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This conceptual paper takes a dynamic view of culture to re-examine the tradeoffs between positive and negative aspects of guanxi in China. Because of cross-border collaboration and the wide use of the internet, Chinese employees are now exposed to more diverse values. Considering this cultural shift, the current paper discusses how the widely publicized negative aspect of guanxi relations in Chinese organizations can be mitigated. We suggest that employees are likely to withdraw from peer-to-peer guanxi relations that involve ethical concerns, and the likelihood and speed of this relation change would vary in part on the focal party's heritage of Confucian cultural values. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a dynamic approach to reconcile the controversy about peer-to-peer guanxi's role in Chinese organizations. This dynamic examination can invite further research on the complicated evolution of guanxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was inspired by Michael Rush's works on the social construction of fatherhood in non-European contexts. It aims to fill a knowledge gap in gender, family and Iranian studies by exploring both the changing role of fathers and men's involvement in family life and care in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Adopting an intergenerational approach and a mixed methods design, the paper considers how fatherhood practices and discourses have changed over the last decades and how different generations of men elaborate, describe, and perform the paternal role. Despite institutionalized gender inequality and a patriarchal family structure supported by family law legislation, fatherhood in Iran is anything but static. Instead, it is possible to notice a gradual redefinition of gender roles within the family. Especially urban middle class's men are negotiating diverse masculinities and, at the same time, delivering non-traditional parenting roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role that industrial culture and human agency play in regional industrial development. It makes three contributions. First, it discusses and explores the concept of regional industrial culture and examines its relevance for regional industrial development. Second, it identifies and investigates two main forms of regional industrial culture: one self-interest dominated type and one community dominated type. Third, the paper discusses how firm – and system-level agencies can contribute to changing the dominant form of industrial culture at the regional level. The paper also provides a study of the regional industrial culture and change in the culture by key actors and agency in the Molde region in Western Norway since 2010. The empirical study demonstrates that the concepts of self-interest and community dominated culture and their link to firm – and system – level agency is relevant to capture and describe a regional industrial culture and potential changes within it. We found that the industrial cultural change in the Molde region could be regarded as mainly being the outcome of system level agency performed by both firm – and system – level actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is philosophical genealogy? What is its purpose? How does genealogy achieve this purpose? These are the three essential questions to ask when thinking about philosophical genealogy. Although there has been an upswell of articles in the secondary literature exploring these questions in the last decade or two, the answers provided are unsatisfactory. Why do replies to these questions leave scholars wanting? Why is the question, "What is philosophical genealogy?" still being asked? There are two broad reasons, I think. First, on the substantive side, the problem is that genealogical models will get certain features of the method right but ignore others. The models proffered to answer the first question are too restrictive. The second reason is that the three essential questions to ask regarding the nature of genealogy are run together when they should be treated separately. In the following paper, I address these problems by attempting to reconstruct genealogy from the ground up. I provide what I hope is an ecumenical position on genealogy that will accommodate a wide variety of genealogical thinkers, from Hobbes to Nietzsche, rather than a select few. Therefore, I examine two of the three questions above: What is philosophical genealogy and its purpose? I argue there are seven main features of genealogy and that these features may be used as a yardstick to compare how one genealogist stacks up to another along the seven aspects I outline in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the analysis of discursive shifts in the constructions of teachers' roles during the twentieth century in the Russian Federation, this paper argues that pedagogy becomes redefined based on the political elites' vision for the society's future. During the Soviet era, teachers were expected to play a key role in social transformation. In order to transform the world, they were expected to deploy humanistic pedagogy to help all students realise their potential. During the post-Soviet era, this vision was abandoned. As teachers were expected to fulfil the function of social control, they were called to adopt technocratic pedagogy that comprised principles of psychologisation, individualisation, pathologisation, and depoliticisation. Psychologisation of teachers' roles and pathologisation of diversity became deployed to "adapt students to the world" by addressing problems within students rather than in the society. The significance of this paper lies in demonstrating connections between shifting discourses of teachers' roles, pedagogy, and pursuit of social transformation or conservative social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I foreground the view that, as human agents initiating and participating in developmental projects that are both economically and educationally oriented, the possession of social consciousness of what development in society in the twenty-first century fully entails is an indispensable attribute. This paper, therefore, interrogates the narrower views of development, which tend to focus on identifying development with the growth of a gross national product with the rise in personal incomes, with industrialisation, or with technological advance (Sen, 1999:3). Thus, I argue that social consciousness on the part of human subjects, who are in turn agents of social developmental change, is critical since development ...requires partnerships within a framework of common values and goals (Badat, 2009:11). It is against this backdrop, therefore, that Coppedge’s (1999:465) averment to the effect that “development is more than just average wealth”. Arguably, it is rendered intelligible since “development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy”, which ‘contrasts with the narrower views of development’ (Sen, 1999:3). Thus, societies that are bedevilled by social illsresulting from a lack of development must continue to ‘search for human agency and for the means through