Good Life Research Articles

Regional comparison of the structure of human well-being related to ecosystem services in coastal areas of Japan: possible effect of anxiety unique to the ria coast

AbstractPeople living in coastal areas have the advantage of accessing a high level of ecosystem services, but are also exposed to the dangers inherent in living by the sea in an area prone to natural disasters. To achieve sustainable utilization of the high ecosystem services of coastal areas, establishment of an effective marine policy based on regional characteristics of human–nature interactions is essential. We compared the structure of perceived satisfaction for five components of human well-being (‘Security’, ‘Basic material for a good life’, ‘Good social relations’, ‘Health’, and ‘Freedom of choice and action’) derived from coastal ecosystem services among three sites in Japan (Wakasa, Sanriku, and Shima) that share the same natural and social backgrounds: highly dependent on fisheries industry, located in the same climate regime (temperate zone), and have similar topographical features (ria coast). Structural equation modeling using the results from questionnaire surveys showed that the three sites shared a common basic structure of the interactions among the five components of human well-being. However, the intensity of interactions among components differed among the three sites. Questionnaire surveys on anxiety about natural disasters and future access to marine ecosystem services were simultaneously conducted at the three sites. The site-specific anxieties were responsible for the difference in the interactions among the five components of human well-being. We propose a method that quantitatively evaluates both positive (satisfaction) and negative (anxiety) aspects of respondents’ subjective assessment as a useful tool for understanding the diversity of human–nature interactions caused by the region-specific natural and social backgrounds of coastal areas.

(The Importance of Knowledge and Work in Islamic Thought) A Study of the Stages of Spiritual Purification According to Imam Al-Ghazali

Science occupies great importance in Islamic thought. Science and learning are considered an essential part of Islamic teachings, and this importance appears in several aspects,Among them is thatScience as a means of understanding religion :Science is a means of understanding the teachings of the Islamic religion. Islam encourages thinking and rational research to understand the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, enabling Muslims to direct their lives and actions in accordance with the directives of their religion,And also to encourageResearch :Islam encourages scientific research and the use of reason in understanding the nature of the universe and God’s signs in it. Muslims are encouraged to study the natural and social sciences and all fields that are useful in developing human knowledge. Science and community development :Islam views science as playing a crucial role in the progress and development of society. It encourages the use of science and technology in the service of humanity, in improving living conditions and promoting social and economic progress, science and piety :Islam views science as a means to achieve piety, that is, a close connection with God and living according to His teachings. The search for and acquisition of knowledge is a form of worship, and Islam promotes people’s understanding that achieving knowledge leads to deeper piety, knowledge, and individual and collective excellence. :Islam encourages the pursuit of knowledge and achieving excellence in its field. It glorifies academic achievement and individual and collective skills as means of serving society and making positive contributions, science and justice :Islam promotes the use of science to achieve justice in society. The Islamic religion expects those with knowledge to contribute to serving justice, ensuring the rights of individuals, and achieving balance in society. In Islamic thought, science is linked to religion and lifeAlyumiaIt encourages Muslims to use science as a means to achieve personal well-beingAnd socialAt the same time To serve God and his creation. This is what Imam Al-Ghazali argued in the content of the research, where:Not all knowledge is science. For example, our life experiences do not include direct observation and practical activity, which do not go beyond the pure description of facts and processes, and which do not go beyond monitoring their external aspects only. That Work is all the activities that a person practices, whether physical or mental, with the aim of production in the institution in which he works, whether governmental or private, or the work may be in a personal profession or craft. The concept of work in Islam: Work is everything that brings benefit to the believer, and this benefit may be material, worldly, or moral in the hereafter. Work has great importance and great status in Islam, and through it the Muslim obtains a great reward and reward, as it is considered worship and compliance with the commands of God Almighty, so through it Life flourishes, the country is prospered, and stability is achieved for the individual and society as a whole. Work in Islam is considered a type of jihad for the sake of God, and its goal is not just to collect money, but rather it is an act of worship that brings goodness to the Muslim, and what is required of him is to strive hard in life seeking the doors of sustenance. And to adhere to God’s limits and not disobey His commands, as good deeds are what guarantee a good life and strength for a person.

