Foundational Assumptions Research Articles

Intellectual property for the neurocentric age: towards a neuropolitics of IP

S | 51 Intellectual Property for the Neurocentric Age: Towards a Neuropolitics of IP Debora Halbert Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii Law at Manoa Honolulu, HI Co-author: Jake Dunagan Advances in the brain sciences are calling into question many of the foundational assumptions upon which intellectual property law has been built, and how it is practiced. These include notions of tangibility, likelihood of confusion, individual authorship, and even the act of creation itself. At the same time, IP law exerts a strong influence on how people access, develop, and share expressions and inventions of the mind. The field of brain science suggests a fundamentally different type of interaction exists between the individual, culture and power. Taken together, emerging insights from the brain sciences and the shifting dynamics of IP law point to a need for a new analytical framework a neuropolitics of IP law. In this paper we sketch out the concept of neuropolitics as it relates to creativity and innovation. A neuropolitics of IP law allows us to think about the context in which we structure intellectual property laws and how we ought to begin to think about structuring intellectual property laws. If law can evolve to better reflect the underlying human condition, then bringing brain science research into conversation with intellectual property scholars is an important step towards an intellectual property law appropriate for the neurocentric age. Email: halbert@hawaii.edu

Problematizing Fit and Survival: Transforming the Law of Requisite Variety Through Complexity Misalignment

The law of requisite variety is widely employed in management theorizing and is linked with core strategy themes such as contingency and fit. We reflect upon requisite variety as an archetypal borrowed concept. We contrast its premises with insights from the institutional literature and commitment literature, draw propositions that set boundaries to its applicability, and review the ramifications of what we call “complexity misalignment.” In this way we contradict foundational assumptions of the law, problematize adaptation- and survival-centric views of strategizing, and theorize the role of human agency in variously complex regimes.

Out of The Shadow of Vasari: Towards A New Model of The ‘Artist’ in Colonial Latin America

Within shifts affecting colonial studies, a ‘life-work model’ employed in colonial art history has been left unexamined. Developed by a contemporary of Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari (Italy, 1511–1574), this methodology was grounded in particular European social conditions that allowed the creation of the ‘artist’ whose ‘artwork’ was the inalienable product of a single mind and hand. Following the art historical paths laid by Vasari in the viceroyalties leads to dead ends: indigenous artists who efface their individuality; painters who exist with little social or historical context; and artworks whose conservation denies finding the traces of the hands that made them. Because artworks were and are the connective tissue of complex social networks, reconfiguring concepts of ‘artist’ and ‘artwork’ and recasting them in accordance with social practices within Latin America, gains us purchase on how colonial subjects, in their engagement with their material worlds, came to be constructed.Resemblance to European prototypes is an essential historical reality of colonial artworks: much artwork, particularly the painting, of colonial Latin America ‘looks’ like that of early modern Europe and thus has generated a foundational expectation, laid out in purest form by Manuel Toussaint (Mexico, 1890–1955), that Latin American art history might also look like Europe's. We argue that a mismatch with Europe and its methodologies means that certain, foundational historiographic assumptions about writing art history for Latin America need to be reassessed, in particular the ‘artist’ and ‘artwork.’

Imagining the Middle East: the state, nationalism and regional international society

The Middle East is commonly perceived as a zone of cultural and political differences within the global international society. Imagining the Middle East as a ‘unique’ region is not a new idea, but relocating this conception within the English School (ES) of International Relations (IR) is. This article challenges the perceived ‘exceptionalism’ of the Middle East, which claims that the European concepts of state, sovereignty and nationalism are alien to Islam, therefore preventing the emergence of a regional international society. The first part highlights the correlation between Eurocentrism in IR and the lack of interest in regional – area – studies through the critique of Orientalism and the ES. The second part moves to demonstrate why the ES is more explanatory than other IR theories in the context of the Ottoman–European relations. The third part explores the ‘institutional distinctiveness’ of the Middle East, disproving the notion of regional ‘exceptionalism’ and IR's foundational Eurocentric assumptions. This article concludes by arguing that there is a strong case for calling the Middle East a ‘regional interstate society’, which remains to be a litmus test of whether or not a truly global international society is possible.

