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A life scheme can be understood as the cognitive representation of individuals' life events and their goal attainment in the past and future. We conceptualize beliefs in free will and determinism as two life schemes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between beliefs in free will and determinism, search for meaning, and depressive symptoms. While belief in free will uniquely and negatively predicted depressive symptoms, deterministic belief was uniquely and positively associated with depressive symptoms. Moreover, a multiple mediation model revealed that beliefs in free will and determinism were indirectly associated with increased depressive symptoms via their positive relations with search for meaning. These findings are discussed in view of the relationship between inconsistent life schemes and the need to search for meaning, as well as the mediating role of the search for meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally investigated psychological responses of bystanders to violations of moral codes to find out why divinity violations may be more effective for gaining victimhood status than autonomy violations in real-world intergroup conflicts. In particular, we considered how anger versus disgust responses are differentially invoked by violations of autonomy versus divinity ethics. Two experiments compared autonomy versus divinity violations in interaction with two other parameters known to produce different effects: level of harm (Experiment 1) and differential intergroup power (Experiment 2). Overall, we found support for the proposed dissociation in anger versus disgust responses to autonomy versus divinity violations in a way that the anger responses to autonomy violations were amplified but disgust responses to divinity violations were not affected when the moral violation was more harmful and the perpetrator was more powerful than the victim. We discuss the implications of the cognitive processes involved in considering autonomy versus divinity violations, and the functionality for parties to intergroup conflict of accusing the opponent of divinity violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the renewed significance and popularity of strategic autonomy in recent years, this term remains undertheorized. Current usage of the term makes it difficult to determine whether an actor is strategically autonomous or not, and whether a particular course of action enhances autonomy or decreases it. This article thus begins by tracing the intellectual history of strategic autonomy, and then by evaluating the way in which modern scholars use this term. Consequently, it advances a novel conceptualization of the term, arguing that instead of being a binary concept, strategic autonomy represents the highest level of autonomy on a full spectrum of autonomy. While providing a comprehensive theory of strategic autonomy is beyond the scope of this article, we offer some preliminary hypotheses on why the international system incentivizes actors to pursue strategic autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the outcomes of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community–led project which sought to build a pathway to reconciliation through formulating a localised community response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The research follows a phenomenological research design which collected qualitative data from lived experiences of the participants. Phenomenological analysis was conducted iteratively on the data where themes were identified as integral to achieve self-determination and reconciliation locally: respect, voice, truth, treaty and unity. Each theme comprised interconnected sub-themes where a Local Response to the Statement of Commitment was hewn from these results. This response will be used as a local charter to promote Memorandums of Understanding across the Fraser Coast region, Queensland, Australia, to improve life choices, control decision making and self-determination for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the region, enacting the vision of the Uluru Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of Indian intervention on the Madheshi parties' claim to self-determination in Nepal. In 2007, the Madheshi parties launched mass protests, demanding the recognition of their self-determination through an autonomous Madheshi province. Mainstream political parties became hesitant to incorporate this demand. The Nepalese government signed agreements with the agitating Madheshis but did not intend to implement its commitments. The Indian government was monitoring these developments; it stood on the Madheshi side and urged the Nepalese government to recognize self-determination and autonomy in the new Constitution. It increased pressure through press releases, parliamentary statements, bilateral visits, and an undeclared economic sanction. Against this background, this paper examines the following question: What is the impact of the Indian intervention on the Madheshi claims for self-determination in Nepal? It identifies that the Indian intervention obstructed the recognition of Madheshi self-determination as a constitutional right and the agenda of the nationalist movement. The mainstream political parties perceived the Indian intervention as unwanted interference in a sovereign state's internal affairs and responded to this pressure by adopting the Constitution without including self-determination. The Indian government continued to pressure through economic sanctions, but the latter just increased anti-Indian sentiments in Nepal. As a result, the Nepalese government re-strengthened its ties with the Chinese government and concluded trade and transit agreements. The Indian government perceived that Nepal-China ties would affect its national interests in Nepal and stayed silent about the Madheshi parties. This silence constructed a permissive environment for the Nepalese government to ignore the nationalist demands and forced the Madheshi parties to concede their self-determination as the ethnonational agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since some scientists and popular media put forward the idea that free will is an illusion, the question has risen what would happen if people stopped believing in free will. Psychological research has investigated this question