We checked OSF preprint providers on Friday, June 13, 2025, for preprints that the authors had classified under the subject of "Social and Behavioral Sciences". For the period June 06 to June 12, we retrieved 72 new preprint(s).

Politics, Economics, Sociology

No classified.
Capital Conversion and the Formal–Informal Divide: Structural Poverty in Dutch Cities
Floris Noordhoff
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This article investigates how structurally poor urban residents in the Netherlands endeavour to convert limited economic, social and cultural capital into labour-market positions, and why formal routes fail while informal ones partially succeed. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, field, conversion and symbolic violence, we analyse 216 qualitative interviews from Amsterdam-Noord, Rotterdam-Delfshaven and Amsterdam-Bijlmermeer (1997–1999). An abductive thematic coding reveals that, in the formal field, participants encounter multiple barriers: insufficient finances preclude investment in education; welfare regulations penalise training; and low-paid “subsidised” jobs carry heavy stigma and minimal financial gain. In contrast, the informal economy permits partial “conversion” of under-utilised capital via trust-based networks and norms of reciprocity. Acquaintance ties enable odd jobs and self-provisioning, yielding predictable (unreported) incomes while preserving benefits. Yet informal work is illegal, precarious—subject to sanctions and irregular hours—and morally contested by some respondents. Crucially, even precarious informal work sustains dignity and self-worth, whereas formal options are either inaccessible or perceived as demeaning. We theorise these dynamics through Bourdieu’s notion of conversion capacity—the field-specific ability to transform one form of capital into another—and demonstrate that structural inequalities operate through symbolic misrecognition and field-specific logics. Formal fields impose conversion barriers and symbolic violence, devaluing the poor, while informal fields allow limited capital exchange on moral terms. Policy implications include the need to reconceive conversion capacity as relational and field-specific, shifting attention from individual deficits to structural constraints.
No classified.
Social Capital and Upward Mobility: Insights from Spatial Analysis of Economic Opportunity in the U.S.
Alejandra Rodríguez-Sánchez
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Chetty et al. (2022) present compelling evidence that economic connectedness—the connection between people from low- and high-income backgrounds measured using Facebook data—is a strong predictor of upward social mobility in the United States. Their analysis, based on a global regression model, offers a powerful national perspective but implicitly assumes spatial uniformity in this relationship. Building on their work, this study reexamines that assumption by applying geographically weighted regression (GWR) to the same datasets. GWR enables coefficients to vary by location, uncovering spatial heterogeneity in the association between economic connectedness and mobility. Our findings reveal considerable regional variation: while strong positive associations are evident in areas like the Northern Plains, weaker or even slightly negative relationships emerge in the South and along the East and West coasts. These results suggest that the impact of economic connectedness may differ meaningfully across geographic contexts. Rather than contradicting the original conclusions, this study highlights the added value of spatially sensitive approaches, which can inform more nuanced and locally tailored policies aimed at enhancing upward mobility in diverse communities across the United States.
No classified.
Welfare Compliance Struggles: Symbolic Violence and the Reproduction of Poverty in Welfare Bureaucracies
Floris Noordhoff
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Persistent poverty often intertwines with humiliating encounters in welfare bureaucracies. This article examines how strict compliance demands can inflict symbolic violence and thereby reproduce poverty. Drawing on 216 in-depth interviews with long-term low-income individuals in the Netherlands, we use abductive qualitative analysis to explore experiences of welfare surveillance and stigma. We find that compliance is frequently experienced as humiliation, leading claimants to withdraw, self-exclude, and suffer relational disempowerment. Bureaucratic practices—through street-level discretion, compliance regimes, and exclusion—impose a demeaning “undeserving” identity on clients. This symbolic violence undermines claimants’ self-worth, discourages benefit take-up, and strains their relationship with the state. The article advances social policy theory by linking welfare compliance struggles to Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence and highlights the need for policy reforms to mitigate stigma and empower welfare recipients. These findings carry important implications for improving the dignity and effectiveness of welfare provision, in the Netherlands and beyond.
No classified.
Feasibility and Acceptability of a Conversational Agent (Chatbot) for Ambivalent Smokers: Results from a Proof-of-Concept Study
Uma Nair, Karah Greene, Grace Girgenti, George Danquah, Stephanie Lynn Marhefka, Jason Craggs, Kristin Kosyluk, Jerome T Galea
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Most smoking cessation research targets individuals intending to quit smoking, leaving a research and practice gap for individuals not actively contemplating quitting. Chatbots are easy-to-use scalable platforms to deliver behavior change interventions. Our goal was to develop and test acceptability and feasibility of a chatbot for people who are ambivalent about quitting smoking. We completed two studies. In Study 1, n=309 people completed a cross-sectional survey that assessed user preferences for the proposed prototype using a discrete choice experiment. Three primary attributes were identified for the chatbot and programmed for user testing. In Study 2, n=20 participants engaged with the chatbot for a 2-week period. Participants reported a significant reduction in the strength of their strongest urge over the 14-day period (t=-3.32; p<.005). Our proof-of-concept chatbot prototype was acceptable and feasible. Next steps include refining our chatbot intervention prototype with enhanced participant-elicited preferences and efficacy testing in a larger-scale trial.
No classified.
