Controversial Practice Research Articles

Controversial practice of rewarding for publications in national journals

The letter to the Editor refers to the controversial research evaluation practice in Ukraine and which is based on counting the number of publications in journals included in selected citation databases, for instance Scopus. I have selected fifty journals in which Ukrainian scholars have written the largest number of articles and reviews for 2015–2019 (Scopus data). I found that 78% of these titles are journals of Ukrainian publishers, or Ukrainian translated journals. Accordingly, current Ukrainian evaluation practice leads to the higher chances of state recognition and funding being received mainly by institutions whose journals are already presented in citation databases, without assessing the scientific impact of research outputs.

Homeschooling, democracy, and regulation: An essay review of Homeschooling: The history and philosophy of a controversial practice

Homeschooling, democracy, and regulation: An essay review of Homeschooling: The history and philosophy of a controversial practice

“No piracy talk”: how online brand communities work to denormalize controversial gaming practices

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explain how online brand communities work to support the denormalization of controversial (i.e. illegal yet normalized) gaming practices.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study was characterized by long-term immersion in an online brand community for Brazilian Xbox gamers. The dataset includes online and offline interactions with community members, interviews, and online archival data.FindingsThis study shows how online brand community members promoted legal gaming in a market where piracy was prevalent. It demonstrates how community members worked to establish coherence; engaged in cognitive participation; developed collective action that extended beyond the community; and reflected on their own work.Research limitations/implicationsThis study identifies online brand communities as a potential ally in combating controversial practices in online gaming; complements individual and behavioral approaches in explaining why consumers adopt controversial practices in online environments; and adds a normalization framework to the toolkit of Internet researchers.Practical implicationsThis study identifies ways in which the potential of online brand communities can be leveraged to reduce consumer adherence to controversial gaming practices through denormalizing these and normalizing alternative practices that may be more desirable to companies and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis long-term, qualitative study inspired by normalization process theory offers an innovative perspective on the online practices of consumers who engage with a brand in ways that create value for themselves and for the brand.

An analysis of residue net estate distribution to bayt al-māl in Singapore

Purpose This paper aims to examine the current practice in Singapore regarding an inheritance issue: disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-māl, which is identified as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, MUIS). The issue arises when the deceased leaves farḍ (fixed-share) heir(s) and/or dhawū al-arḥām (outer family members) but there is no ʿaṣabah (agnatic residuary heir by blood). Farḍ legal heirs are those beneficiaries for whom the Qurʾān prescribes inheritance of a pre-determined share. Disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-māl results in a reduction in the share due to the farḍ legal heir or worse, a total loss to the dhawū al-arḥām legal heirs. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach based on library and case study research has been adopted to elaborate practices that fall under the purview of the Administration of Muslim Law Acts (AMLA), Chapter 3. Findings The current practice seems biased against, especially, women and spouses. It creates high dissatisfaction in the community, especially those affected by such practices. This paper elaborates on the practice of residual net estate distribution in Singapore and the contemporary practices of the four Sunni madh-habs – the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī jurisprudential schools – in other countries. Research limitations/implications In Singapore, Muslim law is defined and implemented by the civil court, not the Syariah Court or MUIS. The recommendation to change from the current classical practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS to the contemporary practice that is relevant to today’s context lies with the civil court and Government of Singapore. The choice for the Syariah Court and MUIS to adopt the contemporary practice as per Ḥanafī School by rule of the court or the government is beyond this research. Zayd ibn Thābit, Caliph Abū Bakr and a small number of companions held the view that the residue net estate asset must go to the bayt al-māl, the current classical practice. The contemporary practice adopted by Sayyidina ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, Jābir ibn Zayd and majority of the companions’ view, is not in favour of the residue net estate asset to go to the bayt al-māl; rather they view that it must be returned to the legal heirs. Practical implications Awareness in the community in the current controversial practice in Singapore when the residue net estate through the farāʾiḍ law was giving to bayt al-māl instead of returning to farḍ or dhawū al-arḥām in the absence of the ʿaṣabah legal heir as stated in the Inheritance Certificate issued by Syariah Court. Social implications To understand the contemporary Muslim law and the practical and just application in today’s Singapore context as supported by the AMLA, Chapter 3. Originality/value This is the first study that challenges the current practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS in Singapore, thereby endeavouring to restore justice to the community.

