Matter Of Public Concern Research Articles

The Prosecution of Climate Change Dissent

A May 2015 op-ed in the Washington Post by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D. RI) accused the fossil fuel industry of “funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution. Their activities are often compared to those of Big Tobacco denying the health dangers of smoking. Big Tobacco’s denial scheme was ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise.” The Attorneys General of New York and Massachusetts began investigating Exxon Mobil because its chairmen expressed opinions such as - “Efforts to address climate change should focus on engineering methods to adapt to shifting weather patterns and rising sea levels rather than trying to eliminate use of fossil fuels.” We look at these two investigations through the lenses of the federal mail and wire fraud statutes (at issue in the racketeering case against big tobacco), and the First Amendment. We analyze the difficulty of prosecuting someone under the federal mail and wire fraud statutes for expressing an opinion, and discuss why scientific statements are more akin to opinions than statements of fact. We conclude that a case can be made against the Exxon chairmen only if the chairmen did not actually believe the opinions they uttered. Holding the chairmen to the standard of an expert, their opinions entail liability only if the opinions lacked a reasonable basis, or if the chairmen knew material facts, unknown to the public, which conflicted with their opinions. Even if the case could be made that the Exxon statements were not true, climate change is a matter of public concern and active public debate, so that even if the statements could be categorized as a form of commercial speech, the First Amendment would allow only counter speech as a remedy. We conclude that Sen. Whitehouse’s analogy to the tobacco case was misconceived, that it is highly unlikely that the Exxon statements can lead to RICO liability, or fraud liability of any kind, that there is no probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed, and that the AGs’ investigations are misconceived. Being lawyers (and since only one of us is also a meteorologist), we have focused on the law, and express no opinion regarding the existence of global warming or climate change.

Atmospheric pollution reduction effect and regional predicament: An empirical analysis based on the Chinese provincial NOx emissions

Atmospheric pollution emissions have become a matter of public concern in recent years. However, most of the existing researches on NOx pollution are from the natural science and technology perspective, few studies have been conducted from an economic point, and regional differences have not been given adequate attention. This paper adopts provincial panel data from 2006 to 2013 and the LMDI model to analyze the key driving factors and regional dilemmas of NOx emissions. The results show that significant regional disparities still exit on NOx emissions and its reduction effect 27 provinces didn't accomplish their corresponding reduction targets. Economic development factor is the dominating driving factor of NOx emissions during the study period, while energy efficiency and technology improvement factors offset total NOx emissions in the majority of provinces. In addition, the industrial structure factor plays a more significant role in reducing the NOx emissions after 2011. Therefore, the government should consider all these factors as well as regional heterogeneity in developing appropriate pollution mitigating policies. It's necessary to change NOx emissions control attitude from original key areas control to divided-zone control, not only attaches great importance to the reduction of the original key areas, but also emphasizes the new potential hotspots with high NOx emissions.

Measuring Affective Well-Being by the Combination of the Day Reconstruction Method and a Wearable Device: Case Study of an Aging and Depopulating Community in Japan

Affective well-being indicates the changes in the predominance of positive or negative affects of people in response to their daily experiences. For measuring affective well-being, people are usually asked to indicate their affective states in several episodes that they experienced in a day. However, such conventional methods have been problematic in terms of their burdensomeness on participants and the validity of the rating. To overcome these problems, we attempted to introduce a new approach for measuring affective states, based on the combination of the day reconstruction method and the measurement of physiological stress levels by a wristband-type wearable device. As the indicator of physiological stress levels, we used heart rate variability calculated from the data recorded by the device. We examined the interpretability of the physiological stress level as a substitute for affective states by applying this combinational approach to an aging and depopulating village in Japan, because the well-being of the residents in such areas is a matter of public concern. As a result, we could depict the sources of affective well-being and the physiological stressors in the village. We also found a reasonable, but weak, correlation between the scores of affective states and the indicator of physiological stress levels. We discussed the challenges that should be overcome for utilizing the physiological stress level as a substitute for affective state.

Contamination status and accumulation characteristics of heavy metals and arsenic in five seabird species from the central Bering Sea.