Who benefits most? Intervention-induced changes in the social networks of people living with dementia
Doris Gebhard, Jan Ellinger
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This is a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed. For most people living with dementia, their social network shrinks as the disease progresses, especially when they move into a care home. Many experience major barriers to build social relationships in the new living environment and additionally there is a lack of effective interventions to promote social contacts between residents. Considering this, the aim of the present study is twofold: (1) to investigate the effect of two interventions (physical activity [PA] vs. PA plus social component [PAS]) on the social networks of people living with dementia in long-term care facilities using an ordinal mixed-effects model, and (2) to identify the participants who benefit most from these interventions through descriptive profile analysis. Sociocentric networks of the intervention groups were assessed before and after the respective 12-week interventions. Photographs served as a facilitative tool, enabling participants to identify their social contacts and evaluate the quality of these relationships, categorizing them as positive regard, casual friend, or true friend. Loneliness, the importance of friendships within the facility and the attitude towards peer residents were assessed in interviews. 46 people living with dementia (87.1±7.3 years, 82.6% female) from six care homes participated in the interventions. In five out of six social networks, both graph density and weighted graph density increased. The average graph density across the PA groups increased by 14.8% and by 153.3% in the PAS groups. The results of the ordinal regression analysis confirm a significant positive time effect across both intervention types (β = 2.29, 95% CI = [1.36; 3.86]) as well as for each intervention type separately. Evident interaction effects (β = 5.76, 95% CI = [2.87; 11.57]) indicate that the time effect in the PAS groups (β = 10.68, 95% CI = [6.11; 18.69]) was significantly higher than in the PA groups (β = 2.61, 95% CI = [1.47; 4.63]). The profile analysis indicates that a higher level of cognitive functioning in particular contributes to greater benefit. The observed results fit in well with the current state of research and at the same time underline the benefits and necessity of using social network analysis approaches in research with people living with dementia in the long-term care setting.
No classified.
Who polices which boundaries? How racial self-identification affects external classification
Maria Abascal, Amada Armenta, William Halm, Daniel Hopkins
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This study explores whether Americans agree on the ethnoracial categories that are worth policing. It evaluates how receptive White, Black, Latino, and Asian Americans are to how others self-identify by race/ethnicity. Insights from Bourdieu on classification struggles combined with status characteristics theory and gender research suggest that all Americans will police the higher-status White category more than other ethno-racial categories. Other possibilities include White exceptionalism—only White Americans police the White category most—and ingroup overexclusion—everyone polices their own category most. In a conjoint experiment with two samples we find White, Black, Latino and Asian Americans all police the White category most diligently, i.e., they are less responsive when someone identifies as White than when they identify as Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern or North African, or, in most cases, Black. Our results reveal a consensus across Americans on a racial classification schema that reinscribes the contemporary racial hierarchy.
No classified.
Global inequalities in arts and creative engagement in and outside school: analyses of 441,183 15-year-olds across 73 countries
Hei Wan Mak, Nisha Sajnani, Nils Fietje, Daisy Fancourt
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Arts and creative engagement is a recognised human right and offers significant benefits for young people. However, past research, predominantly from Western countries, shows arts engagement is often low and socially patterned. It was unclear if this holds globally or across in-school and out-of-school contexts. We analysed data from the OECD PISA which surveyed 441,183 15-year-olds across 73 countries, and found substantial variation in engagement. Notably: (1) Countries with higher in-school engagement rates also have higher out-of-school engagement rates. (2) Most students engage more in arts in school than out of school. (3) Individual-, school, and country-related factors may influence engagement. Schools hold the potential to equalise engagement in and outside school and thus reduce cultural, health and academic inequalities.
No classified.
La Paradoja de la "Escritura Humana" en la Era de la IA: Desposesión Simbólica del Yo y sus Implicaciones Académicas
OMAR ENCINAS MENDOZA
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La irrupción de la inteligencia artificial (IA) generativa ha redefinido radicalmente el proceso de escritura, gestando una paradoja central: la creciente demanda de "escritura humana" como respuesta a los filtros éticos y académicos es, irónicamente, a menudo satisfecha por plataformas que operan con IA. Este artículo analiza esta dinámica a través del lente de la "delegación simbólica del yo", un concepto fundamental propuesto por Omar Encinas Mendoza. Se argumenta que este fenómeno no solo diluye la autoría y el proceso cognitivo inherente a la escritura, sino que profundiza una desposesión simbólica estructural. El marco teórico de Encinas Mendoza se distingue por su diálogo crítico con conceptos sociológicos clásicos, postulando la superación del habitus de Bourdieu por el tecnohábitat digital, y la superestructura de Gramsci por la superinterfaz, como categorías analíticas cruciales para comprender la subjetividad digital contemporánea. Se examinan las implicaciones éticas, cognitivas y socioeconómicas de esta tendencia, particularmente en contextos académicos y en vías de desarrollo, donde el uso acrítico de la IA puede exacerbar la desigualdad en el desarrollo de habilidades esenciales y la autonomía intelectual. El artículo adopta una metodología teórico-interpretativa rigurosa, combinando el análisis crítico de la literatura con la observación de fenómenos digitales, para desarrollar un marco conceptual sólido que ilumine la expansión de este fenómeno omnipresente.
No classified.
