Deliberate Mode Research Articles

The Potential of Education for Creating Mutual Trust: Schools as sites for deliberation

Is it possible to look at schools as spaces for encounters? Could schools contribute to a deliberative mode of communication in a manner better suited to our own time and to areas where different cultures meet? Inspired primarily by classical (Dewey) and modern (Habermas) pragmatists, I turn to Seyla Benhabib, posing the question whether she supports the proposition that schools can be sites for deliberative communication. I argue that a school that engages in deliberative communication, with its stress on mutual communication between different moral perspectives, gives universalism a procedurally oriented meaning, serving as an arena for encounters that represents a weak public sphere. An interactive universalism of this kind attaches importance to developing an ability and willingness to reason on the basis of the views of others and to change perspectives. In that respect, the institutional arrangements of schools are potential parts of the political dimension of cosmopolitanism, as well as its moral dimension, in terms of the obligations and responsibilities we develop through our institutions and in our actions as human beings towards one another.

The Limits of Deliberation: Institutions and American Immigration Policy

I take issue with the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable’s assertion that the mode of deliberation that facilitated the formulation of its report might serve as a model for bridging deep disagreements on immigration policy among politicians. I point out that the institutional dynamics that have shaped immigration politics and policy-making in the United States have tended toward horse trading and desperate last minute deals rather than reasoned compromises. Whereas the Roundtable suggests that its sensible recommendations might hold the key to shaping a politically viable comprehensive reform package, I maintain that the way forward may lie in abandoning efforts at comprehensive reform and focusing instead on piecemeal changes to discreet aspects of the immigration system.

Reflexivity and the Regulation of GM Food and Feed in the EU

This paper attempts to apply Archer’s theory on reflexivity to governance arrangements, and more specifically, to risk regulation. We argue that the realisation of citizens’ inherent reflexive ability provides an additional independent justification to the widespread literature that calls for deliberative modes of governance. Subsequently, this contribution singles out a specific policy domain in the European Union (EU), namely the one concerning the regulation of genetically modified (GM) food and feed. It stresses that the substantial scientific uncertainty that surrounds agricultural biotechnology in addition to the strong objections of European citizens towards the technology renders this sensitive regulatory area an ideal candidate for the implementation of governance arrangements that make use of deliberation. What is more, a distinction is made between politics based on ‘routine action’ (or shallow politics) and politics based on reflexivity (or reflexive politics). In making this distinction, the paper examines the EU GM food and feed regulatory regime to ascertain the extent to which it utilises and encourages citizens’ deliberative input.

Shall We Be Resolute?

Can we change our rational mode of deliberation in order to benefit from cooperation? Two philosophers believe we can. Indeed, David Gauthier and Ned McClennen argue that it is rational to replace the standard form of rationality as described in game theory with a constrained form of rationality. Such a change of rationality is possible because it enables agents to gain from mutual advantage and to avoid the costs of enforcement systems. If these philosophers are right, the consequences of their argument would be groundbreaking in social contract theories. Unfortunately, in this article, I want to argue that the change of rationality they claim possible is not only rationally inferior to the standard form of rationality but is also non-viable as a stand-alone rational concept.

Toward a Theory of Collaborative Policy Networks: Identifying Structural Tendencies

Support for the “democratization of the policy sciences” has led to the development of a number of frameworks and theories to enhance the normative, multidisciplinary approach to policy analysis. However, this approach has been challenged for failing to produce the objective empirical and normative standards implied by its scientific aspirations. One consideration that has been advanced under a variety of rubrics is “participatory policy analysis.” This is a methodological proposal that expands the range of actors/stakeholders involved in the making and execution of public policy in a discursive or deliberative mode. While much of the research on policy networks is focused on the management and coordination of such networks (i.e., collaborative management), there is little attention on analysis of networks as a participatory policy analytical approach. We propose a theory of “collaborative policy networks” that examines not only the stakeholder composition of a group or the partnerships between any two stakeholders but also the way these stakeholders are embedded in various degrees of institutionalized structure and the discursive tendencies of exchange among them that leads to policy initiative, implementation, evaluation, and possibly termination. Collaborative policy networks are characterized by discursive properties, specifically reciprocity, representation, equality, participatory decision making, and collaborative leadership. We suggest that the results of such research can identify structural signatures of collaborative policy networks that serve as “stamps” of the common nature of such networks that, if fostered, can inform and improve the attempt of networks of partners to achieve policy goals.

