Polls and election results show Americans sharply divided on same-sex marriage, and the controversy is unlikely to subside anytime soon. Debating Same-Sex Marriage provides an indispensable roadmap to the ongoing debate.

Caribbeanists working on the Francophone Caribbean within the Anglophone academy are perhaps particularly well placed to bring into focus the linguistic and cultural losses of the dislocations and relocations of High Capitalism. Although our object of study should facilitate critical insights into the fundamental linguistic and cultural indifference and irresponsibility of capitalist extraction models and into what is at stake politically and ethically in contemporary versions of those profiteering models, the commercialist reductionism currently formatting not just our own pulverized academic (...) universe, but the entire globe over which it has by now comprehensively spread, surely works against any such truly critical positioning. (shrink)

I read Montesquieu’s 'Persian Letters' as an attempt to theorize a liberated alternative to despotic rule. As Montesquieu argues in 'The Spirit of the Laws,' fear—specifically fear of the ruler’s emotional and material excesses—dominates the life of the despotic subject. Although in the 'Letters' the seraglio is the despotic state’s parallel, the seraglio is the site of over owing and barely governed passions. Montesquieu’s solution to the excesses of the seraglio is not the eradication of emotion; rather, he o ers (...) a template for transforming negative passion—fear—into courage, a prelude to a potentially liberating experience. is transformation is portrayed most clearly in the character of Roxane, the rebellious wife whose courageous actions precipitate the collapse of the seraglio. I argue that Roxane’s insurrection and suicide evoke a model established by the Roman matriarch Lucretia. Though not traditional political actors themselves, both Lucretia and Roxane anticipate the possibility of a personal and political liberation through their refusal of fear-based, despotic politics in favour of alternative emotional regimes based in courage. (shrink)

L'article examine la relation de Bernard Lonergan à John Henry Newman, son premier inspirateur intellectuel. Il cherche à aller plus loin que les questions de références explicites ou des influences directes pour identifier les domaines majeurs òu les deux penseurs ont des affinités, ce qui inclut les limitations de la logique, l'attention aux structures cognitives, la centralité du jugement, la dialectique de l'autotranscendance que dévient des attitudes erronées, le parallèle entre l'assentiment réel et la conversion. Lonergan s'appropria et transforma les (...) fondements libérateurs qu'il découvrit au long de sa lecture de jeunesse de Newman. Un même ligne de pensée, empirique et psychologique, caractérise les deux auteurs, mais Lonergan va au delà des vastes catégories descriptives de Newman afin d'ouvrir des horizons plus larges à l'exploration de la méthode et de l'intériorité. (shrink)

Rousseau’s embrace of ceremony and festivals in his Considerations on the Government of Poland demonstrates one way for republican political thought to develop a substantive treatment of civic virtue. Differentiating the narcissism of spectacle and theater that Rousseau critiques in the Letter to d’Alembert from the Considerations’ call for a generous affect, I demonstrate that the latter is compatible with a republican ethos premised on civic virtue and patriotic attachment to the nation-state. Rousseau argues for the instantiation of political practices (...) that constantly cultivate political virtue and their associated affective orientations. His treatment of civic ceremonies in the Considerations should be read as an attempt to inculcate patriotic affect in republican citizens via constitutional measures. (shrink)

Although both the ancient classical forms of tragedy and the nihilist tendencies of postmodern writing are marked by paralysis and passivity before fate, more religiously influenced periods of English literature are characterised by self-transcending and self-transforming movement beyond tragic impotence. This insight is illustrated briefly through references to Shakespeare's King Lear but it can also be found in Dante and in less explicitly Christian authors. The wisdom of humility exemplified in these literary masterpieces with a religious background embodies an implicit (...) theology of redemption, whereby evil can ultimately be transfigured into good. (shrink)

This paper introduces the concept of gothic violence in order to better theorize how domination operates in Mary Wollstonecraft’s unfinished novel, The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. The fictive companion to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Maria is an account of the titular character’s struggle for self-determination in all aspects of her life, including her desire for a companionate partnership. I argue that Maria’s ultimate lack of freedom is directly attributable to coverture, the patriarchal legal fiction whereby wives (...) are subsumed under the legal persona of their fathers or husbands. Building on scholarship that positions Wollstonecraft as a republican feminist, I show how Maria articulates what I call gothic violence, a form of psychic domination that places the other in a condition of unfreedom by denying their status as an autonomous being and holding them in subordination through a variety of techniques, such as denial of legal and social status and testimonial quieting. I show how gothic violence results in the unfreedom of women through its reliance on domestic settings and intimate relationships, and with the support of law and custom, of which coverture is a central example. I conclude by suggesting that attending to gothic violence in Wollstonecraft’s thought allows us to further see the continuity between her political and fictional writings. (shrink)

A large number of cellular proteins bind ATP, frequently utilizing the free energy of ATP hydrolysis to drive specific biological reactions. Recently, a family of closely related ATP‐binding proteins has been identified, the members of which share considerable sequence identity. These proteins, from both prokaryotic and eukaryotic sources, presumably had a common evolutionary origin and include the product of the white locus of Drosophila, the P‐glycoprotein which confers multidrug resistance on mammalian tumours, and prokaryotic proteins associated with such diverse processes (...) as membrane transport, cell division, nodulation and DNA repair. A comparison of these various proteins provides valuable insights into the function and evolution of the multicomponent systems with which they are associated. (shrink)

Science and Community: Ending Obesity Improving Health (S&C) aimed to reduce obesity in Houston by developing community partnerships to identify research priorities and develop a sustainable obesity reduction program. Partnership members were recruited from S&C events and invited to participate in in‐depth interviews to gain insight into obesity prevalence, causes, and solutions. Members (n = 22) completed a 60–90‐min in‐depth interview. The interview guide consisted of 30 questions about pressing health problems in the community, potential solutions to health problems and (...) obesity and how the environment has impacted obesity and health behaviors in the community. Interviewees (n = 12 women and 10 men) were mostly Hispanic/Latino (n = 9) and African American (n = 7). Common problems identified were childhood obesity, balancing a healthy diet and physical inactivity. Interviewees identified obesity as a major problem in their communities and cited access to quality food and physical activity resources as both a problem and a solution. Additional emergent themes focused on solutions, including increasing awareness and education, coordinated efforts among organizations and using an ecologic approach to combat obesity. Community insight gleaned from this study may be used to enhance relevance and sustainability of programs developed to reduce obesity and suggests possible avenues for participatory research and intervention. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of the nature and support provided by governments for the implementation and development of New Forms of Work Organisation. It draws on data and case studies collected by Business Decisions Ltd1 for the European Commission to illustrate the scope and impact of a sample of government programmes across 10 Member States. The paper examines the role of policy in stimulating the adoption of organisational change and helping companies to overcome obstacles with a comparison of approaches (...) taken in different countries. (shrink)