Identity-Based Conflicts: A Systemic Approach Evaluation Project

Some of the most difficult conflicts of all are those grounded in identity, which can be analyzed in both personal and societal contexts. The author's goal is to conceptualize identity-based conflict from a systems perspective. He uses ideas from psychology, social psychology, and organization theory, connecting them to concepts of cybernetic control. As is the case with Social Identity Theory, a major challenge for the negotiation field is to provide a better understanding of destructive forms of intergroup behavior and how belief systems allow group members to justify bad treatment of outgroup members.     

Social position,ideology, and distributive justice

This paper addresses two important questions regarding distributive justice. First we ask whether people use standards or principles of distributive justice regarding the allocation of income. The study confirms our expectation that there are at least two principles, viz., the merit and the need principle. Our data show that there is no generally held consensus about the applicability of these two principles. Second, we looked for explanations to explain variations in adherence to these principles. The literature suggests five different theses: 1. self-interest; 2. ideology; 3. enlightenment; 4. historical shift; and 5. gender. Results provide qualified support for the Theses 1, 2 and 4. Class, ideology, and age affect the preferences for the principles of justice. Further elaboration suggests the data point to a specific version of the self-interest thesis, viz., the underdog thesis. Theses 3 and 5 are not confirmed. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Smoking trials with mercury contaminated cigarettes. Studies of attempted poisoning]

In the context with an attempted poisoning it was investigated, to which extent an intoxication can be caused by smoking cigarettes, which contain elementary mercury. With a smoking apparatus the effect of the amount (9 mg to 1.4 g) and of the distribution of the Hg within the cigarette on its concentration in the mainstream and sidestream smoke as well as in the ash and the filter was analytically determined. It follows from these experiments, that at a good distribution almost independently of the amount involved only up to 2 mg Hg per cigarette are inhalated with the mainstream smoke, whereas up to 97% are found in the sidestream smoke. In the ash and the filter only small amounts are detected. By comparison with cases described in literature it is shown, that a poisoning by such cigarettes is possible only after frequent smoking or by passive smoking via the sidestream smoke in small and badly aerated rooms.     

Dutch youth in transition to adulthood: Differential changes in their political and sociocultural values since the 1970s

In past decades, the postadolescents (i.e., the young who have not yet entered the labor market or established stable partnership bonds, but have already left the parental home, and as a consequence, are not acknowledged as genuine adults in a social sense) were well known for their relatively libertarian sociopolitical value orientations. The main question in this research is, do contemporary postadolescents still foster these relatively libertarian orientations, despite their experiences with the socioeconomic decline and worsening labor-market prospects in the first half of the 1980s? Analyses of Dutch data revealed, that until the 1980s, postadolescents were more libertarian and more postmaterialistic than their young adult peers who had already entered the labor market and engaged in stable partnership bonds. The difference in postmaterialism, however, appeared not to be resistant to the recent socioeconomic stagnation.     

Citizenship and social justice

Discussions on the problems of the welfare state are increasingly framed in terms of citizenship rather than social justice. The popularity of the concept of citizenship raises the question of its implications for social justice theory and research. In this article it is argued that whereas the dominant approach in social justice is essentially individualistic, the concept of citizenship focuses rather on individuals as members of a societal community, from which both rights and obligations are derived. This focus on communal membership suggests three important topics for social justice theory and research: (i) the need to distinguish between a civic and a justice motive for human behavior, (ii) the need to specify the frame of reference respondents should use when they make their justice judgments, and (iii) the need to recognize the fact that justice judgments may result from both adhering to criteria of justice and considering the consequences of their application.     

Dispositional Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice

Dispositional Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice (SBI) is proposed as a new construct. A self-report questionnaire with four types of indicators (frequency, intensity of anger, intrusiveness of thoughts, punitivity) was developed for measuring SBI. Using structural equation modeling and the general rationale of multitrait-multimethod analysis, the convergent and discriminant validity of this questionnaire was investigated vis-à-vis measures for Trait Anger, Anger In, Anger Out, and Frustration Tolerance as related constructs. Additionally, a meaningful pattern of correlations was obtained between SBI and Life Satisfaction, Centrality of Justice, Interpersonal Trust, and Need for Control. Finally, self-reported sensitivity to befallen injustice was found to predict cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to unjust treatment in laboratory and natural settings several weeks later.     

Reviews

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Leslie Holmes, The End of Communist Power. Anti‐Corruption Campaigns and Legitimation Crisis. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993, xx + 358 pp., £45.00 h/b, £13.95 p/b.

Rachel Walker, Six Years that Shook the World: Perestroika—the Impossible Project. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993, viii + 312 pp., £35.00 h/b, £9.99 p/b.

Stephen R. Graubard (ed.), Exit From Communism. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Transaction Publishers, 1993, 292 pp., $19.95.

Sergei V. Chugrov, Rossiya i Zapad: Metamorfozy Vospriyatiya. Moscow: Nauka, 1993.

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Ben Eklof (ed), School and Society in Tsarist and Soviet Russia. New York: St Martin's Press, and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993, xii + 254 pp., illustrations, index, £45.00.

Timothy Edward O'Connor, The Engineer of Revolution. L. B. Krasin and the Bolsheviks, 1870–1926. Oxford: Westview, 1992, xix + 322 pp., £36.95.