Areas Of Common Ground Research Articles

Finding something interesting

This editorial reflects on the 2023 Media Ecology Association Convention in New York and points out areas of common ground between the convention and this issue of the journal.

Of freedom and literature in Africa and the diaspora

This introduction to a special issue on freedom presents a set of original essays that reflect critically on the idea of freedom in relation to specific literary texts from Africa and the African diaspora. Read together, the essays presented in this introduction make up a rich tapestry, offering a set of reflections that map out the complex geo-histories of freedoms in Africa and an array of creative representations of this generative idea across the continent and in the diaspora. This diversity of texts and contexts allows for a wide-ranging critical exploration of a variety of genres, languages, cultures and historical periods. Areas of common ground across the ten essays include literature as a form of protest, creative ways of resisting repression, sidestepping to get around constraints, efforts to build networks of solidarity within and across communities and exploring what it means to be human within these reclaimed spaces.

Regional Integration Alongside Securitisation? The Statebuilding Ambitions of ECOWAS States in Migration Cooperation

ABSTRACT Why have population monitoring, migration control and surveillance become a significant area of common ground in EU-African migration cooperation? This article examines the securitisation of borders in the West Africa region. It finds that state actors in Senegal and Ghana perceive the technocratic solutions that arise from this cooperation as useful in attaining domestic governance and statebuilding goals, and have presented the ECOWAS regional integration agenda and border securitisation project as congruent. This article proposes that the depoliticised nature of security cooperation, alongside specific features of the domestic policymaking contexts, allows the circumvention of domestic critique of securitisation.

Scotland’s Last Blasphemy Trials: Popular Unbelief and its Opponents, 1819–1844

Abstract This article provides the first detailed historical analysis of Scotland’s last blasphemy trials (1819–1844). During this period, numerous booksellers and publishers were convicted for selling printed works that denied, ridiculed and vilified the scriptures and the Christian religion. Despite their significance as the last cases of their kind in Scottish history, these trials are almost entirely absent from the existing scholarship. The article positions them as a response to the unprecedented rise of popular unbelief in the Scottish religious landscape, a phenomenon that has itself been overlooked or dismissed by historians. In doing so, it demonstrates their significance in the campaign to extend religious toleration to unbelievers and identifies the early nineteenth century as an important transitional period, in which public attitudes towards the right of unbelievers to express openly their disavowal of Christianity underwent a significant transformation. As the article shows, debates over Scottish blasphemy legislation intersected with wider debates between Scottish Christians over the validity of an established church protected by law, and with contemporary campaigns from English unbelievers and their liberal supporters for the unfettered freedom of opinion. By 1844, conflicting attitudes over the desirability, utility and legitimacy of policing unbelief deepened divisions between different groups of Scottish Christians, while opening new areas of common ground between certain kinds of Christians and unbelievers.

Academic physician specialists’ views toward the unproven stem cell intervention industry: areas of common ground and divergence

Background and AimsPremature commercialization of unproven stem cell interventions (SCIs) has received significant attention within the regenerative medicine community. Patients considering SCIs may encounter misinformation and seek out guidance from their physicians who are trusted brokers of health information. However, little is known about the perspectives of academic physician specialists toward the SCI industry. The purpose of this study was to capture the attitudes of physician specialists with experience addressing patient questions about unproven SCIs. MethodsThe authors undertook 25 semi-structured interviews with academic physicians in cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pulmonology and neurology primarily from one academic center. ResultsThe authors identified two major themes: concerns and mediators of appropriateness of offering SCIs as therapies to patients. Specialists were generally aware of the industry and reported scientific and commercial concerns, including the scientific uncertainty of SCIs, medical harms to patients, misleading marketing and its impact on patient informed consent and economic harms due to large out-of-pocket costs for patients. All specialists outside of orthopedics voiced that it was inappropriate to be offering SCIs to patients today. These views were informed by previously expressed concerns surrounding safety and properly informing patients, levels of evidence needed prior to offering SCIs therapeutically and desired qualifications for clinicians. Among the specialties, orthopedists reported that under certain conditions, SCIs may be appropriate for patients with limited clinical options but only when safety is adequate, expectations are managed and patients are well informed about the risks and chances of benefit. Most participants expressed a desire for phase 3 studies and Food and Drug Administration approval prior to marketing SCIs, but some also shared the challenges associated with upholding these thresholds of evidence, especially when caring for out-of-option patients. ConclusionsThe authors’ results suggest that medical specialists are aware of the industry and express several concerns surrounding SCIs but differ in their views on the appropriateness and clinical evidence necessary for offering SCIs currently to patients. Additional educational tools may help physicians with patient engagement and expectation management surrounding SCIs.

