Narrative Ethics Research Articles

Narrative Ethics, Media and the Morality of the Ecological Modern: The Case of Sweden

The Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre in his groundbreaking analysis of contemporary ethics, After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory, asserted that modernity was devoid of a unified moral system. This observation has been noted by, among others, the ecophilosopher Arran Gare as a means of dealing with approaches to contemporary crisis. By characterizing debates about the future as reflexively constructed articulations of modernity, this paper briefly considers how such a perspective is useful when attempting to communicate questions of development under contemporary conditions. Using qualitative examples from modern Sweden taken from a larger corpus of research to speculate on the potential for normative conceptual change, it uses the self-styled enlightened polity as a case study to discuss how environmental knowledge is instrumentalized in self-consciously modern contexts. MacIntyre’s insight thus provides a view into the relationship between discourse and practice which recognizes the situated nature of environmental argumentation over uniform green epistemologies.

Thomas Albrecht, The Ethical Vision of George Eliot

Six chapters compose this 210-page essay along with an introduction, a conclusion, a bibliography and an index, according to the following organization: The Defective Mirror: The Ethics of Realism in Adam Bede and ‘The Natural History of German Life’ The Pier Glass Effect: Narrative Ethics in Middlemarch Egoism and Empathy in Middlemarch ‘The Balance of Separateness and Communication’: Cosmopolitan Ethics in Daniel Deronda The Concept of Separateness in ‘The Modern Hep! Hep! Hep!’ Moral and M...

Toward a Hermeneutical Ethics of Narrative

Toward a Hermeneutical Ethics of Narrative

To Do Nothing

Abstract In Kerala, South India, individual pursuits of nature cure (prakr̥ti cikitsa) invoke ethical narratives about an idealized purer past, contrasting a dangerous present saturated with social and environmental toxins. While first popularized in India by M. K. Gandhi, nature cure has gained contemporary fame as a low-cost intervention for Kerala’s purported health crisis: chronic lifestyle diseases. Nonprofessionalized natural healers identify as public health activists, teaching predominantly urban, middle-class patients how to revive local lifeways of self-doctorhood. This article narrates how two aging patients internalize their naturopathic doctors’ advice to detoxify and “do nothing” rather than strive for biomedical cure. By naturally revitalizing their bodies, they cultivate feelings of intense independence and ecological attachment that reconfigure experiences of migrated-kin isolation. In counterpoint to literature that frames biopolitical and medical discourses as causally producing moral subjectivities, this article demonstrates how persons agentively craft counternormative, vitalistic models of aging and health, contributing to broader localist imaginaries of reviving pre-toxic lifeways.

The Ethics of Narration in Helen Demidenko'sThe Hand That Signed the Paper, 1994 and 2017

During the mid-1990s the Australian literary scene was shaken by controversy over issues of antisemitism and Holocaust representation in Helen Demidenko's debut novel,The Hand That Signed the Paper.In 2017, Darville reissued the novel. At a time when debate is raging over the nature and limits of freedom of expression and the status of words and facts, this was a provocative move. This article revisitsThe Handin order to resolve the issues of literary antisemitism and freedom of speech that it raised in 1994 and continues to raise today. I apply Avishai Margalit's notion of an “ethics of memory” to the autofictional text in order to develop a theory of an “ethics of narration” in literary fiction. This narrative ethics enables distinctions to be made in relation to truth claims and fictionality, which were opaque in Demidenko's original autofiction and remain unresolved in the reissued version.

Advanced consent for participation in acute care randomised control trials: protocol for a scoping review

IntroductionInformed consent is essential to clinical research, though obtaining informed consent for participation in research for emergency conditions is challenging. Adapted consent methods include consent from a substitute-decision maker, deferral...

Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

La investigación sobre historias de vida: de la identidad humanista a la subjetividad nómada

Este artículo aborda, desde la trayectoria investigadora de los autores y en diálogo con las aportaciones posthumanistas, el tema de la subjetividad en la investigación sobre historias de vida. Lo hace a partir de plantear cómo la perspectiva onto-epistemológica humanista guía a buena parte de la investigación cualitativa de los años ochenta y noventa del pasado siglo. Esta orientación humanista, que afecta a cómo se plantea la investigación sobre historias de vida, coloca a la identidad de con quienes se investiga en una trama de dicotomías y binarismos. Esta trama, que resulta favorecedora de verdades y valores universales, se centra en el cogito cartesiano y en el supuesto de sujeto investigador/investigado que sabe de sí. En la segunda parte del artículo planteamos un desplazamiento hacia una subjetividad posthumanista que presta atención a lo que sería una geografía de los ensamblajes. Este enfoque puede contribuir a que la investigación en historias de vida se lleve a cabo desde estrategias de montaje que hagan visible no la trayectoria de un sujeto singular, fijo y predecible, sino de los desplazamientos de un sujeto nómada y atravesado por multiplicidades. Como ello se trata de contribuir a una perspectiva de investigación que reconozca las limitaciones de “un” relato, que teorice la ética de las narraciones y que afronte los límites del “yo” narrativo.

