Reconciling social enterprise: beyond the paradox perspective

PurposeThe paper aims to critically review the increasingly taken-for-granted view of social enterprise (SE) as inherently paradoxical and tackles the research question as follows: are the tensions experienced by SE and social entrepreneurs (SEnt) actually paradoxical and if not, what are the implications for theory and practice?Design/methodology/approachA paradox theory (PT) approach has been utilized to explore the implications, validity and helpfulness of the paradox perspective in understanding and managing the tensions that are inherent in SE.FindingsConceptualizing the primary tension of doing social good through commercial activity as a paradox is argued to be a limiting misnomer that conspires to reify and perpetuate the tensions that SE and SEnt have to manage. Drawing upon PT, the findings of the paper reconceptualize these tensions as myths, dilemmas and dialectics, which are subsequently used to develop a more complete ontological framework of the challenges that arise in SE and for SEnt.Practical implicationsReconceptualizing the “inherent paradoxes” of SE as either dilemmas or dialectics affords a means of pursuing their successful resolution. Consequently, this view alleviates much of the pressure that SE managers and SEnt may feel in needing to pursue commercial goals alongside social goals.Originality/valueThe work presents new theoretical insights to challenge the dominant view of SE as inherently paradoxical.

One or two? A Process View of pregnancy

How many individuals are present where we see a pregnant individual? Within a substance ontological framework, there are exactly two possible answers to this question. The standard answer—two individuals—is typically championed by scholars endorsing the predominant Containment View of pregnancy, according to which the foetus resides in the gestating organism like in a container. The alternative answer—one individual—has recently found support in the Parthood View, according to which the foetus is a part of the gestating organism. Here I propose a third answer: a pregnant individual is neither two individuals nor one individual but something in between one and two. This is because organisms are better understood as processes than as substances. With a special focus on the Parthood View, I explain why a Process View of pregnancy, according to which a pregnant individual is a bifurcating hypercomplex process, surpasses the substance ontological approaches.

A QUEST FOR IDENTITY: AN ONTOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KAFKAESQUE WORLD

Purpose of the Study: Franz Kafka is a much-debated existential writer who portrays existential traumas prevalent in his era. This research unfolds identity-related issues present in an existential journey of characters. Those are usually discussed in terms of existence and being. Identity formation, in an existential narrative, is seen in the process of becoming. Methodology: This paper is an interpretive phenomenological study to unearth the phenomenon of identity. Heidegger's interpretive phenomenology, along with Sartre's ontological framework, will be used to analyze Kafka's two novels, The Trial and The Castle. Yet, his book, Amerika, is left as it is considered unfinished. Findings: The Kafkaesque world pictures the traumas of the existential world, and this study mainly focuses on the phenomenon of identity, which is in constant flux in these ever-changing dimensions of the existential journey. Authentic and inauthentic existence, good and bad faith, is essential binaries in evaluating the identity of any character at any given instance. Application of the Study: This study will contribute to the understanding of characters of the Kafkaesque world in the light of the identity issues from an ontological perspective. As characters of Kafka are constantly striving to achieve good faith and trying to abandon inauthentic existence to attain harmony with their existence. Novelty/Originality of the Study: Kafka has been studied for many existential perspectives, yet this study explores the phenomenon of identity embedded in the existential narrative. Identity is usually sought in relation to discourse and postcolonial studies while discussing the Kafkaesque world. Yet, in this research, identity-related issues have been coupled with existential and ontological processes going in the fictional narrative of Kafka.

White Managers, Ethnoracism, and the Production of Black Ethnic Labor Market Disparities

Few have considered the role of White managers in longstanding Black ethnic labor market disparities. Drawing on ethnoracism theory, I conceptualize the previously documented White manager preference for Afro Caribbeans as a form of prejudice that contributes to the relative success of Afro Caribbeans. White managers say they prefer Afro Caribbeans because they work harder and are less racially antagonistic than African Americans. However, using the National Survey of American Life, I show that these populations are virtually indistinguishable in terms of labor quality and racial attitudes. Moreover, net labor quality and racial attitudes, the incomes of English and non-English speaking Afro Caribbeans are greater when working for White managers, but African Americans with White managers receive no greater income than those without a White manager. I conclude with a call for the formal development of a new ontological framework for the study of these kinds of ethnoracially dynamic relationships.

