Relative Freedom Research Articles

Ending a special relationship: Toward an ethics of divorce

Abstract Romantic partnerships are typically among the most important goods in our lives. But love sometime ends, and so too do relationships. Divorcing partners are particularly vulnerable to being wronged and harmed. The aim of this paper is to develop an ethics of divorce, by establishing that divorce is a condition for the possibility of the distinct value of romantic partnerships. Different sets of rights are specified here: the divorcee's right to explanation, the right to participation and the right to transitional goods; and the divorcer's right to relational freedom. Violations of these rights indicate the distinct wrongs and harms of divorce. The paper then explains the corresponding duties in divorce that might avoid these wrongs and mitigate these harms, and highlights the distinct status of these duties: while they continue to be special, they are residual duties grounded in the fact that the partners once committed to their partnership.

Direct observations of practice in social work education: the role of professional autonomy in policy enactment

ABSTRACT Although the assessment of students via direct observation of practice is a regulatory requirement of social work qualifying programmes in England, there is relative freedom in exactly how this policy is enacted. This study takes a constructionist approach to explore what direct observations are perceived to be and whether this influences their enactment. Interview data was collected from five participants who are all practitioners involved with this assessment method. Training materials were also analyzed and themed along with interview data. Interpretation of the data revealed three themes; participants had a clear concept of direct observations, valued them as an assessment method and they are embedded in social work education. Analysis of the findings revealed that the lack of regulatory expectations supports professional autonomy by enabling the translation of the direct observation policy into practice in a way which supports ownership, commitment and creativity. These findings demonstrate that it can be more beneficial to allow professional expertise to guide policy enactment in educational contexts than the top-down managerial approaches that dominate both educational and practice settings.

Relational freedom and the Ilan Pappe case: an anthropological proposal for freedom

PurposeThis article problematizes the concept of freedom rooted in liberalism, examining the detention of historian Ilan Pappe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at Detroit Airport in the United States as an emblematic case study.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopts a methodological triangulation approach, based on an analysis that combines data about the event and theories about the concept of freedom, problematizing authors who focused on the relationship between the individual and society in a liberal context, where individualism serves as the basis for specific conceptions of social relations.FindingsThrough the use of authors such as John Stuart Mill and John Locke, as well as the contributions of authors like Norbert Elias, it is argued that true freedom is relational, rooted in social interdependencies and the social construction of an individuality that is not individualistic but intrinsically linked to collective aspects.Social implicationsPappe’s case illustrates the tensions between individual freedom and collective interests, highlighting the need to reassess freedom of expression in complex political and social contexts.Originality/valueThis article proposes a more inclusive and interconnected view of human freedom, where individual and collective interests are negotiated within a dynamic web of social relations.

Абсолютные права и свободы: некоторые проблемы правовой регламентации

The article analyzes scientific opinions on the absolute nature of the fundamental rights and freedoms of human and citizen. The result of the analysis is the conclusion that the basis for distinguishing the constitutional rights and freedoms of human and citizen from absolute and relative rights and freedoms is the legal possibility of restricting them. The norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal constitutional and federal laws governing restrictions on human and civil rights and freedoms in a state of emergency, martial law, and counter-terrorism operation are being investigated. As a result, constitutional personal rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen with signs of an absolute nature are determined. The right to free economic activity (part 1 of article 34) and the right to housing (part 1 of article 40) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation are economic and may be limited in exceptional cases.

Revival of Islam Post-Soviet Period in Kyrgyzstan

The relationship between national and religious in state building, the concept of secularism and democracy in the conditions of the Muslim majority are analyzed. The growing influence of Islam on many areas of social and political relations was a completely natural consequence of the collapse of the USSR and the ideology of atheism. The democratic path of development of Kyrgyzstan, relative freedom of religion, and the opening of borders create conditions where Islam not only returns the role it lost in society over 70 years, but also embraces new spheres of influence in which its impact cannot be ignored. -

