Academic Reflection Research Articles

Do genomic passports leave us more vulnerable or less vulnerable? Perspectives from an online citizen engagement

Since genomics is becoming commonplace in healthcare for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, the prospect of generating a genomic passport for all citizens is gaining traction. While this would have many advantages, it raises ethical issues requiring societal debate alongside academic reflection. Hence, Sciensano—the Belgian scientific Institute of Public Health—organised an online citizen engagement on genomic information usage, including a question on a genomic passport for all. The inductive thematic analysis of participants’ contributions highlighted vulnerability as a fundamental concern, while this has not received sufficient attention so far in genomics. Participants expressed their vulnerability in two ways. First, the genomic passport would inform them about their ontological vulnerability. By revealing their constitutional weaknesses (predisposition to diseases), it reminds them that everyone is unavoidably and perennially at risk of being harmed. Second, the misuse of the genomic passport can add situational vulnerabilities (e.g., discrimination causing psychological and economic harm). Moreover, the fundamental uncertainty in genomics—how will such sensitive information be used, and how will the science evolve?—exacerbates these vulnerabilities. This article ends with recommendations to alleviate these vulnerabilities in genomics now and in the future in which the genomic passport may become a reality.

Rurbanalia. O dwóch typach tekstowych biodróży miejskich

Rurbanalia. On two types of textual urban biotravels The purpose of this paper, which offers some academic reflection situated within the realms of urban studies and ecocriticism, is to identify and define a new literary genre – the textual urban biotravel. The author of this paper considers literary representations of the genre to be based on the following texts: Atlas dziur i szczelin (Atlas of Potholes and Cracks) by Michał Książek, Warszawa dzika (Wild Warsaw) by Arkadiusz Szaraniec, Wszystkie okna dla oknówek (Every Window for Martins) by Paweł Pstrokoński, Pozwól rzece płynąć (Let the River Flow) by Michał Cichy, Rzeki, których nie ma (Rivers That Don’t Exist) by Maciej Robert, and, to some extent, Miasto do zjedzenia (Edible City) by Przemysław Owczarek and Dwanaście srok za ogon (The Birds they Sang) by Stanisław Łubieński. Textual urban biodramas, a genre of textual passages connected with maintaining an urban-nature balance rather than modernisation, are an example of rurbanalia – body of literature engaged with the idea of feral cities. In these biotravels, the flâneur is replaced by the biodrifter – a mudwalker and brushcrawler. The author distinguishes two types of textual urban biotravels: the immersive and the hauntological.

Selected Dysfunctions of Statehood during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Critical Conclusions for Today

The Polish State, with due regard to the time constraints on its continuity, is perceived from the perspective of more than a thousand years. Simultaneously, as an organised entity with its own values, it has been a mental problem for Poles since the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries and is continued until now. Thus, the reflections here have been restricted to the mentioned period because it is then that the main drawbacks of the Polish State began to occur. They include a description of these major flaws as we understand them and their effects. We often express the belief that our state disappeared from the map of Europe mainly due to the actions of our aggressive and finally partitioning neighbours. However, in doing so, we distance ourselves from the mistakes in managing the state made by the generations of our ancestors. This article analyses and exemplifies a deeper, critical academic reflection on these errors committed internally during the mentioned period and visible until today.

국내 쇼트트랙 스피드스케이팅의 연구동향

The purpose of this study was to examine the research trends of ‘short track speed skating in Korea’, to present academic reflection and development direction through research analysis, and to provide basic data. A total of 167 domestic theses and journal articles were collected through six keywords. In addition, the following research questions were raised. There will be differences in the classification of papers, research subjects, research areas, and research methods of domestic short track speed skating by research year. In order to derive the results of these research problems, SPSS 29.0 was used to analyze the results. Based on the results of the analysis, reliability of the research was secured by measuring the reliability among the evaluators. The results of the analysis are as follows: First, the number of theses and journals has steadily increased, but the number of theses has recently decreased. Second, there were many studies on participants, and the study on instructors, parents, and equipment was insufficient. Third, the research division was concentrated on sports psychology, exercise physiology, and exercise mechanics, and recently it has been decreasing in all research divisions except sports industry and management. Fourth, quantitative research accounted for the largest proportion of research methods, followed by qualitative research and mixed research.

