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The importance of networks has been established in the development of commerce and capitalism, with key concepts reflecting both the dynamic and permeable characteristics of networks. Such attributes are exemplified by religious networks, which have been typically dismissed in terms of economic contribution as being both risk-averse and bounded by ethical barriers imposed by theology. This paper aims to examine the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the long 18th century to evidence the multi-plexity and density of connections and suggest that adherence to the Quaker discipline acted as a trust-based attribute and substituted for repeated iteration.

The archival investigation centres upon an analysis of “The Catalogue of Quaker Writing” and a close re-reading of the seminal text “Quakers in Science and Industry”, an authoritative account of Quaker firms and families in industry and commerce. By identifying multiple possible social network connections in Raistrick’s work, this paper reviewed and analysed The Catalogue of Quaker Writing to examine the presence or absence of these connections in the Quaker network in the long 18th century.

This paper shows how the Quaker network was an unusually dense network that benefited co-religionists by enabling commerce through its unique topography. In a period characterized by the absence of formal institutional mechanisms to regulate behaviour, Quaker discipline acted as a quasi-regulatory mechanism to regulate membership of the network and to govern member moral behaviour.

The Quakers offer an opportunity to examine an early modern network to gain important insights into key aspects of network topography. By using social network analysis, this paper shows how Quakers performed a multiplicity of roles, which encouraged multiple modes of contact between members of the society in a dense network of contexts, which, in turn, provided high levels of connectedness between individuals. This unique range of roles, shared among a relatively small group of individuals, ensured that the degrees of separation between roles were very few; similarly, the plethora of connections resulted in a density, which not only allowed for multiple ways to engage with other individuals but also ensured no individual would become a bottle-neck or indeed a gateway that would prevent access. This unique topography was also highly unusual in that it was permeable to any aspirant member upon acceptance of the discipline – neither poverty nor lack of social status was barriers to membership. This unusual network offered atypical commercial advantages for its members.

At the annual meeting of Cow & Gate Ltd., in April, the Chairman of the Company said: “I think everyone looks forward to the day when the Ministry of Food ceases to exist. This is not meant in any way to reflect upon the ability with which this Ministry was administered during the war and immediate post‐war years, but a Ministry of Food should not really be necessary in peace‐time. Before the war the milk industry was largely governed by the Milk Marketing Board, and we have great admiration for the Board’s activities; but it was representative only of the producers’ side of this great industry. The distributive and manufacturing trade in the British Isles has grown out of all knowledge since 1939, and this country has relied more and more upon home manufacture as well as home production, both during and since the war. If some of the powers at present delegated to the Ministry of Food are to be placed in other hands, they should in all fairness be shared by the producers, distributors and manufacturers, who have at least an equal stake financially and who should be equally capable of discharging these duties in a conscientious and publicspirited manner. In my opinion, moreover, the day is long outlived when it can possibly be expedient or in the public interest to allow a statutory body representing purely producers’ interests to be the sole arbiter in regard to such a vital matter as the nation’s milk supply.”

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that history has much to teach leaders in understanding resistance to affirmative action and how a greater commitment to diversity can be fostered.

This narrative review provides a timeline of a case for resolution‐by‐agreement in the wake of the landmark Knight v. Alabama case.

There have been dramatic increases in the enrollment of students of color and the presence of African‐American faculty in the three major public universities that comprise the University of Alabama System, as well as others in the state.

The present review does not contend that historic and fundamental inequities no longer exist in business and society. Moreover, the authors recognize that present inequities in the realms of diversity have important and historical roots. Likewise, there is no attempt to suggest that affirmative action is no longer a necessary or desired program in some areas. Neither do the authors deny the potential for inordinate management influence in the implementation and practice of some programs that focus on “diversity” instead of “affirmative action.”

The numbers are not optimal. But future studies, along with this paper, should make a significant contribution to the affirmative action literature in the hope that organizations of all types may exceed their goals in the area of “diversity” as part of a larger quest for genuine advancements in the realm of diversity and fairness throughout society.

The paper provides an additional lens through which to examine diversity initiatives. Organizations can learn from the resolution‐by‐agreement process used to settle this desegregation dispute.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.

This seventh annual survey of American history reference sources is the largest yet; 23 books have been selected for review, while past surveys averaged about 15 titles. The reviews include 14 titles published in 1983, eight published early in 1984, and one 1982 title. The 1982 imprint, Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments Respecting North America, was overlooked before. Since it is still in progress it is included in this survey.

Bosco, Liu, and West's chapter on underground lotteries in rural China is one that begs permission to cross the boundaries between parts of this volume, for it deals with the integration of the Chinese economy with others, and it also poses certain moral questions about the nature of markets and rationality in economic exchanges (see also Suarez, this volume). But the authors, after reviewing the evidence, ultimately conclude that China's underground lotteries must be viewed in relation to that country's phenomenal economic development in recent decades. They show that the rise of illegal underground lotteries in China is tightly connected to the development of the modern capitalist economy there, and that although it seems at first glance to be powered by irrationality and superstition, it actually functions according to capitalist principles – at least as viewed by the participants. They also argue that rural villagers who place bets in them are not mere victims of nonsensical beliefs or of opportunistic “outsiders,” but rather that they are participating in their own way in a system in which luck clearly plays a very large role, but one over which they have little control, and one that is grounded in the historical commercialized economy of China (see also Richardson, 1999). It is interesting to note the way that participants rationalize the lottery and their actions through their assumption that it is rigged – their approach to it is markedly different from that of someone from, for example, Japan or the United States, where such a lottery is assumed from the start to not be rigged. Bosco and co-authors well demonstrate here the importance of viewing a cultural phenomenon as part of a greater whole, and one in a constant state of flux.

The MetaScholar Initiative is a collaborative endeavor to explore the feasibility and utility of scholarly portal services developed in conjunction with Open Archives Initiative (OAI) metadata harvesting technologies. The MetaScholar Initiative comprises two projects, the MetaArchive and AmericanSouth projects, both funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation totaling $600,000. These two projects have created two metadata aggregation networks connecting some 24 libraries, archives, museums, and electronic text centers. Each network has an associated portal being created under the guidance of teams composed of scholars, librarians, archivists, and technologists. The MetaScholar Initiative is studying issues such as metadata normalization, alternative forms of scholarly communication through portals, and the process of facilitating smaller archival institutions in providing better access to their collections through the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI‐PMH). The MetaScholar Initiative is based at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.