which inequality can be undone (Hammami, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the 2022 World Cup has transformed national and cultural identity in Qatar, and residents' responses to such change. Our discussion draws on interviews with Qatari citizens and those working within Qatar's cultural, education, policy, and sports sectors, as well as document analysis. The paper is in four parts. First, we present background information on Qatar, before discussing our chosen methods. Third, we discuss four themes generated from the data. The first focuses on changes to the built environment and how this has impacted perceptions of cultural life in Qatar; second relates to how World Cup infrastructure is also seen as a continued expression of Qatar's heritage; third centred on the perspectives of Qataris as a cultural minority in their country; and fourth shed light on how certain everyday cultural practices of Qataris has survived modernization attempts, albeit, in hybrid forms. We conclude by suggesting that though Qatar's World Cup has brought challenges to Qataris, they actively maintain celebratory heritage customs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunisian youths form a significant constituent of Tunisian society demographically, politically, and socio-culturally. The hardship imposed on Tunisia by the neoliberal model in the 1980s, corruption and the government's lack of economic vision has undermined the country's economic status in recent years. However, youth's role as drivers of change in political and socio-cultural terms has received little attention. Based on a fieldwork study in 2014 and a 2020 online survey, this paper analyses the Tunisian youth's constituency and the extent of their political engagement and active citizenship and discusses their role in changing Tunisia's socio-cultural landscape through their acquisition of a 'glocal' culture. Methodologically, the findings of the paper are drawn from primary data represented in the fieldwork research trips of 2014, and from various sources such as the World Bank and the Tunisian Electoral Commission. The research questions of this paper are threefold: first, how have Tunisian youths reacted to the Arab Spring? Second, what socio-political and economic factors have contributed to the marginalization of youth in Tunisia? Third, how can the political disengagement of youth inform an understanding of their character and Tunisia's future direction? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of anniversaries of global events or crises to understand how their practice of memorial storytelling manages and governs cultural narratives of crises in ways that obscure more productive approaches to resistance. Drawing on the 30th Anniversary of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (2022) as a call for new cultural approaches to anniversaries, this paper investigates their productive role in new imaginaries for ethics of cohabitation, interdependency and liveability. Anniversaries of global crises as rituals of interdependency and belonging can, it is argued, be critically understood not as instances of historical rupture but as moments of ontological adjustment. Building on the recent work of Judith Butler, it is suggested that such ontologies centre on the relationship between interdependency, equality of grievability and infrastructural supports for care, all of which must be apprehended from poststructuralist cultural perspectives. If cultural studies is to play an advocacy role towards ethical change, then making sense of how global anniversaries can highlight rather than obscure marginal ethical practices is a starting point for cultural change towards more equitable and liveable global cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions (NbS) is an approach to solving climate change and social issues based on nature. Despite NbS being widely studied as an effective method to solve social problems, the trends in NbS research have hardly been analyzed. Therefore, this study examined change patterns in NbS-related research topics over time and analyzed the interactions of NbS research and relevant activities in various fields. After reviewing research papers based on the search term 'nature-based solutions' on Scopus, and collecting 1567 research papers, we conducted dynamic topic modeling (DTM) and network analysis. The papers were classified into 19 topics via DTM. Water, forest, and urban topics made up the greatest portion of NbS research, while NbS topics in the forest sector showed a steady increase over time. This study also found close connections between NbS studies on forests and other sectors and confirmed that the forest sector can become an integrated means of contributing to climate change responses and other resultant social issues. This study demonstrates that DTM and network analysis are useful tools for understanding the trends in NbS research and finding the linkages between various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of archaeological proxy records representative of population dynamics is paramount for a richer understanding of prehistoric cultural change, but its use require a dialectic assessment between proximate climatic drivers and ultimate cultural responses. Focusing on the Stone Age archaeological record of Western Norway (11,500–4300 cal. BP), this paper presents an exhaustive empirical curation and statistical testing between changing climates and demographic responses among coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. The results connect long-term demographic fluctuations with changes in annual mean temperatures and seasonality and the results are discussed in relation changes in technology, subsistence and mobility. The paper also highlights the process of population decline and cultural loss towards the end of the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000–6000 cal. BP) and emerging cultural novelties and population re-growth during the Early and Middle Neolithic (ca. 6000–4300 cal. BP). However, despite its strong correlation, the archaeological record of Western Norway lacks sufficient detail to ascribe an exclusive explanatory role to climate change, especially in episodes of significant population decline. This helps to emphasise that changing climates, while evidently central, form but a part of a larger system of interactions leading to demographic fluctuations and cultural change, the substantiation of which requires significant empirical improvements to the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that the Jordan River Basin area is an area where serious environmental and cultural changes occur. This paper illustrates a new methodological approach to developing a structural framework to study river basins' cultural and landscape changes. The aim of the proposed framework is to elaborate and overlap the natural and cultural driving forces that influence the landscape and to understand the relationship between them. The study consists of four stages: 1. setting specific objectives coinciding with the study area conditions and specifications; 2. defining a specific technique to determine the selected