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Introduction: The goal of selection to dental education was to find those with the greatest aptitude for dentistry. Recently, schools have introduced a variety of tools; however, these have often been adopted without appropriate evaluation regarding existing evidence for fairness, reliability or validity. We explore dental admissions staff beliefs about the quality of different selection tools, with the objective of exploring their decision‐making in implementing selection practices. Methods: This qualitative study is underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology, in which our principal concern is "explicating the processes by which people come to describe, explain or otherwise account for the world (including themselves) in which they live." We conducted individual interviews with 15 of the 16 UK dental admission leads to elicit their views around admissions processes and aims. Data coding and analysis were initially inductive, using thematic analysis. After the themes emerged, we applied a deductive framework of affordances to group themes and then examined these for heuristics. Results and Discussion: We identified three main themes; "Selection Tool Use," "Widening Participation Practices," and "Professionalising the Admission Lead Role." Admission leads spoke favourably of tools that allowed a "holistic" view of the applicants "potential". Selection tools were favoured if they enabled "Gut feeling". Leads spoke of evaluating candidates, making sure they were "rounded", and "know what dentistry is all about." In justifying the use of elements of their procedure, the use of heuristics was prominent. Conclusion: In order to minimise the potential consequences of poor selection decisions, it is important to acknowledge that dental admission leads are at risk of depending on sub‐optimal heuristics to make judgements about effective selection (shaped by previous practices) rather than using more rational decision‐making processes based on the extant evidence (regarding the quality of different selection tools). Future research may be usefully informed by the knowledge translation literature to offer solutions for improving selection practices in dental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which HIV specialists based in the United Kingdom (UK) construct, conceptualise and imagine their patient group via the concept of the 'imaginary', a notion encompassing the symbols, concepts and values through which people make sense of their social environment. In discussing their work with men who have sex with men (MSM), practitioners described patients as knowledgeable and highly adherent to treatment, yet apt to pursue hedonistic lives involving sex and recreational drugs. Recent innovations in treatment were formulated in terms of optimism and progress and the ascent of biomedical approaches was cast as an advance over former emphases on psychosocial interventions and attempts to facilitate behaviour change. In contrast to the imaginary of patients who were well‐informed and highly compliant with treatment, participants also sought to explain those who were not easily enfolded within modern treatment regimens or who were seen to be overly emotional. These patients, it was said, had some pre‐existing psychological problem or perhaps were especially vulnerable to societal pressures. Overall, the imaginary of the public was pervaded by therapeutic optimism, a sense of progress and an invigoration of biomedical themes in overcoming the challenges of delivering services to MSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Collecting network data can challenge some key assumptions about research ethics. • There is a need to go beyond the dichotomy: 'real' vs 'perceived data'. • The presentation of self is a crucial step between perceptions and data collection. • Visual research can have major impact when disrupting the presentation of self. • An ethical approach to network research requires reflexivity, not just guidelines. Drawing on the seminal work of Goffman, Krackhardt and others, this paper argues that there is a crucial step in between participants' perceptions and the collection and visualisation of data – i.e. what we call the presentation of the networked self. We employ examples from our own empirical work in the UK to argue that the presentation of the networked self requires researchers to adopt a highly reflexive approach. Framing our analysis within the context of contemporary society – including the impact of social media on a 'networking mindset' – we explore the range of ethical dilemmas which can emerge during a research encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we map and explain the sources of knowledge cited on 85 Brexit impact appraisals, 46 of which were formal impact assessments ordered and published by the European Parliament and 39 'sectoral reports' ordered by the UK Government and released by the House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee. All reports were published between the day after the UK referendum and the year after the start of the UK-EU negotiations. We conducted a citation analysis of 3537 references and tested author push and policy sector pull hypotheses with non-parametric tests. Our findings highlight the epistemic function of the professional referent groups to which authors belong. Authors tend to generate information and cite sources that are congruent with their 'home group' in the departmental unit where they work, or their larger professional group, even in urgent high-salient risk situations like Brexit. Differences between policy sectors do not strongly matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support for the inclusion of situational self-organising within construction site safety management systems (SMS). Design/methodology/approach: A social constructionist epistemology supports the discourse analysis of talk (semi-structured interview and conversational), text (SMS and documentation) and visual (safety related signage) data collection from five large (+£20 m) UK construction sites. Findings: Construction workers readily understand safety to be an emergent phenomenon with the complex system that is the construction