Showing papers on "Criticism published in 2018"

The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason

Abstract: Peter Strawson (1919–2006) was one of the leading British philosophers of his generation and an influential figure in a golden age for British philosophy between 1950 and 1970. The Bounds of Sense is one of the most influential books ever written about Kant’s philosophy, and is one of the key philosophical works of the late twentieth century. Whilst probably best known for its criticism of Kant’s transcendental idealism, it is also famous for the highly original manner in which Strawson defended and developed some of Kant’s fundamental insights into the nature of subjectivity, experience and knowledge – at a time when few philosphers were engaging with Kant’s ideas. The book had a profound effect on the interpretation of Kant’s philosophy when it was first published in 1966 and continues to influence discussion of Kant, the soundness of transcendental arguments, and debates in epistemology and metaphysics generally. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Lucy Allais.

Elements of Criticism

Abstract: This is the first modern edition of one of Kamess most influential works. When it first appeared, in 1762, it was the most comprehensive philosophical work on 'criticism' in English, and was published in five editions during Kamess lifetime and another forty editions over the next century. In America, 'Elements of Criticism' served as a standard text for college students of English, not least because the work is richly illustrated with examples from classical literature and the arts of Kamess day. In Elements, Kames sets out his argument that the 'science of criticism' is a 'rational science'; it is 'a subject of reasoning as well as of taste'. By examining human reactions to art and literature, Kames believed that we could enhance our understanding of the human mind, just as an understanding of the mind could enrich our responses to the arts. Volume one explores the nature and causes of the emotions and passions. Volume two delineates principles of rhetoric and literary appreciation, ending with a discussion of the formation of a standard of taste. Kames illustrated both volumes with a vast range of examples from classical literature and the arts of his own day. With this publication, Liberty Fund makes a modern version of this influential work available for the first time. The Liberty Fund edition is based on the text of the sixth edition of 1785, which was the last authorised by Kames himself.

The Polarizing Effects of Online Partisan Criticism: Evidence from Two Experiments:

Abstract: Affective and social political polarization—a dislike of political opponents and a desire to avoid their company—are increasingly salient and pervasive features of politics in many Western democrac...

Corporate social media: How two-way disclosure channels influence investors

Abstract: I examine how firm-investor communications on social media affect investors' perceptions of the firm. I focus on a case in which a Twitter user criticizes a discretionary accrual adjustment and management chooses whether and how to respond. I collect data using multiple experiments in which I vary the perceived validity of a criticism via the number of retweets it receives and/or the firm's response. Results suggest that the influence the criticism has on nonprofessional investors' perceptions depends on the number of times it has been retweeted. Results also suggest that following a criticism perceived to be valid, there are benefits of addressing the criticism directly or of redirecting attention to a positive highlight from the firm disclosure (relative to not responding). The findings advance our understanding of how a firm can effectively manage investors' perceptions by participating in, rather than abstaining from, conversations about the firm on social media.

The mismeasure of science: Citation analysis

Abstract: For several decades we, among others, have criticized the use of citations for evaluative purposes. Although these criticisms have been noted, they have been largely brushed aside or ignored, not addressed head on. This may be for a number of reasons, but we believe the main one is that these criticisms undermine the desire to have an easy “scientific”—that is, quantitative—method of evaluation. Consequently, we continue and update our criticism of the use of citations for evaluation.

Where is the racial theory in critical race theory?: A constructive criticism of the crits

Abstract: Abstract:Critical Race Theory (CRT) from its inception was not intended to be a theoretical framework, but rather a theorizing counterspace for scholars of color to challenge and transform racial oppression. Despite this context, the author demonstrates through a critical literature review that CRT is generally applied as a theoretical framework in higher education scholarship. As a constructive criticism, the author offers a critical theory of racism, hegemonic Whiteness, as an additional tenet of CRT. The author then applies hegemonic Whiteness to CRT, demonstrating how this theory of racism helps CRT work through several of its conceptual tensions.

Tying Hands, Sinking Costs, and Leader Attributes:

Abstract: Do costly signals work? Despite their widespread popularity, both hands-tying and sunk-cost signaling have come under criticism, and there’s little direct evidence that leaders understand costly si...

The culture of surveillance: watching as a way of life

Abstract: In July of this year, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, faced a wave of criticism after Le Monde (2018) newspaper published a video online that showed one of his security personnel illegally a...

