Normative Dimensions Research Articles

Translating Buen Vivir: Latin American Indigenous Cultures, Stadial Development, and Comparative Religious Ethics

ABSTRACTThis article considers the methodological limits and possibilities of a cultural turn in comparative religious ethics by “translating” the Latin American Indigenous meanings of buen vivir (living well), a subsistent mode of interdependent flourishing resistant to Western models of extractive development amid the Anthropocene. It problematizes the methodological challenge of translating Indigenous cultures from within a Western colonial political economy that has historically relegated Indigenous Americans to the primitive level of savage inferiority according to a stadial theory of socioeconomic development. However, constructive methodological options for translating Indigenous cultures emerge from the Journal of Religious Ethics's existing conversations about comparative religious ethics. On the one hand, recent critical anthropology and ethnography, abetted by intellectual history, provide tools for ethicists in the recovery of Indigenous critiques and meanings against longstanding Western cultural patterns. On the other hand, nativizing the concept of the religious classic thematizes the normative dimensions of Indigenous cultures, demonstrating how the translation of buen vivir points to intercultural dialogue rather than cooptation and manipulation.

Political Talk and the Triad of Democratic Citizenship

Deliberative democracy’s core practice of political discussion is often claimed to entail beneficial ‘self-transformative’ effects on those partaking in it. We examine the assumption that political talk makes for ‘better citizens’ with a special focus on individuals’ orientations toward democracy and their own roles within it. We conceptualize these orientations as a triad of democratic citizenship that encompasses three pillars: (1) the attitudinal dimension of citizens’ support for the democratic political system whose members they are, (2) the normative dimension of views about ‘good’ citizenship, and (3) the behavioral dimension of active participation in this system’s political process. Our analysis offers a comprehensive perspective at how these orientations are affected by engagement and disagreement in political talk across four discursive spheres: (i) informal conversations of a private nature within strong network ties (family and friends), (ii) of a semi-public nature within weak network ties (acquaintances), and (iii) of a public nature outside social networks (strangers), as well as (iv) formalized public discussions at organized events. Drawing on two high-quality surveys from Germany, we find overall positive effects of engagement in informal-private conversations and formalized public discussions on citizenship orientations. The role of semi-public political talk within weak ties appears ambivalent, but its impact is overall rather weak. Strikingly, we observe strong indications that casual conversations with strangers weaken people’s support for the democratic system, participatory norms, and likelihood of active political engagement. Disagreement during political conversations also matters for democratic orientations, and its effects are always positive.

Vulnerability, Embedded Agency, and Downward Social Mobility of Young Asylum Seekers

From an intersectional perspective, the situational and inherent vulnerability faced by two young asylum seekers in Catalonia, Spain, were analyzed through case studies that illustrate how these young people navigated within unpredictable and changing environments that hampered their embedded agency. Their settlement as social navigation highlights the temporal dimensions of the migration process. Waiting was also a key element that marked and regulated their settlement from a normative, relational, and existential dimension. The results highlight downward social mobility and precarious integration into the host society due to institutional, structural, and socio-cultural constraints.

The Normative and Cultural Dimension of Work: Technological Unemployment as a Cultural Threat to a Meaningful Life.

The scholarship on meaningful work has approached the topic mostly from the perspective of the subjective experience of the individual worker. This has led the literature to under-theorize, if not outright ignore, the cultural and normative dimension of meaningful work. In particular, it has obscured that a person's ability to find meaning in her life in general, and her work in particular, is typically anchored and dependent on shared institutions and cultural aspirations. Reflecting on the future of work, particularly on the dangers posed by the threat of technological unemployment, helps us recognize this cultural and normative dimension of meaningful work. I argue that a world with few work opportunities is a world devoid of a core structuring ideal around which our society has organized itself and, as such, will strain our ability to make sense of what it means to find life meaningful. To make this case I show that work operates as a central organizing telos around which our contemporary lives gravitate. Work touches everyone and everything, defining the rhythms of our days and weeks and providing a center of gravity around which our lives are structured. Work constitutes a central dimension of human flourishing. Through work we provide for our material needs, develop our skills and virtues, build community, and contribute to the common good. As such, work constitutes a central organizing ideal in contemporary Western societies, a fact has significant normative force and plays an important role in our finding work meaningful.

