Normative Expectations Research Articles

The Politics of Vulnerability and Care: An Interview with Estelle Ferrarese

In this interview, Estelle Ferrarese elaborates on her account of vulnerability and care to highlight its political and social, as opposed to its ethical, dimensions. Drawing on, amongst others, Adorno, Tronto, Castell, and Laugier, she argues that vulnerability and care should not be understood ontologically, as an antropological exposure of the body, but rather socially, as the normative expectations and material conditions under which care work takes place. Situating her approach in anglophone and francophone discussions on vulnerability and precarity, she discusses her approach to normative expectations and how it informs her account of vulnerability of living at the mercy of someone else's agency, as well as the politicization of vulnerability. She also discusses the political implications of her account of vulnerability and care with regard to a range of contemporary issues, such as the Men's Right Movement, the posthuman turn and the Antropocene, and mutual aid and the neoliberalization of the welfare state.

Adolescent boys’ and girls’ perspectives on social norms surrounding child marriage in Nepal

According to recent data, in Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20–24 years are married by the age of 18. This analysis of CARE’s Tipping Point Initiative seeks to compare Nepali adolescent boys’ and girls’ perceptions of empirical and normative expectations around child, early and forced marriage. A baseline survey of 1,134 adolescent girls and 1,154 adolescent boys provided 11 items for descriptive quantitative analysis. Thirty in-depth interviews and 16 focus groups were conducted with young people aged 12–16 years and analysed using modified Grounded Theory. Themes in the data produced thick descriptions of gender roles/responsibilities, employment, mobility and marriage. Comparisons by gender of normative and empirical expectations, and sanctions on child, early and forced marriage were produced. Gender roles/responsibilities underpin social norms for mobility, marriage and employment, and are connected by subthemes with a focus on responsibility for household chores, interaction between unmarried adolescents, education/financial stability, honour/reputation, and parental decision-makers). Participants agreed on gendered labour, women’s employment, and parents as decision-makers. Areas of disagreement included repercussions for interactions between unmarried adolescents, girls’ mobility, attributes of the ideal woman, and maintaining family honour. Programming recommendations include focusing on the inter-relatedness of boys’ and girls’ wellbeing, communication between girls and parents, and structural support for education Research recommendations include identifying factors underlying sexual harassment and constructs of masculinity and femininity.

What is transformative law?

AbstractIn the western context, law has two functions. It upholds normative expectations and it transforms social phenomena. The latter is expressed through the form-giving function of law, as law designates particular social phenomena, such as, for example, economic, political or religious. Inside such overarching categories, further subcategories can moreover be observed. In relation to economic processes, the legal institutions of competition, contract, corporation and property are, for example, classical examples of the form-giving function of law. The dual function of law is briefly illustrated through a genealogy of imaginaries of law distinguishing between four historically dominant types of law: ‘Law as purpose’; ‘law as a tool’; ‘law as an obstacle’; and ‘law as reflexivity-initiation’. On this background, ten core dimensions of what might become a new episteme of transformative law are fleshed out with the aim of answering the question to what extent it can act as an alternative to the previous four types of law.

Youth athlete learning and the dynamics of social performance in Norwegian elite handball

This study examines how the social interactions of youth handball players are entangled with the ideals, beliefs and norms associated with youth athlete learning in Norwegian handball and communicated through coaching practice. This qualitative study uses Goffman's interactional sociological lens to explore how players strategically manage their interactions with peers and coaches by balancing the risks of overuse and injury with the need to be seen as promising, committed players. Our data collection was based on four focus group interviews and five individual interviews with 24 female youth handball players. The athletes reported that they conformed with the social rules and expectations of acceptable behaviour in handball because they wished to avoid being discredited in the eyes of their peers and coaches. Additionally, they engaged with these expectations through self-censorship and behavioural caution, because doing so allowed them to sustain their identity as promising athletes within the current framework of athlete development. They also feared being perceived as less committed to their development. The findings highlight how the normative expectations of youth athletes affect their sense of agency and control, the behaviours they engage in, and their understandings of what it means to be a good athlete. An understanding of how athletes perform socially in ways that facilitate opportunities for ongoing development will help to facilitate more productive, ethical and meaningful practice and pedagogies.

