Ethical infrastructure: Halal and the ecology of askesis in Muslim Russia

2021 ◽  
pp. 146349962110597
Author(s):  
Matteo (Teo) Benussi
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Consumption ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Material Religion ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Inherent Quality ◽  
Methodological Ground

This article explores the ecology of late-modern askesis through the concept of ‘ethical infrastructure’: the array of goods, locales, technologies, procedures, and sundry pieces of equipment upon which the possibility of ethicists’ striving is premised. By looking at the ethnographic case of halal living among Muslim pietists in post-Soviet Tatarstan (Russia), I advance a framework that highlights the ‘profane’, often unassuming or religiously unmarked, yet essential material scaffolding constituting the ‘material conditions of possibility’ for pious life in the lifeworld of late modernity. Halalness is conceptualised not as an inherent quality of a clearly defined set of things, but as a (sometimes complicated) relationship between humans, ethical intentionality, and infrastructurally organised habitats. Pointing beyond the case of halal, this article syncretises theories of self-cultivation, material religion, ethical consumption, and infrastructure to address current lacunas and explore fresh theoretical and methodological ground. This ‘ethical infrastructure’ framework enables us to conceptualise the embeddedness of contemporary ethicists in complex environments and the process by which processes of inner self-fashioning change and are changed by material worlds.

SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH PROSTATE CANCER AFTER RADIATION THERAPY

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 776-779
Author(s):  
Galina Tkachenko ◽  
Irina Gladilina ◽  
Aleksandra Stepanova ◽  
Anna Potapova ◽  
Anatoliy Antonov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Radiation Therapy ◽  
Elderly Patients ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Health Satisfaction ◽  
Material Conditions

The paper presents results of clinical and psychological studies of the quality of life of elderly patients with prostate cancer following radiation therapy. Socio-psychological aspects of the quality of life were assessed using a modified scale of self-evaluation of Dembo-Rubinstein. In 3-6 months after radiation therapy there was noted significant reduction, compared to the beginning of treatment, on scales: «satisfaction with communication», «satisfaction with health», «satisfaction material conditions», «satisfaction with sexual relations», «satisfaction with activity», «satisfaction with leisure time and rest». Average indices of scales «satisfaction with health», «satisfaction with sexual relations», «satisfaction with leisure time and rest» fell below the middle. At the same time patients were not depressed by their situation did not fixed on thoughts about the disease, on the contrary the mood was significantly higher compared to the initial course of radiotherapy that could be associated with the psychological characteristics of the age of the patients in our sample.

scholarly journals Using the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-606
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE WALLIS
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
The University ◽  
Late Modern

This article reports on the use of the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource in historical sociolinguistics and historical linguistics courses at the University of Sheffield. Pronouncing dictionaries are an invaluable resource for students learning about processes of standardisation and language attitudes during the Late Modern English period (1700–1900), however they are not easy to use in their original format. Each author uses their own notation system to indicate their recommended pronunciation, while the terminology used to describe the quality of the vowels and consonants differs from that used today, and provides an additional obstacle to the student wishing to interrogate such sources. ECEP thus provides a valuable intermediary between the students and the source material, as it includes IPA equivalents for the recommended pronunciations, as well as any metalinguistic commentary offered by the authors about a particular pronunciation. This article demonstrates a teaching approach that not only uses ECEP as a tool in its own right, but also explores how it can be usefully combined with other materials covering language change in the Late Modern English period to enable students to undertake their own investigations in research-led courses.

Ontological Captivity

differences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-113
Author(s):  
Andrés Fabián Henao Castro
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Color Line ◽  
Ontological Difference ◽  
Detention Center ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Penal Colony ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Broad Understanding

Departing from where Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Martin Heidegger’s gender-neutral Dasein left off, this article argues for “ontological captivity” as a critical analytic for questioning Being under conditions of racial capitalism. Based on a broad understanding of the Black Radical tradition, the author argues for the importance of connecting the analysis of ontological difference with the political critique of concrete historical and material conditions that structurally link what it means to be human to overlapping and mutually reinforcing technologies of capture. From the slave ship, the plantation, the reservation, the prison, the detention center, the penal colony, and the concentration camp to the ways in which injurious signifiers fix the body and arrest its mobility, ontological difference should be unthinkable outside a confrontation with its material conditions of possibility and impossibility. These are the material conditions that, from W. E. B. Du Bois’s analysis of the “color-line” to Calvin Warren’s analytic of “onticide,” from Lewis Gordon’s “antiblackness” to Nelson Maldonado-Torres’s “coloniality of being,” and from Hortense Spillers’s “being for the captor” to Zakiyyah Iman Jackson’s “ontological plasticization,” call for a political rather than an ethical interrogation of Being.

