Recent Criticism Research Articles

On the relentless labour of deconstructing domination logics: The case of decolonial critical accounting research in South America

Eight years after the publication of our article on participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, this reflexive commentary responds to a recent critique by M. Gómez-Villegas and C. Larrinaga, which claims our study is characterized by a colonial and Anglo-Euro-centric bias, as is found in other critical accounting research. While the two authors criticize our use of a Bourdieusian framework to investigate a technology, participatory budgeting, born and implemented in a region of the Global South, we point to the relevance of using Bourdieu’s critical sociology to think of emancipation, even more so as European thinking is constitutive of Latin American thinking. We extend some of Gómez-Villegas and Larrinaga’s comments to question more broadly the conditions under which critical accounting research and research at large are being produced. Welcoming the diffusion of decolonial perspectives in critical accounting research, we lastly invite all critical researchers to remain alert to the pervasiveness and relentless renewal of capitalist, colonial, and masculine domination logics – including in decolonial research itself.

No significant effect of mortality salience on unconscious ethnic bias among the Japanese

ObjectiveTerror management theory posits that when mortality is salient, individuals attempt to defend their cultural worldviews. Although numerous studies have confirmed this hypothesis, some recent studies have suggested that East Asians do not engage in worldview defense. We conducted a pre-registered experiment with 895 Japanese adults to investigate whether they exhibited worldview defense at an unconscious level. Participants performed the Implicit Association Test using Japanese and Korean surnames as stimuli after being primed with thoughts about mortality.ResultsThe results revealed that mortality salience had no influence on implicit ethnic bias. These findings support the notion that East Asians do not engage in worldview defense, in accord with recent criticism of the validity of terror management theory. We discuss the limitations and implications of our findings.

The need for robust critique of arts and health research: Dance-movement therapy, girls, and depression.

We examine a highly cited randomized controlled trial on dance-movement therapy with adolescent girls with mild depression and examine its treatment in 14 evidence reviews and meta-analyses of dance research. We demonstrate substantial limitations in the trial which seriously undermine the conclusions reached regarding the effectiveness of dance movement therapy in reducing depression. We also show that the dance research reviews vary substantially in their treatment of the study. Some reviews provide a positive assessment of the study and take its findings at face value without critical commentary. Others are critical of the study, identifying significant limitations, but showing marked differences in Cochrane Risk of Bias assessments. Drawing on recent criticisms of systematic reviewing and meta-analysis, we consider how reviews can be so variable and discuss what is needed to improve the quality of primary studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses in the field of creative arts and health.

From treatment of mental disorders to the treatment of difficult life situations: A hypothesis and rationale

The group-level symptom-reduction model of mental health care emphasizes predetermined treatment guidelines for those mental and social difficulties that are diagnosable as mental health disorders on the basis of predetermined diagnostic criteria. The model have produced generalizable information to support medical decision-making for symptom reduction. However, it may have also increased the reification of diagnostic labels, and in so doing medicalized and stigmatized complex human-life experiences, with a lack of attention to a range of social determinants and existential factors associated with mental health. Since symptom-reduction model can easily lose sight of essential non-technical and contextual aspects of mental health care, including the quality of the interaction and other common factors needed to understand and treat mental health difficulties, there is doubts that the symptom-reduction model may actually decrease the effectiveness of mental health services, as compared to a holistic approach. Based on recent critiques of the group-level symptom-reduction model to mental health care, and research on common-factor perspectives on mental health treatments, holistic conceptions of humans, and naturalistic outcome studies from several holistic mental health services from different countries, I hypothesized that an ontological turn from the treatment of “mental disorders” to the treatment of “difficult life situations” will lead to a more personalized and comprehensive treatment approach, that mediates an improved effectiveness of mental health services.

