Wider World Research Articles

The attachments of 'autonomous' vehicles.

The ideal of the self-driving car replaces an error-prone human with an infallible, artificially intelligent driver. This narrative of autonomy promises liberation from the downsides of automobility, even if that means taking control away from autonomous, free-moving individuals. We look behind this narrative to understand the attachments that so-called ‘autonomous’ vehicles (AVs) are likely to have to the world. Drawing on 50 interviews with AV developers, researchers and other stakeholders, we explore the social and technological attachments that stakeholders see inside the vehicle, on the road and with the wider world. These range from software and hardware to the behaviours of other road users and the material, social and economic infrastructure that supports driving and self-driving. We describe how innovators understand, engage with or seek to escape from these attachments in three categories: ‘brute force’, which sees attachments as problems to be solved with more data, ‘solve the world one place at a time’, which sees attachments as limits on the technology’s reach and ‘reduce the complexity of the space’, which sees attachments as solutions to the problems encountered by technology developers. Understanding attachments provides a powerful way to anticipate various possible constitutions for the technology.

Literary study as an education in moral perception and imagination

ABSTRACT This article explores how literary study engages readers’ moral perception and imagination. Although some philosophers discuss reading as a largely solitary activity, this article explores social practices of reading common in English language arts classrooms in secondary schools. The article shows how reading with others can change the quality of moral perception and imagination in literary study. Reading with others, the article contends, can involve an ethic focused on the good of knowing one’s ways of seeing make a difference to others. The article defends social practices of reading by arguing they can broaden and complicate students’ moral perception and imagination by making students accountable to texts, one another, and the wider world.

At the far end of oceanic seaways: St. Petersburg shipping in the eighteenth century

Since the late sixteenth century, parallel with the growth of West-European ocean shipping, seaborne connections between the North and Baltic seas increased constantly. The rising maritime powers, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain, carried to the Baltic colonial and manufacturing produce in exchange for grain and raw materials, thus connecting the area with their oceanic trades. These commodity flows are amply illuminated by the Sound Toll records. In contrast, evidence of intra-Baltic shipping is fragmentary and imperfect, with many gaps. Such an imbalance of sources implies a drawback: we do not know how dominant the West-European connections actually were in Baltic shipping. Fortunately, there are a few primary records that shed light on intra-Baltic shipping, notably the ship-lists of the port of Cronstadt published by the Russian and German-language journal Sankt Peterburgskije Vedomosti/St. Petersburgische Zeitung from 1744. The port of Cronstadt is particularly interesting as it constitutes the extreme eastern terminus of sea routes from the wider world. No comprehensive data from these ship-lists have hitherto been published. Utilising them, this article analyses the main trends in the development of St. Petersburg's shipping connections within the Baltic Sea as well as with the regions beyond the Danish Sound.

Cerebral microangiopathy at the type 2 diabetes mellitus: A histopathological update

Background and Aims: An estimated experts more than 90% of diabetes mellitus (DM) cases in the wide world correspond to type 2 diabetes (DM). Type 2 diabetes and its associated factors predispose patients to microvascular and macrovascular complications at the brain and increased risk of vascular dementia or development of a stroke. Our aim was to examine brain small vessels histological changes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic encephalopathy.

Responsible Leadership in Sport: An Ethical Dilemma

Sports, apart from providing entertainment, can provide an escape from everyday troubles, a community to belong to, and an opportunity to connect to the wider world. As such, sports have contributed to the unification of people, the development of peace and tolerance, and the empowerment of women and young people globally. However, sports’ widespread popularity has also contributed to “big money” opportunities for sports organizations, sporting venues, athletes, and sponsors that have created an environment riddled with ethical dilemmas that make headlines, resulting in protests and violence, and often leave society more divided. A current ethical dilemma faced by agents associated with the Olympic games serves to demonstrate the magnitude and challenges related to resolving ethical dilemmas in the sport industry. A decision-making framework is applied to this current sport’s ethical dilemma, as an example of how better ethical decision making might be achieved.

