Critical Voices Research Articles

Changing perspective from being to becoming—An alternative approach to language development and speaker categorization based on longitudinal data

Abstract In the face of transnational mobility and migration, globally networked communities and super-diverse social environments, traditional research practices of speaker categorization such as the distinction between native and non-native speakers, first, second, and third language users and mono-, bi-, and pluri-/multilinguals, which rest on the assumption of categorical differences between types of speakers and the general stability of speaker categories as biographical fact, are increasingly called into question. Critical voices point out that in real life, differences between language users turn out to be fuzzy, gradient, and continuous, and that conventional speaker categorizations are conceptualized from a monolingual perspective, providing grounds for discriminatory practices. Based on a longitudinal study design, the paper aims to offer an alternative quantitative approach for researchers who are dissatisfied with common practices of speaker categorization and wish to shift perspective to a more comprehensive way of studying language development within communities. The analysis draws on the results of c-tests for German, Italian, and English that were specifically designed for the study and administered to the same students (n = 170) in their first and final year at lower secondary school.

Toward a brighter future: Confronting the shadows of STS

As part of the Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies’ 10th anniversary, we want to end the anniversary issue by reflecting upon the future of the field. To do so, we invited a young scholar in the STS field to partake in an interview with us. We think it is fitting to end with a young critical voice, as it is the next generation who will shape the field and ultimately decide the future of STS. We had the pleasure of interviewing Claudia Gertraud Schwarz who earned her PhD from the University of Vienna in 2014. She currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, where her research and praxis focus on generating and studying interventions to improve wellbeing in society, especially for young people. She is also one of the co-founders of the STS community known as the FeminiSTS Repair Team.

Spirituality/Faith Integration and Career Sustainability: A Phenomenology of African-American Principals in U.S. Urban High-poverty Public Schools

A phenomenological lens was used to analyze themed patterns to understand how spirituality provides hope, a sense of purpose, and resiliency, enabling 12 Christian African- American principals of urban public schools in the United States to sustain their careers while facing marginalization, inequities, economic oppression, and stress. The terms spirituality and faith are used interchangeably. Both terms refer to what it means to be human and both incorporate self-transcendence to make sense of lived experiences by communicating with a higher source. Findings reveal that spirituality is an important resource that supports career sustainability for Christian African-American principals who lead U.S. urban public schools. In particular, this article provides critical voices of educational leaders, from urban high-poverty public school contexts, who integrate their spirituality/faith within their leadership role. The article helps to fill the literature gap in workplace spirituality, educational leadership, and career sustainability and offers implications for scholars and practitioners.

“I always say, it’s the icing on the cake”: the discursive production of fare-free public transport in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT Although the policy of fare-free public transport (FFPT) continues to gain popularity across diverse geographical contexts, the case of Luxembourg is unique in this global landscape. It is the first nation-state to have universally abolished fares, in a society characterized by high incomes and GDP, and a particularly high car ownership rate. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of political discourses on FFPT in Luxembourg surrounding the introduction of the policy. Using qualitative methods, we reconstruct the decision-making process and examine the competing ideologies that shaped it. We find that the idea germinated on the margins of the political spectrum, but was adopted by those in power because of the unique opportunity to combine territorial marketing with a form of socially-inclusive and sustainable policy that would not harm the widely valued car-based transport system. Hence, this process demonstrates both the post-political aspects of FFPT, illustrated by how its introduction helped to marginalize critical voices around fare abolition, and its political dimension related to the public debate and the contestation that FFPT engendered.

Freedom of the Press, and Journalism Practices in Times of Uncertainty in the Case of Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Ethiopia has been in a new transition since 2018 which resulted in changes in political arenas. In this period, the country has also been experiencing internal conflict and political instabilities. This article assesses how the political environment is convenient for the journalists to freely report stories, and how journalists practice their professional roles which have not yet studied. The article used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews with key media practitioners. The quantitative data was collected through a self- administered questionnaire from selected 164 journalists from the public, and private media in the country. The result shows journalists’ freedom and practicing their profession in reporting stories from different views in the current unstable situation in the country are highly challenged. Among the respondents, more than 65% confirmed that they are not free to report stories; 95% of the sampled journalists either self-censor or ignore stories about conflicts and other critical issues in the country. The journalists are highly pressurized by the government and other actors who have ardent interest in controlling media to propagate their agenda and in silencing the critical voices. This put journalists to stack between a rock and a hard.