time frame; 3. defining the factors of each driving force and evaluating their correspondence with the study objectives, and finally; 4. building matrixes of intersections combining the natural force, the cultural force, and the overlapping between both, and adopting specific methodological techniques and tools to measure the outcome of each intersection. The paper presents a case study of the application of the proposed framework in the Jordan River Basin. The research results demonstrate the usefulness of the developed framework in understanding the overlapping between the landscape driving forces (natural and cultural) as well as achieving the goals of the related research. This new approach can facilitate a better understanding of landscape change and help researchers and planners identify and address the key issues related to sustainable landscape management by developing more effective policies and management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the contribution of John Stone to the development of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies and more generally to the study of race and ethnic relations. It outlines his commitment to the study of comparative race relations and to interdisciplinary research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through unfamiliar and at times marginal environments, successful colonisation of the Pacific Islands relied upon the introduction of domesticated flora and fauna as well as widespread burning to reduce forests and lowland vegetation for agricultural production. These transformations led to the extinction of avifauna, the reduction of forests, and extensive slope erosion and sedimentation into valleys and along shorelines. To date, most attention has been paid to human-induced changes to the terrestrial landscape. In this paper we present the archaeomalacological results from the deeply stratified coastal Kawela Mound, one of the oldest habitation sites in the Hawaiian Islands, with occupation beginning during the 12th century AD. We describe how anthropogenic change of the terrestrial landscape caused sediment run-off, increased shoreline turbidity, and progradation of the adjacent shoreline altering marine habitats, which is recorded in the diversity, size, and habitat preference of food shellfish harvested over nearly eight centuries. The construction of ancient stone-walled fishponds along the littoral shore provided an artificial rocky habitat for shellfish otherwise uncommon along the sandy coast. Consequently, AMS dated layers containing these shellfish provide an indirect avenue for determining the chronology of stone-walled fishponds, the construction of which was directed under the aegis of elites and thus one of the hallmarks of increasing social complexity during the last two centuries before Contact in the late 18th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crucial in any military conflict, information warfare has proved to be a distinguishing characteristic and an essential strategic means in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Both sides have invested in advancing narratives that can facilitate and support their version of truth and that can make a difference in winning the war. Publishing open source and declassified intelligence has been employed as a tactic in an unprecedented way, one that has stimulated an intense debate over the reconceptualisation of intelligence and the new role intelligence needs to play in a larger social context. Due to its novelty and potential, this major shift requires further attention. Additionally, its meanings and reflections deserve deciphering in other national contexts that are relevant for understanding the role of intelligence in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The paper looks at the particular case of Romania, whose relevance is determined mostly by its geographical proximity to the conflict area. By using qualitative research, it aims to investigate the perceptions of two types of respondents: Romanian experts in intelligence, security and strategic communication, and students taking intelligence and security-related study programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a Polanyian frame to place the plight of Roma in Europe in the context of an age of crisis, as evidenced by faltering neoliberal economies and a corresponding rise in xenophobia and extreme manifestations of nationalism. The situation of the Roma remains precarious, a situation exacerbated by the 2008 economic crises and the COVID-pandemic. Despite a number of social inclusion measures in recent decades, at the national and European level which target the Roma, Roma exclusion remains a serious challenge. The paper assesses why previous policy regimes failed but also reflects on what is the way forward in terms of inclusive policy frameworks. The article seeks to provide some answers to these questions with a vision of a Polanyian countermovement in the form of a New Social Europe predicated on redistribution, recognition and community action but also a re-envisioning of integration and transformative change in structural and cultural terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand social issues and practices such as those related to climate change and technological change that are clearly future‐oriented – collectively experienced events that are "not yet" – and co‐constructed by different actors, we need nuanced conceptualizations of how people think about, negotiate and co‐create futures that allow us to understand not only what people (can) think and do about future‐related issues but also how that happens, what for and with which implications. However, so far, one of the key theoretical approaches that has conceptualised how people make meaning in situations of change and uncertainty – the socio‐psychological social representations theory (SRT) – has not often engaged with the future or with different forms of temporality. By contrast, the French pragmatic sociology of engagements and critique (PS) has engaged with these notions, conceptualising them in relation to materiality and a plurality of moral orientations – two dimensions often seen as key to how collective futures are made and imagined. To offer a more nuanced and systematic conceptualization of how people represent the future and with what consequences, this paper will present, compare and synthesise SRT and PS, as a first step towards an interdisciplinary research agenda on social change and representations of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers of English as an Additional Language learners in high schools have long navigated the seemingly intransigent deficit thinking about their learners' capacity to engage fully with the intended or required curriculum. These learners are frequently constructed as the problem, as if the curriculum exists in a vacuum. This gives rise to the need to explore how deficit thinking about students, as core actors in the web of curriculum relations, may be challenged through the curriculum work of specialist English language teachers. In this paper, I use critical discourse analysis to explore how the pervasive