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The idea of believing for a good reason has both normative and psychological content. How are these related? Recently, a number of authors have defended a 'disjunctivist' view of rationalisation, on which a good reason can make a subject's responses to it intelligible in a way that mere 'apparent reasons' cannot. However, little has been said about the possible epistemological significance of this view or its relationship to more familiar forms of disjunctivism in the philosophy of perception. This paper examines the relationship between epistemological disjunctivism and disjunctivism about rationalisation, arguing that the latter provides an attractive articulation of certain elements of the former. The specific claim is that disjunctivism about rationalisation enables the proponent of epistemological disjunctivism to explain why beliefs that are based on conclusive normative reasons provided by perception are susceptible to a certain kind of undercutting defeat. On the way to motivating this claim, the paper considers possible ways of articulating epistemological disjunctivism in terms of reasons, distinguishes different forms of disjunctivism about reasons for belief and clarifies the relationships between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents key findings from a study that aimed to critically examine the practice of outdoor education in the Republic of Ireland. It consisted of 10 months of fieldwork across four public Outdoor Education and Training Centres (OETCs). Data were generated through participant observation, informal conversation, as well as centre websites. Findings from the thematic analysis are presented in the form of a creative non-fiction story—principally to protect the identities and centres involved. The findings were then interpreted through the theoretical lens of McDonaldization. Considering the dearth of outdoor education research in Ireland, McDonaldization provided a lens through which it was possible to more deeply understand how rationalisation has affected Irish public outdoor education practices. The discussion explores practices inconsistent with the stated Irish definitions of public outdoor education and the paper concludes with suggestions as to how the McDonaldization of outdoor education may be countered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article explore la dynamique complexe entre religion et sécularité dans les sociétés démocratiques contemporaines. Il examine les tensions et les défis qui découlent de la coexistence de ces deux systèmes de valeurs distincts, tout en explorant les potentialités d’une collaboration et d’un dialogue constructif. L’article commence par analyser la relation conflictuelle entre religion et sécularité, en soulignant les différentes sources de tension : rationalisation, sphères sociales et valeurs. Il remet ensuite en question la vision binaire de ces deux concepts et propose une approche plus nuancée qui reconnaît leurs interactions et leurs complémentarités. La deuxième partie se concentre sur les possibilités de convergence entre religion et sécularité dans la recherche du bien commun. L’article examine le rôle des valeurs humaines universelles et propose des pistes de réflexion pour une cohabitation harmonieuse et constructive au sein d’un État démocratique. L’importance de la reconnaissance mutuelle est soulignée comme le socle d’une société harmonieuse et inclusive. Une reconnaissance holistique qui prend en compte l’ensemble des dimensions de l’individu et du groupe, et valorise leurs contributions respectives dans tous les aspects de la vie humaine. Enfin, l’article appelle à une concordance pour diriger la concurrence vers le bien commun, à travers la diversité et la complémentarité des compétences. Resumen Este artículo explora la compleja dinámica entre religión y laicidad en las sociedades democráticas contemporáneas. Examina las tensiones y los retos derivados de la coexistencia de estos dos sistemas de valores distintos, al tiempo que explora las posibilidades de colaboración y diálogo constructivo. El artículo comienza analizando la conflictiva relación entre religión y laicidad, destacando las diversas fuentes de tensión: racionalización, esferas sociales y valores. A continuación, cuestiona la visión binaria de estos dos conceptos y propone un enfoque más matizado que reconozca sus interacciones y complementariedades. La segunda parte se centra en las posibilidades de convergencia entre religión y laicidad en la búsqueda del bien común. El artículo examina el papel de los valores humanos universales y sugiere formas de pensar la coexistencia armoniosa y constructiva dentro de un Estado democrático. Se destaca la importancia del reconocimiento mutuo como fundamento de una sociedad armoniosa e integradora. Un reconocimiento holístico que tenga en cuenta todas las dimensiones del individuo y del grupo, y valore sus respectivas contribuciones en todos los aspectos de la vida humana. Por último, el artículo aboga por un esfuerzo concertado para orientar la competencia hacia el bien común, a través de la diversidad y la complementariedad de las competencias.

