Relational Paradigm Research Articles

Post-historicism, Post-territorialism, and the Problem of Scale: A Metacritical Appraisal of the Literary-Theoretical Paradigm of ‘Planetary Time’

Wai Chee Dimock’s literary-theoretical paradigm of ‘planetary time’ neatly fits the epithet ‘post-historicist/post-territorialist’ for its simultaneous repudiation of historicist and nationalist approaches to literary critical practice. Opposed to the absolute jurisdiction of temporal periods and spatial territories as literary analytic units, the ‘post-historicist/post-territorialist’ paradigm seeks to tap into the spatiotemporal entanglements of literary criticism to produce analyses of literature that trace the transtemporal and extraterritorial linkages forged by literary processes and their attendant actors. The article primarily focuses on Wai Chee Dimock’s literary analytic scale of ‘planetary time’, an extended temporal scale that, according to Dimock, is intrinsically coupled to a spatial scale of planetary dimensions. While subjecting Dimock’s literary-theoretical approach to a sustained metacritique, the article also intermittently engages with closely related paradigms that could shed more light on the nuances of literary analytic scales. Two analytic scales appropriated from the field of historiography – Fernand Braudel’s extended longue durée and Carlo Ginzburg’s episodic (micro)history – will not only lend an interdisciplinary perspective to this metacritical study, but also underscore the spatiotemporal implications of scale in literary criticism. These insights could help recalibrate literary critical practice by introducing greater self-reflexivity in its deployment of scale.

Drivers of Arab Countries’ Growing Interest to the Eurasian Geopolitical Space

Facing the dynamic development of diversified contacts between Russia and the Arab world amidst the steadily increasing political and economic interest of Arab countries[1] in the Eurasian geopolitical space, an adequate assessment of the causes and the strength potential of such growth has acquired particular importance. This enables us to hedge both political and business risks by predicting scenarios for the future development, and, which is even more important, to address effectively challenges and problems. The successful implementation of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation approved on March 31, 2023 in the medium and long terms depends on the survivability of the new paradigm of relations between Russia and the Arab countries, regardless of the anti-Russia Western sanctions. This fully correlates with Russian efforts to promote integration processes in Eurasia, primarily under the within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as outside Eurasia with the involvement of big Eurasian states (India, China) and the non-Eurasian “rising powers” (Brazil, South Africa, etc.) on the BRICS platform. The comprehensive analysis of the factors which have been stimulating the interest of the Arab countries in Eurasia, complementing the already existing sporadic domestic and foreign studies, is intended to form a list of arguments in favor of proving the hypothesis of the strategic, rather than purely tactical nature of the intentions of Arab elites to cooperate with Russia and other Eurasian states. Such arguments imply among other things the common perception by Russia and the Arabs of the current historical transition from the unipolar to a multipolar world.

Design Transformation of The Industrial Relations Peace : Towards A Prosperous, Harmonious and Fair Work Relations Model In The Karawang Industry

The minimum wage is one of the national strategic policies whose regulations are determined by the central government through laws and derivative regulations. The business problem faced by business actors in Karawang is the disruption of business operations due to the freeze that occurred during the minimum wage period at the district level. Even though discovery is a right as an Indonesian citizen, this research aims to initiate an industrial relations peace strategy for companies in Karawang to be able to carry out promotional, preventive, overcoming, and rehabilitative steps. This research focuses on the period 2019–2024 and analyzes the district minimum wage policy, which is accommodated by the Apindo Karawang Regency Leadership Council. The research methods used include literature studies, policy analysis, and interviews with relevant stakeholders such as business leaders, human resources managers, Government and Union Leaders . The results of the analysis highlight significant developments in the industrial relations paradigm in Karawang by identifying factors that influence welfare, harmony, and justice in work relations. The findings of this research provide in-depth insight into the impact of implementing minimum wages on the dynamics of industrial relations in companies in Karawang. This research provides a positive contribution to business as well as a better understanding of the strategies that can be used to achieve prosperous, harmonious, and fair working relationships in an industrial environment. It is hoped that the policy implications resulting from this thesis can provide guidance for stakeholders in developing steps that support the positive development of industrial relations in Karawang.