deficit discourse can be differently construed through language use in two dimensions: power (social hierarchy or low‐high) and solidarity (social distance, close‐far). Three teachers were interviewed, and their lessons were observed to explore how social relations with diverse learners are rendered in the teachers' language. Findings show that by adopting a more nuanced stance towards their learners, many of whom are refugee‐background and have interrupted schooling, the teachers speak back to deficit views, offering alternative ways of positioning diverse learners in relation to required curriculum. Images of curriculum as transmission are disrupted, presenting it rather as complex entanglement with social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the discursive strategies used by #EndSARS protesters in their tweets and Facebook comments to construct SARS officers, hold the Nigerian government accountable and demand social change. Informed by social media critical discourse analysis (SMCDA) and social movement theory, the analysis revealed three strategies: constructing SARS as oppressors, representing the Nigerian government as insensitive and issuing a clarion call for action. The analysis shows that these strategies enabled the protesters to construct the victim-aggressor categorisation, thereby legitimising their resistance to police brutality and demand for change. The study also highlights how the protesters deployed local linguistic resources and ideologies to appeal to the emotions of other Nigerians to join the protest. The study demonstrates how digital political mobilisation can galvanise reform in Nigeria, where leaders and law enforcement agencies are held accountable for their (in)actions. This study contributes to the developing interdisciplinary studies on SMCDA and digital activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the making of a documentary film about children's learning cultures in West Africa to show that it is possible to escape the melodramatic gaze through deploying specific shooting, editorial and screening choices that represent children as active, knowledgeable subjects situated in a specific cultural milieu. It also discusses the legacy of ethnographic film, especially in relation to Africa, which in its aim at cultural translation presumes a non‐local spectator and deploys what has been called an entomological gaze; glossed here as 'national geographic' and proposes that key to disavowing that legacy is making film for African audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, scholarships for international higher education play a critical role in human capital development. While substantial research has documented the benefits such scholarships provide for individuals, their impact on the creation of pathways for social change remains under-researched. This paper bridges this gap by examining the extent to which a government scholarship for international education has created pathways for social change in Kazakhstan. Data were collected through interviews with 67 scholarship alumni. Drawing on Dassin et al.'s (2018) framework for pathways to social change, the findings reveal that international education fosters social change in Kazakhstan in four ways. First, the scholarship program develops local talent and builds agents of change. Second, it widens access to international education, particularly for individuals from marginalized communities, who would otherwise lack access owing to their scarce financial resources. Third, the program develops alumni's cosmopolitan and intercultural competencies and strengthens international collaborations. Finally, it creates associations and groups through which alumni can collectively contribute to society. The findings highlight that while the interviewed alumni foster strong patriotic feelings and are determined to contribute to the prosperity of their country, underdeveloped industries, economic volatility, and top-down bureaucracy in workplaces limit their potential contributions to social changes. These findings may help policymakers and administrators to reconsider and improve on the design and structure of scholarship programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why develop leaders? What politics are implicit in our practice? This paper uses the history and practice of Popular Education as a comparative framework to survey the politics of intentional emergence leadership pedagogy, surfacing potential alliances for building social change movements. Using a case analysis, the article elucidates the ways the classroom embodies an opportunity to explore and enact a prefigurative politics of significant social change that upends traditional relationships to authority, hierarchy, and decision‐making. Exploring the opportunities and dangers of connecting the classroom to broader social movements, the article concludes by advocating that such connections could offer a firmer and more explicit stance to the question: why develop leaders? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Western Europe, the Early Modern Period is characterized by the rise of tenderness in romantic relationships and the emergence of companionate marriage. Despite a long research tradition, the origins of these social changes remain elusive. In this paper, we build on recent advances in behavioral sciences, showing that romantic emotional investment, which is more culturally variable than sexual attraction, enhances the cohesion of long-term relationships and increases investment in children. Importantly, this long-term strategy is considered especially advantageous when living standards are high. Here, we investigate the relationship between living standards, the emotional components of love expressed in fiction work, and behavioral outcomes related to pair bonding, such as nuptial and fertility rates. We developed natural language processing measures of "emotional investment" (tenderness) and "attraction" (passion) and computed romantic love in English plays (N = 847) as a ratio between the two. We found that living standards generally predicted and temporally preceded variations of romantic love in the Early Modern Period. Furthermore, romantic love preceded an increase in nuptial rates and a decrease in births per marriage. This suggests that increasing living standards in the Early Modern Period may have contributed to the emergence of modern romantic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "new psychic economy" is a concept of Charles Melman, who passed away in 2022. A French psychoanalyst and one of the principal followers of Lacan, Melman's new psychic economy was his way of trying to explain the social changes of recent decades and their consequences, mainly in the field of psychoanalytic clinics. This paper is also inspired by other works, in particular those of the Belgian psychoanalyst Jean-Pierre Lebrun, a member of the Association Lacanienne Internationale, the school founded by Melman. His central argument is that the social link is submitted to a neoliberal requirement of unlimited pleasure that prevents symbolic castration from being functional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably the most sacred Islamic city, Mecca has long been a migration destination for Muslims. It has become the home to various diasporas over time. Born and raised in Mecca, members of these diasporic communities become transcultural as they retain aspects of their ancestral cultures while adopting the practices of Mecca's native Western Arabians and other diasporas amidst them. These diasporas put their transculturality to good use as mediators of cross-cultural encounters when millions of pilgrims congregate in Mecca to perform the Hajj each year. This paper is an ethnography of the longitudinal effects of migration. I discuss the Fatanis who perform various roles to ensure the pilgrims' successful and comfortable completion of the Hajj, especially their co-ethnic Malays from Southeast Asia. This study of the Fatani diaspora shows that culture is multifarious and dynamic, not homogenous, static, and exclusive. It is also an account of how migration transforms people and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on seasonal labour migration in rural India to examine how migrant returnees sought to reconstitute historical and hierarchical social relations in their home villages. I use qualitative research conducted in Maharashtra state in western India from 2014–15 among landowning farmers, landless returnees, and nonmigrant laborers. I demonstrate that for the returnees, an important element of social and cultural change in their home communities was their ability to upend and replace 'residual culture,' based on expectations of continued exploitation and performative hierarchy, with an 'emergent' one. I claim that the mechanics of counter-hegemony in rural Maharashtra includes a struggle for vernacular equality to eliminate caste-based practices of humiliation, including labour exploitation. I show that the attempts by returnees to reconstitute social relations in their home communities were undercut by the limits of cultural politics, in its inability to usher in the change that entails the redistribution of resources and substantive political power. This research contributes to theoretically textured scholarship in cultural geography on contestations between elite and subordinate cultures, particularly on the question of efforts to erase unjust historical practices of humiliation and how spatial, social, and economic mobility of the returnees, in part, enables this effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repeated claims that a dwindling supply of potential caregivers is creating a crisis in care for the U.S. aging population have not been well-grounded in empirical research. Concerns about the supply of family care do not adequately recognize factors that may modify the availability and willingness of family and friends to provide care to older persons in need of assistance or the increasing heterogeneity of the older population. In this paper, we set forth a framework that places family caregiving in the context of older adults' care needs, the alternatives available to them, and the outcomes of that care. We focus on care networks, rather than individuals, and discuss the demographic and social changes that may alter the formation of care networks in the future. Last, we identify research areas to prioritize in order to better support planning efforts to care for the aging U.S. population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ongoing semantic change of a discourse marker in Japanese social media. An analysis of 140 instances of the sentence-final tteyuu on Twitter, renamed X in July 2023, suggests that this discourse marker is shifting from a textual function of elaboration to a stance marker of lighthearted mockery. I argue this transition is attributed to its recurrent use in specific contexts, leading to invited inferences about the writer's intentions in expanding upon an idea, which extend beyond purely informational to interpersonal and social concerns. The functional ambiguity of these examples suggests an intermediate stage in tteyuu's evolution. The findings of this study underscore the centrality of pragmatic inferencing in semantic changes as well as the context-dependent nature of meaning creation. • Sentence-final tteyuu on Twitter (or X) is shifting from a textual to a stance marker. • Recurrent use in specific contexts drives pragmatic inference and semantic change. • Anonymous writers' self-mockery stance reflects their social meta-self-awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied theatre extends beyond traditional performance and entertainment, using theatrical techniques to address social issues and engage communities. In this paper, we emphasise the importance of a socially and politically engaged approach to Applied Theatre (AT) using Paulo Freire's and Augusto Boal's works as primary references to support transformational change and bring about social resistance. A small-scale case study was carried out with participants and collaborators of Estopô Balaio, a collective theatre group in Brazil that has worked for over a decade with a community in a deprived peripheral neighbourhood, Jardim Romano, in São Paulo. Key findings highlight the concept of feasibility in AT, where the collective's efforts overflowed with possibilities for change and empowerment by embracing its residents as collaborators and agents of change in their realities, being thinkers, makers, and citizens through continuous work instead of isolated actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paulo Freire's concept of 'inédito viável' or untested feasibility, refers to the exploration of possibilities to transcend limiting situations and transform realities. In this paper, we examine how this idea is related to the counter-hegemonic pedagogical proposal of popular education by the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF), an organisation founded by the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in Brazil. We argue that the ENFF is not just a set of techniques and methodologies but a formative process that runs through the concrete reality of the subjects involved in the struggle for societal change. We conclude by proposing that the 'inédito viável' that constitutes the ENFF gains meaning from a broad, collective, and dynamic vision of concrete utopia involving a clear and mobilising orientation towards the future, a strong sense of agency, reflection, experimentation, and praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people who experience trauma want to thrive and often find paths to well-being and healthy functioning. This scoping review explores the existing evidence on adversity and resilience in southeastern European countries, focusing on Kosovo. There is a lack of research on trauma and resilience in cultures outside the US and Western Europe. The paper provides a brief cultural and historical overview of this region and the collectivist cultures found there. We draw from a range of interdisciplinary literatures to identify key strengths that have the potential to improve health outcomes for trauma victims in this region. Overall, 42 papers from PsycInfo and PubMed were