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An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including role of women in the nation-building project; desire for emigration and nostalgia that results in the sadness and combination of political propaganda and anthropological texts.

A deeper understanding of what factors influence metacognition has never become more pressing than in today's digital era, in which information flows constantly and quickly. To this end, the present study explored the role of culture in mediating how individuals experience metacognitive phenomena. For this purpose, the International Group on Metacognition (IGM) developed a rigorous standard international protocol to measure metacognition in Spanish-speaking university students (N = 1,461) in 12 cultures in Latin-America and Spain, employing both a subjective measure of metacognitive awareness (the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory [MAI]) and various metrics of objective metacognitive monitoring across three domains of learning—vocabulary, probabilities (mathematical reasoning), and paper folding (visual-spatial reasoning). Data were subsequently compared across the various cultures with subjective metacognitive awareness and the raw frequencies of the four mutually exclusive cells of the 2 × 2 performance/judgment array as outcomes. Results revealed significant differences regarding both macro-level components of subjective metacognitive awareness, knowledge and regulation of cognition. Further, significant and meaningful differences emerged for the raw frequencies of the four mutually exclusive cells as a function of culture, especially for vocabulary, in which differences among cultures emerged for all four cells. Implications for metacognitive research, theory, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Intercultural Dialogues: Cultures of the East - Introduction" explores various aspects of Eastern cultures from different angles. It discusses topics such as the interpretation of the Qur'an, the concept of "zuo wang" in Zhuangzi text, the notion of matriarchy in ancient Japan, the role of culture in shaping language concepts in Persian, and the reception of Eastern cultures in European painting and art during the late 19th century. The authors aim to provide a complex understanding of these cultures and challenge simplistic assumptions. The editors have carefully selected papers that focus on specific research problems, avoiding an orientalist approach. [Extracted from the article]

This critique engages with the article titled "The Question of the Nature of God from the African Place," by L. Uchenna OGBONNAYA published in Vol. 11. No.1 of this journal. This critique will employ a focused argumentative methodology to assess its contributions to the discourse on African Philosophy of Religion. It will also evaluate the article's strengths and weaknesses, emphasizing the articulation and support of key arguments. Through a systematic examination of the presented evidence and methodological approach, the critique aims to shed light on the nuanced perspectives on the nature of God within the African philosophical framework. Further, this assessment will provide a comprehensive understanding of the article's implications for contemporary religious studies and intercultural dialogue, contributing to the ongoing conversation surrounding diverse perspectives on divinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of poverty and recognition theory, grounded in Axel Honneth's framework, to offer a novel perspective on poverty as a multifaceted social phenomenon. It argues that poverty should be understood not only as a lack of material resources but also as a significant deficit in social recognition, encompassing respect and social esteem. By situating poverty within the institutionalized order of recognition, the paper highlights how poverty both stems from and contributes to a lack of recognition, leading to social exclusion, shame, and stigmatization. The theoretical approach is complemented by selected empirical studies that illustrate the lived experiences of poverty, emphasizing the emotional and psychological impacts that extend beyond material deprivation. While the paper advances the theoretical understanding of poverty, it also identifies gaps in the current research, particularly the need for more empirical studies to substantiate these claims. Future research could expand upon these insights through cross-cultural studies and empirical investigations that further explore the connection between recognition and poverty. This work lays the groundwork for a deeper exploration of poverty as a social phenomenon that transcends economic metrics, advocating for a more holistic approach to poverty research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like Rachel's paper, the next paper expresses hope for reconciliation through forgiveness. His paper highlights the challenges Christians have faced as they migrate from one region of Indonesia to another (as diaspora communities within Indonesia). This issue highlights the writings of some of the 18 paper presenters in the Interfaith and Mission Track of the International Association for Mission Studies' (IAMS) 15th Assembly in Sydney. [Extracted from the article]