The right to be forgotten in the “global village” paradigm: on the issue of implementation

The advent of the information era in the history of mankind also caused a change in the paradigm of social relations, transforming their format, according to Marshall McLuhan's apt phrase, into a "global village". In this paradigm, the right to be forgotten becomes an important means of protecting a person from uncontrolled dissemination of unwanted information about him. The article reveals the nature of the right to be forgotten and its relationship with the phenomenon of privacy, analyzes the provisions of European legislation and practice. Attention is drawn to the fact that in Ukraine, despite the existing need to have this tool for the protection of personally sensitive information, no legislative algorithm for the effective implementation of the right in question has been developed. It is noted that, from a legal and technical point of view, the implementation of the right to be forgotten is quite difficult, since the recognition of the genetic connection of the state of being forgotten with the right to the inviolability of private life in the “global village” paradigm forces the law enforcer to always seek a reasonable balance between a person's desire to limit access to a certain information and other basic human rights and freedoms (freedom of expression, the right of users to access any form of information, etc.). Given the situation of legal uncertainty, the article concludes that there are two ways to close this gap. The first of them is to speed up work on the adoption of the new Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Personal Data”, the provisions of which would be devoted, among other things, to practical issues of implementation and protection of the right to be forgotten; the second is to develop a separate regulatory legal act, fully devoted to the analyzed law. At the same time, when working out an appropriate mechanism for the effective implementation of the right to be forgotten, one should take into account those aspects that in practice lead to paradoxical situations in their content, such as: the mismatch of traditional physical borders with the borders of the “global village”, the Streisand effect, the disproportionality of the efforts and the achieved result, the conflict of the person's past with the possibility of their further socialization in society, etc.).

Foreign interference as a form of interstate competition: types and motives

The revival of the “great power competition” as a modern-day paradigm of international relations boosts certain forms of interstate rivalry that can be simultaneously effective and correspond to certain levels of acceptable cost-benefit balance. This includes the phenomenon of foreign interference into the domestic affairs of sovereign states. Research on this topic by foreign and Russian authors can be divided into two closely intertwined, but problematically different blocks: the former make attempts to theoretically understand the very concept of “interference”, while the latter focuses primarily on the phenomenon of “interference” as an element of strategic competition. While the former is primarily focused on clarifying the “contents” of the interference, the latter, in essence, is devoted to understanding its “form” with an emphasis on the actions of states. This paper seeks to determine the place of “interference” within the overall framework of interstate rivalry, to clarify the content and the definition of the very concept. It seeks to identify the motives for interference, construct their hierarchy, pair them with types of actions, and on this basis present a “ladder of escalation of interference” similar to the “ladders of escalation” of other types of military-political conflicts. The construction of such a model intends to help organize analysis and improve predictive capabilities on the issue of interference into domestic affairs and facilitate the adoption of more effective decisions in this area by policy-making circles.

Iran's Path to Diplomacy: Challenging the Unipolar Paradigm in Nuclear Negotiations

This article explores Iran’s nuclear program and its diplomatic strategies against the backdrop of the unipolar paradigm in international relations, focusing on developments since the early 2000s. Utilizing a qualitative research approach, the study analyzes Iran’s maneuvers in nuclear negotiations and their impact on the unipolar world order led by the United States. The investigation covers key historical stages from the program's inception, signifi cant shifts under diff erent Iranian administrations, and the pivotal dynamics surrounding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Case studies, including Iran’s response to the U. S. withdrawal from the JCPOA and its membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, demonstrate Iran’s multifaceted and resilient diplomatic tactics. The analysis suggests that Iran’s strategies challenge the unipolar paradigm, indicating a shift towards a multipolar global order. This research contributes to understanding the evolving dynamics of international relations, highlighting the trend of nations asserting autonomy in a traditionally unipolar-dominated global structure.

Conducting sustainability research in the anthropocene: toward a relational approach

Scholars and practitioners are urgently highlighting the need to apply a relational approach to effectively address societal crises. At the same time, little is known about the associated challenges, and there is little advice regarding how to operationalize this approach in sustainability science. Against this background, this article explores how we can break out of our current paradigms and approaches, and instead apply relational thinking, being, and acting in the way we conduct research. To achieve this, we systematically list all major research phases, and assess possible pathways for integrating a relational paradigm for each step. We show that moving toward a relational paradigm requires us to methodically question and redefine existing theories of change, concepts, and approaches, for instance by combining abductive reasoning, first-person inquiries, and decentering the human through critical complexity theory. Challenging mainstream thought, and daring to ask different questions in each step is crucial to ultimately shift scientific norms and systems. Hence, we offer a catalog of questions that may help to systematically integrate relational being, thinking, and acting into the process, as a tool for transforming current paradigms in research, and associated education and practice. Finally, we highlight the importance of further research to develop and refine our outcomes.

