Disciplinary Legitimacy Research Articles

Communication's quest for whiteness: the racial politics of disciplinary legitimacy

ABSTRACT This essay examines communication's historical anxieties regarding disciplinary legitimacy as an investment in whiteness. We argue that such anxieties are predicated upon a normative ideal of citizenship. As such, rhetorics of disciplinary legitimacy enact white civil society's originary exclusion, which is antiblackness. To illuminate the ways antiblackness finds expression in these anxieties, we engage the field's lengthy archive of public musings regarding legitimacy to trace the rhetorical workings of antiblackness therein.

¡Adelante! Reflections and Aspirations on the First Anniversary of LALVC

We take this opportunity to reflect on the first year of publishing LALVC , plan for the future, and thank all of the contributors, peer reviewers, editorial board members, subscribers, and other supporters. The enthusiasm for LALVC 's content, as revealed by submissions, subscriptions, mentions on

Exercise as a poisoned elixir: inactivity, inequality and intervention

In this article, we theorise and explain Exercise is Medicine (EiM), as indicative of broader physical activity (PA) health promotion, from a sociological perspective through the lens of health equity. Data were collected through two independent ethnographic studies that bookend the EiM endeavour: the production of knowledge in the laboratory, and the creation and implementation of health policy and PA interventions. First, we demonstrate how conceptualising exercise as medicine assumes narrow pathology and (prescribed) solution a priori, which has given rise to a new form of movement intellectuals. Within such context, we explain how the study of physical (in)activity (especially by exercise scientists) is shaped by broader social and political contexts of the university sector and disciplinary legitimacy produced through alignment with other (medical) institutions. Second, we review the ‘causes of the causes’ of ill-health and wider social determinants of health as related to exercise. Presenting exercise as a ‘therapy of freedom’ that is to some extent epiphenomenal we examine the social inequalities and lifestyle drift which inhibit equitable access to this health promoting behaviour. We then outline an original qualitative methodological development: duoethnographic creative non-fiction, which has enabled the synthesis of two independent ethnographic studies. Findings of this accessible and engaging methodology, in the form of two stories, show the need for an alternative approach that values activity, prioritises equity and underscores methodological collaboration. For this reason, we conclude by proposing greater interdisciplinarity by aligning EiM with the Behavioural Justice Movement.

Metadiscursive nouns: Interaction and cohesion in abstract moves

Research article abstracts have become an important genre in all knowledge fields, playing a crucial role in persuading readers, and reviewers, to take the time to go further into the paper itself. This promotional aspect of abstracts is well known, but less discussed is the ways writers are able to skilfully foreground their claim, package the information in a cohesive and coherent manner, and craft a disciplinary stance. One such rhetorical strategy is what we are calling metadiscursive nouns. Nouns such as fact, analysis, and belief are common in abstracts and do a great deal of rhetorical work for writers. In this paper we explore the interactive and interactional functions they perform in the rhetorical moves of 240 research abstracts from six disciplines. The results show how these nouns are frequently used to frame and coherently manage arguments while, at the same time, helping writers to claim disciplinary legitimacy and promote the value and relevance of their research to their discipline.

From a Stylistic Angle: Methodological Issues and Liminal Creativity

Stylistics can be said to borrow tools from one well-established discipline (linguistics) and step on the disciplinary toes of another (literature). The question of the legitimacy of its borders in the academic landscape in France can deservedly be raised. In this article which questions the frontiers of stylistics, the author sets up a mock trial, bringing to the witness box specialists of adjacent disciplines, linguistics and literature, uncompromisingly probing the legitimacy of stylistics. After offering a defence speech, the author shows how unfair this trial is to all participants involved, the reason being that the liminal issue applies to the field of stylistics in a specific way. The perimeter of stylistic studies has not been built on the construction of exclusive borders. The author shows why the field should be construed as both a welcoming and a migrating land that must be understood in this paradox: it has gained disciplinary legitimacy by paradoxically dismantling disciplinary partitions. Stylistics is a ‘connecting’ discipline that can further research by reviving dialogues between distinct fields of knowledge. In a very last section, a concrete illustration is given to the bridging capacity of stylistics, as it brings new light to another discipline, film/TV series studies that have been passed over from a pragma-stylistic angle.

