7,066 research outputs found

    Towards a sociology of conspiracy theories: An investigation into conspiratorial thinking on Dönmes

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    This thesis investigates the social and political significance of conspiracy theories, which has been an academically neglected topic despite its historical relevance. The academic literature focuses on the methodology, social significance and political impacts of these theories in a secluded manner and lacks empirical analyses. In response, this research provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for conspiracy theories by considering their methodology, political impacts and social significance in the light of empirical data. Theoretically, the thesis uses Adorno's semi-erudition theory along with Girardian approach. It proposes that conspiracy theories are methodologically semi-erudite narratives, i.e. they are biased in favour of a belief and use reason only to prove it. It suggests that conspiracy theories appear in times of power vacuum and provide semi-erudite cognitive maps that relieve alienation and ontological insecurities of people and groups. In so doing, they enforce social control over their audience due to their essentialist, closed-to-interpretation narratives. In order to verify the theory, the study analyses empirically the social and political significance of conspiracy theories about the Dönme community in Turkey. The analysis comprises interviews with conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theory readers and political parties, alongside a frame analysis of the popular conspiracy theory books on Dönmes. These confirm the theoretical framework by showing that the conspiracy theories are fed by the ontological insecurities of Turkish society. Hence, conspiracy theorists, most readers and some political parties respond to their own ontological insecurities and political frustrations through scapegoating Dönmes. Consequently, this work shows that conspiracy theories are important symptoms of society, which, while relieving ontological insecurities, do not provide politically prolific narratives

    Embodying entrepreneurship: everyday practices, processes and routines in a technology incubator

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    The growing interest in the processes and practices of entrepreneurship has been dominated by a consideration of temporality. Through a thirty-six-month ethnography of a technology incubator, this thesis contributes to extant understanding by exploring the effect of space. The first paper explores how class structures from the surrounding city have appropriated entrepreneurship within the incubator. The second paper adopts a more explicitly spatial analysis to reveal how the use of space influences a common understanding of entrepreneurship. The final paper looks more closely at the entrepreneurs within the incubator and how they use visual symbols to develop their identity. Taken together, the three papers reject the notion of entrepreneurship as a primarily economic endeavour as articulated through commonly understood language and propose entrepreneuring as an enigmatic attractor that is accessed through the ambiguity of the non-verbal to develop the ‘new’. The thesis therefore contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship and proposes a distinct role for the non-verbal in that understanding

    The interplay of reason and emotion in legal reasoning

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    Until now, the law has been thought to be rational, but there have been many problems that cannot be explained by reason. To solve this problem, this thesis uses a utilitarian approach. Hume says that reason judges whether or not the relations between the two objects are in agreement, and that emotion is a fact itself and cannot be subject to truth or falsehood. Reason has long been thought to include the ability to reflect, but reflection itself cannot judge right or wrong. We can also reflect on our feelings or preferences, which are not subject to truth or falsehood. However, reason can judge whether the expressed emotions are consistent and whether the internal actual mind and the external expressed mind are different. Due to the bounded rationality of humans, utilitarian calculations to maximise happiness cannot be made for all problems; thus, in everyday life, we make rules, abide by them, and judge with them in general. Bounded rationality is the reason why law and deontological thinking are necessary in practical reasoning. The content of the law is the value system shared in society, which changes over time. In the economic method based on emotivism that supposes differences in preference, fairness can be maintained by adhering to the consistency of value judgement and principle of protecting minorities. In an economic form of utilitarianism, it is possible to explain the weighing of values, the exception of the law, and the development of legal systems. On top of that, we can improve the welfare of society and protect the rights of minorities by using the above mentioned approach

    From wallet to mobile: exploring how mobile payments create customer value in the service experience

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    This study explores how mobile proximity payments (MPP) (e.g., Apple Pay) create customer value in the service experience compared to traditional payment methods (e.g. cash and card). The main objectives were firstly to understand how customer value manifests as an outcome in the MPP service experience, and secondly to understand how the customer activities in the process of using MPP create customer value. To achieve these objectives a conceptual framework is built upon the Grönroos-Voima Value Model (Grönroos and Voima, 2013), and uses the Theory of Consumption Value (Sheth et al., 1991) to determine the customer value constructs for MPP, which is complimented with Script theory (Abelson, 1981) to determine the value creating activities the consumer does in the process of paying with MPP. The study uses a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, wherein the first qualitative stage uses two methods, self-observations (n=200) and semi-structured interviews (n=18). The subsequent second quantitative stage uses an online survey (n=441) and Structural Equation Modelling analysis to further examine the relationships and effect between the value creating activities and customer value constructs identified in stage one. The academic contributions include the development of a model of mobile payment services value creation in the service experience, introducing the concept of in-use barriers which occur after adoption and constrains the consumers existing use of MPP, and revealing the importance of the mobile in-hand momentary condition as an antecedent state. Additionally, the customer value perspective of this thesis demonstrates an alternative to the dominant Information Technology approaches to researching mobile payments and broadens the view of technology from purely an object a user interacts with to an object that is immersed in consumers’ daily life