Appraising research policy instrument mixes: a multicriteria mapping study in six European countries of diagnostic innovation to manage antimicrobial resistance

This article provides prospective appraisal of key policy instruments intended to stimulate innovation to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR refers to the ability of microbes to evolve resistance to those treatments designed to kill them, and is associated with the overuse or misuse of medicines such as antibiotics. AMR is an emerging global challenge with major implications for healthcare and society as a whole. Diagnostic tests for infectious diseases can guide decision making when prescribing medicines, so reducing inappropriate drug use. In the context of growing international interest in policies to stimulate innovation in AMR diagnostics, this study uses multicriteria mapping (MCM) to appraise a range of policy instruments in order to understand their potential performance while also highlighting the uncertainties that stakeholders hold about such interventions in complex contexts. A contribution of the article is the demonstration of a novel method to analyse and visualise MCM data in order to reveal stakeholder inclinations towards particular options while exploring interviewees’ uncertainties about the effectiveness of each instrument's design or implementation. The article reports results from six European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). The findings reveal which policy instruments are deemed most likely to perform well, and why, across stakeholder groups and national settings, with areas of common ground and difference being identified. Importantly, the conclusions presented here differ from prominent policy discourse, with international implications for the design of mixes of policy instruments to combat AMR. Strategic and practical methodological implications also emerge for general appraisal of innovation policy instrument mixes.

Sexual Science and the Catholic Church: Areas of Common Ground

The fields of sexuality and Catholic theology are often seen in the public eye as polar opposites—and not from an unfounded base. While there are many topics the Catholic church and the field of sexology (the scientific study of sexuality) can disagree on, we rarely discuss the fundamental agreements between them. In the following text, I describe the evidence of agreement between Catholic teachings and sexual science on five main points: sexuality is integral to the human experience, consent is paramount, parents should be the primary educators of their children on matters of sexuality, sexuality education should be positive and developmentally appropriate, and that sexuality is an avenue for deep personal wounding. I summarize some of the calls for this collaboration, some functional barriers in addressing it, and suggest possible avenues for scholars to examine pertaining to sexual science and Catholic theology.

Appraising research policy instrument mixes: a multicriteria mapping study in six European countries of diagnostic innovation to manage antimicrobial resistance

This article provides prospective appraisal of key policy instruments intended to stimulate innovation to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR refers to the ability of microbes to evolve resistance to those treatments designed to kill them, and is associated with the overuse or misuse of medicines such as antibiotics. AMR is an emerging global challenge with major implications for healthcare and society as a whole. Diagnostic tests for infectious diseases can guide decision making when prescribing medicines, so reducing inappropriate drug use. In the context of growing international interest in policies to stimulate innovation in AMR diagnostics, this study uses multicriteria mapping (MCM) to appraise a range of policy instruments in order to understand their potential performance while also highlighting the uncertainties that stakeholders hold about such interventions in complex contexts. A contribution of the article is the demonstration of a novel method to analyse and visualise MCM data in order to reveal stakeholder inclinations towards particular options while exploring interviewees’ uncertainties about the effectiveness of each instrument’s design or implementation. The article reports results from six European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). The findings reveal which policy instruments are deemed most likely to perform well, and why, across stakeholder groups and national settings, with areas of common ground and difference being identified. Importantly, the conclusions presented here differ from prominent policy discourse, with international implications for the design of mixes of policy instruments to combat AMR. Strategic and practical methodological implications also emerge for general appraisal of innovation policy instrument mixes.

