Several articles have recently appeared arguing that there really are no viable alternatives to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences (Kaplan and Bechtel; Kaplan and Craver). We argue that mechanistic explanation is defined by localization and decomposition. We argue further that systems neuroscience contains explanations that violate both localization and decomposition. We conclude that the mechanistic model of explanation needs to either stretch to now include explanations wherein localization or decomposition fail or acknowledge that there are counterexamples to mechanistic explanation (...) in the biological sciences. (shrink)

We introduce and study some local versions of o-minimality, requiring that every definable set decomposes as the union of finitely many isolated points and intervals in a suitable neighbourhood of every point. Motivating examples are the expansions of the ordered reals by sine, cosine and other periodic functions.

Several articles have recently appeared arguing that there really are no viable alternatives to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences. This claim is meant to hold both in principle and in practice. The basic claim is that any explanation of a particular feature of a biological system, including dynamical explanations, must ultimately be grounded in mechanistic explanation. There are several variations on this theme, some stronger and some weaker. In order to avoid equivocation and miscommunication, in section 1 we will (...) argue that mechanistic explanation is defined by localization and decomposition. In section 2 we will argue that systems neuroscience contains explanations that violate both localization and decomposition on any non-trivial construal of these concepts. Therefore, in section 3 we conclude the mechanistic model of explanation either needs to stretch to now include explanations wherein localization or decomposition fail, or acknowledge that there are counter-examples to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences. We will also consider consequences and possible replies on the part of the mechanist in section 3. (shrink)

give a proof of the existence of nonlocal influences acting on correlated spin-1/2 particles in the singlet state which does not require any particular interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). (Except Stapp holds that the proof fails under a many-worlds interpretation of QM—a claim we analyse in 1.2.) Recently, in responding to Redhead's ([1987], pp. 90-6) criticism that the Stapp 1 proof fails under an indeterministic interpretation of QM, Stapp [1989] (henceforth Stapp 2), has revised the logical structure of his proof (...) including its crucial locality assumption. Our main aim is to show that this revision is a step in the wrong direction because it faces two difficulties which undermine the resulting proof's significance (3.1) and validity (3. 2). We also clarify and extend the Stapp 1 proof (1. 1) with the aid of Lewis' analysis of counterfactuals (1. 2) and causal dependence (2. 2 and 2. 3). In so doing, we are able to identify two new defects in the Stapp 1 proof (1. 3 and 2. 1) in addition to corroborating Redhead's criticism (2. 2). Also, the additional assumptions which save the Stapp 1 proof's validity are detailed (2. 3) and some new difficulties for the determinist are pointed out by exploiting a slightly extended version of the proof (2. 4). In providing this full analysis of the Stapp 1 proof, we also construct the necessary framework within which to provide a critique of Stapp 2's proof (3). *Portions of this paper were presented by R. K. Clifton to the 1988 British Society for the Philosophy of Science Conference at the University of Southampton. R. K. Clifton wishes to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and the Governing Body of Peterhouse at Cambridge University for support during this work. (shrink)

We consider a notion of rationalizability, where the rationalizing relation may depend on the set of feasible alternatives. More precisely, we say that a choice function is locally rationalizable if it is rationalized by a family of rationalizing relations such that a strict preference between two alternatives in some feasible set is preserved when removing other alternatives. It is known that a choice function is locally rationalizable if and only if it satisfies Sen’s $$\gamma$$ γ. We expand the theory of (...) local rationalizability by proposing a natural strengthening of $$\gamma$$ γ that precisely characterizes local rationalizability via PIP-transitive relations. Local rationalizability permits a unified perspective on social choice functions that satisfy $$\gamma$$ γ, including classic ones such as the top cycle and the uncovered set as well as new ones such as two-stage majoritarian choice and split cycle. We give simple axiomatic characterizations of some of these using local rationalizability and propose systematic procedures to define social choice functions that satisfy $$\gamma$$ γ. (shrink)

The physical concept of locality is first analyzed in the special relativistic quantum regime, and compared with that of microcausality and the local commutativity of quantum fields. Its extrapolation to quantum general relativity on quantum bundles over curved spacetime is then described. It is shown that the resulting formulation of quantum-geometric locality based on the concept of local quantum frame incorporating a fundamental length embodies the key geometric and topological aspects of this concept. Taken in conjunction with the (...) strong equivalence principle and the path-integral formulation of quantum propagation, quantum-geometric locality leads in a natural manner to the formulation of quantum-geometric propagation in curved spacetime. Its extrapolation to geometric quantum gravity formulated over quantum spacetime is described and analyzed. (shrink)