Chaucerian Theatricality: Then and Now

ABSTRACTJohn Ganim's 1990 book, Chaucerian Theatricality, raised important questions about the methods of studying Chaucer's public poetry and, in turn, about the relationships among authorial, narratorial, and critical voices, both in his time and ours. This paper reconsiders Ganim's book in the context of Chaucerian criticism of the 1990s, and it develops the implications of its notion of theatricality to embrace new readings of the Tales and new approaches to twenty‐first‐century debates in Chaucer scholarship. The paper concludes by arguing that the real, current site of Chaucerian theatricality lies in the areas of teaching and research, especially in the recent publication and dissemination of work reassessing the status of Chaucer's raptus of Cecily of Chaumpaigne.

A CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES PARADIGM OF THE PRESIDENTIAL THRESHOLD ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN INDONESIA

In the perspective of the Critical Legal Studies Paradigm, researchers do not have the intention to deliberately dismantle normative legal rules that are legally and constitutionally, but in this discourse the critical legal studies paradigm provides a lens that critical voices are voices that come from the people with a higher realm of awareness in view with the assumption of potential that will occur critically, involving the direction of thinking that tends to be deconstructive and very worthy of questioning. in this case the paradox that occurs between ontology and methodology or in simple language reality with normative methodological values itself, by separating political, sociological, historical, and ethical motives. In this case, the paradox that occurs between ontology and methodology or in simple language reality with normative methodological value itself, by separating political, sociological, historical, and ethical motives. in this study, researchers used a qualitative method based on the study of the normative rules of the 1945 Constitution. normatively in article 222 of Law Number 17 of 2017 concerning the election of the President and Vice President reads: The candidate pair is proposed by a political party or a coalition of political parties participating in the election that meets the requirements of obtaining at least 20% (twenty per cent) of the total seats in the DPR or obtaining 25% (twenty five per cent) of the national valid votes in the election of DPR members, before the implementation of the Presidential and Vice Presidential elections or the Presidential Threshold system if viewed deconstructively from the process of forming the rules of the Law or the legislature itself does not have a basic limiting framework of legal construction, With the pretext of strengthening the presidential system, the effectiveness of holding elections in an accountable manner, but ontologically or in reality this raises that the law is a political product is a reality and shows that political power is more dominant than the law itself, of course this is very paradoxical with the concept of a country that is considered democratic where political power should be subject to the law. In this foundation, something produced by the legal products of the legislature is worthy of criticism.

Leadership from the extreme periphery to the mainstream? A reflection on the critical journey and how traditioning might offer a Pentecostal denomination a rediscovery of ancient paths

ABSTRACT This paper was given as a keynote at the 2022 conference of the European Pentecostal Theological Association (EPTA). Drawing on a doctoral study 1 1 Foster, “Authority and Authenticity in the Leadership of the British Assemblies of God”. that explored the leadership and organizational culture of a Pentecostal denomination – British Assemblies of God (AoG) – an ecclesiological ethnography 2 2 Principles and techniques drawn from a long-term involvement with Ward and Scharen’s, Ecclesiology and Ethnography.; see also Ward, ed. Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography;Scharen, ed. Exporations in Ecclesiology and Ethnoggraphy. Healy, “Ecclesiology, Ethnography and God”.; Fiddes, “Ecclesiology and Ethnography”. approach is taken in this paper to combine resultant research insights with reflections from the author’s involvement in the leadership of a local Pentecostal church through two difficult leadership transitions and the consequent spiritual formation journey. The possible future implications for Pentecostal leaders of the adoption of Pete Scazzero’s 3 3 Scazerro, The Emotionally Healthy Leader. Emotionally Healthy Leadership (EHL) teachings in the first year of AoG’s Ministers in Training (MIT) programme are anticipated and Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich’s 4 4 Hagberg and Guelich, The Critical Journey. Critical Journey framework applied to analyze likely issues for Pentecostal leaders when rediscovering ancient paths (Jer 6:16). By casting an ethnographic gaze in the direction of a key denomination in the UK charismatic movement 5 5 Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland, led by John and Debbie Wright. that is already journeying this path and by paying attention to the thought leadership with the rising popularity of mentees of Dallas Willard. 6 6 For example, John Mark Comer’s ministry Practicing the Way and Bill and Kristi Gaultiere's ministry Soul Shepherding. Underpinning the paper is Simon Chan’s 7 7 Chan, Pentecostal Theology. notion of Pentecostal Traditioning employed both to provide foundational context and possible future trajectories. Similar to Elijah’s servant, these insights and reflections may presently seem to be nothing or we may have to look seven times before we see them as small as a man’s hand (1 Kings 18:43–44). However, this paper seeks to offer a practical-prophetic voice 8 8 A Practical-Prophetic voice focuses theological attention on the state of the concrete seen church; engages with other traditions of enquiry and their embodiments that bear upon the concrete identity of the church namely history, sociology, cultural analysis and ethnography; and offers a critical voice into the present and possible future see Healy, Church, World and the Christian Life. proposing the possibilities for bringing practices rooted in contemplative and monastic traditions from the periphery to the mainstream of Pentecostalism spiritual development and leadership.