Explaining de-sectarianization

A key feature of the 21st century Middle East thus far has been the vertiginous rise and precipitate retreat of sectarian (Sunni-Shi’a) division as a dominant paradigm in contentious politics and international relations. Understanding these shifts yields important lessons regarding identity politics, state-society relations, regime-maintenance strategies, and inter-group relations.

Can Small States Reshape Their Regional Identities? Examining Georgia’s Cognitive Dissonance between South Caucasus and Eastern Europe

Abstract Georgia represents an interesting case to study the agency of small states in reshaping their regional identity and external environment. Although much of the world has considered Georgia as politically part of the South Caucasus region, the country’s political elites themselves have long attempted to escape the geographic boundaries of the South Caucasus region and relocate their country into Eastern Europe. We argue that Georgian elites were partially successful in their quest for foreign political identity change. Although they did not manage to entirely change the international perception about Georgia’s geographic belonging, the country has politically moved closer to Eastern Europe and is considered to be part of “Associated Trio” together with Ukraine and Moldova—and recently became an EU candidate. From a theoretical perspective, we argue that Georgia’s quest for foreign policy identity recalibration fits the constructivist paradigm of international relations well. It can be argued that Georgia’s political elites were partially driven by ideational factors and were ignorant of the balance of power in their external environment, which cost the country the lost wars and compromised territorial sovereignty.

Polyparadigmatic uncertainty of international economic relations in the global security system

Polyparadigmatic uncertainty of international economic relations in the global security system

Application of the New Public Relations Paradigm in the Cyberspace Retail Industry

This research aims to analyze the application of the New Public Relations (NPR) paradigm in the retail industry, by taking a case study of a well-known retail company, Alfamart. The NPR paradigm emphasizes the importance of two-way interaction between organizations and stakeholders, as well as an emphasis on values, transparency, and community involvement. This study uses a qualitative approach with data collection techniques in the form of in-depth interviews with various related parties in Alfamart, such as senior management, PR staff, and consumers. Data analysis was conducted by detailing communication practices that reflect the NPR paradigm. The results of this study reveal that Alfamart has implemented various aspects of the NPR paradigm in its communication strategy. They understand the importance of listening to input and feedback from consumers and strive to provide honest, transparent and relevant information to stakeholders. In addition, Alfamart is also active in involving themselves in social and community activities, reflecting their commitment to corporate social responsibility. This research contributes to the understanding of how retail companies can adopt the NPR paradigm in managing relationships with consumers and society more effectively. This research contributes to the understanding of how retail companies can adopt the NPR paradigm in managing relationships with consumers and society more effectively.

Customer service through AI-Powered human-robot relationships: Where are we now? The case of Henn na cafe, Japan

Throughout history, interactions between humans and robots, and robots themselves have experienced profound shifts, generating a plethora of literature within the domains of manufacturing and services. Despite the abundance of scientific publications, consensus regarding these relationships remains elusive, fostering ambiguity within and between these domains. This article aims to present an encompassing and widely accepted perspective on the existing body of literature, seeking to unravel the nature of these relational paradigms. Our objective revolves around analyzing that zeroes in on the enhancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within Human-Robot relationships, particularly in the context of services. Henceforth, our research pivots toward a specialized body of literature exploring the domain of technical-biosocial systems, which encompasses human-technology-social structures. By doing so, we aim to analyze AI within a more delimited context, thereby mitigating the critique that a gap persists in scholarly discourse owing to the predominant analysis of AI within a global purview. Mindful of the potential drawbacks associated with a purely holistic and aggregated conceptual theoretical model, we have opted to subject our model to empirical validation. To achieve this, a case study was employed, with a specific focus on the avant-garde Henn na Cafe in Japan. The findings underline that currently, Henn na Cafe employs Human-Robot Interaction and Collaboration (HRI-C). However, there is an expectation that service companies will embrace an evolving HRI-C by integrating AI to enhance service delivery activities. Alternatively, they may opt for a Robot-Robot Interaction and Collaboration (RRI-C) approach with improved social capabilities or multi-human/multi-robot systems. The empirical findings are consistent with existing literature, which indicates a contemporary scholarly interest in investigating complex and emotional systems within service-oriented environments. These environments, characterized by elevated levels of AI, present challenges for AI systems in executing service functions effectively. Recent research endeavors aim to synthesize and assess the prevailing understanding and research directions within this domain. This convergence of findings not only reinforces theoretical research but also provides supplementary perspectives on human-robot relations and the complexities involved in service delivery within technologically sophisticated settings. Subsequent research endeavors could pivot towards a heightened focus on the services sector, exploring potential relationships and how AI might either fortify the services domain or pivot towards a vantage point centered on multi-robot systems.

