Implicit Value Research Articles

Epistemic (In)justice: Whose voices count? Listening to migrants and students

In this study, we present the results of a project, which involved students enrolled at four universities located in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. The main goal of the project was to raise students’ awareness about the conditions that cause epistemic injustice for migrants and refugees. Epistemic injustice is a concept that sheds light on the ethical dimensions of our epistemic practices. It recognizes that individuals can be wronged specifically in their capacity as knowers, a capacity essential to human value (Fricker, 2007). The project material included a set of interviews with migrants and refugees as well as desk research about the status of their national migratory contexts. Students exchanged their testimonies via extended sessions that took place between October and November of 2022. An ethics of listening was cultivated to disrupt conventions of authorized discourse about migrants. Through understanding that labels such as illegal, undocumented and unauthorized are not neutral descriptors but carry implicit association and value judgments that frame and influence debate, students were invited to engage in a form of communication and consciousness to create spaces for unheard, marginalized voices of migration trends (Lipari, 2010.) Our international research with students and migrants was influenced by Arjun Appadurai (2006) who invites us to question established paradigms and critically reflect on contemporary global dynamics of migration contributing to Sousa Santos ‘ecology of knowledges’ across continents and cultures (2015).

Reliability and cost analysis of selected repair methods of the new TR Instandhaltung

AbstractIn Germany, the new Technical Specification for Maintenance (TR Instandhaltung) forms the basis for planning, management, and implementation of maintenance measures on reinforced concrete structures. In the case of chloride‐induced corrosion, different concrete repair methods are specified therein for defined depth‐dependent chloride concentrations in relation to the concrete cover, following thus a prescriptive approach. In contrast, a full‐probabilistic, performance‐based approach sets limits to the so‐called “reliability index” (β). These limits are related to a maximum accepted probability of occurrence of an unwanted event, which in the case of chloride exposure, is the corrosion of the reinforcement. Since the value of β depends inherently on the depth‐dependent chloride concentration and the concrete cover, the limits set on them by the TR must be related to an implicit value of β. Therefore, in this contribution, these limits were analysed and evaluated. Additionally, the resulting costs of each method were estimated and analysed in terms of β at the time of the repair. Both the limits and the resulting costs provide helpful information in the context of a performance‐based approach for the through‐life management of reinforced concrete structures.

Distributional Comparisons Using the Gini Inequality Measure

AbstractThis article is aimed at undergraduate and graduate economics students, as well as public sector economists, who are interested in inequality measurement. It examines the use of the Gini inequality measure to compare income distributions. The implicit distributional value judgements are made explicit, via the use of a particular form of Social Welfare Function. Emphasis is given to the interpretation of changes in inequality.

Beyond ‘heightism’ and ‘height premium’: An anthropology and sociology of human stature

AbstractThis review article examines the meanings and materialities of human stature, from serving as a marker of human difference to shaping the socio‐spatial experiences of individuals. I introduce existing perspectives on height from various disciplines, including biomedical discourses on the factors (e.g. nutrition, genetics) that determine height, economic discourses on how the average heights of populations have changed over time, sociobiological and psychological discourses that assume a pre‐cultural, evolutionary “height premium”, and popular discourses on heightism and height discrimination. Drawing from a diverse range of scholarship since Saul Feldman called for a “sociology of stature” in the 1970s, I then present ways in which height and height differences have figured in various domains of human experience, from employment and education to sports and social relationships. Finally, I survey people's attempts to become taller or shorter, and the implicit values that inform such height‐making practices. What these figurations and practices show, I argue, is that height intersects with notions of race, class, gender, and beauty – but is irreducible to any of them, and is thus best viewed as a distinct, embodied form of distinction, difference, and inequality. I conclude by proposing a research agenda for future work.

A Framework for Transparency in Precision Livestock Farming.

As precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies emerge, it is important to consider their social and ethical dimensions. Reviews of PLF have highlighted the importance of considering ethical issues related to privacy, security, and welfare. However, little attention has been paid to ethical issues related to transparency regarding these technologies. This paper proposes a framework for developing responsible transparency in the context of PLF. It examines the kinds of information that could be ethically important to disclose about these technologies, the different audiences that might care about this information, the challenges involved in achieving transparency for these audiences, and some promising strategies for addressing these challenges. For example, with respect to the information to be disclosed, efforts to foster transparency could focus on: (1) information about the goals and priorities of those developing PLF systems; (2) details about how the systems operate; (3) information about implicit values that could be embedded in the systems; and/or (4) characteristics of the machine learning algorithms often incorporated into these systems. In many cases, this information is likely to be difficult to obtain or communicate meaningfully to relevant audiences (e.g., farmers, consumers, industry, and/or regulators). Some of the potential steps for addressing these challenges include fostering collaborations between the developers and users of PLF systems, developing techniques for identifying and disclosing important forms of information, and pursuing forms of PLF that can be responsibly employed with less transparency. Given the complexity of transparency and its ethical and practical importance, a framework for developing and evaluating transparency will be an important element of ongoing PLF research.