Disabled Dimensionalities: Normative expectations' impacts on disabled perceptions and spatialities

En tant qu'humains, nous sommes supposés interagir en tant que manipulateur tridimensionnels pouvant observer, manipuler et agir en trois dimensions. Les utilisateurs potentiels sont pensés ainsi durant la production et le design de la plupart des produits et espaces. Le capacitisme permet un préjugé selon lequel les personnes handicapées sont inférieures quand il s'agit de manipuler, d'imaginer ou d'explorer le monde. Nous montrons l'inadéquation et les limites de cette perception intuitive en utilisant nos propres expériences comme personnes handicapées agissant dans le monde ainsi que les critiques et expériences de vie d'autres intellectuels handicapés. Dans cette contribution théorique nous proposons une analyse de conséquence du capacitisme dans l'organisation des espaces — qu'ils soient virtuels ou matériels, imaginaires ou pratiques — et de comment celle-ci influence nos manières de penser les espaces matériels comme virtuels.

Backlash for high self‐promotion at hiring depends on candidates' gender and age

AbstractPrevious research has shown that evaluators react negatively to intense, high levels of self‐promotion during the interview, in particular when displayed by female candidates, presumably because these behaviors violate the female gender stereotype of being modest and putting others first. We expand this focus on a single social category and examine the joint effects of gender and age on reactions to high self‐promotion/low modesty, as both gender and age stereotypes contain normative expectations regarding assertiveness and humility. Results of our experimental study point out two groups at risk of backlash, older women and younger men. While both older female and younger male candidates engaging in high self‐promotion were seen as competent, they were regarded as less interpersonally warm, received lower interview performance ratings, and were less likely to be hired. These results provide evidence for the importance of applying an intersectional lens on the effects of self‐promotion at hiring. Their implications for theory and practice as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

Chickens, Inc.: Was UK Newspapers’ Framing of the Chicken Meat Production Industry Compatible with Holding Corporate Power to Account?

ABSTRACT Journalism is presented as fundamental to democratic accountability in that news media are both able and expected to hold power to account. Such normative expectations, which justify the protections given journalists and news media, are most frequently studied with regards to state power as the natural object of press scrutiny. This article reports on a successful effort to conduct a replicable analysis of a paradigmatic case of corporate power, the UK chicken meat production industry, that asked whether and how newspapers hold corporate power to account. The analytic framework that we developed to support our two-stage framing analysis decomposed accountability into problematization, causal interpretation and attributions of responsibility, thus allowing us to systematically describe how newspapers shape the public debates in a large heterogeneous dataset. We examined a census of relevant articles from seven UK outlets published between 1985 and 2016 (N = 766). While we were pleased to find that our method, if labor intensive, was fully workable, we were concerned to find that media practice was not compatible with holding corporate power to account. These findings raise serious concerns at the levels of this case, for media practice and for media scholarship.

Quantification of Aversion to Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice through Subjective Perception of Time

Intertemporal choices are those decisions structured over several periods in which the effects only manifest themselves with the passage of time. The main mathematical reference for studying the behavior of individuals with respect to this type of decision is the Discounted Utility Model which hypothesizes completely rational individuals. The empirical evidence that deviates from normative expectations has motivated the formulation of alternative models with the aim of better describing the behavior of individuals. The present paper investigates the characteristics behind hyperbolic discounting starting from the phenomenon of decision inconsistency, i.e., when individuals’ preferences vary over time. The mechanisms of inconsistency will be explored through the physical concept of relative time, proving the importance of uncertainty aversion in the hyperbolic trend of the discount function. The analysis of the mathematical characteristics of hyperbolic discounting and the relationship between decision inconsistency and subjective perception of time defines the maximum distance between rational and non-rational preferences. An experimental part empirically proves the relationship between uncertainty aversion and time inconsistency. The present paper contributes to the literature by defining a new characteristic of hyperbolic discounting and quantifying the impact of the subjective perception of time in the decision-making process.

Resistance of young working-class women in Swiss activation labour market programmes

ABSTRACT Recent studies on active labour-market programmes have shown that welfare beneficiaries exercise agency to resist normative expectations and institutional demands leading to low-paid jobs. This study examines young native and immigrant working-class women’s resistance to labour-market activation policies in French-speaking Switzerland. Using ethnographic data from two activation programmes and interviews with young unemployed women, the results show that the gendered organisation of the programmes contributes to making women and their work invisible. The young native women use their invisibility strategically to develop discreet resistance and fight for their respectability. Immigrant women are more compliant but exercise forms of political agency for emancipation. Using the approach of particularistic resistance, we show that resistance within welfare institutions is not only a way to express individual dissatisfaction but also a form of agency and individual political action. Future studies should examine welfare beneficiaries’ agency in navigating and resisting welfare policies.

