Affirmative Position Research Articles

Pope Francis the Roman Catholic Church and citizen attitudes towards climate change in Latin America

Studies on the relationship between religious attitudes and attitudes towards climate change and other environmental issues have tended to focus on the United States. While there is good reason to expect such a relationship to exist, our understanding of it is limited first and foremost by the limited number of country-comparative studies. This study aims to reduce this gap by investigating how trust in the Church and evaluations of Pope Francis affect the views of Latin Americans on anthropogenic climate change. Our study is based on data from the 2017 Latinobarómetro with 13,472 respondents based in 18 Latin American countries. Our findings reveal that Roman Catholics are less likely to believe in manmade climate change as compared to evangelical Christians and respondents belonging to no or any other denomination. We obtain the same negative relationship between trust in the (Catholic) Church and belief in anthropogenic climate change. However, favourable assessments of Pope Francis have a positive effect, and this assessment also has a positive moderating effect on the impact of trust in the Church on the outcome variable. These findings have important implications for climate policies, as they suggest that the public demand for climate action might increase if the Roman Catholic Church in their regional dioceses, rather than mostly the Pope, were to take and communicate a more coherent, affirmative position on climate change.

Feelings of (in)Authenticity in Social Work – A Potential Guide for Ethical Practice?

ABSTRACT At the heart of this article lies the unique question of whether feelings of (in)authenticity can act as a resource for ethical social work practice. In adopting an affirmative position, I posit that emotional labour is traceable to feeling inauthentic and that for social workers possessing a virtuous sensibility such feelings represent sites of ethical struggle. For workers who are reflectively alert to their sense of self I argue that these feelings become ethical markers for practice, offering guidance for that which is ethically just. Within this debate, the idea of virtue as being morally good is framed around an interpretation that sees it as supportive of social justice. The article thus concludes that the deliberation of feelings – of being (in)authentic – can act as a disruptive prompt for practice that could prove unjust or oppressive. Within this original discussion, conceptions of authenticity, emotional work and virtue are critically explored in relation to the self.

ARBITRABILNOST ISKLJUČENJA ČLANA DRUŠTVA S OGRANIČENOM ODGOVORNOŠĆU

The core of the work is a positive-legal analysis of the arbitrability of the exclusion of an LLC member. To justify the positive attitude towards the arbitrability of these proceedings, German jurisprudence and court practice were analysed, since they have been proven to be the most fruitful creators and shapers of the subject of arbitrability in company law and, as the most significant authority on this issue, have created over the years, a series of relevant works and decisions, primarily the trilogy (or tetralogy) of Schiedsfähigkeit/Arbitrability decisions. It has been argued that the possibility of excluding the jurisdiction of courts in proceedings for the exclusion of an LLC member and, instead, of forming an arbitration court is the result of private autonomy in limited liability companies, whose limitations are determined in advance. The paper holds an affirmative position regarding the arbitrability of the exclusion of an LLC member based on the LLC’s articles of organization and the exclusion due to an important reason, because of the objective and subjective arbitrability of the exclusion procedures.

Should the Dutch Law on Euthanasia Be Expanded to Include Children?

The 2002 Dutch Euthanasia law applies to patients aged 12 years and older. Developments in end-of-life care and decision-making in the last decade have sparked the debate about usefulness and necessity to extend euthanasia to include children under 12 years of age. This paper describes two opposite positions: the affirmative position of a pediatrician and expert in pediatric palliative care and the negative position of a jurist and specialist in health law.

