Normative Considerations Research Articles

The Concept of Academic Mobility: Normative and Methodological Considerations

Most of the literature on the development of educational inequality has operated under the achievement gaps paradigm, often assuming that the underlying normative and methodological foundations related to equality and justice in education are a settled matter. In this article, we argue that important normative dimensions are overlooked with traditional mean-based measures, and that metrics that capture students’ academic mobility as they progress through school can provide the informational base needed to describe and evaluate these policy and socially relevant aspects. We discuss some key normative principles and methodological dimensions related to academic mobility and provide an empirical example of the mobility metrics presented using a nationally representative data set.

Aligning Innovation and Ethics: an Approach to Responsible Innovation Based on Preference Learning

New technologies not only contribute greatly to society and the economy; they also involve fundamental societal shifts, challenging our values and ideas about ourselves and the world. With a view to aligning technological change and innovation with ethical values, the concept of responsible innovation advocates the inclusion of a variety of stakeholders, in particular from society. In shifting moral responsibility towards the producers of innovations, responsible innovation rejects the standard normative economic view that the ethical evaluation of innovations is a matter of individual consumers’ market-based choices. However, in this article we argue that responsible innovation should not abandon all normative consideration of the individual outright, to which end we present an alternative normative economic approach based on preference learning. We show how this approach can provide an enhanced understanding of responsible innovation by clarifying the redistribution of moral responsibility and casting individuals in the normative role of co-innovators, rather than mere consumers. We argue that responsible innovation should enable individuals to form preferences and evaluate innovations, so as to align innovation with ethical demands. Finally, we show how our proposed approach can be put into practice in so-called laboratories in real-world contexts, using methods from the field of design. In short, drawing on normative economics, this article aims to establish a new understanding of responsible innovation that is conceptually sound and can form the basis for novel innovation practices.

The Normative and Material Foundations of Judicial Confidence in Bolivia

ABSTRACTWhat allows unpopular judiciaries to gain the trust of the public? Some suggest that judicial confidence depends on procedural integrity. Others emphasize the importance of ideological congruence between the court and the public. This article examines the explanatory power of these two leading hypotheses while also paying closer attention to the moderating effects of political and economic inclusion. It finds that confidence in the judiciary is driven by normative considerations when inclusion is high, but by ideological proximity when inclusion is low. The findings highlight that institutional support does not emerge from a single causal path. Instead, inequalities in the economic and political structure make people trust institutions for different—and sometimes contrasting—reasons.

Toward Science-Based and Knowledge-Based Targets for Global Sustainable Resource Use

The article discusses key aspects to be considered for the orientation of sustainable resource policies. Resource management at the local scale needs to be supplemented by governmental action in order to adjust production and consumption toward acceptable levels of global resource use. What is acceptable is being informed by scientific findings on environmental degradation and relevant cause–effect relationships. However, the desired state of the environment, the tolerable level of uncertainties about environmental impacts, risks of societal conflicts, and ethical considerations all involve normative considerations. Policy decisions for sustainable global resource use must be taken on the basis of imperfect information. A wider systems perspective, longer time horizon, and broader involvement of available knowledge could provide a sufficiently valid basis to derive directionally safe targets. Possible proxy targets for global biotic and abiotic resource use, considering land, biodiversity, and water issues, are presented on a per-person basis for 2050 for further discussion and research. These values could be used to assess the resource footprints of countries with regard to sustainability, providing orientation for governments and industry.

Depth in legal theory

ABSTRACTMost legal theorists and philosophers of law who work in the analytic tradition believe that intellectual progress in their fields necessarily means going ‘deeper’: coming up with more nuanced, precise and rigorous theories that are as responsive to the underlying facts and relevant normative consideration as possible. In fact, this belief is so entrenched and fundamental to legal theorists’ self-perception, that it seems almost trivial to point this out. However, this methodological commitment is much harder to justify than it first seems. The essay analyses the notion of depth and problematises our current commitments to go ‘as deep as possible’. The essay argues that our current methodological commitments do not flow logically from the nature of philosophical research, as is perhaps implicitly believed today. Instead, they represent a contingent choice, which caters to our psychological needs as scholars. Furthermore, the essay argues that this choice has disadvantages, and that a more relaxed ideal of depth in legal theory might be better in some respects. More specifically, the essay suggests that a less demanding ideal of depth would create an atmosphere of curiosity and enchantment that analytic research currently lacks.

