scholarly journals Facts, Truth and Post-truth

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Fischer ◽  
Erin Klazar
Keyword(s):  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
South African ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Third ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Selection Of

This article addresses facts, truth, post-truth, and the impact on access to cognitively and socially just information. It is predominantly situated within the post-truth context where information is manipulated to such an extent that it becomes disinformation, disguised as truth. The article consists of four main sections: the first section will provide an introduction and overview of key concepts intrinsic to understanding the concerns at hand. The next section is a case study of the role the PR firm, Bell Pottinger, played in South Africa and Iraq and the cognitive and social injustices visible in the corresponding events. The selection of these countries provides an opportunity to demonstrate the effect of post-truth and whistleblowing in relation to the challenges experienced in the Global South. The third section, on Cambridge Analytica and Digitality, is a discussion of the infamous Cambridge Analytica and its interferences in political campaigns in Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. These discussions lead to the final section as an antidote to post-truth influences, which reflects on the way forward. This section makes recommendations for South African and international initiatives based on UNESCO’s intergovernmental programme known as the Information for All Programme (IFAP).

"What God hath joined ...": Religious perspectives on marriage and divorce in late Victorian Canada

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Marguerite Van Die
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Community Networks ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Folk Tradition

Prompted by recent debate and legislation in Canada about the definition of "marriage," this article explores the impact of socio-economic change and stress upon marriage as an institution among the middle class in Victorian Canada. It does this through the lens of "lived religion" as defined by Robert Orsi and others, taking the form of a case study of a marital scandal involving a respected Presbyterian minister in Brantford, Ontario in 1883. This is placed within the wider context of competing definitions of marriage as found in folk tradition and community networks, in various ecclesiastical marriage liturgies, and in marriage, divorce and property law. In its final section it examines the contradictions, tensions and anxieties that surrounded these definitions in late Victorian Canada as a result of changes in people's experience of space and time. It concludes by briefly drawing attention to the nature of "lived religion" and its implications in redefining marriage within a society that today has become highly urbanized, secular and pluralistic.

scholarly journals Doctors’ Extended Shifts as Risk to Practitioner and Patient: South Africa as a Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5853
Author(s):  
Koot Kotze ◽  
Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen ◽  
Eldi van Loggerenberg ◽  
Farah Jawitz ◽  
Rodney Ehrlich
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Safe Working ◽  
Working Hour

Extended shifts are common in medical practice. This is when doctors are required to work continuously for more than 16 h, with little or no rest, often without a maximum limit. These shifts have been a part of medical practice for more than a century. Research on the impact of fatigue presents compelling evidence that extended shifts increase the risk of harm to patients and practitioners. However, where the number of doctors is limited and their workloads are not easily reduced, there are numerous barriers to reform. Some of these include a perceived lack of safer alternatives, concerns about continuity of care, trainee education, and doctors’ preferences. As such, working hour reorganisation has been contentious globally. South Africa, a middle-income country where extended shifts are unregulated for most doctors, offers a useful case study of reform efforts. The South African Safe Working Hours campaign has promoted working hour reorganization through multi-level advocacy efforts, although extended shifts remain common. We propose that extended shifts should be regarded as an occupational hazard under health and safety legislation. We suggest options for managing the risks of extended shifts by adapting the hierarchy of controls for occupational hazards. Despite the challenges reform pose, the practice of unregulated extended shifts should not continue.

Railway’s Impact on Regional Socio-Economic Systems: Impact Degree Evaluation—A Case Study of Beijing-Shanghai Existing Line

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuemei Li ◽  
Dandan Liang ◽  
Yaodong Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Future Planning ◽  
Railway Network ◽  
The Third ◽  
Operational Management ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Resource And Environment

This article establishes railway’s impact aggregative indicators by using Correlation Analysis and Principal Component Analysis. With the correlative data of Beijing-Shanghai existing line from 2000 to 2008, the paper evaluates the level of railway’s impact on regional socioeconomic systems through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. According to the DEA results, it can be divided into three levels: first level is Beijing and Shanghai; second is Tianjin, Jiangsu and Shandong; and the third is Hebei and Anhui. The results of this paper could be used as references for the future planning and operational management of Chinese railway network: (1) Railway’s influence on the starting and end station is stronger than that on the intermediate stations. In view of this, more railways or higher technical railways could be considered to build in the higher impact areas; (2) In order to meet the needs of passenger and freight transport, it’s better to separate passenger and freight lines; (3) Although the overall influence is lower at the middle stations, the impact on the systems of resource and environment is high.

