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Many metropolitan regions face concerns over sprawling development, increased costs of maintaining infrastructure, and loss of green space and farmland. Some metropolitan regions have intentionally created spatial policies to govern development patterns and manage growth within their region. This paper compares the spatial policies applied in three case studies: the Puget Sound region (Washington State, USA), Metro Vancouver region (British Columbia, Canada) and Stuttgart region (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). While all three regions share a vision that can broadly be summarised as transit-connected communities, each metropolitan planning organisation leverages a variety of spatial policies. Based on the unique planning cultures, various governmental actors take on different roles at the local, county, regional and state levels. This paper categorises and compares the multi-level responsibilities for defining, mapping, and implementing spatial policies. With this focus, the paper provides an international comparative perspective on approaches, context, and contents of multi-level growth management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having recognized the need for diversity spotlighted by Kidd and Garcia – but given that sampling all the world's languages is infeasible – we focus on which dimensions of variability researchers should prioritize. We consider three major approaches to the study of child language learning, namely, language as a (1) cognitive puzzle, (2) clinical/educational object, and (3) window onto socialization. We discuss how what is important about 'diversity' from each of these perspectives dictates the sociolinguistic communities from which researchers should sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical analysis regarding Korea's 'Marine Protected Areas (MPA)' from an international comparative perspective. The authors would like to present the policy direction of marine protected areas based on the result of the research. The result of this study can be summarized in the following manner: First, the total designated size of marine protected areas in Korea is very small compared to the sizes of other OECD nations . Second, while some nations have expanded the extent of marine protected areas in accordance with international agreements and criteria, Korea has not done so. Accordingly, we propose the designated dimensions of marine protected areas should be constantly expanded to keep pace with international trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under global environmental change, understanding the interactions between people and nature has become critical for human survival. Comparative research can identify trends within social-ecological systems providing key insights for both environmental and developmental research. Island systems, with clear land boundaries, have been proposed as ideal case studies for comparative research, but it is unclear to what extent their potential has been fulfilled. To summarize existing research and identify potential gaps and new directions, we reviewed comparative environmental and developmental research on Pacific Large Ocean States. A diversity of case study locations and research themes were addressed within the sample of reviewed studies. Within the reviewed literature climate change, energy infrastructure, trade and fisheries were key themes of environmental and developmental research compared between island systems. Research was biased towards wealthier Pacific Large Ocean States and those with a relatively higher degree of socio-economic development. Our review highlights the potential value of a stronger a priori inclusion of spatial scale and conceptual frameworks, such as spatial resilience, to facilitate generalization from case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing prominence of platforms in news consumption has raised scholarly concerns about potential impacts on trust in news, which has declined in many countries. However, less is known about how journalists themselves perceive this relationship, which matters for understanding how they use these technologies. In this paper, we draw on 85 interviews with news workers from four countries in both the Global North and South to examine journalists' narratives—as metajournalistic discourse—about how platforms impact trust in news. We find that practitioners across all environments express mostly critical ideas about platforms vis-à-vis trust on two different levels. First, they describ platforms as disruptive to journalistic practices in ways that strain traditional norms on which trust is based. Second, they discuss platforms as altering the contexts in which journalistic texts and discourses about journalism circulate, weakening the profession's authority. Despite these reservations, most continue relying on platforms to reach audiences, highlighting the complex choices they must make in an increasingly platform-dominated media environment. As discourses connecting journalistic practice and meaning, these narratives speak to tensions within journalism as a profession around appropriate norms and practices, and challenges to the profession's claims to authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News diversity is an important concern of journalism scholars, as its presence or absence can have a profound effect on democratic debate and the information available to citizens. Many have speculated that news diversity decreases over time, due to changing economic circumstances. This expectation especially applies to newspapers. Using nearly two decades of newspaper data from four European countries (Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, UK), we do not find this expected decrease in news diversity. When conducting pairwise, automated comparisons between articles published on the same day in the same country, we rather find a modest over time increase in diversity between newspapers. This result suggests that newspapers differentiate rather than converge in the content they offer, shedding a more positive light on the evolution of the press in our current high-choice media environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies Victor Turner's schema of 'social drama' to examine narrative rituals and the roles performed by a local and national newspaper in their coverage of the Umpqua Community College shooting that took place in October 2015. Textual analysis is used to compare stories from The Roseburg News-Review and the New York Times in terms of the narrative's movement from breach, crisis, redress and finally to either reintegration or separation. This study finds that narrative patterns for the local and national newspapers do not parallel, suggesting differences in role perceptions. Instead, journalistic ritual is subject to the crisis, proximity to the tragedy and audience. The local outlet reinforces consensus with authority by focusing on victims and the grieving process to achieve the social good of healing and recovery; and the national newspaper challenges the status quo by focusing on the shooter and legislative reform. While the News-Review reaches reintegration