Transition towards and of sustainability—Understanding sustainability as performative

Our purpose is to explore the concept of “sustainability” when understood from a performative perspective, i.e. as a concept that is filled with meaning across time. Drawing on a 10 year-long study of the digital footprint of Stockholm Royal Seaport, claimed to be northern Europe's largest sustainable urban development district, we show that “sustainability” emerged as the project became associated with particular places, projects, histories, and technologies. This means that “sustainability” was local in that it was situated in the particular spatial context of the project; temporal in that it was situated in a particular time; and political in that it expressed particular values and perspectives. The study contributes to explaining why “sustainability” remains—and always will remain—a contested concept, which is why sustainability transitions are complex. Consequently, we suggest that the transition towards sustainability always involves the transition of sustainability, something that needs to be acknowledged in order for a transition to actually become sustainable.     

C. E. Ayres's Reliance on T. H. Huxley: Did Darwin's Bulldog Bite?

In David Seckler's Thorstein Veblen and the Institutionalists, the proposition is advanced that “Ayres out-Veblens Veblen and out Deweys Dewey”. This commonly held view of the intellectual orientation of the prominent American institutional economist, Clarence Edwin Ayres, places him as an intellectual descendent of philosopher John Dewey's pragmatism, and economist Thorstein B, Veblen's institutionalist economics. Certainly such an outlook is not incorrect, but it is also not adequate if one is to achieve an understanding of Ayres. A careful check of the indexes of Ayres's major works shows that his references preponderantly go not to Dewey and to Veblen, but to Adam Smith and Charles Darwin, Moreover, it is to the latter that Ayres turned in his effort to overturn the former. However, Ayres in interpreting Darwin relied not upon Dewey and Veblen, but rather upon Thomas Henry Huxley, the British physician turned scientist, who because of his outspoken advocacy of Darwin's evolutionary biology became known as “Darwin's bulldog.”     

An Examination of Proposals for a U.S. Industrial Policy

Abstract . An “industrial policy” for the U.S. appears from the writings and statements of its advocates to involve modification of federal tax laws and expenditures to allow a largely unchanged set of business institutions to better serve the public interest. It employs planning but it is planning of the sort the U.S. has always had. Those who oppose all government activity in the private sector oppose it, not realizing that the anti-trust laws, for example, do not interfere with the economy's operation but aid it to function beneficently. It is those whose activities are anti social who are loudest in their demands for business “freedom.” Does the U.S. need a more efficient economic system? Intercountry comparisons show that in many areas it lags. To achieve stability of income and employment as well as productive efficiency, the U.S. has many policy options it can consider—and it must.     

Peddling in the Antebellum Economy: Precursor of Mass-Marketing or a Start in Life?

Abstract . This article examines the effect of peddling upon industrialization and economic development and the evolution of institutional arrangements in marketing in the Antebellum period. After 1840 peddling in America was undertaken, to an increasing extent, by newly arrived immigrants from Germany who displaced the traditional “Yankees” from the trade. The relationship between peddling and the development of entrepreneurship is explored, along with the special opportunities that peddling provided for economic and occupational mobility in the American milieu. The frequency with which individuals who started careers as peddlers rose to prominence in the fields of merchandising and finance points to the importance of the “schooling” function of this institution for newly arrived immigrants in American folkways, business practices, and commercial possibilities.     

American Indians and Natural Resource Development: Indigenous Peoples'Land, Now Sought After, Has Produced New Indian-White Problems

Abstract . In the colonial period of U.S. history, American Indian tribes enjoyed the status of political sovereigns, and dealt as equals with the English Crown and colonial authorities. In the years following U.S. independence, legal, administrative, and military actions were used to redefine the meaning of tribal sovereignty. Conceptualizing these developments, “captive nations” refers to the limited sovereignty of tribes and their isolation and detachment from mainstream American society. Recently, natural resource development on their land and especially the discovery of energy resources has had a major impact on the structure of Federal-Indian relations and the political status of Indian tribes in American society. Willingly or unwillingly, many tribes are in the process of renegotiating their status with the Federal Government as a consequence of the resource development. As a result, these former captive nations are now more aptly described as “internal colonies.”     

Spiritual leadership as a model for student inner development

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Spirituality: Creating meaning and purpose for students the corporate way

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Symposium

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Spirituality and leadership: Engaging both in higher education

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Spirit Guides

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

A more ideal system?

