The dynamic structure and composition of lipid membranes need to be tightly regulated to control the vast array of cellular processes from cell and organelle morphology to protein‐protein interactions and signal transduction pathways. To maintain membrane integrity, sense‐and‐response systems monitor and adjust membrane lipid composition to the ever‐changing cellular environment, but only a relatively small number of control systems have been described. Here, we explore the emerging role of the ubiquitin‐proteasome system in monitoring and maintaining membrane lipid composition. We focus (...) on the ER‐resident RNF145 E3 ubiquitin ligase, its role in regulating adiponectin receptor 2 (ADIPOR2), its lipid hydrolase substrate, and the broader implications for understanding the homeostatic processes that fine‐tune cellular membrane composition. (shrink)

The psychological factors influencing a return to sport has gained increased research attention. In the current investigation, we explored professional basketball players’ perceptions of the psychological factors facilitating a return to performance equal to or exceeding previous performance standards. We also sought to describe athletes’ experiences – both positive and negative – of returning to sport following injury recovery. Ten Italian professional male basketball players (age range 22-36 years), were retrospectively interviewed in relation to three time-periods: (1) from the commencement (...) of rehabilitation to their first official competition, (2) the first official competition, and (3) the six-months following the initial competition. Hierarchical content analysis of the data revealed numerous themes across the three time periods. In regards to Period 1, participants indicated that social support, investment in rehabilitation and training programs, coping skills and motivation were fundamental in reaching pre-injury performance levels. During their first official game (i.e. Period 2), athletes reported that realistic performance expectations, focusing on the performance, positive emotions, motivation, arousal and social support facilitated their return to sport. Athletes however, also described a predominance of factors that hindered their return to pre- injury levels (i.e., low confidence in personal abilities, decrements in skill execution and dysfunctional physical sensations). Moreover, participants typically described a substandard level of performance during their first competition back following injury. In recounting experiences during the six months following their first official game, basketballers reported improvements in skill execution and highlighted the importance of coping skills, motivation and social support. The process of restoring self-confidence in one’s ability to successfully perform was perceived as crucial in enabling participants to move beyond a mere return to sport to a return to high performance ─ that is, to reach a level of proficiency equal to or exceeding previous performance standards. Findings support the relevance of cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses highlighted in the Integrated Model and suggest the importance of addressing psychological factors throughout the return-to-sport process. Finally, results from the present study hold a number of practical implications for athletes’ aiming to achieve a return to pre-injury levels. (shrink)

In this interview, Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre introduce their book Enrichment and core concepts for the analysis of new developments in contemporary capitalism. The study focuses the analysis of the enrichment economy, which is grasped as a new form to explore and exploit ‘the past’ as a source for capitalist profits. The interview presents forms of valuation, which are more general principles of how value and prices can be ascribed to goods. The approach of Boltanski and Esquerre assumes an (...) organized plurality of such forms of valuation. Also, the two sociologists stress the importance of discourses of valuation, which bring these forms of valuation into operation. As the interview makes evident, one major aim is to present a new perspective on the relationship between values, prices, and practices how prices are legitimatized or criticized on the basis of discourses of valuation. The interview situates Enrichment in the context of other contemporary sociological works, which focus on the economic core issue of value and valuation. The book can also be recognized as a proposal to reconcile structuralism and pragmatism in sociology. At the end of the interview, the more recent outcomes of the continuing collaborative work of Boltanski and Esquerre after Enrichment are discussed. (shrink)

The article discusses main contributions and results of the monograph Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities, written by the French sociologists Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre. Boltanski and Esquerre focus on the strategy to transform ‘the past’ (patrimony, luxury objects, tradition, collections) into new sources of richness. The book focuses on valuation forms and valuation discourses. Enrichment links Boltanski’s work again to the socio-economic movement of the economics and sociology of conventions (in short, EC/SC), which is part of the new French (...) social sciences and regards conventions as logics of valuation and interpretation. This approach of EC/SC is introduced as a frame to evaluate the recombination of pragmatism and structuralism which is proposed by Boltanski and Esquerre. Finally, open questions and desiderata are addressed from the standpoint of EC/SC. (shrink)