Seabirds are marine top predators and accumulate high levels of metals and metalloids in their tissues. Contamination by metals in the highly productive offshore region has become a matter of public concern. It is home to 80% of the seabird population in the U.S.A., 95% of northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus), and major populations of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) and whales. Here, the concentrations of eight heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb) and a metalloid (As) in the liver and kidneys of the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia), short-tailed shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris), tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) and horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata) collected in the Bering Sea were measured. As proxies of trophic level and habitat, nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) stable isotope ratios of breast muscles were also measured. Hepatic Hg concentration was high in northern fulmar, whereas Cd level was high in tufted puffin and northern fulmar. The Hg concentration and δ15N value were positively correlated across individual birds, suggesting that Hg uptake was linked to the trophic status of consumed prey. Furthermore, Hg concentration in our study was higher than those of the same species of seabirds collected in 1990.

Potential impacts of transatlantic trade negotiations on the EU environmental policy

The current EU—US negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) may result in a comprehensive agreement which will be able to shape not only the traditional trade agenda but will cover a set of non-trade matters as well. Specifically, the environmental impacts as a matter of public concern are at the centre of attention of both the academia and the civil society. The proposed paper intends to analyse two aspects of the likely implications which could be triggered by the future transatlantic agreement. First, the policy level of the analysis is focusing on the question of how the contracting parties will integrate the environmental concerns into the agreement and how these concerns could be reconciled with the standard trade concerns and principles. Second, the TTIP could also have a direct impact on the environmental regulation; for this reason, the paper will also focus on the regulatory level. The paper concludes that a carefully planned agreement will not constrain the polic...

SPATIAL-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA DATA RELATED TO NEPAL EARTHQUAKE 2015

Social Medias these days have become the instant communication platform to share anything; from personal feelings to the matter of public concern, these are the easiest and aphoristic way to deliver information among the mass. With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, more and more emphasis has been given to user input in the web; the concept of Geoweb is being visualized and in the recent years, social media like Twitter, Flicker are among the popular Location Based Social Medias with locational functionality enabled in them. Nepal faced devastating earthquake on 25 April, 2015 resulting in the loss of thousands of lives, destruction in the historical-archaeological sites and properties. Instant help was offered by many countries around the globe and even lots of NGOs, INGOs and people started the rescue operations immediately; concerned authorities and people used different communication medium like Frequency Modulation Stations, Television, and Social Medias over the World Wide Web to gather information associated with the Quake and to ease the rescue activities. They also initiated campaign in the Social Media to raise the funds and support the victims. Even the social medias like Facebook, Twitter, themselves announced the helping campaign to rebuild Nepal. In such scenario, this paper features the analysis of Twitter data containing hashtag related to Nepal Earthquake 2015 together with their temporal characteristics, when were the message generated, where were these from and how these spread spatially over the internet?

Free Speech and Democracy in the Video Age

The pervasiveness of digital video image capture by large segments of the public has produced a wide range of interesting social challenges, but also presents provocative new opportunities for free speech, transparency, and the promotion of democracy. The opportunity to gather and disseminate images, facilitated by the reduced expense and easy access to camera phones and other hand-held recording devices, decentralizes political power in transformative ways. But other uses of this technology represent potentially significant intrusions on property rights and personal privacy. This tension creates a substantial dilemma for policymakers and theorists who care about both free speech and privacy. Because of these putative social interests, laws governing video image capture are becoming more widespread across a number of different regulatory regimes, from Federal Aviation Administration regulations of drone recordings to bans on recordings of police officers performing their duties to so-called Ag-Gag laws, which criminalize the video recording of incidents of animal abuse at commercial agricultural facilities. In this Article, we examine constitutional theory and doctrine as applied to emerging government regulations of video image capture and propose a framework that will promote free speech to the fullest extent possible without presenting unnecessary intrusions into privacy interests.The Article first argues that video recording is a form of expression or, at the very least, is conduct that serves as a necessary precursor of expression such that it counts as speech within the meaning of the First Amendment. We continue with the novel argument that none of the features that make video recording a form of speech apply differently when the recording takes place on private property. Next, we examine under what circumstances video recording is constitutionally protected. We claim that video recording in public places or on private property with the consent of those recorded is presumptively protected speech under the First Amendment. But we also argue that the right to record attaches even when the recording is nonconsensual and occurs on private property, as long as the material recorded is a matter of public concern. While we acknowledge that the First Amendment does not limit the enforceability of generally applicable prohibitions on access to private property, we nonetheless suggest that a recording of activity that is a matter of public concern and is done by someone who is lawfully present on that private property is protected speech.That is not to say that all regulation of such recordings violates the First Amendment, and we therefore address when countervailing governmental interests might justify limitations on the right to record, including tangible property interests and reasonable privacy expectations. Throughout this part, we draw on examples of laws regulating video recordings to suggest how our proposed model for a right to record would apply in context. The First Amendment model developed in this.

