Normative Readings Research Articles

Ultrasonographic threshold of ovarian structure in premenopausal women of different ethnicity

The polycystic ovarian morphology (PCOM) is a generally accepted ultrasound marker for ovulatory dysfunction, is one of the criteria for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and is established based on the assessment of ovarian volume (OV) and the follicle number per ovary (FNPO), taking into account the upper normal values determined in healthy premenopausal women. However, there is a necessity for regular revision of the PCOM characteristics depending on ethnic and age characteristics.The aim. To develop differentiated standards for assessing the ultrasonographic ovary structure in premenopausal women of various ethnicity.Materials and methods. From March 2016 to December 2019, a multicenter cross-sectional prospective study was conducted in Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk region) and in the neighboring Republic of Buryatia. The study included 1134 participants: 715 women of Caucasian origin, 312 Asian women, 107 women of mixed ethnic subpopulation.Results. It has been established that for Caucasians, it is advisable to diagnose PCOM when the ovarian volume is 9 cm3 and/or FNPO ≥ 12; for women of the Asian population – when the ovarian volume is 7 cm3 and/or FNPO ≥ 11; for women of mixed ethnicity – when the ovarian volume is 8 cm3 and/or FNPO ≥ 9. An important advantage of our study is that all participants were recruited from a non-selective multi-ethnic population of women with comparable socio-demographic characteristics living in the same geographical conditions.Conclusion. Differentiated approach for identifying the polycystic ovarian morphology in premenopausal women of different ethnic groups requires using ethnically differentiated normative readings

The Ethics of Contingency: An Alternative (to) Morality in the Analects

An appreciation of the emphasis on flexibility in the Analects is one of the most consistent motifs in the various interpretations of this text. When applied specifically to normative readings, embracing adaptability, having malleable standards, and taking particulars into account are both promising and challenging ways to think about whether something might be moral or ethical. This paper attempts to deconstruct this familiar discussion along novel lines that can reveal new ways to reflect on the importance of flexibility in the Analects, while, at the same time, it reconstrues ways in which comparative projects might be oriented. The main argument is this: the Analects does not recognize a categorical distinction between a moral and non-moral realm. Whereas, in much modern academic thought, there is a distinction between what counts as contingencies and what is up to the individual, which, in turn, loosely corresponds to the non-moral and moral realms, the Analects does not make such clear distinctions. Everything, including core moral issues such as the individual’s own choice, moral guidelines, and the contextualization of (moral) models, is all ultimately grounded in contingencies. Nevertheless, the Analects provides ways of reflecting on choices and actions that aim to steer people in specific directions. We may understand this as a type of morality, but one that is significantly distinct from those wherein the difference between the moral (non-contingent) and non-moral (contingent) is foundational.

“It Kind of Shows the Terrible Morality of This Scene”: Using Graphic Novels to Encourage Feminist Readings of Jewish Hebrew Texts with Religious Significance

This study considers whether and in what ways graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish Hebrew texts can encourage adolescent Modern Orthodox girls to adopt autonomous critical responses when encountering narratives that present women in unequal roles vis a vis men. According to scholars, Jewish literacy should teach students to read traditional Hebrew texts reverently while forming autonomous interpretations and opinions. Instead, Jewish educators teach normative readings posed by approved rabbinic authorities. This is particularly the case when teaching issues relating to gender among Modern Orthodox Jews, a conservative Jewish denomination, strives to synthesize tradition with the values of modern, secular society. I therefore explore through think-alouds and semi-structured interviews to explore graphic novel adaptations of Jewish texts’ potential to give adolescents opportunities to voice autonomous, critical interpretations. Findings show that adolescents, through graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish texts are able to engage in critical readings of the source material. Participants admitted that while they inherently imagined scenes to unfold in a certain way, they never spent time deeply considering the assumptions such imagined details led them to make. Thus, reading graphic novel adaptations did not lead participants to uniformly challenge their understood rabbinic metanarratives, but instead generally made them question their own personal imaged narratives.