From hoarders to the hoard: giving disciplinary legitimacy to undisciplined collecting

In this essay, we juxtapose experiential understandings of the Staffordshire Hoard and Song Dong’s 2005 installation Waste Not as the starting point for a consideration of collecting, hoarding, curating, and art historical scholarship. Far from conclusive and sometimes purposefully provocative, our text proposes avenues for theorizing collections based on the deconstructive possibilities introduced by this comparison. As scholars, we often see our role in relation to collections in curatorial terms, drawing order out of the always-already-existing archive through an analytical process, carefully preserving its most precious information. What this study suggests, however, is that the archive does not predate our curatorial impulse at all. Imagine laying everything you own – every Q-tip and saved twisty-tie, as well as every book and every pair of socks – out on a gallery floor, carefully ordered by object type into grids, with aisles between them so that visitors can tour your possessions as though browsing the tidiest thrift store on earth. Wouldn’t you look like a hoarder?

Exploring the conceptualisation of Intangibles in law and accounting in the USA

Purpose – Over the last decades concepts and practices related to intangibles gained momentum at international level especially within the economic, accounting and management arenas. However, dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, intangibles was a topic that in the USA dominated the law and taxation fields. Indeed, at that time few papers were published in accounting journals and reviews, whereas the majority populated law and taxation publications. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon the sociology of the profession, the ways through which lawyers and accountants constructed a “professional competition and power” (Dezalay and Sugarman, 2005) upon this arena are here explored. In particular, an in-depth analysis of the papers published on this field from the beginning of the 1900s until the 1970s in the USA is carried out. Findings – Notwithstanding the current conceptualisation of intangibles as a field of research and practice at the margins (Miller, 1998) of accounting, the results achieved in the present research suggest that, at least historically, the topic of intangibles was highly intertwined not only within the different streams of accounting studies and practice, but also with the developments in legal and taxation fields that were surrounding the US economic, social and political institutional scenario. Originality/value – The work intends to contribute to the current literature providing insights into the “genealogy” (Foucault, 1977) of the intangibles territory and the “turf battles” (Dezalay, 1995) it went through in order to become what has been defined as “a field upon which questions of disciplinary legitimacy have been raised” (Zambon, 2006) and, consequently, as characterized by “an intrusion of ‘external’ specialists into the accounting domain” (Power, 2001).

The ontological pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism: A re-inquiry on El-Bassiouny's (2014, 2015) conceptualization of “Islamic marketing”

In response to Jafari and Sandıkcı's (2015a) critique of her 2014 article entitled “The one-billion-plus marginalization”, El-Bassiouny (2015) dismisses the authors' key ontological debate over exceptionalism as a historical and political discourse and diverts attention to new areas of enquiry (e.g., disciplinary legitimacy, Islamic jurisprudence and methodological pluralism) to further her original “transcendental values integration” approach to marketing theory, practice and education. While offering new insights, El-Bassiouny's account is still largely driven by discourses of marginalization, exceptionalism and Islamism. This article therefore: (1) reappraises the oversimplification of the marginalization discourse; (2) reiterates the pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism at an ontological level; (3) cautions against the consequences of ideological readings of Islam in marketing and consumer research; and (4) re-emphasizes the importance of understanding identity dynamics in the analysis of the complex intersections of Islam, marketing and consumption. In conclusion, the article offers some areas for future research.

Vulnerability Concepts and its Application in Various Fields: A Review on Geographical Perspective

Vulnerability has no universal definition. Experts from various disciplines use the concept and define vulnerability, which leads diverse measuring methods to serve their own purpose and interests. Approaches to define vulnerability vary among the disciplines because of the various components of risk, household response and welfare outcomes. The objective of this paper is to present an overview based on available scientific literature from various disciplines to examine the origin, evolution and use of the vulnerability concept across different field of studies. Vulnerability is exclusively used in various disciplines such as geography, anthropology, economics, ecology, public health, poverty and development, sustainable livelihoods, famine and food security, sustainability science, land management, disaster management and climate change. Therefore, different disciplines have their own reasons for defining, measuring and developing conceptual models of vulnerability; hence there is no reason to presume that concepts, measures and methods will be universal across the disciplines. Lessons learned from one area may not be equally suitable for all. Hence, differences between various fields need to be bridged by a holistic approach and multidisciplinary research cooperation, and geography as a unique multidisciplinary field of study has the major disciplinary legitimacy to fill up the gaps and to create a common platform to work together in vulnerability research among the various research traditions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jles.v8i0.20150 J. Life Earth Sci., Vol. 8: 63-81, 2013

