Prescriptive Norms Research Articles

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

Creating the Conditions for Intergenerational Justice: Social Capital and Compliance

The production function socialization trend of rural housing land and its response to rural land planning in metropolitan suburbs from the perspective of rural space commodification

An investigation of the changing production function of rural housing land can help to guide appropriate land use adjustment and rural land planning. Taking into account the layout characteristics from 2005 to 2018, we employed the structural equation model and the theory of planned behavior to analyze the differentiation mechanism of rural housing land production function based on survey data of 613 typical farmers in Pinggu District of Beijing. Our results show that, first, the production function intensity of rural housing land in Pinggu District fell from 0.327 to 0.126, and the coefficient of variation increased from 0.15 to 0.54. This indicates that the overall production function decreased but the spatial heterogeneity increased. Second, the production function of rural housing land gradually withdrew and socialized in villages, following the socialization evolution process of agricultural production function, industrial and commercial service function, and public service function. Third, the internal land use pattern of rural housing land is significantly influenced by the subjective norms and perceptual behavior control of farmers. The demonstrative norms of family and the prescriptive norms of village collective have significant effects on subjective norms, and the perceived behavioral control is significantly affected by income scale and structure, family size, and employment type. Finally, to further promote rural housing land management, it is necessary to optimize its prescriptive norms of the village collective, improve the farmers’ income level and employment structure, and weaken the farmers’ perceived difficulties. According to the different function socialization stages of rural housing land, rural land planning should coordinate the relationship between the production function socialization of rural housing land and the commercialization of rural space, and boost the revitalization of rural industry.

Synthesis and Properties of Optimally Value-Aligned Normative Systems

The value alignment problem is concerned with the design of systems that provably abide by our human values. One approach to this challenge is through the leverage of prescriptive norms that, if carefully designed, are able to steer a multiagent system away from harmful outcomes and towards more beneficial ones. In this work, we first present a general methodology for the automated synthesis of value aligned normative systems, based on a consequentialist view of values. In the second part, we provide analytical tools to examine such value aligned normative systems, namely the Shapley value of individual norms and the compatibility of several values under a fixed set of norms. We illustrate all of our contributions with a running example of a society of agents where taxes are collected and redistributed according to a set of parametrised norms.

Negotiating social meanings in a plural society: Social perceptions of variants of /l/ in Singapore English

AbstractThis study illustrates how speech features that emerged from language contact and acquisition in a pluralistic society can accrue diverse social-indexical meanings over time. The social perceptions towards three variants of coda /l/ in Singapore English—namely dark-l, the variant associated with prescriptive norms, and clear-l and vocalised-l, which are variants that arose through language contact—are examined. The findings show that clear-l and vocalised-l are associated with specific ethnic groups and have equally diverse meanings, but their meanings have evolved differently; vocalised-l is an emerging local standard, whereas clear-l remains largely stigmatised. Their diverse meanings are shown to be connected by social factors within a network of interrelated signs, and their interpretations are dependent on the hearer's experiences, such that we are observing different parts of the sociolinguistic reality. Restricted experiences with the social world and regulation of social perception are also shown to potentially contribute to accent-based prejudices. (Indexicality, language contact, ethnolect, lateral consonant, new Englishes, social perception)*

Gender neutral and non-binary language practices in the Spanish language classroom: Tensions between disciplinary and societal changes

This paper is motivated by growing, inexorable tensions between societal impetus to advance inclusive (non-binary) linguistic change across many Spanish-speaking communities, and the seemingly removed reality of the Spanish as a world language classroom. As a first step in reconciling these tensions and breaking free from apparent disciplinary inertia, we set out to map out extant scholarly literature around these complex matters. This critical appraisal inspired by and rhizomatically anchored in queer and decolonial theories and guided by the urgent need for radical (re)alignment of our language teaching praxis to advocate for diversity and inclusion beyond violently oppressive, colonial, cis-heteropatriarchal norms. We begin by tracing the genealogy of inclusive language change in Spanish, and various attempts across Spanish-speaking communities to broaden understandings of grammatical gender in ways that reflect inclusion of gender-diverse and gender nonconforming people. We then explore these linguistic changes in relation to the views of scholars and governing institutions, who may be seen as custodians of the language’s standardisation, stability, and correctness. In so doing, we consider critically the traditional reliance of the (Spanish) language teaching field on prescriptive norms that may ultimately impair teachers’ agentic responses to the realities of the classroom. Finally, we consider extant research across a variety of language teaching contexts and how this growing body of work may help inform renewed pedagogical praxis in the Spanish language classroom. We conclude by posing reflexive questions which we hope may prompt deeper, generative conversations around these matters.

