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Harmony is a crucial value for resolving conflicts. Discussions on harmony in the Zhuangzi primarily focus on harmonizing ‘right and wrong’ (shifei 是非). However, it represents only a superficial understanding of Zhuangzian harmony. To explore a fundamental form of harmony would be beneficial: harmonizing ‘virtuosities’ (de 德), which can prevent conflicts and avoid domination. This paper begins by illustrating the discombobulated (zhili 支离) characteristic of virtuosities in the Zhuangzi. By comparison with harmonizing virtues in Five Conducts, we can better understand the distinctive characteristic of harmonizing virtuositiesin the Zhuangzi. Moreover, a metaphor of perfectly still water suggests that in this process, virtuosities can be internally preserved and externally unshaken. This suggests to maintain one’s own virtuosities in the transformations of eventsand avoidacquiring specific names or reputations that can lead to interpersonal conflicts and domination. These two characteristics can fundamentally avoid disputes over ‘right and wrong’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating levels of environmental degradation along with escalating conflicts and incidents of trade disputes among regional powers can exert a detrimental influence on the prospects for achieving sustainable development (SUD). Prior empirical works have tended to overlook the contributions of trade globalization and external conflicts to the SUD. Furthermore, prevailing studies on SUD often rely on various environmental metrics, economic growth measures, or adjusted net savings as proxies, which fall short in measuring the multifaceted essence of the SUD concept. Thus, this research work assesses the heterogeneous effects of trade globalization, external conflicts, and financial development on a comprehensive SUD index based on environmental, economic, and social factors from 1992 to 2019 in the twenty highest CO2 emitters. The results derived from the application of the method of moment quantile regressions (MM-QR) reveal that trade globalization exerts a negative impact on SUD but its negative effect shows a diminishing trend when moving from the 10th to 90th quantile. Financial development likewise impedes SUD, with the degree of hindrance diminishing as quantiles ascend from lower to upper percentiles. External conflicts hinder SUD only at higher quantiles with the negative effect demonstrating an increasing trend. Furthermore, mineral resources and fossil energy pose detrimental effects on SUD, and these adverse effects exhibit a mounting trajectory as one moves from lower to upper quantiles. Finally, the policy implications of these novel outcomes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Truck collisions with vulnerable road users (VRUs) are infrequent, but often severe or fatal. While research has investigated factors contributing to safety and collisions, a synthesis of human-related contributors remains missing. This scoping review follows PRISMA guidelines to synthesise studies on the effects of human factors on truck-VRU safety. With a focus on human factors related to pedestrians, cyclists, and truck drivers, five scientific databases were searched and 3,414 records were screened. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria. Most were published after 2015, indicating a limited but growing focus on human factors affecting truck-VRU safety. Half of the studies analysed police collision reports, while others used qualitative data collection methods, like questionnaires and focus groups, or human subject experiments. Compared to passenger-vehicle literature, notably fewer behavioural studies were identified, highlighting a need for further behavioural human factors studies of truck-VRU interactions. Sociodemographic and vision-related factors were most frequently investigated and found to significantly affect collision occurrence and severity. Driving and cycling experience and training, and road user distractions were examined less, albeit being important. This review bridges a literature gap by focusing on human characteristics, states, decisions, and errors affecting truck-VRU safety, offering insights for road-user-centred mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines the influence of climate change vulnerability on the likelihood and severity of communal violence, with a particular emphasis on delineating large-scale regional patterns. Specifically, the analysis centres on Sub-Saharan Africa and South/South-East Asia – both regions being predominantly characterised by rain-fed agriculture and climate-sensitive economic activities – spanning the years 1995 to 2021. Relying on the ND-GAIN Vulnerability Index as a multidimensional measure for propensity of societies to be negatively impacted by climate change, we found robust evidence that greater vulnerability is conducive to a higher likelihood and severity of communal violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, in South/South-East Asia, results suggest that current climate variability, measured as rainfall deviations within the period, exerts a greater effect on communal violence outbreak than overall vulnerability to climate change. In both regions, greater access to productive means is significantly associated to the reduction of communal violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities, in particular those of historical value, are popular destinations for mass tourism. The urban space is often the main cause of conflicts, at the heart of which lie conflicting interests, attitudes and needs relating to the way this space is utilized. The aim of the research described in this article is to identify the intensity of conflicts between residents, tourists and the tourism sector. The research was conducted in 2020. The statistical analysis of the obtained data included questionnaires from 386 respondents. Analysis was conducted of the conflicts that arose among tourism sector players, who were classified into groups – tourist entrepreneurs, residents, and local authorities. Respondents often indicated conflict arising between tourists and residents, and between tourist sector entrepreneurs and residents. In the opinion of respondents, conflicts were the result of result of varying structures in the hierarchy of values and of differences in attitudes towards the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secession referendums can help to resolve the tension between self-determination and state sovereignty. Nevertheless, not all state governments accept holding such consultations in collaboration with secessionist movements. This article tackles this issue by focusing on the determinants of agreed and non-agreed upon independence referendums. Through a statistical analysis based on a dataset of independence referendums held in liberal democracies from 1945 to 2022 (N = 70), we demonstrate that the decision of the parent state's government to agree to an independence referendum depends on two