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Revisiting spiritual and emotional emptiness in American higher education

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Who says we don't? The perspective from a small Catholic liberal arts college

“Although American higher education can justifiably take pride in its capacity to develop the student's ability to manipulate the material world through its programs in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, it has paid relatively little attention to the student's “inner” development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self‐understanding.” —from the Foreword to Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education by Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin     

Blood Sports and Cherry Pie

Abstract . The results are reported of empirically testing two hypotheses relating to violence in a professional team sport: one, that hockey fans have a taste for violence (bockey is a “blood sport”) so that, in general, game attendance and violence in the National Hockey League are positively related; and two, more specifically, that the more extreme degrees of violence are positively associated with American, not Canadian, attendance. The data are game by game data for the 1983/84 season, violence is measured by various categories of penalty minutes (minors, majors, misconducts), and the model is a system of two reduced form equations. The results confirm that there is a significant and positive relationship between aggregate measures of violence (total penalty minutes) and attendance for games played in both American and Canadian cities; and there is a significant positive relationship between the more extreme forms of violence (proxied by majors and misconducts) and attendance only in American cities     

Environmental Quality and Social Equality:

Abstract . The problems and contradictions which arise when an economically “poor” region is mandated to remain environmentally “pure“ are examined. The Adirondack region of New York State is such an area, being now protected by the 1972 Adirondack Park Land Use Plan. This limitation on development for environmental reasons has serious consequences for the 120,000 permanent residents within the park boundaries who, through their legislators, vigorously opposed the controls. A number of examples of the conflicts which have arisen are cited and a framework for “comprehensive” rather than “fragmented”planning is suggested.     

Henry George and the Ethics of Economics

Abstract . Henry George's Progress and Poverty (1879) is a great ethical masterpiece. Its moral tone distinguishes the book. More than an economics test, it is a philosophic quest for justice, an impassioned declaration of the rule of natural law. Indignantly attacking the contention that economics has no place for natural law or ethics, George exclaims: “She [economics] has been degraded and shackled; her truths dislocated; her harmonies ignored.” On the contrary, George stresses, political economy (economics) is a science, and like all sciences, is governed by natural law. Furthermore, it is basically “moral.” Science must, of necessity, always lead to ethics. Natural law must, of necessity, always lead to morality, or justice.“The law of human progress, what is it but the moral law?” George asks. “Unless its foundation be laid in justice the social structure cannot stand.” The social ill that perpetuates poverty and the manifold evils it causes is private ownership of land and the private privilege of collecting its rent. “The fundamental law of nature, that the enjoyment by man shall be consequent upon his exertion, is thus violated.”     

Intergenerational Equity and Resource Use

Abstract . Is it “fair” for one generation to use up, wholly or to a degree, resources which cannot be replaced? By evaluating projects involving non-replaceable resources with discount rates are future benefits undervalued?Discounted net present value is found to be a poor allocator of scarce resources. Another choice rule, Page and Ferejohn's Dominance Rule, also contains flaws. A “partitioned” approach, dividing the time horizon into sections, is an improvement and has advantages. While this third approach has basic uncertainties, it may be used to meet nondeferrable decisions while problems of equity and preference are being studied.     

Predictability and Reflexivity

Abstract . Reflexive predictions are self-defeating or self-fulfilling. However, it was shown that in most cases of self defeating public predictions of social events conceptually at least one correct prediction exists. Unfortunately the term “reflexive prediction” is applied in the literature to quite distinct phenomena. A. Grünbaum, moreover, argued that reflexive prediction occurs also in the natural sciences using as example the fire-control system which “obeys only natural laws.” The purpose of this paper is two fold: first, it clarifies the terminological confusion. Second, it argues that every man-made tool (fire-control systems are tools) obeys natural laws and so does the person. The question of a person's higher functions, such as expectation and decision is only acknowledged. The conclusions are (1) that there is a fundamental difference between reaction to public (predictive) utterances and reaction to discriminatory behavior based on private ptediciion. (2) The reflexivity of public prediction is a phenomenon characteristic of the social sciences. at least as long as these disciplines are set apart from the natural sciences.     

Can Good Apples Be Mixed with Bad Economics? A Mengerian Critique of the Alchian and Allen Theorem

Abstract . The Alchian and Allen Theorem has been a popular staple of many economics classes since Armen Alchian and William Allen first introduced it in their well‐known text University Economics. The Theorem says that the addition of the same fixed cost to two similar goods will result in an increase of demand for the higher‐priced, “higher‐quality” good relative to the lower‐quality item. Response to the Theorem ranges from an informal comment that it is a “parlor trick” to it being called the “Third Law of Demand.” We review some of the literature, and use Carl Menger's economic analysis to challenge the Theorem's validity. Based on Menger's analysis, we conclude that the Theorem is not, in fact, a theorem because it is does not describe a general case, but instead only applies in some cases, thereby becoming, at best, a special case of Menger's more general analysis. Further, we find evidence that Alchian and Allen themselves unwittingly contradict their own argument elsewhere in one of their texts.     

Jefferson's Unheavenly City: A Bicentennial Look*

Abstract . The opportunity provided by the American Bicentennial for a re-examination of our political values is also an opportunity for a closer look at the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Although Jefferson has been placed, with John Locke, in a “heavenly city of the eighteenth century philosophers” who sought new defenses on behalf of medieval spiritualism and divine law, the present essay contends that Jefferson's epistemological commitments differed from Locke's, and that Jefferson's political theory was far more “modern” than Locke's with respect to the key notions of rights, property, and consent. Some of Jefferson's political conclusions differed from those of Locke either in degree, such as in the details of representation, or in kind, such as in regard to the ownership of property.