Thin coverings of modules

Thin coverings are a method of constructing graded-simple modules from simple (ungraded) modules. After a general discussion, we classify the thin coverings of (quasifinite) simple modules over associative algebras graded by finite abelian groups. The classification uses the representation theory of cyclotomic quantum tori. We close with an application to representations of multiloop Lie algebras

Irreducible Modules for Extended Affine Lie Algebras

We construct irreducible modules for twisted toroidal Lie algebras and extended affine Lie algebras. This is done by combining the representation theory of untwisted toroidal algebras with the technique of thin coverings of modules. We illustrate our method with examples of extended affine Lie algebras of Clifford type.Comment: 37 page

Rhetoric and the Unconscious

This paper develops the ideas of rhetorical psychology by applying them to some basic Freudian concepts. In so doing, the paper considers whether there might be a \u27Dialogic Unconscious\u27. So far rhetorical psychology has tended to concentrate upon conscious thought rather than on the unconscious. It has suggested that thinking is modelled on argument and dialogue, and that rhetoric provides the means of opening up matters for thought and discussion. However, rhetoric may also provide the means for closing down topics and, thereby, provide the means of repression. It will be suggested that language is not merely expressive but it is also repressive. Moreover, the repressive aspects of language are built into the very practices of dialogue. In learning language, we learn the codes for socially appropriate ways of speaking. These must be acquired as habits, so that we learn to repress routinely the desire to transgress the codes of appropriate speech. Thus, the routine use of language provides the resources for repression. If language is repressive, then this applies equally to the language of psycho-analysis itself. Freud\u27s famous case histories, such as that of Dora, can be re-examined, in order to see what Freud\u27s own theory of repression was itself repressing

Academic Words and Academic Capitalism

This paper suggests that it is the best and worst of times for academic work. It is the best of times because there are more academics publishing than ever before. It is the worst of times because there is much unnecessary publication. Working in the competitive conditions of academic capitalism, academics feel impelled to keep publishing, whether or not they have anything to say. The pressures to publish continually and to promote one's own approach are reflected in the way that social scientists are writing. Academics use a noun-based technical language, which is less precise than ordinary language. Postgraduates are taught this way of writing as a precondition for entering the social sciences. In this way, the nature of academic capitalism not only determines the conditions under which academics are working but it affects the way that they are writing.Este artículo sugiere que esta época es la mejor y peor para la labor académica. La mejor en cuanto hay más publicaciones académicas que nunca. Y la peor porque sobra mucho de estas publicaciones. Trabajando en las condiciones competitivas del capitalismo académico, los académicos se sienten en la necesidad de continuar publicando, independientemente de que tengan algo que decir. Las presiones de publicar continuamente y promover la propia perspectiva se reflejan en la manera en la que los científicos sociales están escribiendo. Y es que los académicos utilizan un lenguaje técnico basado en sustantivos, con una precisión menor a la del lenguaje ordinario. Los estudiantes de postgrado han sido educados en esta manera de escribir como una condición previa a iniciarse en las ciencias sociales. Así, la naturaleza misma del capitalismo académico no sólo determina las condiciones en las que los académicos trabajan, sino que también afecta su manera de escribir

John Shotter, uniqueness and poetics: parallels with Ernst Cassirer

John Shotter, uniqueness and poetics: parallels with Ernst Cassire

Kurt Lewin’s leadership studies and his legacy to social psychology: is there nothing as practical as a good theory?

This paper re-examines Kurt Lewin's classic leadership studies, using them as a concrete example to explore his wider legacy to social psychology. Lewin distinguished between advanced “Galileian” science, which was based on analysing particular examples, and backward “Aristotelian” science, which used statistical analyses. Close examination of the way Lewin wrote about the leadership studies reveals that he used the sort of binary, value-laden concepts that he criticised as “Aristotelian”. Such concepts, especially those of “democracy” and “autocracy”, affected the way that he analysed the results and the ways that later social scientists have understood, and misunderstood, the studies. It is argued that Lewin's famous motto—“there is nothing as practical as a good theory”—is too simple to fit the tensions between the leadership studies and his own views of what counts as good theory

Learn to write badly: how to succeed in the social sciences

Modern academia is increasingly competitive yet the writing style of social scientists is routinely poor and continues to deteriorate. Are social science postgraduates being taught to write poorly? What conditions adversely affect the way they write? And which linguistic features contribute towards this bad writing? Michael Billig's witty and entertaining book analyses these questions in a quest to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong with the way social scientists write. Using examples from diverse fields such as linguistics, sociology and experimental social psychology, Billig shows how technical terminology is regularly less precise than simpler language. He demonstrates that there are linguistic problems with the noun-based terminology that social scientists habitually use - 'reification' or 'nominalization' rather than the corresponding verbs 'reify' or 'nominalize'. According to Billig, social scientists not only use their terminology to exaggerate and to conceal, but also to promote themselves and their work

The language of critical discourse analysis: the case of nominalization

This article examines the way that critical discourse is written. It does so by considering the concept of nominalization. Critical discourse analysts have suggested that nominalization (along with passivization) has important ideological functions such as deleting agency and reifying processes. However, the language used by critical analysts, as they explore nominalization, is revealing. They tend to use, and thereby instantiate, the very forms of language whose ideological potentiality they are warning against – such as deleting agency, using passives and turning processes into entities. The concept of ‘nominalization’ is itself a nominalization; it is typically used in imprecise ways that fail to specify underlying processes. If critical analysts take seriously their own ideological warnings about nominalization and passivization, they need to change the standard ways of writing critical analysis. We need to use simpler, less technical prose that clearly ascribes actions to human agents

How to be inspired by John Shotter

How to be inspired by John Shotte

The myth of Kurt Lewin and the rhetoric of collective memory in social psychology textbooks

This paper examines how social psychology textbooks represent Kurt Lewin and his contribution to social psychology. Many textbooks describe Lewin as the father of social psychology, using a conventional, passive voiced trope to do so. The rhetorical meaning of this trope is analysed to show that textbooks are invoking a collective memory, which closes down views of the past, rather than making a historical argument, which opens up the past for examination. This depiction of Lewin typically involves forgetting his critical views about statistics and experimentation. When textbooks cite Lewin’s famous motto “there is nothing as practical as a good theory”, they tend to ascribe it a special status. In doing so, they change its meaning subtly and treat it as a truth that needs no empirical validation. By their rhetoric, omissions and avoidance of historical sources, textbooks recreate Lewin as a mythic figure rather than a historical one