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The Moral Blind Spots of Evidence-Based Psychiatry: Learning from Britain’s Trial of “Peer-Supported Open Dialogue”
Get PDFOpen Dialogue is a rights-based approach to psychiatric crisis response with growing global uptake. Over the last five years, it has been subject to a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) within the UK’s National Health Service. While the trial researchers have emphasized the need for more evidence to inform policy, many practitioners involved in the trial have been lobbying for Open Dialogue’s immediate rollout across the country. Drawing on 24 months of clinical ethnography, we suggest this tension reveals moral dimensions of mental health care that are not adequately accounted for in evidence-based psychiatry
On the symbolic force of international law: the case of Gaza
Get PDFThis forum includes reflections from perspectives spanning international human rights law, international law and international political sociology to analyse the symbolic and ‘paradoxical’ power and limitations of international law. To what extent can it compel various voices – such state actors, judges or activists – to speak in a certain way? What is its capacity to settle disputes and to enact equality, justice and peace, to be a safety net for victims, and to lay the conditions for peace in international relations, as expressed by its proponents? And finally, can we describe the symbolic force of international law as “compelling”, “constraining”, or “coercive”? As the debate on this last question between William Schabas and Alain Pellet, appended to this forum, shows, semantic issues pertaining to translations between languages are closely linked to symbolic power relations
Setting subject and the inferential cleft construction in Korean
No full textThis article aims to develop a cognitive-functional analysis of the Korean inferential cleft construction (ICC) by identifying two motivations. It is demonstrated that the ICC must be understood as a mechanism to improve coherence and relevance in the text; it is first and foremost motivated to establish relationships between the preceding context and the event denoted by the subordinate clause headed by kes. By pointing out that attempts to ascertain concrete meanings of the ICC are bound to be futile, we argue that various meanings the ICC exhibits arise by mapping it onto the result phase of the epistemic cycle. The second motivation for the ICC is to put the proposition in the spotlight by indicating that the global circumstances, not the speaker, warrant judgment. Consequently, the speaker staves off the responsibility for her epistemic judgment
Communism and the Rise of the Anti-Christian Movement in Republican China
Get PDFScholars have acknowledged that much of the early support for the anti-Christian movement in Shanghai and Beijing in 1922 came from radical individuals and organizations with ties to the Communists, anarchists, and the Guomindang left, but little attention has been given to the overlapping linkages between the Soviet-supported radical activists and the anti-Christian student groups in the Chinese historiography. This article fills this gap in the literature by highlighting the Communist-dominated Socialist Youth League in Shanghai as a key initiating force in managing the anti-Christian movement of early 1922. It shows how the Communists blended their anti-religious and anti-imperialist discourses with Leninist–Marxist ideology to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese youth
Vajravārāhī in Khara Khoto and Prajñāpāramitā in East Java: Connected by Pearl Ornaments
Get PDFThis research, situated in the geographical and historical context of the Tangut and East Java, uncovers a significant aspect of the evolution of Buddhist art styles. A thangka of the goddess Vajravārāhī found in Khara Khoto, dated to the late 12th century, shows the bodhisattva decorated with a pearl-chain girdle and upper-arm bands. This form of pearl-chain jewellery, which appears on Vajravārāhī and other Sino-Tibetan-style bodhisattvas, also appears on three stone statues of the goddess Prajñāpāramitā in East Java, all of which depict a near identical use of this pearl-chain ornamentation, as well as on a statue of Prajñāpāramitā at the Muara Jambi Buddhist site in Sumatra. Maritime trade between the regions of China and Java was extensive. The commonality of such motifs in China and Java may highlight a convergence of cultural forces and perhaps shared styles originating from the maritime realm and traded via maritime routes; however, a direct or indirect influence of Sino-Tibetan styles on thangka paintings featuring this depiction of the jewellery perhaps occurred following dynamics of north–south exchange, highlighting the interrelated links along maritime and overland routes through the Pāla Buddhist kingdom in eastern India. Thus, I propose that the connection between the Vajravārāhī and other Tibetan thangka paintings was inspired by Northeast Indian influence from the Hexi corridor, eventually reaching East Java
Deploying air wings in biosecurity: the Nigerian Air Force’s crisis management response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFAcross the world, governments attempted to mitigate the effects of the crisis posed by the COVID-19 global pandemic following its outbreak. In some instances, these efforts have involved deploying the military in the enforcement of containment measures. Previous research has explored the role of the Nigerian military in internal security and crisis management; however, a gap exists in by way of the absence of organised research that unpacks the use of air capabilities in mitigating a biosecurity threat such as COVID-19 within Nigeria’s territory. This study attempts to fill this gap by interrogating the early crisis management response of the Nigerian Air Force to the COVID-19 pandemic within Nigeria, through an examination of its security-based approach. Drawing on secondary sources of data, this qualitative study, argues that the early crisis management response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Air Force provided a much-needed intervention towards saving human lives, given the biosecurity threat and inherent weaknesses in Nigeria’s healthcare system
Edith Penrose's Legacy: Shaping Economics, Management and Political Economy
No full textEdith Penrose is best known for The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, originally published in 1959, but she made major contributions in other fields, including patents, the oil industry, and development economics. This book explores her work and legacy, not just on economics – she was the founding Head of Department of Economics at SOAS University of London - but also on the related fields of management and political economy where her contribution has had significant impact. Penrose challenged the conventional wisdom of economics by opening up the ‘black box’ view of the firm to explore what goes on inside, in particular how resources are managed and renewed to influence growth and innovation. Her analysis was cognisant of the wider political economy context in which firms operate, recognising the different impact of large international firms on developing and developed countries. Penrose’s work has shaped modern theories of strategic management including the resource-based view of the firm and the dynamic capabilities approach. The chapters in this volume, from leading economists and management scholars, cover a range of topics including innovation, collaboration between firms and universities, and the practice and consequences of share buy-backs, highlighting the value of a Penrosian perspective and the extent of her legacy. This book will be relevant to students and scholars of economics, management, and political economy. This book was originally published as a special issue of International Review of Applied Economics
Contested essential concepts in international relations
No full textThis chapter explores the notion of “essential concepts” and their contestation with an eye on the field of International Relations (IR). The title plays on W.B. Gallie's famous essay to pursue the argument that a debate over the meaning of an essential concept has analytical, normative and political value. The chapter is structured around three questions: What are concepts? What makes a concept essential? How should we think about contestation? Starting from the position that concepts play a central role in knowledge production and are embedded in (meta-)theoretical logics that shape their meaning, it discusses how contestation plays out in three domains: abstract and normative theoretical knowledge; explanatory and empirical knowledge; and practical knowledge. The chapter concludes with the argument that meaningful contestation requires translation
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