Ontological Orientation Research Articles

Furthering relational approaches to peace

Relational scholarship is burgeoning across the social sciences and gaining ground in peace and conflict studies. But relationalism is prone to misunderstanding. This article demonstrates that the ‘relational’ is an ontological orientation, with foundational implications for how social scientists know the world, rather than a methodological stance oriented to relationships. It offers a threefold framework that clarifies forms of relational-ontological scholarship and the trade-offs among them without prescribing the methods of relational research. It argues that while all forms of relational-ontological scholarship have value, those that give greater emphasis to relations than to entities help to better analyse dynamism and diversity, and that the normative value of relational approaches lies in considering peace as an effect of relations and turning to relations-in-themselves.

Imperism as political nomos in Russia and beyond

ABSTRACT This article proposes the concept of ‘imperism’ as an analytical tool apt to describe political processes in Putin’s Russia and beyond. Imperism denotes an ontological orientation, or nomos (the term derives from theories of religion and politics by Berger and Schmitt), that undergirds a plurality of civic positions, informs policy, and fundamentally casts imperialness as a political entity’s normal, desirable state. Russia’s imperist nomos shall be explored in its key dimensions, including cosmology, authority, sociology, and aesthetics. However, imperism’s analytical purchase is not limited to the Russian case. In particular, this paper considers the merits of this category vis-à-vis an array of related but distinct concepts: imperialism, authoritarianism, fascism, nationalism, and irredentism. On those grounds, it will be argued that Putinist Russia’s military adventurism manifests a peculiar, imperist form of imperialism; that the Putin regime, albeit hard to categorise, appears to share an imperist nomos with historical fascisms; and that imperism’s ultimate scope exceeds that of nationalist irredentism. The paper ends with a reflection on the advantageous epistemological potentialities of imperism as a category.

Whole person healthcare as social and environmental justice: new research directions toward a paradigmatic integration of an ecological whole system medicine framework

With increasing recognition of the interdependencies of human and planetary health, calls for a socially and environmentally just framework of health have centered on whole person healthcare (WPHC) approaches. This perspective piece proposes an argument for broadening the definition of human health from WPHC to one that is guided by the philosophical orientation of traditional whole system medicine (WSM) approaches, undergirded by the values of social and environmental justice, and supported by the practices of an allopathic-integrative medicine-based WPHC framework. This piece presents opportunities for praxis offered by a WSM–WPHC framework to address global inequity, environmental disparities, and sustainability challenges. An ecological WSM–WPHC framework envisages social and environmental justice in material and discursive ways by foregrounding environmental planetary ecological consciousness as constitutive of human consciousness and biopsychosocial composition. It argues for structural support through formalized programmatic pathways targeting funding opportunities and mechanisms that invite investigations addressing epistemic challenges of expanding definitions of evidence constituting basic science knowledge domains beyond mechanistic, causal, and formative paradigms. Furthermore, it calls for innovative research directions examining the integration and validation of evidence-based approaches incorporating the ontologically diverse and epistemically distinct ontological orientation of WSM and clinical approaches. A WSM–WPHC framework that positions human health within the parameters of social and environmental justice principles envisions the material enactment of the practice of health and medicine as a universal planetary value.

Towards a critical media ecology: Gender and media ecology

As a purposefully enacted form of praxis, this article represents a feminist methodological approach guided by the author’s personal introduction into choice works of feminist scholarship. By employing feminist epistemologies, this article demonstrates that each of our realities of understanding is made possible by our own differing subjective situations and our resonance towards difference. Throughout the piece, multiple parallel philosophical and ontological orientations are suggested in efforts to theoretically connect a broad array of feminist theories and praxis with canonic tenants of media ecology (such as language play, creation of counter-environments and breakdowns as breakthroughs). Written prior to the ‘Gender and Media Ecology’ invited Special Issue of EME, Dr. bird provides their own survey of ‘Gender and Media Ecology’, suggesting foundational means of future critical pursuits. The ultimate aim of this work is to invite future, even more expansive critical media ecological scholarship to continue similar efforts, which would provide even more holistically intersectional and invaluable means of challenging taken-for-granted institutional and societal norms inside the field of media ecology and beyond.

