Reflections [IV] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Parthemore, Unified Conceptual Space

In my notes on Hodges' model, nursing theory and conceptual spaces I've referred to Rosch, Gärdenfors and there is much of note in my copy of The Big Book of Concepts. There are gaps to fill, key sources to find and digest including the history of concepts. In Empirical Investigations in Conceptual Spaces Theory and the Unified Conceptual Space Joel Parthemore really helped this effort. His presentation began with: What is a concept? Which (for me) begs the question: What is a concept within Hodges' model? Is it a single entity?

Joel's slides included the following:

In the Beginning Was...

• Classical definitionism: concepts are like entries in a dictionary.
• Classical imagism: concepts are like pictures in the mind.

And then came their descendants:

• Prototype and exemplar theories (Rosch)
• Informational atomism (Fodor)
• Proxytypes theory (Prinz)
• Conceptual spaces theory (Gärdenfors)

Listening to Joel introduce his work on unified conceptual spaces I can relate several points to Hodges' model especially the following.

• Attempt to describe how all of an individual conceptual agent’s conceptual spaces map or weave together into a single unified space, a “space of spaces” describable along certain common axes.
• By extension, how all of the individual conceptual agents’ unified spaces map together, in linguistic human society, into a single, common unified space.
• Unlike CST, UCST is explicitly enactive: concepts are located not in the agent nor in the environment but in the interaction of agent and environment.

A couple of speakers brought up the question of a 'space of spaces'. Centeredness also preoccupies us in health and education. We are desperate to pick up the patient and the student and put them at the center of things. I keep wondering (see link below) about the extent to which structure and a theory of cognition are interdependent in terms of the resulting conceptual spaces? Since the late 1980s Buzan's mind-mapping has struck me as not being 'grounded'. This may not be an issue in many applications, but for a generic conceptual framework some underlying structure (dimensions) seems essential.

Joel also considered this:

• One major shortcoming of currently available mind-mapping software is the lack of any well-defined theory of cognition (let alone theory of concepts) underlying the application.

I hope I can make contact with Joel and return to this. He indicated papers and further projects with colleagues and a piece of software.

Additional link (Hodges' model - nexus, structure):

http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=nexus

PJ's project [ii]: Hodges' model An aide mémoire, or candidate Gärdenforsian conceptual space? Or would you like a mint?

This 'project' has in reality been ongoing through some thirty years. Although Hodges' model is by its very nature - broad and generic - I'm sure there is a specific research question here. For me this question combines nursing (theory and practice), informatics, health and public engagement. One possible question that h2cm provokes concerns whether the model can be considered a conceptual space?

Over a couple of years I've been adding to some notes which for want of another I've framed under the question above. These notes inevitably languish for a while given a full-time nursing job (plus learning Drupal, this blog, doing posters ...). Picking the text up recently though the intro material seems to have fallen into place. An introduction should cover the recurring issues, challenges - opportunities found in nursing. Although I have the secateurs in hand and the spring is warm, Hodges' model requires that education and cognitive science are also be considered in this way. Anyway, here is the current working outline:

Hodges' model: A mere aide mémoire, or candidate Gärdenforsian conceptual space?

Abstract

Part 1: Introducing Health & Social Care, Education, Hodges' model

1 Introduction
 1.1 Health and Social Care
 1.2 Recurring Issues in Health and Social Care

2 Education
 2.0 Introduction
 2.1 Education in the 21st Century
 2.2 Issues arising in Education

3 Health Care and Nursing Theory and Hodges' model
 3.0 Introduction
 3.1 Models of Nursing (Care)
  Definitions
 3.2 Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
 3.3 Information, energy?, records

Part 2: Cognitive Science & Conceptual Spaces

4 Cognitive Science and Computing
 4.0 Introduction
 4.1 Models, contexts, situations, the Project and (Darwinian) Justification
 4.2 Forms of Literacy, Requirements and Socio-Technical Perspectives
 4.3 Computation and Computer Graphics

5 Gardenfors' Conceptual Spaces

 5.0 Introduction

Drawing upon the cognitive science and computing literature the objectives of Gärdenfors’ Conceptual Spaces are made clear from the outset:

‘… is to show that a conceptual mode based on geometrical and topological representations deserves at least as much attention in cognitive science as the symbolic and associationistic approaches’ . p.2.

To what extent is h2cm a geometrical and topological representation? It appears on a simplistic level to qualify as a complex plane (Derbyshire, 2008). In this case, however, the closest we get to imaginary numbers in the negative sense are the null hypotheses of clinical research and reasoning amid uncertainty (REF). Gärdenfors continues:

‘This is a book about the geometry of thought. A theory of conceptual spaces will be developed as a particular framework for representing information on the conceptual level.’ p.2.

Hodges' model provides a framework, but as already noted it is not as yet theory based. It is based on practice, with appeals to experience and the knowledge and skills deployed in the health and social care sector. Could the h2cm framework work with Gärdenfors theory of conceptual spaces and his resulting framework for representing information? When Gärdenfors refers to his book being about the geometry of thought, here I would ask: What have nursing theorists sought? In addition to the stated motivations, surely a geometry of nursing thought? Nursing theorists seek rules and laws for a 'geometry' of care. A geometry of care is no less idealised, no less Platonic in form ultimately reflecting the values of the profession. A geometry of care would clearly be an achievement of harmony in the midst of discord and suffering. Additionally as the nursing discipline appears to some to be compromised in respect of practice, training, attitudes and professionalism.

 5.1 Representation, Explanation and Construction
 5.2 Background on key research methods
 5.3 Gärdenfors conceptual spaces - selected definitions
 5.4 Purposes, Holistic Bandwidth, Safety, Benefits and the Socio-Technical (repetition, move?)

Part 3:

6 Nursing, Care Theory and Care Domains
 6.0 Introduction
 6.1 Indicative literature review
 6.2 H2CM, Research methods and Data, Data, Data, (Data!)

Conceptual Spaces: Process, Practice and Domains - Hodges’ model

Part 4:

Coding and Classification, Ontologies, RDF, Semantic Web
Icons, glyphs, blobs
Patterns, wholes and parts
Users, Purposes and Scope of Application
Drupal and Ruby
Domains and Domain Specific Languages
Closing Discussion

(Back to this post:)
Don't ask why I am doing this. Chaos does reign here - 'Indicative literature review' in the midst...! In my defence these are notes, what's the question? Bits of the text move about, some disappears. Part 4 could become two, or three new parts, but no more than that! To what extent is there a case for M.I.N.T. a Modern Information-oriented Nursing Theory?*

Can you get there from a conceptual framework? When you get on the "conceptual framework" bus, can we simply change the destination to "conceptual space"? Has the academic bus already been and gone, or it drove right past: "Not in Service". Is this too big an ask of a bus? You need a ship to cross an ocean - even one that is illusory.

