| 1. |
- Cocq, Coppélie, 1977-, et al.
(author)
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Online Surveillance in a Swedish Context : Between acceptance and resistance
- 2020
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In: Nordicom Review. - : De Gruyter Open. - 1403-1108 .- 2001-5119. ; 41:2, s. 179-193
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Users of digital media leave traces that corporations and authorities can harvest, systema-tise, and analyse; on the societal level, an overall result is the emergence of a surveillance culture. In this study, we examine how people handle the dilemma of leaving digital footprints: what they say they do to protect their privacy and what could legitimise the collection and storing of their data. Through a survey of almost 1,000 students at Umeå University in Sweden, we find that most respondents know that their data are used and choose to adjust their own behaviour rather than adopting technical solutions. In order to understand contemporary forms of surveillance, we call for a humanistic approach – an approach where hermeneutic and qualitative methods are central.
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| 2. |
-
Everyday life in the culture of surveillance
- 2023
-
Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the recent decades, the possibilities to surveil people have increased and been refined with the ongoing digital transformation of society. Surveillance can now go in any direction, and various forms of online surveillance saturate most people’s lives, which are increasingly lived in digital environments.To understand this situation and nuance the contemporary discussions about surveillance – not least in the highly digitalised context of the Nordic countries – we must adopt cultural and ethical perspectives in studying people’s attitudes, motives, and behaviours. The “culture of surveillance”, to borrow David Lyon’s term, is a culture where questions about privacy and publicness, and rights and benefits, are once again brought to the fore.This anthology takes up this challenge, with contributions from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical frameworks that discuss and shed light on the complexity of contemporary surveillance and thus problematise power relations between the many actors involved in the development and performance of surveillance culture. The contributions highlight how more and more actors and practices play a part in our increasingly digitalised society.The book is an outcome of the research project "iAccept: Soft surveillance – between acceptance and resistance", financed by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation. The anthology’s editors are project members, all based at Umeå University, Sweden: Lars Samuelsson, associate professor of philosophy; Coppélie Cocq, professor of Sámi studies and digital humanities; Stefan Gelfgren, associate professor of sociology of religion; and Jesper Enbom, associate professor of media studies.
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| 3. |
- Gelfgren, Stefan, Docent, 1971-, et al.
(author)
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Afterword : future directions for surveillance in practice and research
- 2023
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In: Everyday life in the culture of surveillance. - : Nordicom. - 9789188855725 - 9789188855732 ; , s. 205-211
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The contributions in this book shed light on the complexity of surveillance in a digital age and problematise power relations between the many actors involved in the development and performance of surveillance culture. More and more actors and practices play an increasing role in our contemporary digitalised society, and the chapters show how people negotiate surveillance in their use of digital media, often knowingly leaving digital footprints, and sometimes trying to avoid surveillance. The digital transformation will continue in the foreseeable future. The coordination and analysis of data is viewed by many government agencies, corporations, and other actors as important tools for improving public administration, health, and economic growth. For this development to be legitimate, it is important that hard values, such as technical and legal developments, and soft values, such as ethical and cultural values, are taken into consideration.
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| 4. |
- Gelfgren, Stefan, Docent, 1971-, et al.
(author)
-
Introduction : the complex web of everyday surveillance
- 2023
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In: Everyday life in the culture of surveillance. - : Nordicom. - 9789188855725 - 9789188855732 ; , s. 9-20
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The possibilities to surveil people have increased and been further refined with the implementation of digital communication over the last couple of decades, and with the ongoing process of digital transformation, surveillance can now go in any direction, leaving a label such as “surveillance state” somewhat outdated. Corporations and governmental organisations may surveil people, people may surveil each other, and surveillance may take place in subtle ways that are difficult for the surveilled to detect. In David Lyon’s terms, we are living in a “culture of surveillance”, a culture that surrounds and affects our everyday life. Today, it is of utmost relevance to study people’s attitudes, motives, and behaviours in relation to the fact that we live in a culture of surveillance. This includes the need for cultural and ethical perspectives to understand and nuanced contemporary discussions on surveillance, not least in the highly digitalised context of the Nordic countries. The chapters in this anthology address these issues from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical frameworks.
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| 5. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-
(author)
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Den nya syntesen och etik i undervisningen
- 2018
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In: Nordidactica. - Karlstad : CSD Karlstad. - 2000-9879. ; :2018:3, s. 27-43
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Researchers within the educational field usually acknowledge the idea that teaching is an essentially moral activity. Yet, they seem to have different opinions on how teachers are supposed to complete that task in their everyday pedagogical practice. Jonathan Haidt has conducted a series of international studies, during recent years, revealing how people in general tend to respond ethically to situations that evoke strong emotional reactions. Based on the results he has presented a theory, the New Syntheses, in which he claims to explain the difference between the dominating moral pedagogical models and develop new approaches to teaching ethics. The present paper is based on a survey of Swedish teacher students and religious education teachers for which we have borrowed two of Jonathan Haidts examples. We discuss the New Synthesis in relation to the results of the surveys and the ethical dimension of the teaching profession. We argue that these results indicate a need for teacher students and teachers to consciously reflect on their values and methods for approaching ethics in education.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Lärares yrkesetik och etiskt resonerande
- 2018. - 1
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In: Läraren och yrkesetiken. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144120881 ; , s. 59-81
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- En uppsättning yrkesetiska principer sätter ramar och ger riktlinjer för lärares verksamhet, men ofta är sådana principer i sig själva inte tillräckliga för att ge den vägledning som krävs för att lösa konkreta etiska problem. För det krävs också att läraren besitter färdigheter relevanta för att hantera etiska frågor, i synnerhet en förmåga till etiskt resonerande.
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| 8. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Moral Taste and Moral Education : An Interview Study
- 2021
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In: Abstract Book 23rd Annual International Conference on Education. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605984021 ; , s. 46-
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In recent research on moral psychology, the human consciousness has been compared to a tongue, with different taste buds, which together can cause a variety of sensations. According to this theory people, in general, have a preparedness to react to situations, which can provide opportunities or pose threats in a social context. Moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt (2012, 2013), has described these receptors as pairs, for example: care/harm, justice/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, holiness/degradation, and liberty/oppression. Which of these foundations the individual develops a taste for depends, largely, on the social and cultural context (Graham, Haidt & RimmKaufman 2008). Hence, the choices teachers make of which issues to address and in what way can contribute to a learning environment that influences their pupils‘ moral outlook. The purpose of this study is to investigate which of these moral intuitions or taste preferences that teachers want to endorse and cultivate in their pedagogical practices. Against this background, a number of qualitative research interviews were conducted with experienced teachers in the non-confessional subject religious education (RE), who have a particular responsibility for moral education in the Swedish school system. The interviews were partly based on a modified version of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which was deliberately developed in order to determine the participants‘ moral taste, and the participants were asked to elaborate their answers (Graham, Haidt & Nosek, 2008). The results of our study indicate that the participants tended to favour care and justice over loyalty, authority and holiness. As one of the participants puts it: "many of my examples relate to the weak and vulnerable or the ones that are denied their rights in society… these pedagogical choices are based on the content of the curriculum but also mirror my own preferences". In this paper we will analyze the interviews with the RE teachers and critically discuss the consequences the moral foundations theory have for moral education.
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| 9. |
- Lindström, Niclas, docent, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Moral Taste and Moral Education : An Interview Study
- 2022
-
In: Athens Journal of Education. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 2407-9898 .- 2241-7958. ; 9:3, s. 365-376
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In recent research on moral psychology, the human consciousness has been compared to a tongue, with different taste buds, which together can cause a variety of sensations. According to this theory, people in general have a preparedness to react to situations, which can provide opportunities or pose threats in a social context. Moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, has described these receptors as pairs, for example: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/degradation. Which of these foundations the individual develops a taste for depends, largely, on the social and cultural context. Hence, the choices teachers make of which issues to address and in what way can contribute to a learning environment that influences their pupils’ moral outlook. The purpose of this study is to investigate which of these moral intuitions or taste preferences that teachers want to endorse and cultivate in their pedagogical practices. Against this background, a number of qualitative research interviews were conducted with experienced teachers in the non-confessional subject religious education (RE), who have a particular responsibility for moral education in the Swedish school system. The interviews were based on a modified version of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which was deliberately developed to determine the participants’ moral taste, and the participants were asked to elaborate their answers. The results indicate that the participants tended to favour harm and fairness over loyalty, authority and sanctity. As one of the participants puts it: “many of my examples relate to the weak and vulnerable or the ones that are denied their rights in society… these pedagogical choices are based on the content of the curriculum but also mirror my own preferences”. In this paper we analyse the interviews with the RE teachers and critically discuss the consequences the moral foundations theory has for moral education.