The pragmatic framework developed by H.P. Grice in “Logic and Conversation” explains how a speaker can mean something more than, or different from, the conventional meaning of the sentence she utters. But it has been argued that the framework cannot give a similar explanation for cases where these pragmatic effects impact the understood content of an embedded clause, such as the antecedent of a conditional, a clausal disjunct, or the clausal complement of a verb. In this paper, I show that (...) such an explanation is available. One of the central arguments of the paper is that in a significant subset of cases, local pragmatic effects are a consequence of a global pragmatic requirement. In these cases, local pragmatic effects are a consequence of ‘acting locally’ to resolve a potential global pragmatic violation. These cases do not require us to posit application of pragmatic principles to the contents of embedded clauses. The account does, though, require the assumption that interpreters can identify and reason about the contents of unasserted sub-parts of sentences, an assumption that I motivate in section 3. Building on this, in section 4 of the paper, I argue that once we have recognized that interpreters can, and do, reason independently about the contents of non-asserted clauses, it becomes unproblematic to assume that in some cases, Gricean conversational principles do apply directly to these contents, providing an alternative route to account for local pragmatic effects. In revisiting the ideas of this paper in my response to the commentaries, I consider in more detail the revisions to Grice’s broader program that are necessitated by these moves, in particular acknowledging the problematicity of Grice’s notion of what is said. I argue that the starting point for Gricean reconstructions should instead be merely what is expressed, which carries no pragmatic commitments regarding what is speaker meant. (shrink)

A phenomenological community is an identifiable assemblage of organisms in a local habitat patch: a local wetland or mudflat are typical examples. Such communities are typically persistent: membership and abundance stay fairly constant over time. In this paper I discuss whether phenomenological communities are functionally structured, causal systems that play a role in determining the presence and abundance of organisms in a local habitat patch. I argue they are not, if individualist models of community assembly are vindicated; (...) i.e., if the presence of one species is not typically explained by the presence or absence of specific other species. I discuss two alternatives to in- dividualism, and conclude by arguing for a dimensional model of phenomenological communities. The causal salience of a phenomenological community depends on three factors: the extent to which it is internally regulated, the extent to which it has robust boundaries, and the extent to which it has emergent properties. I conclude by using this model to frame a natural research agenda for community ecology. (shrink)

A metric space is said to be locally non-compact if every neighborhood contains a sequence that is eventually bounded away from every element of the space, hence contains no accumulation point. We show within recursive mathematics that a nonvoid complete metric space is locally non-compact iff it is without isolated points.The result has an interesting consequence in computable analysis: If a complete metric space has a computable witness that it is without isolated points, then every neighborhood contains a computable sequence (...) that is eventually computably bounded away from every computable element of the space. (shrink)

In the section of the Treatise titled ‘Of the immateriality of the soul’, Hume adduces an argument to show that nothing can be ‘locally conjoined’ with all of a person’s perceptions. The argument is seldom discussed, and deserves attention, mainly because it can be transformed into an argument against the very existence of a soul. In this paper, I present and closely examine both arguments, Hume’s argument and the one against the existence of the soul. Both, I conclude, are fallacious. (...) In dem Abschnitt des Treatise mit dem Titel ‚Of the immateriality of the soul‘ bringt Hume ein Argument vor, das zeigen soll, dass nichts mit allen Perzeptionen einer Person ‚lokal verknüpft‘ sein kann. Das Argument wird selten diskutiert, verdient aber Aufmerksamkeit, hauptsächlich deshalb, weil es in ein Argument gegen die Existenz der Seele umgewandelt werden kann. In diesem Aufsatz stelle ich beide Argumente – Humes Argument und das gegen die Existenz der Seele – dar und untersuche sie im Detail. Ich gelange zu der Feststellung, dass beide Argumente fehlerhaft sind. (shrink)

