4,103 research outputs found
Modes of Political Representation: Toward a New Typology
The mandate-independence controversy still features prominently in studies of political representation even though the problems with its theoretical foundation and empirical operationalization have long been recognized. This article proposes an alternative typology of modes of representation. By combining type of control (ex ante or ex post) with direction of the interactions (bottom-up or top-down), our study captures the most important aspects of the relationship between voters and representatives. We demonstrate how the typology can be used in a survey instrument by comparing the attitudes toward representation of Dutch members of Parliament with the attitudes held by voters, and by relating the views of the members to their behavior
Introduction: Analytic, Continental and the question of a bridge
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Introduction: Analytic, Continental and the question of a bridge, which has been published in final form at 10.1177/1474885115582078. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with SAGE’s Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.In philosophy and political theory, divisions come and go, but some persist despite beingobviously problematic. The analytic and Continental divide is one such division. Inpolitical philosophy and political theory, the division has been particularly pronounced.Analytic and Continental thinkers are divided not only over substantial issues but also over the very nature of political theorising. In spite of this fundamental nature, theorists often seem to assume that, as a division, the analytic/Continental divide requires no explanation. We suggest that, as a central division within political theory, and despite being acknowledged as problematic for quite some time, it has persisted because it has not been adequately examined. Once examined, the division turns out to be operationally weaker than it once was. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in engaging thinkers from the other side. This has been accompanied by a corresponding tendency, among both analytic and Continental philosophers and political thinkers, to reflect on the nature of their own tradition and ‘philosophy’. Both traditions have entered a self-conscious period of meta-reflection. Such questioning indicates the possibility of transformation within both groups, in the absence of settled frameworks and divisions. However, it is also clear that such signs are the beginning of the possibility of a new relation rather than a sign of the eclipse of the division. The continued institutional separation and the space between their respective philosophical vocabularies suggest that, while the time is ripe for work here, there is still much to be done
From liminoid to limivoid: Understanding contemporary bungee jumping from a cross-cultural perspective
This article is about bungee jumping and how it reflects the world in which we live.
During the 1980s bungee jumping became one of the most popular ways of seeking
a ‘real experience’, when the practice was commercialised and introduced as a
leisure activity all around the world. This happened in the same period as outdoor
sport activities or ‘outdoor recreation’ exploded in kinds and numbers, clearly linked
to the ‘experiential turn in tourism’ and the proliferation of ‘adventure tourism’. A key
feature of these activities is the experience of danger: going to the limits, or indeed,
standing on the limit. Hence, bungee jumping can be seen as an apt metaphor for
understanding liminality in contemporary tourism and leisure. The bungee jumping
adventure quite literally positions the subject standing on an edge, facing an abyss,
jumping into a void. But what kind of limit experiences are these? This question can
be addressed, we argue, by matching contemporary bungee jumping experiences
against practices of jumping rituals in non-modern societies, which seem to contain
some common features with the modern bungee jump. In contrast to more ‘classical’
ritual passages, contemporary bungee jumping is clearly an example of what Turner
called the liminoid. Furthermore, it can be argued that insofar as these experiences
involve no transformation of subjectivity or no passage to the ‘other world’, bungee
jumping signifies a further shift from the liminoid to what we call the ‘limivoid’: the
inciting of near-death experiences, a jump into nothingness, a desperate search for
experience in a world of ontological excess
Two-Dimensional Bosonization from Variable Shifts in the Path Integral
A method to perform bosonization of a fermionic theory in (1+1) dimensions in
a path integral framework is developed. The method relies exclusively on the
path integral property of allowing variable shifts, and does not depend on the
explicit form of Greens functions. Two examples, the Schwinger model and the
massless Thirring model, are worked out.Comment: 4 page
Introduction to the Special Issue on Liminal Hotspots
This article introduces a special issue of Theory and Psychology on liminal hotspots. A liminal hotspot is an occasion during which people feel they are caught suspended in the circumstances of a transition that has become permanent. The liminal experiences of ambiguity and uncertainty that are typically at play in transitional circumstances acquire an enduring quality that can be described as a “hotspot”. Liminal hotspots are characterized by dynamics of paradox, paralysis, and polarization, but they also intensify the potential for pattern shift. The origins of the concept are described followed by an overview of the contributions to this special issue
Box representations of embedded graphs
A -box is the cartesian product of intervals of and a
-box representation of a graph is a representation of as the
intersection graph of a set of -boxes in . It was proved by
Thomassen in 1986 that every planar graph has a 3-box representation. In this
paper we prove that every graph embedded in a fixed orientable surface, without
short non-contractible cycles, has a 5-box representation. This directly
implies that there is a function , such that in every graph of genus , a
set of at most vertices can be removed so that the resulting graph has a
5-box representation. We show that such a function can be made linear in
. Finally, we prove that for any proper minor-closed class ,
there is a constant such that every graph of
without cycles of length less than has a 3-box representation,
which is best possible.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures - revised versio
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