In this invited talk, I examine how the technologies of networking and desktop virtual reality can be used to enhance the quality of student learning. I use the C–VISions (Collaborative Virtual Interactive Simulations) system, developed at the National University of Singapore, as an exemplar system to help the audience appreciate the unique advantages that the technology affords for student lea...

Social scientists have drawn attention to the role of hype and optimistic visions of the future in providing momentum to biomedical innovation projects by encouraging innovation alliances. In this article, we show how less optimistic, uncertain, and modest visions of the future can also provide innovation projects with momentum. Scholars have highlighted the need for clinicians to carefully man...

This document summarizes contributions and discussions from two workshops that took place in November 2000 and July 2001. It presents some visions of NLP-related applications that may become reality within ten years from now. It investigates the technological requirements that must be met in order to make these visions realistic and sketches milestones that may help to measure our progress towa...

In this chapter we will explore the logic of two broad strategies for constructing the foundations of a theory of emancipatory social alternatives. The first is the theory elaborated first by Karl Marx, historically by far the most important approach to this problem. Even though Marxist perspectives on social change have lost favor among critics of capitalism, the Marxist tradition offers the m...

In this chapter we will explore the logic of two broad strategies for constructing the foundations of a theory of emancipatory social alternatives. The first is the theory elaborated first by Karl Marx, historically by far the most important approach to this problem. Even though Marxist perspectives on social change have lost favor among critics of capitalism, the Marxist tradition offers the m...

There has been a curious gap between theoretical debate and quantitative research on social inequality throughout the history of sociology. The theoretical debates on inequality have above all revolved around the concept of class, and in particular around the adequacy of the Marxist theory of class. From Weber, to Parsons, to Dahrendorf and Giddens, the point of departure of theorizing the natu...

Precis: The writings of Manuel Castells are centrally concerned with the development of a Marxist urban sociology. This article provides a critical examination of the central concepts of these writings. The article begins with some preparatory remarks on Castells's critique of conventional urban sociology and on the Althusserian variant of historical materialism which he adopts. This is followe...

From the middle of the 19 century until the last decade of the 20, the Marxist tradition provided the most systematic body of ideas and social theory for radical critics of capitalism as an economic system and social order. Even those critics of capitalism who did not directly identify with Marxism relied heavily on Marxist ideas about class, exploitation, commodification, the state, ideology. ...

Firefighters predict how fires will progress from cues such as smoke and roof 'sponginess' 1 , while peahens use the elabo-rateness of peacocks' tails to infer their fitness before deciding whether to mate with them 2. The cues on which organisms base their inductive inferences are typically uncertain: the old adage aside, sometimes there's no smoke even where there's fire. How do people make i...