This paper assesses arguments that paying for housework compromises the moral integrity of either the buyer or seller or both. I find that none provides adequate justification for avoiding paying for housework. Instead, I argue that the vigorous pursuit of justice for women workers will best remedy injustice in service sector occupations, including paid housework.

Os discursos da Biblioteconomia brasileira são objeto de estudo desta pesquisa, que se concentrou nos artigos publicados durante a década de 1980 na Revista de Biblioteconomia de Brasília. Essa revista, cujo primeiro número foi publicado em 1973, encerrou suas atividades em 2001 e teve como foco as áreas de Biblioteconomia, Ciência da Informação, Arquivologia e afins. Com a intenção de discutir sobre dois conceitos centrais da Biblioteconomia - o de biblioteca e o de bibliotecário - analisamos as produções que versavam (...) sobre tais categorias de análise. A pesquisa é, então, considerada exploratória, de cunho bibliográfico, cujo método empregado foi o da análise de conteúdo. Essa década foi marcada pela importância da informação e da tecnologia como fatores responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento social e econômico do país. A biblioteca, nesse contexto de uma sociedade da informação, é marcada pela discussão da automação de seus serviços e produtos. O bibliotecário, visto como um profissional da informação, também tem um importante papel a desempenhar na sociedade, inclusive, o de estar ao lado dos mais vulneráveis. (shrink)

This paper describes a novel method for the delivery of an introductory module on survey sampling at a third?level institution. As part of the module, students undertake a practical survey that is of interest not only to themselves but also to university administrators and other module coordinators. Unlike many data collection activities used in class, these data have intrinsic value. This module is shown to produce students with a high level of expertise in survey sampling. It also fosters in students (...) wider generic capacities, such as information, communication and problem?solving skills and teamwork and leadership skills that prepare them for further study and employment. The emphasis on activity?based learning has led to increased student participation, improved examination results as well as enhanced student satisfaction with the module. (shrink)

Une approche de « regards croisés » est adoptée dans l’ouvrage que dirige ici Cynthia Cockburn en collaboration avec Dubravka Zarkov : d’une part, douze auteurs se répartissent sur deux postes d’observation, la Bosnie-Herzégovine et les Pays Bas et d’autre part, leurs points de vues sont spécifiques selon leurs appartenances professionnelles et disciplinaires. Le point focal du volume est contenu dans le titre, difficile à rendre en français : qu’est-ce qu’un « moment post..

This paper proposes a refocusing of consent for clinical genetic testing, moving away from an emphasis on autonomy and information provision, towards an emphasis on the virtues of healthcare professionals seeking consent, and the relationships they construct with their patients. We draw on focus groups with UK healthcare professionals working in the field of clinical genetics, as well as in-depth interviews with patients who have sought genetic testing in the UK’s National Health Service. We explore two aspects of consent: first, (...) how healthcare professionals consider the act of ‘consenting’ patients; and second how these professional accounts, along with the accounts of patients, deepen our understanding of the consent process. Our findings suggest that while healthcare professionals working in genetic medicine put much effort into ensuring patients’ understanding about their impending genetic test, they acknowledge, and we show, that patients can still leave genetic consultations relatively uninformed. Moreover, we show how placing emphasis on the informational aspect of genetic testing is not always reflective of, or valuable to, patients’ decision-making. Rather, decision-making is socially contextualised – also based on factors outside of information provision. A more collaborative on-going consent process, grounded in virtue ethics and values of honesty, openness and trustworthiness, is proposed. (shrink)

I develop an interpretation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concept of motor intentionality, one that emerges out of a reading of his presentation of a now classic case study in neuropathology—patient Johann Schneider—in Phenomenology of Perception. I begin with Merleau-Ponty's prescriptions for how we should use the pathological as a guide to the normal, a method I call triangulation. I then turn to his presentation of Schneider's unusual case. I argue that we should treat all of Schneider's behaviors as pathological, not only (...) his abstract movements, as is commonly acknowledged in the secondary literature, but also crucially his concrete movements. Using these facts of Schneider's illness, I reconstruct a ‘fundamental function’ of consciousness, as Merleau-Ponty called it, in which there are two kinds of bodily agency: the power of the body to be solicited by a situation and the power of the body to project a situation. I propose that these powers became dissociated in Schneider's case, as evidenced by his abstract and concrete movements, while in the normal case, these powers comprise a dynamic unity, enacted as motor intentionality. I also discuss how my interpretation complements Merleau-Ponty's assertion that motor intentions exist between mind and matter. (shrink)

