Conceptual Choices Research Articles

Putting the exposome into practice: An analysis of the promises, methods and outcomes of the European human exposome network

ObjectivesContemporary research on the exposome, i.e. the sum of all the exposures an individual encounters throughout life and that may influence human health, bears the promise of an integrative and policy-relevant research on the effect of environment on health. Critical analyses of the first generation of exposome projects have voiced concerns over their actual breadth of inclusion of environmental factors and a related risk of molecularization of public health issues. The emergence of the European Human Exposome Network (EHEN) provides an opportunity to better situate the ambitions and priorities of the exposome approach on the basis of new and ongoing research. MethodsWe assess the promises, methods, and limitations of the EHEN, as a case study of the second generation of exposome research. A critical textual analysis of profile articles from each of the projects involved in EHEN, published in Environmental Epidemiology, was carried out to derive common priorities, innovations, methodological and conceptual choices across EHEN and to discuss it. ResultsEHEN consolidates its integrative outlook by reinforcing the volume and variety of data, its data analysis infrastructure and by diversifying its strategies to deliver actionable knowledge. Yet data-driven limitations severely restrict the geographical and political scope of this knowledge to health issues primarily related to urban setups, which may aggravate some socio-spatial inequalities in health in Europe. ConclusionsThe second generation of exposome research doubles down on the initial ambition of an integrative study of the environmental effects of health to fuel better public health interventions. This intensification is, however, accompanied by significant epistemological challenges and doesn't help to overcome severe restrictions in the geographical and political scope of this knowledge. We thus advocate for increased reflexivity over the limitations of this conceptually and methodologically integrative approach to public and environmental health.

Is the fulfilment of objective wellbeing reflected in subjective wellbeing? A case study of vulnerable communities in Volta Delta, Ghana

There is growing interest in the measurement and conceptualisation of wellbeing due to its increasing importance within policy outcomes; however, the understanding of how different wellbeing outcomes associate within sustainability research is limited. This paper uses household survey data from the vulnerable Volta Delta, South Ghana, as a case study to illustrate the different philosophical approaches and measures of wellbeing, and the potential impact upon policy interventions. The frequent use of objective wellbeing measures, such as monetary poverty, within development policy is challenged as to whether it sufficiently reflects overall wellbeing. For example, objective monetary measures may not incorporate the intangible components of wellbeing, which can alternatively be captured within individuals’ self-evaluated, subjective wellbeing. This study first outlines the conceptual and methodological choices required when measuring wellbeing, before drawing on ideas of objective and subjective wellbeing to examine whether these concepts from different disciplines align or oppose one another. Contrasting theories within the literature justify this focus. By testing for associations between objective and subjective wellbeing outcomes, this study highlights how the methodological and conceptual choices made when measuring wellbeing can result in differing conclusions. Despite statistically significant associations being found amongst some wellbeing measures, results which show opposing outcomes highlight how subjective and objective wellbeing are not entirely interchangeable. Our study concludes there is a benefit to incorporating both objective and subjective measures in research and development targets across multiple scales to more-comprehensibly capture, and improve our understanding of, human wellbeing in vulnerable locations.

A theoretical framework for upscaling species distribution models

AbstractSpecies distribution models (SDM) have become one of the most popular predictive tools in ecology. With the advent of new computation and remote sensing technology, high‐resolution environmental data sets are becoming more and more common predictors in these modelling efforts. Understanding how scaling affects their outputs is therefore fundamental to understand their applicability.Here, we develop a theoretical basis to understand the consequences of aggregating occurrence and environmental data at different resolutions. We provide a theoretical framework, along with numerical simulations and a real‐world case study, to show how these scaling rules influence predictive outputs.We show that the properties of the environment–occurrence relationships change when the data are aggregated: the mean probability of occurrence and species prevalence increases, the optimal environmental values shift and classification rates increase at coarser resolutions up to a certain level. Furthermore, and contrary to the widespread expectation that high‐resolution data would produce better predictions, we show here that model performance may increase using coarser resolution data sets rather than the inverse. Finally, we also show that model performance depends not only on the environment–occurrence relationship but also on the interaction between this and the geography and distribution of the available environment.This theoretical framework helps understanding previously incoherent results regarding SDM upscaling and model performance, and illustrates how theoretical and empirical results can provide important feedbacks to advance in understanding scaling issues in macroecology. The interaction between the shape of the environment–occurrence relationship and the rates of change of the environment is fundamental to understand the effects of upscaling in model performance, and may explain why some models are more difficult to transfer to different regions. Most importantly, we argue that there are conceptual choices related to scaling and SDM fitting that require expert knowledge and further explorations between theory and practice in macroecology.

