Ethical Stance Research Articles

ہیومنزم کے نظریہ پر تنقید و تحقیق ،اسلام کی روشنی میں

Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that empha-sizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition. Humanism as a philosophy today can be as little as a perspective on life or as much as an entire way of life; the common feature is that it is always focused primarily on human needs and interests. Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion.. Humanism derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny. Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. Islam rejects the basic philosophical premise that humans rather than God are the measure of all things and that all intrinsic moral values are derived from human desires and needs. Islam, like other Semitic religions, teaches that God is the ultimate source of all moral values. Humanistic psych-ology concepts are too vague. Critics argue that subjective ideas such as authentic and real experiences are difficult to objectify; an experience that is real for one individual may not be real for another person. For this reason, critics believe that conclusions drawn from subjective experiences are almost impossible to verify, making research in humanistic psych-ology unreliable. In addition, critics claim that humanistic psychology is not a true science because it involves too much common sense and not enough objectivity.

A LENDA E A LEI: A ancestralidade afro-brasileira como fonte epistemológica e como conceito ético-jurídico normativo

Nossas motivações e leituras de mundo sustentam-se no pressuposto de que as moralidades geram eticidades e as eticidades geram juridicidades. Tal correspondência une o destino a um modo ancestre de decidir sobre as situações do presente. Pensar ou exercitar uma epistemologia a partir da ancestralidade significa adotar uma postura ética frente a uma camada questionável de pensamentos e saberes identificáveis como africanos e diaspóricos. Isso implica numa mudança na carga teórico-epistemológica em que são construídos estes conceitos. A ancestralidade pode ser lida como uma categoria de alteridade. Mais que isso, uma categoria de trans-alteridade, posto que se referência no local de relação, ou seja, do encontro da diferença. Uma ancestralidade como referência e fundamento de uma nova utopia em nome de uma ética da sobrevivência e do equilíbrio com a natureza. Esta é uma das dimensões da experiência afrodiaspórica no Brasil. Uma experiência que deve ser vista também no campo da justiça política. Esta ancestralidade pode ser lida também numa perspectiva normativa não religiosa. O instituto da morte aparece como fator decisivo para a objetivação dos conceitos definidores do ancestral. Assim como, o estado de união vital dos elementos naturais e sociais constitutivos do homem caracteriza sua manifestação no mundo terrestre. A dissolução dessa união estabelece um novo estado existencial. A morte, portanto, permite a última transfiguração do homem. Neste caso, a ancestralidade influencia um universo mais amplo da existência e das forças físicas e metafísicas possuindo um poder normativo maior. O controle do mundo visível e invisível confere à ancestralidade um status de fenômeno jurídico. Os mandamentos ancestrais referenciam-se como fontes axiológicas sobre um conceito de justiça construído coletivamente. Tratar os princípios ancestrais como parte dos estudos da hermenêutica jurídica nos leva ao diálogo dos métodos e procedimentos para alcançar esta possibilidade. A valorização dos nossos próprios mitos e caráter identitário é uma sugestão poderosa para retomarmos o fio da história e das interpretações possíveis de liberdade e justiça para a realidade jurídica brasileira. 
 Palavras chaves: Ancestralidade, Epistemologia, Moralidade, Ético, Normativo.

Democracy and worker representation in the management of change: Lessons from Kurt Lewin and the Harwood studies

This article revisits the famous Harwood studies overseen by Kurt Lewin to include the neglected union perspective that differs markedly from conventional accounts. We explain this discrepancy as arising from unitarist and pluralist views, which assume very different understandings of organization. The researchers framed the Harwood organization from a unitarist perspective as monolithic, assuming its members are bound by allegiance to a common cause represented by management. This helps explain their relative indifference to unions and framing of concepts in a manner conducive to management that was incomprehensible from a union perspective. From this we contend that the Harwood studies are best understood as a cautionary tale against the assumption of a monolithic view that equates the interest of management with that of the organization. This is especially relevant given the dominance of a unitarist perspective across several fields of organization today, when management are argued to be increasingly authoritarian and union membership in several countries approaches an all-time low. Recognizing that organization is a balance struck between partially conflicting interests represents a more ethical stance to forestall accusations of partisanship and manipulation and to build towards the establishment of a fairer and more sustainable workplace for all.

