A few months after Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris in July 1805, Joseph Smith was born in the Vermont hills. Twenty-five years later Tocqueville toured America while Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and received direct revelations that steadily attracted thousands of followers. Harper examines the location of authority in the culture Tocqueville observed compared with the authority assumed by Smith's revelations, emphasizing the controversial political potential of revelation in a culture that locates authority in the people. Harper argues that democratization fostered hostility against Smith's uniquely "dialogic" revelations. Americans who were concerned with the impotence of democratized authority regarding ultimate questions accepted Smith's revelations. Rejecting socioeconomic explanations, Harper draws instead on close, contextual reading of Smith's revelations and a profound recent study of the Book of Mormon by Terryl Givens. Harper asserts that American democracy necessarily distanced itself from direct revelation and that Joseph Smith emerged in that context and offered an alternative authority grounded in an accessible but undemocratic God. At the height of his political power, Joseph Smith was lynched in 1844. The potential of his prophetic authority could not be countenanced by the democratizing culture Tocqueville observed in America.
Time and motion study (also referred to as motion and time study, the terms are used interchangeably) is the scientific study of the conservation of human resources in the search for the most efficient method of doing a task. A fascination with the word “efficiency” began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was considered one of the most important concepts. Time study began in the 1880s as a means of wage-rate setting by Frederick W. Taylor, who is regarded as the “father of scientific management.” It consists of a wide variety of procedures for determining the amount of time required, under certain standard conditions of measurement, for tasks involving some human activity. Motion study was developed by Frank B. Gilbreth and Lillian M. Gilbreth and consists of a wide variety of procedures for the description, systematic analysis, and means of improving work methods. It is difficult to separate these two aspects completely. Therefore, the combined term usually refers to all three phases of the activity: method determination, time appraisal, and development of material for the application of these data. Frank and Lillian also broadened scientific management by including the human element, therefore using psychology to gain the cooperation of employees. Motion and time analysis could be used to help find a preferential way of doing the work and could assist in effectively managing or controlling the activity. This approach has been successfully applied to factories, hospitals, department stores, housework, banks, cafeteria work, libraries, music, and to many other human activities. For instance, factories have used it to reduce wasted time and improve the time to compete a task, while banks use it to help team members reach their sales goals. However, the goal of a time and motion study is not simply efficiency. These studies are done to create a baseline that can be used in the future when evaluating procedural, equipment, or personnel changes. The goal can be to understand the skills required to enable individuals to perform the work and, thus, to provide the correct training. Another may be to reduce the discomfort experienced, especially in the case of surgical procedures—a goal such as this, namely, to create less tissue damage, may run counter to efficiency. In the case of athletes, the goal may be faster speed or more endurance, which may be achieved not necessarily by the most efficient way.
and the Materialization of the Golden Plates. " That fascinating panel interaction spurred a productive subsequent personal correspondence related to their shared interest in religious experience and Joseph Smith's first vision. They eventually opted for a formal dialogue script to recount what they had learned in their scholarly exchange. We reproduce the complete dialogue here, with minor editing to suit a print format and accompanying appendixes related to primary source material, both as a case of best practices in lively, respectful, and muscular scholarly engagement and also as an example of the fruitful tension produced by marked differences in methodological approaches and assumptions in the academic study of Mormonism.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.