Truth and Post-Truth in Public Policy

The phenomenon of post-truth poses a problem for the public policy-oriented sciences, including policy analysis. Along with “fake news,” the post-truth denial of facts constitutes a major concern for numerous policy fields. Whereas a standard response is to call for more and better factual information, this Element shows that the effort to understand this phenomenon has to go beyond the emphasis on facts to include an understanding of the social meanings that get attached to facts in the political world of public policy. The challenge is thus seen to be as much about a politics of meaning as it is about epistemology. The analysis here supplements the examination of facts with an interpretive policy-analytic approach to gain a fuller understanding of post-truth. The importance of the interpretive perspective is illustrated by examining the policy arguments that have shaped policy controversies related to climate change and coronavirus denial.

Barriers to implementing childbirth recommendations in Brazil: the women’s perspective

Objectives. To identify barriers to the implementation of National Childbirth Guidelines in Brazil from the women’s perspective. Methods. A descriptive exploratory study was performed using a qualitative approach and an interpretive perspective. The hermeneutic unit of analysis was established based on the contribution of users to a public online consultation about the National Childbirth Guidelines in Brazil, performed in 2016 by the National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation into the Unified Health System (CONITEC). Content analysis techniques were used to examine the answers provided to the following specific question: “Considering your local reality, what would hinder the implementation of this protocol or guideline?” Results. Of 396 contributions recorded by CONITEC, 55 were included in the content analysis. The mean age of women was 31 years, with most self-declared as white (69%) and living in the Southeast of Brazil (56.3%). Coding revealed seven barrier categories, which were grouped into three families — barriers related to 1) professional training and culture (which highlighted the centrality of physicians, not women, in childbirth), 2) social culture (general population not well informed), and 3) political and management issues (little interest on the part of managers, lower physician compensation for vaginal childbirth vs. cesarian section, and poor hospital infrastructure). Conclusions. Aspects of professional training and culture, social culture, and political as well as management issues are critical points to be considered in future interventions aiming at overcoming or weakening the barriers to implementing childbirth recommendations in Brazil.

La Historia del Arte Argentino a la luz de los Estudios Decoloniales.

At the end of the last century, colonial, postcolonial and decolonial studies set in motion a “detachment” from the dominant modes of knowledge acquisition in the social sciences and humanities. In the 1990s, Latin American intellectuals debated the colonial side of modernity and the cultural, theoretical and practical hegemony that the central countries maintained. In the field of art, this resulted in the problematization of the Eurocentric canons present in the artistic system and the lack of independent theoretical and visual thinking. In light of these problems, this article investigates one of the features of coloniality in force in the Histories of the Visual Arts “with capital letters” in Latin America and particularly in Argentina; that is, the neutralization of diversity in the construction of a national art. To this end, we have used the transdisciplinary qualitative methodology, which articulates different areas of knowledge (history, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, art history) from a decolonial interpretive perspective. In the theoretical analysis and historiographical reflection, a decentration is observed in the history of national art promoted by the Institute of Aesthetic Research (Faculty of Arts, National University of Tucumán), which interrupts the disciplinary canon favoring the emergence of the American, in both the folkloric and the ancestral.

On the Assumptions and Postulates of Cultural Linguistics (On the Example of the Definition of Polish PRACA (‘WORK’))

The study consists of four parts. The first part is devoted to the beginnings of cultural linguistics in Poland, connected with the Wrocław-based programme for research on Polish national culture, the emergence of the “Language and Culture” research network (and a publication series with the same title), and the launch of the Lublin-based journal Etnolingwistyka in 1988. The second part contains examples of linguistic facts being viewed in cultural perspective, with a special role of the lexicon as the “mirror of culture”. Part three presents a repertoire of seven conceptual constructs proposed in Lublin cognitive ethnolinguistics (linguistic worldview, stereotypes as cultural concepts, cognitive definition, viewpoint and interpretive perspective, profiling of base images, values, and the experiencing, conceptualizing, and speaking subject). Finally, the fourth part illustrates the application of this theoretical framework in an analysis of the Polish cultural concept of PRACA ‘WORK’.

Dialéctica motivacional gerencial como hermeneusis en las competencias laborales administrativas