by achieving a sense of normalcy, the New York Times stalls in a state of liminality. Both papers move the discourse on school shootings toward a societal ideal though neither narrative reaches the transformative discourse that has invoked national reflexivity noted in past instances of tragedy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of South Architecture / Nanfang Jianzhu is the property of South Architecture Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Democratic politics builds on both clear differences and shared common ground. While the rise of digital media may have enabled more differences to be articulated, common ground is often seen as threatened by fragmentation of political debate, which some see as driven by news media. The relative importance of political actors (parties and politicians) in driving fragmentation has received less attention. In this paper, we compare how news media and political actors contribute to the fragmentation of online political debate on the basis of analysis of almost half a million election-related tweets collected during the 2017 French, German, and U.K. national elections. We employ a structural topic model to reduce online political debate to networks of topic overlap. Across the three countries with different political and media systems, we find news media are by far the most important actors in terms of creating and maintaining a common space of online political debate on Twitter. Our results also show that political actors, with some variation from country to country, contribute more to fragmentation as they focus on different topics while articulating clear differences. These findings underline the importance of complementing structural analysis of the rise of digital and social media with analysis of how important elite actors like news media and political parties/candidates use these media in different ways. Overall, we show how at least on Twitter, across three different countries with different media systems and political systems, news media create connection that contributes to commonality while political actors lay out clear differences that drive fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from low- to high-choice media environments has had far-reaching implications for citizens' media use and its relationship with political knowledge. However, there is still a lack of comparative research on how citizens combine the usage of different media and how that is related to political knowledge. To fill this void, we use a unique cross-national survey about the online and offline media use habits of more than 28,000 individuals in 17 European countries. Our aim is to (i) profile different types of news consumers and (ii) understand how each user profile is linked to political knowledge acquisition. Our results show that five user profiles – news minimalists, social media news users, traditionalists, online news seekers, and hyper news consumers – can be identified, although the prevalence of these profiles varies across countries. Findings further show that both traditional and online-based news diets are correlated with higher political knowledge. However, online-based news use is more widespread in Southern Europe, where it is associated with lower levels of political knowledge than in Northern Europe. By focusing on news audiences, this study provides a comprehensive and fine-grained analysis of how contemporary European political information environments perform and contribute to an informed citizenry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on experience of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) during the first years of teaching and support for NQTs. Topics discussed include importance of mentoring in induction for NQTs to develop knowledge about practices of teaching, and develop a professional identity; teacher isolation leading to new teacher attrition according to "Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study" by Dan C. Lortie; and policy on teacher induction in different country including Scotland, Malta, and Denmark.

Primatological research in zoos is increasing globally. Such research allows scientists to study primate biology, behavior, and cognition while helping to advance the welfare of captive primates. Moreover, zoos welcome millions of visitors annually, which creates unique opportunities for public engagement with this research. Reflecting the importance of zoos in the field of primatology, the articles in this special issue showcase the range of primatological research currently being conducted in zoos around the world. With this special issue, I have chosen to focus on research examining primate behavior and cognition, addressing both basic and applied questions. The articles included in this special issue also highlight the array of technologies and methods being used to study zoo‐housed primates. While zoos house a variety of primate species, potentially enabling the testing of under‐studied species or widescale comparative research, great apes are disproportionately represented in current zoo‐based research. Thus, while an interest in conducting research with primates in zoos continues to grow, there are still opportunities to increase the breadth and diversity of this study. Highlights: Primatological research in zoos is increasing globally.Such research allows scientists to study primate biology, behavior, and cognition.This research helps to advance the welfare of captive primates.While zoos house many primate species, apes are disproportionately represented in current zoo research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of BMS: Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique (Sage Publications Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

[Introduction] In order to meet the recent European power plant construction needs, it is urgent to understand the requirements of European pipelines and fittings standards in power plant engineering. [Method] Aiming at pipe fittings, this paper compared the European pipe fitting standards with the corresponding clauses of domestic pipe fitting standards. [Result] After comparison, the difference between the European standard pipe fitting standard and the domestic pipe fitting standard is obtained: the European standard pipe fittings are more comprehensive in the scope of use of the industry and the scope of material use; the dimensional tolerances, wall thickness tolerances at the welding ends and tolerance on the form of the European standard pipe fittings are more stringent than domestic standards; European pipe fittings strength calculation standards are more conservative and more safe; European pipe fittings have their own characteristics relative to national standard pipe fittings in terms of pipe end bevel, flow area, elbow bending radius, etc; in addition, pipe fittings entering the European market need to comply with the European Union's administrative directive PED. [Conclusion] Through the above-mentioned standard differences, we have basically mastered the basic requirements of European standard pipe fittings standards, which can provide guidance for the practical application of European standard pipe fittings in power station projects.

