Diametrically Opposed Research Articles

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): An Innovative Approach for Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

Educational research has long used quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis is the process of quantifying things through the use of numbers, which represent quantifiable characteristics of things such as scale, speed, and degree, as well as the spatial arrangement of their constituents (Yang, 1995). Qualitative analysis is the polar opposite, i.e., evaluating things on the basis of their quality rather than their quantity. A thing's quality refers to its normative nature, which distinguishes it from other things (Li, 1997). Simply put, quantitative analysis focuses on the "what" and employs numerical expressions to depict a given reality, whereas qualitative analysis aims to comprehend the "why" and investigates how we describe something.

Hints of FLRW breakdown from supernovae

A 10\% difference in the scale for the Hubble parameter constitutes a clear problem for cosmology. Here, considering angular distribution of Type Ia supernovae (SN) within the Pantheon compilation and working within flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, we observe a correlation between higher $H_0$ and the CMB dipole direction, confirming our previous results for strongly-lensed quasars \cite{Krishnan:2021dyb}. Concretely, we record a $\sim 1$ km/s/Mpc variation in $H_0$ at antipodal points on the sky within the Pantheon sample, which is evident in the Low $z$ subsample ($z \lesssim 0.075$) and gets enhanced by higher redshift SN. Our work raises the possibility that we may be at the precision required to probe anisotropic Hubble expansions, while providing a concrete prediction for future inferences of $H_0$.

Navigating together without a map: Metaphors for making Geography’s future

This article sets the scene for the 10 papers comprising the special issue ‘‘Geographical research for the 21stcentury: trajectories and possibilities’. It asks the hoary question, ‘by what means, and to what ends, should Geography be directed?’. It does not, however, venture a substantive response because there is no single answer that will suffice. Instead, the article offers resources for those seeking to respond to this question. It identifies 12 parameters that define the ‘operating space’ that most geographers worldwide now have to act within, like it or not. These parameters not only impose constraints but also offer opportunities. The article then focuses on metaphors that might help us better understand who we are as a research and teaching community: after all, metaphors can distil the essence of our ongoing preoccupations. I venture a ‘new ecological’ metaphor that might enable accuracy and hope in our self-understanding as we enter the third decade of an already extraordinary century. It may seem paradoxical to say, but we can navigate forward purposefully without a map, avoiding the polar opposites of an infeasible disciplinary unity and an undesirable Balkanisation of our activities.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Musical instruments as tangible cultural heritage and as/for intangible cultural heritage

AbstractMusical instruments are central components of both the tangible and intangible heritage. However, discourse about music as intangible cultural heritage frequently overlooks the importance of instruments in conserving traditions inherited from the past and making live performance possible in the present, while curating instruments as tangible heritage often neglects their function for making music. This article explores two interrelated research questions about musical instruments as heritage. First, should instrument-crafting skills inherited from the past be sustained today, and, where industrial or mechanized manufacturing processes and the development of instruments is encouraged, what are the implications for sustaining music traditions? Second, given that instruments as crafted objects deteriorate over time, should instruments inherited from the past be displayed as objects, be restored to playing condition, or be updated and developed for contemporary use? To explore these questions, I take three case studies that juxtapose musical instruments from opposite sides of the world and from societies with very different philosophical and ideological approaches. The three case studies are Britain’s piano heritage, traditional Korean instruments (kugakki) in the Republic of Korea/South Korea, and “national” instruments (minjok akki) in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea/North Korea. Based on fieldwork, ethnography, and collecting and curating work, my choice of case studies allows me to look at both the country I call home (Britain) and the region where I have researched matters musical for 40 years (the Korean peninsula). But the case studies also demonstrate that there is no single answer to questions about the role of musical instruments when (and if) instruments are recognized as both tangible and intangible heritage.

