Meaningful Dialogue Research Articles

The Role of the Social and Environmental Accounting Community ‘Post’ Pandemic

ABSTRACT Given the urgent need for change that has become even more evident during the pandemic, it seems fitting to critically reflect on our responsibilities as scholars, educators and colleagues, individually and as members of a purposeful, supportive community, in facilitating a more sustainable world. We share a roundtable discussion that was part of the 13th Spanish CSEAR conference in hopes that the conversation will continue within the community regarding some of the perceived roles, opportunities and responsibilities post-pandemic. The perspectives shared are from a group of scholars at different stages in their careers, who have different profiles, and see their responsibilities differently. These individual and collective perspectives address personal and professional aspirations, the focus and purpose of research, and the role of CSEAR as we move into the future. Hopefully by sharing perspectives from different vantage points ranging from the beginning to the end of the ‘academic life cycle’, we can stimulate and facilitate meaningful dialogue and debate within, and about the future of, our community leading to a more resilient, active, caring, supportive, inspiring, encouraging and helpful environment and more effectively further the transition to a more sustainable world.

Scale, evidence, and community participation matter: lessons in effective and legitimate adaptive governance from decision making for Menindee Lakes in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin

Rivers and their interdependent human communities form social-ecologically complex systems that reflect basin scale functionally but are often governed by spatially mismatched governance systems. Accounting for this complexity requires flexible adaptive governance systems supported by legitimacy in decision-making processes. Meaningful community dialogue, information exchange, transparency, and scientific rigor are essential to this process. We examined failings in the adaptive governance of the Menindee Lakes system, a major Australian wetland system on the Barka/Darling River of the Murray-Darling Basin. Ecological sustainability of the Menindee Lakes was a casualty of a top-down governance, driven by the New South Wales Government in pursuit of “water savings” for the Murray-Darling Basin, a large scale, federally influenced region. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze long-term social-ecological impacts and stakeholder perceptions of adaptive governance. State and federal government agencies failed basic processes of adaptive governance, ignoring local environmental sustainability in pursuit of basin scale objectives at great cost to governments, communities, humans, and non-humans. This resulted in the development of an ineffective, technocratic solution that lacked community input, leading to a complete loss of support by local communities, including traditional owners. We emphasize the importance of elements of scale in adaptive governance projects, if such projects are going to be effective and legitimate with consequences of coarse commitments to large spatial scale political and environmental objectives.

Прасковья Семеновна Воробьева-Владимирова ‒ екатеринодарский корреспондент и критик А. М. Ремизова

The paper explores the assessment of Alexey Remizov’s works of the 1910s by a journalist and critic, Praskovya Semenovna Vorobieva-Vladimirova. Some analytical articles about the writer’s work published on the pages of the Ekaterinodar newspaper “The Kuban Courier” have been identified and analyzed. The specifics of the perception of Remizov’s artistic heritage in the context of the editorial policy of this newspaper is considered in brief reports, notes, and review articles devoted to the latest works of Russian literature. The paper also describes the approaches and interests of the correspondents of “The Kuban Courier” in covering the features of the modern literary process. Attention is also paid to the professional interests of Vorobieva-Vladimirova as a leading collaborator, observer, and critic of Central Russia magazines. The analysis of a collection of letters for the first time introduced into scholarly circulation revealed the specifics of early personal and creative contacts between Vorobieva-Vladimirova and Remizov. A significant part of the letters reveals the interest in the literary personality and legacy of Remizov. Also, they unveil the attempts of a provincial correspondent already recognized in professional circles and known among readers in southern Russia to enter the St. Petersburg world of the daily press and establish creative contacts with writers. Such cooperation between a writer and a critic based on meaningful epistolary dialogue is a rare example in the history of literary relations.

Leopold, Husserl, Darwin and the Possibility of Intercultural Dialogue

J. Baird Callicott et al. have argued that Aldo Leopold developed a descriptive technique that has something in common with phenomenology and that it would not be farfetched to explore A Sand County Almanac as a kind of Heideggerian clearing in which usually unnoticed beings come to light. They further suggest that Leopold describes animal others as fellow subjects who co-constitute the world and that through his method of observation, description, and reflection Leopold reveals a “multi-perspective experience of a common environment” that discloses an inter-species intersubjectivity comparable to Husserl’s more formal descriptions of intersubjectivity. I shall argue that the similarities between Husserl and Leopold are stronger and deeper than Callicott et al. suggest. Husserl’s method is designed to expose what has been hidden by “ideological positivism,” while Leopold’s method is designed to reveal what has been concealed by what he labels “conventional physics. Both agree that what we might today call a “scientistic worldview” denies, devalues, and dismisses subjectivity, meaning, and value from rational discourse. In Husserl’s view this leads to cultural crisis and barbarism, while in Leopold’s view it leads to ecological catastrophe. For Husserl the only alternative is a cultural renewal rooted in a rethinking of the dominant scientistic worldview while for Leopold the alternative lies in the construction of a new ethical system. These two alternatives are deeply compatible. Finally, I will discuss the ways in which Husserl’s understanding of the intentionality of our subjective experiences and Leopold’s integration of the evolutionary and ecological kinship of humans and non-humans with the social sciences have important implications for the possibility of intercultural understanding and dialogue and thereby allow us to overcome the thesis of incommensurability that denies the possibility of meaningful intercultural understanding and dialogue.

