature, philosophy and streams of thought. It represents an art of living, marked by traditional values, among which is the highly appreciated gastronomy, and a constant recognition of its haute couture. It plays a role only in French diplomacy that involves political, economic, and cultural action. This action is historically started by the Dutch colonial regime and is fundamentally reinforced today through official cultural networks. In this case, the problematic focus of their functions and their actions in the face of the Banyumas community as a new relationship that is confronted with geographical, social, and cultural conditions. Referring to French cultural diplomacy in this region, this research focuses on the qualitative descriptive method of describing and analyzing data with the objective of explaining diplomatic action through the French culture.

scholarly journals The Gift in Martin Luther’s Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Kristian Holm
Keyword(s):  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Gift Economy ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Communicatio Idiomatum ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Late Renaissance

In analyzing the role of gift and giving in Martin Luther’s theology, one almost inevitably has to deal with the contrast between Marcel Mauss’s description of archaic gift economy, where gifts and exchange are interconnected and gift exchange a total social fact, and Derrida’s critique of Mauss for talking of anything else but the gift, since only a gift uncontaminated by exchange deserves the proper name “gift.” Accordingly, any reading of Luther relating Luther’s theology to the reciprocity of giving seems, from the outset, to grasp anything but the cornerstone of his theology: the justification by faith alone apart from works of the law. Nevertheless, scholars in the early 21st century have been discussing Luther as a theologian of the gift. Some defend a position according to which Luther’s theology can only be rightly understood by maintaining that the divine gift is free and pure. Others argue that Luther’s mature theology allows for an integration of some kind of exchange as a vital part of the very doctrine of justification. In both cases, social anthropological gift studies can function as a lens for highlighting the heart of Luther’s theology, either negatively by presenting the absolute opposite of Luther’s understanding of divine giving in justification and creation or positively by revealing the very heart of the same. The young Luther vehemently criticized a piety regulated by economic principles and understood divine righteousness in contrast to human principles for righteousness. However, he soon began integrating reciprocal aspects from the traditional definition of righteousness into his doctrine of justification. This was possible due to an emphasis on the divine self-giving, revealed in Christ and slowly elaborated to cover Luther’s understanding of the whole Trinity. In this move, Luther seemed to have been influenced by Roman popular philosophy, which was widespread in the late renaissance, but biblical passages emphasizing reciprocal justice also played an important role. Advocators for understanding Luther’s theology from the perspective of inter-human gift exchange will argue that Luther’s theology of the gift is intimately related to his use of the figure of communicatio idiomatum, which allows the giver to share his attributes with the receiver.

scholarly journals Polish Migration Policy in the Context of the Migration Crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Pacek
Keyword(s):  
Migration Policy ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
The Social ◽  
Polish Migration ◽  
The Face ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Societal Reaction ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
Political Economic

The migration crisis of 2015 has left its mark on many EU countries. Some, such as Greece or Spain, were countries on the front line. Others, namely Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden became destination countries for many newcomers. Some, like the countries of the Visegrad Group, opposed the actions and decisions of the EU made in the face of the crisis. European solidarity has become a big question mark and we can observe a serious upsetting of the whole integration project which is, of course, up for discussion. This state of affairs consisted of the attitudes towards the crises of such countries as Poland or Hungary, where anti-immigration and populist parties came to power, creating a vision of flexible solidarity on the European political scene. The purpose of this article is to analyse the Polish migration policy, show the direction of the changes in its construction along with the change of government and the societal reaction to strangers, as a direct result of actions taken by the ruling parties. It is important to understand the political, economic and social context of the changes occurring in the social consciousness and to attempt to formulate a forecast for the future.

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