EDMUND BLUNDEN’S WAR VERSES: NATURE AS THE UNSEEN VICTIM OF THE GREAT WAR

War leaves a lasting mark not only on the lives of those directly involved but also profoundly impacts the natural environment, an aspect frequently overshadowed by the stark human tragedies. Edmund Blunden, a World War I poet, focuses on the environmental destruction caused by war. This article aims to analyse Blunden’s poems “Preparations for Victory” and “Thiepval Wood,” exploring the resonant themes of desolation and the interconnected destinies of soldiers and nature through his poetic expression. These poems provide a compelling lens to address an often-neglected aspect of warfare: its effect on the natural world. Moving beyond traditional representations where nature is merely a setting for human struggles, Blunden portrays it as a primary victim, subjected to the harsh transformations and destructions of war. Accordingly, this study illuminates how Blunden articulates nature’s suffering and alteration as fundamentally intertwined with human strife, offering a critical voice in understanding the multifaceted impacts of military conflicts.

Counterterrorism in Ethiopia: source of threat or security to the people?

ABSTRACT The objective of the counterterrorism policies of Ethiopia as reflected in the anti-terrorist proclamations was to protect the right of people to live in peace, freedom and security at all times from the threat of terrorism. However, in practice, the counterterrorism policies followed the designation of opposition political forces as terrorist organisations and unprecedented crackdown on political opposition and critical voices. Therefore, this emancipatory study examines the theory and practice of Ethiopia’s counterterrorism policies with the objective to unravel its political use and abuse, and hence demystify its security referent. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews, and the analysis of the anti-terrorist proclamations, explanatory notes, speeches, terrorism files and records, and reports of international human rights organisations. The analysis revealed that counterterrorism in Ethiopia remains the source of threat rather than security to the people in the country.

Is Economic Development Really Becoming Sustainable?

This paper provides a contextualisation of the sustainable development discourse within the framework of the neoliberal turn and its impact on economic debates. The prevailing belief asserts that prioritising economic aspects contributes to overall wellbeing, the attainment of social goals, and increased allocation of resources towards ecological objectives, thereby fostering sustainable development. However, several authors have contested this perspective, arguing that relying on the dominant economic policy framework does not lead to sustainable outcomes. These critical voices advocate for a comprehensive approach that integrates social and ecological dimensions into the economic development framework, rather than treating them as separate entities. This paper demonstrates that achieving sustainable development requires more than the mere inclusion of ‘sustainable goals’ in the conventional understanding of economic development. It does so by critically analysing relevant literature and examining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the concept of a circular economy. This necessitates substantial changes in our understanding of the economic system, emphasising its embeddedness and embracing a normative concept of justice.

