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This is the biography of a failed entrepreneur - C.J. (Jack) DeGaris, a household name in the early 1920s and now largely forgotten. Not mentioned by Nichols is the government's commitment to other soldier settlement schemes, in the wheatbelt and in the southwest, where the infamous Group Settlement scheme was supported by the British government. The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris: By David Nichols. [Extracted from the article]

This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the 'father of mindfulness'. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many authors argue that candidates are more popular among voters from their own region. Two potential explanations have been suggested: voters' identification with their home region, and the representation of regional interests. The information on candidates' residence can be transmitted to voters in different ways, the most easily accessible way being information printed on the ballot paper. However, most studies on "friends and neighbour voting" use aggregate data. Studies that rely on individual level data usually put respondents in hypothetical situations and confront them with synthetic candidates, reducing their realism. To bridge this gap and to test the effect of providing information on the candidates' residence, we use data from a survey experiment to analyze voters' responses to ballot paper information on the regional background of real candidates in the 2014 European election in Germany. We find that voters in an open list PR election are more likely to support regional candidates if ballot paper information on the candidates' geographic background helps them to do so. The appeal of personal ties is a stronger explanation for vote preference than the one based on regional interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The messianic structure of human experience is manifest in the form of waiting—for an object who will alleviate suffering, and thereby, bring about change. The underpinning of such waiting is imagined here as messianic hope. In individuals, families, cults, religion, and politics, we may detect such hope—one that perhaps makes the unbearability of life bearable. This longing may get concretized in the shape of a person who comes to represent a link with God. From different vertices, messianic power may get located in the analyst, patriarch, the godman, or the political leader. Links that get forged between such figures and those who are waiting, may be thought of as messianic links. As a messianic group gets consolidated, it often displays certain primitive features. Such groups tend to veer towards a display of omnipotence, resolute action, a solution‐driven language. They may seek to cut off contact with painful reality and anoint someone who can enable that. Ideas of time are wrenched away from its painful association with loss. Time is made predictable and repetitive. Deliverance is promised, incertitude discarded. Messianic language is often evocative and enigmatic. It can be an expression of impotency. But language may also be used to fuel omnipotent longing, as with the use of omniscience by the anointed messiah. Such messianic groups may come together with shared magical beliefs in the annointed figure. But links by their very nature are dynamic and so, a link fueled by awe may also devolve into paranoia or else dependency or may be discarded altogether. This paper looks at two documentaries, and a novel, to give shape to messianic links. Here we see instances of how enigma may be replaced by charisma, and strength by hypervigilance. In that sense it seems that regardless of how they originate, they are condemned to move towards what Bion (1962) calls “minus links” or links that lead away from truth and the growth of the mind. We see that messianic links may either end catastrophically, or decay and degenerate to the point of disappearing, or else, lose the kernel, but assiduously preserve the shell, or finally institutionalized as deifying links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campaigns for personal health expenses make up the largest and fastest-growing segment of donation-based crowdfunding. Set against the backdrop of retrenchment and disinvestment in public healthcare systems across the global North, health-related crowdfunding is a way to navigate increasingly marketised systems of social reproduction. Despite high profile success stories, campaigns vary significantly in their ability to capture the hearts, and ultimately wallets, of donors. While existing analyses of online campaign pages offer some insight into the marketing of healthcare needs, far less is known about practices and experiences of crowdfunding platform users, including campaigners. Bringing literature on crowdfunding together with accounts of the marketisation of care, our paper asks: how do campaigners work to secure crowdfunded healthcare? Through the accounts of 15 people campaigning on behalf of family or friends in Aotearoa New Zealand, we show how attempts to appeal to donors depend on campaigners' abilities to 'market' illness and need in ways that resonate with the crowd. We have two main foci. First, we examine the responsibility and responsibilisation of campaigners to engage and perform accountability to crowdfunders. Second, we show how campaigners mobilise recipients' traits of deservingness and other culturally favoured personal qualities to appeal to the crowd's perceived predilections. In sum, the paper demonstrates how the use of crowdfunding is both necessitated by the marketisation of healthcare while simultaneously exerting its own form of market discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether charismatic leadership strategies can be successfully implemented within structures, systems and tasks for social workers to increase case management successes, particularly client well-being, given that the six key charismatic leadership traits align with presented professionally bound ethical expectations. Design/methodology/approach: A short generic qualitative review was done over fifteen publications, emphasizing the effects of charismatic leadership in domestic and foreign occupational domains. Findings: Methodological, thematic and theoretical analyses show that charismatic leadership strategies are active in relevant social work domains with positive participant impacts. Practical implications: The paper is intended to primarily investigate whether charismatic leadership is present in social work domains, and does not consider other leadership modalities. Originality/value: High-quality reviews from the presented methodological investigations suggest that charismatic leadership is an effective leadership modality that should