In-depth Engagement Research Articles

Black Radical Pleasure

Critical race studies and gender and sexuality studies, as broad disciplines, may be overdue for an in-depth engagement with Black radical pleasure, but more than a handful of contemporary and emer...

BetweenSollenandSein: The CJEU’s reliance on international law in the interpretation of economic agreements covering occupied territories

AbstractThis contribution focuses on the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court or CJEU) reliance on international law in cases involving economic agreements covering occupied territories. In its earlier case law, the Court adopted a formalistic approach by ignoring the broader international legal framework of the dispute in an effort to achieve conformity with international law, while at the same time avoiding being drawn into political storms. The article continues by identifying an even more worrisome trend in the Court’s latest judgments in theFront PolisarioandWestern Sahara Campaign UKcases. In these two cases the Court showed its willingness to stretch the international rules of treaty interpretation to a breaking point in order to avoid pronouncing on the politically sensitive question of the de facto application of the EU’s agreements with Morocco in the territory of Western Sahara. The article concludes by asserting that the Court’s line of argumentation brings another dimension to theVölkerrechtsfreundlichkeitdebate. The classical, binary understanding of the Court’s approach as ‘open/hostile’ to international law only provides us with a partial picture of how international law was actually used in these cases. The Court’s apparent willingness to rely on international law as a heuristic device to reinforce an outcome that radically departs from the logic and structure of international law and international legal argumentation requires a more in-depth engagement with both the content of the international law rules invoked in those judgments and with the Court’s use of such rules.

Lost (and found) in Transition: Expert stakeholder insights on low-carbon energy transitions in Spain

Despite losing its low-carbon energy transition path in the last decade, Spain, since 2017, has picked up its commitment to complying with the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement for ratcheting 2030 and 2050 ambitions. This research departs from an extensive in-depth expert stakeholder engagement, proposing a research process of scoping: reaching out to academics, NGOs, administrators, energy providers and the private sector among other agents that guide the future of transitions in Spain; listening: identifying, through interviews, the knowledge gaps; understanding: manifesting answers of the multitude of over 200 expert stakeholders and participating: extending out and disseminating results. We present five central emerging themes on: ambitions and temporalities of targets highlighting ambition gaps across stakeholder groups for 2030 and 2050 objectives; the future of carbon and nuclear energy pushing for eventual closure of both across distinct points in time; the rollout of renewable energy technologies in a transition pursuit; preferences on fiscal and policy measures to facilitate investments and priority sectors of action and ultimately discuss gender equality and justice, and the lack thereof, in energy decision making. Our research summons up the delicate intricacies of the transition debate in Spain, setting a discursive space in hopes of contributing to the future design of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition.

Climate risk narratives: An iterative reflective process for co-producing and integrating climate knowledge

We introduce the concept of Climate Risk Narratives (CRNs), their origin, and their evolution through a trans-disciplinary engaged research activity around urban climate resilience. While the use of narratives as a communication and engagement device is well established and similar concepts such as scenarios and storylines exist, we describe the learning and value that this specific formulation of narratives has brought to an in-depth engagement process. In particular, we describe and explore how different types of uncertainty can be represented, how narratives can be co-produced, the value they bring to integration and interrogation of relevant knowledge, and the emerging role of narratives as trans-disciplinary engagement devices or boundary objects. The value of CRNs in producing climate knowledge and integrating it into decision-making is demonstrated through case study examples. Principles for developing CRNs and good practice in their use are proposed before mapping out future directions for research and practice.

