The Racist Enjoyments and Fantasies of International Development

2020 ◽  
pp. 236-264
Author(s):  
Ilan Kapoor
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Psychoanalytic Understanding ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores racist enjoyments and fantasies of international development. The small size of the literature on racism in international development is revealing of the relative silence on the issue in this field. There is repeated exclamation in this same literature about such silence, yet with nary a reference to the unconscious. What appears to be missing is precisely a psychoanalytic understanding of this silence. Although scholars underline a general reticence in talking about racism in development, they proceed to speak about it even so, pointing out the many ways in which it manifests. Yet it seems difficult to understand how racism can be both denied and furtively confessed without recourse to the notion of the unconscious. In fact, “a silence that nonetheless speaks” is the very psychoanalytic definition of the unconscious. Moreover, what remains unexplained is why such racism cannot be publicly or “officially” uttered. Could it be because the racism that supports development is obscene? Is it because development is sustained, willy-nilly, by alluring (unconscious) fantasies of domination and white supremacy, with the result that people actually enjoy racism? Is this why racism cannot be easily admitted (or eliminated)?

“The Unconscious” in Current Psychology

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Norman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Verbal Report ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Unconscious Processing ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Intermediate States ◽  
Definition Of

A series of vignette examples taken from psychological research on motivation, emotion, decision making, and attitudes illustrates how the influence of unconscious processes is often measured in a range of different behaviors. However, the selected studies share an apparent lack of explicit operational definition of what is meant by consciousness, and there seems to be substantial disagreement about the properties of conscious versus unconscious processing: Consciousness is sometimes equated with attention, sometimes with verbal report ability, and sometimes operationalized in terms of behavioral dissociations between different performance measures. Moreover, the examples all seem to share a dichotomous view of conscious and unconscious processes as being qualitatively different. It is suggested that cognitive research on consciousness can help resolve the apparent disagreement about how to define and measure unconscious processing, as is illustrated by a selection of operational definitions and empirical findings from modern cognitive psychology. These empirical findings also point to the existence of intermediate states of conscious awareness, not easily classifiable as either purely conscious or purely unconscious. Recent hypotheses from cognitive psychology, supplemented with models from social, developmental, and clinical psychology, are then presented all of which are compatible with the view of consciousness as a graded rather than an all-or-none phenomenon. Such a view of consciousness would open up for explorations of intermediate states of awareness in addition to more purely conscious or purely unconscious states and thereby increase our understanding of the seemingly “unconscious” aspects of mental life.

Religious Narrative

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Armin Geertz
Keyword(s):  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Religious Narrative ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

This introduction to the special issue on narrative discusses various ways of approaching religious narrative. It looks at various evolutionary hypotheses and distinguishes between three fundamental aspects of narrative: 1. the neurobiological, psychological, social and cultural mechanisms and processes, 2. the many media and methods used in human communication, and 3. the variety of expressive genres. The introduction ends with a definition of narrative.

scholarly journals Has the Credibility of the Social Sciences Been Credibly Destroyed? Reanalyzing the “Many Analysts, One Data Set” Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110244
Author(s):  
Katrin Auspurg ◽  
Josef Brüderl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

In 2018, Silberzahn, Uhlmann, Nosek, and colleagues published an article in which 29 teams analyzed the same research question with the same data: Are soccer referees more likely to give red cards to players with dark skin tone than light skin tone? The results obtained by the teams differed extensively. Many concluded from this widely noted exercise that the social sciences are not rigorous enough to provide definitive answers. In this article, we investigate why results diverged so much. We argue that the main reason was an unclear research question: Teams differed in their interpretation of the research question and therefore used diverse research designs and model specifications. We show by reanalyzing the data that with a clear research question, a precise definition of the parameter of interest, and theory-guided causal reasoning, results vary only within a narrow range. The broad conclusion of our reanalysis is that social science research needs to be more precise in its “estimands” to become credible.

scholarly journals Reactivity in social scientific experiments: what is it and how is it different (and worse) than a Placebo effect?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jiménez-Buedo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Scientific Experiments ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In Virtue Of

AbstractReactivity, or the phenomenon by which subjects tend to modify their behavior in virtue of their being studied upon, is often cited as one of the most important difficulties involved in social scientific experiments, and yet, there is to date a persistent conceptual muddle when dealing with the many dimensions of reactivity. This paper offers a conceptual framework for reactivity that draws on an interventionist approach to causality. The framework allows us to offer an unambiguous definition of reactivity and distinguishes it from placebo effects. Further, it allows us to distinguish between benign and malignant forms of the phenomenon, depending on whether reactivity constitutes a danger to the validity of the causal inferences drawn from experimental data.

An Evaluation of ‘Process as Product’ in OTI Sri Lanka: A Typology of Community-Level Peacebuilding Activities and Programming Recommendation

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
Lee R. Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
International Development ◽  
Community Setting ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Project Impact ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Programme Development ◽  
Definition Of

This paper presents a set of best practices and lessons learned from a set of 93 impact evaluations conducted on community-level, small grants activities implemented between March 2003 and September 2007 by the Sri Lanka country programme of the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It analyses the change theories that guided programme development and common trends in impact which emerged, and discusses ways in which programme staff can improve project impact. It provides a working definition of ‘process’, a key element of OTI's approach and a key concept used by facilitators to understand the work they do with groups and communities. It also delineates a general typology of peacebuilding projects likely to emerge in the community setting. Finally, it formulates a postulate for predicting and observing generic programme impact based upon the relative richness of process, which is considered useful for informing further research design.

