Fiduciary duties of interlocking directors within a nonprofit health system

In response to regulatory and financial pressures, entities participating in the healthcare industry have joined with others in order to maintain, even improve, their market positions. In the non-profit sector of the industry, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions have included arrangements whereby some corporate partners have interlocking directors. After review of the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty owed by corporate board members, and their application to traditional performance and conflict of interest situations, the authors address two scenarios raising interlocking director issues.     

Is schizoid personality a forerunner of homicidal or suicidal behavior?: a case study

The authors believe that a relationship exists between schizoid personality disorder and violent acts. The following case study is presented to contemplate such a possible relationship. There is a paucity of research on this topic. The authors suggest that further research closely examine the relationship between violent behavior and those character traits associated with schizoid personality disorder. If such a relationship is found, these character traits could be integrated with other risk factors known to predict violence.     

From adolescence to adulthood: Development of psychopathology in kibbutz and town subjects

The unique contribution of the National Institute of Mental Health—Israeli longitudinal high-risk study is the comparison of the development of children at high risk for schizophrenia from two divergent socialization environments: the Israeli urban nuclear family and the collective education in the kibbutz. The study began with 100 preadolescent children who were followed up into adolescence, with outcomes measured in their 20s and 30s. No difference in the prevalence of schizophrenia was found at the last follow-up phase, with subjects at an average age of 32, but a higher incidence of major depression was found in the kibbutz than in the urban high-risk group. The data suggest adolescence as the period in which the differential effects of environment began to appear. Environmental factors, related to the social structure of the kibbutz, which may have led to this outcome, are discussed.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Engaged in research on socialization in the kibbutz as well as in the NIMH-Israel High-Risk project, and is a practicing psychotherapist.Member of Kibbutz Biet-QeshetAn educational psychologist practicing within the Jerusalem school system. Has taken a leading part in the fourth phase of the NIMH-Israel High-Risk Study and currently completing a doctoral dissertation in psychology.Received Ph.D. from Columbia University. Has served as Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Education of Israel. Involved in the NIMH-Israel High-Risk Study from its start and has served as the Israeli principal investigator during its fourth phase.     

The Return of the Middle Kingdom in a Post-American World

Not long after the conclusion of the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, I was invited by my friend Eric Xu, an editor at Shanghai's largest paper, The Xinmin Evening News , to attend a seminar in Shanghai with some of China's top philosophers and scholars. They had gathered to assess the "powershift" in China's self-image and in global esteem as a result of such a successful execution of the games. The following short essay reports on their views and puts them in historical perspective.     

Imperialism’s effects on China

Abstract

Three years ago in this journal, James Peck argued that “the professional ideology of America’s China watchers” has tended to blind them to certain approaches to modern Chinese history that might be labelled “revolutionary Marxist” interpretations. As an example, Peck argued that the China watchers have explained China’s nineteenth and early twentieth century difficulties (prolonged economic and military weakness, failed reforms and revolutions) by reference to internal factors (culture, social structure), while a revolutionary Marxist perspective would seek explanations in the effects of imperialism. He provided several examples of the types of effects imperialism may have had on China: “The power of the metropolitan countries to block the formation of vital domestic industries in the dependent countries competitive with their own operations; the domination of mercantile over industrial capital; and the subordination of the economic life of a dependent nation to the severe fluctuations of the primary commodities market.” But he did not have space in his article, which was primarily concerned with a critique of existing work in the China field, to provide a fuller outline of what the imperialism approach to modern China might involve.     

The social foundations of global production networks: towards a global political economy of child labour

The resilience of the problem of child labour in the global economy has been amply documented, but, we suggest, the reasons for this situation have not yet been fully captured in the associated debates. Our aim is to advance a way of thinking about those forms of child labour which occur in the context of global production networks (gpns), and to contend that greater attention must be paid to the organisation and functioning of gpns, and the social foundations on which they rest, if we are to grasp more fully the conditions and processes which facilitate the persistence and evolution of child labour. The way of thinking we propose is rooted in the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’ in the global economy, which we develop by drawing together currents in gpn analysis and poverty research to explore the commercial and social dynamics in gpns which give rise to these forms of labour exploitation. We illustrate our arguments with reference to the garments industry in New Delhi, India.     

Civic Activism Continued Through Other Means: Terror-Violence in the South of Thailand

This article explores the relationship between civil society and terror-violence. It argues that terrorism should be understood as “civic activism continued through other means.” This allows us to distinguish it from state-terror. The article then explores the theme with data drawn from the political situation in the south of Thailand focusing on some recent events in which local Thai Malay-Muslims have protested against military presence. The paper also provides a brief history of the development of belligerent separatist groups in the area showing that they emerged after dissatisfaction with 20th century Thai civil-societal possibilities.