Alternative Theoretical Framework Research Articles

Sphere transgressions: reflecting on the risks of big tech expansionism

ABSTRACT The rapid expansion of Big Tech companies into various societal domains (e.g., health, education, and agriculture) over the past decade has led to increasing concerns among governments, regulators, scholars, and civil society. While existing theoretical frameworks—often revolving around privacy and data protection, or market and platform power—have shed light on important aspects of Big Tech expansionism, there are other risks that these frameworks cannot fully capture. In response, this editorial proposes an alternative theoretical framework based on the notion of sphere transgressions, which draws on political philosopher Michael Walzer's theory of justice. The editorial not only introduces the sphere transgressions framework, but it also highlights its potential to generate novel research questions. Furthermore, this editorial introduces eight articles and one commentary from a group of interdisciplinary scholars that critically examine Big Tech expansionism by reflecting on this expansionism from the perspective of different societal spheres or by engaging with the sphere transgressions framework itself.

Intimate Partner Abuse and Homicide During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Situational Action Theory Analysis

During the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home restrictions significantly changed people’s daily lives around the world. Opportunity and strain theories predict this would lead to an increase in intimate partner abuse (IPA), including intimate partner homicide (IPH). This paper applies an alternative theoretical framework—situational action theory (SAT)—to explain mixed findings regarding changes in IPA and unexpected findings regarding (a lack of) changes in IPH. It is argued that SAT may contribute to explaining the impact of stay-at-home restrictions on IPA and IPH in three important ways: 1. by addressing the fact that motivation is necessary but not sufficient for explaining action and better specifying how motivation translates into IPA and IPH; 2. by addressing the fact that people perceive different alternatives for action and better specifying why some people come to see IPA and IPH as acceptable action alternatives; 3. by addressing the fact that exposure affects people differently and better specifying how stay-at-home restrictions shaped people’s activity fields and, in turn, their perceptions and action choices.

Advancing elderly healthcare: adapting UTAUT2 with inhibitors for wearable device continuance

PurposeWearable health devices (WHDs) have demonstrated significant potential in assisting elderly adults with proactive health management by utilizing sensors to record and monitor various aspects of their health, including physical activity, heart rate, etc. However, limited research has systematically explored older adults’ continued usage intention toward WHD. By utilizing the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2), this paper aims to probe the precursors of elderly adults’ continuance intention to use WHD from an enabler–inhibitor perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe research model was developed based on UTAUT2 and examined utilizing the partial least squares technique (PLS). The research data were collected through in-person meetings with older people (n = 272) in four cities in China.FindingsResults reveal that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic values and perceived complexity are the positive predictors of elderly adults’ continuance intention to use WHDs. Technology-related anxiety and usage cost negatively influence the formation of older people’s continuance intention.Originality/valueThis work is an original empirical investigation that draws on several theories as guiding frameworks. It adds to the existing literature on the usage of wearable technologies and offers insights into how the elderly’s intentions to continue using WHDs can be developed. This study broadens the scope of the UTAUT2 application and presents an alternative theoretical framework that can be utilized in future research on the usage behavior of wearable devices by individuals.

Beyond the neoliberal label: A historical perspective on sexual actors and responsibility in HIV prevention in England (1986-2023).

Framed across three distinct periods of the history of neoliberalism and the HIV epidemic in England, this article conducts a detailed examination of the concept of personal responsibility and its contested uses within HIV prevention. The article questions the theoretical potential of neoliberal subjectivities to comprehend behaviours related to the pharmaceuticalised governance (or lack thereof) of gay men's sexual health, exploring the gap between theories emphasising individual responsibility and the practical experiences of gay men. The analysis draws on testimonials from gay men in oral history interviews and archival sources. The article illustrates how the pervasive notion of personal responsibility in England has been co-opted by neoliberal ideologies, leading to the stigmatisation of gay men whose sexual behaviours diverge from public health mandates. The widespread stigmatisation resulting from this ideology underscores a significant limitation in the theoretical framework of neoliberal subjectivities. This constraint extends beyond merely failing to grasp the complexity of sexual behaviours; it also reflects a lack of understanding of any other behaviour related to public health. Therefore, the article concludes by advocating the necessity of employing and constructing alternative theoretical frameworks to comprehend the pharmaceutical governance or lack thereof of gay men's sexual health. Through a concise autoethnography of the authors' pharmaceutical sexual health governance, the article introduces the concept of biocommesuration as an illustrative analysis that transcends the limitations of neoliberal subjectivities.

