Search

The legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) as institutions for social and environmental governance in the global economy has received much scholarly attention over the past years. To date, however, research has yet to focus on assessing the legitimacy of MSIs in their interactions with other actors within larger systems of deliberation. Drawing on the deliberative systems perspective developed within deliberative democracy theory, we theorise a normative framework to evaluate the roles of MSIs within the broader systems of governance they co-construct through their interactions with other initiatives, governments, non-governmental organisations, and other external actors. As we demonstrate in our evaluation of the illustrative case of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety as a MSI in the context of the Bangladeshi garment industry, this framework can help researchers assess whether a MSI ultimately serves to enhance or undermine the deliberative legitimacy of the overall system of which it forms a part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the interpretation of Edna's death in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" as a rejection of binary choices presented to her in society. Edna's suicide is seen as a paradoxical act that is both despairing and heroic, stemming from her frustration with limited options. The text explores Edna's struggle with societal expectations, her desire for autonomy, and her ultimate decision to escape through self-destruction. The analysis delves into the complexity of Edna's character, her refusal to conform to societal norms, and the significance of her final act as a challenge to the social order. [Extracted from the article]

The generative but limited scholarship on animals in John Gower's work does not, as yet, address how daily contact with animals in the Middle Ages affects their representations in literature. Recognizing the domesticated animal's need for daily care pressures the narrative import of a didactic tale such Gower's "Tale of Rosiphelee," qualifying its advocacy of women's submission to love and marriage. This article looks specifically at horses, placing late medieval hippiatric manuals in English next to representations of horses in Gower's Confessio Amantis, particularly his "Rosiphelee." Hippiatric manuals illuminate how horses' physical proximity to humans in medieval daily life can unsettle the horses' metaphorical roles; as equine bodies need care, their fleshly presence and the nurture essential to them vexes how they signify. In "Rosiphelee," Gower's representation of the suffering equine body evokes cultural ambivalence about the capacity of social institutions to protect and care for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keynes made a unique contribution to thought about economic policy in three important respects. First, he spearheaded a new line of thought on macroeconomic theory and policy-making, which involved a more active role for the state. Second, he was actively engaged at the centre of economic policy-making in the UK in both the domestic and international spheres. Third, drawing on his work in philosophy, the content of his macroeconomics, and his policy-making experience, Keynes developed a distinctive two-stage approach to the relationship between theory and policy. The article focuses on this third aspect, illustrating it by exploring how Keynes addressed issues such as domestic and international monetary reform. It is argued that Keynes' methodology as a theorist was geared towards facilitating policy application. Employing practical reason, Keynes paid particular attention to policy context in order to identify how the theory might need to be modified for application rather than seeking universal application. In a further departure from the emerging positivism in economics, Keynes kept the nature and implications of his political philosophy and also the role of social institutions on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest global progress report highlights numerous challenges in achieving justice goals, with bias in artificial intelligence (AI) emerging as a significant yet underexplored issue. This paper investigates the role of AI in addressing bias within the judicial system to promote equitable social justice. Analyzing weekly data from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023, through wavelet quantile correlation, this study examines the short, medium, and long-term impacts of integrating AI, media, international legal influence (ILI), and international financial institutions (IFI) as crucial factors in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG-16), which focuses on justice. The findings indicate that AI, media, ILI, and IFI can help reduce bias in the medium and long term, although their effects appear mixed and less significant in the short term. Our research proposes a comprehensive policy framework that addresses the complexities of implementing these technologies in the judicial system. We conclude that successfully integrating AI requires a supportive global policy environment that embraces technological innovation, financial backing, and robust regulation to prevent potential disruptions that could reinforce inequalities, perpetuate structural injustices, and exacerbate human rights issues, ultimately leading to more biased outcomes in social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retention research has resulted in a number of theories, models, and frameworks, and the adoption of related strategies by institutions of higher education to graduate the students they admit. These strategies include programming designed to welcome students, give them a sense of belonging, and involve them in the academic and social realms of the institutions. Retention theories also account for the impact on persistence of pre-admission factors such as family and cultural background, academic preparation, goals, and motivation,. This opinion piece briefly reviews key retention theories and recent research to argue for a greater emphasis on learning as a missing component in improved persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of negative liberty as non-interference is operative in the concept of a free market and stipulates that market relations remain outside the purview of social control. As a purported self-regulating system, however, the market functions as a system of necessity that facilitates and rules social life. I argue that Isaiah Berlin's defense of negative liberty leads to a paradox as it entails subjection to the external necessity of a self-regulating market. The argument for the self-defeating nature of negative liberty relies on two philosophical insights that have their roots in G. W. F. Hegel's theory of self-determination. First, negative liberty fails to account for the inner and outer conditions of freedom and thus reduces to mere whim or arbitrariness, subject to heteronomous forces but masquerading as license. Second, individual freedom is intersubjectively mediated in its deliberative process and framed by social and political institutions in its exercise; thus, free agency must be theorized as embedded agency. I challenge the association of freedom and the market and the automatic and unchallenged implication of deregulation and freedom. Deregulation, rather, leaves the community's future development to the whims of economic players using a rhetoric of freedom as both lure and principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Purpose: Cash waqf is a powerful financial instrument that deals with the issue of liquidity constraints in waqf institutions. While there are several models of cash waqf operating in different countries, there is increasing demand for innovative cash waqf models, especially within the financial technology context. This paper aims to propose a practical alternative model of funding for waqf institutions using the concepts of crowdfunding and cash waqf. Design/methodology/approach: This study evaluated the literature relevant to cash waqf models that have been implemented in different countries and proposed a new viable alternative model. Findings: Results offer an alternative financing model, named crowdfunding cash waqf model, for waqf institutions to overcome monetary constraints and enable development projects to be completed. Practical implications: The current study has important implications for both officials and relevant stakeholders. It is sought to bring better consistency between cash waqf donors, solving the liquidity problem faced by waqf institutions, enhancing the transparency of waqf institutions and their use of waqf funds, wealth circulation and financing businesses without interest-based loans (riba). By incorporating a crowdfunding and investment mechanism in the model, this method of collecting funds will assist governments in reducing their expenditure on waqf institutions and other social development programmes. Originality/value: The proposed model differs from current methods of generating cash waqf, including those are also internet-based. The proposed model is devised to help waqf institutions achieve financial sustainability by including an investment mechanism in the model to sustain the development of waqf projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As local governments increasingly use data to improve sustainability outcomes, this research explores how institutional conditions may assist such efforts. To that end, it tests several hypotheses based on two prominent organizational theories: rational choice and sociological institutionalism. Using the original data that surveys how U.S. cities collect and use performance data when managing sustainability programs (n = 443), this research finds that cities are more likely to use information when certain institutional conditions are present, among which social institutions particularly matter. These findings are discussed by integrating insights from public management and sustainability literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "William Hogarth, Visual Culture and Images of Imprisonment" explores the intersection of art history and the history of punishment in eighteenth-century Britain. It delves into William Hogarth's artistic vision and his fascination with images of confinement, drawing connections between his personal experiences and his artistic representations. The article also discusses the evolving art world politics in London, highlighting the impact of Hogarth's work on the aesthetic order of the time. Through a detailed analysis of Hogarth's art and its social implications, the article sheds light on the cultural and historical significance of visual representations of punishment in Britain. [Extracted from the article]

Low-wage labor migrants experience major human and working rights abuses in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries despite national labor laws and signatures to various human rights conventions. On paper, India has established an institutional framework of transnational social protection for its officially estimated 5.5 million low-wage workers migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, e.g., financial emergency support, repatriation services, and walk-in centers. However, migrants in low-wage employment often cannot access substantive social rights in practice. Indian upper/middle-class migrant civil society groups mediate their access to Indian embassies' services and the destination countries' state institutions. The realization of social rights via informal, third-party representation stems from a representational disjuncture between low-wage labor migrants and the Indian state, which is rooted in their historical socioeconomic marginalization, limitations of the formal political system, and the constitutive role of informality in shaping and structuring citizen-state interactions in India. Through the lens of Piper and von Lieres' (2015) concept of mediated citizenship and based on data from semi-structured interviews and participant observation of migrant support networks in the Gulf countries, this article examines why mediation takes place and how volunteers speak and take action for marginalized migrants in low-wage employment and consequences of mediation. It argues that migrant volunteer organizations and individuals are powerful stakeholders in the migration governance in the GCC region, as they possess leverage over who has (better) access to state institutions and the provision of social and human rights. Their status as intermediaries underlines the disaggregation of Indian citizenship along class and caste lines, which can be (mis)-used by mediators to pursue their interests, resulting in ambiguous effects. The article contributes to perspectives on migration governance in the GCC region, transnational social policies, and migrant volunteering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools serve as social institutions that convey values in the context of socialization and enculturation. Teachers are pivotal in this transmission process via their value-related educational goals (VrEGs), which outline how they would like to see their pupils in terms of values. What factors influence these VrEGs? We suggest that those vary on an individual level, but also correspond to the prevailing value orientations of the society. In our study we followed two main goals to test this thesis. Firstly, we examine the differences in VrEGs between teachers of two European countries: Switzerland (CH) and United Kingdom (UK). Secondly, we investigated the similarity of the teachers' VrEGs with prevailing national value orientations from the specific countries. One hundred and fifty primary school teachers (108 CH, 42 UK) were asked about their VrEGs using an adapted version of Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-21). Data from the Human Value Scale (HVS) of the European Social Survey (ESS) was used for country-specific value orientations. Analyses of the value structures and the differences in value priorities showed that for the individuals from the two countries as well as for the teachers' VrEGs from the two countries, significant differences exist in several value types. Teachers' VrEGs in each country showed a high correlation with the corresponding national value profile. We discuss our results in light of cross-national differences in value education in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the majority of nations, environmental sustainability is an integral aspect of government policies, highlighting the criticality of equipping upcoming engineers with the necessary environmental awareness and skills to tackle this complex challenge. Higher education institutions assume a pivotal role in fulfilling this mission as their engineering programs aspire to generate graduates who possess the necessary competencies to effectively operate as "sustainable" engineers. Novel