Applying and theorizing institutional frameworks in IS research

Purpose – This paper investigates how Information Systems (IS) researchers apply institutional theoretical frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to explore the operationalization of meta-theoretical frameworks for empirical research which can often present difficulties in IS research. The authors include theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects to explore modalities of use and suggest further avenues. Design/methodology/approach – After an overview of institutional concepts, the authors carry out a thematic analysis of journal papers on IS and institutional frameworks indexed in EBSCO and ABI databases from 1999 to 2009. This consists of descriptive, thematic coding and cluster analysis of this textual database, this combined qualitative and quantitative method offers a unique way of analyzing how operationalization is carried out. Findings – The findings suggest three groups of publications which represent different methodological approaches and empirical foci: “descriptive exploratory approaches,” “generalizing approaches,” and “sociological approaches.” The authors suggest that these three groups represent possible patterns of the use of “meta” social theories in IS research, reflecting a search for disciplinary legitimacy. This helps us analyze papers according to how they use and apply theories. The authors identify the “organizing vision” and the regulatory approach as two institutionalist “intermediary” concepts developed by IS researchers. Furthermore, the authors find that institutional theoretical frameworks have been used in “direct,” “intermediary” or “combined” conceptualizations. The authors also confirm the dynamism of the IS institutional research stream, as evidenced by the increase in number of articles between 1999 and 2009, and identify a maturation process of the IS field in investigating a social theory. Originality/value – The evolution the authors identify in the application of institutional theoretical frameworks in the IS field reveals conformity in methodological, theoretical and empirical terms. By identifying these patterns, it becomes possible to understand institutional reasons for their existence and legitimacy; and to propose other avenues of exploration in future IS research, such as combining different theoretical lenses in institutional frameworks. The methodological contribution is to provide an innovative methodology which helps describe categories and levels of institutional theoretical frameworks used, leading to the identification of gaps and proposing further avenues of research.

Jean-François Lyotard and the Question of Disciplinary Legitimacy

The modern university developed as an institution legitimated by external referents, including national culture and its emancipatory potential. Today's university, however, has been largely destabilized as these referents have become, at the very least, significantly less compelling relative to larger concerns about economic competitiveness and, more extremely, met with incredulity within the context of postmodernity. This article examines the current state of the university through a consideration of Jean-François Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition, particularly Lyotard's ideas of performativity and language games. This analysis demonstrates the tenuous position of those disciplines that have not been reconciled to the logic of performativity. Using the example of the humanities, it is argued that endangered disciplines must become re-referentialized in order to survive.

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Whole Knowledge

From survey to strategy: Twentieth century developments in western planning method

An analysis of planning method in the 20th century is, in essence, a study of the development of the planning profession and the on‐going quest of the profession to maintain social relevance and disciplinary legitimacy. That quest has required of planning that it modify its methods to accommodate the changes that have occurred in society from time to time. Methodological change is found not only in the configuration of the various planning models that have been formulated over the years, but also, and importantly, in the intellectual premises that support the models. These premises can be construed as dichotomous (or dualistic) in two senses. Firstly, the philosophical underpinnings that have been attached to planning method have at various times been drawn from either empiricist/positivist or rationalist epistemologies. Secondly, planning method has been perceived as a decision‐making modus having practical applicability in the real world or, alternatively, as a model located in the field of theory (proc...

DOMESTICATING POSTMODERNISM

This paper proceeds in three steps. First, it gives more focus and rigor to the geographic reception of “postmodernism,” through an investigation of the problem of representation as it has evolved from Kant through de Saussure and Wittgenstein to Derrida. Second, it arranges historical materialist encounters with the problem of representation along a spectrum of increasing seriousness leading from Palmer through Jameson to Adorno. Third, the various geographic responses to and avoidances of the key issues involved in postmodernism are read against the backdrop of possible seriousness opened up by the first two sections of the paper. The essay concludes by considering implications, for both social science and politics, not limited to questions about the possibility of disciplinary legitimacy.