Developing and Testing Digital Ethical Reflection in Long-Term Care: Nurses' Experiences.

Nurses working in municipal long-term care face ethical challenges that can lead to moral distress and discomfort for the nurse and affect the quality of patient care. Tools and methods that contribute to increased ethical awareness and support for nurses dealing with moral issues are lacking. Technological innovations may be suitable for ethics work, but little research has been conducted on how such solutions could be designed or their potential benefit. Therefore, this study contributes knowledge about the development and testing of a digital tool for ethics support among nurses. To investigate how digital ethical reflection can support ethics work among nurses working in long-term care. A digital ethical reflection tool was designed and tested in nursing homes and home nursing care in collaboration with two Norwegian municipalities. The study used sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. Over a 6-week period, at the end of each shift, nurses digitally reported the ethical challenges they had experienced. Their responses and experiences were described using descriptive statistics. Additionally, focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (TA). During the study period, 17 nurses reported a total of 223 registrations, with 24.8% stating that they had been in an ethically difficult situation. The digital reporting was perceived as practically applicable and helped to increase nurses' awareness of morally charged situations. The value of the registrations was found to depend on manager participation and the application of the obtained information. The participating nurses become aware that they lacked an arena for meaningful dialogue with and recognition from their manager. Information obtained through digital reflection can form the basis for ethical reflections at the departmental level. Digital reflection has the potential to become a tool for managers in their support for employees facing ethical challenges when providing long-term care.

Democratic Setback in Pakistan: Challenges, Implications, and Way Forward

This article explores the various aspects of the decline of democracy in Pakistan, which is a crucial subject with important consequences both within the country and on the global stage. Pakistan's democratic progress has been characterized by a succession of obstacles, alternating between periods of civilian governance and military administrations. This paper aims to examine the fundamental factors behind these disturbances in democratic systems, with a specific focus on the recent occurrences that have contributed to the current state of vulnerability in democratic governance. This analysis explores the complex relationship between political instability, governance challenges, the significant influence of the military, economic fluctuations, restrictions on media, and the deterioration of civil liberties. The study additionally provides a comparison analysis with other countries that have encountered comparable democratic obstacles, extracting insights and tactics that could be relevant to the Pakistani situation. The paper highlights the importance of a collaborative endeavour to develop a durable democratic culture, pushing for enduring strategies rather than temporary solutions. The primary objective of this article is to offer a thorough analysis of the democratic obstacles in Pakistan and to facilitate meaningful dialogues and effective approaches toward a more stable and democratic future.

Democratic Setback in Pakistan: Challenges, Implications, and Way Forward

This article explores the various aspects of the decline of democracy in Pakistan, which is a crucial subject with important consequences both within the country and on the global stage. Pakistan's democratic progress has been characterized by a succession of obstacles, alternating between periods of civilian governance and military administrations. This paper aims to examine the fundamental factors behind these disturbances in democratic systems, with a specific focus on the recent occurrences that have contributed to the current state of vulnerability in democratic governance. This analysis explores the complex relationship between political instability, governance challenges, the significant influence of the military, economic fluctuations, restrictions on media, and the deterioration of civil liberties. The study additionally provides a comparison analysis with other countries that have encountered comparable democratic obstacles, extracting insights and tactics that could be relevant to the Pakistani situation. The paper highlights the importance of a collaborative endeavour to develop a durable democratic culture, pushing for enduring strategies rather than temporary solutions. The primary objective of this article is to offer a thorough analysis of the democratic obstacles in Pakistan and to facilitate meaningful dialogues and effective approaches toward a more stable and democratic future.

