Paradigmatic Issues Research Articles

Desktop Review on the Current Debates Relating to Paradigmatic Issues in Education Field and the Three Methodological Approaches

Desktop Review on the Current Debates Relating to Paradigmatic Issues in Education Field and the Three Methodological Approaches

Covid-19 as a Catalyst for Strengthening Research Practice in BRICS’ Universities

South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 (National Planning Commission, 2012) argues that there must be a simultaneous focus on research and teaching for South African universities to advance knowledge and society. However, since the dawn of COVID-19, most research focuses on teaching, leaving unattended research about doing and philosophising about research practice. Therefore, this paper rethinks ways of thinking and researching for postgraduate students who are based in South Africa’s (SA’s) historically disadvantaged institutions of higher learning. It proposes how the COVID-19 should bring about a paradigm shift in research methodologies and research practice, including the necessary supervision support for students. This social constructivist paper draws on the reflections of two postgraduate supervisors, and further reflects on broader paradigmatic issues within research. This paper relies strongly on the experiences of the authors as a primary source and also conceptually harvested from the existing literature. The autobiographic element study allows the researchers to explore the intersection between themselves and the subject they are studying, permitting the reader to understand this intersection and reflect on their own experiences (Given, 2008). There are two main arguments in this paper; 1) A call for re-centring the ethics of care and ethics of social responsibility as premises from which all research should start. This can be done by reflecting and exploring the first-hand experiences of those who are in Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs). 2) It is a call for equitable distribution of resources across BRICS universities, focusing primarily on the improvement of the HDIs which is consistent with BRICS’ multilateral developmental agenda.

Functions follow structures? The long-term evolution of economic dynamics, social transformations, and landscape morphology in a Mediterranean metropolis

Identification of the intrinsic properties regulating complex systems’ development contributes to a refined comprehension of their inherent transformations over time. Seen as a local context undergoing non-linear changes as a response to socioeconomic dynamics, landscape evolution over time provides a paradigmatic issue when examining the key property of ‘rapidity-of-change’ characteristic of any complex system. The present study introduces an exploratory approach grounded on mathematical morphology to investigate ‘rapidity-of-change’ of a landscape system evolving in response to external stimuli over 70 years (1948–2018). This framework was applied to a real case (metropolitan Athens, Greece) assessing structural changes in built-up settlements reflected in seven landscape types derived from mathematical morphology. A Multi-way Factor Analysis (MFA) quantified the evolution of landscape types from diachronic land-use maps. A standardized metric of ‘rapidity-of-change’ was calculated from MFA outcomes over six sub-periods and confronted with the background socioeconomic context. Taken as an intrinsic attribute of complex systems, ‘rapidity-of-change’ in Athens’ landscape was largely heterogeneous over time, being more intense during the last economic expansion (2000–2006) under the impulse of the Olympic Games. Intermediate values of ‘rapidity-of-change’ were associated with population growth and intense social transformations. The lowest level of ‘rapidity-of-change’ was finally recorded in correspondence with 2007 recession. Reflecting the intrinsic pressure of socioeconomic growth in contemporary cities, ‘rapidity-of-change’ in landscape systems demonstrated to be a honest proxy of metropolitan cycles, economic downtowns, and socio-demographic dynamics. Delineating long-term transformations in the ‘form-function’ relationship allows evaluation of (direct or indirect) planning impacts on metropolitan development.

Sustainable Insights for Energy Big Data Governance in China: Full Life Cycle Curation from the Ecosystem Perspective

With the development of the Energy Internet and the Internet of Things, diversified social production activities are making the interactions between energy, business, and information flow among physical, social, and information systems increasingly complex. As the carrier of information and the hub between physical and social systems, the effective management of energy big data has attracted the attention of scholars. This work indicates that China’s energy companies have carried out a series of activities that are centered on energy big data collection, as well as development and exchange, and that the energy big data ecosystem has begun to take shape. However, the research on and the application of energy big data are mainly limited to micro-level fields, and the development of energy big data in China remains disordered because the corresponding macro-level instructive governance frameworks are lacking. In this work, to facilitate the sustainable development of the energy big data ecosystem and to solve existing problems, such as the difficult-to-determine governance boundaries and the difficult-to-coordinate interests, and to analyze the structure and mechanism of the energy big data ecosystem, data curation is introduced into energy big data governance, and a paradigm is constructed for sustainable energy big data curation that encompasses its full life cycle, including the planning, integration, application, and maintenance stages. Key paradigmatic issues are analyzed in-depth, including data rights, fusion, security, and transactions.