pedagogical methodologies, such as service learning, are currently being utilized to foster the cultivation of sustainable development values. Service-Learning represents a highly congruent approach to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, insofar as it seamlessly integrates educational curricula with relevant community issues. As a result, it effectively contributes to the advancement of education for a sustainable future. This investigation sought to assess the impact of service learning projects developed in a rural school community on the boosting of social skills and environmental values among engineering students. The empirical evidence suggests that Service-Learning initiatives centered on environmental issues are efficacious in promoting the acquisition of social and environmental values among students. This, in turn, results in a positive transformation of their skill sets. Significantly, a substantial proportion of environmental engineering students who previously demonstrated a low awareness of these skills acknowledged their acquisition upon completion of the Service-Learning projects. Moreover, no less than 75% of the participants endorsed the attainment of each of the 11 competencies evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

İskeçe (Xanthi) is a multicultural administrative unit located within the borders of the Republic of Greece today and includes a Muslim-Turkish minority community due to their exclusion from the population exchange between Greece and Türkiye. The administrative city of this prefecture is İskeçe, which gave its name to the region. İskeçe was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for approximately 550 years starting from the mid-14th century. The city became one of the kazâ centers of the Gümülcine Sancağı, which was subject to the Vilâyet of Edirne in the last quarter of the 19th century. One of the most significant features of İskeçe is that it achieved socioeconomic and administrative development starting from the mid-19th century. This study aims to contribute to historical research on the changes and transformations that İskeçe went through between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The socioeconomic and administrative structure of the kazâ of İskeçe between 1882 and 1904 is analyzed through the Edirne Vilâyet Yearbooks published between these years and the data contained in these sources. Within the framework of the research subject, the data obtained from the yearbooks are analysed and, where necessary, the method of comparison with Ottoman archive sources is applied. The main argument of the study is that İskeçe became one of the prosperous cities of the region in socioeconomic and administrative terms through its administrative, social and economic institutions since the second half of the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces 50th anniversary of Julia Kristeva's influential work "La révolution du langage poétique" and its ongoing relevance, which includes the revolutionary potential of poetic language and the relationship between avant-garde literature and social institutions.

This paper aims at transforming the nexus institution–passivity into a vibrant interrelation. With this goal on my mind, I will refer to Arnold Gehlen and his controversial discussion of the state as the most powerful institution that offers an analysis not only of the complexity of institutions but also of the genuinely paradoxical nature of the institution. Seen from the perspective of philosophical anthropology, institutions are, on the one hand, inextricably intertwined with restriction and passivity, but, on the other hand, the restriction and passivity fostered by the institution must be understood as the pre-condition of an action and therefore as a force of freedom. In order to outline this thought, the paper focusses on Gehlen's last book Moral und Hypermoral (1969) and presents the institution of the state as a social-political form from which a critique – that is, a rethinking of the concept of the institution – could start. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2024 will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Slovakia's European membership. However, the country has continually displayed the lowest interest in European politics -- the turnout in the European elections is only roughly 18%. Moreover, the Slovaks' confidence level in the European Parliament ranges from 50% to 70%. The "Second-Order Elections" theory only partially accounts for the causes of the low turnout in "European elections". The electoral differentiation between the western (capital) Bratislava region (preferences for liberals and social democrats) and the eastern Slovak Prešov region (Christian democrats and populist conservatives) showed differences in the European orientation of the Slovak voter. The results of four elections to the European Parliament (2004-2019) confirmed the electoral cleavage between the western and eastern regions. Since the powerful Slovak parties frequently vary in their level of Euro-optimism/Euro-pessimism to obtain more significant electoral benefits (ĽS-HZDS, SMER-SD, OĽaNO). To comprehend the nuances of Slovak voters' electoral behaviour, it is reasonable to determine the public aspects of Euro-optimism/Euro-pessimism in Slovak regions at different geographical extremities. The students' political socialization in the Bratislava and Prešov regions demonstrated the delegitimization of parties as political institutions and the highest level of mistrust in Slovak politicians. In this light, Slovak voters began to search for "new faces" in politics. The Prešov region displays unconditional trust for regional politicians (parties) (63%). According to the survey findings, we observe the disparity in confidence in social institutions: public organizations in Bratislava versus the church in Prešov. We believe that the level of conservatism, rather than specific party ideologies, is the primary factor influencing individuals' perceptions of European politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government utilizes communication to share messages within the internal environment and society. The People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI) employs the Parliamentary Bulletin for this purpose, recognizing its effectiveness in fostering positive community relations. This study tries to elucidate the text's tactical maneuvers for reshaping political players' public personas in Parliamentary Bulletins and dismantling societal structures in speeches. This study examines the DPR's communication techniques in Parliamentary Bulletins using Teun A. Van Dijk's theory, which describes deliberate activities that weaken social institutions and influence political actors' opinions. The study investigates Puan Maharani's persistent presence on page three using Van Dijk's analysis from the 1200-1210 edition and qualitative approaches. In reality, 575 DPR RI members from 9 factions in 80 electoral districts can be sources of information. These findings show that media texts strategically portray political figures in the public sphere, influencing perceptions based on Berlo's image theory and Habermas' communicative ratio. Puan dominates the display of titles, profile introductions, and news stories. The discourse's social structure is divided into three levels: macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure. This study focuses on the relationship between media representation, deliberative