Terms Of Social Background Research Articles

Teaching Virtues in the Military

ABSTRACT In parts I and II, this article briefly sketches two approaches to virtue ethics – those taken by Aristotle and the contemporary exemplarist moral theory of Linda Zagzebski – with an eye to providing resources for miliary educators. Each section concludes with remarks about the pros and cons of the author’s experiences of teaching these theories to undergraduates. Part III deals with the social articulation of morality and its implications for war crimes. The social articulation of morality is the idea that moral principles cannot be applied in the abstract, but must be interpreted in terms of social backgrounds and norms. This draws on War Crimes: Causes, Excuses, and Blame (2019) by Talbert and Wolfendale, who consider how social articulations of morality led the military in various countries to commit war crimes in the mistaken belief that they were acting in accordance with moral principles. Democratic countries have commitments to free speech that enable us to resist such abuses. The implications for military education are that virtues such as intellectual discernment should be joined with discussions of ethical issues to ensure that future military leaders do not fall prey to false moral narratives.

Research on the Construction of Public Management Discipline Under the Background of New Liberal Arts

Under the background of new liberal arts, the construction of public management discipline should be based on the social times, the goal of talent cultivation, and the characteristics of the discipline itself, so as to meet the requirements of new liberal arts. In terms of social background, the public management discipline should not only respond to the new problems arising from the technological revolution, but also to the problems of national governance in the new era. In terms of the goal of talent cultivation, the public management discipline should not only cultivate public management professionals but also undertake the basic task of establishing virtue and cultivating talents. In terms of the characteristics of the discipline itself, the public management discipline should highlight the functional advantages of humanistic education, comprehensive discipline, and social service.

Islam, Travel, and Learning

This article focuses on the study of the relationship between Islam, travel, and learning by conducting a case study on Indonesian Muslim students who studied (or are studying) in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, it examines the changing dynamics of these students who traveled, immigrated to, and studied in Saudi Arabia in search of knowledge from previous centuries to the contemporary era. This article shows that Indonesian students in this peninsula are deeply plural and complex, far from being a monolithic group in terms of social background, religious affiliation, political orientation, major field of study, and motive of their study, among other factors. Thus, the present article aims at demystifying and challenging the common beliefs and narratives which hold that Saudi Arabia–trained Indonesian students have been exporters of Islamist intolerance, radicalism, or even terrorism.

Can Tinder bring social cohesion?

People often marry people who are just like them--similar in terms of social background, world view and race. Online dating may be changing that, however, breaking people out of their existing social circles. Economists Josue Ortega at the University of Essex, UK, and Philipp Hergovich at the University of Vienna, Austria, suggest it could even lead to more integrated societies. Before the first dating websites appeared in the 1990s, most people would meet dates through existing networks of friends or colleagues. But the rise of dating sites like Match.com and apps like Tinder has made online dating the norm for many.

Russian Journalists in Ukraine: Caught in Limbo?

Since the 2004 Orange Revolution, Ukrainian media have provided a number of Russian journalists an alternative place to continue their career, whether they were looking for a comparatively free and pluralistic media space, a new job, or safety. The number of Russian media professionals in Ukraine increased in the subsequent years. Euromaidan and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by Russia’s military intervention in Donbas, have contributed to decisions to move or extend their stay in Ukraine. However, these events have also complicated the position of Russian journalists in Ukraine. This paper seeks to explore the challenges connected with being a Russian journalist and working in Ukraine-based media during Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. This population of migrant media workers has arrived from an aggressor country, where mainstream media have been producing manipulative anti-Ukrainian discourse. They are diverse in terms of social backgrounds and migration histories, but mostly are qualified and experienced professionals. They do not form a tightly knit migrant community, and do not work for media outlets targeting such a community. This article addresses the experiences of a number of these media personalities, drawing upon a series of interviews conducted in late 2015, and open source materials. I argue that the Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the ongoing conflict have had a significant impact on Russian migrant journalists in Ukraine, by providing a migration context, influencing their work ethics and making them particularly sensitive to the ideas of responsibility and journalistic subjectivity.