On the Applicability of Analytical Supply Chain Disruption Models for Selecting the Optimum Contingency Strategies for Electronic Supply Chain Disruption Management: A Comparison With Simulation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Allison ◽  
Peter Sandborn ◽  
Bo Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Mitigation Strategy ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Supply Chain Disruption ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Disruption Mitigation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

Due to the nature of the manufacturing and support activities associated with long life cycle products, the parts that products required need to be dependably and consistently available. However, the parts that comprise long lifetime products are susceptible to a variety of supply chain disruptions. In order to minimize the impact of these unavoidable disruptions to production, manufacturers can implement proactive mitigation strategies. Two mitigation strategies in particular have been proven to decrease the penalty costs associated with disruptions: second sourcing and buffering. Second sourcing involves selecting two distinct suppliers from which to purchase parts over the life of the part’s use within a product or organization. Second sourcing reduces the probability of part unavailability (and its associated penalties), but at the expense of qualification and support costs for multiple suppliers. An alternative disruption mitigation strategy is buffering (also referred to as hoarding). Buffering involves stocking enough parts in inventory to satisfy the forecasted part demand (for both manufacturing and maintenance requirements) for a fixed future time period so as to offset the impact of disruptions. Careful selection of the mitigation strategy (second sourcing, buffering, or a combination of the two) is key, as it can dramatically impact a part’s total cost of ownership. This paper studies the effectiveness of traditional analytical models compared to a simulation-based approach for the selection of an optimal disruption mitigation strategy. A verification case study was performed to check the accuracy and applicability of the simulation-based model. The case study results show that the simulation model is capable of replicating results from operations research models, and overcomes significant scenario restrictions that limit the usefulness of analytical models as decision-making tools. Four assumptions, in particular, severely limit the realism of most analytical models but do not constrain the simulation-based model. These limiting assumptions are: 1) no fixed costs associated with part orders, 2) infinite-horizon, 3) perfectly reliable backup supplier, and 4) disruptions lasting full ordering periods (as opposed to fractional periods).

‘The Sword of Avenging Justice’: Politics in Sutherland after the Third Reform Act

Rural History ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNIE TINDLEY
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Life ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Scottish Highlands ◽  
The Third ◽  
General Decline ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThere has been much historical debate over the role of aristocratic landed families in local and national politics throughout the nineteenth century, and the impact of the First, Second and Third Reform Acts on that role. Additionally, the period from 1881 in the Scottish Highlands was one of acute political and ideological crisis, as the debate over the reform of the Land Laws took a violent turn, and Highland landowners were forced to address the demands of their small tenants. This article addresses these debates, taking as its case-study the ducal house of Sutherland. The Leveson-Gower family owned almost the whole county of Sutherland and until 1884 dominated political life in the region. This article examines the gradual breakdown of that political power, in line with a more general decline in financial and territorial influence, both in terms of the personal role of the Fourth and Fifth Dukes of Sutherland, and the broader impact of the estate management on the mechanics and expectations of politics in the county.

Loes Nas on Kate Delaney and Andrzej Antoszek

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
South African ◽  
Republic Of Georgia ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
African Experience ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Economic Imperialism ◽  
The U.S

This essay is a response to the essay “Americanization and Anti-Americanism in Poland: A Case Study, 1945-2006.” The author argues that Poland, Georgia, and South Africa tend to echo each other, even though they are arguably very different countries. It stresses that Poland and the Republic of Georgia, for example, were both subjected to Soviet influence and that this had consequences over the years in their views of the U.S. Nas is quite interested in Delaney and Antoszek’s argument that Poland is the least anti-American country in Europe, and suggests that it might be better to examine those attitudes as attitudes expressed above ground or underground. The essay also contemplates the possibility that Poland had more freedom than Georgia because it was never a formal part of the Soviet Union. And it contemplates the South African experience which highlights U.S. economic imperialism, even though Chinese influence now also needs to be examined.

Christianity and Secularisation in South Africa: Probing the Possible Link between Modernisation and Secularisation

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Third ◽  
African Experience ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

The secularisation theory of Max Weber states that modernisation inevitably leads to the decline of religion. This theory has in recent years been challenged by the desecularisation theories of various sociologists and philosophers. This article probes the possible link between modernisation and secularisation through a case study of the Republic of South Africa. South Africa is an important case study because it went through a rapid process of modernisation from the 1990s onwards. The first section examines the secularisation thesis of Weber and his supporters, as well as theories of desecularisation. The second section discusses the periods of anti-modernisation (1910–90) and modernisation (1990–2012) in South Africa. The third section analyses statistical data on the state of religion in South Africa, while the last section offers some concluding remarks on the relationship between modernisation and secularisation in South Africa thus far. The finding of the article is that the South African experience indicates that modernisation has an impact on religion, but the effect is not necessarily one of a decline in religion. In South Africa, modernisation has led to the decline of religion in some communities and the rejuvenation of religion in others. The effect of modernisation on religion seems to depend on its interaction with a range of other social factors.

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