Conceptual Frame Research Articles

The Development of the Concept of Belongingness in African Philosophy: Contributions of the Conversational School of Philosophy

Abstract The concept of belongingness is fast generating interest among scholars of African philosophy. Several scholars articulate and promote various concepts that relate to belongingness. Some of these concepts include communality, solidarity, relationality, integration, harmony, and complementarity. A common thread among these concepts is that they represent an agglutination of parts for mutual identity, enrichment, and survival. This article focuses on the contributions that members of the Conversational School of Philosophy have made toward the development of the concept of belongingness in African philosophy. Specifically, it briefly highlights the ideas of certain scholars, showing how each animates the concept of belongingness. Though their conceptual framings might vary, each speaks, this article argues, to the idea of belongingness.

The workplace as a site of abortion surveillance

AbstractAnalysis of the experiences and resulting inequalities in reproductive health in the workplace has generated studies of pregnancy, miscarriage, menstruation, fertility and menopause. One issue that has remained outside of this literature is abortion. How abortion is talked about (or not talked about), experienced and perceived as a workplace issue were the central questions in our research undertaken in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2017. Our study comprised a survey (3180 respondents) followed by a series of online focus groups (61 participants) with trade union members from a broad range of workplaces, with the aim of investigating how abortion was positioned in workplaces within legally restrictive regimes. We conceptualize how self‐disciplining, silence and abortion stigma are reproduced in workplaces, drawing on a feminist Foucauldian framework to examine disciplinary power. We examine evidence of how, in conservative societies, abortion talk is suppressed, and we generate new theoretical knowledge on how disciplinary power undermines resistance to anti‐abortion norms and demonstrate the function of the normalizing gaze in the workplace. We conclude by offering avenues for future research on abortion stigma and disciplinary power, to extend further knowledge and conceptual framing of abortion as a workplace issue.

Emergent geographies of digital nomadism: conceptual framing, insights and implications for tourism

Digital nomadism has become a rapidly growing subject of interest both in the public and scientific domain especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Conceptual and empirical developments in research on digital nomads show that the geographic perspective on digital nomadism has been very limited. The geographical framing of digital nomadism and publications in the geographical fora are still scarce. Despite the accelerating trend and potential transformative effect on places, the perspective of place (or speaking in tourism terms—destination perspective) on digital nomadism has been very limited, with the major focus being on the travellers and their experiences. In this article, I will discuss the existing knowledge on digital nomadism through a central geographical concept of place. Among other topics, I will show the way place is involved in the production of digital nomadic mobilities, especially in relation to the issue of geoarbitrage and local impact; specifically, the way place is connected to coworkcation and visa policies. I focus on the main research themes in digital nomadism and show the way they inform geography and tourism geographies.

Educational decisions in the context of urban marginalisation in Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT This paper illuminates the direct and profound implications of urban marginalisation on educational decisions. Using survey and interview data from Mumbai, we trace the distinct profiles of families who select public, private, and aided schools. Our effort to look closely at the distinct lives of these families and our conceptual framing, drawing on capability approach and multidimensional nature of poverty, however, accentuates what these families share amidst their distinctions. We find that structural, multidimensional, and pervasive experiences of urban marginalisation as capability deprivation envelope and at times entirely overwhelm differences in these families. We argue that understanding the implications of urban marginalisation is crucial to frame the discourse on educational decision-making in urban poverty.

Critical application areas of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for sustainable construction in developing countries: the case of Nigeria

Purpose This study aims to explore the critical application areas of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for sustainable buildings. Design/methodology/approach The quantitative research approach was adopted through a structured questionnaire administered to relevant stakeholders of construction projects. The data collected were analysed with the exploratory factor analysis, relative importance index (RII) and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE). Findings The study’s results have categorised the crucial areas of application where construction industry stakeholders should focus their attention. These areas are divided into four categories: management technologies, production technologies, sensing technologies and monitoring technologies. The findings from the FSE indicate that monitoring technologies represent the most significant category, whereas management technologies rank as the least significant. Moreover, the RII analysis highlights that tools management stands out as the most important application of RFID, while dispute resolution emerges as the least significant RFID application. Practical implications The study establishes the core areas of RFID application and their benefits to sustainable buildings. Consequently, it helps stakeholders (consultants, clients and contractors) to examine the RFID application areas and make informed decision on sustainable construction. Furthermore, it provides systematic proof that can aid the implementation of RFID in developing countries. Originality/value The study provides an insight into the possible application areas and benefits of RFID technology in the construction industry of developing countries. It also developed a conceptual frame for the critical application areas of RFID technology in the construction industry of developing countries.

