Intergenerational offending in Liverpool and the north-west of England, 1850–1914

Using contemporary sources from the north-west of England in the Victorian period, the authors examine the putative connections made by contemporaries which linked together ‘bad’ parenting and the transmission of criminal traits. Poor parenting practices were a prevalent explanation for juvenile (leading onto sustained) delinquency, especially in the mid to late nineteenth century. Popular narratives by Charles Dickens and media opinion-formers were very influential in depicting neglectful mothers who did not socialise their children into law-abiding, useful members of society, and criminal fathers who inducted their children into their own criminal affairs and organisations. This article examines the reality of intergenerational offending (using prison- and court-generated data) to show that there is very little convincing research that proves direct intergenerational transmission of offending practices (i.e. parent-to-child-offending transmission). The authors then examine other possible routes of intergenerational offending using case studies and archival research, and the article concludes that environmental/socio-economic conditions and wider familial/neighbourhood relationships were, in fact, the main trigger for onset of offending, and the maintenance of criminal careers, rather than direct familial transmission. The article is therefore an important marker in understanding the processes which inhibit/generate criminality in a significant number of juvenile offenders in this period.     

Theft in South Africa: An Experiment to Examine the Influence of Racial Identity and Inequality

This article uses a dictator game to determine the impact of racial identity and inequality on theft in South Africa. A dictator can take money from a receiver's endowment. The money vulnerable to theft is constant across groups, and there is no threat of punishment. Any differential in the amount taken is due to considerations of the racial identity of the potential victim or to variation in receiver endowments. The results provide weak evidence that theft is impacted by inequality. However, racial identity significantly influences theft decisions. Contrary to expectations, black participants take 15 per cent more from other black participants.     

Colony of genes,genes of the colony: diversity,difference and divide

In this article we propose an ideal typology of reactions to genomics—the study (in complex transnational organisational research arrangements) of the genome, the sum total of the genetic material in any particular organism—from the point of view and perspective of communities that find themselves in marginal positions. Genomics is a particularly important part of ‘technoscience’—science mingled with technology. Within genomics the concepts of diversity and difference are paradoxically intermingled. Genetically speaking, the difference between human beings and nature is fading. Homo sapiens, viewed as genetic material, is becoming part and parcel of ‘natural resources’. Diversity is the moral dimension of this perspective. At the same time genomics appears to map, mark and thereby define difference; difference between individuals and between groups of people, but also between healthy and ill, and finally between ‘normal’ and, consequently, ‘abnormal’, deviant. Difference is the moral dimension of this counterpoint. We argue that genomics is an important field of study for Africa. At the same time, however, we discern a potentially dangerous new divide: a genomics divide between Africa and the West. We argue that more research is needed on contextualisation of ‘genomics’.     

The functions of the executive and the republic: Exploring the platonic roots of chester barnard

This essay examines the similarities between Plato's Republic and Barnard's Functions of the Executive.The essay argues that comparisons between Barnard and Plato are not overstated in form or substance. Three major areas of each work are compared: the ethical foundations, the political foundations, and the role of education in achieving those political means. Implications arising from the comparison are discussed and the essay concludes by linking the Barnard-Plato dialogue with current issues in management theory and practice.     

Mbeki's African Renaissance Vision as Reflected in isiXhosa Written Poetry: 2005–2011

IsiXhosa literary critics have not yet interrogated literature that was produced during and after the tenure of Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki as deputy president and president of the Republic of South Africa in order to study the impact of his African Renaissance doctrine. This article analyses poetry that was produced from 2005 to 2011. The content of the isiXhosa written poetry is profoundly influenced by the context of former President Mbeki's African Renaissance philosophy, its implementation structures and philosophy of self-confidence and self-reliance. The selected poems analysed and interpreted in this article suggest that Mbeki's legacy of the African Renaissance empowered poets to develop a narrative that advances the building of a regenerated South African nation and the African continent. Selected poetry of the period is contextualised, and the findings reveal that the poets have a dialectical relationship with historical developments of the time, and that they demonstrate acquiescence to the African Renaissance ideology, and support the operational structures created; namely African Union, Pan-African Parliament and the Vuk’uzenzele programme.