by testing the consequences of experimentally weakening people's free will beliefs. The results of these investigations have been mixed, with successful experiments and unsuccessful replications. This raises two fundamental questions: Can free will beliefs be manipulated, and do such manipulations have downstream consequences? In a meta-analysis including 145 experiments (95 unpublished), we show that exposing individuals to anti–free will manipulations decreases belief in free will and increases belief in determinism. However, we could not find evidence for downstream consequences. Our findings have important theoretical implications for research on free will beliefs and contribute to the discussion of whether reducing people's belief in free will has societal consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we all know, respect for a patient's ability and freedom to make decisions about healthcare matters that concern them (i.e. "respect for autonomy") is necessary for the ethical conduct of clinical practice. If consent does not respect autonomy either in principle or practice, how should we operationalise the principle of respect for autonomy?. [Extracted from the article]

This article makes the case for the provision of access to assisted death in prisons, founded on the right to self-determination under Article 8(1) ECHR, in order to create equivalence between prisoners and non-prisoners. It considers possible State justifications for interferences with the right under Article 8(2) and whether they would meet the Convention standards of legality and proportionality. In relation to proportionality, it is argued that the foundational basis for restrictions on assisted dying imposed on both the general and prison populations derives from the concept of human dignity, a concept which is also fundamental to prisoners' rights. Under the banner of proportionality, from an initial presumption of equivalence of access to assisted dying, the article identifies certain conditions inherent in the prison situation that inevitably oppose human dignity and which provide a plausible basis for divergence. Ultimately, it is concluded that an absolute bar on provision of access to assisted dying in prisons cannot be justified, but that the factors that undermine dignity in prison could justify a degree of divergence from creation of equivalence between the prison and the non-prison populations in terms of such access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent is minority language use in society imposed by social determinism, a force acting on individuals based on the language group's relative vitality in terms of demography, institutional support, and status? Can social determinism be countered by the force of self-determination sustained by group members' personal autonomy, critical consciousness, and strong engaged integrated identity? These questions are addressed by testing a revised Self-determination and ethnolinguistic development (SED) model, using structural equation modeling. This model specifies how three categories of language socialization (enculturation, personal autonomization, critical consciousness-raising) mediate between objective ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) and four psycholinguistic constructs (engaged integrated identity, community engagement, linguistic competencies, subjective EV) in the prediction of minority language use. Results on a large sample of French Canadian students in different EV settings strongly support the SED model and show that social determinism can be at least moderately countered by psycholinguistic constructs that increase individual self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1880s, Joseph Delboeuf proposed a little-known but ingenious solution to the problem the law of the conservation of energy poses for free will. When energy is transferred between two bodies, the law of energy conservation requires that the energy before and after the transfer be the same, but it says nothing of the time it must take. If we could delay this transfer, Delboeuf proposed, we could alter the course of matter without compromising the conservation of energy. This article begins by tracing the early history of the conflict between free will and the first law of thermodynamics and by recounting some initial attempts to resolve it. It next describes Delboeuf's theory and the arguments that were made against it, before situating it with respect to some recent developments in the philosophy and psychology of free will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What principles of political justice ought to apply to the European Union? This question is particularly relevant considering the deepening integration process that resulted from the crises of the past decade. Habermas's conception of a transnational democracy allows identification of the methodological components of transnational political justice: to unite in a transnational polity, people belonging to different national communities need a common purpose (finalité), principles governing the distribution of constitutional and legislative power and a common political infrastructure that allows them to form democratic will as free and equal citizens. This article attempts to further expand these points through a public goods approach. European policies generate European public goods. These must be produced and accessed based on a fair cooperation scheme. Identifying these specific fairness conditions allows further clarification on how legislative and constitutional power ought to be distributed within the European polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local actors are to an increasing extent engaging in national and European Union (EU)–based development and sustainability agendas. These ventures often materialize in the form of temporary organizations such as pilots and projects. This article contributes to debates on project-based, experimental and temporary organizations by unpacking the organizational architecture of pilots and analyzing how the democratic autonomy of local public actors is formed. Through the example of smart city pilots, the study shows how a range of intersecting relations and hierarchies enable and circumscribe public-sector autonomy—from local actors' attempts to align pilots with political goals to the limitations of standardized and scalable