An open question regarding how people develop their models of the world is how new candidates are generated for consideration out of infinitely many possibilities. We discuss the role that evolutionary mechanisms play in this process. Specifically, we argue that when it comes to developing a global world model, innovation is necessarily incremental, involving the generation and selection among random local mutations and recombinations of (parts of) one's current model. We argue that, by narrowing and guiding exploration, this feature (...) of cognitive search is what allows human learners to discover better theories, without ever grappling directly with the problem of finding a “global optimum,” or best possible world model. We suggest this aspect of cognitive processing works analogously to how blind variation and selection mechanisms drive biological evolution. We propose algorithms developed for program synthesis provide candidate mechanisms for how human minds might achieve this. We discuss objections and implications of this perspective, finally suggesting that a better process-level understanding of how humans incrementally explore compositional theory spaces can shed light on how we think, and provide explanatory traction on fundamental cognitive biases, including anchoring, probability matching, and confirmation bias. (shrink)

Observer‑Limited Cosmology develops a foundations‑oriented framework for interpreting cosmological structure under horizon‑bounded observational access. It argues that identifying the observable universe with the total cosmological system is not an observational result but an interpretive extension. The paper distinguishes local cosmological reconstruction from broader claims about total reality while treating redshift and horizon structure as informational filters on what can be recovered. It further shows why local asymptotic behavior—including heat‑death‑like dilution—does not by itself justify global terminality claims without an (...) added representativeness assumption. The framework preserves standard FLRW dynamics, introduces no new physical entities or dynamical laws, and is offered as a disciplined clarification of the inferential limits governing cosmological totality claims. (shrink)

What should we do when two conflicting ontologies are both fruitful, though their fruitfulness varies by context or location? To achieve reconciliation, it is not enough to advocate pluralism. There are many varieties of pluralism and not all pluralisms will serve equally well; some may be inconsistent, others unhelpful. This essay considers another option: local ontology. For a pair of ontologies, a local ontology consists of two claims: (1) each location enjoys a unique ontology, and (2) neither ontology (...) is most fundamental nor most global. To argue for this view and provide an example, I develop a local ontology for two scientific ontologies: processualism and new mechanism. To further support this ontology, I argue against two varieties of pluralism: first, a pluralism based on directly unifying the assumptions of both ontologies and, second, one of allowing both ontologies to coexist within a discipline. I argue that the first option is inconsistent and the second is unhelpful. I conclude that this local ontology provides us with a consistent and fruitful account that includes elements from both mechanism and processualism. (shrink)

The need to find an intrinsic characterization of what makes a relation between events causal arises not only in local theories of causation like Salmon's process theory but also in global approaches like Lewis' counterfactual theory. According to the localist intuition, whether a process connecting two events is causal should depend only on what goes on between the events, not on conditions that hold elsewhere in the world. If such intrinsic characterizations could be found, an identification of the causal (...) relation in the actual world (though not in other possible worlds) with physical processes may be feasible (the a posteriori identification). I consider recent proposals made for intrinsic characterizations of causality and conclude that none of them is able to deliver the intended result. (shrink)

Stalnaker ( 1978 ) made two seminal claims about presuppositions. The most influential one was that presupposition projection is computed by a pragmatic mechanism based on a notion of ‘local context’ . Due to conceptual and technical difficulties, however, the latter notion was reinterpreted in purely semantic terms within ‘dynamic semantics’ (Heim 1983 ). The second claim was that some instances of presupposition generation should also be explained in pragmatic terms . But despite various attempts, the definition of a (...) precise ‘triggering algorithm’ has remained somewhat elusive. We discuss possible extensions of both claims. First, we offer a reconstruction of ‘local contexts’ which circumvents some of the difficulties faced by Stalnaker’s original analysis. We preserve the idea that local contexts are computed by a pragmatic mechanism that aggregates the information that follows from an incomplete sentence given the global context; but we crucially rely on a modified notion of entailment (‘R-entailment’), whose plausibility should be assessed on independent grounds. Second, we speculate that local contexts might prove necessary (though by no means sufficient) to understand how some presuppositions are triggered. In a nutshell, we suggest that a presupposition is triggered when the semantic contribution of an expression to its local context is in some sense ‘heterogeneous’. Without giving an analysis of the latter notion, we note that this architecture implies that presuppositions should be triggered on the basis of the meaning that an expression has relative to its local context (what we call its ‘local meaning’); we sketch some possible consequences of this analysis. (shrink)

