Finding voice within the gender order

There are many different viewpoints and discourses that pay claim to understanding the nature of gender. Few topics have generated as much interest within the social sciences, as well as in the popular media. In the spirit of Kurt Lewin, we know that the theories we hold have practical implications for how we live and act. For this reason, it is useful to explore the background of these theoretical foundations as a way to introduce the articles in this issue and relate them to the ongoing gender debates in organizational and social science. After briefly summarizing the essentialist view, sex role theory, and social constructionist theory, I will summarize the thrust of the four articles in this journal, frame them within the context of the constructionist perspective, and suggest how they add to this important debate

Asymptotics of 4d spin foam models

We study the asymptotic properties of four-simplex amplitudes for various four-dimensional spin foam models. We investigate the semi-classical limit of the Ooguri, Euclidean and Lorentzian EPRL models using coherent states for the boundary data. For some classes of geometrical boundary data, the asymptotic formulae are given, in all three cases, by simple functions of the Regge action for the four-simplex geometry.Comment: 10 pages, Proceedings for the 2nd Corfu summer school and workshop on quantum gravity and quantum geometry, talk given by Winston J. Fairbair

A sketch of Theodore R. Sarbin's life

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.25.2.10schTed Sarbin was born on May 8, 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio. He died on August 31, 2005, in Carmel, California. He was born into a poor Jewish family from eastern Europe, and died at his home — beloved by his friends and family, and acclaimed by his professional colleagues as a psychologist of distinction. This article traces the course of his life — with special attention to the formative influences in his education as a psychologist. As a psychologist, he became a significant critical voice — arguing for a psychology that would embrace narrative as a principle of understanding human life, and contextualism, as opposed to mechanism, as a world view

Impact of Religious Factors in Nebraska Adoptions

I. Introduction … A. In General … B. Empirical Studies … 1. Nebraska Adoption Agencies … 2. Nebraska County Judges II. Crossing Religious Lines; The Natural Mother vs. the Adoptive Parents … A. Non-Dedicated Child; Adoptive Parents’ Religion Differs from Natural Mother … B. Dedicated Child; Adoptive Parents of Different Faith … C. Instructed Child; Adoptive Parents of Different Faith … 1. Common Basic Faith of Adoptive Parents Differs from Child’s Instruction … 2. One Adoptive Parent Has Same Faith as Child’s Instruction … 3. Adoptive Parents and Child of Different Branch of Protestant Faith III. Religiously Mixed Marriages … A. Sociological Research … B. Judicial Case Law … C. Agency and Judicial Concern in Nebraska Adoption Cases IV. Church Membership and Attendance … A. The View of the Church … B. Religion and Behavior … C. Religion and Marriage … D. Percentage of Population Religiously Interested … E. Agency and Judicial Concern in Nebraska Adoption Cases V. Atheists and Agnostics VI. Conclusio

Impact of Religious Factors in Nebraska Adoptions

I. Introduction … A. In General … B. Empirical Studies … 1. Nebraska Adoption Agencies … 2. Nebraska County Judges II. Crossing Religious Lines; The Natural Mother vs. the Adoptive Parents … A. Non-Dedicated Child; Adoptive Parents’ Religion Differs from Natural Mother … B. Dedicated Child; Adoptive Parents of Different Faith … C. Instructed Child; Adoptive Parents of Different Faith … 1. Common Basic Faith of Adoptive Parents Differs from Child’s Instruction … 2. One Adoptive Parent Has Same Faith as Child’s Instruction … 3. Adoptive Parents and Child of Different Branch of Protestant Faith III. Religiously Mixed Marriages … A. Sociological Research … B. Judicial Case Law … C. Agency and Judicial Concern in Nebraska Adoption Cases IV. Church Membership and Attendance … A. The View of the Church … B. Religion and Behavior … C. Religion and Marriage … D. Percentage of Population Religiously Interested … E. Agency and Judicial Concern in Nebraska Adoption Cases V. Atheists and Agnostics VI. Conclusio

Toward Transformative Dialogue

Drawing from a social constructionist theoroetical orientation and a range of congenial practices, we propose the concept of transformative dialogue which stresses relational responsibility, self-expression, affirmation, coordination, relfexivity, and the co-creation of new realities. We see conversational moves that accomplish these aims as highly promising; at the same time there is no attempt in the present article to suggest these as ultimate solutions to employ in situations of conflict. The present is an attempt to generate a potentially useful vocabulary rather than a strict set of rules for negotiating among incommensurate realities

Holonomy observables in Ponzano-Regge type state sum models

We study observables on group elements in the Ponzano-Regge model. We show that these observables have a natural interpretation in terms of Feynman diagrams on a sphere and contrast them to the well studied observables on the spin labels. We elucidate this interpretation by showing how they arise from the no-gravity limit of the Turaev-Viro model and Chern-Simons theory.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Toward a vocabulary of transformative dialogue