Network governance institutionalization: Creating mutual value by harnessing and avoiding conflicts in interorganizational networks

Interorganizational network governance provides a set of jointly shared principles that affect the interaction among the network actors, and ultimately, the value created in the network. Past research has focused on specific network governance mechanisms and the organizations enforcing those and has paid less attention to the degree of which those mechanisms are institutionalized in the network. To bridge this gap, we develop a conceptual model with regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive dimensions to network governance institutionalization. We hypothesize that these three dimensions have a role in facilitating or suppressing affective and cognitive conflicts, ultimately increasing or decreasing common network benefits. Testing our model on a sample of 145 firms in Germany, we find that affective conflicts are harmful for common network benefits, while cognitive conflicts are beneficial. Furthermore, we find that regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive governance dimensions each play a particular role in facilitating or suppressing both types of conflict.

Hands, Feet, Eyes, and the Object a: A Lacanian Anatomy of Football

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a Lacanian perspective on football, while notably fathoming its normative dimension. Starting with a defining imperative, the prohibition against ‘handling’ or touching the ball with your hands, diverging football historically from rugby, we will subsequently focus our attention on the role of the foot, the eye (notably the eyes of the audience) and the ‘object a’ (in the context of gender). Against this backdrop, we will address pressing issues such as the troubled position of the referee (as an ‘impossible profession’), the commercialisation of football, and the rising tides of violence, match—fixing and other instances of systemic deviance. As we will argue, football exemplifies modern sport as an arena defined by prohibitions and desire, by inclusion and exclusion, by purity and abuse, culminating in recent challenges involved in gender trouble. Symbolical practices, like modern football, are based on in- and exclusion. Instead of more regulations and dichotomies, we advocate careful attention to the delicate art of handling desire in practice.

Agency and constraint in environmental policy coherence

Whether pursuing the breadth of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals or delivering joined-up approaches within a single environmental domain, policy objectives, policy design and policy implementation should cohere vertically and horizontally. However, policy coherence remains a challenge to implement. The limited empirical scholarship on policy coherence tends to focus on policy documentation and/or the outcomes, with little attention to individual agency or social processes involved. Furthermore, there is little discussion of the normative dimensions of policy coherence and the political aspects of individual agency, indicating the need for political ecology. We conducted an empirical study within four UK catchment (watershed) partnerships, using critical interpretive policy analysis to enrich the interface between political ecology and environmental policy. We explored who practices policy coherence and how; what motivates those investing their energy into these practices; their constraints and the contradictions arising. We found that the appetite and ability to support policy coherence depends on individual agency as much as partnership structures, which are themselves situated in technocratic regimes of policy implementation. Within these regimes, agents presented as apolitical and enabling, making it challenging to research the political and social processes of policy coherence. A political ecology lens highlights how power is involved in these voluntary initiatives, potentially shoring up existing privilege inscribed into riparian habitats and their resources. Our contribution therefore responds to and amplifies the critique of traditional presentations of integrated water resource management devoid of politics.

“Are You Saying That We’re Racist?”: Comparing Normative, Political, and Technical Dimensions of Instructional and Disciplinary Policies

