Themes Of Autonomy Research Articles

On the autonomy and homogeneity of Canadian English

ABSTRACT: This introduction to the symposium approaches the themes of autonomy and homogeneity in Canadian English from a historical perspective. We trace the debates on these topics back to the late 19th century and relate them to changing public attitudes toward Canadian linguistic autonomy over time. We review the scholarly evidence on autonomy and homogeneity and outline the evolving interpretations of these themes from earlier research to that of the present day. While much linguistic research in the 1980s and 1990s approached linguistic change in Canadian English in terms of “Americanization”, subsequent work has shown that a more nuanced interpretation is in order. We end with a brief review of the six papers in this symposium, in terms of our two themes: four deal with questions of homogeneity and heterogeneity, while two primarily address issues of linguistic autonomy and heteronomy. These papers reveal both common ground and diverging assessment of the data, which attests to a lively field of inquiry.

Self-Awareness and Social Change in Higher Education

This research examines the development of self-awareness in students as they strive to adapt themselves to their current environment. The significant social factors that immerge include; culture, religion, language; economic status, family integration and work experience. Also considered are the relationships of students with teachers and classmates in a more restricted academic context, a third concern is the theme of autonomy and how students adjust themselves to their field of study. Overall, these findings reinforce the important role of self-awareness as it helps students develop in an educational setting.

The Powerful Relational Language of ‘Family’: Togetherness, Belonging and Personhood

This article examines the notion of ‘family’ to consider how it may be understood in people's everyday lives. Certain recurrent and powerful motifs are apparent, notably themes of togetherness and belonging, in the context of a unit that the person can be ‘part of’. At the same time, there may be important variations in the meanings given to individuality and family, evoking differing understandings of the self and personhood. I consider these ideas further through globally relevant but variable cultural themes of autonomy and relationality, suggesting the term ‘social person’ as a heuristic device to distinguish the sense of ‘close-knit selves’ that may be involved in some understandings of personhood. I argue that this version of personhood may be powerfully expressed through ‘family’ meanings, with a significance which can be at least provisionally mapped along lines of inequality and disadvantage within and between societies around the world. These forms of connectedness may be hard to grasp through those theoretical and methodological frameworks which emphasize the (relational) individual. I argue that, in affluent English speaking societies,1there may be little alternative to the language of ‘family’ for expressing such forms of relationality and connection.

Electronic aids to daily living: be able to do what you want

Purpose. This study explores the experiences of Irish people with high cervical spinal cord injuries living with electronic aids to daily living (EADL) and the meaning attributed to such systems in the context of participation in everyday life.Method. Qualitative methodology using a phenomenological approach was used to explore the phenomenon of living with EADL. Data were collected using four focus groups of users and nonusers of EADL (n = 15). All participants had high cervical spinal cord injuries (C3-5). Groups were video recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using descriptive phenomenological analysis.Findings. Findings revealed key elements of the meaning of living with EADL. Two key themes, time alone and changed relationships are described. These contribute to the super ordinate theme of autonomy. Findings suggest that participants perceived improvements in both anticipated and actual lived experiences with EADL. Themes are interrelated and together represent a summary of the experience of living with environmental controls. The themes described are similar to those found in other spinal injury studies relating to quality of life.Conclusions. Findings highlight differences in life experiences for those with and without EADL and provides motivation to address this difference. Such insights are valuable for both users and providers of EADL.

Children’s and Parents’ Perspectives About Activity Performance and Participation After Spinal Cord Injury: Initial Development of a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure

To report on a cognitive testing study on newly constructed items designed to evaluate client-reported outcomes of activity performance and participation after spinal cord injury (SCI). Thirty-three children with SCI and 13 caregivers participated in cognitive testing interviews. Open-ended questions were used to gain a better understanding of activity performance and participation. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was carried out independently by 2 researchers, and key sentences and phrases from both analyses were merged. Four themes were defined: (1) apprehension related to activity performance and participation, (2) reference point, (3) missing out, and (4) autonomy. Insight into children's and caregivers' perspectives provided important information that helped refine the wording of test items and response scales. The theme of autonomy provided a stronger catalyst to solidify items for both child- and parent-reported outcomes. This study further validated the complexity of the construct of participation.

