Empirical Reality Research Articles

Proof Discontinuities and Civil Settlements

Abstract This Article explores settlement incentives under three different burden of proof rules. The conventional burden of proof is a discontinuous step-function, jumping from no damages to full damages at the 0.5 jury confidence level. Continuous burdens of proof, by contrast, would permit sanctions to steadily increase as juror confidence rises from 0 to 1, with no discontinuity. Linear burdens, which have received extensive attention in prior literature, escalate sanctions steadily across the whole range of confidence levels, while the logistic burden takes a nonlinear form. Using a data simulation approach guided by the empirical realities of American civil litigation, I consider the incentives that each of these rules creates for parties contemplating settlement, using a model in which parties make divergent forecasts of their expected outcomes at trial due to optimism bias. Based on this analysis, I conclude that a linear burden would likely raise our settlement rate by a modest amount, except in very large cases and in “easy” cases, in which an unbiased person would predict that a trial factfinder would have a level of confidence in liability quite close to either zero or one. I also compare the expected error rate of the settlements that each rule produces, and find that the linear rule modestly lowers the expected error rate of settlement overall, although this benefit does not hold for easy cases or those with very high damages. Lastly, I conduct a similar analysis for the logistic burden, finding that it induces a similar quality and quantity of settlements as we currently achieve using conventional burdens.

The Proof of Economic Welfare Is in the Eating of Nutritious Diets by the Resource-Poor: A Political Economy Analysis of the International Evidence of Dietary Consumption in Rural Africa

This paper provides a summary of the international literature published in the thematic area of household dietary diversity with emphasis on the importance of sustainable approaches to global hunger and malnutrition. The paper highlights the correlation between inadequate household dietary diversity, child mortality and death. It also draws attention to the subtle combinations of social, economic and political interactions in enhancing nutritional welfare. The paper further raises a major argument that contemporary explorations of dietary diversity have failed to sustain the important tension and dialectical debate between diverse empirical realities and wider theorization of the concrete linkage of economic welfare to dietary diversity. The paper sets the tone for wider conceptualization of the phenomenon by clearly outlining the role of multiple relations of low incomes, inadequate maternal-child health care as well as poor environmental sanitation as leading predicators of under-nutrition in rural Africa. This theorization makes the case that, studying the relations and conjunctions of economic welfare via the agency of dietary consumption, is critical for emergent processes of change as the given-evidence of under-nutrition does not allow economists to draw solid conclusions on status of dietary diversity in rural Africa without a dynamic understanding and explicit recognition of the wider abstractions of political economy undercurrents in economic welfare and nutritional well-being literature. That said, the paper re-affirms the subtle evidence that under-nutrition and reduced body-mass of adults, often cited in the development literature as proxy-indicators of poor dietary diversity, needs to be re-evaluated as reduced body-mass in adults could be an indication of other incidences of environmental-stresses rather than of food-energy stress. In this vein, the review sustains a new argument that, resource-poor households modify attitude to food consumption in order to self-protect against income losses in household production systems. This position has implications for economic welfare and nutritional diversity research as food may not always come first for the resource-poor. It also opens new avenues for economic research by projecting the hypothesis that consumption of nutritious diets cannot be seen as a unique object to be sought by resource-poor to the exclusion of all other priorities including raising income frontiers through savings for wealth accumulation. The pre-eminence of food security over income diversification activities of rural households as a broader strategy to reduce malnutrition and poverty in the developing world could be re-examined to give livelihood activities a central role in household dietary diversity research.

Boundary Crossing Between Academia and Law: Understanding Researchers’ Participation in Legal Cases Pertaining to Educational Equity

ABSTRACT Social scientists’ involvement with the legal system is critical for tackling inequities in education and informing legal developments in ways that are grounded in empirical realities that document the myriad ways race shapes educational opportunity and outcomes. This study examined the experiences of social scientists who have participated in legal cases pertaining to education policy and equity. Drawing from the notion of boundary crossing to conceptualize the actions and interactions these researchers are engaged in, findings illuminate policies and practices within higher education that can support and sustain the work of other boundary crossers, as well as promising approaches for reconceptualizing interactions across the systems of education research and law that can more effectively support boundary crossing in law.