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| 10. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
On how RE Teachers Address the Sometimes-Conflicting Tasks of Conveying Basic Values and Tools for Critical Thinking
- 2020
-
In: Abstract Book. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605983253 ; , s. 41-41
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A recurring idea, among practitioners and researchers, is that “teaching is a moral endeavour” where any act can convey “moral meaning” and “influence students” (Hansen, 2001, 826; Bulloughs, 2010; Campbell, 2013). Some have even stated that “all that can be seen and heard in classrooms” can be of moral significance, including “events, actions and even aspects of the physical environment” (Jackson, Boostrom & Hansen, 1998). Yet, they seem to be divided on how teachers ought to treat ideals, norms and values in their pedagogical practices.Hence, a division is often made between character-based and reason-based approaches to moral or ethics education. The difference can, somewhat simplified, be described schematically by their respective emphasis on group or individual, emotion or reason, habituation or critical assessment of universal ethical principles (for a more elaborated account see: Kohlberg, 1966, 2; Carr, 1983, 39; Graham, Haidt & Rimm-Kaufman, 2008, 271, 275). Even if the approaches are often described as mutually exclusive alternatives teachers are, nevertheless, often expected to perform these tasks in their everyday practices (see SNAE 2011).Against this background, we have conducted qualitative research interviews, with religious education (RE) teachers, who are considered to have a particular responsibility for moral and ethics education in the Swedish school system (Almén, 2000; Hartman, 2008; Larsson, 2009; Franck & Löfstedt, 2015). Our overall aim of this paper is to investigate how they relate to the sometimes conflicting responsibilities to convey a set of basic values and contribute to the pupils’ abilities to critically examine ideals, norms and values. Our analysis of the results shows that RE teachers use different strategies to describe and motivate their pedagogical choices (Yin, 1994; Bryman, 2008). We will, for instance, distinguish between a casuist-, a rights-, and an existentialist oriented approach to moral and ethics education and perform a critical discussion of the results.
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| 11. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
On how RE Teachers Address the Sometimes Conflicting Tasks of Conveying Fundamental Values and Facilitating Critical Thinking
- 2022
-
In: Athens Journal of Education. - : Athens Institute for Education and Research. - 2407-9898 .- 2241-7958. ; 9:1, s. 23-36
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Teachers in the non-confessional Swedish subject religious education have conflicting responsibilities to convey values and facilitate critical thinking. The research regarding these responsibilities has often been considered a theoretical problem and the discussion has concerned theoretical solutions. However, the problem is not only theoretical. It is in fact also a practical problem that many teachers frequently encounter. The overall aim of this paper is thus to draw attention to these conflicting responsibilities as a practical problem that teachers face and are expected to solve in their pedagogical practices. In line with this aim, a number of qualitative research interviews were conducted with experienced religious education teachers, who are considered to have a particular responsibility for moral education in the Swedish school system. The purpose of the interviews was to investigate how they relate to their sometimes conflicting responsibilities and consequently make an empirically informed contribution to the debate. This is an important task since there are no official guidelines on how teachers are to balance these responsibilities in their pedagogical practices.
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| 12. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Reason and Emotion : How Teachers Respond to Ethical Problems
- 2018
-
In: ATINER'S Conference Paper Series. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). ; , s. 1-14
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Teachers frequently face ethical problems in their everyday practice – ranging from pedagogical choices affecting their pupils to pressing conflicts that need to be solved – and they are expected to respond to such problems in a professional manner. Given the centrality of the ethical dimension to the teaching profession, an important question is how teachers tend to approach such problems. While some studies have been carried out regarding how teachers in particular approach ethical problems, there are interesting studies revealing how people in general tend to respond ethically to situations involving ethical aspects that evoke strong emotional reactions. Aiming to fill parts of this gap, the present paper is based on a survey of Swedish teacher students and religious education (RE) teachers for which we have borrowed two examples from such general studies (carried out by Jonathan Haidt among others). These examples were chosen on the basis that one of them clearly represent a social taboo in a Swedish context while the other one does not. Letting the teacher students and RE teachers respond to both examples give us an indication of whether there is any significant difference in their approach to an example evoking a strong emotional reaction as opposed to a more neutral one. It is clear from our survey that there is such a difference: the respondents generally make rationally motivated judgments when confronted with the neutral example, while most of them seem to rely on gut feeling in the more provoking case. If these results can be taken as an indication of how teacher students and teachers tend to respond to real life situations, a provoking or emotionally laden context is likely to enhance the risk of making ethical choices which are not based on rational reasoning. We argue that these results emphasize the importance for teacher students as well as already practicing teachers to study, and cultivate the ability for, moral reasoning.
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| 13. |
- Lindström, Niclas, docent, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Three Approaches of How to Address Controversial Issues in Education
- 2022
-
In: Abstract Book. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605984755 ; , s. 85-86
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A recurring idea in the educational debate is that we live in a time of polarization, where people hold radically different beliefs, which makes it difficult for us to communicate with each other (e.g., Noddings & Brooks, 2017; Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018; Boghossian & Lindsey, 2019). It is, however, the teachers’ responsibility to address the controversial issues that tend to divide individuals or groups. Such issues may, for example, include moral dilemmas, extremism, terrorism, politics and religion (e.g. Moore & Kyser, 2014; Sjöborg, 2015; McDonough, 2016; Revell & Christopher, 2021). There is no generally accepted definition of controversial issues in the research literature. Most definitions, however, contain what we describe as emotional, cognitive and evaluative elements. Hence, controversial issues are matters about which individuals or groups tend to get upset and disagree, about which individuals or groups tend to hold conflicting explanations, and about which individuals or groups create solutions based on different values (e.g., Cooling, 2012; Hand, 2008; Ljunggren et al., 2015; Stradling, 1984; Lindström & Sullivan, 2021). Which aspects of controversial issues researchers emphasize seem to rely on a variety of factors, however, we argue that it depends on how they perceive the principal aim of education.In this paper, we will provide a division of three educational approaches to controversial issues, which are prevalent in the research literature and among teachers in their pedagogical practices. If the principal aim of education is:that students should develop without being disturbed by unsettling or threatening content, it is important that the teachers can create safe learning environments, which is characteristic of an emotional perspective of controversial issues (see: Stradling, 1984; Hickey, 2016; Cush, 2007; Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018 ).to develop the students’ ability to think and act rationally, they should be provided with opportunities to review arguments from different points of view and learn how to make well-grounded assessments, which is characteristic of a cognitive perspective of controversial issues (see: Hand, 2008; Boghossian & Lindsay, 2019).to contribute to the pupils’ ability to feel empathy, look beyond people´s differences and work for a fair community, they must be exposed to specific personal stories that can facilitate their understanding of others (see: Stradling, 1984; Cooling, 2012; Noddings & Brooks, 2017).In this paper, we will provide examples of these positions and discuss to which extent they are attainable and valuable ends to strive against in an educational practice.
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| 14. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Using interactive tools and teaching methods to prepare teacher students for the task of conveying basic values
- 2016
-
In: EDULEARN16 Proceedings. - Valencia : IATED Academy. - 9788460888604 ; , s. 7197-7201
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Generally, teachers are expected to convey certain basic values to their pupils in addition to the task of mediating knowledge. These values differ between different countries and may be either implicitly taken for granted within the educational system or explicitly established in regulatory documents. In light of this aspect of the teacher profession, we take it to be an important ingredient in the teacher education to prepare teacher students for the task of conveying such basic values. The present paper focuses on pedagogical challenges in relation to this task. In order to investigate the evaluative profiles of the teacher students and develop this aspect of the teacher education, we have worked according to a model with three distinct phases. (1) A survey was designed, using interactive tools and deliberately choosing questions in relation to (a) the task provided by The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) of conveying a set of basic values, and (b) more extensive international studies. (2) Students were invited to answer the survey, where they received direct feedback, providing the basis for problematizing and discussing their evaluations in relation to alternative views. In addition their answers provided information for us to map their evaluative profile. (3) The evaluative profile wasin turn put in relation to the basic values of their future profession and international research. Hence the students were engaged in creating a substantial part of the study material of the course used as apoint of departure for critical analysis and discussion, making the students aware of their own evaluative profile and alternative points of view. We believe that such an increased awareness of one’s own evaluative profile is one prerequisite to develop a professional attitude to conveying both individual and social values in the teacher’s pedagogical practice and meet the requirements from SNAE and the challenges of evaluatively diverse teaching environments. In this paper we present our method and explain how it can be used as a general model for working with values in the teacher education.
