Ethical Realities Research Articles

Navigating the Complexities of Inter-Religious Peacebuilding: Implications for Theory and Practice

As conflict dynamics become complex and escalate globally, especially identity-based conflicts, we are witnessing an unprecedented shift in the Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Peacebuilding field toward contextually innovative and effective community-led approaches. The inadequacies of liberal and neoliberal paradigms and the increase in identity-based conflicts, religious pluralism, and differences in communities have motivated evidence-based inter-religious community-level engagements over the past two decades. These interventions rely on the theoretical frameworks of emancipatory peacebuilding and compassionate reasoning, and reflect an in-depth sense of spirituality, longing, and the essence of human relationship building and practice. This study gathers data from primary sources (which include findings from hybrid interviews) through a semi-participatory and empirical qualitative explorative research process in order to critique the underlying philosophies of traditional paradigms and explore emerging alternatives. It also posits that inter-religious community-led interventions are founded on the emancipatory elicitive religious peacebuilding (EERPb) framework. They are adaptive to non-linear (and sometimes non-scientific) approaches and are less focused on international standards. The framework fundamentally embraces phenomenological, metaphysical, and ethical realities in peacebuilding, operationalizes the concept of just peace, and acknowledges a global approach to peace that offers the opportunity to resolve the difficulties encountered by the various CAR and peacebuilding theoretical schools.

Academicians' Perspectives on AI Integration in Bangladesh's Education: Balancing Promise and Ethical Realities

As Bangladesh embarks on the journey of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its educational landscape, this article presents a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and challenges inherent in this transformative endeavor. The potential benefits of AI in education, including enhanced accessibility, personalized learning, and administrative efficiency, are examined within the unique socio-cultural context of Bangladesh. However, the ethical implications, such as data privacy concerns, equity issues, and the risk of depersonalizing education, must not be overlooked. Realistic implementations tailored to Bangladesh's contextual realities and infrastructural capabilities are emphasized, ensuring that AI integration aligns with educational objectives. Insights from academicians and experts, both locally and globally, highlight the significance of collaborative, ethical, and context-specific strategies. This article offers a roadmap for Bangladesh's educational institutions to harness the full potential of AI while maintaining a strong commitment to ethics, equity, and educational effectiveness.

Justice in the Vernacular: An Anthropological Critique of Commensuration

This article examines the far-reaching implications of Sally Engle Merry’s seminal multi-sited research on human rights measurement and monitoring. As she argued, human rights indicators, which form the basis for measurement, depend upon a highly elaborate, and largely obscured, process of commensuration. Through commensuration, complex social, legal, and economic phenomena are treated as variables that can be measured using statistical procedures that flatten the underlying complexities. Commensuration, in this sense, takes place at all levels: local, subnational, national, and international. At each stage, the process of “measuring justice” through commensuration has the paradoxical effect of becoming more precise as variables become more detached from the nuances of everyday conflicts. In Merry’s analysis, the global “seductions of quantification” reinforce the dominance of commensurability as an ideology of both scientific validity and social change. Drawing on both Merry’s work and wider comparative research in the anthropology of human rights and justice, this contribution to the symposium argues that the anthropological critique of commensuration carries important lessons for the meanings of “justice” more generally. How can justice be measured at a global level if, as Merry’s research shows, the underlying factors that supposedly reflect injustice are highly specific, contingent, and, most importantly, incommensurable? As a potential way out of this dilemma, the article explores the possibilities of conceptualizing “justice” in the vernacular, an approach grounded in local cultural and ethical realities.

