Moral Order Research Articles

Mobile phones and moral order: Children’s appropriation of and accounting for digital media rules in schools

This study explores children’s appropriation of media rules in a group of boys (10 years) in Sweden. The analysis is based on focus-group interviews where rules regulating children’s use of mobile phones in school was discussed. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the focus is on how rules are made sense of and appropriated, and how this contributes to establishing, negotiating, and sustaining a moral order for digital media use. The findings show that the children justify rules by discussing them in relation to their school context, through criticism of the enforcement of rules, and through navigating different rule systems.

Humour scandals in the Finnish political public sphere in 1990–2020

Humour is a part of contemporary mediated political struggles. At times, humour itself becomes politicised, turning into public controversies or humour scandals. This study explores how humour scandals have become intertwined with the Finnish political public sphere during the last three decades. Quantitative mapping, based on journalistic articles retrieved from two nationwide media, reveals that between 1990 and 2020, 26 national humour scandals in Finland were reported in the national public sphere for at least five days. The number of scandals increased exponentially, from just two such scandals in the 1990s to 15 in the 2010s. Our qualitative analysis of three humour scandals from different decades demonstrates how humour controversies relate to the changes in political and media environments and moral order. While in the 1990s and early 2000s humour scandals often dealt with clashes between popular TV satires and leading politicians, from the 2010s onwards the topics of humour scandals diversified, including issues related to political campaigning, artistic performances, and racism.

Comparative Study on the Stratification of Education between Urban and Rural Areas in China

Comparative Study on the Stratification of Education between Urban and Rural Areas in China

“She is the Great Outside”: Ecofeminist Potentiality in H. G. Wells’s The Sea Lady

Abstract H. G. Wells’s serial fable The Sea Lady (1902) offers a satirical commentary on the Victorian Age: It draws a societal allegory that criticises both a cohesive conception of the natural world, and Victorian notions of the domestic realm – in the private and national sense of the term. Yet the story has long been regarded as an oddity in the author’s oeuvre. Wells’s Victorian contemporaries criticised its lack of scientific detail so characteristic of his more successful scientific romances. The reason for this appears to be the story’s eponymous central figure – a mermaid, supposedly rather the stuff of legend, folklore and fairy tales. However, by opening up a utopian realm in which ‘better dreams’ await, the figure of the sea lady destabilises Victorian moral orders as a potential discovery of the future lingers on the horizon of the century’s turn. In this article, I foreground the story’s ecofeminist potential by analysing the intersections between its unconventional form, the ‘untameable female’ protagonist at its centre, and the specific oceanic and littoral environments it presents.

The Hero, the White Savior, and the Smuggler: Criminalized Figures in the Landscape of Solidarity Toward Migrants

One recent shift in the ever-expanding crackdown on migration and implementation of a hostile environment for migrants in the EU has been the criminalization of migrant solidarity. Using various legal tools, EU governments have been trying to hinder solidarity actions from civil society. In particular, a narrative depicting civilians helping migrants as criminals has been elaborated by European organizations and strengthened by far-right groups and dominant press outlets. In reaction, a counter-narrative has been constructed and spread by pro-migrant groups and liberal media, which presents criminalized activists as criminalized heroes and their actions as humanitarian. Based on a critical discourse analysis of academic texts, press articles, and empirical research with pro-migrant activists, this article examines two criminal figures from the civilian search and rescue field: the “activist associated with smugglers” and its counterpart, the “criminalized hero.” Through the lens of figuration of crime and social justice, the article brings a new understanding of the de- and repoliticization processes that occur in the field of humanitarian help and migration. By analyzing these two figures, the paper also contributes to a better understanding of the competing moral orders underpinning criminal and social justice claims in the field of solidarity toward migrants. On the one hand, the figure of the activist associated with smuggler is part of a criminal justice narrative depicting migration as a threat to political, social, and economic stability. On the other hand, the criminalized hero figure includes a counter-narrative to this moral order based on the defense of a social justice frame of solidarity and the protection of human rights. Within the pro-migrant activist’s scene, the criminalized hero and its social justice frame are criticized for reproducing racist and post-colonial practices of humanitarianism.

Adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey for Use in Estonia: A Pilot Study.

The Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS) assesses risk and protective factors, predicting a range of behavioural health problems, including substance use, violence, and delinquency. Although the survey has been adapted to other contexts and languages, further studies on cross-cultural adaptations, particularly in non-English speaking countries, are needed. In 2022, CTCYS was adapted for Estonia, incorporating 38 risk and protective factors, along with measures of substance use, antisocial behaviour, mental health problems, and self-harm. This study investigated the psychometric properties and applicability of the CTCYS in Estonia. The adaptation process involved translating and refining the US CTCYS, followed by focus group discussions with students and specialists and a pilot study in two municipalities, with data obtained from 265 students. A focus group with municipality members explored the measure's feasibility. Results indicate that the original CTC framework largely captures key issues within the Estonian context. Overall, the survey showed good validity, as evidenced by its ability to predict problem outcomes through both risk and protective factors. Regarding reliability, with the removal of one item, internal consistency reached acceptable levels for all but eight risk and protective factor subscales. The most problematic scales in the Estonian context were Prosocial Involvement, Social Skills, and Belief in the Moral Order. Municipality members perceived the measure as useful but highlighted some challenges regarding its practicality and comprehensibility. It became clear that other elements are needed to effectively support communities in using the CTCYS results for preventive efforts.

Syncretism and Cultural Resilience: The Coexistence and Evolution of Traditional Itolimin and Christian Burial Practices in Esanland, Nigeria

Purpose of the Study: This research aims to uncover how traditional second burial rites coexist with and have adapted to Christian funeral norms, reflecting the socio-religious negotiation in a postcolonial context. Methodology: Employing a qualitative ethnographic approach, the study gathered data through semi-structured interviews with local chiefs, elders, and adults, alongside observations and an extensive review of related literature. Participants were selected based on their deep knowledge of Esan customs and involvement in the Itolimin practice. Main Findings: The study revealed that Itolimin, while embracing certain Christian elements, remains a vital cultural practice that reinforces the community's moral and social order. The rite's evolution showcases the Esan people's ability to blend traditional and Christian values, thereby preserving their cultural identity amidst religious changes. This syncretism illustrates the community's broader cultural resilience and adaptation approach in a rapidly changing religious landscape. Applications of this Study: Insights from this study apply to the broader discourse on funeral practices in postcolonial societies, providing a framework for cultural preservation amidst religious transformation. It is relevant for policymakers and public health officials regarding community health and burial practices. The findings also offer a basis for developing contextual theological education that respects indigenous beliefs within Christian teachings. Novelty/Originality: This study provides a unique contribution to the understanding of funeral rituals within African postcolonial societies by documenting the living tradition of Itolimin. It highlights how syncretism acts as a dynamic cultural force, shaping the way communities like the Esan negotiate identity and religious practice in a contemporary Christian-dominated context.

Strategically Hijacking Victimhood: A Political Communication Strategy in the Discourse of Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump

This article introduces the concept of “hijacked victimhood” as a form of strategically leveraging victimhood narratives. It is a subset of strategic victimhood, which is a relatively common communicative strategy whereby groups claim victimhood status in contests over power and legitimacy. Political leaders who use the strategy of hijacked victimhood present dominant groups as in danger, as current or future victims, and in need of protection (especially by the crafter of the narrative) from oppressive forces consisting of—or indirectly representing—marginalized and subaltern groups. In the process, leaders hijacking victimhood blunt the rights-based claims of such groups. Analyzing Viktor Orbán’s and Donald Trump’s elite rhetoric in Hungary and the United States, respectively, we inductively document varieties of hijacked victimhood in their political communication, showing how Orbán leverages historical suffering and resistance while Trump constructs economic and value-based harms for dominant groups. Making both conceptual and empirical contributions, we argue that at the heart of hijacked victimhood is a reversal of the victimizer–victim dichotomy, a new portrayal of moral orders, a teleological ordering of past and future harms, and a mobilization of security threats—all used to preserve or expand a dominant group’s power.

Time, the state system and the double chronopolitics of managing ‘migrants’: implications of the Windrush scandal

This article examines the double chronopolitics of managing migrants through tracing how the spatialised state system positions migrants as ‘out of place’. Taking its cue from the 2018 Windrush scandal in the United Kingdom, which revealed that the state had declared long-term legal residents illegal, the article interrogates the moral order engendered by the imaginary of the state system. It shows how thinking time unsettles hierarchies that the apparently timeless imaginary legitimises. First, the article briefly explores literatures that highlight the significance of time in making the state system and migration. Second, it examines migrantisation and racialisation in the Windrush scandal by tracing how time is imagined as shared. Third, it investigates how ‘migrants’ are governed through time and a logic of linear progression. Finally, it shows how ‘migrants’, who appear to introduce temporal tensions into the community’s shared time, are exposed to a double chronopolitics: being imagined as both in the past and of the future. Managing ‘migrants’ in response involves attempts to (impossibly) govern the future. The article argues that this double chronopolitics faces its own impossibility in the subject position of the more-than migrant, which – by exceeding the system – offers an opportunity to think beyond migration as crisis.