A Conversation

A Conversation

Assessing policy preferences amongst climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction stakeholders using serious gaming

The ESPREssO Project set out to propose ways to inform more coherent national and European approaches on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). A critical step in this process is the identification of existing barriers to effective collaboration, finding new areas of common ground, and ways to enhance co-operation with regards to CCA and DRR policymaking in Europe. This is particularly important considering the potential relationships between CCA and DRR activities at the regional, national, European and global levels.Serious games have emerged as a valuable tool to communicate information and catalyse discussion in many policy arenas. The games have the power to inform, mainly by exposing strengths and weaknesses of a system but not necessarily create policy choices. This paper presents the development process and rationale behind creation of RAMSETE I, a serious game developed by and for the ESPREssO Project to elicit information from its stakeholders in aiming to inform synergies between CCA and DRR sectors. The results assess its application as a device to frame discussions during an international Think Tank workshop. The serious game focused on three particular aspects of CCA and DRR policy interactions: (1) separation of administrative responsibilities and the use of different terminology, (2) the ongoing competition for funding and political will as well as (3) difficulties regarding the top-down implementation of policies.The rules and design process are presented briefly, before going in-depth into the information gleaned during its application in the workshop.

Book Review: Today’s Environmental Issues: Democrats and Republicans

Walker is an associate professor of political science at Elmhurst College. This volume is part of a series titled “Across the Aisle.” The other titles cover Social Issues, Economic Issues and Foreign Policy Issues. The preface is written by Lindsey Cormack, an assistant professor of political science and director of the Diplomacy Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology. She goes on to state that members of Congress “do not dedicate the same amount of time and focus to each pressing environment issue.” (vii). Cormack presents some tables that contain both topics covered by party e-newsletters and keywords that are used most by each party. The preface also gives an overview of each party’s platform pertaining to environmental issues in 2016. The introduction states that this volume “examines the proposal and positions of the two parties—both the profound disagreements and the areas of common ground between the two parties.” (xviii).

Green Gold to Wild Woodlands; understanding stakeholder visions for woodland expansion in Scotland

ContextDespite woodland expansion being advocated via a number of Scottish policy documents, barriers to woodland creation remain. These include contested views about land use, concerns about trade-offs between ecosystem services, and a lack of synergy between policies and plans.ObjectivesTo use existing published sources and stakeholder feedback and input to determine the values that different Scottish stakeholders have for woodland expansion, and to translate these into alternative storylines, or visions. To identify areas of common ground and divergence between the visions.MethodsWe present a mixed-method approach combining a document analysis, a stakeholder workshop and semi-structured interviews.ResultsThe five visions elicited illustrate that at national level there is a great deal of consensus between stakeholders that woodland expansion can offer valuable public benefits, and that mechanisms should be put in place to provide long-term funding for these. Important areas of divergence include compatibility of woodland with current agricultural and sporting practices, and the extent of Land Reform and Community Empowerment. ‘Landscape scale’ collaboration and decision making is widely favoured for governing decisions about woodland expansion and other land use changes.ConclusionsBy articulating the range of different objectives for woodland expansion, and capturing stakeholder suggestions for how governance could be adapted to achieve each vision, the results provide a synthesis of potential overarching ways forward for woodland expansion policy. The visions have also stimulated dialogue between national level stakeholders, suggesting they may be able to support necessary discourse as part of strategic land use planning.

Propuesta de análisis sinomédico de la célula

Integrative medicine must try to find identify areas of common ground to promote mutual understanding of the interacting health systems. Explaining cells using TCM methodology is an example of a possible harmonious interaction between TCM and Modern Medicine. Locating the cell based on evolutionary stages of pathogenic energies is a proposal that we have long outlined and it shows a better theoretical basis. The global proposal is to build a relationship of elements in this way: Taiyang-extracellular matrix; Shaoyang-plasma membrane; Yangming-cytosol; Taiyin-cytoplasmic organelles; Jueyin-intracellular communication; and Shaoyin-nucleus. Consequently, aside from being able to explain and understand multiple physiological, pathophysiological, infectious and pharmacological processes, point selection, herbal medicines and TCM formulas can be explained so assist with problems related to cell regions or cellular or subcellular functions.