Human Autonomy, Law, and Technology

Scholars of technology have long puzzled over the question of the relationship between human societies and their technologies. Technological determinism suggests that the technologies present in a society have a determining effect on the structure of that society. Critics of this idea point out that the technologies are themselves developed by people within societies and so are themselves determined by the characteristics of those societies. It may be that the influence flows in both directions. The concept of the autonomy of technology suggests that human societies do not have very effective mechanisms to control and direct their technologies. Instead, those societies are more apt to adapt their structures and values to accommodate any efficient technologies that develop. The themes of autonomy and control thus arise in various ways in the consideration of the place of technology in human societies. While the ideas of technological determinism and the autonomy of technology tend to focus on the effects of technology at the social level, it is possible to consider the questions of control and autonomy at the individual level as well. At the level of the individual, it seems clear that many technologies support human autonomy and promote freedom by expanding human capacities for action. At the same time, individual human beings paradoxically come to feel obliged to adopt particular technologies in a manner that undermines their autonomy and freedom. This series of short articles addresses the theme of human autonomy, law, and technology. In the winter of 2009, Arthur Cockfield invited a group of scholars of law and technology to continue their joint conversation on the Law and Technology Theory Blog (http://techtheory.blogspot.com/). Each of us wrote a short piece containing reflections on this theme. The short articles have been revised for inclusion here in the Bulletin and are presented in the order in which they appeared on the Blog. In the rest of this short introduction, I provide a sketch of the main themes emerging from each article. Arthur Cockfield describes the competing views, first, that technologies are merely neutral instruments that humans choose or not and, second, that technologies have pervasive and unintended effects that undermine human autonomy. He explores how these two competing views might tend to lead legal policy makers in different directions in the context of the government deployment of surveillance technologies. Frank Pasquale explores the extent to which “neurocosmetic” pharmaceuticals challenge our understanding of human liberty and autonomy. He considers the external pressures that may limit a person’s freedom to reject cognitive enhancement. More fundamentally though, he points out that to the extent that these drugs interfere with the recognition of difficult truths and feelings, they may undermine the foundation of personal autonomy. Jennifer Chandler looks at the effect of technology on human autonomy through two lenses. First, she looks at collective self-determination, as expressed in the laws that we choose for self-governance. Here, the question is whether technological ideology tends to determine legal doctrines and outcomes rather than that the law controls technology. Second, she suggests various mechanisms to explain the sense that individuals may feel constrained to adopt specific technologies whether they wish to or not. Kieran Tranter approaches the relationship between human autonomy, law, and technology using three stories. The technological story of “human as tool user” suggests that technology is the essence of humanity and emancipates humans from natural limits. The legal story tells a tale of anarchy overcome through a social contract that enabled, among other things, the flowering of technology. He proposes a critique of both these stories—the autonomy story—and argues that we have choice and responsibility for the cultural narratives that we adopt to understand our technologies. Lyria Bennett Moses turns her gaze upon legal scholars and how they have responded to technological innovation as a field of legal study. She speculates about the reasons that lawyers may rush to publish on the legal implications of the latest technology. Lawyers may be dazzled by an exciting technology, but they may also be rushing to assert the continuing relevance and importance of the law (and themselves) in a rapidly changing technological society. Lisa Austin traces the evolution of the philosophy of technology and identifies the mutual enrichment that the philosophy of technology and legal scholarship might draw from one another. She discusses a recent skirmish in the “control wars” over personal information on the Internet and proposes a reimagining of the value of privacy that is inspired by the approach of the early philosophers of technology. Sam Trosow argues that it is essential to consider economics in seeking to understand the relationship between law, technology, and other social phenomena. He addresses the important role of economic analysis in the field of intellectual property law—a field that is central to the interaction of law and technology.

Commentary: Opening Up Perspectives on Autonomy and Relatedness in Parent—Children Dynamics: Anthropological Insights

Many studies have shown widely varying human child-rearing practices; no child is ever a tabula rasa in the eyes of the culture. The article by McShane et al. (2009) on parenting themes of autonomy and relatedness among Inuit migrants from the northern countryside to Ottawa, a medium-sized city and the capital of Canada, offers important findings on previously less-studied child-rearing among Inuit in that southern urban setting. More broadly, the article contributes insights into how child-rearing practices and beliefs reflect local conceptions of the person and the world, and how the child should be prepared to live in it. Issues raised here include the challenges of distinguishing among cultural, psychological, and political economic influences of migration, urbanization, and globalization, and delineating the ways in which intimate personal concepts interweave with wider forces in child-rearing. Also at issue are definitions of relatedness and autonomy, concepts which are widely deployed in cross-cultural studies of child-rearing, but which are based upon Western philosophical formulations, and which McShane et al. analyze in the Inuit urban case. These concepts are difficult to formulate in culture-’neutral’ or ‘etic’ terms. The article shows both the uses and the limitations of retaining analytical ‘odd-job’ concepts for heuristic purposes. The present commentary argues that it is necessary to deconstruct critically such concepts as relatedness and autonomy, and to approach them as tendencies contingent upon context, rather than as universal polarized basic needs.