Un buen líder organizacional debe buscar modificar la habilidad y destreza de sus empleados para, de manera efectiva, solucionar los problemas concretos que surgen de situaciones de trabajo que poseen ciertos márgenes de incertidumbre y complejidad técnica, de allí lo fundamental de la motivación. Esta investigación tuvo como propósito interpretar la motivación laboral como estrategia para mejorar el desempeño del personaladministrativo de la Zona Educativa del estado Guárico (Venezuela). Metodológicamente se suscribe al paradigma postpositivista, con un enfoque cualitativo, con una perspectiva interpretativa, bajo el método hermenéutico. Los informantes clave fueron tres trabajadores de esa división. Como técnicas de recolección se emplearon la observación participativa y la entrevista en profundidad; las de interpretación fueron la categorización, la contrastación y la triangulación. Entre los hallazgos más relevantes están la poca motivación de los trabajadores para desarrollar acciones que impulsen el logro de los objetivos emanados desde el ente rector y el ambiente laboral es, generalmente, tenso y conflictivo, lo que genera inseguridad e incomodidad. Palabras clave: dialéctica; motivación; gerencia; competencias laborales administrativas; organización. Abstract A good organizational leader must seek to modify his employees’ skills and abilities, in order to solve, effectively, specific problems in work situations that have certain margins of uncertainty and technical complexity, hence the fundamental motivation. The research’s purpose was to interpret work motivation as a strategy to improve the staff’s performance of the Zona Educativa Guárico administrative personnel division.The methodology was subscribed to the post positivist paradigm, with a qualitative approach, framed in an interpretive perspective, under the hermeneutical method. The study scenario was the Zona Educativa de Guárico State personnel division, for the study execution three workers from that division were taken as key informants. Among the information collection techniques that were used are participatory observationand in-depth interviews. The study interpretation techniques were categorization, contrast and triangulation. Among the most relevant findings is that: in terms of work motivation, there are few incentives on the part of the institution, since they do not carry out any type of motivating actions in order to impulse them to achieve the objectives emanating from the governing principal. Regarding the reflections, we have that the work environment is generally tense and a little conflictive. Some try to do their homework in a cordial way, but they are very few. This situation makes them feel insecure and uncomfortable. Keywords: dialectic; motivation; management; administrative labor competencies; organization.

Dialéctica motivacional gerencial como hermeneusis en las competencias laborales administrativas

Un buen líder organizacional debe buscar modificar la habilidad y destreza de sus empleados para, de manera efectiva, solucionar los problemas concretos que surgen de situaciones de trabajo que poseen ciertos márgenes de incertidumbre y complejidad técnica, de allí lo fundamental de la motivación. Esta investigación tuvo como propósito interpretar la motivación laboral como estrategia para mejorar el desempeño del personaladministrativo de la Zona Educativa del estado Guárico (Venezuela). Metodológicamente se suscribe al paradigma postpositivista, con un enfoque cualitativo, con una perspectiva interpretativa, bajo el método hermenéutico. Los informantes clave fueron tres trabajadores de esa división. Como técnicas de recolección se emplearon la observación participativa y la entrevista en profundidad; las de interpretación fueron la categorización, la contrastación y la triangulación. Entre los hallazgos más relevantes están la poca motivación de los trabajadores para desarrollar acciones que impulsen el logro de los objetivos emanados desde el ente rector y el ambiente laboral es, generalmente, tenso y conflictivo, lo que genera inseguridad e incomodidad. Palabras clave: dialéctica; motivación; gerencia; competencias laborales administrativas; organización. Abstract A good organizational leader must seek to modify his employees’ skills and abilities, in order to solve, effectively, specific problems in work situations that have certain margins of uncertainty and technical complexity, hence the fundamental motivation. The research’s purpose was to interpret work motivation as a strategy to improve the staff’s performance of the Zona Educativa Guárico administrative personnel division.The methodology was subscribed to the post positivist paradigm, with a qualitative approach, framed in an interpretive perspective, under the hermeneutical method. The study scenario was the Zona Educativa de Guárico State personnel division, for the study execution three workers from that division were taken as key informants. Among the information collection techniques that were used are participatory observationand in-depth interviews. The study interpretation techniques were categorization, contrast and triangulation. Among the most relevant findings is that: in terms of work motivation, there are few incentives on the part of the institution, since they do not carry out any type of motivating actions in order to impulse them to achieve the objectives emanating from the governing principal. Regarding the reflections, we have that the work environment is generally tense and a little conflictive. Some try to do their homework in a cordial way, but they are very few. This situation makes them feel insecure and uncomfortable. Keywords: dialectic; motivation; management; administrative labor competencies; organization.

On the Principles and Postulates of Cultural Linguistics (as Exemplified by a Definition of WORK)

The study consists of four parts. The first part is devoted to the beginnings of culturallinguistics in Poland, connected with the Wrocław-based programme for research on Polishnational culture, the emergence of the “Language and Culture” research network (and apublication series with the same title), and the launch of the Lublin-based journal“Etnolingwistyka” in 1988. The second part contains examples of linguistic facts being viewedin cultural perspective, with a special role of the lexicon as the “mirror of culture”. Part threepresents a repertoire of seven conceptual constructs proposed in Lublin cognitiveethnolinguistics (linguistic worldview, stereotypes as cultural concepts, cognitive definition,viewpoint and interpretive perspective, profiling of base images, values, and the experiencing,conceptualizing, and speaking subject). Finally, the fourth part illustrates the application ofthis theoretical framework in an analysis of the Polish cultural concept of PRACA ‘work’.