knowledge and strict funding requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of the Aristotelian notion of 'Form', the author explores the history of the concepts of mind and soul focusing on their ontologized version, as entertained by conventional science. He concludes that current neuroscience lacks the conceptual wherewithal required to deal with the meaning of mind and soul and with agential consequences such as free will and moral decision making. [GEB] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is worth recalling that the struggle of indigenous peoples to be recognised as "peoples" in true sense was at the forefront of their journey from an object to subject of international law. One of the most pressing concerns in their struggle was crafting their own sovereign space. The article aims to embrace and comprehend the concept of "indigenous sovereignty." It argues that indigenous sovereignty may not have fixed contour, but it essentially confronts the idea of "empire of uniformity." It is a source from which right to self-determination stems out and challenges the political and moral authority of States controlling indigenous population within their territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Giorgio Agamben's eyes, Immanuel Kant's work is the modern philosophical harbinger of the catastrophic 'state of exception'. By focusing on the latter's 'author/subject corrective' (whereby the individual is both author and subject in relation to law), I make the connection between Agamben and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason more apparent. In doing so, I show how Kant's corrective instrumentalises autonomy in such a way that it compromises the validity it seeks to rationalise; it does so by separating the individual from actuality, by ostracising law from political challenge, and by conflating individual and state interests. Taken together, these three undercurrents are defining features of Agamben's 'Homo Sacer' series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Informed consent confers upon participants the right to decline or accept participation in a study in equal measure. Consent declines can be used as a potential metric to assess the adequacy of the informed consent process. Limited literature is available on the reporting of consent declines in Clinical Research. We evaluated randomized controlled trials published in three high-impact factor journals for consent declines (four-year period) to assess the extent of exertion of autonomy by research participants. Methods CONSORT flow charts in RCTs published in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), The Lancet and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) between 2012 and 2015 were evaluated. The total and per journal proportion of RCTs reporting consent declines was calculated. Percentage of consent declines was also compared based on number of centers (single centric vs. multicentric) and type of setting (developed vs. developing). Between-groups analysis was done using Chi Square, Chi Square for trend and a Crude odds ratio [95% C.I] (cOR) were calculated. Results Only 3.7% (1103/29,825) of the published articles were RCTs. Of the 1103 RCTs, only 532 (48.2%) reported consent declines. JAMA had the highest RCTs reporting consent declines (171/267.64%), the Lancet [129,150/781,924, 16.5%] had the most participants declining consent. Difference was significant using Chi square for linear trend [p < 0.00001]. Consent decline rate was higher in developed countries relative to developing countries [cOR(95% C.I): 2.27(2.23,2.32), p < 0.000001] and in single centric versus multicentric studies [cOR (95% C.I): 3.63(3.56,3.71), p < 0.0000001]. Conclusion Both authors and journal editors need to ensure better reporting of consent declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the question of how sufficiency for the imprudent may be ensured. Imprudent conduct includes both spectacular acts such as jumping from heights into water, and everyday acts and omissions such as neglecting to fasten one's seat-belt. We argue that to avoid thoroughly bad or insufficient situations, one must pay attention to an important and often neglected concern of avoiding insouciance. The latter tells us not to stand idly by when people are about to act in ways that may irrevocably land them in insufficient situations. The policies and actions needed to avoid insouciance are most plausibly justified on paternalistic grounds; in fact, they cannot be justified nonpaternalistically. Although controversial, we argue that paternalistic interventions are often justifiable in the service of preserving sufficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations need flexible and adaptable structures to thrive in an increasingly turbulent business environment. Self-managing team (SMT) structures have evolved as an optimal approach to increase flexibility and performance as evidenced by their documented proliferation in organizations. However, even with their broad organizational adoption, research shows inconsistencies concerning SMT’s potential to enhance performance. This review integrates prior empirical research on input factors that influence the successful implementation of high-performing SMTs. Using a prior team effectiveness framework as a lens, we conducted a systematic analysis of the literature to shed light into the variables at the individual, team, and organizational level that affect performance and successful implementation of SMT. The sample of studies resulted from an exhaustive search that included quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Last, we present gaps in the literature and propose future directions for research on SMTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial literature finds that freedom in the sense of an expanded opportunity set is positively related to happiness. A contrasting literature, however, finds that an excess of choice can have socially undesirable outcomes. We test the effect of two types of freedom-autonomy and political-on happiness using five waves of World Values Survey data (1981-2008). We find evidence supporting the claim that equipping people with the tools to direct the course of their lives (i.e. increasing autonomy freedom) incentivizes the desire to investigate alternatives (e.g. political parties) before making a decision. The