Conceptual Frame Research Articles

Reconceptualizing Archaeological Perspectives on Long-Term Political Change

In archaeology, along with a large sector of other social sciences, comparative approaches to long-term political change over the last two centuries have been underpinned by two big ideas, classification and evolution, which often have been manifest as cultural history and progress. Despite comparative archaeology's agenda to explain change, the conceptual core of these frames was grounded in the building of stepped sequences of transformation with expectations drawn from synchronic empirical snapshots in time. Nevertheless, especially over the last 70 years, archaeology has seen the generation and analysis of unprecedented volumes of data collected along multiple dimensions and a range of spatial scales. Compilation and comparison of these data reveal significant diversity along various dimensions, which have begun to create dissonance with key tenets, assumptions, and even the aims of extant, long-held approaches. Expanded conceptual framing with a shift toward a focus on explaining variation and change is necessary.

Signal Communication and Modular Theory

We propose a conceptual frame to interpret the prolate differential operator, which appears in Communication Theory, as an entropy operator; indeed, we write its expectation values as a sum of terms, each subject to an entropy reading by an embedding suggested by Quantum Field Theory. This adds meaning to the classical work by Slepian et al. on the problem of simultaneously concentrating a function and its Fourier transform, in particular to the “lucky accident” that the truncated Fourier transform commutes with the prolate operator. The key is the notion of entropy of a vector of a complex Hilbert space with respect to a real linear subspace, recently introduced by the author by means of the Tomita-Takesaki modular theory of von Neumann algebras. We consider a generalization of the prolate operator to the higher dimensional case and show that it admits a natural extension commuting with the truncated Fourier transform; this partly generalizes the one-dimensional result by Connes to the effect that there exists a natural selfadjoint extension to the full line commuting with the truncated Fourier transform.

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

PurposeFirms are increasingly required to make ethical choices when selecting suppliers for their supply chains, and the decisions often rest on individual purchasing managers within the firm. This study builds on the literature on ethical decision-making and the concept of decision frames to investigate the decision-making process of purchasing managers in financially distressed firms. Codes of Conduct (CoC) and how they are enforced (financial rewards and codified procedures for oversight) are studied in terms of their effectiveness in informing and guiding purchasing managers in their supplier selection decisions.Design/methodology/approachFour sequential experiments were conducted with a total of 648 purchasing managers from manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results indicate that purchasing managers in firms facing financial distress are more than four times more likely than purchasing managers in the control groups to select the less ethical supplier in favor of better operational performance. As a potential remedy, it is found that enforcing the firm's CoC help to counteract this tendency and increase ethical supplier selection decisions by 2.1- to 2.6-fold. However, CoC enforcement that invokes multiple conflicting decision frames simultaneously is more likely to impair than promote ethical supplier selection decisions, compared to situations where only one enforcement method is present.Originality/valueThese findings develop an improved understanding of purchasers' decision-making processes and shed light on how to effectively use CoCs to guide these decisions.

(Re)thinking material and epistemic futures: Caribbean reparations, development, and education

ABSTRACT In this conceptual paper, we envision new development possibilities for the Anglophone Caribbean through reparations for the legacies of chattel slavery, indigenous dispossession, extractive capitalism, and their significance to the making of capitalist modernity. We lay out the development paradigm’s historical geometries, including the violence of colonialism, extractive and racial capitalism, and the resultant material and epistemic effects. Using reparation as our core conceptual frame, we suggest how reforming the aid system and asserting the right to epistemic autonomy serve as two pathways to changing the contemporary development trajectories of Caribbean societies.

A conceptual framework for culturally appropriate advocacy with racialised groups.

Independent mental health advocacy was introduced in England to protect and promote the rights of people detained under mental health legislation. However, shortcomings in access and delivery to racialised people, raising concerns about equity, were identified by a review of the Mental Health Act. The development of culturally appropriate advocacy was recommended. While the term culturally appropriate may be taken for granted it is poorly defined and limited efforts have conceptualized it in relation to advocacy. Ideally, advocacy operates as a liberatory practice to challenge epistemic injustice, which people experiencing poor mental health are at acute risk of. This is amplified for people from racialised communities through systemic racism. This paper argues that advocacy and culturally appropriate practices are especially relevant to racialised people. It clarifies the importance of culture, race and racism to the role of advocacy, and understanding advocacy through the conceptual lens of epistemic injustice. A central aim of the paper is to draw on and appraise cultural competency models to develop a conceptual framing of cultural appropriate advocacy to promote epistemic justice.

