Dominant Social Paradigm Research Articles

Why do we argue about risk? The invisibility of worldviews in marine decision-making

The paper asks “why are we always arguing about risk?” It explores what drives risk perception in decision-making processes in Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine environment. The research’s holistic framing shows that the prevailing concern with risk and uncertainty (RU) issues in government and managerial settings deflects attention from and hides the background influences of worldviews. After introducing the invisibilities around RU and outlining worldview-based perceptions of risk, the paper turns to an empirical investigation focusing on deep-seabed mining investment in the context of Aotearoa’s Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf Act (Environmental Effects) 2012. Enacted as part of neoliberal reforms, the Act seeks to reduce environmental degradation in tandem with economic growth. A situated methodology examines a consenting process within this Act as a strategic site to establish expressions of RU and shaping invisibilities. Three key influences are revealed: the positionality of decision-makers, their disciplinary training, and the largely unknown filtering of environmental and economic options that come from 3 worldviews held in Aotearoa (dominant social paradigm, new environmental paradigm, Te Ao Māori). We contend hidden worldviews impact on economy–environment relations and ensuing economic and environmental practices and outcomes. This arises because they underpin and fuel debates around what RU are acceptable and how benefits should be distributed (public vs. private benefits investment decisions, and economy vs. environment). Unless we recognize and understand these hidden influences, we simply cannot work with them. This insight has major implications for how RU ideas might be framed and navigated in emerging policy settings.

‘Ubuntu’ African Philosophy or ‘Ubuntu’ as a Philosophy for Africa

This paper tries to develop a tenable philosophical idea of Ubuntu, that is, more specifically, a crystallized and sanitized African indigenous ethical perspective. Africa as an idea seems to be a “contested” concept in this contemporary post-colonial era due to the influx of different nuances, races, values, and beliefs that are in contention. Should this be a source of worry? So far, Ubuntu theory and practice in Africa seem to have become emotive, politicized, and not inclusive enough due to grandstanding about ownership, poor conceptual and theoretical articulation, as well as antagonism from other related foreign dominant worldviews that wish to become the development paradigm for most African social and political systems. This raises relational and dialogical issues about meaning from an African viewpoint. The search for an African endogenous paradigm for development is urgent given the real consequences of a (neo)colonial tendency that has threatened and disadvantaged the development of most countries due to its dominant paradigms of alienation, exploitation, and marginalization. These values have altered or affected African behaviour and thinking. This transformation of the African personality raises issues about agency. The underlying values of a development paradigm or philosophy of development for Africa require an ethical basis for human existence in political and social order. Generally, social order in most parts of Africa is beset by the problem of a negative dominant social paradigm (DSP) or core social values of hatred, intolerance, the abuse of human rights, dehumanization, exploitation, authoritarianism, poverty, and oppression. This often leads to tension, violent conflicts, and wars. So to build a viable and stable endogenous paradigm for development in most African sociopolitical environments, we attempt to use the main pillar of interconnectedness among human beings, which is central to Ubuntu as a humane and humanistic social system, to underscore some key moral and democratic values required for human liberation and transformation. The research question is: What concrete elements or values of Ubuntu can be useful as paradigms of endogenous African development? Specifically, our findings suggest that Ubuntu ethics is defined by a set of human values central among which are reciprocity, the common good, peaceful relations, an emphasis on human dignity and the value of human life, as well as consensus, tolerance, and mutual respect. Thus, the paper argues for the possibility of utilizing Ubuntu ethical correlates as materials for establishing stable and viable development worldwide and specifically in Africa.