effect of freedoms on happiness is diminished in contexts where individuals have less experience with evaluating alternatives, such as in authoritarian or transitional countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it ever justified to 'nudge' people towards their own health? In this article, we argue that it is. We do so by arguing (1) that nudges are not necessarily - as is commonly thought - manipulative; (2) that even those nudges that are manipulative can be justified, for instance, when they preserve rather than violate people's autonomy; and (3) that even if nudges can be said to violate some people's autonomy, they can still be the legitimate outcome of genuinely democratic procedures. While we do not regard nudging as the solution to all or even most public health problems, we argue for a piecemeal approach that carefully considers its benefits and downsides in light of the various values involved and the alternatives at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The categories of productive and unproductive labour have been a source of contention among Marxist scholars since Marx first committed them to paper. This article will offer a critique of both the orthodox and autonomist approaches to this issue, arguing that they constitute transhistorical and analytically inadequate interpretations. In contrast, a social form approach to productive and unproductive labour provides a substantive definition of these categories in relation to the commodity form, and brings class struggle back to the forefront in a theoretically consistent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of Carol Berkenkotter and others who have expanded the realm of personal narrative studies over the past several decades would not have been possible without the pioneering efforts of those who first brought the study of narrative to nonliterary discourses. By revisiting what personal narratives were to these pioneers—working outward from William Labov in particular—this article considers how the early expansion of the field helps us to understand the far wider expansion of multimodal personal narrative today. In doing so, I suggest that understanding the notion of a personal narrative requires a twofold commitment to inquiry: first, about what makes it narrative; and second, about what makes it personal. These commitments hinge on two crucial junctures, what I call the problem of scope and the problem of autonomy. Framed as questions, the former asks, When does a narrative begin and end? The latter asks, Whose narrative is it? This recuperative essay shows that the heuristics of scope and autonomy can be useful ways to think about the ongoing complexities of personal narrative and its analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research highlights how coexisting institutional logics can sometimes offer opportunities for agency to enterprising actors in organizational fields. But macro-and micro-level studies using this framework diverge in their approach to understanding the consequences of institutional complexity for actor autonomy, and correspondingly in the opportunities they identify for agents to resist, reinterpret or make judicious use of institutional prescriptions. This paper seeks to bridge this gap, through a longitudinal, comparative case study of the trajectories of four ostensibly similar change initiatives in the same complex organizational field. It studies the influence of three dominant institutional logics (professional, market and corporate) in these divergent trajectories, elucidating the role of mediating influences, operating below the level of the field but above that of the actor, that worked to constrain or facilitate agency. The consequence for actors was a divergent realization of the relationship between the three logics, with very different consequences for their ability to advance their interests. Our findings offer an improved understanding of when and how institutional complexity facilitates autonomy, and suggests mediating influences at the level of the organization and the relationship it instantiates between carriers of logics, neglected by macro- and micro-level studies, that merit further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift toward “networked work” in the United States—spurred on by globalization, technological changes, and the reorganization of work activities—has important consequences for job quality that require further investigation. Using nationally representative data from the 2008 Networked Worker Survey, we examine how teamwork, telework, and information and communication technology use are associated with, and positively and significantly predict, job decision latitude (autonomy and skill development). The results imply that networked work helps enhance job decision latitude partly through greater network connectivity (social capital). Furthermore, the contribution of information and communication technology use to job decision latitude is contingent on its perceived benefits and on the organization of work into teams. These findings therefore help deepen our understanding of how the changing character of work affects worker control in contemporary workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Equality of Opportunity is widely thought of as the normative ideal most relevant to the design of educational institutions. One widely discussed interpretation of this ideal is Rawls' principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I argue that theories, like Rawls, that give priority to the achievement of individual autonomy, are committed to giving that same priority to a principle of sufficient opportunity. Thus, the Rawlsian's primary focus when designing educational institutions should be on sufficiency and not equality. The paper then argues this commitment has at least three attractive implications. Firstly, it enables defenders of Fair Equality of Opportunity to overcome Richard Arneson's powerful objections. Secondly, it suggests a revised version of the principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity that is more plausible. Thirdly, it has attractive practical implications for educational provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To investigate whether the theory of self-leadership could be applicable in a non-Western context, this study examined the relationship between self-leadership