Key Tensions Research Articles

Whiteness and damage in the education classroom

ABSTRACT This paper analyses relationships between whiteness and damage in the university classroom through a focus on two contemporary areas of critical education in Canada: raising white racial consciousness and truth and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. First, whiteness is damage-producing – it orients anti-racist education towards white students and their needs, there by harming the well-being and constraining the education of non-white students. Second, whiteness gravitates towards what Unangax scholar Eve Tuck calls “damage-centred approaches,” which objectify non-white suffering, pathologising Indigenous peoples whilst obfuscating the ongoing reproduction of racism and colonialism. As such, white educators must remain assiduously vigilant about a key tension regarding whiteness and damage: that our pedagogical focus on racial and colonial oppression can simultaneously raise critical consciousness and divert attention away from more fundamental interrogations of whiteness, agency, and relationality within a systemically racist social order. The article closes with some considerations for educators in terms of addressing complicity in their institutions.

Toward a More Inclusive Gig Economy: Risks and Opportunities for Workers with Disabilities

Little is known about whether and how workers with disabilities participate in the many on-demand labor platforms that make up the growing gig economy. Understanding disabled gig workers' experiences is a vital step toward developing inclusive and equitable labor platforms. Through interviews with 24 disabled gig workers and observational fieldwork, we present a rich, in-depth picture of the opportunities and challenges presented by four main types of gig work (ridesharing, delivery, crowdwork, and freelancing) for workers with a wide range of disabilities. We identify a key tension: gig work can be a vital source of needed income for workers who have been excluded from traditional workplaces, but at the same time, the structure of gig platforms present workers with a host of new disability-related challenges, including around algorithmic control and performance evaluation. We discuss how this tension plays out in terms of how workers engage in gig work and protect themselves from risk. We also call attention to how many workers can face complicated, intersectional challenges based on multiple marginalized identities in addition to disability, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Our work contributes to research on the gig economy by centering the perspectives of workers who are marginalized based on disability and other identities. We show how workers face several penalties based on disability, including shouldering extensive invisible labor to mitigate the challenges they face. Based on our interviews, we suggest several ways that on-demand labor platforms can be designed to be more inclusive of disability, including how to improve the accessibility of various tasks while mitigating the discrimination and negative interactions faced by disabled workers.

The ‘participationnist state’ and the ‘apathetic citizen’: Educationalizing the ‘problem of non–voting’ in postwar Switzerland (1940s–1970s)

ABSTRACT Should citizens be educated into voting? Is non-voting a ‘problem’ for democracies, and, if yes, can it be educationalized? This article examines public debates on non-voting and its ‘educationalization’ in post-war Switzerland, in order to analyse the renegotiation of citizenship norms and ideals at a time when the priority of voting over other, non-institutional forms of political participation was increasingly contested. With a longstanding emphasis on (male) citizens’ participation in institutional politics, Switzerland as a ‘participationist state’ is an interesting case study to observe tensions surrounding participation and its promotion among citizens. After the Second World War, Swiss political elites had already reinforced their efforts to cultivate voting as a ‘civic duty’ among young men, as they feared a weakening of the ‘citizen-soldier’ ideal. With the further rise and associated problematization of non-voting in the 1960s and 1970s, attempts to curb this phenomenon through educational measures peaked, but encountered latent or open resistance. The difficulties (or the impossibility) of educationalizing non-voting thus revealed a growing disconnect between the dominant (and gendered) framing of non-voting as a manifestation of an unacceptable passivity to be ‘cured’ by educational measures, and the demand for forms of political participation other than voting articulated by the 1968 social movements. Ultimately, these debates exemplify a series of key tensions in contemporary democracies. The first is the tension between inclusion and exclusion, from the late enfranchisement of women in 1971 to the still-unsettled question of the political role of non-citizen residents. The second is the contested prioritization of voting in relation to other forms of participation. Third and finally, the focus on promoting voting as a ‘civic duty’ collided with the recurrent search for a balance between rights and duties within citizenship, and, linked to that, between emancipatory and paternalist dynamics in attempts to ‘mould’ citizens.