The Role of Rater Motivation and Training in Effective Performance Appraisal System in Public Sector Universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Performance appraisal is considered to be the most significant element of performance management but often the former involves controversial practices, among other variables influenced by accuracy and effectiveness. However, it is generally understood that performance appraisal system commonly result into positive organizational outcomes, yet the accuracy of the measuring tools is still an arguable issue with more criticisms. The ongoing matters are measured and tested as a case study approach by paying attention on higher education institutions. Since higher education is progressively playing a vital role in economic competitiveness of a country. Aiming to examine the effect of rater motivation and rater training on performance appraisal process in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and recognized as a critical contribution to organizational and people’s performance. Thus, this study finds the effects and consequences of rater motivation and rater training on performance appraisal system. This study is survey based, 300 questionnaires in total were distributed among the faculty of public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Out of which 160 were received back recording response rate of 53%. Findings of this study indicate that there was positive and significant relationship between rater motivation and performance appraisal and also between rater training and performance appraisal in public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The current study offers researchers with the opportunity to search performance appraisal from a new perspective which has never been explored before in a developing country like Pakistan.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Risk in Mandatory Corporate Responsibility Disclosure

The extraction of natural resources is a controversial business practice that has profound ethical and economic risk implications for both firms involved in extractive activities and society at large. In response to these implications, the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to create the first ever rules requiring annual corporate responsibility disclosures. The two proposed rules, requiring disclosure of the source of “conflict minerals” and of payments to foreign governments by extractive firms, conjured intense debate among stakeholders, largely related to the risks of firms providing (or not providing) the information. These risks span from required disclosures increasing compliance costs for firms to non-disclosure threatening human rights. In this study, we seek to understand the way in which stakeholders perceive the risks associated with corporate responsibility disclosures. We analyze comment letters submitted to the SEC related to the two disclosure rules through the lens of Douglas’s (Douglas, Risk acceptability according to the social sciences. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986) cultural perspectives of risk. We find consistencies across the two proposed disclosures with regard to the presence of three risk perspectives within the comment letter discourse for each proposal. We find inconsistencies, however, in the underlying nature of risk perceived across the two rules, which we argue reveals an aspect of risk that incorporates ethicality and is ultimately linked to reputational considerations. We complement these insights by analyzing the market reaction to the proposed regulations. Overall, our analysis suggests that stakeholders’ perceptions of risk have consequences for how risk is perceived and acted upon in the market.

Payment-For-Order-Flow Implications for Robinhood Users

The digital age has transformed financial exchanges from high-stress trading floors to automated processes ruled by algorithms and online brokerage firms. Payment-for-order-flow is a controversial practice, ironically instituted by Bernard Madoff (Farrell, 2008, pg.19) and approved by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2009. Although the practice has expanded liquidity to the NYSE and has made markets more efficient, there are questionable aspects of payment-for-order-flow, spearheaded by online brokerage firms, that contribute to the potential exploitation of retail investors. This term paper highlights problems associated with payment-for-order-flow, assesses current policies regulating and allowing this practice, and explores policy alternatives. Additionally, it utilizes Robinhood Financial, an online brokerage firm, as a case study to characterize payment-for-order-flow and its broader implications for stakeholders in the United States. This term paper addresses implications of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Securities and Exchange Commission policies, the use of data by market makers, lack of transparency, and conflicts of interest that brokers face. The recommended policy alternative, in this paper, aims to respect individual autonomy over digital financial data yet allows for the market and economy to maximize benefits. The proposed policy will enable payment-for-order-flow to continue to exist but ensure that retail investors have the option to opt-out but continue to engage in the market. Additionally, the policy requires that brokerage firms immediately notify retail investors of any order routing decisions along with accompanying explanations for these decisions.

Author Meets Critics: The Social Impact of Advertising: Confessions of an (Ex-)Advertising Man

Abstract: This Author Meets Critics conversation focuses on Tony Kelso's book The Social Impact of Advertising: Confessions of an (Ex-)Advertising Man (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Kelso meets with other advertising experts from several fields to discuss the following topics: what is meant by the social impact of advertising, the wealth of social and cultural topics covered in the book, using personal reflections in a textbook, the importance of history in understanding advertising, the effectiveness of digital advertising, the applicability of the book in teaching various survey courses, the ideologies and values supported by advertising, and advice for professors and industry practitioners. The book covers a brief history of modern advertising in the United States, advertising's influence on the so-called non-advertising content of the media and digital surveillance, the ideological themes advertising inadvertently delivers, how advertising can privilege or marginalize various social constructions of identity, the controversial practice of targeting children, and how corporations often use advertising to present a positive face while masking some of their profoundly darker sides.