Democratic Erosion, Populist Constitutionalism and the Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment Doctrine

The recent phenomenon of democratic backsliding is characterized, among other things, by what has been referred to in the literature as “constitutional capture”, “constitutional retrogression”, “abusive constitutionalism” or “populist constitutionalism”. These terms describe the practices by which populist politicians, once in power, employ constitutional law to promote their goals and weaken the state’s democratic values, mechanisms and institutions. We examine the applicability of the Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment doctrine (“the Doctrine”) in the context of democratic backsliding. We argue that the Doctrine has the potential of guarding against the use of constitutional change tools to undermine democracy. However, we also argue that the characteristics of democratic backsliding present special challenges for the application of the Doctrine. The first challenge derives from the incremental nature of democratic backsliding, which renders it difficult to identify the benchmark for applying the Doctrine. The second challenge regards the shortcomings of the Doctrine in responding to constitutional replacement, and, more broadly, the allegedly limited justifications for applying the doctrine when constitutional changes are made using direct democracy measures, such as referendums. The third challenge derives from the manner in which populist constitutionalism targets the judiciary. We outline and analyse these challenges and offer guiding principles and adjustments for applying the Doctrine in response to democratic backsliding. We distinguish between normative and strategic considerations for applying the Doctrine, and while we do not dismiss the latter, we focus on the former. With regards to the challenge of incrementalism, we argue that Courts should consider the accumulative or aggregated effects of a series of constitutional amendments. With regards to constitutional replacements or amendments that were adopted following direct democracy measures, we argue that Courts should focus on examining the depth and inclusiveness of the process. With respect to judicial independence, we argue that despite the strategic risks associated, constitutional changes that infringe upon judicial independence should be especially scrutinized.

Tocqueville’s Savages

A comparative study of Democracy in America and Tocqueville’s writings on Algeria reveals a striking divergence in how Tocqueville responds to the devastation wrought on indigenous peoples by European settlers. In the American case, Tocqueville deplores the “tyrannical” and “atrocious” treatment of Amerindians, whereas in Algeria he describes the ruination of natives as an “unfortunate necessity” and largely refuses to criticize French conduct on moral grounds. As part of a larger attempt to reconcile Tocqueville’s liberalism with his unapologetic defense of colonial domination, this article offers a critical account of Tocqueville’s representations of foreign others. It ends by suggesting that because Tocqueville’s conceptualization of the Algerian “other” is grounded in the implicit identification of the international realm with pure power politics, he is able to utilize a discourse specific to times of war that evades normative considerations. By contrast, insofar as the Amerindians are situated within American domestic space, they elicit normative thinking about their status and treatment.

Depth in Legal Theory

Most legal theorists and philosophers of law who work in the analytic tradition believe that intellectual progress in their fields necessarily means going 'deeper': coming up with more nuanced, precise and rigorous theories that are as responsive to the underlying facts and relevant normative consideration as possible. In fact, this belief is so entrenched and fundamental to legal theorists' self-perception, that it seems almost trivial to point this out. However, this methodological commitment is much harder to justify than it first seems. The essay aims to show this by analyzing the notion of depth and problematizing our current commitments to go 'as deep as possible.' The essay argues that our current methodological commitments do not flow logically from the nature of philosophical research, as is perhaps implicitly believed today. Instead, they represent a contingent choice, which caters to our psychological needs as scholars. Furthermore, the essay argues that this choice has disadvantages, and that a more relaxed ideal of depth in legal theory might be better in some respects. More specifically, the essay suggests that a less demanding ideal of depth would create an atmosphere of curiosity and enchantment that analytic research currently lacks.