For synergistic interactions between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) systems, AI outputs often need to be explainable to people. Explainable AI (XAI) systems are commonly tested in human user studies. However, whether XAI researchers consider potential cultural differences in human explanatory needs remains unexplored. We highlight psychological research that found significant differences in human explanations between many people from Western, commonly individualist countries and people from non-Western, often collectivist countries. We argue that XAI research currently overlooks these variations and that many popular XAI designs implicitly and problematically assume that Western explanatory needs are shared cross-culturally. Additionally, we systematically reviewed over 200 XAI user studies and found that most studies did not consider relevant cultural variations, sampled only Western populations, but drew conclusions about human-XAI interactions more generally. We also analyzed over 30 literature reviews of XAI studies. Most reviews did not mention cultural differences in explanatory needs or flag overly broad cross-cultural extrapolations of XAI user study results. Combined, our analyses provide evidence of a cultural bias toward Western populations in XAI research, highlighting an important knowledge gap regarding how culturally diverse users may respond to widely used XAI systems that future work can and should address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Miscelánea: A Journal of English & American Studies is the property of Miscelanea: A Journal of English & American Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Knowledge has become a central problematic in recent work on cross-cultural encounters and the processes of empire building. In an array of contexts—from Spanish America to colonial South Africa, from Ireland to occupied Egypt, the American West to British India—anthropologists and historians have highlighted the ways in which “colonial knowledge” facilitated trade, the extraction of rent and taxes, conversion, and outright conquest. This scholarship has demonstrated how these new forms of understanding produced on imperial frontiers facilitated the actual extension of sovereignty and the consolidation of colonial authority: for Tzvetan Todorov, Bernard Cohn, and Nicholas Dirks alike, colonialism was a “conquest of knowledge.” Scholarship on empire building in the Americas has placed special emphasis on the place of literacy in the dynamics of conquest. Walter Mignolo in particular has argued that European understandings of the power of literacy encouraged Spaniards in the New World to discount the value of indigenous graphic systems and disparage Mesoamerican languages as untruthful, unreliable, and products of the Devil. For Mignolo, the dark side of the new knowledge orders born out of the Renaissance was a new interweaving of literacy, knowledge, and colonization in a new cultural order he dubs “coloniality.” In the North American literature, too, literacy has been seen as a crucial element in imperial intrusion and conquest. James Axtell, for example, has argued “The conquest of America was in part a victory of paper and print over memory and voice. The victors wrote their way to the New World and inscribed themselves on its maps.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The KIU Journal of Humanities, in its latest issue, covers topics such as Social Psychology, Social Philosophy, Language, and Literary Studies. One paper in the Social Psychology section examines the values of Christian parenting style and argues that non-compliance with these principles has led to a lack of commitment to societal values among children. The Social Philosophy section discusses the role of moral education in regenerating social norms and values, suggesting that it should be taught in schools with the collaboration of parents and the government. Lastly, a paper in the Language and Literary Studies section explores the relationship between the French language and trade in West African border town markets, providing insights for policymakers and market participants. Overall, this issue offers a range of empirical and theoretical articles that can benefit readers. [Extracted from the article]

‘Food scaping’ seeks to understand how meaning is made through humans’ interaction with food in particular environments through a multimodal and interdisciplinary analytical lens. As part of a food scaping project, researchers often interpret food environments to which they are not intimately ‘local’. This presents cross-cultural limitations in the production of analysis. Most pertinently, how can personal interpretation be divorced from locally salient and meaningful discourses? This paper presents the findings of a pilot food scaping analysis using the box notation style of Kim’s Korean Segmented Film Discourse Representation Structures (K-SFDRS). K-SFDRS notation, developed to provide both coarser- and finer-grained formal transcription for South Korean multimodal film discourse analysis, is tested as an analytic tool for an authentic South Korean food scaping experience. This paper aims to ascertain whether the formal nature of K-SFDRS transcription is a useful aid to the analysis of a foodscape, which otherwise risks relying heavily on personal interpretation. This pilot study presents an introduction to both food scaping and (K-)SFDRS, outlines the potentials of (K-)SFDRS notation within a food scaping context, offers a stepby-step outline for constructing K-SFDRS box notation using an exemplar South Korean foodscape, and finally demonstrates how this box notation may be used in the support of food scaping analysis in various interdisciplinary channels. During this pilot study, the authors make a novel methodological development in the form of what they term ‘cluster structures’, which overcome the problems presented by the lack of cinematic narrative editing in spontaneous discourse, segmenting meaning into logical forms within which structures of meaning are hierarchised without requiring the discourse relations to structure the logical forms themselves in narrative discourse following the original K-SFDRS methodology. The paper concludes that K-SFDRS, alongside the aforementioned methodological development, has potential to help food scaping researchers constrain interpretation to salient discourses and direct food scaping analysis down meaningful avenues. Through its culinary scope, this chapter adds a new disciplinary dimension to discussions of metalanguage and makes an innovative contribution to the current corpus of multimodal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing scholarly interest focused on new media and cross-cultural adaptation research, but a bibliometric analysis with VOSviewer software still needs to be improved. The paper aims to review the literature on new media and cross-cultural adaptation during the past two decades, analyse the current research on new media and cross-cultural adaptation, get an overview of current research, identify the