Passing as resistance through a Goffmanian approach: Normalized, defensive, strategic, and instrumental passing when LGBTQ+ individuals encounter institutions

AbstractPassing and coming out are two divergent individual strategies historically associated with the LGBTQ+ community as they struggle to fit in with normative expectations at work and in life. While coming out has gradually become more common in organizations and national contexts that offer safeguards for LGBTQ+ individuals, passing remains an option where no such measures are available. Drawing on interviews with working‐class LGBTQ+ individuals in a country with an adversarial context, that is, Turkey, we identify how varieties of passing, defined as acting and appearing to fit with the dominant sexual orientation and gender identity norms, are used as strategies of coping with institutional norms. Working‐class LGBTQ+ individuals are an important group to study as many draw their pride, power, and identity from their engagement with work and the labor market. Transcending the monolithic accounts of passing, we illustrate four variants of passing (i.e., normalized, defensive, strategic, and instrumental passing) that LGBTQ+ individuals deploy at work. Reflecting on the field study findings, we explicate how and why LGBTQ+ individuals choose to pass at work in each case.

Judicial Response to Ecological Environment Risk in China-From the Perspective of Social Systems Theory.

In modern society, law is one of the most important means of risk prevention and control. Under the challenge of ecological and environmental risks, China's legal governance experience provides important historical experience and theoretical samples for other countries. Faced with problems, such as the difficulty of eliminating risks, risk decisions themselves bring risks, and the huge social cost of risk response, the social system theory can provide novel and new ideas for the cognition and response of environmental risks. Combining the experience of judicial practice with social theory, especially Niklas Luhmann's doctrine of the risk/danger dichotomy, a clearer functional orientation can be given to judicial powers based on risk communication and risk attribution. By reviewing the ecological judicial practices in China, Germany, and other countries, the role of the legal system in stabilizing the normative expectations of the whole of society can be summarized, which will provide a reference for the risk response and legal governance of the global ecological environment.

Policing the pandemic: Frontline officers’ perspectives on organisational justice

Much of the literature on the policing of the coronavirus pandemic reflects research that has been extra-organisationally focused, examining the prospective impact of the police approach to applying the public health legislation on relationships with the public and the potential impact on police legitimacy. Less research has been intra-organisationally focused; investigating the potential affect on police officers of policing during an extraordinary public health crisis, which has required them to navigate an ambiguous and constantly fluctuating legislative and policy landscape that has driven significant changes to internal working practices and operational procedures within their organisational environment. Using original empirical data from a small multi-method study within one Division of a United Kingdom police force, we examined the issue from an organisational justice perspective; exploring perceptions of intra-organisational fairness, and how these may have directly impacted upon the responses of frontline officers during the pandemic. We argue that in this period, both organisational processes and their resultant outcomes did not meet normative expectations, as they discriminated against officers with public-facing (frontline) roles. This directly impacted upon the officers’ experience of the ‘organisational climate’. The resulting sense of organisational injustice felt by frontline officers reduced their morale, impacted upon relationships with senior officers, and nurtured feelings that they were not being treated with respect, dignity and trust. We conclude by discussing the potential implications of the study for police organisations and their leaders, outlining opportunities for organisational learning and consider the need for the development of policy that complements notions of organisational justice.

Challenging norms: Making non-normative choices in childbearing. Results of a meta ethnographic review of the literature

ObjectiveWomen have the right to make choices during pregnancy and birth that sit outside clinical guidelines, medical recommendations, or normative expectations. Declining recommended place or mode of birth, routine intervention or screening can be considered 'non-normative' within western cultural and social expectations around pregnancy and childbirth. The aim of this review is to establish what is known about the experiences, views, and perceptions of women who make non-normative choices during pregnancy and childbirth to uncover new understandings, conceptualisations, and theories within existing literature. MethodsUsing the meta-ethnographic method, and following its seven canonical stages, a systematic search of databases was performed, informed by eMERGe guidelines. FindingsThirty-three studies met the inclusion criteria. Reciprocal translation resulted in three third order constructs - ‘influences and motivators’, ‘barriers and conflict and ‘knowledge as empowerment’. Refutational translation resulted in one third order construct – ‘the middle ground’, which informed the line of argument synthesis and theoretical insights. Key Conclusions and implications for practiceThe findings of this review suggest that whilst existing literature from a range of high-income countries with similar healthcare systems to the UK have begun to explore non-normative decision-making for discrete episodes of care and choices, knowledge based, theoretical and population gaps exist in relation to understanding the experiences of, and wider social processes involved in, making non-normative choices across the UK maternity care continuum.

