Public Ethos Research Articles

“A Cognitive Listening”

This paper proposes a theory of text on-screen as “unvoiceover.” It addresses both the case for captioning as social good and the affordances (aesthetic, affective) of writing in or over the moving image. Advancing an argument informed by perspectives from d/Deaf Studies, Critical Disability Studies and Digital Interface Studies, and applying modes of analysis from literary criticism alongside those proper to the study of moving image and sound, it examines the idiosyncrasies of text-in-motion as non-sonorous, fugitive counterpart to the traditional, troublesome “voiceover.” To develop a poetics of the unsounding voice on-screen, the paper focalizes its argument through multimedia artist Liza Sylvestre’s Captioned series: a body of moving image work that is itself, paradoxically, uncaptioned. Framing Sylvestre’s lyrical “unvoiceover” as a reimagining of the lost roles of film explainers and literary intertitles, I argue that the artist’s takeover of the caption track intervenes critically in contemporary debates about the ethics of audio-visual translation, situated description and access as public ethos rather than private concern. Posing the artist’s personal-and-political writing as suggestive of a lower-case analogue to Deaf Gain, I show how Sylvestre’s “unvoiceover” educates its “receivers” in the purpose and functioning of captions. By reading Sylvestre’s writing on-screen more closely than its fugitive form seems to invite, I show how the unvoiceover encultures its own demands on its readers and elicits its own habits of reading. By scrutinizing how Sylvestre’s series makes the case for captioning, this paper makes the case for a new appraisal of the aesthetic, affective and political affordances of the unvoiceover as writing on the run.

Courts as an arena for socioenvironmental change: Lessons from the Argentine courts

AbstractTrends in the Argentine courts indicate a judicial preference towards flexibility in light of possibly serious environmental consequences, particularly in relation to mining. Through a liberal interpretation of constitutional provisions where collective environmental rights are threatened, the courts have expanded access to justice, leading some to view the Argentine judiciary as “interventionist” or “political”. However, judicial decisions emphasise compliance with constitutional mandates without necessarily encroaching on policy‐making realms. The constitutionalisation of environmental rights has had a strong influence on the judiciary's approach, but in combination with other factors, particularly civic mobilisation, institutional changes and an evolving public ethos on environmental protection. Proactive judicial engagement with the full extent of its powers to ensure that policy‐makers meet their constitutionally mandated obligations can compel policy‐makers to address sustainability issues and rethink strategies. This positioning of the judiciary as a catalyst for more effective environmental governance offers useful insights for European courts.

Commercial Gestational Surrogacy and Afrocentrism: A Determination of the Nigerian Disposition

This study surveys the disposition of Nigerians to commercial gestational surrogacy. It also examines the moral dilemma created by the fragmentation of motherhood into biological, gestational, and social motherhood that has created enormous conflicts over who should be considered a ‘mother’ and the concomitant parental rights and responsibilities for a child. The debates surrounding gestational surrogacy and its implications on existing reproductive rights raises most profound issues on the maternal roles which historically resided in one mother, and how this phenomenon can be situated within the African cultural milieu. While legislations exist in many countries on the permissibility or otherwise of commercial gestational surrogacy, there are no meaningful legislation specific to commercial gestational surrogacy in Nigeria. Therefore, the overall objective of this research is to determine the Nigerian disposition to commercial gestational surrogacy. To achieve this objective, a total sample size of two thousand (2000) questionnaires containing thirty items, aimed at capturing the subjectivity and phenomenology of this study, were randomly distributed amongst some selected Nigerians, and responses were collected and analyzed using simple percentages. Data collected indicates that 89.2% of the respondents were negatively disposed to commercial gestational surrogacy. Findings further show that gestational surrogacy presents challenges with some ethical and Afrocentric objections and unfavourable disposition. In conclusion, this study recognizes that gestational surrogacy has the potentials to adversely impact the value of human dignity and the family unit, and therefore a problem of public ethos. This study recommends that an authentic Afrocentric ethics should drive any legislation that might emanate from Nigeria concerning commercial gestational surrogacy, that Afrocentrism should be of paramount consideration in all gestational surrogacy engagements. Therefore, the Afrocentric import of gestational surrogacy should form a starting point of all engagements and actionable programmes in this novel emerging moral dilemma called “gestational surrogacy.”