Seeds of Sovereignty: Designing Regenerative AI for Plural Epistemologies
Anurag Kadel
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Generative AI systems are increasingly integrated into knowledge workflows, yet their fluency and speed can obscure a critical threat: the erosion of epistemic integrity. Users may imitate AI outputs, converge prematurely, or misinterpret confidence as understanding—producing brittle knowledge loops that collapse under scrutiny. This paper introduces a dual-friction framework to address these risks. The Memetic Design Loop models how mimetic desire and semantic drift unfold across human–AI exchanges, highlighting the cognitive vulnerabilities induced by fast, confident AI. To counteract this, we propose design interventions that embed intentional slowness, divergence, and reflective scaffolding into AI-mediated reasoning environments. Drawing from epistemic friction theory, mimetic philosophy, and regenerative design principles, we present a methodology that resists premature closure by foregrounding attentional rhythm, deliberative pause, and conceptual variation. We also offer a two-layered evaluative lens focused not on performance, but on epistemic resilience: the system’s capacity to sustain plurality, preserve semantic coherence, and foster reflective trust. AI systems do not merely process information—they shape the cognitive environments in which decisions are made, beliefs are formed, and knowledge is legitimized. As such, they must be studied not only as technical tools, but as socio-technical systems: assemblages of algorithms, interfaces, cultural norms, institutional logics, and human desires. This paper contributes to an interdisciplinary discourse at the intersection of design theory, epistemology, and social science by articulating how AI interfaces co-produce epistemic authority, and how design choices encode political, ethical, and cognitive consequences. We position friction not just as a technical affordance, but as a cultural and epistemic intervention—opening space for dissent, pluralism, and attentional agency in systems increasingly optimized for speed and conformity. In doing so, the work aligns with ongoing debates in science and technology studies (STS), critical AI ethics, and the sociology of knowledge infrastructures, offering both a critique and a design philosophy for preserving epistemic sovereignty in AI-augmented societies.
No classified.
Advancing Healthcare Sustainability Through Integrated Triple Bottom Line Implementation: A Comprehensive Framework for Economic Prosperity, Environmental Quality, and Social Equity
Amin A. Sadabadi
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Healthcare systems worldwide face unprecedented challenges in balancing quality care delivery with environmental responsibility and economic viability. This article presents a comprehensive framework for sustainable healthcare implementation based on the triple bottom line approach, integrating economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity dimensions. Drawing from recent research and practical implementation strategies, particularly in Nordic healthcare contexts, this study examines innovative approaches including digital transformation, renewable energy adoption, green building standards, and community engagement initiatives. The framework demonstrates how healthcare institutions can achieve carbon neutrality while maintaining operational excellence and expanding access to underserved populations. Key findings indicate that integrated sustainability approaches can reduce operational costs by up to 30% while improving patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on sustainable healthcare practices and provides actionable insights for healthcare administrators, policymakers, and sustainability professionals.
No classified.
Time Discounting, Relative Risk Aversion, and Educational Inequalities
Herman van de Werfhorst
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Using recently collected survey data merged with register data from the Netherlands, this study examines the predictive value of personal concerns with avoiding downward mobility and time discounting preferences for later school careers. Following implications of relative risk aversion theory and time discounting theory, the results show that children from low-income households need to have both a concern to avoid downward mobility and a higher willingness to wait for longer-term returns in order to make it to the higher tracks. Starting from the premise that, given earlier performance, it would be rational to go on to the highest possible track to avoid downward mobility, the Dutch early-tracking system assumes that students oversee a long educational future to optimize their educational investment. This assumption is less valid for low-income students, which could explain why early tracking increases socioeconomic inequalities in school careers.
No classified.
The Weakness of Weak Ties Revisited: Social Capital under Constraint
Floris Noordhoff
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Persistent poverty raises questions about the role of social networks in facilitating upward mobility. Granovetter’s classic theory of the “strength of weak ties” posits that weak, bridge‐like ties can connect disadvantaged individuals to new opportunities, yet evidence from impoverished contexts suggests these ties often fail to deliver leverage. This article revisits the weak ties hypothesis in the context of long-term poverty in the Netherlands. Drawing on 216 in-depth interviews with low-income residents of urban neighbourhoods, we examine how social capital operates under conditions of scarcity and constraint. The findings reveal three interrelated dynamics that undermine the potential benefits of weak ties. First, dilemmas of honour and status lead people to avoid exploiting social connections for material gain, as they prioritise dignity and reciprocity norms over opportunism. Second, reciprocity expectations and the work of time show that unmet obligations and temporal lags in exchange erode trust, causing initially supportive ties to wither. Third, risk assessment and the cost of connection highlight how uncertainty and negative past experiences make individuals wary of new or distant contacts. Together, these factors constrain the usefulness of weak ties for getting ahead, even when such ties are present. We discuss how these findings refine social capital theory by illuminating the social processes that temper the “strength” of weak ties in persistently poor communities. Policy efforts to reduce poverty by “building bridges” must account for the contextually rooted norms of honour, reciprocity, and trust that condition network behaviour.
No classified.
Markets of Trust: Moral Economy and Social Control in the Urban Informal Economy
Floris Noordhoff
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Informal economic practices are often portrayed as opportunistic or normless, especially in contexts of urban poverty. This article challenges such views by showing that informal economies are structured by dense moral logics and informal systems of trust, control, and symbolic capital. Based on 216 in-depth interviews with low-income residents in disadvantaged Dutch neighbourhoods, the analysis reveals how informal exchanges are morally regulated through norms of honour, respectability, and reputation. These dynamics create boundaries between acceptable help, fair trade, and illegitimate hustling. While trust and informal surveillance foster accountability and solidarity, they also produce exclusionary hierarchies, gendered obligations, and moral tension. Rather than a retreat from norms, informal economies represent a contested moral field where individuals navigate the pressures of scarcity, dignity, and community judgement. The article contributes to theoretical debates on moral economy, social capital, and informal regulation, and cautions against simplistic policy models of self-reliant citizenship. Informality under constraint is not the absence of order—but the presence of a different, often invisible one.
No classified.