Ontological Modelling and Execution of Phenotypic Queries in the Leipzig Health Atlas

Sharing data is of great importance for research in medical sciences. It is the basis for reproducibility and reuse of already generated outcomes in new projects and in new contexts. FAIR data principles are the basics for sharing data. The Leipzig Health Atlas (LHA) platform follows these principles and provides data, describing metadata, and models that have been implemented in novel software tools and are available as demonstrators. LHA reuses and extends three different major components that have been previously developed by other projects. The SEEK management platform is the foundation providing a repository for archiving, presenting and secure sharing a wide range of publication results, such as published reports, (bio)medical data as well as interactive models and tools. The LHA Data Portal manages study metadata and data allowing to search for data of interest. Finally, PhenoMan is an ontological framework for phenotype modelling. This paper describes the interrelation of these three components. In particular, we use the PhenoMan to, firstly, model and represent phenotypes within the LHA platform. Then, secondly, the ontological phenotype representation can be used to generate search queries that are executed by the LHA Data Portal. The PhenoMan generates the queries in a novel domain specific query language (SDQL), which is specific for data management systems based on CDISC ODM standard, such as the LHA Data Portal. Our approach was successfully applied to represent phenotypes in the Leipzig Health Atlas with the possibility to execute corresponding queries within the LHA Data Portal.

TO THE ISSUE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITIVE DIRECTION IN LITERATURE AFTER MODERNISM: THE VISUAL AND THE TRUE HORISON OF KNOWLEDGE IN W. GOLDING’ NOVEL «FIRE DOWN BELOW»

Предмет изучения в статье составляют дидактические аспекты романа У. Голдинга в их отношении к аналогичным направлениям литературы постмодерна. Рассмотрение данных аспектов в эпистемологическом горизонте произведения позволяет заключить, что они были обращены против ограничений эпического пространства и когнитивных искажений картины реальности в модернизированных формах романа. The subject of the article accounts for the didactic aspects by Golding’s novel as related to similar currents of thought in postmodern literature. The insights into these aspects within the epistemological horizon of the work in question leads to the conclusion that they are directed against the cognitive distortions of the picture of the world and restrictions of its ontological framework in modernistic novels.

A Review of Conflict and Cohesion in Social Relationships in Family Firms

The literature on conflict and cohesion in social relationships in family firms has developed rapidly in recent decades. To take stock and provide directions to move this flourishing research area forward, we conduct a systematic review of the literature. We examine the prevailing conceptualizations of conflict and cohesion in social relationships in family firms, depict their drivers and outcomes, highlight their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, and propose an ontological framework to synthesize this large body of research. Drawing on our review, we identify some important research gaps and suggest fruitful directions for future research.

Towards a Postcolonial Critical Realism

This article proposes postcolonial critical realism (PCR) as an ontological framework that explains the structuring relationship between racialized, colonial discourses and the social world. Beginning with the case study of the global climate crisis, it considers how scholars and activists have made sense of the present crisis, and how their discourses reflect and reproduce the climate crisis at large. To theorize the relationship between racialized, power-laden discourses and material reality, it derives five tenets of PCR: first, colonial discourses underlie, and interact with, material structures; second, coloniality is global and made visible through differential events and experiences; third, subaltern lived experiences reveal the nature of reality at large; fourth, coloniality is power-laden, sticky, and often invisible; and finally, decolonization must target all three domains of the social world and their interactions. The article concludes by considering how this framework might enrich anticolonial thought in the social sciences, as well as social movements.