This paper theorises how the institutional logics of civil liberties and religion shape the social value creation outcome of social enterprises (SEs). While the study found that both logics of civil liberties and religion directly affect SEs' work, they also interact with the degree of rationalisation in SEs and jointly influence their social value creation outcome. The hypotheses are tested using a unique dataset of 119 faith-based international SEs. The findings show that the demands of institutional logics are moderated by the rationalised management practices of SEs and shape how they respond to the multifaceted institutional pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Several scholars have different opinions regarding the law of the Rabu Wekasan amulet that lives in the Javanese Muslim community. However, despite these differences, the East Javanese Muslim community still carries out and uses amulets to carry out these rituals. This research aims to determine amulet users' perspectives on life, mindset, and worldviews, especially in the Sempen, Sumbertengah, Mumbulsari, and Jember communities. Researchers use a rational choice theory where a person's actions are primarily determined by values or choices using data collection techniques such as interviews, observation, and documentation. The research results reveal three typologies of amulet users' mindsets: 1) Tabarrukan, using the Rabu Wekasan Amulet as a wasilah (intermediary) to ask for protection from Allah; 2) Economic aspect, using Rabu Wekasan amulets to protect their economic level from losses; and 3) Social aspect: using Rabu Wekasan amulets to maintain peace and public health.

Copyright of Ciencias Administrativas is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata 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.)

Based on a qualitative survey relying on interviews conducted with 30 administrators and 23 technical directors, this article aims to grasp the modalities and effects of the diffusion of digital information systems within subsidized theatrical organizations, marked by a rationalization process. To this end, it examines the various ways in which these managers, who are the main relays for managerial logic, implement these management tools, and their effects on working practices and relations. The study shows how such tools, including Entreprise Resource Planning packages, are used for resource planning and cost control purposes. They thus occupy a central place in the activity of technical directors and administrators by allowing them to control the production chain and to reinforce their professional legitimacy. Finally, this article allows us to understand the way in which these managerial devices participate in the reconfiguration of the forms of management as well as of the power relationships between these managers.

Many sociological analyses of evidence-based policy frame it as contributing to the rationalisation of social relations, and being constructed through and implicated in systems of knowledge/power. These analyses are based on social theory placing insufficient emphasis on the emancipatory potential of evidence, and the possibility of rational adjudication of truth claims. We argue sociological engagement with evidence-based policy could be transformed by being informed by the work of Habermas. Habermas' work could enable a more nuanced view of EBP in terms of whether or not this leads to rationalisation in the form of de-politicisation or marginalisation of citizens' voices. Habermas' work on knowledge-constitutive interests could inform a reconstructed view of evidence, disabused of positivist assumptions and with increased emancipatory potential. Habermas' notion of the ideal speech situation as a procedural basis for truth could function as a standard for exploring how EBP is affected by power asymmetries, as well as for adjudicating truth claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music has always been a concern for sociology, and its classic authors attest to this. We begin this article -- which is essayistic in nature -- with a substantive analysis of this tradition that continues to (re)shape the sociology of music today. Amongst these classics, we would like to highlight its greatest name: Max Weber. In fact, this author developed a long-term analysis of Western music, especially with the advance of rationalisation, somewhat similar to his analyses of the spirit of capitalism and the genesis of bureaucracy in Europe