Cet article s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une recherche doctorale portant sur les représentations de la séparation chez des enfants placés en Protection de l’enfance. Il s’intéresse ici spécifiquement au dessin de la famille de deux enfants d’âge de latence placés en foyer. L’article analyse chaque dessin en profondeur puis tente de dégager les éléments saillants communs aux enfants rencontrés, tout en les mettant en lien avec les mouvements transféro-contretransférentiels à l’œuvre dans ces rencontres-séparations. Ces dessins montrent de grandes difficultés de (...) représentation, les personnes dessinées sont peu différenciées. Cette indistinction pourrait être mise en lien avec le concept de mentalisation qui aurait été mis à mal par les traumatismes vécus par ces enfants. Mais ce trouble de la mentalisation semble aussi fonctionner comme un mécanisme de défense contre les reviviscences traumatiques et des mouvements pulsionnels agressifs. (shrink)

This paper examines the consequences of a culture of “personal ethics” when using new methodologies, such as the use of social media sites as a source of data for research. Using SM research as an example, this paper explores the practices of a number of actors and researchers within the “Ethics Ecosystem” which as a network governs ethically responsible research behaviour. In the case of SM research, the ethical use of this data is currently in dispute, as even though it (...) is seemingly publically available, concerns relating to privacy, vulnerability, potential harm and consent blur the lines of responsible ethical research behaviour. The findings point to the dominance of a personal, bottom-up, researcher-led, ‘ethical barometer’ for making decisions regarding the permissibility of using SM data. We show that the use of different barometers by different researchers can lead to wide disparities in ethical practice - disparities which are compounded by the lack of firm guidelines for responsible practice of SM research. This has widespread consequences on the development of shared norms and understandings at all levels, and by all actors within the Ethics Ecosystem, and risks inconsistencies in their approaches to ethical decision-making. This paper argues that this governance of ethical behaviour by individual researchers perpetuates a negative cycle of academic practice that is dependent on subjective judgements by researchers themselves, rather than governed by more formalised academic institutions such as the research ethics committee and funding council guidelines. (shrink)

Digital phenotyping for mental health is an emerging trend which uses digital data, derived from mobile applications, wearable technologies and digital sensors, to measure, track and predict the mental health of an individual. Digital phenotyping for mental health is a growing, but as yet underexamined, field. As we will show, the rapid growth of digital phenotyping for mental health raises crucial questions about the values that underpin and are reinforced by this technology, as well as regarding to whom it may (...) become valuable. In this commentary, we explore these questions by focusing on the construction of value across two interrelated domains: user experience and epistemologies on the one hand, and issues of data and ownership on the other. In doing so, we demonstrate the need for a deeper ethical and epistemological engagement with the value assumptions that underpin the promise of digital phenotyping for mental health. (shrink)

L’article s’intéresse aux hommes et aux femmes passés dans l’histoire à l’ombre de la figure « hermaphrodite ». Pour ce faire, il s’intéresse à eux dans le cadre familial, en cessant de les réduire à leurs particularités corporelles et génitales pour les replacer dans une perspective sociale. L’état hermaphrodite permet en effet d’interroger doublement la famille : d’une part parce qu’il brouille le jeu des projections identitaires habituellement à l’œuvre entre parents et enfants et entre membres de la fratrie, de (...) l’autre parce qu’il pose le problème majeur de l’infécondité et du mariage aussi bien pour celui ou celle qui en est victime que pour la cellule familiale dans son ensemble. L’extrême diversité des relations et des affects intrafamiliaux rencontrés rappelle que si l’hermaphrodisme a été puissamment structuré au xixe siècle en catégorie médicale, il ne peut être opérant en catégorie sociale. (shrink)

Gilbert Ryle famously wrote that practical knowledge (knowing how) is distinct from propositional knowledge (knowing that). This claim continues to have broad philosophical appeal, and yet there are many unsettled questions surrounding Ryle’s basic proposal. In this article, I return to his original work in order to perform some intellectual archeology. I offer an interpretation of Ryle’s concept of action that I call ‘adverbialism’. Actions are constituted by bodily behaviours performed in a certain mode, style or manner. I present various (...) challenges to adverbialism – scenarios in which it seems we publicly behave one way, but privately feel another. And I offer a response – Ryle’s stated practice of re-describing those situations in ways that pose no threat to his adverbialism. I also present an interpretation of practical knowledge in Ryle’s work. Knowing how is a special kind of action, undertaken only when we progressively self-modify our behaviours in the presence of new challenges or opportunities. (shrink)