The Fight for the 2024 Presidential Election within the PDIP within the Framework of Tempo (Roland Barthes’ Semiotics Study on the Cover of the May 2021 Edition of Tempo Magazine)

Objective: At a time when parties participating in the 2024 election are busy forming coalitions to determine potential candidates for president, Even PDIP is busy manoeuvring politics on her body Alone. The rivalry between Puan Maharani and Ganjar Pranowo enlivened the determination of the presidential candidate in the PDIP body. This reality is raised on the cover of the October 25 to October 31, 2021, edition of Tempo magazine, which is conveyed in a cartoon illustration of a relay race between Joko Widodo, the baton holder, and Puan and Ganjar. The aim of understanding how Tempo's discourse on the nomination constellation within the PDI-P body is through the cover of Tempo Magazine, which is published in editions from October 25 to October 31, 2021. And is there an implicit value about the power that wants to be framed in the ideology Tempo interests? Methods: In understanding this, this research analyzes Roland Barthes' structural semiotics by analyzing the semiosis of markers and signs to know the denotative and connotative meanings of the cover of Tempo magazine and dismantle the myths brought by Tempo through its Semiotics. Result: From the results of the study, it was shown that during the discourse, there was a roar of competition within the PDI-P in proposing prospective candidates. The rumble is deeper in the discourse developed by Tempo because the existence of nepotism and clientelism is a myth in Barthes' semiotic concept.

Personal Cognition and Implicit Constructs Affecting Preferential Decisions on Farmland Ownership: Multiple Case Studies in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia

Farmland ownership is a critical issue for sustainable agriculture since it affects short-term productivity and the long-term stability of the sector. However, existing literature largely focused on immediately simplifying individual opinions through statistical methods, neglecting how implicit values could drive preferential ownership decisions. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the driving factors underlying decisions on farmland ownership, especially when there are cognitive factors that induce hidden constructs in individual preferences. This research, to observe the cognition and implicit values leading to ownership decisions, applied the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) with subsequent Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Taking the multiple case studies of three villages in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia, this study involved 40 farmland owners. The RGT revealed a staggering 85 constructs leading to six ownership decisions: keep farming, buying, joint farming, leasing, selling, and converting. In general, the driving forces were distinguished into landowners’ household profile, sustainability-related (community and social conditions), spatial (farmland conversion and accessibility), and economic aspects. Based on PCA, “buying” and “keep farming” shared several driving forces and led to sustainable farming. In contrast, “joint farming”, “leasing”, “selling”, and “converting” were found to threaten farming sustainability. In addition, this study offers in-depth insights into the driving factors of different preferential ownership decisions according to the cognition and implicit values of individual landowners, allowing policymakers and other stakeholders to tailor policies and strategies to context-specific farmland ownership issues in pursuing sustainable agriculture.

What's a School Worth to a Neighborhood? A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of Property Prices in the Context of Accommodation Reviews in Ontario

Due to a change in capital funding formula, many school boards across the Province of Ontario engaged in Accommodation Reviews to rationalize the supply of school capacity. This process led to numerous school closures and raised important policy questions regarding the economic value of a school in terms of its capitalization into property values and, by extension, how the closure of a school might affect local neighborhoods. To explore these questions, this research uses spatial hedonic methods to estimate the implicit value of accessibility to schools in the City of Hamilton, Ontario. Spatial Durbin model results provide evidence of a significant negative correlation between distance to schools and housing prices in the Canadian context. This suggests that accessibility to schools is capitalized into property values and that the closure of a neighborhood school may result in potentially significant losses of economic value in communities.

