Digital Commons Network^™

Who’S Afraid Of Uber?, Jeremy Kidd

Articles

Ride-sharing has disrupted the transportation-for-hire industry, breaking down barriers to entry that have protected entrenched incumbents for decades. The disruption has led to calls for increased regulation, along with criticisms about the effect of innovation on consumer safety, market stability, rule of law, and other areas. That disruption, however, has also led to tremendous benefits to consumers as they are freed from a regulatory regime that limited their transportation choices and forced them to pay higher prices for lower quality service. The same type of disruptive innovation is upon us in almost every area of our economy. How we deal …

Preface To The Special Issue On Advances In Argumentation In Artificial Intelligence, Pierpaolo Dondio, Luca Longo, Stefano Bistarelli

Articles

Now at the forefront of automated reasoning, argumentation has become a key research topic within Artificial Intelligence. It involves the investigation of those activities for the production and exchange of arguments, where arguments are attempts to persuade someone of something by giving reasons for accepting a particular conclusion or claim as evident. The study of argumentation has been the focus of attention of philosophers and scholars, from Aristotle and classical rhetoric to the present day. The computational study of arguments has emerged as a field of research in AI in the last two decades, mainly fuelled by the interest from …

Women Mps From Northern Ireland: Challenges And Contributions, 1953–2020., Yvonne Galligan

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This article investigates women’s representation as Northern Ireland (NI) MPs in the House of Commons since 1953. The central argument of the study is that the political and cultural positions dominant at the formation of NI in the early 20th century reverberate through the generations and continue to inform women’s political under-representation today. The article provides an historical context for women’s political and public participation from the 1950s, highlighting the gendered political culture in which this engagement took place. It examines the additional freezing effect of the ethno-national conflict on women’s civic and political involvement from the 1970s–1990s. In terms …

The 2020 General Election : A Gender Analysis, Yvonne Galligan, Fiona Buckley

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The February 2020 general election will be remembered as the “change” election, when the two dominant parties of Irish politics, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, trailed behind Sinn Féin in voters' preferences for the first time. However, for the gender balance of Irish politics, much remained unchanged. While the number of women elected to Dáil Éireann increased by one, this marginal growth since the 2016 general election was deemed a disappointment by analysts and advocates alike. A review of candidacy reveals that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lag behind other parties in terms of the proportion of women selected and …

Delivering Gender Justice In Academia Through Gender Equality Plans? Normative And Practical Challenges, Sara Clavero, Yvonne Galligan

Articles

This paper employs the concept of epistemic justice to examine the potential for gender equality plans (GEPs) to bring about sustainable transformative change towardsgender equality in higher education. Mindful of both the limitationsand opportunitiesof gender policy interventions,the paper highlights the importance of approaching gender inequality as a problem of justice and power rather than asan issueof “loss of talent.”The paper drawson Fricker's account of epistemic justice as well ason Bourdieu's analysis of power in the academic field, to evaluate seven GEPs in European universities for their potential to transform gender–power relations in academia.

Analysing Gender And Institutional Change In Academia: Evaluating The Utility Of Feminist Institutionalist Approaches, Sara Clavero, Yvonne Galligan

Articles

This article explores research on gender and institutions for the purposes of informing analytical frameworks for research on institutional change with regard to gender equality in higher education. Drawing on feminist institutionalist studies that explore the relationship between gender, institutions and institutional continuity and change, the aim is to evaluate how this body of scholarship can be adapted to an analysis of the dynamics of gender equality plan implementation in universities.

Expectations Of Artificial Intelligence And The Performativity Of Ethics: Implications For Communication Governance, Aphra Kerr, Marguerite Barry, John D. Kelleher

Articles

This article draws on the sociology of expectations to examine the construction of expectations of ‘ethical AI’ and considers the implications of these expectations for communication governance. We first analyse a range of public documents to identify the key actors, mechanisms and issues which structure societal expectations around artificial intelligence (AI) and an emerging discourse on ethics. We then explore expectations of AI and ethics through a survey of members of the public. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the role of AI in communication gover- nance. We find that, despite societal expectations that we can design …

Finding Common Ground For Citizen Empowerment In The Smart City, John D. Kelleher, Aphra Kerr

Articles

Corporate smart city initiatives are just one example of the contemporary culture of surveillance. They rely on extensive information gathering systems and Big Data analysis to predict citizen behaviour and optimise city services. In this paper we argue that many smart city and social media technologies result in a paradox whereby digital inclusion for the purposes of service provision also results in marginalisation and disempowerment of citizens. Drawing upon insights garnered from a digital inclusion workshop conducted in the Galapagos islands, we propose that critically and creatively unpacking the computational techniques embedded in data services is needed as a first …

