What is Social Economics?

During the 1950s at the latest, Max Weber became a ‘founding father’ of sociology, chiefly on the basis of a restricted set of canonical writings and without any consideration of his wider relationships to law, economics and politics. During the last ten years of his life he was responsible for a major collaborative work, the Grundriss der Sozialökonomik—Outline of Social Economics. The title was of his own choosing; and so it might well shed new light on his work if we consider how this work was organised, and how Economy and Society, written as a contribution to this handbook, was intended to form part of it.     

What is a Territorial-Production Complex?

A territorial-production complex must satisfy three criteria: diversification of the economy, interrelations between its components, and territorial unity. The term should not be applied to industrial nodes or industrial centers because they do not satisfy all three conditions. Industrial nodes lack the necessary diversification and industrial centers are distinguished only by territorial unity.     

What is a Salafi Reformist?

Abstract

Tariq Ramadan is one of the most prominent and controversial Western Muslim political thinkers today. He has been called everything from a moderate liberal Muslim thinker to a radical Islamist in disguise. He calls himself a Salafi reformist. According to him, Salafi reformists read the sacred texts of Islam dynamically, using reason, and reject literalist readings. Yet Ramadan also calls Sayyid Qutb a Salafi reformist. The problem is that, by most accounts, Qutb is the quintessential radical Islamist. This raises the question of what Ramadan thinks actually makes someone a Salafi reformist, and what this can tell us about his political teaching. To answer this question, I put Ramadan and Qutb into conversation. I argue that, while Ramadan meets his own criteria for being a Salafi reformist, Qutb does not. I suggest some reasons why Ramadan may not share this view; his political theology tells a different story.     

What is worth teaching in geography?

Abstract

To be efficient, geographers must teach not facts, but how to learn. This means teaching theories, methods and models, and also the languages of investigation, which include mathematical languages. These are important because some human knowledge and discourse, including growing conceptual areas in geography, cannot be translated from mathematics. Mathematical languages are tools of inquiry, the teaching of which can quickly open up new lines of thinking. Mathematical geographers can make a unique contribution to applied areas through their ability to model and clarify complex problems. An example of teaching mathematical languages is given using a simple directed connectivity matrix, which in turn can be manipulated to introduce advanced ideas. During this process, students are learning naturally about mathematical languages.     

What is network analysis,and what is it good for?

Jeremy Boissevain and J. Clyde Mitchell, eds. Network Analysis: Studies In Human Interaction. The Hague: Mouton, 1973. xiii + 271 pp. Tables, figures, bibliography, and index. $11.00 (Dutch Guilders: 29).