Descartes’ Intelligent Agent

Neither the natural science explanation about the agent nor the modern and postmodern philosophical interpretation of the agent (subject) have sounded the death knell of the metaphysical subject in the era of information revolution. The artificial intelligence technology represented by Microsoft Avatar Framework has spread to the creative fields such as music and literature, which are unique to human beings, showing a broad application prospect and arousing academic reflection on human subject. Despite the numerous advantages posed intelligent agents, it is neither desirable nor possible to pull out the subject’s power supply and give up AI or give up human social intelligence. Rethinking Descartes' theory of mind and body will lead to in-depth development of AI.

Eastern and Central European ethnicism in light of Western studies on nation and nationalism

The aim of this article is to critically analyze the binary concept of civic nations represented by the civic communities of Western Europe and ethnic groups living in Central and Eastern Europe. The works of Ernest Gellner and John Breuilly were selected for research because they have used the indicated concept in their texts, and have become an inspiration for many researchers of national issues. The former represents a deterministic trend of sociological inquiries, the latter – social constructivism. Due to the above, they are representative examples of academic reflection on national issues widespread in Western European thought. The research proposes to reject the binary model in which civil nations were characterized as rational and striving for consensus communities and ethnic groups as irrational communities striving for conflict. The analytical model characterizing nations as political and ethnic communities was proposed instead of it.

Reconceptualising housing emptiness beyond vacancy and abandonment

The academic reflection on different manifestations of building emptiness is broad, intersecting the last sixty years of various debates on urban issues. Despite this, the conceptualisation of building emptiness and its nuances is not yet completely satisfactory. Definitions are blurred and different phenomena are often mixed. It is against this backdrop that, after a short state-of-the-art review, this paper proposes a precise conceptualisation of the main states of emptiness of housing assets. Four critical conditions are identified: i) uncompletedness, that is the condition of a building which, during the construction phase, is left unfinished; ii) long-term vacancy, that is the state of a property which remains on the real estate market for a prolonged period of time, for any reason other than the conventional circumstances of the ordinary life of a building; iii) under- and unoccupancy, which are conditions of finished properties that are not available for sale or rent and are either used occasionally (under-occupancy) or not put to any residential use (unoccupancy); iv) abandonment, that is the state of an empty building which has not been inhabited and maintained for a long time, thus being detached from the housing market due to its physical decay. Subsequently, the implications of such conceptualisation are stressed, with reference to both descriptive and normative issues. For instance, this conceptualisation could help a finer understanding of the negative externalities of different states of housing emptiness, as well as it could favour more careful ethical judgements.

Gendered Division of Digital Labor in Parenting: A Qualitative Study in Urban China.

The gendered division of domestic labor is a key topic in gender and family studies. While there has been extensive discussion of time use and the division of physical, emotional, and mental labor in housework and childcare within couples, the division of digital labor in the family has not been systematically examined. Drawing on qualitative data obtained from 147 parents in 84 urban Chinese families, this study reveals prominent gender differences in digital labor in parenting by comparing urban Chinese mothers’ and fathers’ use of digital technology and media in searching for parenting information, maintaining online communication with teachers, and shopping online and using online education services for their children. The findings demonstrate an unequal division of digital labor in urban Chinese families, in which mothers shoulder most of the digital labor in parenting. This study enriches the feminist literature by demonstrating the mutual construction of gender and digital technology in the domestic sphere and highlighting a new form of domestic labor divided between husbands and wives in the digital age. This study challenges liberating and progressive myths surrounding digital technology and calls for academic reflection and public attention on its constraining and exploitative implications for women.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11199-021-01267-w.