factors. The first is the perception of competition and/or electoral proximity to the referendum demand. The second depends on the expectation of the low cost of an eventual secession – at least in terms of population, area and natural resources. Accordingly, we propose a general model designed to predict the disposition of a liberal democracy to agree to an independence referendum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses why and how institutional change occurs, incorporating power and resources into the analysis, using the example of the relationship between the central government and local governments in Japan before and after World War II. Institutional change is not the result of "rational" choices made by the institutional designers, but the "unintended consequences" of deviant behavior of the agents under their control that deviates from the guidance of the institutional designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses grave challenges to global peace and stability. Nowhere is the relation between the climate crisis and the increased threat of nuclear war clearer than in South Asia, where approximately 700 million people in India, Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh depend on the shared waters of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river basins. These river systems, fed by Himalayan glaciers, are diminishing markedly due to climate change. As geopolitical tensions in the region intensify, it becomes even more crucial to address and eliminate the two intertwined existential threats of water scarcity (caused by climate change) and the risk of nuclear war. This paper analyses the Indus River conflict and the Brahmaputra conflict in turn and offers effective strategies and recommendations for dealing with the threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban heritage is an indicator of people's idiosyncrasies. Significant values and meanings are created, and their decline can be controlled through conservation. Unfortunately, conservation in Kenya has been endorsed somewhat by powerful politicians and administrators for partisan objectives. They have failed to enforce existing conservation law and tried to appropriate value heritage assets. This paper, therefore, assesses the challenges of heritage conservation, the extent of systematic heritage destruction and the causes of conflict in the heritage conservation of Kenya. Three cases have been examined: the Ojijo Road Flats in Nairobi, Endorois court case and the Kaya Forest sacred ritual sites. A research programme was designed which involved participants with relevant knowledge. It emerged that conflict of interest, limited consultation and poor heritage management had resulted in the loss of heritage authenticity, integrity, and values. Furthermore, lack of public involvement and limited resources derailed heritage conservation. A literature review revealed the extent to which national legal instruments lacked reference to community responsibility in heritage conservation. The study concludes that a relevant conservation policy needs to be established to enhance sustainable heritage conservation and management in Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the process of othering through the creation of the 'enemy image' in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Ilham Aliyev's speeches delivered between 2016 and 2020. Based on narrative and discourse analysis of the speeches, this article demonstrates the main discursive practices used by Aliyev to dehumanize Armenians. These analyses uncover three main components: identification of Armenians as the sole menace for Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis, depiction of Armenians as non-human and barbaric in essence, and stressing the superiority of Azerbaijan to eliminate the threat emanating from Armenians. Limiting itself to a state-backed dominant narrative, this article also highlights the connection of the dehumanization process of Armenians with the power legitimation dynamics in Azerbaijan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TEKAN (Tarayyar Eklisoyoyi Kristi a Nigeria or the Fellowship of Churches of Christ in Nigeria) refers to the Conference of Churches in Nigeria (COCIN). The coming together of COCIN to form TEKAN in Northern Nigeria was the first time that women of indigenous churches in the region came together to render support to displaced victims of conflict. Since 2007 the TEKAN Peace Desk has become an important pillar in providing psychosocial support to displaced women who are victims of ethno-religious conflict in Plateau State. Other local peacebuilders are engaged in humanitarian activities for people in Kaduna displaced as a result of the banditry and kidnapping that has become rife in Northern Nigeria since 2012. Kaduna and Plateau State have been immensely affected by the banditry of the Fulani militia, who embarked on massive cattle rustling with forceful raiding of livestock, destruction of properties, and loss of lives in various rural communities, and its association with the kidnapping of girls and rape. It is against this background that this profile piece examines the role played by TEKAN and local women peacebuilders. The first category of women are those from church initiatives, while the second category comes from the larger cohort of women peacebuilders in Kaduna and Plateau State. TEKAN has succeeded in transforming the lives of communities displaced and traumatised by conflicts, by organising workshops on skills acquisition, dialogue, and interfaith psychosocial support, with the initiation of various programmes aimed at rendering support to victims of displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the relationship between Nigeria’s national questions and ethnic identity crises. The study employed a qualitative approach as its method of data gathering and analysis with the adoption of secondary sources. It contended that Nigeria’s political history is riddled with conflicts and instability occasioned by the crisis of identity which has jeopardised the country’s national unity and political integration. The paper concluded that ethnicity as a major sentiment causes social and political quagmires which constitutes serous national questions and further negatively influences development in Nigeria. As a result, this conundrum not only affects Nigerian national integration but also the level of harmony, patriotism and loyalty to the legitimacy of the Nigerian state. The paper recommended that, to stem the tide of ethnicity crises, there is the need to demystify and deconstruct ethnicity, regionalism and promote, through dogged political mobilisation and sensitisation, a sense of belonging among the diverse groups that constitute the Nigerian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation in public infrastructure megaprojects (PIMs) is ineffective, and research on the issues of informal institutions' influence on stakeholders is limited. The present study answered how informal