The value of green infrastructure to property prices: Evidence from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Green infrastructure supports residential choice, provides sustainable transport and contributes to liveable neighbourhoods. This study investigates the value of green infrastructure, defined as built environment features (e.g., green spaces, beaches), facilities (e.g., fitness equipment in parks) and sustainable transport infrastructure (e.g., heavy rail, light rail and bus), to property prices in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia as a case study. The main difference of this study from previous ones is the evaluation scope is not limited or attached to a particular transport infrastructure project but instead considers a whole city. The impacts of green infrastructure are measured taking account of geographical differences across the city using a multi-level regression modelling approach to identify the implicit value of green infrastructure in residential property prices. The results suggest only those elements of green infrastructure that can provide a direct service to people (e.g., fitness equipment) are positively valued. Importantly from a sustainable transport perspective, the current public transport network and services have a negative impact on property price suggesting public transport might not be meeting property owners’ expectations. The paper discusses the implications of the model results for literature and policy on green infrastructure.

Critical Race Theory and U.S. Community Colleges: Contending with Controversy

ABSTRACT Critical Race Theory (CRT) can be used as an analytical framework for understanding the propagation of systemic racism within societal structures and institutions, particularly in community colleges. CRT provides insights into the structural nature of racism as an issue of individual prejudice and one built into society’s fabric. However, many states are attempting to or have successfully banned CRT and its related concepts. Despite the chilling effect of these regulations, community colleges still have a role to play in integrating CRT and other culturally responsive pedagogies. Liberating the hidden curriculum refers to instructional methods and practices for challenging the implicit norms, values, structures, and practices in schools that perpetuate social norms and reproduce racial oppression. The principles of CRT can also help challenge microaggressions and encourage candid discussions of biases to reduce their impact and alter hidden curricula, thus engendering more equitable student experiences, opportunities, and outcomes. Implications for institutional and classroom practices include the importance of professional development and integrating culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy to provide more empowering educational experiences for all community college students.

Community values: Exploring what undergraduate engineering students value in their community college experience

AbstractPrevious research exploring the lived experiences of marginalized groups of students in STEM at community college settings is limited, despite the fact that community colleges have the potential to create pathways to 4‐year engineering degrees and diversify the STEM workforce. This study explored what underrepresented students in STEM valued most as they navigated community college. We conducted nineteen semi‐structured narrative interviews. Our findings suggested that the students found some of the values implicit compared to other explicit values mentioned by the participants. For example, they valued intimate class size, invested faculty, available tutors, and financial support as explicit values. They appreciated the low‐pressure environment, directional support, networking opportunities, and hands‐on learning as implicit values associated with their college experience. Our research has a direct implication on how such experiences influence students’ chosen pathways toward engineering careers, and institutions can learn directly to establish programs with an understanding of what they value.

English

This study was conducted with the objective to estimate the implicit values for various olive oil attributes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A hedonic price model was applied to examine 558 olive oil samples taken from nine hypermarkets with different olive oil brands. The attributes under consideration include the package size, extra virgin label, level of acidity, organic certification, purity, country of origin, place of retail market, and packaging type. Results show agreement between signs and magnitudes for the implicit values for the most attributes. The significant attributes of olive oil identified in this study are package size, level of acidity, and variables describing the country of origin, place of retail market, and packaging type. The results reveal a negative relationship between (i) the price and the size of container and (ii) the price and the level of acidity for olive oil. Furthermore, olive oil products with organic and pure label have a higher price compared to those without them. The country of origin and the type of packaging may also influence the olive oil price

Metaphors at work: Reconciling welfare and market in Danish digitalisation policies

The way in which we describe processes of automation, the digital society and the technology companies that deliver many of its services carry implicit and sometimes contradicting values and ideas about the society envisioned. In this paper, we are interested in unfolding some of the metaphors that guide political discourses on digitalisation in Denmark, particularly those related to the nexus between the welfare state and the market. We propose that metaphorical analysis of policy documents serves to tease out and confront the implicit values and tensions related to how welfare ideologies are reconciled with market logics. This carries important messages about the Danish government’s imaginary of digitalisation and citizens, such as which role citizens are expected to play vis-à-vis digital services and welfare provisions. This paper argues that in contrast to the EU’s declared goal of human-centric digitalisation, the Danish government relies on metaphors that are technology-centric rather than human-centric.