FROM SOCIAL TIES TO SPATIAL BELONGING: RETHINKING HOME IN REFUGEE STUDIES WITH A FOCUS ON DEEP HALDAR’S BLOOD ISLAND

The forced displacement of millions due to war, persecution, and environmental disasters presents a significant challenge to the international community. Refugee Studies, a field dedicated to understanding the experiences of refugees, has traditionally focused on social interaction and integration. However, this emphasis overlooks the profound impact displacement has on refugees' sense of place and home. This article argues that a more nuanced understanding of the refugee experience requires incorporating insights from spatial theory and the concept of "home tactics."The article begins by examining the limitations of the dominant social interactionist paradigm in Refugee Studies. It critiques the "nomadic subjectivity" model, which views refugees as essentially mobile, and the policy-oriented use of "place rootedness" as a tool for resettlement. Drawing on the work of Catherine Broome, the article proposes a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between refugees and place. This includes acknowledging the strategic use of place claims for political purposes while recognizing the genuine emotional attachment refugees have to their lost homes.The concept of "home tactics," developed by Mariano Ortega, offers a valuable framework for understanding how refugees navigate displacement. Home tactics refer to the everyday actions and practices refugees undertake to create a sense of familiarity and belonging in their new environments. The article explores how home tactics transcend economic and political strategies, reflecting deeply personal and emotional connections to land and space.The book "Blood Island" by Deep Haldar serves as a powerful case study for examining home tactics in action. The article analyzes how displaced Bengalis in Dandakaranya recreate a sense of home through rituals like the "Posto Mela" harvest festival. These performative acts connect them to their past and the land they lost. Furthermore, the article explores the embodied dimensions of home and belonging, highlighting the profound sensory connection refugees maintain with their lost homelands.The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of studying refugee narratives to gain deeper insights into their experiences. By analyzing narratives, we can move beyond theoretical frameworks and understand how refugees themselves perceive displacement, place, and home. Incorporating these insights into refugee policy and practice is crucial for developing ethical and sustainable responses to the ongoing global refugee crisis.

Beyond Personal Beliefs: The Impact of the Dominant Social Paradigm on Energy Transition Choices

Energy transition towards a local resilient energy supply is necessary for energy security. Climate change and the threat of economic collapse are reasons to force society to become less dependent on fossil fuel. Small-scale solutions are expected to be more sustainable, as large-scale integrated networks are featured by complexity and difficult-to-notice vulnerabilities, creating system risks. This paper presents the results of empirical research among a sample of Polish business students (N = 205) on the importance of worldviews for the choice of the energy transition scenario (local solutions vs. large-scale solutions). Worldviews are represented here by the Dominant Social Paradigm (defined for the purpose of this study as the belief that liberal democracy, free markets, and technological development are to solve all type of problems). This study addresses two research questions: (1) Is there a difference in preference for the energy transition scenarios? (2) Does adherence to the Dominant Social Paradigm determine the choice of the scenario for energy transition? The results present a preference for non-cooperative solutions (individual household solutions and large-scale solutions), while no significant relation to the worldviews represented by the Dominant Social Paradigm has been found. The results suggest that preferences for individual and large-scale solutions may be influenced more by institutional factors than by personal worldviews. A policy implication is that a change in the socio-political institutions and strengthening local governance may be a prerequisite for a sustainable energy transition.

A Case Study on the Value of Humanities-Based Analysis, Modes of Presentation, and Study Designs for SoTL: Close Reading Students’ Pre-Surveys on Gender-Inclusive Language

Close reading has long been heralded as a humanities-specific methodology with significant potential for SoTL. This essay fills a gap in SoTL literature with a full case study demonstrating what, exactly, close reading shows us about our data that social science-based quantitative and qualitative analyses may not. Close reading-based analysis of first-year writing students’ pre-surveys on gender-inclusive language entails attention to the interrelated form and content of students’ self-reflections. This analysis reveals nuances and complexities that, if overlooked, would result in inadvertent misrepresentation of the data. This case study responds not only to calls for humanities-specific SoTL methodologies but also to related calls for greater legitimation of diverse forms for SoTL dissemination, some of which originate in the humanities. It is therefore cast as a reflective essay based on its author’s scholarly personal narrative (SPN) as a new, humanities-based SoTL researcher. Finally, this case study demonstrates the value of flexible, deliberately unscientific study designs that are responsive to emergent conditions but foreign to SoTL’s dominant social science paradigm. As guides to instruction, pre-surveys are necessary complements to pre-quizzes: learning what students think they know about a concept or skill, their attitudes towards it, and their contexts of prior learning about it—not just their knowledge of it, which is all pre-quizzes can tell us—is an important precursor to effective instruction. But maximizing pre-surveys’ potential to guide instruction requires flexible study designs so we can change our pedagogy, including our study’s “intervention,” if necessary, on the fly.