In this article, I address some infectious diseases that never really “ended,” even though their morbidity, their social impact, and their public visibility have faded away: AIDS, syphilis, and measles. I will use data from different projects I have conducted on each of those epidemics: HIV/AIDS at the doctoral training level in the 1990s, with a geographical focus on Brazil and the United States; syphilis in the context of a 2010 project on the social history of health in Lisbon in (...) the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and measles as part of my current project on labor migration in the 19th century, with a focus on epidemic outbreaks in migrant ships from Madeira to Hawaii. (shrink)

Wieso geraten in Informationszeitalter und globaler Marktwirtschaft Werte derart in Widerstreit miteinander, dass eine Krise entsteht? Vor ideengeschichtlichem Hintergrund sind ihre Ursachen mit Bezug auf realpolitische Sachverhalte zu untersuchen. Das Ende der Metaphysik, Probleme des Rationalismus, entfesselter Kapitalismus, Anthropotechnik, kultureller Wandel und Demokratiekrise sind wohlbekannte Phänomene, mit denen sie einhergeht oder die sie bedingen. Gibt es Möglichkeiten, diese Krise zu beenden? Oder bleibt es beim unvermeidbaren Kampf der Werte und ihrer Anhänger gegeneinander? Die Beiträge aus Kunst-, Kultur-, Literatur- und Medienwissenschaften, (...) Kulturökonomie und Philosophie arbeiten die medienübergreifende wie vernetzende Schlüsselfunktion heraus, die Kunst und Kultur in dieser Wertedebatte zukommt. (shrink)

Precarious employment is commonplace within the University-as-business model. Neoliberal and New Public Management agendas have influenced widespread insecurity, and limited career progression pathways within academic work. Qualitative multi-case data inform this investigation of how young academic workers cope with, and justify, their precarious situations in a large Australian university. This article introduces the notion of cruel optimism to analyse the unethical exploitation of desires of precariously employed academics. This analytical engagement extends empathetic engagement with the lived experiences and rationalisations of (...) precariously employed academic workers, paying homage to their desires and negotiations. Findings demonstrate that participants were heavily invested in working towards achieving their good life fantasy which encompassed secure employment and the recognition this provided. Cruel optimism operated as participants developed coping mechanisms to deal with the ongoingness of their troubling situation as precarious workers uncertain how to change their precarious circumstances. Participants experienced cruel optimism as they navigated through issues of identity, control, and desire, related to their present and future lives as academic workers experiencing an impasse of crisis ordinariness. Optimism directed towards the academic scene of desire motivated participants’ daily actions and informed their understandings. Ethical elements of the impasse of precarious employment are presented in relation to the neoliberal and New Public Management-oriented University context. This article provides a novel conceptualisation of how precarious employment contributes to a relation of cruel optimism among workers by highlighting how organisations exploit the desires of insecure employees for extended periods of time, contributing to an impasse of crisis ordinariness. (shrink)

This book examines philosophical approaches to linguistic vagueness, a puzzling feature of natural language that gives rise to the ancient Sorites paradox and challenges classical logic and semantics. -/- The Sorites, or Paradox of the Heap, consists in three claims: (1) One grain of sand does not make a heap. (2) One billion grains of sand do make a heap. (3) For any two amounts of sand differing by at most one grain: either both are heaps of sand, or neither (...) one is. The third claim is rendered plausible by an initial conviction that vague predicates like ‘heap’ tolerate small changes. However, the repeated application of a tolerance principle to the second claim yields the further proposition that one grain of sand does make a heap – which contradicts claim number one. Consequently, many philosophers reject or modify tolerance principles for vague predicates. -/- Inga Bones reassesses prominent responses to the Sorites and defends a Wittgensteinian dissolution of the paradox. She argues that vague predicates are, indeed, tolerant and discusses how this finding relates to the paradox itself, to the notion of validity and to the concept of a borderline case . (shrink)