Reconciling automatic and conditional immigrant naturalisation

ABSTRACT Discussions within political theory on naturalisation tend to focus on whether or not it is reasonable and fair to make naturalisation conditional on meeting integration requirements. Those who emphasise the right of long-term immigrants to be included as equal citizens argue that automatic naturalisation is preferable, while those who put emphasis on the state’s legitimate interest in promoting the conditions for a reasonably just society tend to argue that conditional naturalisation is normatively preferable. However, most participating in this debate seem to agree that naturalisation rules must balance these different concerns. In this paper, we argue that the conflicting views on each side of the automatic-conditional divide can be reconciled by introducing the model of discounting-conditional naturalisation. We suggest that a practice in which integration requirements are gradually relaxed over time can in fact sufficiently accommodate those normative considerations that are in conflict under the current practices.

This Flow Ain’t Free: Generative Elements in Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly

This article presents analyses of three songs from To Pimp a Butterfly with respect to the relationship between Lamar’s flow and the instrumental track in each song. A spectrum of flow is proposed, which consists of flow that is at one extreme derivative (metrically and hypermetrically aligned with the instrumental track) and at the other generative (flow and instrumental track are discontinuous). This framework is then considered with respect to normative stylistic considerations and used as a means of interpretation in tandem with the lyrics.

Universal Basic Income: Some Theoretical Aspects

In this article, we review the desirability and feasibility of a universal basic income (UBI) scheme from the theoretical point of view. We first discuss the possible theoretical justifications of UBI, contrasting the unconditionality of UBI with the many conditions that typically accompany other welfare policies. These justifications range from pure normative reasons to practical reasons due to the problem of screening beneficiaries and imperfections in institutions in charge of implementing tax and welfare policies. Next, we explore the conditions that determine the feasibility and size of a UBI. The broad picture that emerges from our review is that both normative and practical considerations make UBI easier to defend as a tool of poverty alleviation in developing countries than as a tool to achieve social justice in developed ones.

Is the folk concept of luck normative?

Contemporary accounts of luck, though differing in pretty much everything, all agree that the concept of luck is descriptive as opposed to normative. This widespread agreement forms part of the framework in which debates in ethics and epistemology, where the concept of luck plays a central role, are carried out. The hypothesis put forward in the present paper is that luck attributions are sensitive to normative considerations. I report five experiments suggesting that luck attributions are influenced by the normative features of the case, and not merely by descriptive notions like agential control or modal fragility. I discuss the implications of this effect for theories of luck and debates in ethics and epistemology.

Critically studying openness: A way forward

Critically studying openness: A way forward

Ethics of mobile phone surveys to monitor non-communicable disease risk factors in low- and middle-income countries: A global stakeholder survey

ABSTRACTActive public health surveillance has traditionally been carried out through face-to-face household surveys or contact with providers, which can be time and resource intensive. The increasing ubiquity of mobile phones and availability of phone survey platforms provide an opportunity to explore the use of mobile phone surveys (MPS) for active disease and risk factor surveillance, including for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Scholars are increasingly examining the ethics implications of mobile health (mHealth), but few have focused on the ethics of mHealth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and even fewer on mHealth for active surveillance. Given that little is known about ethics-related attitudes and practices of stakeholders invested in the conduct and oversight of mHealth in LMICs, we undertook a cross-sectional global stakeholder survey of ethics-related issues implicated by active observational MPS, with a contextual frame of monitoring NCD risk factors in LMICs. We analyse these findings with an organising focus on ethical issues that arise before, during and after conduct of an MPS including defining the activity; anticipating harms and benefits; obtaining consent; data ownership, access, and use; and ensuring sustainability. Finally, we present a set of empirical, conceptual, and normative considerations that arise from this analysis and merit further consideration.

