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The paper contributes to the debate of the Swedish welfare state by re‐examining the view of freedom underlying the design of this welfare model. The point of departure is two interpretations by Bo Rothstein and Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh, which both describe advancement of individual autonomy as the ultimate point of the model. The paper argues that these readings are overly liberal in the sense that they exaggerate the importance of individualism and autonomy. The view of freedom that shaped the Swedish welfare state was not liberal, and individual autonomy was not the overriding goal for the founders of the model. Instead, the view is best described as quasi‐republican and nondomination based. It was mostly a result of semi‐Marxist ideas about capitalist power and exploitation that lingered on in the ideology of the Swedish social democratic party, the SAP, in the 1930s and 1940s. During the first decades of the 1900s, the SAP gradually revised these ideas in a domination‐based direction. It was the outcome of this process that more than anything else gave the impetus to the design of the Swedish welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction provides an overview of the major constructs that are the focus of this Special Issue. Individualism and collectivism have been the cornerstones of theoretical work on cultural values in psychological science, and conformity is an important component of theories related to motivational values. Individualism, collectivism and conformity values are reviewed in relation to parenting (warmth, knowledge solicitation, rules/limit‐setting, parents' expectations regarding children's family obligations) and children's adjustment (internalising and externalising behaviours). Background on the Parenting Across Cultures project, a study of children, mothers and fathers, in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States) is provided as a prelude to the country‐specific papers from each of these countries that follow in the rest of the Special Issue before a final concluding paper that focuses on between‐country versus within‐country variation in cultural values, parenting and children's adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe emergence of Covid-19 and its diverse impacts on human life ushered in the need to rethink some of the old ideas that humans have lived by. The desire to preserve human life amid threatening circumstances, without giving up on the values of life, requires the reordering of critical sectors of social existence. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to achieve three principal objectives. First, with the Covid-19 pandemic in mind, it reinterprets the individualist-communitarian debate. Second, it argues that the human instinct for self-preservation, reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic, forcefully compels the concept of a person torn between the individual’s efforts to survive and a community committed to an environment enabling survival. Third, the paper extrapolates the concept of ‘person’ developed in objective two to reflect on students’ resilience in the context of the ‘new normal’ that has characterized academic success during Covid-19. While employing philosophical methods of conceptual and critical analyses to achieve these objectives, the paper concludes that academic success among students in the Covid-19 era has demanded the effort of willing students, combined with a supportive responsible community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a critique of ontological individualism as a framework for social ontology. The phrase gives unjustified priority to facts about individuals over facts about higher-level social features. The paper reviews several important contributions to more nuanced views, including Giddens, Archer, Granovetter, Mahoney, and Thelen. It is argued that our guiding "map" of the social world needs to reflect the unavoidable reciprocal dependency over time between individual actors and social entities. The ideas of methodological localism (Little) and the diachronic character of the actor-social nexus explore the inherent interdependency between actor and structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in times of increasing polarization in which the margins of the political spectrum begin to dominate our social imagination again. While the neoliberal iteration of the capitalist project suggests extreme individualism as the normative default position, the devastating impact of the globalized economy on many has reignited the pursuit of socialist alternatives. In this constellation, Simmel's social theory of modernity can be a useful resource to undercut the return of the old battle between opposite economic systems. This paper argues that two kinds of pluralism can be derived from his conceptualization of the social effects of the money economy. In contrast to one-size-fits-all concepts of freedom, Simmel embraces a social pluralism which acknowledges a plurality of cultural spheres as relevant for the self-actualization of modern individuals, attributing different combinations of independence and embeddedness to them. Moreover, he rejects the social extremes of socialism and individualism since they fail to properly integrate individual freedom into the social whole without undermining it. Instead, Simmel gives us the vision of a pluralist economy in which democratic worker's cooperatives are combined with an overall liberal market to satisfy both the longing for community and the endeavour for individual distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines comic book adaptations of the biblical story of Samson within the socio-political context of post-World War II and Cold War America. Challenging the notion that religious narratives in comics are inherently conservative, this study employs a history of interpretation approach to analyze five different adaptations, each illuminating the era's complex cultural landscape. Themes such as distrust, binary morality, the value of duty over individualism, defiant autonomy, and nuanced masculinity are explored, revealing how these comics were not merely religious retellings but cultural artifacts shaped by the broader societal concerns of the late 1940s and 1950s. The paper argues that comic creators were acutely influenced by Cold War-era ideologies and anxieties, thus adapting the Samson narrative to address contemporary challenges. The essay contributes to the understanding of comics as both interpretive tools for ancient narratives and reflective historical documents of postwar America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon semi-structured interviews of Chinese entrepreneurs in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, this paper demonstrates the commonly marginal influence of kinship, townspeople attachment, and ethnic identity on Chinese entrepreneurs’ interpretive framework on their social networks and business activities. Instead, their narratives were dominated by individualistic reasoning based on rational judgments and pragmatic considerations. Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneurs found ethnic market in Ikebukuro accessible and competitiveness and the policy support from the Japanese state friendly to business operations. However, they were not keen on interacting with local civic organizations and kept themselves aloof from local communities. These features could be concluded as networked individualism with superficial integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authenticity is now being used to describe things as diverse as politicians, wallets and holiday packages, and claims to authenticity have become increasingly marketable. Media sources from magazines to social media blogs are all inundated with a persisting, recurring message: that tapping into the "real you" will be the liberating force allowing you to live a happy and successful life. This paper draws on a social constructionist theoretical framework and discourse analytic method to critically analyse three interconnected discourses of personal authenticity (as success, change and work) explored in 10 marketing campaigns prominent in South African media. The constructions found in these media are important not just as reflections of current subject positions available in a particular context, but also in the (re)construction of these particular identities and the (re)production of particular social systems. More specifically, in this case, by closely tying authenticity to notions of success, work and change, these discourses produce "good neoliberal subjects"- ambitious, self-regulated, proactive and productive citizens committed to personal progress and contributing to a "functioning" society. In other words, through these discourses, individuals' personal aspirations (e.g. self-improvement or happiness) become inextricably linked with capitalist modes of being (work and consumption). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the maker movement has gained prominence in China, garnering attention from policymakers, scholars, and practitioners. Although several studies have explored the movement's macro-level impacts on the country's economy and society, an adequate understanding of the individual makers' lived experiences, practices, and ideologies remains elusive. This paper addresses this gap by examining how individual makers negotiate and respond to the global maker movement's individualistic values and China's state-led techno-nationalism. Framed by concepts of "critical making" and "maker ideology," the study draws on qualitative data obtained from individual makers to offer insights into the evolving maker culture in China. Our findings suggest that Chinese makers have moved away from the Westernized critical-making paradigm and embraced a more techno-nationalistic orientation. By contributing to a nuanced understanding of the non-uniform and diverse development of the global maker movement in non-Western contexts, this paper sheds new light on the maker movement's ongoing transformation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major paradigms in sociology and social sciences usually embrace either individualism or anti‐individualism as fundamental worldview. This paper explores a third way between individualism and anti‐individualism developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann in his systems theory. Luhmann treats actors or individuals as psychic systems and he distinguishes them from social systems. In a nutshell, social systems produce communication, whereas psychic systems produce consciousness. In line with anti‐individualism, Luhmann therefore argues that social systems are irreducible to psychic systems and their actions. On the other hand, Luhmann joins ranks with individualism to assert that psychic systems are not rigorously constrained by social systems. Ultimately, Luhmann explains that social systems and psychic systems are part of each other's environment and that each type of systems provides the ecological conditions that the other type depends on to emerge and grow. To discuss this third way between individualism and anti‐individualism, the paper examines more specifically two central points in Luhmann's theory: (1) how social systems and psychic systems are separated from each other, and (2) how social systems and psychic systems are coevolving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is considered a global ability and crucial for ordinary-daily and special (e.g., science, aesthetic) activities. In this paper, from the position of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), we expand the debate about the creativity crisis and hypothesize that the noted crisis is only the tip of the iceberg represented by the crisis of the postmodern' incoherent mind, reflecting the crisis of self-realization as a leading activity in the individualistic epoch. By investigating creativity as an original functionality of the mind, two key titles are stressed. One is the halting of the activity system; two, it is the inconsistency between the objective meanings sphere and the subjective sense-making sphere. Both titles represent the epistemological rupture embedded in the mainstream culture and praxis rooted in the internal contradictions of individualism and post-modernism as worldview and practices, leading the mind to close its eyes on the contradictions which are the crucial source of grasping the internal content (abstraction and generalization) of the given experience, hence, a crucial source of creativity. Thus, it is considered that not only creativity is in crisis, but also the coherence of the mind as well, as an extreme result of the shattered postmodern existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Pope Francis's Fratelli tutti to develop traditional Catholic depictions of human dignity in both theory and practice. Black sociopolitical thought and social movement organizing are brought into conversation with theologies and philosophies that reflect on what gives life integrity. I posit that the substantialist (ontological) interpretation of human dignity logically extends from individuals to collectives. Further, I suggest religious leaders in the United States should emphasize this collective form of substantialism alongside the relational (Trinitarian) and functional (creative) interpretations of human dignity, thus identifying collectives as thematizing divine likeness and separating the notion of human dignity from individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a methodological standpoint, the following paper is based on a comparative analysis of two novels written by David Foster Wallace. With a specific perspective for each novel (the motivations of the character known as Rémy Marathe for the first novel, as well as §19 for the second one), the purpose of the paper is to highlight the main characteristics, flaws, and identity crises of the United States, as depicted by Wallace in both Infinite Jest and The Pale King. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comparative study of Chukwuemeka Ike's The Bottled Leopard and Chịkodịlị Emelụ-madụ-'s Dazzling. The thrust of the paper is found in the study of the protagonist's transformation from adolescents into their roles as leopard personalities. The crucial aspects identified of their development include: the unity of life in the Igbo worldview and their understanding of the cosmological realities depicted in the novels. The theory adopted for the study is magical realism. The findings reveal that the transition into their inherited roles is made easier with the knowledge of Igbo traditions, mythology and initiation rites. Second is that Emelụmadụ's story shows evidence of individualism and syncretism in the depiction of cosmological realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that Kant has a far more communitarian theory of aesthetic life than is usually acknowledged. I focus on two aspects of Kant's theory that might otherwise be taken to support an individualist reading, namely, Kant's emphasis on aesthetic autonomy and his characterization of judgments of taste as involving demands for agreement. I argue that the full expression of autonomy in fact requires being a member of an aesthetic community and that within such a community, judgments of taste are issued as invitations to others to engage their faculties towards the goal of shared aesthetic appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Pure Neoclassical economics from a logical standpoint. After discussing validity criteria, it focuses on theoretical individualism, a core foundation of Neoclassical theorizing in all its variants. Careful analysis of this doctrine reveals that, while mathematically valid, it generates many propositional contradictions in all economic and social science theories grounded upon it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how the homo oeconomicus has evolved from utility at work to consumption and then to the mystification of profit in a context of financialization and long-term crisis. Thus, a semantic slippage occurs, which distorts the achievements of capitalism, such as individualism and self-interest, for a libertarian belief -alien to liberalism, to Bentham's utilitarianism and marginalism- in which it is not possible to define social utility, nor the connection between the "rationality" of individual decisions and social choices. Usefulness is confused with profit in the primacy of today's business mentality and is often reflected in individual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines how women's roles have changed in Indian society through an analysis of Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughters (1998), Home (2006) The Immigrant (2009), and literary works. This paper analyzes the quest for feminine identity and the struggle for change in the female protagonists in the select works. Her fiction projects raise feminist concerns and feminist issues. In Indian tradition goddesses like Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Durga are worshipped in every household. Thus, the women are expected to have goddess-like characteristics to escape the scrutiny of critical eyes and feel trapped by such mundane situations. The prime objective behind the feminist movement was to change the destiny of women and make them realize that the time has come when they stop suffering silently in helplessness. Women in Indian society have never been recognized as persons apart from their assigned duties as mothers, wives, and daughters. The female protagonists of Kapur, Nina (The Immigrant), Virmati (The Difficult Daughters), and Nisha (Home) attempt to break away from the dependence syndrome that patriarchal agents have imposed upon them. The current study centers on the female protagonists' quest for uniqueness and self-identity and avoids being perceived as self-sacrificing rubber dolls. They must struggle for their existence, which has been going on for centuries and will probably continue for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper, Trevor Hedberg and Jordan Huzarevich assessed a number of objections against practical apatheism, concluding that they are either unsuccessful or at least very controversial. The aim of this discussion note is to contribute to their discussion by presenting and analysing a short argument for a reason in favor of apatheism; one that appeals to a particular universalist formulation of the thesis of theodical individualism. After briefly introducing a distinction between a particular and a universal version of apatheism, I present the argument, assess its merits in light of some objections to it, I conclude that at least one reason in favor of a particular practical apatheistic position is warranted by it. Finally, I suggest some alternative reasons that could be advanced in favor of apatheism, and I distinguish between strong and weak forms of apatheism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconceives of secularization as a gradual process of increasing interaction between the (social) scientific and spiritual realms by examining the influence of Christian ideas of group confession on lay psychotherapeutic groups in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. in the early twentieth century. This article focuses on three religious group leaders of the interwar period: Frank Buchman (1878–1961), Gerald Heard (1889–1971), and Henry Burton Sharman (1865–1953). Influenced by Natural Theology and the holiness movement, they placed sin and its redemption within the world, reconceiving it as psychological individualism and its redemption as self-sacrifice to the group. This reconception endorsed the moral power of groups and influenced Alcoholics Anonymous and various groups within the Human Potential Movement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the quantificational idioms and individuality depicted in the logic papers of philosopher Charles Peirce published from 1867 to 1885. Overview of a Boolian expression referring to an individual; Use of letters to stand for cardinal numbers; Universe of discourse as consisting of individuals about which alone the whole discourse is understood to run.

