Minority View Research Articles

Conscience, tolerance, and pluralism in health care.

Increasingly, physicians are being asked to provide technical services that many (in some cases, most) believe are morally wrong or inconsistent with their beliefs about the meaning and purposes of medicine. This controversy has sparked persistent debate over whether practitioners should be permitted to decline participation in a variety of legal practices, most notably physician-assisted suicide and abortion. These debates have become heavily politicized, and some of the key words and phrases are being used without a clear understanding of their meaning. In this essay, I endeavor, firstly, to clarify the meaning of some of these terms: conscience, conscientious action, professional judgment, conscientious objection, conscience clauses, civil disobedience, and tolerance. I argue that use of the term conscientious objection to describe these refusals by health care professionals is mistaken and confusing. Secondly, relying on a proper understanding of the moral and technical character of medical judgment, the optimal deference that the state and markets ought to have toward professions, and general principles of Lockean tolerance for a diversity of practices and persons in a flourishing, pluralistic, democratic society, I offer a defense of tolerance with respect to the deeply held convictions of physicians and other health care professionals who hold minority views on contested but legal medical practices.

Appropriate monetary policy and forecast disagreement at the FOMC

I study the forecast updating behavior of Federal Open Market Committee members to assess how individual views on appropriate monetary policy translate into disagreement about the macroeconomic outlook. I match the cross-sectional skewness in interest rates with its inflation and unemployment forecast counterparts and apply standard panel techniques to the data. I observe that hawkish minority voters tend to forecast higher inflation rates relative to the consensus view on the future economy. A higher degree of skewness in the individual inflation forecasts can be attributed mainly to regional Federal Reserve presidents’ minority views on appropriate policy. When investigating potential forecast exaggeration due to strategic motives, however, I find significant differences in the forecast updating behavior neither for Fed governors as opposed to regional Fed presidents nor for members voting with the majority as opposed to voting against the majority nor for stayers and switchers with respect to individual monetary policy stance.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT OF MADRASAH EDUCATION IN THE ASIA’S LATIN CITY

The madrasah education is good in both the physical plant and facilities and the teaching and learning resources but only according to the minority views. This implies the existence of some problems in these identified areas of concern of madrasah education in Zamboanga City, Philippines. Thus, there is a need to address these issues of the physical plant and facilities and the teaching and learning resource for more effective religious education in that culturally diverse community, commonly known as Asia’s Latin City.

Twenty Years of Amos Research

This article is a selective survey of the last twenty years of Amos research, which has witnessed robust discussion in multiple directions. It groups these trends into five very broad areas: (1) the possibility of positing an eighth-century setting for the prophet and the historical reliability of the book, (2) work on the redaction of the book and potential connections to the history of the composition of the Book of the Twelve, (3) theological themes of particular contemporary interest, (4) recent insights into the translation techniques of LXX Amos, and (5) the reception of Amos across the centuries, with a special focus on the views of women and minority and global communities. There is a range of scholarly positions in several of these areas and new questions being asked, all of which portends continued vitality in Amos research in the foreseeable future.

Opiniões de estudantes de um curso de graduação em Enfermagem sobre a doença mental

Introdução: Mesmo com as mudanças trazidas pela Reforma Psiquiátrica, ainda persistem conceitos e visões estereotipadas e negativas em relação ao doente mental, o que dificulta uma assistência integral e qualificada. Objetivo: Avaliar a opinião de estudantes ingressantes e formandos de um curso de graduação em Enfermagem de uma instituição de ensino superior do interior do estado de São Paulo diante da doença mental. Método: Trata-se de um estudo exploratório de natureza quantitativa. Para coleta de dados foram utilizados: Instrumento de caracterização dos sujeitos e a Escala de Opiniões sobre a Doença Mental (ODM). Foram realizadas análises estatísticas descritiva, de comparação e correlação. O nível de significância utilizado foi de p<0.05. Resultados: Participaram deste estudo 38 estudantes: 21 ingressantes e 17 formandos. Houve predomínio de mulheres (97,37%) e a média de idade foi 24,42 (±6,64) anos. Em relação aos fatores da ODM, as médias dos escores não mostraram grande variação. Alunos ingressantes apresentaram escores mais altos em todos os fatores, porém essa diferença foi significante (p=0,04) apenas no fator visão minoritária. Católicos apresentaram escores maiores no fator Ideologia da higiene mental (p=0,02). Alunos trabalhadores apresentaram menores escores nos fatores Benevolência e Ideologia da higiene mental e essas diferenças foram significantes (p=0,01 e p=0,02 respectivamente). Conclusão: Os resultados deste estudo mostraram mais semelhanças do que diferenças em relação à percepção da doença mental nos dois grupos. Demonstraram também tendência para atitudes positivas, contrariando a ideia de reclusão e fortalecendo o entendimento de que o doente mental deve estar inserido na sociedade.