Mental Models or Probabilistic Reasoning or Both

The present paper presents an overview of contemporary reasoning research to examine the evidence for and implications of the Dual Strategy Model of Reasoning. The Dual Strategy Model of Reasoning proposes that there are two types of reasoning strategy applied in deductive reasoning - counterexample and statistical. The paper considers Mental Models Theory and The Probability Heuristics Model as candidate specifications for these respective strategies and hypotheses are proposed on this basis. The Dual Strategy Model is further considered in the context of Dual Process theory, the Dual Source Model and Meta-reasoning and implications of the synergy between these proposals are considered. We finally consider the Dual Strategy Model in the context of individual differences, and normative considerations before proposing novel hypotheses and further avenues of research which we argue require exploration in this context.

על ריבוי דעות בערכאות שיפוט ובוררות במשפט הבינלאומי הפומבי <br>On Multiple Judicial and Arbitral Opinions in Public International Law Tribunals

תקציר בעברית: מגוון הדעות בהליכי השיפוט והבוררות במשפט הבינלאומי מוביל לקיומן של דעות מיעוט רבות, לסוגיהן השונים. מתי, באיזה אופן ותחת אילו מגבלות ניתן להביע עמדות מיעוט? בדין המצוי, הדבר תלוי בטריבונל ובהליך השיפוטי המתנהל, ובמאמר זה אנו סורקים מספר מודלים ופרקטיקות. בדין הרצוי, כף הזכות וכף החובה של דעות המיעוט מעלות שאלות בדבר המעלות והחסרונות של השימוש בהן וכן שאלות נורמטיביות בדבר תדירות הופעתן הרצויה. נוסף על סוגיות אלו, מאמר זה עומד על השפעתן ומשמעותן של דעות מיעוט שונות, באמצעות סקירת דעות מיעוט נבחרות במשפט הבינלאומי בהקשר ישראלי. בין היתר, סוקר המאמר את דעת המיעוט שכתבה פרופ' רות לפידות, אשר מאמר זה מתפרסם בספר שנערך לכבודה, בבוררות שנערכה בין ישראל למצרים בעניין מעבר קו הגבול בין המדינות באזור טאבה. English Abstract: As a result of the diversity of views in the judicial and arbitral proceedings in international law tribunals, minority opinions taking different shapes are quite common. When, how, and under which conditions can diverging opinions be expressed? This depends on the particular tribunal and the judicial process in the matter, and in this article we survey various models and practices. The normative considerations for and against minority opinions raise questions about the merits and disadvantages of their use, as well as questions about the desired frequency of their appearance. In addition to these issues, this article examines the influence and significance of minority opinions, by reviewing selected international law decisions in an Israeli context. In this framework, this article reviews the dissenting opinion in the arbitration between Israel and Egypt regarding the border crossing the countries in the Taba region, which was written by Prof. Ruth Lapidot, which this article will be published in a book in her honor.

THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD IS [HERE]: BLACK CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND TRANS-ANCESTRAL INTERVENTIONS ON THE GENDERS OF THE BLACK BODY

Departed ancestor James Cone’s A Black Theology of Liberation emerges as a powerfully meditative text on the conditions of possibility for Black bodies on Earth, and for theology as a vehicle for resistance only when it is imbued within Blackness and Black liberation. Cone argues that God is aligned with those on Earth who suffer most, and that Black liberation is so by divine right. In this essay, I argue that the Black Church is inhibited from true and honest Black liberation because of its failure to access revelation through knowing of Black trans bodies and the fullness of Black gender. This essay addresses not necessarily a teleological concern of whether revelation can happen, but whether normative Black bodies can catch up to the work that is being forged by Black trans and queer bodies. Most pro-minently, what does it mean for Black liberation to be exclusively express-ed in terms of bodies who are deemed normative: cisgender and hetero-sexual? What Black liberation through the Black Christian Church is fungible or possible for Black trans/nonbinary bodies? In what ways does a Black liberatory politic that obfuscates or omits the existence of Black non-normative genders fail to examine the full potential of Black liberation and the fruit that it bears, specifically, in the overturning of violent, rigid, and gendered prohibitions surrounding the Black body? I take up the words of Hortense Spillers, M. Jacqui Alexander, Zenaida Peterson, Hari Ziyad, Marquis Bey, and C. Riley Snorton to suggest a Black theology that has actively been conjured by Black non-cis and queer bodies. Such a theology, black-trans-queer, outpaces the normative considerations of Blackness and revolution/ revelation, currently and historically housed in the Black Church – and I imagine what it would mean for the normative Black Church to catch up. If we understand self-knowing and revelatory power in Black theology as conducive to liberation of Black bodies, what would it mean for this intimate, internal awareness to be housed in that part of our Black bodies that inherently resists colonial gender metrics?