Consciousness, Neo-Idealism and the Myth of Mental Illness

Over a long career in the psychiatric profession spanning six decades, Thomas Szasz has forcefully argued that mental illnesses are mythical since all medical diseases are located in the body and, thus, have somatic causes. This has been accompanied by a scathing and coruscating critique of the whole mental health profession, particularly those psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists who collude in and exploit the alleged mythology of counterfeit mental disorders and often (unwittingly or deliberately) justify coercion, oppression and pharmacological manipulation of so-called ‘mental patients’ in the name of ‘treatments’. Although there has been a measure of support for this approach in recent years – especially the emphasis on the social context of mental illness and the complexity of mind/body dualism – the main thesis has tended to be misunderstood and undervalued. However, recent critiques of the scientific materialist paradigm within philosophy of mind and consciousness studies can help to illuminate the key arguments in this sphere and provide a foundation for work in the mental health field. After examining the main tenets of Szasz’s thesis, the work of neo-idealist philosophers and scientists such as Kastrup, Hoffman and McGilchrist will be utilised to present an alternative re-imagining of the central problems. The neo-idealist concept of consciousness as an ultimate primitive combined with the work of McGilchrist on the ways in which the divided brain serves to shape reality can be utilised to produce a perspective on mental health and illness supported by a solid foundation in neuroscience and philosophy of mind.

Student voice and teacher agency: storytelling in letters of recommendation for college admissions

We analyze eight letters of recommendation written by high school teachers for first-generation college students, so as to illustrate narrative strategies that can make letters more effective in providing support for students’ college applications. Amidst recent criticisms of the limited utility of letters in college admissions, we argue that they can provide valuable context to students’ applications and present data in letters that shows how teachers make their students stand out. We draw on Bakhtin’s notion of voice and Bamberg’s theory of narrative positioning to examine teachers’ portrayals of their own and their students’ voices, especially through constructed dialogue. We show that such portrayals play a key role in allowing teachers to bridge the gap between students’ personal experiences and admissions officers’ institutional expectations by positioning teachers in a supportive and authoritative role, on the levels of the storyworld and the storytelling world.

Using Photographs to Teach the Human Rights of Children Caught Up in Armed Conflicts

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsTracey HollandTracey Holland, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Latin American and Latinx Studies, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Email: trholland@vassar.eduElizabeth NogradyElizabeth Nogrady, Mellon Curator of Academic Programs, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Email: elnogrady@vassar.eduNotes1 For more recent critiques, including those by artists, see Sayej (2018 Sayej, N. (2018, November 28). “The art world tolerates abuse”—The fight to change museum wall labels. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/28/the-art-world-tolerates-abuse-the-fight-to-change-museum-wall-labels[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). On transparency in museum labels, see Cotter (2020 Cotter, H. (2020, March 18). America’s big museums on the hot seat. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/arts/design/how-to-save-museums.html [Google Scholar]).2 This article originally appeared as “Understanding a Photograph” in Selected Essays and Articles: The Look of Things (1972) by John Berger. The original author(s) and the publisher(s) retain all rights to this article. Please do not distribute or reproduce.

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation

Reconsidering Newtonian Temporality in the Context of Time Pressures of Higher Education

This article concerns the problem of time pressures in higher education from the perspective of Newtonian (clock)time and pedagogical action. While most recent critiques of contemporary time pressures turn to alternative time theories in place of Newtonian temporality, the current paper outlines a way to conceive education from a Newtonian time perspective while also retaining theorizations of education as a form of cyclical and uncertain interaction. Time is theorized as changes in the immediate present which transform an uncertain and potential future to an evident and permanent past in a Newtonian-linear temporal framework. Education, on the other hand, is defined as pedagogical influence to foster student’s human growth, demonstrated in a teaching–studying–learning relationship. Slow education theories and strategies are proposed as a way to reclaim time for education from the accelerative time policies of HE from within a linear time perspective instead of having to propose alternative time theories to ‘free’ education from its rootedness in the temporality of past, present, and future.