“At What Cost?”: Problematising the Achievement of ‘Health’ through Thinness – The Case of Bariatric Surgery

“At What Cost?”: Problematising the Achievement of ‘Health’ through Thinness – The Case of Bariatric Surgery

Extrapolating Gelso’s tripartite model of the psychotherapy relationship to the psychotherapy supervision relationship: A potential common factors perspective.

Consideration is given to how Gelso’s tripartite model of the psychotherapy relationship can be meaningfully extrapolated to the psychotherapy supervision relationship. Gelso’s 3 components of alliance, transference– countertransference configuration, and real relationship are examined for their relevance to the supervision relationship. The author contends that the 3 components have direct application to supervision relationships and, to varying degrees, can be viewed as being present across all supervisory relationships regardless of theoretical perspective. Therefore, this particular tripartite model of the supervision relationship is presented as providing a meaningful transtheoretical, integrative structure and language that can serve as a vital stimulus for advancing conceptual and empirical inquiry into psychotherapy supervisory phenomena. Foundational assumptions and definitions are proposed, and some measurement issues are also raised. The author argues for this 3-component view on supervision relationships as being a viable common factors perspective that warrants far more studied consideration.

The Effect of Engagement in Everyday Occupations, Role Overload and Social Support on Health and Life Satisfaction among Mothers.

One of the founding assumptions underlying the health professions is the belief that there is a strong relationship between engagement in occupations, health, and wellbeing. The ability to perform everyday occupations (occupational performance) has a positive effect on health and wellbeing. However, there is also conflicting evidence indicating that participation in multiple roles or in certain occupations may lead to poorer health. Therefore, there is a need to better understand this relationship. The purpose of the present study was to examine three possible theoretical models to explain mothers’ health and life satisfaction from the perspective of their occupational performance, their role load, and their social support. 150 married mothers, ages of 25–45, who had at least one child between the ages of one to ten years, participated in the study. Data were collected by using seven self-report questionnaires. The models were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results show that social support has a direct effect on mothers’ physical health and life satisfaction and an indirect effect, mediated through the occupational performance variables, on mothers’ mental health and life satisfaction. Role overload does not affect mothers’ health and life satisfaction. These results suggest that mothers could benefit from health programs that help them manage their occupational routines. Such programs should focus on improving the mother’s occupational performance and adapting her social environment to fit her occupational needs.

Values in Science: Making Sense of Biology Doctoral Students’ Critical Examination of a Deterministic Claim in a Media Article

Several educators have emphasized that students need to understand science as a human endeavor that is not value free. In the exploratory study reported here, we investigated how doctoral students of biology understand the intersection of values and science in the context of genetic determinism. Deterministic research claims have been critiqued for their conceptual limitations as well as social implications. The study details the criteria used by 30 Indian students in their critical evaluation of a deterministic claim in a media article related to neurogenetics. Based on literature that discusses values in science, we categorize students’ responses into those motivated by epistemic and ultimate values, and make some qualitative inferences regarding their value-loaded critical thinking. We find that students exhibit varying levels of sophistication while critiquing foundational assumptions of the fallacious claim with a few resorting to narrow, discipline-based frameworks. Students proposed linear cause–effect models of the genotype–phenotype relationship and drew on disciplinary knowledge that is elementary in nature when discussing this relationship. We also find that only a few students critiqued these claims from social and ethical perspectives. The implications and relevance of the study for biology education at the higher education level are discussed.

An assessment of the foundational assumptions in high-resolution climate projections: the case of UKCP09

The United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme’s UKCP09 project makes high-resolution projections of the climate out to 2100 by post-processing the outputs of a large-scale global climate model. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the methodology used and then urge some caution. Given the acknowledged systematic, shared errors of all current climate models, treating model outputs as decision-relevant projections can be significantly misleading. In extrapolatory situations, such as projections of future climate change, there is little reason to expect that post-processing of model outputs can correct for the consequences of such errors. This casts doubt on our ability, today, to make trustworthy probabilistic projections at high resolution out to the end of the century.

