McCaffery’s famous assertion that “pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing wherever he [or she] says it does”, is challenged by Charles Djordjevic in his 2023 paper: Pain cannot (just) be whatever the person says: A critique of a dogma. If Charles’ arguments are accepted, interesting and troubling questions must be addressed by nurses in practice and education. Within clinical environments, shorn of the certainty that accompanies McCaffrey’s dictum, nurse responses to patient reports of pain are complicated. (...) Alternatively, in education, insofar as students need clear and unambiguous instruction, papers that question or undermine taken for granted assumptions and ways of working generate considerable problems for educators. Ideally, arguments such as those presented by Charles should help set the stage for a more nuanced and realistic way of addressing and redressing the problem(s) of pain in the classroom and clinic. Yet it is not obvious how subtle and complex claims of the sort presented in this paper are to be integrated into the curriculum or patient care. In this seminar Charles Djordjevic outlines his critique of McCaffrey’s position on pain and nurse responses to patient reports of pain. Thereafter, Barabara Pesut, Mark Risjord, Abby Martin and Mar’yana Fisher respond to some of the difficulties and anomalies thrown out by work of this sort, and they tentatively proffer ways to assimilate such thought into nursing practice. (shrink)

In the second of two online events to celebrate publication of the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Nursing, we - Pamela J Grace, Michael Traynor, Sally Thorne, John Paley, and Paul Snelling - look into the crystal ball and ask: where might philosophy and nursing be ten years hence? Speakers talk either to their chapter contributors and/or they draw on fresh thinking.

Two free online events are planned to celebrate publication of the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Nursing. The first of these (scheduled for 16th November) asks “Where are we now?” regards philosophy and nursing. The second (30th November) looks ahead and asks where, regards philosophy and nursing, might we be ten years hence? Speakers at each event talk either to their chapter contributors and/or they draw on fresh thinking. Contributors include: Mark Risjord - Barbara Pesut - Denise J Drevdahl - (...) Mary K Canales - Louise Racine - and Helen Vandenberg. (shrink)

John Paley was formerly senior lecturer at the University of Stirling. He is now retired but spends a lot of his time writing books: Phenomenology as Qualitative Research: A Critical Analysis of Meaning Attribution (2017), Concept Analysis in Nursing: A new Approach (2021), and constructivism and the Metaphysics of Qualitative Research (due out next year). This talk is about the ideas in the new book. The book’s take-home message is this: The ontological and epistemological sentences that supposedly ‘underpin’ qualitative research (...) are referentially unsuccessful. They appear to make reality-describing claims, but they do not succeed in doing so. The individual words are meaningful, but the sentences do not make sense. So they can’t be used to justify, or ground, or align with, methodological decisions. John is interested in having a conversation about this line of thought: hearing people’s reactions, questions, observations, and discussing the implications. (shrink)

Freudian psychoanalytic concepts offer a useful means of pulling the rug out from under ideas central to nursing's self-image. For example, profoundly difficult questions are raised for our attachment to and identification with empathy, caring, and compassion once we entertain the possibility of the unconscious and the "death drive". In this seminar, drawing on the earlier work of Menzies-Lyth and others, Michael Traynor outlines and develops recent published work he has undertaken.

When researchers and scholars claim their work is based on a philosophical idea or a philosopher’s corpus of ideas (and theory/theorist can be substituted for philosophy/philosopher), and when “basing” signifies something significant rather than subsidiary or inconsequential, what level of understanding and expertise can readers reasonably expect authors to possess? In this paper some of the uses to which philosophical ideas and named philosophers (Martin Heidegger and Leo Strauss) are put in exegesis is critiqued. Considering problematic instances of idea-name use (...) may enable the question: “Can philosophy benefit nurses and/or nursing?” to be better understood if not answered. (shrink)

Complexity and Values in Nurse Education: Dialogues on Professional Education - book launch and panel discussion (held on 03.11.22.). Link to recording of event.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book utilises the assertion ‘pain is what the patient says it is’ as a vehicle to explore complex questions around the role professional values/norms and professionalism play for university-based nurse educators in steering what is and is not taught to students. It outlines and argues for naturalistic or moral realism. The book then proposes that nurse educators in the United States and elsewhere (...) fail to ‘develop ethically astute nurses who can practice in accord with the goals, perspectives and reason-for-being of the profession’. It also proposes that neophyte nurse researchers are directed by educators and scholars to engage in ill-thought through and intellectually shallow metaphysical musing. Exploring complexity from a hermeneutical and therefore pluralistic vantage, the book tackles the problem of ‘Making Sense in Nursing Education’. (shrink)

This chapter’s focus on pain highlights a problem of general concern. Following Zurn, it is presumed that curiosity is subject to socio-cultural and political constraints. And, to restate, mindful of these constraints, critical thinking can be blocked or discouraged by nurse educators when this disposition and activity menaces professional values and practices associated with those values.

Between 16 October and 12 November the Diagram Research Group undertook an online residency as the first of the Delta Research Placement at Flat Time House, London. Over the period they conducted four illustrated discussions online that explore their interests in diagrams in relation to Flat Time and Latham’s ideas concerning the unification of scientific and artistic bodies of knowledge and the primacy of time and event. Each session was led by one member of the group who initiated conversations engendering (...) dialogical association and abductive reasoning, whereby images were discussed and hypothesis presented. Each session was accompanied by a picture wall of images and diagrams referenced in the discussions and a portfolio of diagrams generated by DRG in response to them. (shrink)

Book review of 'David Burrows and Simon O’Sullivan, Fictioning: The Myth-Functions of Contemporary Art and Philosophy is published by Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 576 pp, 86 b&w illustrations, ISBN 9781474432405'.