behaviors with supervisor performance rating, objective work performance, and job satisfaction in nine Chinese organizations. In addition, we examined whether job autonomy would influence the relationship between self-leadership behaviors and these work outcomes. We used a sample of 407 supervisor–subordinate dyads from a wide variety of organizations located in the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong. Results showed a positive relationship between subordinates’ self-leadership behaviors to supervisor performance rating, and to job satisfaction, even when controlling for the personality trait of conscientiousness. However, self-leadership was not significantly related to objective job performance. In addition, job autonomy moderated the relationships between self-leadership behaviors and work outcomes of performance rating, objective work performance, and job satisfaction. These findings suggested that the associations between self-leadership and work outcomes found in Western-based studies could be extended to the Chinese organizational settings included in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research in traditional classrooms and laboratories has indicated that autonomy support by teachers is infrequent and focused on the narrow provision of choice. One explanation for the limited autonomy support in classrooms is that typical school resources and tasks limit the availability of experiences that are interesting, relevant, with meaningful choice. Accordingly, it is critical to extend observation to contexts that enhance the likelihood of detecting significant autonomy support. In this way, it will be possible to (a) determine whether existing conceptualizations map onto behaviors in real classrooms and (b) enrich our understanding of the variety of ways in which teachers provide autonomy when the curriculum is designed not to constrain it but to expand it. Objective: In the current study, we extend and develop conceptualizations of autonomy support based on our observations within an inquiry context that offers a broad range of forms of autonomy, thus gaining access to a more elaborated understanding of how real teachers offer this support. We elaborate on and richly describe how classroom teachers support autonomy in ways that extend the range of current conceptualizations, with implications for lending validity to the construct and providing concrete description for practitioners. Research Design: Qualitative analyses were conducted based on videotaped observations of four 7th-grade science teachers, each enacting five inquiry-based science lessons designed to encourage scientific reasoning. We developed a coding protocol grounded in theoretical conceptualizations organized around five autonomy-support dimensions (i.e., procedural and organizational support, rationale and relevance, responsiveness, feedback, cognitive autonomy support). We were exploratory in our me of content analysis in ways that evolved our initial codes, given our aim to enrich and extend available characterizations of autonomy-supportive practice to incorporate new conceptualizations of higher quality practice. Conclusions: Observed enactments provide support for modifying our conceptualizations of the upper end points of autonomy support to include more academically significant forms as well as for making new distinctions in forms of autonomy support. This high quality and multifaceted enactment was possible because practice was embedded within an inquiry-based curriculum context that expanded opportunities for student agency. Implications for supporting educational leaders in facilitating teacher practice using this thick description and set of exemplars are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing scholarly concern that liberalism comes into conflict with religious diversity. William Galston blames this tendency on 'Enlightenment liberalism', which places autonomous self-reflection at the heart of the liberal project. This article, however, proposes a culprit that is more prone to both disrespect and dogmatism: romantic liberalism, which idealises authentic self-expression. I develop this concept by revisiting the Danish cartoon controversy, allegedly a case of Enlightenment liberalism. This exercise reveals that Flemming Rose, the editor who commissioned the cartoons, invokes romantic rather than enlightened values in defence of the publication. In contrast to previous research, I show that Rose does not portray the disrespectfulness of the cartoons as a side-effect of trying to promote autonomy among Muslims. Rather, he argues in favour of artistic provocation as such, invoking a distinctly romantic understanding of freedom of speech, which in many ways runs counter to the ideal of autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the later writings of Foucault as a means of reflecting on research ethics, and in particular on the notion of researcher autonomy. It is suggested that such autonomy is a precondition for ethical practice, and also for sound research, and it is noted that it is under threat today, not least from creeping ethical regulation. Foucault’s philosophical position is outlined, noting the shift that took place in his later writings. There have been only a few attempts to use his ideas in thinking about research ethics, but we examine how they have been applied in relation to the ethics of anthropology. This is followed by a discussion of some widely recognized, and quite serious, problems with Foucault’s position. Finally, a number of positive and negative lessons that can be learned from his work are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines Castoriadis’ concept of time as ontological creation in relation to the activation of the project of autonomy. We argue that since Castoriadis presents as a practitioner of the creation of time as radical autonomous thinking, this is the standpoint from which to assess his claims. Through an examination of Castoriadis’ claim that the practice of autonomy depends upon it being activated by a willing singularity who accepts the Chaos of society and of the world, we argue that Castoriadis’ position presupposes an effective contrast between the autonomy of significance that he advocates and the heteronomy of insignificance that he laments. If, as we suggest, both these orientations accept the Groundlessness of the world, then