Ascriptions Of Blame Research Articles

The experiences of UK-Chinese individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative interview study.

Infectious disease outbreaks have historically been associated with stigmatisation towards minority groups, specifically those associated with the geographical region that the disease was first identified. We aimed to investigate how the emerging COVID-19 pandemic was experienced by UK-resident individuals of Chinese ethnicity: how their perceived cultural and ethnic identity influenced their experiences, and how early insights into the pandemic in China influenced attitudes and behaviours. We undertook in-depth semi-structured interviews with individuals who self-identified as UK-Chinese. Participants were recruited from three cities in the UK. Interviews were undertaken over the telephone between 9th April 2020 and 16th July 2020. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using NVivo software and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Sixteen individuals were interviewed. Three main themes were identified: (1) Attribution of stigma, (2) Pandemic legacies, and (3) Individual versus societal responses. These reflected six sub-themes: (1) Stigmatisation through (mis)identity, (2) Markers of pandemic awareness, (3) Legacies of previous pandemics, (4) Ascription of blame, (5) Extent of freedom, and (6) Implicit faith in government. Experiences of xenophobia included accounts of physical violence. UK-Chinese individuals experienced and perceived widespread xenophobia, in the context of media representations that ascribed blame and exacerbated stigmatisation. Prior experience of respiratory epidemics, and insight into the governmental and societal response in China, contributed to the early adoption of face masks. This in turn marked UK-Chinese individuals as targets for abuse. Awareness is needed to safeguard stigmatized groups from social and economic harm in future infectious disease pandemics.

For Whom Does Determinism Undermine Moral Responsibility? Surveying the Conditions for Free Will Across Cultures.

Philosophers have long debated whether, if determinism is true, we should hold people morally responsible for their actions since in a deterministic universe, people are arguably not the ultimate source of their actions nor could they have done otherwise if initial conditions and the laws of nature are held fixed. To reveal how non-philosophers ordinarily reason about the conditions for free will, we conducted a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic survey (N = 5,268) spanning twenty countries and sixteen languages. Overall, participants tended to ascribe moral responsibility whether the perpetrator lacked sourcehood or alternate possibilities. However, for American, European, and Middle Eastern participants, being the ultimate source of one’s actions promoted perceptions of free will and control as well as ascriptions of blame and punishment. By contrast, being the source of one’s actions was not particularly salient to Asian participants. Finally, across cultures, participants exhibiting greater cognitive reflection were more likely to view free will as incompatible with causal determinism. We discuss these findings in light of documented cultural differences in the tendency toward dispositional versus situational attributions.

Farming exit and ascriptions of blame: The ordinary ethics of farming communities

During times of prolonged drought and other significant threats to farming viability, the Australian Government provides farm exit support grants which are intended to enable farmers to leave farms that are economically non-viable. This paper focuses on some of the discourses that circulate within farming communities that constitute farmers' decisions to accept exit packages as a moral event. Moral discourses in everyday social interaction and mundane conversation constitute what Lambek (2010) refers to as ‘ordinary ethics’. In farmer narratives, ordinary ethics are enacted through communicative labour to invoke blame about what constitutes a ‘bad’ farmer. Blame is situated as a transgression of rural values and ideals of the ‘respectable’ farmer and the moral standards mobilised for rural citizenship and land husbandry. Understanding these normative discourses and attributions can provide insight into the social and discursive dynamics in rural communities that shape loss of self-worth and provide the conditions for the possibility for distress among farmers who are in the process of deciding to exit farming or who have accepted an exit package.

The Making of the Sin of Achan (Joshua 7)

The ascription of blame to an entire people for the infraction of a nondescript individual found in the account of the sin of Achan (Joshua 7) is without parallel in the Hebrew Bible and in the legal and treaty literature of the ancient Near East. Attempts to explain the account through concepts such as “corporate personality” or the “contagion” to be found in devoted goods have rightly come under great scrutiny. This paper seeks to understand collective punishment in Joshua 7 by engaging in a close reading of the final form of the text and with recourse to notions found in contemporary ethical theory. The paper introduces the rhetorical use of minor characters as markers of collective attitudes in biblical narrative. Central to the exposition of the Achan account is the role of the spies’ report (7:2-3) as such a marker of collective attitudes shared by the polity as a whole.

Rogue Traders, Suspect Citizens and the Invisible Hand: Crisis in the Theater of Responsibility

Since 2008 the language of economic crisis has dominated American political discourse. In this article it is argued that within the context of the current economic crisis, there has been a shift from market-talk that displaces human agency to an active naming and production of blameworthy subjects. This, it is suggested, serves a political and ideological function by focusing attention on individuals and groups and away from a confrontation with the normative and systemic violence of capitalism itself. By attending to the multiple corollary discourses of responsibility through which the economic crisis is framed this article interrogates the ways in which responsibility renders political moments intelligible through ascriptions of blame and accountability that both structure how economic crisis is perceived and delimit possible responses to economic events. It is suggested that in order to respond effectively to normative problems, systemic violence, and structural injustice we must first deconstruct the economic discourse that shuttles between a market-centered model of responsibility and an agent-centered blame model of responsibility, both of which serve to sustain the sanctity of the market.

Marriage, perversion, and power: the construction of moral discourse in southern Rhodesia, 1894-1930

In search of realm - a theoretical and historical starting point, Gwelo District 1893 civilization and morality - Manichaean attitudes among occupiers of southern Rhodesia, 1890-1905 maidens and harlots - moral legislation, 1901-1912 part-time love affairs - changing marriage arrangements in Gwelo District, 1898-1914 the problem with - natives adultery punishment ordinance, 1916 pointing finger - ascriptions of blame in debate over adultery township trouble - urban sexuality in Gwelo District, 1916-1920 tradition and power - transformations of African marriage, 1914-1926 closing door - African women and European morality, 1916-1930.