Co‐creating knowledge with undocumented Filipino students:Kuwentuhanas a research method

AbstractWe conceptualizekuwentuhanas a methodological disruption to Western constructs of research. The purpose of this article is two‐fold: first, to conceptualize and explicitly namekwentuhanas a research method and two, to reclaim Filipino epistemology and ontology through language. We orientkuwentuhanwithin the framework ofSikolohiyang Pilipinoand more specifically, the concept ofkapwaand discuss three elements ofkwentuhanas a research method to use with and for undocumented Filipino students. Our implications offer conceptual nourishment in conducting critical and humanizing research and practice with and for undocumented students rooted in their culture.Practical TakeawaysResearchers and practitioners must get to know people as people first orkapwa‐tao(fellow human being), an ontological orientation ofkwentuhan.Researchers and practitioners need to understand undocumented students’ narratives do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, individual narratives, when talking story with another individual, are part of a larger constellation of stories or a collective story of one's own people shaped by broader sociopolitical and historical contexts.Researchers and practitioners must hold themselves accountable to continuously educating themselves about the cultures of students they are working with outside of the professional space and how contemporary sociopolitical discourses are impacting undocumented students’ daily realities.Researchers and practitioners should critically reflect about their positionality, or position in relation to power, and the dynamics and contexts in which power shifts throughout their working relationship with undocumented students from different racial and ethnic groups.

Machiavellian leadership in organisations: a review of theory and research

PurposeDuring the past decade, there has been a steep increase in the scholarly literature on Machiavellian leadership. However, no systematic literature review has been conducted to synthesise, analyse and identify the trends, tensions and gaps in Machiavellian leadership. Therefore, the authors examine empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000, with an impact factor of Q2 or above in the SCImago ranking list. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.Design/methodology/approachUsing the systematic literature review approach, a review protocol was developed to define the focus of the study, the search strategy and the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies in the review process. The authors developed a keyword search query using terms “Machiavellian” OR “Dark Triads” and “leadership”. The authors’ search was limited to publications in the English language and with the search terms in either the abstract or keywords of the publication. The review consisted of 576 peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, out of which 53 articles were selected for the final analysis.FindingsThe analysis reveals how the unidimensional nature of most studies and limited contextual and ontological orientations curtail the development of the relational perspective of Machiavellian leadership. The authors propose a way forward, new insights and opportunities for future research in the field.Originality/valueThis is the first systematic literature review on Machiavellian leadership. Although the research in Machiavellian leadership is reaching a stage of maturity, this review exposes limitations and gaps in research.

Objects of the Anthropocene: Mapping Material-Emotional Culture from Human Beginnings to the End Times

Abstract Objects are complicated things, and no less so when they are created by us. We layer created objects with additional emotional meaning. Understanding the complexity of this layering requires much more than tracing the narrative history of an object. This essay is about the objects that we make and appropriate. In particular, the essay suggests that objects need to be understood sensitively both in the context of global human history, and the ontological framing of the various moments of their creation, use, appropriation and reception. The essay folds around four contentions. Objects are central to the narration of social relations and emotional life. Objects, as carriers of meaning, move across different ontological orientations. Objects exist in multiple and ontologically different time frames, sometimes at the same time. And objects mediate our (human) relation to the larger social and natural world, even as they (and we) are part of that world.

(Re)Connecting History to the Theory and Praxis of HCI

This special issue builds on and expands HCI’s engagement with historical approaches, questioning our field’s ontological orientations and offering new methods for examining the past. The set of articles featured reinvigorates questions on whose technological labor matters, how we might challenge the racist and misogynistic consequences of HCI’s inter-disciplinary inheritances, and offer new modes of liberatory world-making. Taken together, this collection serves as an act of reclamation of the lineage of our field, providing resources and guidance for a more just present and future.

