Dominant Paradigm Research Articles

Challenging dominant education paradigms: posthuman feminist inspirations towards alternate pathways for decolonising the curriculum

AbstractSouth Africa’s curriculum, and education system at large, remains humanistic and dominated by Western Eurocentric ways of thinking, doing and being. The ongoing protest action in higher education has made explicit the inequalities that continue to keep epistemic violence, Eurocentrism, and human exceptionalism intact. Central to this protest action has been the need for curriculum inquiry to reinvent itself and go against the pedagogical grain by advocating for a decolonised curriculum. However, the decolonial turn has largely been a structural exercise of abstract and rhetoric intensity fueled by a language of critique that is entrapped in discursive tendencies that inhibit the type of radicalism needed for it to invigorate alternatives that can challenge dominant education paradigms. This article is inspired by posthuman feminist theory that troubles the logic of advanced capitalism, epistemic injustice and dominant education paradigms. Invoked by new materialism, intra-actions of our becoming within and as part of the world are the deep entanglements of ethics, knowing and being that can spur scholarly activism. Four curriculum studies scholar activists shared their narratives of how they are enacting their curriculum to challenge dominant education paradigms. Their lived experiences as material, relational, embodied and embedded incite posthuman tendencies of what it means to teach to transgress. Experimenting with transversal transgressions this article attempts at a non-anthropocentric, feminist inspired perspective for curriculum inquiry to find alternative pathways for decolonising the curriculum so that it can rise to the challenges of our time.

Collaborating in future states—Contextual instability, paradigmatic remaking, and public policy

AbstractCollaboration is ubiquitous in public policy life, with its presence and profile determined by prevailing governance conditions. Commitments to globalisation and marketisation in the latter part of the 20th century marked the onset of an era defined by collaboration, between and across tiers and spheres of government, with non‐state actors, and through market and network instruments. Current contextual instability poses questions for dominant public policy paradigms and the existing collaborative settlement. This article explores the challenges presented in the current moment and how policymakers and scholars might navigate them. It focuses on how ideas about economics and security shape public policy, illustrating the paradigm‐shifting impact of economism and securitisation. It argues for the replacement of economism and securitisation by sustainability, sovereignty, and justice and demonstrates the latter's engagement with economics and security and their accounting for what have hitherto been ‘subaltern voices’ in public policy. It discusses the implications for collaboration in relation to future collective action problems, more diverse and disconnected ‘publics’, and a more congested and lower trust policy environment. It highlights the need for collaborative plasticity and pluralistic agency.Points for practitioners Public policymaking is shaped by dominant ideas about economics and security; ideas that become ‘taken for granted’ in policy practice. The prevailing ideas of economism and securitisation are being challenged by contextual changes, globally, regionally, and nationally. This creates space for new ideas to shape future public policy. Ideas of sustainability, sovereignty, and justice offer an alternative framework for public policymaking. These ideas can engage productively with economics and security, and they are also inclusive of a wider variety of ‘voices’ particularly those previously marginalised. Collaboration will remain integral to the success of public policy. However, it will need to adapt to new circumstances. This will include defining new purposes, reassessing its appropriateness, reshaping collaborative scope, scale, and form, and refining collaborative activities. A paradigmatic shift in public policy that highlights sustainability, sovereignty, and justice will require the active involvement of a plurality of actors enabled to contribute new knowledge and contest the status quo.

The Destruction of the Voice

ABSTRACT The musical orality of the lyric voice constitutes one of the most formidable and persistent facets of the ideology of German Romanticism, one that is further bequeathed to the arts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taking the musicality of the voice and the ineffability of “absolute” music as its point of departure, this essay investigates a series of primarily German-Jewish figures—Kafka, Schoenberg, Straub-Huillet, and Celan—who stage a radical confrontation with the political aestheticization of the voice. Premonitions and reverberations of these figures’ vocal “destruction” are further traced in Adorno, Kraus, and Maimonides. At stake is not only a comparative study of the voice at the intersection of various media (music, literature, opera, film, and public performance) but also the kind of majoritarian–minoritarian dynamics (between Yiddish and German, German and Hebrew) that arise internal to a single language and its linguistic politics. German-Jewish cultural poetics ultimately develops as a response to the tensions between nation and empire emergent in the dappled political landscape of Central and Eastern Europe—and amends the dominant Romantic paradigm accordingly.