Bridging the Gap Between "Science" and "Security"

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fighel
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Concept Definition ◽  
Security Research ◽  
Is Security ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

Security is multidimensional in nature and diverse in practice. This diversity leads to difficulty in providing a single all-encompassing definition for the many applied domains of security. Security cannot be considered singular in concept definition, as definition is dependent on applied context. Security incorporates diverse and multi-disciplined actors, originating and practicing across many disciplines. This multidimensional nature of security results unclear understanding of a definition for the concept of security. Bridging the gap between the traditional definitions of science and the undefined definition of what is Security can be achieved through Scientific Security Research methodologies that will be engaged and implemented in the exploration, analysis and conclusions of the systematic and organized body of knowledge.

scholarly journals Charting a course to an emerging field of 'research engagement studies': A conceptual meta-synthesis

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Fransman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Development ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Research Engagement ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Education Science

The past decades in the UK have witnessed renewed interest by policymakers, research funders and research institutions in the engagement of non-academic individuals, groups and organizations with research processes and products. There has been a broad consensus that better engagement leads to better impact, as well as significant learning around understanding engagement and improving practice. However, this sits in tension to a parallel trend in British higher education policy that reduces the field to a narrow definition of quantitatively measured impacts attributed to individual researchers, projects and institutions. In response, this article argues for the mobilization of an emerging field of 'research engagement studies' that brings together an extensive and diverse existing literature around understandings and experiences of engagement, and has the potential to contribute both strategically and conceptually to the broader impact debate. However, to inform this, some stocktaking is needed to trace the different traditions back to their conceptual roots and chart out a common set of themes, approaches and framings across the literature. In response, this article maps the literature by developing a genealogy of understandings of research engagement within five UK-based domains of policy and practice: higher education; science and technology; public policy (health, social care and education); international development; and community development. After identifying patterns and trends within and across these clusters, the article concludes by proposing a framework for comparing understandings of engagement, and uses this framework to highlight trends, gaps and ways forward for the emerging field.

Reporting altered test results in hemolyzed samples: is the cure worse than the disease?

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1112-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Lippi ◽  
Gianfranco Cervellin ◽  
Mario Plebani
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
Test Results ◽  
The Past ◽  
Laboratory Test Results ◽  
Performance Specifications ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe management of laboratory data in unsuitable (hemolyzed) samples remains an almost unresolved dilemma. Whether or not laboratory test results obtained by measuring unsuitable specimens should be made available to the clinicians has been the matter of fierce debates over the past decades. Recently, an intriguing alternative to suppressing test results and recollecting the specimen has been put forward, entailing the definition and implementation of specific algorithms that would finally allow reporting a preanalytically altered laboratory value within a specific comment about its uncertainty of measurement. This approach carries some advantages, namely the timely communication of potentially life-threatening laboratory values, but also some drawbacks. These especially include the challenging definition of validated performance specifications for hemolyzed samples, the need to producing reliable data with the lowest possible uncertainty, the short turnaround time for repeating most laboratory tests, the risk that the comments may be overlooked in short-stay and frequently overcrowded units (e.g. the emergency department), as well as the many clinical advantages of a direct communication with the physician in charge of the patient. Despite the debate remains open, we continue supporting the suggestion that suppressing data in unsuitable (hemolyzed) samples and promptly notifying the clinicians about the need to recollect the samples remains the most (clinically and analytically) safe practice.

scholarly journals Participation and the role of Public Space

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Gabriel Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Young People ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

This article examines participatory rights as human rights and considers their importance to the lives of children and young people. It argues that a broad definition of participation needs to be used which takes us from 'round tables' to understanding that young people participate in many different ways. It points out that failure to recognise and respect the many varied ways that children and young people choose to participate results in a breach of their human rights. It shows how our socio-legal system operates to permit and support these breaches of the rights of children and young people, resulting in their alienation from civic society.

scholarly journals Anthropology between heritage and museums

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-252
Author(s):  
José Guilherme Cantor Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Anthropology ◽  
Cultural Good ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

By analyzing some cases this article exposes the contribution of Anthropology, and specially, Urban Anthropology to the characterization of what may or may not be a cultural good and its value as Heritage in the context of the urban landscape. As a matter of fact, here it is shown the application of the ethnographic method, with its "inside and close-by" regard and with the categories of turf, patch, route and circuit, developed along researches performed at the Núcleo de Antropologia Urbana (NAU/USP) [Urban Anthropology Nucleus]. Thus, our aim is to argument that this work brings forth new elements for a better definition of the many heritage modalities - be it Architectonic, Archeological, Historical, and mainly the so-called Immaterial or Intangible. Thereby a fecund dialogue is opened between Anthropology and the disciplines traditionally engaged with the fields of Heritage and Museology.

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