Religious Freedom and the Ethos of Democracy in Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde - Discussed: Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings. By Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde. Edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 480. $65.00 (cloth); Oxford Scholarship Online by subscription (digital). ISBN: 9780198818632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198818632.001.0001.

AbstractAccording to Böckenförde’s interpretation in his famous essay “The Rise of the State as a Process of Secularization” (1967), in the formation of modern statehood religious freedom and, more generally, freedom of conscience played a central role. It was “for love of such freedom” that the modern state set inviolable limits on the exercise of its own coercive force vis-à-vis citizens relying on its protection. Nobody may be forced through the coercive tools of political power to hold true something that they do not believe. This dynamic of freedom is further taken up in Böckenförde’s analysis of church history and theological traditions, as this essay demonstrates. The conception of religious freedom as a right of the human person, contained in the Second Vatican Council declaration Dignitatis Humanae, is a real “Copernican turn.” It represents a true revolution in Catholic interpretation of democracy, public ethos, and natural law, which aims at reconciling modern freedom, democracy, and religion through a revised doctrine of the common good.

Consultancies in public administration

AbstractPublic administrations increasingly rely on consultancies to acquire policy knowledge, assess stakeholder dynamics, and evaluate governance systems. In this symposium, we explore the drivers and effects of this trend. Consultants offer advisory services, articulate governance trends, provide technical and programming expertise, as well as evaluation functions. Historically consultancies were introduced to public administrations to prevent market dominance and to respond to demands for specialized professional services. This relationship morphed into an expanded global market for a wide range of consultancy services that national and international administrations purchase. We explore how consultancies and public administrations interact through a discussion of task‐setting based on recognition of: (i) what party can make claims to support a public ethos, (ii) what forms of expertise are most relevant for solving the problem, and (iii) status in who can best tackle uncertainties.

In Lieu of an Environmental Ethic

This paper argues that a specifically environmental ethic is neither needed nor perhaps desirable for effecting the change in values for which many environmentalists have rightly called. Rather, familiar values such as beauty and excellence, and especially an outlook that regards those values as central aspects of a good life, may be all that is needed. The requisite ethic of appreciation is already embedded to some degree in a wide range of cultures, so no radical shift in values is called for, nor convergence on a tendentious moral framework. But this outlook meets with skepticism from the dominant public ethos, as embodied for instance in mainstream economics. While this paper does not offer a full-blooded defense of an aesthetic grounding for environmental concern, it does suggest that the skepticism about such a grounding is considerably overblown.

IMAGINATIVE COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITY: THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL-ENACTIVE APPROACH TO THE CO-CONSTITUTION OF PUBLIC PHENOMENA

An ever-evolving phenomenological-enactive perspective can expand our reflection on the entanglement between enactive subjects and their living ecologies. This article applies certain classical phenomenological projects and their enactive extension to public phenomena (objects, spaces, events, etc.). As an instance of the embodied cognition discourse, this research also aims to thematize the enactive, affective, and intersubjective aspects of the relation to the (urban) Lebenswelt. This may help in understanding both the potential of the phenomenological-enactive methodology and the processes of an embodied intersubjective co-constitution of a public ethos. Theoretical ideas presented in the article are illustrated with reflections on some concrete public phenomena.

