This remarkable continent. An Atlas of United States and Canadian society and cultures :

When Professor Papageorgiou submitted his brief essay in the spring of 1982 (“Some Thoughts about Theory in the Social Sciences, GA [October 1982], pp. 340-46), I decided to use it as a vehicle to provoke a discussion of the issues he raised. I invited a number of scholars to submit brief and informal statements on these issues and these responses are assembled in the following pages. The variety of styles and contents of the submissions reflects the diversity that is contemporary human geography. I hope that this forum enhances our appreciation of the points-of-view of others. Convergence towards a single widely accepted epistemological framework appears to be further away than ever.     

Some Second Thoughts about Theory in the Social Sciences

When Professor Papageorgiou submitted his brief essay in the spring of 1982 (“Some Thoughts about Theory in the Social Sciences, GA [October 1982], pp. 340-46), I decided to use it as a vehicle to provoke a discussion of the issues he raised. I invited a number of scholars to submit brief and informal statements on these issues and these responses are assembled in the following pages. The variety of styles and contents of the submissions reflects the diversity that is contemporary human geography. I hope that this forum enhances our appreciation of the points-of-view of others. Convergence towards a single widely accepted epistemological framework appears to be further away than ever.     

The Policy Analysis of Water Shortages

Allen V. Kneese and F. Lee Brown, The Southwest Under Stress .
Richard A. Berk, et al., Water Shortage .     

A DIALECTICAL APPROACH TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

This paper reports on the methodology and an application of a dialectical approach to research and development, planning. The methodology features a structured debate followed by argumentation analysis. The argumentation analysis in turn is followed by an assessment of the plausibility of the arguments. The application involved using the methodology to assess the level of funding for research and development for a transportation system that would employ advanced technology. The Dialectic Inquiry process, and specifically, the plausibility rating activity, were seen as valuable aids for policy analysis.     

FULL EMPLOYMENT AS A POLICY ISSUE

Passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 is the most recent step in the development of a national full employment policy. This article traces the origin of the legislative debate over full employment back to the 1940s, the only previous time that Congress gave serious consideration to full employment legislation. It analyzes the conflicting economic and political interests and philosophies that led to the defeat of the Full Employment Bill of 1945 and to passage of weaker legislation, the Employment Act of 1946, which dropped the commitment to full employment. The article then traces the contours of unemployment since World War II: recurrent recessions; significant unemployment between recessions; the unequal distribution of joblessness, hitting hardest at groups such as minorities, women, and youths; and growing urban and regional unemployment. Some of the hidden social, human and economic costs of unemployment are explored. So is the relationship between unemployment and crime, poverty, welfare, the urban crisis and inequality. Full employment reemerged as a major issue in the 1970s because of the impetus from groups whose unemployment problems persist between recessions. Coalitions of these groups pressed for a national policy to secure full employment for all groups. This led to passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins Act. But the controversy over full employment has not ended. Attempts to implement the Act, the article concludes, may heighten underlying controversies over issues such as inflation, wage, price and profit controls, the environment, and job creation and may make full employment one of the leading domestic issues of the 1980s.