Taking gratitude as an example, this chapter considers how character and virtue can be cultivated in universities while simultaneously recognizing the diverse ways in which virtues might be understood and valued. With reference to multicomponent perspectives on virtue, the chapter outlines the conceptual issues surrounding gratitude and how they have informed the conceptualization and measurement of gratitude as a multifaceted construct comprising cognitive, affective, attitudinal, and behavioral elements. The chapter then considers how the virtue of gratitude might be cultivated in (...) universities with reference to its complex nature and multicomponent structure. It recommends that gratitude (and character and virtue more broadly) be explored with intellectual rigor, appropriate critical engagement, and an opportunity for open debate. In support of cultivating character and virtue in universities, the chapter offer examples of incorporating gratitude into new and existing university programs and considers barriers to incorporating gratitude within higher education contexts. (shrink)

This work explores the interplay of complexity and values in nurse education from a variety of vantages. Contributors, who come from a range of international and disciplinary backgrounds, critically engage important and problematic topics that are under investigated elsewhere. Taking an innovative approach each chapter is followed by one or more responses and, on occasion, a reply to responses. This novel dialogic feature of the work tests, animates, and enriches the arguments being presented. Thought-provoking, challenging, and occasionally rumbustious in tone, (...) this volume has something to say to both nurse educators and students. Given the breadth and nature of subjects covered the book will also appeal to anyone concerned about and interested in nursing’s professional development/trajectory. (shrink)

Taking gratitude as an example, this chapter considers how character and virtue can be cultivated in universities while simultaneously recognizing the diverse ways in which virtues might be understood and valued. With reference to multicomponent perspectives on virtue, the chapter outlines the conceptual issues surrounding gratitude and how they have informed the conceptualization and measurement of gratitude as a multifaceted construct comprising cognitive, affective, attitudinal, and behavioral elements. The chapter then considers how the virtue of gratitude might be cultivated in (...) universities with reference to its complex nature and multicomponent structure. It recommends that gratitude (and character and virtue more broadly) be explored with intellectual rigor, appropriate critical engagement, and an opportunity for open debate. In support of cultivating character and virtue in universities, the chapter offer examples of incorporating gratitude into new and existing university programs and considers barriers to incorporating gratitude within higher education contexts. (shrink)

This work explores the interplay of complexity and values in nurse education from a variety of vantages. Contributors, who come from a range of international and disciplinary backgrounds, critically engage important and problematic topics that are under investigated elsewhere. Taking an innovative approach each chapter is followed by one or more responses and, on occasion, a reply to responses. This novel dialogic feature of the work tests, animates, and enriches the arguments being presented. Thought-provoking, challenging, and occasionally rumbustious in tone, (...) this volume has something to say to both nurse educators and students. Given the breadth and nature of subjects covered the book will also appeal to anyone concerned about and interested in nursing’s professional development/trajectory. (shrink)

Concept analyses are performed so that clearer and more focused understandings of key ideas in nursing can be achieved. It is anticipated that these improved understandings can beneficially inform practice and research, and this form of analysis has, and will continue to play, a significant role in the nursing literature. CA is not, however, one thing. New approaches and perspectives on this activity are emerging, and while numerous examples of CA are published, debate about the nature, methods, and value of (...) this work is growing. Capitalising on this interest, Elisabeth Bergdahl, Beth Epstein, Georgina Morley, and John Paley here critically explore and discuss different aspects of CA’s past, present, and future. This panel discussion/debate will be of interest to students, educators, researchers and clinicians who read, make use of, and construct CA. (shrink)

In this chapter correlationism ‘stands for’ a non-nursing dispute that nurse researchers might benefit from being aware of. Not all nurses are researchers. However, exploring this exemplar allows more general questions to be posed about nursing’s relationship to or with ideas originating in non-nursing disciplines. While it is not my aim here to resolve the difficulties sketched, hopefully these questions will initiate further reflection and debate. Whether narrowly or broadly defined the subject is, as will become clear, complex, value laden, (...) and pertinent to educators/nurse education. (shrink)

This paper surveys interdisciplinary research on gratitude that has been conducted since the review paper translated into German in this issue ‘Recent work on the concept of gratitude in philosophy and psychology’, was published in the Journal of Value Inquiry in 2013. We share progress on our subsequent research, and report on key developments in the field. We revisit familiar themes regarding conditions placed on gratitude, the structure and moral value of gratitude, and the pedagogical implications of research on gratitude, (...) addressing the issue of how the virtue of gratitude should be promoted and taught. As befits a collection dedicated to exploring gratitude’s potential ‘shadow’, we consider again the valence of gratitude and whether it is as quintessentially positive as many have assumed. (shrink)

Educators who fail to recognise complexity in the educative encounter may be less ambitious in interactions with students than would otherwise be the case and, potentially, this could result in compromised learning. It is proposed that complexity and ambition are useful descriptors that highlight, albeit loosely, topics meriting consideration.

Sketch 2 for a Time-Slip Installation was created for a multi-modal artistic research project called BC Time-Slip (The Empire Never Ended) which began as a residency at Dynamo Arts Association (DAA), Vancouver in August 2016. BC Time-Slip is the first phase of a larger artistic research project exploring the discourse of decolonization in British Columbia from ethnographic, Indigenous and science fictional perspectives called The Skullcracker Suite. During the residency the DAA gallery was converted into a Special Investigations Room researching Philip (...) K. Dick’s visit to Vancouver in 1972 and his stay at an experimental rehab community called X-Kalay. During the residency I organised and documented a program of public talks, lectures and screenings, and produced a series of 360° videos depicting Dick’s time in the city, myself playing the author. Sketch 2 takes Dick’s short story Colony (1953) as a way to draw correlations between the assimilation of life-worlds by alien simulation technology in Dick’s fictions and the European colonization of what is now British Columbia. The video is the second of two sketches for an exhibition in the future. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to present the initial findings of a doctoral research project on trainee teachers following a PGCE route into teaching. It explores trainee teacher identity, how it develops and how they believe their chosen ITE route impacts upon their identity. The paper concludes with a look at implications for teacher education. It would appear that, in an age of highly politicised teacher education, we are in danger of losing sight of the individual at the centre (...) of ITE process, the trainee. Although identity is acknowledged to be an essential requisite of an Initial Teacher Training programme, it is not always clear the ways in which it has been embedded by teacher educators, especially at a time when ITE works with trainees to meet government priorities in both higher education and in school, and when schools are busy with improvement plans, assessment without levels and league tables. Clarke stresses identity education as less of a metaphysical debate and more as an essential feature of teacher education. However, despite his claim relating to the explosion in teacher identity research this discourse appears rarely within universities or in school-centred teacher education. The actual debate as to who you are and who you may become in your teacher education programme seems to remain largely ignored or unnoticed. Within these programmes identity education may help make sense of the multi-layered lives of teachers and help pre-service teachers understand how to cope with difficult situations. In turn, it is hoped, this may boost resilience, aid retention and reduce the attrition rate of NQTs as they enter the profession. This presentation will detail the preliminary findings from the project and detail the methodology used. Working within an interpretivist paradigm and explored through narrative inquiry, the project seeks to incorporate life histories and stimulated recall interviews to tell the story of the trainees. It follows an Arendtian framework to explore the six stages of the Human Condition that can be applied to the development of trainee teacher identity, and it is hoped that there may be some signposting about the ways in which teacher education can take positive steps forward. (shrink)