This paper aims to bring a novel approach to the discussion of unfair advantages in sport by looking for a local criterion of fairness instead of a universal criterion. A local criterion of fairness would not solve the general dispute over what counts as an unfair advantage, but it would be beneficial in evaluating specific cases and could guide further discussion about them. We seek a local criterion of fairness by comparing the specific property advantages of Caster (...) Semenya and Eero Mäntyranta. South African Semenya is a middle‐distance runner whose right to compete in the female category has been challenged owing to her assumed difference of sex development and related high level of testosterone. Finnish Mäntyranta was a cross‐country skier with an exceptionally high haematocrit level. We examine whether there is a relevant difference between their advantages that would justify treating the athletes differently. We propose that the criterion ‘not attainable by other athletes in the same category’ could stand as a local criterion of fairness under certain conditions. However, its proper application requires further discussion on how to justify categories in sport. (shrink)

Since 1984, the AHV journal has provided a key forum for a community of interdisciplinary, international researchers, educators, and policy makers to analyze and debate core issues, values and hopes facing the nation and the world, and to recommend strategies and actions for addressing them. This agenda includes the more specific challenges and opportunities confronting agriculture, food systems, science, and communities, as well as broader contextual issues and grand challenges. This paper draws extensively on 40 years of AHV journal articles (...) and reviews and begins with a focus on a limited number of key grand challenges (climate change and global warming; threats to democracy and the growing neo-nationalism, populism, and authoritarianism; and increasing national and international inequality). With these challenges as the underlining context, the remainder of the paper addresses core journal themes of sustainable agriculture and local food systems, citizen and public science, and empowered communities. Highlighted are numerous important journal contributions to the analyses and recommendations to address these hopes and themes. I conclude that these themes and hopes not only deserve to live but are essential for changing and redirecting an unsustainable and destructive environmental, economic, political and social agenda to a viable, livable and just democratic society. (shrink)

Purpose The idea of television as a space for cultural and local wisdom has been enthusiastically welcomed by many parties. Regrettably, this expectation proves to be nothing more than an empty hope. Indonesian national television rarely broadcasts content with local cultural nuances. National television broadcast is filled with popular and global cultural content. Only local television tries hard to remain the last guardian of Indonesian culture and local wisdom. Several studies have raised the issue of (...) class='Hi'>local television broadcast content but have not succeeded in explaining the dynamics that occur in the management of local television to maintain and inherit local culture. This study aims to fill this gap. Design/methodology/approach This research was conducted using a qualitative descriptive method with interview techniques as data collection methods. Findings Indonesian local television continues to struggle to become the guardian for the sustainability of Indonesian local culture by emphasizing its market segmentation and trying to meet their needs, trying hard to implement intensification and extensification strategies, continuing to struggle to balance the onslaught of global culture and relying on government agencies as a nice market. However, the role and support of the government are greatly needed. Without it, local television will surely fall. Originality/value This research reflects the dynamics that occur in the management of local television which is very challenging. By revealing the struggles that local television goes through in fortifying local culture and the minimal role of the Indonesian government, this research contributes to the development of sustainable strategies and the inheritance of local culture in this global era. (shrink)

The global water crisis, intensified by climate change and over-exploitation, presents urgent ethical and ecological challenges that demand integrative responses. Most studies focus on political economy, technology, and governance, drawing on frameworks such as ecological scarcity and modernization. By contrast, the ethical dimensions of water – particularly the contributions of indigenous communities – remain overlooked. This study aims to examine the Barong Wae ritual of the Manggarai people of Flores, Indonesia, and its relevance for global water ethics. Using Spinoza’s metaphysics (...) as an interpretive lens, three insights emerge: (1) water rights and conatus, grounding ecological egalitarianism; (2) immanent causality and spiritual force, affirming the intrinsic and sacred value of water; and (3) relational ethics and communal power, emphasizing interdependence and planetary solidarity. The study concludes that the water ethics of the Manggarai people, interpreted through Spinoza, offers a robust ethical foundation for rethinking global water governance beyond conventional Western paradigms. (shrink)

“Imported“ is a member of a large family of adjectives, including “enemy“, “domestic“, “local“, “exported“, “foreign“. Call these terms contextuals. Contextuals are prima facie context-sensitive expressions in that the same contextual sentence can have different truth-values, and hence different truth-conditions, from utterance to utterance. I use Perry's multipropositionalist framework to get a new angle on contextuals. I explore the idea that the lexical linguistic meaning of contextual adjectives introduces two conditions to the cognitive significance of an utterance. These conditions (...) contain a variable, y, that does not correspond to any lexical component in the sentence. This is the available tool for letting the speakers' intentions, or what the speakers have in mind, play a semantic role. My view focuses on the complex condition that linguistic meaning sometimes semantically determines. (shrink)

