Second-order Perspective Research Articles

Compromise and Consensus: Toward a Two-Track Model of Deliberation

In this article, we discuss the relationship between deliberative democracy, compromise, and consensus. According to one view, deliberation should aim exclusively at compromise (compromise-only view). According to another view, compromise processes are incompatible with with the epistemic logic of deliberation (no-compromise view). Against the compromise-only view, we argue that it relies on a misunderstanding of the role of consensus and fails to capture how consensus-oriented deliberations are conducive to important learning processes. Against the no-compromise view, we argue that it mistakenly envisages deliberation in purely epistemic terms and that this misunderstands the point and purpose of deliberative democracy as a practical political ideal. By adopting a distinct second-order perspective, we demonstrate how compromise processes can be rendered compatible with a deliberative orientation to finding the best political outcomes. Based on these discussions, we articulate a two-track model of deliberation that shows how deliberative democracy can be dually committed to compromise and consensus.

Physician’s conceptions of the decision-making process when managing febrile infants ≤ 60 days old: a phenomenographic qualitative study

BackgroundThe management of febrile infants aged ≤ 60 days and adherence to guidelines vary greatly. Our objective was to describe the process of decision-making when managing febrile infants aged ≤ 60 days and to describe the factors that influenced this decision.MethodsWe conducted 6 focus group discussions with 19 clinically active physicians in the pediatric emergency departments of 2 university hospitals in Skåne region, Sweden. We followed an inductive qualitative design, using a phenomenological approach. A second-order perspective was used, focusing on how physicians perceived the phenomenon (managing fever in infants) rather than the phenomenon itself. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using a 7-step approach.ResultsPerforming a lumbar puncture (LP) was conceived as a complex, emotionally and mentally laden procedure and dominated the group discussions. Three central categories emerged as factors that influenced the decision-making process on whether to perform an LP: 1) a possible focus of infection that could explain the origin of the fever, 2) questioning whether the temperature at home reported by the parents was a fever, especially if it was ≤ 38.2°C, and 3) the infant’s general condition and questioning the need for LP in case of well-appearing infants. Around these 3 central categories evolved 6 secondary categories that influenced the decision-making process of whether to perform an LP or not: 1) the physicians’ desire to be able to trust their judgement, 2) fearing the risk of failure, 3) avoiding burdensome work, 4) taking others into account, 5) balancing guidelines and resources, and 6) seeing a need to practice and learn to perform LP.ConclusionsThe difficulty and emotional load of performing an LP were important factors that influenced the decision-making process regarding whether to perform an LP. Physicians highlighted the importance of being able to rely on their clinical judgment and make independent decisions. Guidelines may consider allowing a degree of flexibility and independent thinking to take into account patients’ characteristics and needs.

Epistemological Aspects of Dialogue: Some Kierkegaardian Perspectives

This article explores the epistemological aspects of dialogue through an engagement with the Danish existence thinker, Søren Kierkegaard. I argue that dialogue plays an integral role in the epistemic process tentatively sketched by Kierkegaard. To show this, I start by examining Kierkegaard’s criticism of non-dialogical approaches to knowing. Offering a corrective, Kierkegaard instead operates with a contact theory of knowledge analogising knowing and breathing to underline the importance of receptivity and relationality in the epistemic process. By placing Kierkegaard in conversation with his pseudonym Johannes Climacus, dialogue can be seen to play a crucial role in two ways. Firstly, Kierkegaard and Climacus creatively re-appropriate and reconstruct dialogical aporia textually to encourage receptivity and make the needed space for knowledge. Secondly, Kierkegaard’s and Climacus’s invocations of dialogue implicitly and explicitly centre the second-person perspective in different ways to emphasise the importance of “contact” and relation in knowing. I argue that although this perspective can ultimately be considered a second-order perspective, it points not only to receptivity, but also to relationality as both an object of knowledge and as part of the epistemic process itself.

First-Order Trotter Error from a Second-Order Perspective.