A discussion of how humans have conceptualised ideas of self and relationships with others, applying this to teaching and learning. Relational pedagogy puts understanding of relationships first, highlighting ethics and social justice, and applies to the whole curriculum. Pupil engagement is viewed as the development of Self, in cognitively and socially critical directions. This is the full version of the paper discussed at this meeting. Part 2 has been developed further in the light of this and other discussions.

This Paper argues that a key task in understanding crisis situations lies in how their general manifestations penetrate into and affect individual enterprises. One transmission mechanism for moving crisis around is studied here: uncertainty based on incomplete propositions. The challenges posed by incompletely specified commerce are traced, using Latourian tools of relational materiality. Conventional approaches to enterprise planning born of strategic management theory may be a barrier to dealing with the incomplete, but their overthrowing is likely to evoke considerable conflict. (...) The Paper concludes with some practical lines for organising a new approach to managing with enthymemes. (shrink)

During the second half of the 20th century there has been both a burgeoning intellectual interest in business and management as a topic and an exponential growth in the formal study of business and management as an academic subject. Indeed by the end of the century it was estimated that worldwide there were 8,000 business schools and more than 13 million students of business and management. In addition, it was estimated that worldwide annual expenditure on university level business and management (...) education had reached US $15 billion. However, despite this there is a lack of clarity regarding both the scale and the nature of the influence that academic scholarship exerts over managers. Accordingly this research study has sought to investigate the appropriation of ideas, theories, concepts and models by management practitioners. The thesis has reviewed and evaluated the two most obvious, most established and most influential potential explanations. These were diffusion of innovations and fashion theory. It has been concluded that whilst both these potential explanations provided important insights, neither was able to provide a comprehensive theoretical foundation for this research study. Accordingly, a much broader range of pertinent scholarship was reviewed and evaluated. This included, but is not limited to, the scholarship that is associated with learning by adults. Although this additional scholarship provided a further range of potential explanations, the extent to which any of these would be found within the particular setting of management practitioners remained unclear. In addition, the literature review highlighted a number of unresolved debates regarding issues such as whether management was a science or an applied science; whether it was a craft or a profession; whether in reality there were fashionable trends in management practice or whether in fact such practices were remarkably stable; and whether management theoreticians, gurus and consultants actually exerted significant influence over management practitioners. The literature review also highlighted methodological concerns relating to the use of citation analysis as a proxy for primary information regarding managerial practice. Hence, this research is situated in a gap which is delineated by the unresolved issues that are associated with both diffusion theory and fashion theory; the applicability of the broader range of scholarship to a management setting; the unresolved debates within this field of interest and the need to obtain primary information relating to management practice, rather than being dependant upon citation analysis. The research study has utilised qualitative data and inductive reasoning to examine these matters and the overarching research philosophy has been that of realism. Ultimately, 39 semi-structured, recorded interviews were undertaken using the critical incident technique. Collectively these interviews lasted for 35 hours and obtained information relating to 160 critical incidents. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews totalled 350,000 words. A case study analysis of this data was undertaken to examine the decision making of the interviewees in relation to some of their most challenging managerial situations. This analysis concluded that for the ‘generality’ of these interviewees; theory played little, or no, overt part in their decision making. The data was also subjected to a content analysis using a bespoke compendium of 450 ‘terms’ that represented the development of theorising about management over the whole of the 20th century. This analysis concluded that the influence of the 20th century’s management theoreticians over these interviewees was weak. Finally, the possibility that any such influence might be a covert, rather than an overt; phenomenon was examined using both the insights of intertextuality and the framework analysis technique. This analysis demonstrated that the discourse, dialogue and language of these interviewees could be indexed to four domains; the theoretical; the conceptual; the tactical; and the practical. The intertextual indexing outcomes were corroborated both by substantial extracts from the verbatim interview transcripts and by three unrelated strands of scholarship. These were adaptive memory systems ; the realities of management and the role of concepts and conceptual thinking in nursing. On this basis it has been concluded that management can be characterised as a conceptual discipline; that in its essential nature management is at least as conceptual as it is either theoretical or practical; and that managers appropriate concepts and ideas, rather than theories and models per se. (shrink)

This article focuses on Kathleen Jamie’s exploration, in the essay ‘Findings’, of her encounters with a range of material ‘things’ that litter the landscapes of the Outer Hebrides. I argue that her use of metaphor and simile establishes interconnections between material substances of all kinds, but that through discussion of the objects she chooses to keep, Jamie suggests that we are most drawn to things that are ‘transformed by death or weather’. At the same time the narrative conjures a sense (...) of the uncanny around plastic waste. A doll’s head emerges as doubly uncanny: a ghost of human consumerism, resistant to processes of decay, which is also able to evoke in us a sense of being scrutinised by the very materials we have created and junked. It serves to remind us of the importance of questioning what kinds of materialities we ‘value’ in the world in which we are immersed. (shrink)