One thing I am sure of is that the model - #h2cm, this blog #W2tQ, my picking out Drupal, Ruby and the potential of visualization in the social sciences must come together in some way. One can inform the other. There is something really worth doing here. If in the end I don't get to do it well maybe others can finish the piece (the ambiguity here is intentional). Where's that illusory ship....

* M.I.N.T. sounds better than F.I.H.T. - you know cool and refreshing; but I do prefer and we really do need a Future & Information-oriented Health Theory?

Derbyshire, J. (2008). Unknown Quantity, Atlantic Books. p.12.

Gärdenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual Spaces, Cambridge.

Reflections [VI] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Adams & Raubal - CSML

The final day of the CS@W conference started with a topic I was really anticipating as per a previous blog post. Ben Adams and Martin Raubal had indicated by email that CSML was a work in progress and a chat after their session emphasized the same. The existence of CSML and looking at some code examples holds great promise.

Direction in Lund, Sweden May 2012 by Peter Jones

The motivation for their work stems from geographical information systems [GIS] and how to formalise conceptual spaces. Palmer (1978) was cited as providing one form of representation. Palmer's mental model being matched with formal conceptual spaces. As per Gardenfors' book Minkowski's vector space is central to this work and informs a previous paper by Raubal (2004).

Way-finding provided an example: how there are different domains with semantic distances and weights that can change according to context. The facades of buildings and the contexts of day and night. What features stand out in terms of the shape, colour, visibility, area of buildings?

Adams and Raubal moved to differentiating topological relations that emphasise dynamic concepts. Piaget's contribution was noted in how we perceive conceptual change and the work of Torsten Hägerstrand whose time geography was illustrated (the geographical aspect of their work).

Behind CSML is a conceptual space algebra that is still being developed. On conceptual spaces and the semantic web, Adams and Raubal observed through their slides that:

Description logics are limited in ability to represent semantic content (RDF, OWL).
They fail to easily express
    Semantic similarity which plays an important role in cognitive categorization.
    Complex concept combinations.
Present Semantic Web technologies are restricted in their ability to answer queries and make inferences.

My BA(Philosophy and Computing Joint Hons.) project was on the application of semantic networks in nursing. The hard work was done for me in that it was directed by existing work in GRAIL. The dissertation I produced was essentially descriptive looking at nursing examples, identifying care issues and modelling them using is_a relationships. Among a great many slides and fascinating explanations Adams and Raubal note that:

Is-A, Instance-Of
Strong – based on topological relationships
Weak – based on similarity relationships

- so the advent of conceptual spaces, CSML and their efforts to engage with the existing semantic web community shows the ongoing dynamic of the semantic web's development. They are pursuing a reification of OWL 2 CS file to OWL 2:

Unique IRI for OWL classes, individuals, properties
Unique IRI for CS domains, concepts, and instances

There may be a future website to follow in addition to the CSML source. Questions followed about whole spaces, contrast classes and support vectors.

Reflecting back, my studies from 1996-97 and the examples produced - mobility... did not really even scratch the surface. Ben and Martin's work begs the question of trying to develop CSML examples that go beyond the surface(s) and enter the conceptual space (or spaces) that is Hodges' model.

Adams, B., Raubal, M. (2009). Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML): Towards the Cognitive Semantic Web. ICSC '09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA.

PJ's project [iii]: Hodges' model An aide mémoire, or candidate Gärdenforsian conceptual space?

If you have a 'project' then chances are at some point you're going to commit it to paper as a text or Gantt chart...

Last November I posted an outline and some reflections about a project that I suppose has been a career in the making. This blog is part of the 'output': a channel that is open.

I am writing this in Lund, Sweden. The people, weather, the lilac and other scents on the breeze are a real joy. I'm here to attend the Conceptual Spaces at Work conference which starts tomorrow.

Part of the rationale for attending is to see if I've found a tree worthy of stressing my vocal cords over. If you compare the copy below with November then some changes should be apparent. For example, I wasn't aware of CSML back then. This conference is not so much about trying to fill in gaps, but finding them. Here is the latest listing:

Abstract
    Preface
    Introduction
    1.1 Health and Social Care
    1.2 Recurring Issues in Health and Social Care
    2 Education
     Introduction
    2.1 Education in the 21st Century
    2.2 Recurring Issues in Education
    3 Nursing, Nursing Theory and Hodges' model
    Introduction
    3.1 Sciences, Medicine and Nursing Disciplines
    3.2 Scope of Nursing Practice
    3.3 The case for models of care: Simplification, speech, writing
    3.4 Nursing Process
    3.5 Data Initialisation In Nursing
    3.6 Nursing Theory : All In The Mind?
    3.7 Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
    3.8 Problems With Models - Critique
    3.9 Problems with Hodges' health career – care domains – model
    4 Information
    Introduction
    4.1 Information, energy, records
    4.2 Clinical Classification and Coding
    5 Cognitive Science, Learning and Literacy, Computation
    Introduction
    5.1 Cognitive and Learning styles
    5.2 Models, Contexts, Situations, the Project and (Darwinian) Justification
    5.3 Forms of Literacy, Requirements and Socio-Technical Perspectives
    5.4 Computation and Computer Graphics
    5.5 Visual Software
    5.6 Software Development, data, models, applications
    5.7 Data Abstraction and Databases
    5.8 Object Oriented Programming
    5.9 Coding and Classification, Ontologies, RDF, Semantic Web
    6 Gardenfors' Conceptual Spaces
    Introduction
    6.1 Representation, Explanation and Construction
    6.2 Background on key research methods
    6.3 Gärdenfors conceptual spaces - selected definitions
    7 Hodges' model as a Conceptual Space
    Introduction
    7.1 Indicative Literature Review
    7.2 H2CM, Data, Data, Data, (Data!) and research methods
    7.3 Hodges’ model as a Conceptual Space
    7.4 Quality dimensions – discrete vs continuous and confluent
    8 Sandbox: Drupal, Ruby, CSML and SVG
    Introduction
    8.1 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG): Web Graphics
    8.2 Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML)
    8.3 Drupal: Open source content management system
    8.4 Ruby
    8.5 Domains and Domain Specific Languages
    9 Closing Discussion: Values
    Introduction
    Figures
    Tables
    Acknowledgements

I would love to attend SVG Open - The Graphical Web in September, but I have to cut the cloth as a dad, boyfriend, and full-time nurse... This year, ten days unpaid leave will help me pursue this work. It's not that I can necessarily afford to sacrifice salary like this, but at present it suits the NHS and me.

As to the text there will be lots more changes to follow no doubt. Chapter 4 has latent emergent properties - I hope. One struggle is 'chapters' 1 & 2, which provide a background to healthcare and education; and the closing discussion. In C1 for example, the issues include person-centered care, multidisciplinary care, records, information. ... In a way they are also themes, it's finding the right descriptor. Actually, as I write perhaps this issues-themes thing is related to there being issues that are problems that have a solution if only we can find it?