democracy, and public access to comprehensive information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of secularisation has long been a subject of considerable interest among sociologists of religion. This process is intricately linked with modernization, which represents a fundamental dynamic driving societal change and reshaping various social institutions. According to some sociologists, religion, once a central institution, has begun to lose its influence and prominence as societies modernize. Numerous scholars, particularly sociologists have articulated this observation. Western sociologists have approached the study of secularisation through different paradigms, including “the old secularisation paradigm,” “the new secularisation paradigm,” and “the alternative (eclectic) secularisation paradigm,” the latter of which often focuses on non-Western contexts. For instance, Bryan Ronald Wilson (1926-2004), a prominent representative of the classical paradigm, has authored several influential works on new religious movements, such as Sects and Society: Magic and the Millennium (1973) and The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism (1990). From a different perspective, Rodney Stark (1934-2022), a key figure in the new paradigm, has contributed extensively to the discourse on religion and secularisation through publications such as The Triumph of Faith (2015), A Theory of Religion (1987), The Future of Religion (1985), and various articles including “Secularization, R.I.P.” (1987) and “Must All Religions Be Supernatural?” (2015). Our study aims to examine, evaluate, and compare the perspectives of Bryan Wilson and Rodney Stark on secularisation using qualitative analysis and literature review methodologies. For the sake of comparison, we will focus on Stark's and Wilson's views on secularization and religion. In addition, the study aims to illuminate the evolution of secularization paradigms over time and show that although secularization is associated with modernity, it is perceived differently within the new paradigm. Furthermore, focusing on the perspectives of these two sociologists, we will analyse what role new religious movements and pluralistic understandings play in this context. On the other hand, Wilson argues that subjective religiosity remains high in Europe, suggesting that secularisation has significantly impacted traditional religious groups and contributed to the formation of new cults. Specifically, we will examine Wilson’s assertion that, in modern society, churches have become “a post office,” visited only as needed, and that the rise of new religious movements reflects the diminished importance of religion in society. For Wilson, these movements are considered a secularized form of religion. According to Stark, secularisation has notably impacted traditional, low-intensity religious groups, it has not precluded the emergence of fervent cults and sects. Stark argues that although the influence of traditional religious institutions has diminished due to secularization, religious practices persist. We will explore Stark's views on religion and secularisation, including the evidence for secularisation and the proliferation of new religious movements in the modern world. In the final analysis, this paper claims that despite the decline in the influence of traditional religious institutions due to secularisation, religious practices have persisted in different forms or structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The school, like many other social institutions, is not immune from the far reaches of heteronormativity. To further understand and challenge such an oppressive regime, our study paid closer attention to how selected gay men wield their agency in the context of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. Our analysis is anchored on the assumptions of the theory of the Chordal Triad of Agency (CTA). This theory sees agency as constructed temporally (past, present, and future) through social engagements or relational contexts of action. Data were drawn from in-depth interviews with 30 self-identified gay faculty. This empirical study reveals that the critical forms of social engagement in exercising gay agency are academic, interpersonal, and public in nature. Informed by the dimensions of the CTA, the specific ways of wielding gay agency are distancing strategically and displaying masculinity (iterative dimension); dissenting intellectually (practical-evaluative dimension); and segueing lessons, transforming time stereotypes, and queering tasks (projective dimension). This article not only reveals the power of dissent, as evident in the multiple and creative ways gay agencies are wielded, but also examines the conducive role of academic freedom offered by HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an autoethnographic approach, this article focuses on the experiences of two male dance educators/researchers living with/through terminal cancer. Autoethnographers analyze their 'unique life experiences in the context of the social and cultural institutions that have shaped the world the researcher inhabits.' Drawn from a larger research project, Dance Educators Living With/Through Cancer (DELC), this collaborative duoethnography comprises the co-authors' self-narrative accounts of life with cancer, which were analyzed thematically. The themes presented center on the public and private aspects of living with/through cancer and reflect the authors' cancer experiences along with their social, emotional and physical dis-ease arising from living cancer lives. Explication of resultant impacts on both personal and professional identities seeks to support others with terminal disease in order to lead reflective and meaningful lives while dying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy theories continue to threaten individuals, groups, and social institutions. They are easily spread through social media and are attractive to many in society. These theories commonly target perceived dangers to those in power and, thus, can undermine both social justice and human rights. Consequently, social work—with its focus on social justice and the person-in-environment framing—must assume a proactive role in dealing with these theories, which includes interventions at many different levels of practice beginning with education. Social work's goal of achieving inclusive, diverse, and equitable societies demands that the profession assume an active role in challenging these theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family is a social institution essentially based on love and trust, in contrast being a phenomenon included violence in almost all societies throughout history. Family has been defined as a social institution providing its members with love, trust, and a sense of belonging. Family has been also described as a secure environment; however, it can admit various crimes and human rights violations. Therefore, it should be approaching to the concept of family with rather than its most ideal form, with considering how safe the individuals living within the family are. Instead of being expected to be the safest spaces for its members, the family institution can sometimes turn into places where traumas of children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities are concealed. Therefore, both of laws and the level of awareness in society regarding the family institution need to be high. While children and women, likewise many disadvantaged