Deliberating the risks of nanotechnologies for energy and health applications in the United States and United Kingdom

Emerging nanotechnologies pose a new set of challenges for researchers, governments, industries and citizen organizations that aim to develop effective modes of deliberation and risk communication early in the research and development process. These challenges derive from a number of issues including the wide range of materials and devices covered by the term 'nanotechnology', the many different industrial sectors involved, the fact that many areas of nanotechnology are still at a relatively early stage of development, and uncertainty about the environmental, health and safety impacts of nanomaterials. Public surveys have found that people in the United States and Europe currently view the benefits of nanotechnologies as outweighing their risks although, overall, knowledge about nanotechnology remains very low. However, surveys cannot easily uncover the ways that people will interpret and understand the complexities of nanotechnologies (or any other topic about which they know very little) when asked to deliberate about it in more depth, so new approaches to engaging the public are needed. Here, we report the results of the first comparative United States-United Kingdom public engagement experiment. Based upon four concurrent half-day workshops debating energy and health nanotechnologies we find commonalities that were unexpected given the different risk regulatory histories in the two countries. Participants focused on benefits rather than risks and, in general, had a high regard for science and technology. Application context was much more salient than nation as a source of difference, with energy applications viewed in a substantially more positive light than applications in health and human enhancement in both countries. More subtle differences were present in views about the equitable distribution of benefits, corporate and governmental trustworthiness, the risks to realizing benefits, and in consumerist attitudes.

Gut beraten? Die Online-Konsultationen der EU Kommission

Are the online consultations of the EU commission an instrument for policy advice? In contrast to lobbying, policy advice from non-state actors takes place, if they (a) bring up their positions in a deliberative mode, and if this is (b) the cause for a pareto-superior distribution of knowledge on the advised-side. The formal framework of the Commission’s online consultations is appreciated as an innovative instrument of policy advice which is compatible with democratic aspirations. Three empirical questions are raised: Who participates in these online consultations? What is the deliberative quality of the contributions of different types of actors? How is the Commission dealing with the incoming positions and recommendations?

The Role of Risk in Corporate Value: A Case Study of the ABB Asbestos Litigation

The need for fair risk communication has emerged as a result of a more global and more flexible economy as well as of a media dominated world. Proper risk management and risk communication is therefore crucial today. The paper discusses the need for open and direct communication with the public in order to establish trust and to maintain market value. The case discussed is that of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) asbestos litigation and the dramatic consequences it had for the company. During 2001 and 2002, the ABB share price fell by roughly 90 percent. The present study indicates that more than 50 percent of the fall was related to asbestos reporting by the media and ABB, primarily during the second half of 2002. The need for further understanding of and procedures for dealing with risks and risk communication in a business context is stressed. The outcome for ABB could have been different if more precise and defined ways of working with and communicating risks had been employed. Due to the asbestos crisis and the dramatic fall in ABB share price, ABB has implemented more structured operational risk management tools and displays a more outspoken awareness of environmental and social risk factors. This new strategy has emerged mainly as a result of an increased work with sustainability issues and a shift from a consensual/technocratic risk approach to a more deliberative mode of risk management.

Formal Pasts and Formal Possibilities in Victorian Studies

AbstractThis essay tells a story about the complex and sometimes fraught relationship between Victorian studies and literary formalism. After the New Critics had thrown Victorian literature into disrepute for its formalist failures, socio‐political approaches to literature reclaimed the Victorians – but often by discarding form. This essay shows how recent criticism has begun to bring formalist approaches to historical and political concerns in exciting new ways, and it traces four dynamic trends in Victorian formalist criticism: form as ideology, form as a manifestation of socio‐political relations, form as a self‐conscious, deliberate mode of political engagement, and social institutions as forms.

Modes of Explanation of Behavior in Contemporary Legal Theory

This paper examines the status and role of modes of explanation of behavior in contemporary legal theory. It does so by reference to the criticism made by Sundram Soosay of the dominance of the conscious and deliberative mode of explanation in the work of Joseph Raz, H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Soosay's criticism is discussed and evaluated by reference to a reading of these three theorists. I argue for a pluralist and pragmatic approach to modes of explanations of behavior, as opposed to one that conceives of representations of behavior as capable of offering true and verifiable descriptions of human nature. I illustrate the value of such pluralism and pragmatism by reference to Institutions of Law, the most recent work by Neil MacCormick. Ultimately, I call for a closer engagement by legal theorists with the issues taken up by the philosophy of the social sciences, and in particular, on its treatment of the question of the status and role of modes of explanation of behavior for the purpose of proposing social scientific hypotheses.