In this article, I link the empirical hypothesis that neural representations of sensory stimulation near the body involve a unique motor component to the idea that the perceptual field is structured by skillful bodily activity. The neurophenomenological view that emerges is illuminating in its own right, though it may also have practical consequences. I argue that recent experiments attempting to alter the scope of these near space sensorimotor representations are actually equivocal in what they show. I propose resolving this ambiguity (...) by treating these representations as responsive to the development or degeneration of know-how—which can be isolated as an appropriate object for scientific investigation. (shrink)

In April 2020, close to the start of the first U.K. COVID-19 lockdown, the U.K. government announced the development of a COVID-19 contact tracing app, which was later trialled on the U.K. island, the Isle of Wight, in May/June 2020. United Kingdom surveys found general support for the development of such an app, which seemed strongly influenced by public trust. Institutions developing the app were called upon to fulfil the commitment to public trust by acting with trustworthiness. Such calls presuppose (...) that public trust associated with the app can emerge if the conditions for trustworthiness are met and that public trust is simplistic, i.e., linearly the sum of each member of the publics’ individual – U.K. government trust relationship. Drawing on a synthesis of the trust literature and fifteen interviews with members of the public trialling the app on the Isle of Wight, this paper aims to explore what trust mechanisms and relationships are at play when thinking about public trust in the context of the U.K. COVID-19 app. We argue that public trust is a complex social phenomenon and not linearly correlated with institutional trustworthiness. As such, attention needs to widen from calls for trustworthy infrastructures as a way to build public trust, to a deeper understanding of those doing the trusting; in particular, what or whom do people place their trust in when considering whether using the app and why. An understanding of this will help when trying to secure public trust during the implementation of necessary public health measures. (shrink)

BackgroundThe health sector aims to improve health outcomes and access to healthcare. At the same time, the sector relies on unsustainable environmental practices that are increasingly recognised to be catastrophic threats to human health and health inequities. As such, a moral imperative exists for the sector to address these practices. While strides are currently underway to mitigate the environmental impacts of healthcare, less is known about how health researchers are addressing these issues, if at all.MethodsThis paper uses an interview methodology (...) to explore the attitudes of UK health researchers using data-intensive methodologies about the adverse environmental impacts of their practices, and how they view the importance of these considerations within wider health goals.ResultsInterviews with 26 researchers showed that participants wanted to address the environmental and related health harms associated with their research and they reflected on how they could do so in alignment with their own research goals. However, when tensions emerged, their own research was prioritised. This was related to their own desires as researchers and driven by the broader socio-political context of their research endeavours.ConclusionTo help mitigate the environmental and health harms associated with data-intensive health research, the socio-political context of research culture must be addressed. (shrink)

The study of literary texts appears at the moment to stand at a decisive juncture. Trends in critical thinking over the last decades have questioned the possibility of recovering a text's historical meaning. At the same time, there is a newly insistent plea for a return to “history” in the interpretation of literature. Before a rapprochement can occur, however, we need to have a clearer understanding of how both historians and critics understand “history” and of the ways in which postmodernist (...) thought positions history and the role of the historian with respect to issues of literary interpretation at the forefront of contemporary critical debate. (shrink)

The moral standing of involuntary sterilization has long been subject to debate but has only recently been looked upon with disfavor. When sterilization of a mentally handicapped minor is entertained, issues of eugenics, medical ethics, and legal precedent specially arise. Ethics consultants and ethics committees have been asked to consider such cases.

After Gassendi and Descartes, thinkers who tried to explain and study the association of ideas first saw in this phenomenon a cause of error and madness. Progressively, though, whether it was described as “association” or as “connection” of ideas, it began to be seen as one principle of knowledge among others, until Condillac and Hume thought of it as the only principle of all our knowledge, and until xixth century psychology made it its fundamental law. But prior to the full (...) appropriation of this principle by xixth century psychology, early modern thinkers and philosophers have argued and hesitated about the nature of this phenomenon and its correct explanation. The papers edited here intend to study different kinds of problems that arise when one tries to define and give an account of this connection, as well of its various effects. Indeed, the connection of ideas disturbs some well-entrenched oppositions – between subject and object, nature and custom, or mechanical and spiritual – and urges us to reconsider the faculties of the mind. (shrink)

