Remarks on the theoretical significance of Marx's Grundrisse

In recent years much play has been made with the significance of the Grundrisse for the reinterpretation of Marx's thought. The text has been represented as a vindication of those who have treated Marx's work as a relatively direct development from the early writings of 1843 and 1844, and a rebuttal of those who have sought to establish that Marx's later works constitute a radically distinct project from that of his youth, the two projects being separated by an epistemological break. This paper examines the theoretical structure of the Grundrisse, the kind of concepts that it contains and the objects constructed by these concepts. I argue that the result of such an examination demonstrates that the latter of the two positions outlined here is the correct one. The Grundrisse is shown to be an incoherent, transitional work, and its ambiguities an index of the presence of a number of theoretical obstacles.     

On the production and structuring of scientific knowledges

Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has contained within it a series of discrepancies, which combine to render impossible the actual theorising of changes in scientific knowledges, and their foundation in a break with a previous theoretical ideology. This paper is a close textual investigation which shows the precise nature of these discrepancies, how they mutually support each other in a discourse founded in a positivist epistemology continually undermined by attempts to theorise discontinuity in knowledges. The outcome of this is that changes in scientific knowledges appear irrational, for Kuhn presents no means with which such shifts can be thought.     

Economic property and the theorisation of ground rent

The theory of capitalist ground rent that Marx develops in CapitalVol. III is customarily regarded as either unproblematic, or susceptible to technical improvements. This paper argues that there are profound difficulties in Marx's theorization of ground rent and the relation of landed property to capitalist production in agriculture, and draws attention to the concepts of 'property' and 'commodity' that Marx deploys. The persistence of a philosophical anthropology in the later works of Marx emerges clearly in the deficiencies of these concepts when used in the analysis of capitalist agricultural production.     

Resource Tangibility and the Evolution of a Publicly Funded Health and Human Services Network

This article is a longitudinal examination of a publicly funded network of health and human services organizations that provide services to mentally ill adults. Data were collected at two points in time from a single network in a large U.S. metropolitan area: when the network was completely reorganized, and again when it had matured, four years later. Analysis focuses on changes in the patterns of interaction within and across five resource‐based subnetworks. The authors argue that the structure of network relationships depends on the type of resources involved—whether tangible or intangible, the stage of network evolution, and whether macro‐ or micro‐level interactions are considered. Implications for theory and for network management, governance, and policy are discussed.     

Newspaper Reporting and Changing Perceptions of Ministerial Accountability in Australia

Throughout the developed world, there is a general perception that politicians are more corrupt than they used to be. In Australia these claims appear to be supported in recent decades by far more calls for ministers to resign. In this article we argue that the perception of declining quality in our federal government ministers is the result of much greater media attention, the rise of new controversial cross‐cutting issues and changing cultural attitudes rather than declining parliamentary and ministerial standards. We argue that the belief that politicians are more corrupt or less trustworthy than they used to be has arisen because they are now much more comprehensively reported upon; and we suggest that ministerial accountability might have been enhanced by more extensive media coverage.     

Conditioned Microplitis croceipes Cresson (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) detect and respond to 2,4-DNT: development of a biological sensor

We examined the ability of M. croceipes to learn, detect, and respond to 2,4-DNT, which is a volatile discriminator of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The percentage of conditioned wasps to detect and respond to the various concentrations of 2,4-DNT for > or = 15 sec was measured. Significantly more of the conditioned wasps responded to the concentration of 2,4-DNT used for conditioning than other concentrations examined. Accordingly, percent conditioned wasps to respond > or = 15 sec could be used as a suitable measure to screen air samples and distinguish between samples with or without the target odorant. The data recorded in this study indicate the measured behavior could be used to estimate the concentration of target odorants. Data in this study indicate M. croceipes can detect and respond to this compound, which provide further support for its development as a biological sensor.     

Behavioral Cues to Deception vs. Topic Incriminating Potential in Criminal Confessions

Coding statements of criminal suspects facilitated tests of four hypotheses about differences between behavioral cues to deception and the incriminating potential (IP) of the topic. Information from criminal investigations corroborated the veracity of 337 brief utterances from 28 videotaped confessions. A four-point rating of topic IP measured the degree of potential threat per utterance. Cues discriminating true vs. false comprised word/phrase repeats, speech disfluency spikes, nonverbal overdone, and protracted headshaking. Non-lexical sounds discriminated true vs. false inthe reverse direction. Cues that distinguished IP only comprised speech speed, gesticulation amount, nonverbal animation level, soft weak vocal and “I (or we) just” qualifier. Adding “I don't know” to an answer discriminated both IP and true vs. false. The results supported hypothesis about differentiating deception cues from incriminating potential cues in high-stakes interviews, and suggested that extensive research on distinctions between stress-related cues and cues to deception would improve deception detection.