Study on Ability of Elementary School Teacher in Writing Test Items During The Pandemic Time of Covid-19

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the ability of elementary school teachers in composing test questions in private universities. This research uses qualitative research, which describes empirical reality using a descriptive approach. This study also uses a literature study, with documents to find some field data that occurs in the form of questions on several subjects. Meanwhile, the descriptive method is finding facts with the right interpretation, namely understanding the concept of the material, the ability to use the rules of the question. Meanwhile, the data analysis used was (1) the subject matter expert's judgment in interpreting some of the item test document findings, (2) theoretically and empirically the item had met the standard question rules. This research was found, during the COVID 19 pandemic, all parents or guardians have a 100% chance of assisting with distance learning as unprecedented. The sample consisted of nine subject teachers and the population was all fourth-grade teachers in primary schools as research subjects. So the assessment also uses offline and online so that it is found, (1) biased test questions, because the linguistic structure of the main sentence and explanatory sentences, is wrong in choosing questions with answers, (2) does not understand the rules about the questions: such as homogeneity of questioners, long and short answers, the use of standard Indonesian. Meanwhile, some of the test questions that were found to have problems were Indonesian, Natural Science, Character, and Boy Scouts. From 12 items, 4 items had material concept errors and 8 items error in the rules.

Confronting Structural Inequities: The Limits of Participation when Developing a Community Health Intervention with Syrian Refugees and Host Communities in Lebanon.

Lebanon is one of the most unequal countries in the world, whose economy, social welfare and public health system struggle to meet the needs of the Lebanese and over one million Syrian refugees. Researchers applied Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodology in collaboration with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in an underserved Beirut neighborhood from 2014 through 2016, aiming to address health inequities, build social cohesion among refugees and host populations, and empower community members to develop a community health intervention. We recruited a community advisory board (CAB), conducted six focus groups and sixteen individual interviews, and held several community meetings. In response to the study findings, NGO staff, researchers and community members agreed to work together on a trash collection initiative as a community health intervention. Ultimately, we found the CBPR toolkit to be insufficient to the empirical reality: a series of structural challenges due to entrenched local and national hierarchies, ineffective political processes, and inter- and intra-group conflict driven by competition over privatized social services. Together these resulted in a lack of trust in the collaborative process wherein study participants solicited researchers for aid in return for their involvement, mirroring the Lebanese patronage system. Ultimately, the most expedient path toward change was not through empowerment of oppressed community participants, but through the action of already powerful local individuals. In conclusion, structural inequalities limit the participatory and emancipatory possibilities of CBPR research. Power mapping exercises, which are often used in community organizing, offer an important opportunity to assess viability and lay the groundwork for CBPR projects. Academic and popular media in the Middle East often focus on religious, sectarian conflict; however, in our study conflict both between and among social groups was driven by competition over material resources more than cultural or religious differences.

Foundations of alternative science in the history of philosophy

The aim of the study is to develop an idea of alternative science based on ideas in the history of philosophy. The novelty of the work lies in the creation of an idea of an alternative model of science, which allows solving the existing problems of modern science. The main research methods are hermeneutic and axiological, as well as a systems approach. The conclusion reached by the authors is that alternative science should not describe existing empirical realities but develop a scientific ideal. In turn, this scientific ideal must have a spiritual content, i.e. to be spiritualized. It must be recognized as the highest truth, and all other ideas that have their manifestation in our world, science must consider through comparison with a scientific spiritualized ideal.

Does a plural civil society matter? Reflecting on the varieties of associational life in India

ABSTRACT Civil society is increasingly being viewed as the domain of communicative rationality; a sphere where the collective ‘we’ emerges and acts to affirm the Kantian ideals of human dignity and equal respect. In these normative accounts, the civil does not simply supplement the existing institutions of constitutional democracy, it embodies the very idea of democracy, albeit in its ideal form. This article engages with this conception and examines whether the civil should be considered as the domain of ‘universal reason’, in which ‘rational’ individuals act to realize the goal of equal rights for all. Not only is the empirical reality quite different, it is indeed desirable to make space for the plural and the diverse within our conception of the civil. Drawing upon the Indian debates and experiences, it is argued that the civil domain is internally differentiated and often deeply fragmented. The task of securing basic rights for all takes many different forms; individuals and collectives that pursue this goal do so with different conceptions of the self and different understanding of the political and economic system. One needs to recognize this plurality for it is the co-presence of deep differences – with regard to assessments, judgments, forms of collective action – that sustain democracy and make civil society central to the democratic imaginary.