This study aims to explore if local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources influence green management adoption of overseas subsidiaries, and to investigate the relationships between the level of green management adoption and performance. The 101 effective samples were collected from 583 Taiwanese firms, which are listed in the top 1000 manufactory firms and have invested in China. Though structural equation model analysis' empirical results indicate that local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources both have positive effects on the level (...) of green management adoption of the subsidiary. This study also suggests that the level of green management adoption is positively related to the subsidiary's performance. (shrink)

We propose a new theory to explain the nature and function of subjective experience, as a mechanism that guides the organism towards beneficial outcomes. In simple animals, that guidance takes the form of an affect producing a fitness-enhancing response. In human consciousness, there is not a single response, but a range of potential developments allowing a free choice. That range can be modelled as a local prospect: a field of possibilities centred on the present situation and coloured by valence. (...) Building on neural models of global workspace and adaptive resonance, we suggest how such a prospect could be implemented in the brain: as a halo of activation diffusing from, and feeding back into, a core of circulating activation. Using the thought experiment of qualia inversion, we argue that local prospect theory solves the ‘hard problem of consciousness’. We show how our theory explains key characteristics of consciousness: subjectivity, feeling, free will, agency, transience, continuity, integration, selectivity, intentionality, and ‘what it is like’. (shrink)

Background: Centralization of IRB reviews have been increasing in the US and elsewhere, but many questions about it remain. In the US, a few centralized IRBs (CIRBs) have been established, but how they do and could operate remain unclear. Methods: I contacted 60 IRBs (every fourth one in the list of the top 240 institutions by NIH funding), and interviewed leaders from 34 (response rate = 55%) and an additional 12 members and administrators. Results: These interviewees had often interacted with (...) CIRBs, but supported local reviews, and offered advantages and disadvantages of each. Interviewees argued that local IRBs can provide "local knowledge" of subjects and PIs, and "curbside consults" with PIs, facilitating mutual trust. PIs may interact more fully and informally, and hence effectively with local IRBs. IRBs also felt additional responsibility to protect "their own" subjects. Respondents mentioned a few advantages of CIRBs (e.g., CIRBs may streamline reviews), though far more rarely and cursorily. Overall, interviewees were wary of CIRBs, which they saw as varying widely in quality, depending on who happened to be members. Both local and centralized IRBs appear to have unintended consequences. For instance, discrepancies arose between IRBs that appeared to reflect differences in institutional culture and history, and personalities of chairs and/or vocal members, more than in local community values per se, and thus do not seem to be the intent of the regulations. While some critics see CIRBs as solutions to many IRB problems, critical tradeoffs and uncertainties emerge. Conclusions: These data have critical implications for future policy and research. Debates need to evolve beyond simply a binary discussion of whether CIRBs should replace local IRBs, to examine how and to what degree different models might operate, and what the relative advantages and disadvantages of each are. While some critics see CIRBs as panaceas, certain problems appear likely to continue. Careful consideration needs to be given to whether the advantages of local IRBs outweigh the problems that result, and whether a system can be developed that provides these benefits, while avoiding the disadvantages of local IRBs. (shrink)

Buying local is a prominent form of ethical consumption. We commonly assume that products that are local are in some respect ethically superior to ones that are not. This article contributes to research on local food by scrutinizing this assumption in light of some central values of the locavore movement. It identifies four central ethical causes from prior literature on locavorism: protecting the environment, promoting community, promoting small business, and contributing to the prosperity of one’s local (...) economy. It then analyzes whether the contribution of buying local to these causes can justify the general perception that buying local is a good way to be an ethical consumer. Its main finding is that these justifications fail to provide a strong positive ethical reason for consumers in general to adopt the practice of buying local. (shrink)

Most literature on research ethics originates from the perspectives of international researchers and, to a lesser extent, research subjects. This article goes beyond the prevailing understanding of ethical misconduct as a failure to secure informed consent, data breaches, coercion, or misuse of data. Instead, it seeks to develop the notion of ‘mundane ethical harms’ in conflict- and disaster-affected research, which are rooted in and shaped by the systemic power inequalities between researchers across global Northern and global Southern institutions. This article (...) centres on mundane ethical harms from the perspective of local researchers. Drawing on interviews and workshops from the Balkans, Colombia, and Nepal, we show that local researchers are caught between formal ethical frameworks – often biomedical in origin or defined in the global North – and local understandings of, and demands for, ethical practice. Acknowledging that regional and contextual experiences and understanding of ethics matter and may differ, we highlight commonalities of ethical harms that were consistent across the three regions to inform more context-sensitive procedural ethics across global North–South research collaborations. We argue that mundane ethical harms highlight the limits of procedural ethics that may be unintentional but tend to obscure the harms experienced by those caught in the middle of an unequal research environment. (shrink)