institutions influence the practices of public participation while conflicts occur among stakeholders. Two PIMs in China were used as case studies to investigate the effects of informal institutions. The paper suggests that the adversarial relationships among stakeholders can be reconciled by recognizing that informal institutions encompass the social responsibility of PIMs (SR-PIMs) and culture. Results also showed that effective public participation entails the fulfillment of SR-PIMs by responsible behaviors of stakeholders and the positive effect of cultural tension, enabling participatory awareness of stakeholders. This study improves understanding of how to mobilize stakeholders in practice with responsible behaviors to reach a consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas Venice (Italy) has been extensively analysed through the lens of tourism, little has been written so far regarding the resistance practices emerging due to increasing tourism-led gentrification. This paper presents two examples of housing initiatives taking place in the historic city and its neighbouring lagoon islands. The first, promoted by a collective actor (Assemblea Sociale per la Casa), concerns the selection, occupation, and self-restoration of public dwellings located in the historic city; the second, an individual choice made by some citizens, concerns moving to the small lagoon islands as not simply a form of displacement, but as a resistance mechanism against the progressive expansion of the tourism industry into the lagoon margins. Drawing on Annunziata and Rivas-Alonso's work, the aim of this contribution is to provide an interpretation of such initiatives as examples of resistance practices in gentrifying contexts, and to enrich the literature on resisting gentrification by stressing their informal, invisible, and ambiguous nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, many western countries engaged in Military Operations Abroad (MOA), sometimes with over-stretching military engagements such as antiterrorism, peacekeeping, or humanitarian interventions. These aggressive postures pose a heightened risk to future deployment capacities and the ability to ensure a deterrence strategy in the long run. This study investigates a theoretical model to analyze the sustainability of military operations over time. In our setup, we define military capacity as a stock variable that can regenerate itself and deplete when a country engages in MOA. We present a sustainability theorem with the identification of tipping points in the conduct of MOA. Especially, engaging in excessive military operations leads to a relative 'demilitarization syndrome.' This underlines a fundamental trade-off between economic conditions and strategic ambitions. The model sheds some light on the dynamics of the military capabilities of a group of major western military powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the repetition compulsion has spawned reams of professional literature about its role in intimate relationships. In this article, the author briefly outlines some of this literature before presenting her own view of the health-producing potential of the compulsion to repeat. In her work with adult partners in treatment, she views them as continually accessing historically dissociated affects through their repetitive conflicts, making these affects more available for metabolizing. The author sees this repetition as an inevitable and useful path to healing previously unmetabolized wounds, traumas and losses. The article illustrates this perspective of repetition compulsion through the description of the treatment of shame in couple therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based tourism (CBT) emphasises attributes such as sustainability, local participation, and the maximisation of benefits to the community. However, limited scholarly interventions and critical debates have been conducted regarding what constitutes a community in tourism destinations. In Taman Negara, Malaysia, residents of various ethnic groups have considerably different interpretations of community and boundaries therein. Malay, Malaysian Chinese, and Orang Asli Batek people have contradicting claims and perceptions regarding who is Indigenous, who is a local, and who is the rightful host community of Taman Negara. The perceptions of such boundaries can be highly political; consequently, certain groups feel threatened when they are seemingly peripheral to official designations. The fuzzy boundaries of what constitutes a community make governance and the assessment of CBT considerably challenging. A suggestion is to resist predefining a community and to instead consider its fluid boundaries and heterogeneity in CBT planning and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recognises transhumance pastoralism as a beneficial livestock production system that can contribute to food security together with economic and political stability. Thus, the subregional bloc put together the ECOWAS Protocol on Transhumance and supporting regulations to actualise these benefits. These policies seek to regulate transhumance pastoralism by ensuring that herd movements are along defined migratory corridors among member states. This review assesses the importance of transhumance pastoralism in West Africa, local and cross-border policies, and associated challenges, with emphasis on herder–farmer conflicts. It was realised that the movement of large numbers of livestock into rangelands (1) provides employment for many, and thus improves livelihoods; (2) improves productivity through high milk production and high fertility; (3) reduces moribund and combustible forage materials in the dry season; and (4) enhances seed dispersal, soil fertility and plant diversity on rangelands. This review shows that the ECOWAS cross-border transhumance protocols have led to infrastructural developments in some member states, but the partial enforcement of protocols has led to herder–farmer conflicts. We conclude that transhumance pastoralism and the regulatory policies have several benefits. However, to ensure policy compliance and avoid herder–farmer conflicts, the policies need to be reviewed and discernible gaps eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article ascribes social-interactional strategies of ethnic Chinese toward the local people in developing mutual social relationship after the conflicts or post-conflicts. The context of multicultural ethnic life had distressed Chinese people to mingle with local people in West Kalimantan causing a wide social gap in the society. This research was conducted through an ethnography methodology to reveal the facts utilizing observation, interview, and documentation to collect the data. There were twelve participants participated as the informants of the research included four Chinese and eight local people. The results of the research revealed that ethnic Chinese had been successful to rebuild and develop the social relationship with the local people through social