It's a big ask, but C8 and reference to the sandbox says it all. Whether it is a case of issues, themes, or problems in nursing, health and social care it is values that count. I'm hoping there's a circle there that can be closed. Then the project really becomes a baton: and I can help pass it on ...

More to follow over the next few days.

Many thanks also to Rikard for the welcome at Hobykrok B&B and the loan of a power adapter!

Spaces that Speak*: Theatrum Mundi / The Global Street

Even as I search for extraterrestrials we are creatures of space.

The Agora in
400 BCE

Womb, swaddling clothes, crib, play pen, 'home', garden, neighbourhood, community, village, town, city...

Here on W2tQ cognitive and conceptual space is the focus. Hodges' model provides a space for individual or group reflection. In addition to providing a conceptual space the model can represent our physical spaces, our social spaces - incorporating the various means of denoting relationships be that social network, family - genogram, or community group.

As a unit of 'civilization' there should be civic spaces in villages, towns and cities.  This is frequently not a 'civil' space as might be envisaged in the political sense. In contemplating the health of the individual we must also see the group, the citizens and ultimately the global community. If in future individual's must assume greater responsibility for their health, through which space will that responsibility be communicated? Will the channel of choice be the 2nd, or 3rd household TV, the PC-laptop screen; smart phone or merely the Parliamentary debate?

Where is 'public space', where can women and children meet in safety, where can free speech be voiced, be heard? If the presence and stability of public space is not an indicator of 'public health' what is it? What is the impact of policy? When cars are removed from an inner town and the area pedestrianised does a public space follow - the people as they walk by(e)? Can philosophy break out of the public houses and into other public spaces?

The following initiative is centered upon only three cities Frankfurt, London and New York, but will hopefully provide some insights:

Theatrum Mundi / The Global Street 

- is a new urban forum. It seeks to understand what brings life to a city, particularly in its public places and asks how these might be better designed. It brings architects and town planners together with performing and visual artists to reimagine the public spaces of twenty-first century cities.

 
*and listen.

My source: Heathcote, E., Design. A breath of fresh air for public spaces. FT Weekend 27-28 October 2012. 4-5.

Former link image source: http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/grk201/GRK201.Agora.400.html

Reflections [III] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Lund University, Sweden, May 2012

The next session - Event Structure, Conceptual Spaces and the Semantics of Verbs Peter Gärdenfors, Massimo Warglien & Matthijs Westera, was presented by Peter Gärdenfors whose book Conceptual Spaces (2000) I bought in Sedbergh in 2008 (talk about serendipity!).

Just reading the title back then was enough...

There was a starter question: Why are there word classes (nouns, verbs, adverbs...)?

It became evident that first morning that conceptual space as a representational form is very much still in active development. The abstract begins:

The aim of this paper is to integrate spatial cognition with lexical semantics. We develop cognitive models of actions and events based on conceptual spaces and vectors on them. The models are then used to present a semantic theory of verbs. ...

Word classes were related (as in the book) to conceptual space elements, e.g.

nouns - categories
adjectives - properties

In addressing verbs this paper seeks a two-vector model of an event.

Agent (Force) -> Patient (Result)   - result verbs describe the change in the object.

The Professor said that cognitive and linguistic aspects are often confused. Two theses were also provided - thesis 2: single domain constraint.

In addition talk of several spaces might be troubling (adding complexity), but to me the prospects of action space, category space and physical space makes the potential for modelling more explicit and accessible to Hodges' model.

I scribbled down 'agent not always necessary (fall, growth?...)' and pondered about self-care, relatives acting as a proxy.

There was a lot of detail on language, linguistics: static verbs, intentional verbs -> physical action; telic verbs. ... Rather than feel (completely!) confused by this specialist talk, I felt enthused for what is to follow.

Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML): Towards the Cognitive Semantic Web

I'll start May hopefully in tune with plans towards the month's end and attending Conceptual Spaces at Work.

The SCIENCES domain page has included Markup Languages (ML) for a great many years.

In the early versions of the h2cm website there were just two 'resource' pages. When the ongoing four page format arrived then markup languages had a place.

Looking at the programme for next month's Conceptual Spaces at Work the first session listed includes this reference:

Adams, B., Raubal, M. (2009). Conceptual Space Markup Language (CSML): Towards the Cognitive Semantic Web. ICSC '09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA.

Abstract—CSML is a semantic markup language created for the publishing and sharing of conceptual spaces, which are geometric structures that represent semantics at the conceptual level. CSML can be used to describe semantics that are not captured well by the ontology languages commonly used in the Semantic Web. Measurement of the semantic similarity of concepts as well as the combination of concepts without shared properties are common human cognitive tasks. However, these operations present sources of difficulty for tools reliant upon set-theoretic and syllogistic reasoning on symbolic ontologies. In contrast, these operations can be modeled naturally using conceptual spaces. This paper describes the design decisions behind CSML, introduces the key component elements of a CSML document, and presents examples of its usage.

This is an excellent source. CSML is a really significant development for me as Adams and Raubal highlight on the first page:

The computational foundation of the Semantic Web is the formal representation of concepts and their relationships using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) variants [5], [6]. These families of languages allow one to describe semantic relationships between concepts and ontologies, which can be queried using a first-order logic reasoner. An underlying assumption to these methods is the realist approach to semantics, which states that the meanings of concepts are in the real world. That is, there is a direct mapping between language terms and the world but there is no consideration of how individuals understand concepts differently. In contrast, cognitive semantics states that the meanings of terms are cognitive structures in people’s minds. This approach is of central importance for the Semantic Web, because web services interface with human users.

This isn't excellent or significant in the sense that the emergence of CSML demonstrates h2cm as a conceptual space.

Far from it.

Here and for h2cm CSML is obviously an essential tool to examine, understand and possibly extend. Anyone for PHP and XML (Drupal)? Reading the paper, it's clear that even thinking of applying CSML to Hodges' model demands answers to difficult and yet fascinating questions that involve nursing (theory, practice and values), informatics, philosophy and some maths too.

Image source:
http://www.lucs.lu.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/conceptual_spaces_wordl.png

PJ's project [i]: Hodges' model An aide mémoire, or candidate Gärdenforsian conceptual space?

I'll expand on this over the coming months ... first something a bit off the wall...

Now and again I revisit what started as my 'notes' on conceptual spaces. This could be an embarrassing case of mistaken identity (and an embarrassing series of blog post!).

As with everything what is the cost? Well in words .....

1,300    2,400          5,567                        10,534                                   20,340 ...

I add text. I subtract.

Possibilities are appended. Relevance is questioned.

Where IS the panoptic eye?

Where to find the supervision that can ground me?

(Their flies the constant: Astronautic dreams; Young, Cernan, Aldrin, Armstrong, Yuri, Tereshkova and you too Albert II)

Structure emerges.
Potential strategies form to combine interests and efforts.

bifurcates
suddenly

Te                  the                    xt 

So how is the nursing stack?

Funding?
Interdisciplinary?
Multidisciplinary?
Quality of Care?
Dignity & Respect?
Confidence in Care?
Qualified?
Skills mix?
Self-care?
Values?