be considered into client-involved structures and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Internet technology continues to advance and as various social media platforms proliferate, consumers have gained the ability to distribute video content across a multitude of online channels. A vlog (video blog) is an online video documentary format used by vloggers (video bloggers) to record their daily lives and share their experiences with various products. In recent years, Vloggers who publish vlogs on social media have gained increasing popularity. The use of vlogs to convey product information has received widespread attention, leading an increasing number of companies to consider them part of their marketing mix and actively incorporate them into their marketing strategies. However, it is still unclear which factors influence consumer attitudes while watching vlogs. Therefore, it has become a focus of attention in both academia and the business world to clarify how vlog promotion content influences consumer attitudes and to use vlog promotion to improve consumer attitudes, thereby increasing consumers' purchase intentions and achieving brand promotion objectives. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors that influence consumer attitudes towards vlog promotion content. This article is based on the ABC attitude model theory, and data collected through an online questionnaire survey of Chinese consumers were analysed to statistically verify the relationship between consumers' purchase intentions and factors related to vlog content. The predictor variables included trust in vlog, vlogger popularity, vlogger personal appeal, understanding of vlogger advertised products, vlog content, and frequency of interaction between vlogger and fans. Path analysis revealed that two intermediate variables related to vlogger (cognition and emotion) had a positive impact, and a model was constructed to further examine their influence on consumer behaviour (dependent variable). The research findings of this study reveal that three key factors significantly influence consumer attitudes towards vlog promotion. These factors encompass the understanding of vlogger's advertised products, vlog's content, and the frequency of interaction between vlogger and fans. For future vlog promotions, it is recommended to augment the vlogger's product knowledge and approachability. To create captivating vlog content, emphasis should be placed on enhancing its entertainment value, establishing personal connections with viewers, and encouraging shareability. Moreover, the vlogger should actively engage with dedicated fans, prioritize valuable fan comments, and foster harmonious relationships. Furthermore, the findings of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of vlog promotion for various brands and services, providing valuable insights into the content of promotional activities for different brands and services. This highlights the strategic significance of vlog promotion and its relevance in guiding promotional strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic relationship between the spiritual community of Damanhur and its founder, Oberto Airaudi. Scholars consider Airaudi to be an example of Weberian charismatic leadership that was sui generis; the community, however, experienced an early routinisation, which granted it longevity and stability. Doctrinal and social evolution instead suggests a change in this charismatic relationship over the years, which occurred in four phases. His charisma passed from the ability to perform occult practices (occultist), to ideate a syncretic cosmology centred on Damanhur (religious), eventually allowing him to become an "inspirer from the outside" (inspirational). The last phase explains the survival and partial routinisation of the charisma after his death (post mortem). The study primarily relies on the analysis of Damanhurian writings, with a particular focus on the initial ten years. It also incorporates qualitative data from fieldwork and ethnographic material available in the scientific literature. The analysis suggests that Damanhur did not start as a charismatic community but as a social experiment. The development of Airaudi's charisma, via a syncretic mythology based on a religious concept of memory, absorbed Damanhur's social dimension, shaping it according to a collective spiritual endeavour aimed at reconnecting human beings with their divine inner nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerned with the representations of fruits in Greco-Roman mythology and Genesis, this paper first explores the various meanings of charis and its conceptualization, and their embodiments. It then addresses object agency, before questioning the possible propriety of certain fruits in visual and textual narratives to emanate and/or appropriate charisma. To do so, the paper presents a discussion of the linguistic and conceptual mutability and malleability of the term 'charis' and its conceptualization into charisma, as well as its possible manifestations or translations in fruits, thus transforming the latter into (accidental) actors. Finally, this study provides an exploratory reflection on the ambiguity and metamorphic aspect of "charismatic" fruits in the context of myths and the Genesis narrative represented in the visual arts, and their translation into fairy tale narratives and modern advertising campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the connection between religious and military spheres in Constantinian propaganda. The extensive use of propaganda and the notorious public discourse which involves the dynamics of power during Late Antiquity show how religion and the military played a key role. This principle reaches a singular meaning in the case of emperor Constantine I. To this extent, this paper considers several kinds of sources, which include legal, literary, and numismatic, among others. An analysis of the political uses of imperial constitutions by the emperor (especially CTh 7.20.2) can be of particular interest in order to address the ideas of self-representation and the politics of legitimation. Ultimately, the paper highlights the importance of imperial propaganda in Later Roman society, as well as the transformations in Constantine's public discourse, where the connection between army and religion shows an evolution from the previous ways of understanding imperial power and where the bond of the ruler with a supreme divinity is a central issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity formation is a complex process and has been discussed by post‐structuralist discourse theorist Ernesto Laclau. This paper focuses on Laclau's proposed ideas on the means of identity production and populism and studies the popular independence movement for