Conflicted Energy Transition—Conception of a Theoretical Framework for Its Investigation

Energy transition plays a central role in efforts to reduce anthropogenic global warming. However, energy transition involves physical manifestations, for example in the form of wind turbines, photovoltaic plants, and power lines, which trigger resistance, especially among those who live in the vicinity of the (planned) plants. The reasons for this resistance are complex, as they relate to residents’ emotional ties and/or stereotypical common-sense expectations of landscape. The complexity of landscape conflicts in general, and energy transition-related conflicts in particular, makes it difficult to capture the intricacy of the subject matter by means of a single theoretical perspective. To address this difficulty, a neopragmatic approach of identifying and combining appropriate theoretical perspectives is utilized to develop an analytic framework for understanding these conflicts. To this end, we draw on Dahrendorf’s conflict theory and the framing approach. Both have high complementary explanatory potential and empirical applicability, with the framing approach broadening the theoretical prism to include micro-individuals and groups to Dahrendorf’s meso-social perspective.

Reflections on Oppression, Domination, and The Humble Cosmopolitan

This brief response to The Humble Cosmopolitan centers on Luis Cabrera’s defense of an individualistic conception of trans-state democracy against illiberal nationalist claims of self-determination. While I acknowledge the force of Cabrera’s critique as applied to “dominant” nationalisms and similar group-based dominations, I am curious as to how far Cabrera’s critique can accommodate “subaltern” nationalisms and related claims to group autonomy. The latter, I imply, can be defended on both instrumental and intrinsic grounds. Regarding the book’s analytic framework, I am curious as to how far Cabrera’s concepts of cosmopolitan humility and national-state arrogance can be reduced to concepts of global and national justice and injustice. The latter terms, I suggest, are at least partial substitutes for the former.

Eminently Social Spirituality

This introductory chapter sets up the volume’s themes and contributions. The first section outlines contemporary interest in spirituality and argues that current approaches to understanding contemporary spirituality are insufficient. The next section outlines what we call “first wave” scholarship on spirituality that, beginning in the 1990s, documented the society-wide shift toward spirituality. We then outline the elements of “second wave” spirituality that our volume represents. Thematically, our analytic framework views spirituality as eminently social and its meaning as fundamentally relational. The next three sections highlight how spirituality, both as lived experience and as analytic category, is always influenced by social (national, political, religious, etc.) context; how spirituality is undergirded by collective practices and serves as a resource for pragmatic problem-solving; and how it is influenced by power dynamics and institutional relations. We close with an overview of each chapter collected in the volume.

Modeling Early Phases of COVID-19 Pandemic in Northern Italy and Its Implication for Outbreak Diffusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked an intense debate about the hidden factors underlying the dynamics of the outbreak. Several computational models have been proposed to inform effective social and healthcare strategies. Crucially, the predictive validity of these models often depends upon incorporating behavioral and social responses to infection. Among these tools, the analytic framework known as “dynamic causal modeling” (DCM) has been applied to the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding new light on the factors underlying the dynamics of the outbreak. We have applied DCM to data from northern Italian regions, the first areas in Europe to contend with the outbreak, and analyzed the predictive validity of the model and also its suitability in highlighting the hidden factors governing the pandemic diffusion. By taking into account data from the beginning of the pandemic, the model could faithfully predict the dynamics of outbreak diffusion varying from region to region. The DCM appears to be a reliable tool to investigate the mechanisms governing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 to identify the containment and control strategies that could efficiently be used to counteract further waves of infection.

Representations of Racial Minorities in Popular Movies: A Content-Analytic Synergy of Computer Vision and Network Science

In the Hollywood film industry, racial minorities remain underrepresented. Characters from racially underrepresented groups receive less screen time, fewer central story positions, and frequently inherit plotlines, motivations, and actions that are primarily driven by White characters. Currently, there are no clearly defined, standardized, and scalable metrics for taking stock of racial minorities’ cinematographic representation. In this paper, we combine methodological tools from computer vision and network science to develop a content analytic framework for identifying visual and structural racial biases in film productions. We apply our approach on a set of 89 popular, full-length movies, demonstrating that this method provides a scalable examination of racial inclusion in film production and predicts movie performance. We integrate our method into larger theoretical discussions on audiences’ perception of racial minorities and illuminate future research trajectories towards the computational assessment of racial biases in audiovisual narratives.

‘Change the Heart, and the Work Will Be Changed’: Pius XII's Papal Blueprints for Europe

This article examines the role of emotions in papal discourse about European integration. Expanding on the ‘emotional turn’ in history, it develops an analytic framework to study emotional valence in constructing the past and future. Analysing Pope Pius XII's three major post-war encyclicals (Communium Interpretes Dolorum, Fulgens Radiatur and Summi Maeroris), this article shows how the emotional vocabulary of Pius XII bridges the gap between theology and politics. In particular, it illuminates how Pope Pius XII integrated emotional and religious vocabulary to (re)construct an image of a European past and future.

A Mega-Analysis of Personality Prediction: Robustness and Boundary Conditions

Decades of studies identify prospective associations between personality characteristics and life outcomes. However, previous investigations of personality characteristic-outcome associations have not taken a principled approach to sampling strategies to ensure the robustness of personality-outcome associations. In a preregistered study, we test whether and for whom personality-outcome associations are robust against selection bias using prospective associations between 14 personality characteristics and 14 health, social, education/work, and societal outcomes across eight different person- and study-level moderators using individual participant data from 171,395 individuals across 10 longitudinal panel studies in a mega-analytic framework with propensity score matching. Two findings emerged: First, personality characteristics remain robustly associated with later life outcomes. Second, the effects generalize, as there are few moderators of personality-outcome associations. In sum, personality characteristics are robustly associated with later life outcomes with few moderated associations. We discuss how these findings can inform studies of personality-outcome associations.

War Stories? Analyzing Memoirs and Autobiographical Treatments Written by American Correctional Professionals

Over the past century, many American correctional professionals (including correctional officers, wardens, and support staff) have written memoirs and autobiographies that described their experiences working at one or more facilities. Although the number of books of this nature pales in comparison to those that have been written and published by convicts and exconvicts, enough of them have been released in order to warrant a more in-depth analysis. This article presents the results of a content analysis of 30 English language, American based memoirs/autobiographies published between 1996 and 2017, on 14 variables. Not only does this study contextualize these books, but it also provides an analytic framework for their review. The conclusion points out areas where continued scholarship on this topic may be conducted. In particular, the article argues that more first-hand treatments need to be conducted on the prison institution by current or former correctional professionals who have experience working inside correctional institutions.

Overview of radiomics in prostate imaging and future directions

Recent advancements in imaging technology and analysis methods have led to an analytic framework known as radiomics. This framework extracts comprehensive high-dimensional features from imaging data and performs data mining to build analytical models for improved decision support. Its features include many categories spanning texture and shape; thus, it can provide abundant information for precision medicine. Many studies of prostate radiomics have shown promising results in the assessment of pathological features, prediction of treatment response, and stratification of risk groups. Herein, we aimed to provide a general overview of radiomics procedures, discuss technical issues, explain various clinical applications, and suggest future research directions, especially for prostate imaging.