An Ethics Worthy of the Name

: This paper sheds light on the relation of mutual exclusion and implication that binds Derridean ethics with the figure of God. In rupture with existing scholarship that categorizes Derridean ethics as either radically atheistic or dialectically pertaining to the Judeo-Christian moral order, I put forward the argument that Derrida’s ethical thinking is best considered outside of the dialectics of a/theism. I demonstrate that, far from plainly disproving or falling within the bounds of existing religious discourses, Derrida inaugurates a new way of relating to the absolute – whether it be named God, the infinitely other, or justice – beyond nihilism and idealism, atheism and theism, or more precisely between the two, in a space Derrida refers to as the space of spectrality. I thereby hope to finally do justice to the subtlety of Derridean ethics and foster the recognition that, twenty years after Derrida’s death, his ghosts can be of use in tackling some of the greatest ethical and political challenges of the twenty-first century, including the pursuit of peaceful pluralism in the context of rampant violence carried out in the name of God.

Moral awareness and different orders of relevance in participatory research with older people and professionals (online first)

Limitations are described in the literature in relation to the actual involvement of older people in action research activities. Empirical social research involving any form of data collection has an impact on the people and the setting studied. Researchers should strive to be morally aware of such an impact. The article describes case studies of participatory research in Sweden, Italy and Portugal. It highlights moral issues confronted by researchers. Moreover actual examples of different order of priorities among researchers and participants are provided. The study shows possible spaces for collaboration, while recognizing the difference of interests and priorities among researchers and participants.

Moral awareness and different orders of relevance in participatory research with older people and professionals

Limitations are described in the literature in relation to the actual involvement of older people in action research activities. Empirical social research involving any form of data collection has an impact on the people and the setting studied. Researchers should strive to be morally aware of such an impact. The article describes case studies of participatory research in Sweden, Italy and Portugal. It highlights moral issues confronted by researchers. Moreover actual examples of different order of priorities among researchers and participants are provided. The study shows possible spaces for collaboration, while recognizing the difference of interests and priorities among researchers and participants.

An Eco-heritage or an Eco-curse? - A Postcolonial Ecocritical Study of Helon Habila’s Oil on Water

Nigerian literature has been strewed with much political activism and ecological degradation. It has brought to the fore the connivance of oil companies, government agencies and a few members of the local communities in devouring the sacred land of Nigeria. The fictional literature of the Niger Delta takes into account the socio-cultural and political factors that revolve around the management of environmental problems in Nigeria. Rapid industrialization and excessive oil mining leave devastating ecological imprints on the flora, fauna and the landscape of the Delta. The fundamental issues of capitalism, globalisation, and exploitation of natural resources that cause the obliteration of Nigeria’s ecosystem are the themes of numerous literatures seeping out of the Niger Delta. Helon Habila’s Oil on Water works in the creative space to divert attention towards real-life issues that threaten the ecological sustenance of Niger Delta. The present paper analyses the novel by raising questions about the unethical practices being executed in the name of development. While being socio-ecologically intertwined, the novel also provides a postcolonial discourse on the corruption of moral order that plagues the fabric of Nigerian society.

Labour markets in a moral crisis: structural unemployment and the employment service reform in Lithuania

ABSTRACT The article analyses the political dynamics of the Employment Service reforms in Lithuania that came into force in 2022. It is argued that the reforms were driven by the outbreak of public alarm over growing and reaching unacceptably high-level structural unemployment. The moral panic approach is used to analyse the process of reform-making. It is argued that the reforms, instead of balancing labour supply and demand, focused on re-imposing moral order in society by (a) the implementation of the new assimilative and coercive measures directed at the unemployed, and (b) changes in unemployment statistics that reduced the count of the unemployed.

Moral Reasoning According to Gender in Citizenship Education Learning

Moral is a measure of the good and bad of a person, both as a person and as a citizen, and a citizen.Meanwhile, moral education is education to make human children morally good and humane. This paperaims to provide an overview of instilling moral values in students through civic education and knowingthe definitions of moral, moral education and moral education in children. The research method used is touse a literature review research method or literature study which contains theoretical theories that arerelevant to research problems. The conclusion of this paper is that the moral prescription of students isnot only from class lessons, but in Citizenship Education lessons also participate in the moral ordering of students

Whose Vision, Which Morality?

