Proposing a Three-Dimensional Normative Model for Political Communication

The last 10 years or more will be remembered as a time of perpetual crisis. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need for effective leadership and for citizens of the world and their leaders to come together to achieve collective goals. However, various studies have highlighted the deleterious effects on democracy of the current trajectory political discourse is taking. Increasing voices in academia call for a shift towards a more citizen-centric political communication. The authors respond to such calls by proposing a new model for political communication that focuses on three dimensions, namely service ethos, inclusivity, and empathy (3D model). In this chapter, the authors conceptualise these dimensions and build a normative model for their application while discuss the relevant shortcomings and current issues as they relate to contemporary political communication.

A Normative Model of Politically Neutral Expertise

Increasing interaction between science and politics requires analysis of the risks of science politicization. The author considers the threat of political control over the expertise and proposes a normative model which allows to avoid this threat. The author argues that the protection of the “hard core” of scientific rationality of expert’s activity is possible if the role of scientists is limited to the “technical” stage of the expertise (aggregation of scientific consensus on the problem). At this stage, the experts should make risks of the proposed strategies visible for public (the author calls this “risks externalization”). In turn, a decision on the compliance of the proposed strategies with the political interests of society should be made at the stage of open discussion. The author claims that separation of these two levels of expertise has the following advantages: (1) allows one to minimize moral and political pressure on experts; (2) makes it possible to involve all parties in the discussion, thereby neutralizing “privatization” of the public sphere; (3) allows one to aggregate distributed knowledge; (4) provides an opportunity for the distribution of responsibility among wider range of participants, thereby maintaining the democratic spirit in the community. The author criticizes the idea of “expert decisionism” and claims that it should be considered as an exceptional mode of expertise in extraordinary situation.

Dissociable influences of reward and punishment on adaptive cognitive control

To invest effort into any cognitive task, people must be sufficiently motivated. Whereas prior research has focused primarily on how the cognitive control required to complete these tasks is motivated by the potential rewards for success, it is also known that control investment can be equally motivated by the potential negative consequence for failure. Previous theoretical and experimental work has yet to examine how positive and negative incentives differentially influence the manner and intensity with which people allocate control. Here, we develop and test a normative model of control allocation under conditions of varying positive and negative performance incentives. Our model predicts, and our empirical findings confirm, that rewards for success and punishment for failure should differentially influence adjustments to the evidence accumulation rate versus response threshold, respectively. This dissociation further enabled us to infer how motivated a given person was by the consequences of success versus failure.

The Struggle of Fiqh Reasoning in the Implementation of MUI’s Fatwa on Worship during Pandemic in the Island of Lombok

This paper discusses the implementation of MUI’s fatwa on worship during Covid-19 pandemic. Social facts show that the implementation of the fatwa has given rise to various socio-religious conflicts in Lombok island. Through a qualitative approach, the paper concludes: First, the people of Lombok Muslim community disapprove the fatwa. Second, there is a conceptual difference between the government as the beholder of the MUI’s fatwa and the community's religious traditions that have been maintained for a long time. Third, the model of fiqh law reasoning used by the government in general is a textual (normative) model that is contrary to society's use of historical meaning. Therefore, a dialogical process is needed for a solution to social problems that occur as a result of the implementation of the ulama’s fatwa which is used as government policy so that it does not appear to be coercive by involving elements of ulama, goverment, and society. The dialog conectivity of these three elements in negotiating their understandings of fiqh to place the intent and purpose of a legal product (fatwa) will encourage the realization of inclusive fiqh reasoning. Keywords: fiqh reason, MUI’s fatwa, mosque closing Tulisan ini mengkaji secara fenomenologis implementasi fatwa MUI tentang ibadah di tengah pandemi wabah Covid-19. Fakta sosial menunjukkan bahwa implementasi fatwa tersebut telah melahirkan berbagai konflik sosial keagamaan di Pulau Lombok. Melalui pendekatan kualitatif tulisan berkesimpulan: Pertama, Respon masyarakat muslim Lombok sebagai demografi dengan banyaknya masjid adalah adanya ketidakmenerimaan baik secara psikologis, sosial, dan kultural. Kedua, Terjadi pertentangan konseptual antara pemerintah selaku pemegang fatwa MUI dengan konsep tradisi keagamaan masyarakat yang telah lama ada dan menjadi pedoman mereka. Ketiga, model penalaran hukum fikih yang digunakan pemerintah secara umum adalah model pemaknaan tekstual (normatif) bertentangan dengan masyarakat yang menggunakan pemaknaan historis. Oleh karena itu, dibutuhkan proses dialogis sebagai langkah solutif atas problem sosial yang terjadi akibat implementasi fatwa ulama yang dijadikan kebijakan pemerintah agar tidak terkesan memaksa dengan melibatkan unsur ulama, umara’, dan mujtama’. Konektivitas dialog tiga unsur ini dalam menegosiasikan pemahaman fikih mereka untuk mendudukkan maksud dan tujuan suatu produk hukum (fatwa) akan mendorong terwujudnya nalar fikih yang inklusif. Kata Kunci: nalar fikih, fatwa MUI, penutupan masjid