Relational Agency under Constraint: Rethinking the Structure–Agency Debate through Urban Poverty
Floris Noordhoff
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This article develops the concept of relational agency under constraint to move beyond voluntarist and dualist models within the structure–agency debate. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of persistent poverty in Dutch urban contexts, it integrates empirical evidence with a relational theoretical framework. Building on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital, Archer’s morphogenetic approach, Emirbayer and Mische’s temporally embedded agency, and Lamont’s work on symbolic boundaries, agency is reconceptualised as emergent through social relations yet bounded by structural constraints. The article demonstrates how residents facing long-term poverty act in morally, temporally, and relationally embedded ways—navigating formal and informal economies, negotiating territorial stigma through boundary work, and coping with the symbolic violence of welfare bureaucracy. Agency is shown not as mere free will nor as a structural epiphenomenon, but as a contextually enacted capacity shaped by history and inequality. This advances the relational turn in sociology by illuminating agency’s structural embeddedness.
No classified.
Quatro Dynamic Thinking: Its Applicability
Shigenori Tanaka
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Tanaka (2025) proposed a new theoretical framework for thinking called Quatro Dynamic Thinking (QDT). QDT represents an innovative framework that organically integrates four cognitive dimensions: the depth dimension (diving thinking), the breadth dimension (expanding thinking), the relational dimension (networking thinking), and the temporal dimension (flowing thinking). Each dimension maintains independent value while generating emergent insights and innovative solutions through mutual interaction. This study shows the effectiveness of QDT through practical cases including food technology business development, English acquisition system development, and climate change countermeasures. Furthermore, the study develops specific practical methods such as Quatro Scan and Dynamic Shifting, and presents a staged guideline for organizational implementation. This paper is an attempt at demonstrating QDT’s high potential as a new cognitive toolkit for the interconnected and complex challenges of the 21st century, contributing to improvements in problem-solving capabilities of individuals and organizations.
No classified.
Karl Jaspers and the Epistemological Confrontation with Reality: Boundary Situations, Collective Transcendence, and the Limits of Human Understanding in the Twenty-First Century
Richard Murdoch Montgomery
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Abstract This article examines Karl Jaspers' epistemological framework through the lens of contemporary philosophical challenges, arguing that his concepts of boundary situations, transcendence, and methodological pluralism provide essential resources for addressing twenty-first century crises of knowledge and meaning whilst requiring critical reconstruction to encompass collective dimensions and cross-cultural perspectives. The investigation proceeds through systematic analysis of Jaspers' theoretical architecture, demonstrating how recent developments in collective phenomenology, postphenomenological technology studies, and cross-cultural methodology transform his originally individualistic framework into a sophisticated resource for contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship. Drawing upon Margaret Gilbert's joint commitment theory, Dan Zahavi's collective intentionality research, and Kwok-ying Lau's double epoché method, the study reveals how boundary situations manifest collectively whilst maintaining existential authenticity. Critical engagement with feminist, postcolonial, and Indigenous perspectives illuminates both the enduring significance and necessary limitations of Jaspers' framework, whilst Peter-Paul Verbeek's technological mediation theory and Yuk Hui's cosmotechnics provide resources for addressing artificial intelligence ethics and digital transformation. Clinical applications through phenomenological assessment tools demonstrate the continued vitality of Jaspersian approaches in contemporary psychiatric practice, whilst environmental applications reveal how climate crisis constitutes a species-level boundary situation demanding collective existential response. The article concludes that whilst Jaspers' epistemology requires critical reconstruction to address issues of power, social positioning, and ontological pluralism, his fundamental insight regarding the confrontation with limits as generative of authentic knowledge remains indispensable for navigating contemporary boundary situations, now understood as irreducibly collective phenomena requiring cross-cultural dialogue and technological wisdom. **Keywords:** Karl Jaspers, epistemology, boundary situations, collective transcendence, phenomenological psychiatry, methodological pluralism, existential philosophy, artificial intelligence ethics, environmental philosophy, cross-cultural dialogue, postphenomenology, cosmotechnics
No classified.
Мандрівництво у східнослов'янській культурі
Olexii Varypaiev
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This dissertation presents a comprehensive philosophical and cultural analysis of the phenomenon of pilgrimage (mandrivnytstvo) in East Slavic culture. It traces the evolution of this concept from a widespread form of folk religious life in the 10th–19th centuries to a subject of philosophical reflection in the 19th and 20th centuries. The research identifies key archetypes such as the kalika perekhodyi and the “wandering monk,” linking them with deep-rooted spatial and eschatological metaphors that shaped national mentalities. A central focus is placed on the Ukrainian line of pilgrimage thought, particularly embodied in the works and life of philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda and later echoed by Mykola Hohol. Their contributions helped elevate pilgrimage from popular custom to a symbol of spiritual quest and national cultural identity. The work also explores the cultural opposition between “pilgrimage” and “wandering” (as estrangement), which became central to philosophical and literary discourse during the Russian Silver Age. This binary is examined through the writings of N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, and others, highlighting pilgrimage as a moral and ontological category. In the postmodern era, pilgrimage is reinterpreted as a metaphor for virtual movement, identity search, and cultural decoding in a digitized world. The study concludes that pilgrimage remains a vital concept for understanding East Slavic spirituality, national identity, and the transformation of cultural narratives. Keywords: pilgrimage, wandering, East Slavic mentality, eschatology, cultural identity, postmodernity Abstract (Ukrainian) Дисертація являє собою всебічний філософський і культурний аналіз феномену паломництва (мандрівництва) в східнослов’янській культурі. У роботі простежується еволюція цього поняття — від поширеної форми народного релігійного життя в Х–XIX століттях до предмета філософського осмислення в XIX–XX століттях. Дослідження виокремлює ключові архетипи, такі як каліка перехожий і «мандрівний чернець», пов’язуючи їх із глибоко вкоріненими просторовими та есхатологічними метафорами, що формували національні ментальності. Особливу увагу приділено українській лінії паломницької думки, зокрема, втіленій у житті та творчості філософа Григорія Сковороди та пізніше відбитій у творчості Миколи Гоголя. Їхній внесок сприяв піднесенню паломництва від народного звичаю до символу духовного пошуку та національної культурної ідентичності. У роботі також розглянуто культурну опозицію між «паломництвом» і «блуканням» (як відчуженням), яка стала центральною для філософського та літературного дискурсу доби Срібного віку в Росії. Ця бінарність аналізується через твори М. Бердяєва, С. Булгакова та інших, де паломництво постає як моральна й онтологічна категорія. У постмодерну епоху паломництво переосмислюється як метафора віртуального руху, пошуку ідентичності та культурного декодування в оцифрованому світі. Дослідження доходить висновку, що паломництво залишається життєздатним поняттям для розуміння східнослов’янської духовності, національної ідентичності та трансформації культурних наративів. Ключові слова: мандрівництво, паломництво, блукання, східнослов’янська ментальність, есхатологія, культурна ідентичність, постмодерн.