Artist Activism as Arts Entrepreneurship

The conceptual framing of artist activists as arts entrepreneurs is pivotal to this study’s analysis of artists’ political organizing during the overlapping moments of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump presidential era. However, artist activism as a form of arts entrepreneurship is underexplored in the arts entrepreneurship literature. To address this gap, I conduct a side-by-side comparison of key principles in the arts entrepreneurship and social movement literatures to establish a transdisciplinary theoretical baseline that supports my argument that artist activism is a vital form of arts entrepreneurship. I then analyze interviews with twenty-seven artist activists who cultivated and exercised actions for “changing the future” (Koppl & Minniti, 2008a, 17) during this period and apply my findings to further expand the taxonomy of arts entrepreneurship first developed by Chang and Wyszomirski (2015) beyond management process to vehicle for institutional change. In addition to connecting arts entrepreneurship to the social movement literature and conceptualizing artist activism as a form of arts entrepreneurship, I identify strategies and tactics employed by US artist activists in their creation of both economic and social value in the 2020-2022 period.

THE IMPACT OF THE JAVA MONARCHY INVOLVEMENT IN THE COLONIAL RAILWAY NETWORK ESTABLISHMENT ON CONTEMPORARY URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Introduction: This paper discusses the role of the monarchy in Java in establishing railways in the colonial period. How did the rulers of the Principalities (Surakarta and Yogyakarta) become involved in and grant their land for the development of a new type of transportation infrastructure in the 19th century? Purpose of the study: We aimed to reveal the impact of the colonial-era railway network as an urban artifact and the monarchs’ participation in railway building on the contemporary urban morphology of Java. Methods: The conceptual framing is based on Aldo Rossi’s theory of the evolution of urban artifacts, which emphasizes the urban artifact as the main element of the city’s morphological and cultural evolution. Results: Java’s contemporary urban morphology demonstrates the power of the monarchy to shape its cityscapes and how some aspects of city layouts today are related to railway development in colonial times, which adds significance from the perspective of the engineering component.

Continuous frames in n-Hilbert spaces and their tensor products

We introduce the notion of continuous frame in n-Hilbert space which is a generalization of discrete frame in n-Hilbert space. The tensor product of Hilbert spaces is a very important topic in mathematics. Here we also introduce the concept of continuous frame for the tensor products of n-Hilbert spaces. Further, we study dual continuous frame and continuous Bessel multiplier in n-Hilbert spaces and their tensor products.

Periodic Gabor frames on positive half line

In this paper, we introduce the concept of periodic Gabor frames on positive half line. Firstly, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for a periodic Gabor system to be a Gabor frame. Then, we present some equivalent characterizations of Parseval Gabor frames on positive half line by means of some fundamental equations in time domain.

전환의 시대, ‘교육2030’의 변혁적 역량과 행위성의 의미 분석

In 2018, the OECD created the ‘Education2030’ project, which emphasized developing Transformative Competencies and Agency to prepare students for challenges in the era of transformation. The purpose of this paper analyzed the contents and meaning from agential realism perspective, as suggested by Karen Barad, feminist new materialism, arguing that ‘Education 2030’ need to be studied from various perspectives. Therefore, the meaning of the core goals, competencies, and achievements of ‘Education 2030’ was analyzed by applying the Hermeneutic Phenomenological research method. As the results of this study, Transformational Competencies required the ability to create new values, control conflicts, and take the responsibility to respond to global crises. In addition, student agency and co-agency referred to growing and developing jointly by forming entangled relationships. Forward, we must make efforts to establish a educational ecosystem conducive to building Transformative Competencies and Agency. Agential realism is expected to be a useful perspective for breaking away from the dichotomous conceptual frame that distinguishes knowledge and competence in the curricula.

