Alan Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3697252 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alan Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alan |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Open University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8053-7195 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 98 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1956 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Meanings and Views of Development
This chapter investigates the different senses in which the term 'development' is used. 'Development' is used in three main senses: a vision or measure of a desirable society; a historical process of social change; and deliberate efforts at improvement by development agencies. The variety of competing overall views on development can be organized into three groups according to how they see development relating to capitalism: through, against, or …
Market socialism, labour market domination, and the state as employer of last resort
This paper assesses the claim that to avoid labour market domination we must be market socialists committed to an extensive sector of worker-owned firms. The labour republican tradition offers three perspectives on this argument: Ellerman argues that non-domination demands that all workplaces be worker owned. Hockett has argued that it demands a policy that the state function as the employer of last resort. Taylor argues that all that republicani…
Poverty and Development
Rawls on Economic Liberty and the Choice of Systems of Social Cooperation
Classical liberals argue Rawls fails to give sufficient weight to economic liberty. This paper argues that these classical liberals are mistaken. We know that Rawls took seriously Marx’s critique that the merely formal equality guaranteed by the basic liberties principle was de facto undermined by the material inequality permitted by the difference principle. As a response to Marx, Rawls believed that his principles could be fully specified in on…
Should Epistemic Injustices Be Redressed by the “Corrective Virtues”
This chapter examines the kind of wronging of a person involved in cases of epistemic injustice and whether or not epistemic injustice, so understood, is better remedied by state action or by what Miranda Fricker calls the “corrective virtues.” It is argued that there is a trade off between arguing that such injustices are very pervasive, or identifying what it is distinctively to wrong a person in their capacity as a knower. Focusing on the idea…
The Demands of Democratic Ownership
This paper considers an argument that justice as fairness requires liberal socialism as opposed to a property-owning democracy. It analyses the arguments for departing from Rawls’s principled agnosticism over the choice between liberal market socialism and property owning democracy. It questions the extension of Rawls’s fair value guarantee for the political liberties to all liberty and suggests an alternative interpretation of the kind of predis…
Rawls and political realism: Realistic utopianism or judgement in bad faith
Political realism criticises the putative abstraction, foundationalism and neglect of the agonistic dimension of political practice in the work of John Rawls. This paper argues that had Rawls not fully specified the implementation of his theory of justice in one particular form of political economy then he would be vulnerable to a realist critique. But he did present such an implementation: a property-owning democracy. An appreciation of Rawls s …
Republic of Equals: Predistribution and Property-Owning Democracy
The first book-length study of property-owning democracy, Republic of Equals, argues that a society in which capital is universally accessible to all citizens is uniquely placed to meet the demands of justice. Arguing from a basis in liberal-republican principles, this expanded conception of the economic structure of society contextualizes the market to make its transactions fair. It shows that a property-owning democracy structures economic ince…
Williams on Integrity, Ground Projects and Reasons to Be Moral
Beyond Consequentialism
Journal Article Beyond Consequentialism Get access Beyond Consequentialism. ByHurley Paul ( Oxford University Press: New York, 2009. Pp. viii + 275. Price $60.00 h/b.) Alan Thomas Alan Thomas Department of Philosophy, Tilburg University, Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 66, Issue 262, January 2016, Pages 208–212, https:…
Sen on Rawls’s “transcendental institutionalism: An analysis and critique
This paper evaluates Amartya Sen’s criticisms of Rawls’s theory of justice, in particular his critique of the ideal versus nonideal distinction in Rawls, and corrects what I take to be various misconceptions that underpin this critique. I will then move on to the more general issue of how we are to understand the role of the ideal versus nonideal distinction (and how we ought not to understand it) before going on to consider one focused applicati…
Environmental Policies and NGO Influence: Land Degradation and Sustainable Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa
1. NGOs and their Influence on Environmental Policies in Africa: a Framework Alan Thomas 2. Land Degradation and Sustainable Resource Management in an African Context David Humphreys and Susan Carr 3. NGO Influence at the International Negotiating Committee for a Convention to Combat Desertification: Perspectives from Zimbabwe and Nigeria Susan Carr, Alan Thomas, Enoch Okpara, Roger Mpande and David Humphreys 4. Challenging Maize: The Role of NGO…
Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Late-Life Depression: Higher Global Connectivity and More Long Distance Connections
Functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings in the resting-state (RS) from the human brain are characterized by spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal that reveal functional connectivity (FC) via their spatial synchronicity. This RS study applied network analysis to compare FC between late-life depression (LLD) patients and control subjects. Raw cross-correlation matrices (CM) for LLD were char…