The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health of Under Graduate Students of Nadia District in West Bengal During Covid-19 Pandemic

The world is going through panic, fear, anxiety, stress, worry and isolation because of COVID 19 pandemic and lockdown. Almost one third of the world population is living under some kind of quarantine or lockdown. All these things affect the mental health of any individual a lot. At this time of social distancing and self-isolation, social media can be an indispensible tool for keeping you in touch with friends, online class, loved ones and the wider world. But be mindful of how it makes you feels. If spending time on social media enhance your stress, anxiety, and uncertainty, takes steps to limit your engagements. And always check reputable news sources before believing—or forwarding—any rumors about COVID-19 pandemic that may cause panic. In West Bengal, Government has declared that all educational institutes will remain closed till 10th June, 2020. Studies in different parts of the world stated that even in normal time, depression, anxiety, stress among under graduate college students are high. Several reasons are there. In this situation the researcher wanted to carry out the study to find out the condition of the Mental Health of the under Graduate Students of Nadia District in West Bengal during lockdown and how they are facing this pandemic situation.

Sustaining Dialogue in Polarised Political Contexts

The rise of populism is a prevalent issue on the political landscape both in Europe and the wider world. Such ideologies create defamatory political narratives and exacerbate already partisan social media spaces. This trend challenges psychologists interested in politics to consider what factors could influence dialogue sustainment in these polarised contexts. The current focus of social psychology research is towards identity-based theories to mediate such interactions. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the idea that identity-models are the only effective means of depolarising real-world, discursive political conflicts. This article critiques identity on the following: (1) Ontological assumptions of binary group oppositionality are limiting and unrepresentative of real-world interactions, and (2) Current identity-based models for mediating are ineffective in highly polarised, real-world contexts. We consider the issue of polarising political discourse from a dialogical perspective and propose the Dialogue Sustainment Theoretical Model as an alternative. The model considers: (1) Citizens as political actors with worldviews, (2) The role of the dynamic & relational positionality, and (3) The influence of chronotopic boundaries on political debate. Whilst we acknowledge identity can transcend polarisation in certain contexts, it does not possess such a capacity in politically polarised, real-world contexts. Instead, we argue for an alternative model which is dialogically-focused and offers a distinctive insight into sustaining dialogue.

A performative paradigm for post-qualitative inquiry

In this article, the authors explore and contribute to producing a performative research paradigm where post-qualitative as well as artistic research might dwell and breathe. Entering a thread of discussion that started with Haseman’s A manifesto for performative research in 2006, and building on their own friction-led research processes at the edges of qualitative research, the authors plug in with performativity, non-representational theories and methodologies, post-qualitative inquiry and post approaches. A performative paradigm for post-qualitative inquiry is proposed, where knowledge is viewed as knowledge-in-becoming as the constant creation of difference through researcher entanglement with the research phenomenon and wider world. A performative paradigm produces a space for movement, (artistic) freedom, (post-qualitative) experimentation and inclusion. A performative research paradigm also offers provocations that shake long-established notions about what research is and should be. Within a performative research paradigm, learning/be(com)ing/knowing is always in-becoming – as is the performative paradigm itself.

“For me, every child is the whole wide world:” An interview with Naomi Zipori

An interview with Naomi Zipori whose brother, Zion, disappeared in Rosh Ha'ayin during the winter of 1950.

The Strengths of Reading Materials in Students’ Worksheet Used at Second Grade of SMA N 9 Kota Jambi