Guo Xiang’s Ontology of Zide

This article aims to investigate Guo Xiang’s notion of zide (self-realisation) through the framework of his non-linear and non-binary model, which was the result of his successful amalgamation of Confucian and Daoist ideals at a chaotic but also syncretic time in the historical development of Chinese Philosophy. A Neo-Daoist, Guo Xiang tried to distance himself from primitive escapism, but this has led scholars to misunderstand him as a fatalist. Looking at his ontological construction of what consists as zide, however, reveals a profound image of the autonomous self who is, simultaneously and on equal levels, both self-sufficiently independent and in possession of a unified sense of oneness with the universe. This conception of self-realisation thus goes beyond a binary self that is constantly torn between the causal empirical reality and autonomous self-determination.

Hindu urn burial in Norway: an option for the future?

ABSTRACT Is open pyre cremation and ash dispersion in running water the universal default disposal for Hindus? Images of open pyre cremation and ash dispersion at the banks of the river Ganges still perpetuate our popular Orientalist perceptions of Hindu disposal; an ancient, exotic and unchanging traditional practice. However, such perceptions obscure the empirical reality. Hindu funeral practice in South Asia as well as in diaspora, have been in constant flux, regulated and changing greatly during the last century. Inhumation has been a major alternative to cremation for Hindus in South Asia and in diaspora during the last century. In this paper, I highlight a few novel examples of recent establishment of Hindu urn burial sections within municipal cemeteries in Norway. These cases show a continuation of traditional Hindu funeral practice in South Asia, as well as change and innovation adopted in Norway. However, none of the 300 urn graves within the two established Hindu cemetery sections in Norway have been utilised so far. What are the underlying factors for Hindu urn burial which renders the option non-compliance? Why do the majority of Hindus in Norway continue to opt for dispersion of ashes in their land of origin or in Norway?

The Paradoxes of Tolerance: A Deconstructive View

The neo-Kantian, deontological liberal theory seeks to overcome the paradoxes of tolerance. It claims to accomplish this task by grounding tolerance in purportedly universal higher-order moral reasoning. I argue that in reality, such an approach cannot separate tolerance from particular ethical norms or empirical realities. For this reason, it cannot resolve the paradoxes of tolerance. However, I contend there is another path to account for the value of tolerating “others”. Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction provides us the way to retain the necessarily particularistic character of tolerance, without forfeiting its context-transcending, “universalistic” potential. In this article, I show that the paradoxes of tolerance need to be maintained as quasi-transcendental structures, instead of being discarded in the name of higher-order moral reasoning.

Dignity as a Constitutional Value in Hong Kong: Toward a Contextual Approach?

This chapter considers the judiciary’s reliance on human dignity as a constitutional value in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. The Hong Kong courts have invoked dignity in several cases involving a limited number of rights. While dignity has helped expand the scope of constitutional rights in some, it has functioned more restrictively in others. An examination of this jurisprudence allows for a reflection on debates about the role of dignity in comparative constitutional law more generally. Commentators have queried whether such a vague and imprecise term has any substantive meaning and whether it should be abandoned altogether. The chapter concludes that attention to context can mitigate concerns about dignity’s indeterminacy and contribute to its development as a holistic constitutional value. The relevant context is both universal and local. It includes dignity’s position as a broad-based foundational principle in international human rights law across all categories of civil political, economic, social and cultural rights. It also depends on domestic factors such as a jurisdiction’s constitutional framework and empirical realities that impact the realisation of dignity in any given setting. Such an approach is therefore characterised by both breadth and depth and enhances dignity’s potential to address a range of issues.

Концепция образования у Платона и Клайва Стейплза Льюиса

Plato and Lewis have similar views on education. They are based on a philosophical idea common to many thinkers who regard education as a tool and process of finding the truth. Plato’s views on education are reflected in the Allegory of the Cave where he compares education with an ascent from the cave to the sun. Lewis’ vision on education is a mirror allegory of the descent into the dungeon. These images emphasise a different ontological status of empirical and spiritual reality. Philosophers believe that spiritual reality determines the meaning and norm of empirical reality. They claim that receptivity to the spiritual is formed during upbringing which defines the direction of a person’s education. At this stage, the right feelings and ideas are formed, and the desire for knowledge is awoken. Teaching is the next step of education. For Plato, this step is associated with the study of various subjects: the science of numbers, geometry, astronomy, and music through which one learns to progress from the sensual to the intelligible, to the discovery of ideas behind things. For Lewis, the main thing at this stage is the harmonious movement of the soul to its main goal, to the acquisition of man’s true essence — the development of a holistic personality that seeks to learn and discover the reality. Both thinkers also agree on the main goal of education as the formation of a holistic personality, where the ideas of beauty, justice, order, Good, and other significant ideas reveal themselves through the contact with the sensual and become part of the human soul shaping a true image of a person.