Kumlbúa þáttr, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

<i>Kumlbúa þáttr</i>, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

Patterns in undergraduate students’ and educators’ sense of the ontology of the atom and implications for addressing learning impediments

In this study, we explored undergraduate chemistry education at Kotebe University of Education (KUE) in terms of the ontological orientations, patterns and source domains of educators’ and undergraduate students’ sense of the atom. Due to the ambiguity and controversy regarding atomic ontology as a case of interest and the requirement for a thorough analysis, an interpretative case study design was employed. It mainly involved a semi-structured interview of 10 educators and 14 undergraduate students. The analysis involved Charmaz's approach for coding. Four core patterns were found to constitute the overall narrative of educators and undergraduate students, from which the interpretative, mechanical, and hypothetical orientations were implied. The ways of thinking in the three patterns were traced back to the underemphasis and distorted portrayal of the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) in the curriculum and classroom discourse. The usage of some words and expressions with mechanical connotations was also discovered to be the fourth theme of patterns to which the mechanical orientations are attributed. Views of controversial ontologies are held by the participants of this single system. There is also an emerging inclination among undergraduate students toward reductionism, which is not expected from a chemistry student. Therefore, this study implies that the historical and philosophical aspects need to be critically examined in classroom instruction, curriculum development, professional development of educators, and research on chemistry education to avoid ontological complications and address learning impediments. The instructional approaches, materials, and classroom discourse also need to be examined carefully from an ontological point of view to avoid unnecessary complications and obstacles.

An Eclectic Model of Motivational Interviewing with Islamic Ontological Orientation and Motivation of Change in Domestic Violence

Aim: The aim of this paper was to offer an eclectic model of motivational interviewing with Islamic ontological orientation in motivation of change in domestic violence. Methods: This research was qualitative and was carried out using Hermeneutics and content analysis. The sources for analysis were the collection of books and articles representing model of motivational interviewing and collection of verses of the holy Quran, Allame Tabatabaie and Javad Amollie including Tabatabaie Alimizan Tafsir and written works of Motahhary and Javad Amollie published until 2020. Analysis sample were subjects and words related to basics and principles of motivation (orientation, desire, and wish), motivation for change, and violence that was extracted using theoretical sampling. Findings: Research results in qualitative section were based on principles, process, content and techniques of motivational interviewing in motivation to change related to domestic violence and principles of ontological orientation about motivation in natural and innate dimensions. Conclusion: Based on the results, eclectic model of motivational interviewing with Islamic ontological orientation was offered in four sections including principles, processes, content and techniques.

Ontological orientations of educators’ sense of the atom and underlying source domains: a case study of Kotebe Metropolitan University, Ethiopia

This study aimed to uncover the ontological orientations of educators’ sense of the atom of Kotebe Metropolitan University (KMU), Ethiopia. Thus, an interpretative case study design was employed, with the analytic approach of grounded theory, due to the importance of atomic ontology as a case and the need for an in-depth analysis of their thinking and possible interpretations. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview of eight chemistry educators of the university and coded using Charmaz's approach to coding. The History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) was employed for identifying and sorting the data into the ontological categories, while the theory of experientialism (ToE) was used for locating source domains. Consequently, the interpretative ontological view was traced with two atomic notions: the functional and chemical atomic notions. This means that the educators do believe in the existence of the atom in the interpretative way in which their knowledge is well informed by interpretations and inferences of the experimental evidence and applications of quantum mechanics. However, their narrative lacks some essential priori philosophical arguments and scientific contexts and evidence. As a result, this ‘the latest is the best’ thinking pattern was traced as a major source domain to which the interpretative orientation is attributed.

The Critique of Philip Sidney and Percy Bysshe Shelley on Plato’s Views about Poetry

In the platonic dialogue Ion, Socrates clarifies that poetic creation is a result of inspiration but not of knowledge. As a gift from the Muses, poetry cannot even have a didactic role; since it is not rational and does not constitute a product of right reason, it cannot satisfy the needs of the person who aspires to the acquisition of wisdom. This insistence of Plato on the potential moral deficiency of poetry proves that only epistemological criteria can assist the political balances that are required in his ideal Polis. Since poetry is mimesis and a subcategory of rhetoric, it is deduced that it stands far from the truth. For Philip Sidney, however, in his critique of Plato’s views, the poet is directly connected with “poiein”, the act of creating. As a creator, he is close to the truth, and he is an owner of the Idea, to which he urges other human beings. As such, the poet is a stronger intellectual figure than the philosopher, due to the fact that he does not abstractly think of moral values but helps to proliferate them. The poet never lies, despite what Plato claims, because the poet never confirms the knowledge of anything, quite unlike the philosopher. Shelley, on the other hand, places great emphasis on the role of imagination within the context of poetic work. He declares that poetic imagination exceeds the borders of reason, thus being rendered the only human faculty that can not only see the ideal forms that Plato is enthusiastic about but also is capable of competently expressing the “eternal truth of life”. The two English poets are in accord about poetry signifying unity and harmony, not only with the abstract truth of the world but with virtue and law as well, providing the human being with the right ontological orientation.