Exploring medical mistrust: from clinic to community

This introduction to the special issue, Exploring Medical Mistrust: From Clinic to Community, provides a conceptual framing of ‘medical mistrust’ from a critical social science lens. This special issue explores and unpacks the complex temporal, social and scalar relationships which are intertwined with contemporary manifestations of mistrust in medicine. We ask what social science and humanities disciplines can offer in relation to wider understandings of the processes driving resistance to and refusal of medical interventions, including but also beyond vaccines. We distil insights derived from diverse spaces of medical encounter, ambivalence and resistance that serve as arenas which generate mistrust. We bring this analysis to deepen an understanding of the frictions and affective relations which exist between vertical and horizontal relations which constitute health systems.

From fragmentation to coherence: student experience of assessment for learning

Student experience of Assessment for Learning (AfL) pedagogies ideally provides multiple entry points for students to take past learning forward into future learning. In practice, points of disconnection may confound the accessibility of AfL’s repertoire of practices. This paper investigates the AfL experiences of students with likely language and attentional difficulties and their peers in three Australian secondary schools. Ninety-two students shared their insights in interviews and focus groups, with data analysed abductively through a conceptual frame of six dimensions. Common practical effects for students included recognition and value of a range of teacher practices. Students with language and attentional difficulties indicated more uneven recall of processes, especially when teacher practice of AfL was fragmented and classroom routines prioritised summative assessment. Fragmentation in turn compromised the emotional and evaluative dimensions of experience that catalyse continuity in learning. Critical insights from students about how they searched for and secured cohesive experiences points to how AfL offers agentic possibilities for learning beyond the immediate activities of the classroom.

The Frame Analysis of Social Movements: The Illustration of A Dynamic Approach to Framing

There is a diversity of approaches to the use of frame analysis in political studies of social movements. In this study, the concept of framing is considered as an analytical tool for considering the processes associated with civic activism of social movements’ representatives and their subjective coverage of these processes within the framework of positioning themselves in social media. The study presents the so-called “dynamic approach” to framing as the most adequate to the subject of research. It is presented in application to the case of the modern Russian political movement “Future. Society” and the campaigns of its activists to protect the Bitsevsky forest from development in 2022-2023. This example describes various opportunities provided to researchers by frame-analytical optics for working with the analysis of social movements. In particular, it can deepen the understanding of the reasons for the emergence of new social movements in modern Russian public space, their gaining popularity and support among the Internet audience and the mobilization of their activists. In addition, the study suggests that researchers consider a number of new questions about the essence of frames and their connection with narratives and storytelling.

The Subjection of the Creature to the Futility of Idolatry: The Scope and Application of Romans 8:19–22

Abstract What Paul has to say in Rom 8:19–22 about the subjection of ἡ κτίσις to futility, its bondage to corruption, and its groaning in pain is usually read as a statement about the general condition of creation, ruined by the sin of Adam as indicated in Rom 5:12, which, along with believers in Jesus, yearns for final restoration. The argument put forward here will be that the conceptual frame for the passage is furnished not by the story of the fall but by the more focused and characteristically Hellenistic-Jewish polemic against “Greek” idolatry developed in Rom 1:19–23. What troubles Paul as a pious Jew in the Mediterranean world is the subjection of the material of creation—wood, stone, gold, silver—to futile religious practices that result in the corruption of life. The whole of creation groans in solidarity with the abused “creature,” but in the “present time” there is also a groaning community that bears confident witness to the approaching end of the impious pagan order.

The Atonement of Our Parent's Sin: Place-Based Narrative of Indonesia’ Drowning Muslim Community

This article emphasised the local Muslim community's response to environmental change and explored how religious narratives play a significant role in shaping their action. Place-based narrative is employed as conceptual frame to scrutinise the community’s understanding of the drowning condition. As a case study, Pantai Bahagia Village in West Java is selected based on two criteria: (1) deemed as the fastest drowning area in the North Java Coast; and (2) the existing Muslim-based environmental activism initiated by local teachers in responding to environmental change. For method, qualitative case study is applied by conducting interviews, group discussions, and direct observation. Findings show that the local history of Pantai Bahagia interacts with a national political event in the 1960s that eventually triggers massive environmental change in the Beting area. Further analysis of the place-based narrative indicates that familiarity with religious expressions encourages ecological awareness in the local community and provides the basis for environmental activism.