The Information Politics of Journalism in a Post-Truth Age

Abstract: In the so-called post-truth age, criticism challenging the representational accuracy and political orientation of journalists has become an indelible part of the realm of political contestation. Al...

The building of weak expertise: the work of global university rankers

Abstract: University rankers are the subject of much criticism, and yet they remain influential in the field of higher education. Drawing from a two-year field study of university ranking organizations, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I introduce the concept of weak expertise. This kind of expertise is the result of a constantly negotiated balance between the relevance, reliability, and robustness of rankers’ data and their relationships with their key readers and audiences. Building this expertise entails collecting robust data, presenting it in ways that are relevant to audiences, and engaging with critics. I show how one ranking organization, the Times Higher Education (THE), sought to maintain its legitimacy in the face of opposition from important stakeholders and how it sought to introduce a new “Innovation and Impact” ranking. The paper analyzes the strategies, methods, and particular practices that university rankers undertake to legitimate their knowledge—and is the first work to do so using insights gathered alongside the operations of one of the ranking agencies as well as from the rankings’ conference circuit. Rather than assuming that all of these trust-building mechanisms have solidified the hold of the THE over its audience, they can be seen as signs of a constant struggle for influence over a skeptical audience.

Watching our weight : an exploration into the politics of the body using intersections between post-structuralist feminism and Foucault's discipline and punish

Abstract: In feminist theory, there is no greater site of contestation than that of the body. This thesis explores how, often, these debates on the body become centred upon a dichotomy between oppression and liberation. There is a vast diversity of scholarship that challenges this binary ranging from post-colonial, post-structuralist and Marxist feminist work, nevertheless, the dichotomy is still in action. This thesis focuses in on this dichotomy through the lens of dieting, to argue that the ‘feminine’ body is not simply a site of oppression or liberation. Rather, I draw upon the meeting points between Foucault’s (1977) Discipline and Punish and post-structuralist feminist scholarship to suggest that power works ‘through’ the everyday language and actions used to construct dieting and fatness. Using Weight Watchers and Slimming World as case studies, I note how processes of self-surveillance discipline dieters bodies through the act of confession and the structuring of one’s time around weight-loss. The underlying aim of the thesis demonstrates the complexities that surround women’s relationship to the body; it is simplistic to suggest that dieting is a product of ‘oppression’ or a tool for ‘empowerment.’ In challenging this dichotomy, the thesis extends criticism of some post-structuralist feminist scholarship, which can occasionally ‘fall back’ into binary discussions of the body. Additionally, the thesis cements itself within the wealth of black feminist scholarship; by exploring the discourses surrounding Oprah Winfrey’s dieting ‘journey’, the thesis addresses the gaps on race and gender within Discipline and Punish.

An essay on the principle of population : text, sources and background, criticism

Abstract: Provides the original 1798 text of Malthus's classic essay together with later revisions, and collects background and source materials and supportive and critical commentaries dating from the early 1800s to the present.

Con-/divergences between postcolonial and critical peace education: towards pedagogies of decolonization in peace education

Abstract: This paper focuses on the limitations of the Eurocentric modernist framework that undergirds Freirean theory and critical pedagogy in relation to critical peace education, highlighting in particula...

Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America

Abstract: Although dependency analysis was inspired in part by Marxism and although several of the original thinkers of the school called themselves Marxists, many orthodox Marxists were quite critical of the theory. One of the most influential of these orthodox Marxists is Ernesto Laclau, an Argentine political scientist at the University of Essex in England, whose arguments heralded the “modes of analysis” approach. Laclau takes on the dependency approach through a critique of Frank and therefore does not address the more sophisticated thinkers like Cardoso and Faletto, although some of his criticism could be applied to them as well. His central argument is that Frank has a mistaken definition of capitalism, having overemphasized the importance of trade and commerce while having underestimated the mode of production—the way society is organized to produce goods. Laclau suggests that a more accurate analysis would seek to define the mixture of feudal, slave, and capitalist ways of producing goods, rather than simply lumping all these disparate modes of production under the single rubric of capitalism. The most significant implication of this greater complexity in analysis is that the optimism of Frank and others, who believed that socialism was the next historical stage (since capitalism was already well-established), was unfounded. Laclau implies that the options for the future of Latin America are not to be reduced to such simplistic formulae but rather will emerge from a long and complex process of class struggle in various mixed modes of production. Since Laclau’s writing might be especially difficult for readers not accustomed to Marxist terminology, we have added an appendix with a brief overview of pertinent Marxist concepts.