Fifty Years of Technological Innovation: Potential and Limitations of Current Technologies in Abdominal Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important modality for the diagnosis of intra-abdominal pathology. Hardware and pulse sequence developments have made it possible to derive not only morphologic but also functional information related to organ perfusion (dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI), oxygen saturation (blood oxygen level dependent), tissue cellularity (diffusion-weighted imaging), and tissue composition (spectroscopy). These techniques enable a more specific assessment of pathologic lesions and organ functionality. Magnetic resonance imaging has thus transitioned from a purely morphologic examination to a modality from which image-based disease biomarkers can be derived. This fits well with several emerging trends in radiology, such as the need to accurately assess response to costly treatment strategies and the need to improve lesion characterization to potentially avoid biopsy. Meanwhile, the cost-effectiveness, availability, and robustness of computed tomography (CT) ensure its place as the current workhorse for clinical imaging. Although the lower soft tissue contrast of CT relative to MRI is a long-standing limitation, other disadvantages such as ionizing radiation exposure have become a matter of public concern. Nevertheless, recent technical developments such as dual-energy CT or dynamic volume perfusion CT also provide more functional imaging beyond morphology.The aim of this article was to review and discuss the most important recent technical developments in abdominal MRI and state-of-the-art CT, with an eye toward the future, providing examples of their clinical utility for the evaluation of hepatic and renal pathologies.

The home education of girls in the eighteenth-century novel: ‘the pernicious effects of an improper education’

This essay explores the relationship between theories of domestic pedagogy as articulated in eighteenth-century conduct books, and fictional representations of home education in novels of the period. The fictional discussions of domestic pedagogy interrogate eighteenth-century assumptions about the innate superiority of a domestic education for women. In so doing, they participate in a much wider eighteenth-century and Regency-period debate about the proper role of women in public life. In order to make the argument that a woman’s education was vital to the public welfare of the nation, writers from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jane Austen shifted the grounds of the debate, making the previously private into a matter of public concern. Early eighteenth-century ideals of domestic education, which kept women firmly in the private sphere, therefore began to seem outdated.

Mitigating Production Practices and Antibiotics Use in Meat Industries Prone to Economies of Scale by Institutional Novelties, Marketing and Voluntary Actions

<p>Achieving improved standards in animal husbandry (including less use of antibiotics) through appropriate interventions has become a matter of public concern. It is currently both, hot­ly debated and a challenge for food economics. The question is: how can one achi­eve change in a given environment of property rights and interests? This paper offers a novel appro­ach inten­ded for conflict solving in meat industries which are prone to economies of scale, which are under interna­tional and com­petitive pricing and which experience structural change. In parti­cu­lar, in case of: (i) economies of scale favouring large-scale production and high stocking den­sities (sup­ported by increased antibiotic use), (ii) political power about resistance to regu­late (avoiding strong interference), but also in contrast to (iii) consumers' wishes and willing­ness to pay (WTP for a change in production modes), there is a problem of coordination and institutions. In this article, the issue is delineated as a problem of political bargaining and cre­ating marketing channels (bro­ker and ag­ency) which shall actively pursue promotion of reduc­ed antibiotics use (specifically through redu­ced stocking density) as well as negotiations on compen­sations (for cost increase). Produ­cers are outlined with regards to scheme participation along willingness to ac­ce­pt (WTA). Stocking density reduction is used as proxi for more healthy an­i­­mal rearing met­hods. We establish interest functions and show how a bargain can be modelled in the tradition of Zusman’s political economy. Barga­in­ing involves power coef­fi­ci­ents for brokerage (premium sharing) as well as an agency (called FSA); the ag­ency is modelled as a bureaucracy op­timizing modified costs and benefits. In fact, the agency maxi­mi­zes its budget and ensures participation of willing producers to join programs. Finally we refer to ways how to solve the issue in modes of political economy models. The assumption is that asym­metric information prevails and consumers are willing to pay (WTP) for healthy food.</p>