Divergent contribution of particulate and mineral-associated organic matter to soil carbon in grassland

Sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC) is an effective means to draw atmospheric CO2. Grassland restoration is one of the fastest methods to increase soil C stocks, and particulate-associated C and mineral-associated C play critical roles in soil C stocks during restoration. Herein, we developed a conceptual mechanistic frame regarding the contributions made by mineral-associated organic matter to soil C during the restoration of temperate grasslands. Compared to 1-year grassland restoration, 30-year restoration increased mineral-associated organic C (MAOC) by 41% and particulate organic C (POC) by 47%. The SOC changed from microbial MAOC predominance to plant-derived POC predominance, as the POC was more sensitive to grassland restoration. The POC increased with plant biomass (mainly litter and root biomass), while the increase in MAOC was mainly caused by the combined effects of increasing microbial necromass and leaching of the base cations (Ca-bound C). Plant biomass accounted for 75% of the increase in POC, whereas bacterial and fungal necromass contributed to 58% of the variance in MAOC. POC and MAOC contributed to 54% and 46% of the increase in SOC, respectively. Consequently, the accumulation of the fast (POC) and slow (MAOC) pools of organic matter are important for the sequestration of SOC during grassland restoration. Overall, simultaneous tracing of POC and MAOC helps further understand the mechanisms and predict soil C dynamics combined with the input of plant C, microbial properties, and availability of soil nutrients during grassland restoration.

A Theory towards a Built-in-Variety in Museum Design: The "Capriccio Museum"

The paper presents an excerpt from the extensive research on various museal spaces throughout human history. By re-evaluating the imaginative procedures involved in conceiving those spaces, the research in its broadest scope asks: how do we map, rethink and revive the historically valuable assets of architectural thought without “museumising” them? The excerpt is initially dedicated to the neoclassical museum space based upon the notion of the frame that was already adopted by the painting genre capriccio to induce the spectator’s mind into an architectural fantasy of juxtaposed real and fictitious buildings, archaeological ruins, urban and natural landscapes. In the neoclassical museum space, the capriccio “became alive” as an actual-size architectural fantasy that could be stepped into. Based upon multiple conceptual frames, the interconnected yet distinct architectural fragments illustrated the neoclassical worldview founded on inclusivity, synchronicity and bodily experience. This historical episode is further theorised into the capriccio museum, a new theoretical model that critically perceives multiple experience probabilities as distilled from the past and starts a process of conversion of that historical knowledge into transhistorical knowledge relevant for today.

How do teachers learn to teach international students? Teachers’ informal professional learning in international vocational education

ABSTRACT The majority of the literature in the field of international education focuses on the experiences of international students, while much less is known about how teachers learn to teach this cohort. Research on teachers’ informal professional learning and critical moments of growth in their endeavour to enhance the learning experiences of international students in the vocational education and training sector is even scarcer. This article responds to the dearth of existing literature. related to teachers’ professional learning in international vocational education It is based on a study that includes semi-structured interviews with 102 staff in Australian vocational education and training. The article uses positioning theory as a conceptual frame to analyse teachers’ narratives of informal professional learning relation to teaching international students. The findings show that teachers position international students as valuable resources contributing to their informal professional development. The study indicates that it is crucial for teachers’ on-the-job learning experiences to be factored into the broader policy frameworks concerning teacher professional development. The article provides the evidence base to inform the development of situated and targeted professional learning for teachers teaching international students.

The View from the Future: Aurobindo Ghose’s Anticolonial Darwinism

Darwinism and evolutionary theory have a bad track record in political theory, given their entanglements with fin-de-siècle militarist imperialisms, racialized hierarchies, and eugenic reformism. In colonial contexts, however, Darwinism had an entirely different afterlife as anticolonialists marshaled evolutionist frameworks to contest the parameters of colonial rule. This article exhumes just such an evolutionary anticolonialism in the political thought of Aurobindo Ghose, radical firebrand of the early Indian independence movement. I argue that Ghose drew on a nuanced reform Darwinism to criticize British imperialism and advance an alternative grounded in the Indian polity’s mutualism. Evolutionism formed a conceptual ecosystem framing his understanding of progress—national, civilizational, and spiritual—and reformulating the temporal and conceptual coordinates of the liberal empire he resisted. The article thus exposes the constructiveness of anticolonial politics, the hybridity of South Asian intellectual history, and the surprising critical potential of Darwinism in colonial settings.