Ghost in My Pocket: Tamagotchi Media Archaeology

The Tamagotchi device, which became one of the symbols of the 90s, is extremely interesting for media archaeology for at least three reasons. Firstly, in conditions of relative freedom of technology perception standards, large companies were not afraid to take risks by offering items to the market that were provocative and experimental, both in technological and social dimensions. Secondly, in the case of the Tamagotchi, an object was proposed that, through its activity, was meant not just to communicate or enable something but to introduce "noises"—various deviations and distortions into the structures of experience normalized by everyday life, producing hybridity and spontaneity, claiming an impossible transformation of a stable order. Thirdly, interaction with the Tamagotchi was not a game and, moreover, not a utilitarian practice. A new model of interaction with technology was designated—as with a living being, with its needs, cycles, stimuli, and possible responses to interaction. Individuals correlated themselves with these cycles, finding themselves in the sphere of influence of Tamagotchi's attraction—not as users or owners, not as players or hosts, but as caring and contemplative individuals, as someone who were deeply involved in the growth and development of another life—the formation of an autonomous presence. Instead of some limited and unambiguous functionality, a lifestyle was offered. All these features of the Tamagotchi are at the hearts of our perception of mobile interfaces in all their non-obvious totality. We build our behavior in accordance to them, they participate in the interpretation of the experience, they are included in the events happening to us, they participate in the emergence, distribution, and experience of emotions. They are not so much tools as they are companions. They affect us not so much through metaphors, but as elements that, no matter how imperceptibly, influence the forms of life, making them possible or impossible. The article shows how and why the influence of the Tamagotchi has developed — the influence which has allowed the proto-elements of the mobile interface to function not at the level of communication in value systems, but at the level of transformation of presence.

Influence of Various Processing Routes in Additive Manufacturing on Microstructure and Monotonic Properties of Pure Iron—A Review-like Study

Additive manufacturing processes have attracted broad attention in the last decades since the related freedom of design allows the manufacturing of parts with unique microstructures and unprecedented complexity in shape. Focusing on the properties of additively manufactured parts, major efforts are made to elaborate process-microstructure relationships. For instance, the inevitable thermal cycling within the process plays a significant role in microstructural evolution. Various driving forces contribute to the final grain size, boundary character, residual stress state, etc. In the present study, the properties of commercially pure iron processed on three different routes, i.e., hot rolling as a reference, electron powder bed fusion, and laser powder bed fusion, using different raw materials as well as process conditions, are compared. The manufacturing of the specimens led to five distinct microstructures, which differ significantly in terms of microstructural features and mechanical responses. Using optical and electron microscopy as well as transmission electron microscopy, the built specimens were explored in various states of a tensile test in order to reveal the microstructural evolution in the course of quasistatic loading. The grain size is found to be most influential in enhancing the material’s strength. Furthermore, substructures, i.e., low-angle grain boundaries, within the grains play an important role in terms of the homogeneity of strain distribution. On the contrary, high-angle grain boundaries are found to be regions of strain localization. In summary, a holistic macro-meso-micro-nano investigation is performed to evaluate the behavior of these specific microstructures.

Letters of Indonesian nationalist Sjahrir to his beloved Maria Duchâteau; A transcultural case of travel writing

The letters Indonesian nationalist Sjahrir wrote between 1932 and 1940 to his Dutch beloved Maria Duchâteau illustrate a transcultural case of travel writing. They also illustrate how much he was convinced that Western ideas and attitudes could assist Indonesian people to develop and gain sufficient self-confidence to shake off the colonial yoke. Born into an elite Minangkabau family, Sjahrir studied in Java and The Netherlands, before taking up campaigning for a non-cooperative political party which emphasized the importance of education. This article discusses the period between early 1932 and 26 February 1934, before Sjahrir’s arrest and following imprisonment and exile. In this period of relative freedom (but without Maria, who on 14 May 1932 had been extradited to Holland), Sjahrir travelled a lot throughout Java. In his letters, he gives examples of social injustice and colonial abuse, of the contrast between the beauties of nature and the poverty-stricken inhabitants of Java, and of differences along the lines of ethnicity, social class, and gender.

The main directions of the study of federalism in the Russian legal science of the 1920s