The Ethics of Restrictive Licensing for Handguns: Comparing the United States and Canadian Approaches to Handgun Regulation

The United States and Canada regulate firearms, particularly handguns, quite differently. With only a few state and local exceptions, the U.S. approach emphasizes the ability of most individuals to purchase, possess, and carry handguns. By comparison, Canada has a form of restrictive licensing for handguns that places a premium on community safety. The authors first review the potential individual and community level harms and benefits associated with these differing fre-arm policies. Using this information, they explore the ethical dimensions of the U.S. and Canadian approaches through three major themes of autonomy, prevention of harms, and social justice. The authors conclude that the Canadian approach is consistent with respect for the autonomy of persons, fosters the prevention of harms, and more appropriately furthers social justice.

Autonomy through pedagogical research

This qualitative study describes a new professional stance, teacher as pedagogical researcher, provides a rationale for its emergence, demonstrates connections of pedagogical research to autonomy in teaching through the words and lived experiences of teacher researchers, and presents implications for teacher professional development and for teacher education programs in promoting autonomy through pedagogical research. A hermeneutic phenomenological theme analysis of interviews with three teacher researchers revealed seven themes of autonomy through pedagogical research.

Intellectual tendencies in the debate for autonomies

The authors of this article collect the most widespread intellectual r eflections in Bolivia of the last years about the theme of autonomies and, from those, establish tendencies tha t influence directly or indirectly the construction the actual proposals of the social movements and pol iticians to the Constituent Assembly. The issue of autonomies is one of the axes of the most important discussions on St ate reform in Bolivia and securely will be the object of confrontation for distinct posit ions in the Constituent Assembly scene. The results of the referendum on autonomies held in July, 2006, far from showing a country divided in two halves ‐ east and west ‐ has basically expressed tw o things: in the first place, the theme of autonomy has installed itself in the Bolivian politic al debate as one of the central points for a future reform of the State, and secondly, the elector al results have been in a majority close to autonomy in four departments and rejected in the other fi ve, showing important voting for the option against the majority in these departments, with a fe w exceptions. Beyond the results of consulting the citizens, discursively linked to regi onal demand, autonomy cannot be conceived as only one voice. Autonomy acquires different significance s and senses depending of those that pronounce on them, and their connection to different ideologi cal and political positions. Thus a wide range of acceptance tied to the concept exi sts, from those referring to administrative, political or managerial autonomy, to indigenous autonomies as the basis of selfdetermination. This debate, until a few years ago restricted to the a cademic-intellectual area, has actually been transferred to the proposals of the social and political m ovement for the Constituent. Without doubt one may verify an important influence of intellectual thought on the collective proposals.

Exploring the Psychopathology of Anorexia Nervosa: A Mahlerian Standpoint

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that extends beyond the well-known phenomenon of self-starvation to include dynamic psychological themes of autonomy and ego disturbances as well as self-regulation through eating disordered behaviors. Exploration of these themes within Mahler's (1975) object relational framework provides the opportunity to examine the genesis of these themes during early psychological ego development and how they may characterize the development of the anorectic experience. The Mahlerian perspective can provide psychiatric nursing with a psychoanalytical perspective outside of standard practice, thus promoting critical analysis and integration among the varying professions of psychiatry.

Futures for Hong Kong English

In this paper the authors discuss the themes of autonomy and creativity as they have been expressed in this special issue. At a linguistic level, the emergence of Hong Kong English has been clouded by a cluster of language ideologies within a localised complaint tradition. This has included discourses relatinzg to ‘monolingualism’, the ‘invisibility’ of Hong Kong English, and ‘falling standards’. Parallel discourses have also constrained creative writing in Hong Kong, but the appearance of new Hong Kong writers points the way to a fresh and energetic future for literary creativity. One example of this is the new journal Yuan Yang, largely written and edited by creative writing students at The University of Hong Kong.

Gender Differences in Family Stories: Moderating Influence of Parent Gender Role and Child Gender

One hundred and twenty families and their 4-year-old children participated in a study on family stories. The participants were primarily White (91%), with the remainder Black (4%), Hispanic (2%), and Asian (2%). The parents were primarily middle class and upper class, with approximately 5% identifying themselves as from a lower socioeconomic background. Parents were asked to tell their son or daughter stories about when the parent was growing up. All parents completed measures of child behavior and a subset of parents completed the Bem Sex Role inventory. Stories were coded for the strength of affiliation, achievement, and autonomy themes. No gender differences were found for parents or child in the strength of affiliation themes. Fathers told stories with stronger autonomy themes than did mothers, and sons were more likely to hear stories with themes of autonomy than were daughters. An interaction was found between gender type of parent and gender of child for strength of achievement theme. Traditional gender-typed parents told stories with stronger achievement themes to their sons, and nontraditional gender-typed parents told stories with stronger achievement themes to their daughters. Exploratory analyses were conducted examining the relations among story theme, parent gender type, and child behavior. Higher levels of externalizing behaviors were found in boys whose fathers endorsed strong masculine attitudes, but told stories with weak achievement themes. Higher levels of internalizing behaviors were found in girls whose mothers told stories with strong affiliation themes, but endorsed weak feminine attitudes. Family stories are proposed to be one aspect of socialization that includes an interaction between child and parent characteristics.