The Need to Personalise Business Ethics Education

Can business ethics textbooks and modules prepare business students to manage ethical challenges if they bypass students’ personal ethics? This paper is an academic reflection by a Higher Education, business ethics tutor in the UK and Ireland. It charts a pedagogic journey of moving away from lecturing based on the contents of the standard, “impersonal”, business ethics textbook, to moving towards facilitating interaction among students about their ethics in all parts of life, and especially “at work” in their part-time employment. The rationale for this pedagogic shift is supported by excerpts from Journal of Business Ethics Education (JBEE) articles and by current, UK, Higher Education (HE), quality frameworks. Qualitative student feedback on their experience of this more personal design of a business ethics module is included. Ten exercise suggestions and resources are offered. Business ethics textbook authors and tutors are recommended to begin their content with exercises in personal ethics.

A Historical Approach to establishing Liberal Arts and Sciences(LAS) as transdisciplinary and practical science －A Study on the Possiblity and Condition for Academic Identity Establishment of Liberal Arts

The present study examines the possibility of liberal arts as science through academic reflection on liberal arts education. Academic reflection is a work that closely investigates conditions and targets that can be established as a discipline, the methods of academic research, and the attitude of the investigator who conducts research. The reason for using the word “liberal arts and sciences” instead of “liberal arts education” is to determine whether the inherent limitation of the word “education” in academic classification can be overcome. The reality of liberal arts education is that it is positioned at the bottom of the social science field despite its nature of encompassing the achievements of fundamental studies. This must be the main reason for the classification of the term “education” as a sub-field of pedagogy among the social sciences. In this regard, the name “liberal arts and sciences(LAS),” which includes education and research, can be considered as an experimental attempt to reestablish the status of liberal arts education.</br>The present study examines the possibility of the academic establishment of liberal arts, and it investigates the definition and function of LAS. Considering that liberal arts were developed in a relationship of integration, opposition, and conflict with philosophy and humanities in the process of developing the Western academic disciplines, this study will focus on explaining the relationship with philosophy and humanities in determining the identity and function of LAS. First, the present study will examine the possibility of establishing LAS as a meta-science in analogy with philosophy while tracing the identity crisis of philosophy that emerged in the process of academic differentiation. Moreover, the background and reasons for LAS to assume the function of the “cultivation of the whole man” of the classical humanities will be derived. Lastly, this study will examine attitudes among people who teach and conduct research in the field of humanities while judging the appearance of LAS as an ideal type. Through this, it will be emphasized that LAS should provide an understanding and interpretation of human beings and the world by using the academic achievements of the empirical sciences as academic targets again, and play the role of the practical sciences through the connection between the academic world and life-world.

The Teachers Experience of Practice-based Education in Hybrid Delivery Mode

Rapid eLearning implementation at a New Zealand-based natural therapies’ college provides space for academic reflection. The aim is to utilise a formative assessment to explore hybrid-delivery through practitioner-educator and somatics lenses. Somathodology, an experiential methodology binds a triquetra of themes and theories, generating memory and reflections of experiencing pedagogy, and where eLearning situates experienced practitioner-come-educators at the border of their field of enquiry. I engage with the methodology to write first-person research. Social theories focus the account on embodied work. Journal writing and imaginary letters are criticality devices; what Laurel Richardson describes as the 5th kind of narrative. Evidence-based healthcare is compared with naturopathy care. Novel insights are discussed about how somatic attributes of awareness, breathing, and listening signal an emerging trend for disciplinary connection, and autonomous identity. Naturopathy clinical education in an eLearning setting become embodying sites of co-construction and livestream formative process, a critical pedagogical event.

Domains in the Encyclopedic Semantics of some English and Arabic Equivalent Culture-Specific Words

The present study aims at finding interpretations for some inquiries in the field of encyclopedic semantics. It is an academic reflection of language exchange between English and Arabic which is one of the most prevalent interests of the recent cognitive linguistic researches. Particularly, it analyzes the way culture-specific words of two different languages can comparatively be understood. The single-method is adopted for the methodological approach of the study. The data collection is conducted according to a content analysis by extracting some CSWs that are referred to in some comparative culture-specific studies of English and Arabic. It is found that (1) there can be more than one domain matrix for equivalent CSWs; (2) the exact comparison between CSWs lies in the profile-base organization (3) the two or multi-dimensional domains are configurational; (4) the culture-specific standards locate the diversity between the domain matrixes of equivalent CSWs. Some key conclusions to draw is that (1) the domain matrix of a CSW depends on to the culture-specific norms; (2) the distinctive point of the tripartite (profile, base and concept) is the profile rather than the base; (3) image-schematic domains indicate the object material domains; (4) culture-specific norms are affected by religious and historical factors which control the inventory knowledge for the CSWs.

