Conceptual Indeterminacy Research Articles

Populist by a distance: a relational framework for unifying ideology, rhetoric, and leadership style in populism studies

ABSTRACT Theories of populism have been troubled by the problem of essentially contested definitions of its basic properties. It is difficult to distinguish populism from conventional political behavior. This produces the problem of ‘degreeism’, while other features of populism are expressed in relationships rather than as specific categories of attitudes and behaviors. These problems cannot be eliminated by redefining or excluding aspects of populism in favor of a more restrictive definition. We argue that, given that conceptual indeterminacy is inherent in populism, it is better conceptualized as a relational concept. The article articulates a new, relational conception of populist ideology, discourse/rhetoric, and leadership style in terms of relative distance from an implicit ‘center ground’. Populism is marked by position-taking of distance away from the center in policy (distal), a wide distance between people and elites and/or outsiders (distal), and close distance between leaders and followers (proximal). A general, relational model of populism is deduced in this form: distal – distal – proximal. Far from being an abstract claim, we illustrate how the relative distance framework offers descriptive and analytical tools for social scientists focused on populism.

Wetland Poetics: Regional-Situatedness as Planetary Practice

Public debates around the current environmental crisis in Latin America have made clear that certain ecosystems are perceived as more charismatic than others. The Amazon Rainforest and Glaciers of Patagonia receive much more research attention and policy coverage than, say, the wetlands of the Paraná Delta River. Perhaps some of wetlands’ lesser public appeal can be attributed to their conceptual indeterminacy. In 1971, the Wetland Convention of Ramsar in Iran defined wetlands as “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters” (“Article 1”). Despite this slippery definition, which we could generally sum up as areas flooded either temporarily or permanently, wetlands are an integral part of the natural systems that make life on earth possible: not only do they serve as fresh water reservoirs, 40% of the world’s biodiversity lives or reproduces on them (“Cambio climático”). Crucially, wetlands cushion the impacts of rain and store more carbon than any other ecosystem, allowing them to function as great purifying filters and making them important allies in the fight against climate change.

Managerial Discretion, Market Failure and Democracy

Managers often have discretion in interpreting their ethical requirements, and they should seek democratic guidance in doing so. The undemocratic nature of managerial ethical discretion is shown to be a recurring problem in business ethics. Joseph Heath’s market failures approach (MFA) is introduced as a theory better positioned to deal with this problem than other views. However, due to epistemic uncertainty and conceptual indeterminacy, the MFA is shown to allow a much wider range of managerial discretion than initially appears. The paper explores how this range can be narrowed down with democratic input, comparing models based on formal state institutions and on the informal public sphere. A case study from the pharmaceutical industry illustrates the merits of the informal public sphere approach.

Introduction: New Critical Directions in Global South Studies

Abstract This introductory article to the special issue takes stock of the scholarly impact of the last fifteen years of Global South studies scholarship in the field of literary and cultural studies, and comparative literature in particular. It contends that the Global South offers a dynamic framework for comparison of economic, political, and cultural inequalities beyond state-centric forms of analysis, and for this reason, is uniquely germane to the interests of comparative literature. The Global South has become a significant category for the field not in spite of its conceptual indeterminacy, but precisely because the resulting lack of fixity provides an adaptive and multiscalar comparative framework. That is, it offers an opportunity to shift the scale through which we compare, in which North–South or South–South analysis may occur across national lines or from block to block. True to the relational and directional spirit of the concept, the editors understand Global South studies as a series of directions or movements, a confluence of critical currents emerging from a variety of already existing fields. Ultimately, this introduction traces those critical coordinates and points to recent and promising directions in this scholarship as it intersects with comparative literature today.

Inescapable Frameworks: Ethics of Care, Ethics of Rights and the Responsible Research and Innovation Model

Notwithstanding the EU endorsement, so far Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is discussed as regards its definition, its features and its conceptual core: innovation and responsibility. This conceptual indeterminacy is a source of disagreements at the political level, giving rise to a plurality of outcomes and versions upheld within the same model of governance. Following a Charles Taylor’s suggestion, this conceptual opening of the RRI model can be explained by the existence of plural, clashing moral frameworks: discourse ethics, Aristotelian ethics, care ethics, dignitarian ethics, rights-based moralities etc. Given the diffusion in the RRI literature of references to care ethics and its justification of participation and responsibility, I will compare the conceptual premises of this philosophical line with those of ethics of rights, which have been criticised by advocates of care ethics. I will argue that public engagement based on only needs cannot lead to responsible outcomes since it produces however the exclusion of some needs, covered instead by rights. In order for participation to be effective, rights or an alliance between the two perspectives is required.

Ecological Theory and the Superfluous Niche

Perhaps no concept has been thought more important to ecological theorizing than the niche. Without it, technically sophisticated and well-regarded accounts of character displacement, ecological equivalence, limiting similarity, and others would seemingly never have been developed. The niche is also widely considered the centerpiece of the best candidate for a distinctively ecological law, the competitive exclusion principle. But the incongruous array and imprecise character of proposed definitions of the concept square poorly with its apparent scientific centrality. I argue this definitional diversity and imprecision reflects a problematic conceptual indeterminacy that challenges its putative indispensability in ecology.