Comparing Notes: Recording and Criticism

Abstract: This chapter charts the ways in which recording has changed the nature of music criticism. It both provides an overview of the history of recording and music criticism, from the advent of Edison’s Phonograph to the present day, and examines the issues arising from this new technology and the consequent transformation of critical thought and practice.

Spousal criticism and hostility in response to pain: what is the alternative?

Abstract: Burns et al. 1 address important questions with respect to the role of spousal criticism and hostility in affecting pain adjustment. Not only do their findings show that perceived spouse criticism/hostility is related to pain, but that pain behaviors were most frequently observed among members of certain subgroups (ie, women, people with depressive symptoms) when their spouses engaged in greater criticism/hostility. The use of an observational paradigm also advances the science in this field and raises the bar for researchers interested in both interpersonal and pain behaviors. The constructs of criticism and hostility are part of a long line of research on negative emotion expressed to people with pain. “Punishing spouse responses” was first incorporated into a pain measure by Kern et al., in which respondents are asked to report the extent to which their partners responded to their pain with irritation, anger, or frustration. Punishing responses have also been assessed observationally by Romano et al. and others and have been shown to relate to greater relationship distress, pain, and depressive symptoms among people with pain. The research has expanded to include more nuanced and specific negative emotions toward people including hostile solicitousness and emotional invalidation, both which are known to negatively impact intrapersonal and interpersonal well-being. The work of Burns et al. further elucidates the role of negative emotional reactions to people with pain from an expressed emotion perspective. Work such as this is important in providing a clear understanding of different aspects of social communications that play significant roles in the lives of people with pain. In particular, the study by Burns et al. more pointedly examines not just diffuse or general hostility or criticism that might occur in a relationship, but hostility and criticism that occurs when discussing one’s pain coping attempts. Burns et al. are also to be commended for attempting to understand for whom critical and hostile responses are especially detrimental; in this case, women and people reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms. The fact that women in this study reported more depressive symptoms than men suggests that an intriguing question for future study is to identify intersecting characteristics that might better explain vulnerability (eg, women with depression may bemost vulnerable to criticism/hostility). It is also important to remember that spouses remained in the room for the pain behavior task. As the authors note in their discussion of the results, it is possible that spousal presence increased the frequency of pain behaviors. It is also possible that people who experience a great deal of hostility and criticism during the coping with pain discussion task may engage in greater pain displays as a way to communicate that their pain is serious and real. Some couples may get caught in a vicious cycle of criticism and pain behavior, as well as general relationship distress. The interactional model of depression, which posits that excessive reassurance-seeking, may relate to interpersonal rejection in people with depression and may explain this interaction cycle. Indeed, evidence from the pain and interpersonal relationships literature suggest that excessive reassurance-seekingmay in turn foster rejecting and isolating reactions from loved ones. To test these hypotheses further, verbal expressions of people with pain, including emotional disclosures to which spouses are hostile or critical, must also be assessed. Finally, a dyadic approach in which relationship distress is assessed may also shed light on the interpersonal dynamics in which spousal criticism and hostility to pain occur. It is not clear if the couples who participated in this study were, on average, distressed or, as is common in many pain studies, relatively satisfied in their relationships. The authors note that spousal hostility and criticism should be addressed in interventions by teaching more constructive methods to manage conflict. Conflict negotiation is not typically a part of interventions to improve quality of life for people with pain. The most well-known approach engages the partner as a coach who assists the patient to maintain healthy coping strategies. There is also some evidence that encouraging well behaviors is associated with lower patient disability. Yet, these coaching approaches may work well only for couples who are effectively handling the illness but not as well for couples who experience relationship distress, including negative emotional interactions including hostility, criticism, and emotional invalidation. For instance, encouragement of well behaviors may be perceived as nagging or criticism in the context of relationship distress. Recent work incorporating intimacy and interpersonal models into the pain experience suggests that empathy and acceptance or validation of disclosures about pain-related distress may prevent or deescalate conflict with respect to pain and promote health. Indeed, partner responsiveness, including empathic responses to a partner’s pain expression, is associated with better longstanding physical function among people with pain. Another option for clinical researchers is to approach pain coping as a dyadic task in which both partners bring their own experiences and coping strategies to pain and stressful experiences. From this perspective, both partners are active targets of treatment and both must learn how to attend to, Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article.

