Talk:Stanislav Andreski

Latest comment: 17 years ago by 137.82.82.145 in topic NPOV

Untitled edit

Witkacy:

According to naming conventions for the English Wikipedia, one ought to use English and common names. The former convention offers this guideline: "Title your pages using the English name, if one exists, and give the native spelling on the first line of the article." The latter convention offers this one: "When choosing a name for a page ask yourself: What word would the average user of the Wikipedia put into the search engine?" Polish speakers can expect to consult the Polish WP using their own language, but English speakers reasonably have the same expectation for the English WP.

I have also removed the claim that he was "Polish," as well as the Category tag for Polish sociologists. Some of this may be open to debate, depending on Wiki guidelines (if there are any) for assigning nationalities, but I think his Polish ancestry is insignificant to at least any introductory statement about the man. He left Poland following WWII; he Anglicized his name; and his academic career was highlighted by his headship of the University of Reading Sociology department from the time of its founding in 1963 until his retirement in 1982. He appears to have distinguished himself as an academic in England, not Poland. (Source.) Vorpal Suds 04:13, 24 July 2005 (UTC)Reply

"Stanislav Andreski, a Polish sociologist living in Britain, provides a somewhat" [1]
"Andrzejewski, Stanislaw. Military organization and society. With a foreword by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. London, Routledge & Paul [1954], 195pp. illus. 23 cm, very good green cloth, previous owner's name: Coser [sociologist Lewis Coser], $35

International library of sociology and social reconstruction. Author later known as Stanislaw Andreski."

but I think his Polish ancestry is insignificant to at least any introductory statement about the man.
So people like Władysław Anders or Stanisław Maczek and Presidents of the Polish government in exile are also (only) of Polish ancestry ? :)--Witkacy 08:19, 24 July 2005 (UTC)Reply
He left Poland following WWII; he Anglicized his name;
He left Poland with the Polish II Corps and like the most soldiers of the Polish II Corps dont came back .--Witkacy 08:19, 24 July 2005 (UTC)Reply

NPOV edit

This description of "The African Predicament" clearly violates Wikipedia's NPOV policy: "This book is a model of tough-minded social criticism (not so rare) provided with the necessary context (much rarer). E.g. Andreski notes the conditions of an escalating feedback spiral of distrust which led to Idi Amin's explusion of the East Asian ethnic community from Uganda a few years later."

If there's a source which justifies this claim, then please note it. Otherwise, please replace it with something that can be verified. 64.149.189.202 03:11, 7 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I posted the NPOV note and no one stepped forward to fix it, so I've done my best (and also removed the NPOV note). 130.164.67.39 16:55, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

I revised my original annotation to "The Africian Predicament"; perhaps it was overly tendentious. The source which justifies the claims in the annotation, is, however, THE BOOK ITSELF, which I have read, along with most of Andreski's other books. The "fix" by user 130.164.67.39 results in a false statement -- Andreski does not discuss Idi Amin's explusion of the East Asian community, since this occurred a few years (1971 or 1972, if memory serves) after the publication of this book. What I intended in my original annotation was to note that Andreski in some sense predicted this event (not exactly, but if you'd read Andreski previously you'd know the explusion didn't just come out of Idi Amin's personal idiosyncracies) and that this "prediction" (always more impressive than retrodiction) was an example of Andreski's sociological insight. I'd note another example here: various behaviours which are deemed "corruption" in African governments are simply not corruption (which, as Andreski notes, implies a fall from previously accepted standards) in a clan system -- that is, if you are a government official and you don't give preferential treatment to fellow members of your clan, you will be shunned by your clan. I repeat my recommendation that this book is a model of tough-minded social criticism provided with the necessary sociological context for some structural understanding; context that is usually absent from even the best journalism.

137.82.82.145 22:26, 21 October 2006 (UTC)Reply