Pandemic Management in the Context of Everyday Care and the need for Good Care: Results and Recommendations for Action from the Coronacare Workshops

The Covid-19 pandemic, officially declared in March 2020 by the WHO, poses major challenges to public, private, and occupational life. CoronaCare is an ethnographic research project that investigates the everyday life of people during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany with a particular focus on social health. The aim of the project was to develop recommendations for pandemic preparedness planning focusing on expanding social health care. Through a series of workshops conducted between June and November 2021 with stakeholders from the fields of science, health and social administration drawn from both local and state levels, care institutions and social associations, the research team developed specific recommendations for pandemic preparedness and response on the basis of empirically substantiated vignettes demonstrating key tensions in caring practices. These tensions illustrate that pandemic management must be understood as a so-called wicked problem in which there are only relational rather than clear-cut, ultimate solutions. As such, the recommendations developed in the workshops point to the imperative to 1. recognize the irresolvable tension between measures to contain the pandemic in planning pandemic management and the human desire to care and be cared for; 2. understand and manage pandemics at the community level; 3. aim for close collaboration between actors at the local health, social, and family level; and 4. create spaces for ethical reflection on good care during a pandemic and develop context-specific strategies for action. For pandemic preparedness and management as a 'wicked problem', this means that measures should be disseminated as recommendations rather than regulations in order to have some leeway that enables care to be tailored to individual needs. They should be accompanied by stable guidance for action as well as regular training for staff. The workshop formats can be understood as an example of multidimensional knowledge transfer in a socially challenging situation.

Unresolved tensions in green transitions: Retraining and the question of ‘how’?

This commentary responds to Chantel Carr's ‘Repair and care’ through a focus on the vexed question of carbon-intensive worker retraining in the context of urgent and necessary decarbonisation and industry change in Australia. There are many parallels between my research and Carr's, particularly in relation to an understanding of the potential of existing technical skillsets in industrial working populations. Like Carr, I reflect upon my empirical research – over the past decade – with current and former industrial tradespeople. This commentary reflects on what ‘retraining’ has actually meant, in practice, for industrial workers in deindustrialising Australia. I then identify a key tension that exists in relation to the question of retraining carbon workers. Climate change mitigation calls for the dramatic and wide-ranging transformation of industries, infrastructure, jobs, and skillsets. But the fact remains, humans are complex, with diverse needs, and they are now more likely to articulate these needs on an individual level, not collectively. With this in mind – and in a background in which much academic work draws attention to complexities and institutional shortcomings – how do we balance individualised requirements with the need for dramatic, macro-level transformation?

Strategy as Practice Research: Reflections on its Rationale, Approach, and Contributions

AbstractStrategy as practice (SAP) research has developed into an established area of study, and the Journal of Management Studies (JMS) has played an important role in this as a hospitable outlet, including via a foundational special issue in 2003. This article offers a bird's eye view of the domain and a ready source of relevant literature to both seasoned scholars and newcomers to this topic. We make three observations that reflect both the JMS thematic collection and the wider literature on SAP and help to shed light on some of the key tensions facing scholars who seek to develop a distinct body of research. First, in terms of the rationale for SAP research, this body of work has grappled with its framing as building upon, yet distinct from strategy process research, to delve into practices within strategy process. Second, in terms of the approach to research (and community‐building), SAP research has reflected European intellectual roots which has helped to deliver on its broad research purpose but has perhaps also impeded its impact on more mainstream strategy. Third, in terms of the contribution of SAP research, there has been a large volume of high quality work, appearing in well‐regarded journals, generating a considerable diversity of perspectives.

Paradoxical tensions in the implementation of digital security governance: Toward an ambidextrous approach to governing digital security

Due to increasing numbers of cyberattacks, security is one of the leading challenges to contemporary organizations. As contradictory demands (e.g., tensions in digital organizations) intensify, organizations increasingly find it difficult to implement digital security governance (DSG) as part of their regular organizational change activities. Based on data from forty-two interviews with Dutch CISOs and CIOs of large organizations that are active in various sectors, we identify three key paradoxical tensions that affect DSG implementation. We found that in a digital context, paradoxical tensions are pressurized and become out of balance. Disbalance among tensions exposes friction that hinders the implementation of DSG mechanisms. Finally, we present a conceptual model that sets direction for ambidextrous digital security. Understanding how to engage with tensions in an ambidextrous way determines the success of DSG implementations in today's complex digital environments.