Fostering a growth mindset in higher education for inclusive learning for all

This article aims to encourage educators and universities to explore interventions and practices that cultivate a growth mindset to reduce inequality in the academic success of students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic or other minorities, especially in STEM. Universities invest significantly in closing the achievement gap, particularly for such students. Disadvantaged students who have excelled academically are often labelled ‘gifted’. However, this label may emphasise the importance of students’ innate abilities over cognitive ones. Furthermore, it may foster fear of failure and lead to avoidance of challenges and lack of efforts, concealing the lack of understanding to retain the ‘gifted’ image, and create significant barriers to learning. As student diversity increases, pedagogical approaches must evolve accordingly. This article investigates ways to inspire students to remain motivated about their STEM subject and discusses ways to cultivate a growth mindset, factors influencing students’ mindsets, recent criticisms of the growth mindset approach, and the role of learning development in fostering a growth mindset. When faculty and students embrace the idea that intellectual abilities can grow through diligence, determination, and correct strategies, they can transform how educators approach learning and help shift the focus away from content delivery to active and transformative learning.

Choosing death in unjust conditions: hope, autonomy and harm reduction

In this essay, we consider questions arising from cases in which people request medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in unjust social circumstances. We develop our argument by asking two questions....

On land, life, and labour: Abundance and scarcity in Locke, Smith, and Ricardo

On land, life, and labour: Abundance and scarcity in Locke, Smith, and Ricardo

Why is Presentism Intuitive?

AbstractPresentism is, roughly, the ontological view that only the present exists. Among the philosophers engaged in the metaphysics of time there is wide agreement that presentism is intuitive (or commonsensical) and that its intuitiveness counts as evidence in its favour. My contribution has two purposes: first, defending the view that presentism is intuitive from some recent criticisms; second, putting forth a genealogical (or debunking) argument aimed at depriving presentism’s intuitiveness of the evidential value commonly granted to it.

Psychological Flow Scale (PFS): Development and Preliminary Validation of a New Flow Instrument that Measures the Core Experience of Flow to Reflect Recent Conceptual Advancements

In this study, we sought to develop—and provide preliminary validity evidence for scores derived from—a new Psychological Flow Scale (PFS). We propose a parsimonious model of three core dimensions of flow, reflecting the findings from a recent scoping review that synthesised flow research across scientific disciplines. The validation process for the PFS addressed recent conceptual criticisms of flow science regarding construct validity, theoretical compatibility, relational ambiguity, and definitional inconsistency. An initial review and analysis of the many flow measurements that exist found that these instruments either assess one, some, or none of the three core-dimensions of flow; often measuring similar dimensions that may bear resemblance to one of the three-dimensions but differ in dimensional meaning. PFS item development involved a phase of theoretical scrutiny, review of existing instruments, item generation, and expert review of items. Subsequently, 936 participants were recruited for scale development purposes, which included sample testing, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. This factor analytic process showed evidence for three distinguishable dimensions ‘under’ a single general or higher-order factor (i.e., global flow). With respect to external aspects of validity, flow scores correlated positively with perceptions of competence, self-rated performance, autotelic personality, and negatively with anxiety and stress scores. In conclusion, we present preliminary evidence for the theoretical and operational suitability of the PFS to assess the flow state across scientific disciplines and activity domains that be useful for experimental research and enable comparative flow research in the future.

Movement patterns in Florida pine snakes are shaped by landscape heterogeneity, ambient air temperature and reproductive ethology

Abstract Although variation in space use has been investigated extensively in terrestrial vertebrates, there have been recent criticisms that there are more data for mammals than reptiles. This may be an important consideration because the factors that shape movement patterns in reptiles could differ from those of mammals leading to misleading generalizations if data for mammals are extrapolated to reptiles. Here, we quantified the relationships between space use size, movement velocity and turn angle in 24 adult Florida pine snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus). We tested the effects of site, season, sex, the distribution of vegetation cover, and ambient air temperature on movement patterns. We also assessed the use of underground refugia across seasons, because underground refugia are thought to play an important role in the ecology and evolution of Florida pine snakes. Our results indicate that the movement patterns that shape space use variation in Florida pine snakes are affected by the heterogeneity of suitable microhabitats across landscapes, ambient air temperature and reproductive ethology. This study strengthens our collective understanding of movement patterns in Florida pine snakes and contributes to a growing body of knowledge of the movement ecology of snakes. Broadly, our results highlight general differences in the movement ecologies of mammals and Florida pine snakes that could potentially extend to our understanding of other ectothermic lineages, being predictably linked to metabolic theory.