Introducing the revised Code of Ethics for Museums

The Museums Association consulted with the museums sector on changes to the Code of Ethics during 2014-5, and published a revised Code of Ethics for Museums in November 2015. The new version reaffirms 'core' ethical stances on disposal and acquisition of museum collections. It also expands the concept of museum ethics to include consideration of issues of public benefit, freedom of speech, institutional integrity and sponsorship.

Decolonising inclusive education in lower income, Southern African educational contexts

The article proposes the need for the decolonising of the inclusive education movement in Southern African educational contexts. It draws on the authors’ own research and reflexive engagement over the last five years on inclusive education policy formulation and implementation in selected Southern African contexts, namely, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Malawi. The article interrogates inclusive education policy enactment in the four country contexts through the lens of the theory of practice architectures, focusing mainly on the ‘sayings’ and ‘performings.’ The analysis highlights that discourses of inclusive education, which continue to be influenced by traditional special education ideologies from the global North and appropriated by the South have the power to undermine or subvert the inclusive education agenda in contexts shaped by neo-colonialism. The article argues for a critical inclusive education agenda located within social justice theory to enable the decolonising of inclusive education. The reflexive and ethical stance of a social justice framework has the power to identify, untangle and disrupt pervasive special education notions from the North, and challenge education administrators, school leaders at all levels and teachers to engage in ideological critique as they enact inclusive education policy and seek to address exclusion and oppression within the education system. Keywords: African contexts; critical diversity literacy; decolonisation; inclusive education; practice architectures; social justice education

The impact of cultural values and economic constraints on tourism businesses’ ethical practices

PurposeAnecdotal evidence suggests that in times of economic constraints particularly in countries such as Greece that have long been stereotyped as corrupt, business practices amongst small- and medium-sized organisations that make up the majority of these nations’ tourism operators may become less than ethical or legal. The purpose of this paper is to explore these issues empirically in order to understand the impact of both cultural values and economic constraints on tourism businesses’ practices.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study using mixed methods has been adopted. Quantitative data were gathered from tourism business owners, managers and employees via questionnaires to establish the nature and scope of various unethical, illegal or immoral practices. Qualitative data were gathered to explore the ways these issues are considered and enacted.FindingsResults show that there are many unethical and illegal practices that have been witnessed first-hand. Businesses’ attempts at acting in an ethical and socially responsible manner tend to be affected by not only cultural issues, but also economic constraints, yet there remains a desire to act in a way that does not impact negatively on tourists or on the local society and environment.Originality/valueThis research fills a gap in the literature relating to the ethical stance and practices of tourism entrepreneurs. It also presents an original conceptualisation of these issues in light of their location within the extant literature on ethics, corporate social responsibility and both sustainable and responsible tourism.

Classical Cybernetics and Transhumanism: A Reply to Richmond’s Review of The Nature of the Machine and the Collapse of Cybernetics

Sheldon Richmond has written an insightful and exhaustive review of my book The Nature of the Machine and the Collapse of Cybernetics: A Transhumanist Lesson for Emerging Technologies (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). Richmond voices concerns regarding some suggestions I made about the future of humanity vis-à-vis a contemporary cybernetic reinstantiation in the form of Emerging Technologies. He suggests that future cybernetically rooted sciences (and the transhumanist technologies that come along with them) can pose peril for the human condition. This reply is intended to clarify certain points that Richmond brings up, by means of (a) responding to his suggestion that cybernetics and transhumanism could be independently understood, and (b) unveiling a metaphysical and ethical stance, shared by Richmond, critical to the observations I made regarding a “cybernetically organized mankind” made possible by Emerging Technologies. I identify Richmond’s position as (a) precautionary in nature, (b) for reasons perhaps more ethical than epistemological, somewhat out of sync with the cybernetic ethos.

