Child's play: The political imaginary of international relations and contemporary popular children's films

Many scholars in International Relations (IR) have drawn from popular films to examine various problématiques that have informed the discipline's main theorisations. As Cynthia Weber remarks, popular films are powerful because they engage in the very ‘serious political work’ of mythologising the ‘truths’ and ‘realities’ which provide the foundation for many of IR's main theoretical envisionings of our world. To date, however, children's films have received very little attention. For the purpose of this paper, three have been isolated: Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998) and Rescue Heroes: The Movie (2003). Children's films, it can be argued, help to craft and restore certain perspectives for each new generation of young minds during the crucial years when the world is being textualised for the first time. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to read these films as working towards producing and sustaining the power/knowledge that seeks to defend contemporary forms of world order while concurrently extending and disseminating the rule of these forms of world order through the medium of children's popular cinema.     

非概念性法学中的事实、价值与行为

作为大多数法学理论著述的一种范式 ,非概念性法学涵盖了十分丰富的内容 ,其目标 ,就是要陈述那些经得住反驳的、有知识旨趣的问题 ,以及法律及其后果的社会作用问题。所以 ,非概念性法学理论都是可证伪的。法学对话 (Legaldialogue)则为检测非概念性法学理论提供了至关重要的途径。因而所有的主张 (无论是明确的主张还是隐含的主张 )都是法学对话参与者试图表达其不同观点的手段 ,而他们所要表达的这些截然不同的观点 ,莫过于以下三大类 ,即 :事实、价值与行为     

Relationships between psychosocial development and personality disorder symptomatology in late adolescents

The present study investigated the extent to which psychosocial development through the first five stages of Erik Erikson's theory of personality development is associated with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (third edition, revised; DSM-III-R) Axis II personality disorder symptomatology in a late adolescent sample of undergraduate students. The Inventory of Psychosocial Development (IPD) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire—Revised (PDQ-R) were administered to a mixed-sex sample of 106 undergraduate students. The results of this research were that IPD scores assessing negative resolutions of the first five Eriksonian developmental stages consistently predicted scores on the PDQ-R composite scale and the PDQ-R impairment/distress index—both measures of overall personality disorder symptomatology. The IPD subscales varied substantially in the extent to which they predicted scores on the 13 PDQ-R subscales that assess symptoms of specific DSM-III-R personality disorders—ranging from the trust vs. mistrust subscale, which predicted scores on 12 of the 13 PDQ-R subscales, to the initiative vs. guilt subscale, which predicted scores on only 6 of the 13 PDQ-R subscales. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the relationship between psychosocial development and psychopathology are discussed in the context of previous research in this area, and suggestions for future research are offered.Received Ph.D. from Temple University. Research interests include personality disorders, depression, and life events.     

THE MPA CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE: FHE ESSENCE OF ANALYSIS IS SURPRISE

A final course, or project is a standard requirement in Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs. This requirement is intended to permit the student to demonstrate advanced ability in the discipline. This article examines one such course at Florida State University. The course included readings, exercises, oral presentations, and a written report. This author assesses the merits and drawbacks of the course as well as notes the unintended consequences that resulted. In concluding the article, the author makes several recommendations for future courses based on the experiences gained in the Florida state model.     

CONTRACTORS' EXPERIENCE OF COMPULSORY COMPETITIVE TENDERING: A CASE STUDY OF CONTRACT CLEANERS IN THE NHS

Compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) has been an important instrument of Conservative government economic policy since 1979. Its effectiveness in generating cost-effective services depends on competition to supply the service in question.
The NHS domestic market is large and, prior to the introduction of CCT, promised to be profitable for contractors. Many contract cleaners with office cleaning experience entered. In the event the costs of entry were heavy, and the profit margins of established firms were reduced. When contracts have been awarded to firms, they tended to be to those with a track record. Many firms therefore withdrew; and the few that remained have profit margins in the NHS little different from those found elsewhere. Of more than by firms with a serious interest in entry, probably no more than a handful can have come out of the experience in net profit in the first seven years.
The experience of CCT in the market for NHS domestic services has shown that a degree of competition in the market can be achieved, arguably because of the presence of direct service organizations. Competition for this market, on the other hand, can be limited by the high costs of entry.