Transnational trajectories of multilingual workers: emerging geographies and spatialising practices of mutant sovereignty

ABSTRACTThis article discusses Volume 17 (1) where the editors (Garrido and Sabaté-Dalmau) push for a sociolinguistic, discourse-analytic and linguistic anthropological agenda in the study of transnational trajectories of multilingual workers and emergent entrepreneurial selves. I review this lens as suitable to document how language both mediates and becomes object of explicit attention/talk in institutionalised arrangements and subject-formation processes that enable such arrangements. In doing so, I focus on the alignments of market rationality, sovereignty, and citizenship that emerge across the articles in the volume, with focus on how they mutually constitute distinctive milieus of labour and life at the edge of emergence. I propose to think of these alignments via Ong's (2006. Neoliberalism as exception: Mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. Durham: Duke University Press.) analysis of variegated modes of neoliberal governmentality to articulate the set of paradoxes and contradictions identified by the authors of such articles. This, I argue, necessitates a kaleidoscopic framing of neoliberalism whereby the analysis of semiosis goes hand-in-hand with attention to dynamics of mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. I also suggest that such an exploration may also benefit from in-depth engagement with developments stemming from the spatial turn, for they help us map specific trajectories onto the patterns of global circulation of professionals, ideas about language, and resources.

Transfer ethnography: the recording of a heritage building

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to detail an actor-network theory inspired ethnography of recording heritage buildings. The case study focusses on Irbid School in Al Tal area, which is one of the oldest schools in Jordan and an important heritage building.Design/methodology/approachThe recording process was undertaken by third-year architectural design studio students from Philadelphia University. The paper documents the interaction between the heritage building and the students in a two-phased ethnography, including fieldwork conducted between September and December 2017.FindingsThe paper proposes the concept of “transfer ethnography”, which considers the continuous changes in design across different locations. This extends beyond traditional ethnography, which focusses on a single location. Here, in contrast to the classical viewpoint, following the recording process shows that building design is ongoing and extends beyond implementation through the years as the building ages.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the chosen research approach, the research investigated the most relevant events from the author’s perspective, which might extend in various ways. Future research is encouraged to investigate more events that support the empirical findings.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a new angle from which building design networks can be followed through the transfer ethnography, which has implications for the recording and similar processes that necessitate the continuous following of actors.Originality/valueThe research suggests the transfer ethnography, which entails close and in-depth engagement with actors but changes with the transformation of a design while following the actors and networks’ shifts between the different locations. It is more delicate, attentive and indispensable considering the dynamics of design.

Engaging Contemporary Issues as Practice for Citizenship

How better can we prepare students for the roles awaiting them as citizens than by engaging them in addressing challenging issues of the day? We describe our experience as a researcher–practitioner partnership with this objective in a yearlong program involving academically low-performing urban middle schoolers and a student-centered instructional approach emphasizing peer-to-peer discourse. Thirty of the class’s daily 45-minute social studies class periods for the year were devoted to in-depth engagement with three contemporary issues, each for 10 consecutive class sessions, thus affording students sustained practice in contemplating individually and with one another pressing issues of the day. Gains in students’ written arguments as well as discourse skills are described and illustrated.

Possibilities for critical pedagogy engagement in higher education: exploring students’ openness and acceptance

Critical pedagogy is an approach to teaching and learning which aims to impact social change through education. In this study, the possibility of engaging with critical pedagogy is explored, by focusing on students’ perceptions of this practice. Data were collected through interviews with 14 Malaysian students. They shared their experiences of learning subjects which touched on social justice issues and critical thinking; which incidentally are also important preoccupations for critical pedagogy. There was consensus about in-depth engagement with social justice issues, including those that were deemed controversial and radical. Besides that, participatory forms of learning such as the co-construction of knowledge were embraced, and students recognised that teachers were not the only source of ‘authorised’ knowledge. Finally, there was a marginal voice of resistance towards the idea of learning about controversial issues because it could risk safety and incite personal attacks from peers. Unequal teacher–student power relations was also seen as a hindrance to critically interrogating socio-political issues, so students were cautious when providing dissenting views. While legitimate concerns are present, overall there seems to be a general openness to critical pedagogy. Therefore, teachers may need to carefully consider the socio-political conditions they are in, because this pedagogy could potentially disrupt order and harmony in the classroom.