Identification of research priorities of radiography science: A modified Delphi study in Europe.

Radiography science is a new discipline among health sciences. It is a discipline that investigates phenomena in medical imaging, radiation therapy, and nuclear medicine. It has merged from the need to provide research evidence to support these services. The domain of the discipline needs clarification and more research should be focused on its paradigmatic issues. Radiography research priorities have been previously charted on a national level in different countries but the viewpoint has been that of the needs of the profession, not of the discipline. This study aimed to identify the priorities of the discipline. The method chosen was a modified version of the Delphi technique with two rounds. The expert panel consisted of 24 European radiography researchers with long professional experience. This study shows that the research priorities in radiography science are related to the phenomena of radiographers' profession, clinical practices, and the safe and high‐quality use of radiation and technology for medical imaging, radiotherapy, and nuclear medicine. Identifying these priorities can help focus research onto most important topics and clarify disciplinary perspective.

Cientificidade nos estudos do turismo. Teorias, dicotomias e o desafio da consolidação epistemológica

Tourism as a field of disciplinary study has theoretical propositions and epistemological knowl‑ edge capable of elevating it to the status of a science. Various researchers have carried out analyses that show the fragility of tourism as a possible science, and postulate theories that contribute to the advance‑ ment of studies in the area. Thus, this article is aimed at building a line of analysis, focusing on the empiri‑ cal repetition of theories and concepts that portray tourism as a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary area of study. In addition to the importance of overcoming paradigmatic issues towards an epistemological consolidation. Methodologically, it his theoretical and exploratory, using bibliographic and electronic research to chart the maturing of tourism studies and to reflect the intrinsic complexity of the area. In the end, it appears that different fields of knowledge may interact at different levels of complexity under a multi‑inter‑trans disciplinary perspective in tourism. However, there is a need for an overall philosophy in order to produce cohesion toward forming an independent science.

The social constructionism paradigm in research on old age and ageing

Research methodology has recently been reduced to using research methods and techniques that are perceived only as ready-to-use tools. Paradigmatic issues become of secondary importance and left unsaid in research work or replaced by a multi-paradigm approach characterised by pluralist ontology and epistemology. The paradigm consists of assumptions and fundamental beliefs and represents a worldview that defines the nature of the world. It helps to justify the use of selected methods and techniques. The article aims to present the social constructionism paradigm and its application in old age and aging research.

Uma avaliação das ciberameaças e das migrações como desafios para a Comunidade de Segurança Pluralista da União Europeia na Ordem Mundial 2.0

This article departs from the assumption that European Union is a Pluralist Security Community resulting from symbiotic interactions between material and ideational variables such as beliefs, identities, material capabilities, borders, distribution/perception of power, anarchy and polarity, which gives to this theoretical model greater analytical consistency and ontological density. So, looking into the potential threats the EU is being confronted with and for the negative externalities they can generate in the near future, we are led to reflect on some paradigmatic issues: has the EU reached the limits of its capacity to effectively deal with contemporary challenges? Accordingly, is there a need for a new European concerted plan of action on security and defense issues? To verify how the EU has been tackling some of these challenges and how they impact the defining features of the EU as a Pluralistic Security Community, cybersecurity and migration were selected as our objects of analysis for being good examples of transnational problems the contemporary international system is being confronted with.

A New ‘Lexicon’ of Land Degradation: Toward a Holistic Thinking for Complex Socioeconomic Issues

Land degradation is perceived worldwide as a key process of resource depletion, representing a paradigmatic issue in national and supra-national political agendas for the 21st century in both advanced and emerging economies. Trying to delineate a ‘new lexicon of land degradation’, the present study contributes to a holistic thinking of driving forces in local communities and regional contexts through a refined analysis and discussion of (apparent and latent) factors of land degradation. Rethinking the importance of five notions (time, space, scale, systems, and response) having an intimate linkage with land degradation allows a refined understanding of socio-environmental dynamics and the most appropriate actions to combat (or mitigate) land resource depletion. The conclusions summarize the rationale proposed in this work, and provide a brief outlook on future research addressing land degradation, its drivers and consequences.