groups, have been becoming the subjects of abuse within this institution, a magical silence in there can overshadow the abuse so much that hiding it from view. Incest, especially against children, has been one of the significant social issues having a potential risk in all societies. Being a shape of domestic violence with low apparent, it has been selected as the subject of the study. Since girls at most have been primarily exposed to incest crime, a sexual abuse/violence within the family that its perpetrators try to conceal the crime with threats and violence, women who had childhood sexual abuse history within the family were included in the study. Boys who experienced sexual abuse within the family during their childhoods were not included in the study. Therefore, the study has been focused on women who experienced abuse during their childhoods. While the universe of the research constitutes the Catharsis program hosted by Clinical Psychologist Gökhan Çınar, the sample consists of women experienced childhood sexual abuse within the family who participated in the Catharsis program between January 1, 2020, and December 25, 2023. 10 programs have been evaluated in this study. These issued programs are participations of women who are asked to evaluate the effects of their experiences of the childhood sexual abuse within their families during their childhood on their lives from their own perspectives. The study has analyzed the responses of the participants to the program host, their understanding of the situation, definition, ways of coping with it, and the effects on their lives and subjected them to content analysis. In this context, four main themes have been identified through the analysis of participants' statements, and these themes have been further divided into 10 categories. Women in the program experienced sexual abuse during their childhoods, which they did not understand and could not interpret. The prominent points emerged from the study have been that incest crime within the family has been defined by perpetrators as a "game," kept as "a secret," which pushes victims to blame/condemn themselves and leaves them alone in dealing with the abuse. While fear and pressure have been used as the most convenient way to conceal incest crime, women who experienced the childhood sexual abuse as children have been observed to lose their futures in the details of the trauma they experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different social institutions involved in the development and distribution of science and technology tend to promote, primarily, commercial and private interests, even in situations with high social stakes. Acknowledging how these interests interplay with social and epistemic values is fundamental for understanding the role of values in science today. To show this, I use the global pandemic and the race to develop and distribute vaccines against COVID-19 as an example. I argue that a mere circumstantial alignment of values across the social institutions of science is not enough and that instead we need a more substantive alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We carry out most of our epistemic projects as groups. Networks of individuals work together to identify questions, accumulate evidence, and settle on answers that lie beyond the ken of individual knowers. This is particularly important for controversial issues. And when it comes to ideologically contested issues, groups that are ideologically diverse in their membership are epistemically superior to groups that are ideologically homogenous. That's because ideologically diverse groups are better at (a) identifying a representative sample of important questions, (b) developing a wider range of potential answers, and (c) evaluating the evidence for and against each option. Awareness of this point produces a competence defeater for the relevant outputs of ideologically homogenous groups: they don't deserve the high level of trust we often grant them. That, among other things, goes a long way towards justifying the public's decreased trust in institutions like social networks, journalism, and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing the colonial era under the British colonization and Chinese presence in Nigeria, this study challenges the so-called "neo-colonialism" regarding Chinese activities in Nigeria and argues that China and Nigeria have a strategic cooperation which pursues each political and economic benefits through analyzing China's state-business relationship with Nigeria. Regarding studying China–Africa relationship, this study emphasizes to focus on specific African countries' domestic history, social development, and political and economic institutions. The paper contributes to the existing literature by involving the study on Nigeria's domestic political situations and social institutions and how these link with Chinese engagement in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by a critical institutional perspective, in this article attention is turned to the choice to have an independent celebrant-led wedding ceremony in England or Wales. As these ceremonies fall outside the current legal framework, it explores how the decision to have a further wedding ceremony in addition to a legally binding wedding may indicate a weakening of legal marriage norms. Triangulating data collected from three focus groups attended by 19 celebrants, with seven semi-structured interviews with individuals who have had an independent celebrant-led wedding ceremony, two key themes are described. First, a mismatch between legal norms which expect marrying couples to take a passive detached role and an expressed desire for ceremonial autonomy including familiarity with the marriage celebrant. Second, a lack of awareness of what legal marriage involves and perceptions of legal formalities as akin to an administrative process which may be easing their separation from ceremonial rites perceived to be meaningful. Further studies with larger samples are needed to determine the extent to which personal and communal validity rather than legal validity constitutes the social institutional form of marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of University of Cumhuriyet, Faculty of Sciences & Arts 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.)

Copyright of Hacettepe University Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences / Hacettepe Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economic & Administrative Sciences 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.)