A Boat Is a Boat Is a Boat…Unless It Is a Horse – Rethinking the Role of Typology

Abstract Today, it is widely accepted that typology is a biased and inconsistent attempt to classify archaeological material based on the similarity of a predefined set of features. In this respect, machine learning (ML) works similar to typology. ML approaches are often deployed because it is thought that they reduce biases. However, biases are introduced into the process at many points, e.g., feature selection. In a project applying ML to Scandinavian rock art data, it was noticed that the algorithm struggles with classifying certain motifs correctly. This contribution discusses the consistency in applying biases by ML in contrast to the inconsistency of human classification. It is argued that it is necessary to bring machines and humans into a meaningful dialogue attempting to understand why apparent “misclassifications” happen. This is important to inform us about the classification output, our biases, and the rock art data, which are in themself inconsistent, ambiguous, and biased because they are the outcomes of human creativity. The human inconsistency is a necessary component because in rock art not everything that looks similar has a similar meaning.

Corporate Social Responsibility on Twitter: A Review of Topics and Digital Communication Strategies’ Success Factors

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important for companies in recent years. On the one hand, regulatory frameworks require the disclosure of measures for sustainable management. On the other hand, for long-term corporate success, stakeholders must be strategically engaged in the dialog on sustainability aspects. Social media and Twitter in particular offer the potential to foster a meaningful stakeholder dialogue on CSR topics. Twitter’s strategic realignment due to Elon Musk’s acquisition in the fall of 2022, provides an opportunity to capture research results on activities and strategies on the platform systematically, and to synthesize information for future comparative longitudinal studies of changes in usage. We conducted a literature review including 42 papers to contribute to the body of evidence on CSR communication strategies on Twitter across industries and countries, by deriving interdisciplinary suggestions for strategic CSR-related stakeholder management. Results cover relevant CSR topics, prioritized stakeholder groups for CSR communication on Twitter, and successful communication strategies for companies to obtain beneficial results, such as generating social media capital. The results contribute to the strategic planning and implementation of CSR stakeholder management on Twitter, and offer starting points for future studies on social-media mining and CSR communication strategies.

Educating selves in a tech addicted age.

In this paper we argue that, if it is true that maximum self-development is better both for individuals and society, and if it is true that that self-development is being seriously curtailed by pervasive environmental tech forces, then clearly educational systems, since they are guardians of “developing” young humans, have a moral imperative to push back against forces that diminish the self. On the other hand, if it is not true that “more self is always better,” that perhaps “goodness of fit” between self and society is optimum, then education systems are justified in continuing to pay scant attention to the forces of self-development (or lack thereof). In line with Sherry Turkle’s (2011) argument that tech forces are diminishing the sort of reflective reasoning necessary for self-development, we will argue that since communicative interchange is necessary for self-development, and an ever-developing self is necessary for ever deeper and more meaningful dialogue (hence forming a dialectic), the fact that social media and other forms of tech connection stunts deep and meaningful interchange has serious implications. Specifically, we will argue that, in contemporary high-tech society (what we are calling Society 2.0), the dialectic between self and communication is going the “wrong” way; that genuine dialogue is becoming ever more rare, which in turn is resulting in “diminished-I’s,” which in turn is resulting in ever more complacency in the face of utterly superficial communicative interchange. We will begin with an overview of what we mean by a “diminished-I,” and then follow by noting how social media, the reading vacuum, roboticism, crowd communication, and decreasing social capital are resulting in diminished-I’s. Since this is resulting in an “I-diminished” society, we will reflect on the question of whether those dialogical educational initiatives that promote self-development are, in fact, making dodos, i.e., making youngsters unfit for the environment in which they find themselves. Ultimately, we will argue that, if educators choose to fight back against the I-diminishing forces of Society 2.0, they need to take selves seriously and actively engage youngsters in dialogue with those with opposing viewpoints. Ultimately, youngsters in Society 2.0 will need all the assistance educators can muster to fight the addictive, literally mind-numbing forces of being “happily” “alone together,” and instead chose the riskier often unhappy-making option of diving into the truth-seeking process with varying coalitions of the willing.

Transition as one step on a transformational journey

Developing a sense of belonging is intimately linked to a successful transition and to student. The pandemic has acerbated existing problems with students across the sector reporting difficulties connecting with each other and their universities. This paper reports a simple activity to encourage meaningful dialogue between students and teachers in the first weeks of study. The ‘My journey’ activity involves students and teachers discussing key points and decisions in their educational journeys. It has been successfully used in-class, and synchronously and asynchronously online. The journeys are also captured through an interactive map to celebrate diversity.