Green Marketing: How can a Product's Environmental Footprint be effectively communicated to consumers? A case study with Carlsberg beer

This paper presents a study on how the Product Environmental Footprint, a method launched by the European Commission to assess and communicate environmental impacts, can be used to foster and improve green marketing. Having carried out a PEF study on its products, Carlsberg Italia initiated an in-depth engagement with consumers, in order to understand their needs and expectations concerning the environmental information to be included in its advertising. This engagement revealed the positive attitude of consumers towards green claims. Indeed, the great majority of consumers that participated in the testing declared a strong interest in wanting to know more about the environmental impacts of the products they purchase. The use of an environmental label was considered positively by consumers, especially when the design was simple and clear and, therefore, effective in guiding purchasing choices.

People want to see tears’: military heroes and the ‘Constant Penelope’ of the UK’s Military Wives choir

This article offers a feminist analysis of the UK’s Military Wives Choir as a vehicle for depicting the subject of the ‘Penelope’ military wife. The Penelope subject is characterised by patriotic feminine stoicism, and is a figure through which the masculine military hero is created and reflected. This paper will use the example of the Military Wives Choir to the argue that the making of the Penelope military wife subject in the national imagination is an important means through which women married to servicemen are rendered useful for the military. Drawing on primary fieldwork with the Plymouth branch of the choir alongside an analysis of secondary material such as song lyrics and Gareth Malone’s BBC television programme The Choir: Military Wives, my discussion will centre on three themes; lyrics & music, history & time of the state, and violence & representation. By discussing the making of the Penelope subject through these lenses, this paper will contend that there are clear, yet often nuanced, forms of violence at work in the representation of the choir. And yet, as this article will conclude, in order to shed a more textured light on this violence what is needed is a critical and in-depth engagement with the lived experiences of the women of the choir.

Authors' Response: Is There No Resolution in Myanmar's Rohingya Conflict?

Authors' Response:Is There No Resolution in Myanmar's Rohingya Conflict? Anthony Ware (bio) and Costas Laoutides (bio) We are deeply grateful to the reviewers of our book Myanmar's 'Rohingya' Conflict for their kind words as well as their in-depth engagement with the material. We are gratified that the reviewers all endorse our central argument, namely that identity politics—in particular, the taing yin tha mythology—is the primary roadblock to peace. Myanmar must move beyond these toxic conceptions of ethnicity and indigeneity and develop a truly Myanmar identity before any lasting and equitable resolution is possible, not only of this conflict but of the many conflicts across the country. That is, however, a very unlikely outcome in the foreseeable future. We appreciate that the reviewers all concur about the complexity and deeply historical nature of this conflict. Gaining an understanding of this complexity and the causes of intractability is an essential first step in any pathway toward effective international engagement. As Katherine Southwick reminds us, in situations like this the "apparent moral clarity tempt[s] us to minimize their political and practical complexity. Yet we know that sustainable solutions cannot gloss over the Gordian knot of history, structural factors, and opportunism that bring about intractable conflict and mass atrocities." These complexities, of course, are the central messages throughout the book. David Steinberg is concerned that in our pursuit of recommendations from our analysis, we err toward offering "unrealistic possibilities, if not optimism." We accept this critique in part as we agree about the improbability of solutions—or even any real progress—being found quickly. We, nonetheless, do find a need to stand with the practitioners, advocates, and engaged locals who work tirelessly for some way forward. The nature of intractability means virtually everything appears irresolvable and any recommendations implausible. As Bruce Matthews noted, "the authors understandably appear to be actually quite skeptical" about whether these recommendations are in any way realistic. Yet, continue to try we must. [End Page 197] We are pleased to see Steinberg expand on the international relations turmoil this conflict is causing for Myanmar and the extent to which Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy are complicit—castigating her for an "egregiously simplistic and even ingenious" defense of the Tatmadaw, "misstating conditions" and making statements that "must rank among the gross understatements of the year." This posture continues, unfortunately, with her and her party's maneuvering regarding repatriation of the Rohingya from Bangladesh, for example, and ingenious misstatements about the degree of implementation of the Kofi Annan–led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State recommendations. Steinberg articulates the view that the charge of genocide against the Rohingya is questionable, while the charge of ethnic cleansing seems apt. Although we took this line of argument in our book, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report released in August 2018 significantly changes our minds. The report found evidence that the crimes in Rakhine State, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, "were similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts."1 It thus recommended investigations and prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Despite Myanmar not being a signatory to the Rome Statute, in September 2018 the International Criminal Court claimed jurisdiction at least over the deportation of the Rohingya,2 and it has commenced a full-fledged preliminary examination against the Myanmar commander-in-chief and other senior officials. These are very significant findings, which, as Southwick notes, suggest that it is now time to accept "genocidal intent." Indeed, since the release of this report, we have accepted this terminology in several subsequent publications. The evidence is now compelling. Southwick comments that some of our writing seems to imply moral equivalence of the different actors' grievances. This is perhaps unsurprising given our extensive efforts to convey the perspectives of Rakhine and (as much as possible) Tatmadaw/Burman leaders, particularly about some of the deeper fears motivating them. Although Southwick acknowledges that we have clearly and repeatedly stated that the Rohingya have suffered [End Page 198] disproportionately and that the conflict is deeply asymmetric, she highlights a few...