interaction and engagement. The strategy used was to prioritize human values while interacting, as well as to respect the culture diversity that existed in the community. By implementing the strategy, the social—interactional relationship between Chinese and local people after the conflicts became harmonious. This result could also trigger or lead other multicultural communities to implement similar strategies to fix or rebuild their inter-ethnic relationship. Finally, this article contributes to propose problem solutions to solve social conflicts in multicultural community, and as an effort to prevent the inter-ethnic conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration is one of the most important public administration issues facing modern cities. While abundant studies have focused on the state-led or market-based governance modes of large urban regeneration projects, relatively fewer studies investigate the collaborative governance mode, especially on the numerous street-level small-scale regeneration projects. Street-level small-scale regeneration projects directly touch on citizens’ life and impact governance effectiveness at grassroot level. This paper studies dynamics of collaborative governance of a street-level regeneration that can balance multiple regeneration objectives and successfully address conflicts and tensions inherent in such projects. Our findings are significant in confirming the applicability of the basic tenets of collaborative governance in grassroot level and pointing out some key differences between large-scale collaborative governance projects and street-level small-scale projects in how governance effectiveness could be achieved through different stakeholders’ interactions in urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justifying higher education is a political exercise in which representatives of universities advocate for resources from the state while also seeking autonomy to manage their own affairs. This analysis builds upon Collini's identification of the conflict over the value of higher education in the UK. It sets out the 'worlds of worth' typology to explain the basis of conflicting justifications in UK higher education policy debates. It elaborates the six worlds of worth and links them to pragmatic justifications utilised in higher education, varying according to situated contexts. It explains the conflicts between the worlds and how they play out in practical ways in higher education policymaking. The Research Excellence Framework constitutes a compromise between multiple worlds of worth. Debates around 'low value' courses are centred around conflicts between the industrial and market worlds. It concludes that the worlds of worth model offers a productive framework for the analysis of pragmatic policy conflicts and illuminates political struggles about what universities are for, embedded in power struggles for autonomy and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noma, a neglected tropical disease (NTD), is a preventable oro-facial gangrenous infection causing destruction of oro-facial tissues if untreated. This descriptive study was conducted in North-Eastern Nigeria which has witnessed armed insurgency increasing risk of noma. Data was obtained from patients' records at a tertiary hospital after a dental educational outreach using radio and visits to the hospital's ante/postnatal clinics. Data analysis was conducted at 95% confidence interval with p≤ 0.05 considered significant. Records of 49 patients were retrieved but 31 (63.3%) were utilised due to poor documentation. Age ranged from 2–63 years. Children (0–16 years) and Adults (17–59 years) were 67.7% and 25.8% respectively. Males were 13 (41.9%) and females, 18 (58.1%). Poor oral hygiene and malnutrition were common findings. Stage (WHO Staging System) 2 (51.6%) and 4 (22.6%) were the most common presentation. Successfully managed and referred cases were 51.6% and 48.4% respectively. Successful management was associated with early stages of noma (p = <0.001). Children were most vulnerable. Outreaches using radio and education to pregnant women and nursing mothers can boost early presentation and better outcomes. Attention to case documentation and inclusion of noma into the WHO list of NTDs are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the Meeus-Crocetti identity model, it was analysed whether the sense of identity in the parental and romantic domains is related to domain-specific functioning or whether they are related to a broad spectrum of outcomes. Four hundred and fifty-nine individuals (58% women), aged 21‒40 (M = 33.88, SD = 4.39), participated in this cross-sectional study. Using structural equation modelling it was analysed whether the parental and romantic relationship identity processes (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration of commitment) are associated with parental and relational outcomes. The results showed that a sense of parental identity turned out to be mostly related to childrearing stress and parental role restrictions, while a sense of romantic relationship identity was associated with romantic relationship stress and romantic relationship conflicts. The results support a domain-specific approach to the study of identity, suggesting that not only are parental and romantic identities only weakly related to each other, but also that their development is linked to specific parental or relational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the links between adverse events, depression, and decision-making in Nigeria. It investigates how events such as conflicts, shocks, and deaths of family members can affect short-term mental health, as well as longer-term decisions on economic activities and human capital investments. First, the findings show that exposure to conflict has the largest and strongest relationship with depression, associated with a 21-26 percentage point increase in the probability of depressive symptomatology. Second, depression is associated with lower labour force participation, child educational investment, and annual per capita income, holding constant covariates such as exposure to adverse events. People with depressive symptoms are 8 percentage points less likely to work. In addition, parents exhibiting depressive symptoms spend 18% less on their children's education. These findings show the links between adverse events and important outcomes such as labour and education through mental health. As such, policymakers must consider both the direct and indirect effects that adverse events – particularly conflicts – and depression can have on welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how and to what extent critical literacy activities in an out-of-school context serves as a space for bilingual immigrant children in the United States to solve their conflicts and challenges in life. Using the contextual format of a multicultural book club and a critical dialogue, the qualitative case study discusses the children's experiences with critical literacy