Pharmacists under pressure to concede: Why pharmacists provide non-prescribed antibiotics in the Arab minority in Israel

BackgroundAntibiotics overuse has become a global health threat because of increased antimicrobial resistance. Consumption of non-prescribed antibiotics contributes to this problem and has been found particularly among minority populations. One source for non-prescribed antibiotics are pharmacists. This study focuses on perspective of Arab pharmacists working in the Arab society in Israel--a minority reported to overconsume antibiotics--in order to learn why Arab pharmacists might accede to customers’ requests for non-prescribed antibiotics. DesignFace-to-face interviews were conducted with 60 Arab pharmacists working in private pharmacies in different regions in Israel. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically by focusing on the characteristics of pharmacist-customer relations, conceptions of social norms, and perceived expectations to provide non-prescribed antibiotics. Key resultsThe findings highlight how perceived normative expectations associated with a collectivist orientation predispose pharmacists to concede to customers' requests. The analysis identified two inter-related factors serving to pressure pharmacists to dispense non-prescribed antibiotics: personal customer-pharmacist relationship and cultural collectivist values. Pharmacists faced dilemmas between obligation to comply with customers' requests and going against professional ethos and described strategies to resist customers’ requests. ConclusionsThis study illuminates the central role of sociocultural contexts and social norms in pharmacist-customer relations in a collectivist-oriented minority, resulting in pressuring pharmacists to go against regulations. The findings have implications to understanding reasons for dispensing prescription-only medications. Interventions to reduce antibiotics use could enlist the centrality of social ties and commitment in pharmacist-customer relationships to resist dispensing prescription-only medications without prescriptions and to strengthen pharmacists’ role in providing pro-health messages.

Neurocognitive function and health-related quality of life in a nationwide cohort of long-term childhood brain tumor survivors.

Childhood brain tumor survivors are at high risk of late effects, especially neurocognitive impairment. Limited data are available examining neurocognitive function and associations with quality of life (QoL) in childhood brain tumor survivors. Our aim was to examine neurocognitive function in childhood brain tumor survivors, and associations with QoL and symptom burden. Five-year survivors of brain tumors over the age of 15 were identified in the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (n = 423). Eligible and consenting participants completed neuropsychological tests and questionnaires assessing QoL, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Survivors treated with radiation (n = 59) were statistically compared with survivors not treated with radiation (n = 102). In total, 170 survivors participated (40.2% participation rate). Sixty-six percent of the survivors who completed neurocognitive tests (n = 161) exhibited overall neurocognitive impairment. Survivors treated with radiation, especially whole-brain irradiation, exhibited poorer neurocognitive outcomes than survivors not treated with radiation. Neurocognitive outcomes for survivors treated with surgery were below normative expectations. Furthermore, a number of survivors experienced significant fatigue (40%), anxiety (23%), insomnia (13%), and/or depression (6%). Survivors treated with radiation reported lower quality of life (QoL) and higher symptom burden scores than survivors not treated with radiation; particularly in physical functioning, and social functioning with symptoms of fatigue. Neurocognitive impairment was not associated with QoL or symptom burden. In this study, a majority of the childhood brain tumor survivors experienced neurocognitive impairment, reduced QoL, and high symptom burden. Although not associated with each other, it is apparent that childhood brain tumor survivors experience not only neurocognitive dysfunction but may also experience QoL impairments and significant symptom burden.

What is interdisciplinarity, and how can we apply it to research and practice?

Abstract The concept of interdisciplinarity is an integral part of contemporary academia. Successful academic careers or innovative study programs: Interdisciplinarity is often claimed, expected, or required. Public health scientists also claim to facilitate health-related interdisciplinary research under the umbrella of public health and to apply findings from interdisciplinary research in practice. These aspects already point to one of many problems in using the term interdisciplinarity: When using the term, it is not always evident whether it is a merely descriptive term or whether normative expectations are also associated with it. We consider that successful interdisciplinary research is enabled by a shared understanding of what is meant by interdisciplinarity in concrete research projects. This urgency is re-emphasised by the participation of new disciplines in digital public health. Through this presentation, we would like to give participants a brief theoretical overview of the concept of interdisciplinarity and related concepts such as transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity. In this way, all workshop participants will have a shared understanding that will serve as a basis for further work in groups during the workshop. After the terminological distinctions, we will turn to the practical challenges of interdisciplinary research, which arise beyond the clarification of terms. We will outline these challenges in fundamental terms and then provide some best practice examples on how interdisciplinarity in scientific competence can be promoted among individual scientists and in research groups. In the best case, the workshop participants will draw inspiration for the subsequent group work from the best practice examples to generate new motivation for interdisciplinary work in this way. A concise summary will conclude this compact-informative presentation. Merle Freye will host the tables on law and ethics during the world coffee.

Tiny human geographies: babies and toddlers as non-representational and barely human life?