No classified.
Arts-based support group for people who use drugs: A low-barrier, harm reduction approach
Andrew David Eaton, Megan Rowe, Shiny Mary Varghese, Vidya Dharma Reddy
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Support groups are commonly accessed for substance use issues, but primarily discourage or disallow active substance use during the group process. Employing community-based participatory research, we offered a low-barrier support group for people who use drugs, where sobriety was neither mandated nor encouraged, from a liberatory harm reduction and dislocation theory perspective. Facilitator session reports and participant artwork were analyzed to derive three themes and six sub-themes. Storytelling as a Site of Healing and Resistance explores subthemes of voicing lived experience and bearing witness to one’s story. Peer-Led Learning explores the subthemes of collective knowledge sharing and consciousness-raising process. Environmental and Bodily Safety explores subthemes of flexible engagement and art as a tool for grounding. By exploring the dynamics of a low-barrier, harm reduction support group for people who use drugs, this article offers a rare empirical contribution to an area that remains otherwise underexplored.
No classified.
Fundraising on the Fringe: Do Ideologically Extreme Candidates Solicit Small Donations?
Seo-young Silvia Kim
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Do ideologically extreme candidates actively pursue small donations? The literature on money in politics debates whether "small" individual campaign donors are more ideologically extreme than large donors. This paper reverses the question, investigating whether extreme candidates request smaller contributions from potential donors. Using data from U.S. congressional candidates' fundraising platforms in the 2020 elections, I examine how campaigns typically present a set of suggested donation amounts to solicit money from potential donors efficiently. While party, in-state income levels, and the usage of major fundraising platforms mattered, ideological extremism had no bearing on the amounts candidates asked for. Given that solicitation amounts have been long and easily optimized through A/B testing, I interpret this as extreme candidates not finding it profitable to ask for smaller amounts, which is more aligned with the view that small donors are not more ideologically extreme than large donors.
No classified.
Mentoring Relationships among Low-SES Youth in Singapore: Barriers, Enablers, and the Role of Social Capital
Nilanjan Raghunath, Vincent Chua
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Mentoring is widely recognized as a catalyst for upward social mobility among youth from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. However, relatively little is known about how disadvantaged youth negotiate and experience effective mentoring relationships in practice. This study addresses that gap by examining the barriers and enabling factors that influence whether these young people can benefit from mentorship. The study employs a mixed-methods design, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from Singaporean youth (ages 18–25) residing in public housing. This paper reports the qualitative results of the study, while the quantitative results are reported in a different paper published in a journal. The analysis explores personal narratives to illuminate the interplay of factors that shape access to mentoring relationships and the potential of these relationships to improve the life outcomes of low-SES youths. The findings indicate that low-SES youth in Singapore rely heavily on family and peer networks for guidance in decision-making, yet struggle to engage in formal mentoring relationships that provide practical, relevant support aligned with their aspirations and needs. These results underscore the importance of applying a social capital lens to mentorship initiatives, integrating them with youths’ existing support systems to ensure that guidance is meaningful for their upward mobility. This research is funded by the Social Mobility Foundation (LKYSPP, NUS)
No classified.
SAMPAH DAN MANUSIA: SOLUSI HUMANISTIK UNTUK KRISIS SAMPAH DI PEKALONGAN
Atik Riqobana
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Artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji tentang krisis pengelolaan sampah di Pekalongan, baik dari segi pandangan masyarakat, pemerintah, serta penawaran solusi dalam permasalahan pengelolaan sampah ini melalui pendekatan yang menggabungkan integrasi teknologi modern, nilai-nilai humanistik, dan tidak lepas dari prinsip-prinsip ajaran Islam. Dalam islam begitu menekankan pentingnya menjaga kebersihan dan keseimbangan alam, sebgai benuk tanggung jawab dan moral manusia terhadap bumi. Dalam konteks ini, modernitas seperti teknologi, bisa dijadikan solusi alternatif. Penerapan teknologi seperti pirolisis dan daur ulang, namun penerapannya harus sesuai dengan kebijakan yang adil dan berkelanjutan agar dapat memberikan manfaat yang merata bagi seluruh masyarakat. Pendekatan humanistik ditekankan melalui parsitipasi aktif dari masyarakat, pemberdayaan kelompok yang terdampak sampah, serta adanya distribusi yang bermanfaat dan adil. Artikel ini menggunkan metode deskriptif-kualitatif, dengan studi literatur dan kajian kontekstual serta survei langsung di wilayah Pekalongan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa pengelolaan sampah yang efektif memerlukan sinergi antara kebijakan pemerintah yang mendukung, ilmu pengetahuan, nilai-nilai islam dan kontribusi dari masyarakatnya sendiri atau etika kemanusiaan untuk mencapai keberlanjutan lingkungan yang teratur dan kesejahteraan sosial.