Objectives This paper presents the comparison of various approaches to the issue of access to higher education for adult learners in European countries. In particular, it indicates two systems of learners' skills evaluation, similar in way of organization but opposite in obtained results. The first one is Finnish and second one Polish Matriculation Examination system, regarded as the Entrance Exams to university level education. Both systems are presented in perspective of learners of schools for adults, mostly young people who have drop out of the youth system. The main goal of this paper is to indicate the difficulties faced by learners of upper secondary schools for adults, especially in Poland. The difficulties causing that door to higher education are closed in front of these learners. Material and methods The analyses take into account secondary data from examination sessions 2015-2018, provided by the Polish Central Examination Board and the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board. Results While in reference to students of youth schools from Finland and Poland we can say in some approximation the examination results are similar, for adult school learners the distribution is fundamentally different. When in Finland 10% candidates do not pass the mathematics exam, in Poland corresponding indicator is 7 times larger. Conclusions Presented results indicate Polish adult formal education urgently needs the help. The modifications are necessary. Maybe not the change of organization of matriculation examination, but certainly the reconstruction of learning/teaching process in secondary schools for adults.

The present study aims to compare the opportunities and threats of the Internet and considering the rights of kids online in Australia, Brazil, Iran, and South Africa. The research method was qualitative-comparative using Bereday’s approach. The strategy for selection of countries was “different systems, different‌ outputs”. The population included 210 studies from which 45 samples related to research objectives were selected. Primary documents and self-assessment method were used for increasing the validity and reliability of references, respectively. John Stuart Mill's agreement and difference method was used for data analysis and George Bereday’s method was used for presenting the results. The findings indicated that most similarities are in Internet threats and most differences are in the opportunities created for kids online and considering their rights in these countries. Cyber-bullying and Internet addiction threaten all kids online in such countries. In terms of considering the rights of kids online, Australia is at the top of the list, followed by Brazil, South Africa, and Iran. No serious measure has been taken in Iran to ensure the rights of kids online due to weak infrastructure, low internet speed, and legal gap. Based on the findings, cyberspace authorities and planners in Iran are suggested to take more legal, executive, and educational measures in the framework of international cooperation to achieve the rights and welfare of kids online.

This article draws lessons for organizing and designing large-scale qualitative comparative research in turbulent, rapidly evolving, real-world settings. The challenge to the researcher is that such studies need to meet conflicting requirements of rigor, relevance, and responsiveness. Recognizing that in such settings scientific research cannot be insulated from its environment, the article discusses a pragmatist approach to comparative research design. Using the case of the SolPan project (Solidarity in Times of a Pandemic), a large-scale and longitudinal qualitative comparative study of people’s experiences during the Covid pandemic, the article presents basic principles of pragmatist research design, such as problem-orientation, design-in-action, and the use of a plurality of evidence. It then argues that interpretation is at the heart of all comparison, and that large-scale qualitative comparative research combines the detailed contextual richness of interpretive explanation, the systematicity, robustness and transparency of large-N comparative analysis, and the flexibility of emergent design. We describe the design and methodology of SolPan and illustrate this with an empirical example. First, we argue that research design and project organization are continuous and reframe comparative research design as generative organization. Second, we describe the use of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software to assist in analysing large amounts of interview data. In the final section we describe some of the limitations of this large-scale qualitative comparative research.