Bangladesh under that rubric. It locates charismatic leadership as a necessary condition for populism and identifies Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the charismat suturing the various chains of equivalence that rose to become the populist movement that resulted in the nation's struggle for independence in 1971. This paper also looks at the transformational leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and acknowledges it as a necessary condition for the patterns of identity creation in East Bengal in the late 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our paper, we address the question of the authenticity of political rhetoric which uses the inclusive term "the people". We build on the knowledge of classical rhetoric on the importance of sincerity, one of the fundamental pillars of a speaker's ethos (character) and at the same time a prerequisite for his credibility. We introduce the term "rhetoric of people" to designate that part of deliberative rhetoric that addresses the people in a significant way, and bears their sealing in content, stylistic and argumentative plan. We especially single out populist rhetoric only as a special case of the rhetoric of people, in which there is a pragmatic use of authenticity as a tool to achieve specific social goals linked to the political capital of the speaker, primarily to image creation (we put it in opposition to charisma). Since style is a significant bearer of speech authenticity, our aim is to identify the stylistic values and stylistic strategies applied in the interest of authenticity and to elucidate them as instances of sincerity or, conversely, pretense. In doing so, we draw on the pragmatic grasp of linguistic style developed in the work of Professor Juraj Dolník (2010; 2023), who explains style through its anthropic character and social meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a theoretical model for distinguishing between mere popularity and personality cults as there currently is an inflated use of the personality cult concept, especially in news media, attaching it to significantly different phenomena. The model is based on Weber's concept of charismatic authority and consists of three parameters, widespread symbolic elevation, resilience and religious parallels, covering a representational and social practice dimension. Both dimensions are needed to constitute a personality cult. Trump, Putin and Ardern are used as examples of the model's ability to distinguish between cult and non-cult phenomena. The comparison shows that only Trump and Putin have a cult on both dimensions. Mere popular politicians like Ardern are more comparable to celebrities as these do not have the same authority and power over the followers as leaders with a personality cult – despite potentially showing some cultlike tendencies on the representational dimension. Popular politicians are thus especially characterised by lacking the key social practice aspect of personality cults. As they might still exhibit some cultlike characteristics, the different phenomena are best perceived as being on a continuum ranging from mere admiration or popularity to a personality cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By attributing the term "charismatic" to Saint Louis, Jacques Le Goff identified two sources of charisma: sacred kingship and personal holiness. Without denying these aspects of the holy king's reputation, we should investigate the nature of the charismatic relationship that linked Louis IX to his contemporaries. The sacrality of Louis IX pre-existed him; his sanctity is a post-death construction. What are the attributes of the living character that would allow us to recognize a charismatic personality? This paper argues that the religious aura of the king, which best echoes the Paulinian version of charisma, was sometimes at odds with the political expectations levied on a medieval ruler, which a Weberian definition of charisma helps to define. In this light, the crusades provided a unique setting where the king's Christ-like qualities and his political leadership could be reconciled. To conduct this argument, this paper proposes to look for the symptoms of Louis IX's living charisma in the reactions of his contemporaries, based on the re-examination of classical sources on the life of the king, carefully contextualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have studied charisma almost exclusively as a form of authority, following Weber's original conceptualization. While there have been many elaborations on Weber's work, the full richness of charisma as a concept has remained unexplored and its potential applicability to radically egalitarian movements limited. This paper offers a more democratic conceptualization of charisma by putting Weber's classic theorization into conversation with Hannah Arendt's theory of action. It argues that charisma is best understood as a latent capacity to act, a quality that is not exclusive to a few extraordinary individuals but rather is quintessentially and universally human. Using the US draft resistance movement during the Vietnam War as a case study through which to develop this conceptualization, the paper centers the charismatic act and explores the conditions of existential distress that elicit such acts and the conditions of (emergent) political community that enable and are constituted by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ways in which heroic leadership is manifested in current right-wing populism. Based on the distinction between heroic modernity and postheroic modernity, a genealogy of the heroic populist leader is proposed. This figure is analyzed by following the hero's life process in three moments: recognition of his charismatic exceptionality, the struggle to carry out his mission of salvation and the inevitable consequences of the struggle, which cannot be anything other than victory or defeat. Throughout these three phases of heroic action, the way in which the populist hero manages his charisma and intervenes in the culture wars will be shown. Finally, after accompanying him on this ritual journey, it will be understood why populist heroism adopts a regressive model of heroism. It is concluded that extreme right-wing populist heroism is regressive in character, both in its personal and institutional deployment. As a regressive force, it is a source of instability and conflict in postheroic modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the call to found their own churches has allowed and enabled women to subvert and challenge prescribed gender roles. It focuses on African Initiated Churches including both African Independent and Pentecostal Charismatic churches. While the importance of women in these churches is widely acknowledged, less attention