Atheist Therapy: Radical Embodiment in Early Modern Medical Materialism

Materialism as a doctrine is, of course, a part of the history of philosophy, even if it was often a polemical construct, and it took until the 18th century for philosophers to be willing to call themselves materialists. Difficulties also have been pointed out in terms of “continuity,” i.e., does what Democritus, Lucretius, Hobbes and Diderot have to say about matter, the body and the soul all belong in one discursive and conceptual frame? Interestingly, materialism is also a classic figure in the history of medicine, often intersecting with philosophical considerations. Notably, the question of body-soul relations. This is apparent in Galen’s treatise on body and soul and then much more massively in the early modern period (with reference to Galen, but also Lucretius, and Aristotelian naturalism). In the following essay I reflect on the exact nature of early modern medical materialism, its philosophical status and contribution.

The entangled becoming in humanities doctoral education

PurposeInstitutional framings of doctoral education mostly do not recognize the existential dimension of doctoral experience. This paper aims to offer an expanded understanding of experiences of doctoral researchers in the humanities with the concept of entangled becoming. This concept is developed through an existential lens by using Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy – particularly his emphasis on emotions such as passion, anxiety and despair – and Denise Batchelor’s derived concept of vulnerable voices.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual framing is used for an empirical study based on ethnographic interviews with 10 doctoral researchers and supplementary observational notes from fieldwork at a university in Denmark. Two of the interview cases were selected to showcase variation across lived experiences and how doctoral researchers voice their entangled becoming.FindingsCommon experiences such as loneliness, insecurity(ies), vulnerability(ies) or passion for one’s research were identified across the interviews. On the other hand, this study shows that each doctoral journey in the humanities envelops a distinct web of entanglements, entailing distinct navigation, that makes each case a unique story and each doctoral voice a specific one.Originality/valueCombining an existential philosophical perspective with a qualitative study, the paper offers an alternative perspective for doctoral education. It connects the humanities doctoral experience to the broader condition of human existence and the sophisticated uniqueness of each researcher’s becoming.

Afro-optimism and progressive modernity: the Fintech story in the African press

ABSTRACT This article offers a first analysis of representation in the African press of the fast-emerging amalgamation of online financial services popularized under the label ‘Fintech’. Authors conducted content analysis of selected African newspapers, deploying the concept of framing to examine how the Fintech story is communicated to news readers in Africa. Authors identified nine frequently apparent tropes in a sample of Fintech news and used these tropes to reveal dominant themes in news coverage. The sample of 386 pieces was drawn from multiple African news sources published between 2016 and 2021, a period characterized by rapid uptake of Fintech across the continent and by a global pandemic. Findings suggests that the Fintech story in African newspapers is a predominantly positive, celebratory, and enabling narrative offering little critical reporting. News media examined demonstrate collaboration with the local/transnational finance sector to present a vision of progressive modernity and to reinforce afro-optimism and a techno-utopian discourse.

Achieving stakeholder alignment in digital transformation: A frame transformation perspective

Digital transformation (DT) offers organizations the opportunity for operational and strategic innovation, leading to increased efficiencies and transformative changes. However, successfully implementing DT initiatives requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders with varying perspectives, motivations, and capabilities. This study explores how stakeholders frame the DT process to achieve alignment and implement DT initiatives. Drawing upon the concepts of frames and frame alignment mechanisms, the study examines how stakeholders strategically influence each other’s interpretations through frame alignment mechanisms. A case study of a council-wide DT initiative in an Australian city council was conducted to analyze stakeholders' strategic alignment efforts. The findings reveal differing interpretations of the DT process among stakeholders and the strategic efforts to align the various interpretations through a frame transformation of planning, implementation, and communication frames. Based on the findings, a process model for achieving alignment in DT initiatives is proposed, capturing the dynamic nature of frames and their interactions. This study contributes to the understanding of stakeholder dynamics and strategic framing in the context of DT initiatives.

Integrating Reinforcement Learning and Discrete Event Simulation Using the Concept of Experimental Frame: A Case Study With MATLAB/SimEvents

Integrating Reinforcement Learning and Discrete Event Simulation Using the Concept of Experimental Frame: A Case Study With MATLAB/SimEvents

Birds of the Air and Winged Creatures: An Ironic Critique of Surveillance in Ecclesiastes and an Ellulian Ethic of Language, Love, Fear, and Freedom

First, this article introduces the person and work of Jacques Ellul and highlights important aspects of his writing on surveillance, power, and violence. It shows that Ellul’s critique of surveillance predates the work of other critics of surveillance such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Giorgio Agamben. This provides a conceptual sociological frame for the more philosophical, theological, and ethical work provided in the conclusion. Second, this essay engages Ellul’s reading of Ecclesiastes, as provisionally demonstrated here, to uncover the wisdom of this curious scriptural text that can help individuals and groups to think and live well in surveillant environments.

