Contextual Explanation Research Articles

Geographic Disparities in Access to Nursing Home Services: Assessing Fiscal Stress and Quality of Care.

We test whether nursing homes serving predominately low-income and racial minority residents (compositional explanation) or located in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of low-income and racial minority residents (contextual explanation) have worse financial outcomes and care quality. Healthcare Cost Report Information System, Nursing Home Compare, Online Survey Certification and Reporting Certification, and American Community Survey. A cross-sectional study design of nursing homes within U.S. metropolitan areas. Data were obtained from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and U.S. Census Bureau. Medicaid-dependent nursing homes have a 3.5 percentage point lower operating ratio. Those serving primarily racial minorities have a 2.64-point lower quality rating. A 1 percent increase in the neighborhood population living in poverty is associated with a 1.20-point lower quality rating, on a scale from 10 to 50, and a 1 percent increase in the portion of neighborhood black residents is associated with a 0.8 percentage point lower operating ratio and a 0.37 lower quality rating. Medicaid dependency (compositional effect) and concentration of racial minority residents in neighborhoods (contextual effect) are associated with higher fiscal stress and lower quality of care, indicating that nursing homes' geographic location may exacerbate long-term care inequalities.

Hydraulic fracturing as an interpretive policy problem: lessons on energy controversies in Europe and the U.S.A.

ABSTRACTThis special issue addresses hydraulic fracturing for shale gas extraction as an interpretive policy problem. Bringing together empirical cases from the U.S.A., the Netherlands, the U.K., Poland, and Germany, we identify three approaches to the interpretation of hydraulic fracturing in the article: understanding its meaning, contextual explanation of the institutionalization of its meaning, and policy design as intervention to alter its meaning. By exploring differences and similarities across these cases, we identified two central tensions in the meaning of shale gas in all cases: (1) economic opportunity or environmental threat and (2) transition toward a more carbon-free energy future or perpetuation of a fossil fuel system. We found that when actors shift the meaning of hydraulic fracturing to consider it predominantly an issue of threat, this explains the dominance of risk governance as an approach to managing the controversy. Alternately, when the meaning of fracking shifts from consideration as an economic opportunity or a bridge fuel to consideration of it as a barrier to an energy transition, this explains the decision to ban fracking. Therefore, a comparative assessment of the papers demonstrates the ways interpretive dimensions of politics can influence the governance of public policy.

The risk of global financial markets: The case of China in a developing country

Globalization has forced many countries to rely on one another for products and services which they are unable to source locally. More so, trade is used as the channel to procure those. South Africa and China share very close relations which are boosted by South Africa’s neo-liberal policy, and its membership of the BRICS bloc. Often, this relationship has been subjected to different interpretations leading to the inability to reach a consensus on South Africa’s intention and exact benefits from neo-liberalization and membership of BRICS bloc. On this basis, we affirm that a notable gap exists in scholarly literature which has not provided the full-fledged understanding of the impact of Chinese manufactured goods into South Africa. We draw from the concepts of protectionism and free trade to expatiate the concerns raised by many with respect to the nature and benefits of the relationship. The paper relied extensively on secondary sources of data from which the authors then analyzed, interpreted and drew conclusions to provide a contextual explanation of the phenomenon of Chinese invasion of South African market. This method was useful for two reasons; namely its capacity to generate new insights and secondly, access to comparative studies. While the results show that South African clothing firms are increasingly shutting down because of lower prices from international competitors (especially China), and also due to structural issues of the present South African economy, we are equally aware of the extensive pressure from interest groups for the South African government to protect major local industries such as steel and textile. We argue anyway that the South African government is playing its cards carefully to avoid a backlash, especially considering its position within the BRICS bloc.

Discrepancies in Women’s Presence between European National Legislatures and the European Parliament

This study offers a contextual explanation for discrepancies in women’s rates of election between European national legislatures and the European Parliament (EP). Many European Union (EU) member states elect more women to the EP than to their national lower legislative houses. However, the margin of difference between women’s presence in the EP and these national legislatures varies widely across member states. Using data for the EU-27, the study corroborates previous research in showing that institutional accounts offer limited leverage in explaining these varying gaps. Instead, it argues that the discrepancy between women’s descriptive representation at national and European levels in each case is the result of contextual factors: voters, parties, and upwardly mobile politicians’ valuation of the EP and EP service moderates the translation of the national pool of potential female candidates into EP officeholders.

