scholarly journals Positive Welfare in Science and Society: Differences, Similarities and Synergies

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Vigors ◽  
Peter Sandøe ◽  
Alistair B. Lawrence

Societal and scientific perspectives of animal welfare have an interconnected history. However, they have also, somewhat, evolved separately with scientific perspectives often focusing on specific aspects or indicators of animal welfare and societal perspectives typically taking a broader and more ethically oriented view of welfare. In this conceptual paper, we examine the similarities and differences between scientific and societal perspectives of positive welfare and examine what they may mean for future discussions of animal welfare considered as a whole. Reviewing published studies in the field we find that (UK and Republic of Ireland) farmers and (UK) members of the public (i.e., society) typically consider both negatives (i.e., minimising harms) and positives (i.e., promoting positive experiences) within the envelope of positive welfare and prioritise welfare needs according to the specific context or situation an animal is in. However, little consideration of a whole life perspective (e.g., the balance of positive and negative experiences across an animal's lifetime) is evident in these societal perspectives. We highlight how addressing these disparities, by simultaneously considering scientific and societal perspectives of positive welfare, provides an opportunity to more fully incorporate positive welfare within a comprehensive understanding of animal welfare. We suggest that a consideration of both scientific and societal perspectives points to an approach to welfare which accounts for both positive and negative experiences, prioritises them (e.g., by seeing positive experiences as dependent on basic animal needs being fulfilled), and considers the balance of positives and negatives over the lifetime of the animals. We expand on this view and conclude with its potential implications for future development of how to understand and assess animal welfare.

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Vigors

Human perception can depend on how an individual frames information in thought and how information is framed in communication. For example, framing something positively, instead of negatively, can change an individual’s response. This is of relevance to ‘positive animal welfare’, which places greater emphasis on farm animals being provided with opportunities for positive experiences. However, little is known about how this framing of animal welfare may influence the perception of key animal welfare stakeholders. Through a qualitative interview study with farmers and citizens, undertaken in Scotland, UK, this paper explores what positive animal welfare evokes to these key welfare stakeholders and highlights the implications of such internal frames for effectively communicating positive welfare in society. Results indicate that citizens make sense of positive welfare by contrasting positive and negative aspects of welfare, and thus frame it as animals having ‘positive experiences’ or being ‘free from negative experiences’. Farmers draw from their existing frames of animal welfare to frame positive welfare as ‘good husbandry’, ‘proactive welfare improvement’ or the ‘animal’s point of view’. Implications of such internal frames (e.g., the triggering of ‘negative welfare’ associations by the word ‘positive’) for the effective communication of positive welfare are also presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gagah Yaumiyya Riyoprakoso ◽  
AM Hasan Ali ◽  
Fitriyani Zein

This study is based on the legal responsibility of the assessment of public appraisal reports they make in land procurement activities for development in the public interest. Public assessment is obliged to always be accountable for their assessment. The type of research found in this thesis is a type of normative legal research with the right-hand of the statue approach and case approach. Normative legal research is a study that provides systematic explanation of rules governing a certain legal category, analyzing the relationship between regulations explaining areas of difficulty and possibly predicting future development. . After conducting research, researchers found that one of the causes that made the dispute was a lack of communication conducted between the Government and the landlord. In deliberation which should be the place where the parties find the meeting point between the parties on the magnitude of the damages that will be given, in the field is often used only for the delivery of the assessment of the compensation that has been done.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Wayne Hudson

This paper outlines an alternative version of postsecularism, one that involves a critique of many Western approaches to postsecularism. This alternative postsecularism accepts secularity for certain purposes and domains, but not secularism. It inherits the Enlightenment in some institutional respects, but not necessarily its philosophical conceptions or its anti-religion. It does not make detailed prescriptions for any specific context, but it does imply that a mature postsecularism will take account of spiritual performances in both the public and the private sphere.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Ismael Jerez-Cepa ◽  
Ignacio Ruiz-Jarabo

The assessment of welfare in aquatic animals is currently under debate, especially concerning those kept by humans. The classic concept of animal welfare includes three elements: The emotional state of the organism (including the absence of negative experiences), the possibility of expressing normal behaviors, and the proper functioning of the organism. While methods for evaluating their emotions (such as fear, pain, and anguish) are currently being developed for aquatic species and understanding the natural behavior of all aquatic taxa that interact with humans is a task that requires more time, the evaluation of internal responses in the organisms can be carried out using analytical tools. This review aims to show the potential of the physiology of crustaceans, cephalopods, elasmobranchs, teleosts, and dipnoans to serve as indicators of their wellbeing. Since the classical methods of assessing welfare are laborious and time-consuming by evaluation of fear, pain, and anguish, the assessment may be complemented by physiological approaches. This involves the study of stress responses, including the release of hormones and their effects. Therefore, physiology may be of help in improving animal welfare.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verl Anderson ◽  
Riki Ichiho