Ethically questionable leader conduct continues to garner headlines. It has prompted the leadership field to renew their focus on research regarding the ethical dimensions of leadership. Empirical emphases have focused on understanding negative leader behaviour, with the typical leadership study reliant upon positivist approaches. I critique these studies as not having produced meaningful, practicable or wholly relevant insights regarding the challenges and support mechanisms required to lead ethically. Few studies have in fact examined leadership in not-for-profit organisations where decisions might (...) reasonably be expected to possess elevated moral capital. To test this, my study interviewed leaders from professional sectors in both the USA and the UK, to offer a more holistic interpretation of what underpins and directs leader moral disposition. As corollary, this research explicates issues of practicability and how other sectors might learn from leaders who perpetually practise their ethicality. To gain insights that develop the field of leadership research, my thesis centres on the experiences of ten high-level, elite and specialised leaders. Although not selected as ethical, they were found to be principled, ethical decision-makers. A specific type of in-depth, qualitative interviewing was conducted and justified to more readily reflect the status of the leaders. Elite and specialised interviewing has not been widely used as a data collection tool, but it offered a unique opportunity to garner specialised data, once access issues had been overcome. The findings reveal unique insights into the underexplored ethical leader mindset and highlight the complex processes of leader decision-making in situ by demonstrating what underpins leaders’ behaviour, with reference to how they understand experiences for themselves. This study uncovers the symbiotic and interconnected nature of the variety of ideological frameworks at play, positing theological concepts alongside sociological and philosophical counterparts. Ethical awareness, the notions of trust and responsibility are shown as bedrock and explicit. This research presents a new ethical leadership, a typology that shows how ethical leaders are created through experience, sustained and developed over time, and nourished by awareness beyond the self. Current conceptions have done little to inform ethical leadership development, whereas I offer a more practical and holistic way to use the unexpected, traumatic, and intense crucibles of leadership experience to explicate and consolidate ethical foundations. This thesis presents a vision of a welfare driven leadership originating from the self, in the service of others, and for society; an ethical leadership for all. (shrink)

This brief position paper is stimulated from the continued need to define and redefine the area of transpersonal psychology. Understandably, being able to articulate what ‘transpersonal psychology’ is enables discussions within the wider academic and public community, yet all existing definitions are complex, conveying a number of inherent meanings in their definition, which in turn, can cloud others’ perceptions on the area.

This presentation is the result of a doctoral research project into preservice teacher identity development on a one-year university based teacher education route. In English education system, concerns have been raised about many aspects of impacting preservice teachers during the PGCE and beyond: a neo- liberal, market-driven education system; high levels of performativity and accountability within the teaching profession, and the lack of attention to the process of identity formation within teacher education. This study brings an Arendtian philosophical framework to (...) offer preservice teaches an opportunity to think about themselves, and the influences that act upon their professional identity, in a new way. As a result of this research, it is intended that preservice teachers will be better able to deal with the challenges that face them as beginning teachers, and the teacher education Will embed identity development as an evolving process in their programmes. This study is situated within a theoretically in reached empirical approach that uses Arendt’s ‘conditions’ that are related to the concepts of birth, death, survival, worldliness, plurality and self-development. This qualitative research gathered data from three pre-service teachers as they ‘became’ teachers. Over the period of their PGCE year, this included an online introductory life story to gather insights into their awareness of teacher identity, a semi-structured interview to explore preservice teachers’ awareness of their developing teacher identity, and a critical incident interview, reflecting on episodes that impacted on how they viewed themselves as teachers. The outcomes of this study are that preservice teachers felt that the research methodology Americans become more aware of, and interrogate their identity; the Arendtian framework was an ‘identifier’ that denoted the depth of emotion, the impact of events ceased during teaching experience, and how they successfully resolved these issues. Arendt’s ‘conditions’ were interpreted slightly differently by each preservice teacher but, combined with the critical incident timeline, acted as a driver for an emergent, dialogical and relational approach to preservice teacher identity. This presentation calls for reform of teacher education; by moving away from ‘machinised’ and neo-liberal education, we can begin to reconsider the value of education in itself. In taking such a stance, it allows teacher education to move forward philosophically and places the preservice teacher at the heart of it. (shrink)

The biblical, talmudic, midrashic, and mystical traditions, as well as contemporary Jewish feminist theologies, reveal a plethora of Shekhinah images. If tracked historically these readings, while diverse, reveal continuities even across traditions. These include Shekhinah’s ‘immanence’, ‘presence’, ‘exile’, and shared ‘suffering’. Another vital continuity is Shekhinah’s function as protective ‘shield’. Accordingly, in her gendered theology of the Shoah Raphael argues that Shekhinah was ‘present but concealed in Auschwitz because her female face was yet unknowable to women’. Raphael’s selectivist approach appropriates (...) and de-contextualizes texts from the biblical, rabbinic, Zoharic, Lurianic and Hasidic traditions. For Raphael this methodology is necessary given the tradition’s ‘androcentric and patriarchal’ underpinnings. This article’s reading of Shekhinah’s role in the Shoah, however, differs from Raphael’s theology. Indeed, while Raphael acknowledges the historical continuities of Shekhinah’s ‘immanence’, ‘presence’, ‘exile’, ‘suffering’ and protection, she justifiably claims that Auschwitz was not a ‘place of protection’. This is because Raphael understandably refuses associate Shekhinah with the ‘violent and abusive’ God of the ‘masculine Jewish tradition’. Yet a reading of the tradition, ‘warts and all’, reveals that Shekhinah’s presence but inability to protect the ‘victims’ is a break with precedent and requires explanation. This article therefore tracks Shekhinah’s protective role in Jewish tradition and history to suggest, using mystical texts, that the divine presence was sufficiently empowered to intervene in the Shoah and pleaded Israel’s cause, but was powerless because the Holy One, blessed be He refused to ‘consent’. In the process this article hopes to add another layer to Shekhinah’s story and to help ‘bring her out of exile’. (shrink)

Shekhinah, the ‘cloud of Yahweh’ in the Bible, a synonym for God’s presence in the rabbinic tradition, and a feminine hypostasis in the Kabbalah, is a popular theological image in contemporary Jewish feminist circles. Shekhinah currently exists in many forms: she is another name for God, feminine, relational, experiential; she is a Goddess and the singular image that is sufficiently adaptable for a diverse range of postmodern feminist interpreters. However, the processes by which Shekhinah became the God/dess of Jewish feminism (...) have not been researched. Therefore, this article tracks the evolution of Shekhinah iconography in the Jewish tradition to gain an understanding of the appeal of these images within the context of Jewish feminism’s quest for an alternative to the androcentric Holy One, blessed be He. The article then traces the extent of Shekhinah theologies engendered by Second, Third-Wave and recent Jewish feminisms concluding that the plurality of contemporary spirituality and the general rejection of ‘systematic’ models of theology are not necessarily problematic. Rather, Shekhinah is argued to be a binding agent for diverse religionists, and one which has become normative to Jewish feminist theology. (shrink)

This Paper uses pragmatist thinking to reconsider the status of utopian projects. The argument begins by noting the defensive attitudes of many utopian advocates. This defensiveness appears due to two sentiments: that many political movements remain hostile to utopias; and that the capacity of societies to generate new utopias may be declining. Focussing on the latter assertion, the argument notes that many utopias remain uncounted, so how is falling generative capacity to be gauged? It is asserted instead that the capacity (...) of societies to generate new utopias remains undimmed. Yet, both the mechanisms through which utopian production is done, and the qualities of the utopias themselves need further deciphering if they are not to be overlooked. This argument builds on Gardiner’s idea of everyday utopianism, reinterpreted using the network pragmatism associated with Latour. Through this lens, two examples of the playing out of everyday utopias are explored. These relate to ongoing extensions of democratic representation to non-humans; and to increasingly assertive claims to moral conduct in making war through autonomising machines. Using the lessons of these examples, four qualification requirements for a network pragmatist reading of everyday utopias are generated and contrasted with conventional utopias. These qualifications relate to: grandeur, reflexivity, normalisation and extensionism. Taken together, these qualification requirements may function as a specific test for utopias to counter ubiquitous market tests and support a specifically utopian ontological politics. (shrink)

This study, the third in a series of three, draws on a broader Norwegian research project exploring the phenomenon of support for young persons with mental health issues. The aim was to explore and explicate the sense of “nourishing communion”, as a somewhat neglected aspect of support. Fourteen Norwegian young adults, aged 18-25, were interviewed about their experiences of support. Data was analyzed using van Manen’s hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to open up possible meanings of how nourishing communion is concretely lived. Analysis (...) was supplemented by in-depth reflexive dialogues between the first and second author, which fostered a nourishing communion akin to the processes and dimensions of our phenomenon of interest. Findings highlight five intertwined existential themes: a) trusting the other to hold vulnerability safely; b) flourishing in mutual participation; c) acceptance in a felt togetherness; d) feeling found and received; and e) feeling an attuned resonance. The notion of “nourishing communion” as a significant but neglected element of support challenges current practice, suggesting the need for a different approach to collaboration with young persons and their networks. From the perspectives both of individual professional engagement and of policy making, there is a need for further exploration of how young persons might be supported to create and maintain a broader range of nourishing relationships. (shrink)

This book demonstrates that classical sociology is essential to cutting-edge debates in the contemporary social sciences. It has become fashionable to play down the importance of the classic text in sociology and critique the ideas of Weber, Marx and Durkheim as ideologically outdated. The author mounts a strong challenge to this view, criticising such notions as de-traditionalization, structuration and postmodernism, emphasizing instead the relevance of habit, re-traditionalization, and social integration across time. Arguing that sociology has eliminated the importance of the (...) past, history, and tradition in favour of the transience of the present, he revisits the Habermas-Gadamer debate to argue that tradition is the ground of the classic, and the classic something that must prove itself anew in subsequent situations. He uses the work of Durkheim, Simmel and Weber to illustrate this process. Making a distinction between ‘classic’ and ‘canon’ which parallels that between ‘agency’ and ‘structure’, he allows the reader to appreciate the separate value of both. This major contribution to the field is essential reading for scholars and students of sociology and social theory. (shrink)

Although the descriptor often carries negative connotations, rationing is, depending on how it is defined, neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ in itself. Indeed, if we suppose that rationing describes the controlled or managed allocation of scarce resources, and/or if it designates means or methods of constructing, restricting and channelling demand then – arguably – absent unlimited resources, it is an ever present and inescapable part of everyday real-world decision making. Rationing can be justified on rational, practical, and ethical grounds. And the (...) question is not then ‘do nurses ration care? Rather, it is, ‘do nurses ration care well?’ The IPONS 2018 conference theme speaks about rationing in relation to a dearth of decision making frameworks. No doubt frameworks can be useful, they may help structure and formalise rationing. However, technical solutions cannot absolve practitioners from making judgements. Determining whether rationing is done well or not thus involves judgement, and judgements are unavoidably contestable. How then should nurses think about the judgements that are involved in rationing decisions? What needs to be considered? We might note the political nature of rationing judgements. Or, we could step back and think about the nature of nursing in relation to complex problems of the sort thrown out by rationing. Taking this more abstract line, this presentation introduces aspects of the work of Hanna Arendt and, in particular, her writings on Labour, Work, and Action in The Human Condition. It is proposed that the valorisation of labour over contemplative activities hampers inquiries of the sort that are the focus of this conference. (shrink)

This special issue arose from a joint conference of the History of Education Society, UK and the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society, held in Malvern in Worcestershire, England in 2016 on the theme ‘sight, sound and text in the history of education’. The conference drew together media and educational historians, as well as archivists and museum professionals, to examine both methodological issues and a range of examples of sensory and textual histories. The three-day event, as well as (...) being enriching for its international character, proved that although much work has already been done in this area, there is so much more to consider and exploit when it comes to the study of the ‘new’ sonic and visual sources and their intertextual relationship with the documentary, as well as traditional understandings of ‘text’. (shrink)

Parenting coordination has been in use since the mid-1980s, but research on its effectiveness is sorely lacking. We review the extant research organized by three themes: parenting coordinators’ perceptions of their role and function; professionals’ and parents’ views and perceptions of PC; and outcomes of PC, including some measures of effectiveness of the PC process. While these studies provide some insight into PC effectiveness, there is still a lack of research that uses objective out- come measures of efficacy and that (...) considers characteristics of the co-parent dyad, personality difficulties, or the professional discipline of the parenting coordinator. Future research recommendations are discussed. Key Points for practitioners • While parenting coordination is perceived by professionals to be effective, the research on PC effectiveness is limited by a small number of studies of variable quality; therefore there is no robust evidence of its effectiveness in practice. • There is a need for research on PC effectiveness that considers parent engagement, conflict level, and personality variables as well as professional discipline of the parenting coordinator. • While the Association for Family and Conciliation Courts and the American Psychological Association guidelines provide a model for PC practice, there is a distinct lack of theoretical underpinning of the PC practice. • It is imperative for professionals and researchers to collaborate toward the development of a unified theoretical model to inform the PC role and practice, which in turn will allow objective assessment of its effectiveness. (shrink)