Geometrical smeariness – a new phenomenon of Fréchet means

In the past decades, the central limit theorem (CLT) has been generalized to non-Euclidean data spaces. Some years ago, it was found that for some random variables on the circle, the sample Fréchet mean fluctuates around the population mean asymptotically at a scale n−τ with exponent τ<1/2 with a non-normal distribution if the probability density at the antipodal point of the mean is 12π. The author and his collaborator recently discovered that τ=1/6 for some random variables on higher dimensional spheres. In this article we show that, even more surprisingly, the phenomenon on spheres of higher dimension is qualitatively different from that on the circle, as it depends purely on geometrical properties of the space, namely its curvature, and not on the density at the antipodal point. This gives rise to the new concept of geometrical smeariness. In consequence, the sphere can be deformed, say, by removing a neighborhood of the antipodal point of the mean and gluing a flat space there, with a smooth transition piece. This yields smeariness on a manifold, which is diffeomorphic to Euclidean space. We give an example family of random variables with 2-smeary mean, that is, with τ=1/6, whose range has a hole containing the cut locus of the mean. The hole size exhibits a curse of dimensionality as it can increase with dimension, converging to the whole hemisphere opposite a local Fréchet mean. We observe smeariness in simulated landmark shapes on Kendall pre-shape space and in real data of geomagnetic north pole positions on the two-dimensional sphere.

Cin the shadow-imagination: a brief literary history of Syrian poetry of witness

ABSTRACT This article argues that when poetic practice in Syria turned to a register of modernity, many of its idioms darkened to a poetics of trauma and catastrophe. By highlighting a Syrian manifesto for the poetics of catastrophe and taking two poets who stylistically stand at polar opposites, I aim to show the diversity of forms in which Syrian witness poetry came into being and set it in a larger framework of efforts to anthologise and globalise twentieth century poetry from sites of violent political conflict. In doing so, I also trace the literary historical trajectories that informed its making in Syria and continued to steer its course well after 2011. Aside from original poetry, the ecosystem of the culture of catastrophe includes critical discourse, novels, cinema, media products, and literary translation. I will address some, not all, of the elements in this repertoire as they relate to poetic production.

Asymptotic behaviour of the sphere and front of a flat sub-Riemannian structure on the Martinet distribution

The sphere and front of a flat sub-Riemannian structure on the Martinet distribution are surfaces with nonisolated singularities in three-dimensional space. The sphere is a subset of the front; it is not subanalytic at two antipodal points (the poles). The asymptotic behaviour of the sub-Riemannian sphere and Martinet front are calculated at these points: each surface is approximated by a pair of quasihomogeneous surfaces with distinct sets of weights in a neighbourhood of a pole. Bibliography: 13 titles.

Křesťanský monoteismus a jednota respektující různost

The article critically discusses Petr Drulák’s ambitious, provocative, and thought-provoking book Podvojný svět [The Dual World], which, despite its undeniable strengths, faces major theoretical challenges arising from its stark and simplifying contrast between monotheism and polytheism. In the opening part, I argue that the opposition between (essentially problematic) monotheism and (benign) polytheism cannot withstand critical scrutiny. First, the polytheistic idea that there are many Gods is metaphysically dubious. The reflection on the contingency of being cannot but lead us to the idea of the existence of one, transcendent and personal, God; there cannot be multiple Gods as particular instances of the species called “God”. Second, Drulák’s defence of polytheism needs to tackle the seminal work of the French anthropologist René Girard, who showed the link between polytheism and (sacrificial) acts of collective violence. The article maintains that historical examples of monotheistic intolerance are only contingently linked to monotheism, rather than expressing its essence, as Drulák controversially claims. Nevertheless, in the second part of the article, I explore the possible common ground between Drulák’s myth of “linked duality” and the Christian tradition by analysing how the problem of polar opposites has been dealt with by the brilliant German theologian Erich Przywara and by Jorge Maria Bergoglio, the current pope Francis.