practices for 19 weeks. The data include field notes on book club meetings and critical dialogues, transcripts of book discussion, and written artefacts they produced in the book club. The data were analysed on a weekly/monthly basis with interpretative approaches. The findings showed that the focal student, a seven-year-old immigrant girl, consciously or subconsciously revealed her conflicts and struggles with the book club members by sharing her thoughts, ideas, and feelings about the multicultural books and her lived experiences. Notably, when the conflicts and struggles were shared in the book club, the book club members built a coalition and helped her to resolve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of children's participation in school illustrate both societal conflicts about the school and how children in school deal with quite unequal conditions when it comes to handling the conflictuality of school life. Analyses of situated interplay, coordination and conflicts between the parties involved in children's school lives (children, parents, teachers, psychologists, etc.) can elucidate the connections between intersubjective means of making things work in everyday practice, and historical struggles relating to the school as a societal institution. These dynamics reveal general conflicts over education policy, the distribution of responsibility and in which directions to change society. From a social practice perspective, and based on empirical studies of children's everyday lives, this article discusses conceptual challenges concerning how to grasp the ways persons constitute the conditions for the acting of each other in a situated interplay in which, together, they must deal with shared societal and historical issues and problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water charities and the UN development goals consider access to clean water and sanitation as transformative: improving personal dignity, quality of life and economic opportunities for individuals and the economic resilience of communities to climate stress. Can the provision of services also mitigate the conflict potential arising from climate change? If so, how broad must access be to become effective? We test how household access to improved water, sanitation, and electricity affects the probability of local conflict in nine drought-prone African countries. We use annual PRIO-GRID cells as the unit of analysis and model the probability of a grid-cell experiencing fatal armed conflict during local or proximate drought conditions. DHS data are used to calculate the percentage of households with access to specific services. We show that even relatively modest investments in reliable sanitation and water infrastructures enhance communities' ability to avoid getting drawn into violent conflict in response to rainfall shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing demand of land by multinational commercial agribusinesses to meet the increasing demand for food in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the export market. Land tenure system is identified as one of the factors stymieing the growth of agribusinesses in SSA. The difficulties involved in land tenure for agribusinesses have been frequently attributed to the co-existence of conflicting customary and statutory tenure. However, there is paucity of literature on the variability in land tenure across SSA and their impacts on agribusinesses. This paper reviews the literature on different land tenure and their implication for the growth in agribusiness across SSA. The method used for the literature review involved an analysis of published literature accessed from credible online sources. The analysis reveals that differences between the land tenure systems have varying impacts on agribusinesses across SSA. The study also found that the lack of compatibility between the statutory and customary laws generates resistance by some local community members against agribusiness investors particularly when members of the local communities feel side-lined in the land negotiation processes. The paper therefore articulates a compelling need for SSA countries to harmonize the existing land tenure systems to foster the development of agribusiness sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas the literature on the role of the African Union (AU) in the Ivorian post-election crisis has focused mainly on the use of mediation as a strategy of intervention, this paper demonstrates that the AU's role was more than mediation, but encompassed the whole scope of peace-making, including good offices, conciliation and enquiry. The paper however posits that, the use of force to resolve the crisis was not sufficient to suggest the ineffectiveness or failure of the peace-making procedures/measures as conflict resolution mechanisms. Rather, it indicates the constraints of the AU and its capacity shaped by international political environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent past, Zambia has experienced land governance related issues such as voluntary and involuntary displacements, insecurity of tenure, food insecurity and land disputes. While laudable efforts have been made to uphold and realise land and resource rights of poor rural populations in Zambia, there are several longstanding challenges that remain unresolved. The majority of the rural population still do not enjoy sufficient legal protection of their land rights. This paper shows the inadequate legal recognition of the strength of rights to land and natural resources derived from custom and how to recognise and secure land rights of dwellers in law and practice. The paper also examines the degree to which vested property rights are protected from infringements and analyses land rights in the context of ownership, possession and holder-ship. The relationship between statutory and customary land tenure systems are assessed from the perspective of legal pluralism. Therefore, this paper provides insights into the diversity of land tenure regimes that exist, as well as what constitutes the legal status of land and ways in which they provide for vestment of property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, live simulation has been introduced into teacher training in the USA, Europe and Asia in order to better prepare students for teaching in class. The current study sought to examine the effect of using live simulations of conflict management on the formation of professional identity among Israeli students in a multicultural teacher education college. The study included 145 B.Ed. and M.Ed. students attending an Israeli teacher education college. Data were collected using the teachers' professional identity scale, teachers' identity conflicts scale and an open-ended questionnaire about the advantages and challenges of teaching-learning through simulations. The content analysis of the open-ended questions supported the SEM findings and showed that the less central, cognitive and emotion-arousing the conflict, and the higher