Images of Social Policy in Brazil

The analysis of official representations of social policy in Brazil illustrates the relevance of the concept of framing, as used by cultural sociologists, in comparative studies. The article focuses on the discourse of federal governments subsequent to the restoration of democracy (1985-2016) and the mandates of Getúlio Vargas, once called "father of the poor" in the 1930’s-1950’s. Two challenges in framing research are discussed: the nature of the concept (what is framing) and its operationalization (where is it). Having clarified the theoretical and methodological use of the concept, we move on to recognize and compare framings in 12 inaugural speeches and 39 annual accountability reports of the Executive Branch. Government understandings of four aspects of social policy are more closely analyzed: diagnoses, prognoses, goals, and framing devices. Significance attributed to social policy (such as justice, modernization, and redistribution) undergoes major changes, however continuities also appear, such as the correlation between social development and economic development. Additionally, the paper highlights the advantages of this lens, such as addressing processes in the change of framing, and some of its difficulties, such as minimizing the relational aspect of discourses and reducing framings to more traceable and measurable themes. Intersecting culture and politics enable the identification of the political effects of framings on the evolution of social policy and inequality in Brazil – as demonstrates the representations given of inequality in governmental plans and annual reports. Relevant variables are highlighted in the relations between government priorities (e.g., containing inflation and improving public education) and the agenda of reducing inequality. Some choices of this framing analysis - such as linking diagnoses and prognoses, highlighting secondary framing, and paying attention to framing devices rather than textual details - have added to the effectiveness of the concept. This analytical perspective, still little used by scholars working on these topics, contributes to the research agenda on social policy and inequality.
 
 Keywords: framing; social policies; political effects; Getúlio Vargas; restoration of democracy.

Secularization Theory’s Differentiation Problem: Revisiting the Historical Relationship between Differentiation and Religion

Much theorizing about secularization tells a “differentiation story” that puts a historical process of structural differentiation at the center of its understanding of secularization. The heart of the story is the claim that the increasing differentiation of social spheres over time freed the “secular” spheres of life (politics, economics, etc.) from religious control or domination. This conceptual framing has been widely shared by scholars in the field, not only by adherents of the classical secularization paradigm, but also their leading critics in the supply-side and historicist–revisionist schools. While the story sometimes serves a purely descriptive function, at other times it is used to explain secularization (i.e., differentiation causes secularization). A close examination of the differentiation story, however, raises questions about the historical accuracy and theoretical plausibility of some of its core assumptions. Aspects of the differentiation story that require critical reconsideration include the empirical accuracy of its historical generalizations, its underspecified notion of “spheres,” and its explanatory assumption that some spheres are innately or properly nonreligious.

Heme Interactions as Regulators of the Alternative Pathway Complement Responses and Implications for Heme-Associated Pathologies.

Heme (Fe2+-protoporphyrin IX) is a pigment of life, and as a prosthetic group in several hemoproteins, it contributes to diverse critical cellular processes. While its intracellular levels are tightly regulated by networks of heme-binding proteins (HeBPs), labile heme can be hazardous through oxidative processes. In blood plasma, heme is scavenged by hemopexin (HPX), albumin and several other proteins, while it also interacts directly with complement components C1q, C3 and factor I. These direct interactions block the classical pathway (CP) and distort the alternative pathway (AP). Errors or flaws in heme metabolism, causing uncontrolled intracellular oxidative stress, can lead to several severe hematological disorders. Direct interactions of extracellular heme with alternative pathway complement components (APCCs) may be implicated molecularly in diverse conditions at sites of abnormal cell damage and vascular injury. In such disorders, a deregulated AP could be associated with the heme-mediated disruption of the physiological heparan sulphate-CFH coat of stressed cells and the induction of local hemostatic responses. Within this conceptual frame, a computational evaluation of HBMs (heme-binding motifs) aimed to determine how heme interacts with APCCs and whether these interactions are affected by genetic variation within putative HBMs. Combined computational analysis and database mining identified putative HBMs in all of the 16 APCCs examined, with 10 exhibiting disease-associated genetic (SNPs) and/or epigenetic variation (PTMs). Overall, this article indicates that among the pleiotropic roles of heme reviewed, the interactions of heme with APCCs could induce differential AP-mediated hemostasis-driven pathologies in certain individuals.