The subject of the study is the theory of federalism in the Russian legal science of the 1920s. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the theories of federalism of the 1920s based on the study of a wide array of publications of this period. The research methodology includes the following methods. The chronological method allowed us to distribute legal facts and their interpretations in chronological order. The comparative legal method was used to compare legal phenomena and institutions of different periods. The method of hermeneutics was used in the interpretation of texts.The following scientific results were obtained.The 1920s were a special period in Russian legal science. The ideological demands of the Soviet government formulated an urgent scientific agenda. At the same time, the political regime of this period allowed for relative freedom of scientific activity. The discreteness and continuity in the study of the problems of federalism are noted. In Soviet conditions, the federal theme was of particular relevance because of its practical significance. The development of the theory of federalism was carried out simultaneously with the approval of the Soviet federal state, the legal consolidation of relations between its subjects. The organizational center for the study of the theory and practice of federalism was located in the system of academic scientific institutions.The problems of federalism in the legal perspective were studied within the framework of state law. In addition, they were part of the subject of a new complex industry, which became known as "Soviet construction".Publications of the 1920s reflected the interdisciplinarity of research interpretations. In the comparative legal aspect, the theory of federalism and types of federations were studied. In the political aspect, the features of the Soviet federation, its differences from the federations of the bourgeois type were studied. The practice of Soviet construction was analyzed and generalized from a practical perspective. The key research issue of the 1920s was to determine the legal nature of the Soviet Federation. Definitions of the legal nature of the RSFSR and the USSR were given. An important conclusion was made about the continuity and continuity of the forms of the Soviet federation. Many questions remained debatable. Clarity was not achieved on the following issues: on the composition of the subjects of the RSFSR; on the combination of national and state sovereignty. For the first time, the question of the place and role of the historical Russian center within the USSR was raised. During the period of the 1920s, priorities in the study of the problems of federalism changed. At the beginning of the period, the main attention was paid to the study of the federation as an effective way to solve the national issue. The federal structure was considered a transitional form of the Soviet state. A state built on the principles of proletarian internationalism was declared promising. At the end of the 1920s, the concept of a large unified state was most actively developed. It was proved that within the framework of the USSR, national demands are satisfied and the interests of all nations are respected.

Using the Colonizers’ Own Weapons: The Politics of Equality, Freedom, and Integration in Advocacy Against American Indian Termination

Beginning in the early 1950s, the United States Congress enacted a program of “termination” of American Indian tribes. By eliminating the special relationship between tribes and the federal government, termination aimed at the full assimilation of American Indians into U.S. society. Government proponents advocated for termination using the language of equal rights, freedom, and integration. Previous scholarship has shown that anti-termination advocates, by contrast, appealed to the internationalist Cold War language of development, self-governance, and global decolonization to resist termination. These same leaders also invoked the civil rights language of termination’s proponents, however. Their arguments illustrated how the federal government misconstrued and misapplied the concepts of equality and freedom in relation to federal Indian policy; in other words, they used the colonizers’ own weapons against them. Not only is this analysis an important missing piece in historical scholarship on anti-termination advocacy, but it also challenges the supposed opposition between tribal sovereignty and civil rights struggles and emphasizes the historical coexistence of multiple competing interpretations of American freedom and equality.

The Transformation of Islamic Historiography in the Era of the Caliphate

In the first two centuries of Islam, there was no singular and uniform historiographical tradition, and multiple schools emerged in the regions of Medina, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Gradually, the tension between the perspectives of court historians and other chroniclers, the vastness of Islamic culture, and the relative freedom of historians in employing the method of observation or narration led to the creation of works with different approaches. Nevertheless, Islamic historiography in the third and fourth centuries A.H. shifted towards a narrative-oriented discourse and made less use of analytical and critical perspectives. This article aims, using a comparative-critical method, to provide a brief analysis of the historiographical trends from the first to the fourth centuries A.H. and to compare the historiographical methods and perspectives of the Umayyads and Abbasids. According to the research findings, the Umayyads and Abbasids used history and historians as tools to legitimize their rule and, knowingly or unknowingly, contributed to the spread of certain historiographical distortions and deviations. Eventually, with the beginning of the translation movement and the cultural expansion and assimilation, conditions were created for the flourishing of historiography by historians from the subordinate regions, and the historical perspective of Muslim historians became more global and analytical. This culminated in a new generation of professional historians succeeding in producing distinguished works.

Russian population’s political activities in the first third of the XX century on the example of the Peasant Union creation movement

The article studies peasantry’s political activities development in Russia in the first third of the XX century. The reasons and the essence of the Peasant Union in the revolutionary events of 1905–1907 and 1917, the Civil War and in the period of the new economic policy have been revealed. The periods of peasantry’s political activities, conditioned by the state policy transformation in village, have been distinguished. Starting from 1905, the authorities tried to involve peasantry in the political agenda. However, politicization could not be controlled in the conditions of the revolution. Peasantry’s political activities were used by the opposition forces, the SRs and Bolsheviks, who proposed a program understandable to the peasant social psychology. The Third Monarchy suspended the Peasant Union activities. In February 1917, the Union work continued under the control of the SRs. In August 1917, Peasant Congress adopted the SR program documents. Calls to create a union during the Civil War took place against the background of peasants’ disillusionment with the “war communism” policy. In 1921, the idea of creating the Peasant Union was revived. Contradictory nature of Bolshevik policy, the concept of “interlocking” between city and countryside, growing “emergency” and crises of the new economic policy against the background of granting peasants relative economic freedom led to peasant demands growth for protecting their economic rights and creating organizations that resembled trade unions in city. These demands were not institutionalized. The movement reached all strata of village. The surge of demands of the United State Political Department dates from 1927–1928. It is conditioned by the transition to collectivization. It has been concluded that, despite the lack of the Peasant Union concept, diversity of demands, different understanding of association in rural society, movement for its creation testified to increased socio-political activity of the population. When the state policy outlined the rollback of the new economic policy principles, the number of votes in favor of the Union increased. The growth of socio-political tension in villages was evident. The Party began to pursue a policy of social division in villages to prevent radicalization of sentiments.