Experience‐driven well‐being and purchase: An alternative model of memorable wine tourism experiences

AbstractWine tourism has several distinctive features that militate against using Kim et al.'s model of memorable tourism experiences to understand its antecedents and consequences. Accordingly, this study adopts an alternative theoretical framework—the stimulus–organism–response theory—to develop an alternative model. Data were collected from visitors to a well‐known vineyard in Yantai, China and structural equation modelling and multiple group analysis were used to analyse them. The results suggest that experience co‐creation, sensory experience, experiential satisfaction and appealing winescape are significant and positive antecedents of a memorable wine tourism experience, while eudaimonic well‐being and wine purchase intention are significant and positive outcome variables. Visit frequency was found to be a moderating variable linking the winescape to memorable wine tourism experiences. Those who travel to the region frequently form a bond with the winescape that not only contributes to their well‐being but also stimulates their future intentions to purchase its wine.

Investigation of the Electrokinetic Properties of HIV-Based Virus-Like Particles.

The antigen density on the surface of HIV-based virus-like particles (VLPs) plays a crucial role in the improvement of HIV vaccine potency. HIV VLPs consist of a dense protein core, which is surrounded by a lipid bilayer and whose surface is usually decorated with antigenic glycoproteins. The successful downstream processing of these particles is challenging, and the high-resolution and cost-efficient purification of HIV-based VLPs has not yet been achieved. Chromatography, one of the major unit operations involved in HIV VLP purification strategies, is usually carried out by means of ion exchangers or ion-exchange membranes. Understanding the electrokinetic behavior of HIV-based VLPs may help to improve the adjustment and efficiency of the corresponding chromatographic processes. In this study, we investigated the electrokinetics and aggregation of both undecorated and decorated VLPs and interpreted the data from the perspective of the soft particle model developed by Ohshima (OSPM), which fails to fully predict the behavior of the studied VLPs. Post-Ohshima literature, and particularly the soft multilayer particle model developed by Langlet et al., provides an alternative theoretical framework to overcome the limits of the OSPM. We finally hypothesized that the electrophoretic mobility of HIV-based VLPs is controlled by an electrohydrodynamic interplay between envelope glycoproteins, lipid bilayer, and Gag envelope.

Individual Dignity as the Foundation of an Inclusive Society

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, the Supreme Court considered voluminous evidence that Harvard discriminated against Asian Americans to keep the racial composition of its student body similar year after year. The Court held that Harvard engaged in unlawful discrimination, providing clarity to an area of the law that was filled with ambiguities and self-contradictions. The Court’s decision made clear that discrimination in favor of some racial groups necessarily inflicts discriminatory, race-based harms on others. This Article explores how Fair Admissions sheds light on the failure of identity politics to create a genuinely inclusive, egalitarian society. Practitioners of identity politics, whom this Article refers to as identitarians, argue that all “people of color” in the United States have a common political interest in uniting against the hegemony of the White majority. In reality, racial minorities experience both positive and negative interactions with members of the White majority and other racial minorities. Fair Admissions revealed how, in some circumstances, members of the White majority may unite with some racial minorities to perpetrate discrimination against other minorities. Identitarianism provides no account of how society should weigh the competing interests of different minorities in a manner that best serves the common good. Nor does it offer a vision for how the White majority and racial minorities can and should strive to live together in harmony and cooperation. This Article argues for an alternative theoretical framework for civil rights advocacy rooted in individual dignity. It argues that society should banish arbitrary racial categories from public life, enforce bans on discrimination against both overt and covert discrimination when justified by the evidence, foster talent-based institutions that are inclusive of all people, and promote honest discourse about race. Only a society that values and respects the dignity of the individual can be genuinely inclusive and egalitarian.

"Unpacking" cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans: the roles of threat appraisal and attentional bias.