Design of Graphic Design Assistant System Based on Artificial Intelligence

With the development of technology, graphic design tools are becoming more and more perfect, which allows graphic designers to realize their dream designs, achieve more special effects, and thus expand their conceptual choices. The application of various new technologies in graphic design can promote the development of the graphic design industry. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has broken through the layout design in traditional graphic design. In this article, the author proposes the creation of a graphic design assistant system based on AI drawing on the deep learning (DL) theory. According to the DL theory, the image is segmented by the class variance. The voxelized image matrix of a two-dimensional (2D) model is input into a convolution-automatic encoder (CAE) as input data. The input data first pass through the convolution layer of the CAE, which mainly completes the mapping of features. The research results show that the average aesthetic evaluation of the system design works in this study is higher than that of CAD software and PS software, and the total average score is as high as 8.788, which shows that the system design works in this study are more in line with the requirements of professional understanding.

Linguistic markers of Alzheimer’s in Spanish speakers: Automated metrics for free speech and verbal fluency tasks

AbstractBackgroundAutomated speech analysis can reveal objective, scalable markers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Yet, few studies have targeted Spanish, the most spoken language in Latin America, where AD is quickly escalating. Also, most research presents low interpretability, targeting linguistic features unrelated to the disorder’s core neuropsychological profile. Working with Hispanics, we have validated novel automated metrics capturing critical lexico‐semantic targets for AD: semantic granularity (coarseness of concepts) and ongoing semantic variability (conceptual closeness of successive words) –Figure 1A. I aim to describe and illustrate these metrics via two experiments comparing AD patients and healthy controls (HCs) on free speech and verbal fluency tasks. To test for specificity, replications were conducted in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia cohorts.MethodIn Experiment‐1, 21 AD patients, 16 HCs, and 18 PD patients performed spontaneous and semi‐spontaneous speech tasks. In Experiment‐2, 32 AD patients, 27 HCs, 19 PD patients, and 32 bvFTD patients performed phonological and semantic fluency tasks. In both studies, responses were transcribed and lemmatized. Semantic granularity scores were computed on Python’s NLTK library to access WordNet, a lexical taxonomy leading from hypernyms (top node: ‘entity’) to hyponyms (e.g., ‘dog’). Each word’s granularity is defined as the distance between its node and ‘entity’ (Figure 1B). Ongoing semantic variability was analyzed with a FastText model pre‐trained with Spanish corpora. Each unique word in the vocabulary was assigned a vector, and the distance between words was quantified with the cosine of the angle between their assigned vectors (Figure 1C). Extracted features from both dimensions were analyzed through ANOVAs and XGBoost classifiers.ResultsIn Experiment‐1, relative to HCs, AD (but not PD) patients used more unspecific and fewer specific concepts, alongside more discontinuous conceptual choices. These features robustly classified between AD patients and HCs, but not between PD patients and HCs. In Experiment‐2, only AD patients exhibited reduced semantic granularity, which contributed to robust subject‐level classification. Ongoing semantic variability failed to distinguish among groups.ConclusionThese novel digital metrics can reveal objective, interpretable, and specific markers of AD in Spanish speakers, providing culture‐specific data for a vast but understudied linguistic community.

Constitutional inclusion in divided societies: Conceptual choices, practical dilemmas and the contribution of the grassroots in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Processes of constitutional discussion increasingly invite widespread popular inclusion and participation. Conceptual and practical problems remain, not least the respects in which inclusion is to take place. In deeply divided places, these challenges are intensified, first in the difficulties of conceptualising inclusion, and second in the practical dangers participation may pose to peace. We tackle these problems empirically by looking at a hard case of constitutional discussion amid division: the re-emergence of debate about Irish unity in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Through focus groups and interviews, we explore how ‘others’, disengaged from the main political groups and defined transversally, approach the discussion, showing that they welcome the prospect of participation and seek to remove discursive triggers of conflict by focussing on shared everyday experience. We discuss the implications for the constitutional process and the likely impact on polarisation. The analysis has implications for the literature on divided societies, for constitutional theory and for policy. We argue that it is both possible and desirable to remedy group exclusion while facilitating universalistic discussion and lessening the dangers of polarisation. The policy implications are quite radical.

