INTERPRETING SOCIOSPATIAL FRAGMENTATION, DIFFERENTIAL URBANIZATION AND EVERYDAY LIFE: A CRITIQUE FOR THE LATIN AMERICAN DEBATE

Similar to many concepts in Social Sciences, the concept of sociospatial fragmentation has been often misused, at times leading to significant confusion. In view of that, this article aims to critically review this concept in Latin America. It brings into discussion that, from a critical perspective and compared with differential urbanization and everyday life, the concept of sociospatial fragmentation contributes to explaining the current relationships between space and society. Based on such an interpretive scheme, the study indicates correspondence to strong social and spatial tendencies: the chronification of the crisis of capitalism, the complete urbanization of society, the bankruptcy of modernity, and the fragmentation of everyday life. All that led to the conclusion that fragmentation is, fundamentally, a battle against the use-value of everyday life, which characterizes the present relationships between space and society. Keywords: sociospatial fragmentation; differential urbanization; everyday life; Latin America. INTERPRETANDO A FRAGMENTAÇÃO SOCIOESPACIAL, A URBANIZAÇÃO DIFERENCIAL E A VIDA COTIDIANA: UMA CRITICA PARA O DEBATE LATINO-AMERICANO Resumo: Como muitos conceitos nas Ciências Sociais, o de fragmentação socioespacial apresenta um abuso que muitas vezes leva a uma confusão significativa. Por esse motivo, o principal objetivo deste artigo é criticar esse conceito a partir de algumas das principais propostas no debate latino-americano. Isso para sustentar que, uma vez realizado esse exercício e colocado em relação ao da urbanização diferencial e da vida cotidiana, o conceito de fragmentação socioespacial contribui para explicar as relações atuais entre espaço e sociedade. A partir dessa associação interpretativa, destaca-se a correspondência de grandes tendências sociais e espaciais: a cronificação da crise do capitalismo, a completa urbanização da sociedade, a queda da modernidade e a fragmentação da vida cotidiana. Tudo para concluir que a fragmentação é, fundamentalmente, uma batalha contra o valor de uso da vida cotidiana, que caracteriza as relações atuais entre espaço e sociedade.Palavras-chave: fragmentação socioespacial; urbanização diferencial; vida cotidiana; latino america. INTERPRETANDO LA FRAGMENTACIÓN SOCIOESPACIAL, LA URBANIZACIÓN DIFERENCIAL Y LA VIDA COTIDIANA: UNA CRÍTICA PARA EL DEBATE LATINOAMERICANOResumen: Como muchos conceptos en las Ciencias Sociales, el de fragmentación socioespacial presenta un abuso que conduce, a menudo, a una importante confusión. Es por ello que el objetivo principal de este artículo es realizar una crítica de dicho concepto a partir de algunas de las más importantes propuestas en el debate latinoamericano. Ello para sostener que, una vez realizado ese ejercicio, y puesto en relación con el de urbanización diferencial y vida cotidiana, el concepto fragmentación socioespacial puede contribuir a explicar las actuales relaciones entre el espacio y la sociedad. A partir de ese esquema interpretativo se señala la correspodencia de grandes tendencias sociales y espaciales: la cronificación de la crisis del capitalismo, la urbanización completa de la sociedad, la quiebra de la modernidad y la fragmentación de la vida cotidiana. Todo para concluir que la fragmentación es, fundamentalmente, una batalla contra el valor de uso de la vida cotidiana, que caracteriza las presentes relaciones entre el espacio y la sociedad. Palabras clave: fragmentación socioespacial; urbanización diferencial; vida cotidiana; Latinoamérica.

Identity and relationship frames in medical leadership communication

Purpose A frame is an interpretive scheme of meanings that guide participants’ interpretations of social interaction and their actions in social situations (Goffman, 1974). By identifying early-career physicians’ identity and relationship frames, this study aims to produce information about socially constructed ways to interpret leadership communication in a medical context. Design/methodology/approach The data consist of essays written by young physicians (n = 225) during their specialization training and workplace learning period. The analysis was conducted applying constructive grounded theory. Findings Three identity and relationship frames were identified: the expertise frame, the collegial frame and the system frame. These frames arranged the meanings of being a physician in a leader-follower relationship differently. Originality/value The findings suggest that identity questions discussed recently in medical leadership studies can be partly answered with being aware of and understanding socially constructed and somewhat contradictory frames.