Cultural differences in self-reported social anxiety between people of East Asian heritage and European heritage may be related to differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, which potentially influence the processing of social threat. We examined the roles of two different aspects of threat bias: threat appraisal (Study 1) and attentional bias (Study 2) to explain cultural group differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European American college students. Study 1 demonstrated that sequential mediations of lower independent self-construal and higher appraisal of threat among Japanese could explain their higher social anxiety compared to European Americans. However, Study 2 failed to find the relation between cultural group differences in self-construals and attentional bias. In addition, the cultural group differences in attentional bias were unexpectedly due to stronger selective attention toward neutral stimuli among European Americans, rather than bias toward social threat among Japanese. After selective attention was experimentally manipulated, there were significant cultural group differences in self-reported social anxiety and anxious behavior in a speech task. These conflicting findings suggested that an alternative theoretical framework other than the self-construal theory might be needed to fully account for cultural differences in attentional bias in explaining cultural group differences in social anxiety.

Recognising the recovering addict with Honneth: an intervention into the stigmatising language debate in the alcohol and other drugs field

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the recommendation to replace identity-first language with person-first language on people who self-identify as recovering addicts as part of a recovery programme. Narcotics Anonymous (NA) will be used to illustrate the contextualised nature of the recovering addict identity.Design/methodology/approachTo demonstrate the value of the recovering addict identity and social relations in NA, this paper draws on Axel Honneth’s theory of mutual recognition and self-formation.FindingsPerson-first language overlooks the significance of identity-first language to people in 12-step recovery. This oversight is linked to the logic of stigma reduction which excludes all identity-first language by association rather than assessing the impact of such terms on a case-by-case basis. Honneth’s theory is used to show how the recovering addict identity facilitates self-confidence and self-esteem through relations of mutual recognition in NA.Research limitations/implicationsThe argument excludes people who identify as recovering addicts, but do not attend 12-step groups. Further research would be needed to understand how the recommendation to use person-first language instead of identity-first language impacts upon other recovery communities and pathways.Practical implicationsThe recommendation to replace identity-first language with person-first language might result in 12-step fellowships becoming marginalised within the broader academic and policy and practice arena. Language preferences can become a contentious issue when 12-step groups and their members enter the wider recovery arena where their preferred terminology is viewed as stigmatising and dehumanising.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first article to propose an alternative theoretical framework to stigma reduction for judging morally appropriate language in the alcohol and drugs field.

Relational contract theory, the relevance of actual performance in contractual interpretation and its application to employment contracts in the United Kingdom and Australia

This article articulates a theory of relational contract, as an alternative to traditional freedom of contract philosophy. The law has moved away from freedom of contract to some extent, and it can be criticised on the basis of its unrealistic assumptions and detachment from the typical reality of parties’ contracting. Relational contract theory is a possible suitable alternative theoretical framework. It may be useful in relation to contract interpretation. Specifically, it can be utilised to support a broader approach to contract interpretation, with the court focussing on the entirety of the parties’ relations, including the written terms and also subsequent performance. It enjoys some support in the United Kingdom and in other common law jurisdictions. It can support the view taken by two justices of the High Court of Australia in a recent contract interpretation decision involving employment contracts. The article favours the approach taken by these justices, rather than that of the majority, whose judgment reflects classic contract law sentiments at odds with the general direction of contract law in comparative jurisdictions.

Tourism, Value Appropriation, and Ecological Degradation

This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different perspective of decommodified tourism within a post-capitalist development.

Exploring lead users' continued participation intention in crowdsourcing innovation community in China: the effects of network externalities

PurposeLead users are essential participants in crowdsourcing innovation events; their continuance intention significantly affects the success of the crowdsourcing innovation community (CIC). Although researchers have acknowledged the influences of network externalities on users' sustained participation in general information systems, limited work has been conducted to probe these relationships in the CIC context; particularly, the predictors of lead users' continued usage intention in such context are still unclear. Hence, this paper aims to explore the precursors of lead users' continuance intention from a network externalities perspective in CIC.Design/methodology/approachThis work ranked users' leading-edge status to recognize lead users in the CIC. And then, the authors proposed a research model based on the network externalities theory, which was examined utilizing the partial least squares (PLS) technique. The research data were collected from an online survey of lead users (n = 229) of a CIC hosted by a China handset manufacturer.FindingsResults revealed that the number of peers, perceived complementarity and perceived compatibility significantly influence lead users' continuance intention through identification and perceived usefulness.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the crowdsourcing innovation research and provides views regarding how lead users' sustained participation can be developed in the CICs. This work also offers an alternative theoretical framework for further research on users' continued intention in open innovation activities.