The article offers information on the XXVI INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY as of June 1996. Topics discussed include consequences of individualism and collectivism; coping research in Great Britain and advance in coping with stress; and research on coping with chronic illness in the Netherland.

Objective: This reflection paper proposes to analyze the relationship between the individualist-collectivist orientation of culture and socioeconomic inequality from an evolutionary approach. Method: Consists of a conceptual analysis based on a review of scientific literature, both classic and current, from which a critical interpretation was made. The paper begins with an introduction that places the subject in the context of developmental social psychology. After that, the distinction between biological and cultural evolution is raised. Results: Based on earlier conceptual references, cultural notions of individualism and colectivism are examined from an evolutionary social psychology perspective. Subsequently, an evolutionary view of inequality is presented and, finally, an overview is offered between cultural individualism-collectivism linked to inequality in the distribution of wealth, also from the perspective of evolutionary social psychology. Conclusions: General reflections derived from the previous analyses are postulated. These argue that the individualist-collectivist cultural orientation is a byproduct of society's evolution and can affect how societies are structured, organized, and distribute wealth. This can be understood in the context of the circumstances that people have encountered and how they have responded to those circumstances throughout their evolutionary history. The tendency for more collectivist societies to have greater inequality in the distribution of wealth could be permeated by a greater propensity to conformism, passivity, obedience and submission to social hierarchies. The previously mentioned suggests that socioeconomic inequality, more than a purely economic process, is also a political-cultural and evolutionary process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoclassical economics has established itself as the discipline of rational choice. Consequently, under methodological individualism and in the context of consumption, an agent's choice is based on the ordering of preferences determined exogenously, disregarding any emotional, biological influences, or factors from socio-economic dynamics. Therefore, this paper aims to present an alternative framework for the decision-making of economic individuals at a theoretical and formal-mathematical level, grounded in the principles of evolutionary economics and complex adaptive systems. It is argued that the process of making choices in consumption is inherent to social dynamics. From an individual-holistic perspective, the mechanism motivating action can be characterized as an evolutionary algorithm that integrates biological, historical, cultural, social class, and market competition influences as endogenous elements in determining choice and consumption behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Gustav Landauer's mystical anarchism, focusing on the concept of overcoming death as a core element of his thought. It explores Landauer's rejection of death as both a linguistic superstition and a limited worldview, emphasizing the collective whole over individualism. The essay suggests that Landauer's representation of revolution moving from space to time includes his account of mystical anarchy, which fosters a deep connection with the past and a sense of unity with the world and humanity. This shift in perspective promotes a more fulfilling and meaningful existence within a larger, authentic community that is an antidote to the constraints of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our time, we witness a true proliferation of rights. There is no conflict or human problem that doesn't lead to a debate about the rights we have and whose protection we demand. Such a scenario gives rise to the emergence of multiple challenges for a theory of human rights. These challenges can be both theoretical and practical. This paper points out a peculiar theoretical challenge: the need to clarify and determine very well the scope of any political ideology that contains a theory of human rights. Currently, the theory of the Common has been chosen in order to compare it with the political consequences of two theories that, in some way, have historically preceded it: J.J. Rousseau's General Will and C. Marx's proposal of a generic being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental burnout (PB) is a pervasive phenomenon. Parenting is embedded in cultural values, and previous research has shown the role of individualism in PB. In this paper, we reanalyze previously collected data to identify profiles based on the four dimensions of PB, and explore whether these profiles vary across countries' levels of collectivistic-individualistic (COL-IND) values. Our sample comprised 16,885 individuals from 36 countries (73% women; 27% men), and we used a latent profile approach to uncover PB profiles. The findings showed five profiles: Fulfilled, Not in PB, Low risk of PB, High risk of PB and Burned out. The profiles pointed to climbing levels of PB in the total sample and in each of the three country groups (High COL/Low IND, Medium COL-IND, Low COL/High IND). Exploratory analyses revealed that distinct dimensions of PB had the most prominent roles in the climbing pattern, depending on the countries' levels of COL/IND. In particular, we found contrast to be a hallmark dimension and an indicator of severe burnout for individualistic countries. Contrary to our predictions, emotional distance and saturation did not allow a clear differentiation across collectivistic countries. Our findings support several research avenues regarding PB measurement and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that risk beliefs predict engagement in behaviors to prevent disease, it is important to understand the factors associated with risk beliefs. In the present paper, we conducted path analyses to investigate the associations of belief systems (political orientation and cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy) with COVID‐19 risk beliefs (i.e., perceived likelihood, perceived severity, and worry about disease; Studies 1 and 2), and the indirect effect through trust in information sources in these relationships (Study 1). Two online panels of U.S. adults were surveyed at three timepoints during the COVID‐19 pandemic (Study 1: baseline n = 1,667, 1‐year follow‐up n = 551; Study 2: n = 404). Results of path analyses indicated that, across studies and timepoints, when controlling for political orientation, trust, and demographic