The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition

In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok re-examines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation-a pair of co-dependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behaviour, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What's going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress-from discovery to theory to revision-but also provides deep insights into the organisation and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.

On the Limits of Liberalism in Participatory Environmental Governance: Conflict and Conservation in Ukraine's Danube Delta

ABSTRACTParticipatory management techniques are widely promoted in environmental and protected area governance as a means of preventing and mitigating conflict. The World Bank project that created Ukraine's Danube Biosphere Reserve included such ‘community participation’ components. The Reserve, however, has been involved in conflicts and scandals in which rumour, denunciation and prayer have played a prominent part. The cases described in this article demonstrate that the way conflict is escalated or mitigated differs according to foundational assumptions about what ‘the political’ is and what counts as ‘politics’. The contrasting forms of politics at work in the Danube Delta help to explain why a 2005 World Bank assessment report could only see failure in the Reserve's implementation of participatory management, and why liberal participatory management approaches may founder when introduced in settings where relationships are based on non‐liberal political ontologies. The author argues that environmental management needs to be rethought in ways that take ontological differences seriously rather than assuming the universality of liberal assumptions about the individual, the political and politics.

Embodying Sensemaking: Learning from the Extreme Case ofVannNath, Prisoner atS‐21

The sensemaking literature offered important critical insights to the understanding of organizing. These have been underpinned by two foundational assumptions. First, sensemaking is predominantly a higher order cognitive process. Second, it is a process desired and desirable. Considering the account of Vann Nath as prisoner of theS‐21 extermination center during the Khmer Rouge regime, we challenge these assumptions and argue that, in some cases, sensemaking is fundamentally a bodily and emotional process, one that is undesired and blocked by the organization in which it takes place. The shift in perspective triggered by an extreme context has pertinent implications for the understanding of sensemaking in other, non‐extreme organizational circumstances.

Behavioral Economics and Public Policy: A Pragmatic Perspective

The debate about behavioral economics–the incorporation of insights from psychology into economics–is often framed as a question about the foundational assumptions of economic models. This paper presents a more pragmatic perspective on behavioral economics that focuses on its value for improving empirical predictions and policy decisions. I discuss three ways in which behavioral economics can contribute to public policy: by offering new policy tools, improving predictions about the effects of existing policies, and generating new welfare implications. I illustrate these contributions using applications to retirement savings, labor supply, and neighborhood choice. Behavioral models provide new tools to change behaviors such as savings rates and new counterfactuals to estimate the effects of policies such as income taxation. Behavioral models also provide new prescriptions for optimal policy that can be characterized in a non-paternalistic manner using methods analogous to those in neoclassical models. Model uncertainty does not justify using the neoclassical model; instead, it can provide a new rationale for using behavioral nudges. I conclude that incorporating behavioral features to the extent they help answer core economic questions may be more productive than viewing behavioral economics as a separate subfield that challenges the assumptions of neoclassical models.

Heidegger's Support for Deep Ecology Reexamined Once Again: Ontological Egalitarianism, or Farewell to the Great Chain of Being

In the paper, I argue that deep ecologists did not take full advantage of the potential of Martin Heidegger's philosophy to support the foundational assumptions of deep ecology. They have overlooked Heidegger's attempt to reject the idea of the great chain of being (reinforcing his critique of metaphysics as “ontotheology”), which is essential for the concept of ecospherical egalitarianism. In considering the notion of “eco-spherical egalitarianism,” I shall recognize Heidegger's ontology as an “ontological egalitarianism.” Finally, I will show that Heidegger's project seems to be even more universal than deep ecology since Heidegger is concerned with artifacts as well as natural entities.