This paper explores some questions about the use of models of nursing. These questions make various assumptions about the nature of models of nursing, in general and in particular. Underlying these assumptions are various philosophical positions which are explored through an introduction to postmodernist approaches in philosophical criticism. To illustrate these approaches, a critique of the Roper et al. model is developed, and more general attitudes towards models of nursing are examined. It is suggested that postmodernism offers a challenge to (...) many of the assumptions implicit in models of nursing, and that a greater awareness of these assumptions should lead to nursing care being better informed where such models are in use. (shrink)

This short video essay was presented at Glasgow Buzzcut Symposium 'Side Burns' on Wednesday 5th April 2017. It is called The Weird World of Donald Trump. It argues how America’s current encounter with the world of Donald Trump is akin to the weird realism of H.P Lovecraft, drawing upon Mark Fisher’s account of the weird - defined by Lovecraft’s fiction - as an encounter that can encompass grotesque sensations of fear when experiencing an object or being that shape shifts and (...) transforms itself. The weird, in this sense challenges and creeps into the perceived safety and certainty of everyday life to frightening political effect. The essay presents a short reading of Trump’s world against the philosophy of Lovecraft’s weird as a way of thinking about how the encounter with it might be understood and challenged. If a community can find a language to describe the sensation of what they are experiencing then there is hope that it can be collectively overcome, claiming a space within the weird, facing up to the thing on the doorstep. (shrink)

In this article I introduce the term ‘theatrical latency’ as a pleasurable effect experienced when listening to sound in relation to visual perception. Latency refers to both the phenomena of audio delay and a theatrical sensation that comes from the reanimation of visual environments through aural framing. In this configuration, the notion of latency takes on a double meaning as both a recorded phenomenon and the retrieval of something dormant within physical objects, sites or materials. These ideas will be introduced (...) through my experience of walking Katrina Palmer’s site-specific audio work The Loss Adjusters on the island of Portland. The audio tracks create an extended meditation on Portland, interweaving specific locations and histories with fictional characters and ghosts of the island. (shrink)

University of Buffalo New York Department of Art Gallery. The ancient philosopher Protagoras is most famous for his claim: “Of all things the measure is Man” and today, Western societies continue to promote anthropocentrism, an approach to the world that assumes humans are the principal species of the planet. We naturalize a scale of worth, in which beings that most resemble our own forms or benefit us are valued over those that do not. The philosophy of humanism has been trumpeted (...) as the hallmark of a civilized society, founded on the unquestioned value of humankind defining not only our economic, political, religious, and social systems, but also our ethical code. However, artists recently have questioned whether humanism has actually lived up to its promises and made the world a better place for humankind. Are we better off privileging humans above all else or could there be other, preferable, ways to value life? With the continued prevalence of violent crimes, even genocide, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we see the ways in which the discourse of humanism falters, as groups are targeted through rhetoric reducing them to the subhuman, and therefore disposable. But what if the subhuman, nonhuman, and even the non-animal and material, were reconsidered as objects of worth even if far removed from us? (shrink)

On Anthropomorphism concerns itself with performances and artworks that explore the complex of interesting and mutually contradictory ideas located under the umbrella term, ‘anthropomorphism’. On the one hand, it is used to refer to something that resembles a human, and on the other hand it refers to our natural tendency to read human characteristics in the non-human object or animal. Moreover, an interrogation of the concept of anthropomorphism, especially as it is found in contemporary performance, suggests that there is not (...) a singular line dividing the human from the non-human but a vast terrain that houses the comical, the uncanny and the abject. The aim of this issue is to elucidate anthropomorphism in its multitude of aspects, thereby shedding light on discourses around object theatre and ecological performance that attempt to understand the more-than-human world in a way that goes beyond ‘mere’ anthropomorphism. (shrink)

Computers have invaded our offices, our homes, cars and coffee-pots; they have become ubiquitous. However, the advance of computing technologies is associated with an increasing lack of “visibility” of the underlying software and hardware technologies. While we use and accept the computer, we neither know its history nor functionality. In this paper, we argue that this is not a healthy situation. Also, recruitment onto UK Computing degree courses is steadily falling; these courses are appearing less attractive to school-leavers. This may (...) be associated with the increasing ubiquity. In this paper we reflect on an MSc. module of instruction, Concepts and Philosophy of Computing, and a BSc. module Computer Games Development developed at the University of Worcester which address these issues. We propose that the elements of these modules form a necessary part of the education of all citizens, and we suggest how this may be realized. We also suggest how to re-enthuse our youth about computing as a discipline and halt the drop in recruitment. (shrink)

In the 1990s and into the beginning of the 21st century, Luciano Pavarotti helped popularise opera through singing the anthem for the Italia90 soccer World Cup; through concerts with the Three Tenors, and through his inter-music-genre charity concerts, Pavarotti and Friends. In doing so, he helped bring opera, and in particular ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s opera Turandot, to a wider audience than ever before. In Daniel Somerville’s practice-research performed presentation, which draws on his research into operatic movement, he muses on (...) how along with positioning ‘Nessun Dorma’ as the most recognisable tune in opera, Pavarotti also instilled an idea of how opera singers move that affirms negative stereotypes of the arm-raising, hand-waving, ‘stand and deliver’ opera star, while also divorcing the aria from its original context. Dancing ‘Nessun Dorma’ seeks to restore the aria to its original literary context and to reclaim the narrative of Turandot through presenting the moving body alongside operatic and autobiographical anecdote. Movement practice participating in, and allowing, a reassessment and revisiting of an aria and narrative that sits problematically at the intersection of Orientalist fantasy and Italian pride. (shrink)

