Critical Understanding Research Articles

Crash dilemmas and the ethical design of self-driving vehicles: implications from metaethics and pragmatic road marks

AbstractHow should self-driving vehicles react when an accident can no longer be averted in dangerous situations? The complex issue of designing crash algorithms has been discussed intensively in recent research literature. This paper refines the discourse around a new perspective which reassesses the underlying dilemma structures in the light of a metaethical analysis. It aims at enhancing the critical understanding of both the conceptual nature and specific practical implications that relate to the problem of crash algorithms. The ultimate aim of the paper is to open up a way to building a bridge between the inherent structural issues of dilemma cases on the one hand and the characteristics of the practical decision context related to driving automation scenarios on the other. Based on a reconstruction of the metaethical structure of crash dilemmas, a pragmatic orientation towards the ethical design of crash algorithms is sketched and critically examined along two central particularities of the practical problem. Firstly, pertinent research on the social nature of crash dilemmas is found to be merely heuristic. Secondly, existing work from ethics of risk hardly offers explicit ethical solutions to relevant and urgent challenges. Further investigation regarding both aspects is ultimately formulated as a research desideratum.

(Re)conceptualising consumer interdependency of care: Persistent struggles with dependency and responsibility

This conceptual paper explores how consumers become entangled in persistent struggles of care in consumption. While extant marketing theory focuses on the neoliberal responsibility of care as an autonomous and independent act, we problematise and extend the current theorisation of consumers’ struggles of care by examining the interrelated struggles of consumer responsibility of care and market relations of care. Building on marketing and interdisciplinary insights, we develop a novel lens of consumer interdependency of care to capture how a consumer responsibility is negotiated within varied relations of care. We contribute to a holistic and critical understanding of care in consumption as a problematic interplay between a responsibility of care and a dependency of care. By examining three types of consumer interdependency across consumption contexts, we discuss challenges and future research direction in the provision, mediation, and positioning of care, and bring critical attention to the power imbalances of care and consumer vulnerability.

The Issue of Safety Amongst Undergraduate Students of the University of Delhi

In this paper we investigate what are the connotations of safety for students and in what way is college a safe space. In the questionnaire administered, there was no specific question on safety. However, the response to our first question—What does entering college mean to you?—saw a significant percentage (68%) of female students associating entry into college with entry into a safe space. Students’ expectations from college —as revealed in their responses to other questions—go beyond physical safety, not only do they draw attention to the multidimensionality and complexity of the concept, but in doing so they mark out and identify within the safe environs of college, temporally and spatially fluid islands of unsafety. Their responses problematized the notion of safety, thus alerting us to a political (including gendered) and expansive understanding of safety. In this expansion safety emerges as a cluster concept incorporating dimensions of gender, equality, justice, freedom and democracy. This paper makes two arguments, first that the college experience contributes to the students’ understanding of safety in its multidimensionality. The connotations of safety include both the physical and the socio-psychological dimensions. Second that in the articulation of this learning a student develops a critical understanding of social, political, and economic structures of power.

Upaya Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Pendidikan Agama Katolik dan Budi Pekerti dengan Metode Pembelajaran Problem Based Learning Berbantuan Media Video pada Kelas X Tari di SMK Negeri 1 Kasihan

This study aims to improve the learning of Catholic Religious Education in class X Tari at SMK Negeri 1 Kasihan, which was initially dominated by the less interactive lecture method, affecting the motivation and learning outcomes of students. To overcome this, the Problem Based Learning (PBL) method assisted by video media is applied, which involves active students in solving problems relevant to everyday life. The research was conducted in two cycles, with PBL steps such as problem orientation, individual and group investigation, and presentation and evaluation of results. The results showed significant improvements in the cognitive, skill and affective aspects of learners. The cognitive average score of the group task increased by 11.2%, from 79.7 in cycle I to 90.8 in cycle II, while the individual task increased by 12%, from 76.8 to 89. In terms of skills, the average score increased by 13%, from 76 to 88. The affective aspect also experienced a significant increase of 23.2%, from 63.4 to 88. The application of PBL assisted by video media proved effective in improving students' learning outcomes, both in terms of critical thinking, responsibility, and understanding and application of Catholic teachings. This study recommends the use of PBL method and video media as an effective learning strategy to improve the quality of learning Catholic Religious Education and Cultivation.

