Ethics and social networking sites : a disclosive analysis of Facebook

Purpose – This paper aims to provide insights into the moral values embodied by a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based upon qualitative fieldwork, involving participant observation, conducted over a two-year period. The authors adopt the position that technology as well as humans has a moral character in order to disclose ethical concerns that are not transparent to users of the site. Findings – Much research on the ethics of information systems has focused on the way that people deploy particular technologies, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. By focusing on technology as a moral actor with reach across and beyond the internet, the authors reveal the complex and diffuse nature of ethical responsibility and the consequent implications for governance of SNS. Research limitations/implications – The authors situate their research in a body of work known as disclosive ethics, and argue for an ongoing process of evaluating SNS to reveal their moral importance. Along with that of other authors in the genre, this work is largely descriptive, but the paper engages with prior research by Brey and Introna to highlight the scope for theory development. Practical implications – Governance measures that require the developers of social networking sites to revise their designs fail to address the diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in this case. Such technologies need to be opened up to scrutiny on a regular basis to increase public awareness of the issues and thereby disclose concerns to a wider audience. The authors suggest that there is value in studying the development and use of these technologies in their infancy, or if established, in the experiences of novice users. Furthermore, flash points in technological trajectories can prove useful sites of investigation. Originality/value – Existing research on social networking sites either fails to address ethical concerns head on or adopts a tool view of the technologies so that the focus is on the ethical behaviour of users. The authors focus upon the agency, and hence the moral character, of technology to show both the possibilities for, and limitations of, ethical interventions in such cases.

A discourse on the non-method

In spite of the activism of professional bodies and researchers, empirical evidence shows that project management still does not deliver the expected benefits and promises. Hence, many have questioned the validity of the hegemonic rationalist paradigm anchored in the Enlightenment and Natural Sciences tradition supporting project management research and practice for the last 60 years and the lack of relevance to practice of the current conceptual base of project management. In order to address these limitations many authors, taking a post-modernist stance in social sciences, build on ‘pre-modern’ philosophies such as the Aristotelian one, specially emphasizing the role of praxis (activity), and phronesis (practical wisdom, prudence). Indeed, ‘Praxis … is the central category of the philosophy which is not merely an interpretation of the world, but is also a guide to its transformation …’ (Vazquez, 1977:. 149). Therefore, praxis offers an important focus for practitioners and researchers in social sciences, one in which theory is integrated with practice at the point of intervention. Simply stated, praxis can serve as a common ground for those interested in basic and applied research by providing knowledge of the reality in which action, informed by theory, takes place. Consequently, I suggest a ‘praxeological’ style of reasoning (praxeology being defined as study or science of human actions and conduct, including praxis, practices and phronesis) and to go beyond the ‘Theory-Practice’ divide. Moreover, I argue that we need to move away from the current dichotomy between the two classes ‘scholars experts-researchers’ and ‘managers/workers-practitioners-participants’. Considering one single class of ‘PraXitioner’, becoming a phronimos, may contribute to create new perspectives and open up new ways of thinking and acting in project situations. Thus, I call for a Perestroika in researching and acting in project management situations. My intent is to suggest a balanced praxeological view of the apparent opposition between social and natural science approaches. I explore, in this chapter, three key questions, covering the ontological, epistemological and praxeological dimensions of project management in action. 1. Are the research approaches being currently used appropriate for generating contributions that matter to both theory and practice with regards to what a ‘project’ is or to what we do when we call a specific situation ‘a project’? 2. On the basis of which intellectual virtues is the knowledge generated and what is the impact for theory and practice? 3. Are the modes of action of the practitioners ‘prudent’ and are they differentiating or reconciling formal and abstract rationality from substantive rationality and situated reasoning with regards to the mode of action they adopt in particular project situations? The investigation of the above questions leads me to debate about ‘Project Management-as-Praxis’, and to suggest ‘A’ (not ‘THE’) ‘praxeological’ style of reasoning and mode of inquiry – acknowledging a non-paradigmatic, subjective and kaleidoscopic perspective – for ‘Knowing-as-Practicing’ in project management. In short, this is about making a ‘Projects Science’ that matters.