A Critical Voice on the Hajj by a Sumatran Pilgrim from the Early Twentieth Century

This paper examines a late 19th-century brochure entitled ‘Perdjalanan ke-‘Tanah-Tjoetji’ (A Pilgrimage to the ‘Holy Land’) written by Dja Edar Moeda, a Dutch-educated native teacher and a pioneer journalist and vernacular press entrepreneur in Sumatra. The text offers a critical perspective on the Hajj, differing from the majority of this corpus, which tends to show religious enthusiasm and saintly connotations. This paper demonstrates that the ‘deviant’ voice on the Hajj in the Brochure reflects the author’s concerns. As a native intellectual and religious modernist with a Western-secular education, he worries about the fate of his fellow native pilgrims, who are often victimised by rampant fraudulent practices in the organisation of the Hajj due to their illiteracy, map illiteracy, innocence, naivety and tendency to be submissive in their religious practice. In this respect, the Brochure indirectly criticises the Dutch East Indies colonial authority’s deficiencies in organising the pilgrimage and protecting the pilgrims as its colonial subjects.

Spirit of the Age

This essay turns a spotlight on Elizabeth Barret Barrett's unpublished 1822-26 notebook (now in Wellesley College Library). A seldom-cited archival text, the 231-page notebook opens a window on Romantic culture and writers in the years it spans. It also illumines the intellectual and artistic formation of the gifted juvenile author who would become England’s most internationally influential woman poet by 1850 under the name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The notebook includes drafts of original compositions, memoranda (for example, “Stray Thoughts,” “List of Books I wish to have”), and extracts or analyses documenting EBB’s self-education through wide-ranging reading across genres, fields, and national boundaries. The largest category of entries is made up of review-like commentaries, principally on recently published books, in which EBB hones a critical voice shaped by the periodical press of the period. Writers treated range from major literary figures like Lord Byron, Letitia Landon, Madame de Staël, and Mary Shelley, to others influential or emerging at the time (e.g., Robert Southey, James Hogg, Anna Jameson, James Fenimore Cooper), to authors of memoirs, biographies, histories, and works of political philosophy. Examination of the hybrid form as well as the mixed contents of the notebook indicates that it both participates in the commonplace book tradition and reflects Romantic transformations in that tradition exemplified by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s notebooks. In the process, EBB’s 1822-26 notebook offers a perspective on the mid-1820s very different from William Hazlitt’s in The Spirit of the Age (1824-25); it also demonstrates the budding acumen as a literary critic later expressed in her contributions to Richard Hengist Horne’s A New Spirit of the Age (1844). Notably too, the notebook underscores the cosmopolitanism and engagement with contemporary subject matter that underpins her later artistic practice, especially in her representation of “this live, throbbing” modern age in Aurora Leigh (1856).

Triangulated Challenges to Democracy: a Critical Voice of Public Theology to Counter Fear and Escalating Polarization in Indonesia

Triangulated Challenges to Democracy: a Critical Voice of Public Theology to Counter Fear and Escalating Polarization in Indonesia

Trust in open publishing practices

Background Scientific publishing is a critical part of scientific enquiry; individual excellence is often measured by the number of publications, and the journals in which these publications appeared count enormously. Open Science practices, such as open access, open review, random gatekeeping and shared governance, are implemented in various journals and publishing platforms, providing alternative ways of publishing. But how are these practices trusted? Methods We have created a theoretical framework for trust in the context of academic publishing and investigated to what extent Dutch researchers find these ways of publishing trustworthy. We have performed a survey to compare the trustworthiness of novel and classical ways of publishing and conducted multiple interviews to figure out why scientists find certain publishing practices more attractive than others. Results In the academic publishing system, we have identified various interdependent relationships between stakeholders in which there is a certain level of uncertainty; therefore, we can assume that trust plays a relevant role here. Based on the literature review and interview results, trustworthiness turned out to be one of the most important factors in choosing journals to read relevant scientific discoveries and to publish papers. The survey results suggest that some aspects of open publishing, such as open access, open peer review and shared governance are well-known and widely accepted and trusted amongst the participants, while others, like participatory peer review or random gatekeeping, were less known. In these cases, many researchers formulated concerns about the competence of the randomly assigned gatekeeper and the reviewers coming from the wider community. Conclusions Our results highlight a shift in social norms within the Dutch scientific community, formulating critical voices towards the profit-oriented nature of classical scientific publishing and highlighting the importance of open access to scientific results, supporting open peer review and publishers with shared governance.

