Subjectivist Perspective Research Articles

Exploring the bearing of subjective preferences on site selection processes

Abstract. The German site selection process aims to find a site for a deep geological repository that is characterized by the best possible safety (Deutscher Bundestag, 2020). This search involves successive decisions regarding the exclusion or preference of subareas, siting regions, and sites. Although founding such decisions on purely objective grounds would be preferable, the influence of subjective values and preferences on decisions cannot be neglected. In decision theory, goal setting as well as the choice and aggregation of the criteria used to achieve the goal are known to depend on subjective values and preferences (Laux et al., 2012). From a subjectivist perspective, normative propositions (which state how things ought to be) are propositions about subjective preferences (Kutschera, 1982). Site selection is guided by normative and, therefore, subjectively influenced statements on how “best possible safety” ought to be understood, which safety criteria ought to be regarded as suitable, and how criteria ought to be aggregated and evaluated. Therefore, subjective preferences have the potential to influence the outcome of the site selection process. However, does that mean that the site selection process can take an arbitrary course? In contrast, do regulations sufficiently limit the latitude for subjective preferences in the decision process? The presentation will discuss these questions based on interim results of the METIENS (Methoden, Bewertungskriterien und transparente Entscheidungsprozesse zur Identifikation eines Endlagerstandortes mit bestmöglicher Sicherheit) research project, which is carried out by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE). Since January 2022, METIENS has investigated the fundamental challenges of a site selection process that is characterized by high variability with respect to host rocks, safety concepts, and repository concepts, as in the German case. The project identifies possible ways to evaluate and compare the safety of potential repository sites, and it investigates the objective or subjective grounds on which they can be justified. The project follows the decision-theoretic structure of the problem of site selection by clarifying “best possible safety” and identifying operational and compatible target systems and safety indicators for this goal. The presentation will provide examples of unavoidable subjective decisions in the evaluation of safety. It will point out why subjectivity does not necessarily imply arbitrariness. Moreover, the possibility of acceptable subjective preferences and the specific role of regulations are discussed.

Neo adult learners’ instructional learning model in higher learning education

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is important for lifelong learning, allowing adults to acquire new skills, update their knowledge, and stay relevant in an ever-evolving job market. A notable area for improvement is observed in the availability of a comprehensive framework to direct the formulation of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) environments that aptly cater to the requisites of adult learners. There needs to be a comprehensive framework to guide the design of ODL environments that meet the needs of adult learners and which is supported by adult learning theories, online knowledge construction, and technology acceptance. This paper examines the instructional designs intended to improve adult learner achievement and meet the self-empowerment needs of adult working students. The research will investigate the theories and perspectives on adult learning in higher education based on the existing literature. This research proposes the existence, relatedness, and growth (ERG) theory and the Heutagogy principle to capture the needs of adult learners from both positivist and subjectivist perspectives.

From egology to ecology

In this article, I ask how we should approach environmental issues from an epistemological point of view. Indeed, the living world seems to escape either a naturalistic or a subjectivist perspective. Then, what it is to perceive and know one's environment? This implies rethinking the notion of environment beyond subjectivism and naturalism. I propose to criticise Husserl's egology using some arguments borrowed from the ecological theory of perception, and opposing egology with ecology, understood as a conception that takes as its starting point the relationship of a living being to its milieu, in the light of Watsuji.

Moral Imagination, the Collective Desirable, and Strategic Purpose

In contrast to the prevalent outside-in perspectives on corporate purpose as a response to competing normative demands of stakeholders, we introduce an inside-out perspective on purpose as based in firm-specific, agentic commitments to specific values, ideals, and societal goals. Drawing on moral philosophy, we propose how strategists can develop a strategic purpose through moral imagination that involves developing shaping intentions based in values and ideals, empathetic relating, and imaginativeness in stakeholder contexts. These processes support the generation of an emergent theory of value, which we term “the collective desirable.” This theory of value—a creative synthesis of the shaping intentions of the firm, and the interests and perspectives of stakeholders—provides the foundation of purpose, which is strategic, dynamic, and generative for the firm and its stakeholders. Such a strategic purpose becomes an organizational logic of action enacted through designated processes for articulation, maintenance, and evolvability, and through blueprints for credible commitments and resource allocations. By theorizing the microfoundations of an agentic, inside-out view of purpose, our theoretical framework articulates a set of mechanisms through which strategists can develop a strategic purpose that is tightly linked to the firm’s future-oriented strategy and the exercise of moral leadership. Our conception of moral imagination as a form of prosocial prospective cognition contributes a novel perspective to the socio-cognitive and subjectivist perspectives on strategy and extends the microfoundations of strategy.History: This paper has been accepted for the Strategy Science Special Issue on Corporate Purpose.