Refiguring Les Années Noires: Literary Representations of the Nazi Occupation by Kathy Comfort

Reviewed by: Refiguring Les Années Noires: Literary Representations of the Nazi Occupation by Kathy Comfort Jason Earle Comfort, Kathy. Refiguring Les Années Noires: Literary Representations of the Nazi Occupation. Lexington, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4985-6160-0. Pp. 206. This study of seven literary memoirs of the German Occupation of France arrives at a propitious moment for revisiting key touchstones in the creation of the cultural memory of les années noires. Recent debates over Emmanuel Macron's 2018 declaration that Maréchal Philippe Pétain was a "great soldier" during World War I and pundit Éric Zemmour's much-publicized defense of the Vichy government's role in the deportation of Jews have yet again shown the Occupation to be an ongoing site of contentious memory, history, and commemoration. Comfort explores how the official public narrative on Vichy has long been challenged by literary authors writing against the grain of French national memory. The choice of writers studied is wide-ranging, including both often-cited names (Céline, Jean Cayrol, Charlotte Delbo, and Marguerite Duras) and lesser-known figures (Roma writer Matéo Maximoff and feminist journalist Évelyne Le Garrec). Moving largely chronologically from the 1950s to the 1980s, Comfort adopts Henry Rousso's influential model of the historical stages of the memory of Vichy (Unfinished Mourning, Repressions, Broken Mirrors, and Obsessions), situating authors within their period of publication. Casting a wide net with both authors and periods, Comfort admirably highlights members of groups who have been somewhat neglected in literary studies of Vichy. Indeed, perhaps the most valuable chapters in this volume are those dedicated to Maximoff's testimonial novel of Roma internment camps and Annie Guéhenno's memoir of her experiences as Resistance member and Gestapo prisoner. Here, Comfort's work demonstrates both the ways that certain groups (Roma and women resistance fighters, respectively) were targeted during the Occupation and how those groups' memories have been relegated to the margins in official retellings of the period. In all the chapters, Comfort proposes insightful close readings in crisp prose, foregrounding the central role of literary intertexts for her corpus. Proust's importance for the representation of memory emerges in particularly sharp relief in chapters on Céline, Guéhenno, and Delbo, supporting Comfort's [End Page 192] contention that these autobiographical texts should be read more as literary constructions than historical documents. For each chapter, Comfort engages with a different methodological approach to studying the literature of Vichy, from trauma studies and postmemory to folklore studies and testimonial writing. New students of the period will thus be introduced to several of the recent dominant trends in the field. While this wide scope is commendable, the book's breadth does at times suggest a deficiency in overall methodology. Without one clear approach, the reader is often left with the impression of seven individual studies, rather than a unified and coherent text. One also wonders if the book's argument concerning literature's specific role in the contestation of memory would have benefitted from a more sustained analytical discussion of the terms"memoir,""autofiction,"and"autobiographical novel,"employed throughout with little definitional distinction, as well as a more in-depth engagement with the historical context of the texts'publications. Still, this volume makes abundantly clear the knotted relationship between individual and group memory that continues to characterize France's Vichy syndrome. Jason Earle Sarah Lawrence College (NY) Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French

Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History by E. Patrick Johnson

Reviewed by: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History by E. Patrick Johnson L. H. Stallings Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History. By E. Patrick Johnson. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xiv, 575. Paper, $39.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-4110-2; cloth, $120.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-4109-6.) “I think everybody should be black lesbians. I love being a black lesbian. I love being a black lesbian in the South” (p. 375). These are the words of [End Page 969] forty-four-year-old “Mary” from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Her statement, like many others in E. Patrick Johnson’s oral history, illuminates the powerful, vibrant, and beautiful lives of black queer women in the South. As Johnson notes, the book consists of “oral histories of African American women who express same-sex desire and who were born, reared, and continue to reside in the US South” (p. 5). Despite state policies that ignore and invalidate his subjects’ gender and sexual orientation as it intersects with class and race, Johnson’s oral history provides a welcome and necessary lens into how black women persevere and create the communities they need to live in the South. Author of the award-winning Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (Chapel Hill, 2008), Johnson spends much of the introduction of the new book foregrounding and answering questions or concerns that he intuitively knows will be asked of it: What is the connection with his first oral history about black gay men? Why choose to use queer over lesbian in the title? And what role does gender difference play in his research and methodology? Johnson indicates early in Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History (BQSW) that, in the time between his first oral history and this one, he thought other queer and feminist scholars might focus specifically on women in a larger and more indepth way than he could have had he included women in Sweet Tea. Since that was not the case, he took on the task, and his decision to focus on women pays off. BQSW is significantly different from Sweet Tea for an obvious reason—it focuses on women—but also because, as Johnson notes in the introduction and epilogue, BQSW is a deliberately feminist scholarly work and ethnography. Though he does not say it, BQSW allows Johnson, and readers of both texts, to reckon with voids of the first black GBTQ southern oral history he provided. In many of the prefatory remarks of each section and chapter, Johnson provides a black feminist perspective to ground the recorded oral histories. In Part 1, chapters on mother-daughter relationships, gender nonconformity, and other subjects are definitively shaped by debates in black feminist studies about social justice, respectability politics, cisgender-transgender tensions, and intergenerational conflicts. In this part of the book, we hear about women in nontraditional relationships (mixed gendered, same-gendered expression, and non-monogamous thruples) that conflict with conservative ideas of what it means to be a “real” lesbian. These testimonies validate Johnson’s decision to use terms like same-sex desire, as opposed to lesbian. In Part 2 of the collection, Johnson moves away from excerpted conversations organized around a theme to in-depth engagement with six individual women. The strategy allows him to tackle intersections of themes and issues within one person’s life. For instance, the focus on Puerto Rico resident Aida Rentas allows Johnson to engage feminist politics and the Global South in ways that pay attention to tensions of nationality and race in black and brown lesbian communities. Additionally, for those familiar with Pat Hussain, cofounder of Southerners on New Ground, Johnson’s inclusion of Cherry Hussain (Pat’s partner) provides insights on “Miss Cherry’s” historical significance to LGBTQ communities in the South (p. 417). Aptly titled “My Soul Looks Back and Wonders,” this part of the book provides a sustained examination of failures, mistakes, pain, trauma, survival, and triumph that details the toll of physical and sexual violence, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and closet politics, not only on these [End Page 970] women’s lives but also on the lives of those with whom they...

