Developing the concept of society: Institutional domains, regimes of inequalities and complex systems in a global era

This article develops the concept of society to meet the challenge of cross-border and global processes. Global processes have made visible the inadequacy of interpreting the concept of society as if it were a nation-state, since there is a lack of congruence of institutional domains (economy, polity, civil society, violence) and regimes of inequality (class, gender, ethnicity). The article engages with two strands of intellectual heritage in sociological analysis of society as a macro concept: the differentiation of institutions and the relations of inequality. The concepts of society and societalisation are developed by hybridising these two approaches rather than selecting only one or the other. To achieve this, the concept of system is developed by drawing on complexity science. This enables the simultaneous analysis of differentiated institutional domains (economy, polity, violence, civil society) and multiple regimes of inequality without reductionism. In turn, this facilitates the fluent theorisation of variations in the temporal and spatial reach of social systems

Fifty years of Harper-Dorn creep: a viable creep mechanism or a Californian artifact?

Fifty years ago, in a series of classic creep experiments conducted at the University of California in Berkeley, Harper and Dorn obtained unique experimental data revealing the possibility of a new and heretofore unrecognized flow process occurring in pure aluminum when tested at low stresses and at temperatures very close to the melting temperature. This flow mechanism, subsequently designated Harper–Dorn creep, has been the center of much argument and speculation in the ensuing years. The present paper looks back over the last half-century and charts the various developments in attempts to obtain a more detailed understanding of whether Harper–Dorn creep is (or is not) a viable creep process. Examples are presented for both metals and non-metals. It is concluded that, although it appears Harper–Dorn creep may occur only under restricted conditions associated with high purity materials and low initial dislocation densities, nevertheless there is good evidence supporting the validity of this creep mechanism as a viable and unique flow process