Good Fit versus Meaning in Life

Meaning in life is too important not to study systematically, but doing so is made difficult by conceptual indeterminacy. An approach to meaning that is promising but, indeed, conceptually vague is Jonathan Haidt's 'cross-level coherence' account. In order to remove the vagueness, I propose a concept of 'good fit' that a) captures central aspects of meaning as it is discussed in the literature; b) brings the subject of meaning under the survey of the dynamicist or 'embodied-embedded' philosophy of cognition; and c) allows the theoretical discussion on meaning to become more focused and systematic. The article addresses two apparent problems with the idea of 'good fit', namely the fact that both challenges and relations of an agent with the outside world are central to meaning. It is finally pointed out which implications adopting the concept of 'good fit' instead of 'meaning' would have.

Erratum

Joe Gerlach and Thomas Jellis (2015) Guattari: Impractical philosophy, Dialogues in Human Geography, 5(2), 131-148 (Original doi: 10.1177/2043820615587787). The above article that appeared in issue 5:2 of Dialogues in Human Geography (DHG) erroneously acronymized the terms ‘non-representational theory/theories’ into ‘NRTs’, thereby negating one of the text’s key arguments. This has been corrected in the following pages: On p. 133, under section heading ‘I: Rush’, 8th line. This is perhaps most evident in cultural geography which, as Cresswell (2012: 98) notes, can be rather insistent on examining ‘an endless series of citations’. Indeed, it is the emergence and proliferation of non-representational theories that have done much to promote but also develop the spatial dimensions of this kind of philosophy (see Anderson and Harrison, 2010; see also Doel, 1999). On p. 134, first column, 4th line, should read as This quickening is not exclusive to Guattari’s assemblage of thinking, and indeed the rush to theoretical applicability finds echoes in contemporary human geography elsewhere, particularly in cultural geography and specifically in the conceptual tumult of non-representational theory (Thrift, 2008), wherein despite the manifest appeals made by its exponents to hold on to a radical conceptual indeterminacy is still liable to an awkward ‘sedimentation’ or fixation – of ideas, practices and philosophical traditions – particularly by those scholars searching for the misplaced security offered by a seemingly stable ‘theoretical framework’. On p. 139, First column, 9th line: This is in keeping with the ethos of many non-representational theories (see Thrift, 2004) that understand the world as incomplete and inconsistent, necessitating an approach that is animated by a spirit of affirmative experimentation.

Reflections on education policy in Spain: a problematic discipline

Abstract Education policy in Spain, a curricular discipline in the Education Faculties since 1974, has been a foreign body —because of its inevitable connection with political sciences— both in the former Degree in Education and in the current one, a result of the curriculum adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Degree in Education aims to train teachers, not education-oriented political scientists, but, unlike other similar disciplines —education sociology or education economy— which have managed to find their place in the curriculum as supplementary knowledge, education policy runs the risk of being distorted if we do not root it in the political sciences it stems from. The reflections presented in this paper therefore focus on the three major problems the discipline does not get to resolve: its conceptual indeterminacy, the right nature of this body of knowledge and the lack of canonical boundaries of its knowledge fields.

Regional Organizations and the Responsibility to Protect in the Context of the Arab Spring

Regional Organizations and the Responsibility to Protect in the Context of the Arab Spring