Traditional Games and the Sri Lankan Culture; Reflection of Traditional Games as a Component of Implicit Culture of Sri Lanka

Traditional games are still preserved in Sri Lankan context since it acts as a major role in Sinhala new-year season. However, the vicinity of the traditional games such as Eluwan keema (catching of goats/Goats Play), and Gudu paneema (Tip-cat game) are gradually declining due to the inception of new games for the Sinhala New Year festival by unanimous people for different objectives. Traditional games have been so far identified as a reflection of explicit culture and therefore, the main aim of the study was to understand the relationship between traditional games and culture and to reveal whether the said is a sub-section of implicit culture with the use of prevailing literature. The main concentration of this research was given to present the cultural background of traditional games created by the mindsets of our forefathers and to understand the blend of implicit and explicit cultural knowledge that guided such activities. Thorough observations of traditional games played by different parties were also observed by the researcher to narrate the implicit cultural values embedded in such games. Literature reveals that playing a game is explicit but molding a game is part of the implicit culture. Traditional games are evolved throughout the years from their inception and had changed the basics from time to time. Changes include the costumes of the participants, the equipment used, and the objective of playing such games. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen elderly villages. The results of this study synthesized through observation, interviews, and secondary data review established that it can be treated that the traditional games of Sri Lanka as the reflection of components of implicit and explicit culture.

Understanding the Political and Religious Implications of Turkish Civil Religion in The Netherlands: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ISN Friday Sermons

Civil religion encompasses the implicit religious values of a nation manifested through public rituals, symbols, and ceremonies at significant locations and on special occasions. The emergence of new religious symbolisms reflects the evolving structure of religious authority. The Islamic Foundation Netherlands (Islamitische Stichting Nederland (ISN)), the largest mosque umbrella organization in the Netherlands, holds significant influence in shaping the religious beliefs and ethical standards of the Turkish–Dutch Muslim community. Furthermore, the ISN possesses the ability to construct and authenticate discourses that redefine the conceptualization of the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ In early 2017, following increased criticism of sermons written by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA/Diyanet) in the Netherlands, the ISN, as the Dutch branch of Diyanet, started composing its own Friday sermons in both Turkish and Dutch. This article aims to examine the discursive features of the Friday sermons delivered between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2023 and explore their connection to civil religion. The study employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework and Wodak’s discourse–historical approach (DHA) to analyze the Friday sermons. The findings reveal that the civil religious discourses advanced by the ISN possess both unifying and divisive potential. However, the collected empirical evidence suggests that state-sponsored civil religion, emphasizing Turkish nationalism and Islamism, dominates the liberal and pluralistic form of civil religion.

MixNet: Mix different networks for learning 3D implicit representations

We introduce a neural network, MixNet, for learning implicit representations of 3D subtle models with large smooth areas and exact shape details in the form of interpolation of two different implicit functions. Our network takes a point cloud as input and uses conventional MLP networks and SIREN networks to predict different implicit fields. We use a learnable interpolation function to combine the implicit values of these two networks and achieve the respective advantages of them. The network is self-supervised with only reconstruction loss, leading to faithful 3D reconstructions with smooth planes, correct details, and plausible spatial partition without any ground-truth segmentation. We evaluate our method on ABC, the largest and most diverse CAD dataset, and some typical shapes to test in terms of geometric correctness and surface smoothness to demonstrate superiority over current alternatives suitable for shape reconstruction.

Awakening a Nation: A Rhetorical Analysis of Derek Walcott’s “The Sea Is History”

This paper analyses Derek Walcott’s (1930 – 2017) poem “The Sea Is History” (1979) from a rhetorical perspective. The rhetorical analysis of the poem enables us to uncover the implicit cultural values of Caribbean people and the oppressive discourses of colonialism. Based on the rhetorical reading of the poem, this study questions the traditional notion of history in the postcolonial framework. “The Sea Is History” is from Walcott’s collection The Star-Apple Kingdom, originally published in 1979. In the poem, the author communicates with the reader by triggering an inner reaction through rhetorical questions. “The Sea Is History” is also notable for the use of metaphor and imagery. Walcott’s preoccupation with his nation’s notions of the past, culture, and language is expressed in the poet’s use of metaphors to call on the Caribbean to awaken from a deep sleep and hold history to account. The author’s inclusion of elements of the narrative is underpinned by a strong postcolonial feeling, transforming this narrative poem into the biography of an oppressed nation kept as slaves for centuries. By using allusions to the Bible, Walcott juxtaposes biblical stories with the past and the memory of his nation, hence his rhetorical question: “Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs? Where is your tribal memory?”. Moreover, by placing biblical markers on certain passages of the voyage to the Caribbean – Genesis, Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Song of Solomon – the poet highlights it as a significant event that amounts to a religious text, at the same time pointing out that the events in the Bible are not universally accepted as actual events, whereas the past of his people is a true experience that reflects the colonial history of the Caribbean.