Legal conceptions: regulating gametes and gamete donation.

The growing scope of gamete donation and the manipulation of gametes makes it essential to develop a coherent theory of the nature of gametes and the claims which may be made in relation to them. The nature of gametes is ambiguous, they blur the distinctions between persons and property, but the current legal framework which governs gamete donation and manipulation fails to address their status. This leaves unanswered fundamentally important questions about control of processes involving gametes and rights to use or control the gametes themselves and the information which they represent. These are claims which are rooted in the concept of property. A property based analysis highlights the themes of autonomy, personhood and control which lie at the heart of the claims made in relation to gametes and an account based on the notion of property for personhood offers a more coherent justification for recognising claims in gametes and mediating disputes. This perspective exposes the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the legal construction of gametes and the legal regulation of gamete donation. The present legal framework has not sought to develop a coherent construction of gametes, but to constrain the practices of the assisted reproductive technologies (including gamete donation) within a framework which is presented as least damaging to the traditional ideologies of the creation of the family.

An Exploration of Meanings

Research on South African street children has pointed to an apparent paradox in terms of vulnerability and resilience, requiring a closer examination of how street children make meaning of their lives as well as the contexts in which these meanings are constructed. This study makes use of a variety of data, including drawings, stories and spontaneous drama to access commonly manifested themes and patterns of interaction among a small group of ex-street children attending a voluntary, non-formal learning centre in Cape Town. Over four months of participant observation, consistent themes and patterns of interaction were identified and interpreted in terms of shortterm adaptation and/or longer-term protection or risk within the overall context. The most consistent tendencies towards resilience involved themes of autonomy and the power to control events, both closely related to themes and patterns of peer group solidarity. Within the context, tendencies towards risk were closely integrated with the above. Combined with a general suspicion and wariness of adults, the drive for autonomy, in particular, was in conflict with signs of underlying insecurity and tended to undermine the development of relationships with potentially caring adults.

Magda Mateus Cardenas Director of Centro Amauta, Cusco, Peru

Magda Mateus Cardenas, trained as an anthropologist, is currently director of Centro Amauta, a feminist organization in Peru that addresses issues of gender, class, and culture. In this interview, Mateus Cardenas describes her long involvement with development organizations and grass-roots campaigns to improve women's status. She notes that, although many organizations have adopted a gender perspective, few comprehend its highly political, transformational aspects. Women's rights tend to be viewed by development agencies as just one more factor to be incorporated into development projects rather than as a perspective that changes views of development itself. A genuine gender perspective entails changes in the organizational, social, and political aspects of the themes of autonomy and empowerment, with adaptations of content and methods to local conditions. A precondition to women's emancipation is access to and control of financial and economic resources. This, in turn, requires training in technical skills and access to the marketplace on more competitive terms.

The Organizational Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity: The Case of the US Navy

This article examines the construction of hegemonic masculinity within the US Navy. Based on life history interviews with 27 male officers, this study explores alternative discourses and identities of officers from three different communities in the Navy: aviation, surface warfare, and the supply corps. Definitions of masculinity are relationally constructed through associations of difference: aviators tend to draw upon themes of autonomy and risk taking; surface warfare officers draw upon themes of perseverance and endurance; and supply officers draw upon themes of technical rationality. Further, these masculinities depend upon various contrasting definitions of femininity. Finally, this article explores a series of contradictions that threaten the secure construction of masculinity within this military culture.

The Organizational Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity: The Case of the US Navy

This article examines the construction of hegemonic masculinity within the US Navy. Based on life history interviews with 27 male officers, this study explores alternative discourses and identities of officers from three different communities in the Navy: aviation, surface warfare, and the supply corps. Definitions of masculinity are relationally constructed through associations of difference: aviators tend to draw upon themes of autonomy and risk taking; surface warfare officers draw upon themes of perseverance and endurance; and supply officers draw upon themes of technical rationality. Further, these masculinities depend upon various contrasting definitions of femininity. Finally, this article explores a series of contradictions that threaten the secure construction of masculinity within this military culture.

On learning medical ethics

On learning medical ethics

Reactions to the Death of a Parent during Midlife

Interviews with eighty-three adults aged thirty-five to sixty who had lost a parent one to five years previously found that 60 percent continued to experience emotional reactions and 44 percent continued to experience somatic reactions to the death. The majority also reported changes in their sense of maturity, personal priorities, work and/or career objectives, feelings about their own mortality, and the importance and nature of various social relationships. These impacts generally corresponded to developmentally significant midlife themes of autonomy, personal freedom, and responsibility.