Police ethics

Police are an essential part of the justice system. They are the frontline actors in keeping the peace, social stability and cohesion. Thus good governance relies on honest policing. However, there will always be at least a small group of corrupt police officers, even though Australians are culturally averse to corruption (Khatri, Tsang, & Begley, 2006). There have been many cases where the allegations of police corruption have reached to the highest levels of a state police force (Blanch, 1982) and, in the case of the Fitzgerald Inquiry (Fitzgerald, 1989), ended in a commissioner being convicted of corruption.

Mediation ethics in Australia : a case for rethinking the foundational paradigm

In contemporary Western society, including Australia, professional mediation practice has developed with a specifically defined foundational approach - a problem-solving, facilitative method, in which the mediator's intervention is centred on providing the parties with a series of formal steps to assist their communication and to steer them towards a self-determined and mutually agreeable resolution of the issues in dispute. Facilitative mediation developed, in part, as a response to the adversarial system of law and justice. In that system the parties are said to lose control of their dispute, and a decision is imposed on them which invariably puts one party in a losing position. Facilitative mediation has offered an alternative to this inevitable outcome by offering the parties a democratic, cost-effective, party-centred, empowering, interests-based and principled option for resolving their dispute.

Countering the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder epidemic: a question of ethics?

Recently in Australia, another media skirmish has erupted over the problem we currently call “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”. This particular event was precipitated by the comments of a respected District Court judge. His claim that doctors are creating a generation of violent juvenile offenders by prescribing Ritalin to young children created a great deal of excitement, attracting the attention of election-conscious politicians who appear blissfully unaware of the role played by educational policy in creating and maintaining the problem. Given the short (election-driven) attention span of government policymakers, I bypass government to question what those at the front line can do to circumvent the questionable practice of diagnosing and medicating young children for difficulties they experience in schools and with learning.

Constructions of asylum seekers and refugees in Australian political discourse

Immigration to Australia has long been the focus of negative political interest. In recent times, the proposal of exclusionary policies such as the Malaysia Deal in 2011 has fuelled further debate. In these debates, Federal politicians often describe asylum seekers and refugees as ‘illegal’, ‘queue jumpers’, and ‘boat people’. This paper investigates how the political discourse constructs asylum seekers and refugees during debates surrounding the Malaysia Deal in the Federal Parliament of Australia in 2011. Hansard Parliamentary debates were analysed to identify the underlying themes and constructions that permeate political discourse about asylum seekers and refugees. This paper argues that a dichotomous characterisation of legitimacy pervades their construction with this group constructed either as legitimate humanitarian refugees or as illegitimate ‘boat arrivals’. These constructions result in the misrepresentation of asylum seekers as illegitimate, undermining their right to protection under Australia’s laws and international obligations. This construction also represents a shift in federal political discourse from constructing asylum seekers as a border or security threat, towards an increasing preoccupation with this categorisation of people as legitimate, or illegitimate.

Parent-teacher engagement : a coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach

The accumulated evidence from more than four decades of education research strongly suggests that parent involvement in schools carries significant benefits for students as well as for the success of schools (e.g., Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Governments in Australia and overseas have supported parent involvement in schools with a range of initiatives while parent groups have indicated a strong desire for expanded school roles that include participation in formal educational processes namely curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Research has also signalled the need for teachers to engage parents rather than adopt traditional parent-school involvement practices so that parents can participate as joint educators in their children's schooling alongside teachers (Pushor, 2001). Actually improving the quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers to enable engagement however remains problematic. Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing originally emerged as an innovative approach in the context of teaching secondary school science. Coteaching brings together the collective expertise of several individuals to expand learning opportunities for students while cogenerative dialogues refer to sessions in which participants talk, listen, and learn from one another about the process (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing reportedly benefits students academically and socially while rewarding educators professionally and emotionally through the support and collaboration they receive from fellow coteachers. These benefits ensue because coteaching theoretically positions teachers at one another's elbows, providing new and different understandings about teaching based on first-hand perspectives and shared goals for assisting students to learn. This thesis proposes that coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing may provide a vehicle for improving quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers. To investigate coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing as a parent-teacher engagement mechanism, interpretive ethnographic case study research was conducted involving two parents and a secondary school teacher. Sociological ideas, namely Bourdieu's (1977) fields, habitus, and capitals, together with multiple dialectical concepts such as agency|structure (Sewell, 1992) and agency|passivity (Roth, 2007b, 2010) were assembled into a conceptual framework to examine parent-teacher relationships by describing and explaining cultural production and identity construction throughout the case study. Video and audio recordings of cogenerative dialogues and cotaught lessons comprised the chief data sources. Data were analysed using qualitative techniques such as discourse and conversation analysis to identify patterns and contradictions (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). The use of quality criteria detailed by Guba and Lincoln (2005) gives credence to the way in which ethical considerations infused the planning and conduct of this research. From the processes of data collection and analyses, three broad assertions were proffered. The findings highlight the significance of using multiple coordinated dialectical concepts for analysing the affordances and challenges of coteaching and cogenerative dialogues that include parents and teachers. Adopting the principles and purposes of coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing promoted trusting respectful relationships that generated an equitable culture. The simultaneous processes and tensions between logistics and ethics (i.e., the logistics|ethics dialectic) were proposed as a new way to conceptualise how power was redistributed among the participants. Knowledge of positive emotional energy and ongoing capital exchange conceived dialectically as the reciprocal interaction among cultural, social, and symbolic capitals (i.e., the dialectical relationship of cultural|social|symbolic capital) showed how coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing facilitated mutual understandings, joint decision-making, and group solidarity. The notion of passivity as the dialectical partner of agency explained how traditional roles and responsibilities were reconfigured and individual and collective agency expanded. Complexities that surfaced when implementing the coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach were outweighed by the multiple benefits that accrued for all involved. These benefits included the development of community-relevant and culturally-significant curricula that increased student agency and learning outcomes, heightened parent self-efficacy for participating in and contributing to formal educational processes, and enhanced teacher professionalism. This case study contributes to existing theory, knowledge and practice, and methodology in the research areas of parent-teacher relationships, specifically in secondary schools, and coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing. The study is particularly relevant given the challenges schools and teachers increasingly face to meaningfully connect with parents to better meet the needs of educational stakeholders in times of continual, complex, and rapid societal change.

Adapting an argumentation framework for online discourse analysis : a knowledge building approach

The use of online tools to support teaching and learning is now commonplace within educational institutions, with many of these institutions mandating or strongly encouraging the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning. Consequently, these institutions generally adopt a learning management system (LMS), with a fixed set of collaborative tools, in the belief that effective teaching and learning approaches will be used, to allow students to build knowledge. While some studies into the use of an LMS’s still identify continued didactic approaches to teaching and learning, the focus of this paper is on the ability of collaborative tools such as discussion forums, to build knowledge. In the context of science education, argumentation is touted as playing an important role in this process of knowledge building. However, there is limited research into argumentation in other domains using online discussion and a blended learning approach. This paper describes a study, using design research, which adapts a framework for argumentation that can be applied to other domains. In particular it will focus on an adapted social argumentation schema to identify argument in a discussion forum of N=16 participants in a secondary High School.

Ethics, Law and Health Care : a Guide for Nurses and Midwives

Understanding ethics and law in health care is an essential part of nurses’ and midwives’ professional standards. Ethics, Law and Health Care focuses on teaching applied ethics and law in a manner that illustrates the real world applications of these core components of the nursing and midwifery curriculum and practice. It equips readers with the ability to recognise and address legal and ethical issues that will arise in their professional practice. The book uses the four principles of biomedical ethics (autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice) together with the use of both the Nursing and Midwifery Codes of Ethics and Codes of Professional Conduct, issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, as a central means through which to analyse and approach ethical and legal issues. Ethics, Law and Health Care is scaffolded to assist readers in understanding legal and ethical principles, to integrate them in the context of a particular issue within professional practice, and provide them with a decision-making framework to take action in a professional context by utilising the Codes as well as state and federal law. Aided by pedagogical features such as case studies, review questions, further reading and a glossary of common terms, this book is an essential resource for students, academics and practitioners.