No classified.
One of the lads? Exploring the intersections of masculinities, football, and gambling
Christopher Bunn, Gerda Reith, Blair Biggar, Heather Wardle
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In the digital age, gambling has evolved from traditional physical spaces to virtual platforms easily accessible via smartphones. This shift has significantly impacted the gambling industry's profits, particularly in sports betting, which is heavily intertwined with football. Gambling companies have strategically aligned their products with masculinity and football fandom, fostering what some call the "gamblification" of football culture. In this climate, research has highlighted the multitude of harms associated with gambling, especially among vulnerable groups like young men. Public health interventions, such as the Football Fans in Training (FFIT) program, have leveraged the cultural significance of football clubs to promote healthy lifestyles and behaviour change. We carried out research that aimed to adapt this kind of intervention to address gambling harm among men through a programme we named Football Fans and Betting (FFAB). However, despite its intentions, FFAB faced a number of challenges related to the normalization of gambling within football environments and the stigma associated with seeking help for gambling problems. This paper examines the intersection of masculinity, football, and gambling harm prevention through the lens of the FFAB program. It suggests that disrupting the harmful relationship between gambling, sports, and masculinity requires contesting entrenched cultural norms and industry practices. It calls for tighter regulatory control, challenging responsible gambling discourse, and creating discursive spaces where men can address gambling harm without stigma. By reframing gambling harm as a systemic issue, attention can be redirected toward industry accountability and the creation of safer environments for vulnerable individuals.
No classified.
Address Challenges Markowitz (1952) Faces: A New Measure of Asset Risk
George Y. Nie
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Markowitz (1952) asset risk (MAR) has long been challenged. First, as an impostor of asset risk, volatility captures the noise of asset risk over maturity that improperly reflects asset risk (which has to be measured over a unit of time length to be cumulative since asset holder’s risk approaches zero as the holding time length approaches zero). Second, we argue that asset risk approaches zero as distance approaches zero, and that asset risk drives volatility, but not vice versa, implying that asset risk cannot be diversified away. Third, support to MAR appears to arise from a confusion between asset value and wealth utility: the law of diminishing marginal utility supports that volatility reduces the latter. The above causes explain why CAPM and Fama-French models have long been struggling to price asset volatilities. To address the challenges, we propose that the volatility (variance) of realized (expected) asset value approaches zero as distance approaches zero. We delineate expected asset value (which asset risk impacts without a distribution) and volatility (which does not affect the former while following a lognormal distribution with the risk noise following a normal distribution). Our asset risk for a specific asset excludes the macrorisk in Nie (2024a) that is tied to all assets denominated by the currency. We show that equity price is the present value of a spanning bond, a payment spanning over the predictable lifetime of firm performance, and that an option is an equity bond whose price minus the present value mirrors the overcharge or transaction cost. Our examples show how to compute debt and equity risk. Our asset risk, captured as risk premium, thus solves issues that have long been challenging agency theories, thereby redefining firm misevaluation theory.
Classified as: Psychology, Communication
Do Conspicuous Consumption Motives Explain Eco Friendly Consumption Decisions? Evidence from Social Media Exposure Effects
Senyo Obed Amponsah, Yoonjae Lee
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While past research suggests that conspicuous consumption does not support the goals of sustainable consumer behavior, emerging evidence indicates that it can drive green product choices in online contexts. However, the online mechanisms that support this process remain unclear. This study employs a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling approach to examine how conspicuous consumption motives influence green purchase intentions when consumers are exposed to green content on social media. It hypothesizes that social media exposure, Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), and social comparison act as antecedents to green conspicuous consumption motives, with perceived quality moderating these relationships. Data was collected from 346 social media users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. Results indicate that conspicuous consumption motives significantly mediate the relationship between FOMO, social comparison, and green purchase intentions. While perceived quality enhances the effect of social comparison on conspicuous consumption, it does not significantly impact the relationship between FOMO and conspicuous consumption. These findings highlight the role of social media in shaping green purchase decisions and suggest that businesses and policymakers can leverage conspicuous consumption motives to promote sustainable consumer behavior. By positioning green products as both environmentally responsible and status-enhancing, marketers can appeal to consumers’ desire for social validation.
Classified as: Library and Information Science
Usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools for Academic Activities by Undergraduate Students: A Quantitative Study at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) Library
Sandun Chamara Weerasinghe, H. M. P. P. K. Abeysinghe
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AI is revolutionizing various fields in Sri Lanka, including academic libraries. Understanding how undergraduates use AI tools for academic activities is crucial for enhancing library services. This study intended to explore, usage of AI tools for academic activities among final-year undergraduates. The study population was four hundred and sixty-seven (467) students from the computing faculty at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) who had library membership. Out of the population, 100 students were selected as the sample using the convenience sampling method. The quantitative research design was employed in the study. The survey method was used to collect data from the selected sample. A structured questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. Frequency counts and simple percentages were used to analyze the collected data. According to the study, 99% of undergraduate students used AI tools for academic activities. The most frequently used AI tool is ChatGPT (94%), followed by Quill bot and Grammarly. Students use AI tools to check grammatical errors (73%), enhance subject knowledge (68%), and summarize content (67%). Fifty-two percent (52%) of students think using AI diminishes critical thinking, but most disagree that using AI is cheating. Ninety percent (90%) of students claim to know how to use AI ethically. It is recommended that access to proper language editing tools should be offered, as students rely on ChatGPT for grammar correction. Emphasizing the importance of using reputed publications when enhancing students' subject knowledge, raising awareness about library e-resources, and creating AI usage policies collaboratively with faculties would also be an appropriate intervention. Finally, providing training on AI tools for research and initiating workshops to educate students on ethical AI use and proper citation is appropriate. Keywords - AI tool, ChatGPT, Undergraduate students, SLIIT Library
Classified as: Library and Information Science, Science and Technology Studies
Censorship, Artificial Intelligence, and AI Literacy: Responding to New Challenges in an Enduring Agenda for Libraries and Librarianship
Michael Ridley, avram anderson
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This paper focuses on AI censorship, an under addressed aspect of AI risk that intersects with the foundational library tenets of information literacy and intellectual freedom. AI censorship is a form of “automated censorship in which AI systems are used to selectively suppress or block specific types of information, content, or voices deemed undesirable to those controlling the AI.” This paper examines AI censorship in the context of existing threats and library principles. It explores specific techniques and methods of AI censorship. Lastly, it recommends adopting a critical AI literacy perspective that includes a political dimension essential to understanding AI censorship.