    How to Be a God

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    When it comes to questions concerning the nature of Reality, Philosophers and Theologians have the answers. Philosophers have the answers that can’t be proven right. Theologians have the answers that can’t be proven wrong. Today’s designers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games create realities for a living. They can’t spend centuries mulling over the issues: they have to face them head-on. Their practical experiences can indicate which theoretical proposals actually work in practice. That’s today’s designers. Tomorrow’s will have a whole new set of questions to answer. The designers of virtual worlds are the literal gods of those realities. Suppose Artificial Intelligence comes through and allows us to create non-player characters as smart as us. What are our responsibilities as gods? How should we, as gods, conduct ourselves? How should we be gods

    Hunting Wildlife in the Tropics and Subtropics

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    The hunting of wild animals for their meat has been a crucial activity in the evolution of humans. It continues to be an essential source of food and a generator of income for millions of Indigenous and rural communities worldwide. Conservationists rightly fear that excessive hunting of many animal species will cause their demise, as has already happened throughout the Anthropocene. Many species of large mammals and birds have been decimated or annihilated due to overhunting by humans. If such pressures continue, many other species will meet the same fate. Equally, if the use of wildlife resources is to continue by those who depend on it, sustainable practices must be implemented. These communities need to remain or become custodians of the wildlife resources within their lands, for their own well-being as well as for biodiversity in general. This title is also available via Open Access on Cambridge Core

    Political thought of Friedrich von Gentz, 1800-1812

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    This thesis focuses on the political writings of Friedrich von Gentz, a German writer and political advisor, between the years 1800 and 1812. Scholarship has tended to focus on the years 1791­1801 and Gentz’s political conversion from support of to opposition to the French Revolution, his translation of Edmund Burke’s work, and his contribution to debates over international relations in the years 1800 and 1801. This thesis both reassesses his stance on international relations, presenting him as a complex thinker rather than a crude realist, and unpacks three relatively unexplored areas of his thought, those of international law, civil society and censorship. The first chapter explores Gentz’s defence of the balance of power against the theoretical objections of philosophers like Immanuel Kant and the practical threats of diplomats like Alexandre D’Hauterive. It shows that Gentz was not purely concerned with power but included a subtle and high regard for the role of domestic constitutions, culture, commerce and moral formation. The second chapter considers Gentz’s understanding of international law and, as an illustration of this, his views on the issue of neutral rights at sea. Gentz held to a dualist conception of international law that blended both natural and positive law, and he defended it against attacks from both sides. The third chapter unpacks Gentz’s changing thought on commerce and civil society amidst the instability of Napoleonic expansion. He believed that there was a causal chain that led from the rise of commerce, to the decline of civil society and on to a universal monarchy of a Montesquieuian mould. The fourth chapter considers Gentz’s writings on the press at the time of Napoleon in order to assess the claim he betrayed his 1797 defence of a free press when he supported the 1819 Karlsbad Decrees. It is shown that Gentz developed his views in light of the Napoleonic experience and did not simply sell out to the powers that be. Overall, this thesis argues for the greater richness and complexity of Gentz’s thought than hitherto realised and for the many­sided character to his conservatism, which in turns points to the many­sided nature of conservatism in general

    ‘We the People: Supporting Food SMEs towards a Circular Food Economy’

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    This single Case Study locates SME (small and medium-size enterprise) hospitality and food services (HaFS) within a complex food waste system. It examines collaborative support for business change from linear resource wastage (‘take, use, dump), towards a circular food economy (CfE)- where ‘designing out’ food waste may reap savings. The objective is to support SME uptake of waste aversion practices so that they may thrive. The qualitative research centers on a London-based project promoting food waste valorization and healthy nutrition, in 15 boroughs. That project’s outreach for broad-based, collective impact included HaFS that are SMEs. Cross-sector liaison was the research focus for this Case Study which utilizes a hybrid philosophy and meta-framework, based on Critical Realism and Systemic Thinking. Some reference to Interpretivism highlights stewardship values for transforming individual behaviour. The Study also uses a multi-method design, borrowing soft systems from Management Science and Operational Research. Its blended approach includes: participant observation, mapping and rich picture techniques, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The main research questions align concepts such as: circular economy, cross-sector collaboration and food waste management- with HaFS that are SMEs. A framework method and Leximancer software supported coding and qualitative thematic analysis. Primary findings include interesting categories of analytical, NGO and policy literature. Although conversations flagged up pivotal roles for our health and education sectors, the food SME element still seems peripheral in this transition to regenerative business. A ‘people vibe’ is enabling some HaFS’ kitchen waste action and food redistribution and, academia is a potential contributor to this information resource flow among stakeholders. The Study’s unique onto-epistemological framework enhances philosophical and theoretical knowledge about promoting SME resource stewardship. It spans Systemic Thinking (overt connections and acute complexities) and Critical Realism (deep mechanisms and institutional power differentials, impacting change). As an interpretive lens, the framework’s contribution to praxis was tested by shadowing the London TRiFOCAL project. This research could inform a business policy shift from traditional supply chain thinking, towards active UK food citizenship
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