In this article, drawing upon a feminist epistemology, we examine the critical roles that philosophical standpoint, historical usage, gender, and language play in a knowledge arena which is increasingly opaque to the general public. Focussing on the language dimension in particular, in its historical and social dimensions, we explicate how some keywords in use across artificial intelligence (AI) discourses inform and misinform non-expert understandings of this area. The insights gained could help to imagine how AI technologies could be better conceptualised, (...) explained, and governed, so that they are leveraged for social good. (shrink)

Hermeneutics has a long tradition in the history of philosophy. It carries the task of Hermes to bring God’s message to humans and translate it without betraying it. This special issue of the journal Critical Hermeneutics proposes a double research track: veritative hermeneutics and hermeneutic realism. This double track testifies to the original purpose of hermeneutics to formulate fundamental philosophical questions in light of human historical experience. Opposed to relativism, veritative hermeneutics and hermeneutic realism focus on truth, objectivity, the structure (...) of reality, normativity, and meaning. The issue publishes contributions of this track’s pioneers (Gaspare Mura – veritative hermeneutics, Günter Figal, and Anton Friedrich Koch – hermeneutic realism) as well as authors that explore this track from various perspectives: ethics, personalism, normativity, testimony, Biblical hermeneutics and Jewish thought, religious language, meaning. In this introduction, we will first present the authors working on veritative hermeneutics, then those working on hermeneutic realism.... (shrink)

Resumo O artigo trata dos diversos entendimentos acerca de quem faz parte da sociedade civil nos discursos de atores estatais e de organizações da sociedade civil no contexto da temática ambiental durante o governo Lula. Os dados são de entrevistas realizadas com organizações ambientalistas, assim como atores políticos do Ministério do Meio Ambiente e outros setores do governo Lula com alguma vinculação à questão ambiental. A análise aponta para um entendimento - do lado do governo - ampliado de sociedade civil, (...) incluindo desde organizações e movimentos sociais de diversas temáticas extrapolando a ambiental, e que inclui, em certos momentos, setores empresariais e sindicatos. Por outro lado, as organizações ambientalistas demonstram um entendimento mais hermético do conceito, do qual fazem parte, fundamentalmente, ONGs e movimentos sociais, mas com grande diferenciação de atuação. Esses aspectos trazem conseqüências para as relações estabelecidas entre Estado - sociedade civil e, principalmente, para os limites e funções de cada um. Assim, levantam questões sobre o papel esperado da sociedade civil no mundo contemporâneo - seus desafios na tentativa de participar e nfluenciar na política sem perder a sua identidade constitutiva. Palavras-chave: Sociedade civil; Organizações ambientalistas; Política ambiental; Participação política.The present paper concerns the several viewpoints on who comprises the civil society in the rhetoric of state actors and civil society organizations in the context of the environmental issue during the Lula administration. The data were gathered from interviews with environmental organizations as well as political actors from Ministry for the Environmental and other government sectors with some connection to the environmental issue. The analysis suggests an expanded understanding - on the government side - of civil society, including social movements and organizations with causes beyond the environmental and, on occasion, the business and union sectors. On the other hand, environmental organizations display a less flexible understanding of the concept, fundamentally composed of NGOs and social movements, albeit with great diversity of spheres of action. Key words: Civil society; Environmental organization; Environmental policy; Policy participation. (shrink)

Mat is a specific domain of Russian obscene vocabulary including words related to sexuality. The first sociolinguistic studies on mat emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union, concomitantly with the formation of Russian gender studies in the early 1990s. Until today, research on gender and taboo in Russian has been exiguous. Many scholars claim that the use of mat is a male prerogative, whereas women’s use of mat is heavily sanctioned in society. Through data from a survey I carried (...) out with 772 participants, I illustrate that mat is strongly present in women’s language use and that stereotypical gender conceptualizations are undergoing change. From the participants’ answers it emerges that discussions about the use of obscene language play a critical role in the multifaceted process of renegotiation of gender roles in post-Soviet contexts. (shrink)

