Original Paradigm Research Articles

(ПОСТ)КОЛОНИАЛЬНЫЙ НАЦИОНАЛИЗМ ИЛИ НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ (ПОСТ)КОЛОНИАЛИЗМ: К 20-ЛЕТИЮ «БРАТА 2»

The article focuses on Alexey Balabanov’s flagship film Brother 2 (2000), which is devoted to the Russian neo-imperial ambitions and traditionally perceived as a “popular” manifesto of Russian nationalism. The author proposes an approach based on the concepts of postcolonial theory and decolonial thinking (in the Tlostanian sense). Firstly, the creation of a unique author’s style by the “provincial” Balabanov (a native of Sverdlovsk) can be viewed as a contradiction to the postcolonial theory, which says that the “subaltern” (Gayatri Spivak) cannot speak in the face of the metropolis. Of course, this only takes place if we recognize the legitimacy of Alexander Etkind’s concept of a specific “internal colonization” in the Russian statehood. Secondly, the evolution of Balabanov’s hero does not imply any preferences for the Russians and constructs a single paradigm to unite Danila Bagrov - “the first real hero of the post-Soviet cinema” (Vasily Koretsky), the Englishman John Boyle from the film War, the Yakut woman Mergen from the short film River, Major Scriabin nicknamed Yakut (Fireman) ... Thus, Balavanov’s mythology of “brotherhood” is not international, yet it cannot be reduced to Russianness (Andrey Plakhov). Thirdly, the metropolis in Balabanov’s dilogy, be it “not Leningrad, but Petersburg”, the capital Moscow or the gangster Chicago, is losing its status as a stronghold of modernity. Its inviability can be seen in the empty streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Danila arrives in St. Petersburg from the provincial Priozersk, where life is marked by the patriarchal humanity (images of his mother, his father’s classmate). The hero epitomizes the power of the national soil. He is an epic Bogatyr who goes back to the idea of heroism. In the finale, Danila leaves his brother in Chicago, having gone through an existential experience and realized that war is not a national clash. Having killed many people, he fails to avenge the death of a friend. He longs for abstract justice, but helps a man who is unworthy of the sacrifice. Danila acquires a real friend - an American named Ben and a brother in arms - a prostitute Dasha, who unexpectedly complements the gallery of seemingly schematic female characters epitomizing all the hypostases of a woman in the logic of imperial / colonial modernity (mother / lover / reborn harlot). All this radically destroys traditional national / gender definitions. Thus, these contaminations form the original paradigm of the author’s view, which critically “explodes” the seemingly self-evident nationalist discourse of the film Brother 2 with its inherent racism, sexism, and other xenophobic features.

Dialogues

This collection of essays reconsiders a seminal 1961 article by George Kubler, the most important art historian of Latin America of the English-speaking world at the time of its writing. Often greeted with indifference or hostility, Kubler’s central claim of extinction is still a highly contested one. The essays in this section deal with Kubler’s reception in Mexico, the political stakes of his claim in relation to indigeneity, as well as the utility of Kubler’s categories and objects of “extinction” beyond their original framing paradigm.

Development of Abbreviated Versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure.

