Our field has reached a critical juncture. Authentic leadership, which once promised to illuminate how leaders inspire and influence through genuine actions, has become mired in conceptual ambiguity and ideological bias. Much of the research is based on evaluations of behaviour conflated with antecedents and outcomes, presuming an oversimplified, positive view of authenticity. To advance, we must refocus on what authentic leaders actually do – their discrete behaviours – as signals of leadership. In this editorial, we redefine authentic leadership through signalling theory to address unresolved critiques and provide a platform for meaningful progress. We then summarise and synthesise the articles in this special issue, which systematically review the literature, present dynamic models of authenticity, introduce ‘bounded authenticity’ in leadership roles, advocate for rigorous experimental methods, and offer empirical support. Collectively, these papers advance authentic leadership theory with greater theoretical precision and a conceptual nuance that reflects the modern organisational leadership landscape.

In this study, we investigated the conceptual approaches to disability and ageing in two leading social scientific journals (Ageing & Society [AS] and Disability & Society [DS]) of the research fields that form the bases of policies on disability and ageing. This study aimed to identify the journals’ trajectories of conceptual development and their differences, and through that, find possible pathways for further interaction between the yet largely separate policy frameworks for disability and ageing. Our analysis showed considerable differences between the conceptual approaches of the two journals, with the dominant approach in DS being sociomaterial and individual-functional in AS. We conclude this paper by identifying the conceptual gaps in the respective journals, suggesting a further collaboration between the approaches in research as well as policies. These gaps could be potentially narrowed, leading to a constructive dialogue on older disabled people.

This article provides a critique of Eurocentric knowledge formations that currently dominate the sociological imagination and its analyses of the ‘other’. It proposes a deep questioning of the colonial underpinnings of the discipline and argues that a series of conceptual, methodological, and institutional concerns must be addressed if we are profoundly to transform teaching and learning agendas in universities. It will argue that decolonising sociology cannot merely rely upon cosmetic changes, but rather it must demonstrate a wider commitment to anti-racism and social justice.

Philosophers should express their ideas clearly. They should do this in any field of specialization, but especially when they address issues of practical consequence, as they do in bioethics. This article dissects a recent and much-debated contribution to philosophical bioethics by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, examines how exactly it fails to meet the requirement of clarity, and maps a way forward by outlining the ways in which philosophical argumentation could validly and soundly proceed in bioethics.

Function logic methods have been successfully used in Value Analysis (VA) and Value Engineering (VE) for several decades. This functional approach attempts to provide a common language for specialists in multiple domains. This paper describes an extension of function logic that assists in systematic identification of design functions, allocations, and their interrelations. Our approach identifies a three-level function/allocation/component information structure to represent the state of the design. We illustrate new types of links that exist between functions and the effect of these on the representation of the interrelated functions. These linkages provide new pathways for design information and function evaluation through allocation arithmetic and supported functions. A computational model of the conceptual design process is proposed based on the extended function logic design representation. An outline of the inputs, outputs and operations on form and function variables is given as a step prior to the synthesis process. We illustrate, by example, the process of translating functional representations across specialist domains. Finally, a computer-based aid to developing functional models is described.

Semantic memory is described as the storage of knowledge, concepts, and information that is common and relatively consistent across individuals (e.g., memory of what is a cup). These memories are stored in multiple sensorimotor modalities and cognitive systems throughout the brain (e.g., how a cup is held and manipulated, the texture of a cup's surface, its shape, its function, that is related to beverages such as coffee, and so on). Our ability to engage in purposeful interactions with our environment is dependent on the ability to understand the meaning and significance of the objects and actions around us that are stored in semantic memory. Theories of the neural basis of the semantic memory of objects have produced sophisticated models that have incorporated to varying degrees the results of cognitive and neural investigations. The models are grouped into those that are (1) cognitive models, where the neural data are used to reveal dissociations in semantic memory after a brain lesion occurs; (2) models that incorporate both cognitive and neuroanatomical information; and (3) models that use cognitive, neuroanatomic, and neurophysiological data. This review highlights the advances and issues that have emerged from these models and points to future directions that provide opportunities to extend these models. The models of object memory generally describe how category and/or feature representations encode for object memory, and the semantic operations engaged in object processing. The incorporation of data derived from multiple modalities of investigation can lead to detailed neural specifications of semantic memory organization. The addition of neurophysiological data can potentially provide further elaboration of models to include semantic neural mechanisms. Future directions should incorporate available and newly developed techniques to better inform the neural underpinning of semantic memory models. (JINS, 2007, 13, 865–880.)

Twenty-four closed-head-injured (CHI) and 24 control participants studied two word lists under shallow (i.e., nonsemantic) and deep (i.e., semantic) encoding conditions. They were then tested on free recall, perceptual priming (i.e., perceptual partial word identification) and conceptual priming (i.e., category production) tasks. Previous findings have demonstrated that memory in CHI is characterized by inefficient conceptual processing of information. It was thus hypothesized that the CHI participants would perform more poorly than the control participants on the explicit and on the conceptual priming tasks. On these tasks the CHI group was expected to benefit to a lesser degree from prior deep encoding, as compared to controls. The groups were not expected to significantly differ from each other on the perceptual priming task. Prior deep encoding was not expected to improve the perceptual priming performance of either group. All findings were as predicted, with the exception that a significant effect was not found between groups for deep encoding in the conceptual priming task. The results are discussed (1) in terms of their theoretical contribution in further validating the dissociation between perceptual and conceptual priming; and (2) in terms of the contribution in differentiating between amnesic and CHI patients. Conceptual priming is preserved in amnesics but not in CHI patients. (JINS, 1997, 3, 327–336.)