Dealing With Conflicting Values in Policy Experiments: A New Pragmatist Approach

Despite the “turn to values” in Public Administration, there is still a lack of empirical research in situ that investigates how various stakeholders in interaction develop strategies to deal with conflicting values over time. By using a new pragmatist approach, this article fills in this gap by investigating policy experiments in Dutch healthcare. The results show how professionals, citizens, and policymakers differently valued the worth of policy experiments, which manifested itself in multiple value conflicts. To deal with these conflicts, stakeholders adopted different strategies: colonization, compromising, prioritization, short-cutting, organizational enmeshing, and pilotification. The results show a shift from exclusive top-down strategies to inclusive multi-value strategies over time.

Research Integrity and Hidden Value Conflicts

Research integrity is a well-established term used to talk and write about ethical issues in research. Part of its success might be its broad applicability. In this paper, we suggest that this might also be its Achilles heel, since it has the potential to conceal important value conflicts. We identify three broad domains upon which research integrity is applied in the literature: (1) the researcher (or research group), (2) research, and (3) research-related institutions and systems. Integrity in relation to researchers concerns character, although it remains to specify precisely what character traits are the desirable ones in this context and what values researchers should endorse. Integrity in relation to research concerns correct and sufficient description of the research process, data, results, and overall ‘research record’. Hence, it concerns the quality of research. However, whether or not this notion of research integrity covers all ethical aspects of research depends on whether one endorses a wider or a narrower interpretation of the ‘research process’. Integrity in relation to research-related institutions and systems leaves open whether they should be understood as agents in their own right or merely as means to research integrity. Besides the potential lack of clarity that our analysis reveals, we point to how this variety in uses might lead to concealment of value conflicts and propose an open discussion of central values.

Value conflicts and information security – a mixed-methods study in high-risk industry

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of work-related value conflicts on information security in two organisations in nuclear power production and related industry. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods design was applied. Individual interviews were conducted with 24 employees of two organisations in Sweden and questionnaire data on information security climate were collected from 667 employees (62%) in the same two organisations. Findings The qualitative part of the study identified five different types of value conflicts influencing information security behaviour. The quantitative part of the study found that value conflicts relating to information security had a negative relationship with rule-compliant behaviour. The opposite was found for participative security behaviour where there was a positive relationship with value conflicts. A high climate of information security was positively related to both rule-compliant and participative information security behaviour. It also moderated the effect of value conflicts on compliant information security behaviour. Originality/value This paper highlights organisational contextual conditions that influence employees’ motivation and ability to manage value conflicts relating to information security in a high-risk industry. It also enables a better understanding of the influence of the information security climate on information security in the presence of value conflicts in this type of industry.

How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement

This article explores the multiple meanings of the concept of openness in the global maker movement. Openness is viewed as one of the key principles of the maker movement. As the global maker movement is a bricolage of diverse and situated practices and traditions, there are also many different interpretations and ways of practicing openness. We have explored this diversity with an integrative literature review, relying on the Web of Science™ database. We identified three interrelated but also, in part, mutually contested approaches to openness. Firstly, openness often refers to applying open hardware. Secondly, it is in many cases related to the inclusion and empowerment of various groups in making. Thirdly, openness appears to be seen as a means to pursue economic growth through increasing innovation activity and entrepreneurship. Our results also highlight the substantial barriers encountered by makers while aiming to open up their practices. These barriers include: value conflicts in which openness is overridden by other important values; exclusion of lower income groups from making due to a lack of resources; and difficulties in maintaining long-term activities. The different meanings of openness together with the barriers create tensions within the maker movement while implementing openness. We propose that engaging in a reflexive futures dialogue on the consequences of these tensions can enhance the maker movement to become more open, inclusive and resilient.

The Value Gap

Evaluations about what is good (period) and what is good for someone shape much of ethics. The two value notions ‘good’ and ‘good for’ mark the deep-rooted divide between the impersonally and personally valuable—the value divide on which The Value Gap centres. Past and contemporary philosophers have argued it is a mistake to believe that these two value notions give rise to unresolvable value conflicts. This book argues that they are wrong. Part I considers two views to that effect, which share the idea that one of the two value notions is either flawed or at best conceptually dependent on the other notion. The views disagree, however, about whether it is good or good-for that is the flawed concept. These approaches deny the central idea of this work, namely that goodness and goodness-for are independent value notions that cannot be fully understood in terms of one another. Part II provides an analysis of impersonal and personal goodness in terms of a fitting-attitude analysis. By elaborating a more nuanced understanding of the analysis’ key elements—reasons and pro- and con-attitudes—the book challenges a common idea, namely that our beliefs about practical and moral dilemmas can be dismissed as being conceptually confused. The gap between favouring what is good and what is good for someone appears insurmountable.