The aims of the study were to find out the strengths of reading materials in students’ worksheet: Talk Active 2 used at Second Grade of SMA N 9 Kota Jambi meet the criteria of good learning materials. Those criteria are: (1) The materials make clear the link between the classroom and the wider world (2) The materials foster independent learning (3) The materials focus the learner on the the opening process (4) The materials are readily available. The student worksheet was written by Fx. Sukristiono, Nursahid, Sudarso, and published by Yudhistira. The research is expected to give insights of understanding the quality of reading materials. This study was designed as a documentary analysis in the form of descriptive qualitative research in which the result would be described in the form of words. The data were collected from the reading section in the students’ worksheet. As supplementary tools of the instrument, forms of checklist were used during the research analysis. The researcher concluded that most of students easy to understand about content of the text but, they still have difficulty in understand the reading materials about definitions, generic structures and functions of each text. Because, most of the texts only present the example of each text. The students need the worksheet should be clearer in reading materials. Not only provide a lot of exercise but also the clear explanations about the definitions, generic structure, purpose, language features and usage of tenses.The result of identified reading materials in students’ worksheet shows some strengths, they are; 1) Common vocabulary for second grade of senior high school, 2) Each text types in students’ worksheet has more than one text, 3) There are learning materials in students’ worksheet.Key Words: Strengths, Reading Materials, Students’ Worksheet.

Article 3(5) TEU a decade on: Revisiting ‘strict observance of international law’ in the text and context of other EU values

Article 3(5) of the Treaty on the European Union concerns EU external relations and was a new provision of the Lisbon Treaty. It has been seized upon by scholars for its reference to ‘strict observance of international law’ by the EU in its relations with the wider world. However, recent case law in the Court of Justice of the European Union has demonstrated little movement towards this supposed ideal. This article supports the fact that rigid and unquestioning adherence to international law has not emerged in case law, particularly as Article 3(5) TEU also mandates that the Union ‘uphold and promote its values and interests’. By taking a broader view of both the text and context of Article 3(5) TEU in EU law as a whole, and through consideration of the limited demands international law places on domestic courts, the article argues that – contrary to current literature – a more expressly balanced approach towards respect for international law is required and should be nurtured in the case law.

Review: Proximities: Art, Education, Activism, by Linda Brooks

Review: <i>Proximities: Art, Education, Activism</i>, by Linda Brooks

“The Chalk Wall Falls to the Foam”: Reimagining Littoral Space in the Poetry of the Dover Cliffs

Abstract Where beaches and harbors have frequently been taken to signify openness and intermingling, a different coastal setting, the cliffs of Dover, overtly bespeaks opposition and closure. Demarcating the British coast at its closest point to continental Europe, the cliffs often stand for Britain’s supposedly elemental insularity. However, the chalk composing the cliffs makes them, in their own way, as malleable and permeable as a beach. I argue that poems by Matthew Arnold, W. H. Auden, and Daljit Nagra contest the cliffs’ association with an exclusive Britishness by focusing on their material composition. In these poems, the cliffs’ chalk—formed by fossilized marine microorganisms at a time when what would become Britain was at the bottom of a prehistoric sea—attests to Britain’s geohistorical contingency. Arnold, Auden, and Nagra use this chalk geology to develop a new model of British identity as contingent, permeable, and linked with the wider world. In these poems, that is, Dover’s cliffs collapse oppositions rather than enforcing them: they blur the lines between Britain and the world, past and present, organic and inorganic, human history and geological history. The literature of the Dover cliffs thus highlights the revisionary potential of this distinctive kind of littoral space.

Experiencing Southeast Asian Studies in China: A reverse culture shock

Southeast Asian Studies (SEAS) in China has experienced significant changes in the past twenty years. China's rising political and economic power has stimulated growing demands for better understanding of the wider world, resulting in the rapid development of area studies in recent years. Although SEAS in China predated the relatively recent notion of ‘area studies’ by at least half a century, the boom in area studies has profoundly transformed the field, most notably by attracting a large number of scholars to conduct policy-relevant research. Not only does the ‘policy turn’ reflect shifts of research paradigms in the field of SEAS, but it is also consistent with some larger trends prevailing in China's higher education sector and rapidly changing society in general. This article shows that SEAS in China has grown even more imbalanced, as indicated by the rapid growth of language programmes, absolute domination of short-term policy research, and further marginalisation of humanistic subjects. To respond, Chinese universities have adopted new approaches to SEAS depending on their distinct disciplinary foundations, language coverage, faculty interests, and local governments’ policy preferences.