A power elite in the cultural field. A story of Norwegian neo-corporatism

The organizational culture elite is studied as a new elite group emerging within a stable neo-corporatist state. Does this new elite adopt existing modes of operation or place itself at bay from the more established elite groups? The emergence of and changes in the culture elite are discussed from a historical perspective in terms of social background, recruitment processes, occupational careers, gender composition, political outlooks, lobbying, and media strategies. The culture elite is systematically compared to two other elites: the university elite, the most similar among the elites, and the economic elite, assumedly representing the greatest contrast. Despite special characteristics in the social situations and political views of the culture elite, it is concluded that the mode of operation of this group indicates a high degree of adaptability to the general system of elites. A main reason is assumed to be the integrative power and liberal quality of the state in a neo-corporatist regime.

Up and Down, Old and New: Values and Value Systems of MPs and Voters in France

MPs are often criticised as being homogeneous. This is well known in terms of social background or gender, but the criticism also holds for values and norms. MPs are said to share normative agreements on the essential points and demonstrate differences on second-order issues. This criticism is even more widespread regarding the new politics based on the cultural divide, notably vis-à-vis politicians from the extreme right as far as immigration, European integration or globalisation are concerned. In this contribution, these criticisms are addressed by investigating the degree of normative agreements and disagreements of French MPs. Furthermore, the differences both in old and new politics between MPs on the one hand and the electorate as a whole and their supporters on the other hand are evaluated. It is concluded that MPs are definitely not all the same and the degrees of difference among MPs or with the electorate are far from being those expected.

Smuts’s Generals: Towards a First Portrait of the South African High Command, 1912-1948

This paper is the first attempt to analyse the at least 61 men who held general or flag rank in the Union Defence Force (UDF) or served as section heads in the General Staff Section during this period. The difficult politico-strategic environment in which the UDF was established in 1912 is sketched first. A quantitative overview of the men considered in this study is then presented, followed by some multiple career-line analysis from which a number of prosopographical trends are painted. The evidence suggests that the South African general staff was diverse in terms of social background, education, force of origin, and combat experience. It was also far less ‘British’ than has been previously suggested. Competition, factionalism, and aggressive lobbying brought several upheavals in the corps of South African generals. Political considerations, at key times, counted for more in the selection and promotion lists than did experience and ability.

KP Evidence-Based Medicine in the Community

KP Evidence-Based Medicine in the Community

Salivary cortisol and heart rate in stunted and nonstunted Nepalese school children.

To test the hypothesis that stunted Nepalese children have an altered stress response system when compared with matched nonstunted children in response to a battery of psychological tests. Case-control study. Poor urban areas of Kathmandu, Nepal. A total of 64 stunted (less than -2 s.d. height-for-age) children compared with 64 nonstunted (> -1s.d. height-for-age) schoolchildren between 8 and 10 y old matched for school and sex. A psychological test session was administered, which included mental arithmetic and two tests of working memory. Salivary cortisol samples were obtained at five points during testing, and heart rate was measured during testing and also at baseline. Salivary cortisol samples were also obtained once early in the morning. Hemoglobin was assessed at the testing session, and extensive data were obtained on the social background of the children's families. Stunted Nepalese children showed a blunted physiologic response (salivary cortisol and heart rate) to psychological stressors (P<0.05) when compared with nonstunted children, but were not different from the nonstunted children in baseline measures, when controlling for social background. The two groups were not different in terms of social background. These findings suggest that childhood growth retardation may be associated with changes in physiological arousal, and that stunting could be associated with hyporesponsivity in response to psychological stress.

Social exclusion and public policy: the relationship between local school admission arrangements and segregation by poverty

Examines patterns of social exclusion in the compulsory school system of England and Wales. Suggests that the weakening of local government control of the school system from the 1980s onwards led to a very real fear that market forces would lead to increased polarisation of school intakes and results in terms of social background. Lists key policy changes and early research relevant to the increased use of market forces in compulsory education. Describes the methods used to investigate the impact of this policy change on the secondary school system. Summarises the findings before presenting some tentative explanations and conclusion. States that the Local Education Authority still have a significant role to play.