Mediatised Recognition and the ‘Other’

Media representations of minorities and outsider groups have long been observed to involve demeaning stereotypes, discourses of denigration and symbolic annihilation. Where this is so, group claims for public recognition and social belonging are undermined and a climate is created in which fears and hatreds can flourish. But this story, like the politics of recognition more widely, is not destined to remain fixed for all time. Mainstream media are in fact capable of producing representations that give voice to the voiceless and identity to image. These representations perform an important role in the symbolic rehabilitation of former ‘others’ — whether they are, for example, asylum seekers, terrorism suspects, Aboriginal people or victims of war and famine — and they do so through journalism's performative deployment of powerful communicative modes of display and deliberation. These more progressive enactments are too often overlooked and under-theorised by critical researchers today, who remain theoretically fixated on the media's construction of the ‘other’. In an increasingly reflexive, culturally pluralistic and globalising world, it is time to acknowledge and bolster the more politically productive representations of mainstream journalism.

High-sensitivity, large dynamic range, auto-calibration methane optical sensor using a short confocal Fabry–Perot cavity

Abstract We present a methane sensor based on a short confocal Fabry–Perot cavity. The sensor uses not only the transmitted signals from the back cavity mirror to obtain high sensitivity but also the reflected signals from the front cavity mirror to extend efficient dynamic range and to cancel emitter-amplitude variations. Thus a minimum detectable absorbance of 4.1 × 10−5 has been achieved and the linear concentration dynamic range can span four orders of magnitude when the end mirrors of the cavity have a moderately high reflectivity of 99%. Moreover, a new type of signal processing providing further auto-calibration is employed to make the useful signal independent on the coupling coefficient of the cavity and the gain of the amplifier. The correlative theory is also given in detail. The technique based on confocal cavity has the same absorption path length with similar conventional cavity techniques that employ a nonconfocal cavity, whereas it is more convenient to align without deliberate mode matching. The prototype system has been demonstrated with an ultimate sensitivity of 2.9 ppm-m at 1.63 μm and a large linear concentration response ranging from 50 to 5 × 105 ppm (0.005–50%).

The opportunities and responsibility for carbon cycle science in the U.S.

Abstract Strategies to address climate change increasingly include options to manage the terrestrial and oceanic portions of the carbon cycle, whether as part of national commitments to international treaties, or as elements of entrepreneurial business plans. Carbon cycle science has much to contribute to informing these strategies, but must consider how to organize so as to best provide more “usable science.” Experience in other areas of earth systems science demonstrates that for knowledge to be more useful to decision makers and others outside the scientific community, deliberate mechanisms must be created to prioritize, conduct and disseminate research that are informed by the needs of the target audience. Carbon cycle science has not yet explored operating in this more deliberate mode. Carbon management thus presents an opportunity for some portion of carbon cycle research to become more directly relevant to societal decision-making through innovative ways of organizing research and operating programs.

Explaining heterogeneity in utility functions by individual differences in decision modes

The curvature of utility functions varies between people. We suggest that there is a relationship between individual differences in preferred decision mode (intuition vs. deliberation) and the curvature of the individual utility function. In this study the utility functions of the subjects were assessed using a lottery-based elicitation method and related to the relative preference for intuition vs. deliberation. We found that people who prefer the deliberative mode have a utility function that is more linear than the utility function of people who prefer the intuitive mode. We suggest that intuitive people’s decisions mirror a feeling of risk and lead to behavior which is not risk neutral. They may have additionally integrated affective reactions towards the stimuli into the decision biasing their decision towards the affective reaction. Deliberate decision-makers seem to perform time consuming cognitive operations (apparently not just calculation) leading to more risk neutral decisions and a more linear utility function.

Power, Participation, and Political Renewal: Theoretical Perspectives on Public Participation under New Labour in Britain

This article discusses the contribution of a study of public participation in two English cities to the theorization of the relationship between policy context and local action, the conceptualization of publics who get involved, and the micropolitics of deliberation within participative forums. It addresses these issues within the particular context provided by the discourses of the New Labour government in the United Kingdom but relates this to broader theorization of the way institutional rules and norms shape access, agenda setting, and modes of deliberation, of the mobilization of collective action within social movements, and of the relationship between styles of exchange and the legitimation of contributions to a process of citizen/official dialogue.

The vulnerability cycle: working with impasses in couple therapy.

In this article, we propose the vulnerability cycle as a construct for understanding and working with couples' impasses. We expand the interactional concept of couples' reciprocal patterns to include behavioral and subjective dimensions, and articulate specific processes that trigger and maintain couples' entanglements. We consider the vulnerability cycle as a nexus of integration in which "vulnerabilities" and "survival positions" are key ideas that bring together interactional, sociocultural, intrapsychic, and intergenerational levels of meaning and process. The vulnerability cycle diagram is presented as a tool for organizing information. We suggest a therapeutic approach for deconstructing couples' impasses and facilitating new patterns through deliberate modes of questioning, a freeze-frame technique, stimulation of calmness and reflection, separating present from past, and elicitation of alternative meanings, behaviors, empathy, and choice. This approach encourages the therapist and couple to work collaboratively in promoting change and resilience.