identified, using keywords such as "resilience" or "health" and "Kosovo," "Balkans," and "Southeastern Europe." Findings from this scoping review show that different cultural values, norms, and societal ecologies impact resilience within these societies. Some strengths, such as social support and sense of purpose, echoed similar research in the US and Western Europe. There was also evidence that factors such as dignity, family solidarity, social activism, and nationwide meaning-making are strengths associated with resilience for these collectivist societies of southeastern Europe. We also consider the implications of the results for other post-conflict societies. Finally, findings from this review call for culturally sensitive strength-based perspectives in promoting health and well-being after the high dosages of trauma common in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have implemented measures to enhance their sustainability efforts, such as integrating student-led organizations, research and innovation centers, and eco-friendly campus projects. In a unified effort to achieve SDG4, universities are collaborating to align their initiatives with the Sustainable Development Goals. Incorporating these goals into the academic curricula and exploring SDG-related themes are crucial steps in this process. The global community is faced with environmental threats due to climate change. The problematic process of societal transformation involved in responding to climate change. Reviving climate change education in educational institutions can provide a strong impetus for societal change. Future leaders, professionals, and citizens are significantly shaped by the knowledge, attitudes, and abilities they acquire in universities. This paper thematically reviewed relevant literature which then sought to unpack strategies employed by universities to advance climate change education. Transformational paradigm and social change (structural-functional) theory are the underlying philosophical view for this paper. Curriculum integration, a holistic approach, experiential learning, community engagement, faculty development, campus sustainability, policy advocacy, developing student leadership, partnerships, and collaborations are some approaches to reviving climate change education that came to light from the paper. By implementing these approaches, universities may position themselves as hubs for climate change education, research, and action, raising a generation of conscious, involved, and equipped individuals ready to lead societal transformation in the direction of a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapidly changing social and economic context accompanied by COVID‐19, concerns have been raised for the less‐educated, low‐wage workers who disproportionately experienced disadvantages in accessing workplace learning or training opportunities essential for job placement or career development. In response to the challenges of increasing discrepancies in workplace learning opportunities, this paper suggested workplace learning as an area that needs more attention from multidisciplinary perspectives to support the needs of disadvantaged populations. The authors reviewed research trends on workplace learning from adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) disciplines and discussed common areas and research gaps. The paper suggested advancing workplace learning theories and building empirical evidence for disadvantaged populations in various workplace contexts through complementary collaboration between AE and HRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the affective inequalities underpinning the extensive responsibilities of care that are shouldered by chronically ill middle-aged British Pakistani women. In the context of ethnic health inequalities, chronic illness and premature ageing are ubiquitous. Further, mid-life generates gendered pinchpoints in the dynamics of care. The paper draws on extended conversations with women over seven/eight years and tracks their unsettled perspectives on sabar (patient endurance). Middle-aged women described how, over the long haul of living alongside chronic illness, they intuited that they must place some limits on caring for others, and that care required self-care - not in a biomedical sense, but in the sense of attention to their own bodily and relational needs. The paper extends anthropological critiques of Levinas's philosophy of infinite responsibilities to care, tracking how changes at several temporal scales - the life course, intergenerational re-negotiations - affect care. While social transformations of gender, and the proliferation of neoliberal discourses on self-care do affect the traction of normative notions of selfless care for others, the paper locates women's changing perspectives on sabar primarily in the provocations of everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsCultural racism—or the widespread values that privilege and protect Whiteness and White social and economic power—permeates all levels of society, uplifts other dimensions of racism, and contributes to health inequities.Overt forms of racism, such as racial hate crimes, represent only the "tip of the iceberg," whereas structural and institutional racism represent its base. This paper advances cultural racism as the "water surrounding the iceberg," allowing it to float while obscuring its base.Considering the fundamental role of cultural racism is needed to advance health equity. Context: Cultural racism is a pervasive social toxin that surrounds all other dimensions of racism to produce and maintain racial health inequities. Yet, cultural racism has received relatively little attention in the public health literature. The purpose of this paper is to 1) provide public health researchers and policymakers with a clearer understanding of what cultural racism is, 2) provide an understanding of how it operates in conjunction with the other dimensions of racism to produce health inequities, and 3) offer directions for future research and interventions on cultural racism. Methods: We conducted a nonsystematic, multidisciplinary review of theory and empirical evidence that conceptualizes, measures, and documents the consequences of cultural racism for social and health inequities. Findings: Cultural racism can be defined as a culture of White supremacy, which values, protects, and normalizes Whiteness and White social and economic power. This ideological system operates at the level of our shared social consciousness and is expressed in the language, symbols, and media representations of dominant society. Cultural racism surrounds and bolsters structural, institutional, personally mediated, and internalized racism, undermining health through material, cognitive/affective, biologic, and behavioral mechanisms across the life course. Conclusions: More time, research, and funding is needed to advance measurement, elucidate mechanisms, and develop evidence‐based policy interventions to reduce cultural racism and promote health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to propose a framework with the relationship between education and social