1,720,962 research outputs found
Political Education and Social Engineering in an Emerging Democracy
Get PDFThis work discusses the role that political education has to play in an emerging democracy just opening up to the entrenchment of democratic principles. Such a democracy is often faced with some challenges; one being that its past is plagued with features that are antithetical to the principles of democracy such that if care is not taken, these anomalies will smoother democratic institutions, practices and underlying philosophies. The second one identified in the paper is that moral principles are not adhered to in such a democracy. There is consequently the need for social engineering to correct the deficiencies. Political education is projected as a bulwark for strengthening democracy in societies where the concept is just finding its feet. It is through political education that, citizens can be imparted with necessary lessons regarding politics, democratic ethos and democratic institutions. Political education will aid the acculturation of citizens of emerging democracies in democratic norms and moral values
A Review of Social Capital as a Concept
Get PDFThere is a debate about what social ‘capital’ as a concept entails. This review article is a contribution to that debate. The article explores the various ways the concept of social capital has been used in the literature. The first is that users of the concept employ it to refer to social norms and moral values and the roles they play in society. This first conceptualisation of social capital emphasises the importance that values and norms have for the effectiveness of the various forms of capital. The thinking is that if moral values and social norms are lacking in guiding the operation of the other forms of capital, little or no progress will be made in society. The next perspective is that social capital is generated in people’s daily interaction in the community. This view attaches importance to associational life in society. Finally, the paper evaluates the debate about whether social capital can be regarded as a ‘capital’, given the fact that other forms of capital are tangible while social capital is intangible. It is demonstrated in this paper that inasmuch as other types of capital are valuable because they are able to generate expected outcomes, so is social capital a ‘capital’ because it enables the achievement of certain goals in society
A Critical Review of the Goal of Natural ising Epistemology
Get PDFThe focus in this article is on the examination of the goal of naturahs d epistemology which seeks to replace the philosophical inquiry into epistemology" ith the methodology of science. It is argued in the paper that the proposal for naturalised epi temology undermines the importance of the methodology of conducting philosophi al inquiry, and hence the philosophical treatment of issues in epistemology, as well as the Importance of philosophical inquiry into science. It is concluded that although other means of analysing knowledge may emerge, yet. epistemology will have to continue to evaluate human knowledge philosophically because the philosophical quest for knowledge is a reminder that we can be better than we are, that there are lofty heights of ideals yet to be attained, and search for which we must not relent. Our position is that this philosophical quest is what is responsible for keeping the insatiable human spirit searching, and researching for the perfection, which according to Plato, resides in the world of forms. At the heart of this search is the conviction that certainty, absolute truth. is radically different fromscientific discovery about it
Vestiges of Military Rule in Democratic Governance in Nigeria
Get PDFThe position argued for in this paper is that: the inability to manage Nigeria as a federation; challengesin the area of fiscal federalism, the culture of political apathy, the culture of lack of accountability, contempt for the rule of law, gross disregard for and abuse of fundamental human rights, intolerance for opposition and othervices that eventually undermined the capability of democratic institutions, after democratisation in Nigeria, are vestiges of military rule in Nigeria. When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, it was after many years of military rule. However, since the values that military governance stands for are different from those of democracy, there is the need to evaluate how many years under military despotism have rubbed off on the institutions of democracy as we have it in Nigeria today. It is pointed out in the paper that the military years that preceded the establishment of democracy in Nigeria promoted conditions, mentalities, and practices among Nigerians that are constituting hindrancesto the optimal performance of democracy in the country. This happened because democracy met in place conditions that are incompatible with norms, values, purposes, and structures that are suitable for the sustenance of democratic culture such that the rule of law, consensus-building, tolerance, free and fair election, accountability, checks and balances and other values of democracy are struggling for survival. It was concluded that the right democratisation process for Nigeria should include developing a mentality in Nigerians that is conducive for democracy to thrive. This requires the cultivation of the values of democracy in the minds of Nigerians and disabusing their minds from the anomalies associated with military rule
Group Mind in Anyiam-Osigwe’s Development Philosophy
Get PDFThis work deals with the philosophical reflections of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe (1921-1988). He was a sage philosopher (a concept employed here in contradistinction to the term ‘professional philosopher’), whose philosophical reflections, apart from having metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical dimensions, address certain socio-political issues. An important idea in his corpus is subjected to critical interrogation in this paper. This is the idea of the group mind, a concept which is an embodiment of his reflections on how a group of people can develop institutions that can foster cooperative living. The idea further addresses how the individual can position himself for reorganisation of society by keying into social aspirations through adherence to norms, values and development of spirituality. The individual is to de-emphasise the self in relation to the others, and live the group’s vision. To achieve this, the individual is to through introspection, self-searching, self-analysis, self-awareness, and self-knowledge, gain access to their innate endowments and bring these to bear on group cohesion. In Nigeria’s case, lack of a sense of nationhood militates against patriotism and, in a democracy, denies the group a collective basis for holding politicians accountable for actions. There is, thus, the issue of distrust which makes consensus tough or nearly impossible. Anyiam-Osigwe’s notion of the group mind addresses this problem in Nigeria, if understood and applied
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Nigeria’s Amalgamation, Social (In)Justice and Security Implications
Get PDFNigeria emerged in 1914 after the colonialists amalgamated the southern and northern protectorates for administrative purposes without negotiation of the conditions of amity between peoples of both sides. However, with independence from British rule on 1st October 1960, come some challenges arising from glueing together peoples with divergent cultures, languages, historical antecedents and religions. Some of these problems have metamorphosed over time to generate serious security issues. Taking into consideration Nigeria’s political history, this paper examines the implications of the welding of diverse peoples with different orientations for Nigeria’s unity, peace and security. The core position of the paper is that amalgamation was accompanied by some inevitable social injustice that arose as a result of coercing unequals together; the consequence is that social injustice in the Nigerian state bred insecurity. This is so because Nigeria, as a result of the amalgamation, was made to become a deeply divided society. This is responsible for entrenching deep fault lines which have engendered violence and thus threatened security in Nigeria. The methodology employed for the study is qualitative in nature and involves critical content analysis of texts, library and archival materials
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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