Changing Footings on ‘Jacob's ladder’: dealing with sensitive issues in dual-role mediation on a Swedish TV show

ABSTRACTThis case study examines a Swedish TV interview with a Soviet pop singer in 1985 where the talk show host, who is both a trained interpreter and an experienced media journalist, acts as a dual-role mediator, interviewing and interpreting at the same time. The analysis is contextualized within the political and military relations between Sweden and the USSR in the 1980s. Theoretically, the study draws on ethics of interpreting, ethics of entertainment and the notions participation status or footing. A potential challenge for a dual-role mediator is that two different ethical stances are involved; here, ethics of entertainment (entertainment, comfort, culture value orientation) and ethics of interpreting (impartiality, neutrality, accuracy). These may clash, but the study claims that the different stances can also be used to the participants’ advantage. Here, the role of talk show host dominates over the role of interpreter, and interpreting ethics can be flouted and played with if it suits the purposes of the former. The study shows the complexity of dual-role mediation and emphasizes the need to take into account the perspectives of both of the involved roles in research on participants’ interaction and changes of footing.

Eco(il)logical Knowledge

AbstractIn this article, I narrate an ethnographic storyline that involves forest inhabitants, local politicians, development professionals, and scientific researchers in both representational and nonrepresentational worlds of knowing. I discuss how and why, in Angola, making forest knowledge through relations of distance to the forests is crucial for attaining institutional legitimacy over the forests. This way of acquiring authority and influence is championed by a broad epistemological tendency to address only the absent, which is then made present by accredited representers. Yet this technique disempowers local forest dwellers in their everyday territories and disallows the capacity that the ecological knowns have to reveal themselves. Knowing Angolan forests through absence and distance is not just a potent contemporary form of knowledge that qualifies as a way of ruling the forests, but is also integral to widespread (neo)colonial processes of distinction and separation: the knower and the known, the representer and the represented, the “cosmopolitan intellectual” and the “rustic bestial” Other. Finally, I discuss different forms of ecological knowledge in light of ethical stances toward knowing, relationality, and, ultimately, being.

In and Out of Place: Ethnography as ‘Journeying With’ Between Central and South Australia

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the case of an Aboriginal woman from Central Australia who has in recent years experienced a radical shift in her life circumstances. It pursues a writerly approach that makes the variety of forces and relationships legible that she now navigates, including that of the anthropologist‐friend. ‘Journeying with’ is proposed as an ethnographic method as well as an ethical stance well attuned to the turbulent circumstances of the present—in the Warlpiri life sketched here, and globally. Destabilization and displacement are increasingly common features of contemporary experience, and this paper proposes that ethnography anchored at the level of the individual person is well placed to engage unsettling transformations in the world at large, in social relationships, and modes of personhood, as well as in anthropological production.

I’m a translator and I’m proud: how literary translators view authors and authorship

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the relationship of literary translators with ‘their’ authors and with the source text. The issue has been dealt with from different theoretical perspectives. I will focus instead on the practitioners’ own views, setting these against the scholarly voices and looking for possible similarities and discrepancies. In 1998, Simeoni stated that ‘the more vocal calls for translational emancipation’ had originated not among the translators themselves, but among ‘peripheral observers’, such as translator scholars. Does this claim still hold true, or are translators nowadays more concerned about emancipation, more prone to claim ownership and/or authorship than previous generations? A first glance at the results of a survey among literary translators in Scandinavia seems to indicate that they are not: most respondents apparently do not perceive the translated text as ‘their text’. The free text comments, however, reveal a more differentiated picture. My claim is that to understand literary translators’ ethical stance vis-à-vis the text they are working on, and to give them the rightful credit for their work, we need to revise some of the traditional dichotomies within translation studies, such as creativity versus fidelity, and take a more nuanced stance towards the notions of ownership and authorship.

Torture and the Problem of the Bystander: Commentary on Philip Cushman’s “The Earthquake That Is the Hoffman Report on Torture: Toward a Re-Moralization of Psychology”

The author explores torture as one component of the regressive policies implemented within the context of political authoritarianism. She illustrates her contention with two disparate examples: the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 and U.S. constitutional democracy in the post 9/11 era and the post-Trump electoral victory. She analyzes the social matrix of neoliberal ideology and institutions that are internalized to become aspects of psychic reality. The bystander phenomenon is examined in light of how psychological dynamics intersect with social forces and hegemonic ideology to create passive citizens who tend to behave in their own self-interest rather than respond to the suffering of others. The psi professions are interpreted as resources for hegemony unless practitioners are critically committed to an ethical stance capable of challenging the prevailing status quo.