A wolf in (black) sheep’s clothing? Subjective group dynamics in sports fans

ABSTRACT Extant research has characterised various group behaviours through the lens of the theory of subjective group dynamics, which describes how ingroup members’ deviation from the group’s prescriptive norms can impact other members’ perceptions of the group and its members. Deviations from ingroup norms may result in the black sheep effect, which refers to the tendency for individuals to actively judge deviant ingroup members more harshly than similar behaving outgroup members. In this study, we examined the black sheep effect in the context of sports fans’ judgments about athletic performance. When athletes violate sports fans’ prescriptive team norms by performing poorly, these fans may derogate such athletes. Subjective group dynamics in sports contexts has been understudied, and findings for the black sheep effect have been mixed. Thus, we empirically tested for these phenomena in two experiments using fictitious cases of ingroup and outgroup athlete performances. In line with predictions from subjective group dynamics, we found a lack of ingroup bias on perceived competence and increased identity threat following poor performance, with team identification moderating such outcomes in Study 1. Although the presence of the black sheep effect was not confirmed in Study 2, our second experiment offers evidence to suggest that fans may equate poor-performing, ingroup athletes with similar outgroup players. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

English negation from an interactional perspective

This paper discusses the use of never as a strategy for expressing negation in English. I will argue that it is an important strategy, but that its importance has been overlooked because of the convention in linguistics of analysing forms in isolated sentences rather than in the conversational contexts in which they occur. This practice forces us to rely on our intuitions about the role of a given form in the structure of a language, so that we risk unwittingly describing the prescriptive norm concerning its use rather than the way in which it fits into the syntactic structure of the language.

Theory of Mind as a Correlate of Bystanders' Reasoning About Intergroup Bullying of Syrian Refugee Youth.

The current study examined how ingroup and outgroup Theory of Mind (ToM) predicts children’s and adolescents’ reasoning for their acceptability judgments of intergroup bullying of Syrian refugee peers and group support of intergroup bullying. Participants included 587 Turkish middle (n = 372, Mage = 12.19, SD = 1.01; 208 girls) and high school (n = 215, Mage = 14.81, SD = 0.97; 142 girls) students. Participants read a bias-based bullying story with a Syrian refugee peer targeted by an ingroup Turkish peer. Then, participants rated the acceptability of bullying and group support of bullying and were presented with a reasoning question (Why?) after each acceptability question (bullying and group support of bullying). Reasoning codes included Fairness, Refugee Status/War, Prejudice and Discrimination, Harm, Prescriptive Norms, Group Functioning, and Relationship with the Bully. Participants’ ingroup and outgroup ToM abilities (measured using the Strange Stories) were evaluated as predictors of reasoning. Results documented that middle school students were more likely to attribute mental states to their ingroup members compared to outgroup members while high school students’ ToM performance did not differ across contexts. Further, the more unacceptable participants judged bullying to be, the more they reasoned about the bullying by referencing fairness, refugee status, discrimination, and harm. Results also documented that ingroup and outgroup ToM were positively related to attribution to fairness and participants’ usage of multiple reasoning judgments while only outgroup ToM was a significant predictor of reasoning around refugee status/war, discrimination, and prejudice. The findings provide implications for intervention programs that tackle intergroup bullying by examining bystanders’ social cognitive skills in a specific context.