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate abbreviated versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) as part of an iterative process in the development of a feasible test for potential future clinical use. The three original WARRM (O-WARRM) randomizations were modified by altering the presentation paradigm. Instead of presenting 5 trials per set size with set size increasing from 2 to 6 as in the O-WARRM (n = 100 words), the experimental WARRM (E-WARRM) paradigm consisted of one trial from each of set sizes 2 to 6 to create a "run" (n = 20 words) with each randomization consisting of 5 runs (n = 100 words). A total of 24 younger listeners with normal hearing and 48 older listeners with hearing loss (OHL) were administered 1 randomization of the O-WARRM and 1 different randomization of the E-WARRM. The recognition and recall performances on the O-WARRM and all versions of the E-WARRM (five individual runs and overall) were similar within each listener group, with the younger listeners with normal hearing outperforming the OHL listeners on all measures. Correlation analyses revealed moderate to strong associations between the abbreviated WARRM runs and the O-WARRM for the OHL listener group. Hierarchical regression modeling suggested that run 1 of the E-WARRM was a good predictor of O-WARRM performance and that adding additional runs did not improve the prediction. Taken together, these findings suggest that administering one run from the E-WARRM warrants further examination for clinical use. Additional analyses revealed equivalent scores on all five runs from the three E-WARRM randomizations for both listener groups. Abbreviated versions of the O-WARRM were developed as part of this study. This was accomplished by modifying the original presentation paradigm and creating 15 unique "runs" among the original 3 randomizations. The resulting 15 runs could be considered 15 unique and abbreviated WARRM lists that have potential, in the future after further studies are conducted to establish important properties, for clinic use. The abbreviated WARRM lists may be useful for quantifying auditory working memory of listeners with hearing loss during the audiologic rehabilitation process.

Cyclism as the Core Idea of Russian Thought in the Second Half of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Centuries

The article examines the ideas and concepts of the cyclic development of human thought and history, which were developed by Russian thinkers in their works in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The author shows that in the said period of domestic thought development the cyclic worldview spread in the most important spheres of humanitarian knowledge: philosophy and political teachings (B.N. Chicherin, 1826–1904), social theory and sociology (N.Ya. Danilevsky, 1822–1885) and K.N. Leontiev, 1831–1891), and finally, the theory of cycles (waves) in world socio-economic dynamics (N.D. Kondratyev, 1892–1938). Thus, Russian thinkers laid the conceptual foundations of the original cyclic paradigm of social dynamics, which later were further developed by a number of Western scientists (O. Spengler, 1880–1936; A.J. Toynbee, 1889–1975, etc.).

Language is the missing link in action-perception coupling: an EEG study

The paper reports an electrophysiological (EEG) study investigating how language is involved in perception–action relations in musically trained and untrained participants. Using an original backward priming paradigm, participants were exposed to muted point-light videos of violinists performing piano or forte nuances followed by a congruent vs. incongruent word. After the video presentation, participants were asked to decide whether the musician was playing a piano or forte musical nuance. EEG results showed a greater P200 event-related potential for trained participants at the occipital site, and a greater N400 effect for untrained participants at the central site. Musically untrained participants were more accurate when the word was semantically congruent with the gesture than when it was incongruent. Overall, language seems to influence the performance of untrained participants, for which perception–action couplings are less automatized.

Anthropogenic and Biophysical Controls on Low Flow Hydrology in the Southeastern United States

AbstractThe original paradigm of urban hydrology identified links between urbanization and changes in hydrologic processes. One of the prominent relationships identified was increased impervious surface coverage decreased subsurface recharge and subsequently low flows. This does not consider watershed‐specific biophysical or anthropogenic characteristics that could increase low flows, such as direct discharge from wastewater treatment plants and indirect recharge to groundwater from leaking pipes and infiltration‐based green infrastructure. Here, in an effort to sharpen this original paradigm, we take a statistical approach to evaluate relationships between natural and human‐impacted watershed characteristics and a suite of low flow metrics that describe mean annual low flow magnitudes and interannual variability in 54 watersheds over 15 years in the Piedmont physiographic region of the southeastern United States. We find that annual low flow magnitudes are most strongly correlated to biophysical watershed factors, including positive relationships with topography and precipitation and negative relationships with poorly drained soils. In contrast, interannual variability is positively correlated to land use characteristics, including forest, and negatively related to urbanization. Similarities in best fit models across long‐term average, wet, and dry years indicate a robustness of hydrologic drivers across watershed wetness conditions. Our results also showcase that while the original paradigm of urban hydrology may hold across traditional low flow metrics, such as baseflow index, extreme low flow drivers are complex and counterintuitive. Understanding these first‐order controls on baseflow magnitude and variability across an urbanization gradient is needed to conceptualize the impacts that continued, rapid urbanization will have on low flow dynamics.

El discurso psicológico en el campo educativo: una revisión crítica de su configuración histórica y su devenir actual

Desde sus inicios la Psicología Educacional tuvo el objetivo de procurar herramientas para potenciar el desarrollo de la práctica educativa. Con este sentido, ofreció conocimientos para mejorar el aprendizaje de los alumnos pero también para discriminar a aquellos que presentaran dificultades de acomodación a los ritmos establecidos por la institución escolar. A partir de un análisis histórico, en el presente trabajo se demostrará cómo esta disciplina, condicionada por la coyuntura que permitió su origen en las postrimerías del siglo XIX, participó de manera estratégica en la conformación de un saber que legitimó la práctica escolar y que estableció nuevos circuitos de gobierno para la infancia. Luego, se describirán aquellas perspectivas que desde mediados del siglo XX comenzaron a criticar el paradigma original de la disciplina al poner en descubierto determinadas formas arraigadas y naturalizadas de producción del conocimiento psicológico en el ámbito escolar y así promover un modelo contextual que tomara en cuenta las características amplias del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Finalmente, se concluirá que, a pesar de la fuerza teórica que estas orientaciones han logrado impregnar, la proliferación de diagnósticos psicológicos en las aulas escolares durante las últimas décadas, si bien amparada bajo el argumento de suavizar las fronteras entre educación normal y educación especial, parecería no sólo eclipsar y menguar en gran medida las potencialidades del modelo contextual, sino también trastornar la geografía tradicional de la escuela y conllevar consecuencias de sideral importancia para la configuración actual de la práctica educativa.

Beyond catch-up: could China become the global innovation powerhouse? China’s innovation progress and challenges from a holistic innovation perspective

Over the past century and a half, global technological leadership has shifted from Europe to the United States, while scholars argue that the world has seen that it is now shifting from the United States to China due to China’s extraordinary catch-up in the past four decades, in which the public policy-oriented national innovation system development plays a critical role that might provide an alternative way for innovation-driven development especially for emerging markets. Even though encountering many challenges ahead, China is positioning itself to take over the global innovation leadership in the next few decades. Here in this article, we introduce a serious yet underexplored question: could China go beyond catch-up and become the global innovation powerhouse? Specifically, drawing from the holistic innovation perspective, which is an original theoretical paradigm for the mission-oriented innovation policy change, this article critically reviews, both qualitatively and quantitatively, China’s remarkable innovation progress and main drivers in comparison with G7 countries plus South Korea and India, trying to provide a comprehensive and critical view of state-of-the-art research on China’s innovation catch-up. We further explore the five major challenges that China must take seriously when marching toward the global innovation powerhouse. Finally, we propose a mission-oriented holistic STI policy design framework for both China and other emerging economies to go beyond catch-up in a competitive dynamic world. This article provides a new and holistic perspective to access China’s innovation progress and challenges, also generates novel insights for scholars and public agencies to contribute to global innovation development, with a shared goal of achieving global sustainable development in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world.

Ironic Effects of Thought Suppression: A Meta-Analysis

The ironic effect of thought suppression refers to the phenomenon in which individuals trying to rid their mind of a target thought ironically experience greater levels of occurrence and accessibility of the thought compared with individuals who deliberately concentrate on the thought (Wegner, 1994, doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.34). Ironic effects occurring after thought suppression, also known as rebound effects, were consistently detected by previous meta-analyses. However, ironic effects that occur during thought suppression, also known as immediate enhancement effects, were found to be largely absent. In this meta-analysis, we test Wegner’s original proposition that detection of immediate enhancement effects depends on the cognitive load experienced by individuals when enacting thought suppression. Given that thought suppression is an effortful cognitive process, we propose that the introduction of additional cognitive load would compete for the allocation of existing cognitive resources and impair capacity for thought suppression. Studies (k = 31) consistent with Wegner’s original thought-suppression paradigm were analyzed. Consistent with our predictions, rebound effects were observed regardless of cognitive load, whereas immediate enhancement effects were observed only in the presence of cognitive load. We discuss implications in light of ironic-process theory and suggest future thought-suppression research.

Improving the robustness of infant lexical processing speed measures

Visual reaction times to target pictures after naming events are an informative measurement in language acquisition research, because gaze shifts measured in looking-while-listening paradigms are an indicator of infants’ lexical speed of processing. This measure is very useful, as it can be applied from a young age onwards and has been linked to later language development. However, to obtain valid reaction times, the infant is required to switch the fixation of their eyes from a distractor to a target object. This means that usually at least half the trials have to be discarded—those where the participant is already fixating the target at the onset of the target word—so that no reaction time can be measured. With few trials, reliability suffers, which is especially problematic when studying individual differences. In order to solve this problem, we developed a gaze-triggered looking-while-listening paradigm. The trials do not differ from the original paradigm apart from the fact that the target object is chosen depending on the infant’s eye fixation before naming. The object the infant is looking at becomes the distractor and the other object is used as the target, requiring a fixation switch, and thus providing a reaction time. We tested our paradigm with forty-three 18-month-old infants, comparing the results to those from the original paradigm. The Gaze-triggered paradigm yielded more valid reaction time trials, as anticipated. The results of a ranked correlation between the conditions confirmed that the manipulated paradigm measures the same concept as the original paradigm.

An overview on feedback mechanisms with minimum adjustment or cost in consensus reaching in group decision making: Research paradigms and challenges

Consensus reaching process is a very powerful decision tool to eliminate the preference conflict in group decision making. In general, the consensus is achieved by the decision makers modifying their preferences (or opinions) toward a point of mutual consent, and the feedback mechanism aims to provide preference-modifications suggestions. In many situations, the preference-modifications mean cost and the resources for the consensus reaching process are limited. So, in the last decade, the feedback mechanism with minimum adjustment or cost (FMMA/C) has been developed and widely used in various group decision making contexts to improve consensus efficiency. In this review, we first analyze the origin and basic research paradigm of the FMMA/C. Then, we review the FMMA/C in two decision contexts: (1) the FMMA/C in classical group decision making problems, and (2) the FMMA/C in complex group decision making problems (e.g., social network, large-scale, and opinion dynamic group decision making problems). Finally, we identify research challenges and propose future research direction.

Theoretical-methodological foundations of the development of psychological science in the XXI century

The article covers theoretical and methodological foundations of psychological science development in the XXI century. It has been emphasized that the psychological science of Ukraine provides the implementation of fundamental and applied research to promote the country’s rapid coming out of socio-economic crisis. Approaches to find the solution and ensure psychological assistance to ATO fighters are considered in the procedural aspect. The central area of research activity is psychological protection of population from hostile propaganda. An important direction of modern psychologists’ work is the psychological support of educational processes at all stages. Thus particular attention is focused on the problems of a personality development. It has been emphasized that the progress of modern psychology is associated with significant methodological reorientation. It is suggested to use a genetic modelling method, the main principles of which allow to solve the problems within the holistic approach, in the process of their development and formation. The method studies the peculiarities of self-identity or self-evolving and the purpose is to shape a genetically derived discrepant personality that is constantly evolving and forming. According to the author’s original theoretical paradigm, at the basis of the personality’s psychological genesis lies the need for action as a genetically original measurement unit of individual development and existence. This energy-intensive information flow represented as a need specifically unites the biological and social determinants and acts as a lifelong driving force for the self-development of a human being - the personality. The principles of constructing a genetic modelling method have been described and characterized. The problem of human interaction with modern media carriers is singled out.