(Re) framing the politics of climate change: resilience, reparative critique and affective life in situations of extreme heat

ABSTRACT One of the ways we know climate change is through the emergencies that make it present. But how does the connection between singular events (emergencies) and a meta-stable condition (climate change) become perceivable to us? Through what knowledges? And with what political implications? In this paper I apply these questions to deepen critical understanding of government-orchestrated efforts to enhance climate resilience. Pursuing an alternative pathway to critiques that reduce resilience to neoliberalism, I bring resilience into dialogue with Lauren Berlant’s concept of situations. The importance of situations rests in its ability to diversify our understanding of the emergencies to which resilience responds. Initially, situations prompt us to explore emergencies fundamentally as ruptures in people’s ongoing affective encounter with the world. They also capture how our experience of emergencies is colored by the broader historical significance they hold as critical events that change collective life. And, as with all events read through affect, situations are also an object of mediation. Thinking with situations, I demonstrate how, through resilience, government actors mediate our sense of the relationship between emergencies, on one hand, and climate change as an epochal condition, on the other. By distributing responsibility, resilience allows a wide catalogue of voices to influence common perceptions of this relationship and, consequently, evidences potential to integrate what Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick calls reparative critique into climate consciousness by highlighting the ramifications climate-related emergencies have on specific communities because of environmental harms visited upon them over time and orienting future action towards attending to these harms. I make this argument through research into the US’ Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to raise situational awareness of extreme heat risk. While seeking to mobilize people’s embodied knowledges in sensing imminent danger, these practices push concurrently for understanding, and acting upon, climate change vulnerability by its entanglement with violent processes that underpinned the modernization projects fundamental to American life now.

A Feminist Approach to the Images of Women in <i>That Long Silence </i>and <i>Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq)</i>: A Comparative Study

This paper investigates the depiction of women in Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence and Naguib Mahfouz's Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq) according to the feminist approach. The study seeks to compare and contrast the way these two novels, which are considered among reputable 20th century fiction, represent female characters and their struggles for asserting their individualities in two types of male-dominated societies. That is to say, Shashi Deshpande, the Indian authoress of That Long Silence fathoms the struggles of women in a traditional Indian society. In this novel, she mirrors the great challenges that women face in such a patriarchal system. Therefore, this research traces the heroines’ experience highlighting how the novelist has tackled misogynism and biased societal prospects. On the other hand, Mahfouz's Palace of Desire sheds light on the stereotyped images of women and feminists attempts to free women within the changing political and societal setting of Egypt then. Aida's personality represents the ambitious woman who reconciles with her desires and does her best to assert herself in a male-dominated society despite all the social constraints trying to limit her aspirations. In this comparative study between the two concerned novels, the researcher seeks to reveal the similarities and differences in the representations of women in two different cultural backgrounds. So, the paper examines how each of these two novelists criticizes the patriarchal structures and advocates feminism in his/ her society exposing the ways through which gender roles and societal norms are presented. The study shows a deep understanding of feminist literary criticism by highlighting the cultural influence of the two societies in which women’s sufferings are revealed. So, the findings of the research offer new insights into the gender roles, misogynism, stereotyped images of women, old traditions and patriarchal systems in literature.

Closing the Gender Gap? A Cohort Comparison of Adolescent Responses to and Attitudes Toward Pornography, 2004 vs. 2021

ABSTRACT Pornography has become increasingly prevalent and normalized within society, raising questions about how today’s adolescents might differ in their responses to and attitudes toward pornography compared to earlier generations. This study begins to fill this gap by comparing cross-sectional data from two cohorts of high school students in Sweden in 2004 (n = 4,266, mean age = 18.15, SD = 0.74, 53.9% girls) and 2020–21 (n = 3,256, mean age = 18.20, SD = 0.61, 55.4% girls). Gender-stratified bivariate analyses and logistic regression models were performed to examine the impact of survey year on outcomes. Results reveal an increase in frequent pornography use among both genders and a narrowing of the gender gap in responses and attitudes by 2020–21. Boys reported decreased arousal responses, fewer positive emotional responses, and were less inclined to imitate the behaviors seen in pornography. Girls were less averse to and upset by the pornography they encountered. Both genders became more tolerant of pornography, yet more critical of its purported benefits. Notable gender differences remain, especially with girls being more likely to recognize pornography as degrading and exploitative. These findings underscore the need for educational strategies that foster critical understandings of pornography and its societal impact.

Art therapy and neuroscience: evidence, limits, and myths.