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| 15. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Using interactive tools and teaching methods to prepare teacher students for the task of conveying basic values
- 2016
-
In: EDULEARN16 Proceedings. - Valencia : IATED Academy. - 9788460888604
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Generally, teachers are expected to convey certain basic values to their pupils in addition to the task of mediating knowledge. These values differ between different countries and may be either implicitly taken for granted within the educational system or explicitly established in regulatory documents. In Sweden the curriculum for the upper secondary school states that “[e]ach and everyone working in the school should… encourage respect for the intrinsic value of each person and the environment we all share […] this is to be achieved by nurturing in the individual a sense of justice, generosity, tolerance and responsibility” (The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) 2012). In light of this aspect of the teacher profession, we take it to be an important ingredient in the teacher education to prepare teacher students for the task of conveying such basic values. The present paper focuses on challenges in relation to this task.As researchers and teachers in the Swedish teacher education we have had the opportunity to address the value-conveying task of the teacher profession in both research and education. In addressing this task, the typical evaluative profile of the teacher students has turned out to be an interesting challenge. According to previous studies, Swedes in general (Inglehart 2015) including Swedish teacher students (Authors 2016a), tend to embrace individualist values and reject more social values. This kind of individualist evaluative profile is potentially problematic in relation to the task of conveying basic values, since it typically comes with a tendency to view values as a private matter, something that the school should not interfere with (Authors 2016b).In order to investigate the evaluative profiles of the teacher students and develop this aspect of the teacher education, we have worked according to a model with three distinct phases.(1) A survey was constructed, using interactive tools such as Mentimeter and Lime Survey, deliberately choosing questions in relation to (a) the task provided by SNAE of conveying a set of basic values, and (b) relevant international studies (cf. Inglehart & Baker 2000). (2) Students were invited to answer the survey, where they received direct feedback, providing the basis for problematizing and discussing their evaluations in relation to alternative views. In addition their answers provided information for us to map their evaluative profile. (3) The evaluative profile was in turn put in relation to the basic values of their future profession and international research. Hence the students were engaged in creating a substantial part of the study material of the course, used as a point of departure for critical analysis and discussion, making the students aware of their own evaluative profile and alternative points of view. We believe that such an increased awareness of one’s own evaluative profile is one prerequisite to develop a professional attitude to conveying both individual and social values in the teacher’s pedagogical practice and meet the requirements from SNAE and the challenges of a multicultural teaching environment. Our teaching method has also resulted in research which has been used in order to further develop the content of the course (Authors 2016a; 2016b). In this paper we present our method and explain how it can be used as a general model for working with values in the teacher education.
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| 16. |
- Lindström, Niclas, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Which values are reproduced within the swedish educational system?
- 2016
-
In: Usuteaduslik Ajakiri / The Estonian Theological Journal. - Tartu : Estonian Theological Society. - 1406-6564. ; 69:1, s. 49-61
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Using the World Values Survey (WVS) as a background the paper discusses a tension between the general evaluative outlook of Swedish teacher students and the educational values established by The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE). According to the results from WVS, which maps evaluative differences between approximately 80 countries in the world, Sweden stands out as a country that rejects traditional values and embraces so called secular self-expression values. However, the values established by SNAE include both traditional values, such as “sharing a common cultural heritage”, and secular self-expression values, such as “individual freedom and integrity”. Against this background we conducted a survey of 179 Swedish teacher students in order to investigate the relation between their evaluative outlook and the values they are supposed to convey to their pupils as established by SNAE. The result of the survey indicates that these students do not differ in any significant respect from the Swedish population in general as regards secular vs traditional evaluations. The fact that the traditional values emphasized by SNAE seem to be scarcely represented among the teacher students, makes questionable whether they will be present in their future teaching. On the assumptions that there are important educational values among the traditional as well as the secular self-expression ones, and that values are reproduced within an educational system, we argue that there is reason to take the imbalance in the evaluative outlook of the students seriously.
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| 17. |
- Magnuson, Martin, 1965-, et al.
(author)
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Compositional dependence of epitaxial Tin+1SiCn MAX-phase thin films grown from a Ti3SiC2 compound target
- 2019
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In: Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. A. Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 0734-2101 .- 1520-8559. ; 37:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The authors investigate sputtering of a Ti3SiC2 compound target at temperatures ranging from RT (no applied external heating) to 970 °C as well as the influence of the sputtering power at 850 °C for the deposition of Ti3SiC2 films on Al2O3(0001) substrates. Elemental composition obtained from time-of-flight energy elastic recoil detection analysis shows an excess of carbon in all films, which is explained by differences in the angular distribution between C, Si, and Ti, where C scatters the least during sputtering. The oxygen content is 2.6 at. % in the film deposited at RT and decreases with increasing deposition temperature, showing that higher temperatures favor high purity films. Chemical bonding analysis by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows C–Ti and Si–C bonding in the Ti3SiC2 films and Si–Si bonding in the Ti3SiC2 compound target. X-ray diffraction reveals that the phases Ti3SiC2, Ti4SiC3, and Ti7Si2C5 can be deposited from a Ti3SiC2 compound target at substrate temperatures above 850 °C and with the growth of TiC and the Nowotny phase Ti5Si3Cx at lower temperatures. High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy shows epitaxial growth of Ti3SiC2, Ti4SiC3, and Ti7Si2C5 on TiC at 970 °C. Four-point probe resistivity measurements give values in the range ∼120 to ∼450 μΩ cm and with the lowest values obtained for films containing Ti3SiC2, Ti4SiC3, and Ti7Si2C5.
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| 18. |
- Magnuson, Martin, 1965-, et al.
(author)
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Reactive magnetron sputtering of tungsten target in krypton/trimethylboron atmosphere
- 2019
-
In: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 688
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- W-B-C films were deposited on Si(100) substrates held at elevated temperature by reactive sputtering from a W target in Kr/trimethylboron (TMB) plasmas. Quantitative analysis by Xray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) shows that the films are W-rich between ~ 73 and ~ 93 at.% W. The highest metal content is detected in the film deposited with 1 sccm TMB. The C and B concentrations increase with increasing TMB flow to a maximum of ~18 and ~7 at.%, respectively, while the O content remains nearly constant at 2-3 at.%. Chemical bonding structure analysis performed after samples sputter-cleaning reveals C-W and B-W bonding and no detectable W-O bonds. During film growth with 5 sccm TMB and 500 o C or with 10 sccm TMB and 300-600 o C thin film X-ray diffraction shows the formation of cubic 100-oriented WC1-x with a possible solid solution of B. Lower flows and lower growth temperatures favor growth of W and W2C, respectively. Depositions at 700 and 800 o C result in the formation of WSi2 due to a reaction with the substrate. At 900 o C, XPS analysis shows ~96 at.% Si in the film due to Si interdiffusion. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal a fine-grained microstructure for the deposited WC1-x films. Nanoindentation gives hardness values in the range from ~23 to ~31 GPa and reduced elastic moduli between ~220 and 280 GPa in the films deposited at temperatures lower than 600 o C. At higher growth temperatures the hardness decreases by a factor of 3 to 4 following the formation of WSi2 at 700-800 o C and Si-rich surface at 900 o C.
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| 19. |
- Rist, Lucy, et al.
(author)
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Avoiding the pitfalls of adaptive management implementation in Swedish silviculture
- 2016
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In: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45, s. 140-151
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There is a growing demand for alternatives to Sweden’s current dominant silvicultural system, driven by a desire to raise biomass production, meet environmental goals and mitigate climate change. However, moving towards diversified forest management that deviates from well established silvicultural practices carries many uncertainties and risks. Adaptive management is often suggested as an effective means of managing in the context of such complexities. Yet there has been scepticism over its appropriateness in cases characterised by large spatial extents, extended temporal scales and complex land ownership—characteristics typical of Swedish forestry. Drawing on published research, including a new paradigm for adaptive management, we indicate how common pitfalls can be avoided during implementation. We indicate the investment, infrastructure, and considerations necessary to benefit from adaptive management. In doing so, we show how this approach could offer a pragmatic operational model for managing the uncertainties, risks and obstacles associated with new silvicultural systems and the challenges facing Swedish forestry.
