Good Life Research Articles

'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.

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.

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.

The Symbolic Meaning of the Batara Munasiah Dance and Its Relevance to Generation Z Characters in South Sulawesi

The aim of this research is firstly to analyze and explain in a complex way the meaning of denotation, connotation, and myth contained in the Batara dance and secondly, namely the relevance of the Batara dance to the character of Generation Z in South Sulawesi. The research method used is qualitative from the perspective of Roland Barthes' Semiotics theory. The data collected also used a participatory observation process, structured interviews unstructured interviews, and content analysis which still has a connection and relationship with a dance performance, especially the Batara Munasiah dance. The results of the research explain the explanation of the meaning contained in the Batara Munasiah Dance performance in terms of denotation, connotation, and myth. Explaining the Batara dance starts from the history of the development of the Batara dance itself to its relationship and relevance to the character of Generation Z in South Sulawesi. As for the meaning contained in the Batara dance, as follows: (1) a feeling of gratitude towards God Almighty, (2) happiness when given a good life, (3) the process of approaching oneself with God Almighty, nature, and the social environment around (4 ) Respect for oneself/self-control in behavior and relationships, (5) respect for elders, (6) always involve God Almighty in all our activities both when starting and finishing them. The second covers a relationship or relevance to the lifestyle of Generation Z today: (1) Forms of worship of God Almighty, (2) Forms of socializing with the environment and surrounding community, (3) Maintaining the values of ancestors that are still relevant. and provide a positive reflection of life, (4) Always pray and hope only in God Almighty, (5) a simple lifestyle and character is a good thing.

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.

Academic Supervivencia and Sesi Irekani: Refusing, Reimagining, and Rearticulating Decolonization in the Social Foundations of Education

The American Educational Studies Association (AESA) was established in 1968 in a context of both local and global social justice movements. The AESA’s mission and ongoing commitment to the analysis of education and society with underlying liberal activist aims has been ongoing since. Although AESA and its membership have been critiqued and questioned for their larger impact in the field, especially in its disconnect between university academics and pk-12 teachers, the original charge and purpose has largely remained. This address seeks to put a spotlight on the foundations of the social foundations of education and by extension AESA by using settler colonial and structural racism frames to examine the enduring problematics of how academia and academic enterprises are, as Quechua scholar Sandy Grande would say, “an arm of the settler state” (p. 47). Namely, I ask, how does AESA and the field of social foundations of education advance settler futurity? However, most importantly, I will also engage, how can AESA, the field and its membership engage in anti-colonial and anti-racist self-reflection and work toward decolonizing the organization and the work that we do as faculty members in this field? To engage in this process of reflexive praxis, I will use Grande’s concept of academic survivance, which includes operating beyond the boundaries set up for us by the institution and toward “an active presence in society and the academy” (p. 12). I slightly modify survivance with Chicana feminist scholar, Ruth Trinidad-Galvan’s concept of supervivencia, which also emphasizes beyond mere survival but from the perspective of Mexican campesinas “left behind” in a context of neoliberal extractivist dislocation. Finally, I draw from my P’urhépecha community ancestry a concept also common throughout many Indigenous communities, Sesi Irekani, el buen vivir, or “the good life.” I will argue that by centering a reflexive praxis based on these saberes-haceres we can refuse, reimagine, and rearticulate a relational comunalidad that unsettles the settler within and recon/figures an alter/Native charge and decolonial practice.

Climate justice and global development: outlining a new framework from the work of Achille Mbembe and Charles Mills

ABSTRACT As currently understood and practiced, global development and climate justice appear irreconcilable. In fact, global development has been and remains a key driver of climate inequalities. We hold that this is not an accident, but instead is a result of global development being established within worldwide systems of oppression. We define global development as setting the goals for, and the processes for achieving, what constitutes a good life for all communities, and taking the steps needed to reach those goals. This article provides an outline of how the theories of two moral and political philosophers – Achille Mbembe and Charles Mills – point us in the direction of an ethical framework for the relationship of humans to each other and to the natural world. We examine two contexts that should motivate development practitioners to move from the current development regime toward the direction of a transformational ethical framework built off the work of these philosophers: (i) the perpetual failure of global development practice to foster a humane approach to migration; and (ii) the inability of global development solutions, like SDGs and leapfrogging, to stray from the very problems they are intended to address.

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

PurposeThe 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/approachAddressing 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.FindingsThis 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/valueThe 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.

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.

The Necessity of Virtue in the Search for the Ultimate Goal of Human Life: Aristotle in Dialogue With the Contemporary World

This study analysed Aristotle’s dialogue on virtue as a necessity for the ultimate goal of human existence. Aristotle (384-322 BC) argued that virtue is indispensable for the attainment of the ultimate goal of human life resulting from contemplation. He identified it as eudaimonia, translated to mean happiness (living well or faring well). He contended that living according to the virtues translates to living in tune with human nature which guarantees true happiness. However, a cursory look at our contemporary society reveals that the necessity of virtue has been greatly undermined while what guarantees true happiness has also been misconstrued. In such a situation, there is a growing concern within the moral community as to how the knowledge of good impacts our emotions and sense of reason; hence, reemphasizing the place of virtue in attaining the goal of a good human society is indisputable. Through effective application of the method of analysis, this work attempted to outline Aristotle’s arguments which speak in favour of the necessity of virtue. The objective was to defend the practice of virtue as an indispensable component of the happy life notwithstanding different objections to the necessity thesis. In conclusion, the argument was sustained that the thesis of the necessity of virtue which Aristotle defended in antiquity still has something to tell us today. Therefore, contemporary accounts of the good or happy life should prioritize virtue.

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.

MERAIH SUKSES PARENTING DI ERA GEN – Z MELALUI PERNIKAHAN BERKUALITAS : MEMBANGUN FONDASI KELUARGA YANG KOKOH

The importance of building a solid family foundation is one of the keys to achieving success in marriage and parenting in the Gen - Z era. One way to achieve this is through a quality marriage. The aim is to provide insight and knowledge for prospective parents in strengthening their future marriage relationships which will create a healthy family environment and support parenting thinking from the perspective of the growth of Gen - Z children. Using literature study and observation methods. Researchers looked for various sources in the form of journals, articles, books and interviews with several parties concerned in discussing the article entitled ACHIEVE PARENTING SUCCESS IN GEN - Z THROUGH QUALITY MARRIAGE: BUILDING A SOLID FAMILY FOUNDATION. The results of the research explain that a marriage can be said to be successful because each bride and groom are ready and then approved by both parties, marry well, in accordance with existing procedures and live a good life as husband and wife, able to carry out their respective functions and roles each one well.

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.