1st in : last out - OR....?

How to shuffle the decks that are nursing, informatics, cognitive science, and education?

Some text (thoughts) fails to mature -
beyond redundancy -
IT withers.

References are found. Some are metallic - key - sources. Some are virtual.

Some pass un-realised.  Present but lazy, not furthering the case.

Some are never recovered:............................

...............................:from paper scraps; from grey matter.

LOdpST

(Limited Orientation [don't panic] Should b Temporary)

Recovery. Who can recover from: LIFE? No choice in that. But do exercise. Travel past : now :  future : now : past ... forth and back ...

Toys R Us

Yo-YoUR memories are U

For a long time it collected virtual dust. Encoded on the hard disc long since last accessed. A Frozen amalgam of bits. But then, a return -

Re-Entry

 The aRc of relief- fresh eyes, fresh thought, further insights ....

The overall structure changes. For a long time this project was h2cm, then additional thoughts a website, a blog, several papers with this - yet another. A possible submission, journal - conference?

Then a text; a project; a song*; possibly a thesis?  (* Only joking)

How many texts start this way?
How many are still born?
No cry, no joy, less holistic care.

I do believe h2cm is an example of a conceptual space.

It could be that there is ONE ' ' or several [Is it lexical, discursive, cognitive, enacted, ....?]

Where are the edges of h2cm?

The h+listic space

IMAGINE

That space is idealised across ALL nursing theories. ButT (my head hurts) what sort of space is it? Shuffle the cards again, take one, memorize it.... Have we landed yet? Am I moving, or is that you?

Where is that space in practice now - and where is it post-midnight?

It is there in all care theories, they all count towards local - global health. Rejoice in eclectic care realms; in pre-post training and lifelong learning.

Roots or tendrils: it's all growth.

Promise.

Sustainable

In books, on lecturer's lips, values carried forward in student's thoughts and deeds.

Conference: The Foundations of Conceptual Engineering

A conference on The Foundations of Conceptual Engineering at NYU, on Sept 14 and 15, 2018. To attend, please register by following this link no later than August 31, 2018.

One dimension of cognitive success is getting it right, i.e gaining knowledge of facts. Another dimension of cognitive success is using the right concept, i.e. framing a topic in the right way. This view, if correct, tasks inquirers with critically examining the concepts they are using and perhaps replacing those concepts with new and better ones. This task is often known as “conceptual engineering”.

The idea that conceptual engineering is an important task for inquirers in and outside philosophy has recently gained traction. Some philosophers think conceptual engineering is an important task for inquirers to pursue.  The conference is focused on foundational issues in connection with conceptual engineering. Topics to be addressed include the following:

• What are the semantic mechanisms that underlie conceptual engineering?
• What are concepts, and which role (if any) do they play in conceptual engineering?
• How can a theory of conceptual engineering be integrated with large-scale semantic theories? 
• Which precise changes does a language undergo when its speakers engineer concepts?
• Is conceptual engineering something that speakers can ever purposefully bring about?
• What is the relation between changing concepts and changing reality? 

The planned conference will focus especially on the semantic foundations of conceptual engineering and push towards a better understanding of the process.

The conference is organized collaboratively by members of NYU (Vera Flocke and David Chalmers) and members of the research project ConceptLab, located at the University of Oslo (Herman Cappelen and Andrew Peet).

 More...

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If this conference needs a workshop, a workbench, or conceptual engineering facility they might care to look at Hodges' model. Whether for conceptual brainstorming, requirements, prototyping, refactoring, combination ... Hodges' model can have a role. Some musings in this vein follow...

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

One dimension of cognitive success is getting it right,
i.e gaining knowledge of facts.
Another dimension of cognitive success is using the right concept,
 i.e. framing a topic in the right way.

Acceptable to the patient (or advocate) and ethical? Achieving concordance - agreed  relevant to the context, issue, problem? Logical consistency, coherence and permanence? Holistic bandwidth is tested - semantic scope? Conceptual Engineering instantiated in software, argumentation? AI? Conceptual Spaces? Topic is person-centred  (patient, student, carer...) Testing: Concepts with positive :: negative are switched - re-framed?  Other dichotomies? Conceptual slide-rule? Known 'semantic drift' in vocabulary - concepts: disuse, archaic, new, re-purposed?

Assessment is comprehensive? Knowledge of 'conceptual engineering'  how to - rules, laws (mechanisms)? Concepts were measurable (as were previously defined) quantifiable? Flagged interdisciplinary use of concept? Transdisciplinary? Visual tools - representation, diagrams? Reversible quality: 'engineering' disassembly? Conceptual dependency on threshold(s)? Engineering concepts:  tolerance, project, professionalism, failure, risk, benefits, techne? 'Conceptual engineering' defined units & standards: word, words ... corpora? Research methodologies, methods? Literature

Available social sources were utilised, or at least pursued? Narrative derived from concepts references life history (story)? Tested and accepted by peers - multidisciplinary team? Inclusive? Quality criteria were met Cultural, ethnic due regard  met

legal? concepts used were appropriate  to outcome(s)? 'Space' for uncertainty, constraints, unwise decisions? Policy influence on language, examples found in health and social care 2008-2018 austerity? Accords with and assures the Sustainability Development Goals? 'Macro conceptual engineering' -  Level of required change in health systems:  new & existing

Reflections [VII] Conceptual Spaces At Work: OntoSpaces - A Perspectivist Approach to CS

This session started fairly quietly but was one that rather shouted out in the end because of its possible relevance to Hodges' model. There was a clue having recognised one contributor from a reference already found:

Hautamäki, A. (1992). A Conceptual Space Approach To Semantic Networks, Computers and Mathematics with Applications. 23, 6-9, 517-525.

Kaipainen and Hautamäki began by asking what is the origin of quality dimensions? They proceeded to explain their use of perspectivism and the perspectival nature of cognition directing the audience to Giere (2006). The history of this is based on philosophy and the work of Nietzsche, Goodman and Putnam.

The work of Kaipainen and Hautamäki proposes the OntoSpace as a means to further extend Gärdenfors' work. An ontospace is an n-dimensional metadata space. In this space a perspective is an array of weights. The weights express the interest or attention towards each onto-dimension.


A transformation can be made from Ontospace A to lower dimensional space B. There are many technical points here to get to grips with. A figure was provided (I have gone over the yellow square 'Topical Domain' as it was indistinct; the green circle reads 'b Representational Space B').

This is an ecological and manageable means to conceptualization of a topical domain in ontospace A. Mention of ecological and manageable prompted me to clarify what this means, as I can see h2cm as being ecological and manageable. In the sense of breadth and depth of knowledge and possibly reducing the data context (as ever), patient, carer, nurse, learner....