Protestantism and drama in early modern England

Protestantism and Drama in Early Modern England, Adrian Streete. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. x + 298. Hardback $95.00. For long time now one line of thinking about modern has wanted trace its origins the Reformation; for about as long, another has found in English Renaissance tragedy, Hamlet above all, special venue for this new personage. Adrian Streete places his intricate and ambitious book in both traditions, with few modifications. First, he wants resist what he sees as the current trend toward plural, revisionist agenda, which stresses the conceptual indeterminacy (7) of any religious denomination the point that and Catholic no longer have any irreducible essence but appear instead as contingent, hybrid categories. In that case, Streete worries, critics have done little more than assert the fact of hybridity before moving on, whereas he wants contemplate seriously what identity means, notwithstanding the risk of essentialism. Second, he acknowledges the work of several medievalists, in particular the criticism of David Aers's A Whisper in the Ear of Early Modernists (13 n. 47), and so allows, at least in principle, for complex medieval that preceded modernity. By the same token, he tries avoid story of transition that would position the Reformation in a narrative of subjective emancipation toward incipient rationality (29). Streete has done large amount of reading in the primary and secondary literature, skillfully orients his reader in ongoing debates (e.g., over Calvinism, 98-101), and selects rich array of quotations from which construct his arguments. Whether one agrees with those arguments or not it is easy learn great deal from his tactics. He has an uncommon gift for taking theology on its own terms, no matter how arcane or fanciful. That gift is matched welcome appreciation for continental philosophy: Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, Adorno, Althusser, Foucault, Levinas, and z!izek all make appearances, the latter in particular having left deep mark. The book falls into two parts - one dealing primarily with theology, the second with theater (mainly Doctor Faustus, Richard II, and The Revenger's Tragedy via Hamlet), though doses of early modern religious lyric appear throughout elucidate different points. Streete keeps several threads going through all these chapters, far the most important his contention that the question of interiority or subjectivity entails debate about mimesis. It is tremendous strength of the book have shown in the depths of the most abstract theology how Protestants' rejection of images made them all the more subject the lure of simulacra. Lacking direct access their archetypal, divine model, they finally must acknowledge, Streete claims, precarious and fundamentally surrogate status of the figurai (218). As with any book in multiple parts, uniting them poses special challenge. More often than not, Streete expects his theological prelude explain the because the Reformation changes everything first and the then illustrates: so for example theology describes a tension between the ideal divine subject and its secular mimetic copy that provides one of the main sources of tragedy in the period (26). The patterns of subject formation that Streete finds in theology are repeated by (79) or deeply felt in the drama (123), even where the manages to make critical use of the theological model that it borrows (79), as in Marlowe's audacious parody (160; also 145, 158). Only rarely does Streete entertain the possibility that the influence can work the other way round: namely, that Protestant theological writers might have borrowed trick or two from the theater, that arena of studied polyvocality (116) - in which case I wondered if pluralist revisionism might not have point. At any rate some people will be disappointed see taking so passive position with respect theology, when (in my view at least) theatre has helped shape Christianity from the crown of thorns forward. …

Global Justice and the (Ir)relevance of Indeterminacy

Global justice is one of the most indiscriminately used notions in international debate, usually taken to reflect a moral imperative of securing fairness between differently positioned States. As such, global justice might accurately be described as a meta-principle, used here to refer to its universal scope and the overarching conceptual reach of its subject-matter, as well as possessing a high degree of conceptual indeterminacy. It is suggested that there are three levels of uncertainty: indeterminacy of scope (to what is it relevant?), of content (what does it require?) and of application (is justice something that can even be understood at the global level?). In recognizing this uncertainty, the paper nevertheless concludes that while the recourse to principle in political and legal debate can never anticipate the attainment of justice, this should not marginalize the significance—the relevance—of striving for fairness at the global level, particularly between economically divergent States.

Dennett on seeming

Dennett’s eliminativist theory of consciousness rests on an implausible reduction of sensory seeming to cognitive judgment. The “heterophenomenological” testimony to which he appeals in urging that reduction poses no threat to phenomenology, but merely demonstrates the conceptual indeterminacy of small-scale sensory appearances. Phenomenological description is difficult, but the difficulty does not warrant Dennett’s neo-Cartesian claim that there is no such thing as seeming at all as distinct from judging.

Factor analytic studies of the neo personality inventory and the five-factor model: The problem of high structural complexity and conceptual indeterminacy

The purpose of the study was threefold: (1) to analyze the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and the five-factor model—using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)—with the aim of establishing a Norwegian version of the instrument; (2) to compare the results of the analyses with the original NEO-PI simple structure five-factor models as well as later revisions of the model; and (3) to discuss causes of variations that are found in the NEO-PI literature on structural representations of personality traits. The sample comprised 973 subjects representative of the non-institutionalized Norwegian adult population. On the whole, compared with the original five-factor model and later (minor) revisions, both EFA- and CFA-strategies indicated a much more complex and fine-grained structure of items and scales. However, most of the discrepancies relative to the original model(s) were comparable to findings from recent American and German studies. Moreover, content analyses of the revised five domains as well as facets (sub-scales) indicated acceptable conceptual interpretability and plausibility. Thus, judged by conventional (mostly EFA-based) methods and criteria, the Norwegian NEO-PI version appears satisfactory in several respects. Nevertheless, it is claimed that the whole field of research is characterized by a profound conceptual indeterminacy. This problem stems largely from (1) the lack of explicit criteria-based definitions of essential concepts, and the corresponding reliance on rather arbitrary indicators (symptoms) of the alleged underlying dimensions; (2) the semantical-logical complexity of items and scales and the high probability of conceptual cross-linking; (3) the widespread tendency to define constructs on the basis of (empirical) covariance structures instead of inherent conceptual features; and (4) the masking of structural complexity by the extensive use of EFA-based methods and criteria to approximate simple structure.

Schizophrenia and indeterminacy: The problem of validity

The paper attempts to account for the confusion over the validity of the concept of 'schizophrenia' in terms of two closely related aspects of conceptual indeterminacy. Firstly, it is identified on the basis of a breakdown in intelligibility, but what constitutes such a breakdown is indeterminate. Secondly, the concept sits between the categories of natural disease or illness on the one hand, and character trait or moral failing or gift on the other. This entails an indeterminacy in attempting to define the role that physiological explanation could have. Light may be thrown on the concept by exploring a distinction between a life story in which the schizophrenic condition emerges as the conclusion of the story and a causal process in which the condition is the end result or final consequence.