Transformation of the Agrifood System and Climate Change

Objective: Emissions from the agri-food system (AFS) account for between 21% and 37% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Concurrently, climate change has the potential to significantly impact the AFS production processes. The objective is to clarify the context that justifies the need for transformation and transition of the agri-food system, considering climate change as a prioritized challenge. Method: This study adopts a descriptive, bibliographical approach with a qualitative analysis. Content analysis of the literature review enabled examination of: a) the AFS's contribution to global emissions, and b) its susceptibility to climate change impacts. Results and Discussion: The agri-food chain has been notably responsible for emitting a substantial amount of greenhouse gases, particularly during land-use change and in pre- and post-production processes including manufacturing, transportation, refrigeration, food processing, packaging, and waste disposal. Additionally, the agri-food sector is among the most affected by climate change effects, notably due to increased occurrences of extreme events affecting agricultural production, harvesting, and other chain processes, thereby leading to rising prices and food scarcity. Research Implications: This paper highlights the importance of developing and expanding sustainable agri-food systems in response to the intensifying impacts of climate change and food insecurity. Originality/Value: The study aims to contribute to the discourse on the imperative for transformation and transition from the dominant agri-food system paradigm towards alternative production approaches that are more sustainable and resilient to environmental changes.

Metamodern economy: Between war and peace

Man's economic activity and his worldview are closely interrelated, and this relationship has attracted the attention of philosophers and scientists for centuries. When making economic decisions, a person entered into relations of cooperation, collaboration and/or competition and even war. Since ancient times, war was used by man as a tool for resolving economic conflicts and achieving economic interests and evolved along with the development of socio-economic systems and the worldview of man himself. The economic worldview and socio-economic systems, in turn, evolve under the influence of the development of economic activity, philosophical knowledge, science and technology. In the development of mankind, we can distinguish eras of dominance of a certain philosophical paradigm (classicism, modernity, postmodernity, metamodernity), which determined the worldview of people, the “spirit of the times”, as well as their economic activities, the choice of tools for resolving economic conflicts and achieving economic interests, including characteristics and distinctive features of wars. Since in the modern global world of the metamodern era, military conflicts have a significant impact on the economic decisions of economic entities, identifying the distinctive features of modern wars in conjunction with the philosophy of metamodernism is relevant. The purpose of the study is to identify the distinctive characteristics of war as an economic instrument in each of the above-mentioned eras in conjunction with the dominant philosophical paradigm and the characteristics of the socio-economic systems of the parties to military conflicts, as well as to substantiate the key features of war in the modern metamodern era. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved: a comparative historical and economic analysis of the wars of the eras of classicism, modernity, postmodernity, and metamodernity was be carried out; differences between them were identified according to a number of criteria. The relationship between the characteristics of wars and the dominant philosophical paradigm were identified. The role of war in the economy of metamodernity was determined. The research methodology was based on a synthesis of historical and economic methodology, a systemic economic approach, and comparative analysis, which determined the novelty of the research results: the rationale for the relationship of war as a tool for solving economic conflicts and/or realizing economic interests with the dominant philosophical paradigm.

JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET´S CREATIVE LEGACY: THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE

The study focuses on the works of J. Ortega y Gasset, in which the Spanish philosopher offers a new vision of Linguistics analyzed from the point of view of Anthropology, Discourse Theory and Philosophy and first presented by him in 1938. Ortega’s bibliography contains articles in which he develops ideas relevant to Philological science, objecting to Saussure and criticizing Structuralism as the dominant research paradigm at that time. The subject of the research paper is the J. Ortega y Gasset’s ideology about the language and speech nature, formalized in the concepts called New Linguistics and Theory of Utterance, as well as the author’s views on the new approaches to the study of Philology (New Philology) and Grammar (New Grammar). In his works, the Spanish philosopher examines the dynamic nature of language and speech in its projection onto the speaker and substantiates the need to take into account the communicative intention and the communicative context, thereby anticipating the scientific research of the founders of the Speech Act Theory and Discourse Analysis J. Austin, J. Searle and Teun A. Van Dijk. The article makes an attempt to describe and systematize the main ideas introduced by J. Ortega y Gasset, relevant to such areas of modern Linguistics as Pragmatics and Text Linguistics.

Air Quality Index, Personality Traits and Their Impact on the Residential Satisfaction and Quality of Life: An Exploratory Path Analysis Model

The environment directly influences the behaviour, experiences, and also the well-being of people. It is not only the outside environment but the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that also affects the well-being of its residents (Arif et al., 2016). The objective of the present study is to study the relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI), Personality traits, Residential Satisfaction, and quality of life among participants living in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi NCR. A total of 685 residents aged 18-65, living in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi NCR for over 2 years, who responded to the call for participation were selected for the study. Data was collected through online Google forms. Correlation and regression analysis were carried out to understand the strength and direction of the relationship between study variables. SPSS AMOS was used to estimate the measurement model and capture mediation paths. The results present an exploratory model which identifies air quality index and personality traits and their contribution towards the perceptions of residential satisfaction. The study also establishes a link between residential satisfaction and quality of life, the new ecological paradigm, and the dominant social paradigm. The present study highlights the necessity to adopt a pro-environmental approach to improve the quality of life.