В. Н. Татищев: Пролегомены исследовательской программы модернизации России XVIII века (институционально-эволюционный подход)

Introduction. V. N. Tatishchev, one of the founders of the Russian history studies, was notable for his broad views on the evolution of society and economic order. His economic views were not widely discussed during his lifetime and were not much in demand afterwards. Familiarity with his major works is hampered by the fact that they were almost never published in the form of notes, letters, and manuscripts. The ambiguity of his approaches, conclusions, recommendations and, accordingly, their evaluation was noted by many researchers who took diametrically opposed views. Deep erudition, reliance on Western European philosophy and Russian theology allowed the enlightener to create the conceptual milestones of the future institutional program. Theoretical analysis. Modernization of society should be based on constant changes in existing legislative and economic practices, ideological perceptions, and cultural patterns. This approach allows us to identify the most effective institutions (formal and informal rules), taking into account national specifics. Methodologically, the relationship between changes in public administration and social ethos “vertically and horizontally” is established; the importance of societal economic culture as a factor of sustainable development is emphasized. Empirical analysis. Considered chronologically consecutive works on purely economic topics and legal foundations of power are supported by a significant array of letters to Peter I, the Academy of Sciences, the Berg Collegium, and public figures of the first half of the 18th century. According to the thinker, economic policy, both at micro and macro levels, should be based on regulations, organizational adaptation and rational borrowing. The qualitative description of the structure of social relations of absolutist Russia, in the form of “physiology of society”, which resonates with the modern concepts in economic sociology and new institutional economic theory, is highlighted. Results. V. N. Tatishchev can reasonably be considered the conceptual forerunner of the modern theory of institutionalism. As an enlightener, in the spirit of eighteenth-century social thought, he created an introduction to the importance of permanent changes in Russian economic and social structures. The imperative of state construction of the economy at the macro level is supported by attention to micro-changes in the form of regular economic practices, combining elements of originality and creative borrowing of foreign innovations. Evolutionary approach of the thinker echoes the formation and development of economic views of the XIX and XX centuries, especially in the prerequisites of the theory of history periodization and the transition from one political order to another on the basis of changes in institutions (formal and informal rules).

Resilience and permanence of public values: an analysis of administrative contracts in Brazil

Abstract This article analyzes the resilience of the public values in the Brazilian public administration’s management models, considering the rules adopted in administrative contracts. This sociological research argues that such public values reflect society’s normative and cultural standards. The study’s theoretical relevance lies in its contribution to understanding the cultural dimension of Brazilian society, recognizing that the law reflects normative standards given the environment in which it is elaborated and enforced. In practice, the study seeks to foster the comprehension of rules, their purposes, and the public ethos that gives identity to the administration. The values attributed to the management models observed in a historical framework were dialogicity, modernization, efficiency, productivity, and professionalization. Finally, administrative contracts are technologies with characteristics of historical models of public management and represent a normative standard that needs improvements.

Public Ethos in the Pandemic Rhetorical Situation: Strategies for Building Trust in Authorities’ Risk Communication

As illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, risk and crisis communication are crucial responsibilities of modern governments. Existing research on risk and crisis communication points to the importance of trust, both as a resource in and an end goal of communicative activities. In this paper, we argue that revisiting the classical rhetorical concept of ethos in combination with the modern concept of the rhetorical situation can contribute to fitting responses in risk and crisis communication. The paper examines how appeals to ethos may build trust in health authorities’ public communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews and participant observation in public health institutions that handle the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, the paper finds that understanding the rhetorical situation of the pandemic allows for a better understanding of the available means of persuasion. For instance, through the active communication of transparency and independence when faced by uncertainty and rapidly changing information.

A culpa é da indústria concurseira?

A busca por cargos públicos no Brasil é crescente e o perfil dos ingressantes, de acordo com Castelar, Veloso, Ferreira e Soares (2010) se mostra consideravelmente homogêneo. Quanto aos motivos para ingresso, Albrecht e Krawulsky (2011) mostram que os principais são estabilidade, remuneração e carreira. Esses fatores sinalizam a existência de uma indústria concurseira, cada vez mais sólida e lucrativa, vista, frequentemente, como a principal causa de atração, para o serviço público, de profissionais que não possuem perfil adequado e não demonstram ethos público. Questiona-se: em que medida as características do atual modelo de recrutamento e seleção predominante no setor público fomentam essa indústria concurseira? O objetivo deste ensaio teórico consiste em analisar falhas do concurso público que incentivam a indústria concurseira, dando destaque para os seguintes pontos: o recrutamento e chamamento padrão de candidatos, a seleção incompleta e superficial, falhas no estágio probatório e a ausência de acompanhamento efetivo dos ingressantes.