has been given to the question of how female church founders gain and maintain their leadership positions. Drawing on historical cases as well as on interviews with founders and church leaders conducted in South Africa and Nigeria, this paper shows how the charismatic authority and doctrinal independence women gain through the call not only legitimate their position but enable them to challenge social and doctrinal norms and thus emancipate themselves from traditional gender roles. However, it also discusses whether in some cases women did not fully use their authority in order to keep it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When activists, multispecies ethnographers, or scholar-activists disrupt official narratives about how animal control agencies manage captive animals, the public pressure can result in increased vulnerabilities for both animals and agency employees. This paper unpacks an example where activists used public archives and records (methods widely used by multispecies researchers) to raise awareness about the story of a cat named Nina. Her case provides a reminder that bringing attention to injustice may result in punitive consequences for employees as the agency tries to appease the public rather than address internal policies. There are consequences for telling animal stories beyond simply giving animals a voice. How agencies respond to pressure resulting from the publication of animal stories demands ethical considerations beyond those currently required for research with human and nonhuman participants. This paper specifically addresses the use of public records to make captive animal experiences visible to a broader public and the potential for negative consequences these actions may have on the animals and employees of the animal agencies. The discussion suggests ways to mitigate these risks for captive animals and agency employees, beginning with preliminary research that situates the animal story within the political history of the agency, critical triangulation of data about the case, analysis of the internal policies that resulted in the situation, and the way the agency mitigates public criticism both internally and officially. These considerations weigh the risks and benefits of the shortand long-term impacts of confronting injustice against animals held in agencies' custody and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events of January 6th were a clear example of threats to American democracy. De-democratization is a process that preceded Trump's election and that can still be seen in the United States and around the world. Social theorist Charles Tilly wrote about how becoming a democracy is not a unidirectional, one-time event or goal, but a non-linear process. This paper analyzes developments in the United States that signal rises and falls in the level of democracy over the last several decades. It discusses Donald Trump's rise to power, the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, and the state of inclusion of ethnoracial minorities in the United States. It uses Tilly's proposed processes of democratization and de-democratization. This more nuanced understanding of democracy and state–society relations helps avoid celebratory stances about the promise of electoral politics as well as pessimistic assessments about the imminent arrival of fascism and authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text was David Millard's departing gift to a field to which he had contributed for 30 years, as practitioner and later as Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and editor of the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. Charting the chronology of Maxwell Jones's career as a world-renowned psychiatrist and therapeutic community pioneer, Millard contrasts Jones's contribution at Mill Hill with Tom Main's at Northfield. Jones's most distinctive contribution was allowing patients to become auxiliary therapists and freeing nurses from the nursing hierarchy. Focusing on a subset of therapeutic communities in adult psychiatry, Millard's paper is not an academic history of therapeutic communities as such. The roles of happenstance and positive deviance are demonstrated in the way change occurs in therapeutic communities. The 'charisma question' is briefly explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contribution of early social phenomenologists working in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany to charisma theory. Specifically, I focus on the works of Gerda Walther, Herman Schmalenbach and Aron Gurwitsch, whose work is now being re-appreciated in the field of social philosophy. Living in the interbellum German-speaking space, these authors were keenly interested in the issue of charismatic authority and leadership introduced into the social sciences by Max Weber, with whom they engaged in an indirect intellectual dialogue. I argue that their phenomenological background equipped them well to understand the intricacies of the experiential and emotional dimension of charisma, and that their insights remain valid even a century after they have been first published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the UK loss in the 2020 Euro Football Cup, I analyze a theopolitical force of contemporary black football players, as a sovereignty from below epitomized by the figure of Marcus Rashford. Given his meteoric rise in British culture and his prominent social activism against child hunger, Rashford, among the other targets of racial abuse, is a particularly apt exemplar. By integrating anthropological ideas on theopolitics, totemism, charisma, and the sacrality of substance, this paper asks how the iconography, life histories, and social media interventions of young, kingly, Black (mainly Christian) athletes, effect a theopolitical force as an elastic movement of self-referentiality and sovereignty from below that is agonistic rather than antagonistic to the state. Specifically, it explores how these black footballers enliven an exemplar of theopolitical sovereignty that does not decide on letting live or making it die, but on doing a work of undoing injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how presidential candidates Fabricio Alvarado and Nayib Bukele used Facebook during the elections in Costa Rica (2018) and El Salvador (2019) respectively to develop a particular style of communication that blended populist elements and religious discourse. This style of communication extended traditional modes of populism that have prevailed in Latin America since the turn of the century (emphasizing the notion of the hero who comes to rescue "the people") but expressed them in an explicitly religious way (stressing the role of a "messiah" who comes to alter the established political order). We conducted