Propositional Identity and Logical Necessity

In two early papers, Max Cresswell constructed two formal logics of propositional identity, PCR and FCR, which he observed to be respectively deductively equivalent to modal logics S4 and S5. Cresswell argued informally that these equivalences respectively “give … evidence” for the correctness of S4 and S5 as logics of broadly logical necessity. In this paper, I describe weaker propositional identity logics than PCR that accommodate core intuitions about identity and I argue that Cresswell’s informal arguments do not firmly and without epistemic circularity justify accepting S4 or S5. I also describe how to formulate standard modal logics (K, S2, and their extensions) with strict equivalence as the only modal primitive

Organizational Correlates of Medication-Assisted Treatment in Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities: Examining How Institutional Forces Shape Treatment

Methadone and buprenorphine/naloxone are the two recommended pharmacotherapies for the treatment of opioid dependence, having been demonstrated to be effective in numerous clinical trials. While methadone has been an approved treatment for opioid dependence for that past 50 years, buprenorphine/naloxone is a newer substance that was only approved for use in 2002. This mixed-methods study utilizes a comprehensive conceptual framework of neoinstitutional theory and institutional logics to explore possible factors that might predict adoption of medication-assisted treatment. First, in-depth qualitative interviews with managerial level staff at substance abuse treatment centers were conducted. The interviews were semi-structured and explored perceptions of treatment philosophy, the merging of substance abuse and mental health, managed care, services, funding, licensing and accreditation and personal and professional networks. Next, logistic regression models were used to explore possible predictors of medication-assisted treatment. The National Treatment Center Study (NTCS), a nationally representative survey of private substance abuse treatment facilities conducted between 2002-2004, was used in this study, allowing for the exploration of early adoption of buprenorphine/naloxone. Findings from the qualitative interviews suggested that the two medications are viewed differently and should therefore be explored separately. Findings from the logistic analysis of the NTCS supported this distinction. The proportion of clients with a primary diagnosis of opiate dependence or abuse was the only factor positively associated with both the early adoption of buprenorphine/naloxone and methadone provision. The program\u27s proportion of managed care funding was the only other significant predictor for early adoption of buprenorphine/naloxone. Accreditation by JACHO, proportion of clients who are women and past organizational participation in research, all positively predicted methadone provision, while the proportion of counselors with a master\u27s degree or higher negatively predicted it. The results indicate that coercive and normative institutional forces, as well as the institutional logics operating on organizations and the organizational networks they are embedded in, impact service provision and adoption of innovation. To promote adoption of pharmacotherapies into treatment, attention must be paid to the unique barriers and opportunities facing the adoption of each medication

Strategizing Identity in Higher Education

There is a growing body of literature shedding light on processes of strategy making within public universities. Yet, to date, only a handful of studies have analysed the role that organizational identity plays in such processes. This paper addresses this knowledge gap, by investigating how identity mediates processes of organizational change across two comprehensive universities based in Northern Europe. Our data and analysis reveal that identity has the potential to provide organizations, like universities, with substantial flexibility during strategic change processes, not only as a tool for legitimating change in the eyes of internal and external constituencies, but also as a strategic mechanism for coping with an increasingly turbulent and volatile external environment. The paper is part of recent re-discovering of the role played by the more tacit dimensions of organizations (culture, identity, logics, etc.) operating within highly institutionalised environments

Hungry for power? Regional elites and the architecture of government

How can we better understand the architecture of government? Governmental structures are regularly altered by the dispersion of power upward and downward to supranational and subnational bodies. The preferences of citizens and élites in this regard are well documented at the national and EU levels. However, the preferences of regional élites remain somewhat of a black box. What are their preferences when it comes to the distribution of competences across the regional-national-EU triptych? This article pits three explanations against one another. They concern scale, identity, and institutional effects. These explanations are evaluated against a database containing information on over 1,300 regional élites in 68 regions and 12 countries. Overall, while scale and institutional logics do play a role, identity logics prevail. These findings support a strand of literature stressing the importance of community and attachment in shaping the structure of government beyond what scale and institutional logics predict.publishedVersio