The Experience of Place in the Annual Festival Held in an Amazigh Village in Southern Tunisia

The phenomenological meaning of place argued by Yi-Fu Tuan and Edward Relph involves multiple disciplines, including religious studies. Based on the idea of experience of place, the study examines the structural contrast between the inner village and the outside suburbs. Focusing on the representation of the contrast of places in the festival of southern Tunisia, it also discusses the inner and the outer experience of the human existence that such contrast implies. In this regard, interviews with the local people in the village and observation of rituals and festivals were implemented. The traditional rituals designate the contrast of the human realm and the untamed nature, which has been shaped by environmental and historical factors. Their ambivalent ontological orientations toward usefulness/controllability and toward sacredness/uncontrollability are reconciled by the experience of the festival. The dynamism of the inside and the outside in the form of olives, a bride, or a palanquin enables people to realize the source of new lives and experience the essential meaning of generation. In spite of recent political and exhibitionistic tendencies, the Mahrajān represents the universal structure of festivals in which arbitrariness is periodically broken down by introducing the external sacredness into the inner human realm.

Being and becoming a nurse: Toward an ontological and reflexive turn in first-year nursing education.

In this paper, we call for an ontological and reflexive turn in first-year nursing education. An ontological turn focuses on formation, the 'being' and 'becoming' of a nurse, and emphasizes the value of nursing knowledge. First-year nursing students often possess romanticized ideals about being a nurse that devalues the knowledge and expertise of nurses. We posit a thoughtful ontological orientation within nursing education that shifts the emphasis toward becoming skillful nurses, with expertise grounded in nursing perspectives. A focus on formation includes discussions regarding ideologies, dominant perspectives, and reflexive explorations of students' views of nursing juxtaposed with the realities of nursing practice. We propose ontologic reflexivity as an approach to consider what perspectives are prioritized (or not) within the nursing classroom. Within pedagogical dialogic spaces, ontologic reflexivity calls on educators to create opportunities for students to learn the value of nursing knowledge along with other forms of knowledge. We consider ways in which an ontological and reflexive turn within the first year of nursing education may contribute to the formation of nursing students who value nursing knowledge, are open-minded to various forms of knowledge, and possess an intentional reflexive way of being.

Following the Footsteps of John Polkinghorne: In Search of Divine Action in the World

John Polkinghorne was, undoubtedly, one of the most influential authors in the dialogue between science and religion. His attitude is characterized by a focus on the concept of kenosis in response to the ontological orientation of process philosophy and theology. God’s omnipotence implies the possibility that God created the universe as an evolutionary and autonomous world, which is not predetermined but has been created for openness. According to Polkinghorne, the position of this openness may be in the uncertainty associated with the world of quantum and chaotic phenomena. God’s self-limitation of his own omnipotence can thus be understood as an effort to respect the autonomy of natural processes and human freedom. Such an image of God is compatible with the current state of scientific knowledge, which itself becomes the starting point for thinking about God and his relationship to the world. Thus, despite the problems of some parts of its concept, Polkinghorne creates a comprehensive integrative approach to the dialogue between science and religion.