Moderation practices in a faculty of education : the four discourse model

Moderation of student assessment is a critical component of teaching and learning in contemporary universities. In Australia, moderation is mandated through university policies and through the new national university accreditation authority, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency which began operations in late January 2012 (TEQSA, 2012). The TEQSA requirement to declare details of moderation and any other arrangements used to support consistency and reliability of assessment and grading across each subject in the course of study is a radical step intended to move toward heightened accountability and greater transparency in the tertiary sector as well as entrenching evidence-based practice in the management of Australian academic programs. In light of this reform, the purpose of this project was to investigate and analyse current moderation practices operating within a faculty of education at a large urban university in Queensland, Australia. This qualitative study involved interviews with the unit coordinators (n=21) and tutors (n=8) of core undergraduate education units and graduate diploma units within the faculty. Four distinct discourses of moderation that academics drew on to discuss their practices were identified in the study. These were: equity, justification, community building, and accountability. These discourses, together with recommendations for changes to moderation practices are discussed in this paper.

Sexualities and sensitivities: Queer(y)ing the ethics of youth research in the field

In contemporary Western societies, the years between childhood and young adulthood are commonly understood to be (trans)formative in the reflexive project of sexual self-making (Russell et al. 2012). As sexual subjects in the making, youthful bodies, desires and sexual activities are often perceived as both volatile and vulnerable, thus subjected to instruction and discipline, protection and surveillance. Accordingly, young people’s sexual proximities are closely monitored by social institutions and ‘(hetero)normalising regimes’ (Warner 1999) for any signs that may compromise the end goal of development—a ‘normal’ reproductive heterosexual monogamous adult...

Critical discourse analysis

This chapter outlines the reasons why discourse analysis is an important dimension of critical social work practice. It brings to the forefront the very significant new contributions that sociologists focusing on the politics of recognition and redistribution, such as Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth, can make in casting a "new politics of critical social work". In making this case, it begins by discussing some key developments in discourse theory and analysis within the social sciences and how they relate to the normative concerns of social work, specifically social justice and its multiple interpretations. Developing an appropriate analytical framework for social work practice can be difficult because there are conflicting and overlapping definitions of discourse formulated from various theoretical and disciplinary standpoints (Fairclough, 1992; Macdonnell, 1991). There are many different accounts of discourse that have developed in the social sciences, which is partly a result of recent interest in discourse theory among a wide range of academic disciplines. Whether language has assumed more of a central focus as a result of increased academic interest, or whether there has been an increase in the social importance of language in the operations of power is open to question...

Design and ethics in digital mental health promotion

This chapter presents a case study of Participatory Design as a design framework for developing interactive digital tools for promoting children’s resilience. The author argues for a participatory methodology as an ethical approach that involves children as co-designers in the process from which they are traditionally excluded, namely the creative design process and the process of mental health promotion.

Conceptualising Women's Working Lives : Moving the Boundaries of Discourse

"Theoretical work on the career development of women has travelled a journey from critique to creation. Early work responded to and criticised a literature that focused on theorising male roles in a workplace that was conceptualised as providing vertical career paths primarily for middle class males. More recently theorists are creating new constructions and frameworks to enable a more holistic understanding of career, applicable to both women and men. These constructions include broadening the discussion from women’s careers to women’s working lives. This is the fifth book in the Sense Publishers Career Development Series. It features the vibrant work of contributors from around the world writing in the field of women’s working lives. It emphasises the need to explore theoretical connections and understandings in order to facilitate a more holistic and inclusive understanding of women’s working lives. The writers in the current volume acknowledge the changing roles of women, in both public and private spheres. Women’s roles in paid work are changing both in their nature and type of engagement. In addition, with an ageing population, women’s roles in care work are increasingly being extended from child care to aged care. This book provides a history of theorising about women's careers, in addition to presenting a focus on current empirical and theoretical work which contributes to understandings of women's working lives. It’s contributions both map the current discourse and challenge future work to extend the boundaries of that discourse."--publisher website