The Underlying Values of Data Ethics Frameworks: A Critical Analysis of Discourses and Power Structures

A multitude of ethical guidelines and codes of conduct have been released by private and public organizations during the past years. Those abstract statements serve as a response to incidents of discriminatory algorithms and systems and have been quantitatively investigated for the proclaimed principles. The current study focuses on four frameworks designed for application during the development of new technologies. The purpose is to identify values and value conflicts and consider how these are represented in relation to established discourses, practices, and attitudes in Computer and Information Ethics. This helps to understand to what extent the frameworks contribute to social change. Critical Discourse Analysis according to Fairclough is used to examine language and discourses, and review edition and publication processes. Well-established values like transparency, non-maleficence, justice, accountability, and privacy were detected whereas value conflicts were barely addressed. Interestingly, the values were more often framed by a business, and technology discourse than an ethical discourse. The results suggest a hegemonic struggle between academia and tech industry whereas power asymmetries between developers and stakeholders are reinforced. It is recommended to extend stakeholder participation from the beginning and emphasize value conflicts. This can contribute to advance the field and effectively encourage a public debate about the desired technological progress.

Dialogue functions in the literary text (based on French fictional prose)

Рассматриваются основные функции диалога как компонента художественного текста. Предпринята попытка описания прагматических свойств диалогических высказываний персонажей французской художественной прозы. Материалом исследования послужили диалогические фрагменты из произведений современных французских авторов Анри Труайя и Гийома Мюссо. Использованы методы контекстуального и прагмалингвистического анализа высказываний, позволившие, в частности, интерпретировать возможности структурных единиц языка для выражения интенций адресанта. Отмечается, что функционально-коммуникативный подход при анализе художественного диалога открывает новые возможности исследования речевого поведения персонажа. Последовательность представления диалогических составляющих в художественном тексте несет существенную смысловую нагрузку, отражая закономерности развертывания исходных ценностных конфликтов. Научная новизна и теоретическая значимость заключаются в выявлении прагматических функций диалогических высказываний в художественном произведении. Результаты исследования могут найти применение в практическом курсе интерпретации текста в процессе преподавания французского языка. The article deals with issues related to the main functions of dialogue as a component of a fiction text. Attempts are made to describe the pragmatic properties of the dialogical utterances of the characters of French fiction. Dialogical fragments from the works of contemporary French authors Henri Troyat and Guillaume Musso are served as the material for the study. The methods of contextual and pragmalinguistic analysis of utterances are used in the work, which allow us, in particular, to interpret the possibilities of the structural units of the language for expressing the intentions of the addressee. It is noted that the functional-communicative approach in the analysis of artistic dialogue opens up new opportunities for the study of the character’s speech behavior. The sequence of presentation of dialogic components in a fiction text carries a significant semantic load, reflecting the regularities of the development of the original value conflicts. Scientific novelty and theoretical significance lie in identifying the pragmatic functions of dialogical statements in a work of art. The research results can be applied in a practical course of text interpretation in the process of teaching French.

Maddulo Kamu: traversing the social life patterns of the Ibanags

The purpose of this research is to discover, characterize, and analyze the social life patterns of the Ibanags in Nassiping, Gattaran, Cagayan. The descriptive case study approach was utilized, which included current information regarding the nature or status of this cultural group, as well as other phenomena. 100 clients were chosen from conception until death or burial based on their understanding of facts and information about Ibanag beliefs, traditions, and rites. The participant-observer technique, in which the researcher participated in the practices, rituals, and other ceremonies while simultaneously observing and seeing them, necessitated her staying among the people for several months. The researcher also studied reference materials or documents, as well as other demographic data on the community and its population. Farming and fishing are the most common jobs, however, some of them also work in carpentry and have their businesses. The Ibanag people have traditional beliefs and habits that are at variance with what teachers teach in schools from conception to death. On the other side, the problem of value conflicts can be solved by shifting unfavorable ideas and practices to more favorable ones, which can be attributed to people's education and willingness to change