Castoriadis’ appeal to the awareness of a willing singularity is not sufficient to distinguish the practice of radical autonomy. To this extent, his elucidation of the radical imaginary time of ontological creation remains incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary societies, adolescents' individuation is largely staged within the educational system, and is defined by several schooling options. This is particularly true when young people reach upper secondary education, as this transition implies the definition of a personal project. In the Portuguese context, authenticity is linked to the 'obligation' of choosing - by means of a compulsory vocational choice. To define a personal project that gives studies a meaning becomes a problem pupils have to deal with. Supported on empirical data based on in-depth interviews to pupils attending 10th and 12th years of upper secondary education in Portuguese public schools, this article discusses some of these issues. Specially, we intend to explore pupils' obligation to exhibit their autonomy by choosing a school path with the awareness of risks that may emerge along with their options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the past as a lived, inhabited reality through a series of examples of indigenous heritage practices in NW Argentina (NWA), a region that in recent decades has seen increasing indigenous demands for autonomy as well as for land and cultural rights. This article seeks to understand the locations where heritage struggles emerge, as well as the artefacts around which they emerge, as social, semantic, and physical spaces of ontological multiplicity. Understanding how such places and artefacts are constituted as lived-in-the-flesh realities today requires examination of the multiple present connections that make them possible, as well as inquiry into how the sedimentation of previous lived experiences contributes to present understandings. This article examines ancient places that become gravity points, fuelling both indigenous politics and an academic practice with its own aesthetic code. To varying degrees, the cases explored reflect our involvement – as archaeological researchers, professional advisors, and museum visitors – with re-emergent indigenous heritage practices in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

R. Keith Sawyer rightly claimed that the formulation of several cross-level regularities does not disprove the “autonomy” of sciences. Nevertheless, first, this autonomy becomes gradual because cross-level regularities narrow the scope for strong emergence and, second, these examples do not disprove the metaphysical premises of Kim’s critique. Sawyer and I concur on the thesis according to which the proof of strong emergence is in part an empirical question. However, it also depends on the concept of individualism applied whether a description or explanation can count as reducible or not. Even if some of the examples given might leave open the possibility of strong emergence, to generalize, to consider relations or to point to the unpredictability of social processes do not prove the existence of irreducible multiple realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay will defend a causal conception of action explanations in terms of an agent’s reasons by delineating a metaphysical and epistemic framework that allows us to view folk psychology as providing us with causal and autonomous explanatory strategies of accounting for individual agency. At the same time, I will calm philosophical concerns about the issue of causal deviance that have been at the center of the recent debates between causalist and noncausalist interpretations of action explanations. For that purpose, it is important to realize that the domain of folk-psychological action explanation is also the domain of skillful and goal-directed bodily movements, a domain to which we have independent epistemic access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the appropriate level of integration is crucial to realizing value from acquisitions. Most prior research assumes that higher integration implies the removal of autonomy from target managers, which in turn undermines the functioning of the target firm if it entails unfamiliar elements for the acquirer. Using a survey of 86 acquisitions to obtain the richness of detail necessary to distinguish integration from autonomy, the authors argue and find that integration and autonomy are not the opposite ends of a single continuum. Certain conditions (e.g., when complementarity rather than similarity is the primary source of synergy) lead to high levels of both integration and autonomy. In addition, similarity negatively moderates the relationship between complementarity and autonomy when the target offers both synergy sources. In contrast, similarity does not moderate the link between complementarity and integration. The authors’ findings advance scholarly understanding about the drivers of implementation strategy and in particular the different implementation strategies acquiring managers deploy when they attempt to leverage complementarities, similarities, or both. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This analysis and synthesis explores constructs of professional autonomy and accountability using constructivist theory and practice to examine the organizational dynamics of centralization/decentralization, particularly as applied to educational organizations. Major schools of constructivist thought are explored to shed light on centralization/decentralization dynamics, which then are used to explore constructs of professional autonomy and accountability. Oldroyd's comparison of the United States and United Kingdom's heavy focus on "education for results," or accountability, is compared with Scandinavia's preference for "education for learning." The former results in centralization and accountability; the latter emphasizes the local locus of control, thus supporting autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropologists (amongst others) have noted how some theorists of the Occident, in order to explicate their analyses of Western modernity, have conceptualized an oppositional category of non-Western, pre-modern or traditional societies, understood to be negatively unified by their lack of particular social capacities (despite other vast dissimilarities between