scholarly journals Wasta as Social Capital and Legitimate Conservative Order

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
D. B. Grafov
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
Traditional Group ◽  
Group Loyalty ◽  
National Characteristics ◽  
Political Modernization ◽  
The Individual

The article examines the relationship between the traditional group relations (intrafamily, clan, etc.) in the Arab society, which provide access to the political rent, and the processes of socio-political modernization and the building of civil institutions. The Arab governments usually explain the inefficiency or “deviations” in the work of such institutions by national characteristics, adherence to the idea of nation-building, etc., but never by the desire to preserve power and assets of the traditional elites that are based on group loyalty. One of the most common ways of accessing power in order to acquire and redistribute tangible and intangible benefits in the Arab world is Wasta, or a system of connections, based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships. Loyalty to one’s group that almost everyone belongs to by birth or due to certain life circumstances ensures the interests of the individual in the broadest sense. Wasta’s network and group ties, based on the principles that are at odds with those that the civil society is built upon, impede the development and modernization of social and political institutions. While researchers have studied Wasta relations as such rather structurally, both at the micro-level (from the social network point of view) and at the macro-level (from the institutional point of view), the attempts to build a holistic model that considers Wasta simultaneously from both viewpoints have not yet been crowned with success. The article proposes the conceptualization of Wasta as social capital, which makes it possible to represent this type of relationship as one actor’s “investment” and the other actor’s “loan”. One can also use this holistic model in the analysis of other informal ties inherent in other cultures but also based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships and provide fertile soil for maintaining conservative order.

Social trust, norms and morality

Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Popper
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Dynamic Change ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThe article approaches the topic of social trust from an evolutionary perspective. It begins by summarising the most influential approaches that have defined specific and social trust and ascertains what causes differences in degrees of trust and how the potential risk of deception might be lowered. It then notes that the basis of morality had already been formed during the era of prehistoric man, who was able to create coalitions against aggressors and to socially control the behaviour of deviants. It points out, however, that having a certain predisposition to behaving cooperatively or an increased sensitivity to recognising and not tolerating behaviour aimed at abusing cooperation is not a sufficient guarantee of the fact that people will always (or at least in the majority of situations) favour cooperation over deception. One of the reasons for this is a tendency to favour short-term gains over long-term ones. The article argues that establishing norms (moral, social and legal) produces a higher level of social trust because it not only “encourages” individuals to behave in certain ways in particular situations but also works as a sanction which “discourages” the individual from socially deviant behaviour. The article then focuses on a debate about the causal relationship between social trust and social capital. It discusses the suggestion that political institutions, government and the judiciary may reduce rather than raise levels of social capital and consequently also the level of social trust. This is partly because of their powerful position and the consequent scope for corruption and partly because of the fact that even when attempting to act honestly, representatives of these institutions cannot sufficiently reflect upon dynamic change at the local level. Finally, the article ends by adopting the position that social trust is built primarily from bottom up and so it is risky to continually doubt the very existence and usefulness of social norms and morality and to be governed simply by legal norms.

Moral and ethical standards of upbringing in traditional Japanese society

2021 ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
O.S. Novikova ◽  
◽  
I.S. Rodicheva
Keyword(s):  
Filial Piety ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Group Consciousness ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
Group Unity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Basic Infrastructure

Presented is the analysis of moral and ethical standards, that determine the relationship between members of the community, that are primarily attributable to the Confucian doctrine of deification of ancestors, filial piety, unquestioning obedience to elders, detailed regulation of behavior of any member of society. Considering various categories of “duty” in the work, the authors reveal the main distinctive characteristics of interpersonal relations and perception of the world between Japanese and Western cultures, focusing on traditions of human upbringing and laws of communities. The concept of self-identification, that is suppressed against the background of the social in traditional Japan, is considered by the authors not from the point of view of moral and ethical considerations of a European person, but through the prism of group consciousness, which is a widespread phenomenon in Japanese society, since the feeling of being part of a group is one of the basic states of the individual in Japan. The signs of group unity are also reflected in the features of verbal communication that is due to a single lifestyle, a holistic model of education and the desire to satisfy the needs of the interlocutor, i.e. group unity. Drawing an analogy between models and concepts of European culture, the authors note the originality of the Japanese worldview, that is characterized by the desire to conform to the model presented by elders and is the basic infrastructure of education in a hier-archical Japanese society, and non-verbal ways of transmitting behavior models, and formation of group interaction skills are passed from generation to generation.