innovation (SI). To do this, we conducted a systematic literature review using the Web of Science database in two stages: (1) scientometric analysis, using the software CitNetExplorer and VOSViewer: a historiography analysis, co-occurrence of keywords analysis, and author co-citation analysis; (2) filtering and meta-analysis of the papers found, defined based on the number of citations of the papers, the year of their publication, and the presence of impact factors in the publication channels (method ordinatio method). Results indicate that social innovation originates in education, either as a process or as a product. And educational innovation processes are supported by co-creation and institutional articulations in different educational loci, including non-formal education. This study argues that SI can arise through education, having several purposes, and being able to become a vector of initiatives and technologies applied to the educational field, which generates a cycle between the two phenomena. This study contributes socially to the discussion on the emancipation of social actors through education. We also make a practical contribution, providing examples of the application of the theme, which can support new educational policy models and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes how (post)-migrant media outlets discussed the position of (post)-migrant people in France. (Post)-migrant media are periodicals, radio stations, and other forms of media produced by (post)-migrant actors and addressed to them. I argue that changes in the Global Cold War order, French national politics, and social changes in French (post)-migrant communities fostered a transition from anti-imperialist to multicultural understandings of migration in the examined media. The paper shows how these changes affected the experiences and identities of (post)-migrant people and adds a global history perspective to existing explanations about generational change and national political developments. It tracks how (post)-migrant media offered a space to negotiate the position in France against the backdrop of global developments such as the Cold War, decolonization, the disillusion with postcolonial governments, and the rising human rights movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a unitary notion of the habitus present in Bourdieu’s early works and its transformation along his sociological career, to later conceptions of a fragmented habitus concept to examine contemporary relationality and social change. The career of the concept of habitus in Bourdieu shows that interplays of habitus and fields are seen to demand increasing labour of integration from individuals as social life becomes more differentiated. The paper claims the need for sociology to engage with field analyses to advance explorations of the habitus and to acknowledge the potential pliability of the concept. It is suggested that sociology may adopt the psychoanalytic notion of ‘standing in spaces’ (and associated notions of ‘liminality’ and experiences in interstitial positions) for a productive development of the notion of fragmented habitus, and to enhance proposals that view the social with a history that is made available to humans to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opposing the spatial degeneration of cities requires a wide range of efforts which combine, among others, activities related to blue and green infrastructure (BGI). This paper examines the scope and manner of using BGI to revitalise space in municipal revitalisation programmes (MRP). In the first part of the study, the theoretical framework for the studied issues has been outlined based on subject literature. The manner of understanding BGI and revitalisation in the current legal system has been defined. The analysis covered 60 MRPs from 2016 to 2021 in accordance with the methodology set out in the second part of the study, based on how often BGI appeared in key MRP sections such as in-depth diagnosis of revitalisation area, the objectives and directions of the process, and the revitalisation projects. The last part of the paper describes the results of analysis and their evaluation. One of the main conclusions of the work we conducted is that BGI elements appear quite frequently in revitalisation programmes; however, their full potential remains untapped. The projects carried out in the studied area have rarely had the form of complex urban projects. The main method of using BGI in MRPs is currently the technical dimension that focuses on improving the quality of existing resources. To a lesser extent, revitalisation projects that use the BGI concept are reflected in the social and occasionally in the natural dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores collaborations between community organizations and STARlab (Systems Transformation Action Research Lab), a university-based research unit focusing on inclusive social innovation and entrepreneurship, specifically with marginalized communities. Using a cross case analysis methodology, this paper draws from the author's prior research with two community organizations that engaged in community-based social change initiatives to support inclusive entrepreneurship in Aotearoa New Zealand. Cases like these which examine how researchers establish community partnerships in systems change work are critical to explore how collaborations can be nurtured over time for impactful results. The first initiative, Iti Rearea Collective, was co-designed to support former refugee and migrant founders of small businesses. Using a collaborative governance model, IRC provides services and address systemic barriers for resettled refugee entrepreneurs in Auckland. The second case, Startup Dunedin, is a university-community incubator and entrepreneurship hub that worked with researchers to map systems of service providers and act to create inclusive entrepreneurial spaces. Each of these cases is an example of an action research initiative that addresses complex systemic issues. Using these cases as illustrative stories, this paper offers insight into one approach to community collaboration for equitable and sustainable systems change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past five years, there have been growing calls for transformative responses to sustainability challenges, supported by increased transformative action in the pursuit of environmental justice. In parallel to this development within the policy arena, the concept of transformation and its potential is also attracting more attention within the research community. This paper uses the example of the Urban Natural Assests for Africa (UNA) programme to explore what transformative change might mean for cities and how this might be achieved through enacting just processes. It explores in some more detail different approaches to transformative change to explain how and why an enabling perspective on transformation is considered to be fruitful in developing the understanding of transformative capacity for change. The paper then explores how the programme was able to foster this capacity, with what consequences for the African cities and