A Biased Review of Sociophysics

Various aspects of recent sociophysics research are shortly reviewed: Schelling model as an example for lack of interdisciplinary cooperation, opinion dynamics, combat, and citation statistics as an example for strong interdisciplinarity.Comment: 16 pages for J. Stat. Phys. including 2 figures and numerous reference

Scripture in the Pastoral Letters of the Provincial Councils of Baltimore

In the pastoral letters of the provincial councils of Baltimore (1829-1849), a dramatic shift occurs in the way Scripture is employed as a source of authority; in the earlier letters, the role of Scripture is commanding and evident, while in the later, it is almost invisible. This article addresses each letter in turn, outlining the ways in which Scripture is employed to illustrate and reinforce the decrees of the provincial councils. The analysis suggests that Scripture\u27s role in the 1829-1840 letters corresponds to the turbulent environment of the Catholic Church in America, especially in relation to Protestant nativist groups, and that its absence in the 1843-1849 letters reflects a shift away from Scripture as a locus of authority. The article concludes by outlining three possibilities for understanding the shift away from Scripture. The pastoral letters of the provincial councils exist as much-neglected aspects of American Catholic history, and this analysis aims to bring at least part of their influence to light

Problem-solving courts, therapeutic jurisprudence and the Constitution: If two is company, is three a crowd?

Court costs, resource-intensive trials, booming prison populations and the obduracy of recidivism rates all present as ugly excesses of the criminal law adversarial paradigm. To combat these excesses, problem-solving courts have evolved with an edict to address the underlying issues that have caused an individual to commit a crime. When a judge seeks to help a problem-solving court participant deal with issues like addiction, mental health or poverty, they are performing a very different role to that of a judicial officer in the traditional court hierarchy. They are no longer the removed, independent arbiter — a problem-solving court judge steps into the ‘arena’ with the participant and makes active use of their judicial authority to assist in rehabilitation and positive behavioural change. Problem-solving court judges employing the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence appreciate that their interaction with participants can have therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences. This article will consider how the deployment of therapeutic measures (albeit with good intention) can lead to the behavioural manifestation of partiality and bias on the part of problem-solving court judges. Chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution will then be analysed to highlight why the operation and functioning of problem solving courts may be deemed unconstitutional. Part IV of this article will explain how a problem-solving court judge who is not acting impartially or independently will potentially contravene the requirements of the Constitution. It will finally be suggested that judges who possess a high level of emotional intelligence will be the most successful in administering an independent and impartial problem solving court

Ford Madox Ford

[About the book]: Featuring over 500 entries written by an international team of scholars, The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction is an authoritative reference resource of up to date scholarship. Arranged in three volumes covering British and Irish fiction, American fiction, and World fiction, the entries cover major writers and their works; the genres and sub-genres of fiction (including crime fiction, sci fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant garde novel); and the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field. My entry on the novelist, critic, poet and editor Ford Madox Ford is in Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia

Blockbusters

10,000 word annotated bibliograph

Books Received

We investigate the persistence of spectral gaps of one-dimensional frustration free quantum lattice systems under weak perturbations and with open boundary conditions. Assuming that the interactions of the system satisfy a form of local topological quantum order, we prove explicit lower bounds on the ground state spectral gap and higher gaps for spin and fermion chains. By adapting previous methods using the spectral flow, we analyze the bulk and edge dependence of lower bounds on spectral gaps

Rethinking empirical research into Children in Care and Contact

Current literature in relation to contact for Children in Care reveals that there have been a number of theories that have informed the current notion of contact and these are underpinned by psychological and psychosocial assumptions about identity development (Winter and Cohen, 2005). These have included the maintenance of the ‘mother-child’ bond (Clarke and Clarke, 1976); the need to maintain contact to avoid ‘genealogical bewilderment’ (Sants, 1964) and the importance of continuing socio-genealogical connectedness (Owusu-Bempah and Howitt, 1997) and most importantly Bowlby’s (1960) theory of attachment. These psychological and psychosocial assumptions have informed not only the type of research undertaken but also the methodology used (see Cleaver, 2000; Macaskill, 2002; Selwyn, 2003 and McWey and Mullis, 2004). A further theoretical notion that has informed the current understanding of contact is the family which Smart (2007) has described as the optimal expression of kinship and relatedness. Yet this notion in and of itself is socially constructed, and has the irony of not just being built upon by personal experience but also wider societal expectations that are communicated via the taken for granted prioritisation of family, which is illustrated in everyday language, images and ideas (Gillis, 1996 and Morgan, 1996:238). This paper will highlight that the empirical research methods that have been used to understand and explain the phenomenon of contact have been dominated not only by socially constructed notions in relation to the family and children, but also by a positivist approach where scientific techniques are used to explain and understand the dynamic of contact which can be described as a complex interaction where there are a range of agendas, interpretations and expectations that take place. An argument will be made for the use alternative methodological approaches that place the child or young person at the centre of the research project. In particular attention will be given to tools such as Hart’s ladder of participation (2008) which actively promotes empowerment and respect of children and their role in research. Additionally, the methodological approach of triadic interviews will be posited because it allows researchers the opportunity to gain a “more holistic and multi-dimensional understanding of the problem” (Brownhill and Hickey, 2012 p.370), thereby capturing the complexities of contact which can be interpreted as an interactional process built upon the foundation of existing relationships, and which is aimed at maintaining or possibly enhancing what is already present