Motivasi Terselebung Gerakan Politik dan Fundamentalis terhadap Muslim

Fundamentalism, in the dictionary Theories and Schools in Philosophy and Theology is a view that emerged in 1909 and is used generally to designate a particular style of conservative Protestantism. Fundamentalism's aim is to preserve the foundations of faith and to combat attempts to reinterpret the Bible and theology in the light of modern knowledge. There are two approaches to understanding the symptoms of fundamentalism, namely objectivism and subjectivism. From an objectivist perspective, it is understood that fundamentalism arises because religious texts provide such legitimacy. From a subjectivist perspective, which places individuals as subjects who actively define their lives with the outside world, all fundamentalism is not only understood because religious texts teach it that way. As stated above, that the outside world is also an entity that also influences a person in internalizing his religious teachings. The attitude of the Batu Bara people towards political and fundamentalist movements is still very strong and rooted among the elders and native sons of the Batu Bara area who adhere to Malay cultural customs. Batu Bara, which is located in Pesisir Pantai, is one of the regencies in the province of North Sumatra where the majority of the people are ethnic Malays.
 Keywords: Fundamentalism, School, Politics

Get ready...get set...go! A new entrant programme for social workers in mental health

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has found that many social work new graduates donot feel that they come to their work in mental health with sufficient knowledge. One way of remedying this is using post-qualifying New Entrant to Specialist Programmes (NESP), where social workers gain additional knowledge and skills in a particular field of practice. METHODS: A small-scale research project was conducted with five social workers whohad recently completed a NESP qualification within a district health board (DHB) setting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain deep information from participants in line with a subjectivist perspective. FINDINGS: Participants indicated that they had found the NESP qualification useful in improving their confidence and competence in their early practice years. They found the programmewas useful in decreasing a sense of isolation by bringing them together with other social workers, or members of other disciplines, and they appreciated the skills and support they had received from their group supervision experience. The greatest challenges revolved around time constraints and they wished for more social-work-specific and cultural content within their programmes. CONCLUSIONS: The programmes appear to serve an important function in improving competence and confidence for social workers new to the field of mental health. Social work’s commitments to social justice and Te Tiriti o Waitangi need to continue to be pulled through into post-qualifying programmes and a sense of professional identity needs to be nurtured within medically oriented settings.

Mapping the use of knowledge in policymaking: barriers and facilitators from a subjectivist perspective (1990–2020)

The use of knowledge and evidence in policymaking is a recurrent topic of research due to its scientific and policy relevance. The existing and expansive body of literature has been scrutinised in various ways to grasp the dimensions of knowledge utilisation in policymaking, although most of this research has a monosectoral focus and is based on very general criteria of analysis that do not completely account for the complexity of policy making. This paper overcomes this limitation by enlightening the epistemological divide in the field between an objectivist and a subjectivist perspective and by distinguishing two different focuses in this literature: a focus on knowledge for policy making and a focus on knowledge in policy making. Based on this analytical distinction, the paper presents an original and unprecedented systematic, intersectoral metareview by considering the thirty-year period between 1990 and 2020 (approximately 1,400 were selected for fine-grained analysis). This metareview offers a broader and more detailed map with a clear idea of the distribution of interest in the topic among the different policy fields, a better classification of the theoretical/empirical content and research goals that scholars adopt and a novel and, above all, more fine-grained perspective on the types of conditions that favour or disfavour a significant role of knowledge in policymaking. Ultimately, and above all, this metareview identifies three highly relevant components of policy making that can facilitate or constrain the use of knowledge in policymaking more than others: values/ideology/beliefs, actors’ relationships, and policy capacities.

