Kaplan’s System and Process

In this note Wight critically analyses Morton Kaplan’s System and Process in International Politics. While ‘positivist theorists’ aspiring to scientific rigour have belittled philosophical works on topics such as the just war or natural law as ‘tautologous or platitudinous’, these theorists have themselves constructed ‘new edifices of tautology and platitude’. Kaplan, for example, restates ‘simple and obvious truths, in the impressive special language of his theory’. Wight lists other shortcomings. Kaplan’s ‘historical limitedness’ reflects his ‘small range of historical reference’. Kaplan’s reliance on the abstractions of game theory leads to ‘the unintentional effect’ of ‘trivialization’ of ‘the awful issues of peace and war’. Furthermore, Kaplan’s ‘analytical jargon atomises and disintegrates reality’, and this results in ‘dehumanization’ and ‘hypostatization’ of the abstractions. Finally, ‘Objectivity becomes moral neutrality’, with ‘moral content … drained off, and then added again to the stew in pinches of recognition as “parameters” or “values”’.

Replication crisis – Just Another Instance of the Replication of Crises in Psychology? Historical Retrospections and Theoretical-Psychological Assessments

The current dismay within the mainstream of nomological psychology may result from the fact that the anomaly of non-replicability has a direct bearing on its very own methodological requirements and quality criteria of empirical research. The call for more scientific rigour on the customary avenue in order to secure unambiguous empirical findings gives, however, rise to suspect that the deeper reason for this anomaly is not yet recognised: namely, the misguided regulation of a strictly objective inquiry, distorting what is present and relevant in everyday life and treating the ‘subjective’ of the subject matter as the central root of interfering factors which have to be eliminated or neutralised in the pursuit of experimental hypothesis testing. The problems of replicability would thus be a proof once again that the notorious inversion between matter and method does not really work, due to the uncircumventable characteristics of human inter-/subjectivity. In this sense, the replication crisis replicates the perennial topic of all historical discussions about a crisis in psychology – the failure of a ‘psychology without subject’.

Reflections of methodological and ethical challenges in conducting research during COVID-19 involving resettled refugee youth in Canada

Research involving migrant youth involves navigating and negotiating complex challenges in order to uphold their rights and dignity, but also all while maintaining scientific rigour. COVID-19 has changed the global landscape within many domains and has increasingly highlighted inequities that exist. With restrictions focusing on maintaining physical distancing set in place to curb the spread of the virus, conducting in-person research becomes complicated. This article reflects on the ethical and methodological challenges encountered when conducting qualitative research during the pandemic with Syrian migrant youth who are resettled in Canada. The three areas discussed from the study are recruitment, informed consent and managing the interviews. Special attention to culture as being part of the study’s methodology as an active reflexive process is also highlighted. The goal of this article is to contribute to the growing understanding of complexities of conducting research during COVID-19 with populations which have layered vulnerabilities, such as migrant youth. This article hopes that the reflections may help future researchers in conducting their research during this pandemic by being cognizant of both the ethical and methodological challenges discussed.

SEMIOTICA DEGLI AFFETTI E MANIFESTAZIONI FISICHE NEI TESTI MEDICO-FILOSOFICI DI HALLE

In the mid-eighteenth century in Halle the so-called doctors-philosophers tried to develop a scientifically-based map of emotions, which included their causes and their manifestations on the body. Thanks to their scientific rigour, to the literary quality of those studies and to the growing circulation of the journals of the time – above all Unzer’s famous Der Arzt – the subject was so popular that it became central in the debate on physiognomy and pathognomics which was so vivid in the second half of the century. These theories had a powerful import on literature, contributing to the birth of the new ‘character’ in novels as different from the traditional and stereotypical sense of the term as ‘temper’ or ‘nature’. In the field of aesthetics, the effect of these studies had important repercussions on Winckelmann’s revolutionary theories related to the representation and interpretation of emotions in art.

Quality indicators for science communication: results from a collaborative concept mapping exercise

Although the need to improve quality of science communication is often mentioned in public discussions, the science communication literature offers few conceptualizations of quality. We used a concept mapping approach, involving representatives of various science communication stakeholder groups working collaboratively, to propose a framework of quality. The framework organizes individual elements of quality into twelve indicators arranged into three dimensions: trustworthiness and scientific rigour, presentation and style, and connection with society. The framework supports science communicators in reflecting on their current practices and designing new activities, potentially improving communication effectiveness.

A protocol for the evaluation of climate change impact models

<p>Understanding the implications of climate change for our environment and subsequent services and disservices for nature and society is a key science challenge of our days. Simulation model chains that link the causality of climate-meteorology-hydrology-impact in some way or another are rapidly being developed and increasingly applied to understand the implications of future climate change projections. We discuss in our contribution the urgent need to simultaneously develop protocols to evaluate such models and their adequacy to ensure that scientific rigour is upheld in such analyses. We believe that such an evaluation protocol should consist of at least 3 evaluation stages to ensure a model is justified and its limitations are understood. These are: [1] Establishing an impact model as an adequate representation of our current understanding of the underlying system. [2] Establishing an impact model as an adequate model for the task at hand. [3] Establishing that dominant processes are adequately depicted to enable the assessment of intervention strategies. We argue that it is important to distinguish these stages because achieving stage 1 does not guarantee stage 2, while both stages 1 and 2 can potentially be achieved without ensuring stage 3. Different approaches to implement each of these stages exist and they range in rigour from simple (possibly simplistic) to complex (and therefore demanding). In our contribution we will use different impact modelling examples to discuss the current state of impact model evaluation, the limitations of current strategies and methods, and define additional development needs to obtain the scientific rigour we believe is needed for credible and robust impact assessment.</p>

Exempting low-risk health research from ethics reviews to better serve the interests of the patients and public: a qualitative analysis of survey responses

BackgroundWe conducted a survey to identify what types of health research could be exempted from research ethics reviews in Australia.MethodsWe surveyed active Australian health researchers and members of Human Research Ethics Committees (HREC). We presented the respondents with eight hypothetical research scenarios, involving: N of 1 trials, no treatment studies, linked data sets, surplus samples, audits, surveys, interviews with patients, and professional opinion. We asked whether these scenarios should or should not be exempt from ethics review, and to provide (optional) explanations. We analysed the reasons thematically, to identify Top 3 reasons underlying the decisions.ResultsMost frequent reasons for requiring ethics reviews, included: the need for independent oversight, privacy/confidentiality issues, review of scientific rigour, and publishing considerations. Most frequent reasons for exempting scenarios from reviews, included: level of risk, study design, privacy/confidentiality issues, and standard clinical practice. Four research scenarios listed the same Top 3 reasons for requiring ethics reviews: need for independent oversight, review of scientific rigour, privacy/confidentiality. Reasons for exempting were less uniform, but low risk was a Top 3 reason for 7 scenarios, and study design for 4 scenarios. Privacy/confidentiality was given as a Top 3 reason for both requiring and exempting from ethics the same two scenarios.ConclusionsThe most frequently offered reasons in support of requiring ethics reviews for research scenarios are more uniform than those for exempting them. However, considerable disagreement exists about when the risks of research are so minimal that the exemption is appropriate.

Ways of Telling: A Handbook for Reporting on Climate Change in South India

Stories around climate change are not easy to tell. They are complex, technical, and develop slowly. In newsrooms where speed is king, accurate and comprehensive reporting on environmental crises often takes a hit. Scientific rigour and accuracy, sensitive representations and consistent reportage on more slow-onset events such as drought and sea-level rise are critical to build public awareness and set the agenda for more ambitious climate policies that cater to the needs of the most vulnerable.