Integrated geophysical analysis provides an alternate interpretation of the northern margin of the North American Midcontinent Rift System, Central Lake Superior

The Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) is a 1.1 Ga sequence of voluminous basaltic eruptions and multiple intrusions followed by widespread sedimentation that extends across the Midcontinent and northern Great Lakes region of North America. Previous workers have commonly used seismic-reflection data (Great Lakes International Multidisciplinary Program on Crustal Evolution [GLIMPCE] line A) to demonstrate that the northern rift margin in central Lake Superior developed as a normal growth fault that was structurally inverted to a reverse fault during a compressional event after rifting had ended. A prominent, curvilinear aeromagnetic anomaly that extends from Isle Royale, Michigan, to Superior Shoal in central Lake Superior, Ontario (the IR-SS anomaly), is commonly presented as a manifestation of this reverse fault. We have integrated multidisciplinary geophysical analyses (seismic-reflection, seismic-refraction, aeromagnetic, and gravity), physical-property information (density, magnetic susceptibility and remanence, and compressional-wave velocity), and geologic concepts to develop an alternate interpretation of the rift margin along GLIMPCE line A, where it intersects the IR-SS anomaly. Our new model indicates that a normal fault is the dominant structure at the northern rift margin along line A, contrary to the original rift-margin paradigm, which asserts that compressional structures are the dominant features preserved today. Integral to this alternate model is a newly interpreted, prerift sedimentary basin intruded by sills in northern Lake Superior. Our alternate model of the northern rift margin has implications for interpreting the style, scale, and timing of extension, rift-related intrusion, and compression during development of the MRS.

A prática da Educação do Campo e os paradigmas agrários na Geografia

Este artigo objetiva estabelecer a relação entre as concepções teóricas dos paradigmas dos estudos agrários e a Educação do Campo, a fim de defendermos uma educação condizente com as necessidades do homem, da mulher do campo e seus filhos, que valorize seu modo de vida, fortaleça sua organização política-econômica, produzindo conhecimento que melhore a qualidade de vida no campo. A metodologia do artigo se deu por meio de análise de autores que construíram o paradigma originário da Educação do Campo, onde o mesmo é produto da materialidade das disputas territoriais no campo e da ação dos movimentos camponeses, fomentando a resistência e a conquista dos/nos territórios camponeses, permitindo sua recriação enquanto classe social e modo de vida. Nossa análise parte da premissa de que a interpretação do campo da Educação do Campo está pautada nos pressupostos ideológicos da tendência campesinista do Paradigma da Questão Agrária.
 Palavras-chave: Campesino, Educação do Campo, Tendência Agrárias.
 
 The practice of Rural Education and the agrarian paradigms in Geography 
 ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to establish the relationship between the theoretical conceptions of the agrarian studies and Rural Education, in order to advocate for an education consistent with the needs of both men and women in rural areas as well as their children. An education that values their lifestyle, strengthens their political and economic organization that will produce knowledge to improve the quality of life in the rural context. The methodology adopted in this paper was conducted by means of analysis of authors who have constructed the original paradigm of Rural Education, where it is the product of the materiality of land disputes in the countryside and the peasant movements, fostering resistance and the conquest of/in the peasant territories, which allowed their re-creation as a social class and as a lifestyle. The analysis starts by assuming that the interpretation of the field of Rural Education is based on the ideological assumptions of the peasant tendency of the Paradigm of the Agrarian Issue.
 Keywords: Peasant, Rural Education, Agrarian Tendency.
 
 La práctica de la Educación del Campo y los paradigmas agrarios en Geografía
 RESUMEN. Este artículo objetiva presentar las concepciones teóricas en los paradigmas agrarios para la Educación del Campo, defendiendo una educación acuerde con las necesidades del hombre, de la mujer del campo y sus hijos, que valore su forma de vida, fortalece su organización, cultura, produciendo conocimiento para la calidad de vida en el campo. El recorte científico para análisis tendrá como fuente referenciales teóricos el paradigma originario de la Educación del Campo, que defiende el desarrollo de una educación que se realiza en medio de las disputas territoriales en el campo, con la participación de los movimientos, fomentando resistencia para la conquista de los/en los territorios campesinos, garantizando la recreación campesina como clase social y forma de vida. Nuestro análisis parte de la premisa de que la interpretación del campo de la Educación del Campo está pautada en los presupuestos ideológicos de la tendencia campesina del Paradigma de la Cuestión Agraria.
 Palabras clave: Campesino, Educación del Campo, Tendencia Agrarias.

