Progressive and Degenerative Journals: On the Growth and Appraisal of Knowledge in Scholarly Publishing

Despite continued attention, finding adequate criteria for distinguishing “good” from “bad”scholarly journals remains an elusive goal. In this essay, I propose a solution informed by thework of Imre Lakatos and his methodology of scientific research programmes (MSRP). I beginby reviewing several notable attempts at appraising journal quality – focusing primarily on theimpact factor and development of journal blacklists and whitelists. In doing so, I note theirlimitations and link their overarching goals to those found within the philosophy of science. Iargue that Lakatos’s MSRP and specifically his classifications of “progressive” and“degenerative” research programmes can be analogized and repurposed for the evaluation ofscholarly journals. I argue that this alternative framework resolves some of the limitationsdiscussed above and offers a more considered evaluation of journal quality – one that helpsaccount for the historical evolution of journal-level publication practices and attendantcontributions to the growth (or stunting) of scholarly knowledge. By doing so, the seemingproblem of journal demarcation is diminished. In the process I utilize two novel tools (themistake index and scite index) to further operationalize aspects of the MSRP.

A Center-Based Model for Self-Directed Learning in Sustainability

An innovative platform for self-directed learning around sustainability issues in higher education is achievable via a center-based framework that uses a living lab model. This chapter identifies classroom and institutional barriers and challenges to sustainability-focused self-directed learning using interview data from undergraduate students who have contributed to real change on campus and in the community. The authors posit an alternative framework for sustainability-focused self-directed learning housed in an interdisciplinary center by providing insight on the necessary structures, resources, and processes. This chapter concludes with a discussion of how self-directed learning (1) supports emerging adults' developmental processes in navigating the borderland of adolescence to adulthood and (2) contributes to potential solutions to wicked problems.

Why Study Religion?

This book asks, can the study of religion be justified? It poses this question on the view that scholarship in religion, especially work in “theory and method,” is preoccupied with matters of methodological procedure and is thus inarticulate about the goals that can justify the study of religion and motivate scholarship in the field. For that reason, it insists, the field suffers from a crisis of rationale. The book identifies six prevailing methodologies in the field, each of which it critically examines as symptomatic of this crisis, on the way toward offering an alternative framework for thinking about purposes for studying religion. Shadowing these methodologies is a Weberian scientific ideal for studying religion, one that privileges value-neutrality. This ideal poses obstacles to making justificatory claims on behalf of studying religion and fortifies a repressive conscience about thinking normatively within the field’s regime of truth. After making these points, the book describes an alternative framework, Critical Humanism, especially how it theorizes about the ends rather than the means of humanistic scholarship and offers a basis for thinking about the ethics of religious studies as held together by four values: post-critical reasoning, social criticism, cross-cultural fluency, and environmental responsibility. Ordered to such purposes, the book argues, the study of religion can imagine itself as a valuable and desirable enterprise so that scholars of religion can relax their commitment to matters of methodological procedure and avow the values of studying religion.

Decolonising the Curriculum in International Law: Entrapments in Praxis and Critical Thought

Calls to decolonise the curriculum gain traction across the academe. To a great extent, the movement echoes demands of the decolonisation era itself, a period from which academics draw both impetus and legitimacy. In this article, we examine the movement’s purchase when applied to the teaching of international law. We argue that the movement reinvigorates debates about the origins of international law, centring its violent foundations as well as its Eurocentric episteme. Yet, like many critical approaches toward international law, the movement is smitten with itself and with the regime. As a consequence, the outcome of its activism and critique is predetermined: both must redeem the Eurocentrism of international law and its associated pedagogy. Calls to decolonise the curriculum ultimately validate the epistemological limitations inherent to a stratified, international order, failing to offer a genuine alternative framework or epistemology.