its level of resolution, the stronger the professional identity formation among the intervention group members. The research conclusion is that learning through conflict simulations contributes to the development of pre-service teachers' professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the results of safety analysis in roundabouts, unsignalized intersections, which are widely spread, and practical methods to avoid collision accidents or conflicts are presented. First, possible collision types (scenarios) were distinguished in roundabout with recent accident data and safety characteristics for three roundabouts of different structures were analyzed using video image processing methods. Through the analysis process, conflict events were identified one by one to classify criteria, and a method for evaluating the safety of the target roundabout was proposed. In addition, a self-driving method based on a carmounted (black box) camera was proposed. This may be applicable to the implementation of Intersection-Advanced Driver Assistance System (I-ADAS) by providing the driver with safety-related information regarding entry into the roundabout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People living under occupation continue their struggle against loss of land by preserving their authentic cultural heritage, narrative, identity, and very existence in various ways. This paper sets out the efforts of Palestinian universities to protect their cultural heritage in the face of continuing Israeli occupation, which demonstrate resilience by building sustainable livelihoods. This includes raising awareness of their cultural heritage, and assisting the economy through the provision of work opportunities that portray a collective policy towards their culture. It sheds light on the case of Al-Quds University that is implementing several conservation projects in different cultural sites rich in the contextual values in the Old City of Jerusalem. The university adopts people-centered solutions, which give the built heritage significant meaning and value. A taxonomy of efforts among the projects is outlined to inform policy discussions related to the role of universities. Through utilizing empirical data that can stimulate discussions on developing a more shared set of efforts, the paper contributes to ongoing debates on the reconstruction of built heritage as a dynamic process and strategy to help people recover from the impacts of conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how engagement with tangible design artefacts can invite, and sustain focus on, the different professional perspectives that emerge in multi-stakeholder workshops. Multiple interests and intentions can pose challenges, especially in the initial phases of collaborative work. Existing design research emphasises the use of tangible artefacts as mediators for collaboration, but limited attention has been given to how they could be used to expose tensions and opposing perspectives as a way to enable movement beyond stuck conversation among stakeholders. We examine the design and use of two tangible artefacts for multi-stakeholder collaborative inquiry, demonstrating how interaction with them can encourage open and active confrontation of underlying and contradictory stakeholder interests and intentions. Since unspoken conflicts can undermine the early stages of collaborative inquiry, we propose that the use of tangible artefacts to explore taken-for-granted assumptions is crucial if stakeholders are to negotiate perspectives and co-create new meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a discontent with the diagnostic systems in use because for identifying a psychological disorder, the focus is laid on symptomatology only. "Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis" (OPD) is as a tool for describing personality structure, to identify psychodynamically relevant characteristics, to judge suitability for psychotherapy and for treatment planning. The version OPD-CA has been developed for children and adolescents. The article gives an overview over the different axes and categories of the system and describes advantages from a clinical perspective. An overview is given about the specific training program required to learn to apply OPD-CA-diagnoses in clinical practice and about OPD-CA-education in Sweden. In addition, results from OPD-CA research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Boko Haram insurgency is one of the most devastating violent crises that Nigeria has encountered in recent years. This paper compares the relative effect of the Boko Haram insurgency, as compared to other conflict events, on vaccination uptake among Nigerian children. To evaluate the effect of conflict events on vaccination, the children's birth months and the months of armed conflict were matched. The data on vaccination uptake was from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2018, while the information on conflict events was from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP GED). The sub-group analysis was conducted, Boko-Haram affected sample vs. total sample, to evaluate the differential effect of armed conflict events on vaccination. The Boko Haram insurgency had a significant and negative effect on vaccination uptake in the conflict-affected states; Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. On the other hand, other forms of conflicts that took place in Nigeria had significantly weaker effects on vaccination uptake. The negative effect of Boko Haram-related conflict events was particularly strong on Penta3/DPT3 uptake, while its effect on BCG was weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positioning, crucial in shaping the interpretation of a text, is usually unobtrusive in news translation. News translation of conflicts might provide an important context for investigating translators' mediation of (re)positioning, as the tension caused by opposing ideologies often requires translators to play complex and multi-faceted roles. Drawing on Appraisal Theory and Narrative Theory, this study follows the three-dimensional procedure of Critical Discourse Analysis and proposes an analytical framework for the examination of positioning in the news translation of the Tibet riots in 2008. A corpus analysis of 54 Chinese translated news reports and 129 English source texts reveals that, despite its advocacy of faithful translation, the Chinese state-run newspaper allows meticulous repositioning in actual practice. It is found that the relabelling strategy plays a crucial role in repositioning the target readers in their interpretation of the Tibet riots and their attitudes towards the participants in the conflicts. Factors that could motivate the translators' repositioning include the translators' institutional role and expectation for the target audience's reactions, the political stance of the news institution determined by its official identity, as well as the public narratives circulated by the Chinese and Western mainstream