R2P and Counter-terrorism: Where Sovereignties Collide

Abstract States play the lead role in implementing the norms of the international system. They interpret norms through the lens of their sovereignty, refining and revising them until they are suitable to local interests and context. The complex nature of sovereignty and its diverse manifestations across states means that norms will be interpreted and implemented in different ways. This article argues that R2P and counter-terrorism are complex norm regimes which are susceptible to modification as they are interpreted through diverse conceptions of state sovereignty. Using the cases of China’s response to the Uyghurs and Sri Lanka’s response to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, this article shows that the malleable prescriptive norms of R2P and counter-terrorism can be reinterpreted by states in ways contingent on their sovereignty that deeply impact, and may even violate, the original intent of the norm.

Gnostic Disagreement Norms

Our main question in this paper is as follow: (Q) What are the epistemic norms governing our responses in the face of disagreement? In order to answer it, we begin with some clarification. First, following McHugh (2012), if we employ a useful distinction in normativity theory between evaluative and prescriptive norms, there are two readings of (Q)––we explore such distinction in section 2. And secondly, we accept gnosticism, that is, the account that the fundamental epistemic good is knowledge. It is with this assumption that we want to answer (Q). So, if gnosticism is true, what is the plausible answer to (Q)? In section 3 we argue for gnostic disagreement norms as response to (Q) and in section 4 we apply such norms to particular cases of disagreement.

Phonological variation on Twitter: Evidence from letter repetition in three French dialects

AbstractWriting on social media often departs from prescriptive norms through the use of non-standard words, spellings and punctuation. Amongst these traits is the repetition of letters (e.g. <ouiiiii> for oui ‘yes’). In this study, we draw upon a corpus of over 65 million tweets from three dialects of French (Laurentian, Metropolitan and Midi) to test phonological motivations for the choice of repeated letter in a word with repetition. Using mixed-effects multinomial regression, we compare dialectal differences in whether repetition targets final consonants (silent or pronounced), word-final orthographic <e> corresponding to phonological schwa, and prosodically accented penults. We demonstrate that repetition covertly signals phonological properties. We conclude that prosody mediates morphological and phonological effects and that grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences vary between regions, thereby producing phonological patterns that writers likely did not intend to convey at the time of writing. We also propose that orthographic repetition on Twitter has two prosodic sources: the default pitch accent in French (shifted or not) and focus.

Constitutive rules of precedent

The purpose of this paper is to reject the thesis that a system of precedent is established with a prescriptive norm. This claim is supported by two lines of reasoning. First, it is claimed that systems of precedent necessarily require constitutive norms and not prescriptive norms. Second, any system of precedent comprises at least two, if not three, constitutive rules of precedent. While one confers the power to set a precedent, another conditions the validity of a judicial decision to the fact that it follows the precedent. Finally, there may also be a third rule that confers the power to ensure that precedent is followed and to annul divergent decisions.

Closest conjunct agreement with attributive adjectives

AbstractContrary to most French grammars claiming that French only allows masculine agreement when mixed-gender nouns are conjoined, we show that closest conjunct agreement (CCA) does exist in contemporary French, as in other Romance languages, and is the preferred strategy for prenominal adjectives. Using data from a large corpus (FrWac) and an acceptability rating experiment, we show that (feminine) CCA is well accepted in contemporary French, and should be distinguished from attraction errors, despite the norm prescribing masculine agreement. We also show the role of the adjective position, i.e. prenominal or post-nominal, and humanness. CCA is the preferred strategy for prenominal adjectives, and non-human nouns favour CCA for post-nominal adjectives. Assuming a hierarchical structure for coordination, the closest noun is the highest in A-N order, whereas it is the lowest in N-A order. Thus CCA in prenominal position may be favoured by a shorter structural distance. One can also see CCA with a prenominal adjective as ‘early’ agreement. Regarding humanness, grammatical gender is interpreted as social gender with human nouns, and a masculine plural can refer to a mixed group. This ‘gender neutral’ plural may favour masculine agreement for human nouns, or the prescriptive norm is more influential for human nouns.