La famille ne se réduit ni à un réseau d’affections ni à un contrat, c’est une institution sociale. À ce titre, elle intéresse le droit, et quiconque veut la comprendre doit solliciter les savoirs juridiques qui la concernent. La tâche n’a rien d’évident puisque ces savoirs juridiques de la famille sont multiples, et résistent à la théorisation comme à la systématisation. Elle reste cependant indispensable car le désintérêt pour ces savoirs produit toutes sortes d’abstractions et de méconnaissances. Quelle philosophie de (...) la famille serait à même de les ressaisir et de s’y repérer néanmoins, quel point de vue respectueux de la complexité de l’objet le permettrait? Seule peut le faire une démarche philosophique sociale, qui reconnaît dans la famille une institution, qui mobilise les savoirs juridiques, et qui les rapporte à des considérations sociales et politiques globales. (shrink)

Forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) is an emerging technology that seeks to make probabilistic inferences regarding a person’s observable characteristics (“phenotype”) from DNA. The aim is to aid criminal investigations by helping to identify unknown suspected perpetrators, or to help with non-criminal missing persons cases. Here we provide results from the analysis of 36 interviews with those who have a professional stake in FDP, including forensic scientists, police officers, lawyers, government agencies and social scientists. Located in eight EU countries, these individuals (...) were asked for their views on the benefits and problems associated with the prospective use of FDP. While all interviewees distinguished between those phenotypic tests perceived to either raise ethical, social or political concerns from those tests viewed as less ethically and socially problematic, there was wide variation regarding the criteria they used to make this distinction. We discuss the implications of this in terms of responsible technology development. (shrink)

Patients are increasingly turning to medical crowdfunding as a way to cover their healthcare costs. In the case of Charlie Gard, an infant born with encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, crowdfunding was used to finance experimental nucleoside therapy. Although this treatment was not provided in the end, we will argue that the success of the Gard family’s crowdfunding campaign reveals a number of potential ethical concerns. First, this case shows that crowdfunding can change the way in which communal healthcare resources (...) are allocated. Second, within the UK’s National Health Service, healthcare is ostensibly not a market resource; thus, permitting crowdfunding introduces market norms that could commodify healthcare. Third, pressures inherent to receiving funds from external parties may threaten the ability of patients-cum-recipients to voluntarily consent to treatment. We conclude that while crowdfunding itself is not unethical, its use can have unforeseen consequences that may influence conceptions of healthcare and how it is delivered. (shrink)

History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn. By Elizabeth A. Clark.

Philippe Lejeune, spécialiste international de l'écriture autobiographique, enseigne au département de littérature de l'université Paris-Nord ; l'entretien, réalisé par Gabrielle Houbre et Florence Rochefort, s'est déroulé le 1er mars 1996, dans son bureau privé, à Fontenay-aux-Roses. Le texte qui suit en est une version réduite et légèrement réécrite. Vous avez publié plusieurs ouvrages analysant la pratique de l'écriture autobiographique - L'Autobiographie en France (1971), Le Pacte...

Investigations of iconicity in language, whereby interactants coordinate meaningful bodily actions to create resemblances, are prevalent across the human communication sciences. However, when it comes to analysing and comparing iconicity across different interactions and modes of communication, it is not always clear we are looking at the same thing. For example, tokens of spoken ideophones and manual depicting actions may both be analysed as iconic forms. Yet spoken ideophones may signal depictive and descriptive qualities via speech, while manual actions may (...) signal depictive, descriptive, and indexical qualities via the shape, movement, and placement of the hands in space. Furthermore, each may co-occur with other semiotics articulated with the face, hands, and body within composite utterances. The paradigm of iconicity as a single property is too broad and coarse for comparative semiotics, as important details necessary for understanding the range of human communicative potentialities may be masked. Here, we draw on semiotic approaches to language and communication, including the model of language as signalled via describing, indicating and/or depicting and the notion of non-referential indexicality, to illustrate the multidimensionality of iconicity in co-present interactions. This builds on our earlier proposal for analysing how different methods of semiotic signalling are combined in multimodal language use. We discuss some implications for the language and communication sciences and explain how this approach may inform a theory of biosemiotics. (shrink)

