Belief revision as a problem of scientific epistemology

The fundamental question that must be answered by any theory of knowledge that claims to be adequate is the question of how it is possible to change our knowledge. The very fact of change undoubtedly takes place, and the problem is to theoretically explicate this fact. The methodological significance of this issue is due to the fact that changing knowledge means nothing more than its development, namely, the question of the ways and means of developing our knowledge is of central importance both for the logic and methodology of science, and for general epistemology. This work is of a review character, and aims to draw the reader’s attention to a new promising direction in the modern theory of knowledge called “belief revision”.

Family Planning Films: Fact or Fiction? A Qualitative Study Assessing Changes in Knowledge, Attitudes, and Intentions to use Family Planning After Watching Documentary and Drama Health Education Films

Background: There is a paucity of literature on the effectiveness of drama or documentary films in changing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of people towards family planning. This study aimed to compare and assess the acceptability of health promotion films based on documentary or drama, and their effect on knowledge, attitudes, and intention to use family planning.Methods: We developed short documentary and drama films about contraceptive implants, using the person-based approach. Their acceptability was assessed in focus group discussions with younger women below 23 years, women over 23 years, men of reproductive age, and health workers in four different areas of Uganda (Bwindi/Kanungu, Walukuba/Jinja, Kampala, and Mbarara). Transcripts of the focus group discussions were analyzed using thematic analysis, to generate themes and examine the key issues. We assessed changes in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to use family planning after watching the films. Results: Sixteen focus groups with 150 participants were carried out. Participants said that the documentary improved their knowledge and addressed their fears about side effects, myths, and implant insertion. The drama improved their attitudes towards the implant and encouraged them to discuss family planning with their partner. The final versions of the documentary and the drama films were equally liked. Conclusions: Viewing a short documentary on the contraceptive implant led to positive changes in knowledge, while a short drama improved attitudes and intentions to discuss the implant with their partner. The drama and documentary have complementary features, and most participants wanted to see both.

Ghost in the Machine: Architecture, People and Data

<p>In an age of electronic networks and digital communities, the ability to access the world’s knowledge from anywhere, by anyone, at anytime is the new reality. With data growing at an exponential rate, questions of its physical manifestation in the socio-environment become inescapable. As digital networks grow and develop a mounting influence on our urban and social condition, it becomes critical to develop a platform from which a tangible relationship with data in the public realm can be accomplished. The Data Centre is an architectural typology that has recently emerged in response to the rapid consumption and production of digital information. While these data centers serve in driving global communication and economies, they operate as impenetrable objects without a common physical expression away from red and blue wires. Many adapt existing buildings and bunkers, occupy nondescript warehouses and are placed in remote sites for reasons of energy consumption and security. The current data centre typology blends in to urban contexts, sometimes disregarding humanised space entirely, justified as a response to operational constraints. The illegibility of this architectural strategy camouflages the physicalness of rapid digital data production and consumption. Giving data this ‘ghost’ like presence within the mechanisms of the modern world. This thesis proposes the need for an architectural response aware of the changing knowledge landscape, one that recognizes that the human condition in the digital environment requires more than just a sign to Silicon Valley. Calling for an architectural restructuring of the data centre, enacting a tangible interface in the pursuit to locate the human condition within the digital expanse.</p>

Ghost in the Machine: Architecture, People and Data

<p>In an age of electronic networks and digital communities, the ability to access the world’s knowledge from anywhere, by anyone, at anytime is the new reality. With data growing at an exponential rate, questions of its physical manifestation in the socio-environment become inescapable. As digital networks grow and develop a mounting influence on our urban and social condition, it becomes critical to develop a platform from which a tangible relationship with data in the public realm can be accomplished. The Data Centre is an architectural typology that has recently emerged in response to the rapid consumption and production of digital information. While these data centers serve in driving global communication and economies, they operate as impenetrable objects without a common physical expression away from red and blue wires. Many adapt existing buildings and bunkers, occupy nondescript warehouses and are placed in remote sites for reasons of energy consumption and security. The current data centre typology blends in to urban contexts, sometimes disregarding humanised space entirely, justified as a response to operational constraints. The illegibility of this architectural strategy camouflages the physicalness of rapid digital data production and consumption. Giving data this ‘ghost’ like presence within the mechanisms of the modern world. This thesis proposes the need for an architectural response aware of the changing knowledge landscape, one that recognizes that the human condition in the digital environment requires more than just a sign to Silicon Valley. Calling for an architectural restructuring of the data centre, enacting a tangible interface in the pursuit to locate the human condition within the digital expanse.</p>