Why the divine purpose theory fails: a conversation with Thaddeus Metz

ABSTRACT Thaddeus Metz’s new book ‘God, Soul and the Meaning of Life’ presents a brief analysis of supernaturalist views about the meaning of life – my specific concern being the Divine purpose theory. While the view locates meaning in the fulfilment of some divine mandate, I show that this theory is, at best, unattractive. In this essay, I challenge the view that a belief in God is not necessary for the Divine purpose theory to be viable. I show that if we were to agree that a belief in God is inconceivable, then a theory built on such a belief is, at best, wishful thinking. Arguing from a subjectivist perspective, I make clear the fact that any recourse to a godly mandate as what makes life meaningful inadvertently assumes an extrinsic and instrumental character, which makes such a pursuit an unattractive form of meaningfulness. Finally, I show that the God purpose theory is much too narrow as it fails to capture other paths to meaningfulness that do not involve a recourse to God, and also that any assigned purpose is unnecessary (and, therefore, unattractive), if God is all-knowing, all-powerful, etc.

Em busca do conhecimento moral

Neste artigo, depois de esclarecer aspectos da pretensão de objetividade dos juízos morais comuns e aspectos gerais da epistemologia moral, apresento e analiso a possibilidade da existência e obtenção de crenças morais verdadeiras, primeiramente, em posições céticas contrárias a tal, como na perspectiva niilista da teoria do erro e na subjetivista das teorias relativistas (social e individual), depois, em segundo lugar, em duas posições favoráveis ao conhecimento moral, a realista naturalista e a realista não-naturalista ou intuicionista. Uma perspectiva normalmente considerada contrária à existência e obtenção de crenças morais verdadeiras é a expressivista, mas neste artigo sugiro e esboço como ela, ou ao menos algumas de suas versões mais sofisticadas, pode ser epistemicamente amistosa na busca por conhecimento moral, num sentido mais fraco do conceito.

Many Roads Lead to Rome: How Human, Social, and Financial Capital Are Related to New Venture Survival

Given variance in entrepreneurs’ capital endowments, the question of sufficient (or insufficient) starting conditions enabling a pathway to survival is critical in entrepreneurship. Drawing on the subjectivist theory of entrepreneurship (STE), we adopt a configurational approach. Our results show how combinations of human and social capital are related to survival while overreliance on financial capital is not. From a subjectivist perspective, we reveal a potential gap between identifying and exploiting an opportunity. The findings provide some novel insights that help reframe conflicting results as to whether capital endowments are substitutes or complements.

Happiness, Psychology, and Degrees of Realism.

The recent emphasis on a realist ontology that cannot be overshadowed by subjectivist or relativist perspectives seems to have a number of consequences for psychology as well. My attempt here is to analyse the relationship between happiness as a state of the individual and the states of the external world and the brain events related to (or, in some hypotheses, causally responsible for) its occurrence. It can be maintained that different degrees of realism are suitable to describe the states of happiness and this fact might have relevant psychological implications, namely for the so-called positive psychology. This is especially true now that there are methods available to induce subjective states of happiness unrelated to the external conditions usually taken to be linked to such states.

Biological Agency: Its Subjective Foundations and a Large-Scale Taxonomy.

We will outline a theory of agency cast in theoretical psychology, viewed as a branch of a non-eliminativist biology. Our proposal will be based on an evolutionary view of the nature and functioning of the mind(s), reconsidered in a radically subjectivist, radically constructivist framework. We will argue that the activities of control systems should be studied in terms of interaction. Specifically, what an agent does belongs to the coupling of its internal dynamics with the dynamics of the external world. The internal dynamics, rooted in the species' phylogenetic history as well as in the individual's ontogenetic path, (a) determine which external dynamics are relevant to the organism, that is, they create the subjective ontology that the organism senses in the external world, and (b) determine what types of activities and actions the agent is able to conceive of and to adopt in the current situation. The external dynamics that the organism senses thus constitute its subjective environment. This notion of coupling is basically suitable for whichever organism one may want to consider. However, remarkable differences exist between the ways in which coupling may be realized, that is, between different natures and ways of functioning of control systems. We will describe agency at different phylogenetic levels: at the very least, it is necessary to discriminate between non-Intentional species, Intentional species, and a subtype of the latter called meta-Intentional. We will claim that agency can only be understood in a radically subjectivist perspective, which in turn is best grounded in a view of the mind as consciousness and experience. We will thus advance a radically constructivist view of agency and of several correlate notions (like meaning and ontology).