Revival of the Alternative Bivariate Model of Self-Monitoring

Management researchers are increasingly interested in the construct of self-monitoring (Snyder, 1974). For 40 years, the conventional univariate model of self-monitoring has reigned as the dominant interpretative paradigm in the psychological and management literatures. However, recent findings associated with an alternative bivariate model challenge foundational assumptions and practices of the conventional model. This paper reviews the two competing perspectives on self-monitoring, and presents four major pieces of validity evidence in support of the alternative model. Specifically, 1) the latent structure of self-monitoring is not categorical, but dimensional--specifically, bi-dimensional; 2) when examined separately, these two dimensions, labeled acquisitive and protective self-monitoring, are not outside the Five Factor Model of personality traits, but rather located above it, at the level of the metatraits; 3) the predictive variance for organizational criteria is not attributable to self-monitoring, per se, but largely to the acquisitive self-monitoring dimension; and 4) IRT-based scale abbreviations of the two self-monitoring dimensions are available, and provide concise, yet highly informative, alternatives for researchers seeking measures of more economical length. Based on these findings, management scholars are urged to adopt the alternative bivariate model. Implications for measurement, fresh theory, and recommendations for future self-monitoring research are provided.

Supporting Indigenous rangers’ management of climate-change impacts on heritage sites: developing an effective planning tool and assessing its value

Australian rangelands are rich in Indigenous cultural heritage sites and Indigenous rangers increasingly manage them. It is well documented that climate-change adaptation planning on a local scale benefits from a stakeholder-led or bottom-up process. However, to date, few bottom-up, practical adaptation pathways exist for Indigenous Australians. This paper describes the development of a planning tool that supports Indigenous rangers’ plan for climate-change impacts on cultural heritage sites. To date, a limited number of methodologies for managing climate-change impacts on heritage sites have been developed internationally. Importantly these are not geared to a bottom-up planning process. By contrast, many generic adaptation decision-support tools exist that support bottom-up planning. These tools commonly begin with a scoping phase. The scoping phase of a tool that supports Indigenous rangers manage climate-change impacts on heritage sites is described. A validation model, consisting of central assumptions behind each element of the scoping phase, is then set out. Future testing in the field would involve assessment of the tool through confirmation or otherwise of these assumptions. The first two assumptions in the validation model are then addressed: that Indigenous rangers perceive climate-change impacts on heritage sites and that planning for them is a priority need. Previous literature has not addressed these questions in detail. Only if positive responses are gained for these foundational assumptions can future testing of the tool be justified. Results from preliminary fieldwork undertaken in northern Australia found Indigenous rangers in two out of three case studies perceive impacts on heritage sites, and regard addressing these impacts as a priority.

Post-Second World War British Trials in Singapore: Lost in Translation at the Car Nicobar Spy Case

This paper is a detailed case study of the trial of Itzuki Toshio and others, one of the many war crimes trials conducted by the British military in Singapore after the Second World War. The main focus is on the communication problems encountered by trial participants during the trial. The criminal trial is increasingly viewed as today’s preferred response to wartime atrocities, regardless of the crime’s location or the people involved. Debates focus on improving the effectiveness of these trials but do not question their foundational assumptions. One such assumption of the Western adversarial trial is that the prosecution and defence are operating on a level playing field, both equally equipped to argue their respective positions at trial. The criminal trial as conceived from a Western legal tradition assumes that the accused is given a chance to publicly counter the case of the prosecution and the unfavourable testimony of witnesses. The accused is to be a participant rather than an “object of proceedings”. At the most basic level this requires participants to share the same language or be supported by adequate interpretation and translation services. The case of Itzuki Toshio and others demonstrates how participant expectations and judicial fact-finding may be frustrated when trial participants speak a multitude of languages. In this case these problems were further complicated by the trial’s broader political context. The islands where these crimes were committed played an important role in the independence strategies of Indian nationalists who sided with the Japanese during the Second World War to overthrow British colonial rule. For the British organisers of the trial there must have been high political stakes in ensuring the trial’s “success” regardless of the obvious communication problems plaguing it. This chapter also attempts to give the reader an idea of how the trial proceeded, how witnesses were called, the type of questions asked and the answers given. This trial looks very different from present-day war crimes trials. But like the trial of Itzuki Toshio and others, trials conducted in our globalised world today often involve judges hearing defendants and witnesses with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Researchers working on domestic trials have been studying problems of communication that arise in these multicultural contexts for quite some time. However, these problems have only received sustained attention of late from researchers working in international criminal law and transitional justice. This chapter thus hopes to add to the growing scholarship on communication problems in war crimes trials by demonstrating that these problems are not new. They were similarly encountered in historical trials.