in his study TheRationalandSocialFoundationsofMusic -- written between 1912-1913 and published posthumously in 1921. We then establish a link between Weber's thesis and the sociology of music today, centring our analysis on contemporary music production through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also the digital universe more broadly. Weber's theoretical contributions are explored in relation to this, focusing on the interconnection between his concept of rationalisation and the emerging digitalisation of music -- in particular, streaming services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars have different opinions regarding the law of the Rabu Wekasan amulet that lives in the Javanese Muslim community. However, despite these differences, the East Javanese Muslim community still carries out and uses amulets to carry out these rituals. This research aims to determine amulet users' perspectives on life, mindset, and worldviews, especially in the Sempen, Sumbertengah, Mumbulsari, and Jember communities. Using data collection techniques such as interviews, observation, and documentation, researchers use a rational choice theory, where a person's actions are primarily determined by values or choices. The research results reveal three typologies of amulet users' mindsets: 1) Tabarrukan, using the Rabu Wekasan Amulet as a wasilah (intermediary) to ask for protection from Allah; 2) Economic aspect, using Rabu Wekasan amulets to protect their economic level from losses; and 3) Social aspect: using Rabu Wekasan amulets to maintain peace and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When governments introduce controversial policies or face a risk of policy failure, officeholders try to avoid blame and justify their decisions by using various legitimation strategies. This paper focuses on the ways in which legitimations are expressed in government social media communication, using the Twitter posts of the British government's Brexit department as an example. We show how governments may seek legitimacy by appealing to (1) the personal authority of individual policymakers, (2) the collective authority of (political) organisations, (3) the impersonal authority of rules or documents, (4) the goals or effects of government policy, (5) 'the will of the people', and (6) time pressure. The results suggest that official legitimations in social media posts tend to rely more on references to authority and shared values rather than presentation of evidence and sound arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject and purpose of work: The purpose of the study was to identify the areas of activity of the local authorities in the context of the implementation of public tasks that could be financed with funds from the issue of the so-called green bonds.

Modern furniture manufacturing began in the mid-18th century, when cabinet makers, following the English model, manufactured luxury furniture in box construction and for stock according to the principles of rationalization and specialization. Other companies are used as examples to trace the transition to industrial production, until furniture made entirely by machines came onto the market at the beginning of the 20th century and the question of good design became increasingly important. Therefore, the second part of the essay uses selected examples to examine how companies were influenced from the outside, by large customers, the state or artists, with the aim of producing high-quality and well-designed products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Les pygmées, peuples autochtones, en RDC demeurent toujours traumatisés notamment par la démarche brutale de la création des parcs, depuis l’époque coloniale jusqu’à ce jour. Leur sort existentiel n’a fait que s’aggraver. Pour cela, le pays a intérêt à apporter une contrepartie équivalente à leur contribution Ecopolitique. En termes explicites, il s’agit de l’écosolidarité internationale vis-à-vis d’un grand contributeur qu’est l’Etat congolais à une cause mondiale. Abstract Pygmies, indigenous peoples, in the DRC are still traumatized, in particular by the brutal process of creating parks, from colonial times to the present day. Their existential plight has only worsened. For this, the country has an interest in providing a counterpart equivalent to their Ecopolitical contribution. In explicit terms, it is about international eco-solidarity vis-à-vis a major contributor that is the Congolese State to a global cause.