Opening the Door: Using Pluralism as a Philosophical Lens in the Jazz History Classroom

An introductory jazz history course is an opportunity to create meaningful dialogue with students that adds a necessary nuance to the common narrative of jazz history. To capitalize on this opportunity, instructors must understand the limitations of a traditional approach and realize that their student body does not enter the classroom deficient. Instead, a shift in perspective from fine arts to humanities allows students to bring their own backgrounds to a philosophical discussion that centers on jazz history. Using pluralism as a specific philosophical lens allows a diverse and inclusive understanding of jazz that can be extrapolated to a larger human experience. Instructors can use the breadth of pluralism at specific landmarks in their curriculum to allow jazz to be observed through sociology, culture, and the human condition. The exclusionary barriers formed from over-simplification can be eliminated by this cognitive understanding of jazz and instead students will synthesize the wide array of opinions associated with the music. By opening the philosophical door, students will have a more well-rounded introduction to jazz history that will serve them as musicians and human beings.

8.G. Workshop: European Health Data Space: Dialogue on TEHDAS JA data quality & semantic interoperability proposals

Abstract The EU Data Strategy foresees the development of shared European data infrastructures, enabling cross-border exchange and availability of comparable and high-quality data. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is the first of these infrastructures to be launched, making use of the potential of health and social data for the purpose of advancing public health, research and innovation. Quality of digital health data has been the focus of research and debate for a long time and several proposals for improvement have been put forward. While these efforts are ongoing, secondary use or re-use of health data, combined with recent developments in data analytics, AI and real-world data (RWD), have raised new requirements on our understanding of data quality and the means for its assurance. Both the European Commission and Member States have underlined the need to support EU and national authorities, as well as the scientific community to agree on interoperability guidelines addressing data quality and semantic interoperability. The TEHDAS Joint Action has responded to these expectations through work undertaken in the context of WP6 - Excellence in data quality. With expected delivery deadline early 2023, the EUPHA conference offers an excellent platform to present the draft forthcoming proposals to the public health community and engage in meaningful dialogue with participants. Key members of the WP6 team will present the process through which the TEHDAS JA recommendations on data quality and semantic interoperability have been developed, the results achieved thus far and the remaining open questions. The workshop discussion section will allow the JA team to collect direct input and feedback for utilization in the production of the final version of the deliverables. Key messages • Increased awareness and understanding of background and rational of forthcoming proposals on data quality and semantic interoperability in the European Health Data Space. • Opportunity to raise concerns and proposals for improvement and thus have a direct impact on the final TEHDAS JA output on data quality.

Accepting change as part of organisational life

This article proposes a new concept, co-change-orientated communication (co-COC), whichencapsulates the daily social and communication processes of organisational members inmaking sense of change from a critical strategic communication perspective. Guided by anevolutionary approach to concept development, this article aims to quantitatively measure thepragmatic relevance of identified attributes and antecedents of co-COC to the development ofa fully-fledged concept at six high-change South African organisations. An exploratory factoranalysis confirmed that co-COC is attributed by meaningful dialogue, employee engagement,collaboration and co-creation, and the encouragement of dissent. It is bottom-up in nature andenabled by the antecedents of organisational agility, leadership agility, a change-able cultureand stakeholder engagement. Co-COC further extends theoretical development on the need forchange in approaches to communication that support ongoing organisational change and hasvepotential to assist communication professionals to recognise the need and pragmatic relevance ofcontemporary developments in strategic communication. The various antecedents and attributesof co-COC could also provide organisations with guidance on the implementation of changeorientatedcommunication approaches in support of ongoing organisational change.

Tailoring climate information and services for adaptation actors with diverse capabilities

With louder demands in public discourse for action on adaptation to climate change, efforts to improve the provision and use of climate information and services (CIS) are also gaining prominence. Drawing on literature about uptake of CIS for climate risk assessment and adaptation, plus our own practical experiences, this Essay examines modes of user-provider interaction in CIS. By employing a customer-tailor analogy, three overlapping types of CIS transaction are identified: ‘off-the-peg’, ‘outsourced’ and ‘bespoke’. Evident across all modes are ‘loyalty card’ customers who return to the same provider(s). We then offer a set of prompts to facilitate more meaningful engagement and dialogue between adaptation actors and providers. These questions could also be used to seed discussions within communities that research and provide training in CIS, as well as amongst stakeholders, funders and other institutions involved in the governance of CIS systems. Such searching and timely conversations could advance a more tailored approach to CIS delivery, regardless of the technical and financial starting point of users and providers.

