Higher Education and the Referendum on Scottish Independence

During the course of the referendum campaign, the Scottish government argued that free tuition for Scottish and EU students symbolised Scotland's preference for universal services and was intrinsically fairer than the ‘marketised’ systems operating in the rest of the UK. Invoking principles of both social justice and pragmatism, three distinct critiques of the Scottish government's higher education policy were mounted and adopted by different policy actors for different political purposes. Following a discussion of these arguments, this article concludes that a more nuanced discussion of higher education policy in Scotland is required, focusing not just on the absence of tuition fees but also on the distribution of debt and allocation of funds across the entire education system. We also note that the focus on tuition fees policy suggests that higher education systems across the UK are set on a process of divergence, whereas there are strong pressures towards policy convergence in areas such as research policy and internationalisation.     

Adult learning and literacy learning for livelihoods: some international perspectives

Reflecting contemporary interest in developing new adult literacy learning programmes based on ‘literacy for livelihoods’, this article examines some case studies from New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Egypt, illustrating literacy being used in livelihoods, and relates these to the kind of literacy being taught in many adult literacy programmes today. It argues that people often change their livelihoods, and that each livelihood has literacy practices embedded within it. The authors suggest that the use of these literacy practices embedded within the livelihood activities might be a better starting point for adult literacy learning than a school-based textbook.     

Reforming United Kingdom's health care system

The paper's focus is on the notably pragmatic style and processes of reform in the UK. Selected key themes illustrate aspects of this. They comprise: the separation of purchaser-provider responsibilities and the development of an internal market in health care. Many of the changes now being introduced were not part of the original proposals put forward in 1989. They emerged in response to Ministers' wishes or preferences as they became caught up in implementation and were held accountable for its achievement. In assessing the NHS reforms, a major problem has been the lack of sound, independent research to evaluate their impact. The limited, though growing, research that has been conducted suffers from being unable to distinguish causality from association. Few reliable conclusions about the impact of the reforms can be drawn from research. It remains virtually impossible at this time to draw up a definitive, overall balance sheet. A number of political lessons are identified. If the preconditions prevailing in the UK in late 1988 and early 1989 were to exist elsewhere then reforms similar to those in the UK may be forthcoming. It is important, however, not to overlook the particular factors evident in any country which will ultimately determine the nature of health care reforms and their outcome.     

Personality as a vocation: the political rationality of the humanities

In responding to periodic government demands that it provide a rational justification for its activities as a public utility, the humanities academy typically appeals to the absolute ethical and intellectual values of liberal education. This paper investigates the nature of this response and its relation to the governmental field. The historical, ethical and political claims involved in the appeal to liberal education are discussed and rejected. It is argue that the cultivation of personhood has neither a single (‘complete’) from nor a privileged home in the university arts faculty. Weber's sociology of ethical orders is used to frame a discussion of intellectual cultivation as a specific vocation or discipline of life. From Foucault's conception of ‘govermentality’ the paper draws an account of share of political rationality dependent of the historical deployment or particular intellectual and political technologies. The problem of the political rationality rationality of the humanities is then discussed in terms of the unplanned historical convergence of the disciplines of cultivation and the technologies of government¹.     

Shia political development in Iraq: the case of the Islamic Dawa Party

The invasion of Iraq and its subsequent occupation by US‐led forces has allowed the majority Shia population to assert itself politically. Much of the debate regarding its political development has focused on the role of the religious scholars, at the expense of other Shia political groups. The Dawa Party has the longest history of organised communal political activity in Iraq among the Shia and is the only main party headed by a non‐scholar. The persecution it suffered under Saddam Hussein and the sacrifices it made have earned it support among the Shia population, but its fractious nature and the other Shia political groupings will make it difficult for the party to regain its former influence amongst the Shia.     

Interparental conflict and adolescent dating relationships: the role of perceived threat and self-blame appraisals

In line with the cognitive-contextual framework proposed by Grych and Fincham (1990), evidence suggests that children exposed to interparental conflict (IPC) are at risk for experiencing conflict within their own intimate relationships. The mediating role of adolescent appraisal in the relation between IPC and adolescent dating behavior was examined in the current study. Specifically, it was hypothesized that self-blame and threat appraisals would mediate the relation between IPC and adolescent maladaptive dating behaviors. To examine the potential mediating role of appraisal, 169 high school students completed the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (Grych, Seid, & Fincham, 1992) and Child and Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (Wolfe, Scott, Reitzel-Jaffe, Wekerle, Grasley, & Straatman, 2004). Findings suggest that self-blame appraisal partially mediated the relation between IPC and adolescent sexual aggression, and between IPC and adolescent threatening behavior. In addition, perceived threat appraisal partially mediated the relation between IPC and adolescent sexual aggression. Implications for the current findings are discussed.     

The Brazilian military after the Cold War: In search of a mission

What purpose should Brazil’s armed forces serve in upcoming years? Democratization, the end of the Cold War, and Brazil’s economic crisis have prompted an unprecedented debate over this question by narrowing the range of tasks that the Brazilian military can pursue. This article investigates civilian and military support for various possible military roles and analyzes their compatibility with civilian control. It argues that the political weakness of the current government, the economic crisis, and growing social unrest militate against an expansion of the military’s conventional external defense mission and in favor of non-combatant domestic functions. This has begun to occur despite military enthusiasm for the former and military reservations about the latter. The military’s adoption of multiple domestic assignments in a country with a tradition of military interventionism poses risks to civilian control.