Externalities in comparative guise

For those working with social science presumptions, ethical principles can seem to come out of nowhere. This paper wonders whether they operate like the positive externalities Callon wishes to derive from economists. In exploring the question, it is forced to consider different models of internal and external positioning. It does this through taking up two manifestations of the technological economy concerned with information management, following examples drawn from Callon's own work (competitive patenting and ethical deliberations on biotechnology).     

Forecasting the Political Economy of the Inner Solar System

Social structural methods are applied to forecast the political economy of the inner solar system to the 22nd century. One method considers structural indicators, specifically, population, social organization, environment, and technology. Another method examines the Tongan diaspora as an analog of human expansion into space. This future political economy could emerge as a consequence of user strain on a global electrical power grid that develops by 2050. Alternative energy needs could turn to space-based sources. If on-orbit space-based energy infrastructure provides the rationale, capability, and allure to see humans routinely living and working in space, their presence on the Moon and among the near-Earth asteroids can lead to a human diaspora to Mars and its moons. These events will build the multi-planet economy, the multi-world system of societies, and the transnational state. The development of Mars will reach a maturity of settlement from 2130 onward. As these potential events become history, capital would be transformed, and higher-order space logistics in a multi-world system of societies with its multi-planet economy would lay the foundation for a Solar System Federation. This federation constitutes transnational states among off-world human societies that could fill the vacuum of a fading Westphalian nation-state system on Earth.     

When Loving Means Hurting: An Exploration of Attachment and Intimate Abuse In a Community Sample

Intimate relationship abuse can be understood by considering two critical tenets of attachment. First, attachment fulfills a basic need for survival. Thus, the tenacity of the attachment bond is independent of relationship quality. Second, individuals whose attachment needs have been frustrated may strike out violently to regain proximity to the perceived loss of an intimate partner. We examined how individual differences in attachment were associated with women's and men's relationship abuse. A telephone survey assessed levels of psychological and physical abuse in 1249 Vancouver residents. Of these, 128 completed an attachment interview exploring their interpersonal relationships. Hierarchical regressions revealed that attachment variables contributed significant variance to prediction of both receipt and perpetration of psychological and physical abuse, with preoccupied attachment acting as an independent predictor. There was no evidence that gender moderated these associations. The findings suggest that attachment preoccupation in either partner may increase likelihood of abuse in couples.     

Mothers and daughters: Linking women's life histories in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, Canada

Grand Bank is a small fishing town on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The oral history project, on which this paper is based, focussed on the “life stories” of women in three, four and sometimes five, different generations of families. My aim was twofold. First, I wanted to build a picture of the way to the economy, and the sexual division of labour has changed in the period 1890–present. Second, I wanted to see how, by focussing several accounts of the same family experience, I could break apart the ideological construction of the past. I could also use contrasting accounts of mothers and daughters to re-examine the role of “work” in the family and the construction of a sexual division of labour.This paper explores how women situate and construct both their past and present experience, and what the different accounts given by mothers and daughters and grandaughters tell us both about female family relationships and about the interaction of gender with economic, social and technological change. The paper also suggests why this particular oral history approach, using different generations of women in the same family, is especially relevant to feminist concerns.     

Polygraph testing for deception in Australia: effective aid to crime investigation and adjudication?

Polygraph testing--or the monitoring and analysing of selected physiological measures of an individual who is being interviewed, for the purpose of detecting deception--is controversial in Australia. Considerable mythology surrounds this method of detecting deception. Embedded in popular perceptions of crime fighting and utilised in high-profile criminal cases in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, polygraph testing is also explicitly prohibited from being used in crime investigation in New South Wales. Unlike in the United States, polygraph testing has not hitherto routinely been used by government departments and authorities as a preemployment screening tool, but is increasingly being offered in the private sector in Australia. This article examines the current scope of polygraph testing in Australia, describes different approaches to testing, briefly reviews recent information relating to validity and evaluates State legislation prohibiting the use of polygraph testing for specified purposes in New South Wales. Consequent to the continuing controversy regarding the accuracy of polygraph testing in detecting deception (and, conversely, truth-telling), it is argued that the emerging use of polygraph testing is problematic and common law principles rendering the results of such testing inadmissible in court do not constitute sufficient safeguard against inappropriate and intrusive testing. Future research should identify specific polygraph testing techniques and consider the most socially beneficial way of regulating this emerging area of practice.