heated topics, and propose future directions. This paper examined 1,1518 English-language articles published in the Web of Science database from 2003 to 2023 using bibliometric techniques and the VOSviewer software. The methodology analysed the variables such as development time, Top 10 countries, organisations, authors, articles, journals, and co-occurrence keywords in the bibliometric analysis. A review of the past 20 years shows a significant increase in excellent research publications on new media and cross-cultural adaptation. Regarding the region of publications, the number of publications in the United States is the absolute leader, followed by China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Germany. However, the highest average number of citations is for Germany. As seen from the five categorised clusters, cross-cultural studies on social media use, Internet addiction, psychological health issues, and international students have become a growing concern in recent years. Future research on new media and cross-cultural adaptation may move toward exploring international students' social media usage and psychological adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present a theoretical approach to studying argumentative study, also known as modern rhetoric; the paper follows a limpid path, moving between the various definitions of argumentation using the descriptive-analytical method. Firstly, it differentiates the two types of argumentation: the logical and the linguistic. Then, it deals with the most well-known contextual definitions of argumentation in both Arabic and Western argumentative studies. Aristotle was the first to refer to the types of argumentation. Hence, the paper shows his endeavors in this respect. The article advances Arabic language and teaching by providing theoretical foundations, pedagogical insights, cross-cultural understanding, historical context, methodological applications, relevance to modern scholarship, and validating Arabic rhetorical traditions. This study aims to give a brief and easy idea of Aristotle's efforts in the field of argumentation, especially the logical arguments and the subjective moral arguments, and the functions of these moral arguments of benefit, influence, and enjoyment, whether they relate to the orator (Aetos), the audience (Pathos), or the speech itself (Logos). Then, the research concluded with examples of these self-created arguments. The study results showed a comprehensive concept of the arguments in Arab and Western thoughts. Moreover, the researchers proved that Aristotle's topics and thoughts were one of the most significant sources of nourishment for the modern argumentative lesson; Arabic rhetoric did not lag behind the Western lesson in its care for argumentations and its methods of analysis, and they demonstrated the applicability of the mentioned concepts in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frame of the research: As the demand for food authenticity and traceability continues to grow, Blockchain technology (BCT) will likely play a key role in supporting consumers' food purchase intentions as it enables them to access end-toend traceability of the food supply chain through their mobiles. Purpose of the paper: The study aims at exploring consumer awareness of BCT and the main factors influencing their intention to adopt BCT when shopping for groceries. The study verifies a structural model based on an integrated version of the TAM with Technology Principles Knowledge (TPK) and Blockchain Guarantee (BG) constructs. Methodology: A survey based on a structured questionnaire was digitally shared among a sample of consumers. 392 responses were collected. PLS-SEM was used to verify the proposed model on the sample of knowledgeable consumers (N: 120). Results: The level of knowledge of BCT is very low (31% of the sample). Perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PE) influence the attitude-intention to adopt the path. Knowledge of the technology's principles impacts PU, PE and importance given to blockchain guarantee, while the latter positively affects attitude. Indirect effects are all verified. Research limitations: Due to the novelty of the phenomenon, the sample is small as the study focused only on knowledgeable consumers, limiting the general applicability of results. Cross-cultural studies may improve our knowledge. Managerial implications: Our results are useful to food supply-chain operators - especially manufacturers and retailers - willing to provide consumers with easy-to-use and innovative solutions during shopping. To this end, results show that BCT may suit consumers' requests for guaranteed authenticity and traceability. Originality of the paper: BCT studies mainly focus on the firm, while data or insights on consumers are scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the post-pandemic era urban ecosystem planning has become critically important. Given the emphasis on relevant issues concerning the complex interactions between human civilizations and natural systems within urban environments in the new normal, this article aims to enrich the field of knowledge management developing a cross-cultural analysis for clarifying the role of knowledge in planning and urban ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual in nature. Based on a theoretical foundation built by a critical literature review and data from the China Statistical Yearbook and China's National Bureau of Statistics, this paper introduces some emerging real-impact topics regarding the connections between humanistic knowledge and urban planning. A comparative analysis between the capital city of Chang'an in the Tang dynasty of China and the capital city of Athens in Ancient Greek was used for explaining the influence of knowledge on successful urban planning. Findings: The understanding the role of cross-cultural differences in knowledge management and practices for urban ecosystems offer the opportunities for rethinking consolidated approach to the interaction among social, economic, and environmental dimensions in urban settings. Originality/value: This paper implies a new inter-disciplinary research field of great interest