Using a participatory curriculum and cascade-training model to empower Ugandan youth to make responsible social, beconomic, sexual and reproductive health decisions

Aims: To demonstrate an integrated, gender-transformative holistic approach to promote youth empowerment and community referral for healthcare in Uganda.
 Methods: The USAID-funded Fistula Care Plus (FC+) project supported implementation of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education for in- and out-of-school youth. FC+ used the adapted Aflateen PLUS curriculum, integrating SRH with concepts such as financial and leadership skills and planning for future, FC+ trained and provided continuous supervision support to 19 teachers and 29 peer-educators to facilitate the curriculum to 10 in-school youth clubs and 10 out-of-school youth groups across Jinja and Kamuli Districts.
 Results: In- and out-of-school youth participating in the Aflateen clubs reached an additional 5,950 community members with SRH and financial savings information and referred 1,364 individuals to health care, including family planning, maternal care, STI testing, and evaluation of fistula symptoms.
 Conclusion: The Aflateen Plus curriculum’s learner-centered and in-depth engagement approach engages youth to critically think about present and future decisions. The curriculum and club model empowered youth and promoted a culture of information sharing and community referral to reduce vulnerability. Stakeholder engagement (e.g., teachers, peer-educators, local government, and health care sector) increased ownership and sustainability of the intervention.

Interviewing in Criminal and Intelligence-Gathering Contexts: Applying Science

abstractThis article provides a framework for the application of science-based interview methods to interviews conducted in both criminal and intelligence interview contexts. In these contexts, subjects frequently are antagonistic and many have experienced some kind of trauma. Similar to mental health professionals who conduct face-to-face interviews in prisons and hospitals, there is the need to gain as much valid and useful information as possible to make informed decisions. Our framework consists of three phases: in-depth planning, engagement, and sensemaking. We include a description of moments of a real-life criminal interview to illustrate the framework, and then briefly address some of the cultural and ethical challenges inherent to this domain.

American Politics Course Redesigns: The Effect of Propensity Score Matching on Predicting Learning Outcomes

Faculty at many colleges and universities are redesigning courses to address differences in student learning preferences. In this study, the researchers surveyed students in two similar American Politics classes. In one, the instructor used a traditional large-class lecture format. In the other, lectures were supplemented with weekly small-group discussions to facilitate more in-depth engagement with course material. We subsequently surveyed students in both classes about their political knowledge gains, perceptions of politics, and views on critical thinking. Due to nonrandom group assignment, we estimate the effects using propensity score matching. Our results indicate that there were different types of students enrolled in each class. Students who experienced the small-group discussions were more likely to score better on critical thinking questions, but they were not as likely to demonstrate more general knowledge about political science in their responses. There are almost no estimation differences based on whether we use propensity score matching or linear regression.

User Engagement in Public Discourse on Genetically Modified Organisms: The Role of Opinion Leaders on Social Media

This study adopted a quantitative content analysis to examine how source attributes of opinion leaders and their message framing influenced user engagement in the public discourse of genetically modified organism (GMO) on Chinese social media. The findings showed that different source attributes and message frames used by opinion leaders varied in their respective influences on three dimensions of user engagement—reposts, comments, and likes. The attribute of account verification only predicted surface-level engagement (i.e., liking), whereas account type significantly influenced in-depth engagement (i.e., reposting and commenting). The fact, opportunity, pro-GMO, and international frames positively predicted user engagement.

Development and implementation of a mobile device-based pediatric electronic decision support tool as part of a national practice standardization project.