both content and multimodal discourse analyses of 838 posts made by these candidates on Facebook during their respective electoral campaigns. We argue that the study of these campaigns would be incomplete without accounting for the relationship between populism, religion, and social media. While populism gave political validity to religious discourse, a religious imaginary provided populism with charismatic and messianic authority. This populist/religious reason found an ideal expression in Facebook and, simultaneously, was resignified by this platform's affordances. In this way, we assess how fundamentalist Christianity has become a legitimating force of knowledge and politics in the context of epistemic tensions that shape contemporary Latin-American societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ample work in political communication showed that high-level politicians get more media attention than their lower ranking colleagues. With power comes media attention. More than hard work, charisma, or experience, it is the political function performed by politicians that is the crucial factor in explaining how much media attention they receive. But what about the opposite relationship: does media attention also generate power? In this paper, we examine the media path leading to power. Basically, two important career steps of politicians are assessed: becoming a party leader and becoming a minister; we test whether, compared to those who did not make a top career, the politicians who came to take these steps were more prominent in the media before they moved up and became elite politicians. We draw on the case of Belgium here and leverage on a longitudinal automated media content analysis (2000–2020) combined with a data set of 532 national/regional politicians and their careers. The study finds that media occurrences matters for being promoted to a top function in Belgium, more so for becoming a minister than for becoming a party leader. Furthermore, rejecting our initial idea based on political mediatization theories, the influence of media occurrence does not seem to increase through time for both functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As increasing numbers of people develop sight impairments worldwide, an important body of research has examined emotional transitions experienced with the onset and progression of sight impairment. Many studies convey feelings of loss and social isolation, but there are growing concerns that the scripts of disability in this regard have become somewhat limited. This paper draws on the nature experiences of 31 people living with sight impairment in England to explore the value of nonhuman socialities, moving the 'social' beyond the typical realms of human-to-human interaction to foreground the importance of everyday birdlife encounters. For participants in this in-depth qualitative study – including people with congenital and acquired sight impairments – socialities nurtured through charismatic qualities of sound (termed 'sonic charisma'), scent and touch contributed to experiences of situated connectivity, characterised by playful moments of curiosity, companionship and awe. Reflecting on implications for nature engagement and conservation practices, the paper explores how such relationships could usefully be fostered within efforts to mainstream more inclusive nature experiences in the context of people's day-to-day lives and routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has a multi-party system which has been held up as a model for democratic pluralism in the whole region. The nature of Kurdistan's political parties is strongly related to the position of Kurds in Iraq. From the mid-twentieth century, the dominant Kurdish political party in Iraq was the Kurdistan Democratic Party; in a later partisan split the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was born. Moreover, in the last three decades other political parties have come into being, which have all influenced the characteristics of Iraqi Kurdistan's political system. This paper's main argument is that Iraqi Kurdistan shares many of the characteristics of its main political parties, including reliance on charismatic leadership, a focus on nationalism, and the lack of transparency. This paper analyzes the primary characteristics of the Kurdish political parties and their influence on the institutional functions of the political system in the Kurdistan Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guxin Ruxin 古心如馨 (1541–1616) is credited with the revival of monastic ordinations, which ranks among the major breakthroughs of the late Ming Buddhist renewal. Despite the long-standing ban on ordination ceremonies, he managed to win the trust of fellow monastics, attract local patrons, and eventually gain imperial approval. This paper aims to unravel the reasons that this Vinaya master was recognized as legitimate by contemporaries and descendants, focusing on two key episodes in his hagiographies. In the first of them, Guxin Ruxin had a vision of Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī transmitting monastic precepts to him, whereas in the second one his identity as a reincarnation of Upāli was revealed through a miracle he performed during the restoration of Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing. The research has shown that the second account was a later interpolation designed on the basis of the hagiography of another prominent monk, Xuelang Hong'en 雪浪洪恩 (1545–1607). By contrast, the first of the narratives, although heavily laden with the elements of local lore, could be a reflection of real experience. The inspiration Guxin Ruxin drew from it might explain his commitment to the cause of Vinaya revival and the ensuing charisma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role anger plays in charismatic movements. Although scholars have long recognized the importance of emotions to the etiology of charisma, they tend to focus on mutual affection among leaders and followers, paying less attention to how anger—and particularly its subspecies, ressentiment —patterns charismatic power. Drawing on literature from political science, populism research, and the cultural sociology of charisma, we argue that ressentiment, which is associated with self-disvalue and an invidious need to blame outsiders, is key to theorizing the emotional energy that charisma delivers to revolutionary upheaval. The Weberian source for the intervention is his lesser known concept of 'berserk-charisma'. Reorienting the focus of charisma research to account for its aggressive, 'outward' dimension has the benefit of drawing us closer to the vision Weber had for its social-historical relevance. We demonstrate our insights using the case of charismatic/populist support for