Is libertarianism the new future? Analyzing ideological and philosophical roots of the libertarian thought in the United States

Libertarianism as a political ideology and movement has garnered big curiosity in American political discourse in recent years. This support was further solidified with the achievement of getting the most votes ever in the history of the Libertarian Party, in 2016 U.S. presidential election. This research paper thoroughly examines the characteristics, main concepts and criticism of the ideology by continuously providing detailed outlook on the important libertarian notions and elaborating the discussed ideas through carefully-thought, case by case examples. The scientific work is multidimensional and multifaceted in its scope, and contains arguments with their counter-arguments to depict a broad, rational picture. Thus, the reader can see, fathom and compare the shortcomings and advantages of the talked ideas more effectively. Libertarian philosophy gives huge importance to the notions of liberty, freedom and individualism. Apart from this, another common thing that brings all libertarians together is their lack of trust to the government. Hence they always aspire to limit the role of it. Libertarians always emphasize the importance of free markets and vigorously express their discontent with any outside intervention to it, especially the one by the government. There are many different forms of libertarianism, some of them are more radical and support no-state structure. Libertarians, in principle, are not really concerned with inequality; they actually consider it positive to some extent. Although on the surface level the rationale behind many libertarian ideas seems reasonable and convincing, the empirical evidence and analyzing the results of actions which occur as the direct implementation of these principles show the necessity of a more comprehensive and accommodating approach. As society, economy and governing are so interconnected and intertwined with each other, certain actions have unintended consequences and in long term may yield destructive effect. The empirical reality should be taken into account in order to formulate effective policies for the benefit of the people.

Economic Regulation and Corporate Governance: The Case of Wirecard

An important normative theory in economics is that all markets are perfect—perfect in the sense that “prices” in a market should be set by balancing “demand” against “supply”. Certainly, this is a desirable theory, by reducing government interference in pricing in a market to leave economic interactions as principal forces—particularly so in financial markets. But in reality, this desirable theory does not do away with government regulation, because markets can be corrupted or misused (and this has sometimes been called “market imperfections”). Empirically in economic history, money has sometimes been made by economic agents in a market through using corruption or misuse of market forces. Thus, as an empirical reality in economic systems, the need for regulation always exists. This research analyzes an actual case of market corruption on an international scale, the Wirecard scandal. We analyze this empirical case to expand regulatory theory by investigating the kind of roles needed to be played by some market forces (e.g. government regulators, corporate auditors, and financial reporters) in order for “imperfections” of financial markets to be avoided or corrected.

Swedenborg’s Religious Rationalism

This article argues that contrary to a received interpretation, Emanuel Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences (scientia correspondentiarum), according to which each empirical reality has a corresponding spiritual reality, is closer to Spinozistic monism than Neoplatonic idealism. According to the former, there is only one substance: God, which we can cognize through its spir­itual and material aspects. According to the latter, the material world consists of substances that receive their form through participation in the ideas of the spiri­tual world. The article will show that although some of Swedenborg’s claims can appear as expressing Neoplatonic idealism, his reading of the Bible as a guide for moral improvement, his rejection of the religious mysteries that cannot be rationally understood, his various examples of correspondences, his view that we can cognize God by studying the correspondences, and his definition of God as the only substance, make evident that he does not consider the spiritual realities ideas in the Neoplatonic sense. The article will interpret Swedenborg to think that the spiritual realities are learned concepts that enable us to describe and experience the world as having spiritual significance and thus acquire a fuller cognition of God.

The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers and Radical Research Practices: A Collage