The food sovereignty movement calls for a reversal of the neoliberal globalization of food, toward an alternative development model that supports peasant production for local consumption. The movement holds an ambiguous stance on peasant production for export markets, and clearly prioritizes localized trade. Food sovereignty discourse often simplifies and romanticizes the peasantry—overlooking agrarian class categories and ignoring the interests of export-oriented peasants. Drawing on 8 months of participant observation in the Andean countryside and 85 interviews with indigenous peasant farmers, (...) this paper finds that export markets are viewed as more fair than local markets. The indigenous peasants in this study prefer export trade because it offers a more stable and viable livelihood. Feeding the national population through local market intermediaries, by contrast, is perceived as unfair because of oversupply and low, fluctuating prices. This perspective, from the ground, offers important insight to movement actors and scholars who risk oversimplifying peasant values, interests, and actions. (shrink)

Many today feel like strangers where they live. We call this overlooked facet of non-belonging estrangement, distinct from loneliness. Bridging the insights from political philosophy and literary studies, this paper offers a conceptualization of estrangement and explores a novel remedy. We identify two influential normative models in political philosophy and show why both are wanting. The Inclusion Model, defended by liberal-egalitarians and neo-republicans, treats belonging as formal citizenship; but recent empirical research, such as on affective citizenship, shows that formal inclusion (...) does not fend off estrangement. The Rootedness Model, defended by communitarians and liberal nationalists, is right that estrangement calls for roots; but its narrative tool — grand national epics with their long temporal arc, grand telos, and heroic roles — excludes not only immigrants and minorities, but also long-standing residents whose banal, fluid lives find no place in the epic. In a novel attempt to plant inclusive roots, we reappropriate the Grimms' German Legends as an alternative narrative tool of local belonging. In contrast to national epics, we argue that the narrative form of local legends — (a) centered around shared place rather than shared history, (b) rooted in the present rather than the past or future, (c) oriented toward everyday miracles rather than grand political epics, and (d) featuring bottom-up multi-versional narration rather than top-down unified narration — is well suited to modern lives in diverse, banal, and fluid societies. We conclude by drawing out the practical implications of an everyday belonging rooted in a shared place of wonder. (shrink)

Models treating the simple properties of social groups have a common shortcoming. Typically, they focus on the local properties of group members and the features of the world with which group members interact. I consider economic models of bureaucratic corruption, to show that (a) simple properties of groups are often constituted by the properties of the wider population, and (b) even sophisticated models are commonly inadequate to account for many simple social properties. Adequate models and social policies must treat (...) certain factors that are not local to individual members of the group, even if those factors are not causally connected to those individuals. Key Words: individualism • corruption • supervenience • model • cause. (shrink)

This paper discusses a claim by Clifton and Halvorson (2001) that, contrary to non-relativistic quantum mechanics, local operations can never destroy entanglement in relativistic quantum field theory. The impossibility of achieving local disentanglement would raise a threat for the mutual independence between microscopic subsystems. Here, we observe that Clifton and Halvorson no-go result rests on an unnecessarily strong notion of local operations, which we label absolutely local operations, and we argue that a weaker notion, namely that (...) of relatively local operations, is sufficient to guarantee that acting on one subsystem does not have non-local effects on another spacelike separated subsystem. We then show that one can achieve local disentanglement in relativistic quantum field theory by means of relatively local operations. In fact, we prove that, under the split property, there exists a class of disentangling relatively local operations. (shrink)

This work is a step toward the development of a logic for types and computation that includes not only the usual spaces of mathematics and constructions, but also spaces from logic and domain theory. Using realizability, we investigate a configuration of three toposes that we regard as describing a notion of relative computability. Attention is focussed on a certain local map of toposes, which we first study axiomatically, and then by deriving a modal calculus as its internal logic. The (...) resulting framework is intended as a setting for the logical and categorical study of relative computability. (shrink)