Forests as Social Mirrors: What do Approaches to Forest Management Tell us About Human Social Relations?

AbstractThere is evidence to suggest that the nature of human impact upon forests, measured both quantitatively and qualitatively, tells a story about dominant social paradigms throughout recent history. In this sense, forests are social mirrors. Collectively, we are consuming ecological resources at 1.5 times the rate they can be replenished, while often simplifying or adversely impacting forest ecosystems. At the same time, ecocentric and enlightened self‐interest movements are emerging, manifest in woodland management approaches that embrace multiple values, ecological sensitivity, and traditional ecological knowledge. The evidence therefore shows that contradictory paradigms exist alongside each other, exerting influence over landscapes at shared temporal and spatial scales simultaneously. Consequently, forest management reflects the sociocultural dynamics of a species experiencing cognitive dissonance; responding to human ideals around the need to tread lightly and the contradictory reality of an ever‐increasing economic output.

Fashioning the Circular Economy with Disruptive Marketing Tactics Mimicking Fast Fashion’s Exploitation of Social Capital: A Case Study Exploring the Innovative Fashion Rental Business Model “Wardrobe”

With the threat of the climate emergency intensifying and limited time left to reduce irreversible consequences, the need to consider how natural resources are excavated and managed from cradle to grave intensifies. This positions the circular economy (CE) as being highly relevant, particularly for the fashion industry, which is criticised for encouraging continued frequent and impulsive consumption of inexpensive garments with limited longevity. Advancing the circular fashion economy (CFE) has received little attention. Limited research to date has found that consumers have not been socialised to consider fashion acquisition as a collaborative or sharing activity, revealing an established attitude–behaviour gap that prohibits the advancement of the sustainable-fashion agenda. Primarily, fashion is imbued with social and emotional capital, as experienced with the dominant social paradigm (DSP) of fast fashion. This paper argues that similar tactics can be adopted for sustainable fashion practices through the CFE by exemplifying a case study of a fashion-renting platform, “Wardrobe,” that enables consumers to rent fashion owned by influencers and celebrities. In doing so, the paper makes four contributions to the knowledge: Firstly, in developing a conceptual framework from research examining fashion, sustainable fashion, and the CFE, the paper illuminates how fashion marketing emphasises social and celebrity capital to appeal to consumer emotions, encouraging frequent impulsive consumption, and how this can be transferred to the CFE. Secondly, the DSP is contextualised alongside the theory of disruptive innovation to understand how social norms of fashion consumption can be disrupted. Thirdly, although there is an emerging literature stream examining the CE and CFE, this focuses more on consumer practice and behaviours, and little attention has been paid to how the CFE can be marketed to engage with consumers. Fourthly, this paper illuminates how similar marketing tactics used by fast fashion can be exploited to advance the CFE.

PARADIGM SHIFT FOR THE CONSUMERS ON THE EDGE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS: BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF NEW ENVIRONMENTAL PARADIGM

In the era of Anthropocene, with Dominant Social Paradigm the humankind has intruded nature with a greed to dominate and possess more. Adoption of consumer/consumption-oriented economy models caused pollution, climate change, and damage to the environment. In 1978 New Environmental Paradigm was introduced to exclaim the need for a new worldview to increase the awareness and support of mankind in favor of nature. It’s been adopted by several disciplines and used in the environmental behavior literature to assess the environmental concern/attitudes. Since attitudes shapes the behavior, and the pro-environmental behavior has a transformative power on the sustainability and the survival of the nature, its determinants were analyzed through several theories. With this study, it’s aimed to focus on New Environmental Paradigm and reveal its dominance in environmental behavior literature with a bibliometric analysis demonstrating the most productive and influential studies, authors, universities and countries to shed light for researchers.