Translator’s ideology: the accented critique of the Church and the missing feminist authorial voice in the translation of Sara Joseph’s Othappu

ABSTRACT Exploring the interactions of female sexuality and spirituality from a feminist lens, Othappu by Sara Joseph, is influential in the genre of women’s writing in Malayalam. Through a textual analysis of the novel’s prize-winning translation by Rev. Valson Thampu, the paper examines how the author’s voicing of female resistance to patriarchal institutions gets effaced in the translation process. The translation appears to be stripped of its explicitly feminist authorial voice, where the specific articulations of female subjectivity get replaced by a universally-appealing critical voice, accenting the translator’s ideology. Contrary to Joseph’s emphasis on the text’s engagement with a woman’s response to religion, Thampu voices his reading of the text as an “individual’s” conflict with faith. The attempt is to locate the discursive presence of the translator and how the translator’s ideological leanings influence the transference of the feminist politics of the source text. Apart from closely comparing the original text to the translation in terms of the specificities of the language and analysis of the paratextual elements, a macro-dimension approach which locates the social context and ideological premise examining the translator’s role as creator of a new social narrative through translation is also employed.

Dynamic consent: a royal road to research consent?

In recent years, the principle of informed consent has come under significant pressure with the rise of biobanks and data infrastructures for medical research. Study-specific consent is unfeasible in the...

Going Local: Policy Intellectuals’ Adaptive Strategies under Xi Jinping

During the Hu Jintao era, policy intellectuals participated in public debates, openly criticizing existing government policies. During the Xi Jinping era, despite regime efforts to tame intellectuals, some critical voices have retained influence over policymaking processes. What adaptation strategies have they utilized to circumvent the regime’s control over public speech? This article points to two strategies. First, policy intellectuals formed shifting collaborations with both state and nonstate actors. Second, they utilized collaborations with state actors to enter consultative forums. The article finds that policy intellectuals not only formed Beijing-based alliances but also cultivated closer cooperation with local officials. By “going local” in this way, they bypassed Beijing’s tightening political environment. This article focuses on two important policy intellectuals in the healthcare arena who have gone local. It also includes a comparison between these two policy intellectuals and seven of their prominent peers who did not go local, as well as with intellectuals from another policy arena: education.

Digital Images Translating Climate Justice Online to inspire Transformative Ecological Visions of World Order from the Margins

Abstract This paper aims to study alternative visions of the world as they emerge creatively through digital media storytelling about floods, forest fires, and consequences of climate change that emerge within transnational climate justice activist networks and their digital media practices of translation and visual storytelling. Focusing on intersectional digital media practices among Fridays for Future (FFF) activists in Germany, it highlights the importance of marginalized voices and their transnational visions of world order and affective connections of solidarity that contest established world climate politics as insufficient. I conceive of questions of cultural and political translation as at the heart of understanding how critical voices from the margin become visible within broader, transnational public spaces due to intersectional (digital) media debates and public deliberation about climate change. I focus on the FFF movement in Germany and the visual practices of online media activists in translating perceived marginalized voices and political visions toward the spotlight of digital conversation within FFF Germany’s joint (trans)national, publicly accessible online spaces. Findings discuss how FFF alternative Telegram channels practice intersectional storytelling of floods, earth, and ecological transformation to make visible the critical agency of activists from the most affected peoples and communities engaged in protesting against extractivism and protecting nature in the Global South.

Don’t say peace: militarisation and the shrinking space for critical voices in the Swedish NATO debate

ABSTRACT Sweden, long known as a voice for peace on the international arena, has undergone a rapid and far-reaching domestic (re-)militarisation the last decade. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this process intensified with a surge in military spending and a radical shift from a longstanding position of non-alignment towards NATO membership. As ‘war’ moves to the center of Swedish public debate, military and security experts occupy most of the space, leaving little room for alternative and critical perspectives. Drawing from feminist scholars, we offer some reflections on Sweden’s (re-)militarisation and ask who gets to speak, who is silenced, and why? Focusing on the domestic public debate post February 2022, we argue that when war moves to the center of the debate, peace is considered an ‘issue for later’. As war is understood in narrow military terms, war expertise is limited to matters of warfare instead of being seen as a broader societal issue. Critical voices and peace advocates are considered naive, unrealistic, and even dangerous. Our reflections invite a discussion on how militarisation and the politics of war expertise affect democratic debate with potentially far-reaching consequences for domestic and international politics.