УКРАЇНОЗНАВЧИЙ ОСВІТНІЙ ЧИННИК В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МАСОВОЇ КУЛЬТУРИ

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Character Trait ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Individual

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.

Childhood adversity studies as an antidote to the predominance of neo-liberal thinking in the field of mental health

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-563
Author(s):  
Adam Burley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Early Adversity ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Individual

This is a personal and reflective piece written from a clinician's point of view on the influence that the developing awareness around the consequences of childhood adversity has had upon the discussions, thinking and practice across the areas in which they are working. It seeks to argue that the increased understanding and recognition of the potential impact of early adversity can not only enhance and deepen the understanding of an individual's difficulties, but can serve to inform how services respond in a way that takes account of this. It suggests that the research and literature on childhood adversity can offer a route map away from a model of mental health that focuses predominantly on the individual as the sole source of interest.

Territorial Distribution of Alcohol and Drug Addictions Mortality Concerning Regional Disparities in the Slovak Republic from Year 1996 to Year 2015

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Regional Disparities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Extreme Position ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

BACKGROUND: This paper deals with territorial distribution of the alcohol and drug addictions mortality at a level of the districts of the Slovak Republic. AIM: The aim of the paper is to explore the relations within the administrative territorial division of the Slovak Republic, that is, between the individual districts and hence, to reveal possibly hidden relation in alcohol and drug mortality. METHODS: The analysis is divided and executed into the two fragments – one belongs to the female sex, the other one belongs to the male sex. The standardised mortality rate is computed according to a sequence of the mathematical relations. The Euclidean distance is employed to compute the similarity within each pair of a whole data set. The cluster analysis examines is performed. The clusters are created by means of the mutual distances of the districts. The data is collected from the database of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic for all the districts of the Slovak Republic. The covered time span begins in the year 1996 and ends in the year 2015. RESULTS: The most substantial point is that the Slovak Republic possesses the regional disparities in a field of mortality expressed by the standardised mortality rate computed particularly for the diagnoses assigned to the alcohol and drug addictions at a considerably high level. However, the female sex and the male sex have the different outcome. The Bratislava III District keeps absolutely the most extreme position. It forms an own cluster for the both sexes too. The Topoľčany District bears a similar extreme position from a point of view of the male sex. All the Bratislava districts keep their mutual notable dissimilarity. Contrariwise, evaluation of a development of the regional disparities among the districts looks like notably heterogeneously. CONCLUSIONS: There are considerable regional discrepancies throughout the districts of the Slovak Republic. Hence, it is necessary to create a common platform how to proceed with the solution of this issue.

‘The most beautiful of wars’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Scheipers
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Reform Period ◽  
Political Agent ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
The Individual

Clausewitz’s writings from the reform period combine themes that were central to his thought from his earliest texts and his correspondence, such as the value of the individual as the primary political agent. At the same time, they reflect a thorough engagement with the intellectual context of his time. In the Bekenntnisdenkschrift he presented a notion of war that emphasized its existential and emancipatory qualities. Clausewitz formulated his notion of war in its existential form against the backdrop of contemporary intellectual, political, and cultural discourses in Prussia and Germany more broadly. After the experience of the French Revolution’s descent into terror, the key question facing Clausewitz and his contemporaries was how to advance the liberation of the individual and society more broadly from traditional forms of political authority without risking a degeneration of all political institutions.

scholarly journals Characterisation of the Filler Fraction in CAD/CAM Resin-Based Composites

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1986
Author(s):  
Andreas Koenig ◽  
Julius Schmidtke ◽  
Leonie Schmohl ◽  
Sibylle Schneider-Feyrer ◽  
Martin Rosentritt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Aided Design ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Dental Resin ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Computer Aided ◽  
Cad Cam ◽  
Filler Fraction ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Aided Design

The performance of dental resin-based composites (RBCs) heavily depends on the characteristic properties of the individual filler fraction. As specific information regarding the properties of the filler fraction is often missing, the current study aims to characterize the filler fractions of several contemporary computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) RBCs from a material science point of view. The filler fractions of seven commercially available CAD/CAM RBCs featuring different translucency variants were analysed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Micro-X-ray Computed Tomography (µXCT), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TG) and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD). All CAD/CAM RBCs investigated included midifill hybrid type filler fractions, and the size of the individual particles was clearly larger than the individual specifications of the manufacturer. The fillers in Shofu Block HC featured a sphericity of ≈0.8, while it was <0.7 in all other RBCs. All RBCs featured only X-ray amorphous phases. However, in Lava Ultimate, zircon crystals with low crystallinity were detected. In some CAD/CAM RBCs, inhomogeneities (X-ray opaque fillers or pores) with a size <80 µm were identified, but the effects were minor in relation to the total volume (<0.01 vol.%). The characteristic parameters of the filler fraction in RBCs are essential for the interpretation of the individual material’s mechanical and optical properties.