Cultural identity in the Roman Near East: An historiographical exercise

<p>The central premise of this thesis is that the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation are no longer useful as interpretive models of the Graeco-Roman Near East. Through most of the twentieth century they did good service generating research questions and providing innovative explanations of both existing and new data. On the one hand the notion of hellenisation focused attention on the historical importance of cultural change in the Hellenistic period, while the concept of romanisation focused scholarly attention on life in the provinces rather than on the court life of the imperial city and highlighted the importance of epigraphy and archaeology as against the philological study of literary texts. But the underlying assumptions of both concepts — the superiority of Graeco-Roman culture, the 'civilising' role of the intrusive powers, the passivity of the indigenous peoples of the region, the notion that Greek, Roman and Semitic cultures are bounded entities — are now dated. In the first part of the thesis I deconstruct the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation in detail and then develop an alternative framework which is avowedly postmodern and interdisciplinary, eschews eurocentrism, and uses postcolonial concepts as well as insights from modern social theory. In the second part of the thesis I use the alternative framework to review the evidence relating to the provincial city of Gerasa in the Roman province of Arabia. Looked at through this alternative prism it has been possible to offer some different readings of the evidence not apparent in earlier interpretations. In particular, in using the concepts of resistant strategy and cultural imperialism to discuss the emergence of the Antonine period city plan, I challenge the traditional view of Hadrian's urbanisation policy.</p>

Cultural identity in the Roman Near East: An historiographical exercise

<p>The central premise of this thesis is that the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation are no longer useful as interpretive models of the Graeco-Roman Near East. Through most of the twentieth century they did good service generating research questions and providing innovative explanations of both existing and new data. On the one hand the notion of hellenisation focused attention on the historical importance of cultural change in the Hellenistic period, while the concept of romanisation focused scholarly attention on life in the provinces rather than on the court life of the imperial city and highlighted the importance of epigraphy and archaeology as against the philological study of literary texts. But the underlying assumptions of both concepts — the superiority of Graeco-Roman culture, the 'civilising' role of the intrusive powers, the passivity of the indigenous peoples of the region, the notion that Greek, Roman and Semitic cultures are bounded entities — are now dated. In the first part of the thesis I deconstruct the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation in detail and then develop an alternative framework which is avowedly postmodern and interdisciplinary, eschews eurocentrism, and uses postcolonial concepts as well as insights from modern social theory. In the second part of the thesis I use the alternative framework to review the evidence relating to the provincial city of Gerasa in the Roman province of Arabia. Looked at through this alternative prism it has been possible to offer some different readings of the evidence not apparent in earlier interpretations. In particular, in using the concepts of resistant strategy and cultural imperialism to discuss the emergence of the Antonine period city plan, I challenge the traditional view of Hadrian's urbanisation policy.</p>

To pay or not to pay: understanding mobile game app users' unwillingness to pay for in-app purchases

PurposeWorldwide In-app Purchase (IAP) revenues reached almost US$37 billion in 2017 and doubled that in 2020. Although the revenue from IAPs exceeds those from paid apps, only 5% of total app users make any IAPs. This paper investigates why some users will not make IAPs and develop a novel concept of users' Perceived Aggressive Monetization of IAPs as an alternative framework to explain IAP behavior.Design/methodology/approachGiven the newness of IAPs, this study uses qualitative research to understand the phenomenon and develop a model to explain the decision to spend on IAPs. In total, this study collected 4,092 unique user-generated comments from app user review sites and social media webpages where users discuss in-app purchasing.FindingsThe analysis reveals recurring themes that explain user unwillingness to make in-app purchases, such as conflicting meanings of free-to-play, perceived unfairness and aggressive monetization of IAP by app publishers, and self-control issues. Subsequent user interviews support the themes and suggest that IAP spending might be more impulsive.Originality/valueThe paper develops a new concept of perceived aggressive monetization. Additionally, it proposes a novel theoretical framework that future researchers can use to understand why some mobile game users are unwilling to pay for IAPs.

Frameworks used in cluttering treatments: Past, present, and future

BACKGROUND: This integrative review is of two literatures on cluttering treatments. It integrates into those two reviews a third literature to show an alternative way for cluttering to be treated in the future. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to encourage professionals involved in treating those who clutter to reflect on how conceptual frameworks can affect their treatment choices. METHODS: Works from three literatures on interventions are examined. Literatures covering two historic periods of cluttering treatments are compared to one another and to a third literature that offers an alternative framework for working with those who clutter. RESULTS: Treatment approaches to cluttering have almost universally focused on remediating impairments associated with the disorder. This impairment focus flows from a medical model –a model that views cluttering as a disease, located in the person, in need of remediation. An alternative framework, called the social model, one that focuses on the social conditions surrounding cluttering, is reviewed for its applicability to cluttering therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The medical model, used by authors since cluttering first appeared in the literature, carries within it assumptions about the selection and sequencing of clinical goals aimed at reducing cluttering symptoms. The social model alternative would likely shift the focus to working on ways for promoting the life participation of those who clutter. The applicability of social model practices to the treatment of cluttering is explored and encouraged.