When There Was No Aid

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah G. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
International Aid ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Global North ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
Civil Order ◽  
Peace And Development

For all of the doubts raised about the effectiveness of international aid in advancing peace and development, there are few examples of developing countries that are even relatively untouched by it. This book offers us one such example. Using evidence from Somaliland’s experience of peace-building, the book challenges two of the most engrained presumptions about violence and poverty in the global South. First, that intervention by actors in the global North is self-evidently useful in ending them, and second that the quality of a country’s governance institutions (whether formal or informal) necessarily determines the level of peace and civil order that the country experiences. The book explores how popular discourses about war, peace, and international intervention structure the conditions of possibility to such a degree that even the inability of institutions to provide reliable security can stabilize a prolonged period of peace. It argues that Somaliland’s post-conflict peace is grounded less in the constraining power of its institutions than in a powerful discourse about the country’s structural, temporal, and physical proximity to war. Through its sensitivity to the ease with which peace gives way to war, the book argues, this discourse has indirectly harnessed an apparent propensity to war as a source of order.

scholarly journals Stability Analysis of R&D Cooperation in a Supply Chain

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luyun Xu ◽  
Dong Liang ◽  
Zhenjie Duan ◽  
Xu Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Stability Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Spillovers ◽  
Opportunistic Behavior ◽  
Collaborative Process ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Inherent Quality

R&D outsourcing becomes the often-adopted strategy for firms to innovate. However, R&D cooperation often ends up with failure because of its inherent quality of instability. One of the main reasons for cooperation failure is the opportunistic behavior. As the R&D contract between firms is inherently incomplete, opportunistic behavior always cannot be avoided in the collaborative process. R&D cooperation has been divided into horizontal and vertical types. This paper utilizes game theory to study opportunistic behavior in the vertical R&D cooperation and analyzes the equilibrium of the cooperation. Based on the equilibrium and numerical results, it is found that the vertical R&D cooperation is inherently unstable, and the downstream firm is more likely to break the agreement. The level of knowledge spillovers and the cost of R&D efforts have different effects on firms’ payoffs. When the level of knowledge spillover is low or the cost of R&D efforts is high, mechanisms such as punishment for opportunism may be more effective to guarantee the stability of cooperation.

scholarly journals Managerial learning challenges in a complex world

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Gerardo David Abreu Pederzini
Keyword(s):  
Learning Style ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Learning ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Negative Capability ◽  
Conceptual Paper

Purpose Managers’ work is surrounded by complex environments, from which they need to learn, in order to understand them. However, complexity poses several challenges to managerial learning, for which usually management educational programs have not prepared managers. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore such challenges and possible ways to overcome them. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that explores in depth the issue of managerial learning challenges in a complex world. Managers face these challenges during their practice, yet sometimes management education has not prepared them for this. Findings Three managerial learning challenges due to complexity are identified. First, through cognition and cognitive structures, managers simplify the world around them. Nevertheless, biases, inertia and inaccuracy emerge, as managers’ mental models are not truly capable of capturing complexity. Second, managers look for information to aid them in their learning processes, but the information they gather is sometimes bogus, invalid or unfounded. Third, managers could seek for support from management research to improve their learning. However, given management research intricacies, limitations and particularities, a learning challenge emerges as well, as management research has been rarely capable to capture complexity. Originality/value Having explored these managerial learning challenges due to complexity, this paper discusses a carefulness-based management learning ideal, which by being underpinned by the quality of carefulness and the related concepts of critical thinking, negative capability and a deep learning style, suggests a potential new way to approach management learning in light of complexity.

scholarly journals Défis D’une Orthodoxie Éthique Et Académique Chez Les Universitaires Congolais (RDC)

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Salomon Mampeta Wabasa ◽  
Fraternel Amuri Misako
Keyword(s):  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Cumulative Process ◽  
Main Observation ◽  
Professional Codes ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The University

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the huge gap clearly observed today, but which in fact is the result of a cumulative process of recent decades between what is expected and what is done on academic freedom, is a cause for concern for African learned community and beyond. Trying to impose orthodoxy as reference, both ethically and academically in the Congolese changing university space, presupposes to consider the governance (nature/quality) of Congolese society in which the university is only seen as one of the main observation windows. As a prerequisite for successful reimplementation of the professional codes of ethics among scholars, we believe that any awareness campaign would not cause the breakup of disreputable practices dominating the Congo’s higher education if courageous, even unpopular but salutary reforms are not undertaken upstream. Even if scholars are to be questioned on their duties (Social Responsibility), it remains that their material conditions of living and working are not conducive to the rigorous application of ethical and professional principles for an effective exercise of academic freedom as a right. Material misery would induce moral misery and intellectual poverty, thus trapping academic freedom.