factors, greater individualism had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity and worry about COVID‐19, whereas greater hierarchy had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity. However, after accounting for cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy (and trust and demographic factors), none of the associations among political orientation and any of the three COVID‐19 risk beliefs were significant. The test of indirect effects indicated that individualism and hierarchy were indirectly associated with lower perceived severity of and worry about COVID‐19 through less trust. The findings suggest that cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy play a role in shaping people's risk beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It's widely held that a lack of intellectual humility is part of the reason why flagrantly unjustified beliefs proliferate. In this paper, I argue that an excess of humility also plays a role in allowing for the spread of misinformation. Citing experimental evidence, I show that inducing intellectual humility causes people inappropriately to lower their confidence in beliefs that are actually justified for them. In these cases, they manifest epistemic humility in ways that make them epistemically worse off. I argue that epistemic humility may fail to promote better beliefs because it functions for us against the background of our individualistic theory of responsible epistemic agency: until we reject such theories, intellectual humility is as much a problem as a solution to epistemic ills. Virtue epistemology is inadequate as a response to unjustified beliefs if it does not look beyond the virtues to our background beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education [MTB-MLE] policy in the Philippines is beset with numerous issues, and this adversely affects the quality of basic education provided across regions. To address this, this policy paper suggests reviewing the current MTBMLE policy through a more systematic policy reform mechanism that is participatory. This way, all concerned stakeholders in the Filipino education community contribute to the growth of the basic education instruction in the country by ensuring proper implementation of a mother tongue-based instruction policy. Anchored on the Rational Choice Theory (Becker, 1976), which believes on the following assumptions: individualism, optimality, structures, self-regarding interests, and rationality, this policy paper suggests a framework that the Department of Education can utilize in reviewing the existing policy and creating feasible decisions to improve the instruction in basic education. The proposal also drew inspiration from how the Bilingual Education Act of the United States of America became a promising legislation that has emphasized the importance of multicultural and multilingual classrooms in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how Emerson's 'Self‐Reliance' offers a meaningful account of political and moral self‐education in Western democracies. Emerson's moral perfectionism involves an ethical, political and democratic individualism that needs to be reconsidered. This paper explores a perfectionist interpretation of the modern forms of self‐education as political and ordinary practices, first with the case of conspiracy theories, which express an individual desire for self‐education but appear as the result of a lack of self‐reliance and a failure of political self‐education, and then through the explicit claim to self‐education made by activists in ecological, anti‐racial or feminist organisations, which embodies the democratic need for self‐reliance. These two examples reveal a new kind of efficient and ordinary political power at the edge of civic commitment. This leads us to define an alternative conception of pedagogy, in which equality in self‐reliance matters. This also underlines our moral and ordinary political responsibility and challenges the traditional philosophical opposition between personal and public, subjective and universal. This paper underlines the accuracy of Stanley Cavell's interpretation of Emerson's 'Self‐Reliance' in order to provide a perfectionist interpretation of activism. It also opens a new crossed perspective between the French and American approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders the claim made by mainstream internet platforms that they inherently foster a democratic public sphere, offering reasons why the opposite may be true. It surveys past studies that have supported both views, showing how the position taken by scholars tends to depend on their disciplinary perspectives. Historically, scholarly approaches to the public or political impacts of the internet and social media have been characterised by four main interpretative lenses: technodeterminism, behaviourism, and the prioritising of either ideology, or the economics of media ownership. This article pays particular attention to the last two, and to Facebook, which among mainstream internet platforms has notably associated itself with democratic ideals. The article describes how many of the democratic ideals associated with Facebook's impacts on society are in fact reversed by the platform's practices, with effects that directly contradict the platform's stated principles. The article ends by suggesting that Facebook consciously pretends to favour the public sphere, and that such Orwellian doublethink is a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from its augmentation of private and personal issues at the expense of collective engagement and empowerment. designed differently, Facebook could have had favourable impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms such as Uber, Rappi or Airbnb impose a labor model where workers are not recognized as such and do not have minimum rights. They are part of platform capitalism, a form of capital that uses digital technologies to impose a precarious employment relationship. However, faced with this model, application workers are beginning to organize and demand rights. In this article, I examine the ideology that platforms promote and the resistances of app distributors. I argue that, in the face of the imagined individualism of digital platforms, delivery workers are recreating forms of community. They have not been passive or totally subaltern but are displaying different forms of antagonism and autonomy. This paper is based on qualitative research with interviews of key informants and analysis of the documents of collectives and groups of Mexican delivery workers, both in Mexico City and in New York. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes up the idea of collective organizing as a way to create learning and teaching spaces as liberatory. It engages the radical abolitionist work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore that insists we organize collectively as scholars and teachers in the university, to imagine that which engenders freedom. This paper also engages the writings of Black Studies Scholar Rinaldo Walcott and Indigenous Scholar Sandy Grande to reveal how the university with its compensatory individualism and politics of recognition work to maintain anti-blackness and white settler colonial practices. It ends with some examples of refusal and abolitionist practices aimed at creating and imagining spaces of learning and living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from a series of Place-thought walks that the authors took at an open-range zoo. It practices a feminist common worlds multispecies ethics to challenge the systems that maintain nature-culture divisions in early childhood education. Postdevelopmental perspectives (i.e., feminist environmental humanities, multispecies studies, Indigenous studies) are brought into conversation with early childhood education to consider how zoo-logics maintain binaries and hierarchical thinking. Zoo-logics are related to developmental, colonial, and Western ways of reasoning and being in the world. Two feminist approaches to ethics, (re)situating and dialoguing, are discussed and show how they are necessary for undermining binaries and hierarchies that enable human exceptionalism, white privilege, and phallogocentrism. (Re)situating practices are presented through a lively dialogue based on Emu-human encounters at an open-range zoo. This paper argues that (re)situating and dialoguing pedagogies activate feminist common worldings. Worlding well requires a collective and relational multispecies ethics which are needed in these troubling times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the phenomenon of teacher awards with particular reference to one bestowed in Spain. This phenomenon is analysed in line with the consequences of free market ideology in education and the ideology of influencers and followers. Drawing on qualitative research based in participant and non-participant observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis, the results show that education practice was determined by the award requirements, and complying with its criteria became the overriding objective. The need for recognition was highlighted but critical views were also brought to light in relation to the notions of microcelebrities, performativity, individualism and competitiveness. The paper contributes to critical reflections on the already existing controversies regarding awards in education and specifically those presented to individuals. School teachers' perceptions of and reasons for participating in these initiatives and the repercussions in their classrooms are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted health care, economies and societies in ways that are still being measured across the world. To control the spread of the virus, governments continue to appeal to citizens to alter their behaviours and act in the interests of the collective public good so as to protect the vulnerable. Demonstrations of collective solidarity are being consistently sought to control the spread of the virus. Catchphrases, soundbites and hashtags such as 'we're all in this together', 'stronger together' and other messages of unity are employed, invoking the sense of a collective struggle. However, this approach is fundamentally challenged as collectivist attitudes run contrary to the individualism of neoliberal ideology, to which citizens have been subjected. This paper argues that attempting to employ the concept of solidarity is inherently challenged by the deep impact of neoliberalism in health policies and draws on the work of Durkheim to examine the concept in a context in which health care has become established as an individual responsibility. The paper will argue that a dominant private-responsibility model and an underfunded public system have eroded solidarity weakening its effectiveness in generating concerns for the collective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public perception of poverty is assumed to have a significant effect on the legitimacy and viability of welfare policies. The paper compares the public perceptions of poverty in the United States and in East-Central Europe and tests whether they reflect the individualism–structuralism dimension. It examines attributions for poverty in a preselected county in each area. Primary data collection is carried out using the methods of systematic data collection. These methods first certify a certain level of cultural competence in the field of interest, then provide reliable results with the use of a significantly smaller sample than mainstream social science methods. The paper concludes that the structural and individual explanations of poverty are endorsed to the same extent in both countries. Public perception of poverty does not reflect the differences of the welfare systems. The distinction between the two examined areas is sharpest with respect to health and health care-related items, to the family size, and to the role of friends. Policy makers need to be aware that it is vital to keep their minds open to both individualism and structuralism when working out anti-poverty strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has revealed that locals may perceive tourists as possible infection vectors. In addition, little research has been conducted on residents' perceived risks from Golden Week holidayers. Our study examines the relationship between individual cultural orientation and risk perception regarding COVID-19 recurrence (RCOVID-19 recurrence), specifically seeking to explain residents' citizenship behaviors. We collected data on Jeju, South Korea, right after the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020 when Golden Week holidayers visited Jeju. Our findings identified the mediation effect of RCOVID-19 resulting from the significant relationships between individualism or collectivism, RCOVID-19 recurrence, and citizenship behavior, except for the path from horizontal collectivism to citizenship behavior. In addition, the moderation role of the length of residency is identified. We conclude our paper with a discussion on theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, interpersonal relations were highly constrained due to the social distancing rules and sanitary restrictions imposed to prevent the transmission of the virus. These social changes gave rise to ever-deepening experiences of loneliness, deterioration of mental well-being, and fear of COVID-19, which affected the citizens of all the countries struggling with the pandemic.Methods: The present paper reports the results