Caffeinated aspirations: social mobilities and specialty coffee baristas in Brazil

ABSTRACT This paper explores the work experiences of specialty coffee baristas in São Paulo, Brazil, considering specifically the role of passion and aspiration. Through ethnographic profiles of four baristas, it reveals how the pursuit of a good life through employment extends beyond immediate economic gain, but that there are complexities in converting forms of capital within the café workplace which are shaped by Brazil’s social context and distinct histories and hierarchies around food service labor. Success and longevity in the position was shaped by baristas’ preexisting capital, and heavily mediated by socioeconomic status; although certain baristas faced more precarious trajectories, they called upon discourses of passion to mitigate challenges inherent in lower-waged food service work. By exploring the experiences and aspirations of baristas in Brazil, this paper sheds light on the complex dynamics of social mobility and labor in emerging connoisseur and artisan markets.

Defending aesthetic internalism: Liking, loving, and wholeheartedness

Abstract Aesthetic internalism claims a link between judgement and motivation: aesthetic judgements bring with them motivations to act in characteristic ways. Critics object that there is a difference between merely liking something and judging it to be aesthetically good, and that it is our likings, not our aesthetic judgements, that motivate us. This paper develops a version of aesthetic internalism that can respond to this criticism. Wholehearted aesthetic judgements are characterized by stability, attention, and motivation. Making such judgements is an important part of a good life, and so at least some aesthetic judgements are motivating. So we have reason to think that this version of aesthetic internalism is true. This paper defends wholehearted aesthetic internalism against objections, and assesses an argument from aesthetic internalism to aesthetic non-cognitivism. While wholehearted aesthetic internalism can only offer qualified support to non-cognitivism, it nonetheless offers a number of fruitful avenues for further work.

Planetary Boundaries Nurturing the Grand Narrative of the Right to a Healthy Environment?

The profound changes in Earth systems dynamics are affecting the health of the entire planet and the realization of a broad range of human rights. In this paper, we propose that the grand narrative of human rights including the legal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment recognized by the United Nations in 2022 requires the acknowledgment of the interconnected challenges posed by planetary crises. We discuss how planetary boundaries (PB) research can provide evidence-based arguments and clarify State duties concerning their international human rights law commitments. The economic, social and cultural rights are deeply connected with the right to a healthy environment. Human rights to water, food, or health, for example, can all be understood in the context of Earth systems change. Civil and political rights go beyond individuals to include also collective action and participation to tackle planetary social-ecological challenges. Gaps remain in human rights law concerning some of the PBs, which risks overlooking the interconnected drivers of ecosystem degradation. Clearer legal standing and justification for legal demands, for example concerning the impacts of water use, land use and deforestation, are needed to tackle PB overshoot. States must act at various spaces including the global economic systems and the global supply chains of goods and services for humanity to reach planetary safe and just spaces. Weaving international human rights law and advances at various geographical scales on the right to a healthy environment with PB provides a powerful tool for defending the prerequisites of good life for everyone, everywhere.

'We have so much to offer': Community members' perspectives on autism research.

Autism research is changing. Autistic activists and researchers want Autistic people in the community to have more of a say about what is researched and how. But we haven't asked people in the community what they think. This study used the information obtained from 55 community members, including Autistic people, their families, and professionals working with Autistic people, from an existing study on their priorities for autism research. We re-looked at what was said to see if we could understand community members' views and experiences of autism research. People agreed strongly that research can play a powerful role in shaping good Autistic lives. They also felt that big changes were needed for research to do this. Some of these changes were that researchers should stop thinking about autism narrowly and in a negative way, where Autistic people are seen as the problem. Researchers need to think more about how to improve systems, experiences and how other people respond to Autistic people. They also want the autism community to be more involved in what is researched and how it is researched. The findings from our study here highlight the potential for research to be positive when Autistic people and their families are listened to, approached with understanding, and are respected and valued as individuals in the research process.

Sustainable Workforce in a Green Era: Indonesia’s Energy Sector Transition

The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze the effect of renewable energy transition variables and economic viability in the Indonesian employment industry on the balance of business sustainability through social and environmental development as an intervening variable. The subjects of this study are small, medium, and large industry owners in Indonesia, totaling 5,993,566 business units. The variables in this study are independent variables, namely the variables of renewable energy transition and economic viability in the Indonesian labor industry, while the dependent variable is the balance of business sustainability, and the intervening variable is the variable of social and environmental considerations. The results of the data analysis are made through SEM analysis through SMART PLS 4.0 software. From the results of existing research, it is concluded that partially renewable energy transition variables and viability variables in the Indonesian labor industry have a direct effect on the balance of business sustainability and social and environmental consideration variables. Simultaneously, the renewable energy transition variable and the viability variable in the Indonesian labor industry indirectly affect the business sustainability balance variable through social and environmental considerations as intervening variables. With the renewable energy transition process, it will have an impact on people's good social lives because there is no threat of environmental damage or natural disasters, so the environment is safe, the industry creates a technology transfer process, and it increases economic viability in the labor industry in Indonesia in order to create quality human resources. With this transition process, trained human resources are needed and are also able to adapt well to the transition process and technology transfer in order to balance the sustainability of industrial businesses.