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| 20. |
- Samuelsson, Carolina, 1975-
(author)
-
Glutamate Turnover and Energy Metabolism in Brain Injury : Clinical and Experimental Studies
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During brain activity neurons release the major excitatory transmitter glutamate, which is taken up by astrocytes and converted to glutamine. Glutamine returns to neurons for re-conversion to glutamate. This glutamate-glutamine cycle is energy demanding. Glutamate turnover in injured brain was studied using an animal iron-induced posttraumatic epilepsy model and using neurointensive care data from 33 patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Immunoblotting revealed that the functional form of the major astrocytic glutamate uptake protein GLT-1 was decreased 1-5 days following a cortical epileptogenic iron-injection, presumably due to oxidation-induced aggregation. Using microdialysis it was shown that the GLT-1 decrease was associated with increased interstitial glutamate levels and decreased interstitial glutamine levels. The results indicate a possible posttraumatic and post-stroke epileptogenic mechanism. Analysing 3600 microdialysis hours from patients it was found that the interstitial lactate/pyruvate (L/P) ratio correlate with the glutamine/glutamate ratio (r =-0.66). This correlation was as strong as the correlation between L/P and glutamate (r=0.68) and between lactate and glutamate (r=0.65). Pyruvate and glutamine correlated linearly (r=0.52). Energy failure periods, defined as L/P>40, were associated with high interstitial glutamate levels. Glutamine increased or decreased during energy failure periods depending on pyruvate. Energy failure periods were clinically associated with delayed ischemic neurological deficits (DIND) or development of radiologically verified infarcts, confirming that L/P>40 is a pathological microdialysis pattern that can predict ischemic deterioration after SAH. DIND-associated microdialysis patterns were L/P elevations and surges in interstitial glutamine. Glutamine and pyruvate correlated with the cerebral perfusion pressure (r=0.25, r=0.24). Glutamine and the glutamine/glutamate ratio correlated with the intracranial pressure (r=-0.29, r=0.40). Glutamine surges appeared upon substantial lowering of the intracranial pressure by increased cerebrospinal fluid drainage. Increased interstitial glutamine and pyruvate levels may reflect augmented astrocytic glycolysis in recovering brain tissue with increased energy demand due to a high glutamate-glutamine turnover.
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| 21. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
A Counterfactual Argument for Environmentalists to Endorse Non-Instrumental Value in Nature
- 2021
-
In: Abstract Book. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605984045 ; , s. 27-28
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Environmentalists care about nature. Often, they reason and act as if they consider nature to be valuable for its own sake, i.e., to have non-instrumental value (often referred to as intrinsic value). Yet, there is a rather widespread reluctance, even among environmentalists, to explicitly ascribe such value to nature. One important explanation for this is probably the thought that such value, at least when attached to nature, is mysterious in one way or another. Anthropocentrists within environmental ethics have argued that the idea of non-instrumental value in nature is problematic in various ways (see Samuelsson, 2010a, for references), and some so called environmental pragmatists have maintained that a focus on non-instrumental value in nature among environmentalists is counter-productive (see Samuelsson, 2010b, for a critical account of such environmental pragmatism). In addition, Bryan Norton‘s influential convergence hypothesis states that from a practical point of view it makes no or little difference whether we ascribe noninstrumental value to nature, given the depth and variety of instrumental value that it possesses (Norton, 1991, 237-43).Several environmental ethicists have provided replies to this pessimistic outlook on the prospects for non-instrumental value in nature (e.g., Callicott, 1995; McShane, 2007). In this paper we add to this list of replies by providing a counter-factual argument, applying to anyone who genuinely cares about nature, for ascribing non-instrumental value to it. Even if we accept, for the sake of argument, something like the convergence hypothesis, relying on nature‘s instrumental value for preservational purposes is risky business for environmentalists. We can easily imagine a scenario where some crucial instrumental value that is in fact (now) possessed by some preservation-worthy natural entity (such as a species or a diverse and unique ecosystem) is absent. Yet, even under such circumstances, environmentalists would generally want to preserve this entity. In other words, the convergence hypothesis can only be contingently true, and once we acknowledge this fact it becomes clear that giving up on the non-instrumental value of nature means losing an important source for providing arguments to the effect that we ought to preserve certain natural entities.In the paper we develop this argument, go through some possible replies to it and briefly consider the theoretical costs that might be involved in ascribing non-instrumental value to nature. We argue that with respect to most accounts of such value, whatever theoretical costs one might claim to be involved in ascribing such value to nature, these costs are not higher than the costs of ascribing it to anything else.
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| 22. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
A Counterfactual Argument for Environmentalists to Endorse Non-Instrumental Value in Nature
- 2021
-
In: ATINER'S Conference Paper Series. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). ; , s. 1-15
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Environmentalists care about nature. Often, they reason and act as if they consider nature to be valuable for its own sake, i.e., to have non-instrumental value. Yet, there is a rather widespread reluctance, even among environmentalists, to explicitly ascribe such value to nature. One important explanation of this is probably the thought that it would be mysterious in one way or another if nature possessed such value. In addition, Bryan Norton’s influential convergence hypothesis states that, from a practical point of view, it makes no or little difference whether we ascribe non-instrumental value to nature, given the depth and variety of instrumental value that it possesses. In this paper we provide a counterfactual argument, applying to anyone who genuinely cares about nature, for endorsing non-instrumental value in it. Even if we accept, for the sake of argument, something like the convergence hypothesis, relying on nature’s instrumental value for preservational purposes is risky business for environmentalists. We also briefly consider the mysteriousness-objection to non-instrumental value in nature. We show that with respect to most accounts of non-instrumental value, there is nothing particularly mysterious about nature possessing such value.
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| 23. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
A response to Rut Vinterkvist
- 2024
-
In: Environmental Ethics. - : Environmental Philosophy. - 0163-4275 .- 2153-7895. ; 46:1, s. 95-97
-
Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In a reply to my recent paper “The Cost of Denying Intrinsic Value in Nature,” Rut Vinterkvist raises an important objection to my claim that environmentalists must ascribe intrinsic value to some natural entities to consistently defend the protectionist views I believe many of them have. To defend this claim, I provided three hypothetical cases, involving threatened natural entities, designed to show that only an intrinsic value of these respective entities could explain a reason to protect them. My claim was that, even in these cases, environmentalists would generally find the natural entities in question protection-worthy. Against this claim, Vinterkvist argues that environmentalists can consistently opt for protection of these entities without ascribing any intrinsic value to them, the idea being that we can argue for protection of the entities on the basis that other people care for them (for whatever reasons, if any). We should protect them, not for their own sake, but for the sake of those who care for them. In this response, I explain why I believe her suggestion—challenging to my argument as it is—does not provide a proper option for environmentalists who want to argue for protection in these and similar cases.
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| 24. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Accepting or rejecting online surveillance : the case of Swedish students
- 2023
-
In: Everyday life in the culture of surveillance. - : Nordicom. - 9789188855725 - 9789188855732 ; , s. 125-144
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter is based on the results of a questionnaire that was distributed to students at Umeå University, Sweden, and investigates their propensity to accept online surveillance in relation to three conditions that could increase their acceptance of it: 1) that it results in personal benefits; 2) that they have consented to it; and 3) that society can benefit from it. To categorise the respondents’ positions, I use a conceptual apparatus from moral philosophy, namely, the distinction between deontological and consequentialist ethical views. The study reveals two clear tendencies among the respondents: The most considerable difference among them is a difference in their general attitudes to being surveilled online rather than a difference in ethical thinking of a kind that can be framed in terms of deontology and consequentialism; the personal benefits that can result from allowing online surveillance do not generally have any significant impact on their acceptance of it.
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| 25. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
At the centre of what? : a critical note on the centrism-terminology in environmental ethics
- 2013
-
In: Environmental Values. - Isle of Harris : White Horse Press. - 0963-2719 .- 1752-7015. ; 22:5, s. 627-645
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The distinction between anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric theories, together with the more fine-grained distinction between anthropocentrism, biocentrism and ecocentrism, are probably two of the most frequently occurring distinctions in the environmental ethics literature. In this essay I draw attention to some problematic aspects of the terminology used to draw these distinctions: the ‘centrism-terminology’. I argue that this terminology is ambiguous and misleading, and therefore confusing. Furthermore, depending on which interpretation it is given, it is also either asymmetric and non-inclusive, or superfluous. Although I find it unlikely that the centrism-terminology will be abandoned, I end the essay by providing a suggestion for an alternative way to categorise theories in environmental ethics.