them). One such absent elemental capacity is reflexivity, whose existence or nonexistence is posited as defining Western European and non-Western formations respectively. This article explores one expression of the reflexivity/naivety dichotomy, the distinction between autonomous and heteronomous societies, worked out as a central feature in the social theory of Cornelius Castoriadis (and as a sub-theme in the writings of Charles Taylor and Louis Dumont). My core argument is that Castoriadis’ reservation of the project of autonomy to the West is empirically wrong, and I use the example of the cultural revolution in Turkey in the early 1930s to demonstrate why. Nevertheless, I argue also that Castoriadis’ work not only casts a revealing light on the experience and project of modernity in Turkey, but also provides a suggestive comparative programme for the discipline of anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rawls–Habermas debate is having a revival. In this article I argue that both philosophers develop different freestanding conceptions of political legitimacy, and show how they diverge when it comes to how political legitimacy can be justified. Habermas is looking for a deeper justification than Rawls will allow for. I then proceed to show how the different meta-ethical positions yield two different versions of democratic theory, focusing in particular on rights and popular sovereignty. I demonstrate how both conceive of the co-originality of private and public autonomy, and subsequently take issue with Habermas’ reading of Rawls. I argue that Rawls should not be understood as a natural rights theorist, that Habermas misunderstands the role of the original position, and that Rawls cannot be considered a strong constitutionalist. Thus, the real difference between Rawls and Habermas revolves around their different conceptions of political legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marcel Gauchet’s recently published theory of democracy sheds light on the way his understanding of modernity emerged from Castoriadis’s notion of autonomy but also deepened it by contextualizing it within a discussion of modern historicity. Modern autonomy means re-shaping the world through a new, transformative, form of power that draws on humanity’s capacity for imaginary creation. Gauchet’s theory of modernity, however, rejects the possibility of radical historical creation. Faithful to the teachings of structuralism, it explores the structural conditions behind the genesis of modern power, which favoured the emergence of a new societal form that produces its own future. Encompassing capitalism, Gauchet’s modern power proposes an essentially paradoxical definition of modern democracy that stresses its essentially liberal dimension neglected by Castoriadis. In modern democracy, humans make their own history by liberating individual subjectivities but this deprives them of the means to direct history: liberalism goes against the aspirations to collective sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kostas Axelos and Cornelius Castoriadis are among the most inspiring thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. They each combine comprehensive philosophy with social and political theory, and a broad view on human history with a critical diagnosis of the present, with nuanced observations on our current condition—characteristics, rare during this period, that this article describes as polyscopic thought. Castoriadis is widely known as the philosopher of ‘autonomy’, of the human capacity to give oneself one’s own law; his diagnosis of the present focused on the weakening of this capacity in contemporary capitalism and democracy. Axelos, in turn, is a thinker of the ‘planetary age’ in which the human pretence to master the world and one’s own fate withers away in the face of the predominance of ‘technique’. This essay connects and contrasts the work of the two thinkers trying to understand the differences and to uncover underlying commonalities. Significantly, it suggests that both scholars saw a need to rethink key concerns in philosophy and the social sciences with a view to better grasp what awaits human beings in the current world and what can be done about it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article critically engages with Castoriadis’s elucidation of autonomy. It does so by taking into account the implications of Castoriadis’s enduring interest in the ecological devastation of the natural world, on the one hand, and the changing configuration of his philosophical anthropology, on the other—especially in regard to his reconsideration of the creativity of nature in the 1980s and the reconfiguration of the nomos and physis problematic. It contextualizes these movements in his thought within a broader hermeneutic of modernity that, following Johann Arnason, emphasizes the cultural currents of both Romanticism and the Enlightenment as constitutive of modernity as a field of tensions. In an extension of Arnason’s elaboration, however, the present article argues that a latent opening towards an ecological worldhood is implicit to Castoriadis’s hermeneutic of modernity that, conversely, also finds Castoriadis at the limits of autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Welfare to work policy in Great Britain has traditionally been planned centrally to ensure even application across areas. More recently questions have been raised about the ability of such a system to address the requirements of those workless people with the most complex and severe needs. Accordingly attempts have been made to enhance local decision making and agenda setting within welfare to work. This article considers one such initiative in Great Britain – City Strategy – and examines the extent to which the initiative transferred powers to local partnerships and how and where the partnerships were able to exercise autonomy, and where there were constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What are the challenges to future democratization in states regarded as democratic? This study shows that some states that are traditionally regarded as democratic consist of political institutions in need of further democratization. On average, states that are classified as democratic have one or two institutional dimensions in need of further democratization. The main institutional dimensions in need of