A Tomada de Decisão Empresarial em Finanças: Aspectos Epistemológicos e Paradigmáticos

Este caso de ensino fornece a possibilidade de discussão sobre questões epistemológicas e paradigmáticas em Finanças, sobretudo quanto às influências cognitivas, sociais e emocionaisobservadas sobre a tomada de decisão dos indivíduos – campo de estudo das Finanças Comportamentais. O presente caso fictício exemplifica como as crenças, emoções e sentimentos do gestor podem influenciar suas decisões e, consequentemente, impactar o desempenho de seu negócio. Inicialmente, o caso de sucesso do Sr. Batista é apresentado e serve para elucidar o que vem depois dele: revisão da literatura envolvendo a tomada de decisão financeira, questõespara reflexão, discussão e considerações finais. Ao apresentar aspectos contemporâneos da discussão paradigmática em Finanças e ao fornecer de forma elucidativa ideias e base teóricapara pesquisadores, alunos e demais indivíduos interessados na investigação teórica e prática de assuntos da área, este caso de ensino contribui com a formação e o desenvolvimento de senso crítico de profissionais de finanças, pesquisadores, estudantes de pós-graduação e estudantes de graduação em nível avançado.

System Approach to Coherent Cybersecurity Strategy

Cyber-attacks affect not only our daily lives, but also national security by influencing elections, the economy, and communication. This article is an attempt to give an answer to the question included in the topic “How to build a coherent cybersecurity strategy?”. The first part of the article addresses the paradigmatic issue of cybersecurity. The author shows the differences and relations between cybersecurity and cyber defense. At this point, the author presents a systems approach to the nation security and related it to the cybersecurity. The second part of the article has been dedicated to visualize the need of coherent cybersecurity strategy by analyzing data related to cybersecurity. In the end, the author proposes actions to achieve cybersecurity. This has been done based on existing analyzes of cybersecurity strategies and systems approach to the issue of the cybersecurity.

Paradigmatic Issues in State-of-the-Art Research Using Process Data

Learning science is enthusiastically adopting new instruments to gather physiological and other forms of event data to represent mental states and series of them that reflect processes. In an attempt to provoke more thought about this kind of research, I suggest paradigmatic issues relating to data, analyses of them and interpretations of results. I advocate we not label these data as “objective.” Instead, we share a subjective interpretation of them. I argue propositions about validity need more nuance. Bounds on generalization related to so-called ecological validity are rarely empirically justified. When researchers transform raw data before analysis and when analytic methods partition variance, interpretations of results omit key qualifications. I posit emotion and motivation be positioned in theory as moderators rather than mediators because agentic, self-regulating learners make and revise knowledge by choosing forms of cognitive engagement in a context where they interpret arousal. I note that researchers’ anchor interpretations of process data in learners’ accounts. This creates a tautology that troubles usual notions of reliability. Finally, I recommend research involving process data turn more toward helping learners identify conditions of learning that spark arousal so learners can regulate motivation and emotion. This leads to a surprise: Treating learners as individuals and helping them identify triggers of arousal may recommend learning science cast emotions and motivation as epiphenomena.

Nation, nature, purity: extreme-right biodiversity in Germany

ABSTRACTIn this article, Forchtner investigates the construction of an ‘ideal’, extreme-right, ecologically sensitive subject. A concern for the natural environment is in no way new to the extreme right, and has long been part of its ideological make-up. In particular, claims that the laws of nature are applicable to the social world and that a community is embedded in an ecosystem have long been features of a right-wing ecological imaginary. Through an analysis of all the articles on a paradigmatic ecological issue, biodiversity, published in Germany’s exemplary extreme-right magazine preoccupied with ecology, Umwelt & Aktiv (Environment & Active), this cultural imaginary is reconstructed. Included in it as key themes are human responsibility for environmental degradation, the ecological value of flora and fauna, and criticism of modernity’s levelling tendencies (both biologically and culturally). Taking responsibility for the community’s Heimat (homeland) is, consequently, a crucial element for this subject: a subject who aims for purity, order and the stability of ecosystems.

Service Learning, Service Climate, and Service-Based Social Innovation for Sustainability

How does service-based education influence societal sustainability? Beyond product innovation, service innovation has been emerging as a paradigmatic issue for research. Human resource quality is one vital factor for service innovation. Service human capital development (i.e., education), however, has been relatively neglected in research on sustainability. This conceptual article discusses the chain of relationships between service learning and service climate, service innovation, and societal sustainability. In contrary to the widely spread concept of gaining competitive advantages through individual (organizational) service innovation, we emphasize the collaborative advantage that all individuals can construct together by service innovation to achieve sustainability. To achieve such a goal, the education for service human resources by service learning becomes a foundation. With these propositions, this paper contributes by offering possible future research issues, and by stimulating practice and policy discussions.