Millennial Career-identities: Reevaluating Social Identification and Intergenerational Relations

ABSTRACT This article extends generational literature by investigating the self-perceptions of U.K. based Millennials on how they formed their career-identities within intra- and inter-generational interactions (n = 36). Thematic analysis of interviews indicated that participants engaged in personal identification more than generational identification, interacting with both contemporaneous and older generations to co-produce and role model their career-identities. These findings challenge normative readings of sociological perspectives on generations which emphasize divergence and weakening ties between generations. Rather, findings suggest that an integrative framework provides a more appropriate theoretical lens for conceptualizing generational career-identities, incorporating kinship perspectives on interactive relationships within and across generations.

‘Life Without Humankind’ – queer death/life, plastic pollution, and extinction in An Ecosystem of Excess

This article explores Pinar Yoldas’ An Ecosystem of Excess (EOE) (2014) as an example of the potential of eco-art projects to queer normative readings of death and life. Making use of feminist posthumanities and new materialism, the article addresses the artist’s affirmative way of tackling issue of plastic pollution, which is inspired by new scientific discoveries of life forms that can feed on plastics. Departing from my reading of the art project as depicting a future without humankind, I argue that the artwork presents what I refer to as ‘queer death/life’, given that it unsettles normative readings of death by embracing the deadly aspects of plastic pollution as generative of new modes of life. Moreover, I will offer a close analysis of the artwork by engaging with queer readings of plastics as ‘living dead’ matter that is indebted to the compressed bodies of dead ancient nonhuman beings – the petroleum. Finally, in the last section, I will discuss how the artwork space, which is reminiscent of a natural history museum, engages affirmatively with the future, enabling interesting connections between evolution, extinction, and the museum space, considering it as an institution dedicated to immortalising history.

The promise of glitching bodies in sport: a posthumanist exploration of an intersex phenomenon

This paper is about glitching bodies – bodies that break, crash and confuse the conventions of pre-programmed and binary gender patterns. Exploring the promise of an intersex phenomenon; hyperandrogenism in women’s sport, I discuss how glitching bodies and a feminist posthumanist understanding of gender can contribute to the field of gender and queer sport studies. Responding to calls for research enacting how non-binary bodies challenge the dualistic gendered ontologies that have structured the performative practices of sport in highly exclusive ways this paper is a travelogue into a messy nature-cultural phenomenon. It is partly a theoretical and methodological exploration and partly an analytic endeavour. The phenomenon of hyperandrogenism is explored and untangled by engaging in a diffractive analysis where I ‘plug in’ the concepts of intra-activity and glitch. I argue that a feminist posthumanist understanding of gender and diffraction as a methodological practice helps us move away from habitual and normative readings that zero in on either male or female, either nature or culture and either material or discursive. This implosion of binaries in turn opens up for alternative ways of thinking and being bodies in sport (studies).

THE DOUBLE MOVEMENT IN POLANYI AND HAYEK

Karl Polanyi’s double movement is a dialectical process characterized by a continuous tension between a movement towards social marketization and a movement towards social protectionism. Notably, Polanyi condemns the former movement while defending the latter. Without using the term “double movement”, F.A Hayek’s theory of social evolution acknowledges the same phenomenon but reaches different normative conclusions. While for Polanyi the marketization of society is a utopia with dystopian consequences, Hayek’s evolutionary explanation of this dialectical process asserts that there is no alternative to a market oriented society. Both authors defend that their favoured movement is the one that truly supports the continuity of life. This article compares the authors’ normative readings of the double movement and concludes that, from an evolutionary perspective, Polanyi’s conclusion possesses a robustness that Hayek’s postulate lacks.