Professional responsibilities relating to addressing discrimination and difference in health psychology therapeutic practice

Applied HPs work in the context of cultural and societal change. Recently this included the #BlackLivesMatter Campaign, the #metoo movement, LGBTQIA inclusion and a national pandemic; all of which have highlighted inequalities in UK society.HPs often work therapeutically with clients who experience discrimination linked to the direct and indirect consequences of health conditions, lifestyle behaviours and disabilities as well as relating to other visible and invisible differences.HCPC guidelines on discrimination require registrants to not discriminate towards others and to challenge colleagues who discriminate against others. However, responsibilities are not contextualised and do not address the personal impact of discrimination faced by the psychologist themselves (personally and professionally), which may impact the perceived safety of raising professional concerns.The British Psychological Society guidance for practitioner psychologists on discrimination does not address how to discuss difference and discrimination within therapeutic practice. Internationally there are examples of guidance that could be adapted for the UK.HPs need to take a strong affirmative position on tackling discrimination in its broadest definition across marginalised groups. Professional guidance/best practice that recognises the personal experiences of discrimination and clarifies roles and responsibilities would support us to do this.

Between Religion and State

Abstract On the basis of Martin Luther’s theologia crucis in the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), the Lutheran concept of law in the 20th Century is examined. Luther’s distinction of religious and civil dimension of law with its religious restriction to a convicting function regarding the sin is received in the Luther-Renaissance of the 1920 and 1930s. The sample of Emanuel Hirsch (1888–1972) gives insight into the deeply ambivalent character of the Lutheran concept of law before World War II which combined a profound theory of Christian subjectivity with a theory of state promoting German nationalism in opposition to western democracy. The moderate theology of Wolfgang Trillhaas (1903–1995) reflecting the experience of the Nazi-Regime de-potentializes the Lutheran prejudice against the law in order to achieve new democratic perspectives on the notion of law in dogmatics and ethics. Thus, an affirmative position is established despite a remaining ambivalence in contemporary Lutheran Protestantism.

Import competition, fast-track authority and U.S. policy toward China

Has the rise of China influenced U.S. legislation? China’s economic rise in the past 30 years has largely been driven by its exports of labor intensive products. Taking advantage of this supply shock in the United States and cross-district variation in the composition of industries, we investigate the potential role of Chinese imports in U.S. legislators’ decision on granting Fast-Track Authority to the president. Consistent with Conconi et al. (2012), our empirical analyses indicate that in districts with more industries that are exposed to Chinese import competition, legislators are less likely to give up the power to amend international trade agreements. Interestingly, Chinese imports may distort the view of constituents toward China which render legislators in districts subject to large Chinese import competition to take an affirmative position on foreign policy that may hurt China.

Turning Language Inside Out in Beckett’s Not I

Beckett'in tiyatro oyunları dilin ve öznelliğin sınırlarını, dil ve öznenin içten yıkımını gerçekleştirene değin zorlar. Bu sınırların zorlanıp esnetilmesi, aslında bir bakıma bu sınırlar içerisinde ve bu sınırlar sayesinde yaratılan epistemolojik kategorilerin ortadan kaldırılma girişimidir. Not I (1972), dilin ve öznelliğin olasılıklarının en son noktasına kadar zorlanıp esnetildiği ve sonuç olarak dil ve öznenin ters yüz edilip kendi sınırlarının dışına ulaştığı oyunlardan biridir. Dilin ve öznelliğin içi ve dışıyla yapılan bu radikal oynamalar, Lacan'ın özün oluşumu ve yıkımına dair teorilerinin somut birer yansıması gibidir. Ancak dilin ve öznelliğin sınırlarını irdelerken, Beckett Lacan'a göre oldukça olumlayıcı bir yaklaşım sergiler. Lacancı psikanalizde, parçalanmış dil ve özne psikotik çöküntünün belirtisi olarak kabul edilip bir acı ve sorun kaynağı olarak görülürken, Beckett'te yaratıcı ve iyileştirici bir karşı gelişi temsil eder. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma Not I oyununu Lacan'ın teorileri ışığında incelemeyi ve oyunun öznenin dil içerisindeki konumunu bir yandan nasıl somutlaştırdığını ve bir yandan da nasıl sorunsallaştırdığını, Lacan ve Beckett'in düşünceleri arasındaki benzerlik ve farklılıklara ışık tutarak irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

The opportunities of networks of research-practice partnerships and why CSCL should not give up on large-scale educational change

This squib continues the ongoing conversation put forward by Wise and Schwarz around the direction and future of CSCL. We focus here on the question of whether or not CSCL should seek to make educational change. Here, we take the affirmative position by conceptualizing the network of design-centric research practice partnerships. We illustrate how this could work through an ongoing instantiation called Taking Citizen Science to School, a multi-year research center with joint funding from research and practice-based governmental institutions.

REABILITAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL E RETORNO AO TRABALHO: UMA APOSTA DE INTERVENÇÃO

Resumo Muitas são as dificuldades dos trabalhadores acometidos por doenças ocupacionais para retornar ao trabalho. Esta pesquisa-intervenção teve como objetivo conhecer e se aproximar das experiências do retorno ao trabalho e as implicações na produção de subjetividade em trabalhadores da área hospitalar. Ela foi realizada com grupos de trabalhadores reabilitados de um hospital universitário geral de grande porte, em Porto Alegre, RS. Os encontros (n=8) foram compostos por trabalhadores (n=20) de diversas funções e áreas de trabalho no hospital, que tenham participado de programa de reabilitação profissional e estejam desenvolvendo suas atividades em sua área de origem, ou em novo posto de trabalho. Os resultados apontam para as dificuldades, limitações e para a problematização dos modelos de gestão no trabalho vigentes. Por outro lado, também apontam para a criação de novos modos de trabalhar e viver e para a construção coletiva de estratégias de inventividade.

Developing an affirmative position statement on sexual and gender diversity for psychology professionals in South Africa

Developing an affirmative position statement on sexual and gender diversity for psychology professionals in South Africa

The Emergence of “Religious Studies” (zongjiaoxue) in Late Imperial and Republican China, 1890–1949

This article contextualizes the rise of “early religious studies in China” with its apex in the 1920s within the heated debates on the role of religion in a modern Chinese society. While the most recent development of religious studies (zongjiaoxue) in China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) is well known, its early emergence in the late Qing and Republican periods (ca. 1890–1949) has been a neglected topic. The author demonstrates first how antagonistic anti-religious and affirmative positions, received from Western modernization discourse and informed by the contested character of the concept of religion itself, led to the emergence of this new discipline in Republican China as a product of broader discourses on modernization. Secondly, the article evaluates the limited institutionalization of religious studies as a distinct “full” discipline in relation to the broader interdisciplinary “field” of research and public debates on religion. While the interdisciplinary character is typical of the field in general (also in the West), the limited degree of “full disciplinarity” depended on specific, local discursive and political factors of its time. As “religion” appears as an important modern discourse in East Asia, the early emergence of religious studies in China thereby reflects social, political, and intellectual transitions from Imperial to Republican China, and offers a unique perspective on Asian discourses on religious and secular modernities.

Transformation or Defiance: The Impact of the European People’s Party on Serbian and Croatia Parties

This article examines comparatively the stances of Serbian and Croatian political parties on European integration in relation to their international affiliations. It specifically seeks to explore how and to what extent the European People’s Party (EPP) exerted influence on parties from these two countries. The article analyses the nature of these linkages in a systematic manner by employing the concept of direct and indirect transnational impact. The study argues that, in general, the EPP was not a crucial driving force behind party stances on the European Union (EU) and its direct impact was rather low. However, the EPP appears to have had a considerable indirect impact on parties that were at an early stage of ideological transformation towards becoming credible mainstream and pro-European parties, after a long legacy of Eurosceptic and nationalist politics. These parties strove to obtain European legitimacy by becoming members of the EPP and were, consequently, more willing to harmonise their positions with (potential) European partner. Moreover, ‘EU commitment’ of Serbian and Croatian applicants, closely scrutinised by the EPP, was primarily related to their affirmative positions on EU membership, rather than their stances on any particular model of European integration.