Urban Shrinkage, Degrowth, and Sustainability: An Updated Research Agenda

Shrinking cities and degrowth thinking share their parting from the dominant growth paradigm and seem to have much to offer to each other. Could degrowth be an inspiring and guiding paradigm for the sustainable development of shrinking cities? Could shrinking cities be suitable testing grounds to apply degrowth’s radical sustainability principles in practice? These and other questions regarding the connections between urban shrinkage, degrowth, and sustainability have hardly been addressed in the scientific literature thus far. This thematic issue brings together novel empirical contributions, taking stock of first attempts to connect degrowth to urban shrinkage, exploring in how far this potential unfolds in practice and what obstacles these attempts face, with a focus on the field of urban planning. In this editorial, we discuss the connections between shrinking cities, degrowth, and sustainability identified in the empirical studies and the dialogues that span across these contributions. We conclude with an updated research agenda for this field of study.

Racial Rage, Racial Guilt: The Uses of Anger in Asian America

ABSTRACT Asian Americans are conventionally described as “middle-man minorities,” outside of dominant racial paradigms of White and Black, adjunct to White privilege and exempt from the brunt of systemic violence directed against Black people. Historical accounts of the in-betweenness of Asian Americans trace their origins to how Asian coolie labor has served to triangulate White capital and African slavery over the course of European modernity. If this is the material history of in-betweenness, what is the psychic corollary of the middle-man thesis? Through an analysis of the Netflix dark comedy series Beef, as well as case histories of Asian American patients and students, we argue that the psychic effects of occupying a racially intermediate position implicate an unexplored terrain of racial rage and racial guilt that Asian Americans are insistently socialized to hold on behalf of others.

Towards transformative climate justice: reorienting communication paradigms in India

ABSTRACT This paper explores the intersection of neoliberalism, development communication, and climate justice in India, particularly under the Modi regime. It examines how neoliberal ideologies leverage dominant communication paradigms reflecting class dominance, biopolitical control, and a unified national identity rooted in religion. This form of communication extends to policies related to climate justice with India conceptualised and communicated as a monolithic entity or a nation-state with a homogenous belief system that prioritises development over climate concerns, reinforced through binaries prevalent in global climate justice negotiations. This nation-centric approach to climate justice marginalises the views of vulnerable communities in climate justice. While taking a critical view of environmental movements, this article advocates alternative paradigms of communication through a bottom-up approach and identifies conditions and institutions that promote transformative climate justice.

A framework for using community determined iconic species to advance socio-ecology connections and promote nature-based solutions

The community value and resonate with some species and ecological systems more than others and therefore can be used to engender broader public support for nature positive outcomes. Yet many of these are not the scientifically-derived indicator species or ecological communities used by conservation scientists to determine and report on the pressures or condition of the environment nor by those implementing programs or actions needed to reverse biodiversity loss. Urban environments represent the intersection of two complex systems, human and natural, and yet this socio-ecological or coupled human-natural system nexus remains elusive within conservation law and policy and the dominant paradigm of grey infrastructure in cities. New approaches are needed to tether environmental policies and practices, such as nature based solutions, to the values and interests of individuals and their place. This article offers a novel framework through which nature-based solutions may achieve policy traction when tied to iconic species that the community value. The iconic species framework is founded on validity theory and the relevance of community-selected species in supporting nature positive outcomes. In parallel, the framework satisfies the data driven outcomes on which science and conservation policy relies upon and the use controls that direct nature-based rather than conventional engineering approaches. The iconic species framework is situated between the indicator species framework, whereby taxa are selected on the basis of their ecological sensitivity, and flagship species, that are largely emblematic. It links numerous ecological and environmental requirements of the species that are preferred by the community to develop nature-positive policy and practice outcomes.