Simulating quantum dynamics beyond the reach of classical computers is one of the main envisioned applications of quantum computers. The most promising quantum algorithms to this end in the near term are the simplest, which use the Trotter formula and its higher-order variants to approximate the dynamics of interest. The approximation error of these algorithms is often poorly understood, even in the most basic and topical cases where the target Hamiltonian decomposes into two realizable terms: H=H_{1}+H_{2}. Recent studies have reported anomalously low approximation error with unexpected scaling in such cases, which they attribute to quantum interference between the errors from different steps of the algorithm. Here, we provide a simpler picture of these effects by relating the Trotter formula to its second-order variant for such H=H_{1}+H_{2} cases. Our method generalizes state-of-the-art error bounds without the technical caveats of prior studies, and elucidates how each part of the total error arises from the underlying quantum circuit. We compare our bound to the true error numerically, and find a close match over many orders of magnitude in the simulation parameters. Our findings further reduce the required circuit depth for the least experimentally demanding quantum simulation algorithms, and illustrate a useful method for bounding simulation error more broadly.

Towards positions of safe uncertainty

This paper explores the place of certainty and uncertainty in therapeutic practice. It suggests that for many, there has been a theoretical shift in the field of family therapy from a first- to a second-order perspective. To remain coherent with this shift in thinking requires a shift in practice in relation to this different way of thinking. The paper proposes one way of working towards this coherence through the use of a simple framework for working with uncertainty and highlights its application for a number of different contexts including training.

Student experience of digital learning tools: Information literacy training in higher education

The paper presents a qualitative study of how students in higher education experience the use of digital learning objects as part of information literacy training.Methods. The study is inspired by the phenomenographical method and take a second-order perspective asking how students experience information literacy training and digital learning tools. The study builds on seven focus-group interviews with a total of 29 students from law, engineering, and nursing. The first part of the analysis presents results on students’ experience of the digital learning tools across the cases with focus on student motivation. The second part of the analysis focuses on the roles of the different actors in information literacy building. The analysis illustrates how the use of digital learning tools and face-to-face information literacy training is deeply related to the roles of the different actors taking part in the information literacy practice. The academic librarian is almost invisible to the students in two of the three cases, but student interaction with the digital learning tools promote visibility. The findings confirm related research on the importance of integrating information literacy training into curriculum and nuances our understanding of how students experience information literacy training and digital learning tools.

The relationship between m-banking service quality and loyalty: evidence in Indonesian Islamic Banking

Purpose: This study generally aims to comprehensively examine the effect of mobile banking service quality on creating customer loyalty in Islamic banking. In particular, this research uses the E-S-Qual instrument to verify service quality in mobile banking and uses one mediation variable, namely e-customer satisfaction. Methodology: This study amounted to 273 Islamic banking customers. The total participants are divided into several categories such as; gender, occupation, domicile, and Islamic bank used. The data obtained were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. This study also uses a second-order perspective (reflective-reflective) SEM on the E-S-Qual variable (efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy), then the approach used refers to the repeated indicators. Findings: The higher mobile banking service quality has implications for customer loyalty, both attitude and behavior. It happens when the customer is satisfied with the quality of the system displayed. This satisfaction can be achieved if the dimensions of quality that are characteristic of the system can be presented by Islamic banking. Originality: This study underscores the dimensions of efficiency and system availability as keys to mobile banking service quality. Efficiency refers to how the ease, accessibility, and speed provided by the system can facilitate transactions and other functions. Furthermore, system availability refers to how the platforms function properly in relation to technical constraints that may arise, as well as attachment to functions that strengthen processes in the business of Islamic banking customers.

Impoliteness and hate speech: Compare and contrast

Both impoliteness and hate speech deal with offensive behaviour, yet it is also obvious that they are not exactly the same. This paper aims to tease out the similarities and differences. The first part concentrates on theorising by impoliteness and hate speech scholars, and thus takes a second-order perspective. It discusses the notions of face (largely overlooked in studies of hate speech), incitement (largely overlooked in studies of impoliteness) and intentionality (and related concepts) (examined in both studies of impoliteness and hate speech, though often without explicit connections to the other field). The second part of the paper, taking more of a first-order perspective, concentrates on the metapragmatics of the labels impoliteness and hate speech, which are approached through the terms impolite and hateful. Hateful, in comparison with impolite is characterised by more extreme behaviours, the emotion of hurt, and associations of prejudice. This part of the paper also provides a demonstration of what one can do with corpus-methods. Overall, it is hoped that this paper will promote theoretical synergies, and also greater awareness of the labels that are used.