media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fulani pastoralists are widely distributed across the six geographical zones of Nigeria and migrate from north to south in search of natural grazing lands at times of forage scarcity. This migration leads annually to resource use conflict and deadly attacks between migrating pastoralists and sedentary arable farmers. These conflicts have generated heated scholarly debates over the last few decades. Here, we provide an overview of the nexus between the farmer-herder crises, grassland management, and livestock production and argue for the establishment of irrigated pastures to increase forage production and quality and, thereby, reduce land-use conflicts. This recommendation is offered in place of the often-called-for transition to a ranching system for livestock production. We recommend an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the willingness of stakeholders in the livestock business to pay for fresh or conserved forage resources, as well as robust policies that could attract investment into the establishment, management, and sustainability of commercial forage production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the need for chairs to recognize the changing and interconnected nature of postmodern times by engaging with policy makers, politics, and coalitions in this age of supercomplexity. Chairing a kinesiology department is a rewarding and complex position fraught with uncertainty; nevertheless, tolerating and planning for ambiguity and conflict can lead to creative solutions and a more cohesive workgroup. This discussion is designed to make department chairs aware of the problems related to ambiguity in government and business and their impact on university policies, as well as the importance of politics and coalitions to strengthen programs so that valuable resources for the department can be obtained. Solutions are discussed to dealing with conflict and uncertainty with colleagues and constituents to strengthen the bonds of loyalty and trust by attending to human problems caused by stress and frustration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Community-based palliative care services and their integration with public health systems are of considerable contemporary interest. However, the conflicts that emerge in such a complex organizational field comprising multiple stakeholders with diverse interests remain under-examined. Our analysis of community-based palliative care in Kerala identifies four 'logic conflicts' that indicate competing frames of reference in an organizational field. These conflicts shape decision-making and coordination and manifest as: 1) professional versus community logics, 2) centralized versus decentralized governance logics, 3) generalist versus specialist care logics, 4) charity versus rights-based logics. We also identify two mechanisms – forming coalitions and fostering plurality – by which actors manage these conflicting logics. We discuss contributions to public health palliative care conversations and implications for nurturing and sustaining care communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we extend the principal-agent model of moral hazard by incorporating different percentage effort choices made by the manager. Applying the semi-parametric estimation method, we estimate an extended principal-agent model of moral hazard using longitudinal data on firms and managerial compensation collected from the China Center for Economic Research database. The estimated compensation contracts confirm the non-neglected conflicts between management and shareholders, especially for managers in non-CEO or lower positions and in medium or large firms. Moral hazard is serious in large firms in the natural resources and manufacturing, as well as commercial product industries. Most managers' compensation in these firms can not induce more than 60 % effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Syrian civil war, which initiated in 2011, has been one of the most devastating conflicts of recent decades. Based on the World Health Organization and Handicap International 2017 report, about 3 million people are injured and living with disabilities in Syria, which about half of them have permanent disabilities including 86,000 amputees. More importantly, approximately 30,000 people are added to the disabled in Syria every month. In response, various international organizations and NGOs have developed initiatives and established programmes to increase access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in Syria and other regions where refugees live. However, further effective policies are needed to address the needs of disabled people in this Warn-torn country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrations on fragility and resilience in the Sahel paint a picture about the region's inherent ungovernability that lead to consider an endless state- and peace-building process as the most feasible governance solution. Everyday practices of violent entrepreneurship, coalescing with inter-community and land-tenure conflicts, now inform social relations and are transforming moral economies around Lake Chad. While competition over territory suitable for farming, grazing and fishing has intensified, dispute-settlement practices organised by community-level authorities have proven ineffective and lacking the necessary means to respond to the encroachment of a wide range of interests claimed by increasingly powerful actors. Meanwhile, communities organised in self-defence militias are undergoing a process of progressive militarisation that tends to normalise violence and legitimise extra-judicial vigilante justice, further empowering capital-endowed arms suppliers gravitating in the jihadi galaxy, such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid advances in technology for highly automated vehicles (HAVs) have raised concerns about coexistence of HAVs and human road users. Although there is a long tradition of research into human road user interactions, there is a lack of shared models and terminology to support cross-disciplinary research and development towards safe and acceptable interaction-capable HAVs. Here, we review the main themes and findings in previous theoretical and empirical interaction research, and find large variability in perspectives and terminologies. We unify these perspectives in a structured, cross-theoretical conceptual framework, describing what road traffic interactions are, how they arise, and how they get resolved. Two key contributions are: (1) a stringent definition of "interaction", as "a situation where the behaviour of at least two road users can be interpreted as being influenced by the possibility that they are both intending to occupy the same region of space at the same time in the near future", and (2) a taxonomy of the types of behaviours that road users exhibit in interactions. We hope that this conceptual framework will be useful in the development of improved empirical methodology, theoretical