Sick and working: Current challenges and emerging directions for future presenteeism research

SummaryPresenteeism refers to working despite ill health that might otherwise warrant sickness absence. Estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity, the concept has attracted the attention of different academic disciplines, policymakers, and practitioners interested in mitigating the problem. Although a topic of significant interest, the current understanding of presenteeism is compromised by a number of conceptual and methodological factors that follow from one another. We begin this introductory article by providing a brief overview on three specific challenges, namely, (1) presenteeism ill‐defined as a unitary construct, (2) narrowness of approaches to measure and study presenteeism, and (3) insufficient research on the social and relational dynamism that characterizes presenteeism. We then provide an overview of the eight articles that comprise this issue and analyze how they address the aforementioned three challenges by adopting alternative theoretical frameworks, utilizing new measurement approaches, and/or by shedding light on the dynamic nature of presenteeism. Finally, we discuss fresh perspectives and promising directions for future research endeavors on this topic, with the hope that this issue will inspire further research on the practical implications of presenteeism for promoting positive health and well‐being at the workplace.

Diversity, solidarity and the construction of the ingroup among (post)colonial migrants in The Netherlands, 1945–1968

ABSTRACT Concerns about the impact of immigration (‘diversity’) on welfare states (‘solidarity’) are widespread among political economists. This article presents an alternative theoretical framework for understanding their relationship. Using social and cultural theory, I argue that it is tautological to suggest that diversity and solidarity covary; both emerge out of the same ideological and material efforts to construct an ‘ingroup.’ I probe this theory with a historical case study of the inclusion of (post)colonial migrants in the Netherlands from 1945 to 1968. Complementing secondary literature with original archival research, I show key state and non-state agents of the emergent Dutch welfare state constructing racial categories by fixing ‘Westernness’ or ‘rootedness’ as a salient determinant of ingroup membership, locating (post)colonial migrants in relation to it, and distributing entry, citizenship and social rights accordingly. An elusive metric of cultural proximity, ‘Westernness’ was under construction at the same time as it was in use, as state officials, social workers, and private charities negotiated its meaning with the public. The article not only compels European welfare scholarship to acknowledge race and racism in its recent past, but also builds theory regarding the influence of identity on redistributive outcomes.

Thermo‐based fatigue life prediction: A review

AbstractThe main objective of this review paper is twofold: Recall the most captivating areas of research in predicting the fatigue life of metals with the application of thermal methodology, particularly for the stress‐controlled fatigue tests. The explicit lifetime models reviewed have been developed by scholars over the past two decades owing to the advancements in infrared thermal imaging technology. Introduce, discuss, and conclude a broad range of alternative theoretical frameworks in thermodynamics. Some investigations are made with the previous methods, including the most recent evolutions of lifetime models for structural integrity across various fields. Some future perspectives are provided in final, which could pave the way for a new realistic or potential capability.

Decentralized Stochastic Control with Finite-Dimensional Memories: A Memory Limitation Approach.

Decentralized stochastic control (DSC) is a stochastic optimal control problem consisting of multiple controllers. DSC assumes that each controller is unable to accurately observe the target system and the other controllers. This setup results in two difficulties in DSC; one is that each controller has to memorize the infinite-dimensional observation history, which is not practical, because the memory of the actual controllers is limited. The other is that the reduction of infinite-dimensional sequential Bayesian estimation to finite-dimensional Kalman filter is impossible in general DSC, even for linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) problems. In order to address these issues, we propose an alternative theoretical framework to DSC-memory-limited DSC (ML-DSC). ML-DSC explicitly formulates the finite-dimensional memories of the controllers. Each controller is jointly optimized to compress the infinite-dimensional observation history into the prescribed finite-dimensional memory and to determine the control based on it. Therefore, ML-DSC can be a practical formulation for actual memory-limited controllers. We demonstrate how ML-DSC works in the LQG problem. The conventional DSC cannot be solved except in the special LQG problems where the information the controllers have is independent or partially nested. We show that ML-DSC can be solved in more general LQG problems where the interaction among the controllers is not restricted.