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| 26. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Environmental pragmatism and environmental philosophy : a bad marriage!
- 2010
-
In: Environmental Ethics. - Denton : Environmental Philosophy, Inc.. - 0163-4275 .- 2153-7895. ; 32:4, s. 405-415
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Environmental pragmatists have presented environmental pragmatism as a new philosophical position, arguing that theoretical debates in environmental philosophy are hindering the ability of the environmental movement to forge agreement on basic policy imperatives. Hence, they aim to lead environmental philosophers away from such theoretical debates, and toward more practical—and pragmatically motivated—ones. However, a position with such an aim is not a proper philosophical position at all, given that philosophy (among other things) is an effort to get clear on the problems that puzzle us.
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| 27. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Ethics Teaching in Education for Sustainable Development
- 2020
-
In: Abstract Book. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605983253 ; , s. 53-54
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Education for sustainable development (ESD) is nowadays internationally regarded as an important aspect of the overall education of children and young people in the world (e.g., UNESCO, 2019, Education for sustainable development: Partners in action – Global action programme (GAP) key partners' report (2015-2018); https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000368829). Importantly, it is included among the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (goal 4; https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/). Besides its content – sustainable development – ESD is also characterized by its emphasis on interactive and participatory approaches to education: "Designing teaching and learning in an interactive, learner-centred way that enables exploratory, action oriented and transformative learning" (UNESCO, 2019, "What is education for sustainable development?"; https://en.unesco.org/the mes/education-sustainable-development/what-is-esd). In this paper, we show how both these aspects of ESD – its content and approach to education – reveal the importance of ethics teaching in ESD as well as provide challenges with respect to such teaching.Content: The object of ESD – the idea of sustainable development – is both normative and imprecise. It is normative because it is assumed that sustainable development is something that we ought to strive for. It is imprecise because the different concepts that together constitute the idea of sustainable development (such as 'needs', 'abilities' and 'the future'; see World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, Our Common Future, Ch. 2, §1; https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ content/ documents/5987our-common-future.pdf) can all be given different interpretations generating conflicting sustainability goals (weak or strong) (see, e.g., A. Dobson, 1998, Justice and the environment: Conceptions of environmental sustainability and theories of distributive justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch. 2). This means that ESD is never neutral. Instead it rests on implicit or explicit ethical assumptions. Hence, a comprehensive and reflective ESD requires that one reveals and discusses such assumptions.Approach: The kinds of interactive and participatory approaches to education that are assumed in ESD are, arguably, as such suitable for the task of revealing and discussing ethical assumptions. However, this requires that an appropriate approach to ethics education is incorporated within ESD. Two potential problems present themselves at this point: (1) the most common way of teaching ethics – a theory-based approach – seems ill suited for this task; (2) in the context of ESD we need an approach to ethics education that is available also to teachers who are not experienced within the field of ethics (since most teachers involved in ESD arguably belong to this group of teachers). The challenge, hence, is to find an approach to ethics teaching in ESD that is (1) suitable with respect to both its content and its approach to education, and (2) available also to teachers who are not experienced within the field of ethics. We suggest a certain methods-based approach to ethics education (that we have previously developed in detail) as a promising candidate for this task.
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| 28. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Ethics Teaching in Education for Sustainable Development
- 2022
-
In: Athens Journal of Education. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 2407-9898 .- 2241-7958. ; 9:2, s. 211-224
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Education for sustainable development (ESD) is nowadays internationally considered an important aspect of the overall education of children and young people in the world. It is included among the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Besides its content – sustainable development – ESD is also characterized by its emphasis on a democratic and participatory educational procedure. In this paper, we show how both these aspects of ESD – its content and procedure – reveal the importance of bringing ethical considerations into ESD, as well as provide challenges for ethics teaching in ESD.
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| 29. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Etik i utbildning för hållbar utveckling : Att undervisa den etiska dimensionen av en kontroversiell fråga
- 2020
-
In: Acta Didactica Norden. - Oslo : Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo. - 2535-8219. ; 14:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Både i Sverige och internationellt är hållbar utveckling numera ett allmänt accepterat mål i utbildningssammanhang. De centrala komponenter som bygger upp hållbarhetstanken kan emellertid ges olika tolkningar som genererar oförenliga hållbarhetsmål. Det är med andra ord en kontroversiell fråga vilket slags utveckling som ska räknas som hållbar. Det innebär i sin tur att utbildning för hållbar utveckling aldrig är neutral – tvärtom vilar den på etiska antaganden. En viktig komponent i en helhetlig utbildning för hållbar utveckling är därför att synliggöra och diskutera dessa antaganden.Artikelns syfte är dels att belysa den etiska dimensionen av hållbar utveckling förstådd som en kontroversiell fråga, dels att argumentera för ett lämpligt metodbaserat angreppssätt för att hantera denna dimension i ett utbildningssammanhang. Undersökningen är huvudsakligen av filosofisk karaktär, vilket innebär att den metod som främst använts är det analytiska tillvägagångssätt som utmärker modern analytisk filosofi, med inslag av bland annat begreppsanalys och granskning av argument. Studiematerialet har utgjorts av styrdokument samt nationella och internationella rapporter.Bidragets huvudsakliga resultat är etablerandet av en specifik metodbaserad modell för etikundervisning som särskilt lämplig för att hantera den etiska dimensionen av utbildning för hållbar utveckling (och för kontroversiella frågor generellt). En viktig praktisk implikation är att lärare via denna modell får tillgång till en uppsättning verktyg för att behandla den etiska dimensionen av hållbarhet och andra kontroversiella frågor i sin undervisning. Vidare forskning krävs emellertid för att utröna vilka undervisningsformer som bäst lämpar sig för att arbeta med dessa verktyg i olika undervisningssammanhang.
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| 30. |
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| 31. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Internal vs External Impartiality and the Requirement of Universalizability
- 2022
-
In: 17th Annual International Conference on Philosophy 23-26 May 2022, Athens, Greece. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605984793 ; , s. 61-62
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In a seminal paper from 1998, Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer, and Maurice Rickard (hereafter referred to as KSR) defend impartial over partial moral reasoning, outlining these two kinds of moral reasoning, or perspectives, as follows:“Partial moral reasoning… involves judgments that emphasize personal relationships and attachments. These sorts of judgments and dispositions differ from impartialist judgments in that they favour people with whom we are personally connected over people with whom we are not. Impartialist reasoning, by contrast, … involves judgments and dispositions that are detached and do not favour personal attachments.” (H. Kuhse, P. Singer & M. Rickard, 1998, “Reconciling Impartial Morality and a Feminist Ethic of Care”, The Journal of Value Inquiry 32, p. 453.)In short and simplified, KSR’s argument for impartial morality looks as follows: (1) Either (a) morality is fundamentally divided into a partial type of morality and an impartial type of morality with no common ground, or (b) one of these two perspectives must be the most fundamental one, in terms of which the other one should be understood. (2) Option (a) would involve “a fairly radical and unsettling conclusion about morality” and should therefore be rejected. (3) The perspective we have reason to believe to be the most fundamental one is the perspective with the best explanatory power. (4) The impartial perspective is the perspective with the best explanatory power, since it best explains our widely held pre-theoretic moral intuitions and our empirically observed dispositions to approach moral problems. (5) Consequently, we have reason to believe the impartial perspective to be the most fundamental one, in terms of which the partial perspective should be understood. (pp. 457ff.)In this talk, we problematize this argument and distinguish between two different ways in which impartial moral reasoning can be understood. We refer to these as internal and external impartiality, respectively. Internal impartiality concerns the judgements and dispositions of the acting agent, while external impartiality concerns the judgements and dispositions of someone other than the acting agent, for instance an idealized hypothetical agent judging or responding to the judgements and dispositions of the acting agent. While KSR seem to be concerned with internal impartiality, we argue that external impartiality can do a better job with regards to both explanatory power and reconciling the partialist and the impartialist perspectives. First, we note that KSR’s argument rests on a false dichotomy. Besides the two alternatives in option (b) above, a third possibility is that the partial as well as the (internally) impartial perspective can be explained in terms of some other, even more fundamental component of sound moral reasoning. Second, we argue that there is indeed such a more fundamental component of sound moral reasoning, namely the widely accepted requirement of universalizability (see T. Jollimore, 2014, “Impartiality”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), ed. E. N. Zalta.). Third, we explain how we take external impartiality to be related to the requirement of universalizability.