The presentation included a software demonstration insofar as time allowed. The context was banking. The interface both applied dimensions and prioritised them. In the break I was able to explain Hodges' model to Mauri (Kaipainen), using a board in the upstairs dining room. By email Mauri subsequently noted that the home page of the old website actually reflects the model down to the placement of the menu links. (This is a struggle with Drupal and its themes, trying to come up with something that is original, represents the model and yet is not gimmicky the interface being obscure.) I approached Mauri and his colleague regards referencing their draft paper and they are happy for me to do so.

In health and social care of course we are very used to 'perspectives'. Especially seeking a caring perspective through empathy and rapport, putting on the shoes of the other and trying to appreciate the perspective they may or may not see. As I have said before I wonder at times if my passion for h2cm is an overvalued idea. I feel at times I am clutching at straws to find a theoretical underpinning for Hodges' model. At this conference there were no warts, and this presentation added more very useful ideas and in this case interdisciplinary bridges:

Solomon describes Nietzsche’s perspectivism so that it’s a view that “one always knows or perceives or thinks about something from a particular perspective - not just a spatial viewpoints, but a particular context of surrounding impressions. influences, and ideas, conceived of through one’s language and social upbringing and, ultimately, determined by virtual everything about oneself, one’s psychophysical make-up, and one’s history” (Solomon 1996, 195). Kaipainen and Hautamäki (to follow)

Ontospaces also seems to reflect the resulting dialogues found in health and social care and the need to constantly attend to and reconcile the same:

As Baghramian sees it, there can be more than one correct account of how things are in any given domain (2004, Chapter 10). Thus the issue is not which perspective is correct or true, but how to explore and mutually relate multiple perspectives.

Kaipainen, M., Hautamäki, A. Ontospaces: A Perspectivist Approach to Conceptual Spaces (to follow).

Giere, Ronald, N. (2006). Scientific Perspectivism. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Images: Peter Jones (with thanks to the presenters)

Next paper? Conceptual Spaces and Hodges' model

Somebody is in trouble.
Me!

I have not run the server for quite a while, so my Drupal skills (what they were) are in back-pedal mode again. I have been reading a bit on Ruby, but overall this is painful.

Drupalcon 2008 Sgezed is booked so at least there is an ideal opportunity to get drenched in Drupal for a week.

My excuse is that I've been carried away with what I can call the '3rd paper'. It remains to be seen whether this one makes it as a book chapter, but the working title is -

Hodges model:
Aide-mémoire or Candidate Gardenforsian Conceptual Space?

While the two page introduction uses the same two figures for the model's the axes and domains, the text is new, referring the reader to other sources for more details on the model. Thus far the 5,200 words are structured and contain the following:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Cognitive Science, Computation and Computer Graphics
• Conceptual Spaces, Representation and Icons
• Forms of Literacy, Requirements and Socio-technical Perspectives
• Gardenfors: Definitions - Domains, Quality Dimensions, Properties, Convexity
• Nursing, Care Theory and Domains
• Conceptual Space, Hodges’ model, Process and Practice
• Closing Discussion - Scope of Application
• References= 32
• Figures At least= 2
• Tables= 6
• Acknowledgements

2010-2011 posts, papers, studies and Drupal

Happy New Year everyone!

2010 saw 211 posts, 183 in 2009. As ever a mix of original material concerning h2cm, conferences and call for papers. Fingers x'd 2011 should run to approx 150 posts as I focus on work, studies and Drupal. The good thing for me is that all three of these can run along together and I intend to forge a union if at all possible.

At work my full-time role is clinical - nursing; Nursing Home Liaison. Increasingly we are finding what nurses on the ground have recognized for a long time. With this job comes an educational role, despite efforts to upscale the skills and knowledge of the residential care / nursing home sectors. H2cm is a gift in these quarters, in prompting and facilitating reflection, holistic and person-centred care.

Studies: On this front I'm trying to identify a research question from a bewildering mix of possibilities. Previously I've referred to the relevance and my interest in conceptual spaces:

Hodges' model: Background - Foreground and the Space Between

The socio-tech and conceptual space papers

Next paper? Conceptual Spaces and Hodges' model

Nursing theory - conceptual spaces: Where's my T-shirt?

Gardenfors' book - a quote and can that be, surely not ...h2cm?

That other 2nd-hand book - 'Conceptual Spaces'

This is definitely a worthwhile focus. I'm making enquiries to try to find a mentor. Strange, or maybe not actually, that I am a nurse mentor and sign-off mentor too and here I am coughing and spluttering in need of a mentor myself to help sort the wheat from the chaff. The 10K words on conceptual spaces is now 13K.

The co-authored h2cm and forensic nursing paper is completed with two revisions, but still needs a home.

I missed an opportunity with the h2cm and substance misuse paper. Trying to complete it in the summer of 2009 before my eye surgery I did not stick to the brief. I'm hoping a co-author can take the 5K words and help re-frame the content from a practice and service perspective. It really is refreshing to work with other people. I look forward to providing an update here later in the Winter - Spring.

As to Drupal - I've hit the wall that has "styling" written all over it. It seems if you start with a basic theme like Zen you are rewarded with an easy to negotiate palette, that is - you do it yourself. With more complete themes you need to read and orientate yourself with somebody else's handiwork. This is the next job and then move to Drupal 7 - released on the 5th.

In October I received an invitation to present at an international nursing conference in Colombia. I've submitted a presentation and have offered to do a workshop too. This was accepted. It all depends on travel and confirmation of arrangements so we will have to see.

More to follow on all the above and wherever you are

may I wish you a very happy, healthy, 

peaceful and prosperous 2011!

To follow: Line of sight, lines of insight ...

Hodges' model: Background - Foreground and the Space Between

If there is one thing that h2cm exemplifies it is distance.
It is after all a four-way signpost.
Seven-way (and more) if we include past, now and future
and wrap these in a spiritual domain.

The novice coming to study and explore the periplus (Cunliffe, 2001) that is health and social care (plus informatics), is presented with a daunting and yet exciting coastline.

The curriculum the new learner must navigate ('negotiate' literally via learning contracts) lies before them the challenge heightened by several vanishing points on several horizons.

Our senses are designed to quantify and our intellect to qualify this thing we call distance. Distance within conceptual spaces and the semantic web is all about semantics: the meaning of the terms we use in everyday and specialised languages.

If it is not a case of begging the question, consider the key concepts that comprise an explanation of h2cm.

Declare one concept, for example, ‘individual’ and we create a semantic singularity (in the sense of conceptual plurality not noun?). As soon as we add another concept, such as 'group' a conceptual space (the h2cm grid or matrix) is created.

The axes of h2cm are not passive.
They provide a spatial and cognitive scaffold.
Like gravity each concept is related to others by an all pervasive force.

The force here while not physical, it is universal in the sense that every concept is associated with the others by virtue of their similarity. Even if not physical in that arc of the diver sense, this similarity can be calculated and can be represented computationally within a computer program or virtual reality environment – the force potentially represented as feedback.

Gardenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual Spaces, MIT Press, London.
Cunliffe, B. (2001). The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek, Penguin.
semantic singularity? I thought of singularity in the astronomical sense at first, but found ...
Levy, P. (2008). Beyond Semantic Web SEMANTIC SPACE
http://www.ieml.org/IMG/pdf/Balisage2008-pierre-levy.pdf
http://www.springer.com/linguistics/semantics/book/978-0-7923-6569-3
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0749596X05000720

h2cm: fixed or primary concepts the push and pull of nursing

When commentators, students and others write of the primary or core concepts of nursing what does this mean in terms of Hodges' model [h2cm]?

For quite some time I have been describing Hodges' model as a cognitive - conceptual space. This suggests that there are fixed concepts within the care domains. Yes, they may vary according to the context and over time, but if concepts were arrows and our aim is true then h2cm would provide the ideal target. It on this care matrix that we really could take aim and nail the kernels of knowledge that make up our care activities.

Is it a mistake to venture that for people to talk of basic nursing care, essential care needs, that there must be some fixed ideal out there; an ideal that nurses, society and policy makers can hang discussion and debate upon? And let's face it there is much to debate - mental health stigma, obesity, nutritionism, heart disease, dementia, unplanned pregnancies, funding, access, poverty. ...

Medical sociology has done and continues to do society at large a great service. It forces practitioners to look over their shoulder and take in the social and cultural forces that influence health. As a question for further deliberation within medical / clinical sociology we might ask: How are the concepts in Hodges' model fixed? There are several possible answers:

1. Someone determines that concepts a, b, c, d are in care domains 1, 2, 3, 4. The question of whether Hodges' model (or any other conceptual resource) is classed as evidence based depends on how that determination is made.

2. Alternately, the structure of the model provided by the axes, could act as a skeleton. This might serve as a boot strap breathing life into the empty spaces created by this structure. The first instances of concepts might then arise like some sort of quantum event - self, other, temperature, time, height, mood. ...

3. As (medical) sociology, philosophy and psychology continue to reveal, we also need to accept of course that society, culture and language are all inextricably linked and they pre-empt that empty space, predetermining what will be written (thought and reflected) there.

4. This external influence is a must if those working in the health and social care professions are to communicate with those 'outside' (public involvement can only run so far?). It is not so much a case of common ground, as common space and the freedom and opposition that this affords. this is essential for communication amid what is variously called - multidisciplinary working and integrated care. Here there must be a degree of latitude between different disciplines' usages of terms. This must provide common understanding or some close approximation and yet still be safe.

So rather than empty space the care domains are really full of care concepts all waiting on tenterhooks, to see whether they will get to aggrandise and become 'complex care needs'. Will the assessor / care evaluator pick them - from what is initially a virtual crowd? Go on make their day: care-fully!

Have workspace, workbench - let chaos ensue

Whether trying to write computer programs, engage in woodwork, artwork or needlecraft the workspace that you need is critical to what follows.

Having a dedicated workspace is the sign of a professional.

If these activities are purely a hobby you may need to create the space on the fly. Getting the easel and paints out, protecting the carpet and then after all those creative juices are spent you have to organise the clean-up.

The Health Career Model can provide a workspace: a dedicated one. So if like many researchers your focus is (global) health, nursing, social care and social policy ... Hodges' model can provide an assurity space. Whatever your approach here is a great way to explore the scope and boundaries of your plans, objectives and final outcomes.

I noticed a letter by Fawcett et al. (2008):

We congratulate Chaffee and McNeill on the publication of their article, “A Model of Nursing as a Complex Adaptive System”.  The development of a new conceptual model of nursing always is a cause for celebration of the advancement of our knowledge. We are, however, concerned that Chaffee and McNeill did not place their conceptual model within the context of or show an evolution from relevant existing nursing conceptual models. We refer readers to Holden’s¹ concept analysis of complex adaptive systems. She explained the relevance to nursing of the concept, complex adaptive systems, by tracing the “rich tradition” of systems thinking in nursing and pointed out that nurse theorists, including Dorothy Johnson, Imogene King, Martha Rogers, and Callista Roy, have developed conceptual models of nursing that reflect systems thinking. Holden concluded, “This rich tradition in nursing that has emphasized connections and interactions within a systems paradigm continues today. Complexity science merely represents the next stage in understanding how systems operate.”¹

Jacqueline Fawcett, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Jacqueline Fawcett, Elizabeth Ann Manhart Barrett, Barbara W. Wright, Letter to Editor, Nursing Outlook, Volume 56, Issue 2, March-April 2008, 49.

REFERENCE
1. Holden LM. Complex adaptive systems: Concept analysis. J Adv Nurs 2005;52: 651-7. Nurs Outlook 2008;56:49. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2008.01.003

Whilst explanations of systems have an essential place in understanding nursing, for me the concept of primary interest within (and without) systems is information. This is not just symptomatic of the paradigm of our times, but a fundamental facet of not only engaging leading edge (quantum) sciences, but relating nursing, complexity, systems, art and science to patients, carers, citizenry and global (eco-) health.

If this appears a recipe,
which when executed on the workbench will result in indigestion,
- have faith -
the problems of our times demands a framework with a massive conceptual maw.

So, in turn I would request that future nurse and complex systems researchers look further afield and factor in the need for and use of a high-level global (ethnoculturally agnostic), universal (multidisciplinary, objective, subjective) workspace:

One with sufficient bandwidth.

Having a dedicated workspace that can be shared across disciplines
- that is multidisciplinary -
denotes a mature profession
and a 21st century professional.

Image source: With thanks to Chunx.com 'Chaos Field'

See also:

'assurity space'

Information: See bibliography.

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3), 591-598.
Jones, P. (1996) An overarching theory of health communication? Health Informatics Journal, 2,1,28-34.

2019 Post:
c/o JAN: Formal Concept Analysis ... and an encouraging footnote

What is the foundation of h2cm? Gabora & Aerts 2009

I've described h2cm as a foundation, a substrate for the health and social care assessments that follow. And that's the question: what is there before the conceptual framework is populated? As a foundation the model is initially empty, void, null. In terms of theory, practice, values and judgements there are none. The piece of paper is blank. So is the screen. Once (quickly) learned, the professionals have the conceptual framework in mind (ready to call upon), but it is not exercised. Until they encounter a patient, client, carer amid a situation, the conceptual space is empty.

Lund, Hobykrok B&B in the distance - the farm track

If we allow for the structure to permanently reside what then? Does this situation produce an array of potential? An array of potential concepts? Nurses are used to potential and actual problems (often re-framed as strengths). It seems this is the case with language, the amazing compositional scope of different words to produce sentences and meanings.

In a way I don't want to venture into this space. There are monsters there. I know the above is far removed from nursing. Where is  compassion, dignity, respect, plans and empathy in all this? ... Once the care concepts are realised then: yes - do lead the way. But before the light is turned on: no.

No: but there is no choice. The question needs to be asked and settled.