Gênero e Tendências Contemporâneas: uma análise do Seminário Internacional “Desfazendo Gênero” / Gender and Contemporary Trends: an analysis of the international seminar “Undoing gender”

Palavras-chave - Marxismo. Pos-modernidade. Seminario Desfazendo Genero. ABSTRACT - This study aims to examine how the discussion about gender category has been going on currently. For that, we seek to analyze the published productions in the annals of the International Seminar Undoing Gender, held in 2013, in Natal (RN), because it is an event which discusses the gender category and as the event's name suggests, the proposal is deconstruct / undo the genre, that is, we see the influence of queer theory since event the title. The criterion for choosing sample was oral communications that contained the word gender in its title, considering that this is the focus of our discussion. It analyzed 51 works and it found the prevalence of analyzes related to queer theory. In these studies, that are based on subjectivist perspectives, there is, in our view, an excessive appreciation of speech, encouraging individualism and superficiality, favoring therefore the order of the capital.

From Necessity to Possibility

This article applies theories of fragmented postmodern identity and Heidegger’s modes of existence and concept of historicality to the issue of passing and traces the treatment of that motif across six African American novels that move from the largely realistic perspective of the 19th century to the subjectivist perspective of the early 20th century. These novels thus foreshadow the postmodernist questioning of the basis of discrete personal identity. The article claims that, across these novels, the act of passing and its relationship to human identity through time and historical circumstance becomes problematized from a necessary tool for escaping slavery, and so sustaining identity in its most basic form as life itself, to a potential existential dilemma of identity as a matter of authenticity and possibility. The article further discusses whether the individual is constrained by his or her background, especially, by race itself, or is a totally free, ungrounded agent.

The Role of the Subjectivist Position in the Probabilization of Forensic Science

This paper is concerned with the contribution of forensic science to the legal process by helping reduce uncertainty. Although it is now widely accepted that uncertainty should be handled by probability because it is a safeguard against incoherent proceedings, there remain diverging and conflicting views on how probability ought to be interpreted. This is exemplified by the proposals in scientific literature that call for procedures of probability computation that are referred to as objective, suggesting that scientists ought to use them in their reporting to recipients of expert information. I find such proposals objectionable. They need to be viewed cautiously, essentially because ensuing probabilistic statements can be perceived as making forensic science prescriptive. A motivating example from the context of forensic DNA analysis will be chosen to illustrate this. As a main point, it shall be argued that such constraining suggestions can be avoided by interpreting probability as a measure of personal belief, that is, subjective probability. Invoking references to foundational literature from mathematical statistics and philosophy of science, the discussion will explore the consequences of this interdisciplinary viewpoint for the practice of forensic expert reporting. It will be emphasized that–as an operational interpretation of probability–the subjectivist perspective enables forensic science to add value to the legal process, in particular by avoiding inferential impasses to which other interpretations of probability may lead. Moreover, understanding probability from a subjective perspective can encourage participants in the legal process to take on more responsibility in matters regarding the coherent handling of uncertainty. This would assure more balanced interactions at the interface between science and the law. This, in turn, provides support for ongoing developments that can be called the probabilization of forensic science.

Changing epistemologies under conditions of social change in two Arab communities in Israel.

The study of epistemic thinking focuses on how people understand and coordinate objective and subjective aspects of knowing and make sense of multiple and discrepant knowledge claims. Typically described in terms of normative development, cross-cultural studies show differences in epistemic development and characteristics of epistemic thinking. This study focuses on within-culture variations of epistemic thinking, with the assumption that social change will produce changes in development. Arab society in Israel has undergone notable change over the last half century. In this cross-sectional research design, cross-generational comparison and rural-urban comparison were used as proxies for longitudinal social change. Three generations of Muslim Arab women in a village in Israel (20 adolescents, 20 mothers and 20 grandmothers) and 20 Muslim Arab adolescents from a large, mixed city in the same region responded to six dilemmas invoking epistemic thinking. Village adolescents were more subjectivist than their mothers and grandmothers. Sociodemographic characteristics representing greater exposure to diverse people and ideas accounted for generational differences. Both urban and rural adolescents tended towards subjectivist perspectives, and they did not differ. Parents' education levels emerged as the sociodemographic variables most consistently related to epistemic thinking. Epistemic thinking mediated the relationship between generation and gender role/cross-sex relation values.