Purpose The current criminal justice system is pledged to serve and protect society while preserving the rights of those who are accused. The purpose of this paper is to explore the premise of “innocent until proven guilty” and examine whether this assumption truly prevails under the current criminal justice system, or be modified to accommodate a sliding continuum of virtuosity. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a conceptual paper which relies heavily on the current literature about criminal justice and related ethical issues. Findings The paper argues that today’s criminal justice system fails to meet the standards of the virtuous continuum and that those who oversee that system need to rethink how the system operates and is perceived by the public if they wish the criminal justice system to be perceived as just, fair, and ethically responsible. Research limitations/implications Because this paper is a conceptual paper it does not present research hypotheses. Practical implications This paper suggests that “virtue” and “ethics” must be the foundation upon which the criminal justice system is evaluated, and criminal justice must incorporate an ethical standard which is virtuous and fair to all parties and leaders who oversee that system must meet the standards suggested by the virtuous continuum. Originality/value This paper is among the first to identify the viewpoint of the virtuous perspective, moral perspective, amoral perspective, and immoral perspective in the criminal justice system.


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Hermann Henrix

The Good Friday prayer “for the Jews” that was promulgated on February 4, 2008 triggered significant controversy. This article reviews how this controversy expressed itself in European countries in various ways and with differing intensity. It was eventually resolved at the level of political dialogue. Cardinal Kasper’s important commentary on the prayer, publicly approved by Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, calmed the public discussion. But this did not resolve the theological questions raised by the prayer, the focus of the second half of the article. When in today’s Church, the words of prayers that are in accord with Scripture call to mind negative experiences in the Christian-Jewish history, can they be used as the Church’s prayer? Can the two Good Friday prayers for the Jews co-exist, that of the 1970 missal and that of 2008? The fundamental theological problem raised by the two different prayers is not the issue of mission, but rather the question of salvation. How does one resolve the tension between the fact that God’s covenant with the Jewish people has not been revoked and the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ? Is it possible to create a Christian-Jewish bridge by referring to Jesus Christ? These questions remain unresolved, but theologians are now addressing them.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doowon Suh

Most scholars of social movements have been drawn to research on the politically contentious behavior of collective actors because of the conviction that social movements sometimes generate significant historical progress and social change. Yet movement outcome research has been least developed in the literature. This irony emanates from methodological and causal intricacies that fail to clearly explicate how social movements create change. The challenges encompass the heaped typologies, mutual inconsistencies, causal heterogeneities, and conflictive evaluation criteria of movement outcomes. To overcome these quandaries, this paper proposes that (1) any attempt to find an invariant model or general theorization of a movement outcome is inevitably futile; (2) instead, attention to the specific context of time and place in which social movements produce outcomes is necessary; and (3) a comprehensive understanding of the origins of a movement outcome becomes possible when multiple variables are considered and their combined effects are analyzed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan A. Blazo ◽  
Daniel R. Czech ◽  
Sarah Carson ◽  
Windy Dees

Sibling relationships are often regarded as among the longest lasting connections in a person’s life (Conger & Kramer, 2010). Sibling research has addressed topics such as socialization, support, and similarities and differences of siblings (e.g., Eaton, Chipperfield, & Singbeil, 1989; Horn & Horn, 2007; Whiteman, McHale, & Crouter, 2007). Scant attention has been given to how a younger sibling may be influenced by an older sibling’s sport involvement. The current study explored the lived experience of an older sibling’s sport achievement from the perspective of a younger sibling. An open-ended phenomenological approach (Kvale, 1983) was used to gain a description of the experience of sibling achievements in sport. Participant interviews revealed an overall thematic structure consisting of both positive and negative experiences: family influence, social influence, fondness, identity, abandonment, and jealousy. These findings broaden both sibling and sport literature, while providing valuable information for researchers and practitioners.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-502
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. Borkowski ◽  
Wanda E. Leal

This study aims to examine how positive and negative reinforcers during an individual’s first few cigarettes (cigarette initiation experiences) are associated with adulthood smoking behavior. Respondents from the Add Health were asked about subjective feelings during their first few cigarettes. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression, we examine the differential effects of positive and negative cigarette initiation experiences on 30-day cigarette use in adulthood and lifetime nicotine dependence. The results indicate that all measures of positive cigarette initiation experiences are positively associated with both cigarette measures; however, the opposite is not true of negative cigarette initiation experiences. The results highlight the misconceptions of antidrug policies aimed at punishment of users, by indicating that positive experiences influence later cigarette use more than negative experiences. These findings suggest that drug policies and initiatives aimed at punishment may be misguided and could benefit from adopting operant conditioning concepts that emphasize reinforcements.


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