Preparing for an Imperial Inheritance: Children, Play, and Empire in Eighteenth-Century Britain

AbstractIn examining how children engaged with the British Empire, broadly defined, during the long eighteenth century, this article considers a range of materials, including museums, printed juvenile literature, and board games, that specifically attempted to attract children and their parents. Subjects that engaged with the wider world, and with it the British Empire, were typically not a significant part of formal education curricula, and so an informal marketplace of materials and experiences emerged both to satisfy and drive parental demand for supplementary education at home. Such engagements were no accident. Rather, they were a conscious effort to provide middling and elite children with what was considered useful information about the wider world and empire they would inherit, as well as opportunities to consider the moral implications and obligations of imperial rule, particularly with regard to African slavery.

Special Issue: Inequality and Race in the Histories of Archaeology

This special issue gathers together a selection of short articles reflecting on the historical construction of inequality and race in the histories of archaeology. The articles also suggest ways in which the discipline might grapple with the—often obvious, sometimes subtle—consequences of that historical process. Solicited via an open call for papers in the summer of 2020 (one made with the aim of speedy publication), the breadth of the topics discussed in the articles reflect how inequality and race have become more prominent research themes within the histories of archaeology in the previous five-to-ten years. At the same time, the pieces show how research can—and should—be connected to attempts to promote social justice and an end to racial discrimination within archaeological practice, the archaeological profession, and the wider worlds with which the discipline interacts. Published at a time when a pandemic has not only swept the world, but also exposed such inequalities further, the special issue represents a positive intervention in what continues to be a contentious issue.

“If anyone’s going to ruin your night, it should be you”: Responsibility and affective materiality in Undertale and Night in the Woods

Affective materiality is a tool for exploring how engaging with textual structures shapes the affective experience of a story. The experience of video games is distinctive because their modes of engagement can lead to players feeling responsible for the decisions they make within the diegetic space of the game and its contextual storyworld. Night in the Woods and Undertale both use the perception of responsibility found in video game modes of engagement as an active storytelling tool, but apply it in different ways. Despite the differences in their contextual application, both games use affective materiality to encourage players to reflect on the consequences of their decisions in multiple arenas: within the context of the game, their engagement with other games and their engagement with the wider world. In doing so, both games apply storytelling techniques that distinguish playing video games from the experience of other media forms and encourage an empathetic engagement with fictional storyworlds.

Introduction to the Open Issue, 2021

The AI Practitioner journal relies on the support of the practitioners to keep it generative and relevant, both to the wider world and the field of Appreciative Inquiry. The range of interests of the practitioners, researchers, academics, students and consultants is reflected in the breadth and depth of the articles they write, as this second open issue of the journal shows.

Information retrieval models in Neural Networks Framework: A survey

Information retrieval using neural networks both as shallow or deep neural networks is an emerging field. This paper presents a survey on neural network models used at various stages of information retrieval. Information Retrieval is taking a new dimension everyday with the abundant information available in World Wide Web and World Wide Web is acting as universal information repository of human knowledge. The paper focuses on text information retrieval and emphasizes the importance of context-based information retrieval.

“American Healing”: Primal therapy, rebirthing, and cathartic encounters in 1970s London (and beyond)

In the early 1970s new ideas and practices from across the Atlantic changed British psychotherapy. Many methods were marked by a stress on the body, emotion, and catharsis, with some focused on ‘abreaction’. This tendency was influential enough to prompt R. D. Laing, the most important British psychiatrist of the day, to develop his own system of US-inspired ‘rebirthing’. Although hopes for the widespread adoption of American methods were soon dashed, many London-based practitioners carried the new therapeutic techniques into the wider world, expanding the transatlantic space of 1970s psychotherapy into a transnational one. This history reinforces Howard Malchow’s thesis that US influence was a dominant force in the British counterculture, but the relative failure of translating American practices into the new national environment indicates that the cultural and institutional differences between the two countries should not be underestimated.