Background: In recent years, school districts have experienced a complex policy environment with myriad reforms aimed at addressing longstanding and historically entrenched disparities in opportunities and outcomes between racially minoritized students and White students. One such reform is standards-based accountability, with its emphasis on documenting and addressing racial disparities in testing outcomes. Recently, educators and lawmakers have sought to address persistent racial disproportionality in disciplinary actions. New behavioral policies may be seen as a response to national attention and outrage regarding the “school-to-prison pipeline,” which indicates that school discipline practices contribute to the over-representation of Black men in the criminal justice system. In recent years, local leaders have been tasked with implementing new disciplinary reforms alongside their ongoing efforts at instructional improvement. Purpose: As districts face an increasingly complex policy environment and constrained resources, researchers must understand how district leaders make sense of and manage the varied policies they are tasked with implementing. This study contributes to the knowledge base on K–12 policy implementation by examining how school district leaders manage multiple policies—particularly when some new practices engage beliefs around racial discrimination or structural racism. We contribute to the gap in the literature by asking: What differences emerged in the early implementation processes of an instructional policy and a discipline policy in the Elmwood school district, and what might explain those differences? Research Design: To answer this question, we employ a comparative, embedded case study design and examine extensive qualitative data from a single school district. Oakes’s (1992) framework of technical, normative, and political dimensions of policy change guided the analysis and was applied to rich interview data. Conclusions: Overall, our findings highlight significant differences in how Elmwood leadership implemented the two policies. Our study indicates that though both instructional and disciplinary reforms purport to address racial outcome gaps, district leaders may view discipline in a racialized way that they do not view instructional policy. The perceived racialized nature of discipline policy may significantly influence implementation practices. Ultimately, the data suggests that racialized normative beliefs and values, along with political and technical investments, greatly influence the implementation process and raise larger questions about the role of racism in education reform.

To Whom Are Directors’ Duties Owed? Evidence from Canadian M&A Transactions

One of the most contentious issues in corporate law is the proper scope of fiduciary duties. Many scholars have argued that fiduciary duties are owed exclusively to shareholders, while others have advocated a broader conception of directors’ fiduciary obligations, potentially encompassing a wide variety of stakeholder and community interests. This debate has both normative and positive dimensions: Not only are there theoretical disagreements as to whom directors’ duties should be owed, there are also more basic disagreements as to what the law actually requires, including the extent to which business norms supplement (or undermine) legal rules. In Canada, at least, jurisprudential and statutory reforms have broadened the scope of fiduciary duties to extend their protections to stakeholder groups including creditors, employees, and the environment.
 Or have they? In reality, there are reasons to believe that legal standards play a limited role in corporate governance, not least with respect to the fundamental question of in whose interests the corporation is to be governed. For public corporations, a variety of factors, including the professional norms of corporate managers, the realities of public financial markets, and the central role of shareholders in the mechanisms of corporate democracy, strongly encourage directors to prioritize shareholder interests. This article finds evidence of this phenomenon through an empirical study of “fiduciary out” provisions in Canadian M&A agreements. These provisions, which allow directors to abandon committed transactions in order to fulfill their fiduciary duties, are almost universally drafted in terms of maximizing shareholder value. Indeed, in two samples containing more than one thousand M&A agreements, only a single agreement permitted directors to consider non-shareholder interests. This evidence indicates that fiduciary duties are broader in theory than in practice.

Philosophical Pragmatism and the Challenges of Information Technologies

Philosophical Pragmatism and the Challenges of Information Technologies

Forum: Making Peace with Un-Certainty: Reflections on the Role of Digital Technology in Peace Processes beyond the Data Hype

Abstract Recent years have seen the acceleration of data- and evidence-based approaches in support of peace processes, creating a renewed confidence that conflicts can be predicted, known, and resolved, based on objective information about the world. However, new technologies employed by conflict parties, stakeholders, and those who aim to make or build peace have also made peace processes less ascertainable, intelligible, and predictable. Technology can thus create both more certainty and uncertainty in (and about) peace processes. This forum article presents a first collaborative attempt to explore how the use of technology by conflict parties and peacebuilding actors influences these dynamics. We examine various fields of engagement, ranging from conflict prevention to peace mediation, peacekeeping, and longer-term peacebuilding. Our discussion engages with a variety of related activities, including predictive analysis and foresight, conflict analysis, cease-fire monitoring, early warning and early action, and problem-solving and trust-building dialogues. We suggest approaching un-certainty as a spectrum between uncertainty and certainty that can be studied across epistemic, ontological, and normative dimensions, thus inviting further academic research and policy reflection. The article is coauthored by scholars and current or former practitioners and underlines the necessity, benefits, and feasibility of research–practice exchanges on this topic.