Robot path planning based on genetic algorithm with hybrid initialization method

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Zhaojun Zhang ◽  
Rui Lu ◽  
Minglong Zhao ◽  
Shengyang Luan ◽  
Ming Bu
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Path Planning ◽  
Iteration Process ◽  
Initial Population ◽  
Local Optimum ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Random Initialization ◽  
Planning Problems ◽  
Complete Path

The research of path planning method based on genetic algorithm (GA) for the mobile robot has received much attention in recent years. GA, as one evolutionary computation model, mimics the process of natural evolution and genetics. The quality of the initial population plays an essential role in improving the performance of GA. However, when GA based on a random initialization method is applied to path planning problems, it will lead to the emergence of infeasible solutions and reduce the performance of the algorithm. A novel GA with a hybrid initialization method, termed NGA, is proposed to solve this problem in this paper. In the initial population, NGA first randomly selects three free grids as intermediate nodes. Then, a part of the population uses a random initialization method to obtain the complete path. The other part of the population obtains the complete path using a greedy-related method. Finally, according to the actual situation, the redundant nodes or duplicate paths in the path are deleted to avoid the redundant paths. In addition, the deletion operation and the reverse operation are also introduced to the NGA iteration process to prevent the algorithm from falling into the local optimum. Simulation experiments are carried out with other algorithms to verify the effectiveness of the NGA. Simulation results show that NGA is superior to other algorithms in convergence accuracy, optimization ability, and success rate. Besides, NGA can generate the optimal feasible paths in complex environments.

Well-being of North Eastern Migrant Workers in Bangalore

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Divya Pradeep ◽  
K. C. Adaina ◽  
Sonia Kahmei
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Reconstruction Method ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
North East ◽  
Material Conditions

This paper explores the quality of life and subjective well-being of north-east migrant workers engaged in various formal and informal jobs in Bangalore. The composite well-being index reveals moderate well-being for the majority of workers. The disaggregated analysis, however, shows poor material conditions of life. Using the Day Reconstruction Method, we also find positive emotions associated with activities such as socialising but negative emotions for work and commuting. With respect to interacting partners, the negative emotions were highest while dealing with clients and customers. We also found positive correlations between life satisfaction and quality of life indicators, most strongly, with job quality. Lower quality of jobs, reported by women in comparison to men, suggests that organisations should aim to create more equal and enabling work spaces for all genders.

scholarly journals Implications of Concepts of Consciousness for Understanding Pain Behaviour and the Definitiion of Pain

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth D Craig
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Tissue Injury ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Explicit Recognition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Inherent Quality

Judgements of the nature and severity of pain others may be experiencing are heavily influenced by an observer's preconceptions about the nature of the experience. Our personal sense of conscious experience dictates a search for consciousness characterized by the state of awareness found in competent adults, including constructive memories and thoughts, images and feelings. People incapable of verbally articulating experiences akin to those reported by competent older children and adults are at risk of having other evidence of pain denied, minimized or ignored. Despite substantial behavioural evidence for pain in the neonate and infant, and findings indicating destructive immediate and long term consequences if pain is not controlled, pain in infants and children often continues to be discounted. An alternative perspective on infant consciousness of pain focusing upon sensory and emotional components is presented. The current prominent definition of pain supports the prejudice favouring adult conceptions of consciousness by emphasizing the importance of self-report in assessing pain. Explanatory notes accompanying this definition also perpetrate the misguided belief that the experience of pain emerges as a product of early life experiences. The case for using nonverbal as well as verbal expression in the process of inferring states of pain is presented. As well, the proposition is supported that there should be explicit recognition that the experience of pain is an inherent quality of life present in all viable newborns, with the nature of the experience and its expression changing in the course of maturation and as a result of exposure to life experiences related to tissue injury.

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