Trump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When studying science contexts, scholars typically position charismatic authority as an adjunct or something that provides a meaning-laden boost to rational authority. In this paper, we re-theorize these relationships. We re-center charismatic authority as an interpretive resource that allows scientists and onlookers to recast a professional conflict in terms of a public drama. In this mode, both professionals and lay enthusiasts portray involvement in the scientific process as a story of suppression and persecution, in which only a few remarkable figures can withstand scrutiny and take on challengers with dignity. Description and elaboration of these figures and the folklore surrounding them sets in motion the interpretive processes by which some actors become charismatic leaders and others charismatic followers within science, ultimately providing alternative symbolic resources for an embattled research agenda to accrue legitimacy. To illustrate, we use the case of Arthur Jensen – a deceased intelligence researcher and the intellectual father to contemporary texts like The Bell Curve – and the circles of hero worship that admirers inside and outside academia have created to praise him. Using this perspective to study Jensen and his admirers demonstrates how the perennial race and intelligence debates gain a kind of symbolic power, unrelated to their scientific merit or racist appeal, which enables such debates to thrive and persist in the public sphere. More generally, our approach identifies contemporary processes by which scientific ideas can gain public authority even when their intellectual merit has been deemed dubious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Weber's Vocation Lectures , especially the issues of morality, politics, and science, in light of the spreading of disinformation in the COVID pandemic. As Weber is arguably our strongest advocate for the capacity of science and politics to supersede categories of moral meaning, it is useful to consider how categories of moral meaning—especially the category of evil—might be needed, in light of the fragility of science and politics. The essay suggests the limits and helpfulness of Weber's lectures for our present predicament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the unique figure of the scholar, writer, politician and diplomat, as well as the key views of the former President of Kosovo Dr. Ibrahim Rugova expressed during the leadership of the political process of state-building in Kosovo. Through this paper I aimed to present the role of political communication as well as leadership in the defining leadership of the masses. Studying the leadership, charisma and political and public communication of Dr. Rugova, we encounter an essential difference in political and public communication between President Rugova and prominent world leaders throughout history. A great deal of space is occupied by the communication of his political and programmatic vision through political doctrine and active peaceful resistance. From the multidimensional treatment of the Rugova leadership elaborated through political-public communication, unique leadership and pragmatism in leading the unfolding of his program vision, he managed to convince the local and international public to be sensitized with his mission. The strategy of political leadership, treated through the prism of public and political communication, highlights a unique doctrine for the realization of the right to self-determination, and the creation of political and state identity. This political doctrine can be defined as "fighting the negative will of the enemy", which is a long-term intellectual war that requires intellectual patience, restrained and coordinated action, and constructive knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firstly, Leahy is surely correct to emphasize the crucial significance of local dynamics to our understanding of both the IRA campaign and the intelligence effort. More than thirty years on from the secret opening exchanges in what would develop into the Northern Irish peace process of the 1990s, there is still no academic consensus amongst political scientists and contemporary historians with regard to the essential characteristics of the conflict (or "war"). Leahy utilizes a broad range of diverse research techniques, including oral history, memoir-writing and the private papers of several key protagonists (especially Brendan Duddy, the main intermediary between the IRA and the UK government). [Extracted from the article]

Drawing on evidence from the Philippines, this paper investigates the so-called penal populism thesis. Penal populism refers to an understanding of justice in which criminal and anti-social activity should be harshly punished. The paper tests whether support for harsh penal policies, including the use of extrajudicial killings, is associated with underlying populist attitudes and preferences for charismatic leadership. Since coming to power in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has waged a violent and highly popular campaign against drug-related criminality. Based on survey modules fielded in 2016 and 2017, the paper demonstrates a positive relationship between populist attitudes and support for the campaign against illegal drugs in general and the extra-judicial killing of suspected drug users and dealers in particular. It also demonstrates a relationship between belief in the charisma of Duterte and support for the campaign against illegal drugs. The implications of the theory and results for the fields of populism and penal populism research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ebola virus is unparalleled in its charismatic ability to ignite fear, anxiety and disgust at a scale grossly disproportionate to the number of lives it claims. As an archetypal 'Emerging Infectious Disease' (EID), this designation and the politics that have encircled it have provided Ebola with a conceptual space in which epidemiology and geography to splice together in the genesis and maintenance of its charismatic valence. Even before the West African outbreak of 2013–2016, Ebola was an 'exceptional' and 'master status' disease around which media attention mobilised to an unparalleled degree and effect. This paper argues that even if never directly conceptualised as such, Ebola is uniquely charismatic among EIDs and, more, this charisma can be understood geographically. To do so, the paper proceeds in three parts to explore how Ebola's geographic charisma emerges from: (i) it being fixed 'in place' as something innately African; (ii) fears about the virus moving 'out of place' and (iii) its 'potential energy' or the persistent unease generated by the uncertainty of when and where the virus's