ABSTRACT We question the relative absence of babies and toddlers in geographies of children and youth, while also acknowledging what may be signs of a new subfield in the making. We argue that there is an exciting opportunity here because babies and toddlers are at the crux of what it is to be human, raising potent questions about exactly ‘what kinds of human’ are they? We argue that babies are the ultimate non-representational, in certain respects barely-human, subjects who express their agencies in non-verbal ways. Toddlers too are disruptive to the socio-spatial order, and their disruption exposes the normative expectations of behaviour in place. Close attention to these tiny humans and their ‘micro-geographies’ provides insight into ‘lines of flight’ that configure our studies, and maybe even our worlds, otherwise.

The Quantum Governance Stack: Models of Governance for Quantum Information Technologies

The emergence of quantum information technologies with potential application across diverse industrial, consumer and technical domains has thrown into relief the need for practical approaches to their governance. Technology governance must balance multiple objectives including facilitating technological development while meeting legal requirements, normative expectations and managing risks regarding the use of such technology. In this paper, we articulate a variety of idealised governance models and approaches for synthesising these complementary and sometimes competing objectives. We set out a comparative analysis of quantum governance in the context of existing models of technological governance. Using this approach, we develop an actor-instrument model for quantum governance, denoted the ‘quantum governance stack’, across a governance hierarchy from states and governments through to public and private institutions. Our model sets out key characteristics that quantum governance should exhibit at each level in the stack, including identification of stakeholder rights, interests and obligations impacted by quantum technologies and the appropriate instruments by which such impacts are managed. We argue that quantum governance must be responsive based on (a) the state of technology at the time; (b) resource and economic requirements for its development; and (c) assessments and estimates of the near-term and future impacts of such technology. Our work provides a pragmatic introduction to quantum governance by (a) specifying a taxonomy of governance actors and instruments and (b) providing examples of how different stakeholders within the stack might implement governance responses to quantum information technologies. It is intended for use by stakeholders in government, industry, academia and civil society to help inform their governance response to the quantum technology revolution.

Parents' intention toward early marriage of their adolescent girls in eastern Ethiopia: A community-based cross-sectional study from a social norms perspective.

BackgroundStrong social norms around early marriage put pressure on parents to marry off their adolescent girls at an early age. Early marriage is widely practiced in many parts of Ethiopia. However, early marriage studies rarely address the role of social norms. This study aims to examine the role of social norms on parents' intention to marry off adolescent girls early in Eastern Ethiopia.MethodA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September to November 2019. A multistage sampling procedure was applied to select the study participants. Factors related to parents' intention for early marriage were assessed through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Adjusted Prevalence Ratio (PR) was calculated using a log-binomial model to identify factors associated with intention toward early marriage.ResultsA total of 859 mothers and 859 fathers of unmarried girls were included in the study. The prevalence of intention to marry off their daughter early among mothers was 39.70% (95% CI = 36.4–43.0%) and 43.54% (95%CI = 40.2–47.1%) among fathers of adolescent girls [chi2(1) = 41.8; P < 0.001]. The intention for an early marriage was higher among mothers and fathers with favorable attitude towards early marriage, in those who believe that most people in their reference group conform to early marriage norms (empirical expectation), in those who believe that most people in their reference group expect them to conform to early marriage norms (normative expectation) and among fathers who did not know the legal age of marriage for adolescent girls and those who did not know the health consequences of early marriage. The prevalence of intention toward early marriage was lower among mothers (APR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.36–0.65) and fathers (APR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.49–0.78) in urban areas; and among mothers (APR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.27–0.62) and fathers (APR = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.38–0.67) with higher educational level.ConclusionThe social norms that promote intention for early marriage are still high among parents, especially among those living in rural areas and uneducated. Hence, interventions that aim to reduce early marriage need to address locally relevant social norms.

Look At/Check X: An Attention-And-Approval-Seeking Device

ABSTRACT In the home, parents and children are often co-present but engaged with different tasks. When children wish to engage their parents about something they have produced/are producing and to monitor their understanding of it, they need a means of obtaining both parental attention and understanding. I examine instances of children using the look at X directive (and its variant in South African English, check X) as an attention-and-approval-seeking device, where parents either respond by looking and approving or children pursue approval. By examining naturally occurring video-recorded interactions in the homes of two families with four-year-old children, I demonstrate that the directive sets in motion a pair of conditionally relevant responses of attending and approving. Through this practice, children monitor their own understanding of their production as an accomplishment and together parent and child (re)inforce normative expectations of children as apprentices and parents as knowledgeable authorities. Data are in South African English.