Rota–Baxter Operators on Cocommutative Weak Hopf Algebras

In this paper, we first introduce the concept of a Rota–Baxter operator on a cocommutative weak Hopf algebra H and give some examples. We then construct Rota–Baxter operators from the normalized integral, antipode, and target map of H. Moreover, we construct a new multiplication “∗” and an antipode SB from a Rota–Baxter operator B on H such that HB=(H,∗,η,Δ,ε,SB) becomes a new weak Hopf algebra. Finally, all Rota–Baxter operators on a weak Hopf algebra of a matrix algebra are given.

Viktor Zhivov "Toward a Typology of the Baroque in Russian Literature of the XVII—Early XVIII Centuries"

Viktor Zhivov’s 2007 article, here translated into English for the first time, attempts to describe the specific nature of the Baroque in Russia. According to Zhivov, Russian Baroque culture arose via transplantation and was not the result of organic cultural development. Because of their cardinal differences, the language of Western Baroque and that of traditional Russian culture represent polar opposites in many ways. Hence the transplantation of even the most insignificant element results in its radical transformation, highlighting the peculiarities of the process of reception. The article outlines the principles that governed this process. It argues that it was the external features of the Baroque style that were borrowed, while its deeper orientation on polysemy, which defined the Baroque worldview in the West, was not. The assimilation of Western literature was eclectic and replaced rhetorical ambivalence with the rhetoric of didacticism. It took what could be synthesized with traditional culture most easily, at the same time as the more content-oriented features and those specific to European Baroque were rejected. If in Western Europe the Baroque posed riddles for the reader, in Russia authors on the “European" trajectory assisted the reader by providing solutions. The Baroque in Russia was primarily a phenomenon of Western influence, so that its unique features took second place in the process of forming a new cultural paradigm as a whole. “Baroque” elements acquired a completely new pedagogical function, becoming carriers of the new ideology that was being introduced. The Baroque became a servitor of power, whose aim was the political reeducation of society.

Blanche and Stanley, polar opposites. A pragmastylistic analysis of interactions from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire

The paper is an attempt at demonstrating how the language used by fictional dramatic characters contributes to their characterization, that is, how the readers (audiences) perceive them based on inferences drawn from a variety of textual cues. These cues include explicit selfand other-presentation as well as implicit hints retrieved from conversation structure, aspects of turn-taking or features of the language used by the character. In this paper, Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski from Tennessee Williams’ play The Streetcar Named Desire are analyzed and characterized as being polar opposites.

Of men and beasts: an anthropological analysis of the movie "Men and Chicken"

Following the path established in Serbian anthropology by the subdiscipline of the anthropology of film, as well as the anthropological "section" for the study of science fiction, the analytical focus of this paper is the film Men and Chicken. Contrary to critics who saw in this film "an unreadable, morbid and cynical postmodern horror", the basic thesis of this paper is that the film helps us not only to question public ideas about science, but also to shed light on the hopes, fears and conceptual dilemmas caused by the advance of biotechnologies. It helps us to, using a product of popular culture close to the experience of the general public, analyze the way in which the imaginarium of the film deals with the "paradox at the heart" of western thought - the simultaneous claim that humans are animals and that animality is the polar opposite of what we hold to be human. The paradox in question need not be an intellectual chew toy for a bored mind, nor an opportunity for demonstrating the wondrous power of an analytical process of Levi-Straussian calibre, rather a very relevant question in current institutional and public discussions on creating hybrid embryos/species at the heart of which are attempts to establish the biological, moral and cultural status of humans, non-humans and hybrids.

