Compositions of professionalism in counselling work: an embodied intersectionality framework

This paper explores the embodied constitution of professionalism in the context of the counselling psychology profession in Russia. We develop an embodied intersectionality framework for theorizing embodied compositions of professionalism, which allows us to explain how multiple embodied categories of difference intersect and are relationally co-constitutive in producing credible professionals, and how these intersections are contingent on intercorporeal encounters that take place in localized professional settings. Our exploration of how professionalism and professional credibility are established in Russian counselling shows that, rather than assuming that a hegemonic ‘ideal body’ is given preference in a professional context, different embodied compositions may be deemed credible in various work settings within the same profession. An embodied intersectionality framework allows us to challenge the notion of a single professional ideal and offer a dynamic and contextually situated analysis of the lived experiences of professional privilege and disadvantage

A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology

The theory of concepts advanced in the dissertation aims at accounting for a) how a concept makes successful practice possible, and b) how a scientific concept can be subject to rational change in the course of history. Traditional accounts in the philosophy of science have usually studied concepts in terms only of their reference; their concern is to establish a stability of reference in order to address the incommensurability problem. My discussion, in contrast, suggests that each scientific concept consists of three components of content: 1) reference, 2) inferential role, and 3) the epistemic goal pursued with the concept's use. I argue that in the course of history a concept can change in any of these three components, and that change in one component—including change of reference—can be accounted for as being rational relative to other components, in particular a concept's epistemic goal.This semantic framework is applied to two cases from the history of biology: the homology concept as used in 19th and 20th century biology, and the gene concept as used in different parts of the 20th century. The homology case study argues that the advent of Darwinian evolutionary theory, despite introducing a new definition of homology, did not bring about a new homology concept (distinct from the pre-Darwinian concept) in the 19th century. Nowadays, however, distinct homology concepts are used in systematics/evolutionary biology, in evolutionary developmental biology, and in molecular biology. The emergence of these different homology concepts is explained as occurring in a rational fashion. The gene case study argues that conceptual progress occurred with the transition from the classical to the molecular gene concept, despite a change in reference. In the last two decades, change occurred internal to the molecular gene concept, so that nowadays this concept's usage and reference varies from context to context. I argue that this situation emerged rationally and that the current variation in usage and reference is conducive to biological practice.The dissertation uses ideas and methodological tools from the philosophy of mind and language, the philosophy of science, the history of science, and the psychology of concepts

Some Aspects of Aggregate Concentration in the Israeli Economy, 1964-1986

This essay examines the Israeli market structure from the perspective of ownership. We distinguish between the several corporate holding-groups that dominate the ‘Big Economy’ and the multitude of smaller, largely independent, business entities of the ‘Small Economy’. Although the two “sectors” operate under the same macroeconomic conditions, the analysis reveals marked differences in their business performance. These differences were reflected in an upward trend of aggregate concentration through the 1964-1968 period. Until the early 1970s the upward trend was moderate and was largely due to the different expansion paces of the two “sectors”. Since then, however, the trend intensified as the ‘Small Economy’ stagnated while profits in the ‘Big Economy’ continued to grow.concentration dual economy holding groups Israel market structure national accounting ownership profit surplus

Understanding employment systems from a gender perspective: pitfalls and potentials of new comparative analytical frameworks

