Rule by Automation: How Automated Decision Systems Promote Freedom and Equality

Using automated systems to avoid the need for human discretion in government contexts – a scenario we call ‘rule by automation’ – can help us achieve the ideal of a free and equal society. Drawing on relational theories of freedom and equality, we explain how rule by automation is a more complete realization of the rule of law and why thinkers in these traditions have strong reasons to support it. Relational theories are based on the absence of human domination and hierarchy, which automation helps us achieve. Nevertheless, there is another understanding of relational theories where what matters is the presence of valuable relationships with those in power. Exploring this further might help us see when and why we should accept human discretion.

From relational equality to personal responsibility

According to relational egalitarians, equality is not primarily about the distribution of some good but about people relating to one another as equals. However, compared with other theorists in political philosophy – including other egalitarians – relational egalitarians have said relatively little on what role personal responsibility should play in their theories. For example, is equality compatible with responsibility? Should economic distributions be responsibility-sensitive? This article fills this gap. I develop a relational egalitarian framework for personal responsibility and show that relational equality commits us to responsibility. I develop two sets of arguments. First, I draw on relational theories of moral responsibility – particularly Strawsonian views – to show that valuable egalitarian relationships require responsibility. Second, I show why relational equality sometimes requires that economic distributions be sensitive to responsibility and choice. I also defend a seemingly paradoxical result: being committed to responsibility, relational egalitarianism not only justifies some distributive inequalities but some relational inequalities too. Overall, relational egalitarianism gives a nuanced and coherent answer as to why and how responsibility matters from within egalitarianism. That it does should be an important argument in its favour.

Relational Autonomy

This chapter offers an account of central issues and themes in feminist philosophical reflections on relational autonomy. Relational theories of autonomy explicate the social dimensions of personal autonomy, as well as the ways its development and exercise can be impaired by social oppression. The chapter outlines debates between internalist and externalist, and procedural and substantive theories of relational autonomy, including discussion of important contributions to these debates over the last two decades. It proposes that a multidimensional analysis of autonomy offers a possible resolution to these debates. Specifically, the chapter argues for the importance of distinguishing self-determination, self-governance, and self-authorization as distinct although causally interacting dimensions of relational autonomy. The advantage of a multidimensional analysis of autonomy is that it does justice to the complexity of the concept, while also clarifying the multifarious ways in which social oppression can impair autonomy.

Venice in Varanasi: Fluid landscapes, aesthetic encounters and the unexpected geographies of tourist representation

This article has developed from a broader research project on tourist representations and practices in Varanasi, India’s renowned sacred city and popular tourist destination situated by the ‘holy’ Ganges. Here, a recurring ‘sense of Venice’ emerged from Western travel narratives and landscape representations, evoked by both visual and more- than-visual encounters. Drawing on cultural geographies of landscape engaging postcolonial, representational and non-representational theories, the article unravels Venice’s capacity to exist beyond Venice and to mobilise affectual aesthetic connections across different social, material, spatial and temporal contexts. Through an empirical analysis of aesthetic experiences of ‘Venice-in-Varanasi’, it illuminates the ontological liminality of Venice as waterland and image and its epistemological capacity to navigate the entangled material, affective and representational modes through which we encounter the world. Advancing relational theories of landscape via an empirical focus on the waterscapes of Venice and Varanasi, the article contributes to water studies and critical tourism by proposing a fluid and mobile ontology of landscape which seeks to destabilise the representational/non-representational binary, thus feeding into growing research in this direction.

Being a Disadvantaged Criminal Defendant: Mistrust and Resistance in Attorney-Client Interactions

Researchers have documented the power of legal officials to administer sanctions, from arrest to court surveillance and incarceration. How do those subject to punishment interact with officials and attempt to subvert their power? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations among 63 criminal defendants and 42 legal officials in the Boston-area court system, this article considers how socioeconomically and racially disadvantaged defendants interact with their defense attorneys, and with what consequences. Given racialized and classed constraints, many disadvantaged defendants mistrust their court-appointed lawyers. Their mistrust often results in withdrawal from their lawyers and active efforts to cultivate their own legal knowledge and skills. Defendants use their lay legal expertise to work around and resist the authority of their lawyers. Defense attorneys and judges respond with silencing and coercion, given the unwritten norms and rules of the court. These findings complicate existing accounts of disadvantaged defendants as passive actors and contribute to cultural sociological and relational theories of how people engage with professionals across institutional spaces. Unlike in mainstream institutions such as schools and hospitals where self-advocacy is rewarded in interactions, criminal court officials reject disadvantaged defendants’ attempts to advocate for themselves.