Informal Home Education: Philosophical Aspirations put into Practice
Property‐Owning Democracy, Liberal Republicanism, and the Idea of an Egalitarian Ethos
Rawls, Adam Smith, and an Argument From Complexity To Property-Owning Democracy
This paper foregrounds one argument in Rawls's work that is crucial to his case for one, determinate, form of political economy: a property-owning democracy.1 Section one traces the evolution of this idea from the seminal work of Cambridge economist James Meade; section two demonstrates how a commitment to a property-owning democracy flows from Rawls's own principles; section three focuses on Rawls's striking critique of orthodox welfare state ca…
Cohen's Critique of Rawls: A Double Counting Objection
This paper assesses G. A. Cohen’s critique of Rawlsian special incentives. Two arguments are identified and criticized: an argument that the difference principle does not justify incentives because of a limitation on an agent’s prerogative to depart from a direct promotion of the interests of the worst off, and an argument that justice is limited in its scope. The first argument is evaluated and defended from the criticism that once Cohen has con…
Another Particularism: Reasons, Status and Defaults
Development Studies Association 30th Anniversary Conference 2008: Introduction to Symposium
Thomas Nagel
The possibility of altruism
Nagel's first major publication was a revision of his doctoral dissertation, which had been supervised by John Rawls. The Possibility of Altruism is a slender volume, but it is Nagel's most powerful work. It remains, in the opinion of many, his best book. The method Nagel pursues in this book is that of transcendental argument. Arguments of this kind take some fact that we know to be the case as given and work “backwards” to identify the a priori…
Bernard Williams
This volume provides a systematic overview and comprehensive assessment of Bernard Williams' contribution to moral philosophy, a field in which Williams was one of the most influential of contemporary philosophers. The seven essays, which were specially commissioned for this volume, examine his work on moral objectivity, the nature of practical reason, moral emotion, the critique of the 'morality system', Williams' assessment of the ethical thoug…
Whatever Happened to Reciprocity? Implications of Donor Emphasis on ‘Voice’ and ‘Impact’ as Rationales for Working with NGOs in Development
Sustainable development and African local government: Can electronic training help build capacities
A recent study carried out by European and African organizations into the potential for electronic distance training (EDT) on sustainability in African local governments concluded that EDT was both 'useful and feasible'. This article reflects on some of the theoretical and practical implications of that study. It focuses on the connection between learning and sustainability and how EDT programmes might be designed and promoted. The paper argues t…
Development management—values and partnerships
Values and multi‐organization partnerships are two crucial aspects of the contested field of development management. Their management crucially involves questions of authority, accountability, agency and validity. This Policy Arena includes two pairs of papers, one addressing the management of values and partnerships respectively in the context of NGOs and the second pair doing the same with respect to development management more broadly. They sh…
Rawls and political realism: Realistic utopianism or judgement in bad faith
Political realism criticises the putative abstraction, foundationalism and neglect of the agonistic dimension of political practice in the work of John Rawls. This paper argues that had Rawls not fully specified the implementation of his theory of justice in one particular form of political economy then he would be vulnerable to a realist critique. But he did present such an implementation: a property-owning democracy. An appreciation of Rawls s …
Migrants and multiculturalism: A survey of attitudes in darwin
The policy of multiculturalism has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Australian Government. However, the question arises as to whether this enthusiasm is matched by a similar view at the societal level. This study investigates the attitudes of Australian-born residents of Darwin in Northern Australia toward a number of issues relating to migrants and multiculturalism. Specifically, the study focuses on three research questions: (a) What is th…
Value and Context: The Nature of Moral and Political Knowledge
This book seeks to further the debate between ‘cognitivists’ and ‘non-cognitivists’ about the possibility and the nature of moral knowledge. The book is divided into four parts. Part I presents the theoretical framework for the revision of cognitivism. Part II examines the challenge to the revised form of cognitivism developed from two sophisticated forms of non-cognitivist strategy: expressive/projective strategy and non-objectivism. Part III de…
Sen on Rawls’s “transcendental institutionalism: An analysis and critique
This paper evaluates Amartya Sen’s criticisms of Rawls’s theory of justice, in particular his critique of the ideal versus nonideal distinction in Rawls, and corrects what I take to be various misconceptions that underpin this critique. I will then move on to the more general issue of how we are to understand the role of the ideal versus nonideal distinction (and how we ought not to understand it) before going on to consider one focused applicati…
Reasonable Partiality and the Agent’s Point of View
When a Leader Dies
The reactions of followers after losing a leader are an important and neglected area of study. In fact, little is known about reactions to changes of leadership in organizational settings, generally. The effects of loss and specifically of bereavement within the family are well known. Whilst organizational life differs from family life, some relationships and reactions to loss may be comparable. One way of illuminating reactions to the loss of a …