Islam and Democracy

RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINT: A democratic system of rule is on the whole acceptable to Islam.
 Muslim scholars have differed in their assessment of democracy and constitutionalism from the viewpoint of Islamic principles. The view has gained ground, however, that a democratic system of rule is on the whole acceptable to Islam. This acceptance is because democracy is about fundamental rights and liberties, the rule of law, a representative and participatory government, separation of powers and equality before the law. Rights and liberties are a manifestation of human dignity which must be protected against the coercive power of the state. A constitution is also an instrument of limitation, organisation and division of power among the various organs of state.
 Broadly, Islam approves of most of these concepts and takes affirmative positions on the protection and realisation of people’s welfare and maslahah, a consultative government committed to accountability (muhasabah) and justice. Islam advocates a limited government, which is committed to the advancement of the goals and purposes (maqasid) of Shariah. Islam and democracy both seek to realise people’s welfare and basic rights of life, personal security, privacy and ownership. The Shariah recognises these, as also the rights to education and employment, and the individual’s entitlement to the essentials of life.

Islam and Democracy

RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINT: A democratic system of rule is on the whole acceptable to Islam. Muslim scholars have differed in their assessment of democracy and constitutionalism from the viewpoint of Islamic principles. The view has gained ground, however, that a democratic system of rule is on the whole acceptable to Islam. This acceptance is because democracy is about fundamental rights and liberties, the rule of law, a representative and participatory government, separation of powers and equality before the law. Rights and liberties are a manifestation of human dignity which must be protected against the coercive power of the state. A constitution is also an instrument of limitation, organisation and division of power among the various organs of state. Broadly, Islam approves of most of these concepts and takes affirmative positions on the protection and realisation of people’s welfare and maslahah , a consultative government committed to accountability ( muhasabah ) and justice. Islam advocates a limited government, which is committed to the advancement of the goals and purposes ( maqasid ) of Shariah. Islam and democracy both seek to realise people’s welfare and basic rights of life, personal security, privacy and ownership. The Shariah recognises these, as also the rights to education and employment, and the individual’s entitlement to the essentials of life.

Impossibilities of Morals: Philosophy of Existence, Naturalism and Negative Ethics

This text is dedicated to defend the thesis of the impossibility of morals. For this, it discusses different positions concerning morality, like the naturalistic position of Adriano Naves de Brito and the existentialist position of Zelijko Loparic, concerning to identifying each other from the point of view of the defense of an affi rmative position on morals. The purpose of the text is to defend the negative position. From it, doesn’t make any sense defending the possibility of morals, because human beings are morally disqualifi ed. It says that, once moral is an issue that ought to be observed by people in all situations, there is no possibility for the human beings to observe moral obligations. What determines the impossibility of genuine moral behavior is the moral and sensitive worthlessness of the human condition, originally subjected to suffering and countless unfavorable factors to the realization of morals. Key words: negative ethics, naturalism, existentialism.

God or Nations: Radical Theology for the Religious Peace Movement (review)