of a study on mental health, interdependent happiness, loneliness and fear of COVID-19 in Polish and Japanese university students. A total of 180 people (83 Poles and 97 Japanese) aged 19– 41 participated in the study. The participants were surveyed using the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form to assess three dimensions of mental health; the UCLA Three-Item Loneliness Scale to measure loneliness; the Interdependent Happiness Scale based on the concept of a relational sense of community with others as associated with well-being, and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). The respondents were also asked one question about their subjectively perceived economic status.Results: The largest cross-cultural difference in the investigated variables concerned fear of COVID-19. The Japanese university students showed higher levels of this fear. The level of fear of COVID-19 in the group of women, regardless of the culture they came from, was not associated with any other variables we analyzed. In the Japanese sample, it was negatively correlated with interdependent happiness, and in the Polish sample, fear od COVID-19 was only correlated with the Social dimension of Mental Health. Other variables that differentiated the two nationalities, though to a lesser extent, were the Social dimension of Mental Health, which was higher in the Japanese sample, and the Psychological dimension of Social Health, with higher scores in the Polish sample.Conclusion: The power of mental resources, although it may vary among individuals, is independent of culture. Regardless of the level of fear of COVID-19 in the two cultures, the examined mental resources are positively associated with well-being and the return to normal functioning after the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recurrent dimension occurring in wellbeing models pertains to positive relationships of individuals. Yet there is little information elucidating the link between positive relationships and subjective wellbeing in different cultures. Thus, the aims of this paper were (1) to examine whether there is an association between positive relationships and adolescent wellbeing across several culturally distinct countries and (2) explore whether the association between positive relationships and adolescent wellbeing differed for these countries along the cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and indulgence/restraint. Well-being measures were obtained from the large-scale assessment PISA 2018 and cultural dimensions indices were obtained. The results provide compelling evidence that positive relationships are positively associated with both affective and eudemonic wellbeing. Furthermore, there may be a greater association between positive relationships and positive affect in collectivist-indulgent countries than in collectivistic restraint countries. The study furthers our understanding of adolescent wellbeing across different cultural dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the wider educational environment included in the dynamic model of educational effectiveness, this paper reexamines the association between student achievement and two national culture dimensions: Monumentalism-Flexibility and Collectivism-Individualism. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data of 317,127 students, 12,058 schools, and 41 countries, we evaluated three-level regression models controlling for students' socioeconomic status, gender, and grade; school's average socioeconomic status; and countries' wealth. The results of the multilevel regressions show significant negative associations of the two culture dimensions with student achievement in mathematics, science, and reading. However, our models indicate that Monumentalism-Flexibility is a better predictor of student achievement in mathematics and science, and that there is variation in effect sizes across domains. Implications for educational effectiveness research are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and journalistic accounts have devoted growing interest to the centralizing trends characterizing platforms and the "platform society." They often oppose this model to the alleged openness, horizontality, and "equality" they attach to "networks." Such depictions seem willing to give up on a thorough consideration of network structure, which appears nowadays less fundamental to reflect on the digital world (and society) than it was 25 years ago. Or even question whether the network society model, as proposed by Castells, is unsuitable for describing contemporary society. In our opinion, the dichotomy opposing the (alleged) openness and egalitarian nature of networks (and of the network society), to the current centralization trends characterizing the platform society, as well as the subsequent assumption that networks are an outdated heuristic tool, derive from a misunderstanding of networks' structure and dynamics. Scholars have shown that the structure of most complex networks can be defined as "scale-free," following a power-law distribution. Complex networks, indeed, show the tendency for some nodes to become more interconnected than others (thus becoming "hubs"). In this, the understanding of network structure proposed in Castells (1996), contrary to the rhetoric considering networks intrinsically as "egalitarian," is still a conceptual and analytical tool of the utmost importance for understanding the so-called "platform society." This paper focuses on networks, network models, and the network society, reviewing what was proposed in Castells (1996). We argue that the social and platform ecosystem we are witnessing today can be understood from the perspective of scale-free networks and is, indeed, consistent with the premises provided in 1996. When observing networks, we address both structure and agency, and both the macro (network morphology) and micro (networked individualism and sociability) levels [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impact of economic inequality on social issues and wellbeing is of importance to social psychology that historically has an interest in social justice. Social Identity Theory is explored as an approach that acknowledges the wider context of social issues. The use of experiments encounters challenges in categorizing wealth and how individuals account for extreme wealth. Mainstream research agendas in psychology are not neutral and draw upon current ideology (such as neoliberalism) that can often maintain inequality. These difficulties are addressed by Critical Social Psychology driven by a social justice agenda that challenges the acceptance of neoliberal values. The application of Critical Social Psychology to wealth inequality is demonstrated with research using UK media data. Critical