Is one narrative enough? Analytical tools should match the problems they address

Jeff Nisker describes his personal experience of a diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer and the kindnesses he received from friendly doctors. He claims that this narrative account supports the promotion...

The Ethics of Narrative in Film: The Great Buddha+and Its Self-Reflexive Devices

The Ethics of Narrative in Film: The Great Buddha+and Its Self-Reflexive Devices

내러티브 윤리학과 여성주의 주체 – 내러티브 윤리학은 여성주의 주체에 어떻게 기여하는가 -

내러티브 윤리학과 여성주의 주체 – 내러티브 윤리학은 여성주의 주체에 어떻게 기여하는가 -

Narrative storytelling and anger in crisis communication

ABSTRACT This paper reports a test and extension of the model posited by the theory of crisis response narratives, in which the public manifests identification with a spokesperson who tells ethical narratives rather than spinning stories. The effect is hypothesized as being mediated through the public perceiving trustworthiness of, and positive attitudes toward, the spokesperson. An experiment is reported (N = 262) with a televised news interview featuring a spokesperson representing a scandalized company, in which the messaging varies in terms of narratives. The study finds support for the theoretical model as originally specified. In addition, the model is extended to serial and parallel multiple mediation, finding that the effect is processed through the public’s anger.

Review: Food Justice and Narrative Ethics: Reading Stories for Ethical Awareness and Activism, by Beth A. Dixon

Review: Food Justice and Narrative Ethics: Reading Stories for Ethical Awareness and Activism, by Beth A. Dixon

Lessons from Theranos: Changing Narratives of Individual Ethics in Science and Engineering

The meteoric ascent and equally dramatic fall of Theranos has been covered prolifically in the media. Presented as an ambitious inventor gone rogue, the discursive construction of the Theranos scandal in popular media and in the biomedical community reifies tired narratives of the role of ethics in science and engineering fields more generally: narratives that emphasizes individual integrity and common sense rather than the structures and norms that leave scientists and engineers vulnerable to ethical quandaries. In this short critical engagement, I argue that the ways Theranos has been captured obscures important conversations about ethics in bioscience and biotechnology, both in the private sector and in university spaces. I call for STS scholars to engage with scientists and engineers to imagine ways to structurally embed ethics and justice in future technoscientific endeavors.

Narrative Universals, Emotion, and Ethics

Some recent writers on ethics, prominently Jonathan Haidt, have seen emotion and narrative as central to moral judgment and behavior. However, much of this work is not clear about the precise nature of emotion and narrative or the relation of the two to each other and to ethics. Research in distinct narrative traditions — a form of comparative literary study — offers a possible solution. The author has argued that a number of prototype-based story structures recur across a broad range of genetically and areally distinct traditions. These structures derive from emotion systems and general principles of emotion modulation and involve ideals that are both hedonic and ethical. We may better understand the complex relations among narrative, emotion, and morality in terms of these story universals, their sources in emotion systems, and their associated ideals, which collectively predict a range of ethical responses to any given situation. In addition, even the usual ethical orientations of emotions and prototypes may be altered through the particularization of stories. In this way, emotional response and initial emplotment bias ethical response and evaluation, but the former do not simply determine the latter. The author illustrates these points by the sometimes surprising similarities relating European, Chinese, and Indian works.