Veterinary oaths are public declarations sworn by veterinarians, usually when they enter the profession. As such, they may reflect professional and social concerns. Analysis of contemporary veterinary oaths may therefore reveal their ethical foundations. The objective of this article is to contextualize the ethical content of contemporary oaths, in terms of the origin and development of veterinary medicine and wider societal changes such as the intensification of farming and the rise of animal welfare. This informs a comparison of oaths from (...) the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. This analysis suggests some ways in which the oaths might be developed to better reflect contemporary societal values. (shrink)

In recent times developments in the natural sciences and in the sphere of environmental politics have compelled social scientists, and also some natural scientists, to rethink the relations that hitherto have been held, in Western thought generally and within particular disciplines, to characterize ‘nature’ on the one side and ‘culture’ on the other. This article considers the history of this conceptual boundary and looks at new conceptualizations of nature/culture, stimulated by developments both in biotechnology and in the ongoing controversies about (...) environmental degradation. It argues that while some of the contributions to reconfiguring, or abolishing, the nature/ culture division have been productive and stimulating of new ways of conceiving the world, there has nonetheless been an unfortunate tendency for social scientists to bring to bear inherited analytic dispositions on biotechnological and environmental matters. Instead of using these issues as means of challenging social scientific disciplinary dogmas and of engaging in constructive rapprochement with natural scientists, social scientists have in their analyses of such matters often merely asserted the hegemony of ‘culture’ over ‘nature’, and thus in effect the superiority of social scientific over natural scientific conceptualizations of the world. Far from overcoming the nature/culture boundary, social scientists have too often merely asserted the primacy of the sorts of subject matters and analytic techniques they feel comfortable with, rather than subjecting their practices to fully reflexive self-scrutiny. (shrink)

This article embodies the result of a collective work that seeks to understand the manner in which the notion of conflict is transformed by the attempt to apply it to reality, according to the doctrines hereby comprise as “ontologies of conflict”. It seems that there are three resulting “logics of conflict” which may receive the following qualifications: logic of contradiction, logic of contrariety and logic of difference.

This paper reviews the accountability regimes of contractarian and communitarian theory. The contractarian theory is further elaborated with the developments of shareholder primacy, the stakeholder theory and team production model , and the communitarian themes of single constituency, Catholic social thought and corporate citizenship. Contractarian theory is rooted in liberalism, where as communitarian theory is a humanist discipline. While contractarians stress the value of competition, liberty and freedom, the communitarians emphasize cooperation, justice and civic responsibility. The purpose of this analysis (...) is to frame corporate ‘personhood’ in the perspective of the existing theories. This article suggests that corporate citizenship has been revived under Canadian law which contemplates a communitarian corporation. (shrink)

The article aims to demonstrate to what extent the work Art as Experience by the American philosopher and pedagogist John Dewey, a proponent of pedagogical activism, may have contributed to Loris Malaguzzi’s thought and the Reggio Emilia Approach. Starting from the idea of an aesthetic experience as a privileged means of knowledge, the comparison between the two authors continues through reflections on the relationship between art-community and art-ethics. The dialogue between these important educational approaches is proposed in order to highlight (...) their relevance and the role they could play in today’s schools thanks to the concept of knowledge based on the senses and on doing, contributing to the sensitisation of educational action towards the social aspect of art, both as an opening towards the community, and as a reflection on the values of the human being. The dialogue between these two important educational approaches is proposed in order to highlight their relevance and the role they could play in today's schools thanks to the concept of knowledge based on the senses and on doing, contributing to the sensitisation of educational action towards the social aspect of art, both as an opening towards the community, and as a reflection on the values of the human being. (shrink)