Socioeconomic Paradigms and the Perception of System Risks: A Study of Attitudes towards Nuclear Power among Polish Business Students

Due to anticipated energy shortages and the need to achieve climate goals, there is an urgent requirement for transition towards a green, resilient system of energy provision. This transition is hampered because important players in energy markets (governments and oligopolies), while supporting large-scale solutions, avoid or block systemic changes. This rejection of systemic change is strengthened by the dominant social paradigm, which ignores systemic vulnerabilities, treating resources as solutions and the environment as a sink. In its turn, the dominant social paradigm is contested by the new ecological paradigm and by attitudes towards sustainable business practices. Understanding this framework may be relevant for identifying decision-makers’ perception of system risk, and thus for supporting a transition towards a more decentralized and resilient energy supply. In this context, this paper presents an empirical study among Polish students of a business university (N = 393), trying to discover the relationship between the social paradigms, perceptions of environmental resources and sinks, and systemic risk in large-scale energy production (i.e., nuclear power plants). Although the explained variance is limited, results show that various elements of the dominant social paradigm are related to problem denial. Technological optimism and belief in markets are predictors of optimism about resource shortages and neglect of system risk. This optimism is counteracted by political liberalism, and respondent attitudes towards sustainable business practices. Belief in market forces has an ambivalent effect, tempering technological optimism regarding nuclear energy but also political acknowledgement of the limited resources and sink capacities of the environment. Although the influence of the dominant social paradigm on energy transition can be identified, the results may indicate a decline in belief in market forces and liberal democracy, implying a rethinking of the dominant social paradigm may be needed. The existing relationship between these aspects warrants a critical review and discussion of the central role of the dominant paradigm in current management training. The results indicate that a lack of political liberalism and a negative attitude towards sustainable business practices amplify system risks in, e.g., large-scale nuclear energy projects.

Signaling Nothing: Motivating the Masses with Status Signals That Encourage Anti-Consumption

Anti-consumption is arguably the most impactful environmentally friendly behavior but can be very challenging for consumers and antithetical to marketing. However, it may be possible for brands to support consumers in difficult anti-consumption actions. This paper demonstrates that a conspicuous signal communicating environmental motives can encourage anti-consumption, particularly for consumers least likely to do so without it. Real social media behavioral data and two experiments show that willingness to engage in anti-consumption practices can be enhanced with use of conspicuous anti-consumption signals, specifically for consumers low-to-moderate on environmental concern and moderate-to-high on need for status, while increasing willingness-to-pay. This type of consumer is unlikely to be intrinsically motivated to reduce consumption and much more common than extremely green consumers, potentially resulting in very large positive impact. If more brands support reduced consumption, the dominant social paradigm around marketing and ever-increasing consumption could begin to shift for the good of the planet.

Sustainable lifestyles: towards a relational approach

The concept of sustainable lifestyles is said to have reached the limits of its usefulness. As commonly understood, it impedes an effective response to our increasingly complex world, and the associated societal challenges. In this context, the emerging paradigm of relationality might offer a way forward to renew our current understanding and approach. We explore this possibility in this study. First, we systematize if, and how, the current dominant social paradigm represents a barrier to sustainable lifestyles. Second, we analyze how a relational approach could help to overcome these barriers. On the basis of our findings, we develop a Relational Lifestyle Framework (RLF). Our aim is to advance the current knowledge by illustrating how sustainable lifestyles are a manifestation of identified patterns of thinking, being, and acting that are embedded in today’s “socioecological” realities. The RLF revitalizes the field of sustainable lifestyle change, as it offers a new understanding for further reflection, and provides new directions for policy and transformation research.