Clinical labor: tissue donors and research subjects in the global bioeconomy

Forms of embodied such as surrogacy and participation in trials, are central to biomedical innovation, but they are rarely considered as labor. Melinda Cooper and Catherine Waldby take on that project, analyzing what they call clinical labor, and asking what such an analysis might indicate about the organization of the bioeconomy and the broader organization of labor and value today. At the same time, they reflect on the challenges that labor might pose to some of the founding assumptions of classical, Marxist, and post-Fordist theories of labor. Cooper and Waldby examine the rapidly expanding transnational labor markets surrounding assisted reproduction and experimental drug trials. As they discuss, the pharmaceutical industry demands ever greater numbers of trial subjects to meet its innovation imperatives. The assisted reproductive market grows as more and more households look to third-party providers for fertility services and sectors of the biomedical industry seek reproductive tissues rich in stem cells. Cooper and Waldby trace the historical conditions, political economy, and contemporary trajectory of labor. Ultimately, they reveal labor to be emblematic of labor in twenty-first-century neoliberal economies.

Assumptions About Behavior and Choice in Response to Public Assistance

Assumptions about decision making and consumer preferences guide programs and products intended to help low-income households achieve healthy outcomes and financial stability. Despite their importance to service design and implementation, these assumptions are rarely stated explicitly, or empirically tested. Some key assumptions may reflect ideas carried over from an earlier era of social-service delivery. Or they may reflect research on decision making by higher income populations that do not hold or have not been tested in a low-income context. This disconnect between assumptions and evidence potentially results in less effective policy design and implementation—at substantial financial and social cost. This piece examines how insights from psychology can help policymakers analyze the core assumptions about behavior that underlie policy outcomes. Three policy areas serve as case studies, to examine some implicit and explicit assumptions about how low-income individuals make decisions under public and nonprofit assistance: banking, nutrition, and housing. Research on preferences and decision making evaluates these foundational assumptions. This perspective provides a unique and under-utilized framework to explain some behavioral puzzles, examine and predict the actions of individuals living in poverty, and understand what are often disappointing program outcomes. Recommendations suggest how psychology and behavioral decision making can impact policy research and design.

From International to Cosmopolitan: Taking The Venice Charter Beyond the “State-Party” Politics of Experts

Contemporary globalization renders the Venice Charter’s implicit technocratic internationalism dated and possibly obsolete. Transnational economic markets and social movements embedded in civil society stand in contrast to the foundational assumptions of the charter, the sovereign nation-state, and the authority of expertise in service to the state. As both capital and labor have become increasingly migratory, the power of national governments to resist cultural change—whether through homogenization or hybridization—is diminished. This paper attempts to be both historical and analytical, and while establishing a framework for understanding a need for a new normative direction, it is not prescriptive. The Venice Charter expresses a relatively uncritical trust in the rational collaborations of nation-states and their experts. In the context of this short article, I argue that financial considerations have transformed heritage site management, and specifically, that International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) increasingly direct public attention and private capital to specific heritage sites. These investments are sometimes in line with charter values; at other times, they are in response to emerging voices, either within donor groups or by communities of interest expressing distinct world views. This has the potential to undermine an approach to governmental (statist) and expert-led planning that is assumed in the Venice Charter and other twentieth-century heritage conventions and structures. This analysis benefits from, and references, scholarly analyses performed in other policy sectors.