Designing Digital Market Offerings: How Digital Ventures Navigate the Tension Between Generative Digital Technology and the Current Environment

Digital ventures must navigate a key tension as they design new digital market offerings—that is, products or services that are embodied in digital technologies or enabled by them. On the one hand, digital ventures pursue a vision that builds on what might be possible through the generative potential that digital technology offers; on the other hand, they face an environment in the here and now, with existing customer preferences, extant regulations, and legacy technology. Taking a designing view, we trace how six independent digital ventures in the German financial services industry dealt with this tension as they created their digital market offerings. Our findings suggest that digital ventures enact three designing mechanisms to resolve the tension: bounding the technology scope, transposing through digital objects, and probing the solution space. Through these mechanisms, digital ventures construct a buffer—one that has functional, material, and temporal dimensions—between the vision they gradually realize through their market offering and the here-and-now conditions of the environment that digital ventures enter.

Blue Skies With Clouds: Envisioning the Future Ideal State and Identifying Ongoing Tensions in the UME-GME Transition.

The transition from medical school to residency in the United States consumes large amounts of time for students and educators in undergraduate and graduate medical education (UME, GME), and it is costly for both students and institutions. Attempts to improve the residency application and Match processes have been insufficient to counteract the very large number of applications to programs. To address these challenges, the Coalition for Physician Accountability charged the Undergraduate Medical Education to Graduate Medical Education Review Committee (UGRC) with crafting recommendations to improve the system for the UME-GME transition. To guide this work, the UGRC defined and sought stakeholder input on a "blue-skies" ideal state of this transition. The ideal state views the transition as a system to support a continuum of professional development and learning, thus serving learners, educators, and the public, and engendering trust among them. It also supports the well-being of learners and educators, promotes diversity, and minimizes bias. This manuscript uses polarity thinking to analyze 3 persistent key tensions in the system that require ongoing management. First, the formative purpose of assessment for learning and growth is at odds with the use of assessment data for ranking and sorting candidates. Second, the function of residents as learners can conflict with their role as workers contributing service to health care systems. Third, the current residency Match process can position the desire for individual choice-among students and their programs-against the workforce needs of the profession and the public. This Scholarly Perspective presents strategies to balance the upsides and downsides inherent to these tensions. By articulating the ideal state of the UME-GME transition and anticipating tensions, educators and educational organizations can be better positioned to implement UGRC recommendations to improve the transition system.

Socio-technical imaginaries of a circular economy in governmental discourse and among science, technology, and innovation actors: A Norwegian case study

A growing body of research is investigating the connections between the discursive construction of circular economy (CE) and its influences on public policies that promote the socio-technological transition towards circular production and consumption systems. However, surprisingly little attention has focused on how CE discourses interact with science, technology, and innovation (ST&I) actors. To address this gap, this research adopts the prism of socio-technical imaginaries to understand specific visions of circularity in science and innovation, exploring how competing imaginaries mobilize specific actors, institutions, and visions of a greener future. Our empirical material included archival documentation from the Norwegian government and funded research projects on CE. Our analysis identified two key tension points within these imaginaries: “International drivers versus regional and local transition arenas” and “Ecological modernization versus sectoral transformation.” We suggest that tensions are inherent in CE socio-technical imaginaries but are often silenced or minimized by institutional discourses on circularity. Our findings suggest that official CE policy programs tend to minimize or overtly ignore criticisms and contestation that are increasingly raised in academic circles. Our findings indicate the need for increased involvement of ST&I actors and other societal actors (such as NGOs and the private sector) in the CE policymaking process to avoid endless growth as an unexpected CE policy outcome.

Consumer search with anticipated regret

Uncertainty before purchase often gives rise to postpurchase emotions that consumers might anticipate when making purchase decisions. Our study investigates how consumers' anticipated postpurchase regret affects their optimal search behavior and how this affects firms' price and assortment competition. The key tension considered in this study is that consumers balance between saving the cost of product evaluation by searching less and alleviating the potential postpurchase regret on their purchase by searching more. We use a classical sequential search framework to examine this key tension. Our results show that anticipated regret encourages more intense search across competitive alternatives, leading to an intensified price competition when search depth is exogenous (searching a fixed number of attributes) or when search depth is endogenous but full‐depth search (inspecting all attributes) emerges (with high regret intensity). However, when search depth is endogenous but partial‐depth search (inspecting a subset of attributes) emerges (with low regret intensity), the blessing effect of anticipated regret on softening firms' price competition begins to emerge. In addition, anticipated regret can achieve a “win‐win‐win” situation for consumers, firms, and the social planner. Moreover, multiproduct firms use different competitive devices with different levels of regret intensity: When regret intensity is low (high), firms focus on assortment (price) competition to retain consumers. The relevant managerial implications are discussed.