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| 32. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Mastering methods for moral reasoning as a form of ethical competence : A methods-based approach to ethics education
- 2017
-
In: What may be learnt in ethics? Conference 11-13 December 2017. - Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet. ; , s. 16-16
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper focuses on an aspect of ethics rarely treated by scholars or in textbooks, namely the methods for reasoning by which one can arrive at justified moral decision. While these methods are rarely spelled out, they seem to be taken for granted in ethical debates and by scholars working within the field. We argue that the ability to master these methods is a clear candidate for ethical competence – a form of such competence which is both theoretically and practically useful in ethics education at various levels, particularly in comparison to standard theory-based accounts to ethics education. While others have criticized theory-based approaches to ethics education, the methods-based approach that we explore has not been suggested as an alternative. Hence, our research topic is methods for moral reasoning as a basis for ethical competence and ethics education. We have used two complementary methodological tools for arriving at our conclusion that mastering such methods is a form of ethical competence, useful in schools. We combine (1) personal substantial experiences from teaching ethics, in particular to teacher students, with (2) philosophical analysis of ethical debates and theories. By (1) we get important indications about the usefulness of a methods-based approach to ethics education. (2) helps us reveal what ethical debates and theories assume about requirements on moral reasoning. What emerges is a set of basic seemingly uncontroversial methods for moral reasoning, which can be roughly structured under the headings “information”, “vividness” and “coherence”. Hence analytical moral philosophy provides our main theoretical framework.
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| 33. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Miljöetikens förvirra(n)de distinktioner
- 2007
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Sedan miljöetikens framväxt på 70-talet har den dragits med tre särskilt seglivade – men i sammanhanget ofta både förvirrade och förvirrande – distinktioner. Den första är distinktionen mellan intrinsikalt och instrumentellt värde (hos naturen eller några av dess icke-mänskliga/icke-kännande komponenter). Den andra är distinktionen mellan individualistiska och holistiska teorier i miljöetik. Och den tredje, som vanligtvis förstås i termer av de två första, är distinktionen mellan antropocentrisk, biocentrisk och ekocentrisk miljöetik. Att dessa distinktioner både är relevanta och applicerbara på så gott som alla miljöetiska teorier är något som tas för givet inte bara av de flesta miljöetiker själva, utan ofta även av dem som kritiserar miljöetiken (som disciplin, eller idén att naturen eller några av dess icke-mänskliga/icke-kännande komponenter har direkt moralisk status). Detta faktum har fått såväl den interna miljöetiska debatten som den externa kritiken av densamma att frekvent skjuta bredvid målet, dvs. missa de verkligt intressanta frågorna. I det här föredraget anför jag exempel för att visa detta och argumenterar för att om vi överger den slentrianmässiga tillämpningen av dessa tre distinktioner så ökar förutsättningarna för att se, och på ett fruktbart sätt undersöka, miljöetikens verkliga problem och möjligheter.
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| 34. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
On the critique of “The environmental ethical project” : Why this critique has failed
- 2010
-
In: The Philosophy of the Environment - Programme and Abstracts. ; , s. 117-118
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Ever since environmental ethics began to emerge as an academic discipline in the early 70’s, critical voices have been raised against what by many has been considered its project, namely to establish the direct moral importance of some non-human, non-sentient, non-conscious natural entities. We can distinguish between two main lines of this critique; one that is practical, or pragmatic (claiming that there are pragmatic reasons – given certain practical, “environmentalist”, goals – to avoid this project), and one that is theoretical. Here I am interested in the latter, theoretical, critique. This critique has appeared in many different forms, but all versions that I know of suffer from one of three flaws: (1) They apply only to some versions (not the most plausible ones) of the environmental ethical project (or they do not apply to any actual version of it); (2) they are not critiques against this project specifically, but against any normative ethical view (i.e. any view according to which there are moral reasons to do (or refrain from doing) this or that); (3) they simply beg the question against those who defend some version of this project. Among the critiques that suffer from (1) we find, e.g., allegations of misanthropy and “ecofascism” (or more generally, various critiques according to which the environmental ethical project has unacceptable normative implications). Among those that suffer from (2) we find, e.g., the critiques according to which the very notion of intrinsic value is untenable and ought to be abandoned. And among those that suffer from (3) we find, e.g., the critique according to which the central notion of moral importance is not intrinsic value, but moral standing (which is supposed to pertain only to sentient creatures). I will give some examples of critiques that suffer from (1) and (2), and explain why they do so, but I will focus on the critiques that suffer from (3). Doing so will reveal what a critique of the environmental ethical project that escapes (1), (2) and (3) would have to show, and what implications it would have. My conclusion is that it is very doubtful that a successful critique of this project can be formulated, and that each environmental ethical theory, therefore, should be judged on its own merits.
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| 35. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
On the Critique of "The Environmental Ethics Project" : Why this Critique has Failed
- 2014
-
In: Issues in Human Relations and Environmental Philosophy. - Athens : Ionia Publications. - 9789607670755 ; , s. 303-319
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Ever since environmental ethics began to emerge as an academic discipline in the early 70’s, critical voices have been raised against what by many has been considered its project, namely to establish the direct moral importance of some non-human, non-sentient, non-conscious natural entities. We can distinguish between two main lines of this critique; one that is practical, or pragmatic (claiming that there are pragmatic reasons – given certain practical, “environmentalist” goals – to avoid this project), and one that is theoretical. Here I am interested in the latter, theoretical critique. This critique has appeared in many different forms, but all versions that I know of suffer from one of three flaws: (1) They apply only to some versions (not the most plausible ones) of the environmental ethics project (or they do not apply to any actual version of it); (2) they are not critiques against this project specifically, but against any normative ethical view (i.e. any view according to which there are moral reasons to do (or refrain from doing) this or that); (3) they simply beg the question against those who defend some version of this project. Among the critiques that suffer from (1) we find, e.g., allegations of misanthropy and “ecofascism” (or more generally, various critiques according to which the environmental ethics project has unacceptable normative implications). Among those that suffer from (2) we find, e.g., the critiques according to which the very notion of intrinsic value is untenable and ought to be abandoned. And among those that suffer from (3) we find, e.g., the critique according to which the central notion of moral importance is not intrinsic value, but moral standing (which is supposed to pertain only to sentient creatures). I give examples of each of these critiques and explain why they fail. My conclusion is that it is very doubtful that a successful critique of the environmental ethics project can be formulated, and that each environmental ethical theory, therefore, should be judged on its own merits.
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| 36. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
On the demarcation problem and the possibility of environmental ethics : a refutation of "A refutation of environmental ethics"
- 2010
-
In: Environmental Ethics. - Denton : Environmental Philosophy, Inc.. - 0163-4275 .- 2153-7895. ; 32:3, s. 247-265
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- According to a popular critique of environmental ethics, the view that nature has intrinsic value faces an insurmountable demarcation problem. This critique was delivered in a particularly forceful manner two decades ago by Janna Thompson in her paper “A Refutation of Environmental Ethics.” However, the demarcation problem, albeit a real problem, is not insurmountable. Thompson’s argument draws on the claim that the possibility of environmental ethics depends on the possibility that nature can be demarcated with respect to some allegedly morally significant property or set of properties. Her own view of nature’s moral significance is equally dependent on that possibility. Therefore, if the demarcation problem were insurmountable, that would imply a refutation of her own view on nature’s moral significance as well.