Concerns about research’s environmental impacts have been articulated in the research arena, but questions remain about what types of role responsibilities are appropriate to place on researchers, if any. The research question of this paper is: what are the views of UK health researchers who use data-intensive methods on their responsibilities to consider the environmental impacts of their research? Twenty-six interviews were conducted with UK health researchers using data-intensive methods. Participants expressed a desire to take responsibility for the environmental impacts (...) of their research, however, they were unable to consolidate this because there were often obstacles that prevented them from taking such role responsibilities. They suggested strategies to address this, predominantly related to the need for regulation to monitor their own behaviour. This paper discusses the implications of adopting such a regulatory approach as a mechanism to promote researchers’ role responsibilities using a neo-liberal critique. (shrink)

Rarement oeuvre littéraire aura autant pâti de l'éclat ­ des éclats ­ de son auteur. En effet, si George Sand bénéficie aujourd'hui d'une cote de popularité exceptionnelle parmi les personnalités qui ont marqué le XIXe siècle, ce n'est certes pas en raison de la réputation peu flatteuse qui s'attache à une production romanesque riche de plusieurs dizaines de titres. Les romans de Sand demeurent pour une large part mal aimés ­ trop vite jugés fades ou simplistes ­ mais ils sont (...) surtout .. (shrink)

Réunissant les contributions de spécialistes reconnus du Japon, des États-Unis, d’Italie, d’Angleterre et enfin, de France, ce livre fera assurément progresser la connaissance et la reconnaissance de Diderot politique. Éclipsée par celles de Montesquieu ou de Rousseau, relativis...

Social scientists have drawn attention to the role of hype and optimistic visions of the future in providing momentum to biomedical innovation projects by encouraging innovation alliances. In this article, we show how less optimistic, uncertain, and modest visions of the future can also provide innovation projects with momentum. Scholars have highlighted the need for clinicians to carefully manage the expectations of their prospective patients. Using the example of a pioneering clinical team providing deep brain stimulation to children and young (...) people with movement disorders, we show how clinicians confront this requirement by drawing on their professional knowledge and clinical expertise to construct visions of the future with their prospective patients; visions which are personalized, modest, and tainted with uncertainty. We refer to this vision-constructing work as recalibration, and we argue that recalibration enables clinicians to manage the tension between the highly optimistic and hyped visions of the future that surround novel biomedical interventions, and the exigencies of delivering those interventions in a clinical setting. Drawing on work from science and technology studies, we suggest that recalibration enrolls patients in an innovation alliance by creating a shared understanding of how the “effectiveness” of an innovation shall be judged. (shrink)

The UK Chief Medical Officer’s 2016 Annual Report, Generation Genome, focused on a vision to fully integrate genomics into all aspects of the UK’s National Health Service. This process of integration, which has now already begun, raises a wide range of social and ethical concerns, many of which were discussed in the final Chapter of the report. This paper explores how the UK’s 100,000 Genomes Project —the catalyst for Generation Genome, and for bringing genomics into the NHS—is negotiating these ethical (...) concerns. The UK’s 100 kGP, promoted and delivered by Genomics England Limited, is an innovative venture aiming to sequence 100,000 genomes from NHS patients who have a rare disease, cancer, or an infectious disease. GEL has emphasised the importance of ethical governance and decision-making. However, some sociological critique argues that biomedical/technological organisations presenting themselves as ‘ethical’ entities do not necessarily reflect a space within which moral thinking occurs. Rather, the ‘ethical work’ conducted by organisations is more strategic, relating to the politics of the organisation and the need to build public confidence. We set out to explore whether GEL’s ethical framework was reflective of this critique, and what this tells us more broadly about how genomics is being integrated into the NHS in response to the ethical and social concerns raised in Generation Genome. We do this by drawing on a series of 20 interviews with individuals associated with or working at GEL. (shrink)

Ce livre est la version écourtée d’une thèse d’histoire soutenue à l’université de Lyon II en 1993. S’il dispose d’une présentation matérielle soignée, on peut cependant regretter que certains des choix éditoriaux se soient exercés de façon aussi drastique au détriment de l’appareil scientifique (les notes critiques et la présentation des sources sont en particulier réduites à la portion congrue). Il est tout aussi dommage de voir que des documents, iconographiques ou autres, bénéficient d’un...

L’ouvrage de Beate Collet et Emmanuelle Santelli vient combler un manque qui pendant de longues années a freiné l’avancement des connaissances sur les populations françaises d’ascendance étrangère. Mieux encore, il fait le lien avec l’ensemble du corps social, montrant à la fois sur quels points les réalités de ces populations rejoignent celles de la société globale, et dans quels domaines elles se différencient. Cet ouvrage ambitieux nous livre une sociologie de la famille qui s’attaque à ce..