This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the variegated ties established across national borders by non-state actors by offering an account of the field of international mission agencies. Noting agencies' specific goal to promote the gospel, we ask how mission agencies shape where missionaries go, whom they are trying to reach and what activities they engage in. Based on in-depth interviews with managers, we discuss the historical focus on the individual person or family as the unit through which ties are established, and analyse the broad set of practices, which are considered legitimate as part of mission work. To the extent that managers see themselves as engaged in rationalisation, rationalisation is understood as reform towards distinctively mission-related outcomes. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of considering the work of mission agencies for our understanding of the "international" and for the study of social change in global society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the concept of communicative rationality and its practical application in public debates will be explored. Focusing on the importance of the communicative treatment of reason, validity, and its practical implications, the article critically examines Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action and its ethical elements. The potential difficulties of bridging the gap between theory and practice are highlighted by discussing the distinction between theoretical discourse and discursive practice. Through an analysis of Habermas' approach, the paper aims to improve public discourse quality and understand how communicative reason works in practical terms. It considers the pragmatic context of communicative action, the importance of claiming validity, and the process of validating. It discusses the concept of communicative reason in the context of concrete instances of communication, such as public discussion. It emphasizes the importance of communicative reason and the pursuit of the common good in promoting productive discussion and compromise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering innovations in car disassembly systems are studied for affects on system operators’ risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI). Objective instrumented measures of injury risk factors with synchronised video-based task analyses were used to examine changes in operators’ RSI risk during two cases of engineering innovation: (1) a shift in industrial model from traditional extracting saleable parts to line-based full material recovery, and (2) the prospective effects of a simulated ‘Lean’-inspired process improvement in the line system. Both cases of innovation showed significantly increased movement speeds and reduced muscular recovery opportunities, implying increased RSI risk. This case study reveals a mechanism by which innovation may increase RSI risks for operators. Managers responsible for engineering innovation should ensure their teams have the tools and mandate necessary to control injury hazards as part of the development and design process. These cases suggest how failure to manage RSI hazards in the innovation process may allow increases of injury risks that can compromise operational performance. This ‘innovation pitfall’ has implications for operator health and organisational sustainability. Alternative pathways are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common-sense view that reasons guide us in thought and action and that humans are essentially reason-responsive animals is increasingly under attack by defenders of what one can call the Rationalisation View , which emphasises that we typically rationalise actions and judgements that are based on intuition rather than reasoning. This article defends the former view of human Reason, partly by replying to prominent advocates of the latter, partly by proposing accounts of reflective reasoning and rationalisation that bring to light a common, underappreciated feature: they both involve the capacity to see considerations as reasons. This capacity, the author conjectures, should be the starting point for investigating the faculty we call 'Reason', its evolutionary origin, and the (ir)rationality of different kinds of thought associated with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imaginary of the pro-surrogacy discourse. Self-entrepreneurs' will to power in the global production of life. Gestational surrogacy is an emerging sector of bioeconomy, a reproductive option and a form of female labour which is increasingly accepted worldwide. It entails a deep rationalization of human processes, which are reduced to their mere biological aspects and managed through self- discipline and technology with the goal of producing high quality products (children). In this paper I discuss how the social practice of surrogacy is legitimized through a broader discourse of individual freedom and self- determination, typical of neoliberal capitalism, and how this frame is applied to two categories of “self-entrepreneurs”: people who aspire to become parents and women with gestational capability that once placed on the reproductive market becomes source of economic empowerment. I argue that the pro-surrogacy discourse, which dips into the feminist rhetoric of women's autonomy and a culture of limitless technological manipulation, encourages the human will to power by activating the pleasure principle and the Great Mother archetype.

This paper offers a counterpoint to existing research that explores the associations between gacha games and gambling. Whilst existing research tends to advance a view that playing these games is equivalent to gambling, I contend that such assertions rest on analyses that focus almost exclusively on investing money in the game. Moreover, they tend to view the game as separate from the structuring forces of everyday life. Arguing that players are embedded within a double structural frame that moderates the extent of seemingly 'irrational' playing behaviours, I reinterpret grinding as a form of temporal investment that is motivated by more 'rationalised' engagements with the gacha mechanic. Drawing on qualitative data derived from Singapore-based players of gacha games, I explore how discipline, desire and deferred value can lead to resource maximising behaviours that are rooted in a time-money trade-off. In turn, these agentic patterns of play can be seen to 