The evidence base for the effectiveness of art therapy continues to grow, even as a mechanistic understanding of how art therapy works remains limited. One promising avenue for increasing our understanding of how and why art therapy works is through the lens of neuroscience. A neuroscience-based approach to art therapy provides opportunities for improving understanding of the neural processes that underlie the complex interaction between perception, cognition, emotion and behavior that play out in the art therapy process. Understanding how therapeutic change occurs can result in improved treatment and better outcomes for clients. However, it can be tricky to connect art therapy and psychological theory directly to neural responses. The purposes of this perspective are to provide an overview of the current evidence and limits of neurobiological concepts of neuroplasticity, mirror systems, and interoception as applied to art therapy practice, and to provide updated information about outdated concepts that are still actively used in clinical practice. Critical analysis and understanding of the current scientific knowledge base can then be used to guide art therapy practice and support the development of hypothesis-based research to determine the primary mechanisms that drive the observed effects of art therapy interventions.

The business and moral image of the party officials of the "second echelon" of the Bashkir ASSR in the era of "Khrushchev's reformism"

The article examines the business and moral qualities of the party managers of the "second echelon" of the period of the "Khrushchev reforms" in the context of one of the major national republics of the RSFSR – the Bashkir ASSR. The authors reconstruct the appearance of middle-level party officials who adhered to double standards in their party management activities. The phenomenon of the formation of a "new-moral" communist party subject with a pronounced focus on wealth is also concretized, which contradicted the official discourse of a highly moral socialist personality, who is not only a party worker, but, above all, a disinterested communist. The new trend observed among the party officials of the "Khrushchev set" – industrial and moral emancipation, which did not entail the irreversibility of severe punishment, was one of the manifestations of the complex institutional process of the era of "Khrushchev reformism". We are talking about a change in the value paradigm in the form of the refusal of party officials from rigid stoicism and orientation towards satisfying their personal interests. The research methodology is based on the principles of critical research understanding of the activities of the BASSR party apparatus in 1953-1964. The structural and functional method made it possible to reconstruct the managerial and business portrait of the BASSR party members of the Khrushchev era.

The role of sodium in the electrochemical tuning of Li2TiSiO5 anodes across ceramic and glass phases

This study investigates the enhancement of Li2TiSiO5 anode material through Na doping via two routes: melt-quenching (route I) and subsequent heat treatment (route II). A 5 % Na-doped ceramic sample significantly improves Li-ion mobility and discharge capacity (215 mA h g−1 at 10 mA g−1), sustaining 45 mA h g−1 at a high rate of 1 A g−1. However, higher doping levels hinder performance, indicating Li-ion path obstruction and non-conductive impurities. Intriguingly, undoped Li2TiSiO5 glass exhibits superior electrochemical performance, with a discharge capacity of 340 mA h g−1 at 10 mA g−1 and high-rate endurance (81 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1). This research provides insights into phase-dependent optimization, highlighting the glass phase's inherent benefits for Li-ion diffusion. It addresses a significant research gap, offering critical understanding for advancing high-energy-density anode materials in next-generation batteries.

Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering

The mandate of universities and higher education institutes is to shape students' ethical wisdom and catalyze sustainable development. However, everyone does not have equal access to higher education which drives the above mindsets, leading to unequal quality of education. Today, most ethics teaching in engineering schools is narrowly micro-ethics and does not attempt to define macro-ethics’ special challenges. Micro-ethics concentrates on concerns related to the individual and the innermost workings of the profession. However, macro-ethics encompasses sustainable development with a focus on the collective social responsibility of the profession and public concerns about technology. This study examined undergraduate engineering programs in 25 major Canadian universities to see if they are adequately prepared to navigate both the micro and macro aspects of ethics education. The curricula of the programs show many courses focusing on micro-ethical concepts. The lack of explicit macro-ethical agendas for advancing society invites further work on curricula to enhance the efficacy of the content and delivery modes. This inadequate commitment to socially responsible engineering is conceptualized as a “culture of disengagement”. The study introduces important moments of change to strengthen ethics education. These include twinning engineering and computing ethics; embedding overlapped ethics, sustainability, and responsibility mindsets; and promoting the scholarship of integration through research, synthesis, practice, and teaching. By adopting these approaches to curriculum and pedagogy, the students will effectively cultivate a critical understanding of and obligation to the profession’s collective responsibility and the well-being of the greater society. These changes provide crucial insights into broadening sociotechnical-minded prospects of engineering ethics education.

International youth literature in the Chinese EFL classroom

Abstract This qualitative case study examines the role of international youth literature in enhancing the English language learning and global competence of Chinese university students. Through engaging in meaningful literacy activities, this study reveals the potential of a critical-global-literacies-based approach to foster cultural sensitivity and global awareness. By investigating how students gained knowledge of cultural diversity and developed a critical understanding of our interconnected world, this paper advocates for a dynamic approach to literature-oriented English language education, thus prompting a paradigm shift in teaching practices.