Extensions and modifications to explanatory coherence

Thagard’s theory of explanatory coherence (TEC) and its implementation ECHO might be considered as the de facto calculus of explanatory coherence. It is an elaborate framework to compare competing scientific theories. Recently, it has become apparent that TEC is also useful as a tool for the analysis of different scenarios in so-called sense-making systems. To this end, it is expedient to discuss a number of extensions and modifications to TEC. This article proposes a number of extensions and modifications to TEC in the context of sense-making systems. The following topics are discussed: input format, representation of false formulas, representation languages, relaxation methods, schemes of coherence, meta-explanations, scenarios, leaking hypotheses, knowledge acquisition, and contextual explanation. The discussion is detailed enough to carry through changes in existing sense-making systems.

Is the Development of Offenders Related to Crime Scene Behaviors for Burglary? Including Situational Influences in Developmental and Life-Course Theories of Crime.

Developmental and life-course (DLC) theories of crime aim to identify the causes and correlates of offending over the life span, focusing on the within-individual variations that result in criminal and delinquent behavior. Although there are several notable theories in the field, few contain both developmental and situational factors related to offending, and none explain why individuals commit crimes in different ways. This study aims to address these issues by developing typologies of burglars based on developmental and situational characteristics to help identify the various criminal career paths of the offenders, and how these different criminal careers may relate to the commission of offenses. Results of this study indicate that there are five different criminal career paths among the sampled burglars and four different styles of committing the same offense, and that burglars with certain criminal career features tend to commit a specific style of burglary. Through this research, we aim to extend DLC theories to create a more practical and contextual explanation of the relationship between criminal careers and the commission of offenses, and increase the level of within-individual explained variance in criminal behavior.

Contingent Instrumental and Intrinsic Support: Exploring Regime Support in Asia

This study presents a contextual explanation of regime support by arguing that although an individual’s instrumental economic calculation and intrinsic democratic value are important predictors of political support, the extent to which they matter is contingent on the nature of the regime, as defined primarily by democracy. Using data drawn from the second wave of the Asia Barometer, we find that economic perceptions are less important for regime support in democratic countries than they are in authoritarian countries, and an affection for democracy makes people more critical of the political system in authoritarian countries than in democratic countries.

Contested Boundaries: Explaining Where Ethnoracial Diversity Provokes Neighborhood Conflict.

Concerns about neighborhood erosion and conflict in ethnically di- verse settings occupy scholars, policy makers, and pundits alike; but the empirical evidence is inconclusive. This article proposes the contested boundaries hypothesis as a refined contextual explanation focused on poorly defined boundaries between ethnic and racial groups. The authors argue that neighborhood conflict is more likely to occur at fuzzy boundaries defined as interstitial or transitional areas sandwiched between two homogeneous communities. Edge detection algorithms from computer vision and image processing allow them to identify these boundaries. Data from 4.7 million time- and geo-coded 311 service requests from New York City support their argument: complaints about neighbors making noise, drinking in public, or blocking the driveway are more frequent at fuzzy boundaries rather than crisp, polarized borders. By focusing on the broader sociospatial structure, the contested boundaries hypothesis overcomes the "aspatial" treatment of neighborhoods as isolated areas in research on ethnic diversity.

Rethinking Exploration and Exploitation: A Contextual Explanation and Elaboration

In this paper, a contextual effect of exploration and exploitation is examined. Unlike previous studies which have mainly focused on the consequences of exploration and exploitation, this study dra...

Reusability Estimation Model for Object Oriented Software

2 Abstract: Estimating Reusability near the beginning in the software development life cycle, particularly at design phase, may help the designers to integrate required improvement and corrections for improving overall quality of the developed software. This research paper proposes a framework for reusability estimation that provides step by step solution for reusability estimation of object oriented software. As well as study developed a multivariate regression model ‗Reusability Estimation Model for Object-Oriented software' at design phase of software development process. Proposed model has been mathematically validated through proper statistical measures and contextual explanation has been drawn. This study facilitates the software developers, designer and quality controllers, the inclusion of reusability estimation model to access and quantify software reusability for quality product. Reusability estimation in early stage of software development life cycle always supports the designers to improve the reusability of product class diagram and consequently the reusability of software.

Newton and scholastic philosophy.

