Endangering the integrity of science by misusing unvalidated models and untested assumptions as facts: General considerations and the mineral and phosphorus scarcity fallacy

There is increasing demand for science to contribute to solving societal problems (solutionism). Thereby, scientists may become normative activists for solving certain problems (advocacy). When doing this, they may insufficiently differentiate between scientific and political modes of reasoning and validation (de-differentiationism), which is sometimes linked to questionable forms of utilizing the force of facts (German: Faktengewalt). Scientific findings are simplified and communicated in such a way that they acquire a status as unfalsifiable and absolutely true (truth to power). This becomes critical if the consistency and validation of the findings are questionable and scientific models underlying science activists’ actions are doubtful, oversimplified, or incorrect. Herein, we exemplarily elaborate how the integrity of science is endangered by normative solutionist and sociopolitically driven transition management and present mineral scarcity claims that ignore that reserves or resources are dynamic geotechnological-socioeconomic entities. We present the main mineral scarcity models and their fallacious assumptions. We then discuss the phosphorus scarcity fallacy, which is of particular interest as phosphorus is non-substitutable and half of all current food production depends on fertilizers (and thus phosphorus). We show that phosphorus scarcity claims are based on integrating basic geoeconomic knowledge and discuss cognitive and epistemological barriers and motivational and sociopolitical drivers promoting the scarcity fallacy, which affects high-level public media. This may induce unsustainable environmental action. Scientists as honest knowledge brokers should communicate the strengths but also the constraints and limits of scientific modeling and of applying it in reality.

Statebuilding

This chapter analyzes how international statebuilding has shifted from problem-solving to a new discursive regime of acceptance and affirmation. It seeks to explore how the shift to bottom-up or postliberal approaches in the early 2000s led to a focus on epistemological barriers to intervention and an appreciation of complexity. It describes a process of reflection upon statebuilding as a policy practice, whereby the need to focus on local context and relations in order to take problems seriously further undermines confidence in the Western episteme. In other words, the bottom-up approach, rather than resolving the crisis of policy practices of statebuilding, seems to have further intensified it. It is argued that the way out of this crisis is to reject the problem-solving external authority and instead to “unlearn” from the opportunities opened up through the practices of exploring and engaging with the “other.”

MENGATASI LEARNING OBSTACLE KONSEP TRANSFORMASI GEOMETRI DENGAN DIDACTICAL DESIGN RESEARCH

The purpose of this study was to identify learning obstacle precisely on students' epistemological barriers to the concept of geometry transformation. Furthermore, researchers overcome these obstacles by developing mathematical learning concepts in the concept of geometry transformation in high school. This research was conducted at one of the senior high school in Tangerang Selatan. The research method used is Didactical Design Research. This method is carried out in three stages, the analysis of didactic situations before learning (prospective analysis), metapedidactic analysis, and retrospective analysis. Based on the results of the preliminary study, of the 20 students who took the obstacle learningidentificationtest,82.35%ofthetotalstudentsexperiencedepistemologicalbarrierstotheconceptofgeometry transformation. In overcoming the epistemological obstacles students in the concept of geometric transformation requires the design of learning developed based on learning obstacle analysis, repersonalization, and recontextualization so as to produce hypotheses consisting of Hypothetical Learning Trajectory which contains various activities and predictions of student responses and anticipations and produces Student Worksheets. The results show that the didactic design provided can overcome student barriers. It can be seen from the effectiveness of anticipation given during learning that reaches 90% of the difficulties that arise based on predictions of response and anticipated didactic pedagogical.

Rethinking the Role of the Armed Forces in Statebuilding: From Annihilation to Acceptance

This article analyses how international statebuilding has shifted from ‘problem-solving’ towards a new discursive regime of acceptance and affirmation. It seeks to explore how the shift to ‘bottom-up’ or ‘post-liberal’ approaches in the early 2000s led to a focus upon epistemological barriers to intervention and an appreciation of complexity. It then describes a process of reflection upon statebuilding as a policy practice, whereby the need to focus on local context and relations, in order to take problems seriously, begins to further undermine confidence in the Western episteme. In other words, the ‘bottom-up’ approach, rather than resolving the crisis of policy practices of statebuilding, seems to have further intensified it. It is argued that the way out of this crisis seems to be found in the rejection of the aspiration to know from a position of a ‘problem-solving’ external authority and instead to ‘unlearn’ from the opportunities opened up through the practices of exploring and engaging with the ‘other’.

The Experiential Gap in Disaster Research: Feminist Epistemology and the Contribution of Local Affected Researchers

In this article, we make the case for a situated knowledge of disasters. By applying a feminist standpoint framework, we argue that an ethic of “objectivity” and a privileging of the unattached researcher creates an experiential gap in the disaster literature whereby researchers who themselves experience disaster are undervalued and underrepresented. We analyze reflexive accounts by disaster researchers to show what epistemological barriers emerge from conventional processes of inquiry and the systematic disadvantaging of local, affected researchers. We also study patterns in articles by “outsider” and “insider” researchers, focusing on differences and similarities in research questions, reflexivity, relationships with and access to participants, and larger theoretical goals. This comparison reveals that the unique position of affected researchers can help to bridge formal knowledge and practical life knowledge, creating new and worthwhile paths to understanding the social effects of disaster.

Frame Semantics in the Arabic Translation of Philosophical Terminology

The purpose of this study is to examine how philosophical terms are translated into Arabic. It aims at discussing the problems arising from the epistemological difference between Western philosophical terms and their counterparts in Arabic in the degree of reliance on cognitive frames. It focuses on the structure of terminological knowledge bases, which have a hidden network of semantic relations. Examples of the study are taken from the specialized encyclopedia of Abdel Rahman Badawi (1996). The study utilizes Frame-Based Terminology Theory to analyze the translation of the philosophical terms in the encyclopedia. The study argues that difficulties in translating philosophical terms represent epistemological barriers.

Marginalizing Politics: The Conceptual and Epistemological Barriers to American Indians

Native Americans have been structurally excluded from the discipline of political science in the continental United States, as has Native epistemology and political issues. I analyze the reasons for these erasures and elisions, noting the combined effects of rejecting Native scholars, political issues, analysis, and texts. I describe how these arise from presumptions inherent to the disciplinary practices of U.S. political science, and suggest a set of alternative formulations that could expand our understanding of politics, including attention to other forms of law, constitutions, relationships to the environment, sovereignty, collective decision-making, U.S. history, and majoritarianism.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Girls From Outer Space: Emerging Girl Subjectivities and Reterritorializing Girlhood

With an overview of the authors’ contributions, this introduction to the special issue on girls from outer space provides a conceptual framework for bringing counter-narratives of girls from the margins, where unheard voices and movements have emerged, developed, and expanded as a way of talking back to the dominant girlhood space and discourse as well as society. Moving away from both binary and canonical lenses of girlhood that center on White middle-class girlhood, this special issue focuses on lived experiences of girls of color who exist among socio-economically alienated spaces such as immigrant, homeless, queer, and domestically violent spaces, etc. Most of all, it delineates a conceptual revision of the notion of outsideness by shifting from simply victimized, within a deficit model, to a complex dimension of girl agency that demonstrates both limiting and expanding experiences of the girls. Drawing upon feminist insights, this conceptual work attempts to relocate outsideness in the center of girlhood studies, which pays attention to alternative methodological approaches that recover epistemological barriers of girlhood by addressing (dis)entanglement of the girl participants’ minds and actions in diverse research contexts, and by disclosing the dynamic, contradictory, and complicated ideas, voices, and values from the girls’ perspectives.