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This article surveys the variety of ways in which a directed acyclic graph (DAG) can be used to represent a problem of probabilistic causality. For each of these ways, we describe the relevant formal or informal semantics governing that representation. It is suggested that the cleanest such representation is that embodied in an augmented DAG, which contains nodes for non-stochastic intervention indicators in addition to the usual nodes for domain variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting, agricultural and financial interests have played a role in the treatment and extinction of many animals throughout the world. This article focuses on the framing and moral loading of the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, beginning during the colonial settlement of Tasmania and the related commercial sheep operations through to post the federation of the Australian colonies. In doing so, we reflect on the extinction of the thylacine and the role of financial interests that promoted, or profited from, bounties by using moralisation and framing. Moralisation brings within the moral sphere an activity or object that was considered outside it, thus making behaviours related to such activity or object subject to moral evaluation, praise and blame. Contrasting frames for the thylacine within the agricultural industry are used to chart the thylacine's demoralisation and eventual re-moralisation that occurred, particularly after its extinction, into a symbol of ecological hope. As such, this article offers a narrative of the changing conditions for which the commercial and colonial activities, including policy and resourcing, intertwined with the ultimate extinction of the thylacine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is conceptually motivated to show how instrumental rationality is reflected in the military domain. Instrumental rationality refers to the adoption of suitable means to achieve particular ends. However, this conception was criticised by the Frankfurt School for focusing on means rather than on ends. Based on this critique, I present specific categories of instrumental rationality in the military domain. I will argue that instrumental rationality, or at least its faulty application, is reflected in means-centred thinking whereby the means justify the ends. This approach may create specific categories in the military domain: means justify the ends just because they are available, and they can also expand the ends. The means-centred approach may be expanded from subordinating ends to means to focusing on the objects to be attacked, thus developing an objects-centred approach that may also develop into a focus on the direct outcome of the operation of means, thus becoming a tool of legitimation. A similar legitimising impact is produced by the process of moralisation implicit in the focus on means. Finally, a means-centred approach may be translated into overconfidence in the omnipotence of means, and can thereby be elevated to the belief that weapons can obviate the need for political settlement. « Ces compétences... devaient être utilisées simplement parce qu'elles étaient là »: La rationalité instrumentale dans le domaine militaire [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the variety of ways in which a directed acyclic graph (DAG) can be used to represent a problem of probabilistic causality. For each of these ways, we describe the relevant formal or informal semantics governing that representation. It is suggested that the cleanest such representation is that embodied in an augmented DAG, which contains nodes for non-stochastic intervention indicators in addition to the usual nodes for domain variables.

This paper interrogates qualitative data regarding the changing experiences of mental health service and welfare state interventions for those who self-identify as experiencing long-term mental distress. We focus on austerity-related reforms in the English welfare and mental health policy architecture to explore the socio-cultural and material bases of benefit claims-making in relation to long-term illness and incapacity. Recent neoliberal social policy reforms contest the ontological status of mental distress, in effect recasting distress as a 'moral' status. This tendency is reinforced via three primary dynamics in contemporary mental health and welfare policy: the delegitimisation of sick role status in relation to mental distress; the foregrounding of individual responsibility and concomitant re-orientation of services towards self-help; and an increasing punitive conditionality. These intersecting processes represent an institutionalisation of 'blame' in various policy contexts (Scambler in Sociol Health Illn 31(3): 441–455, 2009; Sociol Rev Monogr 66(4):766–782, 2018), the moral stigmatisation of mental distress and escalating experiences of oppression for mental health service users and welfare recipients. Shifting conceptions of distress are thereby entwined with transformations in social policy regimes and political economies. Presenting distress as a personal failure legitimates austerity-related restrictions on benefit and service entitlements as part of a wider project of neoliberal welfare state transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose significant health, economic, and social challenges. Given that many of these challenges have moral relevance, the present studies investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing moral decision-making and whether moralisation of behaviours specific to the crisis predict adherence to government-recommended behaviours. Whilst we find no evidence that utilitarian endorsements have changed during the pandemic at two separate timepoints, individuals have moralised non-compliant behaviours associated with the pandemic such as failing to physically distance themselves from others. Importantly, our findings show that this moralisation predicts sustained individual compliance with government-recommended behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose significant health, economic, and social challenges. Given that many of these challenges have moral relevance, the present studies investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing moral decision-making and whether moralisation of behaviours specific to the crisis predict adherence to government-recommended behaviours. Whilst we find no evidence that utilitarian endorsements have changed during the pandemic at two separate timepoints, individuals have moralised non-compliant behaviours associated with the pandemic such as failing to physically distance themselves from others. Importantly, our findings show that this moralisation predicts sustained individual compliance with government-recommended behaviours.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since its genesis has continued to affect a large number of the population in the African region and has caused exponential deaths. At the same time, new infections have been reported in South Africa. However, religion as a vehicle of change through the institution of the church has been acting on the contrary, since it discourages the use of condoms (one of the most effective ways to prevent HIV) and moralising the pelvic area in its characterisation against the commandment of God. Such a perspective has largely been drawn from the Christian doctrine(s). We argue that in its condemnation and moralisation of the virus, the church, through its pastors, engaged in biblical discourse (preaching). Contribution: The article applies a qualitative phenomenological approach and system theory as theoretical lenses. Furthermore, the article locates the study within Christian communities located in Thulamela Municipality, Limpopo province. It proposes Christian practices that can be useful in combating the virus.