Smart Growth at the Ballot Box: Understanding Voting on Affordable Housing and Land Management Referendums

This study investigates voter decision-making on two smart-growth components: land preservation and affordable housing. We seek to understand how voters make concurrent decisions about unpaired smart-growth components at the ballot box. Previous studies of smart growth, affordable housing, and environmental preservation have focused primarily on describing the attitudes and traits of voters on these policies, utilize aggregate voting outcomes, or are case studies of single towns in which there is a fairly homogenous group of residents either supporting or opposing the policy. We draw on a unique data set to investigate the different covariates of attitudes for environmental preservation and affordable housing: an exit poll of voters in the 2016 Rhode Island General Election on bond referendums for environmental preservation and affordable housing. We find that the coalition for smart growth that includes both land preservation and affordable housing is undermined by views of minorities and the poor as undeserving.

Islamophobia, Science and the Advocacy Concept

This article fully recognises the reality and detrimental impact of anti-Muslim sentiment and consequently that 'Islamophobia' describes an important social reality, especially in contexts where Muslims are a minority. However it is critical of ‘Islamophobia’ as a valid concept in the social science. In the sociology of Islam, it actually distorts research by concentrating on Muslims as invariably victims of social forces. This article is a modest proposal to reconsider differences between science and advocacy concepts, thereby recognising their different and distinctive roles in social movements and academic institutions. It is important that those undertaking any scholarly study of detrimental social behaviour motivated by hatred possess valid theoretical and empirical tools to counter false information or distorted views of minorities. To this extent, Islamophobia is a valuable advocacy concept in the public sphere and scholars should aim to keep it there. However, the article explores the history and deployment of Islamophobia as an advocacy concept and exposes its limitations as scientific description of social reality. There are two contrasted conclusions to this critique. The pessimistic view is that all human societies are constructed around social groups that have exclusionary boundaries. Although boundaries are always changing, the inclusion/exclusion dynamic never wholly disappears. Policy efforts enhance cosmopolitan virtues. The optimistic conclusion is that advocacy concepts and scientific practices, while not entirely compatible, are not systematically opposed. Advocacy may have greater effect when it is grounded in reliable facts and tested assumptions. Defending science and critical debate are important in a political climate of ‘fake news’ feeding off negative stereotypes, hate speech and incivility.

Multiculturalism in Chinese history in Hong Kong: constructing Chinese identity

ABSTRACTTeaching young people to understand and appreciate diversity is crucial in Hong Kong efforts for a just and inclusive multicultural society. History is the main place where the cultural identity and values of Hong Kong society have been reflected on, questioned, and problematized in the curriculum, as changes to this curriculum interface with larger social and political changes of the society. Although diversity is emphasized in Hong Kong history curricula, representations of ethnic minorities provided in education may not always be effective toward multicultural aims. This research explores how multicultural content is expressed in Hong Kong Chinese history textbooks. In particular, we focus on how relationships between Han and minority cultures are represented in the texts, using qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis, we elaborate three main descriptive codes and themes: (1) only majority perspectives are provided, (2) cultural superiority of the dominant group (the Han), and (3) plural monoculturalism, where minority views are treated as threatened and/or as threatening in relation to the society as a whole. We argue that these codes are in contrast with a multicultural stance that aims to enhance social justice and equity in relation to diversity, through providing balanced perspectives, including positive ethnic minority recognition and support for just forms of pluralistic integration.

The question of linguistic minorities and the debates on cultural sovereignty

When observing certain global debates in recent decades on the defence of national cultural and linguistic spaces, one finds what seems to be a paradox: states that were historically constructed by homogenizing cultures and stifling languages in their territory (even states that were until recently accused of promoting cultural imperialism), now seem to be resorting to defensive arguments traditionally used by threatened minorities. This reaction is based on the perception that flows linked to globalization, migratory movements and the development of telecommunications are threatening the linguistic and cultural space of the nation, and therefore the nation itself, and could thus suggest a confluence of arguments between states and minorities. As in any paradox, we are not only faced with statements that apparently depart from common sense, but instead with a complex reality, whose understanding poses a challenge. In this article, we will try to analyse, from the point of view of the linguistic minorities, the limits of the arguments wielded by the states in defence of their national space, as well as the possibilities those minorities have of resorting to the discourses constructed at a global level in defence of diversity.