Taking stock of research on the levers of control with meta-analytic methods: Stylized facts and boundary conditions

In levers of control (LoC) research, empirical and conceptual ambiguities have hampered the establishment of a coherent body of knowledge. Mixed findings, variability in the approaches to account for the levers’ combined use, and variability in conceptual choices (e.g., the conceptualization of interactive and diagnostic control) have caused this unsatisfactory state. In response, we validate and extend theory on the LoC framework by meta-analytically synthesizing quantitative evidence from 58 independent samples and 10,374 observations. We develop two models of the combined use of the levers, which portray their simultaneous use and mutual relationships, and relate them to capabilities and performance. For theory validation, we uncover stylized facts that demonstrate that organizations use the four levers in combination, not in isolation. Moreover, following the logic of the resource-based view, the levers are related to performance via capabilities. These relationships are robust to moderating influences of the dimensions and conceptualization of interactive control and managers’ hierarchical level. For theory extension, we systematically uncover the need to complement the resource-based view with other theories and offer related suggestions. Our moderator analyses identify boundary conditions that limit the generalizability of the LoC framework. For example, surprisingly, the conceptualization of diagnostic control emerges as a boundary condition. On a general level, our findings might serve as an inspiration for better appreciating future survey-based knowledge creation in management control research and also provide researchers from other disciplines with a more comprehensive understanding of the enhancement of capabilities and performance.

On Certainty, Change, and “Mathematical Hinges”

Annalisa Coliva (Int J Study Skept 10(3–4):346–366, 2020) asks, “Are there mathematical hinges?” I argue here, against Coliva’s own conclusion, that there are. I further claim that this affirmative answer allows a case to be made for taking the concept of a hinge to be a useful and general-purpose tool for studying mathematical practice in its real complexity. Seeing how Wittgenstein can, and why he would, countenance mathematical hinges additionally gives us a deeper understanding of some of his latest thoughts on mathematics. For example, a view of how mathematical hinges relate to Wittgenstein’s well-known river-bed analogy enables us to see how his way of thinking about mathematics can account nicely for a “dynamics of change” within mathematical research—something his philosophy of mathematics has been accused of missing (e.g., by Robert Ackermann (Wittgenstein’s city, The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1988) and Mark Wilson (Wandering significance: an essay on conceptual behavior, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006). Finally, the perspective on mathematical hinges ultimately arrived at will be seen to provide us with illuminating examples of how our conceptual choices and theories can be ungrounded but nevertheless the right ones (in a sense to be explained).

How are evidence and policy conceptualised, and how do they connect? A qualitative systematic review of public policy literature

Background:While current public policy scholarship can take advantage of a decades-long accumulated knowledge base on the relationship between evidence and policy, it is hard to keep the overview across different literatures. Over time, the ever more differentiated branches of public policy research have developed their own perspectives, languages, and conceptualisations of ‘evidence’ and ‘policy’, as well as their connections. Aims and objectives:Existing reviews have stressed that studies often do not provide clear definitions of ‘policy’ or ‘evidence’, and have outlined the importance of investigating underlying conceptualisations in the literature. Against this backdrop, this article investigates how present-day public policy scholarship approaches the concepts of ‘evidence’, ‘policy’, and their connections. Methods:We conducted a qualitative systematic review following the PRISMA method. Using a keyword search, we identified relevant articles (n=85) in eleven Q1 and Q2 policy journals included in Web of Science in the period 2015 to 2019. Findings:The synthesis confirms that ‘evidence’ and ‘policy’ are often not clearly defined, yet different trends regarding understandings can be identified. There are two approaches taken on the evidence and policy connection: a ‘use of evidence’ or a ‘use for policy’ perspective. Discussion and conclusions:Research on evidence and policy would benefit from more explicit conceptual discussions. This review may provide a heuristic for explicating conceptual choices when working with the notions of ‘evidence’, ‘policy’, and their connections. It also suggests several avenues that are worth exploring in future research.