This article examines Isaac Newton's engagement with scholastic natural philosophy. In doing so, it makes two major historiographical interventions. First of all, the recent claim that Newton's use of the concepts of analysis and synthesis was derived from the Aristotelian regressus tradition is challenged on the basis of bibliographical, palaeographical and intellectual evidence. Consequently, a new, contextual explanation is offered for Newton's use of these concepts. Second, it will be shown that some of Newton's most famous pronouncements - from the General Scholium appended to the second edition of the Principia (1713) and from elsewhere - are simply incomprehensible without an understanding of specific scholastic terminology and its later reception, and that this impacts in quite significant ways on how we understand Newton's natural philosophy more generally. Contrary to the recent historiographical near-consensus, Newton did not hold an elaborate metaphysics, and his seemingly 'metaphysical' statements were in fact anti-scholastic polemical salvoes. The whole investigation will permit us a brief reconsideration of the relationship between the self-proclaimed 'new' natural philosophy and its scholastic predecessors.

Utilising the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 for crime record data

Purpose – This research paper aims to consider the use of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) as a resource providing access to otherwise unavailable data from the UK Police forces. Not seeking to be a critical examination of Police practice, it offers insight to many aspects of records management appertaining to the police service provision of recorded crime. Authors consider whether record management is sufficiently integrated into police practice, given the transparency called for by the FOIA, contemporary societal needs and the growing requirement to provide high value evidence led assessments of activity both within and external to the service. Design/methodology/approach – FOIA was utilised to collect data from all police forces in England and Wales through multiple requests. Carried out over a 15-month period, three requests were collated and responses compared, allowing for examination of compliance with the legislation and reflections on the manner in which records were sought and ultimately disseminated. Findings – Generally, responding to FOIA requests was well managed by English Police Forces. Methods of data management and collection practice were exposed which the authors suggest pose questions on the strength of records management consideration that may be worthy of further work. Configuration management of records is highlighted as an essential function given the disparity of data releases experienced. Research limitations/implications – This research highlights the FOIA as a valuable methodological tool for academic researchers, but it is limited in respect of seeking firm contextual explanation of the Police internal procedures to answer requests. By making common requests over a long time period to the same Police forces, it provides a clear study of FOIA processes and raises potentially significant questions for records management consideration. Practical implications – Findings provide advice on developing use of the FOIA as an academic methodological resource and reflect on the findings impact on internal police use of data and information records. Originality/value – This paper allows for reflection on the importance of high-value records management in the day-to-day business of the police service and questions whether such knowledge areas are suitably considered. Covering an area of little previous academic enquiry, the research informs criminal justice practitioners of areas for potential further discussion and academic researchers on the validity of using the FOIA as a valuable information source.

Wprowadzenie: teologia jako krytyka

This is an introduction to the issue of “Theoretical Practice” (“Praktyka Teoretyczna”), entitled “Economic Theologies” (no. 3, 2015), edited by Mikolaj Ratajczak and Rafal Zawisza. It contains contextual explanation of the theoretical field projected by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, namely a critique of the economic theology elaborated on the basis of early Christian theological debates concerning the concept of divine “oikonomia”. The introduction also includes short summaries of the articles, translations and reviews collected in the issue.

Illegal Oil Bunkering, Violence and Criminal Offences in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters and the Niger Delta Environs: Proposing Extension of Informed Policymaking

