Search results for "Ambivalence"
showing 10 items of 58 documents
Perceptions, attitudes and ethical valuations: The ambivalence of the public image of biotechnology in Spain
2000
This paper analyzes the study of the public perception of biotechnology, comparing different studies made on the European and the Spanish national levels. It aims at testing the applicability of these kinds of studies, and describes some of their limits. The analysis shows clear ambivalence in the public response to distinct applications of this technology, pointing out the crucial differences between general moral valuation and attitude towards specific products. Taking into account this difference appears fundamental for the design of future perception studies able to more accurately reflect public understanding.
“Two Schools under one Roof” in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Exploring the challenges of group identity and deliberative values among Bosniak and Croat st…
2014
Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the challenge of engaging Bosniak and Croat students in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in deliberative democracy within the context “two schools under one roof,” students receiving education in the same school building, yet attending separate classes and following distinct curricula. Findings suggest that group identity for Bosniak students was strongly tied to “being Bosnian” while Croat students expressed ambivalence and unease about their identity, balancing feelings between having their home in BiH and maintaining their Croat roots. The students’ relationships were complicated by an imbalance in perceptions of power, discriminatory attitud…
“Heaven and Hell on Earth” A critical discourse analysis of religious terms in Norwegian autobiographies describing personal experience of mental hea…
2013
This article explores the use of religious terms in six Norwegian autobiographies written between 1925 and 2005 by people who themselves have been patients in the mental health services. Through a critical discourse analysis, we discuss the functions of religious discourse in the texts and its position in contrast to the medical discourse predominant in today's mental health services. It was found that religious (predominantly Christian) terms were used to varying degrees in all autobiographies as a means to capture the immensity and inherent ambivalence characteristic of mental health problems. Despite the “medical turn” in professional mental health discourse, there is no clear evidence o…
Attitude strength moderates adverse effects to questionnaire design
2018
The presentation and visual design of the “don’t know” category in rating scales on respondents’ behavior may have ambivalent effects. The hypothesis is that attitude strength toward the topic infl...
Secure and sustainable but not as prominent among the ambivalent: Attachment style and proenvironmental consumption
2021
Abstract Human activity has degraded the environment and contributed to numerous public health hazards. Thus, the United Nations recently made an urgent call to develop sustainable consumption practices. Although existing literature has acknowledged attachment style as a potential predictor of certain consumption responses, its influence on proenvironmental consumption has not yet been examined. We conducted a large-sampled study (N = 1397) on this topic and found securely attached individuals to report significantly higher scores on a scale measuring proenvironmental consumption compared to people with anxious/ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles, respectively. The latter two groups d…
Intergenerational support as a reaction to socio-economic crisis: alteration of solidarity within precarious Romanian households
2017
ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the tensions arising from the intersection of norms and practices of support in situations in which intergenerational support is the main household strategy for coping with precariousness in Romania. This paper describes competing meanings of solidarity and reveals gendered experiences of ambiguity with respect to the sustainability of help exchanges within the context of economic vulnerability. Romania displays high public acceptance of intergenerational support, while the country’s deficient social welfare system prompts families to intensify their help exchanges. Findings based on in-depth interviews suggest that private arrangements are compounded by unbalan…
Contribución al análisis sociológico de la creatividad y la digitalización del campo cultural: creación, intermediación y crisis
2019
The so-called transition to the digital paradigm is eroding the autonomy of the cultural field achieved during the XIX and XX Centuries, subjugating them to economic and technological dynamics. However, the hegemonic discourse tends to interpret this as an overall positive process for the creative domain, focusing on the increase in information resource and creativity tool availability. However, an analysis of the theories and concepts of the sociology of culture reveals a more ambivalent balance. While the notion of authorship and creation can be interpreted from a more cooperative and relativistic view it is arguable whether this concept can be eliminated altogether. Also, although cultur…
Ambivalent Déjà-vu: World War II in the poetry of the Northern Irish Troubles
2021
This article addresses how the poetry of the Northern Irish Troubles enters into a dialogue with the memory of World War II. Poems by Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and Sinéad Morrissey are analysed, showing how World War II is a controversial source of comparison for these poets. While World War II provides important ways of framing the suffering and claustrophobia of the Northern Irish conflict, evident differences also mean that such comparisons are handled warily and with some irony. The poems are highly self-conscious utterances that seek to unsettle and develop generic strategies in the light of traumatic suffering. This essay draws on Michael Rothberg’s concept of mult…
Can ambivalence hold potential for fat activism? An analysis of conflicting discourses on fatness in the Finnish column series Jenny’s Life Change
2018
In 2017, a publicly funded, nationwide campaign called the Scale Rebellion set out to address fatness through body positivity and fat activism in Finland, with a fat woman named Jenny Lehtinen havi...
Pre-paradigmatic Status of Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Systematic Literature Review
2013
Abstract Social entrepreneurship (SE) research has been presented in the literature as a field of action in a pre-paradigmatic state, a field that lacks an established epistemology. Despite that impediment, several qualitative and quantitative studies have already been undertaken on the sole base of some institutions’ worldview and without previous solidification of theory. Consequently, critics and social constructivists have found much ambivalence in these and owing to the resulting mess, even question SE's legitimization as a distinctive item of research. Articles on the topic of SE make use of a variety of frameworks, borrowing from neo-institutional or dialectic theory, bringing with t…