Japan and the multiplicity of cultural programmes of modernity

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Some Sociological Observations on the Response of Israeli Organizations to New Immigrants

Preliminary observation suggests that the contact between Israeli officials and newly arrived immigrants from traditional societies is considerably less bureaucratic than might have been predicted. For example, analysis of several cases of such bureaucrat-client relationships indicates that officials often add the role of teacher to their relatively specific roles as bureaucrats by teaching newcomers how to perform in the role. Moreover, the official often becomes not only a teacher but also a kind of informal leader. This indicates that under certain conditions, formal organizations may give birth to incipient social movements, a direction of organizational change wholly unanticipated in the theoretical literature. The case material is analyzed in terms of (1) a theory of role impingement in which bureaucratic roles are seen to become intertwined with roles that are bureaucratically irrelevant to the conduct of formal organization and (2) a theory of socialization where the official serves as socializing agent for his clients

Modernidades múltiplas

A ideia de modernidades múltiplas pressupõe que a melhor forma de compreender o mundo contemporâneo - e de explicar a história da modernidade - é concebê-lo como história de constituição e reconstituição contínua de uma multiplicidade de programas culturais. O termo "modernidades múltiplas" tem duas implicações. A primeira é que modernidade e ocidentalização não são idênticas; o padrão, ou padrões, ocidentais de modernidade não constituem as únicas modernidades "autênticas", mesmo se foram historicamente precedentes e se continuaram a ser uma referência central para outras visões da modernidade. A segunda é que o termo modernidades implica finalmente o reconhecimento de que essas modernidades não são "estáticas", que se encontram antes em constante mutação.The idea of multiple modernities presumes that the best way to understand the contemporary world - indeed to explain the history of modernity - is to see it as a story of continual constitution and reconstitution of a multiplicity of cultural programs. The term "multiple modernities" entails two implications. The first one is that modernity and westernisation are not identical; the western pattern or patterns of modernity are not only "authentic" modernities, even if they were historically prior and continued to be central reference ont for other modern visions. Second, the term modernities entails finally the recognition that such modernities are not "static", but continually changing.L’idée des modernités multiples présuppose que la meilleure manière de comprendre le monde contemporain - et d’expliquer l’histoire de la modernité - c’est de le concevoir en tant qu’histoire de constitution et de reconstitution continuelle d’une multiplicité de programmes culturels. Le terme "modernités multiples" a deux implications. La première est que la modernité et l’occidentalisation sont deux choses différentes; le modèle, ou les modèles occidentaux de modernité ne constituent pas les seules modernités "authentiques", même si historiquement elles ont été précédentes et si elles ont continué d’être une référence centrale pour d’autres visions de la modernité. La deuxième est que le terme modernités revient à reconnaître que ces modernités ne sont pas "statiques" et qu’elles sont plutôt en constante mutation.La idea de modernidades multiples presupone que la mejor forma de comprender el mundo contemporáneo y de explicar la historia de la modernidad es concebirlo como historia de constitución y reconstitución contínua de una multiplicidad de programas culturales. El término "modernidades múltiples" tiene dos implicaciones. La primera es que la modernidad y occidentalización no son idénticas; el patrón, o patrones, occidentales de modernización no constituyen las únicas modernidades "auténticas", incluso si fueran historicamente precedentes y si continuaran a ser una referencia central para otras visiones de la modernidad. La segunda es que el término modernidades implica finalmente el reconocimiento de que esas modernidades no son "estáticas" sino que se encuentran en constante mutación

Critical Success Factors for Inner City Businesses

We survey incumbent businesses in the Ouachita Enterprise Community primarily located in Monroe, Louisiana. We seek to discover what common factors are critical to the success of inner city businesses. Our results indicate that taxes are a strong negative factor while government regulation is a positive factor. The availability of information technology, good transportation links, and location are important positive factors. Internal factors such as good customer relations were important while production costs relatively unimportant. Internal factors were rated as more important than external factors suggesting training programs to be an effective economic development tool

The roots of "Western European societal evolution". A concept of Europe by Jenő Szűcs

Jenő Szűcs wrote his essay entitled Sketch on the three regions of Europe in the early 1980s in Hungary. During these years, a historically well-argued opinion emphasising a substantial difference between Central European and Eastern European societies was warmly received in various circles of the political opposition. In a wider European perspective Szűcs used the old “liberty topos” which claims that the history of Europe is no other than the fulfillment of liberty. In his Sketch, Szűcs does not only concentrate on questions concerning the Middle Ages in Western Europe. Yet it is this stream of thought which brought a new perspective to explaining European history. His picture of the Middle Ages represents well that there is a way to integrate all typical Western motifs of post-war self-definition into a single theory. Mainly, the “liberty motif”, as a sign of “Europeanism” – in the interpretation of Bibó’s concept, Anglo-saxon Marxists and Weber’s social theory –, developed from medieval concepts of state and society and from an analysis of economic and social structures. Szűcs’s historical aspect was a typical intellectual product of the 1980s: this was the time when a few Central European historians started to outline non-Marxist aspects of social theory and categories of modernisation theories, but concealing them with Marxist terminology

Designing multiplayer games to facilitate emergent social behaviours online

This paper discusses an exploratory case study of the design of games that facilitate spontaneous social interaction and group behaviours among distributed individuals, based largely on symbolic presence 'state' changes. We present the principles guiding the design of our game environment: presence as a symbolic phenomenon, the importance of good visualization and the potential for spontaneous self-organization among groups of people. Our game environment, comprising a family of multiplayer 'bumper-car' style games, is described, followed by a discussion of lessons learned from observing users of the environment. Finally, we reconsider and extend our design principles in light of our observations

Political modernization : some comparative notes

DraftCover title"#1361 L2"--handwritten on cover"DRAFT -- not for publication or quotation"--CoverIncludes bibliographical reference