Reviewed by: God or Nations: Radical Theology for the Religious Peace Movement Christopher Hrynkow William Durland. God or Nations: Radical Theology for the Religious Peace Movement. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, Catholic Worker Reprint Series, 2010. Pp. 332. Paper, $27.61. ISBN 978-1-608999-055-9. This volume is a reprint of William Durland’s God or Nations, originally released in late 1989, at a time marked by the style of American triumphalism that accompanied the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. At that moment in history, it may have been easy to assume that the threat of violence, which had manifested itself in latent and blatant crises for some four decades, had subsided. However, it was the backdrop of these crises, in particular the threat of a nuclear Armageddon, that precipitated Durland’s movement away from the life of an army officer and member of the Virginia legislature, at a time when he advocated militarist positions, toward the embrace of what he now understands as a more continuously pertinent alternative vision of radical Christian pacifism and social activism. Supporting his personal transformation on an intellectual level, God or Nations represents Durland’s efforts to form a positive articulation of radical theology for the Christian religious peace movement. As such, this monograph does not hide its normative nature, seeking to provide detailed theological arguments for the premise that God’s way is the path of nonviolence, requiring the Christian faithful to nourish and model substantive peace and justice. Durland’s specific reason for formulating these arguments is to respond to critics who accused him and his fellow peace activists of always saying no. His goal is to meet the challenge by developing a positive intellectual understanding of his alternative vision of religious life’s imperatives for nonviolence. As he shades this project, more simply, God or Nations represents Durland’s unfolding of the “yeses” of the Christian religious peace movement. In laying foundations for his affirmative positions, Durland takes inspiration from several points in the history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, including the Jewish patriarchs, pre-Constantinian Christianity, Francis of Assisi, the Quaker George Fox, along with the nonviolent activism of Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Caesar Chavez, and the Berrigan brothers. He centres his efforts on a revealing exploratory question: “What is the essence of this alternative Christian life in the religious peace movement today?” (xvii). Durland answers that question with a specific focus on the North American culture and capitalist economic systems, which seemed so triumphant in 1989. His resultant answers are most definitely radical by both secular and religious standards. In this regard, he dismisses both political reformist and revolutionary approaches to change as ineffective because of the propensity for new power holders to reproduce systems of oppression. For instance, he argues that the U.S. electorate is generally presented with what is essentially a false choice between Democrats and Republicans, who both fail to be a creative voice for the people and only “push the American Dream—wealth, weapons and waste—to a greater or lesser degree” (278). In the place of anthropocentric methodologies for change, Durland calls on Christians to live as if the Kingdom of God had come. According to his analysis, such a faithful response to contemporary crises means living in the world of the nations (today manifest in the form of the nation-state) but complying with the state structures and laws only insomuch as they are free from domination and violence. It follows for Durland that Christian duty to the state ends where and when human governments fail to provide adequate support for nonviolence, equality, and justice within their geographical jurisdictions. In his terms, that holy duty toward equality and peace trumps national duty to obey unjust laws. Durland adds that until the Kingdom of God comes, there will always be the need for critical Christian voices to ensure that governments are reminded of the imperative to foster substantive peace. Further, building on the Catholic Worker model and his life experience, he recommends intentional communities as the best location for Christian faithful living in face of U.S. economic, cultural, and political domination...

Ring-fencing a budget for cancer drugs: is it fair?

Ring-fencing is defined as protecting funds for use in a specific area. In the National Health Service in the UK, various methods to ring-fence cancer have been employed over the years; more recently the Cancer Drugs Fund in England has enabled cancer drugs that would not normally be considered cost-effective to be provided to patients. This has created variation in provision between England and the devolved countries. While some would argue that ring-fencing allows major advances to be made in the treatment of a particular condition, others would argue that it is intrinsically unfair. In this debate, Graham and Cassidy have written an article arguing the affirmative position and Hughes and Duerden were invited to respond directly to their arguments. As with all the RCPE's 'Current controversies', the authors have been asked to take a deliberately polarised position and so the views they express may be somewhat overstated.

Alzheimer disease: are we intervening too late?

The affirmative position is argued in response to the question of whether intervention in the disease course of Alzheimer disease (AD) occurs too late. AD is not a singular, homogeneous disease, but rather a final common pathway or end-point that can be arrived at through multiple routes. As part of the affirmative argument, there is a delineation of two long-term trajectories leading to AD: (1) normal elderly progression to AD, and (2) depressed elderly progression to AD. In documenting normal elderly devolution into AD, two "normal" elderly pre-AD or prodromal stages are discussed: age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Data are provided evidencing significantly high conversion rates from these pre-AD stages to actual AD. Using the same paradigmatic approach that is used in documenting normal elderly decline into AAMI and MCI with eventual conversion to AD; there is explication of depressed elderly conversion to AD. The long-term, multiphasic disease progression of major depression without dementia to depressive dementia to final conversion to AD is brought into focus as another example of why intervention must occur prior to actual conversion to AD. Depression is defined as a cognitive syndrome and risk factor for AD requiring aggressive targeted intervention. AD does not just come suddenly out of nowhere. First intervention must occur during the pre-AD phases in an attempt to prevent, delay, and interrupt long-term neurodegenerative processes involved in both normal elderly and depressed elderly conversion to AD. A primary strategy proposed is to delay onset of AD. Population statistics indicate that if AD is delayed by a modest 1year, there would be 9.5 million fewer cases by 2050, resulting in significant reduction in burden of disease. Data show early intervention with cognitive stimulation (mental exercise), physical exercise, aggressive treatment of AD risk factors and excess disability, psychotherapy, and other nonpharmacological interventions in combination with each other and/or with medications can result in delay of onset of AD. First intervention at time of diagnosis of AD is too late, when by definition, final conversion to AD has already occurred. When we have knowledge to successfully intervene earlier, why would we not want to do so.