Reflecties op de praktijk en ethiek van heimelijke etnografie

Reflections on the practice and ethics of covert ethnography In scientific studies involving human subjects, voluntary informed consent is often regarded as a basic standard for ethical research. However, when it comes to ethnography involving the collection of data through (participant-) observation, this can present significant challenges. Ethnographers are often required to embed themselves in complex social worlds with numerous actors occupying a range of social roles and activities. Many ethnographers have openly discussed the challenges of ensuring fully informed consent within this context. These challenges are even more present when the research involves observing deviant, socially harmful, or (potentially) criminal activity. Studying such activity may require ethnographers to hold a ‘covert’ position to secure and maintain access to the research field. In this paper, I draw on my own experience conducting ethnography in the Dutch labour market. This research was carried out as part of my PhD project, exploring the nature of precarious work and exploitation of lowwage migrant workers in the Netherlands. Having recently completed my observational fieldwork, I offer some brief lessons and reflections from my experience that may be helpful to other researchers navigating the complex ethical realities of ethnographic research or considering adopting covert methods themselves.

How Neurotech Start-Ups Envision Ethical Futures: Demarcation, Deferral, Delegation

Like many ethics debates surrounding emerging technologies, neuroethics is increasingly concerned with the private sector. Here, entrepreneurial visions and claims of how neurotechnology innovation will revolutionize society—from brain-computer-interfaces to neural enhancement and cognitive phenotyping—are confronted with public and policy concerns about the risks and ethical challenges related to such innovations. But while neuroethics frameworks have a longer track record in public sector research such as the U.S. BRAIN Initiative, much less is known about how businesses—and especially start-ups—address ethics in tech development. In this paper, we investigate how actors in the field frame and enact ethics as part of their innovative R&D processes and business models. Drawing on an empirical case study on direct-to-consumer (DTC) neurotechnology start-ups, we find that actors engage in careful boundary-work to anticipate and address public critique of their technologies, which allows them to delineate a manageable scope of their ethics integration. In particular, boundaries are drawn around four areas: the technology’s actual capability, purpose, safety and evidence-base. By drawing such lines of demarcation, we suggest that start-ups make their visions of ethical neurotechnology in society more acceptable, plausible and desirable, favoring their innovations while at the same time assigning discrete responsibilities for ethics. These visions establish a link from the present into the future, mobilizing the latter as promissory place where a technology’s benefits will materialize and to which certain ethical issues can be deferred. In turn, the present is constructed as a moment in which ethical engagement could be delegated to permissive regulatory standards and scientific authority. Our empirical tracing of the construction of ‘ethical realities’ in and by start-ups offers new inroads for ethics research and governance in tech industries beyond neurotechnology.

Early brain activity: Translations between bedside and laboratory.

Neural activity is both a driver of brain development and a readout of developmental processes. Changes in neuronal activity are therefore both the cause and consequence of neurodevelopmental compromises. Here, we review the assessment of neuronal activities in both preclinical models and clinical situations. We focus on issues that require urgent translational research, the challenges and bottlenecks preventing translation of biomedical research into new clinical diagnostics or treatments, and possibilities to overcome these barriers. The key questions are (i) what can be measured in clinical settings versus animal experiments, (ii) how do measurements relate to particular stages of development, and (iii) how can we balance practical and ethical realities with methodological compromises in measurements and treatments.

Digital education futures in Irish educational policy: tempering commercial influence through an exploration of emerging ethical, environmental and educational realities

ABSTRACT This paper explores future digital technology policy for education with reference to the Irish context. Framed within the global context of commercial influence on education and related discourses, it addresses the Irish context with particular reference to identifiable ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors seen as influencing policy provision in any next phase. The paper then proceeds to outline a number of intersecting factors or issues that will likely influence digital technology policy and practice in Irish schools in the future, taking into consideration the political, corporate, social, economic and educational backdrop. Likely ethical, environmental and educational factors are proposed and discussed. Looking across these factors, the paper concludes that establishing a clear vision of the role and purpose of technology in education, coupled with a more complex understanding and appreciation of the interaction between technology and education (which is contextually bound and relational, and reflects greater teacher rather than corporate agency) are significant prerequisites to any consideration of the future of digital education in the Irish educational policy context.