Perversion, Sublimation, and Ethic

Abstract: This article focuses on the notion of perversion in early sexual life, coined by Freud as a polymorphous perversity, in offering a rereading of the three prefaces to Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality . From there I comment on Lacan's study of Sade in order to highlight the tragic melancholia that underlies perversion, using sexual drives to compensate for the lack and the loss of objectal satisfaction. The study of the psychosexual dynamic of perversion leads us to the key role of sublimation as the reverse of perversion. This review of the notion of perversion, as an agieren out of depression and out of the lack of satisfactory sublimation, thus provides a conceptual frame to reflect on the paradoxes of the contemporary sexual landscape, sexually liberated but diseroticized.

Who Cares for Families? Narrative(s) of Return in Postsocialist Europe

This introduction to the thematic cluster “Who Cares for Families? Narrative(s) of Return in Postsocialist Europe” identifies and analyzes its core concept—the narrative of return. Families of today are talked about differently, and how they are narrativized matters. The narrative that stresses that family is under threat and in need of defense or a special form of care, figuring care as restitution of the natural, traditional, or proper family, is termed the narrative of return. The trope of return is strongly normative and non-descriptive, as it relies on mythical temporalities that ought to be restored in our present. The article first defines the choice of concepts—narrative, return, care, and threat. Second, it applies this conceptual frame in the transnational context, particularly within the transnational anti-gender campaigns in the populist moment. Third, it focuses on the postsocialist part of Europe, where, as the entire thematic cluster aims to demonstrate, the narrative of return has gained particular currency. In eastern Europe, these narratives are integral to larger projects of restoration of national agendas and serve as a tool of double emancipation: from the Soviet past and from the present European Union. Political actors using narratives of return advocate and successfully push through fundamental changes in the political frameworks and value systems of the postsocialist countries. In sum, the introduction aims to demonstrate the conceptual background of a political tool.

Who owns religion? Scholars, Sikhs and the public sphere

ABSTRACT This paper revisits the question “Who Owns Religion?”, in the context of a recent analysis of debates in religious studies, marked by controversy and friction between members of religious traditions and scholars writing about those traditions. Habermas’s concept of a public sphere is at the center of an analysis by Laurie Patton that uses six case studies, including one involving the Sikh tradition. The paper reviews this conceptual framing and the accompanying analysis, provides a reconsideration of the Sikh case, which pertains to the construction of religious boundaries in that tradition, and draws more general lessons, including the functioning of academia as well as the contextual appropriateness of the concept of the public sphere. It argues that “eruptions” in the public sphere can be reduced by improvements in academic knowledge production, to provide a better foundation for navigating differences in modes of reasoning, or between the religious and the secular.

IMPACT OF VIDEO ASSISTED TEACHING PROGRAMME ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE REGARDING MENSTURAL MANAGEMENT AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS FROM SELECTED URBAN AREA OF BANGALORE, KARNATAKA

A research of Impact of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Menstrual Management among adolescent Girls in selected urban area of Bangalore was conducted by investigator during year 2019-2022 .The objectives of the study were:Primary ObjectivesImpact of Video Assisted Teaching Program on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding Menstrual Management among adolescent Girls.The conceptual frame work is designed on the J.W.Kennys open system model. A descriptive survey approach was used for the study .Samples were selected from School and Pre university College which is belongs to urban area of Bangalore .The content validity of developed tools was established by 5 experts and necessary modifications were made as suggested by them. The sample size was of 400 and random sampling technique was used for the selection of the area and samples. The investigator used structured questionnaire, Scale and check list to assess the Knowledge, attitude and Practice on Menstrual management among adolescent girls in selected area of Bangalore e, Descriptive and inferential statistics wereUsed to analyze the data.The comparison of pre test and post test Knowledge, Attitude and Practice score regarding Menstrual management among adolescent girls unveiled that the knowledge score was 77.5 % with the mean of 16.97 in pre test where as in post test it was 94.8 % with the mean of 10.07 The attitude score was 2.3 in pre test with the mean of 24.90 where as in post test it was 35%with the mean of 34.9 and the practice score 72% with the mean of 19.9 in pre test where as in post test it was 95.8 % with the mean of 24.72 the mean score was increased in terms of Knowledge, attitude and practice because of the administration of Video assisted teaching programme regarding Menstrual management On the basis of finding of the study, the following recommendations were offered for further research. 1. Men and boys participation in menstruation hygiene is essential for girls and womens empowerment. Men and boys should be taught about menstrual hygiene so that they understand it is not a taboo subject. 2. In this area, more research is needed. Menstrual hygiene should be better managed through research, and sanitary napkins should be more accessible and affordable. 3. Every fresh batch of students in each school should have a regular conversation about menstrual hygiene with a number of academicians and other organisations.