site. Contemporary safety management approaches struggle with this complexity, yet there is the potential to mobilise situational self-organising on sites to improve safety in practice. Research limitations/implications: Epistemological foundations mean no claim is made to generalisability as perceived by traditional positivistic parameters. The data are limited to large (+£20 m) UK construction sites; however, underlying construction management systems are common to the industry as a whole and can find fit with practitioner experiences and other empirical academic work from both the UK and other countries. Practical implications: Situational self-organising of safety management within the construction workforce is proposed as a key contribution to a relevant, dynamic and effective SMS. Originality/value: Data are analysed from a social constructionist perspective and considered through a complexity lens. This approach unpacks these data in an original way to seek synergy with existing adaptive safety approaches, specifically situational self-organising and make recommendations for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Social Epistemology has its origin in two symposia organised by the Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group at the University of Birmingham (UK). These were 'The Digital University in a Neoliberal Age' in November 2017 and 'The Neoliberal Imagination' in February 2018. The articles published here explore the relationship between neoliberalism, technocracy and technology, with a special but not exclusive focus on universities, which are open to contestation concerning their role in the public sphere and the politics of knowledge production. Where universities are discussed, English higher education is focused on, because this is undergoing an intense audit-driven neoliberal re-engineering. English higher education is an outlier in Europe to the extent to which it has undergone marketisation, with top-down reforms imposed by the supposedly rolled back, less-interventionist neoliberal state (Shattock, Times Higher, 3 April 2019). Central to these are state-imposed technocratic audit regimes which are used to provide 'objective' data on 'performance', which has, always already, to be 'excellent' (see Readings' 1997 classic critique of the vacuity of the notion of 'excellence'). Before briefly introducing each article, we will situate the concerns mentioned above in the context of a social epistemological critique of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'studentification' refers to multifaceted urban transformations resulting from increases in and concentrations of student populations. Notably, this concept has been investigated with frequent reference to gentrification studies from both spatial and temporal perspectives. In this regard, spatial perspectives focus on the common urban spatial processes that studentification and gentrification share, whereas temporal perspectives assume students as candidates to become gentrifiers. This essay reorganizes the literature consistently with these two perspectives and aims to extend the limits of studentification studies beyond the epistemological constraints of gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on research into academic writing and student literacy, arguing that a focus on epistemology and institutional context should inform the teaching of writing in higher education. It explores the experience of UK undergraduate students of English, including those studying joint honours, to demonstrate their negotiation of complex and conflicting institutional and literacy practices. The article suggests that the epistemology of humanities and social science subjects could be made more explicit to students; and proposes pedagogy to demystify the nature of academic writing and to develop the collaborative writing skills appropriate to a literate and critical society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the results of the world's largest ever survey of international relations (IR) scholars with an eye to establishing the particularities of the discipline in Australia and New Zealand. The survey covered the areas of teaching, research, the structure of the profession and scholars' views on foreign policy. From these results, this paper compares IR in New Zealand and Australia, and discusses the extent to which the discipline in these two countries is distinctive from its overseas counterparts, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. The particular areas of focus include the degree to which the field in Australasia conforms to or differs from US or Commonwealth identities; epistemological and gender divides; the distinctive foci of what IR scholars in both countries teach and research; which publications are favoured and disfavoured; and the contrasting linkages between academia and the world of government and policy. We conclude with some suggestions about how the field in both countries might be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the debate regarding the emotional dynamics surrounding jury instructions on burdens of proof. One of the authors argues that the Continental European instructions have an effect of making the decision-maker's responsibility salient. Another person notes that the U.S. system reflects not only to a different epistemological approach to the possibility of ascertaining truth, but a fear of the intutitve automatic system of decision-making. Further discussion about the topic is presented.

Explores the process of collaboration between general and complementary medical practitioners in the British National Health Service. Evidence from conversations from a co-operative inquiry of the practitioner's increasing capacity to work across diverse paradigmatic frames; Suggestions that multidisciplinary collaboration is a matter of epistemology, interpersonal competence and group development;

Applies a theory related to social epistemology to the task of developing school policies in Great Britain. Difference of pedagogical demands and resource needs in the clientele in schools; Characteristics of the pluralist social contexts in which contemporary schools are created; Presentation of an approach to school policy making.