The complexities of integrating evidence-based preventative health into England’s NHS: lessons learnt from the case of PrEP

BackgroundThe integration of preventative health services into England’s National Health Service is one of the cornerstones of current health policy. This integration is primarily envisaged through the removal of legislation that blocks collaborations between NHS organisations, local government, and community groups.Aims and objectivesThis paper aims to illustrate why these actions are insufficient through the case study of the PrEP judicial review.MethodsThrough an interview study with 15 HIV experts (commissioners, activists, clinicians, and national health body representatives), we explore the means by which the HIV prevention agenda was actively blocked, when NHS England denied responsibility for funding the clinically effective HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug in 2016, a case that led to judicial review. We draw on Wu et al.’s (Policy Soc 34:165–171, 2016) conceptual framing of ‘policy capacity’ in undertaking this analysis.ResultsThe analyses highlight three main barriers to collaborating around evidence-based preventative health which indicate three main competence/capability issues in regard to policy capacity: latent stigma of ‘lifestyle conditions’ (individual-analytical capacity); the invisibility of prevention in the fragmented health and social care landscape related to issues of evidence generation and sharing, and public mobilisation (organizational-operational capacity); and institutional politics and distrust (systemic-political capacity).Discussion and conclusionWe suggest that the findings hold implications for other ‘lifestyle’ conditions that are tackled through interventions funded by multiple healthcare bodies. We extend the discussion beyond the ‘policy capacity and capabilities’ approach to connect with a wider range of insights from the policy sciences, aimed at considering the range of actions needed for limiting the potential of commissioners to ‘pass the buck’ in regard to evidence-based preventative health.

Indigenous Knowledge in the Amazon's Bioeconomy: Unveiling Bioepistemicide through the case of Kambo Medicine

Indigenous knowledges have received increased attention in environmental governance issues over the last decade, especially biodiversity. Epistemic injustices, however, remain. Forms of knowledge that differ from dominant ‘Western’ knowledge are either not recognized and valued as equal, or are misused for land reoccupation and knowledge appropriation that further settler colonialism. Drawing on the conceptual framing of epistemic justice, biopiracy and biocolonialism we introduce the concept of bioepistemicide and analyse possible implications of the rising bioeconomy agenda for Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon. While many argue the value of Indigenous knowledges in the context of bioeconomy, it remains unclear how issues concerning epistemic plurality and epistemic injustices will be addressed. Among the most seriously questioned issues are intellectual property rights and ownership. Focusing on the Indigenous medicine Kambo, the secretion of a tropical frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), we explore if and how bioeconomy governance and initiatives in Brazil address the epistemic injustices that may arise in Amazonian Indigenous territories. We take the perspective that epistemic plurality and conflicts may trigger the transformations needed to tackle epistemic injustices. Based on our case study, we argue that bioeconomy can only challenge epistemic hierarchies if it steps outside of colonial settler rationality and sovereignty regarding the very ideas of nature and ‘traditional knowledge’ which in the first place enable new forms of colonialism, like biocolonialism. We conclude with suggestions on how to embrace epistemic pluralism and strengthen the role and positionality of Indigenous knowledges in the implementation of bioeconomy in the Amazon.

Peacekeeping’s conflict urbanism: a decade of urban change in Mali

ABSTRACT Since the deployment of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), host communities have witnessed not only significant levels militarization but also continuous conflict. Noticeably, national-level politics and specific urban issues mix and manifest especially around MINUSMA’s physical presence. The ensuing protest and violence challenge the UN mission to consider its immediate and long-term imprint on the place of intervention and the urbanism it produces. How does peacekeeping contribute to the destruction and production of urban space? What kind of urbanism does, and should, a peacekeeping mission foster? Based on a qualitative analysis, this article considers violent contestation in the context of MINUSMA, focusing on incidents in Kidal, Gao, and Mopti. It suggests ‘conflict urbanism’ as conceptual framing to analyse the characters of urban contestation in the presence of peace operations and to signal the necessity to sustain some forms of contestation as part of Mali’s peacebuilding efforts.