Liane Gabora gave a talk at Conceptual Spaces At Work. Checking back on her previous work I found this (SCOP: State COntext Property theory of concepts):

An important notion in SCOP is the ground state of a concept, denoted p. This is the ‘raw’ or ‘undisturbed’ state of a concept; the state it is in when it is not being evoked or thought about, not participating in the structuring of a conscious experience (such as, most likely, the concept ZEBRA when you began reading this paper). The ground state is the state of being not disturbed at all by the context. One never experiences a concept in its ground state; it is always evoked in some context. The notion of ground state is somewhat similar to the notion of prototype. The ground state is a theoretical construct; it cannot be observed directly but only indirectly through how the concept interacts with various contexts (which may include other concepts). p. 436.

Gabora, L., Aerts, D. (2009) A model of the emergence and evolution of integrated worldviews, Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 53, 434–451.

After'math' of... The Difference that Makes a Difference: an interdisciplinary workshop on information and technology

Here's my take on this workshop 7-9th September in Milton Keynes at the Open University. It was a really challenging and stimulating event. How so? Well...

Challenging: The first day's theme - What is information? and Thursday a.m. included presentations on quantum information. Trying to keep up with such ideas, to keep up with the progress of science and its philosophical implications demands effort, as does putting the ideas, concepts and applications in a form the public can understand. Given the academic calibre of the keynote speakers and organisers several books were held aloft and referred to:

Perspectives on Information 
Edited by Magnus Ramage, David Chapman

Decoding Reality

  Vlatko Vedral

Stimulating: Revisiting information theories with one slide c/o Paolo Rocchi, LUISS Univ. / IBM, The Concepts of Signifier and Signified Revisited listing 25 examples. The vast majority were new to me and of course as was also pointed out the list was not comprehensive.


Challenging: The maths on display here were way beyond me. With the talk about hard and soft sciences though I recalled a previous post Bell Jars and Bell Curves and how many mathematical techniques remain off limits to would-be users in the humanities. The maths didn't help my note taking - do I assume that lack of notes is shorthand for befuddled?

Stimulating and Challenging: Exposing Hodges' model and my vision of the model as a conceptual space (whether one ... four, or five) helps me focus on how best to lift a foot, and envisage the next steps. In the workshop I've found a few puzzle pieces for the draft text I have on h2cm as a conceptual space. It's a mix of nursing, informatics, Gärdenfors' definitions, ICT and aspects of education. Next month I'll post a draft content listing - adding to it as it takes shape.

Stimulating: On Wednesday evening there was a screening of a documentary film narrated by Nora Bateson An Ecology of Mind a portrait of her father Gregory. The film was quite a delight - in content and style - covering the central themes of Bateson's life and work with insights from his daughter and recognised commentators and colleagues:

"Gregory Bateson’s theories, such as “the double bind” and “the pattern which connects”, continue to impact the fields of anthropology, psychiatry, information science, cybernetics, urban planning, biology, and ecology, challenging people to think in new ways."

I remember double bind from mental health and reference to Bateson in family therapy circles. The title of the workshop - the difference - stems from Bateson as quoted on the DTMD2011 website:

Kant, in the Critique of Judgment – if I understand him correctly – asserts that the most elementary aesthetic act is the selection of a fact. He argues that in a piece of chalk there are an infinite number of potential facts. ... I suggest that Kant’s statement can be modified to say that there is an infinite number of differences around and within the piece of chalk. There are differences between the chalk and the rest of the universe, between the chalk and the sun or the moon. And within the piece of chalk, there is for every molecule an infinite number of differences between its location and the locations in which it might have been. Of this infinitude, we select a very limited number, which become information. In fact, what we mean by information – the elementary unit of information – is a difference which makes a difference Gregory Bateson (1972).

Not unexpectedly some speakers did challenge the views of Kant and Bateson. I found the recurring discussion on objects, subjects and relationships very enlightening. After the first day and the film I took Shannon's communications model SENDER, RECEIVER, CHANNEL, MESSAGE and NOISE and extended reference to this in my slides. Being situated and encompassing four care - knowledge domains h2cm can represent several contexts.  From a systems perspective we can consider the nurse, patient and carer as sender and receiver. Disease becomes 'noise', or according to Canguilhem life as the background noise with disease as (an inevitable) manifestation? The philosophical talk prompted me to cast health care practitioners as 'existential informaticians' (although the majority see themselves as assistants to a higher power).

<->

Unless speakers have indicated otherwise slides and audio will eventually appear on the DTMD website. I've uploaded my DTMD presentation comprising 13 slides:

Dtmd jones hodges model h2cm ou sept 2011 from Peter Jones

The workshop was a great experience, the organisers and  participants were very friendly, a very inclusive community; essential for all events clearly, but critical for one with interdisciplinary aspirations. I was not the only NHS employee there and now have a new NHS contact on Linkedin from finance / information governance. After Drupalcon this is great - as networking is of course a key objective. At Druplcon I was told about another nurse and Drupaller in Manchester and now we plan to meet up next month. You can learn to play the guitar on your own, but it helps to learn with others.


The organisers have applied for funding to support research and three further events tentatively proposed for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Speakers and attendees are also encouraged to submit to a special issue of tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation The Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society.

I will add more in another post (on sessions) as time permits.

Thanks to: the Committee for being able to present and the Open University Department of Communication and Systems (http://cands.open.ac.uk/) and the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (http://www.cresc.ac.uk/) who supported the workshop.

Reflections [V] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Zwarts

As per previous CS@W posts Joost Zwarts' Constructing Conceptual Spaces for Lexical Semantics provided one of several examples at the conference of data analysis derived from large datasets. The abstract included:

The similarity structure of a conceptual space can be determined using lexical data or pile sorting, but it can also be based on some sort of analysis of the values involved. Using the work of Geeraerts et al. (1994) on Dutch clothing terminology, Zwarts (2010) demonstrates how a space of “shirts” can be constructed (either using graph or MDS techniques) along such lines, with fruitful results.  

This talk outlined the way features can be identified and decomposed. Key to this are classifiers which Zwarts listed as:

1 Psychological classifiers (piles)
 From similarity judgments or sorted piles
2 Lexical classifiers   (words)
 From common lexical descriptions
3 Analytical classifiers  (features)

The presentation provided a small example based on containers, which for me was very helpful as data is a real issue for my study of Hodges' model. There are datasets out there - nursing, classification systems - and secondary data sources to consider. As mentioned above Zwarts took a dataset comprised of 38,000 possible items from the clothing domain and used 244 from the sub-domain of shirts. [Geeraerts, Grondelaers, Bakema (1994). The Structure of Lexical Variation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ]

I am probably simplifying things but discussion of Hamming distance recalled for me old Byte articles on bit-classifiers. Whether a sign of progress (maturation) or my focus, but in the 1980s there were many articles on data structures and algorithms, for some reason quad trees proved quite an attraction. There was an approach to clinical classification by Johnson (1987) that adopted a ZIP code format. As Zwarts related his presentation I wondered where a primary care problem might reside in Hodges' model: (1000, 0100, 0010, 0001)? Alternately where is the emerging problem that is nudging this individual towards possible relapse?