Social Networks and Psychological Conditions in Diet Preferences: Gourmets and Vegetarians

The importance of diet as a means of self-expression has yet to be examined closely enough in terms of a social phenomenon; instead, historians, sociologists and anthropologists tend to see food habits as being the natural and rational standards in society. Two groups, self-defined as gourmets or vegetarians, were examined through questionnaires administered by two magazines: the respondents were rated in terms of social background and mobility, psychological data, and current friendship networks, and the manner in which these various characteristics were linked to their eating preferences. The responses seem to indicate that in these particular groups, food becomes an analogical representation of the self: gourmets try to integrate a large, fluid, cosmopolitan middle-class culture, while vegetarians define themselves negatively and create strong boundaries against the general society.

School Sport Socialization: A Test of Differential Effects for Disadvantaged Youth

This study examined the role of athletic participation in affecting educational aspirations of disadvantaged youth, namely, those students for whom traditional opportunities for developing educational motivations have been restrictive. Using Coleman's leading crowd theory, it was hypothesized that disadvantaged students who were members of the interscholastic sports program would be exposed to a positive peer-group influence unavailable to their nonathletic counterparts. A national representative sample of 1,799 male high school seniors from the Youth in Transition project were used. Disadvantaged youth were defined in terms of social background and school attitudinal/behavioral factors. An interaction-regression modeling strategy for educational aspirations indicated that the interaction models did not significantly contribute to the explanation of educational aspirations. These findings resulted in the conclusion that sport participation's impact on educational aspirations was not greater for disadvantaged youth. It was suggested that the incorporation of social and psychological factors of socialization into more complex sport models is necessary in order to assess the true impact of sport participation on educational concerns.

Delinquent girls before the courts.

One hundred and twenty-six delinquent girls are compared with 730 boys drawn from the same population of schoolchildren in terms of the pattern of their delinquency, certain socio-demographic background characteristics and their disposal by the courts. The prevalence, frequency and seriousness of female delinquency is found to be much less than that of the boys. However, in terms of social background and offence behaviour the similarities are more marked than any differences. Sex-related offences form an insignificant part of female delinquency. Courts show a slight tendency to deal more severely with females. Caution in the use of institutional samples for the study of female delinquency is suggested.

Success and Failure of Adult Probationers in California

This paper reports the findings of a study that related a series of background and treatment variables to the likelihood of success or failure on probation for 791 California adult offenders. Thirteen variables on which the 415 probation successes and the 376 failures differed significantly were divided into three catego ries: social background, antisocial behavior, and conditions of probation. The greatest differences between the two groups were in the antisocial behavior category. Probationers with a past history of disciplinary problems in the mililary, a juvenile record, or an adult record were much more likely to fail on probation. The type of crime the failures commit (property: auto theft, check offenses, forgery) suggests elements of career offenders. In terms of social background, the failures were more likely to come from disadvantaged circumstances: lower educa tional level and lower socio-economic status. They are also more unstable, as reflected in a high incidence of marital instability and a greater tendency to move from job to job. Finally, certain conditions of probation, especially the ordering of restitution, were more prevalent in the case histories of the failures than of the successes.

Social Backgrounds and Judicial Decisions: Notes for a Theory

C URRENT INTERPRETATIONS of the judicial process, particularly that part of the process which involves the Supreme Court of the United States, have consistently assigned an important role to the social and political backgrounds of the judges in explaining decision-making behavior. Differing background characteristics and experiences have been hypothesized as being perhaps the major factors in understanding and predicting variant voting patterns of judges on appellate courts.' Such interpretations derive from so-called dynamic theories of the judicial process which picture the judge as a policy-oriented decision-maker who derives his premises both from within and without the courtroom, and whose functions far exceed the mechanical task of applying settled rules of law to clear fact situations. These theories have not usually specified the precise nature of the relationship between a judge's background experiences and his judicial work. They have eschewed the untenable hypothesis that judicial decisions can be explained solely in terms of social backgrounds. And they have accepted the notion that the judge operates in an institutional framework which places certain restraints on the pure