Einbildungskraft Kavramının Türkçe Felsefe Sözlüklerindeki Yolculuğu ve Kant’ın I. Kritiği’nden Hareketle Muhayyile Melekesi Üzerine Düşünmek

Bu çalışma, Einbildungskraft teriminin Türkçe felsefe sözlüklerindeki Fransızca karşılığından hareketle imagination terimi üzerinden bir soruşturma gerçekleştirir. Kant’ın eleştirel felsefesi içerisinde terimin kullanım alanlarına işaret etmeyi amaçlar. Bu yönde, felsefenin yapıtaşı sayılan kavramlar ve bunların zihnî bir geleneğin sürdürülebilmesi adına taşıdığı anlamları bir arada tutan felsefe sözlüklerinden bazıları çalışmaya konu edilmektedir. Felsefenin kavramlarıyla teşekkül eden kültürel hafızanın aktarımı ve terimsel ihyâ faaliyetinin önemi üzerinde durulmaktadır. Bu çalışma ile geçmişten günümüze felsefe ıstılâhına hâkim olmanın, Kant’ın eleştirel felsefesindeki kavramların Türkçede yeniden inşa edilmesin-deki önemine işaret edilmektedir. Böylelikle, Einbildungskraft terimi üzerinden, Kant’ın verdiği manalar ve Türkçeye çevrimde tercih edilen kelimeler üzerinde durulmaktadır. Dilde ıslâh faaliyetinin değeri ve düşünce geleneğine bağlanma ihtiyacının önemi vurgulanmaktadır. Bu manada Kant’ın, kendi eserlerindeki terimsel tutumu ve kavram seçimleri ele alınmaktadır. Kant’ın, kavram inşasına dair eleştirel felsefesi içerisindeki değinilerine yer verilmektedir. Diğer yandan felsefî bir kavramın taşıdığı anlam yükünü en iyi karşılayacak terimin seçimi hususunun önemi üzerinde durulur. Kant’ın Einbildungskraft teriminin Türkçedeki karşılıkları ve bu kelimelerin, kavramın karşılığı olarak yeterliliklerine işaret edilmiştir. Kavramın kendi içerisinde taşıdığı nüansların ayırt edilmesi adına eleştiri öncesi dönem ve eleştirel dönemdeki kullanımları üzerinde durulmuştur.

Conceptual alignment in a joint picture-naming task performed with a social robot

In this study we investigated whether people conceptually align when performing a language task together with a robot. In a joint picture-naming task, 24 French native speakers took turns with a robot in naming images of objects belonging to fifteen different semantic categories. For a subset of those semantic categories, the robot was programmed to produce the superordinate, semantic category name (e.g., fruit) instead of the more typical basic-level name associated with an object (e.g., pear). Importantly, while semantic categories were shared between the participant and the robot (e.g., fruits), different objects were assigned to each of them (e.g., the object of ‘a pear’ for the robot and of ‘an apple’ for the participant). Logistic regression models on participants' responses revealed that they aligned with the conceptual choices of the robot, producing over the course of the experiment more superordinate names (e.g., saying ‘fruit’ to the picture of an ‘apple’) for those objects belonging to the same semantic category as where the robot produced a superordinate name (e.g., saying ‘fruit’ to the picture of a ‘pear’). These results provide evidence for conceptual alignment affecting speakers' word choices as a result of adaptation to the partner, even when the partner is a robot.

Nanofabricating neural networks: Strategies, advances, and challenges

Nanofabrication can help us to emulate natural intelligence. Forward-engineering brain gained enormous momentum but still falls short in human neurodegenerative disease modeling. Here, organ-on-chip (OoC) implementation of tissue culture concepts in microfluidic formats already progressed with the identification of our knowledge gap in toxicology and drug metabolism studies. We believe that the self-organization of stem cells and chip technology is a key to advance such complex in vitro tissue models, including models of the human nervous system as envisaged in this review. However, current cultured networks of neurons show limited resemblance with the biological functions in the real nervous system or brain tissues. To take full advantage of scaling in the engineering domain of electron-, ion-, and photon beam technology and nanofabrication methods, more research is needed to meet the requirements of this specific field of chip technology applications. So far, surface topographies, microfluidics, and sensor and actuator integration concepts have all contributed to the patterning and control of neural network formation processes in vitro. However, when probing the state of the art for this type of miniaturized three-dimensional tissue models in PubMed, it was realized that there is very little systematic cross-disciplinary research with biomaterials originally formed for tissue engineering purposes translated to on-chip solutions for in vitro modeling. Therefore, this review contributes to the formulation of a sound design concept based on the understanding of the existing knowledge and the technical challenges toward finding better treatments and potential cures for devastating neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson's disease. Subsequently, an integration strategy based on a modular approach is proposed for nervous system-on-chip (NoC) models that can yield efficient and informative optical and electronic NoC readouts in validating and optimizing these conceptual choices in the innovative process of a fast growing and exciting new OoC industry.