Dismissal policies for vaccine refusal among US physicians: a literature review

ABSTRACT Childhood vaccination is one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, yet increasingly, parents question the safety of and need for vaccines. This has led to increased rates of vaccine delay and refusal and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Physicians struggle with how to respond to families who refuse vaccines, as there are few known effective interventions to convince a family to vaccinate. In the United States, the practice of dismissing families for vaccine refusal appears to be increasing as a strategy for dealing with vaccine refusal. In this review, we review the literature surrounding this controversial practice, starting with the impact that vaccine-refusing families have on medical practices, followed by a review of dismissal policies of US physicians, and ending with a discussion of the ethics of this practice.

The role of discourses in enacting neoliberal urbanism: Understanding the relationship between ideology and discourse in planning

Claims that neoliberalism has been shaping planning practice and the production of space abound in planning literature. In this article, neoliberalism is treated not only as a set of policies but also as an ideology that organizes a particular way of seeing and orients action accordingly. The article explores how a particular socially shared belief system (ideology) that is taken as common sense (naturalized) provides the basis for particular ways of talking (discourses) about planning and urban development that legitimize and justify certain actions while making alternative possibilities unthinkable. In this sense, the article focuses on ideology in action and provides an empirically grounded discussion that renders ideology visible. Thus, ideology emerges from the empirical case as an explanatory mechanism to make sense of the dominant discourse that legitimizes the proliferation of suburban gated communities in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, in Brazil. The deconstruction of the discourse reveals content and structural properties that combine environmental concerns and neoliberal principles to turn potentially controversial practices into desirable outcomes. The ideological nature of the discourse is revealed when alternative ways of seeing and acting challenge its commonsensical and taken for granted claims. While simplifying complex relationships and rendering important elements invisible, the discourse appeals to a wide range of actors who hold different individual and professional values. Ultimately, this article offers insights into the mechanisms through which ideologies are manifested, reproduced, and materialized in planning practice.

АНАЛИЗ КЛЮЧЕВЫХ ПОЛОЖЕНИЙ ПОСТАНОВЛЕНИЯ ПЛЕНУМА ВЕРХОВНОГО СУДА РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ ОТ 09.07.2020 № 18 «О СУДЕБНОЙ ПРАКТИКЕ ПО ДЕЛАМ О НЕЗАКОННОМ ПЕРЕСЕЧЕНИИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ ГРАНИЦЫ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ И ПРЕСТУПЛЕНИЯХ, СВЯЗАННЫХ С НЕЗАКОННОЙ МИГРАЦИЕЙ»

The norms introduced at different times into Russian criminal legislation and enshrined in Articles 322, 3221, 3222 and 3223 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation have a number of legal defects, resulting in a controversial practice that has generated a lot of debate in the scientific community regarding this research issue. There was a need to accumulate and analyze the existing judicial practice, taking into account advanced scientific views. As a result, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued a Resolution aimed at regulating criminal liability for violations of migration legislation. After that, the author of the article conducts a detailed analysis of the said judicial act and on this basis draws conclusions about the set of positive and negative aspects contained in it in order to help create a uniform law enforcement practice.

LEGAL PERSPECTIVE OF FEMALE CIRCUMCISION: STUDY OF WOMAN RIGHTS TO ACCESS INFORMATION OF SEXUAL HEALTH IN INDONESIAN AND SOMALIA

Introduction: Female circumcision is a controversial practice in some countries, including Indonesia. The female circumcision also occurs in Somalia and has impact of medical complication. Objective: This study aims to know the implication of female circumcision in Indonesia, especially in Situbondo, Surabaya and Bangkalan with implication of female circumcision in Somalia. Methods: Quantitative methodology is used as the methodology, while the samples are taken through random sampling and given questionnaire, interview and comparison with Somalia. Results: The finding showed that most women are still does not know about the function of female circumcision in Indonesia and Somalia, they only following the tradition within their community. The patriarchy culture that view woman as a lower creature makes woman cannot get her right in asking about reproductive health. In Somalia, there are impact of circumcision with reproductive health and many complications with health. It even considered as taboo and unnecessary. Female circumcision that firstly legalized by the Health Minister is now prohibited due to health problem. Therefore, female circumcision is no longer legal in Indonesia meanwhile in Somalia is legal in their government. Conclusion: In Indonesia, female as a part of society did not have any rights on their own self. Their life is depend on the tradition which sustain until present and will be continued for next generation. The tradition is often spread within the religious belief and vice versa. Therefore, the practice of female circumcision is still happening in three regions, including Surabaya, Bangkalan and Situbondo. Meanwhile In Somalia, female as a part of society who has any rights on their own self. In Somalia, female circumcision was supported by society and government in Somalia.

