Capitalism and Civil Society Revisited or: Conceptualizing a Civil,Sustainable and Solidary Economy

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - After a brief reconstruction of the discourse on civil society, the notion that civil society and the economy are two separate spheres is...     

Citizen participation and the democratization of policy expertise: From theoretical inquiry to practical cases

This article examines the case for a participatory policy analysis. An idea advanced mainly by democratic and postpositivist theorists is increasingly becoming a practical concern. Criticizing conventional conceptions of science and expertise, theorists advocating participatory democracy argue that the conventional model of professionalism based on a practitioner-client hierarchy must give way to a more collaborative method of inquiry. While such arguments have largely remained in the domain of utopian speculation, recent experiences with a number of wicked policy problems have begun to suggest the viability, if not the necessity, of participatory research methods. Through two case illustrations of a wicked problem, the so-called Nimby Syndrome, the essay seek to demonstrate that collaborative citizen-expert inquiry may well hold the key to solving a specific category of contemporary policy problems. The article concludes with some observations on the possibilities of bringing participatory research more fully into mainstream policy science.     

Family experiences as moderators of the relationship between eating symptoms and personality disturbance

A questionnaire study with 243 female undergraduates assessed whether late adolescent females' experiences of autonomy and perceptions of family conflict would moderate the relationship between eating symptoms and personality disturbances associated with severe eating disorders. Univariate correlations between eating symptoms, on the one hand, and perceived family conflict and reports of individuation and mutuality in the adolescent/parent relationship, on the other hand, were relatively weak and for the most part insignificant. However, these data supported a moderating hypothesis in that eating symptoms were more strongly related to interoceptive confusion and maturity fears among participants describing less individuated relationships with their parents and reporting unusually low levels of family conflict.Authors' names are in alphabetical order, indicating equal contribution to this article.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in 1977. Major interests are in young adult and adolescent development, and etiology and treatment of adolescent depression and other psychopathologies.Received her B.A. from Vassar College and M.A. from Michigan State University. Major interests are in adolescent/parent relationships, separation-individuation, and eating disorders.     

Analyzing linked systems of negotiations

This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the structure and dynamics of what the authors call linked systems of negotiations. Even such seemingly straightforward transactions as the purchase of a family car tend to involve linked negotiations. The framework highlights the importance of internegotiation processes in shaping Zones of Possible Agreement, and proposes a typology of linkage. By mapping out and reengineering linked systems, negotiators can enhance their ability to shape the structure within which their negotiations take place.     

The relationship of abuse and witnessing violence on the Child Abuse Potential Inventory with black adolescents

A number of social and psychological factors present in most adolescent parents place them at high risk for abusive behavior toward their children. However, current child abuse potential measures do not include adolescent samples as part of the psychometric data base. Consequently, the purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate whether a Black adolescent sample would perform differently than an adult nonabusing sample on the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAP), and (2) to examine the relationship between history of abuse or witnessing violence to scores on the CAP. Results revealed that Black adolescents scored significantly higher than the adult normative sample on the CAP; consequently, cutoff scores need to be empirically established for adolescents. Additional analyses indicated that a history of abuse, as well as a history of witnessing violence, are associated with a high potential for abuse.