A Discourse on Method: Meditations on the First Philosophy; Principles of Philosophy

Abstract: Part of the Everyman series which has been re-set with wide margins for notes and easy-to-read type. Each title includes a themed introduction by leading authorities on the subject, life-and-times chronology of the author, text summaries, annotated reading lists and selected criticism and notes.

Religious Education, Big Ideas and the Study of Religion(s) and Worldview(s).

Abstract: The ‘Identifying Principles and Big Ideas for Religious Education’ project was supported by the St Luke’s College Foundation (016J-086). The ‘RE-searchers: A critical dialogic approach to Religious Education in primary schools’ project was supported by the Culham St. Gabriel’s Trust and Hockerill Education Foundation.

Towards a theory of operational excellence

Abstract: The term Operational Excellence is widely applied to businesses but the meaning is ill-defined and is often used as a desired goal. This paper provides a comprehensive review of Operational Excellence and starts to address the criticism of its lack of theoretical foundation. The aim of this conceptual paper is to clarify the meaning of Operational Excellent and to identify the underpinning theories and laws, or rules that guide it. Based on the synthesis of the literature using the term ‘Operational Excellence’ writings are reviewed against five criteria for a good theory. Our findings show there has been considerable research into identifying common practices and regularities of Operational Excellence but currently there is no single underlying theory of Operational Excellence that meets the criteria for a good theory. From our analysis of the literature we provide some recommendations to address the gaps found. Further research is required to develop a more robust theory of Operational Excellence that will serve to facilitate learning and innovation in next generation management thinking. Future study is also required to identify research that has been carried out that has tested the laws identified in this study. Ideas and input from practitioners would also be required to develop the theory and underpinning laws.

Frankenstein and the “Spark of Being”: Electricity, Animation, and Adaptation

Abstract: In this essay, I suggest that the animation scene in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein poses interesting and important questions for both adaptations and criticism of the novel. While scholars and film-m...

Three Models of Democratic Self-Defence: Militant Democracy and Its Alternatives:

Abstract: Militant democracy relies on the idea that democracies ought to defend themselves from anti-democratic forces by constitutionalising repressive measures. We offer a criticism of this view by highli...

What is critical about critical pedagogy? Conflicting conceptions of criticism in the curriculum*

Abstract: In this paper, I explore the problems of cultivating a critical attitude in pedagogy given problems with accounts grounded in critical social theory, rational liberalism and pragmatic esthetic theory. I offer instead an alternative account of criticism for education in open, pluralistic, liberal, democratic societies called 'pedagogy of difference' that is grounded in the diversity liberalism of Isaiah Berlin and the dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber. In our current condition in which there is no agreement as to the proper criteria for assessing attitudes and actions, for a critical attitude to gain a foothold one must learn to evaluate proposed beliefs and behaviour-based standards within a particular tradition as well as those drawn from another viewpoint. To know oneself, one must engage others who are different. But to engage others in a meaningful way one must be immersed in a tradition to which one is heir or with which one chooses to affiliate.

A Multicultural Education Praxis: Integrating Past and Present, Living Theories, and Practice

Abstract: In our current climate of heightened conservatism and criticism, multicultural education is as important as ever. This article argues for the need to reframe multicultural education as a praxis based on its social justice- oriented principles, values, and practices. Using practitioner action research, I examine my implementation of such a praxis in a college course. I discuss critical reflections on demonstrating the interconnections between current and historical social movements, theory and lived experiences, and the students’ and my learning. I conclude by arguing that reframing multicultural education as a praxis could encourage more coalitions within and beyond schools.