Normativity in Empirical Youth Ministry Research

Normative considerations are an important part of empirical research on the youth ministry. In the presentation of results in many practical theological studies on the youth ministry, however, rarely a sufficient reflection is provided on the kind of normativity that plays a role in the way practices are investigated or on how normativity is present in the practices that have been studied. Partly based on the case studies of three PhD studies on the youth ministry from the Dutch Research Centre for Youth, Church and Culture, this article aims (a) to give an overview of the layers of normativity that can be distinguished in current practical theological youth ministry research and (b) to give directions for the design, execution, and reporting of practical theological youth ministry research in terms of a sufficient reflection on normativity.

Recent empirical work on the relationship between causal judgements and norms

AbstractIt has recently been argued that normative considerations play an important role in causal cognition. For instance, when an agent violates a moral rule and thereby produces a negative outcome, she will be judged to be much more of a cause of the outcome, compared to someone who performed the same action but did not violate a norm. While there is a substantial amount of evidence reporting these effects, it is still a matter of debate how this evidence is to be interpreted. In this paper, we engage with the three most influential classes of explanations, namely, (a) the Norm‐Sensitive Cognitive Process View, (b) the Normative Concept View, and (c) the Pragmatics View. We will outline how these theories explain the empirical results and in what ways they differ. We conclude with a reflection on how well these strategies do overall and what questions they still leave unanswered.

Chile\u2019s role in global health diplomacy: a narrative literature review

BackgroundGlobal health diplomacy (GHD) has become an important field of investigation due to health concerns increasingly entering the foreign policy domain. Much of the existing academic writing focuses on North-South cooperation in global health, and emphasizes the role of security and economic interests by Northern countries as drivers of GHD. Chile presents a favourable environment for an expanded involvement in future GHD activities. However, there is little knowledge about what has been driving Chile’s integration of health into foreign policy, and little effort to appropriate knowledge from international relations theories to better theoretically grasp the emergence of GHD.MethodsTo fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a narrative literature review of the driving forces behind Chile’s integration of health into foreign policy. Drawing on a popular analytical framework used in international relations scholarship, we identified driving forces of the integration of health into Chile foreign policy at three levels of analysis.ResultsAt the international/global level of analysis, the main driving forces were related to national security concerns and compliance with regulations of international organizations. At the regional level, GHD was driven by a commitment to regional solidarity through mutually beneficial cooperation in response to neoliberal reforms; health coordination in emergencies; and protection of indigenous peoples. Finally, at the domestic level, drivers identified include economic interests of various productive sectors and how health regulations might impact those; the high degree of social inequity which impacts on access to healthcare; and management of natural disasters.ConclusionHealth actions in the context of international relations in Chile are still mainly motivated by more traditional foreign policy interests rather than by a desire to satisfy health needs per se. This seems to conform with findings of existing GHD scholarship that emphasize the importance of security and economic interests as driving forces of GHD, and how health is often appropriated instrumentally within foreign policy settings to achieve other goals. But the review also reveals that in the context of South-South cooperation (and regional health diplomacy), solidarity and normative considerations can be important driving forces as well. Finally, the review demonstrates that there has been an evolution from chiefly domestically focused health policies (e.g. maternal and child nutrition treatment) towards internationally inspired integrated policies (e.g. maternal and child nutrition promotion aligned with international guidelines).