Differential impact of prescriptive norms in the intergenerational transmission of environmental concern in a non‐Western context: Evidence from the Philippines

Despite the global nature of environmental problems and the known cultural differences in parenting practises, there is a dearth of studies that have examined the intergenerational transmission of environmental concern in non‐Western contexts. This study investigated the interplay of prescriptive norms and interdependent self‐construal in the transmission of environmental concern among 449 parent–adolescent dyads in the Philippines. The results demonstrated that the transmission of environmental concern from parents to their adolescent children was strong across the different levels of prescriptive norms, but the transmission was more pronounced among adolescents with high levels of interdependent self‐construal. The findings also showed that intergenerational transmission of environmental concern weakens at the moderate level of prescriptive norms, and even diminishes at high levels of prescriptive norms among adolescents with moderate and low interdependent self‐construal, respectively. Implications for research, parenting, education, and national campaigns and policies for environmental sustainability are discussed.

Efforts to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons: from persistent crisis to norm failure?

More than 20 years since its negotiation in 2001, the UN Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UNPoA) is failing to fulfill the expectations of states and civil society alike. Considering the absolute numbers of military and civilian possession, the aim of tackling the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in “all its aspects” is currently likely to fail. Studies show that civilian ownership has increased dramatically since 2006. The estimated stocks of SALW in sub-Saharan Africa are 11 million state-owned SALW and 40 million SALW in the hands of civilians. Legal arms exports between states remain another source. This article seeks to identify the different facets of the continuous crisis of SALW control by relying on a global governance perspective as well as on norm research in international relations. The sources of illicit SALW proliferation are manifold and often exceed the capabilities of arms control and disarmament. The present article focuses on the external and internal dimensions for the crisis of illicit SALW proliferation. However, when looking at the internal dimension of the SALW crisis, the UNPoA itself is also partly to blame for the inadequate and ineffective arms control and disarmament efforts. This gloomy picture is exacerbated by statistics indicating that the numbers of newly manufactured SALW are still growing more rapidly than worldwide disarmament efforts. It is more important than ever to ensure that prescriptive norms are translated into everyday practical political and social realities to meet the needs of people struggling with the dire consequences of illicit SALW proliferation.

Counter-narrating: Re-constructing “Sita” in Amish's Sita: Warrior of Mithila

Counter-narration re-casts existing narratives and foregrounds the marginalised by giving them agency and performativity. They are narratives that challenge and provide resistance against dominant and hegemonic grand narratives which have been instrumental in formulating a social ideology over a long period of time making them normative. The Ramayana, an ancient epic is a multi-layered story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita and their role in the politics of power, state and patriarchy. It is a grand or master narrative that presupposes the passivity of the female as normative. It portrays Sita, King Rama’s wife, as someone who experiences marginalization and oppression and is a victim of the dominant narrative of patriarchy. This paper will use the theory of counternarrative and analyse Amish Tripathi’s novel Sita: Warrior of Mithila (2017) in order to show how he has recast Sita deconstructing the myth of passivity. Here, Sita resists prescriptive norms of the dominant narrative, wherein she has been projected as the silent receptor and problematizes the patriarchal ideology propagated through the master narrative. This paper will show how counter storytelling or counter narrating by Amish Tripathi has challenged and defied the narrative silence and hegemony in The Ramayana, while making the female powerful and capable in education, warfare and state governance.

Claiming chaos narrative, emerging from silence

In The Wounded Storyteller, Arthur Frank proposed three types of narrative told by people attempting to reclaim their voice and the body made alien by illness. In restitution narrative the medical community is presented as having agency. In quest narrative, the person experiencing the disease or illness has agency, and they are saddled with the imperative to inspire others. The third type, the chaos narrative, is rarely encountered by audiences because the chaos narrative is usually erased. The individual living with chronic physical or mental illness or a disability, who cannot be stoic and turn their story into a quest narrative, is rendered mute. Their stories have largely been controlled by external agents. Failure to meet normate expectations has meant rejection. How prescriptive norms arose that delegitimatized the authority of chaos narrative must be understood if authentic chaos narrative is to be spoken and written. Points of interest People living with chronic illnesses and disabilities are often prevented from telling their stories as they don’t have happy endings or end with triumph. Their stories often don’t fit the traditional Western storytelling format that has a clear resolution, but rather speaks to ongoing challenges continually lived in the present. Society, publishing and media outlets create forces that often both shape the narratives people tell and determine what kind of stories reach audiences. There is a need to allow more venues for allowing stories about ongoing struggles that do not resolve rather than to silence these narratives because they don’t fit our learned, preferred tastes.