ESTUDOS CULTURAIS E PÓS-COLONIALISMO

Este artigo tem a preocupação de fazer dialogar uma teorização sofisticada e complexa, em se tratando das próprias demandas dos segmentos sociais existentes nos estudos culturais no período pós-colonialista. Assim sendo, o trabalho busca focalizar a questão paradigmática da teoria cultural, utilizando como ator principal o processo de hibridização como forma de se pensar de maneira não reducionista as relações entre o simbólico e o social enquanto prática cultural crítica.

Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind by George Makari

Reviewed by: Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind by George Makari Mary Bergstein (bio) Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind. George Makari. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. 656 pp. In 2008, George Makari published Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis. Bruce Rudisch praised the book in American Imago as "an eye-opening paradigm shift in the telling of psychoanalytic history" (2009, p. 293). In that book Makari de-centered and de-mystified Freud as he mapped out the history of psychoanalysis from about 1870 through the end of the Second World War. When Revolution in Mind was first published, the eminent novelist Paul Auster declared on the cover, "George Makari [had] written nothing less than a history of the modern mind." Now with Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind, Makari, a renowned psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and historian, turns more exactly to that, continuing his endeavor in a history of the philosophy of mind in European thought. His topic is "the invention of the modern mind" in European history. Ending where Revolution in Mind began, Makari now takes his research from Plato and Aristotle through the medieval "Age of Faith" and the Counter Reformation into the "Age of Reason" and further into modernity to investigate the history of the mind-body problem. To give an idea of the historical time-period covered, I ought to note that the first mention of Sigmund Freud occurs on page 509 of this volume, and even then, in passing. Nothing seems more compelling these days than the mind-body problem. What is consciousness and where does it reside? Where is the ghost in the proverbial machine? Can contemporary brain science account biologically for every aspect of sentience in a purely reductive manner? Do spirit and organic matter combine to make humans think, or is the concept of spirit merely one of the many fictions that emanate from the biological mechanics of the brain? If we are trapped in the network of our own subjectivity then how are we to study subjectivity itself? Or perhaps words like consciousness and subjectivity are already outmoded in the second decade of the twenty-first century. To date (see George Johnson, New York Times, 2016, July 5) human beings cannot explain how the central nervous system [End Page 226] produces thought. Even less are we able to grasp the reverse, namely how our mind, spirit, or God catalyzes the bodily brain. Descartes's famous cogito ergo sum, which presupposes a mind-body dualism, is questioned by modern scientists and yet in Makari's book it remains at the heart of the question as a paradigmatic issue that is historically pertinent even in our own day. Soul Machine, you see, does not deal directly with the "hard problem," as explicated by David Chalmers in his writings (and videos made for the general public). This book is not an argument for or against the possible existence of any non-physical or spiritual entity. Rather, it is a sweeping history of the ideas concerning the seemingly intractable problem of mind-body dualism. As such it is scrupulously researched, almost encyclopedic, and very clearly written. Throughout the book, we see theological ideas clash with secular thought in historical questions about the body and mind or soul. Can inanimate forms such as natural or human-made objects possess consciousness? According to the precepts of contemporary Panpsychism, consciousness may exist ab initio as a plasma of unbound particles, a common stuff of the universe, as plastic as time and space, from which everything else is composed. But even Panpsychism can allow for the possibility of a deity, and this alone makes consciousness an anomaly to the world of objective science. Throughout Makari's book, I was constantly reminded that appending an innate morality, spirit, or mentis to our physical selves is, in fact, constitutive of our established ways of thinking. Indeed it is so bound to the common-sense vision of ourselves that we can hardly escape from it. Makari encounters this problem as he brings us through history chronologically, parading and contrasting the arguments of pertinent philosophers, churchmen, chemists, physicists, and physicians. Although he begins in Classical antiquity...