The impact of theory of mind barriers in interpreting illustrations used in primary school early readers: four brief case studies of false-belief scenarios

Theory of mind skills are critical to understanding and interpreting many illustrations in primary school literature especially those which are used in material for the purpose of learning to read. Unfortunately, children who learn to read at an early age as well as mainstreamed children, such as those with autism, often have grave deficiencies in theory of mind skills which is necessary in order to understand first- and second-order perspective narratives. Thirty-one early readers were analysed for first- and second-order perspectives as well as for the possibility of first- and second-order false-belief scenarios. Results showed that there is a high probability that children will be confronted with early readers that require complex theory of mind skills for comprehension. In addition, four early readers were examined in more detail in case studies to see how the relationship of text to illustrations as well as the composition of the illustrations themselves either aided comprehension or increased the possibility of false belief scenarios. Finally, various tools for increasing visual literacy in regards to illustrations were discussed, such as the use of prolongation, speech bubbles, close-ups and text enhancement.

Reflecting trends in the academic landscape of sustainable energy using probabilistic topic modeling

BackgroundFacing planetary boundaries, we need a sustainable energy system providing its life support function for society in the long-term within environmental limits. Since science plays an important role in decision-making, this study examines the thematic landscape of research on sustainable energy, which may contribute to a sustainability transformation. Understanding the structure of the research field allows for critical reflections and the identification of blind spots for advancing this field.MethodsThe study applies a text mining approach on 26533 Scopus-indexed abstracts published from 1990 to 2016 based on a latent Dirichlet allocation topic model. Models with up 1100 topics were created. Based on coherence scores and manual inspection, the model with 300 topics was selected. These statistical methods served for highlighting timely topic trends, differing thematic fields, and emerging communities in the topic network. The study critically reflects the quantitative results from a sustainability perspective.ResultsThe study identifies a focus on establishing and optimizing the energy infrastructure towards 100% renewable energies through key modern technology areas: materials science, (biological) process engineering, and (digital) monitoring and control systems. Energy storage, photonic materials, nanomaterials, or biofuels belong to the topics with the strongest trends. The study identifies decreasing trends for general aspects regarding sustainable development and related economic, environmental, and political issues.ConclusionsThe discourse is latently adopting a technology-oriented paradigm focusing on renewable energy generation and is moving away from the multi-faceted concept of sustainability. The field has the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation by optimizing renewable energy systems. However, given the complexity of these systems, horizontal integration of the various valuable vertical research strands is required. Furthermore, the holistic ecological perspective considering the global scale that has originally motivated research on sustainable energy might be re-strengthened, e.g., by an integrated energy and materials perspective. Beyond considering the physical dimensions of energy systems, existing links from the currently technology-oriented discourse to the social sciences might be strengthened. For establishing sustainable energy systems, future research will not only have to target the technical energy infrastructure but put a stronger focus on issues perceivable from a holistic second-order perspective.

Phenomenography’s contribution to organizational studies based on a practice perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to propose the phenomenography as an approach that may contribute to the organizational studies based on the practice perspective, considering that it analyzes the phenomenon through the practitioner’s view and experience.Design/methodology/approachIt is a theoretical essay about phenomenography as a theoretical-methodological perspective, considering its concept, its relation with practice theories and how its theoretical-methodological approach is capable of bringing a new perspective over the organizations, in the practice perspective.FindingsThe phenomenographic method, together with the practice perspective, enables mapping, identifying, describing and relating all the different ways by which an organization, in each one of its structuring dimensions, is effectively experienced. It argues that aspects such as the phenomenographic interview, the second-order perspective, the collective conceptions stated in the outcome space and their relations, the complexity of hierarchy and the abductive theorization about the emerging concepts of collective perceptions form, all together, an alternative and promising theoretical approach to analyze the entanglement between action and the material dimension that constitutes the organizational practices.Practical implicationsThe phenomenographic outcome space may become a catalyst of a theorization about practices, which is capable to modify them or modify the way they are understood.Originality/valueIt discusses the possibility of phenomenography to theorize from the agents’ collective consciousness.

