John Stewart

Critiques semiotic accounts of the nature of language and sets forth a dialogic alternative. This book analyzes the prominent view that language is basically a system of signs and symbols; outlines an alternative that builds on aspects of the philosophies of Heidegger, Gadamer, Buber, and Bakhtin; and employs this alternative to criticize accounts of language developed by V. N. Volosinov, Kenneth Burke, and Calvin O. Schrag. From the perspective of communication theory, this book extends some features of the postmodern critique of representationalism to develop a post-semiotic account of the nature of language as dialogic.

In this important attempt to reorient the theory and practice of public management, Stewart Ranson and John Stewart argue that public organisations must be analysed in terms of the distinctive values, purposes, tasks and conditions of the public domain. They show how it is only on this basis that they can meet the needs of citizens in a mature democracy and support the processes of a learning society.

Local government organisation and management in Britain is in the throes of a major transformation brought about by changing economic, social and political circumstances and central government legislation. This book outlines the major pressures for change and analyses and assesses local government's response in terms of role, culture, structure and internal process. Particular attention is paid to the consequences of new decentralised, competitive/regulatory and enabling models of what local authorities should be like in the mid 1990s.

Based on a survey of probation work with almost 1400 young adult offenders, this book provides a unique insight into the realities of probation practice in a context of increasing poverty, drug use and community breakdown. Starting with an outline of the current policy environment, the book discusses the relevance of criminological theory to the harsh experience of young offenders in modern Britain. It goes on to develop a typology of offending behaviour on the basis of detailed and often disturbing accounts of the histories and troubles of young people afflicted by poverty, disruption of family relationships and long term unemployment. While much of the book is concerned with the difficulties young offenders experience, and the problems probation officers have in trying to help them change, the overall message of the book is not one of despair. The authors show that good probation practice can make a difference, and the book is written in a way which will be useful to practitioners and policy-makers involved with supervising offenders in the community. From the typology of offending the authors extract lessons for appropriate and relevant practice which should help to improve the quality and effectiveness of the probation service. Some of these implications are explored in the concluding chapter, by Cedric Fullwood, Chief Probation Officer of Greater Manchester. As well as criminal justice practitioners, students of criminology, probation trainees and other social work students will find in the book many vivid examples of how sociological theory can be used to understand and interpret practice. The book is likely to provoke much debate about what constitutes positive practice in a probation service facing the challenges of the future.

This is a modern self-contained introduction to key topics in advanced general relativity. The opening chapter reviews the subject, with strong emphasis on the geometric structures underlying the theory. The next chapter discusses 2-component spinor theory, its usefulness for describing zero-mass fields, its practical application via Newman-Penrose formalism, together with examples and applications. The subsequent chapter is an account of the asymptotic theory far from a strong gravitational source, describing the mathematical theory by which measurements of the far-field and gravitational radiation emanating from a source can be used to describe the source itself. The final chapter describes the natural characteristic initial value problem, first in general terms, and then with particular emphasis for relativity, concluding with its relation to Arnold’s singularity theory. Exercises are included.

In the 1980s there was a marked increase in the number of hung local authorities or authorities in which there was no clear majority. This book describes the different patterns of hungness and the response of local authorities to the new situation.