Truth Commission Impact on Policy, Courts, and Society

This review surveys the philosophical underpinnings, conceptual frames, and methodological choices informing the scholarship on truth commission impact to examine whether, how, how much, and why truth commissions influence policy, court decisions, and social norms. It focuses on three areas: ( a) truth commission impact as the product of complex interactions between politicians, civil society activists, and truth commissions; ( b) conceptual and methodological debates and disagreements in studies of impact; and ( c) normative visions guiding expectations and assessments. The findings of empirical scholarship range from partial confirmation of bold and at times vague expectations to damning accounts of commissions’ failure to deliver. In addition to conceptual and methodological choices, scholars’ normative assumptions and expectations also explain divergent accounts of truth commission impact. Three sets of normative frameworks set the expectations in particular: building liberal democratic institutions; transforming socioeconomic, gendered, and racialized hierarchies; and reflecting local values, norms, and power dynamics.

Ceasefire Success: A Conceptual Framework

ABSTRACT The causes and consequences of ceasefires have become a burgeoning area of research. The concept of ceasefire success is integral to this research and plays a key role as either the dependent or independent variable in both qualitative and quantitative work. Despite its importance, it is not clear how ceasefire success should be conceptualized. This critically hampers the progress of theoretical and empirical research on ceasefires. This article offers a conceptual framework based on the central proposition that ceasefire success should be assessed in terms of two inter-related but conceptually distinct criteria: the immediate objective and the underlying purpose. The immediate objective, which is embedded in the definition of a ceasefire, is the cessation of hostilities (either permanently or temporarily). While all ceasefires share this objective, their underlying purpose, which is the reason for establishing the ceasefire, varies widely across cases. The immediate objective and the purpose, while conceptually distinct, are linked since the purpose informs the temporal and geographic scope of the cessation of hostilities. Based on this framework, we argue that researchers interested in ceasefire success need to clearly identify their assumptions and conceptual choices, which should take account of the political context of the ceasefires in question.

A Miraculous Materialism: Lines of Flight inWe Have a PopeandCorpo Celeste

This article considers Nanni Moretti's We Have a Pope ( Habemus Papam, 2011) and Alice Rohrwacher's Corpo Celeste (2011) via the notion of lines of flight as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. We argue that, in spite of stylistic and thematic differences, the two films present clear similarities since they highlight and address conflicts and tensions existing within the contemporary Catholic religious order. Both films present cracks and horizons of becoming within the institutionalised Catholic Church, tracing possible paths of transformation for viewers aligning with and following the two main characters. We argue, concurrently, that Corpo Celeste – because of specific formal and conceptual choices – engenders a complete reimagining of the transcendent realm within a miraculous or animist materialist and immanent paradigm.

Reconstructing and/or Deconstructing Masculinity: A Commentary on the Case of "Tommy"

Men’s psychological well-being has in recent decades garnered increasing attention in research, clinical practice, and larger society. Dewey’s insightful case study provides an occasion for reflecting on the multiple conceptual lenses that can be used to understand and work with masculinity in psychotherapy. In this commentary, we discuss how these conceptualizations of masculinity facilitate different approaches to psychotherapy at the levels of treatment planning and intervention. We offer our own approach to masculine identity work, noting specific points of contrast with the approach illustrated by Dewey. Finally, we critically explore the clinical and societal implications of concepts like "toxic masculinity" and "healthy masculinity" in light of social justice pursuits for gender equality. Throughout, we emphasize the importance for clinicians to make deliberate choices about how masculinity is conceptualized and to consider the pragmatic consequences of these conceptual choices.

De la “hipótesis Nietzsche” al concepto de gubernamentalidad. Desplazamientos teóricos en la obra de Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault developed the notions of government and governmentality in the second half of the 1970s to clarify some of the problems that his treatment of power had given rise to. This text explains the theoretical reasons that led the French to formulate these notions, moving from a series of conceptual choices that the author himself identified with the name of “Nietzsche hypothesis”. Throughout the writing, an attempt is made to show that the categories of government and governmentality allow us to better explain the social practices of asymmetry and domination in our societies than the first notion of power developed by Foucault. The text focuses on the work of the French in the 1970s and accentuates the disruptive character of the article entitled The subject and power.

Sensitivity of Simulated Mountain Block Hydrology to Subsurface Conceptualization

AbstractMountain block systems are critical to water resources and have been heavily studied and modeled in recent decades. However, due to lack of field data, there is little consistency in how models represent the mountain block subsurface. While there is a large body of research on subsurface heterogeneity, few studies have evaluated the effect that common conceptual choices modelers make in mountainous systems have on simulated hydrology. Here we simulate the hydrology of a semi‐idealized headwater catchment using six common conceptual models of the mountain block subsurface. These scenarios include multiple representations of hydraulic conductivity decaying with depth, changes in soil depth with topography, and anisotropy. We evaluate flow paths, discharge, and water tables to quantify the impact of subsurface conceptualization on hydrologic behavior in three dimensions. Our results show that adding higher conductivity layers in the shallow subsurface concentrates flow paths near the surface and increases average saturated flow path velocities. Increasing heterogeneity by adding additional layers or introducing anisotropy increases the variance in the relationship between the age and length of saturated flow paths. Discharge behavior is most sensitive to heterogeneity in the shallow subsurface layers. Water tables are less sensitive to layering than they are to the overall conductivity in the domain. Anisotropy restricts flow path depths and controls discharge from storage but has little effect on governing runoff. Differences in the response of discharge, water table depth, and residence time distribution to subsurface representation highlight the need to consider model applications when determining the level of complexity that is needed.

Is Inequality of Opportunity Robust to the Measurement Approach?

Recent literature has suggested many ways of measuring equality of opportunity. We analyze in a systematic manner the various approaches put forth in the literature to show whether and to what extent different choices matter empirically. Drawing on data for most European countries for 2005 and 2011, we find that the choice between ex‐ante and ex‐post approaches is crucial and has a substantial influence on inequality of opportunity country orderings. Growth regressions also illustrate the potential relevance of conceptual choices.

Göç Araştırmaları Alanında Kavramsal Sorunlar ve Etik/Politik Sorumluluk

Giderek değişen türleri ile göç, günümüzde tüm dünyayı etkileyen bir olgu halini almıştır. Özellikle uluslararası göçün yaygınlığı ve kitleselliği artık ülkelerin en önemli gündem maddesi olmaya başlamış ve ülkeler arasındaki ilişkileri etkileyen politik bir alana dönüşmüştür. Önceki dönemlerden farklı olarak yalnızca azgelişmiş ülkelerden gelişmiş ülkelere değil; kitleselleşen ve çeşitlenen hali ile azgelişmiş ülkeden azgelişmiş ülkeye yöneliş boyutu da sürece eklenmiştir. Bu dönüşümde insanların planlayarak göç etmesi değil “kaçarak” ya da “kaçmak durumunda kalarak” yaşadığı yeri terk etmek durumunda bırakılması ile birlikte gelişmiş Kuzey ülkelerinin sınırlarını yükseltmesi de etkili olmuştur. Böylesine önemli bir konuda hem evrensel bilim anlayışı ile uluslararası bilim camiasını izleme ve alana katkıda bulunma hem de göç alan bir ülkede yaşıyor olmanın verdiği sorumluluğu taşıyarak alanda araştırma yapma ve katkı sunma araştırmacılara son derece önemli etik/politik sorumluluklar yüklemektedir. Bu sorumluluğun yükünü omuzlarında taşımanın verdiği duyarlılık ile alana bakıldığında ilk dikkat çeken konu alandaki kavramsal sorunlarıdır. Bu sorun özellikle politik, bürokratik ve bazı bakımlardan akademik olarak kitlesel göçe hazırlıksız yakalanan Türkiye için daha da belirgindir. Bu durumda uluslararası göç ve göçmenlik konusu daha da hassaslaşmakta ve kavram seçiminin kendi başına bir çaba gerektirdiği ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu çaba bilim insanı sorumluluğu ile yanlı kavramlar yerine “tarafsız” kavramların kullanılması ve yoksa “üretilmesi” anlamını taşımaktadır. Bu yazıda böylesine bir sorumluluk bilinci taşıyarak alandaki kavramsal karmaşayı örnekleme adına belli kavramlar üzerinden sorun ele alınmaya çalışılacaktır. Seçilmiş kavramlar üzerinden kavramsal sorunların nedenlerini ve kavramsal tartışmaları içeren bu çalışmada amaçlanan, göç alanında kullanılan kavramların hassaslığını göstererek farkındalık yaratabilmek ve göç konusundaki diğer kavramlar için de kullanılabilecek bir çerçeve sunabilmektir.