Businesses are increasingly embracing corporate citizenship strategies. However, the empirical literature surrounding consumer responses to such practices features many contradictions concerning their impact. As a result, many businesses are uncertain about the extent to which they should commit resources to these activities to influence a positive response from consumers. Therefore, this paper seeks to address this gap by exploring consumers’ awareness of varying levels of corporate citizenship activities and assessing their moral responses to such efforts. Using a combination of qualitative methods and projective techniques with a broad cross-section of 20 consumers, the results help to shed light on the impact of corporate citizenship activities upon moral recognition, consumer decision-making and choice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article gives an instance of the translation process involving the Italian novella in Renaissance Europe. It focuses on a meaningful case study, comparing one of Matteo Bandello's novellas (I. 42) with its French, English, and Spanish rewritings by Pierre Boaistuau, William Painter, and Vicente de Millis Godínez. It is argued that these three translators changed the Italian plot in order to make the story acceptable from a moralistic point of view, specifically by re-characterising the female protagonist. The article examines Painter's rewriting in particular: it suggests that the Elizabethan writer drew directly on both the Italian text and its French translation, but chose to follow Boaistuau's changes on specific literary and cultural grounds. Indeed, the French model showed Painter a way to endow his work with moral rectitude, while preserving the violent and tragic narrative events that would satisfy his readers' tastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins by examining UK government discourse on welfare and migration for the period 2010-2016, viewed here as the expression of a distinctive process of moralisation. This discourse is characterised by claims to fairness, responsibility, and austerity, and explicitly sets domestic welfare dependency and migration in opposition to each other. Its operationalisation is traced through a formal mapping of civic stratification in relation to both domestic welfare and freedom of movement within the European Union, while also noting the absence of supporting empirical evidence. The article then looks to the informal aspect of civic stratification, and the role of political discourse in negatively shaping the moral standing of both domestic welfare recipients and EU migrants. Together with the uneven impact of welfare reform, their discursive opposition provides an important amplification of common understandings of the Brexit vote as delivered by the 'left behind' (Goodwin, M. and Heath, D. (2016) 'The 2016 Referendum, Brexit and the Left Behind', The Political Quarterly 87(3): 323-332). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health promotion efforts are commonly directed towards encouraging people to discard 'unhealthy' and adopt 'healthy' behaviours in order to tackle chronic disease. Typical targets for behaviour change interventions include diet, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption, sometimes described as 'lifestyle behaviours.' In this paper, I discuss how efforts to raise awareness of the impact of lifestyles on health, in seeking to communicate the (perceived) need for people to change their behaviour, can contribute to a climate of 'healthism' and promote the moralisation of people's lifestyles. I begin by summarising recent trends in health promotion and introducing the notion of healthism, as described by Robert Crawford in the 1980s. One aspect of healthism is moralisation, which I outline (alongside the related term moralism) and suggest is facilitated by efforts to promote health via information provision and educational strategies. I propose that perceived responsibility plays a role in mediating the tendency to moralise about health and behaviour. Since I argue that states ought to avoid direct and indirect moralisation of people's health-related behaviour, this suggests states must be cautious with regard to the use of responsibility-indicating interventions (including informational and educational campaigns) to promote health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how risk, moralisation and class intertwine in prevention work targeting parents. The analysis is based on an ethnographic study at three Danish schools, from which two exemplary cases have been selected, consisting of observations of two introductory consultations between families and school health nurses. We focus on how the professional assesses whether a family is at risk. The outcome of the consultations is distinctly different. The privileged family is able to display the legitimate risk practices. In contrast, the disadvantaged family is regarded as irresponsible and at risk. This is not so much due to the complexity of their social situation, but because of