In the 1990s and into the beginning of the 21st century, Luciano Pavarotti helped popularise opera through singing the anthem for the Italia90 soccer World Cup; through concerts with the Three Tenors, and through his inter-music-genre charity concerts, Pavarotti and Friends. In doing so, he helped bring opera, and in particular ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s opera Turandot, to a wider audience than ever before. In Daniel Somerville’s practice-research performed presentation, which draws on his research into operatic movement, he muses on (...) how along with positioning ‘Nessun Dorma’ as the most recognisable tune in opera, Pavarotti also instilled an idea of how opera singers move that affirms negative stereotypes of the arm-raising, hand-waving, ‘stand and deliver’ opera star, while also divorcing the aria from its original context. Dancing ‘Nessun Dorma’ seeks to restore the aria to its original literary context and to reclaim the narrative of Turandot through presenting the moving body alongside operatic and autobiographical anecdote. Movement practice participating in, and allowing, a reassessment and revisiting of an aria and narrative that sits problematically at the intersection of Orientalist fantasy and Italian pride. (shrink)

Despite noteworthy exceptions, nursing’s literature largely disregards the ways in which social and sociological theory permeates, guides and shapes research, education, and practice. Likewise, social theory’s ability to position nursing within wider structures of healthcare and educational provision is similarly and puzzlingly downplayed. The questions nurses ask and the problems they face cannot however, adequately be addressed without engaging with social and sociological theory and, to progress this engagement, contributors to this book explore how social theories are used by and (...) might apply to nursing and nursing practice. This work brings together leading international nursing and non-nursing scholars to stimulate thought and debate around a fascinating and enduring topic. (shrink)

Nursing publications frequently reference groups. The nature and capabilities of group agents or collective subjects, and the relationship between nursing as a group and nurses as individuals is, however, rarely made explicit in these publications. Following Alvin Goldman, questions pertaining to groups can be classified as metaphysical or epistemic. Metaphysical questions take two forms. First, we might ask about the ontological status of group agents. For example, to what extent, if at all, do group agents exist and act independently of (...) their constituent members? Second, we can ask whether group agents have psychological states or properties that can, for example, be formulated as propositional attitudes and, if they can, in what ways are group attitudes correlated with or tied to those of individual group members? In this presentation, having recognised the potential reality of group ontological and psychological being, I examine an under researched element of social epistemology. Specifically, the potential of non-individualist reliabilism to justify doxastic group beliefs are considered. It is suggested that this issue has concrete implications for how we think about nursing. (shrink)

Guattari Reframed presents a timely and urgent rehabilitation of one of the twentieth century's most engaged and engaging cultural philosophers. Best known as an activist and practicing psychiatrist, Guattari's work is increasingly understood as both eerily prescient and vital in the context of contemporary culture. Employing the language of visual culture and concrete examples drawn from it, this book introduces and reassesses the major concepts developed throughout Guattari's writings, asserting his significance as a revolutionary philosopher and cultural theorist, and invites (...) the reader to transform both their understanding of Guattari, and their lives through his ideas". (shrink)

This image and notes was submitted to the exhibition & competition 'Images of Research' at The Hive, University of Worcester. The aim of the competition was for students and staff to submit "An image that encapsulates their research in a way that is as visually appealing, creative and unique as possible" together with "an accompanying text clearly communicable to a non-academic audience".

A Hospice in Change: Applied Social Realist Theory reports upon a study into aspects of the ways in which structural and organisational developments, professional cultures and ‘bedside’ or patient focused clinical practice interact within a single UK institution. While the findings of this study are time and context specific, the events and social processes being described may nonetheless resonate closely with the experience of healthcare practitioners at other hospices both within and without the UK. The work examines themes and ideas (...) that hospice and palliative care practitioners, as well as those involved or interested more broadly in ‘end of life issues’, may find relevant. It is argued that differential morphogenesis can be identified between structures and agents at an independent healthcare charity in southern England. A Hospice in Change connects theory and philosophy with concrete research practice to provide a worked example of Margaret Archer’s realist social theory. (shrink)

Within a global context, the symposium will propose to debate the following themes: Questions relating to the issues of minority voices and cultures in drama translation Issues of power, patronage and authority in drama translation Modes of production and dissemination of translated drama texts Scholarly inquiry into drama translation Historiography of drama translation Sociology of drama translation Plays as artefacts of cultural memory Drama translation as a testing ground for disciplinary paradigms Invited speakers: Prof. Adam Versenyi University of North Carolina, (...) USA Dr. Roger Baines, University of East Anglia, is a researcher and translator of drama translation. Dr. Fred Dalmasso, Worcester University, is a researcher and producer of translated drama. (shrink)

Review of Piper, H and Stronach I 2004 Educational Research: Difference and Diversity Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers. £45.00. IBSN 0754633551 This collection of papers on educational methodology are drawn from two conferences, ‘Realism, Relativism or Post-Modernism’ and ‘Feminism and Educational Research Methodologies’, suitably updated and with additional material. The overview and introduction are given in the final chapter, with separate text from each editor side by side in two columns. This overview is critical, even ‘rude’ so as not to seem to (...) be 'sycophantic'... (shrink)

Spiritual education concerns the quality of our thinking about ourselves, our relationships, our sense of worth and identity, and our sense of well-being. All curriculum subjects can contribute to this search for meaning. Religious education and the act of worship can contribute but are in practice very problematic if dogma inhibits open reflection. No one tradition of spirituality should be promoted since spirituality is a process. The world faiths provide starting points, but life provides more. The human spirit may be (...) finite or eternal; but we are concerned with the here and now and education should promote open qualitative questioning. * First published in 2003 in Prospero: A Journal of New Thinking for Education vol 9, no 1, pp.12-18. This version has been revised. (shrink)

Public values are moving from a research concern to policy discourse and management practice. There are, though, different readings of what public values actually mean. Reflection suggests two distinct strands of thinking: a generative strand that sees public value emerging from processes of public debate; and an institutional interpretation that views public values as the attributes of government producers. Neither perspective seems to offer a persuasive account of how the public gains from strengthened public values. Key propositions on values are (...) generated from comparison of influential texts. A provisional framework is presented of the values base of public institutions and the loosely coupled public propositions flowing from these values. Value propositions issue from different governing contexts, which are grouped into policy frames that then compete with other problem frames for citizens’ cognitive resources. Vital democratic commitments to pluralism require public values to be distributed in competition with other, respected, frames. (shrink)