potential geographies will become actual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the growing suite of shared mobility options, peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing provides an opportunity for vehicle owners to rent out their vehicle to other individuals through informal arrangements or more typically through a facilitating company/broker. Despite the potential to offset some of the costs of vehicle ownership and contribute more broadly to the shared economy, barriers remain including that of sharing one's own vehicle with a stranger. Driverless vehicles (DVs) provide potential to partially address this barrier to carsharing, but it is unknown if this will be embraced by vehicle owners per se and to what extent this might be influenced by their personal characteristics and values. Within this context, the current paper evaluates the joint attitudes of 751 Australian vehicle owners towards sharing of their current vehicle and embracing DVs. Overall, while most respondents remain concerned about DV technology, they understand the benefits, expressing higher concerns about carsharing. Segmentation procedures are used to profile participants on key dimensions including their willingness-to-purchase a DV, demographics, personality and psychological constructs and contextual factors. Four classes of vehicle owners are identified with 14% being ambivalent to sharing and DVs, 14% highly concerned, 48% being 'on the fence' and 24% expressing positive sentiments towards these new forms of mobility. Ambivalence appears to be more pronounced with significantly older, male participants who are less agreeable and conscientious, while concern seems to be a trait of older females more adhering to security, tradition, conformity, and benevolence. Conversely, positive sentiments are associated with participants who are slightly older, male, more open-minded, while less benevolent and traditional. Findings highlight the importance of offering tailored packages of information, messages and services that appeal to the personal benefits and cost savings for some segments of the community, but which highlight the altruistic benefit of sharing for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the automatic prediction of speaker appeal from recordings of political speech. The database used contains recordings of a single speaker in a wide range of situations (interview, election rally etc.) which has been annotated for six speaker traits: boring; charismatic; enthusiastic; inspiring; likeable; and persuasive. The aim of this study is to predict these ratings using acoustic features of the speech. We offer three key contributions in this paper. Firstly, we explore the effect of acoustic environment on the perception of speaker ability. We find significant biases in the perception of all six traits, with interview speech being consistently rated as less appealing, and election rally speech as more appealing. In our second contribution, we attempt to exploit this bias by modelling speech from each situation separately, which gives a significant improvement in classification performance. Finally, the database covers 7 years. Thus, our third contribution is an analysis of the variance in both annotations and acoustic features over time to uncover temporal trends in speaker appeal. We find significant trends which show a decline in the speaker’s prosodic activity over time, which mirror a decline in the perception of speaker appeal as measured by the database annotations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the Carolingian dynasty is often portrayed as the result of the weak reign of Emperor Charles III. His former wife Richgard, with whom he had not produced an heir, became a nun after their divorce. These events did not pass without much controversy: legends tell that the Carolingian empress was forced to prove her virginity by trial by fire after being accused of adultery. Shedding light on early and high medieval sources dealing with Richgard's alleged trial by fire, such as the twelfth-century Kaiserchronik, this paper shows how in the representation of the divorce Richgard was bestowed with agency. Empire politics, pressure to produce offspring, and the image of a pious female ruler lead us to review the end of the Carolingian dynasty from the perspective of its last empress, who up to the nineteenth century was much venerated in Strasbourg and the area around the cathedral city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authority is one of the most problematic and ambiguous concepts in social and educational theory. Authority is a relation that is based on disparities of knowledge, expertise or experience. Drawing on teaching observations and interviews with undergraduate students and lecturers about their experiences of large-group teaching, I argue that in contrast to lecturers' focus on professional authority and expertise, many students respond most strongly to experiential forms of authority in lectures. In other words, there is a disparity between students' and educators' conceptions of pedagogic authority. Through a discussion of a teaching intervention aiming to playfully experiment with authority relations in the lecture theatre, the paper contributes to a conceptualization of an emancipatory and experimental politics of educational authority, one where students are challenged, not only to think independently, but to see their own existence – the grounds for their actions – as an important intellectual problem to engage with. This requires moving beyond the dominant Weberian ideal types of educational authority (traditional, rational-legal, charismatic, and charismatic-intellectual) towards a fuller understanding of experiential forms of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great power concept has been widely used in the study of International Relations. However, its usage has often occurred in foreign policy analyses of a more rhetorical than empirical nature. Several scholars have tried to contribute to defining what a great power is. For the purpose of this study, Andrew Heywood's great power framework provides a critical understanding of the concept of great powers and touches on the contributions made by other scholars as well. Russia has been usually labeled as a great power based on a common nostalgia of the former Soviet Union and the charisma seen from President Putin; however, before attributing the status of great power to Russia, it is important to look into empirical data, not merely rhetoric. Considering that a great power is global in reach, this paper employs Southeast Asia as a case study in analyzing Russia's influence in the sub-region. This study claims that despite common perceptions, Russia has not yet achieved great power status based on the empirical