The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers and Radical Research Practices:A Collage Suzanne Bost (bio) Loosen the dead hand of traditional disciplines and habits in order to allow a new way of doing things to emerge. —Gloria Anzaldúa, writing notas1 The question then becomes not so much what is a queer orientation, but how are we orientated toward queer moments when objects slip. Do we retain our hold of these objects by bringing them back "in line"? Or do we let them go, allowing them to acquire new shapes and directions? —Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology (2006)2 The work of GLORIA ANZALDÚA taught me that sometimes rules must be broken, tired ways of thinking [End Page 653] pulled out by the roots. I anticipate that most of my readers already know something about the ways in which ANZALDÚA broke rules governing language, identity, and genre, but some of her lesser-known works challenge ideas more fundamental than these. Her never-defended doctoral dissertation, which was published in 2015 as Light in the Dark/Luz en lo oscuro, challenges the belief in one empirical reality: "Spirit and mind, soul and body, are one, and together they perceive a reality greater than the vision experienced in the ordinary world."3 ANZALDÚA was a shapeshifter, a seer, a believer in afterlives. This expansive otherworldly epistemology is particularly palpable in the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers, the massive archive left by ANZALDÚA when she died in 2004. In this unruly collection of objects—drawings, artifacts, magazine clippings, and multiple versions of written documents—the author "loosen[s] the dead hand" of academic orientations, defying empirical archival research. My question, then, is how this looseness should alter the ways in which we read and write about ANZALDÚA'S work. How should we process such archival cacophony? What sort of claims can we make about ideas that transcend what we perceive in "the ordinary world"? In this collaged essay, I develop and practice a radical research method, one that gets at the root of what we do with "data" and expands beyond the assumed parameters of scholarly labor. In order to highlight the material processes of archival research, I focus on nonliterary objects, things that are opaque and confusing. I won't say they aren't texts, because we can "read" them in many ways, but we can't look through them to get to the layer of content. In my many visits to the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers, I have turned and returned my attention to these objects, but they never resolve into any single thesis. With them, I reflect on the various ways (and ethics) of making meaning, focusing in particular on my capacities and responsibilities as a scholar. A few critical works have been particularly important in motivating this project.4 In Queer Phenomenology (2006), Sara Ahmed ascribes meaning-making capacities to the objects, like tables, that orient our lives and give shape to our [End Page 654] movements. She invites us to re-encounter and reorient ourselves to these objects: To re-encounter objects as strange things is … not to lose sight of their history but to refuse to make them history by losing sight. Such wonder directed at the objects that we face, as well as those that are behind us, does not involve bracketing out the familiar but rather allows the familiar to dance again with life.5 Engaging the archive as a living, fluid entity keeps it in "sight" rather than on the dusty shelves of history. And honoring the objects we face with wonder, rather than pinning them down as already known, allows them to "dance again with life" that might exceed our comprehension. Can we replicate this aliveness in the static form of print and paper? Most scholarly arguments implicitly shut down the vital possibilities of an object by establishing one avenue for experiencing it. In Ordinary Affects (2007), Kathleen Stewart's explicit intent is to honor the fluid capacity of things we encounter. She arranges verbal clusters (prefiguring the one-hundred-word units she and Lauren Berlant later used in The Hundreds [2019]) not to tell a story...

Is the Kantian Transcendentalism Idealism? Kant's Conceptual Realism

In my paper I argue, relying on Kantian definitions and conceptual distinctions, the thesis that Kantian transcen-dental philosophy, which he characterizes as a second-order system of transcendental idealism, is not [empirical] idealism, but a form of realism (resp. compatible with empirical realism [A370-1]). As arguments in favor of this “realistic” thesis, I consistently develop a realistic interpretation of the Kant’s concept of appearance (the theory of “two aspects”), as well as of Kantian Copernican revolution, of his theory of intuition as cognitive ability which 'giving' ‘us objects, of the concept of double affection and noumenal causality.

Avaliação, monitoramento e acompanhamento do processo formativo na RCT: aspectos teórico-práticos e operacionais

O artigo em pauta aborda temática referente a avaliação, monitoramento e acompanhamento da Rede ColaborAção Tocantins (RCT), no contexto do período pandêmico. A presente reflexão tem o objetivo de problematizar a concepção instrumental da educação e da avaliação por meio de reflexão teórico-filosófica, que entende a educação como práxis social, calcada nos princípios da gestão democrática e da formação substantiva. O estudo que originou esse texto foi realizado na perspectiva crítico-dialética, partindo da realidade empírica compreendida como realidade complexa, contraditória e mediatizada por múltiplos determinantes. O estudo proporcionou – como resultado teórico-prático – a explicitação dos fundamentos filosóficos, políticos e metodológicos da avaliação, monitoramento e acompanhamento nas perspectivas instrumental e substantiva, bem como possibilitou a composição de um conjunto de critérios e procedimentos aplicáveis à formação no âmbito da gestão da educação municipal. A discussão contempla, além de aspectos teórico-práticos da gestão, da avaliação, do monitoramento e do acompanhamento da RCT, aspectos práticos operacionais do processo formativo.
 Palavras-chave: educação no Tocantins, rede colaborAção Tocantins (RCT), avaliação, monitoramento e acompanhamento da educação municipal, aspectos teóricos e práticos.
 