A ALFABETIZAÇÃO MUSICAL E OS PARADIGMAS EDUCACIONAIS

O artigo apresenta as concepções atuais de alfabetização musical e suas relações com as questões paradigmáticas da educação, expondo os diferentes tipos de paradigmas e suas modificações. A possibilidade de apresentar, relacionar e debater as questões referentes aos paradigmas e às contribuições de autores para a alfabetização musical, caracterizando o egresso, são outros objetivos deste trabalho. A relevância do tema está no escasso debate sobre os paradigmas na educação musical e na possibilidade que o seu estudo pode proporcionar ao educador no processo de alfabetização musical. De natureza bibliográfica e documental, o estudo se fundamenta nos trabalhos de Schafer (1992, 1997) e Swanwick (1979, 2003, 2014). Os resultados apontam para a nova tendência da alfabetização musical, que passa a ter um compromisso inclusivo, tornando-se acessível não só ao estudante que tem como objetivo ser um músico profissional, mas também a pessoas de diferentes contextos sociais.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Mallinckrodt et al. developed the measure Everyday Multicultural Competencies and combined its items with those in the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy to form a new scale to assess college multicultural programming. Mallinckrodt, Miles, and Recabarren used this scale as an example to provide recommendations for using focus groups and item response theory (IRT) in instrument development. In this commentary, we focus on two areas of major concerns: (a) paradigmatic and methodological issues pertaining to the use of mixed methods research design, focus groups, and IRT in developing psychological instruments aiming to assess multicultural constructs and (b) the importance of attending to the multidimensionality and context of these constructs. We believe it is important for future researchers to provide a thorough accounting of these paradigmatic and methodological issues in their studies and a clear explication of the target construct in scale development research.

Key Issues to Consider in Therapy with Muslim Families.

We present the key issues to consider in therapy with Muslim families. Following a brief introduction, five themes are presented: self, family dynamics, causation, and coping strategies. The section on "self" includes a discussion of three terms which link the four Islamic models of "self" identified through the review. The family dynamics section pays particular attention to interconnectedness, family roles, and gender. Causation is discussed with reference to supernatural and spiritual causes. On the theme of coping strategies, religious responses are discussed as are the roles of religious leaders, and professional mental health services. Clinical implications from the key themes are also discussed in addition to limitations of the published literature in this area. This includes a discussion of the epistemological and paradigmatic issues related to the research. The review concludes by summarising these issues and presenting areas for further research.

Sometimes we do reinvent the wheel: Commentary on MacDonald (1912).

As a researcher of targeted violence, I found Arthur MacDonald’s work “Assassins of Rulers” (MacDonald, 1912) very provocative. Although different norms for behavioral and criminological research early the past century may have limited the current applicability of MacDonald’s findings, this work highlighted certain paradigmatic issues that have later emerged within the targeted violence literature. Before addressing commonalities with recent research, discussion of methodological issues is warranted. First, one is impressed with how detailed MacDonald’s presentation is across the range of cases of political assassination and regicide. One wonders how more descriptive MacDonald’s work would have been if he had access to the Internet and its vast array of sources in a 24-hr news cycle within our current information saturated culture. On the research methodology side, the applicability of MacDonald’s findings may have been limited by both methodological limitations within his work as well as the limited utilization of behavioral threat assessment concepts by law enforcement during the early 20th century. Further, current researchers and journal reviewers would question MacDonald’s limited sourcing, especially given the descriptive and declarative nature of his research. This study does not contain a research methodology section including sampling strategies, but instead engages in rather descriptive exposition of some of the relevant conditions and behaviors of assassins sampled. Noteworthy, however, is that MacDonald even includes near miss cases, though he does not make note of this distinction. More striking about MacDonald’s work are several commonalities with current research highlighted within his analysis. Consistent with the threat assessment literature in general, MacDonald asserts that such political violence was not impulsive but deliberative by asserting: “The assassins of rulers do not usually proceed in a sudden and blind way, like the insane, but their assaults are generally logically conceived and premeditated” (p. 505). Such an assertion put MacDonald at odds with many previous violence frameworks that were impulsivity or pathology driven. It was not until Calhoun’s (1998) work investigating violence toward the judiciary and the Exception Case Study (Fein & Vossekuil, 1999) that researchers spent more time detailing the behavioral precursors and deliberative nature of targeted violence. Consistent with the recent literature, MacDonald also noted that no set profile of assassins emerged, consistent with American and European research assessing violence toward political leaders (e.g., Fein & Vossekuil, 1999; Meloy et al., 2004; James et al., 2008). In addition, those who engaged in such extreme violence also displayed a range of mental conditions and backgrounds (James et al., 2007, 2011; Meloy et al., 2004; Scalora et al., 2002a). MacDonald also detailed a range of attacker motives, though all of the motives cited justified the attack behavior (James et al., 2009; Scalora et al., 2002a). Further, many of the motives detailed were of personal value to the perpetrator (Scalora et al., 2002a, Scalora et al., 2002b; Calhoun & Weston, 2009). MacDonald’s detailed description of various attacker motivations also relates to political violence and terrorism research as he noted political extremism as motivating some of the attacks (e.g., Borum, Fein, & Vossekuil, 2012). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mario J. Scalora, Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 238 Burnett Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0308. E-mail: mscalora1@unl.edu T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs .