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Intuitions, intentions, and the moral wrongness of hostile design: A reply to Robert Rosenberger
No full textCertain designs of urban environments are said to exclude the unhoused from urban spaces, or at least to attempt to deter them from using these spaces. Perhaps the most influential critic of these types of design – which have been termed hostile design – is Robert Rosenberger. This paper argues that some of the central views presented by Rosenberger to support his ethical critique of hostile design in his recent work, while being inspiring and important, are also problematic. Specifically, we argue that the ethical methodology he employs, and which is based on our moral intuitions, faces several problems. Moreover, we suggest that it is unclear what role ‘intentions’ play in his work, and that the most likely interpretations all have considerable drawbacks. Lastly, we contend that the scope of his moral critique of hostile design is opaque because it is not clear what moral weight he ascribes to the putative wrong of employing hostile design, and that this makes the practical applicability of his views limited. The paper concludes that while it is important that hostile design is subjected to rigorous ethical scrutiny, more work is needed to build a robust ethical case against it
Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global crisis by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, dramatically altered society’s daily routines, social interactions, and digital media consumption. This paper aims to evaluate how leveraging crowdsourcing techniques in combination with digital archiving strategies can effectively capture real-time autobiographical reflections during a period of crisis. The study focuses on the formation of the Latvian Pandemic Diary Collection, initiated through an open-call crowdsourcing initiative that was launched on 17 March 2020 to collect people’s recordings of their personal thoughts and emotional responses in this period of profound change and uncertainty. Methodologically, the project employed a versatile rapid-response crowdsourcing framework and dynamic digital archiving strategy, coupled with an intense outreach and social media campaign to encourage diary submissions.
The diary project has resulted in an open-access digital collection of 2,333 daily entries by 238 participants, offering unique insights into the societal shift towards digital modes of professional, social, and educational interaction in response to the pandemic’s constraints. Although the methodology applied proved effective in eliciting relatively widespread public engagement, difficulties became apparent in relation to the scalability of the approach and getting different segments of society to participate in the project through the crowdsourced-driven digital collection of autobiographical narratives in a rapidly changing social context.
The Digital Life Narrative of a Romanian Transgender Microcelebrity through the Lens of Networked Publics
No full textThis contribution investigates the online identity construction of the Romanian transgender vlogger Daria Jane, using as subjects of analysis her YouTube digital diary as well as videos published on the YouTube channel of a famous Romanian TV presenter who invited Daria to tell her transitioning story. Specifically, we will analyse viewers’ reactions in the comments sections of two videos, exploring the interplay between biography and autobiography within the digital space in the process. Using an interdisciplinary methodological framework that integrates online discourse analysis, identity studies, (micro)celebrity studies, and (auto)biography research, the paper addresses the ways in which Netizens co-construct Daria Jane’s life story on social media. Our methodology consists of examining a corpus of comments, identifying keywords, and creating categories (negative stancetaking and positive stancetaking) that reflect the attitudes and positions of Romanian users towards transgender identities. The study contributes to the scholarly discourse on online (self-)presentation by offering an analysis of YouTube comments and a visualisation of the data derived from these comments via the categories created. Furthermore, by exploring the dynamic relationships between Daria Jane, the TV host, and Romanian YouTube users, the article sheds light on the Romanian public perception regarding (trans)gender identities
Narration Through Data: The Life and Relationships of a Fourteenth-Century Tuscan Merchant
No full textThis contribution explores how the work carried out by the DARIAH-IT research team at the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI-CNR), supports biographical research on historical figures by developing an interoperable digital ecosystem for humanities and cultural heritage research. In this context, the RESTORE project was created with the aim of supporting biographical as well as philological and linguistic research on Francesco di Marco Datini, a merchant from Prato (Italy), who established a successful commercial network across Europe during the fourteenth century. RESTORE has gathered several datasets from multiple sources, including letters and other auto/biographical documents (both images and transcriptions), archival and accounting records, catalogs, and digital representations of artworks commissioned or owned by Datini and his family. Subsequently, a platform has been set up that brings together digital resources from several cultural institutions, allowing researchers to track relationships and connections among the data gathered from these materials in a single integrated semantic knowledge base aggregating Linked Open Data. This enables researchers to take a broad prosopographic approach, while also facilitating an in-depth exploration of specific aspects, such as welfare and religion. The platform also enables users to study the everyday life of historical figures by analyzing, for instance, the correspondence between Francesco Datini and his wife, Margherita, and other members of the family or collaborators. The project provides access to several resource types, including images and transcriptions, which offer different levels of detail of information. Additionally, the RESTORE research team has addressed the challenges faced by cultural institutions in managing the data lifecycle of digital resources, aiming to build a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) knowledge base enriched with scholarly information. This approach enhances research opportunities and enables integrated storytelling across diverse data collections. The models and solutions developed during this process are designed to be replicable by other institutions, ensuring the project’s long-term sustainability
Replik auf die Kommentare von Susanne Hiekel, Holmer Steinfath und Georg Gasser (zu: Mooren, Nadine: Leben im Alter)
No full textReplik auf die Kommentare von Susanne Hiekel, Holmer Steinfath und Georg Gasser als Beitrag zum Buchsymposium zu: Mooren, Nadine: Leben im Alter. Eine philosophische Untersuchung zur Frage nach dem guten Leben. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 2023.
