El lugar del bandolero en el conflicto rural. Una aproximación historiográfica desde la obra de Eric HobsbawmThe place of the bandit in rural conflict. A historiographical approach from the work of Eric Hobsbawm

RESUMEN Los estudios sobre el bandolerismo han estado fuertemente influidos o condicionados por la alargada sombra de Eric Hobsbawm. Algunas de sus obras más leídas consiguieron elevar a esta figura histórica a la principal expresión del conflicto social en el mundo rural y rodearla de tópicos, mitos e ideales postrománticos. Sin embargo, el paulatino incremento de la producción historiográfica ha supuesto la revisión crítica de algunos de los estereotipos, imágenes y construcciones históricas que recaían en el bandolero, dotando de mayor complejidad el significado de sus comportamientos, sus estrategias delictivas, sus actitudes frente a la autoridad y sus relaciones sociales con las comunidades campesinas. De este modo, el propósito de este artículo reside en presentar una actualización del debate, con especial atención al reflejo que ha tenido en la historiografía española, y proponer una serie de ideas y líneas de investigación por las que ahondar en el conocimiento del conflicto rural y sus actores más relevantes. PALABRAS CLAVE: bandolerismo, Eric Hobsbawm, conflicto rural, historiografía, España ABSTRACT Studies of banditry have been strongly influenced or conditioned by the long shadow of Eric Hobsbawm. Some of his works managed to boost the image of the bandit to one of being the main historical expression of social conflict in rural areas and to surround it with stereotypes, myths and post-Romantic ideals. However, the gradual increase in historiographical production in this area has led to a critical review of some of the stereotypes, images and historical constructions visited on the bandit, rendering more complex the meaning of their behavior, criminal strategies, attitudes toward authority and social relationships with rural communities. Thus, the purpose of this article lies in presenting an update of the debate, with a focus on how it has played out in Spanish historiography, and proposing a number of ideas and lines of research that deepen our knowledge of rural conflict and its most important actors. KEY WORDS: banditry, Eric Hobsbawm, rural conflict, historiography, Spain

Personality Correlates of Moral Reasoning and Attitudes toward Authority

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations of empathy and socialization to moral reasoning and attitudes toward authority. 105 undergraduates completed the empathy and socialization scales of the California Psychological Inventory, the Defining Issues Test, and a questionnaire on which they rated two types of authority (public, impersonal and private, personal). Subjects' moral reasoning scores were correlated with both empathy and socialization. Also, principled moral reasoning, empathy, and socialization scores all had significant, inverse relations with subjects' ratings of authority. These results are congruent with Hogan's 1973 personality-based theory of moral reasoning and moral behavior.

The Ideological Origins of Canadian Confederation

This article discusses the ideological origins of Canadian Confederation. As such it directly challenges a belief commonly held by Canadian political scientists and historians that Canadian Confederation was the product of a purely pragmatic exercise. The author argues instead that the ideological origins of the Canadian federal state may be traced to the debate that divided eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain, America and France—a debate between the defenders of classical republican values and the proponents of a rising commercial ideology formulated during the Enlightenment. Only by understanding how this debate unfolded in nineteenth-century Canada can we understand the particular configuration of the Canadian state that emerged triumphant in the 1860s. Furthermore, an understanding of this debate also offers political scientists a broader context for interpreting long-held Canadian attitudes toward authority, the uses of political patronage, the public debt, capitalism, and the state and economic development.

Life Skills Training and the Politics of Personal Effectiveness

In recent years social and life skills curriculum has emerged to occupy an important place in new training initiatives, particularly those associated with YTS and pre-vocational courses such as TVEI, CPVE and City and Guids 365. one level the attraction of ‘life skills’ training is that it is relevant and address, in ways that traditional Liberal and General Studies could not, the practical problems likely to affect young people as adults, as parents and as employees. another, ambiguity surrounds the criteria upon which such skills for living are constructed and appraised, not least because of their close behavioural connection with altering young peoples’ attitudes toward authority, industry and society. Despite recent concern about the dangers of bias and indoctrination elsewhere in mainstream education, this controversial aspect of government intervention in vocational training (DEP 1981; MSC 1981; DEP 1984) has escaped the critical attention of those who currently express concern about standards in education (Scrution et al 1985). For this reason the paper seeks to examine the kind of ‘official’ thinking which lies behind life skills training, and the skills which are thought necessary to enhance the ‘personal effectiveness’ of young people. This would seem all the more important in view of the government's contention that technical and vocational education (14–18) now constitutes a viable alternative for those who fail to succeed in mainstream education. (DEP 1981, 1984; MSC 1981, 1982a).