Befasst man sich mit dem Begriff ›Bürger‹ in Fichtes später Reflexionsentwicklung, so ist man mit der vorausgehenden Frage konfrontiert, welche Konnotationen hier als von der früheren Phase unterschieden gelten können. Eine vorläufige Betrachtung würde als erstes darauf hindeuten, dass schon der quantitative Gebrauch des Wortes »Bürger« in Fichtes Jenaer Zeit weniger häufig ist und mit unbestimmteren Sachverhalten im Zusammenhang steht. Aber eine quantitative Bewertung ist an sich nicht schlüssig, wenn sie nicht dabei durch eine begriffsinhaltliche Analyse untermauert wird. Und eine (...) derartige Analyse kann sich nicht nur auf das Spezifikum der Notion ›Bürger‹ berufen, sondern muss gleichzeitig die Korrelate in Betracht ziehen, welche den inhaltlichen Umfang zu erörtern vermögen, die gesamte gedankliche Konstellation umfassen und gleichwohl synthetisch veranschaulichen können. Ein besonders einleuchtendes Beispiel wird durch eine vergleichende Analyse der jeweils im Naturrecht von 1796 und in der Rechtslehre von 1812 enthaltenen korrelierenden Begriffsinhalte dargeboten. Schon der Unterschied in der Betitelung könnte auf eine gewichtige Sinnverschiebung anspielen. Wir wissen aber, dass das deutschsprachige Verständnis des Wortes ›Naturrechts‹ jenes Zeitalters nicht immer dem fachlichen Ausdruck genau entspricht. Der Terminus Naturrecht wird in der Tat oft als Oberbegriff verwendet, welcher gleichzeitig naturrechtliche Ansprüche, privates Recht und Staatsrecht deckt oder mit einbezieht. Einen eindeutigen Beweis dafür wird einige Jahre später die Hegelsche Rechtsphilosophie liefern, welche im Untertitel die Naturrechtslehre anspricht und sich jedoch als Gegendarstellung der durch die Feststellung der natürlichmenschlichen Konnotationen erworbenen, das Individuum betreffenden Rechtsansprüche erweist. Unter dieser Betrachtung soll die Behauptung eines schwerwiegenden Unterschieds vorerst aufgeschoben werden und eine umfangreichere Argumentation veranlassen. (shrink)

Befasst man sich mit dem Begriff ›Bürger‹ in Fichtes später Reflexionsentwicklung, so ist man mit der vorausgehenden Frage konfrontiert, welche Konnotationen hier als von der früheren Phase unterschieden gelten können. Eine vorläufige Betrachtung würde als erstes darauf hindeuten, dass schon der quantitative Gebrauch des Wortes »Bürger« in Fichtes Jenaer Zeit weniger häufig ist und mit unbestimmteren Sachverhalten im Zusammenhang steht. Aber eine quantitative Bewertung ist an sich nicht schlüssig, wenn sie nicht dabei durch eine begriffsinhaltliche Analyse untermauert wird. Und eine (...) derartige Analyse kann sich nicht nur auf das Spezifikum der Notion ›Bürger‹ berufen, sondern muss gleichzeitig die Korrelate in Betracht ziehen, welche den inhaltlichen Umfang zu erörtern vermögen, die gesamte gedankliche Konstellation umfassen und gleichwohl synthetisch veranschaulichen können. Ein besonders einleuchtendes Beispiel wird durch eine vergleichende Analyse der jeweils im Naturrecht von 1796 und in der Rechtslehre von 1812 enthaltenen korrelierenden Begriffsinhalte dargeboten. Schon der Unterschied in der Betitelung könnte auf eine gewichtige Sinnverschiebung anspielen. Wir wissen aber, dass das deutschsprachige Verständnis des Wortes ›Naturrechts‹ jenes Zeitalters nicht immer dem fachlichen Ausdruck genau entspricht. Der Terminus Naturrecht wird in der Tat oft als Oberbegriff verwendet, welcher gleichzeitig naturrechtliche Ansprüche, privates Recht und Staatsrecht deckt oder mit einbezieht. Einen eindeutigen Beweis dafür wird einige Jahre später die Hegelsche Rechtsphilosophie liefern, welche im Untertitel die Naturrechtslehre anspricht und sich jedoch als Gegendarstellung der durch die Feststellung der natürlichmenschlichen Konnotationen erworbenen, das Individuum betreffenden Rechtsansprüche erweist. Unter dieser Betrachtung soll die Behauptung eines schwerwiegenden Unterschieds vorerst aufgeschoben werden und eine umfangreichere Argumentation veranlassen. (shrink)