Exploring the singability of songs in A Monster in Paris dubbed into Persian

Translation studies (TS) seems to have lagged behind in research in music and translation (MAT). This paper attempts to shed light into the translation of songs through dubbing, paying special attention to the singability of songs which illustrates the theoretical posits. This study consists of two core parts as in the theoretical part, the latest developments in the field of MAT are taken into consideration; then, in the empirical part, through the close study of examples from the dubbed version of an animation, A Monster in Paris, the notion of singability is investigated. Drawing on the new model of singability as the conceptual framework of the study, which was a merger of two models, with consideration of preexisting music and lip-synchronization, the study demonstrated that attempts to preserve the components of singability were very frequent, highlighting the potential capability of the translation team, and even though some deviations were observed, they were of low frequency. As a pioneering study on MAT in the context of Persian, it is hoped that it brings other researchers closer to the area of common ground and shared knowledge between musicology and TS.

Being Your Own Best Advocate: Geoscience Education Researchers and the Tenure Track in Traditional Geoscience Programs

Geoscientists have seen the boundaries between traditional geology and other science fields become more permeable as geoscience research questions have evolved to better capture the transdisciplinary nature of the natural world. From geochemistry to geophysics to geobiology, the value of a transdisciplinary approach to complex and meaningful research questions is evident in each of these fields. Research on geoscience teaching and learning is following a similar path, but has the added complexity of crossing over with the social sciences (e.g., educational psychology), which introduces research methods useful, but less familiar, to many geoscientists. This is one of the reasons that Feig (2013) called for targeted ''marketing'' by geoscience education researchers to contextualize their research and build community, a concept echoed by Lukes et al (2015). I think this advice is a time-sensitive action item for one group of geoscience education researchers in particular - those who are currently on the tenure-track. While it is important for all tenure-track faculty to talk with their department colleagues early and often about what they do, how they do it, and why it is important (St. John and Leckie, 2009), it is especially true for tenure-track geoscience education scholars in traditional geoscience programs.How those conversations are approached is important. Avoid jargon, which creates further barriers. Maintain respect for colleagues; wisdom on geoscience teaching and learning isn't exclusive to those with geoscience education research PhDs. Find common ground. As is the case for all discipline based educational researchers (DBER), a strong geoscience education researcher also has disciplinary knowledge (D. Mogk, DBER webinar 30 June 2015, available at: http://nagt.org/nagt/profdev/workshops/geoed_research/ dber_webinar.html; Singer et al, 2012); therefore connecting by way of the geoscience itself can help establish common ground with geoscience department colleagues. The university mission and the geoscience departmental goals are also areas of common ground. Serving that mission and meeting those goals depends on faculty that can each play to their strengths and respect the diverse and unique contributions of their colleagues, including geoscience education researchers.Like all tenure-track faculty, tenure-track geoscience education faculty should be expected to demonstrate achievement and impact in the traditional promotion and tenure categories of Teaching, Research, and Service. However, both at the community level and at the department level, conversations need to occur between geoscience administrators, senior-faculty, and tenure-track faculty on the metrics of success of geoscience education research.There are at least two points to consider when thinking about metrics of success. One is deciding on what ''counts'' as evidence of achievement and impact in a research field that, by its very nature, overlaps with teaching and service. Like in other geoscience fields, publications and grantfunding are key pieces of geoscience education research evidence, but there are nuances that need to be considered. For example, there is a wide range of dissemination outlets for geoscience education scholarship. …

Market competition in health care markets in the Netherlands: some lessons for England?

This article seeks to establish what lessons might be available to the English health care sector following enactment of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 from the Dutch experience of introducing market competition into health care via a mandatory health insurance scheme implemented by for-profit insurance companies. The existence of the Beveridge NHS model in England, and a Bismarckian insurance system in The Netherlands perhaps suggest that a comparison of the two countries is at best limited, and reinforced by the different Enthoven-inspired competitive models each has adopted. However, we contend that there are positive and negative issues arising from introducing competition into health care-, e.g. concerns about equity and benefits of efficiencies-which go beyond national boundaries and different systems and reflect the global paradigm shift towards the use of market forces in previously non-market areas such as health. The article examines the situation in England following the HSCA 2012 and The Netherlands following the 2006 reforms before analysing two areas of common ground: the focus in both countries on competition on quality (as opposed to price) and integrated care, which is assuming ever greater significance. We suggest that our combined insights (as a health lawyer and competition lawyer respectively) coupled with a comparative approach create a novel contribution to current calls for a wider public debate about the real role of markets in health care over and above simple characterisation as a force for good or bad.