Classified as: Library and Information Science, Science and Technology Studies
Beyond the oligopoly: Scholarly journal publishing landscapes in Latin America and Europe
Emanuel Kulczycki, José Octavio Alonso Gamboa, María Fernanda Beigel, Luciano Digiampietri, Mikael Laakso, Janne Pölönen, Zehra Taskin, Gabriel Vélez
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Global scholarly publishing is often described as being dominated by international commercial publishers, particularly those indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. However, this perspective overlooks the diversity of journal ecosystems, especially in non-English-speaking countries. This study examines scholarly journal publishing in seven countries across Europe and Latin America – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Mexico, Poland, and Turkey – using ISSN Center data and national sources. We categorize publishers according to their institutional and organizational characteristics and assess their coverage in WoS, Scopus, and OpenAlex. Our findings show that educational institutions are the dominant publishers in most countries, accounting for over 75% of journals in Colombia and Brazil and over 50% in Mexico, Argentina, and Poland. Finland is an exception, where scientific and professional associations lead (62.0%). Commercial publishers play a minor role, with their highest shares in Turkey (12.1%) and Poland (8.2%). Regarding database coverage, OpenAlex indexes over 50% of journals in most of the covered countries, while WoS and Scopus index only a small fraction. These results challenge the assumption of a globally uniform publishing system and highlight the need for bibliometric research to consider ways to improve the use of data sources and analysis methodologies so that national publishing structures are also included.
Classified as: Library and Information Science
Why engage with transformative agreements in scholarly publishing? Analysis of customer and publisher press release statements
Mikael Laakso, Philips Ayeni
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How open access (OA) should be supported has been a frequent point of debate during the last three decades as different pathways have been created and evolved. One particular point of contention has been the use of institutional contracts between customer institutions and academic journal publishers, so-called transformative agreements (TAs), where subscription-based reading access is bundled with OA publishing rights. This study explores the motivational reasonings given by customers and publishers engaging with TAs. This study provides a thematic content analysis of customer and publisher statements from 95 press releases announcing new TAs involving five large scholarly journal publishers. Existing literature on motivational reasoning for open science, OA, and TAs was reviewed in order to create an initial set of codes to be used, which was complemented with an inductive process producing additional codes based on categorisation of reasonings that did not fit within the initial codes.The study found that TAs were supported for a variety of reasons, where both customers and publishers stressed better research dissemination, facilitating a transition towards OA publishing, and improved workflow management for publishing and invoicing. Customers emphasized economic and equality aspects while publishers did so to a notably lesser degree. This study complements the active area of bibliometric studies on TAs with a rich qualitative study based on a set of press releases that have not been used for this type of research, establishing a solid foundation for future studies to build upon.
Classified as: Higher Education, Educational Psychology, Psychology
Moral Development in College Students
Hyemin Han
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Researchers and educators have found that college students, who are entering young adulthood, are experiencing radical transitions to become independent individuals. Studies in moral psychology suggest that developmental changes occurring during this transitional period likely impact people’s flourishing in social and civic domains in the long term. Hence, educators working in higher education may need to understand moral development among college students well to facilitate the students’ positive youth development in their instruction and mentorship. In this chapter, I will overview theories and research findings about moral development among college students while considering their educational implications. Furthermore, I will suggest several educational strategies to promote ethical and positive development based on evidence to inform higher education instructors interested in promoting ethical development and flourishing in college students. At the beginning of the chapter, I will briefly review existing theories and empirical findings about moral development in various functional domains during late adolescence and young adulthood, where most college students are situated, for readers’ information. First, the classical theory of moral development focusing on moral judgment and reasoning, the (Neo-)Kohlbergian theory will be reviewed. According to this model, college students are experiencing the formation and consolidation of the postconventional schema, which is required for a sophisticated moral judgment to deal with complicated socio-moral issues. Second, I will examine recent advances in research on moral development during young adulthood that approach ethical development and functioning as multifaceted phenomena. These will include studies on positive youth development in moral domains (e.g., civic purpose development involving concerns on the beyond-the-self beings) and practical wisdom (phronesis) development. These novel research findings will provide integrative and comprehensive theoretical models of ethical functioning and development in college students. Given the classical developmental model could not completely address the gap between judgment and behavior, the up-to-date theories mentioned above will shed light on understanding the mechanism of ethical motivation and behavior for improving education. In the next part of the chapter, I will suggest several practical guidelines for instructors in higher education who intend to promote their students’ moral and positive development based on multidisciplinary research in moral psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and computer science (particularly artificial intelligence research). I will focus on the role of instructors as students’ moral models and mentors assisting in exploring and expanding their ethical horizons and implementing learned morals and virtues into action in diverse situations and contexts. Findings from multidisciplinary research will be overviewed to support the necessity of the modeling and mentoring approach in ethics education in higher education. Furthermore, several instructional strategies to boost the effectiveness of the modeling and mentoring-based approach will be introduced along with supporting evidence from empirical studies.