In this article, the author offers a theoretical analysis of the social responsibility of higher education, particularly on the Community Engagement (CE) concept, which has gained traction in recent decades as one process through which higher universities interact with external actors, enhancing their societal impact. He argues that the mainstream CE concept reproduces universalistic visions of the university and overlooks the multiple power dynamics of those interactions. The mainstream CE concept is helpful for managerial and administrative goals, for university staff and leaders to delimitate this practice, and to position a normative standard or aim (e.g., public good and social justice). However, it struggles to account for the relationship between CE practices and other processes present in the global higher education system, such as the world class university project and academic capitalism. In this article, the author analyzes the limitations of the mainstream CE notions of community, university, and engagement and synthesize innovative CE studies and relevant antecedents in the fields of political economy and global history of science, sociology of higher education, and network theories, to propose a socio-historical approach to CE. In this socio-historical approach, "community" needs to be understood as a complex group of interests in dispute, embedded in different power dynamics, complicities, and co-dependences with academy, science, and scholars. "University" should be defined as a social institution, an open-ended organization grounded in the conflicts of the "community," a socialization space for students and scholars, and a disputed workplace. Therefore, they are not a priori oriented towards the public good. "Engagement" means emergent and coconstituted networks, whether fragile or consolidated, not reduced to one-way or two-way relations. Later, I apply the socio-historical approach to describe CE in the Chilean higher education system, emphasizing how it allows us to understand the uneven position of peripheral and semi-peripheral countries (i.e., the Global South). Lastly, in the conclusion, I delineate how this approach could be used in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banishment and criminal transportation were common legal practices in early modern Europe. With roots in the classical and medieval periods, banishment was a convenient tool for dealing with the troublesome members of the community by sending them to overseas colonies, where people were scarce and labor was expensive. And most colonies used banishment for their own criminal and rebel populations. Strong employment in the Netherlands, effective social and regulatory institutions in the towns there, and the lack of any powerful, centralized state all kept the Dutch from adopting transatlantic criminal transportation. But that particular difference between them and their competitors has obscured the fact that the Dutch used banishment and penal labor at the local and regional levels. Studying these traditions allows a better picture of the Dutch underclass and a better understanding of how colonial rulers established their authority and fostered an atmosphere of stability and order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is considered an important dimension for building more egalitarian societies. However, despite the social value assigned to it, international evidence indicates that the social status of students' families continues to prevent significant mobility in the social structure. In Chile, despite policies to increase access to higher education, the university system continues to reproduce inequalities of origin through selection, separating elite students from low-income students. In this context, little is known about the perception that university students have of the role that these institutions play in social mobility, especially for those of more disadvantaged social origins. This article explores and describes the persistence of the university dream among Chilean's students at the Catholic University of Temuco, the Chilean educational institution with the highest percentage of poor students in the country, analyzing it on the understanding that aspirations represent idealist targets of the desired social class, while expectations represent realistic goals regarding the expected social class. Based on a statistical analysis of survey data from 209 students, results show that students' family origin does not prevent them from projecting themselves as part of a higher class, with the university acting as an agent that dynamizes positions to favor greater homogeneity in the future social structure. In addition, postgraduate degrees are defined as a catalyst for future social mobility. Finally, the future tensions between the still-hegemonic meritocratic discourse and the reality of the social space that these students will occupy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the production of news making is evidenced in published content about the complex social phenomenon of murder-suicide. Building on Reese and Shoemaker's hierarchical model (2016), this study aims to understand the impact of the individual, routines, ideological, organisational and social institution levels on news content surrounding a case of murder-suicide in the Republic of Ireland. Data was gathered from in-depth interviews with journalists and news editors who detailed the nexus of competing interests that influence their work processes. Findings reveal how organisational structures, coupled with ideological orientations, industrial routines and the professional ideology of objectivity, acted as crucial gatekeepers, encouraging a dependency on elite sources. A crime narrative supported through the operationalisation of a media template perpetuated a hierarchy of victims. These representations served to mirror the institutionalised patriarchal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the continuation of the pathological morphology research program at neuroscience-related institutes from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society after World War II. It covers the research tradition in the brain sciences, which can be described by an emphasis on gross anatomy, the functional implications of morphological substrates, and the analysis of neurohistological research paths of the human brain in comparative contexts. To enable examination of the assimilation processes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society's legacy, the decisions and developments of the newly created Max Planck Society in Germany and its early brain science facilities will be assessed for the time period from 1948 to 2002. Pertaining to these overall developments in the Max Planck Society, a persistence of the "morphological paradigm" (microanatomy, pathology, comparative anatomy, etc.) can be identified as lasting until the 1960s. The newer "functional paradigm" (neurophysiology, electroencephalography, cybernetics, and behavioral studies) only became more visible when the first generations of the scientific leaders left their positions in this national research society. It is of note that many directors and scientific members, including Detlev Ploog (1920–2005), Dieter Lux (1924–1995), Georg W. Kreutzberg (1932–2019), Otto Detlev Creutzfeldt (1927–1992), Hans Thönen (1928–2012), Manfred Eigen (1927–2019), Erwin Neher (b. 1944), Hartmut Wekerle (b. 1944), Albert Hertz (1921–2018), Bert Sakmann (b. 1942), and Wolf Singer (b. 1943) were part of the American Neuroscience Research Program as associates, members, conference chairs, or trainees. Likewise, they joined the Society for Neuroscience early on, after it had emerged from the Neuroscience Research Program's steering committee in 1969. This article seeks to clarify the context of the reorganization of the brain research-related Max Planck Institutes during the postwar period after World War II. Its trajectory includes the location of the institutes, their previous involvement in applied research, and personal continuities in scientific leadership positions, contributing to debates during the first decades of the Max Planck Society. The lens of pathological brain research emerges here as an important viewpoint to aid the understanding of the continued impact and concerns over the dominant morphological approaches in postwar West German neurology and psychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is about to be swamped by an unprecedented wave of AI-generated content. We need reliable ways of identifying such content, to supplement the many existing social institutions that enable trust between people and organisations and ensure social resilience. In this paper, we begin by highlighting an important new development: providers of AI content generators have new obligations to support the creation of reliable detectors for the content they generate. These new obligations arise mainly from the EU's newly finalised AI Act, but they are enhanced by the US President's recent Executive Order on AI, and by several considerations of self-interest. These new steps towards reliable detection mechanisms are by no means a panacea—but we argue they will usher in a new adversarial landscape, in which reliable methods for identifying AI-generated content are commonly available. In this landscape, many new questions arise for policymakers. Firstly, if reliable AI-content detection mechanisms are available, who should be required to use them? And how should they be used? We argue that new duties arise for media and Web search companies arise for media companies, and for Web search companies, in the deployment of AI-content detectors. Secondly, what broader regulation of the tech ecosystem will maximise the likelihood of reliable AI-content detectors? We argue for a range of new duties, relating to provenance-authentication protocols, open-source AI generators, and support for research and enforcement. Along the way, we consider how the production of AI-generated content relates to 'free expression', and discuss the important case of content that is generated jointly by humans and AIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world of increasing complexity, I propose that the concept of emotional intelligence is limited for understanding how people manage their family relationships and interactions with community systems. I review the background of the emotional intelligence concept and point out its limitations for dealing with multilateral relationships. I define systems intelligence as the capacity to effectively interact in multilateral relationships, including families, work groups, and social institutions. Systems intelligence encompasses the understanding of interpersonal systems, and the practical ability to act constructively in those systems. I also make a distinction between competency in dyadic relationships (relational intelligence) and competency in multilateral relationships (systems intelligence), and I illustrate systems intelligence with respect to stepfamilies and families' relationships with health‐care professionals. A principal implication for the family field is to move beyond a focus on dyads (parent/child and couple) to include multilateral relationships that are intrinsic to family life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theoretically investigate the equilibria and efficiencies of public and market insurance institutions within a framework where loss probabilities are interdependently influenced by the efforts of individuals and institutions (firms). We highlight the multilateral nature of interdependency, which exists within individuals, within firms, and between them. Our analysis reveals that both public and market institutions fall short of achieving first‐best efficiency, and that the relative efficiencies between the two are indeterminate, due to the externalities. Regarding effort levels, we find that under the public institution, individual efforts are lower while institutional efforts are higher compared with the social optimum and the market institution. We also find that individual and/or institutional efforts are lower under the market institution than the social optimum, with both efforts lower under severe externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community of practice (CoP) has been seen as a pivotal support for higher education institutions to implement their social responsibilities. Even though this model is widely admired, assessing its effectiveness and sustainability still faces many challenges: (1) the absence of an appropriate index reveals the significance of CoP; (2) the difficulty of realizing quantitative assessment; and (3) the strategies to improve contribution sustainably by considering CoP development. To address these challenges, a comprehensive Higher Education Social Responsibility Contribution Index (HESRCI) is constructed by taking into account the CoP key influence factors. An FBN model is further developed for the purpose of assessing the various corresponding contributions quantitatively and investigating the potential interdependencies between influence factors. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evidenced by the quantitative indication of CoP's contributions to priorities. Research findings also highlight the significance of CoP governance, the mechanism of resource allocation, and team development, in particular, in facilitating the synergy between university development and sustainable socio-economic growth. In addition, it provides data support and a theoretical basis for higher education institutions to make more informed decisions when implementing industry-education integration strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a natural process where microbes develop the ability to survive the antimicrobial drugs we depend upon to treat and prevent deadly infections, such as antibiotics. This microscopic evolution is further propelled by human activities, where each use of an antimicrobial drug potentially induces AMR. As microbes can spread quickly from animals to humans and travel around the world through humanity's global circuits of movement, the use of any antimicrobial drug has potentially global consequences. As human-induced AMR occurs, mortality and morbidity increase due to increasingly or sometimes completely ineffective antimicrobial treatments. This article considers AMR as a product of the evolving and complex interplay between human societies and invisible microbial worlds. It argues that as a political challenge, AMR requires robust institutions that can manage human–microbial interactions to minimize the emergence of drug resistance and maximize the likelihood of achieving effective antimicrobial use for all. Yet, current governance systems for AMR are ill-equipped to meet these goals. We propose a conceptual paradigm shift for global AMR governance efforts, arguing that global governance could better address AMR if approached as a socioecological problem in need of sustainable management rather than solely as a medical problem to be solved. In biodiversity governance, institutions are designed to fit the biological features of the ecosystems that they are attempting to manage. We consider how a similar approach can improve global AMR governance. Employing the concept of ecological fit, which is defined as the alignment between human social systems and biological ecosystems, we diagnose 18 discrepancies between the social institutions that currently govern AMR and the ecological nature of this problem. Drawing from lessons learned in biodiversity governance, the article proposes five institutional design principles for improving the fit and effectiveness of global AMR governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Arts & Social Sciences (JASS) is the property of Sultan Qaboos University 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.)

