Co‐operative labour in peasant agriculture

Co‐operative labour in cultivation activities exists in a wide variety of forms; two main organisational categories are distinguished and the characteristics, socio‐economic correlates, and technical and economic benefits of the most important manifestations of the practice are discussed. An assessment is made of the prospects for the persistence of co‐operative labour in contemporary peasant societies under the impact of certain widespread changes changes in the socio‐economic environment.     

Interview mode effects on estimates of need for alcohol and drug treatment among welfare recipients: evidence from a quasi-experiment

Employing a quasi-experimental design, this study compared responses from face-to-face and telephone surveys of welfare recipients to assess the effects of survey modality on prevalence estimates of alcohol and drug abuse and need for treatment. Samples were drawn from adult welfare recipients in Oklahoma in 2001. We generated 1-year and 30-day prevalence estimates of alcohol and drug use, employed several common measures of substance-related behavioral and physical problems to estimate treatment need, and used odds ratios to compare prevalence estimates. Results indicated that telephone surveys provided estimates that were (1) statistically no different from those of face-to-face administration in the categories used to estimate treatment need and (2) significantly higher than those of face-to-face surveys for admission of ever having a substance problem and driving after consuming alcohol or drugs. We conclude that, for welfare recipients, telephone surveys provide similar data quality about treatment need as do more costly face-to-face interviews, a finding that is important and of practical concern to both practitioners and methodologists. More broadly, we argue that further survey methodology research is required for specific populations and subgroups that are often the focus of criminal justice and public health research and response.     

Témoignage and Responsibility in Photo/Graphic Narratives of Médecins Sans Frontières

This article analyzes photographic and graphic narratives of missions conducted by MSF in the Sahel (1984–1985), Afghanistan (1986), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (2005) for the ways in which the narratives construe the responsibility of their readers toward what they see as well as of MSF's missions toward those they serve, particularly in relation to MSF's official policy of témoignage or witnessing as advocacy. I read the chronotopes (space-time) within these books for how they represent suffering and position the reader as voyeur, philanthropist, or protester (Chouliaraki 2006). In their distinctive forms, these texts bridge the presence of immediate crisis and the larger historical framework through which it may be understood. As simultaneously visual and literary media, photo/graphic narratives work through the dual compulsions to show and to tell, both of which manifest through their formal manipulations of the structure of a humanitarian crisis. In their framing devices, these books play with constructions of temporality and distance (moral, intersubjective, and geographical) that govern “the ethics of mediation[,] the humanization of vulnerable others” (Chouliaraki 2011: 363) upon which humanitarian responsibility depends.     

Stephen Morse on the Fundamental Psycho-Legal Error

Stephen Morse has long proclaimed there to be a “fundamental psycho-legal error” (FPLE) that is regularly made by legal and social/psychological/medical science academics alike. This is the error of thinking that causation of human choice by factors themselves outside the chooser’s control excuses that chooser from moral responsibility. In this paper, I examine Morse’s self-labelled “internalist” defense of his thesis that this is indeed an error, and finds such internalist defense incomplete; needed is the kind of externalist defense of Morse’s thesis that can only be provided by a worked-out compatibilist moral philosophy. The body of the paper outlines the kinds of compatibilisms that are plausible, contrasting them with two less plausible attempts to salvage responsibility in the face of an advancing neuroscientific determinism. These two less plausible rescue attempts, libertarianism and fictionalism, each seek to salvage responsibility even while not disavowing the FPLE.     

Constructing Cooperation in Northeast Asia: historical Northeast Asian dyadic cultures and the potential for greater regional cooperation

What are the obstacles to greater cooperation in Northeast Asia and why have the nations of the region not been entirely successful in moving beyond history, toward greater cooperation? Conducting a brief survey of Northeast Asian IR and power alignment patterns from the Imperial/Dynastic era to the present, this essay utilizes the constructivist approach to assess regional alignment patterns in Northeast Asian history corresponding to six historical time periods, ranging from Ming China to the present. It does so by employing Wendt's system-level cultures of anarchy (Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian cultures) at the dyadic/second level of analysis and the regional level of analysis (level 2.5), rating the various eras as to levels of cooperation vs enmity, with an eye to identifying the reasons for today's tension points. It concludes that despite such tension points and unresolved historical issues, anarchy in Northeast Asia today is not Hobbesian (enmity), but rather Lockean (rivalry). Consequently and first, war, nuclear proliferation and security spirals may be avoidable with proper sensitivity to the issues that continue to pose as obstacles to regional cooperation, including historical grievances, uncertainties over China's rise and the US role in the region, the North Korean nuclear issue and others. Second, attention to improving the dyadic cultures (China–Japan, South Korea–North Korea, etc.) that together comprise the region's relational culture (either Hobbesian, Lockean or Kantian) make greater regional cooperation possible and even more likely.     

Heretical Conversations with Continental Philosophy: Jan Patočka, Central Europe and Global Politics

This article argues that the contributions of the Czech philosopher, Jan Patočka, have been overlooked in the study of International Relations (IR), and more generally international political theory. Attention here is drawn to the many distinctive ideas particular to Patočkian philosophy, such as the solidarity of the shaken and the care of the soul, which combine accounts of a Central European philosophy and dissident political reactions to totalitarian rule. The legacy of Patočka's work frames the latter part of the article, which examines Central European identity and 'samizdat' as often neglected reference points in IR. The article concludes by drawing these themes together in an account of rupture, inspired by the solidarity of the shaken and care for the soul.