Adapting to the political moment and diverse terrain of 'Actually Existing Municipalisms'

This article engages constructively with the 'new municipalism', while cautioning against imposing another set of top-down elite imperatives on 'left behind places'. It also points out that local does not necessarily mean progressive, citing the example of Tees Valley's Conservative mayor Ben Houchen. As an alternative, it draws upon positive experiences from the recent global remunicipalisation trend, and highlights the importance of working with 'actually existing' municipalisms on the ground, focusing in particular on Germany, where there remains a strong public ethos, and commitment to öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge - 'public (well-)being provision'. It takes Darmstadt as a specific example, and looks at its city economic strategy - Stadtwirtschaftsstrategie. It concludes that productive coalitions and new alliances for a renewed left municipalism can be built through working with continuing, new and diverse forms of municipal values and cultures, both within the UK and internationally.

Effectiveness of the Public Service Code of Ethics in Controlling Corrupt Behaviour in The Public Service: Opinion from the Grassroots at Toangoma Ward-Temeke Municipal Council

Ethical values are core elements towards efficiency and effectiveness of the public service. Tanzania adopted the public service code of ethics as a behaviour guiding tool to public servants against maladministration practices. The study intended to measure the effectiveness of the public service ethics code as a tool to promote good governance for effective delivery of public service. The study qualitatively analysed the status of how an ethics code may control corruption in the public service. The findings from Toangoma Ward in a study conducted from June to September, 2017 revealed that the principles of a public ethos are not adhered to due to the ecology of public sector that includes, under pay, weak monitoring and evaluation of performance and the culture of nepotism in the public sector. Therefore, these weaknesses have made the public service ethos to be a myth and a failure in the management and provision of social services in Tanzania. The persistence of corruption in the service sectors has continued to ruin and damage the quality of services. The study recommends that the public sector is to be overhauled in terms of promoting best practices such as good pay, meritocracy in recruitment and promotions to higher managerial positions.

Public Health Experts, Expertise, and Ebola: A Relational Theory of Ethos

Abstract The key public health officials in the United States have been criticized for their work in the Ebola outbreak of 2014–15 by citizens, public officials, and health scholars from multiple disciplines. There are numerous grounds for these complaints, but underlying many of them was the perception of “failed leadership” that is here traced in substantial part to the embodiment of a positionality based in a presumed logos-based power instead of an ethos-based relationship between public health expert and public. Because any leader’s public ethos is dependent on the cultural ethos of audiences who promote them to leadership, this essay combines the Aristotelian topoi for ethos (goodsense, goodwill, goodness) and contemporary redefinitions of ethos as cultural-level phenomena (either “dwelling places,” ideologies, or ethical and cultural codes) to conceptualize ethos as the activation, rebuilding, or maintenance of relationships among different social positions: publics and institutions. The complexities of the Ebola epidemic—with its national and international dimensions and its partially faulty scientific grounding—make visible the predisposition toward positional gaps between publics and public experts regarding interests (eunoia) and goods (arête), with concomitant difficulties for the sharing of practical wisdom (phronesis). Aristotle was correct that such gaps cannot be bridged by logos, and the pervasive insistence on more logos as corrective therefore may contribute to public mistrust of all expertise.

