Realism In Context Research Articles

Computer-assisted management training for emergency response professionals in challenging environments

Coordinating complex crisis responses generally requires comprehensive skills. When operating in the High Arctic, extreme environments make this task even more challenging. Training for these situations is thus of utmost importance, but such training requires extensive resources for full-scale exercises. Simulation is an alternative that can yield an effective learning process and learning outcomes. In this study, we explored how simulator-based accident training in high-risk, highly sensitive environments can be optimised. To do this, Exercise Isfjord was designed for students in the master’s Preparedness and Emergency Management programme at NORDLAB at Nord University. This exercise involved a grounded cruise ship from which passengers needed to be evacuated, in addition to a severe oil spill. Interviews with students, mentors, facilitators, and academic staff were conducted, and thematic analysis was used for analysing the data. Our findings indicate that a pedagogical wheel consisting of the six factors preparations, psychological safety, mentors, learning objectives, context realism, and evaluations promotes an optimal learning process in simulated-accident exercises in high-risk and highly sensitive environments. Thus, we recommend tailor-made simulated exercises for crisis management and emergency preparedness.

Ethical Issues with Simulating the Bridge Problem in VR.

We aim to generate a dilemma for virtual reality-based research that we motivate through an extended case study of Thomson's (Yale Law J 94(6):1395-1415, 1985) Bridge variant of the trolley problem. Though the problem we generate applies more broadly than the Bridge problem, we believe it makes a good exemplar of the kind of case we believe is problematic. First, we argue that simulations of these thought experiments run into a practicality horn that makes it practically impossible to produce them. These problems revolve around concepts that we call "perspectival fidelity" and "context realism." Moral dilemmas that include features present in the Bridge variant will, as a result, be practically impossible to simulate. We also argue that, should we be wrong about the practical impossibility of creating a VR simulation of Bridge, such a simulation must face an ethical horn which renders these simulations ethically impermissible to develop or use. For these reasons, we argue that it is virtually impossible to simulate the bridge problem (and other thought experiments with similar features) both practically and ethically in VR.

Real moral problems in the use of virtual reality

In this paper, we argue that, under a specific set of circumstances, designing and employing certain kinds of virtual reality (VR) experiences can be unethical. After a general discussion of simulations and their ethical context, we begin our argument by distinguishing between the experiences generated by different media (text, film, computer game simulation, and VR simulation), and argue that VR experiences offer an unprecedented degree of what we call “perspectival fidelity” that prior modes of simulation lack. Additionally, we argue that when VR experiences couple this perspectival fidelity with what we call “context realism,” VR experiences have the ability to produce “virtually real experiences.” We claim that virtually real experiences generate ethical issues for VR technologies that are unique to the medium. Because subjects of these experiences treat them as if they were real, a higher degree of ethical scrutiny should be applied to any VR scenario with the potential to generate virtually real experiences. To mitigate this unique moral hazard, we propose and defend what we call “The Equivalence Principle.” This principle states that “if it would be wrong to allow subjects to have a certain experience in reality, then it would be wrong to allow subjects to have that experience in a virtually real setting.” We argue that such a principle, although limited in scope, should be part of the risk analysis conducted by any Institutional Review Boards, psychologists, empirically oriented philosophers, or game designers who are using VR technology in their work.

Designing Entrepreneurship Experiments

This article discusses the current and potential application of experimental methods to the study of entrepreneurship phenomena. Drawing on a review of experimental studies in entrepreneurship research, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of experimental research designs for entrepreneurship research as a primer for those interested but not overly familiar with these methods. To advance research agendas and theory in the field, we introduce a typology of experimental manipulations that highlight alternative design choices based on the nature of their participant impact and realism of context. Finally, we provide an overview of areas of opportunity within the entrepreneurship literature for application of methods best suited to provide greater insight into the causal mechanisms at play.