Maher as the Location of Origin: Examining Home and Displacement in Geo-Familial, Academic, and Spiritual Contexts

In this article, I examine the construct of parental home or maher in my native language Marathi—as a social, emotional, cultural, spiritual, physical, and lived construct. Maher informs my struggle to comprehend the construct of home and its relationship to displacement, loss of familiarity, nostalgia, and the liminal. I juxtapose my experiences of being a newly married woman of Indian origin in the United States, with my experiences of being a new graduate student in a reputed North American university—both simultaneous life events. This article is an autoethnographical reflection on my negotiation of my marital and academic landscapes where I found my identity and ontological orientations challenged. The borderlands that resulted from geo-familial displacement and ontological displacement in academia intersected to create vantage points and liminal spaces that allowed me to explore, re-orient, and assert my ontological roots that are informed by Indian philosophy—specifically, the Advaita Vedanta approach. This article explores the power of art as research and the process of art-making as a process synchronous to researching to explore identity in the making.

Аксиологические установки в интерпретации рационального и иррационального в трудах представителей латинской апологетики

The article aims at demonstrating significant differences in the perception of rationality and irrationality in the works of ancient Greek philosophers and philosophers of the period of Latin apologetics. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the works of ancient and Latin philosophers. The analysis revealed that the Greeks solved the problem of the ratio of the rational and the irrational in an ontological way, while the Latins shifted the focus on the problem to the axiological dimension. The article presents the correlation of three examples of ontological orientation of pagan philosophy with three examples of axiological orientation of Latin theology of the apologetic period. The research methodology is based on the combination of historical-functional and comparative analyses. The works of N. S. Mudragey, where the validity of the use of the concepts "rational" and "irrational" in relation to ancient philosophy was proved, provided the methodological basis of the study, as well as the works of G. G. Mayorov, who actually was the first to consider Latin apologetics as a system with a clear tendency from hellenophilia to hellenophobia. The works of ancient Greek philosophers provided the theoretical basis of the study, as well as the works of Lactantius, Arnobius, Tertullian, and Minucius.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIZATION OF DASEIN-PSYCHE’S BEING BY METHODS OF NEUROPHILOSOPHY

The purpose of the article is to reveal the anthropologization of Dasein-psyche’s being by methods of neurophilosophy. The anthropologization of Dasein-psyche’s being by methods of neurophilosophy allows considering the noogenesis from the perspective of philosophical traditions, which is much richer in comparison with the history of scientific knowledge about the psychology of meanings. The being of Dasein-psyche in the meaning of "philosopher’s soul" was firstly mentioned by Plato in "Phaedo". The anthropologization of Dasein-psyche’s being reveals the ontological orientation and limits of the being of Dasein-psyche within the being of Dasein-the-One, as well as the intellect, knowledge and techne, as the arete existentials. Theoretical basis of the study is built on Heidegger’s fundamental ontology and methods of neurophilosophy. Originality lies in exploring Dasein-psyche through the neurophilosophical approach. In the context, Dasein-psyche is revealed as a part of the whole or the image (εἰκών), created from Dasein-Y-Matter as a paradigm. It is formed by the factors and causes of complication, as well as by the experience of being of the previous states of matter. Conclusions. In conclusion, the anthropologization of Dasein-psyche’s being by methods of neurophilosophy allows considering the noogenesis from the perspective of philosophical traditions. The essence of a person is revealed as the arete existentials, which require further rethinking and clarification.

Assessing Financial Resource Capability on Insurance Claims Management in Nigeria: The Moderating Role of Information Technology

Abstract This study examines the extent to which financial resource capability impacts claims management in the Nigerian insurance industry and also attempts to determine if this process is moderated by information technology. Given the numerous litigations arising from claims default, the Nigerian insurance sector has earned itself a bad reputation with the consequent customer apathy. However, it is also noteworthy that most of these insurance companies do not appear to possess the financial capacity to meet claims obligations as they arise, perhaps, due to low capitalisation, poor risk assessment and solvency constraints. The research is a quantitative design that utilises the survey strategy. It is predicated on a philosophical foundation of positivism and ontological orientation of objectivism. 17 insurance companies were included in the study using the stratified sampling technique. 280 questionnaires were distributed to the 17 sampled companies out of which 235 were returned and found usable for the study. Data was analysed using the Andy Hayes Process v3.3 for regression. Findings from the study revealed that financial resources and information technology have statistically significant relationship with claims management but the relationship between financial resources and claims management is not significantly moderated by information technology.