Simply Paradigm of Da’wah Character In Facing Neurotechnology Era

Since year 569 M, da’wah character has been organized around the exchange paradigm. Da’wah character for postindependence period, was faced with the life of Islam history which had been confessed as a cultural power. The concepts apply to all forms of exchange, as Al-Qur’an is compatible to all centenaries and places. Whether it is communicated by speaking efforts (bi al-lisan), writing (bi al-qalam), or by doing (bi al-hal). Da’wah character paradigm evolved from a verbal-conventional oriented view, physical efforts, and to expand to the highest network level of information technology system called neurotechnology. This paper use a literatur studies from the references that relevances with this theme. Theoretically, this article is developing of a three-tiered discourses of the emerging field of da’wah characters are explored - its sub phenomenon (Muslim sensory models), its phenomenon (da’wah character networks), and its super phenomenon (sustainability and development). The result of this article that consequently the relational theories have come to the fore. But even as the field struggles to grasp its new fields of explanation, there is a paradigm shift happening at its boundaries. The shift significantly integrates the da’wah character worldview by the theoretical tools and methodologies in frame syummuliyah and ‘alamiyah and based on Al-Qur’an and hadist (rabbaniyah), absolutly.

Relationality or Hospitality in Twenty-First Century Research? Big Data, Internet of Things, and the Resilience of Coloniality on Africa

African development will remain intractable in a world where Africans are conceived as constituting disorganised data subject to the supposedly organising gaze of knowledgeable Others. African people are increasingly datafied dehumanised and denied self-knowledge, self-mastery, self-organisation and data sovereignty. Arguing for more attention to questions of data sovereignty, this paper notes that the Internet of Things and Big Data threaten the autonomy, privacy, data and national sovereignty of indigenous Africans. It is contended that decolonial scholars should unpack ethical implications of theorising indigenous people in terms of relational theories that assume absence of distinctions between humans and nonhumans. Deemed to be indistinct from nonhumans/animals, Africans would be inserted or implanted with remotely controlled intelligent tracking technological devices that mine data from their brains, bodies, homes, cities and so on. Key words: relationality, Big Data, Internet of Things, coloniality, research

What Do Animals See? Intentionality, Objects, and Kantian Nonconceptualism

This chapter addresses three questions concerning Kant’s views on non-rational animals: do they intuit spatio-temporal particulars, do they perceive objects, and do they have intentional states? The aim here is to explore the relationship between these questions and to clarify certain pervasive ambiguities in how they have been understood. The chapter first disambiguates various non-equivalent notions of objecthood and intentionality: It then looks closely at several models of objectivity present in Kant’s work, and at recent discussions of representational and relational theories of intentionality. Ultimately it is argued that, given the relevant disambiguations, the answers to all three questions will likely be positive. These results both support what has become known as the nonconceptualist reading of Kant, and make clearer the price that the conceptualist must pay to sustain his or her position.

An International Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility and its Role in Community Development

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to strategies corporations or firms conduct their business in a way that is ethical, society friendly and beneficial to community in terms of development. This article analyses the meaning of CSR based on some theories available in literature. It is argued that three theories namely utilitarian, managerial and relational theories of CSR supported by works of other scholars in the area could be used to suggest that CSR becomes an international concern due to globalized nature of business that knows no border. CSR is evolving in its meaning and practice. The article then discusses the role of CSR in community development because the very logic of CSR is towards seeing its impact in community socially, environmentally and economically. Competencies required by CSR managers are also analysed in order to have a better understanding of the practical aspects of CSR. Finally, conclusions and implications for future research are discussed.