As Comunidades: Memória Viva das Democracias

A democracia não se mantém e não se regenera sem um ethos público amplamente partilhado que dá vida a regras e instituições no corpo de uma cultura política, dá coesão social e dá responsabilidade pessoal e coletiva. O ethos público não se mantém e não se regenera fora de tradições culturais, religiosas e axiológicas em que se transmitem e se reproduzem códigos simbólicos e identitários eficazes a nível individual e coletivo. As tradições não se mantêm e não se regeneram apenas em termos de processamento individual, precisando de comunidades de práticas, – epistémicas, de valores, de crença - para se instalar socialmente. A tensão entre o pluralismo axiológico e cultural de que as comunidades são portadoras e a convergência num ethos comum, necessária à democracia, é discutida neste artigo à luz da força universalizadora do princípio de inclusão, como critério de legitimação da pertença comunitária, que filtra normativamente critérios axiológicos inerentes às tradições, incompatíveis com a função social de inclusão. Com o princípio de inclusão, como expressão comunitária da noção fundadora da dignidade humana que complementa a sua formulação no plano individual, temos uma categoria básica adicional de articulação da diferença e a necessária interação entre critérios de legitimidade definidos pela comunidade política (as leis) e os critérios de legitimidade definidos pelas comunidades religiosas, epistémicas, valoriais. Na peça de Sófocles, Antígona, encontramos um testemunho tão antigo quão atual do necessário mútuo reconhecimento entre estas duas ordens de legitimidade, cuja contraposição leva à tragédia da pública desordem ética e à crise da democracia

Part II: Psychiatrists as Healers, Teachers, Leaders, and Influencers

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article From The PresidentFull AccessPart II: Psychiatrists as Healers, Teachers, Leaders, and InfluencersAltha Stewart, M.D.Altha Stewart, M.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:9 Nov 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.11b8In the last issue, I introduced you to my young colleague, Dr. Vasilis Pozios, who joins me again in this issue to continue the discussion of psychiatrists as more than healers and educators—we must also be “influencers” if we are to fully realize the “stigma-free and care-accessible” world that we envision and advocate for. Essential to being a psychiatric influencer is the ability to effectively communicate so that public perceptions of psychiatry and people with mental illnesses evolve in a positive direction.Anthropologist Edward T. Hall wrote, “Culture is communication and communication is culture.” Culture—especially popular culture—is mediated more than ever by the entertainment industry, news media, and social media. Eliminating mental health stigma and raising the profile of organized psychiatry can occur only if psychiatrists engage in popular culture and directly interface with the entertainment industry, news media, and social media. However, how do we psychiatrists accomplish this goal, which is for many of us very far removed from our training foundation? Dr. Pozios recommends that, as a start, we create a multi-step action plan to begin making this significant paradigm shift in the profession’s approach to becoming “influencers”:Work for the removal of barriers that prevent psychiatrists from more effectively interfacing with the entertainment industry, news media, and social media: Broadly, these barriers include apprehension due to inadequate media-related skills and training, failure to recognize the importance of working with the media, and prejudice of proposed efforts due to some unprofessional “talking heads” who are currently in the media. This article is part of that effort. The APA Annual Meeting and other academic conferences can play a significant role in moving the needle in this area by including media-related topics in continuing education programs. APA publications, including journals and textbooks, should likewise prioritize such topics.Interact directly with the news media and entertainment industry: We need to create curricula and workshops to proactively educate journalists, writers, producers, and directors about the portrayal of matters related to mental health that are accurate and less stigmatizing. To do so, APA should not hesitate to utilize the services of members who have expertise in this area. Use APA’s high-profile power and its resources: The unparalleled depth and breadth of experience of our membership positions APA to become the leader in the mental health and media area. Our 38,000 members should feel capable and equipped to work in this space, educating the media and the community if they so choose.Encourage collaboration and reinforcement of the above with subspecialty psychiatry and key stakeholder organizations: These include patient advocacy organizations and relevant corporate sponsors to further extend and reinforce our efforts.Consider funding fellowships to embed residents, fellows, and early career psychiatrists in the entertainment industry and news media: The resulting relationships will foster an ongoing collaboration between APA and media and entertainment outlets.Some might say these objectives are beyond APA’s scope; however, as discussed in the last issue, APA’s ethical principles remind us of our responsibility to advance mental health through education of the public. And it is in large part the media that drives the public’s perception of mental illness and psychiatrists. Being active at this interface will allow us to reduce stigma and influence legislative policy, funding, judicial actions, and the general public ethos surrounding mental illness and mental health.As psychiatrists, we cannot remain insular and inward looking if we want to be influencers and in the forefront of the public’s mind on matters related to mental illness and its treatment. Let’s begin to face outward for the overall good of society, our patients, and the profession! ■I wish to thank Dr. Pozios for his assistance in preparing this article. He is a forensic psychiatrist with Corizon Health in Ann Arbor, Mich.; a co-founder of Broadcast Thought, where he provides expert consultation to the entertainment industry on mental health issues; and a member of APA’s Council on Communications. ISSUES NewArchived

