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Critical View (critical + view)
Selected AbstractsExplaining Migration: A Critical ViewINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 165 2000Joaquín Arango The article surveys the major contemporary explanations of migration, starting with the neo-classical theory, and then the array of theories and conceptual frameworks that have flourished in the last quarter of the century. The survey highlights the fact that in its relatively short history, theorising about migration has taken the form of a string of separate, generally unconnected theories, models, conceptual frameworks and empirical generalisations, rather than a cumulative sequence of contributions. As awhole, existing theories of migration can be faulted for focusing almost exclusively on the explanation of the causes of migration, to the detriment of other dimensions; for making ,grand claims' out of proportion with effective explanatory power; and for providing explanations ex-post rather than guiding empirical research and providing testable hypotheses. In addition to the difficulties that all the social sciences experience when trying to explainhuman behaviour, migration theories face special ones: its subject matter is hard to define, difficult to measure, extremely multifaceted and multiform, and thus resistant to theory-building. Whilst the reservoir of theories, and especially of conceptual frameworks, available nowadays represents a clear improvement over the situation a few decades ago, their contribution toour knowledge of migration is still limited. [source] The politics of risk and trust in mental healthCRITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2004John Wilkinson This essay provides a critical account of Risk Society theory through analysis of an article by ,I,ek on human genetics research, using this as a basis for distinguishing a range of meanings of 'risk' and describing their interplay within the mental health domain. The paper argues that mental health policy in the UK has been distorted through a preoccupation with a supposedly scientific practice of risk assessment which uncannily reflects popular and tabloid prejudice. It is argued that Risk Society theory does not, as its proponents claim, supersede the politics of inclusion and exclusion, so much as overlay and disguise them. The importance of Risk Society theory in the development of Third Way politics would invite a similarly critical view of a range of contemporary British social policy. [source] Quality control in laparoscopic cholecystectomy: operation notes, video or photo print?HPB, Issue 3 2001PW Plaisier Background In 1995 the concept of a ,critical view of safety' (CVS) in Calot's triangle was introduced to prevent bile duct injury in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The aim of this study was to determine the most reliable method for recording CVS. Methods Operation notes, video images and photo prints from 50 consecutive elective non-converted laparoscopic cholecystectomies were analysed. Results Operation notes alone did not suffice to record CVS. As an adjunct, video proved superior to photo print with regard to quality. Nevertheless, photo prints were practically and logistically much easier to produce than video. Moreover, when good quality images were achieved, photo print recorded CVS more conclusively than video. Discussion Operation notes, video and photo print are complementary, and the combination records CVS conclusively in nearly every case. [source] A critical view of how nursing has defined spiritualityJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 12 2009Janice Clarke Aims., To offer a detailed discussion of the issue of ,lack of critique' in the literature on spirituality in nursing. The discussion will include the limited use of sources from theology and religious studies and the demand to separate spirituality and religion and will go on to examine the consequences of the resulting approach. The drive for unique knowledge to further professionalisation and the demands of inclusiveness are suggested as possible reasons for the development of the current model. The dangers and pitfalls of definition are explored. The paper suggests that theology could provide insights into explaining spirituality. Background., The last four decades have seen a proliferation of definitions of spirituality in the nursing literature. Recently, in response to their own concerns and prompts from outside the ,spirituality' community authors have suggested that we revisit this literature with a more critical stance. This paper is in response to that suggestion. During the course of a PhD supervised from a department of practical theology I have critically analysed the literature from several perspectives and this paper is one result of that review. Design., Literature review. Methods., Critical reflection on how spirituality has been defined. Conclusion., The lack of critique has produced a bias in the literature towards broad, generic, existential definitions which, together with the intentional divorce from religion and theology have led to definitions which have the tendency to result in a type of spiritual care which is indistinguishable from psychosocial care, hard to explain to patients and difficult to put into practice. Relevance to clinical practice., The acceptance of a diverse range of understandings of spirituality and a greater focus on practical ways of using it in nursing care are the direction the profession should be moving into. [source] Do egg size and parental care coevolve in fishes?JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2005N. Kolm A phenomenon that has attracted a substantial theoretical and empirical interest is the positive relationship between egg size and the extent of parental care in fishes. Interestingly, despite the effort put into solving the causality behind this relationship over the past two decades it remains largely unsolved. Moreover, how general the positive relationship between egg size and parental care is among fishes is also poorly understood. In order to stimulate research exploring egg size and parental care variation in fishes, the potential selective forces from both natural and sexual selection on egg size and parental care are discussed. Recent empirical findings on how oxygen requirements and developmental times may differ between differently sized eggs are incorporated into a critical view of the current theory of this field. Furthermore, it is suggested that the up to now neglected effects of sexual selection, through both mate choice and sexual conflict, can have strong effects on the relationship between egg size and parental care in fishes. In light of the recent developments of comparative and experimental methods, future approaches that may improve the understanding of the relationship between egg size and care in fishes are suggested. [source] Classification of soil microorganisms based on growth properties: a critical view of some commonly used terms.JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2004Klassifikation von Bodenmikroorganismen anhand von Wachstumseigenschaften: eine kritische Betrachtung einiger allgemein verwendeter Begriffe [source] Towards framework for knowledge management implementationKNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 4 2005Ravi Shankar The implementation of knowledge management (KM) in an organization involves the integration of knowledge from the domains of strategy, structure, processes, and technology. These