13 research outputs found
Sociological stalking? Methods, ethics and power in longitudinal criminological research
Scholarship on criminal careers and desistance from crime employing longitudinal
methodologies has paid scant attention to sociological and anthropological debates
regarding epistemology, reflexivity and researcher positionality. This is surprising in
light of a recent phenomenological turn in desistance research wherein (former)
lawbreakers’ identity, reflexivity, and self-understanding have become central
preoccupations. In this article I interrogate aspects of the methodological ‘underside’
(Gelsthorpe, 2007) of qualitative longitudinal research with criminalised women
through an examination of the surveillant position of the researcher. Focusing on
methods, ethics and power, I examine some contradictions of feminist concerns to
‘give women voice’ in research involving re-tracing an over-surveilled and highly
stigmatised population. I reflect on the effects of researcher positionality through a
conceptualisation of re-tracing methods as, at worst, a form of sociological stalking
Taxonomic diversity and identification problems of oncaeid microcopepods in the Mediterranean Sea
The species diversity of the pelagic microcopepod
family Oncaeidae collected with nets of 0.1-mm mesh
size was studied at 6 stations along a west-to-east transect
in the Mediterranean Sea down to a maximum depth of
1,000 m. A total of 27 species and two form variants have
been identified, including three new records for the
Mediterranean. In addition, about 20, as yet undescribed,
new morphospecies were found (mainly from the genera
Epicalymma and Triconia) which need to be examined
further. The total number of identified oncaeid species was
similar in the Western and Eastern Basins, but for some cooccurring
sibling species, the estimated numerical dominance
changed. The deep-sea fauna of Oncaeidae, studied
at selected depth layers between 400 m and the near-bottom
layer at >4,200 m depth in the eastern Mediterranean
(Levantine Sea), showed rather constant species numbers
down to ∼3,000 m depth. In the near-bottom layers, the
diversity of oncaeids declined and species of Epicalymma
strongly increased in numerical importance. The taxonomic
status of all oncaeid species recorded earlier in the
Mediterranean Sea is evaluated: 19 out of the 46 known
valid oncaeid species are insufficiently described, and most
of the taxonomically unresolved species (13 species) have
originally been described from this area (type locality). The
deficiencies in the species identification of oncaeids cast
into doubt the allegedly cosmopolitan distribution of some
species, in particular those of Mediterranean origin. The
existing identification problems even of well-described
oncaeid species are exemplified for the Oncaea mediacomplex,
including O. media Giesbrecht, O. scottodicarloi
Heron & Bradford-Grieve, and O. waldemari Bersano &
Boxshall, which are often erroneously identified as a single
species (O. media). The inadequacy in the species identification
of Oncaeidae, in particular those from the Atlantic
and Mediterranean, is mainly due to the lack of reliable
identification keys for Oncaeidae in warm-temperate and/or
tropical seas. Future efforts should be directed to the
construction of identification keys that can be updated
according to the latest taxonomic findings, which can be
used by the non-expert as well as by the specialist. The
adequate consideration of the numerous, as yet undescribed,
microcopepod species in the world oceans, in
particular the Oncaeidae, is a challenge for the study of the
structure and function of plankton communities as well as
for global biodiversity estimates
Children’s imagined future families: Relations between future constructions and present family forms in Austria
Interpreting ethics: public relations and strong hermeneutics
This article suggests that public relations’ inadequate engagement with the complexities
of ethical theory has contributed to public loss of trust in its activities. Instead of
blaming this on publics, communicators could take more responsibility for their professional ethics. The author suggests that a hermeneutic approach to ethics opens up a new area for debate in the field. Public relations ethics have traditionally drawn on the major approaches of deontology (Kant) and consequentialism (Bentham and Mill), with marginal reference to the more recent revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics (MacIntyre, 1984), an approach that shifts attention from ethical action to ethical agent.
Thus discussion of ethics in public relations literature (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006;
S. A. Bowen, 2007; McElreath, 1996) concentrates on rational approaches to ethical
decision making, based (respectively) in marketplace theory, Kantian approaches or
systems theory. In these and other writings, there is an emphasis, as is common in approaches to professional ethics, on external rule-based ethics rather than attempts
to focus on inner processes to assess ethical implications of practice. This article argues
that as concepts of professionalism shift and buckle under global economic and social
pressures, it might be timely to look less to systems and more to human experience for
ethical guidance. A hermeneutic approach, drawing on the philosophy of interpretation
developed in recent decades by thinkers such as Gadamer, Habermas and Riceour, offers an alternative, inner, path to an ethics drawn from the search for shared meaning.
The article starts with a brief overview of the current state of public relations ethics,
suggesting a reliance on somewhat superficial codes for guidance and the absence of reflexivity in ethical debates; it then introduces concepts from hermeneutics and its
main schools or approaches, with a particular focus on hermeneutic ethics. Finally, the
article links the two topics to show how ‘strong’ hermeneutic ethics might contribute to
greater reflexivity in public relations ethics. It aims to shift the ethical debate away from notional reliance on codes and external guidance towards a deeper ethic. The approach
taken is broadly critical (Hall, 1980; Heath, 1992) and is itself interpretative, making the
article doubly-hermeneutic (Giddens, 1984) in both form and content