The sudden and dramatic advent of the COVID-19 pandemic led to urgent demands for timely, relevant, yet rigorous research. This paper discusses the origin, design, and execution of the SolPan research commons, a large-scale, international, comparative, qualitative research project that sought to respond to the need for knowledge among researchers and policymakers in times of crisis. The form of organization as a research commons is characterized by an underlying solidaristic attitude of its members and its intrinsic organizational features in which research data and knowledge in the study is shared and jointly owned. As such, the project is peer-governed, rooted in (idealist) social values of academia, and aims at providing tools and benefits for its members. In this paper, we discuss challenges and solutions for qualitative studies that seek to operate as research commons.

Although there is a large volume of literature on executive compensation, few of these studies have focused on executive pay comparisons and even fewer on the antecedents of executive pay comparisons. This paper fills this gap in executive pay comparison literature by beginning with executive pay comparison behaviors, and then the elements that influence executive pay comparison behaviors are discussed. A questionnaire survey found that executive pay comparison behaviors exist in both China and Poland. Furthermore, the findings show that the factors influencing executive pay comparison behaviors are different in the two countries. In China, there is a significant relationship between executive pay comparison behaviors and the dysfunctional agent market, herd mentality. And in Poland, there is a significant relationship between executive pay comparison behaviors and the ineffectiveness of government intervention, herd mentality. The implications of the study are also discussed.

Despite the research tradition in analyzing public communication, local public spheres have been rather neglected by communication science, although they are crucial for social cohesion and democracy. Existing empirical studies about local public spheres are mostly case studies which implicitly assume that cities are alike. Based on a participatory-liberal understanding of democracy, we develop a theoretical framework, from which we derive a monitor covering structural, social, and spatial aspects of local communication to empirically compare local public spheres along four dimensions: (1) information, (2) participation, (3) inclusion, and (4) diversity. In a pilot study, we then apply our monitor to four German cities that are comparable in size and regional function (‘regiopolises’). The monitoring framework is built on local statistical data, some of which was provided by the cities, while some came from our own research. We show that the social structures and the normative assessment of the quality of local public spheres can vary among similar cities and between the four dimensions. We hope the innovative monitor prototype enables scholars and local actors to compare local public spheres across spaces, places, and time, and to investigate the impact of social change and digitalization on local public spheres.

This article examines the specifics of legal regulation of sustainable development in China and Russia. This topic is exceptionally relevant today since legal regulation of this area should create effective frameworks for the relationship between people and nature. The authors draw attention to the fact that sustainable development is better implemented when it is supported both by international standards and, necessarily, by national laws. The approaches then that China and Russia, both member countries of the BRICS bloc, are taking in implementing sustainable development are of importance, and thus described and contrasted in this study. To do so, the authors apply the comparative legal analysis, which makes it possible to distinguish both the advantages of international and national systems and the disadvantages. Based on their methodology, the authors formulate possible recommendations for each nation.

The evolution of language was likely facilitated by a special predisposition for social interaction, involving a set of communicative and cognitive skills summarized as the 'interaction engine'. This assemblage seems to emerge early in development, to be found universally across cultures, and to enable participation in sophisticated joint action through the addition of spoken language. Yet, new evidence on social action coordination and communication in nonhuman primates warrants an update of the interaction engine hypothesis, particularly with respect to the evolutionary origins of its specific ingredients. However, one enduring problem for comparative research results from a conceptual gulf between disciplines, rendering it difficult to test concepts derived from human interaction research in nonhuman animals. The goal of this theme issue is to make such concepts accessible for comparative research, to promote a fruitful interdisciplinary debate on social action coordination as a new arena of research, and to enable mutual fertilization between human and nonhuman interaction research. In consequence, we here consider relevant theoretical and empirical research within and beyond this theme issue to revisit the interaction engine's shared, convergently derived and uniquely derived ingredients preceding (or perhaps in the last case, succeeding) human language. This article is part of the theme issue 'Revisiting the human 'interaction engine': comparative approaches to social action coordination'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the links between women's un/safety and their night-time mobilities in Brussels, Belgium and Recife, Brazil. While the significance of women's intersectional identities to the construction of fear and safety in urban space has been well documented in feminist urban geography, we argue that the lens of South-North comparison highlights specific ways in which local urban spaces are implicated in women's experiences of un/safety. A comparative perspective draws out the spatial and temporal embeddedness of un/safety, while at the same time challenges the framing of particular cities and areas as either safe or unsafe (which is particularly damaging when it reproduces simple global North – global South binaries). The paper draws on mixed-method research combining a questionnaire-based survey and a series of interviews with women in Recife and Brussels. The four dimensions examined include transport