Dealing with the Continuum of Tensions in Increasingly Digitalized and Intelligent Complex Systems

This paper seeks to explore how organizations dealing with the development of complex systems can understand and act upon the extensive set of entangled tensions they face. By applying a quantum perspective on tensions, and an understanding of tensions based on their latency, salience and persistence, a framework is developed for observing, acting and reacting on a large set of entangled tensions. The well-documented case of Boeing 737MAX is used to illustrate and analyze the extensive set of entangled tensions, or continuum of tensions, and possibilities to act on these tensions. The analysis shows that an actionability perspective on the dialectic tensions potentially offers clarification of the challenges that organizations are facing when addressing complex systems. Two major aspects emerge as crucial for addressing complex systems: 1) Actionable salience as the ability of an organization to identify and select key tensions in several perspectives, and 2) Actionable resolution as the ability to address and resolve a set of salient, often complex, and entangled tensions that have been identified. Several avenues for further research are identified in relation to management of increasingly digitalized complex systems and the emergence of complex intelligent systems.

Child as method and/as childism: Conceptual–political intersections and tensions

AbstractThis article considers the related projects of child as method and childism, as two critical childhood projects attempting to re‐engage childhood studies with wider geopolitical arenas. Firstly, each model's origins in their respective subject discipline are discussed, to, secondly, highlight how this shapes convergences as well as divergences in political project. Third, there is consideration of what is at stake in key conceptual tensions identified. It is suggested that the differences of address and contrasting (disciplinary and conceptual) sites of intervention work in complementary ways to strengthen the broader project of embedding childhood studies within sociopolitical theories and practices.

Towards a renewed understanding of barriers to immigrant parents’ involvement in education

This article investigates Danish and Norwegian early childhood education and care teachers’ expectations of immigrant parents’ involvement in kindergarten. The findings are interpreted in terms of the multifaceted interplay between social class relations, culture, migration and hegemonic ideals of intensive parenting and concerted cultivation. By taking the early childhood education and care teachers’ standpoint, the article contributes a renewed understanding of previous reports of barriers to immigrant parents’ involvement in their children's education. Based on early childhood education and care teachers’ accounts, I identify three key tensions: (1) conflicting perceptions of responsibility, (2) conflicting perceptions of children's roles and how to communicate with children and (3) conflicting perceptions of what kindergarten is and what constitutes valuable knowledge. The findings suggest the existence of a distinct Nordic adaptation to intensive parenting, contradicting parts of the dominant understandings of concerted cultivation found in more school-oriented curricular contexts, such as the UK and France, while still maintaining the original key characteristics of concerted cultivation.

Decoding “decoloniality” in the academy: tensions and challenges in “decolonising” as a “new” language and praxis in British history and geography

ABSTRACT The academy in Britain has witnessed the rise of a “decolonial turn”, which ironically is set against the backdrop of persistent racial disparities amongst staff and students within higher education. Taking the cases of the disciplines of history and geography and drawing from qualitative interviews and focus groups among students and academics in these disciplines, this paper examines “decolonising” as– (a) a “new” language being articulated by various actors within the neoliberal university; and (b) an emergent praxis at the levels of learned societies, university departments and beyond, to address racialized inequalities and coloniality. This paper outlines some key tensions and challenges faced by “decoloniality” at both conceptual and practical levels, and overall suggests the need for an anti-racist collaborative effort to make meaningful “decolonial” changes within higher education in Britain.

“Frantic online searches for help”: design considerations for an online early intervention service addressing harmful sexual behaviour

ABSTRACT Secondary prevention efforts, which target risk and protective factors associated with harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) and seek to intervene early in the trajectory of HSB, are underdeveloped in Australia. This study explored design considerations for an online early intervention service for children and young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviours. A trauma-informed child right’s framework underpinned the study, which involved 10 individual interviews with international experts in HSB, and one group interview (n = 3) with Australian practitioners. Analysis was carried out using thematic analysis. Results reflect design considerations in relation to: theoretical approaches; practice frameworks; service delivery components; and helpseeking challenges. Key tensions emerging from the results are discussed, including the need to move beyond binary constructions of victims and perpetrators. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT: This paper has significant potential to influence practice in the field of harmful sexual behaviour prevention and response. The paper sets out the components of an early intervention online service for children and young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviours. The online service could be built and trialed for impact and efficacy in supporting children and young people not to sexually harm. It would be the first service of its kind in Australia and fill a gap in the current service delivery landscape.

Staff perspectives on barriers and enablers to implementing alternative source plasma eligibility criteria for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.