Emerging Discourses on Freedom of Religion or Belief in Indonesia

The notion of religious freedom has existed since the founding of an independent Indonesia in 1945, but it took on a more prominent and effective profile only after the democratization that started in 1998. While the discourse has been dominated by discussion of the normative legal dimensions and lack of effective implementation that led to certain violations of the rights to FORB, it has recently expanded to deeper, more foundational questions and touched on more theoretical issues. This article considers three relevant developments that constitute the context: the legal landscape, advocacy, and the emerging conceptual discourses. It then positions the three issues discussed in the following three articles. Acknowledging that the three issues do not exhaust the whole landscape of FORB discourses in Indonesia, this article concludes by mentioning a few other issues that deserve attention and suggests discussing them as part of the international discourse on FORB.

Mobile-assisted showrooming behavior and the (r)evolution of retail: The moderating effect of gender on the adoption of mobile augmented reality

The intensive use of smartphones at physical stores has given rise to an increasingly common behavior among omnichannel consumers known as mobile-assisted showrooming (MAS). One of the technologies with the greatest capacity to engage MAS consumers at brick-and-mortar stores is mobile augmented reality (MAR). Studying this combination of customer technology (smartphone) and store technology (MAR) is thus key to reviving physical retail. In this context, this paper tests a Cognitive-Affective-Normative model to explain the intention of MAS consumers to use MAR in a physical store and analyze the moderating effect of gender on this relationship. The model is tested on a sample of 388 MAS men and 417 MAS women. The results show that the main antecedents for MAS men come from the model's cognitive dimension (“performance expectancy,” “effort expectancy”), while MAS women's acceptance is most conditioned by the cognitive dimension (“performance expectancy”) and normative dimension (“social influence”). These findings have theoretical implications for reviving the physical retail sector taking gender differences into account.

Stuck in short-term, daily operations, or not?: Unraveling SME's long-term orientation.

Long-term orientation (LTO) is an essential strategic option for firms to shape their future success, in particular for SMEs which are often submerged by daily operations. Surprisingly, little is known about the underlying personal and contextual drivers of LTO in an SME context. To unravel why some SME entrepreneurs adopt an LTO, while others seem to be stuck in short term and daily operations, we consider the (interacting) impact of both personal and contextual drivers. We carefully select well known drivers for their impact on various other aspects of SME's LTO: Need for achievement, as a personal driver, and the entrepreneur's perception of the institutional entrepreneurial support (PIES), as a contextual driver. The latter consists of a regulative, normative and cognitive institutional dimension. Based on a study on 176 SMEs in an emerging country, Indonesia, we confirm that both personal as well as contextual drivers individually and interactively impact an SME's LTO. Specifically, when highly achievement motivated entrepreneurs perceive that institutional regulations support entrepreneurial activities, they tend to adopt a higher level of LTO. We discuss implications for SMEs and policy makers, and provide suggestions for future research.

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Obscure Judiciousness: Revising Reason and Judgment in Burke's Enquiry

Abstract: This essay argues for a reevaluation of the importance of reason and judgement in Edmund Burke's aesthetic theory outlined in the Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1759). Situating Burke's aesthetic theory alongside those of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury; Francis Hutcheson; David Hume; and Immanuel Kant, it presents Burke's theory of judgement as a crucial component, one which attempts to hold together the descriptive and normative dimensions of the text. The main point of the analysis is to identify the emergence of a prominent legislative dimension to Burke's account of judgement in his revised "Introduction on Taste." This expanded role for reason and judgement complicates the apparent decoupling of reason and sensation that characterizes many of the Enquiry's most famous descriptions of aesthetic experience, demonstrating how the subsequent reincorporation of these experiences into social discursive practices requires a careful adjudication of where the respective limits of sense, imagination, and reason are to be located creating a far more complex philosophical dynamic within the text as a whole. In tracing the emergence of this rationally legislative dimension in the revised account of taste, this interpretation seeks to highlight several significant philosophical parallels between Burke and Kant's aesthetic philosophies, something which is often overlooked by the two being set in an overly contrastive intellectual relationship.