Capability based- approach: Re-Invent people and materials viable relationships

Sustainability as an approach to the contemporary textile and fashion design; not only linked to the environmental vision but concerning the economy, respect for people's work and production. “A new dominant social paradigm (DSP) would focus on creating apparel products that are more efficient in material use, production and consumer utility, as well as better meeting the human needs of the consumer base, inherently more social than material needs. Similarly, clothing education in the dominant new social paradigm would promote the development of skills that would most likely include understanding human needs and ecosystem limitations, working collaboratively with the market rather than trying to dominate it and an understanding of local culture and tradition " (LeHew, 2011).

Capability based-approach: re-Invent people and materials viable relationships

Sustainability as an approach to the contemporary textile and fashion design; not only linked to the environmental vision but concerning the economy, respect for people’s work and production. “A new dominant social paradigm (DSP) would focus on creating apparel products that are more efficient in material use, production and consumer utility, as well as better meeting the human needs of the consumer base, inherently more social than material needs. Similarly, clothing education in the dominant new social paradigm would promote the development of skills that would most likely include understanding human needs and ecosystem limitations, working collaboratively with the market rather than trying to dominate it and an understanding of local culture and tradition “ (LeHew, 2011).

Capability based-approach: re-Invent people and materials viable relationships

Sustainability as an approach to the contemporary textile and fashion design; not only linked to the environmental vision but concerning the economy, respect for people's work and production. “A new dominant social paradigm (DSP) would focus on creating apparel products that are more efficient in material use, production and consumer utility, as well as better meeting the human needs of the consumer base, inherently more social than material needs. Similarly, clothing education in the dominant new social paradigm would promote the development of skills that would most likely include understanding human needs and ecosystem limitations, working collaboratively with the market rather than trying to dominate it and an understanding of local culture and tradition " (LeHew, 2011).

Reviewing the relationship between neoliberal societies and nature: implications of the industrialized dominant social paradigm for a sustainable future.

How a society relates to nature is shaped by the dominant social paradigm (DSP): a society's collective view on social, economic, political, and environmental issues. The characteristics of the DSP have important consequences for natural systems and their conservation. Based on a synthesis of academic literature, we provide a new gradient of 12 types of human-nature relationships synthesized from scientific literature, and an analysis of where the DSP of industrialized, and more specifically, neoliberal societies fit on that gradient. We aim to answer how the industrialized DSP relates to nature, i.e., what types of human-nature relationships this DSP incorporates, and what the consequences of these relationships are for nature conservation and a sustainable future. The gradient of human-nature relationships is based on three defining characteristics: (1) a nature-culture divide, (2) core values, and (3) being anthropocentric or ecocentric. We argue that the industrialized DSP includes elements of the anthropocentric relationships of mastery, utilization, detachment, and stewardship. It therefore regards nature and culture as separate, is mainly driven by instrumental values, and drives detachment from and commodification of nature. Consequently, most green initiatives and policies driven by an industrialized and neoliberal DSP are based on economic incentives and economic growth, without recognition of the needs and limits of natural systems. This leads to environmental degradation and social inequality, obstructing the path to a truly sustainable society. To reach a more ecocentric DSP, systemic changes, in addition to individual changes, in the political and economic structures of the industrialized DSP are needed, along with a change in values and approach toward nature, long-term sustainability, and conservation.

Confronting the Postmodern Intersection of Markets, Development, Globalization, and Technology: The Necessary Radical Vision of Nikhilesh Dholakia

An extensive and complex literature precedes Nikilesh Dholakia critical perspectives on globalization, post-modernity, technology, and development. He invites readers to rethink everything that the Dominant Social Paradigm, capitalist forms of exchange, and western cultures have implanted in mainstream marketing academia. His literature inspires and dares the researcher to explore radical propositions in the intersections of marketing and postmodernity: from early studies on electronic marketspaces and the role of technology in global consumption culture, the developmental analysis of non-aligned and non-represented countries, to the essential analysis of marketing and postmodernism. Nikilesh Dholakia has embraced a critical mindset which encourages brave revisionary approaches, interdisciplinary permeability and collaboration, theoretical openness, and to radically challenge neoliberal paradoxes in globalized markets. He remains hopeful of finding cooperative solutions among international scholars who are unafraid to question capitalist dogmas.

