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1 – 10 of 341The links between work and mental health are gaining increasing recognition both within individual member states and at European Community level as a whole. Yet it is also well…
Abstract
The links between work and mental health are gaining increasing recognition both within individual member states and at European Community level as a whole. Yet it is also well recognised that employment has significant benefits for mental health and well‐being. This paper reviews current evidence on the negative mental health impacts of employment, the key factors in work‐related stress and European policies for promoting mental health in the workplace. It ends with some examples of good practice in workplace mental health promotion drawn from a range of European countries.
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George Herbert Mead is an exemplary figure in sociology, and is central to sociological conceptions of the self and social action. However, other important aspects of Mead's…
Abstract
George Herbert Mead is an exemplary figure in sociology, and is central to sociological conceptions of the self and social action. However, other important aspects of Mead's thought have been largely neglected, including his remarkably sophisticated and sociological theory of scientific knowledge. Traditional accounts of the sociology of science identify Thomas Kuhn, and his predecessor, Ludwig Fleck, as pioneers in the social analysis of scientific knowledge, allowing the modern constructionist school of science studies to emerge. This article challenges this history by showing Mead's awareness of the sociological aspects of scientific knowledge in papers that predate both Kuhn and Fleck. Finally, Mead's position attempts to avoid sociological relativism, and offers instead a pragmatist foundation to approach the study of science.
I feel compelled to present this lecture by some of the strongest of intellectual needs, namely to establish the relationship of my own work and interests to those of other…
Abstract
I feel compelled to present this lecture by some of the strongest of intellectual needs, namely to establish the relationship of my own work and interests to those of other disciplines. Some terrors lie in the revealing of the character of that work, however, particularly the fact that it combines extremes of nitpicking and speculativeness. Special terrors lie in the realization that formidable intellectual disciplines are on a collision path with that work.
Birger Hjørland and Karsten Nissen Pedersen
To suggest that a theory of classification for information retrieval (IR), asked for by Spärck Jones in a 1970 paper, presupposes a full implementation of a pragmatic…
Abstract
Purpose
To suggest that a theory of classification for information retrieval (IR), asked for by Spärck Jones in a 1970 paper, presupposes a full implementation of a pragmatic understanding. Part of the Journal of Documentation celebration, “60 years of the best in information research”.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature‐based conceptual analysis, taking Spärck Jones as its starting‐point. Analysis involves distinctions between “positivism” and “pragmatism” and “classical” versus Kuhnian understandings of concepts.
Findings
Classification, both manual and automatic, for retrieval benefits from drawing upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, a consideration of theories of meaning, and the adding of top‐down approaches to IR in which divisions of labour, domains, traditions, genres, document architectures etc. are included as analytical elements and in which specific IR algorithms are based on the examination of specific literatures. Introduces an example illustrating the consequences of a full implementation of a pragmatist understanding when handling homonyms.
Practical implications
Outlines how to classify from a pragmatic‐philosophical point of view.
Originality/value
Provides, emphasizing a pragmatic understanding, insights of importance to classification for retrieval, both manual and automatic.
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The purpose of this study is to explore in depth the anatomy of post-truth in the quest to set a new research agenda. The author interrogates knowledge production/dissemination…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore in depth the anatomy of post-truth in the quest to set a new research agenda. The author interrogates knowledge production/dissemination and the political positions of those behind them. This study diagnoses and challenges existing claims of supremacy of certain hegemonic epistemological and ontological orthodoxies that have been weaponized.
Design/methodology/approach
This study philosophically engages with different worlds of credible ‘pluriversal’ knowledge(s) and leads to the exposure of historically ‘taken-for-granted’ definitions of the nature and composition of acceptable truth and how it is deeply entrenched in interest group politics.
Findings
Each generation in different contexts has had to battle with specific troubling forces of deception and organized hypocrisy. Here, both new social actors and incumbents influence the disgruntled, deceive the gullible or connect with the enlightened masses at the emotional level whilst strongly undermining the rules-of-logic and fact-based discourses using disruptive social media technologies. The author specifies how the five P’s: political power, profits, populism, politics and the private visions of technologists and scientists will continue to play very influential roles in how knowledge production will affect future policies and global governance.
Social implications
Based on historicized explanations, the author argues that deception and mass ignorance as weaponized features of global governance and its capitalist order are typical Machiavellian strategies for gaining control over knowledge production/information dissemination. Massive changes are not expected in the future unless society and academia introduce novel science, technology and political platforms for engaging society and policy-makers.