An Early-medieval Monastic Cemetery at Llandough, Glamorgan: Excavations in 1994
EXCAVATIONS ADJACENT to the church of St Dochdwy in Llandough, near Cardiff, examined part of a large monastic cemetery. In all 1,026 inhumation burials were examined, by far the largest Early-medieval burial population so far recovered from Wales. Sherds of imported Bii amphorae were found in the backfill of five graves indicating activity at Llandough in the late 5th or 6th century. Radiocarbon dates indicate that burial had commenced by the mi…
What makes good development management
In a previous paper published in 1996, the author gave two views of development management. One was management in the context of development as historical change. The other was the management of deliberate efforts at progress, of development tasks. This paper adds a third: a style of management with a development orientation, that is, an orientation towards progressive change. It is argued that this third view allows for a normative definition of…
Research Concepts for Management Studies
By its very nature, management is a multidisciplinary enterprise. Despite this, management research has tended to be organized around a number of discrete management disciplines with their own methodological outlooks. As a result, researchers in different fields often find it difficult to appreciate work outside their own area of specialization, so inhibiting much-needed collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. Management has emerged as a ma…
Managerial careers and the problem of control
Market socialism, labour market domination, and the state as employer of last resort
This paper assesses the claim that to avoid labour market domination we must be market socialists committed to an extensive sector of worker-owned firms. The labour republican tradition offers three perspectives on this argument: Ellerman argues that non-domination demands that all workplaces be worker owned. Hockett has argued that it demands a policy that the state function as the employer of last resort. Taylor argues that all that republicani…
Another Particularism: Reasons, Status and Defaults
Professional capacity and organizational change as measures of educational effectiveness: Assessing the impact of postgraduate education in Development Policy and Management
We tend to measure educational performance by students' attainment in coursework or examinations. In the case of professional education, the impact of the educational programme on the students' own capacities to enhance their work practices, and the wider organizational effects of the students' education and training, are also key ‘products’ of the educational process. This is particularly important with education for Development Policy and Manag…
Liberal republicanism and the role of civil society
This article argues that political liberalism is best placed to accommodate the insights of the civic republican tradition in political theory. Political liberalism is described and its compatibility with certain interpretations of republicanism demonstrated. The reasons why the republican liberal values active citizenship are explained in the context of civil society and the overall theory is defended from the charge that it is an unstable compr…
NGO Advocacy, democracy and policy development: Some examples relating to environmental policies in Zimbabwe and Botswana
(1996). NGO Advocacy, democracy and policy development: Some examples relating to environmental policies in Zimbabwe and Botswana. The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 34, NGOs and Environmental Policies: Asia and Africa, pp. 38-65
The Changing Structure of the Worker Co‐operative Sector in the Uk: Interpreting Recent Trends 1
Informal Home Education: Philosophical Aspirations put into Practice
Rawls, Adam Smith, and an Argument From Complexity To Property-Owning Democracy
This paper foregrounds one argument in Rawls's work that is crucial to his case for one, determinate, form of political economy: a property-owning democracy.1 Section one traces the evolution of this idea from the seminal work of Cambridge economist James Meade; section two demonstrates how a commitment to a property-owning democracy flows from Rawls's own principles; section three focuses on Rawls's striking critique of orthodox welfare state ca…
Development management—values and partnerships
Values and multi‐organization partnerships are two crucial aspects of the contested field of development management. Their management crucially involves questions of authority, accountability, agency and validity. This Policy Arena includes two pairs of papers, one addressing the management of values and partnerships respectively in the context of NGOs and the second pair doing the same with respect to development management more broadly. They sh…
Internal Reasons and Contractualist Impartiality
Williams's claim that practical reasons are internal reasons is analysed and interpreted as a neutral analysis, not distinctively Humean, of constraints on the concept of a practical reason. It is argued that within these constraints it remains possible to defend the impartiality of moral reasons. A reflective account of such reasons can be given in ‘pragmatic’ rather than ‘semantic’ terms. Paralleling a revisionary strategy towards Kant's theore…
Comparative perspective on worker cooperative development in several European countries
Financing Worker Co‐operatives in Ec Countries
Non-Intervention: The Law and Its Import in the Americas
U.S.-Institutional Listing (West and Northwest)
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The politidsation of the ABC in the 1930s: A case study of “the watchman”
The British Business Elite: The Case of the Retail Sector
The watchman”—a rejoinder
Acquired deafness and mental health