Feminine and non-feminist: the mediatic construction of backlash, consumption and post-feminisms

A significativa intervenção dos feminismos na identificação e na desconstrução das práticas sociais ainda dominantes, logo, na emersão de novas perspetivas de mudança, sempre foram obscurecidos e negligenciados, se não mesmo tornados ausentes, no debate com o grande público. Dado o impacto da nova linguagem mediática em torno dos feminismos parece- nos importante o exercício de passar em revista como os constructos neoliberais dos feminismos, sobretudo apropriados pelos veículos de comunicação social, podem ser observados e interpretados como um fenómeno social que envolve, no seu modus operandi, tanto as estruturas de controlo/poder como as lógicas identitárias de uma sociedade marcadamente patriarcal. É o que se pretende fazer no presente artigo.The significant intervention of feminisms in the identification and deconstruction of the dominant social practices and, therefore, in the emergence of new perspectives of change, have always been obscured and neglected, if not absent, in the debate with the general public. Given the impact of the recent media language on feminisms, the analysis of how neoliberalism constructs feminisms, as appropriated by the media seems an important task, particularly as they can be seen and interpreted as a social phenomenon involving, in its modus operandi, both the control / power structures and the identity logics of a strongly patriarchal society. This review is the aim of our article

IDENTITY POLICY MODELS AND TECHNOLOGIES IN “NEW” STATES

The report will analyze the models and technologies of state identity policy formation in modern “new states”. The report shows effective strategies and institutional practices of identity policy pursued in modern states, designed to ensure the symbolic unity of the citizens of these “new” countries, political stability and political regime stability. The methodological basis of the research is a combination of the principles of constructivism and neoinstitutionalism, since the subjectivity of the state as a political actor in pursuing an identity policy is combined with the need to consolidate its results in specialized formal and informal practices, to create certain political and social institutions. The reported study was funded by RFBR and EISR according to the research project № 19-011-31616 “State Policy in the Field of Formation of Identity: Conceptual Foundations, Technologies and Prospects” in Saint Petersburg State University

LOGIC TEACHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

We are much better equipped to let the facts reveal themselves to us instead of blinding ourselves to them or stubbornly trying to force them into preconceived molds. We no longer embarrass ourselves in front of our students, for example, by insisting that “Some Xs are Y” means the same as “Some X is Y”, and lamely adding “for purposes of logic” whenever there is pushback. Logic teaching in this century can exploit the new spirit of objectivity, humility, clarity, observationalism, contextualism, and pluralism. Besides the new spirit there have been quiet developments in logic and its history and philosophy that could radically improve logic teaching. This lecture expands points which apply equally well in first, second, and third courses, i.e. in “critical thinking”, “deductive logic”, and “symbolic logic”

Intersubjectivity, agency and idiosyncratic identity

By juxtaposing Durkheimian sociology and more recent cognitive approaches, I argue that the development of an idiosyncratic identity – a cognitive structure that is not associated with any one social intersubjectivity – exemplifies the functional interdependence between social forces and human cognition in the production of human personhood. The theory attempts to reconcile the possibility of human idiosyncrasy in the face of omnipresent social influence by describing a process where novel self-knowledge is seen as a synthesis in the dialectic of inconsistent intersubjectivities. An instance of idiosyncratic identity formation is illustrated by a case study set in a Lebanese village

Propositional Identity and Logical Necessity

In two early papers, Max Cresswell constructed two formal logics of propositional identity, PCR and FCR, which he observed to be respectively deductively equivalent to modal logics S4 and S5. Cresswell argued informally that these equivalences respectively “give … evidence” for the correctness of S4 and S5 as logics of broadly logical necessity. In this paper, I describe weaker propositional identity logics than PCR that accommodate core intuitions about identity and I argue that Cresswell’s informal arguments do not firmly and without epistemic circularity justify accepting S4 or S5. I also describe how to formulate standard modal logics (K, S2, and their extensions) with strict equivalence as the only modal primitive