This paper contributes to the debates on the effectiveness and legitimacy of global labour standards. Theoretically, the paper integrates literature on labour standards in global production networks with cognitive framing and sensemaking literature to capture decent work understandings of suppliers and to theoretically underpin their relevance for the debates on the legitimacy and effectiveness of global labour standards. Empirically, the study explores cognitive decent work frames of garment suppliers and discusses them in reference to global decent work frames. A thematic (...) analysis of semi-structured interviews with thirty owners and managers in Egypt and Jordan served to identify suppliers’ decent work frames. Owners and managers dominantly framed decent work as a (paternalistic) family responsibility and as a business responsibility. Further notions that recurred across interviews were the framing of decent work as a human responsibility, religious (Islamic) responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, and regulatory responsibility. The findings show that supplier frames partly go beyond, partly undermine, and partly accord with global conceptualisations of decent work. They imply the need to strengthen and better communicate the human rights orientation of global labour standards and to give local social partners the autonomy to supplement and specify standards according to their context-specific needs. Global regulations otherwise risk crowding out informal, locally specific decent work practices that benefit workers in GPNs. (shrink)

This study examines the conditions under which local social environments are likely to influence corporate tax behavior. Using a social capital index at the county level, we find that on average, social capital reduces firms’ aggressive tax avoidance behavior. The impact of social capital on corporate tax avoidance is weaker when managers are under excessive pressure to meet earnings targets, during the periods of financial constraints, and when managers are incentivized to undertake risk. We further find that corporate tax (...) avoidance activities engaged by firms headquartered in high-social-capital counties tend to be less value-increasing, indicating that potential social sanctions in these areas may reduce the benefits of tax avoidance activities accrue to firms. However, the negative impact of tax avoidance on firm value in high-social-capital counties tends to be lower for firms with strong corporate governance, which suggests that managers in well-governed firms can better exploit tax avoidance opportunities. Overall, our evidence is consistent with our conjecture that although the local social environments have a significant influence on corporate tax behavior, this influence is fragile in the presence of excessive earnings pressure, financial constraints, and equity risk incentives. (shrink)

Mounting evidence documents the extraordinary toll on human health resulting from the consumption of unhealthy food products and physical inactivity. Diseases related to poor nutrition – such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers – are among the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. Poor diet and lack of exercise come second only to tobacco use in actual causes of preventable death in this country. It is estimated that 6% of all adult health care, 7% (...) of Medicare, and 11% of Medicaid expenditures are attributable to obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the direct medical cost associated with physical inactivity was nearly $76.6 billion in 2000.In response to America's growing obesity problem, local policymakers have been looking for legal strategies to adopt in their communities to encourage healthful behaviors. Taking the lead from the successful tobacco control movement, nutrition advocates are seeking strategies to “denormalize” unhealthy behaviors, rather than pursuing education-based approaches that encourage individuals to change their own personal behavior. (shrink)

This study examines the influence of Christian religion on corporate decisions related to human rights in the United States. Specifically, it examines the empirical association between a company's human rights practices and the Christian religiosity in its local community, as well as individual CEO religiosity in the United States, both of which have not been tested in prior studies. Employing a large sample from the United States, we find a congruent association between the “human rights friendly” practices of a (...) company and the Christian religiosity of the local community. This novel finding is robust to a diverse set of tests. In addition, we find that the association between Christian religiosity in the United States and human rights is more significant in reducing human rights concerns, than it improves human rights strengths. This study interprets these results as upholding the religious morality hypothesis, namely, that companies located in areas with higher religiosity are likely to engage in more human rights-friendly practices, and the United States. Christians consider religion as an influencing factor that encourages managers to embrace human rights. Furthermore, this study finds that individual religious managers tend toward more human rights-friendly practices, supporting our religious manager hypothesis. (shrink)

The business practices of multinational corporations raise many provocative moral issues and offer a touchstone for some fundamental ethical concepts. This essay identifies a wide range of problems but centers on the matter of consistency in corporate policy between foreign and domestic practices and the kind of generality of standards that is required to achieve consistency. Two considerations are singled out for illustrative discussion: wage scales and bribes. Proposals are offered for achieving consistency and generality in each case, the principle (...) of contextual generality for the first and the notion of structural universals for the second. (shrink)