Regional differences of pollution emissions in China: contributing factors and mitigation strategies

Pollution emissions have become a matter of public concern in recent years. However, the vast majority of existing researches on PM2.5 pollution are from the natural science perspective, and few studies have been conducted from an economic point of view. This paper adopts provincial panel data from 2001 to 2012 and panel data models to analyze the key driving forces of PM2.5 emissions at the regional level in China. The results show that economic growth is a decisive factor of PM2.5 emissions. The impacts of urbanization on PM2.5 emissions vary across regions and decrease continuously from the central region to the western and eastern regions. The effects of private cars and coal consumption on PM2.5 emissions in the eastern region are greater than that in the central and western regions because of significant differences in R&D investment, private car ownership and total coal consumption. Energy efficiency improvement has greater potential to mitigate PM2.5 emissions in the central and western regions than that in the eastern region due to its low level of technology. Hence, in order to effectively reduce emissions, the Chinese government should consider all these factors as well as regional heterogeneity in developing appropriate mitigation policies.

The Politicization of Religion by the CCP: A Selective Retrieval

AbstractThis essays looks at the diversity of approaches used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its politicization of religions. It first provides an overview of continuity with past practices by the Chinese state in the imperial and republican eras to stress the undetermined nature of ideological change in China. Then, it looks at the mechanisms by which the CCP makes religion a political issue and a matter of public concern within broader agendas. It stresses that this politicization of religions has unfolded in two different ways since 1949: besides the negative and coercive approach of the authorities, positive and cooperative strategy are also implemented. The regime hopes religions will be active politically to promote its objectives, such as projecting abroad an image of China’s soft power, raising funds for philanthropic activities within China, or supporting the state ‘patriotic’ agenda. The actions by the CCP suggest that it does not look at all religions as equally valuable to serve its political objectives, as it still maintains a distinction between official and banned religions. The article documents that the state’s encouragement to the revival of some religious activities is selective but on the other hand that CCP views are more nuanced than outsiders assume.

High Value Lies, Ugly Truths, and the First Amendment

Lying has a complicated relationship with the First Amendment. It is beyond question that some lies – such as perjury or pretending to be a police officer – are not covered by the First Amendment. But it is equally clear that some lies, even intentionally lying about military honors, are entitled to First Amendment protection. U.S. v. Alvarez, 132 S. Ct. 2537 (2012). To date, however, both Supreme Court doctrine and academic commentary has taken for granted that any constitutional protection for lies is purely prophylactic – it protects the liar to avoid chilling truthful speech. This Article is the first to argue, contrary to conventional wisdom, that certain types of lies paradoxically advance the values underlying the First Amendment. Our framework is descriptively novel and doctrinally important insofar as we provide the first comprehensive post-Alvarez look at the wide range of lies that may raise First Amendment issues. Because there was no majority opinion in Alvarez, there is uncertainty about which standard of constitutional scrutiny should apply to protected lies, an issue we examine at length. Moreover, our normative claim is straightforward: when a lie has intrinsic or instrumental value it should be treated differently from other types of lies and warrant the greatest constitutional protection. Specifically, we argue that investigative deceptions – lies used to secure truthful factual information about matters of public concern – deserve the utmost constitutional protection because they advance the underling purposes of free speech: they enhance political discourse, help reveal the truth, and promote individual autonomy. A prototypical investigative deception is the sort of misrepresentation required in order for an undercover journalist, investigator, or activist to gain access to information or images of great political significance that would not be available if the investigator disclosed her reporting or political objectives. Tactical use of such lies have a long history in American journalism and activism, from Upton Sinclair to his modern day heirs. Using the proliferation of anti-whistleblower statutes like Ag Gag laws as an illustrative example, we argue that investigative deceptions are a category of high value lies that ought to receive rigorous protection under the First Amendment. At the same time, we recognize that not all lies are alike and that in other areas, the government regulation of lies serves legitimate interests. We therefore conclude the Article by drawing some limiting principles to our theory.