democratization are functions of government, rule of law, personal autonomy and individual rights. In order to investigate challenges to future democratization, the study presents a methodology that uses Freedom House Index and Polity Index in a new innovative way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The book "Autonomy, Consent and the Law" by Sheila A M McLean explores the evolving legal relationship between consent and autonomy in the field of medical law. The author questions the assumption that the law on consent automatically protects autonomy and argues that autonomy is now more open to interpretation due to its connection with the concept of privacy. The book examines four specific ethical issues related to patient autonomy: death, reproduction, genetic medicine, and the therapeutic use of body parts. The author also discusses the role of competence in autonomy and the relationship between autonomy and consent. The book concludes by critiquing the legal system's prioritization of the doctor-patient relationship over individual patient rights. [Extracted from the article]

The essay is intended to shed light on the back-stage of contemporary debates about death and the dying, and more specifically on newer trends that emphasise the importance of ‘dying well’ and the moral viability of a ‘good death’. It raises the question as to whether there is a hidden conceptual link between the high medieval tradition of ars moriendi and the modern trend towards embracing (assisted) suicide as a final expression of human autonomy and suggests that this link becomes visible only when death is theologically understood in a twofold way: according to its spiritual side on the one hand, and according to its physical on the other. Drawing inspiration from Bonhoeffer’s exposition of the biblical myth of the Fall and his insights into the link between thanatos and techne, the essay suggests that the compulsive fashion in which modern societies tend to shy away from any contact with the dying that is not mediated by technology or bureaucracy is owed to their refusal to acknowledge the dual character of death, as it is open to theological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article sets out to map the journalistic field as a space of struggle between distinct professional milieus. These milieus crystallize around journalists who share similar views on journalism’s function in society. By means of cluster analysis, four global professional milieus were extracted from the survey responses of 1800 journalists in 18 countries: the populist disseminator, detached watchdog, critical change agent and the opportunist facilitator. The detached watchdog milieu clearly dominates the journalistic field in most western countries, while the milieu of the opportunist facilitator reigns supreme in several developing, transitional and authoritarian contexts. In accordance with the theoretical propositions, relatively little professional autonomy was found in contexts with rather strong corporate and commercial influences. However, a more universal approach would need to go beyond corporate and commercial factors in order to account for the realities of the journalistic field in non-western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article is devoted to the presentation of the reception of Foucauldian ideas in Polish pedagogical research over the past twenty years. This movement of thought is described as an oscillation between heterotopia and utopia, autonomy and heteronomy, emancipation and repression. As results of this analysis indicate, Polish pedagogues are most interested in those of Foucault's analyses which undertake an inquiry into the problems of discursive power or reveal the generative conditions shaping particular discursive formations. The concepts of disciplinary and pastoral power are adopted and utilised for analysing power relations inscribed in discourses of gender, market, childhood, youth, disability, homelessness and subjectivity. Apart from this, the article discusses the Polish reception of Foucauldian texts devoted to the critique of the autonomous subject and to his project of heterotopology. In conclusion, the author points to the inspirations issuing from the works of the French philosopher which encourage us to depart from a dualistic mode of reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Both professional work and the sociological study of professional work experienced a “golden age” in the mid-20th century. When dramatic changes began to shake the professions in the 1970s and 1980s, however, old approaches no longer fit, and the research area became quiescent. Yet interest in professional work simply “went underground,” surfacing under other names in a variety of sociological and interdisciplinary fields. In the process, researchers’ focus expanded to include a broader range of “expert” or “knowledge-based” occupations as well as traditional professions. This essay brings these disparate research streams together and shows that they cohere around four central themes: expert knowledge, autonomy, a normative orientation grounded in community, and high status, income, and other rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the article "Autonomy, Respect, and Arrogance in the Danish Cartoon Controversy," by Christian Rostbøll. According to the author, Rostbøll's assertion of whether the Kantian conception of autonomy can create the necessary conditions for care and sensitivity related to the publication of cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which led to violent protests in Denmark, is problematic. The author suggests the need for a pluralization among citizens in their conception as citizens that includes exposing autonomous conceptions to the forces that enable and disturb free speech.

The article responds to a critical article published in the current issue of the journal by Lars Tønder on the concept of cultural plurality and journalistic ethics as it relates to the publication of political cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten." The author asserts that the criticism published in the current journal inaccurately states the main idea of the original article, and states that the aim of the article was to question whether the connection between freedom of expression and autonomy is compatible with exercising culturally sensitive free speech.