"You Should Praise" - "You Should Kill": The Contingent Negative Variation Indicates Moral Goodness and Badness.

Moral advice (how to behave in life) is often conveyed by short, simple sentence constructions: “You – should – (plus verb with moral meaning).” Yet how moral prescriptions are processed has never been studied from a neurocognitive perspective. The results of this study suggest that the contingent negative variation (CNV) serves as a neural correlate for moral (and immoral) predictive phrases. In step 1, the original CNV paradigm (S1–S2–motor response) was extended using action-demanding three-word phrases taken from everyday contexts (e.g., “Ready–Set–Go”). In step 2, these commands were replaced by abstract words, each phrase then including a verb of moral or immoral meaning (e.g., “You should hope,” “You should praise,” and “You should lie”). During recording, each phrase type (e.g., moral or immoral) was presented blockwise. The task varied according to block order: Participants (n = 19) had to either listen attentively or respond with a finger tap immediately after the final word of a phrase. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were bandpass filtered (0.1–30 Hz) and analyzed at the onset of the second word, yielding two independent responses: a bilateral CNV and a bilateral motor-related negativity, both decreasing from anterior to posterior. The results show that the CNV is sensitive to phrase constructions of moral resp. immoral valence. Thus, transfer to remote semantic fields seems possible. Importantly, this transfer is combined with a change of time frames, from restricted and highly pragmatic (as in the original paradigm) to indefinite and vague. Thus, a CNV may indicate not only preparation to action but also general guidelines for social life. An N400 occurring as an additional, task-dependent result cannot be sufficiently explained on the basis of the present data.

The pupil: a window on social automatic processing in autism spectrum disorder children.

Faces are crucial social stimuli, eliciting automatic processing associated with increased physiological arousal in observers. The level of arousal can be indexed by pupil diameter (the 'Event-Related Pupil Dilation', ERPD). However, many parameters could influence the arousal evoked by a face and its social saliency (e.g. virtual vs. real, neutral vs. emotional, static vs. dynamic). A few studies have shown an atypical ERPD in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients using several kinds of faces but no study has focused on identifying which parameter of the stimulus is the most interfering with face processing in ASD. In order to disentangle the influence of these parameters, we propose an original paradigm including stimuli along an ecological social saliency gradient: from static objects to virtual faces to dynamic emotional faces. This strategy was applied to 186 children (78 ASD and 108 typically developing (TD) children) in two pupillometric studies (22 ASD and 47 TD children in the study 1 and 56 ASD and 61 TD children in the study 2). Strikingly, the ERPD in ASD children is insensitive to any of the parameters tested: the ERPD was similar for objects, static faces or dynamic faces. On the opposite, the ERPD in TD children is sensitive to all the parameters tested: the humanoid, biological, dynamic and emotional quality of the stimuli. Moreover, ERPD had a good discriminative power between ASD and TD children: ASD had a larger ERPD than TD in response to virtual faces, while TD had a larger ERPD than ASD for dynamic faces. This novel approach evidences an abnormal physiological adjustment to socially relevant stimuli in ASD.

Expectation expands subjective duration for repeated stimuli by altering perception.