Festivals, Public Space And Cultural Inclusion : Public Policy Insights, Bernadette Quinn, Alba Colombo, Kristina Lindström, David Mcgillivray, Andrew Smith

Articles

This paper investigates if and how cities conceive of festivals staged in outdoor public space as a means of achieving cultural inclusion policy objectives. The inclusion of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) creates an imperative for cities to scrutinize their approaches to making their cities inclusive. Festivals offer potential in this regard and this study examines the ways that Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Gothenburg and London incorporate festivals into cultural inclusion policies. It relies on secondary research to critically analyse a range of current policy documents, informed by Ball’s ideas about policy contexts: (a) of influence, (b) of …

The Wild Atlantic Way: A Tourism Journey, Kevin A. Griffin, Gerard Dunne

Articles

The Wild Atlantic Way is possibly the most celebrated, high profile tourism initiative to be launched in Ireland in recent years. It consists of a defined touring route along the western seaboard, one of the most scenic, remote, and sensitive stretches of Irish landscape. This paper presents the principal findings from a survey of 341 tourism and hospitality product providers along the Wild Atlantic Way. The main aim of the research was to investigate the perceived impacts (economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) of this new tourism initiative on the local areas through which it passes. The results paint a generally positive …

The Supreme Court's Facilitation Of White Christian Nationalism, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

Doug Jager, a band student of Native-American ancestry, complained about the Christian prayers at his Georgia public school’s football games. Rather than address his concerns, the school lectured him on Christianity and proposed an alternative that appeared neutral yet would result in the continuation of the Christian prayers. In striking down the school’s proposal, Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. understood some of the ramifications of state-sponsored Christianity.

Despite Supreme Court rulings limiting Christian invocations at public-school events, government-sponsored Christian prayers and Christian symbols remain plentiful in the United States. This proliferation of government-sponsored Christianity around the country both reflects and …

Identity: Obstacles And Openings, Osamudia R. James

Articles

Progress regarding equality and social identities has moved in a bipolar fashion: popular engagement with the concept of social identities has increased even as courts have signaled decreasing interest in engaging identity. Maintaining and deepening the liberatory potential of identity, particularly in legal and policymaking spheres, will require understanding trends in judicial hostility toward "identity politics," the impact of status hierarchy even within minoritized identity groups, and the threat that white racial grievance poses to identitarian claims.

Sport In The Face Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Towards An Agenda For Research In The Sociology Of Sport, Adam B. Evans, Joanna Blackwell, Paddy Dolan, Josef Fahlén, Remco Hoekma, Verena Lenneis, Gareth Mcnarry

Articles

These are extraordinary times. Less because we are currently in the midst of a global pandemic; humanity has been here multiple times in the past, sometimes with even more devastating results (the ‘Black Death’ of 1346–1353, or Cocolitzli Epidemics in the 16th Century, for example). Rather, these are extraordinary times due to both the huge shutting down of industry, travel and borders, and the enormous level of coverage and discussion of the crisis through both traditional and social media formats (Stevens & Prins, 2020). Moreover, global, regional and national comparisons and discussions have become commonplace with regards to everything …

No Longer A ‘Collateral Consequence’: Imprisonment And The Reframing Of Citizenship, Cormac Behan

Articles

This article examines the impact of imprisonment on citizenship. It identifies how civil, political and social rights are circumscribed with a sentence of imprisonment, and scrutinizes to what extent citizenship is limited for prisoners. Drawing on recent developments in England and Wales, it contends that citizenship has been eroded, not as a ‘collateral consequence’ of imprisonment, but rather as a determined penal policy. The boundaries of punishment have become blurred, moving from criminal justice institutions, and extending towards what is termed civil and political penality. Finally, it argues that, because citizenship in prison is inevitably framed around the differences between …

Childminders’ Close Relationship Model Of Praxis: An Ecocultural Study In Ireland, Miriam O'Regan, Ann Marie Halpenny, Nóirín Hayes

Articles

The present study seeks to address the dearth of research focussed on childminding (family day care or family childcare) in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders’ cultural models of praxis and pedagogy in the Irish context. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) (Weisner, 2002. “Ecocultural Understanding of Children’s Developmental Pathways.” Human Development 1759: 275–281), referencing concepts in Attachment Theory, in the context of historical and current policy in Ireland, Europe and the US over the last 30 years. A mixed method approach was adopted …

The Arc Of Monopoly: A Case Study In Computing, Randal Picker

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No abstract provided.

The Double Movement Of National Origin Discrimination, Aziz Huq

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No abstract provided.

A Consumer Guide To Empirical Family Law, June Carbone

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No abstract provided.