Governing Police Discretion Through a Craft Learning Model

In this article, we build on some of our previous empirical research to develop the value, logic and nature of the craft learning model, as an alternative to the dominant, administrative rulemaking paradigm for governing patrol officer discretion. We do this by conceptualizing the craft model in relation to Egon Bittner’s observations on two distinct mechanisms of police organization and control: legality and workmanship. Second, we illustrate the largely overlooked potential of body-worn cameras for learning about and advancing craft knowledge and skills. And third, we address three challenges to what we propose and consider how these might be mitigated or overcome: (1) resistance from the police culture; (2) the limited role of first-line supervisors; and (3) the current lack of community participation in guiding street-level decision-making. Our overarching purpose is to encourage advocates of police reform to explore new models that account for the complex technical and normative dimensions of everyday policing and facilitate more reasoned, transparent and principled decision-making on the front lines.

Caudolenticular gray bridges of the brain: A magnetic resonance imaging study.

The caudolenticular (or transcapsular) gray bridges (CLGBs) connect the caudate nucleus (CN) and putamen across the internal capsule. The CLGBs function as the main efferent terminus from premotor and supplementary motor area cortex to the basal ganglia (BG). We conjectured if inherent variations in numbers and sizes of CLGBs could contribute to abnormal cortical-subcortical connectivity in Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder featuring a hindrance of BG processing. However, there are no literature accounts of normative anatomy and morphometry of CLGBs. We therefore retrospectively analyzed axial and coronal 3T fast spoiled gradient-echo magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of 34 healthy individuals for bilateral CLGBs symmetry, their numbers, dimensions of thickest and longest bridge, and axial surface areas of CN head and putamen. We calculated Evans' index (EI) to account for any brain atrophy. We statistically tested associations between sex or age and measured dependent variables, and linear correlations between all measured variables (significance at p < 0.05). Study subjects were F:M=23:11 with mean age 49.9 years. All EI's were normal (<0.3). All but three CLGBs were bilaterally symmetrical with a mean 7.4 CLGBs per side. Mean CLGBs thickness and lengths were 1.0 and 4.6 mm, respectively; CN head and putamen areas were 205and 382.0 mm2 , respectively. Females had thicker CLGBs (p=0.02) but we found no significant interactions between sex or age and measured dependent variables, and no correlations between CN head or putamen areas and CLGBs dimensions. These normative MRI dimensions of the CLGBs will help guide future studies on the possible role of CLGBs morphometry in PD predisposition.

Psychology - culture, mind and the self

The low level of conceptual analysis and validity in our theories, and subsequently the use of methodological-statistical devices to cover up for conceptual deficiencies, can be traced to the manner in which psychologists, consciously or unconsciously, have embraced the philosophy of essentialism. That this unholy alliance gave rise to instrumentalism and constructivismunder the overarching framework of positivism is not surprising. What also followed, unfortunately, was that various psychologies attempted to develop theories that were ahistorical and context-free. This neglect of the culturel normative dimension is beingrectified in some circles, but it appears that the confrontation will have to be much more radical in light of the strongholds being developed in other circles. Developing the themes of culture, mind and self has been taken up in the process of a struggle with certain basic assumptions in psychology, and in a tentative search for more wholesome theories. It points the way to some interesting avenues of study in which both relativistic and universalistic perspectives can be accommodated.

Investigation of the intentions of children on the autism spectrum to participate in physical activity according to the planned behavior theory

This research aimed to investigate the intentions of children on the autism spectrum to participate in physical activity (PA) according to planned behavior theory. In the research, 16 Turkish parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) participated voluntarily. The study group for the research was chosen with the criterion sampling method. Data were collected by preparing a demographic information form and a semi-structured interview form. Face-to-face interviews were held with parents to apply the prepared demographic information form and semi-structured interview form. Data were analyzed with the thematic analysis method. According to the findings, in the behavioral belief dimension, the PA participation intentions of parents were based on the advantages of PA for children on the autism spectrum, and greater contribution to motor development. In the normative belief dimension, children on the autism spectrum were generally encouraged to participate by expert children like special education teachers and doctors. Finally, in the control belief dimension, access and financial opportunities were identified to both facilitate participation in PA and make it more difficult. In conclusion, parents of children on the autism spectrum displayed a positive attitude toward participation in PA. Though they met many obstructing factors, positive feedback from society was effective in their intentions to participate in PA. If the factors making participation in PA more difficult were resolved, it was concluded that participation would significantly increase.