Ontology and circulation: towards an eco-economy of persons

ABSTRACT Sustainability is a wicked social problem, one difficult to solve because market capitalism inevitably produces ecological precarity. Consequently, marketing requires a paradigm shift. To address this problem, this research investigates a renewal of resource circulation theory and offers a glimpse of a sustainable neo-animist system. Neo-animist theory suggests new perspectives towards a more sustainable eco-economy of persons. Neo-animism foregrounds an alternative subjectivity to that inscribed in the modern social imaginary. Neo-animism is defined by the relationality of persons, the contingent extension of the principle of sociality to other living beings, and the recognition that all living beings are in communicative relations with significant others. Further, in a neo-animism framework resources circulate through transitive value co-creation processes, gifting, reciprocal exchange, and predation. Neo-animism provides an alternative to the dominant social exchange paradigm in marketing and addresses the challenges to sustainability identified in marketing and consumer research.

Four-Stage Model of Value Creation for Sustainability-Oriented Marketing: En Route to Participatory Marketing

Hitherto, the pure marketing concept has focused on creating value for firms and their customers in a manner consistent with the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP). Nevertheless, as the sustainability paradigm established stronger roots over the last few decades, the marketing discipline may benefit by creating value from a broader perspective to stimulate shared prosperity and wealth for society at large. This paper proposes a four-stage model of value creation that classifies sustainability-oriented marketing approaches guided by different economic paradigms and different levels of involvement. This commentary provides a framework for organizations to reframe their marketing approach. The goal is to gravitate from a firm-centric approach to a society-centric approach to enhance societal well-being.

Transformative Branding: A Dynamic Capability To Challenge The Dominant Social Paradigm

In response to calls by macromarketing scholars, this article introduces transformative branding to demonstrate how branding—a process traditionally conceptualised at the firm level to achieve marketing management outcomes—can contribute to both market and societal systems. We define transformative branding as a dynamic capability deployed by firms as a prosocial process to facilitate stakeholder co-created brand meanings that draw on hybrid market and social logics. We contend that transformative branding encompasses two market-shaping activities, which drive macro-level change according to hybrid logics: (1) leadership i.e., building a vision for transformation and (2) collaborative coupling i.e., implementing transformation with stakeholders. Shaping the market and society in this way creates opportunities for transforming economic, regulatory, socio-cultural, and political environments, whereby transformative branding works to challenge the dominant social paradigm from within the market system. We conclude with a cautionary note about the potential of branding as a force for good.

Negotiating Contemporary Indigeneity: Cultural Aesthetic and Communicative Practices among Contemporary! Xun and Khwe San Youth of Platfontein, South Africa

The San or Bushmen of South Africa have been represented in popular literature and media as hunter-gatherer primitives who live nomadic lives and whose history predates that of all later immigrants to the country. While the ubiquitous representation and myth provide incentives in the form of cultural/ecotourism and engenders much international interest, it has rarely translated into any form of sustainable socioeconomic benefit for the impoverished Bushmen. Rather, it obfuscates accounts of modern acculturation, hinders the process of self-determination and contributes to a systemic socio-political and economic exclusion, repression, and marginalisation of contemporary San in South Africa. The San youth who seem to have suffered the most as a result of this essentialised representation are appropriating modern popular cultures (such as hip-hop) to project self-identity, counter-narratives, and position themselves as a modernised people. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and informal interviews from 2014 to 2018, this article examines the complex, multi-layered composition of contemporary!Xun and Khwe San identity, which places the youth at the nexus of competing expectations thrown up by imperatives of social change, global influence, dominant social paradigms, poverty, joblessness, and indigeneity. The analysis of their identities in the late-modern South Africa, provokes the question whether contemporary Indigenous people are “indigenizing modernity or modernizing indigeneity.”