Ethics and digital collections: a selective overview of evolving complexities

PurposeDigital collections are becoming more commonplace at libraries, archives and museums around the world, creating potential for improved accessibility to information that may otherwise remain hidden and further support for intellectual exploration. As a result of the growing potential for digital collections to inform and influence, the conversation surrounding ethics and digital collections needs to be continually examined and adapted as technologies evolve, user expectations change and digital information plays an increasing role in our everyday lives. In this context, this paper presents an overview of multifaceted ethical realities that impact the how, why and what digital information is created, accessed and preserved.Design/methodology/approachWritten from the perspective of a digital collections librarian, this paper relies on existing research in presenting ethical considerations and complements that research with professional observations in providing subsequent reflections on addressing challenges in the age of digital information.FindingsThere are and should be considerations given to not only what information is contained in a given collection, but also how that information is selected, accessed and consumed by the public. The conclusions offered are designed to provoke reflection on the evolving and interconnected nature of information and ethics in the context of digital collections.Originality/valueInformation ethics is multifaceted, with one of those facets relating directly to digital collections. This paper demonstrates that digital collections are more complex than simply a collection of digitized documents and photographs. As the field of information management continually evolves and adapts, so, too, do the ethical realizations identified in this paper, all of which go beyond the (virtual) walls of a library, archive or museum, and carry the potential to have a long-term impact concerning information and its integrity, equity and access.

The Ethics of the Enactment and Reception of Cruciform Love: A Comparative Lexical, Conceptual, Exegetical, and Theological Study of Colossians 3:1–17

The Ethics of the Enactment and Reception of Cruciform Love: A Comparative Lexical, Conceptual, Exegetical, and Theological Study of Colossians 3:1–17

THE PLACE OF AN ETHICS OF SOLIDARITY IN MITIGATING THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Sub-Saharan Africa like some other parts of the world is plagued by myriads of problems such as environmental degradation, climate change, illegal migration, human trafficking, terrorism, resources conflicts, bad and inept leadership, failing states, armed banditry, drug smuggling, youth restiveness, unemployment, etc. One of these problems, unemployment, has led to the devastation of many human lives and equally made some persons to live in degrading manner that affect environmental resources. Unemployment is not simply about statistics or numbers but about actual human lives who are holders of rights and dignity. Unemployment can impede the exercise of human rights and prevent people from living meaningful lives. In spite of the region’s enormous natural resources and human capital unemployment remains drastically unabated. Why is this situation so? This situation is problematized here. Consequently, this paper critically and analytically examines this problem of unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa in the light of an ethics of solidarity. The paper hermeneutically interprets the concepts involved in the study. The grave reasons for unemployment in the region will be examined with likely solutions. Besides these possible solutions, the paper sees the issue as also bordering on ethical realities. Many of the factors that causes employment borders on human behaviours and morality. There are ethical dimensions to the issue then. This is why the paper takes the vantage point of an ethics of solidarity to argue for an additional solution to the problem. This is equally the theoretical frame from which the problem of unemployment is examined. Living in solidarity makes individuals to easily collaborate and overcome societal problems like unemployment. The paper finds that unemployment is a pervasive problem in the sub-continent and is causing grave consequences for both human lives and the environment. The paper concludes that an ethics of solidarity can help in mitigating the problem of unemployment in the sub-continent. And that when this is done it will help to create a happier and peaceful sub-continent.

Responsible Firm Behaviour in Political Markets: Judging the Ethicality of Corporate Political Activity in Weak Institutional Environments

While support for corporate political activity (CPA) is well echoed in the literature, little has been done to empirically examine its ethicality. Moreover, existing ethical CPA frameworks assume normative and rational leanings that are insufficient to provide a comprehensive account of CPA ethicality. Utilizing the Ghanaian context, adopting a multiple case study design involving 28 Directors from 22 firms, and employing a grounded theory approach, I explore how the ethicality of CPA is determined in weak institutional environments. The findings reveal that business executives evaluate ethics at three levels (i.e. context, organizational and strategy) using three principles (i.e. utilitarianism, justice and institutions). Leveraging this knowledge, I present an eclectic framework that bridges the long-standing gap between normative ethical prescriptions and lived ethical realities. In doing so, I move away from abstraction to give “voice” to the actors involved in CPA. I also present a model that shows how the ethical judgement process is influenced by managerial intuition and interactive personal and organizational experiences. This article has important theoretical and practical implications for ethical business-government relations in developing countries.

THE PLACE OF AN ETHICS OF SOLIDARITY IN MITIGATING THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Sub-Saharan Africa like some other parts of the world is plagued by myriads of problems such as environmental degradation, climate change, illegal migration, human trafficking, terrorism, resources conflicts, bad and inept leadership, failing states, armed banditry, drug smuggling, youth restiveness, unemployment, etc. One of these problems, unemployment, has led to the devastation of many human lives and equally made some persons to live in degrading manner that affect environmental resources. Unemployment is not simply about statistics or numbers but about actual human lives who are holders of rights and dignity. Unemployment can impede the exercise of human rights and prevent people from living meaningful lives. In spite of the region’s enormous natural resources and human capital unemployment remains drastically unabated. Why is this situation so? This situation is problematized here. Consequently, this paper critically and analytically examines this problem of unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa in the light of an ethics of solidarity. The paper hermeneutically interprets the concepts involved in the study. The grave reasons for unemployment in the region will be examined with likely solutions. Besides these possible solutions, the paper sees the issue as also bordering on ethical realities. Many of the factors that causes employment borders on human behaviours and morality. There are ethical dimensions to the issue then. This is why the paper takes the vantage point of an ethics of solidarity to argue for an additional solution to the problem. This is equally the theoretical frame from which the problem of unemployment is examined. Living in solidarity makes individuals to easily collaborate and overcome societal problems like unemployment. The paper finds that unemployment is a pervasive problem in the sub-continent and is causing grave consequences for both human lives and the environment. The paper concludes that an ethics of solidarity can help in mitigating the problem of unemployment in the sub-continent. And that when this is done it will help to create a happier and peaceful sub-continent.

Attention as the Way to Being

I argue that staying with the movement of attention is the way to being. For attention moves in response to the appeal of being, which means that being shows itself in that movement. We are thus always already on the way to being, always already listening to its call. But something else is required, a special effort of attending to one’s own movement, a taking-heed (In-die-Acht-nehmen) that enables being to be made manifest in a more profound manner, which can transform our being in the world and associated ethical and political realities.

Cow Protectionism and Bovine Frozen-Semen Farms in India

AbstractGlobal warming and livestock farming are intertwined, and both call for radical policy changes that recognize animal rights. India has the world’s largest bovine head count, and is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change. It is uniquely placed in having cow protection legislations, though the focus is limited to the end of the bovine lifecycle by criminalizing slaughter and beef. However, breeding programs, the start of the industrial animal lifecycle, also need to be abolished for animal rights and environmental protection. Using the exploitation of bulls in bovine frozen-semen farms, this article critiques the practice in terms of cruelty; speciesism; and climatic change. It argues that with an expanded moral baseline on protection that is explicitly embedded in animal rights, India is well placed to respond with radical action by abolishing nonhuman animal husbandry as an outdated food production system that is inconsistent with planetary and ethical realities.

Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer by Lykke Guanio-Uluru

Reviewed by: Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer by Lykke Guanio-Uluru Ryan K. Strader Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer, by Lykke Guanio-Uluru. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. In Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer, Lykke Guanio-Uluru's purpose is to evaluate the "formative ethical influence" of best-selling fantasy novels (1). The popularity of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Twilight series "makes their reflection (or refraction) of cultural values relevant to understanding contemporary Western society"; these are our "best-selling" ethics, and Guanio-Uluru has mined 7,000 pages of text to deliver a rich and sprawling analysis of their ethical arguments (1). Guanio-Uluru draws on James Phelan's rhetorical theory of narrative and ethics to map the "ethical progression" of each series, arguing that the narrative strategies in each text create a discernable "ethical universe" (2). A consistent theme in the analysis is a theoretical conversation between Farah Mendlesohn's argument that there is "an 'unavoidable' link between narrative form and ideology" and Phelan's argument that narrative effects are ethically dynamic, stemming from complex interactions between narrative aesthetics, form, and the reader's ethical positioning (13, 234). Guanio-Uluru questions Mendlesohn's belief in a "rigid" relationship between ethics and rhetorical form; instead, the complexity and depth of Guanio-Uluru's analysis "suggests that individual texts tend to rely on dynamic combinations of formal patterns according to their ethical agenda rather than stay confined to any single and 'static' formal or ideological 'template'" (14). As a result, Guanio-Uluru not only draws on Phelan's work but also acts to validate it and expand its application to works for younger readers. Guanio-Uluru's introductory section on methodology is thorough and useful, foregrounding her use of the contested notion of the "implied author" in the work of Wayne C. Booth and Dan Shen. In connecting the primary texts (the three main series of the authors indicated in the title) to contemporary ethical theory, Plato, Augustine, and Boethius are given some treatment, but the succeeding chapters do not dwell too much on them. The discussion of ethics in the primary texts is concentrated on discovery of how the aesthetic characteristics of the primary text communicate value assessments of right and wrong, good and evil. For each series, Guanio-Uluru focuses on how the narrative presentation influences readers to choose moral sides. This approach of eschewing lengthy discussion of ethical theory does not leave the [End Page 243] ethical discussion feeling unmoored; on the contrary, it keeps Guanio-Uluru's discussion focused on the primary texts, allowing her to dig into the narratives to provide a thorough discussion, undistracted by too-lengthy forays into Plato. The accompanying plot summaries provided by Guanio-Uluru are ample, allowing a reader to compensate if they simply couldn't make it through seven tomes of Harry Potter, but are still curious about the ethical realities of Harry Potter "occulture" (88). Readers who have enjoyed any of the series that Uluru analyzes will feel that they have had a long and satisfying visit back to the worlds of Middle Earth, Hogwarts, and Forks. The analysis of The Lord of the Rings is as sprawling as the Norse mythical traditions that were Tolkien's sources. And fittingly so, as the ethical vision of the implied author is "to amalgamate something of the (heroic) boldness permeating the Norse vision of life with the ideal of compassion and self-sacrifice on which the Christian faith is based" (47). Christian ethical values discussed include Bombadil's value of self-mastery and the collective consequences of individual choice (54, 75). Harry Potter, on the other hand, is presented as a text that utilizes some Christian symbolism and recognizable Christian story arcs, but ultimately the ethical rhetoric of the text rejects the notion of a spiritual reality that imparts morality (156–57). The chapters on The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are engaging, but it is when Guanio-Uluru compares the two series that the analysis shines brightest. While she concludes that the Christian ethical vision of The Lord of...

A Call for Empirical Research on Uterine Transplantation and Reproductive Autonomy.

Uterine transplantation could give women who suffer from uterine factor infertility the possibility of experiencing gestation. Much of the ethical discussion about uterine transplantation has focused on whether research on it should even be pursued, but researchers are nevertheless moving forward with several uterine transplant research protocols. Scholars should therefore already be identifying and engaging in an intimate examination of the ethical realities of offering uterine transplantation in a clinical setting. Given the potential for the procedure to expand reproductive options for women, reproductive autonomy has been a primary principle underlying much of the ethical discourse about the hypothetical impact of uterine transplantation. Yet the factors that will affect whether uterine transplants promote or undermine a patients' reproductive autonomy if the procedure is integrated into clinical practice have yet to be rigorously explored. Focusing on the clinical realities of patient autonomy, I argue that empirical data exploring prospective recipients' motivations and their perceptions of the benefits of the procedure in the context of their lived experiences are critical to a robust analysis of the ethical dimensions of uterine transplantation.

Ethical and Practical Realities of Using Letters for Recruitment in Bereavement Research

Recruitment of participants into bereavement research may present many challenges for the research team. At present, there is little consensus for researchers and ethics committees on the most appropriate method of recruitment. There is some evidence that participants prefer to be contacted about research studies via letters. However, recruitment involving the use of a letter can occur in a number of ways, each with ethical and practical benefits and limitations. In a study of the experiences of bereaved parents, we used letters in three ways: direct mailing from the research team with an opt-out option; permission to mail letters obtained by social workers from a hospital-based follow-up program during routine contact; and letters mailed from the hospital's PICU research nurse at the hospital with instruction on how to opt in. In this paper, the practical and ethical realities of each method are highlighted, using examples from our own experiences. Nineteen parents also provided reflections in follow-up phone calls. While direct researcher contact is perhaps the most feasible for researchers, ethical concerns may render it unacceptable. While contact via a known member of a follow-up program is more ethically appropriate for participants, it also presents significant practical issues. We suggest that contact via a representative of the healthcare institution provides the best balance of ethical and practical acceptability for both participants and the research team, but responsiveness to the ethical and practical requirements of the study is crucial in ensuring it can be successfully undertaken. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

First line fertility treatment strategies regarding IUI and IVF require clinical evidence.

The advent of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has contributed to a significant growth in the delivery of assisted conception technique, such that IVF/ICSI procedures are now recommended over other interventions. Even the UK National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines controversially recommends against intrauterine insemination (IUI) procedures in favour of IVF. We reflect on some of the clinical, economic, financial and ethical realities that have been used to selectively promote IVF over IUI, which is less intrusive and more patient friendly, obviates the need for embryo storage and has a global application. The evidence strongly favours IUI over IVF in selected couples and national funding strategies should include IUI treatment options. IUI, practised optimally as a first line treatment in up to six cycles, would also ease the pressures on public funds to allow the provision of up to three IVF cycles for couple who need it. Fertility clinics should also strive towards ISO15189 accreditation standards for basic semen diagnosis for male infertility used to triage ICSI treatment, to reduce the over-diagnosis of severe male factor infertility. Importantly, there is a need to develop global guidelines on inclusion policies for IVF/ICSI procedures. These suggestions are an ethically sound basis for constructing the provision of publicly funded fertility treatments.

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer: the Promise and the Perils

The scientific goal of deriving human pluripotent stem cell lines via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has become a reality in the past few years. In the early days of this research, however, the degree of hype and promise surrounding human SCNT was matched by equally ardent warnings of its ethical perils. This commentary compares the predicted promises and perils of human SCNT to the current scientific and ethical realities, taking note of underappreciated issues that have emerged in the interim.

Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape

Emerging research on the increasing significance of consumption in the global South is concerned with its links to the globalizing middle classes. Against the backdrop of optimism invested in the new global middle classes to fuel consumption-led growth, this paper contributes to new debate about the articulations and significance of ethical consumption in the global South. Missing from much current mainstream policy, media and academic debate is acknowledgement of the diversity of the global middle classes and an understanding of how ethical interpretations and behaviour differ in various consumer markets around the world. In response, this paper draws on qualitative research in South Africa’s Western Cape to explore the cultural significance of everyday ethical realities in shaping consumption in the global South. In addition to addressing the relative absence of research into ethical consumption in global South contexts, the paper makes two key contributions based our findings. First, it challenges the tendency, particularly in economic discourses, to generalise about the ‘new’ global middle class consumers by highlighting the significance of locality and context in shaping consumption practices in the Western Cape; specifically it finds that, for diverse middle class consumers, thrift is an important ethical choice and practice determining consumption patterns. Second, it highlights the significance of everyday ethical practices in shaping consumption in the Western Cape, focusing specifically on how thrift is imbricated in concerns with not just economic constraint, but also care, habit and aspiration. The paper concludes with reflections on the wider implications of these findings and suggests that they illustrate a need to theorise ethical consumption from contexts in the global South, on their own terms.