Graphviz was used and multidimensional scaling. The talk became more technical, understanding aided by graphical examples as classical categories were introduced: A category C is classical iff it can be defined by a particular set of feature values. The conclusion brought together the technical aspects of the data examined: convexity is too strong, connectedness somewhat too weak, but that there is a clear notion of coherence. There was much here to learn from.

Johnson, B. (1987) Health Code, The Guardian, 23 July, 16 (see also (1990) Journal of Health Care Computing).

The following page is out of date but cites Johnson:
http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/infselct.htm [no longer available]

(I don't want to upset searches on Google for 'conceptual spaces', so I've two more further posts this month on the conference concerning CSML and OntoSpaces.)

Here is the view from my B&B I enjoyed some lovely walks into Lund, plus using the bus. With a map that stayed in my laptop bag, I enjoyed getting lost on two occasions.

The view from Hobykrok B&B

Book review: "After Ethnos" iv

After Ethnos

The nurse literature has drawn attention to transcultural nursing and ethnography in nursing theory and practice. There are books, conferences, societies, journals - papers, dedicated posts and a history derived from Madeleine Leininger's model. While tempted, I'm not about to go off-topic, suffice to emphasize the initial point about nurses being 'anthropologists' and the conceptual scope of Hodges' model.

Rees provides reassurance in this respect. As mentioned, be it lines, contours (p.41), theory, practice or concepts all play a part in avenues to disrupt, break away, escape. 

 Within this (for me) movement and moment are equivalent - leading to surprise, discovery, recognition, observation ...

"Put in a formula, the idea is to render visible ruptures and mutations of established conceptions of the human (an analysis of movement) by way of bringing into view how instances in the here and now derail and defy the normative conceptions of the human (or other things, really) that are silently transported by the analytical concepts on which anthropology thus far has relied (in terms of movement).

The form such analysis of movement / in terms of movement would take is what I refer to as exposure: the exposure of oneself, of one's analytical categories, of the established conceptions of the human that are built into these categories, in one's fieldwork/research. The task would consist in immersing oneself into scenes of everyday life in order to let the chance events that make up fieldwork/research give rise to an unanticipated, unforeseen difference." p.41

"... I mean a discovery of a space/a realm, the dynamic of which - its speed, its velocity, its logic of composition - is no longer reducible to this conceptual history, that escapes it." p.42.

I'm sorry to interpret this text in terms of Hodges' model, but I noted; "h2cm as a carrier for the 'human'". Perhaps this book can prove as pivotal and thought provoking for you?

From a health perspective I see irony in Rees's talk of new concepts and their emergence. (The book is about finding this opportunity and if not creating the opportunity?) In healthcare at present we seem to be suffering 'conceptual churn' as terminology (concepts) is called into question. Perhaps this is facet of (academic?) and the everyday life to which Rees refers. This is why and how Hodges' model can help assure 'carriage' and person-centredness that is experiential (clinically and ethnography?).

Yes, the center of Hodges' model can be a scary place too. Research in the 'open' (p.51). I'd like to think some people may find this blog and my 'take' of Hodges' model somewhat abstract if not theory-laden (I do make things more complicated than necessary). I know I need data, data, data in order to propose Hodges' model as evidence-based (with a theoretical underpinning). Rees differentiates (somewhat) between theory and theoretical and admits due to the mission to a certain disregard - disrespect for theory (p.52). This is music to the four (five -- spiritual) domains: Foucault (1972) - the echo, 'theory as a prison.'. The paradox - 'after ethnos' as a theory - is recognised too.

Rees signposted to specificity within anthropology and books on bees, insects, and cheese. This reminded me of the extracts I had heard of Sheldrake's 'Entangled Life' on fungi (roots, biomass volumes Vs human-made). I noted 'compound' but added 'compound fracture'. Philosophers may enjoy the discussion on epistemology with emphasis upon ontology. Health and medicine figures here too: public health, Pasteur, microbes, malaria (evidence back in time: the bones often have it?). Ethnoi also; what is the unit of analysis in Hodges' model (single concept, conceptual space, threshold concept, pattern, schema ...?

Rees quotes Descola (2013, xx) that includes:

"Anthropology is faced with a daunting challenge: either to disappear as an exhausted form of humanism or else to transform itself by rethinking its domain and its tools in such a way as to include in its object far more than the anthropos: ..."

 On page 65, "Latour is exemplary here. ... the distinction between nature and culture has, insofar as it runs diagonal to how the world is, ..."

Very diagonal:

 individual 

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

modernity (individualism...?)	nature
culture	modernity (capitalism...?)

The present to follow Latour early in the book, is reference to Michel Serres (p.85). This really warmed me. Ensembles - assemblages are clearly structures, forms to add as units of analysis in Hodges' model..

Despite my initial rock onto the back-foot, there is so much I can still draw upon here (bio-politics). Chapters 4 and 5 deserve re-reading. This is a brilliant book. Clear typology, comprehensive index. Prescient too, even though pre-COVID: with SARS and reference to avian and swine flu.

I hope to return to the notes at some point in the future.

Thank you again to Duke University Press for the review copy.

 

Book review: "After Ethnos" i 

Book review: "After Ethnos" ii 

 

Book review: "After Ethnos" iii

 

After Ethnos - acknowledgements 

 

Bortz's Next Medicine: Defining 'health' and h2cm

On page 137 of Next Medicine, Walter Bortz assembles the Health Equation:

Genes (A) + Extrinsic Agency (B) + Intrinsic Agency (C) + Aging (D) = Health

After providing values for the other elements Bortz notes that:

Intrinsic Agency = Health - 0.45

In other words, such reckoning, though admittedly coarse, means that internal agency accounts for around 55% of the values we need for health, which is similar to the figure obtained by Mike McGinnis of the Institute of Medicine and Bill Foege of the Gates Foundation. (p.137)

'Conceptual frameworks' are referred to frequently in the literature and in a way quite distinct from h2cm. I've just posted about h2cm as a conceptual framework - a potential conceptual space. Bortz stresses the value of having several conceptual frameworks that, for example: enable pursuit of preventive strategies; and the conceptual framework provided by thermodynamics that informs our understanding of life, health and not surprisingly - ageing.

Bortz's conclusion above however also serves to highlight:

1. The need for a global, generic, universal (data-, information-, knowledge-centric) conceptual framework to pull the elements of this equation together (and much more besides).
2. This IS essential as those elements include the various disciplines. agents (stakeholders)  involved.
3. Bortz's conclusion that internal agency accounts for around 55% also acts as a definition of person-centered health care.

From 1 - 3 perhaps h2cm can also serve as an indicator of a (the) prerequisite literacy level that an individual needs to achieve self-efficacy in health terms?

Chapter 10 next and posts on last week's Cardi conference - which was excellent.

Acknowledgement: I am very grateful to Oxford University Press for the review copy.