modes; situated experiences of un/safety; the accumulation of unsafety feelings over the long term; and the work women perform in maintaining mobility. We find that while unsafety broadly limits women's access to cities at night, feeling unsafe plays out differently in specific and situated interactions, many of which are recognisable from both Brussels and Recife. Across the two research locations, women's mobility strategies at night are similar, in that they involve extensive planning, preparation, and drawing on financial and non-financial resources. We conclude with some reflections on the role of comparative research in the feminist geographies of gendered urban mobilities, particularly in relation to previously little-studied cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative research on language, music, and action in cognitive neuroscience keeps finding evidence for both shared and non-shared components of cognitive systems. The discussions, then, tend to quickly fall into the sterile dichotomy between domain-specific versus domain-general options. In this position paper, we take issue with this dichotomy and argue for an alternative account based on neural reuse theories to understand findings on the relationship between language, music, and action. We argue that the differences between those cognitive systems can be explained in terms of the specialization of the same brain mechanism(s) for each domain, which emerges in the course of development and/or evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Policy is an important element of influencing individual health-related behaviours associated to major risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating and physical inactivity. However, our understanding of the specific measures recommended in NCD prevention policy-making remains limited. This study analysed recent World Health Organization (WHO) documents to identify common policy instruments suggested for national NCD prevention policy and to assess similarities and differences between policies targeting different health-related behaviours. Methods: Evert Vedung's typology of policy instruments, which differentiates between regulatory, economic/fiscal and soft instruments, served as a basis for this analysis. A systematic search on WHO websites was conducted to identify documents relating to tobacco, alcohol, nutrition and physical activity. The staff of the respective units at the WHO Regional Office for Europe conducted an expert validation of these documents. The resulting documents were systematically searched for policy instruments. A word frequency analysis was conducted to estimate the use of individual instruments in the different policy fields, followed by an additional in-depth coding and content analysis by two independent reviewers. Results: Across all health-related behaviours, the following policy instruments were suggested most frequently in WHO guidance documents: laws, regulations, standards, taxes, prices, campaigns, recommendations, partnerships and coordination. The analysis showed that regulatory and economic/fiscal policy instruments are mainly applied in tobacco and alcohol policy, while soft instruments dominate in the fields of nutrition and especially physical activity. Conclusion: The study confirms perceived differences regarding recommended policy instruments in the different policy fields and supports arguments that "harder" instruments still appear to be underutilized in nutrition and physical activity. However, more comprehensive research is needed, especially with respect to actual instrument use and effectiveness in national-level NCD prevention policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central property of human language is its hierarchical structure. Humans can flexibly combine elements to build a hierarchical structure expressing rich semantics. A hierarchical structure is also considered as playing a key role in many other human cognitive domains. In music, auditory-motor events are combined into hierarchical pitch and/or rhythm structure expressing affect. How did such a hierarchical structure building capacity evolve? This paper investigates this question from a bottom-up perspective based on a set of action-related components as a shared basis underlying cognitive capacities of nonhuman primates and humans. Especially, I argue that the evolution of hierarchical structure building capacity for language and music is tractable for comparative evolutionary study once we focus on the gradual elaboration of shared brain architecture: the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits for hierarchical control of goal-directed action and the dorsal pathways for hierarchical internal models. I suggest that this gradual elaboration of the action-related brain architecture in the context of vocal control and tool-making went hand in hand with amplification of working memory, and made the brain ready for hierarchical structure building in language and music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms and media are fertile breeding grounds for disinformation and conspirational views. They provide a variety of communication venues for a mixed set of actors and foster the diffusion of content between actor groups, across platforms and media, and across languages and geographical spaces. Understanding those diffusion processes requires approaches to measure the prevalence and spread of communicative acts within and across digital platforms. Given the increasing access to digital data, computational methods provide new possibilities to capture this spread and do justice to the interrelated nature and hybridity of online communication. Against this background, the paper focuses on the spread of conspiracy theories in digital information ecologies. It provides a review of recent methodological approaches to measuring conspiracy-related content online regarding the (a) prevalence and (b) diffusion of conspiracy theories. To that end, the paper differentiates between social network analysis approaches and computational techniques of automated text classification. It further discusses how far these and related computational approaches could facilitate studying the diffusion of conspiracy theories across different actor types, languages, topics and platforms. In doing so, it takes the specific nature of online communication and challenges in the field of conspiracy-related content into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While political communication scholarship has long underscored the