Argumentation as a Speech Act: A (Provisional) Balance

This paper investigates whether, and if so, in what way, argumentation can be profitably described in speech-act theoretical terms. I suggest that the two theories of argumentation that are supposed to provide the most elaborate analysis of it in speech-act theoretical terms (namely van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst’s Pragma-Dialectics and Lilian Bermejo-Luque’s linguistic normative model of argumentation) both suffer from the same two flaws: firstly, their “illocutionary act pluralism” assumption and secondly, a lack of interest in where arguing belongs in the classification of illocutionary acts. I argue that these flaws derive from the authors’ reliance on an intention-based speech-theoretical framework. Finally, I adopt a deontic framework for speech acts in order to propose an alternative way of accounting for argumentation which seems to overcome the two limitations outlined above. According to this framework, argumentation may be conceived as a speech act sequence, characterized by the conventional effects brought about by the communicative moves (as illocutionary acts) of which it is composed.

Existence theory revisited: A reply to our critics

In this essay, we provide a comprehensive reply to the critical commentaries by David Inglis, Thomas Kemple, William Outhwaite, Simon Susen, Bryan S. Turner, and Robin Wagner-Pacifici. Our reply is structured along three main pillars. Firstly, we clarify what we aim to achieve with existence theory. Drawing on neo-pragmatist philosophy, our aim is to present a new and useful perspective on a wide range of social phenomena; we do not attempt to tackle or resolve broad philosophical issues. Secondly, we demonstrate that we do not subscribe to an algorithmic notion of society which posits that people’s trajectories have to fit a neat, linear pathway. Related, we do not wish to impose a normative model that endorses the existential milestones that are dominant in any particular society. Thirdly, building on various helpful pointers from our critics, we elaborate on various ways in which the theory could be enriched and further developed: for instance, by bringing in insights from the sociology of generations, critical theory, and sociological studies of the body.

Language and the Sensing Body: How Sensoriality Permeates Syntax in Interaction

This article explores the grammar-body interface by examining the intertwinement of embodied practices and turns at talk, where the sensing body permeates the ongoing syntax, in particular in activities in which the participants are engaged in talking about sensorial features while at the same time experiencing them, for instance in tasting sessions. So, the question tackled concerns how situated feelings, sensory experiences, and perceptive actions are embedded in the ongoing talk, and how they shape its emergent syntax, possibly affecting its smooth progressivity. The study shows how the choice of specific syntactic formats can be systematically related to the complex ecology of embodied actions, namely to publicly accountable ways of sensing material objects, to ways of showing and addressing an audience, and to visible ways of referring to standard documents normatively defining tasting descriptors. The syntactic formats described and their specific temporal realizations are thus deeply rooted in the local material ecology, in which they not only reproduce a normative model but reflexively express the senses with words and sensuously feel the words.

Towards a Normative Assessment of Probative Value in International Criminal Adjudication

The trial is an epistemic event. Yet, the manner in which the probative value of legal evidence is calculated remains largely unarticulated. Thus, in the face of an urgent requirement to advance a normative model of evidential reasoning which serves the needs of decision-makers, practitioners, and experts, this article assesses the utility of three dominant approaches, founded upon the exposition of inferences, scenarios, and probabilities. These find expression in Wigmorean, Narrative, and Bayesian network models, and a number of hybrid approaches. Through an analysis and critique of the foregoing models, the article attempts to discern the optimal normative model of evidential reasoning to be applied in international criminal trials, consonant with Twining’s formulation of rational adjudication, and assessed in accordance with a set of rational evaluation criteria drawn from New Evidence scholarship and its historical forbears.

Addressing Age Discrimination in Employment: a report on the findings of Australian Research Council Project DE170100228

This project aimed to research the effectiveness of Australian age discrimination laws. While demographic ageing necessitates extending working lives, few question the effectiveness of Australian age discrimination laws in supporting this ambition. This project drew on mixed methods and comparative UK experiences to offer empirical and theoretical insights into Australian age discrimination law. It sought to create a normative model for legal reform in Australia, to inform public policy and debate and improve responses to demographic ageing, providing economic, health and social benefits.