A materialist reconsideration of international peace practice and its human and non-human constituents

Abstract The international community's sobering track record of sustainably reducing the number of armed conflicts worldwide, as well as the increasing involvement of non-human complexities in times of climate crisis suggest that current approaches to foster peace are too narrow and inflexible. So far, demands and calls for more flexible and adaptive peace practice made by policy-makers and researchers have not led to a related paradigm shift. In order to contribute to such a change of practice, this article advances a speculative analytical attempt that seeks to conceptually uncover new modes of engaging with the world for the purpose of peace. It builds on Baruch Spinoza's materialism and describes peace as intimately interrelated with the issue of political community. Following Spinoza, the article reconsiders the imaginary of political community as something that is constantly being rearticulated by a contingent complexity of human and non-human actors, and thus transcends the geographic scope of its formal borders as well as its epistemic scope across power hierarchies. Finally, the article introduces the human-non-human multitude as political subject that is able to detect and interpret the constituents of a political community, and therefore to maintain and sustain peace.

Postmodernism Paradigm and its View on the Existence of Language

Objective: The emergence of postmodernism as a continuation and correction of the shortcomings of modernism is expected to provide new alternatives and complement the repertoire of human thinking, especially about the existence of language and culture. Although, in principle, all paradigms of thinking have their own advantages and disadvantages. This paper aims to examine the issues surrounding the postmodernism paradigm, which is focused on two main things, namely: the concept and basic principles of the paradigm and the view of the postmodern paradigm in relation to the existence of language phenomena. Method: Methodologically, this article is based on a literature study, which is conducted by identifying various theories related to postmodernism, to answer the problems that have been raised. Results and Discussion: From the results of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the postmodernism paradigm is an approach to philosophy, art and culture that emerged as a response to the ideas and values of modernism that were dominant in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Postmodernism rejects the idea that there is a single narrative or truth that can explain the world, and instead, emphasizes the diversity, complexity and relative nature of everything. Second, in the context of its view on language, postmodernism offers several perspectives, among which the key ones are openness to the plurality of languages, the destruction of the concept of binaries and oppositions, the importance of meta-narrative, and intertextuality. Postmodernism is present to provide an alternative to new ways of thinking in knowledge, especially by prioritizing the principle of respecting differences in plural particularities, as a counter to the thesis of modernism which believes in the importance of the principle of uniformity and universality. Research Implications: Studying the postmodernist paradigm and its views on language can open insight into the complexity and dynamics of language in various contexts. This influences how we understand the world, interact with others, and organize our knowledge. Originality/Value: The value and originality of the study of postmodernism and language paradigms lies in its ability to raise new questions, provoke critical thinking, and open space for new developments in various disciplines and cultural practices.

A relational and genealogical approach to populism: The cases of Russia, Turkey and the United States

ABSTRACT Studies on religious populism are on the rise. They are located within the three main theoretical approaches of populism: ideational, performative, and strategic. Building on these three components, this paper proposes a comprehensive analysis by creating an ideal type of the relations between religion and populism. To that effect, it utilizes the relational paradigm of populism from Pierre Ostiguy in conjunction with Ernest Laclau's concept of sedimented practices and applies a genealogical method to analyse why and how religion plays a role in populist politics. This combination emphasises the fluidity of the interactions between religion and populism, their contingency on contextualised political cultures as well as on the often neglected transnational forms of religion. It focuses on two aspects of this role that have been less discussed: 1) the religious actions toward the political establishment 2) the transnational dimension of the populist politics based on religion.

Mentalizing-Based Healthcare: Towards a Relational Paradigm for Chronic Illness Management

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a contemporary psychodynamic attachment approach for managing chronic illnesses with a focus on the role of impairments in mentalizing, attachment, and epistemic trust. This approach emphasizes the significance of relational dynamics in healthcare settings and may thus provide a complementary approach in health psychology which currently primarily targets individual and behavioral aspects of chronic illness by addressing the relational dynamics that are typically involved in chronic illness management. We review empirical evidence highlighting the roles of mentalizing, attachment, and epistemic trust in chronic illness. We propose an attachment and mentalizing-based healthcare paradigm that prioritizes relational dynamics that aligns with emerging health psychology trends, offering a holistic approach to patient care. Finally, we present some practical implications of this approach, underscoring the importance of psychologists working in health in fostering secure attachment, epistemic trust and mentalizing within patient-provider relationships. This involves tailoring patient interactions and psychoeducation to individual needs and narratives, enhancing treatment adherence and well-being.