Compilation and critique : the essay as a literary, cinematographic and videographic form

Abstract: This dissertation critically engages the meaning and scope of the category of the ‘essay film’; a term that has gained increasing currency in recent decades in film studies and contemporary art to group a diverse array of moving-image works. Departing from recent literature on the essay film, the essay, as I argue, should be conceived less as a stable generic category, than as a dynamic form and experimental mode of writing and filmmaking, which employs and cuts across diverse literary, cinematic and televisual genres and sub-genres, and which is historically subject to critical transformation as it encounters new social, technological and cultural forms and mediums. The introduction provides a critical survey of some of the leading proponents of the essay film, and outlines a working definition of the essay as a literary and cinematographic form. Chapter 1 examines the history of the essay and criticism as a literary and philosophical form, focusing on the essayistic and critical writings of Michel de Montaigne, the early German Romantics, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Roland Barthes. Central to the critical and experimental nature of the essay, as the chapter underlines, is the deployment of various indirect, allegorical, and modernist rhetorical and poetic strategies and devices – such as citation, irony, fragmentation, and parataxis – which attempt to engage the reader in the text’s reflective process through the constellation of enigmatic and disjunct moments and perspectives. Chapter 2 explores the emergence of various essayistic forms in the Soviet avant-garde in the 1920s, relating debates around the privileging of literary and photographic documentary montage practices in Soviet Factography to Esfir Shub’s historical compilation films, Dziga Vertov’s experimental newsreels, and Sergei Eisenstein’s project to make a plotless film-essay based on Karl Marx’s Capital. Chapter 3 focuses on Jean-Luc Godard’s film and video essays – from Camera Eye (1967) to Histoire(s) du cinema (1988-1998) – delineating the crucial shifts in Godard’s various attempts to present a critical discourse on cinema and the media through the montage of image and sound. Chapter 4 investigates the essay films, archival video essays, and essayistic video installations of Harun Farocki, attending to how his works endeavour to render the ciphered social life of images and the historical transformations in technologies and techniques of seeing and imaging available for critical interpretation. Central to my account of the essay as a literary, cinematographic, and videographic form is the question of compilation; namely, how (from Montaigne to Farocki) knowledge and history (whether in the form of text or image) is archived and assembled through the juxtaposition and critical weighing of disparate citations and images. Paramount in relation to Godard and Farocki, as I underscore, is their respective shifts to working with video technology, which afforded both filmmakers the capacity to more freely combine and analyze images from divergent media sources, as well as to devise novel forms of videographic montage based on the construction of historical correspondences between audio-visual elements. I conclude the dissertation with a consideration of the impact of digital technology on contemporary essayistic audio-visual practices, and how issues raised in the preceding chapters – around audio-visual criticism, the spatialization of montage in moving-image installation work, and documentary and archival film practices – have been affected by such technological and cultural shifts.

The female fertility cycle in cross-cultural perspective:representations of menstruation, childbirth, and the menopause in contemporary women’s writing in French

Abstract: This thesis examines the representation of the female fertility cycle in contemporary Algerian, Mauritian, and French women’s writing. It focuses on menstruation, childbirth, and the menopause. This study frames its analysis of contemporary women’s writing by looking back to the pioneering work of the second-wave feminists. Second-wave feminist texts were the first to break the silence on key aspects of female experience which had thus far been largely overlooked or even considered too taboo to mention. Over forty years since the publication of Annie Leclerc’s Parole de femme, this thesis seeks to determine the extent to which more recent representations reveal a different perspective from second-wave feminist texts. Second-wave feminist works have been criticised for applying their ‘universal’ theories to all women, regardless of their ethnicity, class, or sexuality. In response to this criticism, this thesis asks as one of its central research questions whether women’s writing in French still represents female bodily experience as ‘universal’. Or, reflecting criticism of such universalising views, this thesis evaluates whether contemporary women’s writing exposes differences between women’s experiences that were overlooked in second-wave feminist texts. The crosscultural and interdisciplinary approach is informed not only by critics of the second-wave feminist movement but also by sociological and anthropological studies which consider how women’s bodily experiences are shaped by cultural context. Contemporary authors whose novels are explored in this thesis include Maissa Bey, Leila Marouane, Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, Virginie Despentes, and Marie Darrieussecq. This study reveals that each literary culture frames its representation of the female fertility cycle in its own distinct cultural context. Overall, this thesis argues that contemporary women’s writing has continued the challenge against normative perceptions of the body that was originally launched by the second-wave feminists, whilst also illustrating that female bodily experience is diverse.

Doing History: A Study of Disciplinary Literacy and Readers Labeled as Struggling.

Abstract: Scholars contend that disciplinary literacy is a productive route for all secondary learners, including those identified as struggling readers, to build knowledge. Relatedly, scholars point to disc...