data provided against the backdrop of Heywood's conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Sometimes we come across objects that truly intrigue us. Not necessarily because they are great examples of art, or because they are made of precious materials, but because there is some other quality which captures our attention. One of these can be age. Just as age adds character to people's faces, the patina of an object or visible signs of damage and use instils an object with a certain 'charisma' or 'aura'. This paper examines in detail the so‐called grotesque torc, a neck‐ring dating to the Iron Age which has been extensively repaired. The repairs are crude and obvious, which gives the object its distinctive appearance. It is argued that these signs of age, inscribed onto the artefact through its life, imbued the torc with a timeless 'anachronic' quality: its visible age manifests a certain charisma or aura, helping facilitate a plural relationship with time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Sarah Coakley's understanding of prayer as a Trinitarian and incorporative act and the implications of that understanding for Christian orthodoxy in general and pentecostal theology and spirituality in particular. Beginning with a brief history of the incorporative vision of prayer, the paper then asks what gifts Coakley has for pentecostals and what gifts they have to offer her in return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a structured clinical leadership programme on healthcare professionals working within the British National Health Service (NHS). Clinical leadership is now regarded as essential in addressing the complex challenges in the NHS, yet few trainees of any healthcare discipline receive formal training. The study describes a peer-led evaluation of a year-long, multidisciplinary, experiential programme, the "Darzi Fellowship", based in London. Design/methodology/approach - An anonymous survey was analysed using a mixed-methods approach. Individual and collective experiences of fellows were evaluated, in particular the perceived impact the fellowship had on: the fellows themselves, their "host" organisation and the NHS as a whole. Findings - A 90 per cent return rate was achieved. In all, 94 per cent reported that the experience had been valuable to them, 85 per cent feeling more empowered to effect change in healthcare systems. Crucial mechanisms to achieve this included increased self-awareness, personal reflection and the freedom to gain a greater understanding of organisations. Particular emphasis was placed on the value of developing clinical networks which promote collaboration across boundaries. Fellows emerged as more reflexive, critical and strategic thinkers. Practical implications - This paper demonstrates the positive impact that clinical leadership training can have on participants, and the mechanisms by which future leaders can be created. Originality/value - The novel, non-commissioned, peer-initiated and peer-led evaluation describes the personal experiences of fellows in a unique, multidisciplinary clinical leadership programme. The authors hope this will inform the development of future schemes in the NHS and provide learning for an international healthcare audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I take up the ambivalence we rightly feel toward leaders by examining the relationship between charismatic authority and moral exemplarity. Drawing on the social theory of Max Weber, and in dialogue with a case study of an anti‐militarism movement called the SOA (School of Americas) Watch, I demonstrate that through a "politics of sacrifice" leaders synchronize their own stories with those of communally recognized exemplars and act in ways that evidence a solidarity in the suffering of those exemplars thereby generating their charismatic authority. While performing crucial strategic, motivational, and pedagogical roles, this charisma also introduces problematic temptations to authoritarianism that short‐circuit the practical reasoning that exemplars supposedly help to form. In the end this leaves our sense of ambivalence intact. What is needed, I argue, are practices of critique that reopen the distance between leader and follower and thus allow the possibility of practical reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US federal government spent 6 billion dollars to protect endangered species in 2013. The previous studies have shown that federal funding allocated under the Endangered Species Act is not necessarily based on the priority a species has been assigned by the Fish and Wildlife Service. This paper asks whether this continues to be the case using more recent data from 2013. It analyzes what factors affect total species funding by various federal agencies under the Endangered Species Act, and particularly examines the role of animal charisma using the number of Google results per species as a proxy. Results show that, while federal priority ranking had no effect on funding, charisma had a significant effect, suggesting biased funding for some species of animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most political science interpretations of the post-2010 Orbán regime have been written either within the framework of populism or in the democratization paradigm. We have learned much from these papers about Hungary's drift in an authoritarian direction, but they also have drawbacks. This article aims to fill the gap between these two approaches and offers a theoretical framework to analyze the impact of populism and other trends of contemporary politics (like de-alignment, growing electoral volatility, citizens' disengagement, personalization, legitimacy problems, the decline of party membership and partisanship, the mediatization of politics, etc.) on the political regime. It argues that these trends add up to an authority and regime type that can be conceptualized by Weber's concept of plebiscitary leader democracy (PLD). PLD forms a new hybrid regime type that differs from comparative authoritarianism and other hybrid regime types known from the literature in three respects. First, PLD is less about institutional framework and procedures than about the sources of legitimacy; second, it serves better to understand how the regime works than measuring its distance from liberal democracy; third, it is an ideal type that aims to reveal the endogenous logic of democracy that generates authoritarian elements of the regime. The article also demonstrates the suitability of the concept of PLD for empirical research through presenting a structured case study of the Orbán regime. The PLD model enables us to reveal the endogenous logic of the Orbán regime and the impact of populist governance on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]