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| 37. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
On the Educational Task of Mediating Basic Values in an Individualist Society
- 2016
-
In: Education Abstracts. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605980481 ; , s. 127-128
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Besides the task of conveying information, methods and skills to their pupils, teachers are also expected to mediate certain basic values, which may differ between different societies. Depending on which country we look at, this latter task is either implicitly taken for granted within the educational system or explicitly established in regulatory documents. In Sweden, for instance, the curriculum for the upper secondary school states that "[e]ach and everyone working in the school should… encourage respect for the intrinsic value of each person and the environment we all share. […] In accordance with the ethics borne by Christian tradition and Western humanism, this is to be achieved by nurturing in the individual a sense of justice, generosity, tolerance and responsibility" (see http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=2975; accessed 2015-10-14). In this paper we are interested in the educational task of mediating such basic values in societies imbued with individualist values and attitudes. As a background, and for illustrative purposes, we use the results from the recurring "World Values Survey" (WVS) which maps the evaluative profile of citizens in about 80 different countries worldwide (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp; accessed 2015-10-14). It has become common practice to present the results from WVS along two value dimensions: traditional versus secular-rational values, and survival versus self-expression values (see e.g. R. Inglehart, 2006, "Mapping Global Values", in Y. Esmer & T. Pettersson (eds.) Measuring and Mapping Cultures: 25 Years of Comparative Values Surveys, Leiden: Brill.). In general, secular-rational and self-expression values are representative of an individualist evaluative outlook, whereas traditional and survival values are representative of a more collectivist evaluative outlook. Hence, it is possible to use the results from WVS to roughly categorize countries as more or less individualist (generally speaking). The results from WVS reveal that Sweden – which constitutes our example of an individualist society – stands out as remarkably individualist in this respect (see http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/ images/Cultural_map_WVS6_2015.jpg; accessed 2015-10-14). One important aspect of this individualist outlook is that values are commonly regarded as largely a private matter – something that should not be interfered with in the public sphere, e.g. in schools – a view often accompanied by a tendency to downplay the importance of ethical questions in general (see World Values Survey, Wave 6: 2010-2014; http://www.worldvalues survey.org/WVSOnline.jsp; accessed 2015- 10-14). Against this background we have investigated the evaluative outlook of 179 Swedish teacher students, using questions from WVS as a point of departure. The results indicate that these students do not differ to any significant degree from the Swedish population in general as regards their evaluative outlook, and yet they are supposed to mediate both individual and social basic values in their coming profession. The purpose of this paper is to make visible and problematize the tension between an individualist evaluative outlook – where one tends to diminish the importance of ethical questions and regard values as largely a private matter – and the ethical and educational task of mediating a set of basic values, and reveal some of the challenges that this tension poses for teachers and the educational system in general in more or less individualist societies.
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| 38. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
On the Educational Task of Mediating Basic Values in an Individualist Society
- 2017
-
In: Athens Journal of Education. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 2407-9898. ; 4:2, s. 137-147
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Besides the task of conveying information, methods and skills to their pupils, teachers are also expected to mediate certain basic values. In this paper we are interested in the educational task of mediating such values in societies imbued with individualist values and attitudes. As a background we use the results from the recurring "World Values Survey" (WVS) which maps the evaluative profile of citizens in about 80 different countries worldwide. The results from WVS reveal that Swedes in general stand out as remarkably individualist with respect to their reported value judgements. Hence, Sweden constitutes our example of an individualist society, i.e., a society whose members to a large extent share an individualist evaluative profile. One important feature of such an individualist evaluative profile is a tendency to regard questions of value as largely a private matter and to downplay the importance of ethics in general. Against this background we investigated the evaluative outlook of 134 Swedish teacher students, using questions from WVS as a point of departure. The results indicate that these students do not differ to any significant degree from the Swedish population in general as regards their evaluative outlook, and yet they are supposed to mediate both individualist and social basic values in their coming profession. The purpose of this paper is to make visible and problematize the tension between an individualist evaluative profile and the educational task of mediating a set of basic values. This tension, it is argued, poses special challenges for teachers and the teacher education in societies on the individualist side of the scale.
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| 39. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
On the Educational Task of Mediating Basic Values in an Individualist Society
- 2016
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Besides the task of conveying information, methods and skills to their pupils, teachers are also expected to mediate certain basic values. In this paper we are interested in the educational task of mediating such values in societies imbued with individualist values and attitudes. As a background we use the results from the recurring "World Values Survey" (WVS) which maps the evaluative profile of citizens in about 80 different countries worldwide. The results from WVS reveal that Swedes in general stand out as remarkably individualist with respect to their reported value judgements. Hence, Sweden constitutes our example of an individualist society, i.e., a society whose members to a large extent share an individualist evaluative profile. One important feature of such an individualist evaluative profile is a tendency to regard questions of value as largely a private matter and to downplay the importance of ethics in general. Against this background we investigated the evaluative outlook of 134 Swedish teacher students, using questions from WVS as a point of departure. The results indicate that these students do not differ to any significant degree from the Swedish population in general as regards their evaluative outlook, and yet they are supposed to mediate both individualist and social basic values in their coming profession. The purpose of this paper is to make visible and problematize the tension between an individualist evaluative profile and the educational task of mediating a set of basic values. This tension, it is argued, poses special challenges for teachers and the teacher education in societies on the individualist side of the scale.
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| 40. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
On the Possibility of Evidence for Intrinsic Value in Nature
- 2013
-
In: Ethics and the Environment. - Bloomington : Indiana University Press. - 1085-6633 .- 1535-5306. ; 18:2, s. 101-114
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- One of the most common projects among environmental ethicists is to develop theories according to which some non-human natural entities possess intrinsic value. However, this project has not been unchallenged. From time to time we have seen efforts to refute it, the claim being that not only are the particular theories suggested flawed, but the very idea of intrinsic value in nature—at least in some allegedly important sense of “intrinsic value”—is in principle indefensible. One of the latest contributions to this line of efforts was recently provided by Toby Svoboda, whose target is mind-independent intrinsic value of non-human entities. Svoboda elegantly argues that there is no evidence for the existence of such value in non-humans, and that hence the position that some non-humans have such value is unjustified. In this paper I aim to show that Svoboda’s argument, elegant as it is, nevertheless is flawed.
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| 41. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
On the Practical Goal of Ethics Education : Ethical Competence as the Ability to Master Methods for Moral Reasoning
- 2020
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In: Teaching Philosophy. - : Philosophy Documentation Center. - 0145-5788 .- 2153-6619. ; 43:2, s. 157-178
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we consider the ability to master a set of methods for moral reasoning as a form of ethical competence. These methods can be roughly assembled under the headings information, vividness, and coherence. We distinguish between the theoretical characterization of ethical competence and what we take to be its practical role and argue that the ability to master these methods fits the theoretical characterization of such competence as well as fulfils its practical role. An important upshot of this result is that these methods are suitable as a basis for ethics education at various levels, at least when the goal of such education is partly practical: to provide tools for reaching justified moral decisions. Consequently, we encourage ethics educators who teach ethics with this goal to design their educational approaches in such a way that these methods are taught and practiced.
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| 42. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Online Surveillance and Education for Digital Competence
- 2021
-
In: Education Abstracts. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research. - 9789605984021 ; , s. 57-58
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Digital competence has become increasingly important in modern societies. The possession of such competence is consequential to the ability to participate on equal terms as a citizen in a contemporary democracy. Hence, it is nowadays stressed as an important learning objective, more or less globally. For example, it is one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning identified by The European Parliament and The Council of the European Union (“Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning”, OJ L 394, 20.12.2006, 10-18). Navigating in a digital world requires competences such as the ability to find relevant information through search engines and databases, but also to practice criticism of the sources. These competences receive increasing attention in schools. However, digitalization comes with downsides, one of them, arguably, being the facilitation of intrusive online surveillance. When we are online, we leave traces that provide useful information to companies and organizations, who can harvest our data for different purposes.While knowledge of this fact has become more widespread, it does not seem to get the attention that it arguably deserves in schools and teacher education. In Swedish teacher education, where we operate, privacy issues in relation to online activities have not found a pronounced place in the curriculum. Having knowledge or these issues is important to be able to make deliberate choices regarding one’s online activities – what information do I want to share, and with whom? For instance, is it worth giving away some of my personal information to get access to a certain social media platform?To be able to answer such questions autonomously and critically in a way that also influences one’s behavior, it is furthermore important to understand how people generally behave in relation to privacy and sharing information online. Quite extensive research has shown that people tend to behave in ways that do not mirror their own privacy concerns. While they report strong concern for their privacy, they behave online as if their privacy were not very important to them at all. This has become known as the “privacy paradox” (for an overview, see N. Gerber, P. Gerber & M. Volkamer, “Explaining the privacy paradox: A systematic review of literature investigating privacy attitude and behavior”, Computers & Security 77, 2018, 226-261).Within the framework of the research project “iAccept: Soft surveillance – between acceptance and resistance”, in which one of us participates, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 560 current and former Swedish student teachers, about their attitudes to privacy and surveillance and their online behavior. At large, their responses are in line with the privacy paradox. Partly based on this survey, we point to the importance of raising awareness of privacy issues in teacher education and schools. We argue that – like other aspects of digital competence – this aspect is also crucial to being a conscious citizen in a democratic society. Thus, it should constitute a natural part of education for digital competence.
