Month: September 2024

Abstract

Political theory has long depended upon a clear boundary between life and non-life. Even work which emphasizes non-human beings (e.g., in animal rights, posthumanism or “new materialism”) continues to reinforce the divide between the organic and the inorganic. This article undermines that division, highlighting marginal cases of life. The organicity of certain rocks and biochar, the growth of crystals, the machinic qualities of viruses: all point to an instability in the excluded middle between life and non-life. The article suggests alternative philosophical traditions to which political theory could turn—namely, panpsychism, hylozoism, and traditional animism—as conceptual and theoretical resources to examine these interstices.

Abstract

This corpus-based exploratory study examines modal verbs in Zimbabwean English (ZimE), and British English, to determine whether there are variations in use between the two varieties. Data from the ZimE corpus and the International Corpus of English Great Britain (ICE-GB) were analysed quantitatively and statistically to gain insights into how the usage patterns of modal verbs might be influenced by the usage context. Results show variations in the frequency of can and will, with the ZimE corpus registering more frequencies compared to the ICE-GB. The frequencies of could, may, might, and would were higher in the ICE-GB compared to the ZimE corpus. Overall, the ICE-GB contained more modal verbs than the ZimE corpus. In the spoken registers, results indicate that could, may, might, shall, and would occurred more in the ICE-GB, while can and will were attested more in the ZimE corpus compared to the ICE-GB. In the written registers, the ICE-GB recorded more occurrences of could, may, might, and would. A qualitative analysis was done by means of semantic interpretations of the modal verbs in different contexts. Results show the use of can be able to occurring as a modal phrase. The effects of language contact also lead to code-switching. Both results serve as possible motivations for variation. Furthermore, the use of can and will in past time contexts, and the use of the habitual will in past contexts, account for the higher overall frequencies of can and will in the ZimE corpus.

Abstract

Prior researches have highlighted challenges and variations arising from the requirements of research ethics committees and ethics governance systems across diverse research fields. This emphasizes the need to investigate how universities convey and implement research ethical practices. Research ethics plays a pivotal role in guiding the integration of ethical principles throughout all stages of research starting from its inception and planning to its completion and the dissemination of results. These practices encompass a range of considerations, reviews, guidelines, and processes aimed at safeguarding the rights, dignity, health, safety, and privacy of research participants. Using the content analysis technique, this paper aims to analyse research ethical practices information on universities’ websites from three developed countries and developing countries respectively using the isomorphism conception. The findings suggest that the coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphic pressures explain the research ethics governance practices. The ethical practices information was disclosed more on university websites of the developed countries. Suggestions to improve the university’s research ethics governance system for the post-COVID-19 era were provided in the paper.

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Recent focus on loss and damage within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) follows decades of demands by vulnerable countries for compensation for losses due to climate change. Reviewing recent literature on loss and damage finance, we consider how the new UNFCCC Loss and Damage Fund could be transformative for climate finance.

Recent Findings

This article reviews developments within the UNFCCC, including the creation of the new Loss and Damage Fund and changes in the broader field of climate finance. Recent literature indicates that the factors necessary for just loss and damage finance include inclusive governance, new and additional funds, purpose-made instruments and channels, direct access to funds, and burden sharing aligned with the polluter pays principle.

Summary

We overview the history of loss and damage finance, suggest five criteria that could make the Loss and Damage Fund just, and discuss four potential catalysts for just loss and damage finance: ecological and climatic impacts, institutional developments outside the UNFCCC, Global South leadership on debt justice, and legal developments. As the Loss and Damage Fund is operationalized and the need for loss and damage finance grows, scholars must continue to ask whether loss and damage finance furthers core tenets of climate justice, including forms of restitution.

Abstract

We demonstrate the value of a rapprochement between psychoanalytic work aimed at supporting marginalized mothers and discursive accounts of low-income mothers, providing a psychosocial analysis of data from an interview study with six low-income South African mothers. Employing discourse analysis, we show how instrumental mothering is a dominant and precarious construction in these mothers’ talk. We use the concept of mentalization to track the affective work that accompanies the interactional emergence of this instrumental mothering discourse in a particular interview encounter. The implications of the research are discussed in the light of increasing demands for sociocultural responsive research and clinical practice.

Abstract

To date South African forensic anthropologists are only able to successfully apply a metric approach to estimate population affinity when constructing a biological profile from skeletal remains. While a non-metric, or macromorphoscopic approach exists, limited research has been conducted to explore its use in a South African population. This study aimed to explore 17 cranial macromorphoscopic traits to develop improved methodology for the estimation of population affinity among black, white and coloured South Africans and for the method to be compliant with standards of best practice. The trait frequency distributions revealed substantial group variation and overlap, and not a single trait can be considered characteristic of any one population group. Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s tests demonstrated significant population differences for 13 of the 17 traits. Random forest modelling was used to develop classification models to assess the reliability and accuracy of the traits in identifying population affinity. Overall, the model including all traits obtained a classification accuracy of 79% when assessing population affinity, which is comparable to current craniometric methods. The variable importance indicates that all the traits contributed some information to the model, with the inferior nasal margin, nasal bone contour, and nasal aperture shape ranked the most useful for classification. Thus, this study validates the use of macromorphoscopic traits in a South African sample, and the population-specific data from this study can potentially be incorporated into forensic casework and skeletal analyses in South Africa to improve population affinity estimates.