The Life and Times of Aboutness: A Review of the Library and Information Science Literature

Objective – This paper explores the concept of “aboutness”, its related terms, and the process of aboutness determination as found in the Library and Information Science Literature.
 
 Methods – A review of the literature pertaining to aboutness determination and related terms specific to Library and Information Science was undertaken, borrowing extensively from the literature review of Daniel Joudrey’s (2005) dissertation, Building puzzles and growing pearls: A qualitative exploration of determining aboutness, as well as examining a small selection of research and articles not discussed by Joudrey. In addition, a concept map was developed to outline many of the concepts and theories found.
 
 Results – The LIS literature demonstrates conflicting positions surrounding the term aboutness and its correlates. Despite the lack of firm agreement on terminologies, the notion of subject is explored because it featured prominently in the literature. As well, intensional and extensional aboutness are explored in contrast to a more subjectivist perspective which asserts that a document's aboutness cannot be separated from its reader. Aboutness determination is also examined through the lens of theme and rheme, that is what is presupposed in a document versus what is new. Aboutness from the user perspective featured considerably in the literature, with many authors asserting both the importance and the challenge of mediating knowledge on behalf of the user. The stage of aboutness determination in the complete process of subject indexing is also presented here, and the findings demonstrate that the stages are anything but linear and sequential.
 
 Conclusion – While the findings are more expositional than conclusive, they demonstrate the complexities and challenges surrounding the concept of “aboutness” and the process of its determination. The value of this review is in its ability to present the ways in which scholars and practitioners have attempted to grapple with this conundrum. Although indexers may find temporary solace in cataloguing manuals that outline aboutness determination procedures, underneath these “safe surfaces” is an ambiguous concept further complicated by obscure and incomplete processes. This review provides an opportunity to reflect on those challenges and to further the discussion.

Regulations and Technology Diffusion: Cross Subsidies and Digital Infrastructure Creation

ABSTRACTUsing contemporary historical data, the analysis has examined the impact of cross‐subsidization on technology diffusion within telecommunications networks for local exchange sector telecommunications firms in the United States for the years 1995 to 2000. Firms obtaining greater cross‐subsidies engage in greater technology diffusion via network modernization using digital technologies. Contingent on the institutional setting, cross subsidies have risen. These amounts have been put to relevant use in the diffusion of technology via deployment of digital infrastructure. The principles of subsidization are considered negatively as they have presumed anti‐competitive consequences. In technology diffusion they have played a positive role, as the evidence shows. From a radical subjectivist perspective, cross subsidies generate financial capital for firms, which permits them to deploy high quality technology investments such as broadband and these investments can be used for entrepreneurial experiments in providing several customer services.

A Perspective-Based Understanding of Project Success

Answering the call for alternative approaches to researching project management, we explore the evaluation of project success from a subjectivist perspective. An in-depth, longitudinal case study of information systems development in a large manufacturing company was used to investigate how various project stakeholders subjectively perceived the project outcome and what evaluation criteria they drew on in doing so. A conceptual framework is developed for understanding and analyzing evaluations of project success, both formal and informal. The framework highlights how different stakeholder perspectives influence the perceived outcome(s) of a project, and how project evaluations may differ between stakeholders and across time.

Ethical expertise and Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs)

In setting national standards for the ethical review of human research in Australia, the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research(NS) (2007) does not aim to be exhaustively prescriptive, and so requires a degree of ethical reflection when applying the principles of research merit and integrity, justice, beneficence and respect. There are two broad ways in which this need for ethical reflection can be understood. On an objectivist interpretation, an adequate levelof ethical expertise is required to ensure the informed application and implementation of these principles. From a subjectivist perspective, recourse to the 'community view' or common-sense morality provides an adequate basis for ethical reflection. The primary purpose of this article is to argue that the NSis itself an exercise in objectivist research ethics, but that what weknow of the current practices ofHRECs is more consistent with a subjectivist approach to ethical reflection, and that this mismatch is best addressed by improving the level of ethical expertise brought to bear in the ethical review of human research. The secondary purpose of this article is to briefly suggest ways of achieving this improvement within the parameters of a de-centralised system of review such as we have in Australia, yet also to hopefully stimulate debate as to whether this need to improve the level of expertise, ethical and otherwise, might best be served by moving towards a more centralised and professionalised system of ethical review.