feminist psychology is discussed to explore the role of class and how to challenge the stigmatization of working‐class people. Finally, this paper outlines how Discursive Psychology addresses how extreme wealth and the practices of the super‐rich are warranted. A discursive approach questions the acceptance of wealth inequality as an everyday assumption and demonstrates how dominant discourse draws upon individualism. Furthermore, Discursive Psychology has examined how accountability for problematic practices, such as tax avoidance that maintain inequality, are managed in media broadcasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on historical institutionalism to consider the impact of housing-policy responses following the Grenfell fire on the marginalisation of the social-housing resident. We consider three specific policy responses: reform focused on conditions of rented properties; the social-housing White Paper; and building regulation and building-safety reforms. We suggest that, in historical institutionalist terms, each is part of a matrix of reform in which understandings of the social-housing resident play a critical role. We argue that rather than the fire provoking a paradigm shift in the recognition that government accords to the ignored and stigmatised citizens who live in social housing, the policy initiatives to date indicate a much more limited adjustment of policy within a normal frame. We suggest that this is because housing policy is dominated by a consumerist ideology that is self-reinforcing and ignores the social, economic and political complexity of tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares Anglo-American and Chinese approaches to the outcomes of higher education, primarily but not solely collective outcomes, by examining the Western domain of 'public good' and 'public goods' and parallel or near parallel activities in China. It reviews scholarly discourses of society, state and higher education in the respective political cultures ('traditions'), including individualism and collectivism, university autonomy, the critical function, higher education in civil society, and global tianxia and global common good. A key issue in symmetrical cross-cultural comparison is the position from which it is made; and as well as elucidating similarities and differences the paper develops what Sen calls a 'trans-positional' view based on integrating the two positional views. The two traditions are not closely aligned. However, aside for the Anglo-American public/private dualism in economics (which occludes collective outcomes), all ideas in both traditions can contribute to transpositional understanding of the individualised and collective outcomes of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines digital data use within three Australian secondary schools, drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 school staff to explore tensions between: (i) established logics of "data-driven" schooling; and (ii) emerging "datafied" practices associated with digital systems, platforms and devices. Using sociological theorisation of institutional logics, the article examines how promises of digital "dataism" are thwarted by the entrenched temporal organisation of schooling, and teacher-centred understandings of students as coerced subjects. As such, prevailing logics of state bureaucracy and professionalism combine in ways that temper the prospect of individualism, self-regulation, continuous feedback, and other implicit promises of digital data. The paper considers the extent to which school data logics can endure amid the increased digitisation of K-12 education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a response to the six papers comprising this special issue on Love, Sex and Psychotherapy in a Postromantic Era. The theme of temporality is explored in reading the papers: specifically, time in terms of self-other development and the capacity to relate to others as a separate subjectivity, the social and cultural context in which we are situated, and temporality in psychotherapy. In responding to the papers, it is argued that psychoanalysis perhaps never was a 'romantic' endeavour, recognising as it does the fantasies and fictions involved in the idea of unconditional, and everlasting love. Rather, it recognises the role of being able to tolerate love and hatred in the experience of intimate relationships, whatever its forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank's Urban Resilience Project (URP) champions resilience as the best response to tackle environmental hazards faced by inhabitants in Dhaka, Bangladesh without sacrificing economic development. Embedded within neoliberal risk management and sustainable development frameworks, the URP supports ongoing forms of urban expansion and densification in Dhaka as the key driver of Bangladesh's economic growth, purporting that this strategy will enable the city to address increasing and intensifying forms of flooding, heat waves, fires and earthquake risk. This paper argues that the URP depoliticises the causes of and proposed solutions to environmental hazards in Dhaka and the manner in which they are unevenly experienced. Drawing on fieldwork using qualitative methods, this paper posits that three facets guide resilience in Dhaka: reactive neoliberal policies, individualism, and disciplinary control. Ultimately, the URP obfuscates a wider regime of urban development in Dhaka that benefits certain groups (the state, international organisations, elite classes) while further economically and environmentally marginalising those living and working informally. In developing theoretical and empirical contributions to understandings of resilience in global political economy the paper contributes to debates in global political economy and environment, the everyday life of global political economy, and the inter-scalar governance of capitalist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to one prominent form of moral individualism, how an individual is to be treated is determined, not by considering her group membership, but by considering her own particular characteristics. On this view, so this paper argues, it is not possible to provide an account of why people with profound cognitive disabilities are owed respect. This conclusion is not new, but it has been challenged by writers who are sympathetic to the recommended emphasis. The paper aims to show that the conclusion cannot be avoided, and to look at what is to be learned from an approach that leads us to this point. It suggests that any account of why profoundly disabled people are owed respect will have to supplement discussion of their particular capacities with a normative account of their humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]