Diffusion of person-centred care within 27 European countries – interviews with managers, officials, and researchers at the micro, meso, and macro levels

Purpose: This study aimed to describe facilitators and barriers in terms of regulation and financing of healthcare due to the implementation and use of person-centred care (PCC).
 Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative design was adopted, using interviews at three different levels: micro=hospital ward, meso=hospital management, and macro=national board/research. Inclusion criteria were staff working in healthcare as first line managers,
 hospital managers, and officials/researchers on national healthcare systems, such as Bismarck, Beveridge, and mixed/out-of-pocket models, to obtain a European perspective.
 Findings: Countries, such as Great Britain and Scandinavia (Beveridge tax-based health systems), were inclined to implement and use person-centred care. The relative freedom of a market (Bismarck/mixed models) did not seem to nurture demand for PCC. In countries with an autocratic culture, that is, a high-power distance, such as Mediterranean countries, PCC was regarded as foreign and not applicable. Another reason for difficulties with PCC was the tendency for corruption to hinder equity and promote inertia in the healthcare system.
 Originality and practical implications: Fragmented health systems divided by separate policy documents or managerial roadmaps hindered local or regional policies and made it difficult to implement innovation as PCC. Therefore, support at the managerial level, together with patient rights supported by European countries’ laws, facilitated the diffusion of PCC.
 Keywords: Europe, Health systems, Managers, Person-centred care, Qualitative content analysis

Protesting in the Time of Pandemic: Diagonal Accountability, #KerajaanGagal, and Democratic Regression in Malaysia

This article argues that there are four conditions that create a conducive political climate allowing civil society and the media to hold the government accountable during the time of pandemic (2020–2021) i.e., the diagonal accountability: 1) the undemocratic formation of the Muhyiddin Yassin's government that lacked public mandate, which in turn made the government unstable and prone to political pressures; 2) the relative freedom of print and online media in reporting negative news concerning the government; 3) civil society's ability to find creative ways around pandemic restrictions to protest; and 4) socio-economic fallout from strict pandemic measures built up public resentment against the government and contributed to its unpopularity. Analyzed through the lens of political process model, and augmented by interviews with protest participants, the four conditions enable civil society and media to take advantage of the unstable political situation, namely in carving up democratic spaces amidst various restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

Attitudes Toward Women in Media Discourse -- Discourse Construction with "Leftover Women" as an Example

The media first proposed the term leftover women and then spread it on the Internet. Ex-isting studies on leftover women mainly focus on traditional media, such as newspapers and TV, and rarely involve we media. Through text analysis and comparative research method, this paper conducts a comparative study on the discourse attitudes of official me-dia and private media towards women and the media images they construct. According to the data citation and case analysis, the following results are concluded: the official medias construction of the image of leftover women is relatively rigid and simple, and the report-ing plate mainly focuses on the entertainment part. Due to the relative freedom of speech, private media create a more diversified image, and the mode is mainly personal Posting, re-lying on traffic to spread. To a certain extent, this paper fills in the research of leftover women in the field of we media and puts forward suggestions on how to create the me-dia image of leftover women more objectively.

Comparison of selected parameters of automated milking in dairy cattle barns equipped with a concentrate feeding system

