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Conceptual Challenges (conceptual + challenge)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

Dimensions and dynamics of irregular migration

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 3 2010
Khalid Koser
Abstract This contribution critically reviews existing data and other recent sources to provide an overview of the dimensions and dynamics of contemporary irregular migration. First it considers the utility and uses of irregular migrant statistics, considering their inherent inaccuracy, their inability to distinguish different types of irregular migrant, the way that data is collected, and the purposes to which it is put. The second section reviews the conceptual and practical challenges associated with counting irregular migrants. Conceptual challenges include: differentiating stocks from flows, addressing the variety of routes into irregularity, distinguishing migrant smuggling from human trafficking, separating asylum from aggregate statistics, and acknowledging that migrants' legal status can change quickly. Practical challenges associated with a series of direct and indirect methods for collecting statistics (including national censuses) are reviewed, and the difficulty for researchers to access official statistics highlighted. The third section presents estimates of the scale and scope of irregular migration, and data from regularisation programmes in various high-income countries. The fourth section reviews explanations for irregular migration, distinguishing macro-level explanations that focus on structural causes from meso-level explanations concerned with the role of policies and intermediaries, and also notes the shortage of micro-level explanations concerned with individual and family decision-making. The final section considers the consequences of irregular migration, with a particular focus on security. The review suggests that while irregular migration can undermine state sovereignty, the implications of irregular migration for the ,human security' of those involved should not be underestimated. The conclusion considers some implications for future research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2001
Simon Guy
This paper examines the relationships between diverse technical design strategies and competing conceptions of ecological place making. It highlights the conceptual challenges involved in defining what we mean by calling a building "green" and outlines a social constructivist perspective on the development of sustainable architecture. The paper identifies six alternative logics of ecological design which have their roots in competing conceptions of environmentalism, and explores the ways in which each logic prefigures technological strategies and alternative visions of sustainable places. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the contested nature of ecological design for architectural education, practice, and research. [source]

Religiously oriented mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
William Hathaway
Abstract The interface of religiously accommodative and oriented treatments and the cognitive,behavioral tradition is explored. In terms of Hayes' characterization of the evolution of the cognitive,behavioral tradition through three waves, considerable theoretical, clinical, and empirical work emerged to support a religiously accommodative cognitive,behavioral therapy (CBT) during the second-generation CBTs. Rather than including religion and spirituality, the third-wave CBT traditions have engaged in spiritual themes inspired heavily from Eastern religious traditions. The authors discuss the application of a religiously congruent third-wave cognitive therapy with a depressed conservatively Christian client. Some conceptual challenges and rationales for adopting such treatments with Christian or other theist clients are described. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:158,171, 2009. [source]

Anti-corruption: What Do We Know?

POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Research on Preventing Corruption in the Post-communist World
This review assesses the anti-corruption literature in a first attempt to identify systematically significant trends so far and challenges remaining to future political science research. Research on anti-corruption is a young métier. While reflecting on the field at large, the review focuses on two issues that have been central to its development: the role of post-communist Eastern Europe and of civil society involvement. Organised in a chronological way, the review distinguishes and discusses four phases, in order to trace how scholars have addressed these two issues in the context of a rapid evolution of anti-corruption debates, ongoing transformations in Eastern Europe and increasing insight into the controversial matter of anti-corruption efforts. It considers four crucial periods: (1) earlier scholarly debates on corruption (pre-1990s); (2) initial anti-corruption debates (1990s); (3) a period of reorientation (early 2000s); and (4) latest anti-corruption debates (mid-2000s). Changing perspectives on anti-corruption in relation to post-communism and civil society involvement are discussed for each of the four phases in order to delineate the different research trajectories. This leads to the conclusion that future research, while addressing the theory deficit, needs to take account of increasingly complex conceptual challenges posed by the (interrelated) changes in international and domestic governance. [source]