 Evaluation monitoring and accompaniment of the training process in RTC: theoretical-practical and operational aspects
 ABSTRACT. The article at stake approaches thematic related to the evaluation, monitoring and accompaniment of the Rede ColaborAção Tocantins (RCT) developed in the pandemic period. The present reflection has objective to problematize the instrumental conception of the education and the evaluation by means of theoretician-philosophical reflection, which understands the education as social práxis, based on principles of the democratic management and the substantive formation. The study which originated this text was carried through in the perspective critical-dialectic, starting from the empirical reality understood as complex reality, contradictory and mediatized by multiples determinative. The study provided - as a theoretical-practical result – the explanation of the philosophical, political and methodological foundations of evaluation, monitoring and follow-up in the instrumental and substantive perspectives, as well as this enabled the composition of a set of criteria and procedures applicable to training in municipal education management. The discussion includes, in addition to the theoretical and practical aspects of management, evaluation, monitoring and accompaniment, the practical operational aspects of the training process.
 Keywords: education in the Tocantins, rede colaborAção Tocantins (RCT), evaluation monitoring and accompaniment of municipal education, theoretical and practical aspects.
 
 Evaluación, monitoreo y acompañamiento del proceso formativo en la RCT: aspectos teórico-prácticos y operacionales
 RESUMEN. El artículo aborda la evaluación, monitoreo y acompañamiento de la Rede ColaborAção Tocantins (RCT) desarrollada en el período pandémico. Tiene por objetivo problematizar la concepción instrumental de la educación y de la evaluación mediante reflexión teórico-filosófica, que comprende la educación como praxis social, calcada en los principios de la gestión democrática y de la formación sustantiva. El estudio que origino ese texto fue realizado en la perspectiva critico-dialéctica, partiendo de la realidad empírica comprendida como realidad compleja, contradictoria y mediatizada por múltiplos determinantes. El estudio ha permitido, como resultado teórico y práctico, el esclarecimiento de los fundamentos filosóficos, políticos y metodológicos de la evaluación, monitoreo y seguimiento en las perspectivas instrumental y sustantiva, así como posibilitó la composición de un conjunto de criterios y procedimientos aplicables a la formación en el ámbito de la gestión de la educación municipal. Además de los aspectos teóricos-prácticos de la gestión, contempla la evaluación, monitoreo y acompañamiento, los aspectos prácticos operacionales del proceso formativo.
 Palabras clave: educación en Tocantins, rede colaborAção Tocantins (RCT), evaluación, monitoreo y acompañamiento de la educación municipal, aspectos teóricos y prácticos.

Interpretasi Keterlibatan Anggota Keluarga dalam Kelompok Keagamaan

Family reactions and assessments of all family members towards family members belonging to specific religious groups still occur. This interpretation can trigger disharmony in the family and is an interesting social phenomenon to research. This research uses a qualitative research method. This research assumes that empirical realities occur in a socio-cultural context that is interrelated with one another. This research aims to describe family reactions, family social relationships, and family assessments on their family members’ involvement in specific religious groups. The informants were selected using a purposive sampling technique by taking three people from each religious group (Jamaah Tabligh, Wahdah Islamiyah, and Lembaga Dakwah Islam Indonesia known as LDII). Data were collected using in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The data analysis used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The results showed that family social relations on family members’ involvement in certain religious groups tended to get the same reaction based on their interpretation. Contravention interpretation from dominant family on family members belonging to specific religious groups still occurs compared with accommodative relationships. Meanwhile, family assessments on their family members’ involvement in certain religious groups are generally negative.

Vernacular architecture as heritage

The objective of this research is to recognize vernacular architecture as heritage architecture, a product of the community. The method applied to this research is qualitative in nature, the objective of which is the description of the characteristics of the object of study covering a part of the reality. Qualitative research is inductive, the study is on a small scale and through proximity to empirical reality. The research shows examples that were made through interaction with the inhabitants and as a result of direct observation. The stages of the research were: fieldwork linking access to the site with productive data collection; data analysis in a continuous review that consisted of reducing information, disposition, transformation and obtaining results and verifying them to reach conclusions. The preparation of the report generated a number of approaches, and one of them produced the subject of this work. The contribution of this work is that it aims to place a community rooted in its customs as Is Tochimilco, with an architectural richness that is transformed and even disappearing, because vernacular architecture is considered to be a worthless architecture.