Glycerol Triacetate-Based Flame Retardant High-Temperature Electrolyte for the Lithium-Ion Battery.

Rechargeable batteries that can operate at elevated temperatures (>70 °C) with high energy density are long-awaited for industrial applications including mining, grid stabilization, naval, aerospace, and medical devices. However, the safety, cycle life, energy density, and cost of the available high-temperature battery technologies remain an obstacle primarily owing to the limited electrolyte options available. We introduce a flame-retardant electrolyte that can enable stable battery cycling at 100 °C by incorporating triacetin into the electrolyte system. Triacetin has excellent chemical stability with lithium metal, and conventional cathode materials can effectively reduce parasitic reactions and promises a good battery performance at elevated temperatures. Our findings reveal that Li-metal half-cells can be made that have high energy density, high Coulombic efficiency, and good cycle life with triacetin-based electrolytes and three different cathode chemistries. Moreover, the nail penetration test in a commercial-scale pouch battery using this new electrolyte demonstrated suppressed heat generation when the cell was damaged and excellent safety when using the triacetin-based electrolyte.

Accounting for a better world: towards a conceptual framework to enable corporate reporting to contribute to the sustainability of the good life

Purpose The aim of this paper is to propose a basis upon which accounting reporting can be developed to reflect real values and the real economy. It aims to address the environmental considerations discussed in the UN debate (Bebbington and Unerman, 2020) and the concern for a “better life-world”, which is the theme of this special issue. Design/methodology/approach Addressing the task involves the application of the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism (which explains how people can relate to their reality in ways that lead to successful action) and the philosophical concept of the “good life” (which establishes the values to be pursued through action and so defines action success). Also, it outlines the necessary characteristics of measurement frameworks if they are to be effective in the development and control of human practices to achieve desired values. Findings This paper proposes a conceptual framework for guiding the measurement of how a sustainable good life has improved and/or deteriorated as a result of organisational activities. It outlines a system of concepts on basic and instrumental values for analysing the condition of maintaining a sustainable good life in real terms. This is related to the financial results and societal regulations to analyse and adjust controls according to the real economic goals. Also, it provides a system of value measurands to produce valid information about the development of a sustainable good life. The measurand makes accounting reporting reflect the conditions of the good life that constitute the real economy instead of merely the financial economy driven by shareholder capitalism. Providing tools to analyse whether the existing practices of business and social regulations promote or counteract the real economic goals of producing a sustainable good life means the measurement system proposed makes the invisible hand of the market visible. Originality/value The mechanism proposed to enable accounting reporting to reflect real values and the real economy is a new conceptual framework that will allow accounting to more fully realise its potential to contribute to a “better world”. In aiming to serve a sustainable good life, accounting reporting will inherently foster ethical social practices.

Nickel-cobalt-chromium ternary transition metal hydroxide for supercapacitors

Metal hydroxide is a promising electrode material for supercapacitors. And third metal introduction can improve its electrochemical performance. In this paper, the Cr was introducing into NiCo-LDH by one-step hydrothermal method. In addition, the influence of Cr content on the electrochemical performance was investigated. The results show that maximum specific capacitance of 2712 F g−1 with the ratio of Ni: Co: Cr of 1:1:0.05, higher than pure NiCo-LDH of 1676 F g−1. In addition, the assembled NiCoCr-0.05//YP50 supercapacitor devices can reach an energy density of 27.38 Wh kg−1 with a good cycle life.