Damned If They Do, Damned If They Don't: The Assurance Dilemma in International Coercion

Abstract Why do some coercive demands succeed but others fail? A dominant paradigm explains coercive outcomes by pointing to the credibility and severity of threats. The concept of coercive assurance is an understudied type of commitment problem in the coercion literature. It suggests that a coercer must assure its target that its threats are conditional on the target's behavior. Many scholars overlook coercive assurance, in part because they assume it is automatic. But assurance is a crucial component of any coercive process. Even highly credible and severe threats can fail when the coercer's assurance is not credible. A novel theory, the assurance dilemma, helps to answer the following questions: Why do targets of coercion fear unconditional pain? Why do coercers punish after receiving compliance? What is the relationship between threats and assurances in coercion? The actions that a coercer can take to bolster the credibility of a threat undermine the credibility of its assurance that it will not punish the target. Targets fear that punishment may be unavoidable and thus look for assuring signals before ceding to the coercer's demands. The case of coercive bargaining over the Iranian nuclear program demonstrates the logic and effectiveness of the use of assurance.

Finding the sweet spot of physically active learning: A need for co-ownership by public health and education

The growing interest in Physically Active Learning (PAL) (e.g. in practice and research) warrants exploration of multi-stakeholders’ perceptions, understandings, and enactment of PAL. Eighteen semi-structured interviews with professionals from eight countries (n = 6 researchers, n = 6 teachers and n = 6 teacher educators) were conducted and analysed thematically eliciting three themes; 1) placing PAL on a continuum, 2) putting PAL into action in the everyday, 3) navigating through PAL. A complex and nuanced representation of PAL was given, demonstrating substantial ambiguity and a need to integrate the dominant paradigms (education and public health) to develop a shared understanding of PAL.

Automatic Removal of Non-Architectural Elements in 3D Models of Historic Buildings with Language Embedded Radiance Fields

Neural radiance fields have emerged as a dominant paradigm for creating complex 3D environments incorporating synthetic novel views. However, 3D object removal applications utilizing neural radiance fields have lagged behind in effectiveness, particularly when open set queries are necessary for determining the relevant objects. One such application area is in architectural heritage preservation, where the automatic removal of non-architectural objects from 3D environments is necessary for many downstream tasks. Furthermore, when modeling occupied buildings, it is crucial for modeling techniques to be privacy preserving by default; this also motivates the removal of non-architectural elements. In this paper, we propose a pipeline for the automatic creation of cleaned, architectural structure only point clouds utilizing a language embedded radiance field (LERF) with a specific application toward generating suitable point clouds for the structural integrity assessment of occupied buildings. We then validated the efficacy of our approach on the rooms of the historic Sion hospital, a national historic monument in Valais, Switzerland. By using our automatic removal pipeline on the point clouds of rooms filled with furniture, we decreased the average earth mover’s distance (EMD) to the ground truth point clouds of the physically emptied rooms by 31 percent. The success of our research points the way toward new paradigms in architectural modeling and cultural preservation.

Mobility-in-place: how to keep privilege by being mobile at work

Abstract In this paper, we explore the notion of mobility as a dynamic process of keeping oneself in a privileged position through the mobilisation of linguistic, communicative, and semiotic resources. It is a proposed construct that troubles our understanding of the two dominant paradigms in the study of language in globalisation: the sociolinguistics of distribution (study of language-in-place) and the sociolinguistics of mobility (study of language-in-motion) (Blommaert and Dong 2007. Language and movement in space. Working Papers in Language Diversity. University of Jyväskylä). We examine the professional life story of Andrew and Juanito to map out the inventive manner by which they move around within their workplaces through their deployment of language, and English in particular. While there has been substantial work dedicated to unpacking elite language and how it enables the mobility of speakers, our paper departs from it by constructing an understanding of how such privilege is organized in terms of people’s ability to shift between linguistic and stylistic choices in order to mobilize their own privileged mobility within their chosen workplaces. What we see here is the mobilisation of ‘language-in-motion-in-place’ -- or broadly, mobility-in-place -- which erases the conceptual dichotomy between the two dominant paradigms in the study of language and globalisation: while the speakers are in place, they are also mobile.

Puzzle Pattern, a Systematic Approach to Multiple Behavioral Inheritance Implementation in Object-Oriented Programming

Object-oriented programming (OOP) has long been a dominant paradigm in software development, but it is not without its challenges. One major issue is the problem of tight coupling between objects, which can hinder flexibility and make it difficult to modify or extend code. Additionally, the complexity of managing inheritance hierarchies can lead to rigid and fragile designs, making it hard to maintain and evolve the software over time. This paper introduces a software development pattern that seeks to offer a renewed approach to writing code in object-oriented (OO) environments. Addressing some of the limitations of the traditional approach, the Puzzle Pattern focuses on extreme modularity, favoring writing code exclusively in building blocks that do not possess a state (e.g., Java interfaces that support concrete methods definitions in interfaces starting from version 8). Concrete classes are subsequently assembled through the implementation of those interfaces, reducing coupling and introducing a new level of flexibility and adaptability in software construction. The highlighted pattern offers significant benefits in software development, promoting extreme modularity through interface-based coding, enhancing adaptability via multiple inheritance, and upholding the SOLID principles, though it may pose challenges such as complexity and a learning curve for teams.