Mobilizing knowledge

Many linguistic studies have analyzed the ways in which reported speech is used to mobilize knowledge in academic writing, but there have been far fewer such studies of knowledge mobilization in non-academic genres. This study analyzes the functions of reported speech in a Canadian quasi-judicial public inquiry report, a genre that is intertextually situated between research genres (through academic expert witnesses) and policy genres (through its role in making policy recommendations to the government). All instances of explicitly marked citation and reported speech in the commission report were identified and coded by function. The findings show citation and reported speech had specific functions that contributed to knowledge mobilization by discursively creating evidence, transporting worldviews and values, and changing knowledge status in the legal genres. The analysis also raises theoretical questions in linguistics, resulting in the argument that reported speech is not a static, formal category but a discursive status negotiated by the participants.

A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of Rural Development Research

Rural development research integrates numerous theoretical and empirical studies and has evolved over the past few decades. However, few systematic literature reviews have explored the changing landscape. This study aims to obtain an overview of rural development research by applying a bibliometric and visual analysis. In this paper, we introduce four computer-based software tools, including HistCite™, CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Map and Alluvial Generator, to help with data collection, data analysis, and visualization. The dataset consists of 6968 articles of rural development research, which were downloaded from the database Web of Science. The period covers 1957 to 2020 and the analysis units include journals, categories, authors, references, and keywords. Co-occurrence and co-citation analysis are conducted, and the results are exported in the format of networks. We analyze the trends of publications and explore the discipline distribution and identify the most influential authors and articles at different times. The results show that this field of study has attracted progressively more scholars from a variety of research fields and has become multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. The changing knowledge domains of rural development research also reflect the dynamics and complexity of rural contexts.

Changing Knowledge and Attitudes Towards HIV Treatment-as-Prevention and “Undetectable = Untransmittable”: A Systematic Review

People on HIV treatment with undetectable virus cannot transmit HIV sexually (Undetectable = Untransmittable, U = U). However, the science of treatment-as-prevention (TasP) may not be widely understood by people with and without HIV who could benefit from this information. We systematically reviewed the global literature on knowledge and attitudes related to TasP and interventions providing TasP or U = U information. We included studies of providers, patients, and communities from all regions of the world, published 2008–2020. We screened 885 papers and abstracts and identified 72 for inclusion. Studies in high-income settings reported high awareness of TasP but gaps in knowledge about the likelihood of transmission with undetectable HIV. Greater knowledge was associated with more positive attitudes towards TasP. Extant literature shows low awareness of TasP in Africa where 2 in 3 people with HIV live. The emerging evidence on interventions delivering information on TasP suggests beneficial impacts on knowledge, stigma, HIV testing, and viral suppression.Review was pre-registered at PROSPERO: CRD42020153725

Salience, Credibility and Legitimacy in a Rapidly Shifting World of Knowledge and Action

We are in a rapidly changing world where new dynamics are stressing the knowledge-action landscape: a greater understanding that cross-scale interactions are critical; increasing pressure to more fully address issues of equity in sustainable development challenges; rapidly transforming digital technologies; and the emergence of a “post-truth world”. These stressors are ripening at a time in which there is increased urgency in linking knowledge to action to solve some of the earth’s most pressing human-environment problems. This paper explores to what degree one model of knowledge-action may be useful in the face of these stressors. This model relies on co-production of knowledge across boundaries, and the importance of knowledge in meeting criteria of salience, credibility and legitimacy. Tentative explorations suggest utility of this model in responding to the changing knowledge-action landscape.