what the professional identifies as a major risk: the child’s overweight. Our methodological approach is to explore how the consultations are framed. Our analysis reveals how a focus on ‘lifestyle choices’ results in dismissing the structural conditions that shape not only the hazards facing families, but also their risk practices. Consequently, the privileged parents are celebrated as morally worthwhile, while the disadvantaged parents are judged to be of less moral value. This, we argue, is grounded in symbolic class distinctions, revitalising ‘respectability’ as a central aspect of the discretionary assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales is the property of Revue Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper, preceded by a brief introduction, contains an edition of an anonymous print entitled Modlitwa o zachowanie czystości (A prayer for the preservation of purity). It was conventionally dated to the second half of the 18th century. The introduction depicts the socio-moral and religious context of the prayer and argues that the genesis of the text is strongly connected with the described circumstances. The author of the text also paid attention to the genre pattern of the prayer and compared it with similar writings occurring in contemporary prayer books. The volume includes: the text of the title prayer, enumerated admonitions regarding benefits of chastity and the ways of its preservation, as well as dangers that a virtuous lady should avoid. Introductory remarks, explanations and comments, which were added to the texts of an unknown author, helped to fully understand the old print. They also describe the structure and purpose of the collection, and discuss its elements, which are characteristic of catechism, parenesis, and the examination of conscience. The Prayer for the preservation of purity occupies a significant place among enlightenment prayer prints. In fact, it is quite an extensive collection of persuasive texts entirely dedicated to one particular virtue. Its form, corresponding to the prayer genre, was designed to strengthen the importance of the textual message included in this print and to give the texts catechetical and educational meaning. The collection was not published in self-editing form, nor was it added to any prayer book at that time. It may be assumed that chastity, as a virtue, was not so important and not promoted, for example, in young aristocratic and noblewoman's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:As public discourse surrounding obesity highlights the societal costs of obesity and individual’s own responsibility for their weight, being overweight is often framed as immoral. Such ‘moralizing’ messages about being overweight may be a psychological threat for those with high body mass. Attempting tocounter-moralisethe public discourse (i.e. actively arguing that there is nothing ‘immoral’ about being overweight) may relieve this threat, inducing people, especially those with higher (perceived) weight, to engage in healthier behaviours. Method:Two experiments were performed among Dutch and US participants. (Counter-)moralisation was manipulated. Body mass and weight-related self-perceptions were measured. The dependent variable was healthy vs. unhealthy snack choice. Results:(Counter-)moralisation and (perceived) overweight jointly predicted snack choice: counter-moralising messages induced healthy snacking, but only among those who regarded themselves to have a high body mass. Conclusions:The effects of moralising vs. counter-moralising obesity depended on one’s (perceived) overweight. This suggests that, for people with relatively high weight, the current moralising public discourse on obesity works in counterproductive ways. Campaigns that ‘counter-moralize’ obesity (i.e. that refute moralising messages) are more productive, although they should be tailored to those who see themselves as being overweight. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the moralization of public life under the Old Regime in France, by fighting against corruption of state employees during 16th-18th century.

Copyright of Anthropologica is the property of CASCA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Endoxa is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European societies are undergoing important changes in the axiological and political pillars of its social model. One of the main current features of social and employment policies is a radical shift towards the psychologization and moralization of work. An analysis of the key concepts of the EU discourse on employment (employability, activation, flexicurity) allows unveiling the underlying doxas and assumptions. The paradox is a principally rhetorical structure of this discourse. This paradox reveals the perverse nature of the neoliberal discourse which, on the one hand, appeals to personal responsibility, but on the other hand, it deprives to subject of the social and political conditions necessary to be autonomous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]