Local governance of energy transition: sustainability, transactions and social ties. A case study in Northeast France

ABSTRACTThis paper tackles the process of energy transition from a transactional perspective. It addresses the governance of energy transition by studying its local actualizations, moving beyond purely technical and normative readings. The paper shows that through the local socio-technological energy systems, sustainability governance filters down to the level of individual, everyday behavior, thus questioning the link between public and private spaces, especially regarding the issue of housing. Going beyond the results commonly yielded by transition studies, which favor large-scale analysis, it details how the discourse of citizen involvement, which often boils down to a mere call to control one’s individual energy consumption, conceals environmental inequalities, confirming the socioeconomic divide materialized in deprived areas such as public housing estates or remote rural areas. From a methodological standpoint, the analysis is based on four case studies in Northeast France, in more or less privileged areas, and in both urban and rural environments: the renovation of a heating network in the public housing estate of Cité de l’Ill, north of Strasbourg; the solar energy systems designed for property owners in Plobsheim, a residential suburb of Strasbourg; the energy-efficient equipment set up in a public housing estate in the city of Saint-Dié, in the Vosges; and citizen participation in a cooperative program to finance wind turbines in the small Alsacian city of Saâles, in a mountain rural area. The paper draws on the results of these sociological investigations, carried out using field observations, questionnaires and interviews.

Roundtable on Normativity in Islamic Studies: Normative Readings of the Qur'an: From the Premodern Middle East to the Modern West

Roundtable on Normativity in Islamic Studies: Normative Readings of the Qur'an: From the Premodern Middle East to the Modern West

Frege on the Normativity and Constitutivity of Logic for Thought I

AbstractThis two‐part paper reviews a scholarly debate on an alleged tension in Frege's philosophy of logic. In Section 1 of Part I, I discuss Frege's view that logic is concerned with establishing norms for correct thinking and is therefore a normative science. In Section 2, I explore a different understanding of the role of logic that Frege seems to advance: logic is constitutive of the very possibility of thought, because it sets forth necessary conditions for thought. Hence, the tension: the view according to which logic is normative for thought seems to be incompatible with the idea that abiding by the laws of logic forms a precondition for thought. In Section 1 of Part II, I survey a number of interpretations of Frege's conception of logic that deal with this question. I show that they are for the most part either normative readings (emphasising the former understanding of the nature of logic) or constitutive readings (emphasising the latter). Finally, in Section 2, I adjudicate the debate and aim at reconciling the normative and the constitutive strands in Frege's conception of logic.

Frege on the Normativity and Constitutivity of Logic for Thought II

AbstractThis two‐part paper reviews a scholarly debate on an alleged tension in Frege's philosophy of logic. In Section 1 of Part I, I discuss Frege's view that logic is concerned with establishing norms for correct thinking and is therefore a normative science. In Section 2, I explore a different understanding of the role of logic that Frege seems to advance: logic is constitutive of the very possibility of thought, because it sets forth necessary conditions for thought. Hence, the tension the view according to which logic is normative for thought seems to be incompatible with the idea that abiding by the laws of logic forms a precondition for thought. In Section 1 of Part II, I survey a number of interpretations of Frege's conception of logic that deal with this question. I show that they are for the most part either normative readings (emphasising the former understanding of the nature of logic) or constitutive readings (emphasising the latter). Finally, in Section 2, I adjudicate the debate and aim at reconciling the normative and the constitutive strands in Frege's conception of logic.

Beyond an Easy Sense

In this article, I use Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction as a methodological practice of reading “insights through one another” in response to the editors’ call for examples of analysis after coding in qualitative inquiry. A diffractive reading of data through multiple theoretical insights moves qualitative analysis away from habitual normative readings toward a diffractive reading that spreads thought in unpredictable patterns producing different knowledge. In response to the editors’ pedagogical approach for the issue, the article focuses on an example from previously collected interview data and how a diffractive analysis produces questions and knowledge that are only possible in analysis after coding in qualitative inquiry.