The Phenomenology of Homo Economicus

Much has been written about the fictitious nature of the atomistic model of homo economicus. Nevertheless, this economic model of self-interest and egoism has become conventional wisdom in market societies. This article offers a phenomenological explanation for the model’s commonsensical grip. Building on the work of Alfred Schutz, I argue that a reliance on homo economicus as an interpretive scheme for making sense of the behavior of economic Others has the effect of reversing the meaning of signs and doubts that challenge the model’s assumptions. Moreover, it orients social action in ways that prevent the model’s interpretive incongruences from rising to the reflective fore. Consequently, an interpretive reliance on homo economicus creates a “phenomenological gridlock.” Alternative sources of information and alternative interpretive schemes can bypass this entrapment of the economic interaction, but this article further explains why the norms and cultural horizons of market society limit the accessibility of these alternatives, thus, in effect, sedimenting gridlocked experiences.

Biopolitics and Disciplinarity in the Legislation of Conduct in Public Spaces of Vilnius

This article presents the specific rhetoric of social control present in the sections of national and municipal legislation pertaining to conduct in public spaces of Vilnius, Lithuania.Theoretically, the paper utilises M. Foucault’s framework of power modalities both because of Foucault’s engaged questioning of power and the applicability of his insights to the spatial dimensions of the city. The paper bases its interpretive scheme on two premises: a) that law reveals biopolitical and disciplinary aspects of social control; and b) that urban public space presents a valuable case for the analysis of these aspects.A qualitative content analysis of national and municipal legislation has revealed that national legislation is driven by biopolitical objectives and municipal legislation by disciplinary ones. The national legislation focuses the regulation of public space on public order, public calm, and public dignity – public mores that must be upheld in the interest of the population and expanding beyond strictly public space. Disciplinarity is evident in municipal legislation insofar as it breaks space up into governable fragments, imposing painstakingly detailed prohibitions and obligations, and building a hierarchy inside the population between the desired and subnormal subject.

„Movement reactions” in the Hermann Rorschach Test. Part 2 Testing parents of a child suffering from schizophrenia and parents of healthy children

Introduction: The specific character of Rorschach test responses of parents who had a child with schizophrenia has been reported many times. The analysis presented in this paper is focused on responses commenting on movement seen in the inkblots. According to Zygmunt Piotrowski, these responses reflect the prototypal role – self-concepts and a certain pattern of responding that can be understood as phenomena related to the concept of self. Material and method: I used the Rorschach test to examine 32 couples of parents who had a child suffering from paranoid schizophrenia (as defined in DSM-IV) and 21 couples of parents who had only healthy children. Results: Parents of schizophrenic children gave significantly fewer human movement responses than parents of healthy children, and some features of these responses give them a specific character. The groups of fathers differed from each other to a greater degree than the groups of mothers. The analysis of relationships between movement responses and shading (chiaroscuro) responses, which are regarded as a measure of anxiety, revealed significant associations in the case of some movement qualities. The exception was that movement quality which is referred to as blocked movement and blocked-posture movement in Piotrowski’s interpretive scheme. All movement qualities globally considered were significantly correlated with anxiety, the exceptions being the group of parents of healthy children and the group of all fathers. Discussion: The smaller number of human movement responses found in the group of parents of schizophrenic children may attest to these people’s lower psychological maturity, which is associated with a less distinctly formed prototypal role. Moreover, certain specific features of these responses can be interpreted as a sign of difficulties in expressing this role. The cooccurrence of movement responses with shading responses, which are treated as a sign of anxiety, was not always consistent with expectations; this should be considered a reason to reflect on the psychological meaning of these responses and on the possible return to Rorschach’s original views. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest lower maturity in the case of parents of schizophrenic children, manifesting itself in a less strongly developed prototypal role and certain difficulties in expressing this role. Based on the analysis of the cooccurrence of movement responses and responses commenting on the shading present in the inkblots, it is possible to conclude that there is a need for a new psychological interpretation of these responses.