Automatic milking systems (AMSs) give cows relative freedom to choose the time and frequency of milking throughout the day. Feeding stations also may improve the management of farms. Combining milking robots and feeding stations (FS) may improve milking efficiency and milk yield. Therefore, combining AMS and FS may be beneficial for farmers. The objective of the research was to compare selected automatic milking parameters (daily indices per cow) registered by an AMS in relation to selected features including the presence of concentrate feeding stations. We analysed 931 cows born in 2013–14, in lactations 1–8. In total, we collected data from 357 318 milking days. The following parameters were examined: milking frequency (n/24 h), number of rejected milking (n/24 h), the average number of nipple attempts (n/milking), milking speed (kg/min), time spent in the milking box (s/24 h), milk yield (kg/24 h), milking efficiency (kg/min), rumination time (min/24 h), and concentrate intake (kg) per 100 kg of milk produced. The statistical analysis was conducted using a multi-factor analysis of variance. The analysis confirmed a statistical effect of the concentrate feeding system on most of the investigated traits, except for nipple attempts, box time and rumination time. In cows in barns with an FS, the following parameters were statistically higher compared to cows in non-FS barns: milking frequency (3.04 vs 2.73n/24 h), number of rejected milking (2.24 vs 1.51n/24 h), milking speed (2.98 vs 2.64 kg/min), milk yield (33.48 vs 30.14 kg/24 h), milking efficiency (1.80 vs 1.67 kg/min), and concentrate intake per 100 kg of milk produced (14.67 vs 12.67 kg). The study results indicate that using feeding stations in combination with an AMS can increase milking efficiency, hence the milk output from a milking robot.

Meeting Patients Where They Are: Construction And Maintenance Of Analytic Intimacy

This paper aims to describe the processes of construction and maintenance of analytic intimacy, understood as a shared state of relative internal freedom that is most permeable to preconscious and unconscious communications, which facilitate the processes of subjectivation, dreaming, and digestion of unprocessed trauma. The author illustrates the theoretical and technical features related to the concept of intimacy, highlighting the transformations of a clinical case followed in supervision. This article is presented in the form of a conversation with the supervisee, so as to evoke in the reader the dialogic and co-constructive experience of thought construction.

The Negative Freedom and Politics of Modus Vivendi

Aim. The aim of this study is to provide a selected theoretical-methodological analysis of the concept of negative freedom in relation to the political sphere of its application, to reveal and clarify the main political implications and normative claims that its recognition implies for political theory. Concept. From a methodological point of view, the study is based on three justified assumptions: (1) that in modern political philosophy the idea of individual freedom is the main normative basis for political theories, (2) that philosophical development has brought several competing concepts of this idea and (3) that from its own content the concept implies basic requirements for its social and political application. For the purposes of theoretical-methodological analysis, we distinguished two different moments in the concept of individual freedom (freedom as a question of will and freedom as a question of practice) and from their point of view we examined the selected concept of negative freedom in an attempt to reveal its implicit claims at the political level. Results. In the article, we have succeeded in formulating and arguing for the thesis that the concept of negative freedom in its applicability programmatically leads to a modus vivendi model of politics. We have shown that the concept of freedom and the model of politics are interrelated and normatively interdependent. Conclusion. The main conclusion of the study is that the above model of politics cannot be generalised and considered equally acceptable for all conceptions of freedom and the good life.

Сurrent problems of the organization of payment of the staff of the transport university: horizons of development

At the moment, Volga State University of Water Transport is moving on to the model of a university complex with a complex integrated structure. The implementation of the priority directions concerning the universitydevelopment is impossible without qualified personnel performing the main and auxiliary types of work. The efficiency of personnel activity is ensured not only by their competent selection, but also by a modern system of organization and remuneration. While the organization and remuneration of the main staff - teaching staff is quite strictly regulated, universities have some freedom in relation to administrative and managerial personnel. In this regard, the development of measures to improve the organization and remuneration of administrative and managerial personnel, taking into account the specifics of the internal conditions of management, is especially important for an educational institution.
 A modern higher education institution is in constant transformation and development in accordance with the requirements of the time. In an effort to meet current challenges, universities have undergone and continue to undergo significant changes under the influence of both external and internal factors. Improving their activities, they have to solve a number of organizational, managerial, social and economic tasks.

A Governance Analysis of BEFIT: How the Member States’ Wish to Obtain more Regulatory Authority is Driving a Revolution

This contribution analyses the ongoing BEFIT proposal (Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation) of the EC (European Commission) from a governance perspective. For this matter, it considers the proposed replacement of the arm’s length standard with a system of unitary taxation and formulary apportionment (FA) as a changing regulation strategy to tax multinational companies. It argues that the BEFIT proposal indicates a change from a reflexive regulation strategy to a command and control regulation strategy. The future approval of this proposal would imply that the Member States no longer want to count on the relative freedom of taxpayers to allocate profits, but attempt to take full responsibility for that allocation instead. This contribution concludes that this wish of the Member States to obtain more regulatory authority to tax multinational companies is the catalyst of the ongoing BEFIT revolution. BEFIT, harmonization, transfer pricing, arm’s length principle, formulary apportionment, unitary taxation, regulatory authority