The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay by Joseph W. Pearson

Reviewed by: The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay by Joseph W. Pearson Michael E. Woods (bio) The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay. By Joseph W. Pearson. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020. Pp. 238. $35.00 cloth) The Whig and Democratic parties mobilized thousands of eager voters during the electoral battles of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. But what did these clashing political titans stand for, and how did Americans choose between them? Historians have argued over these questions almost as fiercely as antebellum partisans debated banking, tariffs, and internal improvements. A few scholars have found little substantive difference between the parties, viewing them merely as patronage-fueled electioneering machines. Many more historians have detected sharp partisan divergence, but disagree on whether it reflected struggles between regions, economic interests, or ethnocultural groups. Some researchers, including Daniel Walker Howe and Lawrence Frederick Kohl, delved even deeper and argued that antebellum partisanship reflected conflicting views of self and community. In The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay, Joseph W. Pearson joins the latter historiographical camp, presenting a study of Whig thought that sheds light on Democrats as well. As Pearson puts it, The Whigs' America explores "underlying attitudes and worldview of society" to excavate the "deeply felt, shared cultural soil beneath Whig politics" (p. 1). Grounded in newspapers, periodicals, speeches, and other published texts, this approach reveals bedrock assumptions and principles that shaped Whigs' policy preferences. Whigs' zeal for publicly funded infrastructure, for instance, grew from their faith in the rewards of cooperation among far-flung American communities. Whigs' enthusiasm for temperance and public schools reflected their cautiously optimistic understanding of human nature: inherently flawed individuals could—and, to preserve well-ordered liberty, must—improve themselves through self-discipline and commitment to the common good. Whigs' sharp critique of Democrats' inclination to leave citizens to their own devices stemmed from a reading of history that warned against relapsing into barbarism. Pearson [End Page 73] argues that these perspectives on the individual, society, the state, the past, and the future coalesced into a "middle-class worldview" that made the Whigs "the first political party speaking for, to, and about America's rising middle class" (p. 2). For some readers, the middle-class theme will clarify Whigs' appeal; for others, it will muddy the waters. Pearson consciously avoids linking the term to social or economic status and posits that Americans of any background could embrace the virtues and values defined here as middle-class. This approach certainly elucidates how the Whig Party—which, like any major American political party, was a diverse coalition —attracted mass support. Whigs' worldview must have resonated widely, or they would have won precious few elections. But it also raises questions about context. Defining Whigs' ideas as middle class while disassociating both class and ideas from social and economic relations makes it difficult to explain patterns of party support. Why did these ideas—however we label them—appeal more to some groups of Americans more than others? Something more than personal idiosyncrasy must have been at work. Ideas are important, but they develop within a broader context, and one need not indulge in economic determinism to trace connections between Whigs' worldview and the era's rapidly changing social relationships and economic structures. Attention to this context would help explain, among other things, precisely why and how America's middle class was "rising" in this period. But many of this book's most intriguing findings have little to do with the middle-class label. Pearson teases out interesting areas in which Whig and Democratic ideas simultaneously overlapped and clashed. On issues ranging from mental health to infrastructure, Pearson shows that Whigs and Democrats presented views that were deeply divergent but not polar opposites. By delving into the antebellum era's plentiful print culture, Pearson has illuminated some important contours of partisan debate amid a time of wrenching change. [End Page 74] Michael E. Woods MICHAEL E. WOODS is associate professor of history and director of the Papers of Andrew Jackson at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is...

Community and Solitude: New Essays on Johnson’s Circle, ed. Anthony W. Lee.

<i>Community and Solitude: New Essays on Johnson’s Circle</i>, ed. Anthony W. Lee.

Entrepreneurial Orientation among Arts Managers in Western Australia

As a region, Western Australia is the largest and most isolated state in Australia, and supports a community of vibrant Arts Organisations. The Arts is widely recognised for its creativity and innovation, but what about the managers of these organisations, are they equally innovative, or entrepreneurial? Rusak (2016) explored this question and found that their Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) matched the three core dimensions of Innovativeness, Pro-activeness, and Risk-taking, but the study did not include the other two EO dimensions of Autonomy and Competitive Aggressiveness. It did however observe that "arts companies don’t generally try to take offensive postures or aggressive responses to competitive threats and rather work collaboratively, as this sample shows". This assertion was not the focus of the article, nor was it explored in any depth in that paper.&#x0D; There are at least two possibilities here: it could be a passive aversion to competitive aggression, or a more deliberate counter-behaviour of collaboration. Either of these would appear to contradict the EO construct, in particular the expectation that all EO dimensions covary, which makes it interesting from a theory perspective. This paper explores this challenge to the EO theory in some detail, using software-aided analysis to tease out the finer nuances in this dimension of Competitive Aggressiveness. While the sample size and its geographical confines limit the generalisations that can be made, there is solid evidence that in this sample of Arts Managers, the Arts acts as a powerful contextual modifier to the expectations of EO theory. The dimension of Competitive Aggressiveness has not simply been altered or toned-down by this context, it has been replaced by a polar opposite.