While it illegal oil bunkering has gone on around the Niger Delta for about 30 years, it escalated more recently (2012 to present) thereby poses serious implications on many facets of in Nigeria economy, society, and environment. Government's plan to eliminate it or drastically curb the crime has been hampered by inadequate knowledge of the scale of its occurrence in terms of the patterns expressed by its varying intensities or magnitude of its aspects over space, time, and structure. To achieve the objective of highlighting the recent escalation of illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta, this article examined issues helpful issues. It briefly reflected on recent studies of the phenomenal crime, its attendant geopolitical and geo-economic consequences on multinational economies and societies: Nigeria, UK, nations located close to the foregoing: European countries -on the one hand; Nigeria's neighbors; Gulf of Guinea region- on the other. Other aspects that are briefly examined are: contextual explanation of Nigeria's political economy, society, and related histories. Considering and comparing the recent estimation of the history of illegal oil bunkering of over 30 years with a recent study of the phenomenon over less than ten years (2002-2008), it is proposed that a study that extends the temporal scale of the analysis, preferably covering the entire life-span of the phenomenon is necessary. It is concluded that reckoning that the result of the shorter term spatial-temporal analyses study was robust, findings of the longer-term study promises to provide valuable information for strengthening public policy/programs for reducing oil theft in the region. Some aspects of the proposed study are outlined.Keywords: Spatio-Temporal Analyses, Theft, Evidence-Based Policy, Niger Delta1 IntroductionSome challenges have been gnawing at the heart of Nigeria's nationhood warrant concerted action by academic researchers to strengthen evidence-based policymaking and administration. An African multinational counter-insurgency was most recently launched to respond to one of the challenges Nigeria has been facing. This pertains to the new terrorism, describing the mindless insurgency waged by the Islamic, Boko Haram, in northern Nigeria since 2009 to the present (2015) as has cost the country many thousands of human lives, displaced millions internally and internationally. Another debilitating challenge (illegal oil bunkering) in Nigeria's Niger Delta is yet to attract such serious attention. Nigeria's government functionaries e.g. the coordinating minister of the economy, Okonjo-Iweala had feared that having reportedly evolved for over 30 years and counting [7] Oil theft: could make Nigeria's government to lose $12bn in 2013 ... [25]. Both violent challenges have been enormously costly to the Nigerian State as well as Nigerians [19] [21] [18]. While a comprehensive record of the history - including costing of illegal oil bunkering is yet to be undertaken it has been attracting academic research attention. By analyzing offences perpetrated by ocean-going vessels in Nigeria's territorial waters in the late 2000s, the present author led co-workers to inform on the activities of people most likely involved in illegal oil-bunkering in the area within the Niger Delta [10].The cost of illegal oil bunkering to Nigeria's government in terms of forfeited revenue (sizes) has more recently been variously estimated at over a quarter of its annual national budget. The losses arising from illegal oil bunkering to Nigeria's government has been estimated at £7bn a year, the crime causes other stakeholders e.g. the United Kingdom, United States of America, and their allies to incur losses [19] [7] [21]. Moreover, it was reported in 2014 that Nigeria's President Jonathan plans to Spend $1Billion... in a policy taking aims at curbing oil theft in the Niger Delta [11].1.1 Problematizing President Jonathan's desire to tackle illegal oil bunkering: inadequate knowledge of the crime perpetrationPresident Jonathan's plan to tackle illegal oil bunkering requires the formulation of a policy and the latter's implementation in terms of a program (and projects) aiming towards ensuring that various facets related to the challenge are properly understood before meaningful management -including planning can be undertaken. …

Penganekaragaman dan Penyeragaman dalam Aktivitas Nelayan Pulau Sembilan: Sebuah Penjelasan Prosesual dan Kontekstual

This article describes and explains the complexity of dynamic process of sea fishery in Pulau Sembilan since the ancient up to now. With the application of the concepts such as diverging, homogenizing, continuity, and temporal, it has been found that the complexity of dynamic process of the fishing economy has oscillated between divergence and homogeneity. The divergence refers to different kinds of fishing activities based on various fish species by different traditional catch techniques, on the other hand, homogeneity refers to the concentration of fishermen activities on one or more similar kinds of fishing activities such as catching life fish (kerapu, sunu, napoleon) and life lobster as top commodities in the period of 1990s. When the populations of the main fish species were decreased as negative impact of overexploitation since the beginning of the 2000s, there were many fishermen returning again to different kinds of fishing activities. It means that the diverging process began its era. The process of diverging and homogenizing of fishery involve cognitive systems as guide for fishermen decision making. These processes indicate persistent and temporal functions of traditional and new fishing techniques of Pulau Sembilan fishing communities. By processual and contextual explanation, it was clear that diverging and homogenizing of fishery is a continuum of its dynamic process. The processes are influenced by internal and external socio-cultural factors and the change of sea physical environment and natural resource conditions. From this explanation known that new practice of using potassium cyanide contributes significantly to the serious degradation of large part of coral reef zones in and outside of Pulau Sembilan water. Key words: Coral reef resource use, diverging and homogenizing, continuity and temporal functions.

