February 2008 in RSSS
Goodin gives Dewey Lecture
RSSS philosopher Robert Goodin posed a simple question in his Dewey Lecture at the University of Chicago Law School: 'How can we know what the law requires of us?' With 364 volumes of U.S. legal code piled atop state and municipal laws, 'ignorance of the law is inevitable', if not formally excusable.
Introduced by law professor Cass Sunstein as 'the LeBron James of academic life and one of the world's most important social theorists', Goodin was welcomed in a forum that has previously hosted such luminaries as Amartya Sen, John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and Richard Rorty. Goodin argued that because law's primary function is to guide people in their actions, everyone must know their duties. The problem today, Goodin said, is that too few citizens know the law because it is no longer intuitive. A legal system based on commonly held and high-minded moral principles, Goodin concluded, would allow people to follow the law better.
The lecture received a mixed reception. A row of professors that included Sunstein, Martha Nussbaum, and Richard Epstein challenged Goodin on, among other things, his assumption that 'Sunday-school morality' is common. But, as Sunstein predicted, Goodin proved he could 'score, defend, and rebound' like a champion, while conceding that if people do not have access to moral principles, his argument 'is stuffed'.
Ethan Frenchman, University of Chicago Law School Class of '08
View the Dewey Lecture, Chicago 2008 quicktime video at Bob Goodin's web page
Australia Day Honours
Diane Langmore Head of ADB was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours. The citation reads: `for service in recording the history of the social sciences and humanities as General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography'.
New book
Governing after Crisis
The Politics of Investigation, Accountability and Learning
Edited by Arjen Boin
Louisiana State University
Allan McConnell
University of Sydney
Paul 't Hart
Australian National University, Canberra
Cambrdige University Press, February 2008
Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521885294)
The constant threat of crises such as disasters, riots and terrorist attacks poses a frightening challenge to Western societies and governments. While the causes and dynamics of these events have been widely studied, we know little about what happens following their containment and the restoration of stability. This volume explores ‘post-crisis politics,’ examining how crises give birth to longer term dynamic processes of accountability and learning which are characterised by official investigations, blame games, political manoeuvring, media scrutiny and crisis exploitation.
Flyer and review(pdf)
New book
Jamaican Food:
History, Biology, Culture
Professor Barry Higman
History Program, RSSS
Published by the University of the West Indies Press.
Formal publication date is February. 580 pages, with 40 colour plates. Price is US$70. ISBN 978-976-640-205-1
How Has School Productivity Changed in Australia?
LITERACY AND NUMERACY PERFORMANCE "STUCK IN THE ’60s" The literacy and numeracy performance of Australian school children is no better than it was in the 1960s and 1970s, according to new research from The Australian National University.
The research, by ANU economists Dr Andrew Leigh and Dr Chris Ryan, tracked long-run changes in test scores by comparing the performance of successive cohorts of school children on the same tests. "Over the past three to four decades, neither literacy nor numeracy have improved, and may even have declined slightly", said Dr Ryan.
A copy of the media release is here, and you can link to the actual study at
http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/~aleigh/pdf/SchoolProductivity.pdf
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Events
Economics & Democracy
Second Annual Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Conference
Call for panels, workshops and papers (pdf)
Hosted by the Research School of
Social Sciences, ANU, Canberra
8-10 December 2008
RSSS Theme Seminar - February
Monday 25 February 2008
12.30-2pm
Seminar Room A, Coombs Building
'Getting Published'
Alison Booth, Economics
(recent editor of Labour Economics)
Bob Goodin, Philosophy
(editor of Journal of Political Philosophy)
Ian McAllister, Political Science
(editor of Australian Journal of Political Science)
This roundtable discussion will be aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at newer members of the professions, introducing them to how editors and publishers think, pointing to some useful tricks and common pitfalls. Formal presentations will be brief: the discussion will be largely driven by what questions you have.
contact: Bob Goodin, tel. x52156 or Bob.Goodin@anu.edu.au
RSSS Theme Workshop - May
Friday 9 May 2008
9:00 - 5:00
The Drawing Room, University House
Free - but numbers are limited
The Australian National Party: Re-thinking rurality in a post-agrarian society
The National Party is undertaking an internal review of its role and its position in Australian society and politics; the implications of current political, financial, demographic, and media trends; and future options for the Party, including an analysis of current and alternative strategies, roles and Party structures.
More details
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