Customers’ everyday understanding of ‘value’ from a second-order cybernetic perspective

ABSTRACTValue is in the centre of service and marketing. However, what does value mean to customers? The purpose of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of value from a customers’ perspective using a second-order cybernetics approach. We found that the word ‘value’ is recursively linked to 13 different ‘meanings’ indicating a variety of understandings of the term ‘value’. Furthermore, the findings support service-dominant logic where customers integrate their own resources (skills and knowledge) in the value co-creation process. Future research has to be aware of the different meanings, which are associated with value. Marketing managers need to understand, on the one hand, that value has a different meaning to their customer and on the other hand, what value means to their specific target groups.

Using Phenomenography to Tackle Key Challenges in Science Education.

This article describes how phenomenography, as a qualitative research method, can be used to tackle key challenges in science education. It begins with an overview of the development of phenomenography. It then describes the philosophical underpinnings of phenomenographic inquiry, including ontological and epistemological roots, and its unique second-order perspective. From theoretical background to practicality, the paper uses rich examples to describe in detail the procedures of conducting a phenomenographic study, including sampling and data collection, analyzing phenomenographic data, and communicating key findings. The paper concludes by showing how the phenomenographic method can be used to develop students’ conceptual understanding of scientific concepts, to inform effective instructional design in science teaching, and to identify and improve evidence-based factors in student learning to enhance learning outcomes in science.

Underdetermination in Late Postclassical Ḥanafī Legal Theories

This article argues that Ḥanafī uṣūlī s of the later phases of the postclassical period understood uṣūl to be universal propositions that were underdetermined with respect to their evidentiary bases. Though the purpose of such propositions was to confer actionable certainty to particular legal effects, the later tradition imagined the main charge of uṣūl al-fiqh on a meta-theoretic level, i.e., to determine how such propositions could themselves be suitably grounded. In casting the discourse within the framework of naturalized technical methods and distinctions from fields of logic and philosophy, the tradition generally granted the relational and systemic validity of each proposition in terms of the grounding it received from another underdetermined proposition. This second-order perspective of the tradition reveals that uṣūl were systemically and relationally valid, but individually underdetermined. Thus the application of the attribute of relational validity to them and to the effects for which they are serviceable is apt.

Stepwise training supports strategic second-order theory of mind in turn-taking games

AbstractPeople model other people’s mental states in order to understand and predict their behavior. Sometimes they model what others think about them as well: “He thinks that I intend to stop.” Such second-order theory of mind is needed to navigate some social situations, for example, to make optimal decisions in turn-taking games. Adults sometimes find this very difficult. Sometimes they make decisions that do not fit their predictions about the other player. However, the main bottleneck for decision makers is to take a second-order perspective required to make a correct opponent model. We report a methodical investigation into supporting factors that help adults do better. We presented subjects with two-player, three-turn games in which optimal decisions required second-order theory of mind (Hedden and Zhang, 2002). We applied three “scaffolds” that, theoretically, should facilitate second-order perspective-taking: 1) stepwise training, from simple one-person games to games requiring second-order theory of mind; 2) prompting subjects to predict the opponent’s next decision before making their own decision; and 3) a realistic visual task representation. The performance of subjects in the eight resulting combinations shows that stepwise training, but not the other two scaffolds, improves subjects’ second-order opponent models and thereby their own decisions.

The will to live – breast cancer patients perceptions’ of palliative chemotherapy