Diversity’s discontents: in search of an archive of the oppressed

ABSTRACTAustralian and US-based archivists have recently begun to confront their complicity in a documentary landscape that excludes and erases the voices and views of minority, oppressed and poor communities. Archival professional organisations in both countries attempt to confront this issue by focusing on the homogeneity of the profession, specifically through using the discourse of diversity. Thus, this keynote address, delivered at the 2017 conference of the Australian Society of Archivists in Melbourne, explores the following question: how, if at all, does diversity form part of the solution for dismantling the white supremacy of archives? It begins this inquiry by recounting the author’s participation and experience with diversity projects of the Society of American Archivists, before speculating how archivists might transition away from the language of diversity and towards the language of liberation through the concept of an archive of the oppressed. The central argument of the address is that dismantling white supremacy in archives requires archivists abandon the neoliberal discourse of diversity and adopt an archive of the oppressed, or a cooperative approach in which oppressed peoples are positioned as subjects in our own liberation.

The changing social context of speech perception: Comparisons across age and time

Beliefs about talkers' social-group membership affect how listeners perceive their speech: listeners identify phonemes differently depending on whether they believe that the talker was a man or a woman (Strand and Johnson, 1996; Munson, 2011), whether the talker was young or old (Drager, 2011), and whether the talker is gay or straight (Mack and Munson, 2012). These social influences are thought to reflect knowledge of social norms associated with categories such as gender, age, and sexuality. Social norms themselves are subject to change. For example, attitudes toward gay and lesbian people have changed dramatically in the past 15 years. For example, a strong majority of young adults now report having a positive view of sexual minorities. This talk reports on ongoing studies in our lab that have examined whether changes in social norms about gender and sexual orientation are associated with changes in how talkers' gender and sexual orientation affect listeners' speech perception (Obeda and Munson, 2018; Obeda et al., 2018). We have found robust differences between archival data from our lab from 2003 and both older and younger listeners tested in 2018. This talk will discuss the implications of these findings for models of speech perception more generally.Beliefs about talkers' social-group membership affect how listeners perceive their speech: listeners identify phonemes differently depending on whether they believe that the talker was a man or a woman (Strand and Johnson, 1996; Munson, 2011), whether the talker was young or old (Drager, 2011), and whether the talker is gay or straight (Mack and Munson, 2012). These social influences are thought to reflect knowledge of social norms associated with categories such as gender, age, and sexuality. Social norms themselves are subject to change. For example, attitudes toward gay and lesbian people have changed dramatically in the past 15 years. For example, a strong majority of young adults now report having a positive view of sexual minorities. This talk reports on ongoing studies in our lab that have examined whether changes in social norms about gender and sexual orientation are associated with changes in how talkers' gender and sexual orientation affect listeners' speech perception (Obeda and Munson, 2018; ...

Henry A. Wallace as Vice President: The Last New Dealer

In his third term, Roosevelt appointed Vice President Henry A. Wallace to Chair the Board of Economic Warfare. Conflicts soon arose with Secretaries Jessie Jones and Cordell Hull. An ailing Roosevelt replaced Wallace by Leo Crowley and adopted a bipartisan policy to win the war. He abandoned the New Deal, and left to Wallace to support trade unions, to protect the rights of Blacks in the South and of those working in defense industries in the North and to champion the interests of the common man. Roosevelt dropped Wallace from the ticket in 1944 to get southern support to run for a fourth term. As Secretary of Commerce in President Truman’s cabinet, Wallace advocated normalizing relations with the U.S.S.R. But like his father before him, he now represented a minority view in a government dominated by industrial, military, and financial interests. At the urging of Secretary of State Byrnes, President Truman dismissed Wallace in 1946. JEL Classification: F5.

Adjectives relate individuals to states: Evidence from the two readings of English Determiner + Adjective

As an argument in favor of the (minority) view that adjectives involve a neo-Davidsonian state argument, I argue that it grounds an analysis of the English Determiner + Adjective construction (the old). On its “individuated” reading (the old are generally happier), this seems to refer to old individuals; on its “mass” reading (the old is never ordinary), to something like oldness. Empirically, this paper uses naturally-occurring data to show that both readings are more productive than sometimes suggested. Theoretically, the two are parsimoniously derived by existentially closing off one or the other of the two arguments (the individual argument x, the state argument s) made available by the state analysis – λxλs[old(s) ∧ holder(x,s)] – deriving a predicate of individuals for the individuated reading, and a predicate of states for the mass reading. This account of Determiner + Adjective further reflects the philosophical idea that properties can be construed as predicates of individuals or as the abstract thing that those individuals share; and connects to other ways of nominalizing both verb phrases and adjectives.

How to draft ‘good’ minutes of monetary policy decisions

AbstractThe minutes of monetary policy decisions at central banks vary substantially. A common norm does not exist. To ensure accountability and guide policy expectations, the minutes should satisfy some basic requirements. In search of criteria for ‘good’ minutes, it is relevant to look at how supreme courts write their decisions. Four criteria for ‘good’ minutes are proposed. The minutes of six central banks are assessed against the proposed criteria. In spite of the substantial variation in format, their minutes largely satisfy the criteria. The central banks' minutes seem to reflect their individual communication histories. The central banks could learn from each other, but also from the supreme courts, especially in terms of how they organise the writing of the minority view.