This paper reviews studies of the relationship between acquired deafness and psychological disturbance. The first part examines descriptive case studies based on personal experience, clinical observation and the simulation of hearing loss. The second part reviews studies with an experimental orientation. The overall conclusion is that acquired deafness is associated with psychological disturbance, at least at the psychoneurotic level. However, th…
Managerial careers and the problem of control
Masters of Business? Business Schools and Business Graduates in Britain and France
Conditions for Financial Viability in Workers’ Co‐operatives: The Case of UK Clothing and Printing Co‐ops
Does Leadership Make a Difference to Organizational Performance
1988 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/88/3303-0388/$1 .00. This paper evaluates research on the impact of chief executive officers on corporate performance, taking Lieberson and O'Connor's pathbreaking study as its starting point. Although that study is commonly regarded as the principal source of empirical support for the view that leaders have little impact on organizational performance because they are constrained by situational factors, it i…
Financing Worker Co‐operatives in Ec Countries
Developing Successful Worker Cooperatives
Developing Successful Worker Co-operatives gives a complete view of the worker co-operative movement in Britain and shows how with the right procedures, attitudes and conditions, co-operatives can succeed as viable businesses, while contributing to the solution of some More...of the most important economic and social problems of our day. The book demonstrates how co-operatives can perform on equal terms with other forms of commercial organization…
The Changing Structure of the Worker Co‐operative Sector in the Uk: Interpreting Recent Trends 1
Learn the Kazakh Language in 70 Steps: Using 200 Sentence Models
Migrants and multiculturalism: A survey of attitudes in darwin
The policy of multiculturalism has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Australian Government. However, the question arises as to whether this enthusiasm is matched by a similar view at the societal level. This study investigates the attitudes of Australian-born residents of Darwin in Northern Australia toward a number of issues relating to migrants and multiculturalism. Specifically, the study focuses on three research questions: (a) What is th…
The Common Mind: An Essay on Psychology, Society and Politics
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access The Common Mind: an Essay on Psychology, Society and Politics. By Philip Pettit. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Pp. 365. Price £30.00.) Alan Thomas Alan Thomas King’s College London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 179, April 1995, Pages 237–240, https://doi.org/10.2307/2220424 Published: 01 April 1995
NGO Advocacy, democracy and policy development: Some examples relating to environmental policies in Zimbabwe and Botswana
(1996). NGO Advocacy, democracy and policy development: Some examples relating to environmental policies in Zimbabwe and Botswana. The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 34, NGOs and Environmental Policies: Asia and Africa, pp. 38-65
Comparative perspective on worker cooperative development in several European countries
Liberal republicanism and the role of civil society
This article argues that political liberalism is best placed to accommodate the insights of the civic republican tradition in political theory. Political liberalism is described and its compatibility with certain interpretations of republicanism demonstrated. The reasons why the republican liberal values active citizenship are explained in the context of civil society and the overall theory is defended from the charge that it is an unstable compr…
Organizing the past: A history and its (de)construction
This paper explores some aspects of the textuality of historical narrative as a mode of organizing the past, drawing its inspiration from the work of Hayden White. The paper is unusual in that it takes as its central text for analysis a piece of historical narrative constructed ‘naively’ by the author prior to the writing of the current paper. This text, which attempts to account for the varying development of the discipline of Business History i…
What makes good development management
In a previous paper published in 1996, the author gave two views of development management. One was management in the context of development as historical change. The other was the management of deliberate efforts at progress, of development tasks. This paper adds a third: a style of management with a development orientation, that is, an orientation towards progressive change. It is argued that this third view allows for a normative definition of…
Consequentialism and the Subversion of Pluralism
Development as practice in a liberal capitalist world
As we enter the 21st century, a dominant trend in development thinking makes it refer specifically to the practice of development agencies. However, to accept this as the main meaning of development would carry the dangers of losing the complexity and ambiguity of development, of underplaying the importance of vision and of historical process, and of limiting development to actions and policies aimed at reducing poverty in poor countries. It is i…
Internal Reasons and Contractualist Impartiality
Williams's claim that practical reasons are internal reasons is analysed and interpreted as a neutral analysis, not distinctively Humean, of constraints on the concept of a practical reason. It is argued that within these constraints it remains possible to defend the impartiality of moral reasons. A reflective account of such reasons can be given in ‘pragmatic’ rather than ‘semantic’ terms. Paralleling a revisionary strategy towards Kant's theore…
Nagel's `Paradox' of Equality and Partiality
Political science (36 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Law (24 works) · Economics (21 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Politics (17 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Psychology (14 works)