DRIVERS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN APPROACHES TO MODERN TEACHING OF STUDENTS

The problem statement is connected with the paradoxical nature of modern academic reflection regarding the prospects not only for the development, but also for the survival of universities. Adherents of the alarmist approach justify the strengthening of the trend of academic capitalism, which represents a landslide increasing commercialization of all types of university activities, with a reduction in socio-humanitarian areas and the transition to an entrepreneurial post-academic university culture. Accordingly, the classical format of the university is declared to be dying, and the values of traditional academic culture are blurred and even ruined. Clarification and correction of concepts were required due to the fact, that digitalization is often considered as a process, and digital transformation is considered as the completion of the path of strategic and operational transformations that ensure competitiveness in the modern world. The authors insist that digital transformation is also procedural, so it would be more correct to designate the essence of these changes in modern higher education as an institutional purposeful transition to the latest technologies that provide opportunities for a variety of formats and personalization of the educational process. Clarification and expansion of the main drivers of digital transformation in modern higher education, in turn, indicate that the process of digital transformation, presenting intermediate results of achieving goals, will also remain open. The article presents an analysis of digital transformation in the practices of interaction between teachers and students, with an emphasis on the fact that the main goal of the teacher is his creative support, and the main goal of the student is the transition from the necessary development of modern specifics of the profession to the formation of a broader personal resource potential in the conditions of rapidly increasing changes. It is also important that digital transformation requires not only the consolidation of educational needs and skills during the life of university graduates, but also, first of all, their teachers. The authors note the discursiveness of the problem of the advantages and negatives of the digital educational environment, arguing that the understanding of modern students is focused on the need to implement early and systemic transformational changes in teaching and learning in the new digital landscape. The article concludes with updated conclusions and clarifies operational actions that contribute to achieving the goals of the transition to digital universities.

Relying on the engagement of others: A review of the governance choices facing social media platform start-ups.

We are grateful to Professors Rebecca Reuber and Eileen Fischer for contributing our 2022 annual review article. This insightful review explores an issue of great contemporary importance regarding the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and social media platforms. Whilst there is much popular and media commentary regarding the opportunities such platforms offer for entrepreneurship, we lack informed, academic reflection upon the role and influence of such platforms for both good and ill. Hence, this review article is timely in identifying current practices and raising important issues for future research. Our thanks to the authors for their valuable contribution to the ISBJ.Entrepreneurs create digital platforms which, in turn, facilitate entrepreneurial behaviours of others, the platform users. An important start-up activity is developing the mechanisms to govern user participation. While prior literature has provided insights on the governance of innovation platforms and exchange platforms, it has shed little light on the governance of social media platforms. In this review, we synthesize the emerging literature on diverse social media platforms, focussing on four types of governance mechanisms: those that regulate user behaviour, those related to user identification and stature, those that structure relationships among users and those that direct user attention. We highlight the implications of this body of literature for entrepreneurship scholars.

Confucius and the “Rectification of Names”: Hu Shi and the Modern Discourse on Zhengming

The common approach to discussing Confucius’ advocacy of “correction of names” (zhengming 正名) is to join the current academic debate about its meaning, usually in philosophical terms. Rather than joining in, however, this article describes the debate itself as a historically situated discourse largely dating from the early Republican era. I argue that Hu Shi 胡適 played a crucial but largely forgotten role in the creation of this discourse. While the core of the current discourse on zhengming consists of views that can be traced to him, this discourse is nowadays often regarded as fact rather than a specific interpretation. By forgetting the historicity of this interpretation, academic reflection risks ossification and the loss of its critical spirit. The mere repetition of Hu Shi’s discourse is also contrary to his own spirit, which sought to call into question established views.