Algorithmic Impact Assessments at Scale: Practitioners’ Challenges and Needs

Algorithmic Impact Assessments (AIAs) are often suggested as a tool to help identify and evaluate actual and potential harms of algorithmic systems. While the existing literature on AIAs provides a valuable foundation, critical understanding gaps remain, including the lived experiences of practitioners who implement assessments and a lack of standardization across industry. Such gaps pose significant risks to the usefulness of assessments in the responsible development of algorithmic systems. By conducting 107 assessments with practitioners who build personalization, recommendation, and subscription systems at a large online audio-streaming platform and 8 semi-structured stakeholder interviews, we attempt to bridge this gap by identifying practitioners’ challenges when applying AIAs that might hinder their effectiveness. The paper analyzes whether harms described in the literature related to machine learning and recommendation systems are similar to the concerns practitioners have. We find that the challenges practitioners encounter can be grouped into three categories: technical and methods, infrastructure and operations, and resourcing and prioritization. We also describe ways for teams to more effectively mitigate concerns. This paper helps bridge gaps between the theory and practice of AIAs, advances understanding of the potential harms of algorithmic systems, and informs assessment practices to serve their intended purpose.

“Borderism”: Imaginative Geographies and the Production of Modern Boundaries in Spain and Portugal, 1840–1870

This article aims to analyze the nature and main characteristics of the discourse on borderlands and border local communities during the process of delimiting the Spanish–Portuguese boundary that took place in the middle third of the nineteenth century. It examines how both local and state actors represented conflicts and violence in border areas and how these discourses played a crucial role not only in securing the involvement of central state agencies in local conflicts but also in legitimizing state intervention in border disputes. Beyond the case studied here, this research contributes to a comparative perspective across different geographical and historical contexts on how border regions and their inhabitants have been frequently represented as problematic spaces and societies. In this regard, the article provides a critical understanding of the border-delimitation process undertaken by the Spanish and Portuguese liberal states as part of a broader national and territorial building process that, among other objectives, sought to control, normalize, discipline and integrate peripheral regions and their populations. Drawing on some of the main concepts coined by Said’s Orientalism and the contributions of Foucault in The Birth of the Clinic as well, it proposes the term borderism to describe the imaginative geographies that legitimized this kind of border-delimitation processes, not only in the Iberian context but also in other similar cases.

Cultural Bias in Large Language Models: A Comprehensive Analysis and Mitigation Strategies

Abstract This paper delves into the intricate relationship between Large Language Models (LLMs) and cultural bias. It underscores the significant impact LLMs can have on shaping a more equitable and culturally sensitive digital landscape, while also addressing the challenges that arise when integrating these powerful AI tools. The paper emphasizes the immense significance of LLMs in contemporary AI research and applications, underpinning many systems and algorithms. However, their potential role in perpetuating or mitigating cultural bias remains a pressing issue warranting extensive analysis. Cultural bias stems from various intertwined factors; the following analysis categorizes cultural bias shaping LLMs into three dimensions: data quality, algorithm design, and user interaction dynamics. Furthermore, the impacts of LLMs on cultural identity and linguistic diversity are scrutinized, highlighting the interplay between technology and culture. The paper advocates responsible AI development, outlining mitigation strategies such as ethical guidelines, diverse training data, user feedback mechanisms, and transparency measures. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes that cultural bias in LLMs is not solely a problem but also presents an opportunity. It can enhance our awareness and critical understanding of our own cultural biases while fostering curiosity and respect for diverse cultural perspectives.

The Local “Salad Bar” of Hate: Global Hegemonic Masculinity in Australia’s Extreme Right

This paper examines a local manifestation of extreme right political mobilisation in Australia from the standpoint of Connell and Messerschmidt's (2005) global hegemonic masculinity. Using Messerschmidt and Rohde’s (2018) methods for analysing violent extremists’ public statements, we examine public blog posts by “The Lads [sic] Society” to scrutinise the relationship between local advocacy for a white ethno-state in Australia and global hegemonic masculinities. The analysis finds that localised white nationalism is both a response to, and constituted by, the tensions of global hegemonic masculinity and is, in part, an attempt to reclaim localised white hegemonic masculinity in the face of a multitude of perceived global societal failures. Through the analysis, this paper contributes to Messerschmidt and Rohde’s (2018) claim that various global hegemonic masculinities simultaneously coexist and compete, while pointing to how discursive processes continue to redefine masculinities at the local level. The paper also responds to a broader invitation to incorporate gender analysis into the study of extreme political movements, enabling a more critical understandings of the motivations and experiences of those that participate in them.