models, and technical requirements on vehicle automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a web-based interactive application designed to complement and expand upon a relatively new conflict elimination tool, the evaporating cloud, introduced by Goldratt in the business novel It's Not Luck (Goldratt, E., 1994. It s not luck. Croton-on-Hudson, NY: North River Press). The application allows users to enter information concerning a conflict in a step-by-step manner providing opportunity to revisit input entered in previous steps. It presents the conflict in a simple, logical diagram, and systematically guides the user through the process of surfacing underlying assumptions and developing potential solutions. Based on our experience in a senior-level operations management course, we find that most students consider the web app useful in helping them articulate and resolve conflicts and, thereby, make good decisions. Suggestions for using the application in an operations management class are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contributions of this special issue The first three articles of this special issue focus on politicizing processes that are initiated by actors from below. Conflicts, (De-)Politicization processes, and power relations are key in analysing the ecological crisis Keywords: Conflicts; depoliticization; ecological crisis; energy transition; exnovation; power relations; social innovation; degrowth EN Conflicts depoliticization ecological crisis energy transition exnovation power relations social innovation degrowth 115 123 9 09/13/21 20200601 NES 200601 The genesis of this special issue The idea for this special issue on 'Analysing the Ecological Crisis: Conflicts, (De-)Politicization, and Power Relations' was born at the international Conference entitled "Breaking the Rules! Conflicts, ecological crisis, energy transition, exnovation, power relations, social innovation, depoliticization, degrowth. [Extracted from the article]

Radicalised Buddhist movements in Sri Lanka and Myanmar have been prominent as drivers of mistrust, tensions and violence directed against Muslim minorities, particularly since the mid-2010s. This article seeks to understand why ordinary monks, who exert tremendous influence in these societies, have developed anti-Muslim sentiments and even endorse radical movements. To do so I analyse the discursive construction of Buddhists as a historically victimised community and of Muslims as the most potent existential threat to that community. The study uses an "empathetic" vantage point to analyse the perceptions of Buddhist monks and laity, because resolving their mistrust of Muslims requires a deeper understanding of their fears and grievances. It delineates a narrative in which other religious communities, historically, have encroached on the Buddhist sphere by imposing limits on its rituals and conversion of Buddhists to other faiths, and through the destruction of Buddhist heritage sites. Monks and laity maintain discourses of fear, stemming from a substantive basis of history in which the pre-colonial and colonial experiences, neglect of local economies, invasions, and incursions into the Buddhist community left a collective memory of injury and external persecution. This narrative critically informs the feelings and behaviour of Buddhist monks vis-à-vis Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is grounded in a rancorous debate in built-heritage studies concerning heritage policies and the disputes associated with them. Despite the seeming dominance of architectural considerations in decision-making about heritage protection, factual evidence from previous studies shows that not one, but five factors are involved, in differing doses, in the decisions made by planning bodies: architecture and design, city-planning, social considerations, economics, and property-related considerations. This paper categorizes each of these elements and frames them in a new conceptual framework.. The framework analyses the five factors from the perspectives of two prisms: support or opposition to heritage protection policies. Through a prominent case-example of Tel Aviv's conservation plan, we then demonstrate that the new conceptual framework can be utilized to better understand the multifaceted debates – overt or covert – surrounding heritage protection. The case study and the conceptual framework suggest that although urban form and design issues are quite dominant, other non-physical considerations shape the dynamics of conflicts, practices, and policies surrounding heritage protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to understand the social process of the emergence and institutionalization of innovations in spatial planning (which we describe as 'social innovations'). The paper is based on a recently finished empirical and comparative study conducted in four distinct areas of spatial planning in Germany: urban design, neighbourhood development, urban regeneration and regional planning. The empirical cases selected in these areas encompass different topics, historical periods, degrees of maturity and spatial scales of innovation. As a temporal structure of the innovation processes in the different cases we identified five phases: 'incubating, generating, formatting, stabilizing, adjusting'. In a cross-comparison of the case studies and along these phases, we furthermore found typical (groups of) actors, tensions and conflicts. In the focus of our case analyses are the following dimensions: (1) the content of the innovations, (2) actors, networks and communities involved as well as (3) institutions and institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of publications on social innovations has significantly increased over the past decades. Meanwhile even policy-makers build their hopes on socially innovative solutions and their 'transformative power'. However, what is still needed is a better understanding of the processes and mechanisms of social innovations. This Special Issue focuses in particular on the genesis of social innovations in the context of urban development and planning. It addresses a research gap by systematically drawing the attention to the fact that innovative ideas often meet resistance or conflict and that the implementation of novel practices is hindered. The article gives a short introduction to the current state of research in the field. It explains the many-facetted concept of social innovation, defines how socially innovative urban development and planning can be understood in this context and discusses how the role of conflicts can be described. The article not least gives an overview of the contributions. The articles show that institutional friction and resistance are normal concomitants of innovation processes. This does not mean that conflicts necessarily result in the failure or delay of socially innovative developments. In cases where they are constructively processed, they rather lead to progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]