for the real impact KM community by illuminating how knowledge management is central in urban planning and across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Milky Way's name and role in ancient Egyptian culture remain unclear. One suggestion is that the Milky Way may have been a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut. In this work, I test this association using an interdisciplinary approach. In the first part of this paper, I combine astronomical simulations of the ancient Egyptian night sky with primary Egyptian sources to map the goddess Nut onto the Milky Way. With her head and groin firmly associated by primary texts with the western and eastern horizons, respectively, I argue that the summer and winter orientations of the Milky Way could be construed as figurative markers of Nut's torso (or backbone) and her arms, respectively. In the second part of this paper, I situate Nut within the global, multicultural mythology of the Milky Way. Specifically, I show that Nut's roles in the afterlife and the autumn bird migration are consistent with similar roles attributed to the Milky Way by other cultures. Finally, I show that Nut's identification with the Milky Way may even have echoes in contemporary African conceptions of the Galaxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Marketing Science & Inspirations is the property of Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

PurposeMethodology/approachFindingsResearch implicationsPractical implicationsOriginalityExtensive research has been conducted on cross-cultural comparisons between Eastern and Western organizational cultures in major trading domains. However, there is a lack of examination of intra-comparative management nuances within Asian regions. This research paper focuses on the under-explored topic of the values, beliefs, and attitudes (VBAs) that influence the outcomes of East Asian (e.g. Japan) marketing strategies and operations when implemented in South Asian (e.g. India) markets and organizational contexts. The study aims to analyze the impact of VBAs on marketing effectiveness and provide insights for marketers in cross-cultural settings. The article analyzes the customer satisfaction orientation (CSO) of Japanese business executives and draws insights that offer lessons related to cultural VBAs for overall marketing strategy and foreign investors.The paper employs a social constructivist paradigm and gathers empirical research through multiple interviews. These facilitate novel and normally rare access and insights into Japanese business leaders’ lived experience of CSO in B2B Indian intercultural situations.Interpretivist data analysis reveals several push-pull factors that influence CSO practice. The research identifies shared values such as long-termism and harmony that have the potential to boost CSO as a marketing strategy in India.The paper develops a conceptualization of cultural VBAs that lead to successful CSO practice in India and is of relevance to foreign investors.This study suggests that East Asian marketers should carefully consider the impact of VBAs on their marketing strategies. Our research sheds light on the ongoing discussion on static versus evolving nature of culture and highlights the need to pay attention to cultural change, particularly congruence and confluence in workplace values.The intercultural study contributes to the literature on international marketing strategy by highlighting the nature and importance of understanding traditional and evolving cultural VBAs for appreciating receptivity to adoption and thereby efficacy of home country marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary source of environmental deterioration is the economy's rapid growth and global behaviour consumer demand and behaviour patterns. As more people become aware of how important it is to preserve the environment, consumers are beginning to show a clear preference for green items. This study aims to highlight the key themes and strengths of green studies in underdeveloped countries and provide recommendations for future research. This study looks at a sample of 162 papers from the Scopus database using a bibliometric approach to uncover green studies research activity between 2011 and 2022. This study identifies the most important sources and authors based on their citations, publications and prominence within the network. Further, it also looks at current issues, identifies literature limitations and offers further investigation directions. Although international research is in this field, there must be more cross-national cooperation between writers from developed and underdeveloped nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tension between the pedagogical aim of comparative and cross-cultural inclusion and teaching an introductory-level deductive logic course. On the one hand, those who are interested in including non-"Western" sources are doing so in order to expand the philosophical content under consideration in their courses. On the other, it seems that the student learning objectives for deductive logic classes aimed at novices are narrow and specific for the purpose of developing a particular skill. This paper highlights the challenge of teaching logic cross-culturally by arguing that it is inadvisable to do so. Using Jain logic as a case study, it illustrates that even though there is depth available in the content, the contextual support needed to compare logics without being reductive would interfere with the amount of time needed to develop deductive logic skills in students in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides a summary of a collection of research articles focused on the intersection of education and technology. The articles cover a range of topics, including the integration of IoT in higher education, a tool to improve programming instruction, the impact of COVID-19 on education, and the use of virtual reality and augmented reality in online learning. The research presented in these articles aims to enhance educational experiences, address the needs of diverse learners, and provide recommendations for future research and implementation. [Extracted from the article]