Economic globalization, welfare state transformation as well as political and social change on national and supranational level impact on national labor markets in advanced societies in complex ways. From a gender perspective, these dynamics of change entail deregulation as well as re-regulation of employment systems and at the same time are triggered by shifts in gender relations. Addressing this complexity poses challenges to scholarly research comparing employment systems and systemizing cross-national variations of labor market regimes which tend to neglect gender relations as a relevant factor of change. This context sets the framework for our question on how ongoing changes in employment systems and in gender relations are taken up in recent scholarship. We focus on three approaches prominent in the mainstream scholarly debate which address the current state of employment systems in advanced economies in comparative perspective spanning from political economy to micro economics and economic sociology, namely the Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) approach (Hall/Soskice 2001), Marsden's micro-economic theory of employment systems (1999) and Fligstein's work 'The architecture of markets' (2001). The approaches differ in the assignment of agency (to firms, employees and the state) as well as in the assessment of the role of educational institutions for shaping employment systems. They thus dispose of different pitfalls and potentials for analyzing the gendered character of change of employment systems. -- Unter dem Einfluss von Globalisierung, Wohlfahrtsstaatstransformation und politischen und gesellschaftlichen Umbrüchen sind nationale Arbeitsmärkte in fortgeschrittenen Marktökonomien erheblichen Veränderungen ausgesetzt. In geschlechtssensibler Perspektive wird deutlich, dass hier nicht nur Deregulierung von Beschäftigung sondern auch Re- Regulierung eine Rolle spielt, ebenso wie Arbeitsmarktdynamiken auch durch Veränderungen im Geschlechterverhältnis beeinflusst sind. Diese Komplexität des Wandels stellt eine Herausforderung für die vergleichende Arbeitsmarkt- und Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung dar, in deren Typisierung von Arbeitsmarktregimes Geschlechterverhältnisse nur begrenzt Berücksichtigung finden. Vor diesem Hintergrund fragen wir, wie in einschlägigen neueren Ansätzen zur Analyse von Arbeitsmärkten Wandel von Beschäftigungssystemen und Geschlechterverhältnissen konzipiert wird. Im Mittelpunkt stehen drei prominente komparatistisch ausgerichtete Konzepte: der polit-ökonomische Ansatz ‚Varieties of Capitalism’ (Hall/Soskice 2001), die mikro-ökonomische Theorie von Beschäftigungssystemen von David Marsden (1999) und Neil Fligstein’s wirtschaftssoziologischer Ansatz ‚The architecture of markets’ (2001). Wie die Ergebnisse zeigen, unterscheiden sich die Ansätze in der Identifikation von relevanten Akteuren (Betriebe, Beschäftigte, Staat) ebenso wie in der Rolle, die Ausbildungsinstitutionen für die Strukturierung von Arbeitsmärkten zugeschrieben wird. Damit ergeben sich für die Analyse von geschlechtsspezifischen Aspekten von Beschäftigung unterschiedliche blinde Flecken und Erkenntnispotentiale.

Relevance and Equality: An Analytical Account

In day-to-day life, one is compelled to compare. In replying to a question on one’s favorite things, one will group them together based on the satisfaction one is provided with, leaving out the rest. In discussing the issue of spiteful people, one is promptly reminded of some common features of individuals whose actions typically meet the required criteria (or the criteria one sets for such category). In metaphorical speech—for instance, by descriptively asserting that “no man is an island”—one grounds the assertion on past knowledge of the prototypical isolation of islands to, then, negate the transfer of such features to human beings, also based on past knowledge that they lack self-sufficiency and require partaking in any kind of community to thrive. Lastly, if one wishes to open a box with no scissors or knifes at hand, one might try with a key, if sharp enough: by purporting to do so, one is setting an analogy insofar one is transferring structural information (functionality for said purpose, i.e., the active disposition to cut through) from a source (scissors and knifes) to a target (sharp-enough keys). The capacity to set analogies and categorize is naturally limited by many things: I have no intention to be exhaustive, thus I will just name a few. It is limited, on the one hand, by the information included in the knowledgebase (e.g., one cannot list skydiving as a favorite thing if one has not even heard about it) and, on the other, by the degree of what in cognitive psychology is called “perceptual similarity,” which is developed with age and acquisition of expertise. It is also limited by the set of terms of comparison: analogies and categories always fall prey to the availability bias which consists in heavily weighing judgments toward more recent information, making new opinions biased toward latest news. Thirdly, it would also be naïf to claim that reasoning by analogy is not impacted by background theories, to the extent that it is claimed that all knowledge is “theory-infused.” Analogies and categories are formulated in a context of tendency, related to cognitive dissonance, to seek or interpret information in such a way that it confirms one’s preconceptions and discredit that which does not support it. Furthermore, similarities are somehow dependent upon people’s underlying representations—beliefs and phenomenal experience, —not necessarily based on whether they represent simple, descriptive properties. The issue of these “salient similarities” becomes very clear, for instance, in discussions regarding descriptive similarities of same-sex couples if the discussants do not share underlying representations. Naturally, that is linked with the “status quo” bias towards things remaining relatively the same and avoiding disruptions and “stereotyping”—that is, hoping for a member of the projected category to possess certain properties and behave in a certain way without having any relevant information about that particular