Most of us feel more comfortable in certain groups than others, and indeed find certain people just plain wrong headed or evil - perhaps neo-Nazis, the KKK, the Mafia, terrorist groups. This sense of alterity - distance or separation from particular others - is virtually an inevitable outcome of social life. As we come to generate realities and moralities within specific groups - families, friendships, the workplace, the religious setting - so do our interlocutors become invaluable resources. With their support - either explicit or implicit - we gain the sense of who we are, what is real, and what is right. At the same time, all world constructions and their associated forms of relational life create a devalued exterior - a realm that is not us, not what we believe, not true, not good. In important degree this devaluation derives from the structure of language out of which we construct our realities. Language is essentially a differentiating medium, with every word separating that which is named or indicated from that which is not (absent, contrary). Thus, whenever we declare what is the case or what is good, we use words that privilege certain existents while thrusting the absent and the contrary to the margins. An emphasis on the material basis of reality suppresses or devalues the spiritual; an emphasis on the world as observed subtlety undermines beliefs in the unseen and intuitive, and so on. In effect, for every reality there is alterity. These proposals are all congenial to a view of reality as socially constructed (see Gergen, 1994). The problem of difference is intensified by several ancillary tendencies. First, there is a tendency to avoid those who are different, and particularly when they seem antagonistic to one's way of life. We avoid meetings, conversations, and social gatherings. With less opportunity for interchange, there is secondly a tendency for accounts of the other to become simplified. There are few challenges to one's descriptions and explanations; fewer exceptions are made. Third, with the continuing tendency to explain others' actions in a negative way, there is a movement toward extremity. As we continue to locate "the evil" in the other's actions, there is an accumulation; slowly the other takes on the shape of the inferior, the stupid or the villainous. Social psychologists often speak in this context of "negative stereotyping," that is, rigid and simplified conceptions of the other. All such tendencies lead to social atomization, with the same processes that separate cliques and gangs in adolescence reflected organizationally as tensions between management and workers or line and staff; and at the societal level as conflicts between the political left and right, fundamentalists vs. liberals, gay rights and anti-gays, and pro-choice vs. prolife. And more globally we find similar tendencies separating Jews and Palestinians, Irish Catholics vs. Protestants, Muslims vs. Christians, and so on. On this account tendencies toward division and conflict are normal outgrowths of social interchange. Prejudice is not, then, a manifestation of flawed character - inner rigidities, decomposed cognition, emotional biases, and the like. Rather, so long as we continue the normal process of creating consensus around what is real and good, classes of the undesirable are under production. Wherever there are tendencies toward unity, cohesion, brotherhood, commitment, solidarity, or community, so are the seeds of alterity and conflict sewn. In the present condition, virtually none of us escape from being undesirable to at least one (and probably many) other groups. The major challenge that confronts us, then, is not that of generating warm and cozy communities, conflict-free societies, or a harmonious world order. Rather, given the endemic character of conflict, how do we proceed in such a way that ever emerging antagonism does not yield aggression, oppression, or genocide - in effect, the end of meaning altogether. This challenge is all the more daunting in a world where communication technology allows increasing numbers of groups to organize, mold common identities, set agendas and take action (1). Perhaps the major challenge for the 21st century is how we shall manage to live together on the globe. What resources are available to us in confronting this challenge? At least one important possibility is suggested by the social constructionist posture that frames the above account: if it is through dialogue that the grounds for conflict emerge, then dialogue may be our best option for treating contentious realities. Yet, in spite of the broad significance attached to the term, "dialogue," little is gained by invoking its power. More formally, dialogue is simply "a conversation between two or more persons." And indeed, it is ultimately impossible to distinguish between dialogue and its other, namely monologue. For even monologue is addressed to someone - either present or implied. And even should the recipient remain silent, responses do occur - privately to one's interlocutor or more publicly to concerned others. Thus, to make headway here it is essential to distinguish among specific forms of dialogue. Not all dialogic processes may be useful in reducing the potential for hostility, conflict, and aggression. Indeed conversations dominated by critical exchanges, saber rattling, and contentious demands may only exacerbate the conflict. It is in this context that I wish to put forth the concept and practice of transformative dialogue. Transformative dialogue may be viewed as any form of interchange that succeeds in transforming a relationship between those committed to otherwise separate and antagonistic realities (and their related practices) to one in which common and solidifying realities are under construction

Lorentzian spin foam amplitudes: graphical calculus and asymptotics

The amplitude for the 4-simplex in a spin foam model for quantum gravity is defined using a graphical calculus for the unitary representations of the Lorentz group. The asymptotics of this amplitude are studied in the limit when the representation parameters are large, for various cases of boundary data. It is shown that for boundary data corresponding to a Lorentzian simplex, the asymptotic formula has two terms, with phase plus or minus the Lorentzian signature Regge action for the 4-simplex geometry, multiplied by an Immirzi parameter. Other cases of boundary data are also considered, including a surprising contribution from Euclidean signature metrics.Comment: 30 pages. v2: references now appear. v3: presentation greatly improved (particularly diagrammatic calculus). Definition of "Regge state" now the same as in previous work; signs change in final formula as a result. v4: two references adde