'game-the-game'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey rolling programme (NDNS RP) commenced in 2008 and moved in 2019 from a traditional paper food diary to a web-based 24 h recall, Intake24. This paper describes the approach to update and downsize the underlying UK Nutrient Databank (NDB) for efficient data management and integration into Intake24. Consumption data from the first 10 years (2008/2009 to 2017/2018) of NDNS RP informed decisions on whether foods from the extensive UK NDB were to be retained, excluded, revised or added to for creation of a rationalised NDB. Overall, 5933 food codes in the extensive NDB were reduced to 2481 food codes in the rationalised NDB. Impact on assessment of nutrient intakes was evaluated by re-coding NDNS 2017 data using the rationalised NDB. Small differences were observed between estimated intakes (Cohen's d ≤ 0.1) for all nutrients and there was a good level of agreement (Cohen's κ ≥ 0.6) between the extensive and rationalised NDBs. The evaluation provides confidence in dietary intake estimates for ongoing nutritional surveillance in the UK and strengthens the evidence of a good agreement between concise food databases and large food databases incorporated into web-based 24 h recalls for estimating nutrient intakes at the population level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We give an overview of five rationalization theories for spaces (Bousfield-Kan's ℚ-completion; Sullivan's rationalization; Bousfield's homology rationalization; Casacuberta-Peschke's Ω-rationalization; Gómez-Tato-Halperin-Tanré's π1-fiberwise rationalization) that extend the classical rationalization of simply connected spaces. We also give an overview of the corresponding rationalization theories for groups (ℚ-completion; Hℚ-localization; Baumslag rationalization) that extend the classical Malcev completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand mobility platforms have long struggled with profitability in industrialised nations. To compensate, companies seek out new forms of rationalisation and automation to increase the efficiency of mobility work. Most scholarship on mobility platforms has focussed primarily on the experiences and responses of platform workers to managerial decisions and forms of software-based control; less understood are the managers and technologies themselves. My ethnographic research with logistics management and couriers ('riders') at Fleatz, a German app-based food-delivery company, shows how the effort to increase the efficiency of rider mobilities is underpinned by the central managerial goal of 'breaking even operationally', wherein the cost of providing courier services is offset by the revenue from the orders the couriers fulfil. However, I identify three challenges to increasing rider efficiency: low rider investment in the job, the limitations of rider-management software, and the German political protection of labour and data. Examining platform mobility from both sides of the user interface—from workers' and managers' perspectives—allows us to understand not only the anticipated but also the more hidden limitations of platform rationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When governments introduce controversial policies that many citizens disapprove of, officeholders increasingly use discursive legitimation strategies in their public communication to ward off blame. In this paper, we contribute to the study of blame avoidance in government social media communication by exploring how corpus-assisted discourse analysis helps to identify three types of common legitimations: self-defensive appeals to (1) personal authority of policymakers, (2) impersonal authority of rules or documents and (3) goals or effects of policies. We use a specialised corpus of tweets by the Brexit department of the British government (42,618 words) which we analyse both qualitatively and quantitatively. We demonstrate how the analysis of lexical bundles that characterise each type of legitimation might provide a new avenue for identifying the presence, characteristics and uses of these legitimations in larger datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tension between organisational demands and the substantive aspects of social work practice can pose a significant challenge for social workers because their professional positioning places them in the middle of what appear to be conflicting and irreconcilable demands, especially in contexts where organisational accountability seems to dominate practice. Although the implications of this tension have been discussed within the social work literature, the specific characteristics have not received much attention. This article explores this tension by drawing on Max Weber's concept of 'ethical irrationality'. Ethical irrationality refers to the historical and cultural conditions that have made way for the tension between formal and substantive rationality and how these qualities have the potential to shape and even distort ethical conduct. In an ethically irrational world, ethical conduct involves risk and uncertainty and, for ethical agents, this often means resorting to using risky means to achieve ethical ends. This issue is particularly relevant for social workers in statutory contexts where professional ethics require practitioners to engage with and challenge organisational norms and procedures. A conceptual tool aimed to assist practitioners in managing this tension is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En Algérie, l’enseignement supérieur qui se diversifie et se complexifie ambitionne de rationaliser la formation des enseignants pour répondre à des besoins de formation, dans le cadre d’un partenariat université-milieu socio- professionnel. La mise en place de ce programme de formation nous a amenés à réfléchir à guider le personnel enseignant dans une optique métacognitive et réflexive dans l’esprit de la réforme. En nous penchant sur un corpus de réponses à un test sur les perspectives en enseignement adapté de l’anglais The Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) de (Daniel Pratt & John Collins, University of British Columbia) et distribué au début et à la fin d’une année universitaire, nous voulions connaitre les changements de représentations après une année de pratique. Cet inventaire nous aidera à identifier les actions, les intentions et les croyances qui constituent leur point de vue sur l'enseignement ou faciliter l'apprentissage.