BackgroundCanadian Blood Services introduced new eligibility criteria that allows some sexually active gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) to donate source plasma, marking a significant change from time‐based deferral criteria. We aimed to identify potential barriers and enablers to implementing the new criteria from the perspective of donor center staff.Study Design and MethodsWe conducted Theoretical Domains Framework‐informed interviews with staff from two source plasma donation centers in Canada.ResultsWe completed 28 interviews between June 2020 and April 2021. Three themes representing eight domains captured key tensions. Valuing inclusive eligibility criteria: staff support inclusive criteria; many were concerned the new criteria remained discriminatory. Investing in positive donor experiences: staff wished to foster positive donor experiences; however, they worried gbMSM donors would express anger and disappointment regarding the new criteria, staff would experience unease over using stigmatizing criteria and convey nonverbal cues of discomfort, and recurring plasma donors may behave inappropriately. Supporting education, training, and transparency of eligibility criteria: participants believed providing in‐person training (i.e., to explain criteria rationale, address discomfort, practice responding to donor questions) and ensuring donors and the public were well‐informed of the upcoming changes would improve implementation.DiscussionParticipant views emphasize the importance of supporting staff through training and transparent communication to optimize the delivery of world‐class equitable care for a new cohort of donors who have previously been excluded from plasma donation. Findings inform which staff supports to consider to improve implementation as policies continue to shift internationally.

Dynamics of expectations in the bioeconomy—Hopes, disillusionments, and conflicting futures

Abstract The initial European Union bioeconomy policies have been criticized for their overriding economic emphasis at the cost of social and environmental sustainability. The updated policy aims to respond to more ambitious sustainability goals but fails to do so coherently. In this article, we examine the dynamics of bioeconomy expectations. We analyze the development of bioeconomy policy as a technoscientific imaginary by dissecting the changed expectations, their underlying tensions, and the directions to which their combinations guide policymaking. We find that the revised expectations are contradictory and culminate in two key tensions regarding the bioeconomy’s expected scale and socioeconomic paradigm. To enable assessment of the outcomes of conflicting expectations, we examine images of potential futures that rise up from combinations of the key tensions. For this, we use a framework of the four generic scenario narratives. The analysis provides a tool for reflection for assessing the directions and priorities of evolving bioeconomy discourse and policy.

What is digital transformation? Core tensions facing established companies on the global stage

AbstractResearch summaryDigital transformation is a dominant theme in the global economy, but what it means for established companies remains perplexing for both academics and practitioners. As digital erases familiar geographic, industrial, and organizational boundaries, it has led to simplistic characterizations such as “digital changes everything.” Yet while digital changes some things, others remain the same. Here, we identify three core tensions at the heart of digital transformation—products vs platforms, firms vs ecosystems, and people vs tools—and describe their underlying economics, driving forces, and countervailing forces. These tensions frame a concrete discussion of strategic alternatives for global companies. Overall, we emphasize that digital transformation is not an objective state, but rather a strategic choice by executives from an array of alternatives.Managerial summaryDigital transformation is a dominant theme in the global economy, but what it means remains perplexing for executives and academics. Pundits claim that “digital changes everything” and that leaders must “disrupt or be disrupted,” but is this really true for established companies serving robust customer needs on the global stage? Understanding what digital transformation means can be challenging as it breaks down familiar geographic, industrial, and organizational boundaries, creating new opportunities and threats. In this paper, we explore three key tensions at the heart of digital transformation—products vs platforms, firms vs ecosystems, and people vs tools—and enumerate their enabling and constraining forces. Building on these concrete constructs provides effective foundations for formulating digital transformation strategy.

The Procedural Right to a Remedy When the State has Left the Building? A Reflection on Armed Groups, Courts and Domestic Law

AbstractThis article analyses the procedural right to a remedy under human rights law when applied to armed groups controlling territory and exercising governance. Using the Al Hassan case before the International Criminal Court as a reference point and drawing on literature on rebel governance from other disciplines, the article conducts a critical review of the application of the right to a remedy to armed groups. Finding that the right to a procedural remedy applied to armed groups can be useful and realistic, the articles evaluates how the main tools of the right to a remedy (1) domestic law and (2) domestic courts, can and should be treated, when dealing with territory controlled by armed groups. Adopting a high-altitude perspective that identifies and discusses the dynamics within the discourse that resist recognition of armed groups’ law and courts under human rights law, the article highlights key tensions within the system of international law and reflects on what the legal framework, taken as a system, can expect and require from armed groups.