A Response to Porter and Pitts’ ‘Wright’s Critical Realism in Context’

In The Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 13 (2015) Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts contributed an article in which they sought to situate N.T. Wright’s critical realism in its philosophical context. Although they correctly identify the philosophical context for this critical realism as the work of Bernard Lonergan, particularly as mediated for New Testament studies by Ben F. Meyer, this response will argue that they fail to adequately address the Lonerganian context. Reasons will be identified for this failure. An effort to better, albeit succinctly, present the rudiments of Lonergan’s critical realism will round out the article.

Rethinking board diversity with the behavioural theory of corporate governance: opportunities and challenges for advances in theorising

In this study, a cross-theoretical hybridization between diversity archetypes and the behavioural theory of corporate governance is proposed. Within an integrative theoretical framework, I discuss three variants of the board’s social setting: diversity as variety; separation; and disparity. Their influence on the mechanisms of the socially-situated and socially-constituted agency, and in consequence the socially-constructed boardroom reality, is considered. The model stipulates what kind of impact individual agency perception, associated with each diversity archetype, can be expected to have on board task effectiveness (monitoring/control, resource-provision, and strategy-making/consulting). There are altogether six theoretical propositions made in this paper. The study represents an application of the behavioural theory of corporate governance in the theory-building paper. I utilise the notion of diversity and the theory of subgroups from existing group effectiveness literature. The proposed theoretical framework strongly benefits from recent taxonomically-systematizing efforts in the area of diversity research. The proposed model also allows for due consideration of behavioural patterns in the boardroom. This framework scores high on its generalisability to a wider population and realism of context, but low on its precision of measurement. A discussion of the model’s limitations unfolds in the wider context of the challenges and paradoxes/conundrums with which the community of corporate governance scholars is invariably confronted. The model suffers from a limited translatability of findings into actionable managerial implications and recommendations of the regulator, as expressed in corporate governance codes.

From social constructivist epistemology to context realism

ABSTRACTNumerous important concepts we use in policy studies lack material being, including collective will, altruism, passion, experience, and social structure. Lack of materiality has not prevented social constructivists, especially feminists and phenomenologists, from making significant intellectual contributions using such concepts. But in this article I envisage that, after the linguistic turn, we could do better by now turning to context realism as informed by quantum theory. Having appreciated Ludwig Wittgenstein’s linguistic, social-constructivist epistemology that brings attention to conventions and context, I turn to Alexander Wendt’s attempt to make quantum theory relevant to the social sciences. I speculate that the quantum wave function accommodates subjective and collective consciousness as part of physical reality, and thus affords reality status to many concepts and dynamics that lack materiality but are nonetheless important in scholarly research.

Realism in Context: The Examples of Lifeworld and Quantum Physics

Realism in Context: The Examples of Lifeworld and Quantum Physics Lifeworld realism and quantum-physical realism are taken as experience-dependent conceptions of the world that become objects of explicit reflection when confronted with context-external discourses. After a brief sketch of the two contexts of experience—lifeworld and quantum physics—and their realist interpretations, I will discuss the quantum world from the perspective of lifeworld realism. From this perspective, the quantum world—roughly speaking—has to be either unreal or else constitute a different reality. Then, I invert the perspective and examine the lifeworld from the standpoint of quantumphysical realism. This conception of the lifeworld has gained momentum from new research results in recent decades. Despite its experiential basis, quantum-physical realism bears an ambiguity akin to that of lifeworld realism. While the perspectival inversion serves to highlight the problem, it also contributes to an improved understanding of lifeworld-realism.

The Need of Social Statistics as an Aid to the Courts

Next article FreeThe Need of Social Statistics as an Aid to the CourtsWalter F. WillcoxWalter F. Willcox Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 18, Number 5Mar., 1913 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/212136 Views: 25Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Brian Z. Tamanaha Legal Realism in Context, (Feb 2016): 147–168.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107762336.008Julius Stone Law and Society in the Age of Roscoe Pound: A Memorial, Israel Law Review 1, no.11 (Feb 2016): 173–221.https://doi.org/10.1017/S002122370001373X