Chantal Mouffe's agonistic project: passions and participation

It is Chantal Mouffe's contention that the central weakness of consensus-driven forms of liberalism, such as John Rawls’ political liberalism and Jürgen Habermas’ deliberative democracy, is that they refuse to acknowledge conflict and pluralism, especially at the level of the ontological. Their defence for doing so is that conflict and pluralism are the result of attempts to incorporate unreasonable and irrational claims into the public political sphere. In this context, unreasonable and irrational claims are those that cannot be translated into universalizable terms. However, for Mouffe, it is this intentional exclusionary act itself that is detrimental to a well-functioning democratic polity. It is only through the inclusion of a diverse body of subject positions that a democratic polity can be said to be truly representative of the polity, and therefore constitute a functioning and inclusive democracy. This paper will examine Mouffe’s account of agonistic pluralism. In doing so, it will demonstrate that instead of being a source of instability within the democratic discourse and therefore relegated into the private non-political sphere, passions and values that are constitutive of these subject positions ought to be incorporated into the public political sphere. Mouffe’s rationale for doing so is that it is precisely through their incorporation that citizens will retain their allegiance to the democratic polity. However, as part of this examination, this paper will also draw attention to an under-developed aspect of Mouffe’s account of agonistic democracy, specifically problems regarding both participation and exclusion. Whilst Mouffe does provide a robust counterpoint to both Rawls’ political liberalism and Habermas’ deliberative democracy, it is my contention that she fails to explain adequately what it is that persuades participants to act democratically and adhere to the requirements of agonal respect, nor what should happen when the ethico-political principles of liberty and equality are not accepted

Board of Certification Examination Pass/Fail Analysis

Athletic training is a growing field of work and study. In this senior honors thesis the author examines the current trends of students taking the Board of Certification (BOC) examination. In recent years the number of athletic training students has been on the rise. In order for athletic trainers to legally practice they must pass the BOC examination. In addition to the number of students studying athletic training increasing, the caliber of the students has also been improving. The percentage of students who pass the BOC examination on the first attempt has surged. From the year 1997 to 2007 the national BOC passing rate was about 30%, however from 2008 and on it has been on a steady incline to above 80% in 2012. The author postulates that this increase in passing is due to the increased competitiveness of acceptance into the degree program caused by the sharp increase of interest within the field. The author also shows the average score of BOC examination from Brockport alumni vs the national average, showing that Brockport scores higher in all areas. Five different powerpoints are included at the end of the thesis

Development of a multibody systems model for investigation of the effects of hybrid electric vehicle powertrains on vehicle dynamics

With ever increasing numbers of Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV’s) being developed, come new challenges in the field of automotive engineering. Whilst there has been considerable work conducted on HEV’s from a powertrain, efficiency, and control systems perspective, very little work has been instigated in the field of how the introduction of such hybrid systems effect passive vehicle dynamics. One of the possible obstacles in the way of such studies is the multitude of powertrain architectures that are present or possible in HEV’s. This obstacle can make investigations very application specific, and leads to inefficiencies in the modelling process. This paper discusses the development of a model constructed in Dymola in order to investigate the effects of hybrid powertrains on ride and handling. The modelling methodology is presented, along with model based testing and validation of component and the full vehicle models. Whilst the development of the model is introduced for a specific study, it is shown that the way in which the model has been developed lends itself easily to use in other fields. It is shown that the modular construction of the model, and the physical, object orientated modelling approach facilitated by Dymola, allow varying numbers and complexities of component models to be utilised within the same basic model. Such an approach means that one base model can be utilised for differing hybrid architectures for ride, handling and drivability studies thus reducing modelling time and complexity

Knowledge management and creativity: a technology-facilitated balance

A growing body of literature discusses the importance of creativity in organizations. Together with the reliance of creativity on knowledge, and the increasing use of information systems (IS) as means to support organizational knowledge, research of the relationship between IS, knowledge and creativity in organizations seems to be in order. In this paper, evidence from case studies of real-world commercial creative processes is presented. Drawing on the evidence, the creativity, knowledge and IS literatures are critically examined. A view of channeled creativity is consequently presented and discussed that takes into account a cognitive perspective of creativity. This view focuses on flexible knowledge sharing, rather than on prescriptive creativity algorithms. This view involves primarily two complementary organizational practices: communication of exemplars and references, and knowledge restriction. Unlike many of the creativity support approaches presented in the literature, it is not an isolated technique but rather a set of fairly specific organizational practices, which, brought together, seem to give rise to creativity, and mitigate against potential identity conflicts