Forestry Professionals and Extension Educators vs. Climate Change: Implications for Cooperative Extension Programming

Extension educators seeking to integrate climate science into programming must respect different perceptions on climate change. We surveyed forestland managers and owners, researchers, and Extension educators nationally to compare perceptions about climate change adaptation and mitigation management in forests (n=576). Despite differences in perception that climate change is anthropogenic, we found the professional groups were often statistically similar in supporting or rejecting specific actions and receptive to learning more about a variety of forest adaptation and mitigation practices. Our findings support a role for Extension in addressing climate change and indicate areas of common ground that can minimize contention.

Moral economy in a global era: the politics of provisions during contemporary food price spikes

The wave of food riots since 2007 revived interest in why people protest in periods of dearth, yet research has to date failed to make sense of the political cultures of food protests. The concept of the moral economy in European history is explored here to make sense of contemporary political perspectives on how food markets should work in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya and Zambia. The concrete expressions of these moral economies are localized and politically contingent, yet there are broad areas of common ground across settings. As with the moral economies of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, there is strong popular feeling against speculation and collusion in food markets in times of dearth, and an emphasis on the responsibilities of public authorities to act. But whereas the moral economy in European histories focused on customary paternalistic obligations, the contemporary emphasis is on formal and electoral accountabilities as a means of triggering public action. The paper concludes with a discussion of a research agenda on the moral economy and the politics of provisions in globalised present-day food markets.

Fallenness and anhypostasis: a way forward in the debate over Christ's humanity

AbstractThe doctrine of the incarnation suggests that Christ is necessarily like us in some respects, and also unlike us in others. One long-standing debate in modern christology concerns whether Jesus’ human nature ought to be regarded as ‘fallen’ – as conditioned by the effects of the Fall – despite the fact that he himself remained without sin (Heb 4:15). Is fallenness a condition which is necessary in order for Christ to sympathise with human beings, to represent them, and so to reconcile them to God? Is fallenness logically separable from sinfulness? Recent literature has suggested an increasing intractability on both sides of this debate. This article seeks to bring clarity to the question of the fallenness of Christ's human nature by identifying areas of common ground between advocates and opponents of this position. It engages the work of representatives from both sides – Oliver Crisp in opposition and Karl Barth in support – in order to determine the different ways in which they approach the matter of Jesus’ fallenness and impeccability, and to locate points of potential consensus. Crisp argues that fallenness cannot be detached from sin and guilt – i.e. Augustine's notion of both original sin and original corruption, in which sin is an inevitability. Barth, on the other hand, is critical of the Augustinian view and takes as his point of departure Jesus’ unity and sympathy with fallen creatures. Yet the fallenness of Jesus’ humanity does not mean that sin was a real possibility for him.In this article the christological doctrine of anhypostasis – a way of speaking exclusively of human nature apart from its hypostatic union with God the Son – is suggested as the primary way forward. Advocates of the fallenness position seem to have this qualifier in mind when describing Jesus’ human nature as ‘fallen’: it is true of the assumed nature only when considered in itself, apart from the hypostatic union. There are logical and historical grounds for opponents to accept fallenness strictly on these terms, as well. Beyond this, I argue that anhypostatic fallenness should be acceptable to both sides because it is never without a corresponding sanctification of Jesus’ human nature by its encounter with God. Though Jesus’ humanity was conditioned by the fall, by virtue of the communicatio gratiarum it was not left in a state of peccability.

A Catholic Reflects on Dialogue in the Abortion Debate

The recent comments by Pope Francis on abortion have caused a bit of a stir in the media. His nuanced responses are often lost in the media, and also by advocates on both sides of the abortion debate. While the Catholic position against abortion is common knowledge, this does not preclude openness to dialogue. This article looks at some recent attempts at dialogue on the controversial topic of abortion. The first example comes from a book that surveys the public view on abortion that surprisingly finds many areas of common ground. Followed by this is a theological reading of Pope Benedict’s encyclical ‘Charity in truth’ that can be the basis of dialogue between parties with divergent views. A third example refers to a conference in Princeton University three years ago, where I mentioned several points where dialogue could be built.