This article explores moral diversity considered ethnographically and presents implications for cross-cultural service. It is drawn from an ethnographic study done in a Nepali village which identified the primary moral values of community peace, cooperation, and solidarity. These values were discovered to be in tension with the modern Western moral values of personal independence and advancement found in a modern consumer economy, education, democracy and in Western initiated development projects. From these observations, four implications are presented for missionaries working among communalistic people groups. These implications are, the missionary must understand the local moral order, second, the missionary must be aware of the possible presence of conflicting moral visions, third, with a changing moral vision comes a changing set of virtues and moral practices, and finally, development ministries will have an, often unconsidered, impact on the local moral order.

The World We Have Lost: Reflections on Varieties of Masculinity at Work

AbstractThe focus on gender in and around the process of deindustrialisation is a very welcome development. The academic attention paid to the decline of male dominated places of work in part can be seen as a continuation of industrial/work sociology's longstanding interest in working-class industrial workers. It may seem counterintuitive to suggest that, notwithstanding a critical gendered account of deindustrialization that pays more attention to women, there remains a need to understand more fully the subtle processes of male gender construction within industrial work. Arguably what has not been fully accounted for are the subtle, complex, and varied ways in which younger males became fully fledged men through a shopfloor ritual, social and cultural transmission, and rites of passage. The article makes two main points. Firstly, it reflects on the notion of care in work and the idea of a moral order of the workplace wherein the workplace acted as an extended caring family. I want to think about this social form through my own research as well as that of other scholars in a variety of industrial workplaces, and also by drawing on workplace autobiography. Secondly, the piece highlights the continued attraction of an older one-dimensional image of male industrial work. In studying this aspect of workplace masculinity, we might be better placed to think about the nature of gendered loss associated with mass industrial closure over time and how in-work socialization patterns have been dramatically transformed. In the process this account will add great depth to our understanding of deindustrialization and industrial culture more generally.

Vietnamese lived religion, Confucianism and women: goddess spirituality in Nguyễn Dữ’s the young woman from Nam Xuong

Vietnam as a nation is deeply rooted in the wet-rice agricultural civilization, which is characterized by the Yin (female) principle and the religion worshiping Mother Goddess. However, Chinese Confucianism significantly influenced Vietnam throughout the feudal dynasties (10–19th centuries). Confucian kingship propagates symbols of virtuous women to establish the moral order of a male-dominated society. In contrast, by practicing lived religion and spreading folk narratives, Vietnamese people turn virtuous women into Mother Goddess with a liberal, creative and patronage identity. This study, thus, examines the position of women in Confucian Nguyễn Dữ’s The Young Woman from Nam Xuong, a canonical story reconstructed from legend. It is important to address the main concern about metaphors of a duality culture and a conflict discourse of Confucian politics and Vietnamese lived religion through the issue of Goddess spirituality. This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate that resistance to Chinese Dominance and anti-Sinicization were significant issues of Vietnamese medieval literature and culture.

Exploring an extinct society through the lens of Habitus-Field theory and the Tocharian text corpus

The paper applies Habitus-Field theory, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, and close reading to study an extinct, ancient civilization through the lense of a likewise extinct language: Tocharian. To do so, we analyze a large corpus of 5276 text fragments written from the 5th to the 10th century C.E. stemming from 25 different regions in the Tarim basin and Taklamakan desert. We include not only text contents but also archaeological features such as find spots and the materiality of the text fragments. Our analysis reveals a distinction between political, spiritual, and economic elites by referencing moral principles stemming from Buddhism. Furthermore, distinctions in terms of gift-giving, being able to control the Caravan trade, and shaping the view on the moral order of society by the act of writing itself were found.

Forms of disrespect: Toddler's peer conflicts in early childhood education and care

This article discusses the ways in which toddlers carry out forms of disrespect during peer conflicts in Australian and Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. We investigate forms of disrespect in naturally occurring peer interactions by applying interaction analysis and Honneth’s theory of recognition. Drawing on Honneth , our study provides an empirical foundation for examining what leads to toddlers’ disrespectful acts. Our analysis shows that, especially outside adults’ view, disrespect in peer conflicts disrupts the fundamental preferences for peer agreement, alignment and affiliation. It threatens the norms of peaceable conduct, and so can be seen as a challenge to the social and moral order. A toddler's struggles for recognition arise from exclusion from play and the violation of the toddler's body. Implications arising from this research highlight the role of adults in identifying different forms of disrespect that occur in peer groups.