The word among stones

In this chapter Peter Barry explores poems about stones, on stones and as stones. He shows how our ancestors had a special regard for stones particularly those that seemed out of place, such as glacial erratics. The Ringing Stone on Tiree is one such, bearing numerous cup marks from Neolithic times. He considers how poems have been placed in the environment on trails and paths, sometimes with a didactic purpose as part of an environmentalist interpretive scheme. Some of these have taken advantage of the expressive potential of the stones themselves, and of letter carvers who blend this with their own artistic heritage. Collaborations between carver and poet can make best use of the space between the words that come closest to Barry’s interest in avant-gardeorneo-modernist poetry(especially ‘concrete’ and ‘visual’ poetries). Barry also considers poems in urban settings, in projects involving close collaboration with councils, NGOs and communities, where the words have been incised on bridges, monuments, paths, or pavements, as by Alyson Hallett in Bath, Lemn Sissay in Manchester, Bill Herbert near Darlington, and Menna Elfyn and Gillian Clarke in Tonypandy.

Exploratory Higher Order Analysis of the Luria Interpretive Model on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children–Second Edition (KABC-II) School-Age Battery

Higher order factor structure of the Luria interpretive scheme on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children–Second Edition (KABC-II) for the 7- to 12-year and the 13- to 18-year age groups in the KABC-II normative sample ( N = 2,025) is reported. Using exploratory factor analysis, multiple factor extraction criteria, and hierarchical exploratory factor analysis not included in the KABC-II manual, two-, three-, and four-factor extractions were analyzed to assess the hierarchical factor structure by sequentially partitioning variance appropriately to higher order and lower order dimensions as recommended by Carroll. No evidence for a four-factor solution was found. Results showed that the largest portions of total and common variance were accounted for by the second-order general factor and that interpretation should focus primarily, if not exclusively, at that level of measurement.

An Exploratory Study of Organizational Governance in Publicly-Quoted Professional Service Firms

There has been a trend of large professional service firms (PSFs) to move from the partnership form of ownership to alternative ownership forms. As part of this trend large, publicly-quoted accounting companies have emerged in Australia, the US and the UK. Research on how publicly-owned PSFs, including accounting companies, are governed, whether aspects of the governance of partnership persist, why particular governance interpretive schemes and associated structures and systems are implemented and implications for performance is sparse. This study explores the interpretive scheme of governance in two Australian publicly-quoted accounting companies and finds one of the companies to have mimicked the major attributes of the partnership interpretive scheme while the other company moved to a corporate form of governance eliminating all vestiges of the partnership interpretive scheme. Governance was found to have significant implications for the performance of the companies with moving from a partnership interpretive scheme contributing to the ultimate failure of one of the companies. The cases suggest that failed experiments in the governance of publicly-owned PSFs, a relatively recently emerged ownership form in some professions, may contribute to conflicting prior findings on the implications of ownership form for the performance of PSFs. Two alternative approaches to the introduction of corporate style governance structures and systems were identified with the findings suggesting potential benefits of evolution rather than revolution. Based on the findings, a theoretical model of the interpretive scheme of governance of publicly-traded PSFs is developed including factors affecting the interpretive scheme implemented and the introduction of more corporate-like governance structures and systems, potential performance implications of PSFs moving away from a partnership interpretive scheme and the conditions and contingencies under which the relationship may hold. The paper also extends the application of agency theory to publicly-owned PSFs.

An Interpretive Scheme for Analyzing the Identities That Students Develop in Mathematics Classrooms

Our primary purpose in this article is to propose an interpretive scheme for analyzing the identities that students develop in mathematics classrooms that can inform instructional design and teaching. We first introduce the key constructs of normative identity and personal identity, and then illustrate how they can be used to conduct empirical analyses. The case on which the sample analysis focuses concerns a single group of middle school students who were members of two contrasting classrooms in which what it meant to know and do mathematics differed significantly. The resulting analyses document the forms of agency that students can legitimately exercise in particular classrooms, together with how authority is distributed and thus to whom students are accountable, and what they are accountable for mathematically. In the final section of the article, we clarify the relation of the interpretive scheme to other current work on the identities that students are developing in mathematics classrooms.