Phenomenological Laws and Mechanistic Explanations

AbstractIn light of recent criticisms by Woodward (2017) and Rescorla (2018), we examine the relationship between mechanistic explanation and phenomenological laws. We disambiguate several uses of the phrase “phenomenological law” and show how a mechanistic theory of explanation sorts them into those that are and are not explanatory. We also distinguish the problem of phenomenological laws from arguments about the explanatory power of purely phenomenal models, showing that Woodward and Rescorla conflate these problems. Finally, we argue that the temptation to pit mechanistic and interventionist theories of explanation against one another occludes important and scientifically relevant research questions.

The comparative achievement explanation of artistic value

AbstractThere is broad agreement in aesthetics that some artworks are greater than others despite bearing equivalent (or lesser) aesthetic value. One explanation of this difference in artistic value is that creation of the greater artwork represents a greater achievement. The aim of this article is to refine this explanation and to defend it against recent criticisms. First, I present a prima facie case in favor of the achievement explanation. Second, I draw on the history of photography to motivate three objections to it: namely, that it wrongly excludes (1) lucky, (2) easy, and (3) failed creations from being artistically great. Third, I present my refined version of the achievement explanation and show how it avoids these objections. On my view, an artistic achievement consists in creating a work it would have been especially hard for comparable artists to create. Finally, I raise and address several additional objections. In responding these objections, I argue, among other things, that my explanation of artistic value enhances our understanding of good‐bad art: specifically, it allows us to see how good‐bad art is artistically great despite being aesthetically flawed.

Historical Infinitesimalists and modern historiography of infinitesimals

In the history of infinitesimal calculus, we trace innovation from Leibniz to Cauchy and reaction from Berkeley to Mansion and beyond. We explore 19th century infinitesimal lores, including the approaches of Simeon-Denis Poisson, Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, and Jean-Nicolas Noel. We examine contrasting historiographic approaches to such lores, in the work of Laugwitz, Schubring, Spalt, and others, and address a recent critique by Archibald et al. We argue that the element of contingency in this history is more prominent than many modern historians seem willing to acknowledge.

Do What You Love? New Music, New Work—After 2020

This article analyzes musical labor and notions of love in relation to gig work with a focus on musicians in new music in New York City. Working in new music as a gig worker entails many skills, many tasks, and many jobs, which hardly guarantee a release from precarity. Meanwhile the neoliberal myth of a “labor of love” propagates the conviction that love and hard work can overcome any challenge, including those posed by racialized and gendered difference. The account of contemporary musical labor I offer concurs with recent critiques of the complicity of new music discourse with neoliberal agendas. Yet I argue that even as contemporary practices of musical work demonstrate how new music is entrepreneurial work embedded in a capitalist system, the everyday experiences of working musicians confound a totalizing account of the neoliberal agenda. Musical work takes place alongside and despite neoliberalism. Based on ethnography and interviews, I argue that the unsettled norms of musical gig work in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore ways in which musical work is more than the perfect manifestation of exploitable “labors of love.”

‘God corresponds to Godself’: John Webster's doctrine of God ‘after’ Karl Barth

AbstractThe nature and extent of Karl Barth's significance in John Webster's theological formation is widely recognised but remains to be explored in detail. Addressing this lacuna, this essay considers how Barth's doctrine of the triune God animates Webster's teaching on the same. In approaching the topic, I show how Webster carries forward Barth's deep sense of God's aseity in relation to the world and follows Barth in his commitment to the singularity of God's triune being. God's particularity and aseity converge in ‘God's self-correspondence’ (namely, that God ‘in Godself’ corresponds to God ‘for us’), which represents the core of Barth's influence on Webster's theology proper. The final section responds to Katherine Sonderegger's recent criticism of Webster's ‘relationalism’, which counts God's relation to creatures as an integral aspect of God's eternal life. I reframe the issue in terms of Webster's late-career retractions of the language of inclusion and divine self-determination, arguing that the difficulties that Sonderegger identifies in earlier writings are overcome in the final decade of Webster's corpus.