Ritual, myth and transnational giving within the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa

This article interrogates how rituals and myths may reshape Pentecostal ideology and practice in ways that resonate with the practical concerns of born-again congregants in an exclusive foreign labour market. It draws on a series of field observations conducted in Johannesburg, at two congregations of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA) – a born-again movement with roots in Zimbabwe – between 2009 and 2016. The authors critically examine the shifting architecture of the ritual of Working Talents and its contradictory use of myths. The authors consider the intended consequences of both the ritual of Working Talents and often contradictory myths used to bolster it, for the transnational growth of the church and its involvement in the development of the nation. A phenomenological observation qualitative research was utilised to establish the experiences, feelings and behaviours of the ZAOGA congregants regarding the gospel of Working Talents at two of their assemblies in Johannesburg. A key finding was that Working Talents contains ethical action and empowerment narratives, and it aspires to create Pentecostal congregants with collective cultural identities, disposed to give money to support the causes of the church. In doing so, myths and rituals have reshaped the ZAOGA Pentecostal ideology into a nuanced version of the Prosperity Gospel, one that emphasises notions of indigenisation, empowerment and self-propagation.

Walk the Line: Aristotle & The Ethics of Narrative

Lawyers are storytellers who face tremendous pressure to persuade judges and juries of the rightness of their stories. Zealous advocacy has long been a touchstone in lawyering, but lawyers need to balance zealousness with candor to the tribunal. As narrative and storytelling have evolved in scholarship and practice as powerful tools for persuasion, lawyers can find themselves walking a delicate ethical line. The applicable Model Rules of Professional Conduct do not provide a sufficient framework for ensuring sufficient candor in the use of narrative, particularly when considering the cultural and psychological power inherent in stories. Thus, lawyers can find themselves sliding on a slippery slope into ethically actionable misrepresentation. These are not new problems, and the classics have something to teach modern lawyers using narrative to persuade. Aristotle addressed the same types of concerns in his Nicomachean Ethics and On Rhetoric. Aristotle discussed the importance of keeping one’s conduct within the “mean”—to maintain a balanced approach to one’s life and practice. He also stressed the value of using good habits to develop a person’s character. Aristotle’s wisdom can guide a lawyer who seeks to be a candid, ethical, and still zealous advocate. Thus, this Article posits that incorporating Aristotle’s concepts of virtue ethics into the Preamble of the Model Rules will provide guidance to lawyers seeking to use legal storytelling in an ethical, balanced way. Providing lawyers with intrinsic motivation to behave ethically provides a more workable framework than adding additional proscriptive requirements to the Model Rules, particularly for lawyers walking the line between truth and falsity when retelling client facts through storytelling.

Telling, Hearing, and Believing: A Critical Analysis of Narrative Bioethics.

Narrative ethics taps into an inherent human need to tell our own stories centred on our own moral values and to have those stories heard and acknowledged. However, not everyone's words are afforded equal power. The use of narrative ethics in bioethical decision-making is problematized by a disparity in whose stories are told, whose stories are heard, and whose stories are believed. Here, I conduct an analysis of narrative ethics through a critical theory lens to show how entrenched patterns of narrative neglect in medicine are harming not only our capacity to make use of narrative ethics but also our capacity to deliver effective healthcare. To illustrate this point, I use three examples where the patient's gender affects how their stories unfold: autism, weight, and pain management. From these, I argue that the use of narrative ethics without the application of a critical theory lens risks the exacerbation of what Miranda Fricker refers to as "testimonial injustice," the prima facie harm experienced by individuals whose credibility is undermined by others' prejudices. Finally, I suggest that narrative ethics can be a powerful tool for mitigating oppressive practices in medicine if we couple it with critical analysis that enables us to understand the power dynamics at play in storytelling.

Narrative persuasion, identification, attitudes, and trustworthiness in crisis communication

The purpose of this study is to test the effects of narratives in crisis communication. This research assesses how organizations benefit from using stories in their media responses, relative to sharing nonnarrative information. The theory of crisis response narratives (Heath, 2004) holds that ethical narratives are effective because they enhance trustworthiness, attitudes toward the spokesperson, and identification with the spokesperson. Normative crisis communication theory exhorts disclosing truthful information rather than spinning. In an online experiment, participants (N = 365) watched a news interview in which a scandalized company’s spokesperson responded to a journalist’s questions with (a) ethical narratives, (b) unethical (spin) narratives, or (c) nonnarrative information. Multiple mediator modeling assessed identification with the spokesperson, attitudes toward the spokesperson, and perceived trustworthiness of the spokesperson. Results indicate ethical narratives are more effective than unethical narratives. However, nonnarrative information most effectively enhances trustworthiness and bolsters identification.

Imitation Nation: Red, White, and Blackface in Early and Antebellum US LiteratureStranger America: A Narrative Ethics of Exclusion

Imitation Nation: Red, White, and Blackface in Early and Antebellum US LiteratureStranger America: A Narrative Ethics of Exclusion