domains are generally underpinned,when assimilating roadmaps for holistic KM implementation,with standard KM models in the literature. The pioneering models manifesting the holistic ,growth' of knowledge in an organization are generally used to underpin the knowledge-based segregation of organizational structure. However, some authors take a critical view of such theoretical models, and instead suggest the knowledge process-based models manifesting the ,circulation' of knowledge as being a more practical approach to KM implementation. This paper takes the implementation-oriented approach further, and modifies and integrates the fundamental aspects of KM advocated in these models resulting in the creation of an integrated KM model that renders a practical framework for the broad knowledge processes across the organization. The essence of the proposed integrated model are the knowledge activities permeating an organization, which are categorized in terms of the cyclic knowledge processes of creation, organization, dissemination, and use of knowledge. These processes traverse the segregated structure of an enterprise. It is suggested that a modified knowledge-based segregation of enterprise into individual and group, organization, customer interface, and global enterprise be developed based on the cyclic knowledge processes. Further, based on the proposed integrated model, an implementation framework is outlined manifesting the cyclic circulation of knowledge across the organization. Such a framework can provide a link in the KM roadmaps between the abstract categorizations in KM models and the actual implementations using technologies, organizations, and people. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Review article: a critical view on impaired accommodation as therapeutic target for functional dyspepsiaALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 11 2006B. D. J. VAN DEN ELZEN Summary Several important pathophysiological mechanisms have been identified in functional dyspepsia, however a complete understanding of these mechanisms and beneficial therapeutic strategies are still lacking. Based on the currently available literature we aimed at providing a critical view on one of these pathophysiological mechanisms, impaired accommodation. Although impaired gastric accommodation is identified as a major pathophysiological mechanism, the clinical evidence supporting its role as an important therapeutic target is currently still lacking. Treatment with fundic relaxant drugs has shown conflicting results and has been rather disappointing in general. These negative findings could be explained by the fact that impaired fundic accommodation is part of a more complex disorder involving other regions of the proximal gut or by the increasing insight that central mechanisms may play an important role. Future studies of impaired accommodation should take these considerations into account. [source] Anténor Firmin: Haitian Pioneer of AnthropologyAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 3 2000Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Anténor Firmin published De I'Égalité des Races Humaines in 1885 in Paris as a response both to Arthur de Gobineau's racist tome L'lnégalité des Races (1853-55) and to the racialist anthropology of the nineteenth century. This pioneering work of anthropology has been translated for the first time into English by Assclin Charles as The Equality of the Human Races (Firmin [1885]2000). In 662 pages of the original text, Firmin systematically critiqued the anthropometry and craniometry that dominated the anthropology of his day, while he envisioned a broad, synthetic discipline that would follow once this narrow approach to the study of man was abandoned. He challenged virtually every extant racial myth and laid a basis for the understanding of human variation as adaptation to climate and environment. Contrary to the polygenist doctrines of the infertility of interracial matings, Firmin extolled the value of racial mixture, especially in the vigorous New World hybrid populations. He developed a critical view of racial classifications and of race that foreshadowed much later social constructions of race. In the book he also articulated early Pan-Africanist ideas as well as an analytical framework for what would become postcolonial studies. The Equality of the Human Races is a text that lies historically at the foundations of the birth of the discipline of anthropology, yet it is unknown to the field. It is a pioneering work in critical anthropology that awaits recognition 115 years after it was first published. [Anténor Firmin, history of racism, antiracism, historical texts, Haitian anthropologist, critical anthropology, nineteenth-century pioneer] [source] European Settlement and the Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal IdentitiesTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Francesca Merlan This paper explores variation and change in Aboriginal people's connections to places, and place-related identity, as a function of their differential historical relationship to a town. Among Aboriginal people who have lived for some decades in camps around Katherine, Northern Territory, descendants of those who appear to have the most clearly discernable long-term relationship with the area in the vicinity of the town do not relate to places, nor conceptualise them, in stereotypically ,traditional' terms. Their relationships to town and nearby places tend to be of an ideologically unelaborated, homely sort. Kinds of territorial relationships their antecedents can be shown to have had to the area have undergone dissolution. The paper seeks to develop discussion of such variation and the historical and sociological processes involved. The Katherine case brings the social and historical significance of ,towns' as sites of Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal interrelationship into focus, and also requires a critical view of notions of ,group' that have tended to dominate recent public process and understanding in Australia. [source] The adult North and the young South: Reflections on the civilizing mission of children's rightsANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2009Karen Valentin The civilization of the children of the "savages" in the colonial world was seen as a crucial issue from early on was an inherent part of the colonization project in Africa, America and Oceania in the 19th century. The idea of civilizing "the savages," today's South, through children has continued in the post-colonial era with the development of mass-schooling systems and various child-focused development projects. This has led to an export of internationally defined standards for a "good childhood" through various foreign funded development programs in South. While many NGOs, legitimizing their work on the basis of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are genuinely working for an improvement of children's conditions, they have also taken on the role as a second guardian in order to cultivate "proper" children and parents who can live up to the supposedly universal ideals of a "good childhood." The article adopts a critical view on the child rights movement by shedding light on the crucial role, which NGOs play as civilizing institutions in the South. The article specifically draws attention to the double-sided patronization of children and parents, and "infantilization" of nations in South, which implicitly lies beneath CRC and the child rights movement. [source] | ||||||||||||||||