Student gender differences in technology acceptance and use have persisted for years, giving rise to equity concerns in higher education (HE). To explore if such differences extend to generative artificial intelligence (genAI) chatbot use, we surveyed a large Norwegian HE student sample (n = 2692) using a fully mixed concurrent equal status design. Our findings show that men exhibit more frequent engagement with genAI chatbots across a broader spectrum of applications. Further, men demonstrate a heightened interest in genAI chatbots as tools and in their relevance to future career prospects. Women primarily utilize genAI chatbots in text-related tasks and express greater concerns regarding critical and independent thinking. Women also exhibit a stronger need to learn how to determine when it is wise to use and how to trust genAI chatbots. Consequences are discussed for the individual, society, and HE institutions in terms of social reproduction, diversity competence, and equitable teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child maintenance is not just a fundamental right but a crucial human need, essential for meeting the basic requirements of children. It also plays a vital role in preventing single mothers from carrying the sole burden of parenthood, which can exacerbate poverty and marginalisation. Against this backdrop, this study examines how social systems and institutions perpetuate structural violence, disproportionately impacting women. Specifically focusing on child maintenance in East London, South Africa, this research sheds light on how existing structures may compound the difficulties encountered by single mothers in securing financial support for their children. The research objective is to understand how structural violence contributes to women's poverty in child maintenance cases. Employing an exploratory qualitative design with a purposive sample of 54 participants, the study reveals that women already facing structural inequalities are most affected by a lack of child support. This forces them to rely on their limited income to raise their children, pushing them further into poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gibson House Museum, located in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, has a significant track record of acknowledging and incorporating LGBTQ history into its programs, presentations, and tours. Yet this history is complex. The museum, a kind of Victorian time capsule, was founded by Boston poet Charles Hammond Gibson Jr. (1874–1954) in the mid-twentieth century as a literary monument and shrine to himself; however, family members and the early board of directors were never really comfortable with Gibson’s eccentricity and sexual identity and in the early years sought to “eradicate his problematic presence” from the museum’s collections, tours, and presentations. Reckoning with the museum’s engagement and disengagement with issues of race and class is still an open question. By the end of the twentieth century, the museum began to explore and incorporate LGBTQ history, as well as race, class, and gender, into its interpretive framework. Yet the narratives the museum has crafted to engage audiences and express its own history and identity reveal ongoing tensions within the institution as a social, cultural, and ideological space. These interlaced narratives, backchannel negotiations, pregnant silences, and even shadow stories were often implied or insinuated rather than stated directly. In particular, reckoning with the museum’s engagement and/or disengagement with issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality is still somewhat tentative and very much an open question. Blending critical museology and interdisciplinary history and contextualizing the museum and its founder, this essay explores the dialectics of inclusion and exclusion that inform and yet fragment the museum’s self-fashioning and ongoing reimagining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper explores the challenges of industrial development by examining two contrasting theoretical frameworks: (i) the mainstream economic approach which emphasizes capital accumulation, innovation, and profit maximization within a globalized context, and (ii) the classical institutional economics perspective, rooted in the so-called "Veblen Dichotomy". The latter contrasts monetary institutions focused on short-term profits with those centered on organizational, social, environmental, and business values that foster long-term technological progress. We analyze reindustrialization processes and assess the hypothesis that the conflict between these divergent institutions and social values plays a critical role in creating an institutional environment conducive to innovation and economic development. Our research highlights how technological advancements contribute to the physical and geographical fragmentation of industrial activities, thereby driving the spatial restructuring of economies. Furthermore, this paper addresses the growing prominence of intangible production, noting how deindustrialization, driven by shifts toward service-based economies, is closely related to the broader processes of globalization. The paper employs cluster analysis to explore the links between reindustrialization, institutional dynamics, and societal values across four groups (clusters) of countries. Our results reveal differences and similarities between these groups of countries and offer policy implications and suggestions for improvements. These results might be of special interest for relevant stakeholders and policymakers, as well as for researchers focused on innovative industrial and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studies have examined the correlates of institutional trust across Asian countries, few studies have analyzed public attitudes toward two major social control institutions, the police and courts, in the Philippines. This study fills this gap in the literature by exploring the connections between social trust, institutional performance, media exposure and consumption, and trust in the police and courts. Using recent survey data from the Asian Barometer Survey, regression models were employed to assess and compare whether these factors are predictive of police and court trustworthiness. Results reveal the importance of social trust and institutional performance in predicting Filipinos' trust in the police and courts. However, media exposure and consumption were largely ineffective in predicting police and court trust. Given the Philippines' unique historical and political context, these findings contribute to existing literature and provide implications for future research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of market-driven corporate philanthropy on educational institutions and their social actors, with a focus on how ideas of English and women’s empowerment become institutionally entrenched with subject-making processes in the context of higher education in Bangladesh. While questions about how late capitalism as a global phenomenon shapes language education policy and practice have been raised and discussed widely within the applied linguistics and sociolinguistic literature, we argue that there has been less academic attention to how these logics penetrate institutions of higher education through partnerships between private universities, local governments, work industry and multinational philanthropic organisations. The potential social cost of accepting the offer or seeking social responsibility from the philanthrocapitalists for educational institutions, particularly for women in the Global South, has also evaded scholarly scrutiny in the language disciplines. Drawing from an ethnographic study of a group of women garment workers from socio-economically less privileged backgrounds studying in a private international university, the article addresses these gaps by examining the communicative modelling of the social persona of an “empowered woman”, with attention to the affects and effects involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few papers have studied the impact of informal institutions on the fulfilment of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of informal institutions, proxied as the Confucian culture, on CSR. The results show that the Confucian culture is beneficial to promoting the fulfilment of CSR, and this positive impact is unchanged after robust tests. Confucian culture will affect CSR through corporate reputation and industry peer effects. Through a series of heterogeneity tests, we found the following results: (1) The promoting effect of Confucian culture mainly exists in non-state-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. (2) In areas with imperfect formal institutions and underdeveloped economies, the informal institutions represented by Confucian culture can play a complementary role to formal institutions, assisting in promoting CSR. (3) The impact of foreign culture will weaken the positive role of Confucian culture in fulfilling CSR. Based on the introduction of Confucian culture, our findings clarify and highlight the role of informal institutions on CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the need and types of support for children with a parent in prison, the measures in place to know who they are and the consequences of associated policies for their development. These are discussed within a cultural‐historical child development framework and, within that, questions are raised about optimal development and children's rights. The article is grounded in a mixed‐methods study of a support service for children of prisoners in Worcestershire. Parental imprisonment can impact negatively on societal, institutional and personal aspects of children's development. However, when children are supported through family‐centred, relationship‐focused, strengths‐based services, they can engage more fully in the institutions and social situations of their daily lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]