Personal Foul, Roughing the Speaker: The Illusory War between the Establishment Clause & College Football

Under the current landscape of First Amendment free speech and Establishment Clause jurisprudence, the boundaries of permissible speech at the university level has not been decided by the Supreme Court. While public employees have the right to speak out on matters of public concern and religious speech cannot be excluded from government property under the premise that it represents viewpoint discrimination, the exact boundaries of employee speech regarding religious matters is uncertain at best. Further, the Court’s Establishment Clause doctrine, although appearing to move toward adoption of the coercion test, is muddled with conflicting tests and ideologies. What happens when these rights so valuable and vital to the Constitution, intersect has not been settled by the Supreme Court. Several recent trends in collegiate football have raised serious issues regarding this uncertainty, as head coaches at major collegiate athletic programs seek to exercise their right to speak on matters of religion to players. Their speech raises Establishment Clause concerns for fear that students will be coerced to participate or acquiesce to the coach’s desires.This article proposes a method for resolving these differences. In Part I, I will analyze the background law governing public employee’s free speech claims, the intersection between the freedom of speech and the Establishment Clause, and whether coercive speech falls outside the realm of constitutional protection. In addition, I will provide background on the Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence regarding the Coercion test, as well as the implications of the recent case of Town of Greece v. Galloway. In Part II, I will set out the views of several Circuit Courts of Appeals on the issue. In Part III, I explain why religious speech is a matter of public concern, and why the Coercion Test represents the best tool for analyzing potential Establishment Clause violations at the university level. In Part IV, I will separately analyze the issue of prayer using the same methodology. Finally, in Part V I will set out my test for a violation with regard to employee speech in the university context, namely that the coercion test, where coercion is defined as either mandatory presence at an event, religious service, or some other instance that represents a blatant and clear violation of the Establishment Clause, or the imposition of harmful punishments or consequences for disagreement or non-participation, represents the proper test. I will then apply this test to several real life examples in the world of college football.

Effect of the Work Performed by Tourism Carriage Horses on Physiological and Blood Parameters

Welfare of working horses is a matter of public concern, with scarce information on their possible physiological coping mechanisms. The aim of this study was to assess changes in possible physiological welfare indicators in working horses, as a result of pulling tourism carriages under field conditions. A descriptive field study of the work performed by tourism carriage horses and their physiological, hematological, and blood biochemistry implications was performed. For this, 10 tourism carriage horses were studied under normal working conditions. For description of work, speed, distance, and force were calculated. To assess welfare, physiological variables including heart rate, respiratory rate, rectal temperature, and hematological and blood biochemistry parameters were evaluated before, during, and after work. Results show that tourism carriage horses exerted a submaximal effort in terms of speed, force, and physiological variables assessed. The heart and respiratory rate showed significant increases (P < .05) after work, but recovered to basal values within the first 10 minutes. Blood variables did not show significant changes that could be related to poor welfare. Lactate and packed cell volume (PCV) were the only blood variables with significant differences across work (P < .05) with lactate decreasing over time and PCV increasing with work and returning to basal levels at 10 minutes after work. Physiological variables showed a possible adaptation to work by the carriage horses but were not sufficient to diagnose a welfare problem. Management practices and other animal-based indicators should be included in further studies to obtain a holistic conclusion.

The paternal genome and the health of the assisted reproductive technology child

As a number of children born by assisted reproductive technology (ART) are increasing each year across the developed world, the health of such offspring is a matter of public concern. Does the integrity of the paternal genome impact on offspring health? In societal terms, as birth rates fall, and the Western population become unsustainable, do the benefits outweigh the costs of creating and providing for this ART conceived subpopulation? There are little data to date to answer these questions. The long-term health of such children has largely been ignored, and success measured only by early (prebirth) outcomes such as embryo quality or pregnancy. However, there are powerful paradigms such as ageing and smoking that give vital clues as to the potential impact of unhealthy spermatozoa on disease risk, mental and physical health, fertility and mortality of these offspring.