Of Dominoes and Firewalls: The Domestic, Regional, and Global Politics of International Diffusion1

The Great Recession, Euro contagion, Middle East upheavals, nuclear proliferation, and expansion of rights, among others, highlight the centrality of diffusion to international studies. This Presidential Address outlines building blocks for a shared conceptualization of diffusion that is attentive to the initial stimulus ; the medium through which information about the stimuli may/may not travel to other destinations; the political agents un/affected by the stimulus’ positive or negative externalities, who aid or block the stimulus’ journey to other destinations; and outcomes that enable discrimination among grades of diffusion and resulting equilibria. Various issue areas illustrate how initial stimuli may/may not change preferences, transform identities, trigger emotions, alter strategic choices, and affect outcomes. I advance three related considerations. First, to avoid selection bias, understanding what does not diffuse (the “Vegas counterfactual”) should be as central as what does. Concepts such as firewalls and sedimentation are essential for gauging a medium's relative immunity/vulnerability to diffusion. Second, weaving domestic, regional, and global considerations into a single analytical framework reduces omitted variable bias and enables systematic cross-regional comparisons. Third, these building blocks imbue the study of diffusion with political dynamics—entailing strategic interaction, contingency, incomplete information, and unintended effects—that defy determinism, automaticity, or teleology. Similar causal mechanisms may yield different outcomes under different domestic, regional, and global conditions. And different mechanisms may yield similar outcomes under comparable circumstances. I highlight the challenges inherent in assessing the outcomes of diffusion given competing empirical findings, epistemologies, and normative readings of what does/does not and should/should not diffuse, and outline an agenda for future research.

Undisputed norms and normal errors in human thinking

AbstractThis commentary questions Elqayam & Evans' (E&E's) claims that thinking tasks are doomed to have multiple normative readings and that only applied research allows normative evaluations. In fact, some tasks have just one undisputed normative reading, and not only pathological gamblers but also normal individuals sometimes need normative guidance. To conclude, normative evaluations are inevitable in the investigation of human thinking.

YOUTH VICTIMS, COMPETENT AGENTS: A SECOND OPINION ON SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION TRAUMA

<p>Michel Dorais’<em> </em>(2009) <em>Don’t tell: The sexual abuse of boys</em> showcases the testimonials of 30 males who experienced sexual abuse in their youth. Though insightful in its challenge to normative readings of child sexual abuse (CSA), Dorais’ compilation remains limiting in that victims’ experiences are continually (re)framed through the medicalized lenses of trauma and pathology, while young victims are represented as having been developmentally “damaged” as a result of their experiences. Using a postructural/discursive approach to ground my analyses, I argue that Dorais’ work parallels dominant CSA discourses, which pathologize already heavily stigmatized individuals, efface counter-narratives, essentialize trauma as an inherent and immovable attribute, and constrain the ability of former victims to transcend their victimization. This maintains these victims “in” trauma through the discourse of the trauma “in” them. Finally, I offer an alternative reading of the claims put forward by Dorais and his research participants to highlight young people’s own positions of power contra adult sexual aggressors and thereby draw out youth resistance. I do so in an effort to sketch out the beginnings of a framework that does more than pay lip service to the recognition of young people’s agency.</p>

Strange Bedfellows

Saartjie Baartman's story has become central to black feminist theory and politics, serving as the primary analytic vehicle for explaining the violence that the dominant visual field inflicts on black female bodies. The re-telling of Baartman's story has also provided black feminists with tools for grappling with racialized pornography, which is thought to re-enact Baartman's violent exhibition by rendering black women objects for white male spectators' consumption. This article argues that the constant invocation of Baartman's story has allowed an anti-pornography formation to flourish within black feminism, masked as racial progressivism. Ultimately, this strain of anti-pornography politics has promoted a black feminist sexual conservatism which systematically ignores questions of black women's pleasure, sexual agency, and desires, and has generated a normative – rather than analytical – engagement with racialized-sexualized imagery. In place of normative readings of racialized pornography, this paper offers a new reading practice – racial iconography – which examines the ways that pornography mobilizes race in particular social moments, under particular technological conditions, to produce a historically contingent set of racialized meanings, pleasures, and profits.

The Wound Kept Open

Jack Smith is an artist on the margins of official narratives of art of the 1960s. This essay attempts to read his works as a means of questioning the challenges posed to normative readings of the work of culture, by presenting ideas about queer performance. Smith's almost hysterical identification with Maria Montez, a 1940s film siren, is privileged in my reading. Her key film, Cobra woman, turns on the image of a wound that will not heal. In this essay, I read the wound as signaling the breaches in our attempts at full communication, and compare this state of being to the idiosyncratic form of the camp effect, which functions as a kind of hieroglyph, or broken sign. Read through Maria Montez, the ‘failures’ of Smith's practice are explored in order to invogorate the seemingly exhausted discourse on camp, as well as to pose a critique of the ways in which certain bodies are failed by dominant culture.