An extension of the theory of planned behaviour in predicting intention to reduce plastic use in the Philippines: Cross‐sectional and experimental evidence

The Philippines is the third‐largest contributor to plastic waste, which is an urgent global problem that cannot be addressed without individual and collective behaviour changes. In two studies, the present research examined the antecedents of intention to reduce plastic use in the Philippines. Using a cross‐sectional online survey, Study 1 (N = 245) investigated the influence of attitudes, perceived behavioural control, two types of norms (descriptive and prescriptive norms), gender, and the interaction effect between descriptive norms and gender on Filipinos’ intention to reduce plastic use. Latent variable path analysis revealed that attitudes, perceived behavioural control, prescriptive norms, but not descriptive norms, and gender (and their interaction), significantly predicted plastic reduction intention. Explicating the non‐significant prediction of descriptive norms and gender in Study 1, a 2 (low descriptive versus high descriptive norms) × 2 (males versus females) between‐subjects experiment was conducted in Study 2 (N = 280) to investigate the interaction between descriptive norms and gender on intention to reduce plastic use. Results revealed a significant interaction effect, with descriptive norms fostering intention to reduce plastic use among males, but not among females. Implications for policies towards environmental sustainability in non‐Western countries are discussed.

Refusing to be silenced: Claiming chaos narrative

AbstractIn theWounded Storyteller, Arthur Frank proposed three types of narrative told by people attempting to reclaim their voice and the body made alien by illness – restitution, quest, and chaos. Restitution narrative has dominated media; in it, the patient simply experiences the disease and is presented passively, and the medical community is presented as having agency. In quest narrative, the experiencer becomes their own hero; their suffering brings knowledge which is then shared with the audience who bears witness and is charged with learning the lesson the experience conveys. In quest narrative, while speakers have agency that they are often robbed of in the restitution narrative, they are saddled with the imperative to inspire others. This makes the narrator a hero, but we need to ask, where does the imperative come from that demands that the narrator become a hero and an example for others? If that imperative comes from the audience and market demands, we need to recognize how they are dictating the manner in which stories are told, determining which are selected by publishers and media venues to be disseminated. The third type, the chaos narrative, is rarely encountered by audiences because the chaos narrative is usually erased. This “anti-narrative” can only be lived and cannot be told. The individual living with chronic physical or mental illness or a disability, who cannot be stoic and turn their story into a quest narrative, is rendered mute. Since restitution narrative is also unavailable to these individuals, their stories are left unspoken or unwritten. Their stories have largely been controlled by external agents. Failure to meet normate expectations has meant rejection. How prescriptive norms arose that delegitimatized the authority of chaos narrative must be understood if authentic chaos narrative is to be spoken and written.

The structure of logical, prescriptive and specialized legal norms

The subject of this article is the norms of contemporary Russian law. The purpose of the article is the author's vision of the problem concerning the structure of the norms of contemporary Russian law. The following tasks were solved to achieve this goal: 1) to show the importance of the structure of the rule of law; 2) to analyze the arguments of both supporters and opponents of the three-tier structure of the logical rule of law; 3) substantiate the two-tier structure of prescriptive norms; 4) determine the status of specialized legal norms and their types; 5) to substantiate the author's vision of specialized legal norms.The author uses a system of methods such as: general philosophical (dialectical-materialistic), general scientific (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, etc.), special (philological, etc.), private scientific (formal-dogmatic, interpretation, etc.) methods. Conclusions. The author is not a supporter of the three-tier structure of the logical norm of law. It seems that theory and legal practice should focus on the structure of norms-prescriptions (regulatory and protective), respectively highlighting the hypothesis and disposition and the hypothesis and sanction. As for the specialized norms of law (declarative, norm-principles, definitive, operational), they include such structural components as a supposed hypothesis and a real disposition. Conflict norms as a kind of specialized norms include a real hypothesis and a real disposition.