Beyond Non-Registration: Women Opting for Cohabitation in Tunis

In light of the negative social and legal consequences they might face, women in Muslim majority countries who enter into an intimate relationship without concluding a state-registered marriage are often considered victims of unscrupulous men. Usually this refers to unregistered‘urfi(religious-only) marriages, as very little attention is paid to women engaging in cohabitation. Whereas non-marriage is generally framed as ‘waithood’ (the inability to marry) and hence as a negative choice, some women in Tunis opt for cohabitation, as they expect this to positively influence their relationship and potential future marriage as more equal and honest. These women express an ethical stance that does not fit society’s dominant normative framework and present themselves as liberal secular Tunisians. They take an ambivalent position on state-registered marriage, as they are critical of how Tunisian marriages are currently lived, but they do recognize the value of registration. Their rejection of‘urfimarriage as against the law, gender unequal, and Salafi-inspired confirms their liberal secular sense of personhood.

Profiling ethics orientation through play

ABSTRACTResearch studies and recruitment processes often rely on psychometric instruments to profile respondents with regards to their ethical orientation. Completing such questionnaires can be tedious and is prone to self-presentation bias. Noting how video games often expose players to complex plots, filled with dilemmas and morally dubious options, the opportunity emerges to evaluate player’s moral orientation by analysing their in-game behaviour. In order to explore the feasibility of such an approach, we examine how users’ moral judgment correlates with choices they make in non-linear narratives, frequently present in video games. An interactive narrative presenting several moral dilemmas was created. An initial user study (N = 80) revealed only weak correlations between the users’ choices and their ethical inclinations in all ethical scales. However, by training a genetic algorithm on this data set to quantify the influence of each branch on recognising moral inclination we found a strong positive correlation between choice behaviour and self-reported ethical inclinations on a second independent group of participants (N = 20). The contribution of this work is to demonstrate how genetic algorithms can be applied in interactive stories to profile users’ ethical stance.

The Rupture as Ethical Imperative: Reading thePhaedrusthrough Levinas's Ethics

ABSTRACTReading the Phaedrus through Levinas's ethics for the other, I argue that the dialogic rupture in the Phaedrus offers an ethical imperative for rhetoric to respect alterity. Following James Kastely, I suggest that attempts to create a unified understanding of the dialogues within the Phaedrus miss the way in which the thematic discontinuity of the text functions philosophically and performatively. This rupture, I posit, signifies an ethical stance toward alterity that forgoes the possibility of violence and respects plurality. Such an ethical stance offers an imperative for a rhetorical ethic of listening in dialogue and suggests that rhetorical scholars return to Plato as a valuable resource for theorizing rhetorical ethics.

Speaking Truth to Power: Twitter Reactions to the Panama Papers

The current study examines the micro-linguistic details of Twitter responses to the whistleblower-initiated publication of the Panama Papers. The leaked documents contained the micro-details of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and wealth accumulation schemes used by business elites, politicians, and government bureaucrats. The public release of the documents on April 4, 2016 resulted in a groundswell of Twitter and other social media activity throughout the world, including 161,036 Spanish-language tweets in the subsequent 5-month period. The findings illustrate that the responses were polyvocal, consisting a collection of overlapping speech genres with varied thematic topics and linguistic styles, as well as differing degrees of calls for action and varying amounts of illocutionary force. The analysis also illustrates that, while the illocutionary force of tweets is somewhat associated with the adoption of a prosaic and vernacular ethical stance as well as with demands for action, these types of voicing behaviors were not present in the majority of the tweets. These results suggest that, while social media platforms are a popular site for collective forms of voicing activities, it is less certain that these collective stakeholder voices necessarily result in forceful accountability demands that spill out of the communication medium and thus serve as an impulse for positive social change.

Threat perception of the rural-urban migration as a linkage to the rise of crime: Bangladesh perspective

At present the rise of urban crime falls within the gripping focus of criminal justice and criminology. Researchers endeavor to figure out urban schemes of crime which linked with rural-urban migration. Although, rural-urban migration mostly concerns the subject of sociology, this article viewed from jurisprudential perspectives under the sociological school to study social doctrines in relation with the migration as social phenomena and to criticize as to their relation to social condition and social progress. This observable fact of rural-urban migration could also be apprehended as a supply of the intensifying and distressing crisis in urban areas which is rising violent behavior and criminal activities. This article uncovers the cause and effect of increasing crime under interrelation between migration and the security précised by the law and order environment. The author finds the needs and changes of the society due to the migration of a huge mass of people from rural to urban areas in Bangladesh. Finally, the paper recommends the balance of conflicting interests from social, political and ethical stance to facilitating the policies and laws concerned.IIUC Studies Vol.13 December 2016: 69-82

Ethical, Practical, and Methodological Considerations for Unobtrusive Qualitative Research About Personal Narratives Shared on the Internet

As Internet research grows in popularity, attention to the ethics of studying online content is crucial to ensuring ethical diligence and appropriateness. Over recent years, ethical guidelines and recommendations have emerged to advise researchers and institutional review boards on best practices. However, these guidelines are sometimes irrelevant, overly rigid, or lack recognition of the contingent nature of ethical decision-making in qualitative research. Furthermore, varied ethical stances and practices are evident in existing literature. This article explores key ethical issues for qualitative research involving online content, with a focus on the unobtrusive study of personal narratives shared via the Internet. Principles of informed consent and confidentiality are examined in depth alongside practical and methodological considerations for unobtrusive qualitative research. This critical exploration contributes to ongoing discussion of ethical conduct of Internet research and promotes ethically aware yet flexible approaches to online qualitative research and creative methodological efforts to overcoming ethical challenges.

Self-consciousness: an I-World patterned process model

The self is herein recognized as self-consciousness, a broad dynamic system of self-recognition and self-reference. Eight psychosomatic and extended cognitive functions working as an interactive whole are proposed to constitute self-consciousness: (1) somatic domain and body image; (2) situation and domestic range; (3) agency and power to act; (4) introspection, mindfulness, and metacognition; (5) first person discourse and appropriation; (6) episodic memory, autobiography, and role; (7) attribution and alterity; (8) conscience, moral consciousness, and ethical stance. These functions, complemented with considerations about depersonalization and selflessness, are briefly defined and described. These subsystems may work independently but they may interact and variably coalesce according to the demands of the task. Since self-awareness would require a dynamic swarm-like activation pattern of the cluster, the self does not reside in particular brain sites or networks but depends on top-down and bottom-up mechanisms coupled with incoming and outgoing sensory-motor data loops. This psychophysical theory avoids the swing between internal and external elements in favor of an embracing I-World patterned process that comprises neural, bodily, behavioral, environmental, and social dimensions converging in the construction and expression of self-conscious and personal identity experiences integrated by a participant brain.

Sustainable Consumption in Everyday Life: A Qualitative Study of UK Consumer Experiences of Meat Reduction

A reduction in meat consumption is increasingly considered fundamental to a sustainable food system. This paper contributes to understanding how meat consumers enact ‘meat reduction’ in the context of their everyday lives, exploring the motivations, strategies and experiences of eating less meat. Data were generated through twenty in-depth interviews with UK meat eaters, half of whom aimed to reduce their meat intake. Accounts from three meat-reducing respondents are used to present insights from the in-depth exploration of meat reduction in relation to broader practices of eating and food provision in daily life, interpreted through the lens of a practice-oriented understanding of consumption. Findings suggest that the enactment of meat reduction is determined by factors beyond individuals’ ethical stance towards environmental issues or animal welfare. Rather, meat reduction relates to understandings of nutrition and vitality of the body, concerns about the conditions of meat provision, and the personal relationships and routine activities through which meals are sourced, prepared and eaten. The study highlights the variety in understandings underpinning the motivations and strategies of consumer meat reduction. The analysis contributes to the literature on sustainable consumption and production, with a case study of the lived experience of sustainable dietary change.