importance of political talk—casual conversations about news and politics that occur in everyday situations—as a way for citizens to clarify their opinions and as a precursor for political engagement, much of this literature tends to depict political talk as uncomfortable and difficult for citizens. Yet, this focus on the challenging aspects of political talk has been informed predominantly by the US context. To what extent may a different picture emerge when looking across different cultural contexts? And how are these dynamics shaped by the affordances of the multi-platform social media environment? This paper explores these questions through a unique dataset of 122 qualitative interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019 with young people (ages 18–29) from five countries: Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Rather than solidifying the avoidance of controversial political talk as the key strategy at the disposal of young people, our findings point at a five-pronged typology of young people, with each type representing a different approach toward political talk. Our typology thus contributes to a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of various approaches towards political talk employed by young people across different countries and in relation to different digital media affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poststructuralist and postcolonial critiques have led to a necessary corrective in the social sciences, but arguments about difference and incommensurability are also mobilised to put the idea of internationally comparative housing studies into question. This paper argues for a relational and comparative global housing studies that goes beyond global north/south and east/west binaries and dichotomies. I mobilise the concept of 'common trajectories' (as opposed to both convergence and divergence) to illustrate how difference is constructed at multiple dimensions rather than primarily along a north/south or east/west axis. The aim is not to argue against postcolonial theory but rather to show how the misuse of these ideas has stifled theoretically-embedded empirical research in general and internationally comparative research more specifically. Finally, I explore the idea of a relational global housing studies that would focus on transnational actors, regulation and markets, as one route out of the dead-end of contrastive housing studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study of language-and-social-interaction we can distinguish 3 approaches to multilingualism. The first and most basic version is to make the language explicit in which the studied interaction phenomenon was found. The second is to do a comparative study of an interaction phenomenon in different languages. The third is to study data in which different languages are spoken. At this moment the third approach is the least frequent, with the exception of conversation analysis for second language acquisition (CA-for-SLA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic professionalism challenges social workers to see social institutions as potential fields for democratic action and to act as bridge agents between citizens and social institutions. Although scholars have identified democratic professionalism as a promising theory, the relevance of this approach has hardly been empirically explored and operationalised in social work practice. To address this gap, this article explores empirical examples of bridging practices in social welfare organisations and private shelter organisations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Data were gathered by means of a mixed method design (interviews N13, and focus groups N10). Based on our case analysis, we identify three types of practices that aim to close the gap between citizens and social institutions: task-sharing with citizens; raising public awareness about social issues and facilitating a public dialogue about social issues in close proximity to the lives of citizens. We found indications that the policy environment shapes both the relationship between social institutions and society, and social workers' actions and beliefs. Although we conclude that democratic professionalism is a promising theory for social work, more research is needed to further substantiate our findings and to explore the relevance of other aspects of democratic professionalism for social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a new approach to comparative education in the Polish comparative discourse, based primarily on the ideas of pedagogical constructivism, opening a discussion on a new methodological paradigm, which is the place of historical context and memory in comparative research. In Polish comparative education there is a tendency to attach less importance to the role of history and memory for a comprehensive grasp of the meaning of the phenomena analyzed and the search for answers to important cognitive problems. The traditional approach is focused on the present and future perspective and this is how educational problems are perceived in the discourse of comparative education. Taking into account the importance of historical thinking in the methodology of comparative education is important insofar as it shows a wide context and helps understand rather than only present phenomena. The contextual analysis, including the embedding of phenomena in their logic of historical events, is the basic task of comparative education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the conformity of adolescents in SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Galur and SMP Muhammadiyah Al Manar Boarding School and to analyze the differences there. This research is survey research using a quantitative approach with a comparative study method. The population in this study was 171 students, while the sample size was 120 students. The data analysis technique used the Mann Withney test to see the results of differences in adolescent conformity. The final results of this study indicated that (1) the level of conformity of the students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Galur was medium; (2) the conformity level of the students of SMP Muhammadiyah Al Manar Boarding School was medium and high; (3) there was no significant difference regarding the level of adolescent conformity between students of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Galur and students of SMP Muhammadiyah Al Manar Boarding School as evidenced by the results of the Mann Withney test with the Sig. 0.129 0.05.