Towards hybrid human‐AI learning technologies

AbstractEducation is a unique area for application of artificial intelligence (AI). In this article, the augmentation perspective and the concept of hybrid intelligence are introduced to frame our thinking about AI in education. The involvement of quadruple helix stakeholders (i.e., researchers, education professionals, entrepreneurs, and policymakers) is necessary to understand the opportunities and challenges of different educational use cases from an integrated point of view. To facilitate a meaningful dialogue, a common language about AI in education is needed. This article outlines elements of such a common language. The detect‐diagnose‐act framework is used to describe the core functions of AI in education. The six levels of automation model is introduced to develop our thinking about the roles of AI, learners, and teachers in educational arrangements. In this model, the transition of control between teacher and technology is articulated at different levels and related to the augmentation perspective. Finally, the future of AI in education is discussed using self‐regulated learning as an example. The proposed common language will help to support a coordinated development of an interdisciplinary dialogue between quadruple helix stakeholders to strengthen meaningful application of AI for learning and teaching.

The performance level of Mathematics Teachers at The Secondary Level in Light of NCTM's Practices for Effective Teaching

The study aims to determine the performance level of mathematics teachers at the secondary level in light of NCTM’s effective teaching practices. In the book "From Principles to Procedures" in 2014, it consisted of (32) sub-practices, stemming from (8) main practices. The study concluded: that the level of performance of mathematics teachers at the secondary level in light of NCTM’s effective teaching practices was generally at a low degree, with an arithmetic mean of (1.56), and their performance level appeared in light of the practices of “asking purposeful questions, supporting the productive struggle in learning mathematics, And extracting evidence on students' thinking and use", to a medium degree, and with arithmetic averages (1.84, 1.77, 1.70), respectively. While the level of their performance appeared in the light of the practices of “facilitating meaningful mathematical dialogue, building procedural fluency from conceptual comprehension, setting mathematics objectives to focus learning, implementing tasks that enhance inference and problem solving, and using and linking mathematical representations” to a low degree, with arithmetic averages of (1.55, 1.52, 1.44, 1.36, 1.28) respectively. In light of the results of the study, a set of recommendations were presented.

Counter-discourse

Abstract Since independence, the ethnic Chinese community in Malaysia has lamented its marginalization by the Malay-Bumiputra elite, a theme that is often reflected in writings by ethnically Chinese Malaysian authors. This article, however, examines how ethnic Chinese authors depict other ethnic minorities, focusing on four approaches to forging counter-discourses used in the literary representation of minorities: binary opposition, rhetorical questions, paradoxical statements, and bystander narration. The discussion of each narrative strategy is supported by examples from works by writers from different eras, regions, genders, and generations. These modes of counter-discourse foreground minority voices and create a meaningful dialogue between the Sinophone community and other ethnic groups. Through these counter-discursive explorations, Mahua authors portray the Chinese in Malaysia in relation to other ethnic minorities. In some cases, we can also observe how Mahua authors employ this counter-discourse structure as a form of resistance against hegemonic state power.

A Qualitative Analysis of the Educational Value of Commercial Video Games

Video games have evolved from a mere object of consumption to a cultural artifact of our time. Each cultural milieu is connected to the dominant technologies of its time, and video games today present narratives that allow for meaningful dialogues between the younger generations and the themes or content they find interesting. The main objective of this research was to highlight the value of commercial video games with an ideal potential for transmitting pedagogical and curricular content in educational contexts. The scientific methodology used in this study followed a mixed approach divided into three stages (qualitative–qualitative–quantitative). The wide variety of themes and settings found among the 75 top-rated games on the Steam digital distribution platform sheds light on the interests of young people, representing a broad and rich range that highlights their interest in topics that are close and relevant to them. Video games can no longer be ignored, as they represent one of our most widespread cultural values. Their narratives connect directly with the way our young people think, feel, and dialogue. Therefore, embracing video games, both culturally and educationally, is a leap forward with an eye to progress.

Stereo revolution: Acoustic science and cinematic spaces in socialist China (1949–1966)

This article examines how the development of acoustic science changed the spatial configuration of movie theaters in China during the period between 1949 and 1966. The application of new acoustic technology not only caused a dramatic restructuring of movie theaters from the building’s material composition to the physical shapes of its walls and ceiling but also made crucial impacts on the conception of spectatorship and the discourse of cinematic realism. Taking the renovation project of Capital Theatre as an example, I show how the new cinematic space produced an immobile and individualized mode of spectatorship through the technological redistribution and management of individual bodies. Moreover, the growing technological capacity enabled technicians and recordists to imagine a different notion of cinematic realism, one that defined the verisimilitude of sonic ‘reality’ not in terms of its proximity to the empirical sound, but as the techno-perceptual effects within the sensory space of the movie theater. Drawing on sources from industry journal articles, construction reports, and academic papers by recordists, engineers, architects, acoustic technicians, etc., this article attempts to raise new problematics on the level of media infrastructure of socialist film and to promote meaningful dialogues with aesthetic, artistic and ideological issues.