The Others in Spinoza’s Philosophy: Imitation, Utility, and Friendship
No full textThe aim of this article is to investigate three aspects under which the figure of the “other” appears in Spinoza’s philosophy. First, I analyze the other as similar, which arises from the imitation of the affections, a mechanism of reproduction of the affections of our peers. This produces a break in the passions that aim at self-preservation, in order to incorporate the intersubjective dimension in one’s own affectivity. Second, I examine the other as useful, which emerges from the rational understanding that another human being living according to the guidance of reason is most beneficial for one’s own self-preservation. The drive for self-preservation leads to uniting with others because this results in an increase of one’s own power to exist, of one’s own conatus. Finally, I analyze Spinoza’s conception of friendship to emphasize that it arises from the active desire to do good to others as an expression of the fact that no human being undertakes their ethical path to freedom and happiness alone. This exploration of the different figures of others makes it possible, on the one hand, to reject interpretations that consider Spinoza’s philosophy as just another expression of modern individualism and ethical egoism. On the other hand, it provides an element to sustain that the subject of Spinozian ethics is not isolated human beings, but always a collective subject
Editor’s Introduction: Spinoza and Recognition: A Contested and Open-ended Approach
No full textThe modern idea of ‘recognition’ has a history that is often traced back to Hegel. Its prehistory includes various authors, such as Hobbes and La Rochefoucauld, Mandeville and Hume, Rousseau and Smith. Spinoza is rarely mentioned in this context. Nevertheless, themes related to what can be called recognition play a decisive (and most likely influential) role in Spinoza\u27s anthropology, ethics, politics, religion, and in the relationship between these domains. A study of these themes may be appropriate for better understanding Spinoza\u27s thought and his place in the history of Western philosophy, and for deploying a critical development of issues concerning recognition that are still relevant to philosophical debates today
The Theologico-Political Treatise on Recognition: Spinoza With and Against Hobbes
No full textThis article is the second part of a comparison between Hobbes’s and Spinoza’s theories of recognition as they appear in De Cive and the Tractatus theologico-politicus. It analyzes the impact of admiration, both of God and of man, on social and moral relations, as well as on political ties. This analysis reveals a dual discourse that to some extent echoes that found in De Cive. Concerning social and moral relations, this article demonstrates that the Treatise, similarly to De Cive, downplays the capacity of the desire for recognition to drive socialization and moral development. Instead, it underscores the potential of this desire to generate conflict and social breakdown. Spinoza overlooks how Hobbes’s discussion of worship allows for the emergence of an intersubjective and cooperative origin of both subjectivities and power, an origin that is constitutively mediated by recognition. Moreover, Spinoza introduces a critique of the falsity of recognition and the virtues it fosters that is absent from Hobbes’s work. On the political level, the article argues that the Treatise addresses the subtler dimension of Hobbes’s theory, namely, the idea that all political power rests on the cooperation of the governed, a cooperation made possible through recognition. At the same time, by identifying the libera respublica as the only legitimate form of state, Spinoza finds himself in opposition to Hobbes’s implicit and explicit discussions alike. He must reject the idea that recognition bestowed upon non-democratic authorities provides ideological support for servitude. Moreover, he redefines the politically positive function of recognition, arguing that its true value lies in its potential to incite resistance against non-democratic powers
Grensverleggende zorg. Een Vlaamse trans man op zoek naar zorg in de jaren zestig en zeventig
No full textDe Vlaamse trans man Son Snelders was in 1972 26 jaar oud toen hij, na vele omzwervingen, doktersbezoeken en een lange wachttijd, in Amsterdam een dubbele mastectomie onderging. Hoe verliep zijn zoektocht naar geschikte medische transzorg in een tijd waarin er nog geen geïnstitutionaliseerde en officiële zorg beschikbaar was? Deze casus biedt een uniek inzicht in de manier waarop Vlaamse trans mannen in de jaren zestig en zeventig toegang vonden tot deze zorg en hoe zij deze ervoeren. Dit artikel focust op de ervaring van Snelders, neergeschreven in zijn autobiografie, en kadert deze in de ruimere historische context en ontwikkelingen