The local self-government, in the course of its sovereign activities, adopts acts of local law on a wide range of issues. One of such scopes is the issue of establishing a patron of a particular local government unit, which is gaining popularity, although the current legislation does not explicitly provide for the possibility to establish a patron of a local government unit. The issue to be analysed in the course of this article is the question of (...) the circle of entities au-thorised to exercise the initiative for the establishment of a patron. The article analyses which entities exercise the legislative initiative for the subject resolu-tions in practice and how it relates to the legal regulations contained in acts and statutes regulating the functioning of local government units. The analysis allows conclusions to be drawn indicating that the circle of entities exercising the legislative initiative in the scope of a patron of a local government unit is wide and not always overlapping with the circle of entities indicated by law or statutes. (shrink)

In this paper, we employ a sensemaking lens to expand research on when and how local communities mobilize against corporate social irresponsibility. We draw on data from Guji, Ethiopia, where a local community suffered damages caused by a gold mine. We found that community members establish temporarily stable, emotion-driven sensemaking accounts that shape the community’s beliefs about the causes of the damage they experience and the prospects of a potential mobilization. Upsetting such sensemaking accounts requires sense-breaking events, which (...) lead to a shift in dominant emotions and a re-evaluation of company behavior, whereupon the community settles into new, again relatively stable interpretations of events. We discuss how environmental cues, sensemaking, emotions, and actions, on both the individual and the community level, intersect, potentially leading to dominant sensemaking accounts and dominant emotions in the local community. We develop a model depicting how, through action, observation, and discussion, a local community develops an impetus to mobilize. This theorization addresses how emotions shift in local communities subjected to corporate social irresponsibility and how emotions energize or de-energize a community. Thus, the study contributes to our understanding of why and how local communities mobilize against corporate social irresponsibility and extends extant work on emotional dynamics in the transition between individual and collective sensemaking. (shrink)

This article examines the prospects and challenges of local fundraising for human rights organizations (LHROs) in Mumbai, India—one of the country’s largest financial and cultural centers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 organizational leaders and a representative survey of 1,680 residents, Archana Pandya and James Ron explore how Indian rights groups navigate restrictive foreign funding laws, reputational risks, and a rapidly expanding corporate sector . -/- Findings show that Mumbai’s LHROs remain heavily dependent on foreign aid, leaving them vulnerable (...) to government crackdowns under India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). While leaders recognize the need to diversify and tap into domestic philanthropy, they face a critical dilemma: survey evidence reveals that public trust in human rights groups is strongly and inversely correlated with trust in local corporations. In other words, the more citizens trust businesses, the less they trust rights groups, and vice versa. This dynamic complicates efforts to seek corporate support, even as India’s 2013 Companies Act mandates new corporate social responsibility (CSR) donations. -/- The article highlights broader global implications: governments worldwide are restricting foreign aid to NGOs, pushing rights groups to pursue “local funds for local rights.” Yet, as the Mumbai case shows, fundraising from domestic elites may carry reputational costs and undermine grassroots legitimacy. For scholars, activists, and policymakers, these findings underscore the political economy of human rights funding and the fragile balance between financial sustainability and public trust. -/- Citation: Archana Pandya & James Ron (2017). Local resources for local rights? The Mumbai fundraiser’s dilemma. Journal of Human Rights, 16(3), 370–387. DOI link . (shrink)

This paper addresses the issue of how local and global norms and requirements are negotiated in the early stages of development of Social Science research ethics policy in a Global South context. A review of relevant literature followed by analysis of relevant national and institutional policies highlights both tensions and creative potential for ongoing research ethics initiatives. It was found that safety, trust and confidentiality issues are common problems reported by social science researchers in Kyrgyzstan. National level documents do (...) not directly address these ethical research issues, but the need for international research ethics principles is recognized. A limited number of institutional policies address research ethics issues, with the majority of relevant documents being codes of conduct focused on virtue ethics. The paper argues that this analysis of the current situation in Kyrgyzstan is likely to be of relevance to many countries, where those responsible for governance of research at all levels are grappling with the tensions of navigating research ethics in ways that are meaningful in local contexts while being congruent with Global North ethics requirements of funders and publishers. (shrink)

This book evaluates strategies for managing ethical conflict. Macro-approaches that attribute select values to entire peoples and claim supremacy for these values are suspect. A micro-approach, focusing on the ethics of individual thinkers, is better. The study uses the ethics of Confucius and Tetsuro Watsuji to derive a process-based universal ethic that respects local differences yet is not relativistic.