Spaces of Entanglement

Spaces of Entanglement Andreas Kappeler (bio) The imperial turn, which for the past 25 years has directed the attention of historians toward empires, may have lost its first impetus, but as the journals Ab Imperio and Kritika as well as recent collective volumes and research projects have shown, it is by no means spent. The collapse of the Soviet Union initially revived interest in Edward Gibbon's question about "the decline and fall" of empires, but "imperiology" has since passed from explaining the breakdown of empires to asking not why they collapsed but how they survived for centuries, how they were organized and structured, and how imperial rule was established and maintained. Scholars have abandoned the metaphor of the "prison of peoples" for a more affirmative position that stresses the relatively peaceful coexistence of diverse peoples and societies under the rule of one dynasty, in contrast to the murderous history of the nation-state. This has led to various comparative projects, monographs, and collective volumes. Studies that examine the Romanov and Ottoman empires include Dominic Lieven's pioneering book as well as comparative projects and collective volumes edited by Alexei Miller, Alfred Rieber, and Kimitaka Matsuzato.1 These and other studies are mostly not comparative in the strict sense, however, but instead juxtapose chapters or articles on each of two or more empires and attempt a comparison only in the introduction and conclusion. Thus the potential of comparative history is far from exhausted. The most recent comparative study is the ambitious and stimulating Empires in World History by Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper. It encompasses a very long period from the ancient Roman and Chinese empires to the 20th century, including the Ottoman and Romanov empires, and places world history into an imperial framework: "Empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as in [End Page 477] the sixteenth, existed in relation to each other." Questions of "imperial intersections," competition, and imitation are thus included.2 By adopting this orientation, the work reflects a new trend in "imperiology" that asks about contacts and interactions between empires. This new direction is connected with a trend in historical sciences toward cultural transfers, transnational history, histoire croisée, and shared or entangled history. The first such studies concerned the interactions between the Western maritime empires and between France and Germany; later ones examined those between Germany and Poland and between Germany and Russia (for example, the special issue of Kritika on Germany and Russia in the first half of the 20th century).3 The histoire croisée of the Russians and Ottomans has been neglected so far, despite its importance for both empires. It lasted at least five centuries, longer than the relations Russia had with any other empire. Their interactions were shaped initially by a competition for the heritage of the Byzantine and Mongol empires and by a military, political, and cultural preponderance of the Ottomans. During the 18th century, the balance of power was reversed and the relationship was characterized by numerous wars, most of them ending with Russian victories. One recent publication includes six contributions on the Ottoman Empire, six on the Russian Empire, and one (by Marsha Siefert) comparing communications in both empires. Although the book's title is Comparing Empires, the subtitle is about "encounters and transfers." The interactions concern, however, mainly transfers from Western Europe to the Ottoman and Romanov empires; direct Russo-Ottoman entanglements are treated only sporadically.4 In 2010, the first collective volume devoted to the entangled history of the Russian Empire with other empires was published. It is focused on cultural transfers from the West European empires to Russia, considered here as a European "imperium inter pares." Only two articles touch on the Ottoman dimension. Vladimir Bobrovnikov compares the experiences of Russia in the Caucasus and of France in Algeria—two regions, parts of which had formerly been under Ottoman rule—and looks for interactions between the two colonial powers as well as borrowings from the Ottomans. A case study on Bessarabia [End Page 478] by Andrei Kushko and Victor Taki deals directly with the Russo-Ottoman entanglement in the border region of Bessarabia.5 Whether the Ottoman Empire, too, was an "imperium inter...