ObjectiveImplementing evidence-based practices requires a multi-faceted approach. Electronic clinical decision support (ECDS) tools may encourage evidence-based practice adoption. However, data regarding the role of mobile ECDS tools in pediatrics is scant. Our objective is to describe the development, distribution, and usage patterns of a smartphone-based ECDS tool within a national practice standardization project.Materials and MethodsWe developed a smartphone-based ECDS tool for use in the American Academy of Pediatrics, Value in Inpatient Pediatrics Network project entitled “Reducing Excessive Variation in the Infant Sepsis Evaluation (REVISE).” The mobile application (app), PedsGuide, was developed using evidence-based recommendations created by an interdisciplinary panel. App workflow and content were aligned with clinical benchmarks; app interface was adjusted after usability heuristic review. Usage patterns were measured using Google Analytics.ResultsOverall, 3805 users across the United States downloaded PedsGuide from December 1, 2016, to July 31, 2017, leading to 14 256 use sessions (average 3.75 sessions per user). Users engaged in 60 442 screen views, including 37 424 (61.8%) screen views that displayed content related to the REVISE clinical practice benchmarks, including hospital admission appropriateness (26.8%), length of hospitalization (14.6%), and diagnostic testing recommendations (17.0%). Median user touch depth was 5 [IQR 5].DiscussionWe observed rapid dissemination and in-depth engagement with PedsGuide, demonstrating feasibility for using smartphone-based ECDS tools within national practice improvement projects.ConclusionsECDS tools may prove valuable in future national practice standardization initiatives. Work should next focus on developing robust analytics to determine ECDS tools’ impact on medical decision making, clinical practice, and health outcomes.

Bottom Up Ethics - Neuroenhancement in Education and Employment

Neuroenhancement involves the use of neurotechnologies to improve cognitive, affective or behavioural functioning, where these are not judged to be clinically impaired. Questions about enhancement have become one of the key topics of neuroethics over the past decade. The current study draws on in-depth public engagement activities in ten European countries giving a bottom-up perspective on the ethics and desirability of enhancement. This informed the design of an online contrastive vignette experiment that was administered to representative samples of 1000 respondents in the ten countries and the United States. The experiment investigated how the gender of the protagonist, his or her level of performance, the efficacy of the enhancer and the mode of enhancement affected support for neuroenhancement in both educational and employment contexts. Of these, higher efficacy and lower performance were found to increase willingness to support enhancement. A series of commonly articulated claims about the individual and societal dimensions of neuroenhancement were derived from the public engagement activities. Underlying these claims, multivariate analysis identified two social values. The Societal/Protective highlights counter normative consequences and opposes the use enhancers. The Individual/Proactionary highlights opportunities and supports use. For most respondents these values are not mutually exclusive. This suggests that for many neuroenhancement is viewed simultaneously as a source of both promise and concern.

Social media as a vehicle for user engagement with local history

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine issues associated with user engagement on social media with local history in the North East of Scotland and to focus on a case study of the Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society, a small but very successful and professionally-run community-based local heritage organisation.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach using photo elicitation on social media was deployed in conjunction with analysis of the user interactions and the reach insights provided by Facebook to the page manager. Additionally, a focus group was used.FindingsThe research, although focussed on an individual case study, offers significant lessons which are more widely applicable in the local history and cultural heritage social media domain. Key aspects include user engagement and how digital storytelling can assist in the documentation of local communities ultimately contributing to local history research and the broader cultural memory. The significance of the image and the photo elicitation methodology is also explored.Social implicationsThe research demonstrates new opportunities for engaging users and displaying historical content that can be successfully exploited by community heritage organisations. These are themes which will be developed within the paper. The research also demonstrates the value of photo elicitation in both historical and wider information science fields as a means of obtaining in-depth quality engagement and interaction with users and communities.Originality/valueThe research explored the underutilised method of photo elicitation in a local history context with a community possessed of a strong sense of local identity. In addition to exploring the benefits of this method, it presents transferable lessons for how small, community-based history and heritage organisation can engage effectively with their audience.