The Role of Transnational Norm Entrepreneurs in the U.S. "War on Terrorism"

One of the most visible symbols of the debate over human rights and national security in the context of the U.S. "War on Terrorism" has been the detainment of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The controversy concerning the fate of the nearly 600 prisoners demonstrates the emergence of new modes of democratic deliberation over how to strike the balance between rights and security. These new modes of deliberation involve nongovernmental organizations ("NGOs") and individuals who function as norm entrepreneurs, by mobilizing public opinion through transnational networks of opinion-makers and policymakers. Transnational networks of norm entrepreneurs have emerged where traditional avenues for foreign policymaking in the U.S. have failed to create a space for meaningful consideration of human rights in the rights/security balance. These traditional avenues are envisioned in the Constitution, which gives the President authority regarding foreign affairs, bounded by checks provided to Congress and the courts. While the goal of the constitutional process is to bring these institutional players into a dialogue, Congress and the judiciary have failed to engage the President in a conversation regarding the balance between human rights and national security. In the absence of initiatives by the government, nongovernmental actors have used communication structures within transnational networks to promote what this Article calls a dialogic approach to enforcement of human rights law.

Bioethics in pluralistic societies.

Contemporary liberal democracies contain multiple cultural, religious, and philosophical traditions. Within these societies, different interpretive communities provide divergent models for understanding health, illness, and moral obligations. Bioethicists commonly draw upon models of moral reasoning that presume the existence of shared moral intuitions. Principlist bioethics, case-based models of moral deliberation, intuitionist frameworks, and cost-benefit analyses all emphasise the uniformity of moral reasoning. However, religious and cultural differences challenge assumptions about common modes of moral deliberation. Too often, bioethicists minimize or ignore the existence of multiple traditions of moral inquiry. Careful consideration of the presence of multiple horizons for moral deliberation generates challenging questions about the capacity of bioethicists to effectively resolve complex cases and social policy disputes.

Deciding Analytically or Trusting your Intuition? The Advantages and Disadvantages of Analytic and Intuitive Thought

Recent research has highlighted the notion that people can make judgmentsand choices by means of two systems that are labeled here tacit(or intuitive) and deliberate (or analytic). Whereas most decisionstypically involve both systems, this chapter examines the conditions underwhich each system is liable to be more effective. This aims to illuminatethe age-old issue of whether and when people should trust intuition or analysis. To do this, a framework is presented to understand how thetacit and deliberate systems work in tandem. Distinctions are also madebetween the types of information typically used by both systems as wellas the characteristics of environments that facilitate or hinder accuratelearning by the tacit system. Next, several experiments that havecontrasted intuitive and analytic modes on the same tasks are reviewed.Together, the theoretical framework and experimental evidence leads tospecifying the trade-off that characterizes their relative effectiveness.Tacit system responses can be subject to biases. In making deliberate systemresponses, however, people might not be aware of the correct rule to dealwith the task they are facing and/or make errors in executing it. Whethertacit or deliberate responses are more valid in particular circumstancesrequires assessing this trade-off. In this, the probability of making errorsin deliberate thought is postulated to be a function of the analytical complexityof the task as perceived by the person. Thus the trade-off is one of bias (inimplicit responses) versus analytical complexity (when tasks are handled indeliberate mode). Finally, it is noted that whereas much attention has beenpaid in the past to helping people make decisions in deliberate mode, effortsshould also be directed toward improving ability to make decisions intacit mode since the effectiveness of decisions clearly depends on both. Thistherefore represents an important frontier for research.

Bioethics in a multicultural world: medicine and morality in pluralistic settings.

Current approaches in bioethics largely overlook the multicultural social environment within which most contemporary ethical issues unfold. For example, principlists argue that the "common morality" of "society" supports four basic ethical principles. These principles, and the common morality more generally, are supposed to be a matter of shared "common sense." Defenders of case-based approaches to moral reasoning similarly assume that moral reasoning proceeds on the basis of common moral intuitions. Both of these approaches fail to recognize the existence of multiple cultural and religious traditions in contemporary multicultural societies. In multicultural settings, patients and their families bring many different cultural models of morality, health, illness, healing, and kinship to clinical encounters. Religious convictions and cultural norms play significant roles in the framing of moral issues. At present, mainstream bioethics fails to attend to the particular moral worlds of patients and their family members. A more anthropologically informed understanding of the ethical issues that emerge within health care facilities will need to better recognize the role of culture and religion in shaping modes of moral deliberation.