Repeated stimuli are generally perceived to be shorter in duration than novel stimuli. Matthews (2015), however, demonstrated that when repetition is predictable, expectations of repetition may expand subjective duration for repeated stimuli. Although this effect is hypothesised to be perceptual, this has yet to be empirically established. The present study, therefore, examined perceptual and decisional factors in the repetition effect by using psychophysical methods while varying probabilities of repetition, in addition to replicating Matthews' original paradigm. Using faces with neutral expressions, 60 participants completed 2 judgment tasks, indicating whether a comparison stimulus was longer or shorter in duration than a standard stimulus preceding it. Comparison stimuli were presented for the same duration as the 500-ms standard in the replication task and for 1 of 7 durations (from 200-1,250 ms) in the crucial extension task, allowing for examination of sensitivity and bias. No evidence of bias was observed, but modulating participants' expectations of repetition affected perception, such that discrimination was more difficult under high than low repetition conditions. Overall, participants were more likely to judge stimuli that met expectations as longer, regardless of whether the expectation was repetition or novelty. Implications for models of repetition, context effects, and time estimation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

An own-age bias in mixed- and pure-list presentations: No evidence for the social-cognitive account.

The own-age bias (OAB) is suggested to be caused by perceptual-expertise and/or social-cognitive mechanisms. Bryce and Dodson (2013, Psychology and Aging, 28, 87, Exp 2) provided support for the social-cognitive account, demonstrating an OAB for participants who encountered a mixed-list of own- and other-age faces, but not for participants who encountered a pure-list of only own- or other-age faces. They proposed that own-age/other-age categorization, and the resulting OAB, only emerge when age is made salient in the mixed-list condition. Our study aimed to replicate this finding using methods typically used to investigate the OAB to examine their robustness and contribution to our understanding of how the OAB forms. Across three experiments that removed theoretically unimportant components of the original paradigm, varied face sex, and included background scenes, the OAB emerged under both mixed-list and pure-list conditions. These results are more consistent with a perceptual-expertise than social-cognitive account of the OAB, but may suggest that manipulating age salience using mixed-list and pure-list presentations is not sufficient to alter categorization processes.

Rethinking Realism and Constructivism Through the Lenses of Themes and Ontological Primacy

Abstract If integrative pluralism in international relations theorising is the way forward, how can we still maintain some type of demarcation between pre-existing paradigms in order to not throw the baby out with the bath water? The notions of themes and ontological primacy provide a useful intervention in this regard. They both link realism and constructivism yet at the same time differentiate between the two enough to allow for the original free-standing paradigm to maintain its veracity and usefulness as an explanatory tool to explain the international order. This article promotes the idea that realism and constructivism engage with many similar themes; it is their ontologies and methodologies that are the key points of departure and are worth being further explored. The article concludes that taking the notion of ontological primacy seriously allows for much needed theoretical pluralism, while effectively maintaining the foundational moorings of longstanding international relations theories.

Measuring (un)safety. A broad understanding and definition of safety, allowing for instant measuring of unsafety

Industrial safety performance has, for a long time, been the domain of health and safety specialists, measuring injury and absenteeism rates to discover patterns and trying to prevent accidents from happening. The drawback of this approach is that safety is reactive to accidents, mostly caused by operations. As a result, safety (performance) has become the reverse side of operations (performance) and is often seen as a hinderance in making the best possible profit for organisations. However, now already for a period of time, industries have become aware of the possible benefits of a more proactive approach towards safety. Therefore, increasingly more organisations are looking for more proactive methods in measuring and achieving safety performance. As a result, in recent years, important efforts have been undertaken to improve the understanding of safety culture and safety climate and how to measure these concepts in organisations, for instance in the process industry and chemical plants. Likewise, substantial efforts have been made to determine and develop a wide range of leading and lagging safety indicators that can reflect and predict safety performance. While developing leading indicators and making culture measurements are helpful, they both measure safety conditions indirectly. Because, an organisational culture or climate can be regarded as a specific indicator of a possible future performance, in the same way leading safety indicators aim to predict the future. Yet, little tools are currently available for the instant measuring of actual safety conditions and performance in organisations, providing information that allows for benchmarking between different sectors and industries. Nevertheless, when safety and its opposite “unsafety” are carefully defined, it becomes imaginable to develop tools that instantly measure the safety performances and actual safety situations in organisations so that they can be used for benchmarking regardless of sector or industry. In this article we will expound this way of thinking, based on an original paradigm about safety, unsafety and performance.