Are we Ready for a “Microbiome-Guided Behaviour” Approach?

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (04) ◽  
pp. 708-724
Author(s):  
ANDREA LAVAZZA ◽  
VITTORIO A. SIRONI
Keyword(s):  
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fecal Microbiota ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind

Abstract:The microbiome is proving to be increasingly important for human brain functioning. A series of recent studies have shown that the microbiome influences the central nervous system in various ways, and consequently acts on the psychological well-being of the individual by mediating, among others, the reactions of stress and anxiety. From a specifically neuroethical point of view, according to some scholars, the particular composition of the microbiome—qua microbial community—can have consequences on the traditional idea of human individuality. Another neuroethical aspect concerns the reception of this new knowledge in relation to clinical applications. In fact, attention to the balance of the microbiome—which includes eating behavior, the use of psychobiotics and, in the treatment of certain diseases, the use of fecal microbiota transplantation—may be limited or even prevented by a biased negative attitude. This attitude derives from a prejudice related to everything that has to do with the organic processing of food and, in general, with the human stomach and intestine: the latter have traditionally been regarded as low, dirty, contaminated and opposed to what belongs to the mind and the brain. This biased attitude can lead one to fail to adequately consider the new anthropological conceptions related to the microbiome, resulting in a state of health, both physical and psychological, inferior to what one might have by paying the right attention to the knowledge available today. Shifting from the ubiquitous high-low metaphor (which is synonymous with superior-inferior) to an inside-outside metaphor can thus be a neuroethical strategy to achieve a new and unbiased reception of the discoveries related to the microbiome.

scholarly journals Speech recognition algorithm for natural language management systems under variety of accents

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 10015
Author(s):  
Irina Gurtueva ◽  
Olga Nagoeva ◽  
Inna Pshenokova
Keyword(s):  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Recognition Algorithm ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Universal System ◽  
Sound Image ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
The Individual

This paper proposes a concept of a new approach to the development of speech recognition systems using multi-agent neurocognitive modeling. The fundamental foundations of these developments are based on the theory of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and advances in computer science. The purpose of this work is the development of general theoretical principles of sound image recognition by an intelligent robot and, as the sequence, the development of a universal system of automatic speech recognition, resistant to speech variability, not only with respect to the individual characteristics of the speaker, but also with respect to the diversity of accents. Based on the analysis of experimental data obtained from behavioral studies, as well as theoretical model ideas about the mechanisms of speech recognition from the point of view of psycholinguistic knowledge, an algorithm resistant to variety of accents for machine learning with imitation of the formation of a person’s phonemic hearing has been developed.

Canons to the Left of Him: Brevard Childs, his Critics, and the Future of Old Testament Theology

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Provan
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Probable Origin ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

It is well known that the seeds from which the modern discipline of OT theology grew are already found in 17th and 18th century discussion of the relationship between Bible and Church, which tended to drive a wedge between the two, regarding canon in historical rather than theological terms; stressing the difference between what is transient and particular in the Bible and what is universal and of abiding significance; and placing the task of deciding which is which upon the shoulders of the individual reader rather than upon the church. Free investigation of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition and theology, was to be the way ahead. OT theology finds its roots more particularly in the 18th century discussion of the nature of and the relationship between Biblical Theology and Dogmatic Theology, and in particular in Gabler's classic theoreticalstatementof their nature and relationship. The first book which may strictly be called an OT theology appeared in 1796: an historical discussion of the ideas to be found in the OT, with an emphasis on their probable origin and the stages through which Hebrew religious thought had passed, compared and contrasted with the beliefs of other ancient peoples, and evaluated from the point of view of rationalistic religion. Here we find the unreserved acceptance of Gabler's principle that OT theology must in the first instance be a descriptive and historical discipline, freed from dogmatic constraints and resistant to the premature merging of OT and NT — a principle which in the succeeding century was accepted by writers across the whole theological spectrum, including those of orthodox and conservative inclination.

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