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| 43. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Online Surveillance and Education for Digital Competence
- 2022
-
In: Athens Journal of Education. - Aten : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 2407-9898 .- 2241-7958. ; 9:4, s. 545-557
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Digital competence has become increasingly important in modern societies and is today central to the possibility of participating on equal terms as a citizen in a contemporary democracy. Thus, it is now stressed as a crucial learning objective, nationally as well as internationally. One pervasive consequence of the digitalization of society is the facilitation of intrusive online surveillance: when we are online, we leave traces that provide useful information to companies, organizations, and individuals, who can collect, process, use, and share this information. The purpose of this article is to reveal the need for an increased awareness of the surveillance aspect of digitalization in teacher education and schools. The argument is partly based on a questionnaire survey with 560 current and former Swedish student teachers, about online behavior and privacy. The results indicate that Swedish teachers in general need to further their digital competence in order to be able to appropriately aid their pupils in developing digital literacy. Given that Swedish student teachers can be expected to possess a comparatively very high level of digital competence, we think it is safe to generalize this point to comprise teachers in many other countries as well. We argue that an awareness of the surveillance aspect of digitalization is crucial to being a cognizant citizen in a democratic society, and that it should therefore constitute a natural part of education for digital competence.
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| 44. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Partisk vs. opartisk moral
- 2015
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In: Filosofisk Tidskrift. - Stockholm : Thales. - 0348-7482. ; 36:3, s. 35-43
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 45. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Preface
- 2023
-
In: Everyday life in the culture of surveillance. - : Nordicom. - 9789188855725 - 9789188855732 ; , s. 6-8
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 46. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Reason and Emotion : How Teachers Respond to Ethical Problems
- 2018
-
In: Abstract Book: 20th Annual International Conference on Education. - Athens : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9789605981853 ; , s. 133-134
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Teachers frequently face ethical problems in their everyday practice, ranging from pedagogical choices affecting their pupils to pressing conflicts that need to be solved – e.g. conflicts between pupils, conflicts between colleagues, and conflicts between teachers and parents. In order to handle such problems, teachers need to be able to respond in a professional and thoughtful manner to the various ethical aspects involved.Given the centrality of the ethical dimension to the teaching profession, it is an important question how teachers tend to approach ethical problems within their profession. To the extent that teachers fail to approach such problems in a professional and thoughtful manner, this is an issue that should be brought to attention and considered by teachers and within the teacher education.Few studies have been carried out regarding how teachers tend to approach ethical problems in their profession. However, there are interesting international studies revealing how people in general tend to respond ethically to situations involving ethical aspects that evoke strong emotional reactions. Jonathan Haidt has constructed several more or less provoking examples involving social taboos, and investigated how people tend to react when confronted with them (Haidt, Koller & Dias, 1993).The present paper is based on a survey of Swedish teacher students for which we have borrowed two of Haidts examples. These examples were chosen on the basis that one of them clearly represents a social taboo in a Swedish context while the other does not. Hence, letting the teacher students respond to both these examples allows us to get an indication of whether there is any significant difference in their response to an example evoking a strong emotional reaction as opposed to a more neutral example.We present our investigation and discuss the results, which show that the respondents in the more neutral case generally seem to make motivated judgments and in the more provoking case generally seem to rely on gut feelings. If these results can be taken as an indication of how teacher students and teachers tend to respond to real life situations, we argue, they generally have good chances of approaching ethical problems in a professional way. However, a provoking or emotionally laden context enhances the risk of making ethical choices which are not based on professional reasoning.We argue that these results indicate a need for teachers and teacher students to consciously reflect on their values and methods for approaching ethical problems.
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| 47. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Reasons and Values in Environmental Ethics
- 2010
-
In: Environmental Values. - Isle of Harris : White Horse Press. - 0963-2719 .- 1752-7015. ; 19:4, s. 517-535
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ever since environmental ethics (EE) began to take form as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, the notion of intrinsic value has occupied a prominent position within the field. Recently, however, various types of critique have emerged within EE against invoking this notion. Contrary to these critiques, I argue that appeals to intrinsic value are not problematic, given the reason-implying sense of ‘intrinsic value’ that is most relevant to EE. I further argue that also those who criticise ‘intrinsic-value-talk’ in EE actually need this reason-implying concept of intrinsic value. However, once we realise that this is the sense of ‘intrinsic value’ that is most relevant to EE, it also becomes clear that it is the concept of a reason, rather than that of intrinsic value, that is most important to EE.
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| 48. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-
(author)
-
Resolving the Wrong Kind of Reason Problem
- 2013
-
In: Swedish Congress of Philosophy 2013 = Filosofidagarna : 14-16 june, 2013. - Stockholm : Kungl. tekniska högskolan. - 9789175017877 ; , s. 177-178
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The wrong kind of reason problem (WKRP) has been presented as a problem for T. M. Scanlon’s ‘buck-passing account of value’ (BPA) (e.g. Rabinowicz and Rønnow-Rasmussen, 2004:393). According to this account, ‘being good, or valuable, is not a property that itself provides a reason to respond to a thing in certain ways. Rather, to be good or valuable is to have other properties that constitute such reasons’ (Scanlon 1998:97). Now, WKRP arises because some objects which clearly lack value yet seem to have properties that constitute such reasons. If there are such objects, BPA can be upheld only if it can be shown that in these cases the reasons are of the wrong kind, in the sense that the properties which constitute them do not give rise to corresponding values of the objects which possess them. Hence, the challenge that WKRP poses for buck-passers is commonly understood as the challenge of convincingly explaining the difference between reasons of the wrong kind and reasons of the right kind. There have been several proposals for solution to WKRP, but all of them have been exposed to objections (see e.g. Lang, 2008; Olson, 2009; Rønnow-Rasmussen, 2011:33–45; Samuelsson, forthcoming). My suggestion for a solution to this problem is quite simple and straightforward, and it proceeds from recognizing an ambiguity in the expression ‘properties constituting (or providing) reasons’. The notion of a reason relevant to BPA is that of a normative reason, i.e. a fact that counts in favour of some response. Now, BPA is not formulated in terms of facts, but in terms of properties constituting reasons. However, properties are not themselves reasons, and there are different ways in which the property of an object can feature in a fact taken to provide a reason. My suggestion is that only one of these ways is relevant to whether the object in question possesses value. Thus, the solution to WKRP lies in understanding BPA in terms of facts, and getting the place of properties in these facts right. If BPA is adequately formulated in this way, it seems that WKRP does not arise in the first place – the problem will resolve. This solution that I propose bears similarities to a kind of solution to WKRP most thoroughly articulated by Stratton-Lake (2005), and can be seen as a further development and defence of that kind of solution.
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| 49. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Stakeholder Participation as a Means to Produce Morally Justified Environmental Decisions
- 2016
-
In: Ethics, Policy & Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2155-0085 .- 2155-0093. ; 19:1, s. 76-90
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Stakeholder participation is an increasingly popular ingredient within environmental management and decision-making. While much has been written about its purported benefits, a question that has been largely neglected is whether decision-making informed through stakeholder participation is actually likely to yield decisions that are morally justified in their own right. Using moral methodology as a starting point, we argue that stakeholder participation in environmental decision-making (if adequately designed) may indeed be an appropriate means to produce morally justified decisions, the reason being that such participation may constitute an efficient way to satisfy the standard requirements on moral reasoning and moral justification. This finding also emphasizes the importance of identifying those settings most conducive to allowing different stakeholders to both challenge each other’s arguments and to adopt each other’s perspectives in order to make effective use of participation in environmental decision-making for the purpose of reaching morally justified decisions.
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| 50. |
- Samuelsson, Lars, 1975-, et al.
(author)
-
Studying the evaluative views of students as a tool for professional development of teacher educators
- 2021. - 1
-
In: Exploring professional development opportunities for teacher educators. - London & New York : Routledge. - 9780367748913 - 9780367748890 - 9781003160052 ; , s. 195-211
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alongside the task of conveying knowledge to their pupils, teachers are also expected to mediate certain values, educational as well as ethical or societal. This value-conveying aspect of the teaching profession provides the focus of this chapter, the aim of which is to highlight its importance and show why reflecting on it is helpful for the professional development of teacher educators. As teachers in Swedish teacher education, we have conducted surveys with our students to assess some of their evaluative views that are of educational relevance. The results of these surveys reveal a tension between some of the values typically held by our students and parts of the value-conveying task of Swedish teachers. This tension, together with a comparison between the students’ values and the values prevalent in other countries, has provided the basis for interesting and rewarding discussions with our students. In the present chapter we describe our work with the students and argue that a teacher educator’s awareness of their own evaluative views, as well as those of their students, is important for developing the ability to reflectively and critically convey values in their pedagogical practice. Thus, it is an important aspect of the professional development of teacher educators.
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