The Neglected Harms of Beauty: Beyond Engaging Individuals

This paper explores the neglected ‘harms-to-others’ which result from increased attention to beauty, increased engagement in beauty practices and rising minimal beauty standards. In the first half of the paper I consider the dominant discourse of beauty harms – that of ethics and policy – and argue that this discourse has over-focused on the agency of, and possible harms to, recipients of beauty practices. I introduce the feminist discourse which recognises a general harm to all women and points towards an alternative understanding; although it too focuses on engaging individuals. I argue over-focusing on harms to engaging individuals is somewhat surprising especially in liberal contexts, as this harm can broadly be regarded as ‘self-harm’ (done by individuals to themselves, or by others employed by individuals to do so). The focus on engaging individuals has resulted in the neglect of significant and pressing harms-to-others in theory, policy and practice. In the second half of the paper I turn to actual and emerging harms-to-others. I focus on three particular harms-to-others as examples of the breadth and depth of beauty harms: first, direct harm to providers; second, indirect but specific harm to those who are ‘abnormal’; and third, indirect and general harm to all. I conclude that, contrary to current discourses, harms-to-others need to be taken into account to avoid biased and partial theorising and counter-productive policy-making. I advocate recasting beauty, in a parallel way to smoking, as a matter of public health rather than individual choice

Leaving home in Europe: the experience of cohorts born around 1960

In this paper we analyse the leaving home experience of men and women born around 1960 in 16 European countries. We use extensive empirical evidence from Fertility and Family Survey data, providing a large-scale comparison. We focus on some key indicators of the process of leaving home: the timing, sequencing and synchronisation of leaving home with the end of education and the formation of a first union. As far as these dimensions of leaving home are concerned, Europe appears to be extremely heterogeneous, and explaining this will undoubtedly be a challenge. The complex interplay between the present economic situation of young people and long-term institutional and cultural factors is thought to be the main driving factor. Our findings constitute a benchmark against which subsequent behaviour, such as that of cohorts coming of age after the fall of the Iron Curtain, could be compared. (AUTHORS)Europe

The Discourse of Prayer in the Major Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

This article presents a linguistic analysis of the prayers in the five major Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. In the first part, the prayers are described in terms of form and structural elements. The second part offers a comparison with direct speech in the same works and Christian prayers and Greek prayers from other sources. The results suggest that this relatively uncharacterised discourse, closer to colloquial speech than any religious model, offers an authentic example of early Christian prayer

Untangling the concept of coercive control: Theorizing domestic violent crime

The paper assesses three approaches to domestic violence: two that use the concept of ‘coercive control’ and one that uses ‘domestic violent crime’. These are: Stark’s concept of coercive control; Johnson’s distinction between situational couple violence and intimate terrorism, in which coercive control is confined to the latter; and that of domestic violent crime, in which all physical violence is conceptualised as coercive and controlling. The paper assesses these three approaches on seven issues. It offers original analysis of data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales concerning variations in repetition and seriousness in domestic violent crime. It links escalation in domestic violent crime to variations in the economic resources of the victim. It concludes that the concept of domestic violent crime is preferable to that of coercive control when seeking to explain variations in domestic violence