Destabilizing Race in Political Communication: Social Movements as Sites of Political Imagination

ABSTRACT How do social movement actors use consciousness-raising communicative practices to reconfigure political understandings of race? And how can such practices shape the analysis of political communication? We explore these questions by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, and archival materials to examine two case studies: an historical example of Grace Lee Boggs’ structural guidelines for creating a revolutionary study group in the Asian Political Alliance and a contemporary example of Equality Labs’ anti-caste political organizing by engaging across racial and caste social hierarchies. These cases illustrate the analytic value of engaging alternative theoretical frameworks of race and politics from critical ethnic studies, feminist of color scholarship, and social movements as rich sites of political theory through cultivating political consciousness in service of radical political imaginations. This article offers two main contributions to the field of political communication. First, by looking at the creative work of racial theorizing within social movements, we destabilize the limits of race as a demographic category. Second, we demonstrate the analytic value of studying political education and consciousness-raising as communicative practices that emphasize relational reconfigurations of race. This article recasts racial political discourse from public opinion and campaign messaging measured quantitatively to political imaginations that must be interpreted within historical and material contexts. As our cases demonstrate, centering the shifting category of race within movement building opens up the field of political communication to the communicative processes of consciousness-building and also offers dynamic understandings of race and racialization.

Factors influencing teachers' satisfaction and performance with online teaching in universities during the COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the teaching model, promoting educational institutions to initiate more explorations in online teaching. This study examines the factors influencing teachers' online teaching performance and satisfaction in universities during the COVID-19. We applied a model of technology acceptance (TAM), expectation confirmation (ECM), and computer self-efficacy (CSE) to develop a questionnaire. The survey was used to collect data from 347 teachers from 6 universities in eastern China to identify factors affecting teachers' performance and satisfaction during the COVID-19. The results indicated that teachers' performance of online teaching is significantly affected by satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use of online teaching. Meanwhile, confirmation of online teaching expectations and computer self-efficacy significantly impacted teachers' satisfaction with online teaching. This work is an original empirical study guided by multiple theories. It contributes to the online education literature and provides advice regarding how teachers' online teaching satisfaction and performance can be developed in a situation like the one that occurred with COVID-19. This work also broadens the application of TAM and provides an alternative theoretical framework for future research on teachers' online teaching performance.

Anomie, gender, and inequality: Developing sociological theory of singlehood from Japanese experiences

AbstractThe increase in the number of never‐married and not‐cohabiting singles, or “effective singles,” was first observed in Japan and Southern Europe. In Northern and Western Europe and North America, increased singlehood was due largely to increased cohabitation. Existing sociological theories of singlehood, however, are formulated based on the observations of the latter, and fall short in explaining why more individuals remain unpartnered. The wealth of data from singlehood research in Japan suggest that many singles desire marriage yet drift into singlehood, facing structural, cultural barriers in a rapidly changing social context. The impact of gender inequality is salient, but existing theories focus on women's advancement and egalitarianism. This paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework for explaining causes of singlehood, incorporating sociological and feminist perspectives and Emile Durkheim's theory of anomie, and calls for shifting the center to observations from non‐Western societies for better theorization.

The Dynamics of Refugee Return: Syrian Refugees and Their Migration Intentions

AbstractWe study the drivers of refugees' decision making about returning home using observational and experimental data from a survey of 3,003 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. We find that the conditions in refugee-hosting countries play a minor role. In contrast, conditions in a refugee's home country are the main drivers of return intentions. Even in the face of hostility and poor living conditions in host countries, refugees are unlikely to return unless the situation at home improves significantly. These results challenge traditional models of decision making about migration, where refugees weigh living conditions in the host and home countries (“push” and “pull” factors). We offer an alternative theoretical framework: a model of threshold-based decision making whereby only once a basic threshold of safety at home is met do refugees compare other factors in the host and home country. We explore some empirical implications of this new perspective using qualitative interviews and quantitative survey data.