Changing One's Tune: Re-reading the Structure of Psalm 132 as Complex Antiphony

Complex antiphony, which allows dialogue between non-linearly adjacent cola in a psalm, provides the potential for re-reading problematic Hebrew texts such as Psalm 132. This article studies the two main structural options that have been proposed for Psalm 132, arguing in preference for the minority view that places a major break after v. 9. It is then argued, based on this minority structure, that the multiple distinctive types of literary bonds between the two halves of the psalm point towards a form of complex antiphony known as steady responsa. It is then shown that such a steady responsa reading of Psalm 132 addresses some of the critical exegetical problems of the psalm, such as the referent of the pronominal suffixes in v. 6. In addition, this reading also reveals a coherent and rich petitionary rhetoric in Psalm 132.

The Argument against Attributing Slogans in 1 Corinthians 6:12–20

ABSTRACT While many scholars consider that Corinthian slogans are present in 1 Cor 6:12–20, this article argues that the attribution of slogans there is an unnecessary exegetical move based on unconvincing arguments. A reading of the pericope will be presented to demonstrate that slogans are unnecessary to make sense of Paul’s paraenesis. The arguments for and against each particular slogan will be evaluated. This study both consolidates the minority view held by Brian Dodd (1995) and David Garland (2003) and responds to Joseph Fitzmyer (2007) and Jerome Murphy O’Connor’s (2009) criticisms of the same.

An Idea Before Its Time: Charles S. Johnson, Negro Columnist

Abstract In the mid-1940s, Claude Barnett of the Associated Negro Press developed a proposal for Fisk University sociologist Charles S. Johnson to write a weekly column for daily newspapers. Had the plan succeeded as they imagined, Johnson’s column, titled “A Minority View,” would have integrated the opinion pages of the white press. This paper documents the three-year history of the column, which had the indirect backing of the General Education Board, a Rockefeller-endowed philanthropy.

The importance of the Neutral Theory in 1968 and 50 years on: A response to Kern and Hahn 2018.

A recent article reassessing the Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution claims that it is no longer as important as is widely believed. The authors argue that "the neutral theory was supported by unreliable theoretical and empirical evidence from the beginning, and that in light of modern, genome-scale data, we can firmly reject its universality." Claiming that "the neutral theory has been overwhelmingly rejected," they propose instead that natural selection is the major force shaping both between-species divergence and within-species variation. Although this is probably a minority view, it is important to evaluate such claims carefully in the context of current knowledge, as inaccuracies can sometimes morph into an accepted narrative for those not familiar with the underlying science. We here critically examine and ultimately reject Kern and Hahn's arguments and assessment, and instead propose that it is now abundantly clear that the foundational ideas presented five decades ago by Kimura and Ohta are indeed correct.

Minority Perception of Police Legitimacy in Finland: The Patterns and Predictors

Across the world, minorities are often perceived as social problems in policy formulations and processes in many societies. This perspective gets support from the notion that minorities engage in deviant and criminal behaviour. However, in Finland fewer scholarly attentions have explored the extent of minority attitudes and experiences as they relate to social problems in societies. The aim of this study is to explore procedural justice and its understanding thereof by minorities and racial groups in Finland in complying with police orders. Data for this study was collected between April 2013 and July 2015 from (N = 650) respondents from three major cities (Helsinki, Tampere and Turku) using minority experiences of racial profiling, encounters and unfair policing as variables that increase minority distrust in procedural justice in Finland. The result suggests that ethnicity influences minority views of procedural justice in the country. The implication of this finding is that there is a need for more exploration of the relationship between the police and minorities in Finland.

Locating the Source(s) of the Social Value Requirement(s).

In this issue of the Hastings Center Report, Danielle Wenner looks at a few prominent analyses of the social value requirement for clinical research, claiming that they are all based on what she calls a transactional model of research ethics. She argues that the transactional model fails to provide a secure foundation for the social value requirement, and then, appealing to John Rawls, she argues that a more secure foundation lies in the principles of social justice. Wenner's attempt to locate the source of the social value requirement raises important questions regarding its scope and strength. To determine what the social value requirement requires, we need to know why it's a requirement. Does the social value requirement apply to all trials or only to a subset? Is it a necessary condition on ethical research or an important consideration that can conflict with, and sometimes be defeated by, other considerations? Wenner's attempt to answer these questions is obscured by the fact that she mistakenly regards a minority view of research ethics as the mainstream view. Once we correct for that, her analysis of the foundation of the social value requirement provides a valuable opportunity to consider how the ethics of research as an institution might supplement or alter the ethics of individual clinical trials.