In the first two volumes of this work, Paul Ricoeur examined the relations between time and narrative in historical writing, fiction, and theories of literature. This final volume, a comprehensive reexamination and synthesis of the ideas developed in volumes 1 and 2, stands as Ricoeur's most complete and satisfying presentation of his own philosophy.

Time and Narrative

After virtue, a study in moral theory

“WHAT can men do, what do they do, and what do they want to do ?”—these are the uestions that Prof. Thorndike seeks to answer in a very comprehensive and elaborate treatise. His undertaking is inspired by the belief that man has the possibility of almost complete control of his fate if only he will be guided by science, and that his failures are attributable to ignorance or folly. The main approach is through biological psychology, but all the social sciences are appealed to and utilized in an effort to deal with the human problem as a whole. The relative immaturity of the sciences dealing with man is continually stressed, but it is claimed that they provide a body of facts and principles which are “far above zero knowledge”, and that even now they are capable of affording valuable guidance in the shaping of public policy. Human Nature and the Social Order By E. L. Thorndike. Pp. xx + 1020. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1940.) 18s. net.

Human Nature and the Social Order

As more and more marketers incorporate social media as an integral part of the promotional mix, rigorous investigation of the determinants that impact consumers’ engagement in eWOM via social networks is becoming critical. Given the social and communal characteristics of social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, this study examines how social relationship factors relate to eWOM transmitted via online social websites. Specifically, a conceptual model that identifies tie strength, homophily, trust, normative and informational interpersonal influence as an important antecedent to eWOM behaviour in SNSs was developed and tested. The results confirm that tie strength, trust, normative and informational influence are positively associated with users’ overall eWOM behaviour, whereas a negative relationship was found with regard to homophily. This study suggests that product-focused eWOM in SNSs is a unique phenomenon with important social implications. The implications for research...

Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth in social networking sites

https://faculty.ucmerced.edu/ecampbell3/slkiva/Pretty-GMF-2001.pdf

Social Capital and the Environment

Rural Communities: Legacy and Change.

Local communities are faced with increasing responsibilities to provide for their own well-being and development. With fewer resources, communities need more successful ways of uniting people and resources. Entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) is a necessary ingredient for successfully linking physical resources and leadership for community development. ESI includes three elements: symbolic diversity, resource mobilization, and quality of networks. Instead of fostering perverse conflict or superficial harmony, symbolic diversity inspires communities to engage in constructive controversy to arrive at workable community decisions by focusing on community processes, depersonalization of politics, and broadening of community boundaries. Resource mobilization involves generating some surplus within the community beyond basic subsistence with relative equity in resource and risk distribution, investment by residents of their own private capital locally, and collective investment in the community (willing...

Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure: A Necessary Ingredient

This paper develops a framework for examining the questions: Does social capital make a difference for well being in communities of place? How might rural sociologists utilize social capital to further well being in communities? The author reviews social capital literature, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Opting for a marriage between embeddedness and conflict theory, he introduces entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) as an alternative to social capital. ESI adds to social capital the notions of equality, inclusion, and agency. Research results are presented which support the embeddedness approach: community-level action (the community field) is not simply an aggregation of individual or organizational actions within the community; social capital and ESI contribute jointly and independently to community action. Examining economic development as a form of collective action, the author concludes�the following: a) ESI contributes to economic development, and b) inclusiveness (internal solidarity) is more closely related to community self-development while industrial recruitment is better predicted by strong external ties.

Social Capital and Communities of Place1

A community embeddedness perspective hypothesizes that nonmetropolitan localities high on entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) are more successful at implementing economic development projects than those lacking ESI. ESI is a format for converting social capital into organizational forms that facilitate collective action. Logistic regres- sion revealed that localities with projects were more likely to have an unbiased news- paper, multiple contributions by financial institutions to community projects, and more external linkages. Project communities place more emphasis on citizen involvement through civic organizations than through local government. Community-based patterns of interactions and organization are associated with successful collective economic development action. Building on ideas about community embeddedness and collective action, this article addresses the relationship between entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) and eco- nomic development. The central hypothesis is that communities and counties with more ESI are more likely to have successfully implemented a recent economic development project than localities lacking in ESI. The analysis is based upon a national random sample of nonmetropolitan places and counties. The concept of entrepreneurial social infrastructure was developed by the senior researchers' in order to better understand why some communities remain economically vital while others do not. Location factors (John Batie, and Norris 1988) and theories of leadership have not provided adequate explanations of community vitality. For instance, one careful evaluation of leadership training programs in Montana and Pennsylvania, using a quasi-experimental design, showed an increase in organizational membership and leadership roles for program graduates compared to a matched sample of nonparticipants in such programs (Cook, Howell, and Weir 1985). However, we found no studies that

Entrepreneurial social infrastructure and locally initiated economic development in the nonmetropolitan united states

With the continued devolution of power and resources from state- and federal-centered to locality-centered institutions, rural places are increasingly left to depend on their own resources to survive. One of those resources is found in the structure of local social relationships—that is, the community's stock of social capital. The purpose of this research is to examine the individual and combined effects of two forms of social capital, bonding and bridging, on community action in rural towns. Findings indicate that both bridging and bonding social capital significantly predict community action. In addition, an interaction is found that suggests that one form can make up for weaknesses in the other in communities in which both are not strong.

Jan L. Flora

Papers

Rural Communities: Legacy and Change.

Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure: A Necessary Ingredient

Social Capital and Communities of Place1

Entrepreneurial social infrastructure and locally initiated economic development in the nonmetropolitan united states

Bonding and Bridging Social Capital: The Interactive Effects on Community Action