Background: For women with metastatic breast cancer, late lines of chemotherapy might be beneficial but also harmful. Ongoing chemotherapy late in life increase the risk of late or absent discussions of palliative care and access to symptom relief by other options than chemotherapy. Our aim was, therefore, to investigate breast cancer patients’ motives, perceptions, and experiences of late lines of palliative oncologic treatment.Material and methods: A qualitative study with semi-guided face-to-face interviews with 20 women on at least their second line of palliative chemotherapy (second–eighth line). All women had breast cancer and were 40–80 years old. The interviews were analyzed by a phenomenographical approach according to seven steps, which uses a second-order perspective, i.e., how the informants experience the world.Results: The categories that surrounded the decision to continue with palliative chemotherapy were: The decision, Personal motives and goals and The treatment. All women acknowledged that they knew they had incurable breast cancer and that the treatment goal was to slow down cancer growth. Fear of death was a strong motive for all women in addition to experience of new values of life, still they preferred the doctor to make the decision. Cancer symptoms, especially pain triggered death anxiety, whereas the patients patiently accepted similar side effects from the treatment. There were also external motives for treatment like wishes from family, friends, but also health care staff.Conclusions: All women knew they had disseminated breast cancer, still they expressed hopes for cure, therefore, death was more of a threat than a reality of an imminent death. None of the women had perceived there was an option to stop treatment. They felt both their families and doctors expected them to continue. Death threat was their main motive for accepting treatment.

Logistic Mixed Models to Investigate Implicit and Explicit Belief Tracking.

We investigated the proposition of a two-systems Theory of Mind in adults’ belief tracking. A sample of N = 45 participants predicted the choice of one of two opponent players after observing several rounds in an animated card game. Three matches of this card game were played and initial gaze direction on target and subsequent choice predictions were recorded for each belief task and participant. We conducted logistic regressions with mixed effects on the binary data and developed Bayesian logistic mixed models to infer implicit and explicit mentalizing in true belief and false belief tasks. Although logistic regressions with mixed effects predicted the data well a Bayesian logistic mixed model with latent task- and subject-specific parameters gave a better account of the data. As expected explicit choice predictions suggested a clear understanding of true and false beliefs (TB/FB). Surprisingly, however, model parameters for initial gaze direction also indicated belief tracking. We discuss why task-specific parameters for initial gaze directions are different from choice predictions yet reflect second-order perspective taking.

Phenomenography: A Missed Method in Medical Research

SummaryResearch is an approach with which human beings can attempt to answer questions and discover the unknowns. Research methodology is something that is determined by the researcher’s attitude toward the universe as well as by the question he is trying to answer. Some essential questions regarding the research process are: “What is the nature of reality?”, “What is the nature of the relationship between the scholar and the subject of interest?”, and “How can one understand the subject, and what are the methods?”. Research approaches can be categorized as quantitative and qualitative. In the former, measurement, prediction, and control are the bases, while in the latter, exploring, describing, and explaining the phenomena are fundamental. Among qualitative research methods, phenomenography is one of the newest methods. However, in spite of proving to be useful in various disciplines, it has yet to become popular, and many scholars mistake it for phenomenology. The focus of phenomenography is on what is known as the second-order perspective and the different ways that people can experience the same phenomenon, while phenomenology primarily emphasizes the first-order perspective and the similar essences that are derived from various experiences. This article aims to provide a better understanding of phenomenography through explaining it and comparing it with phenomenology in order to facilitate its proper and timely application in medical studies.

Material Agency as Counter-Performativity: A Second-Order Perspective

The nature of material agency has been questioned, dismissed, and debated but never quite resolved. In this paper we return to an examination of what is material agency, how does it manifest itself...

Everyone Knows the Game: Legal Consciousness in the Hawaiian Cockfight

Past legal consciousness research has revealed a great deal about what individuals think and do with regard to law, but less attention has been paid to the social processes that underpin these attitudes, beliefs, and actions. This article focuses particularly on a “second-order” layer of legal consciousness: people's perceptions about how others understand the law. Ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with cockfighters in rural Hawaii reveal how law enforcement practices not only affect cockfighting rituals, but are embedded within them. Police practices and informal rules work in concert to shape fighters' second-order beliefs. These beliefs have implications for participants' understanding of central concepts, including order, disorder, and illegality. Examining legal consciousness from a second-order perspective also underscores that notions of legitimacy are constantly created and recreated. Recognizing legitimacy's inherently relational nature helps us understand how experiences of law are synthesized into beliefs—for example, when an unusual police action directed toward a subgroup of fighters compromised the law's legitimacy for them. Foregrounding the relational nature of legal consciousness offers scholars a means to better understand and operationalize the dynamic nature of human relationships to law.