The universal autobiographer: The politics of normative readings

The universal autobiographer: The politics of normative readings

Life tasks, self-concept ideals, and cognitive strategies in a life transition.

Nancy Cantor, Julie K. Norem, Paula M. Niedenthal, and Christopher A. Langston Institute for Social Research University of Michigan Aaron M. Brower School of Social Work University of Wisconsin This paper reports on data from a longitudinal study in which normative life tasks and individuals' personal versions of those tasks are investigated in the context of students making the transition from home and high school to college life. Analyses focus both on common patterns of life-task appraisal in interpersonal and achievement domains and on differences in the self-concepts and cognitive strategies that individual students bring to bear as they confront these normative pressures (Cantor & Kihlstrom, 1987). In particular, we investigate the impact of students' actual-ideal self-discrepancies (Higgins, Klein, & Strauman, 1985) on subjective stress and satisfaction in achievement and inter- personal life-task domains and suggest that self-concept discrepancy negatively affects adjustment in the achievement domain and positively affects social outcomes. Next, we show that students are able to confront their anxieties in the stressful achievement domain, hut that they often do so in very different ways. Specifically, students using a defensive-pessimism strategy motivated themselves by confronting their anxieties in advance of stressful tasks, whereas those using an optimistic strategy assumed the best until proved otherwise--protecting self-esteem after the fact in the event of disap- pointment (Norem & Cantor, 1986a, 1986b). This analysis, thus, begins at the level of normative readings of life tasks in a shared transition period and gradually moves toward consideration of how individuals navigate those tasks in personally meaningful ways. Substantial agreement exists about the importance of build- ing models of behavior that take into account both the power of situations and the characteristics of individuals (Magnusson & Endler, 1977). As in any theory-building enterprise, one of the primary issues facing those constructing accounts of person-by- situation interactions is how to identify conceptual units that richly characterize the phenomena of interest, while allowing parsimonious generalization beyond particular groups of per- sons in highly constrained situations. Personality psychologists constantly confront this trade-off between the richness and ac- curacy of description provided by idiographic analyses and the breadth and generality attained with nomothetic techniques (see Pervin, 1985). The approach to person-by-situation interactions taken here focuses on (a) the cognitive processes by which individuals in- The research reported in this article was supported by National Sci- ence Foundation grant (BNS 84-11778) to Nancy Cantor and Harold Korn. We appreciate technical assistance from Nancy G. Exelby and com- ments on this work from Harold Korn, John Kihlstrom, Douglas Leber, Hazel Markus, Ethel Moore, Christopher Peterson, and Stephen Ruitins. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nancy Cantor, 426 Thompson, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248. terpret situations in terms of the relevant tasks or they present, (b) the self-knowledge brought to bear in forming these constructions, and (c) the strategies used to address the problems as constructed. One important advantage of concen- trating on cognitive processes involved in construals of situa- tions is that one is able, potentially, to explore the uniqueness and complexity of individual interpretations (Kelly, 1955; Mis- chel, 1979). However, this approach also has a clear disadvan- tage: There are potentially hundreds of dimensions that individ- uals may use to assess situations; countless memories, triggered by obscure cues, may influence interpretations; and innumera- ble prior experiences may contaminate construal. For theo- rists within a cognitive perspective, the particular problem of selecting units for study thus becomes that of circumscribing the number of dimensions that individuals are apt to use when constructing their interpretations in a particular context, while selecting situations that are relevant enough to tap knowledge and beliefs that appropriately capture individual variation. Life Tasks in a Life Transition The way we have chosen to address this issue is to choose a particular life transition--in this case, the transition from home and high school to college life--within which to study the ways in which individuals are able to cope with situations that important to them (Stewart & Healy, 1985). Our assumption