Corruption and Good Governance in Africa: A Hermeneutical Analysis

Human beings are social and communal animals and cannot but live in an ordered society and have interactive relationships, hence good governance, which is essential for their well-being and development. This fact grounds their forming governmental apparatus to coordinate the things that are common to them; otherwise, violence and warfare may continue unabated. Good governance does not just happen. Those elected or appointed into positions of governance need to be effective, efficient and exhibit an ethical character to ensure that the good life constitutive of the promotion of human rights, provision of social facilities, and all that provide a better life for the people are in place. In the African continent, many of those in governance, instead of working for the public good to ensure a better life for their citizens, serve their private and parochial interests to the detriment of the welfare of the people by engaging in massive corruption. Corruption, especially political and public, has grave effects on the economy and the lives of the people all over the continent. Massive corruption has siphoned public funds for development projects and lodged them in foreign banks. This has led to poverty and underdevelopment, weakened sustainable development goals, caused youth restiveness, led to forced migration, poor environmental growth, and loss of millions of lives. Problematized in this paper is a continent endowed and blessed with natural and human resources but remains the poorest, most undeveloped continent in the world because of corruption. The paper used hermeneutics and critical analytic methods to examine corruption as an impediment to good governance in Africa. The hermeneutics method was used to interpret, decipher, and highlight the importance of this work’s principal concepts. The critical-analytic method was used to rationalize the arguments. The paper found that massive corruption is decimating the continent and that there is a need to combat it to ensure good governance. It concluded that combating corruption will help create a better continent where people enjoy a good life and democratic entitlements

학생 행위주체성(Student Agency) 형성과정에 대한 미인가(未認可) 대안학교 졸업생들의 내러티브 연구

This study explored the experiences and meanings of the process of forming agency among students at an unauthorized alternative school. A narrative research method was used, with stories about learning experiences at an alternative school and life experiences after graduation as the main research data. The research questions were as follows: How is student agency expressed in the learning experiences of alternative school students? How is agency integrated into graduates’ lives? What educational meaning is inherent in alternative school students’ agency? The results indicated the following. First, graduates initially began with their personal interests in the process of emerging developing agency; they went through a period of self-reflection. Second, they created opportunities for self-expansion by meeting various people both inside and outside the school. Third, the participants critically reflected on the values they learned in alternative schools after graduation and integrated them with deliberations on what a good life is for them and the world. Fourth, teachers were specific and meaningful beings who fostered student agency. Fifth, agency is not fixed, but is fluid depending on the circumstances of the community of practice.

Rethinking Resistance as Relational – Resisting Psychologization in Psychology: Lessons from Carrère’s Between Two Worlds

AbstractPsychology, and in particular mainstream positive psychology, is fuelled by discourses on resistance strategies, understood as the individual capacity to resist and adapt to negative and oppressive thoughts, circumstances, experiences, and social structures. This self-strategy of resistance is evident in positive psychology’s notions of resilience: grit, life-crafting, and job-crafting behaviors, for example. While positive psychology would have us believe these strategies are associated with overcoming hardship and living a good life, they risk imbricating people in their own oppressions. In this paper, we engage in a reading of Carrère’s Between Two Worlds (original title Ouistreham) (2021), a movie featuring multiple examples of resistance. The movie shows how precarious workers enact self-strategies of resistance to fight for a decent and bearable life. They persevere despite ongoing hardships, seek joy amidst tragic life events, and find meaning in menial labor. However, resistance also appears as relational and political, and thus escapes and exceeds self-focused psychological categories of resistance. Resistance appears as the refusal to be understood solely in individual and individualizing ways – as a psychologized and knowable subject – and is characterized by relational, contextual, and political tactics. The movie profanes established positive psychology’s individualist focus on resistance. This profanation of self-strategies of resistance affords an opportunity to rethink resistance beyond the individual and compels us to problematize the tendency to psychologize and individualize social phenomena. In doing so, our paper too resists the determination of psychological language (i.e., psychologization) and advances ideas for alternative resistances in, to, and of psychology.

Book Symposium on Return of the Grasshopper: Games, Leisure and the Good Life in the Third Millennium

ABSTRACT Bernard Suits’ groundbreaking work, The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia, has profoundly shaped the philosophy of sport. Its sequel, Return of the Grasshopper: Games, Leisure, and the Good Life in the Third Millennium, released in October 2022, enriches scholarly understandings of Suits’ views on games, emphasizing the normative aspects of gameplay and its impact on people’s pursuit of the good life. In this book symposium, world-leading Suits scholars analyze the Suitsian conception of gameplay and its relevance to his views on Utopia outlined in the sequel, covering a wide range of topics. Filip Kobiela explores counterfactual situations in Suits’ oeuvre. Christopher Bartel and Gwen Bradford scrutinize the ethical nature and ramifications of Suits’ claim that life is an unconscious game. R. Scott Kretchmar and John S. Russell present thoughtful critiques of Suits’ musings on Utopia. William J. Morgan’s contribution integrates contemporary work studies to illuminate Suits’ utopia. The symposium concludes with the editors, Francisco Javier Lopez Frias and Christopher Yorke, offering their perspectives on Suitsian Utopia, ethics, and metaethics.