Traduire l'ironie

Irony is a salient feature of common discourse and of some of contemporary art ’s more sophisticated representations. An intriguing characteristic of art and speech, irony ’s power and relevance reaches well beyond the enclaves of academic research and reflection. Translating irony involves a series of interpretative gestures which are not solely provoked by or confined to the act of translation as such. Even when one does not move between languages, reading irony always involves an act of interpretation which ‘translates’ a meaning out of a text that is not ‘given’. This article offers a critical survey of the literature on the translation of irony while aiming to monitor and explain the techniques and challenges involved in its translation.

On Neurorights.

In recent years, philosophical-legal studies on neuroscience (mainly in the fields of neuroethics and neurolaw) have given increasing prominence to a normative analysis of the ethical-legal challenges in the mind and brain sciences in terms of rights, freedoms, entitlements and associated obligations. This way of analyzing the ethical and legal implications of neuroscience has come to be known as “neurorights.” Neurorights can be defined as the ethical, legal, social, or natural principles of freedom or entitlement related to a person’s cerebral and mental domain; that is, the fundamental normative rules for the protection and preservation of the human brain and mind. Although reflections on neurorights have received ample coverage in the mainstream media and have rapidly become a mainstream topic in the public neuroethics discourse, the frequency of such reflections in the academic literature is still relatively scarce. While the prominence of the neurorights debate in public opinion is crucial to ensure public engagement and democratic participation in deliberative processes on this issue, its relatively sporadic presence in the academic literature poses a risk of semantic-normative ambiguity and conceptual confusion. This risk is exacerbated by the presence of multiple and not always reconcilable terminologies. Several meta-ethical, normative ethical, and legal-philosophical questions need to be solved in order to ensure that neurorights can be used as effective instruments of global neurotechnology governance and be adequately imported into international human rights law. To overcome the shortcomings above, this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive normative-ethical, historical and conceptual analysis of neurorights. In particular, it attempts to (i) reconstruct a history of neurorights and locate these rights in the broader history of idea, (ii) outline a systematic conceptual taxonomy of neurorights, (iii) summarize ongoing policy initiatives related to neurorights, (iv) proactively address some unresolved ethico-legal challenges, and (v) identify priority areas for further academic reflection and policy work in this domain.

Aperta per chi. L’Open science alla ricerca dei lettori

Public debate and divulgation are essential components of publisher’s work: making academic reflection contribute to the cultural discussion and to the formation of citizens means going well beyond mere access to arrive at full accessibility of content. But in order to achieve a science truly open to all, it is necessary to start from the great absent in the current discussion, that is the reader.

Reallabore in Theorie und Praxis: Reflexion des Forschungsdesigns im Hinblick auf die nachhaltige Transformation urbaner Räume

As part of sustainable transformation of municipalities, real-world laboratories have been increasingly used as instruments in research projects since 2015. However, the academic reflection of their implementation has so far been scarce. This paper views real laboratories as a cooperative instrument for the sustainable transformation of urban spaces. It investigates the research question, to what extend real-world laboratories work as a theoretical concept in practice. The paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the projects “Bottrop 2018+”, “KuDeQua” and “ProUrban”, where real-world laboratories present the central methodology. Despite their common theoretical background, the projects show significant differences in the subject matter, spatial scope, practitioners’ involvement, processes and procedures. Through the comparison, opportunities, challenges and possible problems in implementing real-world laboratories are worked out.

Educational practices promoting civic engagement: a systematic integrative review

The article presents the results of a systematic review conducted according to the integrative review method, which investigates both the empirical and theoretical-descriptive literature to combine academic reflection with professional practices implemented in educational contexts. The review question aims at identifying effective educational practices to promote civic engagement in the 6-13 age group, regarding school contexts. We conducted the search of the records through disciplinary and generalist databases and with the use of digital libraries. The analysis of the included materials made it possible to identify some recursive elements that characterize the educational activities aimed at promoting civic engagement in this age group. In this contribution, these elements will be analysed, highlighting how they can contribute to the design of an educational research path having as its focus the promotion of civic engagement and the sense of community.