The context of the inclusion of people with disabilities in the training course for Officers of the Fire Department and Military Police of Maranhão

This article deals with the issue of the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Training Course for Officers of the Fire Department (CFO-BM) and the Military Police of Maranhão (CFO-PM), at the State University of Maranhão (UEMA). In this context, the main objective of this study is to analyze the main challenges to be overcome so that people with disabilities have the right to access, remain in and complete the CFO-BM and the Military Police of Maranhão at UEMA. In order to achieve the proposed objective, an exploratory, descriptive study was carried out with a qualitative approach. The participants were 04 disabled cadets from the CFO-BM; 02 aspiring officers from the Fire Department and 10 disabled cadets from the CFO-PM. The data collection instruments included semi-structured interviews. The research findings reveal that the BM and PM officer training courses are adjusting to issues involving the physical aptitudes of people with disabilities, their needs for specialized educational care and/or adjustments, their potential and vulnerabilities. Cadets with disabilities are bringing visibility to the human potential of people with disabilities. The main challenges to be overcome are the elimination of prejudice and ableism, as well as the lack of accessibility and attitudinal barriers. The inclusion of people with disabilities in the military contributes to the deconstruction of exclusionary paradigms in relation to disability. There is still a long way to go, but the first step has already been taken, let's wait for better outcomes.

Relational Programming with Foundational Models

Foundation models have vast potential to enable diverse AI applications. The powerful yet incomplete nature of these models has spurred a wide range of mechanisms to augment them with capabilities such as in-context learning, information retrieval, and code interpreting. We propose Vieira, a declarative framework that unifies these mechanisms in a general solution for programming with foundation models. Vieira follows a probabilistic relational paradigm and treats foundation models as stateless functions with relational inputs and outputs. It supports neuro-symbolic applications by enabling the seamless combination of such models with logic programs, as well as complex, multi-modal applications by streamlining the composition of diverse sub-models. We implement Vieira by extending the Scallop compiler with a foreign interface that supports foundation models as plugins. We implement plugins for 12 foundation models including GPT, CLIP, and SAM. We evaluate Vieira on 9 challenging tasks that span language, vision, and structured and vector databases. Our evaluation shows that programs in Vieira are concise, can incorporate modern foundation models, and have comparable or better accuracy than competitive baselines.

Differential effects of bilateral hippocampal CA3 damage on the implicit learning and recognition of complex event sequences

ABSTRACT Learning regularities in the environment is a fundament of human cognition, which is supported by a network of brain regions that include the hippocampus. In two experiments, we assessed the effects of selective bilateral damage to human hippocampal subregion CA3, which was associated with autobiographical episodic amnesia extending ~50 years prior to the damage, on the ability to recognize complex, deterministic event sequences presented either in a spatial or a non-spatial configuration. In contrast to findings from related paradigms, modalities, and homologue species, hippocampal damage did not preclude recognition memory for an event sequence studied and tested at four spatial locations, whereas recognition memory for an event sequence presented at a single location was at chance. In two additional experiments, recognition memory for novel single-items was intact, whereas the ability to recognize novel single-items in a different location from that presented at study was at chance. The results are at variance with a general role of the hippocampus in the learning and recognition of complex event sequences based on non-adjacent spatial and temporal dependencies. We discuss the impact of the results on established theoretical accounts of the hippocampal contributions to implicit sequence learning and episodic memory.

Язык как ключ к реальности: от философии имени к дискурсу

Language and consciousness are two transcendental categories that determine the processes of cognition, thinking, introspection, perception, and subject-object relations. At different stages of philosophy, they were interpreted depending on the dominant philosophical and ideological paradigm in relation to reality, the existential goals of the subject and society, and methodological approaches, e.g., phenomenological, hermeneutical, discursive, etc. This article systematizes the basic concepts of language in various historical epochs, i.e., from antiquity to the XXI century. The evolution of views on language is represented not from the standpoint of self-reference, but through the prism of socio-cultural and socio-historical changes in reality and its relation to the subject. The author traced the development of the philosophy of language and defined the reasons behind the evolution of approaches to language and consciousness. The article attempts to answer two questions: How do different paradigms of the philosophy of language and consciousness approach the matter of subject’s access to the real world? To what extent were paradigm shifts caused by the changing cultural, historical, and socio-political backgrounds? Since evolutionary epistemology identifies gnoseology as one of the main functions of language, the categories of thinking and understanding receive special attention. The growing complexity of the world order affects the relationship between language and consciousness, i.e., from singularity (philosophy of name) to continuality (discourse).