The good life as the life in touch with the good

What makes your life go well for you? In this paper, we give an account of welfare. Our core idea is simple. There are impersonally good and bad things out there: things that are good or bad period, not (or not only) good or bad for someone. The life that is good for you is the life in contact with the good. We’ll understand the relevant notion of ‘contact’ here in terms of manifestation: you’re in contact with a value when it is manifest in parts of your life or parts of your life are manifest in it. So, the more the good is manifest in your life, or your life manifest in the good, the better for you. The more the bad is manifest in your life, or your life manifest in the bad, the worse for you. We’ll argue that this account is extensionally adequate: it explains the welfare value of achievements, friendships, knowledge, pleasures and virtues. Moreover, it has a number of explanatory virtues: it’s unified, elegant and explanatorily powerful. So, we’ll suggest, it’s an excellent account of welfare, and in many ways superior to its main competitors.

A Response to McMahan

In ‘Anti-Natalism and the Asymmetry’ I argue that the claim, starting good lives is permitted but not required, ultimately proves untenable. The inevitable bad parts of a life give reasons against starting, but the good parts give no reasons for. So don’t start, and if started, end. Jeff McMahan thinks this good/bad asymmetry is way too radical, and finds much to fault with my argument. Unsurprisingly I agree with some but not all of what he has to say. We agree, for example, that the concerns of persons to live on generally far outstrip those of babies and animals. We disagree about there being always some reason to start good lives.

Anti-Natalism and the Asymmetry

What should we think about starting good lives? On one view starting such lives is required. On another this is forbidden. There’s a third view, occupying a middle position. And according to what Jeff McMahan calls the Asymmetry, starting such lives is permitted but not required. Most of us will incline to this third view, finding the first to be somewhat, the second highly controversial. But I argue that this middle position is untenable, and, further, that the first position is weaker, the second stronger than it initially appears. This isn’t, however, to support David Benatar’s well-known Anti-Natalist stance. I explain how our versions of this view differ, and show how mine is the one to favour. Of critical importance throughout is an appeal to personhood.

In Transit: The Making of Urban Migrants in India

The neo-liberal transformation of India was aided by the restructuring processes launched by the SAP in 1991 and brought the open market to the centre of economic imagination for new India. As the Indian economy opened up to the global financial capital systems and the private sector expanded, a large proportion of labour was relocated to the private, unorganized sector in India. This sector swallowed a majority of the migrant population that was flowing into the urban centers of India. The “middle class aspirations” that the migrants to the cities harbored materialize as a part of the larger neo-liberal aspiration of being upwardly mobile and living a ‘good life’. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in two phases, this paper accounts the narratives of men and women migrants who are employed in the various service sector units of two shopping malls in the city of New Delhi. This paper maps the diversity in the migrant experience by comparing the experiences of two distinct groups of migrants employed in these sectors in India- the indigenous migrants from North East India and the migrants from the rural hinterlands of North India. By comparing the narratives of two groups of migrants my paper tries to argue that in addition to education and credentials, classifications of caste, community and ethnicity play an important role in determining ‘life chances’ and employment opportunities for migrants in urban India.

Hope in the time of climate change. A Kantian perspective

ABSTRACT This article discusses whether it is rational and valuable to have hope in the face of the climate crisis. The aim is to explore a distinctive Kantian perspective characterized by three main elements. First, hope is not seen primarily as a means of sustaining action, but action is viewed as a condition for rational hope. Second, the value of certain ‘fundamental’ hopes is not merely instrumental but derives from their constitutive role in our practical identity. Here, I focus on Kantian hope in the compatibility of our fundamental ends, happiness and morality. Third, the rationality of such a hope presupposes trust – in particular, trust that our conceptions of morality and the good life are sufficiently flexible to adapt to drastically new circumstances.

Human-centred decision support for the common good: a combination of participatory foresight methods

ABSTRACT This paper explores innovative approaches to decision-making for the common good by addressing the challenges posed by participatory foresight techniques such as backcasting and the Delphi method. Our paper is a methodological evaluation of our research that focused on how a more sustainable future vision on the world of sports could replace the currently highly commodified industry that not so long ago had a clear function in providing a good life to humans. This paper aims to contribute to the decision support literature on how the combinations of participation and deliberation with different policy-oriented foresight methodologies entailing both lay and expert knowledge can advance the understanding of values that underpin common good decisions. At the same time, these processes can also uncover concrete actions and policy interventions that can transform current economic and social processes, moving them beyond the utilitarian logic of our realities.