There has been a resurgence of interest in values in recent public administration research, based on two distinct arguments. For different reasons, neither approach is likely to secure a robust normative basis for public endeavours. These reasons are assessed, using an alternative body of theory rooted in contemporary social theory that we term, ‘new pragmatism’. New pragmatic ideas are deployed to critique the divorce of values from facts; the abstraction of values from concrete situations; the anthropocentric foundation to social choice; (...) the poorly developed understanding of the process of governance, with its inherent pluralism; and the seeming reluctance to articulate principles of political discourse. (shrink)

Engendering interest and support among young people was a key strategy for the organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Part of the approach entailed promoting the event as a context and inspirational catalyst to propel young people’s proclivities toward, and enduring participation in, sport and physical activity. Although a variety of participatory platforms were entertained, the discipline of physical education remained a favoured space in which enduring Olympic imperatives could be amalgamated with government policy objectives. In this paper data (...) are presented taken from the initial three years of a longitudinal study on young people’s engagement with the London 2012 Olympic Games, sport, physical activity and physical education within the UK’s West Midlands region. Memory scholarship is brought together with Olympic critiques, legacy debates, youth work and discussions about physical education to conceptualise participants’ anticipations and recollections of the London 2012 Olympic Games as a triptych of narrative fragments: each provides insights regarding youth experiences and the remnants of Olympic ether in the country’s hinterland. The paper offers a means subsequently to think differently about how we might play with the qualitative sociological/historiographical moments that we capture in and through our work. (shrink)

In this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis we set out to explore the meanings of work for people living with severe and enduring mental health problems. The participants were three women and seven men who were attending a mental health day centre. Data were collected through up to three depth interviews with each participant over eighteen months. The interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Following transcription data were analysed according to IPA principles. Two overarching themes were identified. Building and maintaining an (...) occupational identity expressed the ways in which participants used occupations as the building blocks of an evolving identity. Most of the participants wanted to work, and participation in occupations was seen as an essential to recovery from mental ill health. Work, and other ways of belonging encapsulated the need to feel connected to others. Many of the participants envisaged working as a way of achieving this. The longitudinal nature of the study facilitated engagement with the developing narratives and exploration of the changes and consistencies in the participants’ meaning making about their occupations. Implications for understanding individuals’ occupational participation which enhances a sense of self, and promotes feelings of belonging are identified. (shrink)

Research into mental health and employment has indicated that work holds multiple meanings for people with mental health problems. This paper reports findings from a phenomenological study which aimed to understand the complexity of these meanings by exploration of the perspectives of one individual who was considering returning to work. Data were gathered through a series of three interviews carried out over a period of 18 months. Three themes were identified – Beliefs and Values about Work, Working with a Mental (...) Health Problem, and Planning for the Future. Analysis and interpretation facilitated understandings of what work represented for the participant. What this study has contributed to the evidence base is a deeper understanding of the multiple meanings of work, and the varied roles that work may play in contributing to meaning and quality of life for people with mental health problems. (shrink)

Last Train to Oxford - a thought thriller. A dramatised adaptation of John Schad’s documentary novel by Fred Dalmasso & John Schad Someone called Jacques Derrida, the philosopher, someone called him on the phone, someone who was dead. A mystery, he thought, a mystery that begins in 1968 when Derrida visits Oxford and there he dies, several times. Murder, he thought. So too thought my father, an Oxonian, in his final nightmare years. And so we investigate, not just the Oxford (...) of the 1960s but the Oxford of the 1930s and a public school in the middle of the Second World War. In the end, the question is: 'Can one die of another's death? Or can one live?'. (shrink)

A dramatised adaptation of John Schad’s documentary novel by Fred Dalmasso & John Schad Someone Called Derrida is a real-life murder mystery that focuses on not only the famous French philosopher, Jacques Derrida’s complex relationship to Oxford but also the final years in the life of the author’s own father, 1990-1996 - years overwhelmed by dementia, nightmare and memories of, inter alia, the public school at which he had boarded during the Second World War. Every factual detail is, as far (...) as the author can tell, correct; moreover, the voices which surround the author are verbatim: Jacques Derrida’s words come directly from a single book of his called The Post Card ; the nightmare-words of the author’s father are as transcribed in the 1990s by the author’s mother; and the words that detail life both in Oxford and at the boarding school all come direct from published accounts. All references for all details and quotations can be found in the book. (shrink)

Background: For some time the Olympics have enjoyed a relatively cosy, and quite unsurprising, relationship with Physical Education and its practitioners. Yet, as academics continue their critiques of all matters Olympic, this seemingly symbiotic partnership is being placed under much closer scrutiny. The debates are typically orientated around several key concerns, namely, the vagaries of Olympic discourse, the implicit assumptions that align Olympic idealism with ‘good’ moral education, the relevance of Olympic values in young peoples' lives, the Olympic industry's politicizing/colonizing (...) of educational domains, and the utility of Olympic ideals for affecting social, cultural, and educational change. One other discussion thread, which we add to in this paper, has been the congruencies between Olympic idealism and non-Western cultural contexts and educational frameworks. Combined, the scholarly voices essentially encourage theorists and practitioners to approach the relationship between education and the Olympics with care. Context and curriculum overview: Cognizant of these contentions, this paper exhibits an Olympic education curriculum for first-year undergraduate students enrolled within a provincial Taiwanese University's Liberal Arts programme. We detail three tentative themes around which an Olympic education curriculum might be constructed: Peace, Multiculturalism, and Global sensibilities. These particular themes are concomitant with Olympic idealism, but also align with contemporary East Asian Liberal Arts frameworks. In our curriculum design, the emphasis is on developing an Olympic education that not only introduces students to broader global ideas, but that respects and reflects national/localized specificities. Considerations: The paper stresses the need to further Olympic debates outside the traditional domains of sport and Physical Education, and continue the challenge to Western-orientated sport pedagogies. Our intention is to create a strong cross-cultural study Olympic-inspired Liberal Arts programme that may better link tertiary students in Taiwan with key sport institutions in East Asia, and also throughout the wider communities around the world. We envision aspects of our course material may hopefully serve as a useful reference for other teachers and provide a blueprint for future curricula that might challenge Western-Olympic education orientations. (shrink)