Compensatory consumption has been an increasingly researched yet widely debated area of consumer behaviour over the last 20 years. Extant research formulates the term as overwhelmingly negative, largely due to the simplistic and fragmented conceptualisations assumed in prior work. The purpose of the current paper is to present a comprehensive review of the umbrella term of compensatory consumption, incorporating a continuum of behaviours and accounting for the pre- and post-consumption periods including both positive and negative viewpoints. In addition, expanding upon the theory of need satisfaction, the current paper introduces a novel conceptual distinction between compensation and compromise. Finally, a proposed theoretical framework is presented that differentiates between compensatory and compromisory consumption based on the extent of consumer consciousness, rationality and rationalisation. Future research directions are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary deals with the issue of alternative food and drink from the perspective of my work on such topics as disenchantment, enchantment, McDonaldization, nothing, prosumption, rationalisation and something. The conclusion is that the interests of, and pressure from, large-scale profit-making businesses will, to a large extent, undermine efforts to produce ‘true’ alternatives in food and drink. Those alternatives will survive on the margins in the developed world, but they will be more prevalent in the less developed world which is less attractive to those businesses, and therefore, the alternatives will be allowed to survive there. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the article is to examine the premises and extent of the dissemination of business budgeting using publications in interwar Poland (1918–1939) and to indicate Polish authors' sources of knowledge on this issue. The article also seeks to investigate whether budgeting was promoted and introduced in Poland to propel development in a nation that was reawakening as a country after more than 120 years of partitions. The dissemination of budgeting is considered in connection with the idea of rationalisation, which originated in the United States, and the scientific management movement in Europe that it influenced. The article shows Poles promoting business budgeting and their actions following the theory of progress in order to increase the prosperity of a country that was rebuilding a unified economic organism and national identity. The article contributes to the history of scientific management and accounting as it brings new elements by examining the non-Western interwar environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of a politics of diversity in local strategies to respond to economic and demographic stagnation in regional Australia. In a context of a market-driven migration agenda, local councils increasingly ‘compete’ as desirable places for mobile populations to settle by evoking a local multicultural imaginary. Internationally, there has been some suggestion that devolving power to the local level can help resolve economic and social problems that are argued to be at the root of populist politics and be productive of new forms of local solidarity and collective action. Yet, our account of the local multicultural politics at work in the regional town of Shepparton, sees deeply structural problems left unresolved. Drawing on interviews with members of government and civil society, and an analysis of council policy, we show how, at a local level, multiculturalism is mobilised as a depoliticised and deracialised form of community relations. Such articulations may support metrics that measure ‘success’ and attract funding from central governments, but limit opportunities for mobilising the tension and ambivalence of cultural difference in ways productive of new kinds of solidarities and representative forms of imagining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public procurement fraud by government officials has resulted in a sizeable loss of public funds, subsequently smearing a bad reputation of a local institution in the eyes of the public. The appropriate parties and the government as the trustees of public funds should tackle the presence of the propelling elements in driving government officials to engage in fraudulent behaviour. Besides, they should also ensure to eradicate, or at the least, prevent the problem from worsening. Therefore, this study attempted to determine the effect of fraud diamond analysis on public procurement fraud. Fraud Diamond is measured by perceived pressure, rationalisation, opportunity, and capability. The researchers gathered primary data through a survey using 165 questionnaires distributed to the government officials of all 27 ministries at the Federal level. Several statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis were used to analyse the data from the survey. Four hypotheses were developed, and the findings showed that perceived pressure, perceived rationalisation, and perceived capability significantly influenced public procurement fraud by government officials, hence being accepted. In contrast, the perceived opportunity was rejected. This