You’re doing it wrong: the governance of motherhood through mommy blogs

ABSTRACT Mommy blog communities have been established by mothers who publish their stories online with the stated purpose to empower themselves and their peers by offering a seemingly unfiltered representation of motherhood. While this benefit has been felt by many readers, there are invisible governing discourses that have prevented such blogs from becoming authentic spaces of resistance to the hegemonic ideals of motherhood. To understand the governing forces placed upon mothers through “mommy blogs,” we explored the question: How is motherhood shaped through narratives (re)presented in mommy blogs? Critical discourse analysis, informed by a governmentality perspective, was used to analyze mommy blog entries to illuminate representations of power and knowledge within the blog entries. The findings suggest that a governmentality perspective is useful in understanding how mommy blogs enact power over mothers using mechanisms of governance through 1) sameness and imperfection, 2) perceived self-compassion, 3) advice and support, and 4) the scientification of motherhood. As more people turn to online communities for support with the experience of mothering, it is important to garner a critical understanding of how mommy blogs continue to influence contemporary experiences of motherhood.

Mapping the terrain of global research trajectory of international doctoral students: a bibliometric review

ABSTRACT Significant changes in global doctoral education have occurred in recent decades. Many countries have adopted strategies to intensify and expand their doctoral education. Meanwhile, the number of doctoral students globally has increased, with a notable surge in the enrollment of international doctoral students (IDS). Previous studies have investigated IDS-related issues such as students’ motivations, learning experiences, and post-graduate development; yet a comprehensive review of the existing literature on IDS is lacking. This study reviews the IDS literature since the year 2000, aiming to unveil the landscape of contemporary IDS research within a fast-changing context of global doctoral education. Using bibliometric analysis and data retrieved from Web of Science, we examine trends in IDS publications, key authors, influential journals, geographic distribution by countries and institutions, and significant research themes within IDS studies. The concept of asymmetry is used to interpret the findings, which contribute to a critical understanding of the current landscape of IDS research. The findings serve as valuable references for examining the dynamic and changing context of IDS research, providing valuable insights for future studies.

Embodying policy work: an exploration of contexts, actions and meanings towards new possibilities for physical education teacher education (PETE)

ABSTRACT This theoretical paper presents a heuristic framework that is directed towards transformative thinking and practices in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). The research focus and direction, embodying policy work, applies and extends Bernstein’s concepts of the pedagogic and corporeal device to offer new directions for inquiry and explore the considerations these raise for PETE professionals and their practices. The paper affirms the importance of policy work in PETE, while recognising a need for more nuanced and critical understandings of the complex interrelationships between contexts and actions, and the potential meanings generated and ascribed to different forms of policy work and identities in-situ. Attention focuses specifically on the ways in which individuals ascribe meaning to practices in PETE through everyday actions and relational behaviours, locating embodied practices and meanings as integral to policy work in PETE. The heuristic framework facilitates exploration of three sets of rules: (i) contextual rules of embodying policy work; (ii) rules of/for embodying actions; and (iii) rules of/for embodying potential meanings. Each focus is explored in turn to develop specific, yet interrelated lines of inquiry that can guide empirical work that extends insight into the policy work of PETE professionals and programmes. Discussion highlights the importance of such work in expanding visions for the sustainable transformation of PETE.

Breaking the taboo of using the nursing process: lived experiences of nursing students and faculty members

BackgroundDespite the numerous advantages of the nursing process, nursing students often struggle with utilizing this model. Therefore, studies suggest innovative teaching methods to address this issue. Teaching based on real clinical cases is considered a collaborative learning method that enhances students’ active learning for the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In this method, students can acquire sufficient knowledge about patient care by accessing authentic information.ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate the experiences of nursing students and faculty members regarding the implementation of nursing process educational workshops, based on real case studies.DesignA qualitative descriptive study.Participants9 Nursing students and 7 faculty members from the Isfahan School of Nursing and Midwifery who attended the workshops.MethodsThis qualitative descriptive study was conducted from 2021 to 2023. Data was collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interviews using a qualitative content analysis approach for data analysis.ResultsAfter analyzing the data, a theme titled “Breaking Taboos in the Nursing Process” was identified. This theme consists of four categories: “Strengthening the Cognitive Infrastructure for Accepting the Nursing Process,” “Enhancing the Applicability of the Nursing Process,” “Assisting in Positive Professional Identity,” and “Facilitating a Self-Directed Learning Platform.” Additionally, thirteen subcategories were obtained.ConclusionThe data obtained from the present study showed that conducting nursing process educational workshops, where real clinical cases are discussed, analyzed, and criticized, increases critical thinking, learning motivation, and understanding of the necessity and importance of implementing the nursing process. Therefore, it is recommended that instructors utilize this innovative and effective teaching method for instructing the nursing process.