A deliberative public sphere? Picturing Portuguese political blogs

Deliberative democracies are based on the principle of citizens’ participation. However, election turnouts and citizens’ alienation are signs of a political disengagement that could endanger the foundations of democratic systems. The spaces in which political debate and rational argumentation between equals may take place have diminished, yet new digital technologies have brought up potentialities in the promotion of online, horizontal and deliberative communication. Political blogs have been one of the most studied platforms, as they allow citizens engaged in political discussion and argumentation to establish a public sphere in which matters of public concern are debated. Nonetheless, issues of political polarization, fragmentation and non-rational debate have also been pointed out to limit the most optimistic perspectives over political blogs. By using the social network analysis, this paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Portuguese political blogs, by assessing its level of deliberation.

Estimating the benefits of recreation-oriented management in state-owned commercial forests in Finland: A choice experiment

Abstract As forestlands provide a variety of environmental services, the management of forest resources is a matter of public concern. In the present case of state-owned commercial forests in Finland, legislation requires specific management practices to enhance recreational benefits free of charge to the public. This choice experiment considers Finnish people's valuation of the recreation-oriented management of state-owned commercial forests to evaluate whether the recreational benefits produced justify the related loss of profits from timber sales. We focus on three management attributes: scenic buffer zones along lakes and rivers, habitats for game birds, and the quality of scenery as reflected by the frequency of clear-cut areas along hiking trails. Marginal willingness-to-pay (WTP) effects for the attributes are estimated with random parameters logit models specified in the WTP space, while preference-space models are used to estimate in physical terms the attribute levels that maximize the benefits to the public. Despite regional differences in preferences, people in all parts of Finland valued the current recreation-oriented management of state-owned commercial forests considerably. Nationwide, the aggregate benefits of recreation-enhancing management clearly exceeded the estimated opportunity costs. The most preferred levels of management attributes were slightly above the current levels, suggesting an increase in the provision of recreational services when not considering the associated costs.

The Religious and Social Significance of Self-Assigned Religious Affiliation in England and Wales: Comparing Christian, Muslim and Religiously-Unaffiliated Adolescent Males

This study examines the religious and social significance of self-assigned religious affiliation among young people in England and Wales by investigating religious beliefs and the connection between religion and matters of public concern among a sample of 547 adolescent males between 16 and 18 years of age, distinguishing between three religious groups: Christian, Muslim, and non-affiliated. First, the analysis identified eight themes concerning religious beliefs: the Bible, the Qur'an, Jesus, Muhammad, Jesus and justice, Muhammed and justice, experiencing God, and the theology of religions. Second, the analysis identified six themes concerning the connection between religion and matters of public concern: religion and personal life, religion and public life, religion and the state, social rights, the rights of women and children, and sex and morality. The data highlighted some areas of commonality and some areas of strong divergence between the three groups, demonstrating how the religious and social significance of self-assigned religious affiliation hold salience in some areas rather than others.

Multiple Interruptions: Creative Encounters in Public Art and Public Pedagogy, A North–South Dialogue

This conversation began with a community arts project initiated in a poor area of Leuven, Belgium, and inspired by Paul Klee’s “taking the line for a walk” (Couchez, 2012, p. 104). As educators committed to deepening democracy and believing that art can play an important role in the creation of new perspectives on how to deal with matters of public concern, we embarked on a conversation based on an initiative that aimed at change through arts education. Our commonality resides in a commitment to research and critical pedagogy in the tradition of education for social justice, yet we came to the conversation from different backgrounds: the South African author of this article (Astrid von Kotze) draws on experiences rooted in educational practices in South Africa. Both her academic and community development activism are rooted within the Freirean notion of praxis: community education practice and theory are closely aligned so that learning experiences translate into transformative action. The European author (Danny Wildemeersch) is located in a research tradition where a direct, activist link to educational practice is not so obvious. The academy demands a rigorous theoretical framework as a starting point for research and he works abductively, using theory to make sense of practice and vice versa.