The rise and fall of the legal expert system†

Those very few of us who were critical of the rise of legal expert systems in the early 1980s probably wonder, in idle moments, whether there is a possibility of rejuvenation of an approach which was once multi-various and is now obscure and esoteric. Is it possible that after rising and falling, that legal expert system research programme could rise again? What were the conditions which gave impetus to the field and could they be repeated? In this article I want to return, with a personal viewpoint, on the rise of expert systems and why - despite their failure - the appeal of commoditising legal expertise continues to allure the unwary.     

How Americans Think About Trade: Reconciling Conflicts Among Money, Power, and Principles

Trade has again emerged as a controversial issue in America, yet we know little about the ideas that guide American thinking on these questions. By combining traditional survey methods with experimental manipulation of problem content, this study explores the ideational landscape among elite Americans and pays particular attention to how elite Americans combine their ideas about commerce with their ideas about national security and social justice. We find that most American leaders think like intuitive neoclassical economists and that only a minority think along intuitive neorealist or Rawlsian lines. Among the mass public, in contrast, a majority make judgments like intuitive neorealists and intuitive Rawlsians. Although elite respondents see international institutions as promising vehicles in principle, in practice they favor exploiting America's advantage in bilateral bargaining power over granting authority to the World Trade Organization. The distribution of these ideas in America is not arrayed neatly along traditional ideological divisions. To understand the ideational landscape, it is necessary to identify how distinctive mentaal models—mercantilist, neorealist, egalitarian, and neoclassical economic—sensitize or desensitize people to particular aspects of geopolitical problems, an approach we call cognitive interactionism.     

Early Adolescents’ Social Standing in Peer Groups: Behavioral Correlates of Stability and Change

Sociometric nominations, social cognitive maps, and self-report questionnaires were completed in consecutive years by 327 students (56% girls) followed longitudinally from grade 7 to grade 8 to examine the stability of social standing in peer groups and correlates of changes in social standing. Social preference, perceived popularity, network centrality, and leadership were moderately stable from grade 7 to grade 8. Alcohol use and relational aggression in grade 7 predicted changes in social preference and centrality, respectively, between grade 7 and grade 8, but these effects were moderated by gender and ethnicity. Changes in social standing from grade 7 to grade 8 were unrelated to grade 8 physical aggression, relational aggression, and alcohol use after controlling for the grade 7 corollaries of these behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding links between social standing and problem behaviors during adolescence.

Eve Drewelowe: feminist identity in American art

Eve Drewelowe (1899–1988) was an American artist who attended the University of Iowa, where she received a BA in Graphic and Plastic Arts in 1923. During these early years when university art programs were being established, Drewelowe became the first person to receive an MA in art from the University of Iowa; one of the first people to receive such a degree in the United States. Drewelowe reinvented herself throughout her life and her artwork reflects a current knowledge of modern styles that emerged in the twentieth century. Drewelowe exhibited under the name Eve Drewelowe Van Ek shortly after her marriage in 1924 until the early 1950s, when she chose to resume using only her own surname. During the three intervening decades, her signature varies from one artwork to the next. In some instances, the artist later rubbed out or painted over the ‘Van Ek’ with little attempt to conceal the change, leaving a visual indicator of the artist's identity struggles. Her personal papers also reflect the challenges she faced reconciling public expectations of her role as the wife of a university dean with her profession as an artist. This essay considers the ways Drewelowe performed her identity as an artist in order to maintain her personal autonomy against the backdrop of the male dominated social and artistic world.     

The Search for Job Satisfaction: A Survey of Alabama Policing

This study examines police job satisfaction and its association with general occupational attraction. Police officers from sixteen municipal departments (n = 1,114) across one southern state (Alabama) were found to possess moderate-high overall job satisfaction, with regression analysis supporting the conclusions of prior studies that demographics are of little value to understanding job satisfaction. The findings convey that 25% of job satisfaction variance can be explained from six variables (in order of importance): social contribution, pay, adventure/excitement, autonomy, peer respect, and job security. The importance of benefits and community respect was unsupported, as were partner and special operation assignments. The author concludes that a great portion of police satisfaction hinges on the realization of work environment expectations, and that departments must proactively construct policies to enhance fulfillment of officer aspirations.     

Group Identity and Alienation: Giving the We Its Due

The purpose of this paper is to argue for greater understanding and valuing of group affiliation and the formation of allegiances to groups during early adolescence. An overemphasis on themes of individual identity, self-reliance, and autonomy as the developmental trajectory of adolescence leads to a lack of attention to the positive, normative mechanisms that permit young adolescents to achieve a sense of belonging and connection. We propose developmental processes which underlie the capacity for reflection about groups, 4 basic components of group identity, and 6 propositions about new capacities that emerge as young adolescents struggle with the dialectic between group identity and alienation. The final section suggests opportunities that can emerge through a more appropriate emphasis on group identity as a valued, normative aspect of development during the early adolescent years.