Application of the concept of collective dominance in the Russian competition law: challenges and solutions

The Russian competition law does not include the definition of the concept of collective dominance, and the notion of this institution itself contains many gaps. The indicated disadvantages of statutory regulation and simplified approaches of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, which became possible due to the formal approach, have led to the formation of controversial law enforcement practice by the antimonopoly authority and courts. The article presents the analysis of legal regulation, as well as the law enforcement practice, and proposition on solutions to the stated problems.

Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice by James G. Dwyer and Shawn F. Peters, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019

Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice by James G. Dwyer and Shawn F. Peters, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019

ДОБРІ І ЛИХІ БОГОСЛОВСЬКІ ПЛОДИ ПАНДЕМІЇ

The article explores various approaches to the Covid-19 pandemic in both global and Ukrainian Orthodoxy. It in particular differentiates between the fideistic and realistic takes on the Eucharist and the transmissibility of viruses through it. The former rejects, and the latter affirms the risk of getting infected with coronavirus through partaking in holy communion. The article also discusses various possibilities and forms of worshipping online, including the controversial practice of celebrating liturgy through communication platforms. The article suggests an updated form of the ancient agape--the meal of love that accompanied Eucharist in the early church. It also mentions the ancient and modern forms of the distribution of communion, with a special reference to the study by Fr Robert Taft, SJ. Another topic discussed in the article is the so called "Covid dissent," when people undermine or dismiss the risks and measures to prevent the spread of the disease. This dissent is popular among the Orthodox fundamentalists and conservatives, including the ones in Ukraine. The two cases of the "Covid-dissent," articulated by former Metropolitans of Kyiv Onufriy Berezovsky and Filaret Denysenko, are in the focus of the study. The article argues that the attitude to Covid-19 that these and some other hierarchs promote, is similar to the medieval "trials by ordeal," when suspects were ordered to fish a ring from boiling water or carry hot iron. They were regarded innocent only when they remained unharmed by these tests. The same attitude, the article argues, leads to stigmatization and victimization of those who have suffered from Covid-19.

Grommets - an update on common indications for tympanostomy tube placement

Children younger than 7 years are at increased risk of otitis media because of their immature immune systems and poorly functioning eustachian tubes that normally ventilate the middle ear space and equalise pressure with the external environment. More than 80% of children have at least one episode of acute otitis media (AOM) before the age of 3 years and 40% experience six or more recurrences by the time they are 7 years old. By the age of 3 years, approximately 7% of children undergo surgery for tympanostomy tube insertion for a range of otitis media issues, most commonly for chronic otitis media with effusion (OME), recurrent AOM, and acute otitis media that persists despite antibiotic therapy. However, tympanostomy tube insertion is associated with risks and remains a controversial practice especially in children with OME of less than three months’ duration and in children with recurrent AOM. Adverse effects associated with tympanostomy tube insertion include those associated with anaesthesia and its complications (laryngospasm, bronchospasm), as well as tube related sequelae such as recurrent (7%) or persistent (16–26%) otorrhoea, blockage of the tube lumen (7%), granulation tissue (4%), premature extrusion of the tube (4%), tympanostomy tube displacement into the middle ear (0.5%) and persistent perforation of the tympanic membrane (1–6%). This article offers guidance for family practitioners wishing to optimise health outcomes in children potentially requiring tympanostomy tube placement.

Leviathan Goes to Washington: How to Assert the Separation of Powers in Defense of Future Generations

The Separation of Powers was originally drawn from the common law of England, vindicated during the American Revolution as a fundamental bulwark against tyranny, and constitutionalized in the first three articles of the U.S. Constitution. It was adopted as an assurance that the present generation would not assert dead hand control over the future of American society for mere efficiency, vanity, or greed. The Separation of Powers, therefore, exists to empower future generations to contend for their rights of life, liberty, and property. Both the long history of the Separation of Powers and the recent, controversial practices of multinational government contractors guide debate on this topic to the origin and ends of the patent and copyright laws in the United States. For the first legitimate IP law and antitrust law, which was the Case and Statute of Monopolies, was also a nascent defense of the Separation of Powers. In America, the primary champions of this law were James Otis and Phillis Wheatley. Most living legal academicians and members of the federal bench are unaware of the common law root of the Separation of Powers. Most do not know what impact James Otis or Phillis Wheatley had on the founding generation. To successfully litigate under the Separation of Powers, one must ordinarily teach his or her judges of this paramount, constitutionalized, common law. At the same time, it comes to no surprise that those who want to preserve white, male superiority are presently attempting to abandon the Separation of Powers. For if things were left to their natural course under our system of separated powers, younger generations of Americans would grow up in a diverse society that is not majority white and they would not generally appoint misogynistic or racist men to rule the land. This is, therefore, a time of intense fearmongering, lying, greed, and white fragility usually unleashed as an attempt to preserve or reignite a dying system of racism, misogyny, and injustice in America without the Separation of Powers. To younger generations: It is my hope that you keep cool, guard your own integrity, and avoid the embarrassments of your elders who are presently in power. It is my wish that you overcome when those entrusted with power are filled with anger, when they act out and embarrass themselves by violating your rights, when they act illegally out of ignorance of the law. My intention, here, is to help you find a way to reassert the Separation of Powers to rescue the nation for our children who will otherwise suffer in the bed made by the old, dead hand of Boomer vanity, ambition, and greed. I believe in you, and I believe that you can do this.