Value co‐creation and co‐destruction behaviour: Relationship with basic human values and personality traits

AbstractService systems create value when actors exhibit behaviours expected to facilitate resource integration and could destroy value when actors do not exhibit the expected set of behaviours. This study seeks to determine which groups of values and individual traits facilitate consumer co‐creation and co‐destruction behaviours. A data set of 390 online survey responses from consumers in the United States was analysed using multiple regression. The analysis suggests that values which express self‐enhancement and openness‐to‐change are most likely to facilitate co‐destruction behaviour, while values which express self‐transcendence and conservation are most likely to facilitate co‐creation behaviour. With regards to traits, we find that neurotic traits are most likely to facilitate co‐destruction behaviour and least likely to facilitate co‐creation behaviours. Conscientious and agreeable traits are least likely to facilitate co‐destruction behaviours, while extraversion and openness traits are most likely to facilitate co‐creation behaviours. This study contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of the consumer values and traits which facilitate co‐destruction and co‐creation behaviour. This study also shows that the basic human values circumplex structure can be divided to reflect co‐destruction and co‐creation values. The polar opposites of the big five personality traits can be classified based on their tendencies to co‐destroy or co‐create value.

Mapping the contours of humour: reflections on recent introductory studies

Introductions to fields of studies are almost a sub-genre in their own right, but are often resistant to direct comparison. The essay discusses four recent introductions to humour published by university presses, and what more broadly they may signify about disciplinary advertisement and consolidation. It emphasises a range of difficulties endemic to the study of humour arising from its interdisciplinarity, recent establishment, the variable range of humour and its putative universality; in which context it pays attention to Austinian performatives, puns and their translation, and to the shared propensity in these introductions to mythologise the history of humour theory. Most critical attention is paid to the studies that form almost polar opposites: Nilsen &amp; Nilsen, The Language of Humour and Attardo, The Linguistics of Humour.

Family relationships and polar opposition: Being equal while remaining different

On the fifth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, this article focuses on the importance of family relationships in our globalized world. The family allows everyone to feel equal while remaining different. In tune with Romano Guardini, Pope Francis uses the dialectic of polar opposition to describe the unity in diversity typical of authentic family life (part 1). He notes, however, that the technocratic paradigm, homogeneous and one-dimensional, cancels out this dynamic, thus opening the way to globalized indifference and the throwaway culture (part 2). Therefore, the Pope invites us to rebuild family relationships and preserve polar opposition at our four fundamental levels: spiritual, personal, social and natural (part 3).

Meaning and Anti-Meaning in Life and What Happens After We Die

AbstractThe absence of meaningfulness in life is meaninglessness. But what is the polar opposite of meaningfulness? In recent and ongoing work together with Stephen Campbell and Marcello di Paola respectively, I have explored what we dub ‘anti-meaning’: the negative counterpart of positive meaning in life. Here, I relate this idea of ‘anti-meaningful’ actions, activities, and projects to the topic of death, and in particular the deaths or suffering of those who will live after our own deaths. Connecting this idea of anti-meaning and what happens after our own deaths to recent work by Samuel Scheffler on what he calls ‘the collective afterlife’ and his four reasons to care about future generations, I argue that if we today make choices or have lifestyles that later lead to unnecessarily early deaths and otherwise avoidable suffering of people who will live after we have died, this robs our current choices and lifestyles of some of their meaning, perhaps even making them the opposite of meaningful in the long run.