Trends in the research of world-modeling from the perspective of Russian linguistics: Paradigmatic framework and conceptual apparatus

In the first quarter of the XXI century, world-modeling has been actively discussed in the theory of literature, text studies and discourse studies. The concept of world-modeling in linguistics significantly differs from that in literary studies, which determines the relevance of this research. The paper aims to review the publications by Russian scholars that raise the problems of world-modeling in communication, to highlight the dominant tendencies of research within the framework of the cognitive-discursive paradigm and to discuss their theoretical potential. The sample consists of 334 publications retrieved from eLibrary database. The paper argues that due to the influence of the dominant paradigm in linguistics, an independent cognitive and discursive trend of world-modeling research is being developed in Russia, and is becoming more specific, which leads to the emergence of discrete areas of research that accumulate their own system of concepts. The paper discusses the research potential of lingua-cognitive, conceptual, functional, axiological, semantic, stylistic, lingua-ideological, cognitive and pragmatic trends. The author argues that the logic of the development of discrete trends is determined by the inter-paradigm interaction, thanks to which knowledge about the representation of the world in communication is built on general paradigmatic principles as well as the achievements of particular disciplines. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the lingua-cultural, socio-semiotic, lingua-personological and psycholinguistic research traends observed in some recent publications. The interdisciplinary nature of modern linguistics makes it possible to combine several perspectives of the world-modeling analysis. The results of the study can contribute to the further development of the cognitive and discursive world-modeling theory in linguistics and social studies.

A return of dominant paradigm in China: making Alibaba a development solution for rural China and the globe

ABSTRACT In 2011, Alibaba launched the Taobao Villages initiative, which enables rural e-commerce and connects rural sellers with urban buyers, highlighting the role of e-commerce platforms in reducing rural poverty. This approach was later integrated into national rural development policies. As the Digital Silk Road initiative progresses and Alibaba expands globally, Taobao Villages’ development experience is being promoted worldwide. Using Taobao Villages as a case study, this paper integrates the agrarian question in Marxian political economy with critical development communication studies. It explores why rural areas’ underdevelopment is perceived as a problem solvable by digital platforms, why this development approach emerged in post-socialist China, and its potential impacts. This paper argues that the Taobao Village exemplifies a dominant paradigm of development communication, produced by Alibaba, development experts, and government officials through shared knowledge practices. It examines the texts, intellectual frameworks, and diffusion processes involved in this knowledge production by employing critical discourse analysis. The study highlights how Taobao Villages reinforce the notion that informatization facilitates marketization, thus perpetuating and adapting three mainstream rural development ideas in post-socialist China. The underlying issue of rural China’s underdevelopment, the privatization and capitalization of rural social reproduction driven by China’s neoliberal globalization, sets the stage for another wave of digital labor exploitation. Furthermore, the widespread neoliberal ideology that advocates using e-commerce to foster social development creates internal challenges and generates external pressures within China.

BORDERS AT THE MARGINS: LIVED EXPERIENCES AND GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES OF BORDER COMMUNITIES IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

This study re-envisions border studies by focussing on the lived experiences of communities in Jammu and Kashmir’s border regions, where borders transcend mere geopolitical lines and become vibrant socio-cultural landscapes. This research paper highlights the complex issues these communities face, such as security threats, economic exclusion, and restricted access to essential services like education and healthcare. These challenges are intensified by the region’s geographic isolation, intermittent military conflicts, and political volatility, which create an environment marked by instability and vulnerability. By examining historical conflicts, systemic neglect, and geopolitical tensions, the study reveals how these factors compound the hardships of border populations. Furthermore, this paper evaluates the effects of leadership measures, such as construction projects, health, schooling, and living characteristics in enhancing conditions in such deprived regions. Consequently, the analysis presented in the research contributes to the existing body of knowledge on effective and efficient policy implementation and governance in borderland regions, while questioning the dominant paradigms of development. Thus, this work contributes to the existing literature on border studies by providing a systematic understanding of borders, community resilience, and governance in their complex interrelationships.

Explaining de-sectarianization

A key feature of the 21st century Middle East thus far has been the vertiginous rise and precipitate retreat of sectarian (Sunni-Shi’a) division as a dominant paradigm in contentious politics and international relations. Understanding these shifts yields important lessons regarding identity politics, state-society relations, regime-maintenance strategies, and inter-group relations.