Race, Rights And The Representation Of Children, Barry Feld

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No abstract provided.

Separate Judicial Speech, Neha Jain

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No abstract provided.

The Intersectionality Of Age And Gender On The Bench: Are Younger Female Judges Harsher With Serious Crimes?, Francis Shen

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No abstract provided.

The Problem With Predators, June Carbone

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No abstract provided.

Teaching With Feminist Judgments: A Global Conversation, Pamela A. Wilkins

Articles

The very idea of re-imagining and rewriting judicial opinions from a feminist perspective arises from the sense that the original judicial opinions did not "do justice" in either process or outcome. Nearly a dozen feminist judgments projects around the world have addressed this sense of injustice by demonstrating how a judgment's reasoning or result (or both) would have been different if the decision makers had applied feminist perspectives, theories,and methods. Using the resulting re-imagined feminist judgments in the classroom can help students in a myriad of ways, but especially in developing their own roles in addressing what they perceive to …

An Argument Against Sex Segregation In Post-Primary Schools: Examining Wellbeing Perspectives, David Byrne, Aiden Carthy

Articles

There currently exists a substantial body of research regarding the influ-ence that the educational environment can bear upon the social and emotional wellbeing of male and female students. It has been highlighted that young female students tend to present with lower levels of wellbeing than do male students, and that the behaviour of male students may be implicit in this discrepancy. Some scholars have proposed sex segregation to be an appropriate palliative measure in addressing the lower measures of wellbeing observed among female students. This paper will present a counter-argument to this proposal based on two principal arguments. First, that …

In Times Of Chaos: Creating Blueprints For Law School Responses To Natural Disasters, Jeffrey Baker, Christine Cerniglia, Davida Finger, Luz Herrera, Jonel Newman

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No abstract provided.

Conducting And Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews: A Study Of Open Innovation In Food Firms In Ireland., Anushree Priyadarshini

Articles

This case study examines the use of semi-structured interviews that I used in my PhD research as a method to explore open innovation in food firms in Ireland. Literature in the field highlights that exploring innovation and the extent to which firms are open and collaborative with people outside of their organizations in conducting innovation requires detailed understanding of the concept in its natural settings. To interpret or make sense of the phenomena in terms of the meaning managers bring to it, I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with managers in Ireland’s largest indigenous industry, the food and beverage sector. Demonstrating …

Modelling Interactions Among Offenders: A Latent Space Approach For Interdependent Ego-Networks, Isabella Gollini, Alberto Caimo, Paolo Campana

Articles

Illegal markets are notoriously difficult to study. Police data offer an increasingly exploited source of evidence. However, their secondary nature poses challenges for researchers. A key issue is that researchers often have to deal with two sets of actors: targeted and non-targeted. This work develops a latent space model for interdependent ego-networks purposely created to deal with the targeted nature of police evidence. By treating targeted offenders as egos and their contacts as alters, the model (a) leverages on the full information available and (b) mirrors the specificity of the data collection strategy. The paper then applies this approach to …

Payday, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

Legislation lags behind technology all too often. While trillions of dollars are exchanged in online transactions-safely, cheaply, and instantaneously-workers still must wait two weeks to a month to receive payments from their employers. In the modern economy, workers are effectively lending money to their employers, as they wait for earned wages to be paid.

The same worker who taps a credit card to pay for groceries in semiautomated checkout lines depends on dated payroll systems that only transfer payments on a "payday." Workers, especially those living paycheck-to-paycheck, are hard-pressed to meet their daily needs and turn to expensive, short-term credit …

Insuring Apologies, Benjamin J. Mcmichael

Articles

Based on evidence demonstrating that an apology from a wrongdoer to a victim can assuage the victim's anger, reduce the likelihood that the victim seeks legal redress, and facilitate settlement, state legislatures have passed apology laws to encourage the delivery of more apologies. Aimed primarily at medical malpractice litigation-a traditional locus of the tort reform effort-apology laws render apologies from physicians to patients inadmissible in subsequent legal proceedings. In theory, privileging apologies will encourage their use and reduce malpractice liability risk as patients assert fewer claims and settle those claims that are asserted. However, if apology laws encourage the delivery …

The Law And Political Economy Of A Student Debt Jubilee, Luke Herrine

Articles

The notion of a student debt jubilee has begun its march from the margin of policy debates to the center, yet scholarly debate on the value of canceling student debt is negligible. This article attempts to jump start such debate in part by presenting a novel policy proposal for implementing a jubilee. In addition to reviewing the history of student debt and the arguments for canceling much or all of it, it presents a detailed legal argument that canceling public student debt (which accounts for 95% of student debt outstanding) could be undertaken by the Executive Branch without further legislation. …