Klaas van Berkel. Isaac Beeckman on Matter and Motion: Mechanical Philosophy in the Making. vii + 265 pp., bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. $39.95 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsKlaas van Berkel. Isaac Beeckman on Matter and Motion: Mechanical Philosophy in the Making. vii + 265 pp., bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. $39.95 (paper).John A. SchusterJohn A. Schuster Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 105, Number 2June 2014 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/678010 Views: 24Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref © 2014 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:John A. Schuster Pitfalls and Opportunities of Contextual Explanation: The Case of Isaac Beeckman’s Invention of the Mechanical Philosophy, Isis 110, no.22 (May 2019): 308–311.https://doi.org/10.1086/703331 Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2014, Isis 105, no.S1S1 (Jul 2015): i–301.https://doi.org/10.1086/680345

Differentiating foothold attacks from strategic feints

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to broaden our understanding of the relationship between footholds and feints, particularly within a context of judo strategy, and propose a framework whereby organizational decision makers might differentiate foothold attacks from strategic feints as competitive moves. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used utilized an inductive approach to framework development using an in-depth case study for contextual explanation of firm rivalry between Nectar and Coca Cola in the Balkans region. To identify the framework dimensions, the paper integrated real options reasoning with game-theoretic and competitive dynamics perspectives. It also used a market multiples approach to conduct a retrospective valuation analysis to support our framework. Findings – The examination of the competitive interplay between Nectar and Coke in the Balkans region provides meaningful intimation of the linkages between foothold moves, feints, and judo strategy techniques. Based on insights from the case, we develop a framework for practical differentiation of foothold attacks from feints. Research limitations/implications – A limiting factor is that only a case approach to framework development was used. However, we accept that the framework dimensions could have been identified using other methods. Another limiting factor is that our analysis only considered foothold moves for the geographic markets, but not for product markets. Practical implications – The paper offers management practitioners an operative framework for differentiating foothold attacks from strategic feints. Originality/value – This unique contribution is the development of an operable framework for practical differentiation of competitive foothold attacks from feints. The extant literature offers no guidance as to how one might differentiate a true foothold attack from a feint. The ability to do so from a competitive standpoint could prove profound for firm success.

Action learning and constructivist grounded theory: powerfully overlapping fields of practice

This paper considers the shared characteristics between action learning (AL) and the research methodology constructivist grounded theory (CGT). Mirroring Edmonstone's [2011. “Action Learning and Organisation Development: Overlapping Fields of Practice.” Action Learning: Research and Practice 8 (2): 93–102] article, which explored the relationship(s) between AL and organisation development, a case is made that AL and CGT are powerfully overlapping fields of practice. An account of practice is included to provide a contextual explanation of the ‘overlap’, and a new methodological praxeology is proposed to the field of practice/practitioner-focused research.

Life contexts make a difference: Emotional stability in younger and older adults.

Emotional stability, as indicated by low affect variability and low affective reactivity to daily events, for example, tends to increase across the adult life span. This study investigated a contextual explanation for such age differences, relating affect variability and affective reactivity to age-group-specific life contexts. A sample of 101 younger and 103 older adults reported daily stressors and negative affect across 100 days. Compared with younger adults, older adults (a) experienced fewer stressors overall, (b) had less heterogeneous stressor profiles, and (c) reported that stressors had less impact on daily routines. As expected, these contextual factors were relevant for interindividual differences in emotional stability. Multiple regression analyses revealed that reduced affect variability and affective reactivity in older adults were associated with these age-group specific life contexts. Moreover, matching younger and older adults on the contextual factors to explore the effects of context on age-group differences further provided support for the (partially) contextual explanation of age differences in emotional stability. Matched subgroups of younger and older adults that were comparable on contextual variables were identified. Affective variability, but not affective reactivity, was more similar in the matched subsamples than in the total samples of younger and older adults. We conclude that contexts in which affective experiences emerge require more attention when aiming to explain interindividual and age group differences in emotional stability. Moreover, future studies need to disentangle the extent to which contexts interact with active self-regulatory processes to shape affective experiences across adulthood.

PERILAKU EKSPLOITASI SUMBERDAYA PERIKANAN TAKA DAN KONSEKUENSI LINGKUNGAN DALAM KONTEKS INTERNAL DAN EKSTERNAL: STUDI KASUS PADA NELAYAN PULAU SEMBILAN

This article will explain the exploitative practices of Pulau Sembilan’s fishermen and their environmental consequences in internal and external contexts. Case materials utilized for the explanation are the data about dominant fishing such as collecting teripang, catching fish by dinamite and voison gained by field research. The exploitative practices are characterized by overexploitation and coral reef degradation. Contextual explanation uses the application and development of action and consequence approach with contextual mode of explanation in ecological anthropology. By applying these approach and mode, the internal/local socio-culture and the external forces (export-market situation, adoption of technological innovation, and government policies) are found as contributing to the various exploitative patterns of behaviour and their environmental consequences.