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A review essay on a book by Stephen Steinberg, Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy (Beacon Press, 1995 [see listing in IRPS No. 86]). In a discussion of the evolution of liberal thought & action regarding racial equality in the US, Steinberg claims that, despite the high moral goals of civil rights thought & legislation, policymakers have not possessed the vision or political power to achieve these goals. Although post-WWII liberals discredited biological racism & exposed white supremacy, they committed themselves to the belief that the US ideals of liberty, equality, & fair opportunity would overcome institutionalized racism without direct government action. Under President Lyndon Johnson, liberals recognized the need to reconstruct biased US opportunity structures; however, the massive scale & cost of resolving black inequality undermined voter support for race-oriented legislation, & liberal politicians began to attribute inequality to black social pathology. Growing backlash against affirmative action & recognition of the effort required to combat racial inequality have caused both liberals & conservatives to represent black communities as self-destructive & in need of moral rather political support. By doing so, politicians have further legitimized the stereotypes that proliferate racism & inequality. T. Sevier

This article presents a process-model for the abandonment of a practice. This complements earlier research on adoption and abandonment by allowing for fluctuations in the level of commitment across time and by demonstrating the persistent role for both institutional pressure and performance-based concerns on the maintenance of a practice. It also provides a novel means for identifying differences in the method of abandonment through the introduction of a concept of decommitment. Further, it helps resolve the question of how firms respond when faced with conflicting internal and external evidence of the success of an adopted practice. Using the divestiture of unrelated business segments by 100 U.S. firms between 1970–96, I estimate post-adoption commitment to a practice and the likelihood of a given firm decommitting. I find that treating abandonment as a process clarifies the evolving role of institutional and performance-based concerns and helps identify when a given firm is more subject to either source of pressure. The implications of this approach and these findings for current research on resistance to adoption and de-institutionalization are explored in the conclusion.

In this article, the issue around abandonment in judicial proceedings (Procedural abandonment) related with the imprescriptible pretensions will be analyzed, with a special mention to those relative to the right to property. The issue discussed in the National Jurisdictional Plenary of Civil Law and Civil Procedure of 2016 will be criticized. The true issue to be solved is revealed, it's the one related to the imprescriptible pretensions as case of inappropriateness of abandonment. It raises reasons that put in question the normative provision that links the procedural abandonment with those pretensions. Precisely because of the lack of strong arguments to justify the relation, a necessary legislative amendment is proposed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus upon some important prerequisites for a qualitative good life for people who are users of signalling devices, prerequisites that at the same time represent barriers for communication, mobility and partaking in ordinary activities. It is also to discuss usability and user satisfaction from a new angle by combining disability studies with STS‐perspectives (Science, Technology and Society) in order to grasp the connection between disability as a social phenomenon and technology as a social actor. The paper discusses reasons for abandonment of AT‐devices (assistive technology‐devices) and the shaping of action by technologies.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach is used by the way of semi‐structured interviews with users and public and private service providers in the Norwegian hearing aid market. A bottom‐up strategy is used for data collection. First, users of signaling devices were interviewed about their experiences on how to get and use devices. Then service providers were interviewed about important issues that users raised. A keyword analysis was used in order to highlight barriers for use in daily life. Users were recruited through their interest organization and at an AT exhibition. All the interviews were conducted at cafeterias or at work places.FindingsThe article points at lack of information at companies' websites, professional power, the construction of "end user", routines of everyday life, as well as the matching of devices to age, gender and lifestyle along with attitudes of family, friends and neighbours as important barriers. The article shows how cultural norms and values about gender and disability are inscribed into the technologies. The end product, the polar bear, the watch or the wireless alert system, can be described as a "script" that is supposed to help the individual to perform actions, but as shown – can also limit actions or relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe design of AT‐devices as pointed at in this article not only deals with utility and functionality, but also with usability and human communication. More research on usability is needed, as well as on the user‐expert relationship and how devices function in society as identity markers. In sum, more research on AT is needed in order to develop more knowledge on how to reduce individual risks and societal costs related to abandonment or non‐use.Practical implicationsAlthough changes are taking place in AT services today, the article shows that issues of usability such as the aesthetical side of design, identity and user satisfaction are important but neglected issues by service providers and producers.Social implicationsDespite the ongoing, but slow process from a patient‐oriented system to a more user‐ or customer‐oriented AT system still represents a challenge for services as well as for the welfare state.Originality/valueThe article combines STS‐perspectives, disability studies perspectives and Silverstone's integrative framework on how to get and integrate mainstream ICT‐objects in private households, in order to discuss reasons for abandonment of AT‐devices for people who are hard of hearing. The approach highlights what is special with the integration of AT devices into private homes, as compared to mainstream ICT‐objects, and important reasons for abandonment are discussed that emphasize professional power, aesthetics, identity, as well as attitudes of others.

Abandonment has become a performative idiom in Andean Peru, where it retains its purchase despite the investments of the state. Local development is tied to the desire to be governed. In spite of prolonged state presence, the villages' relationship to authorities is continuously and persistently figured as one of abandonment: villages are abandoned because someone is deliberately holding them in such unfortunate conditions. To figure abandonment in village politics is to draw on this idiom as an effective means of both communicating the historical experience of governance and putting forward morally grounded claims to local authorities. The idiom of abandonment is therefore both effective and affective as a critique of governance and a claim to citizenship. ; Abandonment has become a performative idiom in Andean Peru, where it retains its purchase despite the investments of the state. Local development is tied to the desire to be governed. In spite of prolonged state presence, the villages' relationship to authorities is continuously and persistently figured as one of abandonment: villages are abandoned because someone is deliberately holding them in such unfortunate conditions. To figure abandonment in village politics is to draw on this idiom as an effective means of both communicating the historical experience of governance and putting forward morally grounded claims to local authorities. The idiom of abandonment is therefore both effective and affective as a critique of governance and a claim to citizenship.