what it implies for the nature of change for urban social and environmental justice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the nexus between contingency, social engagement and change, through investigating the potential of severe ("disruptive") contingency to bring about new forms of joint agency. By challenging Boltanski's notion of existential tests (which can only be experienced in isolation), the paper argues that social actors can experience disruptive contingent events in an inherently intersubjective manner. Although they severely hinder social interaction, disruptive contingent events enable a possibility of what might be called "negative common knowledge" between social actors which in turn renders certain societal norms meaningless. This possibility is mediated through processes of mutual engagement (calls between actors) that could, further, be transformed into a new "norm circle" (Dave Elder‐Vass). Social domination – in particular its "complex" variety – in this context appears as the obstructing of such transformation. A recent political episode in Serbia is analyzed to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contingency and the logic of complex domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory and trauma are often considered to be interconnected social phenomena. Collective memory exists in every society, but when a particularly catastrophic event occurs, it leaves an impact on behavior, and enduring memories of a cultural trauma. This paper considers the changing social meanings of the Anfal, an act of genocide which occurred in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1988, and inquires whether the legacy of the Anfal can be most accurately characterized as a social memory or a cultural trauma. The paper uses a mixed methodology of historical research and a recent survey carried out among young people in Iraqi Kurdistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public protest continued to represent a prominent form of social activism in democratic societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Australia, a lack of specific legislation articulating protest rights has meant that, in the context of pandemic restrictions, such events have been treated as illegal mass gatherings. Numerous large protests in major cities have, indeed, stirred significant public debate regarding rights of assembly during COVID-19 outbreaks. The ethics of infringing on protest rights continues to be controversial, with opinion divided as to whether public health goals or human rights should take precedence. This paper applies public health ethical theory to an in-depth analysis of arguments on both sides of the debate. Using the Nuffield Council on Bioethics framework as a backdrop, proportionality and necessity of restrictions are understood as key concepts that are common to both public health and human rights perspectives. The analysis presented here finds a middle-ground between the prevailing arguments on opposing sides and is further able to rationalize the use of protest itself as an important element of a mature public health ethics response to restrictive policy. Thus, this paper aims to influence public health policy and legislation regarding protest rights during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on transnational entrepreneurship and immigrant businesses in new destinations, this paper studies entrepreneurship of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. using data from three surveys. In the analysis of transnational connections, we focus on the temporal dimension that links pre-migration and post-migration business activities. Results from logistic models reveal that the prospect of being self-employed among Chinese immigrants is significantly enhanced if they are from households in China with business backgrounds. This finding highlights the fact that transnational entrepreneurship is embedded in the multi-stranded connections between the immigrant sending and receiving societies. In the second part of the paper, sequence analysis is used to describe and classify business trajectories in traditional and new immigrant destinations. The results establish that while it may take a longer time for immigrants to achieve business ownership in new destinations than in traditional destinations, new immigrant destinations increase the chance of business expansion from one business to multiple businesses. These findings indicate a transition in immigrant entrepreneurs' business models. Businesses in traditional destinations mainly follow a survival strategy, while those in new destinations are adopting models that are akin to mainstream business operations, which gives rise to more opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative perspective on a gender-transformative model for gender equality, versus a gender-sensitive approach, both of which were integrated into a gender and agriculture development intervention in Burundi. The gender-transformative approach followed an iterative cycle of critical reflection and action to analyze gender inequalities and build women's solidarity and collective action. It also engaged men equally in the processes of critical reflection and action. The participants found that the gender-sensitive approach initiated some important community discussions about gender, but participants in the gender-transformative approach spoke about farther-reaching and potentially more sustainable gender norm changes. This paper presents qualitative findings on participants' perceptions of change and discusses the implications for implementing community-led, gender-transformative approaches in the agriculture sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the US and the Netherlands have been on opposing sides of the spectrum regarding climate litigation. Dutch courts, in several revolutionary climate cases, have been an arena of societal change, whilst climate claims in the US have been largely unsuccessful. In a way this difference seems strange, because the US judiciary has the power of constitutional review, whilst the Dutch judiciary does not. Against that background, this paper extensively compares the doctrines of judicial competence regarding political questions in both jurisdictions. As a comparative framework, this paper uses three judicial phases, namely: the institutional phase, the substantial phase, and the remedial phase. Climate litigation reveals that the Dutch doctrine of judicial competence is focused on the substantial and remedial phases, which has allowed it more freedom in reviewing climate litigation. On the other hand, climate litigation reveals that the US doctrine of judicial competence is focused on a strict institutional phase, dominated by the Political Question Doctrine (PQD). The main contribution of this paper to the constitutional debate is that climate litigation reveals fundamental differences in doctrines of judicial competence. This is not only an important takeaway for future climate litigation, but also, in terms of the Radbruch formula, for other potential gaps between the executive and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]