Originality/value
The author provides ample historical illustrations to support the claims made in this study that public insights into the postulated structures of post-truth remain extremely superficial, making people insufficiently informed to engage in crucial discourses about knowledge production and dissemination that affect their futures. This study provides several ingredients for stimulating further debate.
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Miloslav Okrouhlik and Svatopluk Ptak
Notes that what applied scientists in classical continuum mechanics are doing is based on knowledge established by Newton, Cauchy, Euler, Rayleigh and others, and no really…
Abstract
Notes that what applied scientists in classical continuum mechanics are doing is based on knowledge established by Newton, Cauchy, Euler, Rayleigh and others, and no really fundamental laws or principles in continuum mechanics have been “discovered” since. Newtonian mechanics provides a vital tool, which is still valid in all manners of ways from engineering to astronomy. Illustrates that we are not inventing completely new concepts of the world – rather, we are dealing with more and more precise models designed within the scope of Newtonian continuum mechanics. Nowadays, material non‐linearities, large strains and deformations, high‐velocity impact problems and others are routinely treated by sophisticated discrete tools, for example boundary elements, finite elements as expressed in Eulerian, Lagrangian and/or ALE formulations. Notes that modern methodologies are based on progress that is constantly being reported in finite element technology areas and that we should not believe in free‐energy production.
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Yu-Wei Chang and I-Jen Li
This study explored the influence of Dervin’s sensemaking methodology (SMM).
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored the influence of Dervin’s sensemaking methodology (SMM).
Design/methodology/approach
Citation context analysis was used to identify the most influential SMM concepts in 948 articles citing 34 SMM-related studies by Dervin that were published between 1983 and 2017. Moreover, the bibliometric method and content analysis were incorporated to examine the disciplines and research topics influenced by the SMM-related studies and the role of cited content in SMM-related studies.
Findings
The influence of SMM is concentrated in information behavior research in the field of library and information science (LIS). The 1992 book chapter From the mind’s eye of the user was most frequently cited, followed by the first SMM study from 1983; 14 of the 18 content categories were relevant to SMM. “Sensemaking,” at the core of SMM, was the most influential cited concept, primarily cited from the 1983 SMM-related study. Although the SMM was developed as a research method, it has not been primarily applied to design research methods in other studies.
Originality/value
This study explored the interdisciplinary influence of Dervin’s SMM from several aspects and demonstrated the complex information dynamics between SMM-related works and citing articles.
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This article aims to introduce a two‐dimensional instrument for the measurement of the social capital of professions. On a general level, the social capital of a profession is…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to introduce a two‐dimensional instrument for the measurement of the social capital of professions. On a general level, the social capital of a profession is defined as a source of power that allows a profession to further its goals and maintain its professional identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The measure is developed and tested by using data collected among Finnish dentists (N=1,302) in April 2012. The methods employed include confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), mean comparisons (ANOVA and t‐test) and OLS regression. Data analysis is guided by theories of social capital, especially the Putnamian tradition, and the literature on modern professions.
Findings
The first dimension of social capital is social cohesion, which consists of solidarity, trust, identification and commitment to professional ethical principles. The second dimension of social capital is network density, which includes both formal and informal professional networks. Social cohesion and network density are positively correlated. By conceptualizing social capital as an individual‐level attribute, this research shows that the employment of dentists across the public and private sectors increases the social capital of the profession.
Originality/value
Until now no tools have been available for the measurement of the social capital of professions. The article also sheds new light on the nature of modern professions, their associations and sources of power in contemporary societies.
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This article attempts to tackle a fundamental methodological question in economics. The task is to investigate whether competing traditions in the history of economics are…
Abstract
This article attempts to tackle a fundamental methodological question in economics. The task is to investigate whether competing traditions in the history of economics are commensurable or not, that is, whether there is a firm ground on which a researcher could adjudicate the truth content of a theory. Thomas Kuhn in philosophy and Donald McClosky in economics among others are understood to advance the thesis that theories are incommensurable since there is no empirical ground to resort to in order to resolve disputes among traditions in economics. Karl Popper in philosophy and Mark Blaug in economics among others argue that theories are commensurable since there is a sharp and distinct criterion which could determine the scientific content of a theory. A more sophisticated version of Popper's falsificationism has been advanced in philosophy by Imre Lakatos and has been correspondingly followed in economics by Spiro Latsis, E. Roy Weintraub and others.