study aids academics, legislators, lawmakers, sociologists, psychologists, and those engaged in financial crime scene investigation, such as authorities and regulators, to understand the reason behind the fraudulent behaviour of fraudsters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to describe meat consumption rationalisation and relationships with meat consumption patterns and food choice motivations in New Zealand adolescents.Design: This was a cross-sectional study of adolescents from high schools across New Zealand. Demographics, dietary habits, and motivations and attitudes towards food were assessed by online questionnaire and anthropometric measurements taken by researchers. The 4Ns questionnaire assessed meat consumption rationalisation with four subscales: 'Nice', 'Normal', 'Necessary' and 'Natural'.Setting: Nineteen secondary schools from eight regions in New Zealand, with some purposive sampling of adolescent vegetarians in Otago, New Zealand.Participants: Questionnaires were completed by 385 non-vegetarian and vegetarian (self-identified) adolescents.Results: A majority of non-vegetarian adolescents agreed that consuming meat was 'nice' (65 %), but fewer agreed that meat consumption was 'necessary' (51 %). Males agreed more strongly than females with all 4N subscales. High meat consumers were more likely to agree than to disagree that meat consumption was nice, normal, necessary and natural, and vegetarians tended to disagree with all rationalisations. Adolescent non-vegetarians whose food choice was motivated more by convenience, sensory appeal, price and familiarity tended to agree more with all 4N subscales, whereas adolescents motivated by animal welfare and environmental concerns were less likely to agree.Conclusions: To promote a reduction in meat consumption in adolescents, approaches will need to overcome beliefs that meat consumption is nice, normal, necessary and natural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framed by opportunity and gender theories, this study examines whether men and women who occupy similar organisational positions differ in the types of fraud committed and their rationalisations. Based on 261 published legal cases of convicted fraudsters in New Zealand, our results show that fraudster's position and rationalisation are important fraud predictors. Our multinomial regression results show that there is a significant difference in the fraud committed in a similar position. There is a relationship between female gambling and embezzlement fraud. A large percentage of fraudsters of both genders offered no rationalisation; those who did, claimed they were victims of circumstances (denial of responsibility) and morally justified their offending. The morally justified rationalisation was associated with lifestyles and pleasing others. Moreover, two rationalisation categories--appeal to higher loyalties and condemning the condemners--are significant in predicting the likelihood of obtaining by deception and embezzlement fraud in the New Zealand context. We also identify two distinct patterns of fraud offending: instrumental-opportunist and pathological-opportunist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have described how care cannot be completely commodified or withdrawn because it is a disposition anchored in the commitment to the needs of others. This article advances the literature on care ethics and inequality by examining how care workers resist and negotiate the rationalisation of care work. Building on ethnographic fieldwork on auxiliary nurses in Norwegian nursing homes, the study shows that despite care workers facing increasingly rationalised forms of control, they continue to act out of the caring self, which centres on the desire to give meaningful care. However, by addressing how power differences and ethnic stratification between workers influence their strategies of coping and resistance, the findings also illustrate how the most vulnerable care workers respond to rationalisation by providing efficient care – that is, careless care – to their patients. Drawing from alternative perspectives on care work as ambivalent work, the study's main theoretical contribution is to offer insight into how precarious work contexts may pose a threat to the caring self, especially when inequalities exist between care workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how rule violations that contributed to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were able to happen. Bringing to the surface what is implicit in historical documents, we argue that six excuses can be identified that could have allowed the operators to rationalise their rule violations. These excuses could have affected how the operators interpreted the applicability of the rules to the situation(s) they were involved in, leading them to ultimately violate the operational rules. As a theoretical consequence, rule-following as (com)pliance or obedience is to be taken as a necessary but insufficient condition of rule-following. As a practical consequence, the concept of ‘excuses’ can also help to anticipate as well as prevent rule-breaking behaviour in similar future cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]