What ‘counts’ in international forest policy research? A conference ethnography of valuation practice and habitus in an interdisciplinary social science field

In this paper, we examine implicit values, norms and orientations that guide international forest policy research (FPR). We link Bourdieu's praxeological theory and valuography to empirically grasp disciplinary habitus manifesting in valuation practice at International Forest Policy Meetings. Conferences provide spaces where scholars negotiate ‘what counts’. In presenting and discussing research, they enact values of ‘good’ scholarship that reflect basic orientations of doing science in the field.Based on conference ethnography and reflexive interviews with participants, we identify two dispositions characterising dominant habitus in FPR: an objectivistic understanding of scientificity, and an affective orientation towards forest practice. They reflect in the set of values enacted, including methodical rigour, representativeness, innovativeness, responsiveness and usability/applicability, along with an attachment to forests as shared and connective subject of concern.We explain the prevalence of these values through field-habitus theory with the socio-historical conditions from which FPR in the Global North emerged. Accounts of its history emphasise the emancipation from scientific forestry, and its distinctive identity as a forest-focused field encompassing a wide range of social sciences. However, our findings suggest that FPR has not yet achieved full autonomy, as the value characteristics of ‘good’ science are still aligned with those of the ‘mother disciplines’ and oriented at expectations of external actors.FPR has not yet developed a regime of valuation that does justice to its interdisciplinarity, which prevents the field from utilising its full potential. Prevailing habitus lowers the relevance of normative scholarship that expresses more radical or transformative visions challenging orthodox paradigms. It entrenches an inequality between different strands of research within the field, without anyone intending this. Our study gives input for reflecting values, norms and orientations underlying FPR, and seeks to inform the on-going discourse on its nature, purpose and future in science and society.

Implicit Values in the Recent Carbon Nanotube Debate

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the first examples of nanotechnology, with a history of promising uses and high expectations. This paper uses the recent debate over their future to explore both ethical and value-laden statements which unsettle the notion of CNTs as a value-free nanotechnology and their regulation as purely a technical affair. A point of departure is made with the inclusion of CNTs on the Substitute-It-Now list by the Swedish NGO ChemSec, an assessment process that anticipates and complements the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation in Europe. An argument map is constructed to illustrate the core contention in the debate—should CNTs be substituted or not—which follows from a systematic literature review and content analysis of sampled journal articles. Nine arguments are articulated that bolster one of two camps: the pro-substitution camp or the contra-substitution camp. Beneath these arguments are a set of three implicit values that animate these two camps in prescribing competing interventions to resolve the dispute: (i) environmental protection and human safety, (ii) good science, and (iii) technological progress. This leads to a discussion around the regulatory problem of safeguarding conflicting values in decision-making under sustained scientific uncertainty. Finally, the study suggests further empirical work on specific nanomaterials in a pivot away from the abstract, promissory nature of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies in science, technology, and innovation policy. The examination of ethics and values is useful for mapping controversies in science and technology studies of regulation, even amongst experts in cognate research fields like nanomedicine and nanotoxicology.

G2IFu: Graph-based implicit function for single-view 3D reconstruction

As the demand for 3D models increases, there is growing interest in reconstructing 3D objects from images using AI. In this paper, we propose G2IFu, a graph-based implicit function that successfully reconstructs a highly detailed 3D object mesh from a single image. Unlike previous methods that learn implicit functions with points, G2IFu aims to map graphs to implicit values. We make the following contributions: (1) Compared to independent 3D points, graphs have a larger perception space and contain specific spatial structure information. Therefore, we extend a 3D point p to a graph Gp by generating hypothesis points and establishing edges between them. We then predict the corresponding implicit value using a graph convolution network. Our experiments show that this method can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of implicit functions. (2) We introduce a prior boundary loss based on Gp to make the network pay more attention to the “key” points near the shape surface. To the best of our knowledge, G2IFu is the first model that introduces a graph into neural implicit representation. (3) Inspired by previous methods, we utilize the image’s global and local features to initialize Gp. We also introduce a self-attention module into G2IFu for better performance. We conduct experiments on the ShapeNet dataset and demonstrate that G2IFu can generate higher-quality 3D object shapes than previous single-view reconstruction methods. Additionally, we extend G2IFu to multi-view 3D reconstruction and achieve good performance.