Entre experiências e diferenças nas mídias digitais: modos de uso da #seráqueéracismo*

Resumo A pesquisa investigou a relação entre os modos de uso e os processos de identificação em torno da #seráqueéracismo no Twitter. Para isso, abordou como as diferenças sociais foram articuladas nas discursividades sobre “experiências de racismos”, por meio de análise dos conteúdos publicados nas mídias digitais e entrevistas semiestruturadas com xs influenciadorxs, produtorxs de narrativas muito compartilhadas; e utilizou os eixos analíticos "experiências" e "diferenças", por meio da Teoria Queer. Nessas negociações sobre diferenças, a hashtag – modo de comunicação sobre si – foi muito usada, tanto para demonstrar a prática contestatória da percepção de certa norma racista vigente, em algumas narrativas, quanto para gerar uma discussão sobre a falta de reconhecimento e a inferiorização de certas "experiências sobre racismos" relatadas, em outras narrativas. Nesse jogo de ambivalências das experiências, ora foram reproduzidas as normalizações sobre diferenças, por meio de demarcações de posicionalidades e estereotipações de sujeitos e subjetividades, ora foram contestadas. Também foi frequente o relato do "racismo dx outrx", vinculado ao desejo de reconhecimento social e subjetivo que rege esses usos (que, em muitos casos, foi negado à pessoa negra, conferindo-lhe vitimização e responsabilização sobre a existência das "experiências sobre racismos" relatadas).

Institutional Diversity in the Planning Process Yields Similar Outcomes for Vegetation in Ecological Restoration

Conservation organizations undertaking ecological restoration and the lands they manage constitute a social-ecological system (SES). We implemented SES analysis to examine the relationship between diversity in organizational structure and restoration planning processes, and vegetation outcomes on the ground. Understanding the restoration consequences of multiple approaches to planning and implementation is relevant to assessing the resilience of this SES, especially if disagreements about the effectiveness of some approaches lead to conflict in the socio-political arena. We studied 10 conservation organizations in the Chicago Wilderness region that are restoring Midwestern oak woodlands of global conservation concern. Despite the institutional diversity of these organizations, we found little relationship between restoration planning and vegetation outcomes. This result has implications for the resilience of restoration as an SES, since similar outcomes from diverse processes should increase resilience of this SES, especially when controversial restoration practices are employed, and when priorities and funding levels change.

The secret of quick thinking: The invention of mental speed in America, 1890–1925

In the early 20th century, mental speed became a dominant measure of intelligence in the United States. For both cultural and technical reasons, this had not always been the case. For 19th-century Americans, quickness of speech and thought often signified lack of self-discipline. Unlike with other objects of temporal measurement and rationalization such as factory work, little scientific or popular consensus existed over how to clock the invisible phenomenon of thought. The cultural and scientific ascent of mental speed thus poses an unsolved historical problem: how and why did Americans adopt this new ideal of intelligence? This essay offers an answer in the introduction and popularization of a new and controversial practice: the timed test. The first timed tests did not so much formalize an existing conception of mental efficiency as establish a new one, using one of the key tools of measurement available to experimental psychology, the mechanical time-keeper. Initially frustrated in their efforts to correlate their subjects' laboratory-measured reaction time with socially recognized achievements such as academic grades, psychologists in the late 1890s borrowed a still-obscure concept from stenography and telegraphy: words per minute. At first, few scientists or members of the public equated reading, speaking, writing, and listening rate with intelligence. Only after American educators, military recruiters, and vocational guidance experts began to adopt timed testing in the 1910s for administrative convenience did mental speed begin to indicate intelligence and knowledge. What began as a way to test minds efficiently evolved almost inadvertently into a test of their efficiency.