Working-Class Culture as Political Participation: Reading Trump as Revolt Against a Middle-Class Public Sphere

The 2016 election cycle and ensuing presidency of Donald Trump has been attributed in large part to his support among working-class whites (Gest 2016, p. 193; Tyson and Maniam 2016). Their reasons for support, however, are open to interpretation. This article will suggest that elements of Donald Trump’s public communication style and ethos align with elements of working-class culture, language use, and knowledge construction. Trump’s anti-institutional, anti-government rhetoric reifies these components of working-class culture because of institutions’ and government’s deep foundations in middle-class culture, language use, and knowledge construction—and the working-class’s, especially the white working-class’s, alienation from these institutions, with the result being anger or apathy (Lareau 2003; Jensen 2012; Gest 2016). These values are often embedded in a master narrative that defines white working-class life as one of victimization (Hochschild 2016; Gest 2016; Cramer 2016). The article next suggests that Trump’s oft-used rhetorical framework of not just immigrants as threat, but of immigrants as protected and valued by institutions that overlook white workingclass concerns (Gest 2016), opens up one possible persuasive framework to legitimate Trump’s xenophobia and racism through white working-class attitudes.

Small acts and personal politics: On helping to save the orangutan via social media

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest among political and media analysts in the value and utility of online activism. This article seeks to shed new light on this debate by thinking through popular responses to orangutan causes on social media. Rather than focusing on the (in)efficacy of such responses, the author describes a pervasive, public ethos of small acts – one built around the interactive affordances of social media – that frames self‐consciously ordinary, non‐professional supporters’ efforts to help save the orangutan. She suggests that taking these activities seriously as projects of ‘helping’ and doing ‘good’ can also push the anthropology of social media beyond its current focus on ‘activism’ towards a more nuanced appreciation of the different shades and scales of ‘acting’ online.

Conversation Analysis at the fair

The authors of the ‘Conversational Rollercoaster’ article give a vivid and engaging account of a difficult but worthwhile exercise: bringing live Conversation Analysis (CA) to the public in a Science Fair. Part of their motivation is a claim that CA is uniquely qualified for such exhibition: as a mode of enquiry, it has what they call a ‘public ethos’. I examine that part of their case and suggest that it might not be as waterproof as it appears. But, such qualms ought not detract from the positive benefits of sharing CA’s attractions with the public. The manifest success of the event, and its grounding in solid CA practice, is enough reason to hope that others will be inspired to follow in these pioneers’ footsteps.

The conversational rollercoaster: Conversation analysis and the public science of talk

How does talk work, and can we engage the public in a dialogue about the scientific study of talk? This article presents a history, critical evaluation and empirical illustration of the public science of talk. We chart the public ethos of conversation analysis that treats talk as an inherently public phenomenon and its transcribed recordings as public data. We examine the inherent contradictions that conversation analysis is simultaneously obscure yet highly cited; it studies an object that people understand intuitively, yet routinely produces counter-intuitive findings about talk. We describe a novel methodology for engaging the public in a science exhibition event and show how our ‘conversational rollercoaster’ used live recording, transcription and public-led analysis to address the challenge of demonstrating how talk can become an informative object of scientific research. We conclude by encouraging researchers not only to engage in a public dialogue but also to find ways to actively engage people in taking a scientific approach to talk as a pervasive, structural feature of their everyday lives.