Classified as: Anthropology, Linguistics
Lost in Translation: Evaluating the Performance of Five Publicly Available Machine-Translators for Luganda-English Interpretation
Rick Mwebaza
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Luganda, after English, is the most popular language in Uganda (Ssentanda and Nakayiza, 2015), boasting over 20 million speakers across the globe in 2021 (New Vision, 2021). Despite its ubiquity, Luganda has been labelled a “low resource language” (Kimera et al., 2025). This project aims to evaluate the performance of five publicly available services (Bing Translator, Google Translate, Perplexity AI, ChatGPT, Google Gemini) in Luganda to English and English to Luganda Translation.
Classified as: Environmental Studies, Communication
Can moral framing reduce climate change polarization? Textual and experimental evidence from Norway
Johannes Due Enstad, Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud
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We analyzed the moral valence of elite rhetoric on climate change in Norway (1,039 opinion articles across 5 years) and examined whether morally framing climate mitigation appeals to match people’s own values affected attitudes. Using a novel method for computational text analysis, we found elite rhetoric increasingly emphasized moral universalism (care, equality) over particularism (loyalty, authority, purity). In a survey experiment (N = 3,868), universalist values predicted agreement with all climate mitigation appeals regardless of framing, while particularist values predicted disagreement with all but one appeal. This appeal, focusing on national interests and respect for local communities, resonated strongly with particularists and reduced political polarization in appeal agreement, but was underrepresented in elite rhetoric relative to more divisive framings. However, moral frame exposure showed no downstream effects on broader climate attitudes. Nevertheless, we argue that the universalist bias evident in elite rhetoric may contribute to polarization over time.
Classified as: Religion
Confessions of a Green Consumer: Exploring Religiosity, Virtue Signaling, and Sustainable Choices
Senyo Obed Amponsah, Judith Owusuaa-Foster
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This study explores how intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity influence green purchase intentions, with conspicuous virtue signaling (CVS) as a mediator. Surveying 206 young Ghanaians, the findings show intrinsic religiosity directly boosts eco-friendly buying, while extrinsic religiosity enhances green behavior indirectly via increased CVS. Both religiosity types unexpectedly raise self- and other-oriented virtue signaling, which in turn impact green choices; revealing that even socially motivated religious individuals can support sustainability. These results suggest green marketing can successfully appeal to both moral convictions and social recognition, offering a new perspective on how faith-based and status-driven motivations together shape environmentally responsible consumption.
The U.S. Public Opinion on Gaza and Policy Implications: An Empirical Analysis
kerry liu
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On February 4, 2025, U.S. President Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza shocked the world. This study aims to interpret the policy shift by analyzing evolving U.S. public opinion on Gaza. Using Google Trends data from September 2018 to March 2025, it constructs innovative time series variables to capture the U.S. public agenda. The analysis reveals a structural shift in public sentiment beginning in October 2023. Prior to that, opinion was largely reactive to isolated extreme events. Afterward, discourse was driven by polarized narratives: (far)-left slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea,” and far-right apocalyptic themes, proxied by interest in Jesus’ Second Coming. Moderate positions—such as “Gaza Genocide” and “Stand with Israel”—are generally marginal. These findings suggest a potential trajectory toward radical U.S. policy on the Israel–Palestine conflict. Future research should explore whether other Trump–Vance administration policies also reflect this apocalyptic public outlook.
Politics
From liberalisation to regulation: managerial political work in the European digital copyright policy (2014–2019)
Céleste Bonnamy
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The 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market represents an intriguing departure from the anticipated path of liberalisation in public policy. While it includes provisions seemingly aligned with the liberalisation of the Digital Single Market by relaxing digital copyright enforcement, it also introduces mechanisms that bolster digital copyright protection, signalling a shift towards market regulation. This paper explores why and how Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission proposed a directive featuring robust regulatory elements despite initial promises of copyright deregulation within the Digital Single Market. Combining insights from political economy and political sociology, I examine the concept of ‘political work’ as the practice of promoting, defending, and implementing a choice of public action. Within this framework, I identify a managerial dimension of political work involving political practices that influence the institutional structure and management of public action. Utilising a qualitative methodology involving twelve in-depth interviews with Commission officials conducted between 2018 and 2021, alongside document analysis, I demonstrate how Jean-Claude Juncker and his cabinet’s managerial political work, encompassing organisational reforms within the Commission, played a pivotal role in steering the proposed policy towards regulation.
Politics Sociology
Paradigms and Practice
Nicolas Jabko, Sebastian Schmidt
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Thomas Kuhn’s concept of paradigm has long been a part of ordinary parlance in political science. Aside from its role in metatheoretical debate, scholars have enlisted the paradigm concept to explain policy change, particularly in the international political economy (IPE) literature. In this context, policy paradigms are defined primarily in ideational terms and with respect to a specific domain of policymaking. We argue that this stance overstates the ideational coherence of policymaking and runs a risk of reification. We re-evaluate the paradigm concept by drawing a link to the recent literature on norm change that emphasizes the importance of practice and process. This analysis highlights theoretical difficulties in using the paradigm concept, as the relation of ideas to practical logics elides the distinctness of paradigmatic frameworks. Without clear boundaries, paradigms lose much of their analytical purchase. While the paradigm concept initially proved useful in highlighting the role of ideas, it is time to recognize its limits in explaining stability and change in policymaking.
Politics
To Order the Minds of Scholars: The Discourse of the Peace of Westphalia in International Relations Literature
Sebastian Schmidt
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References to the Peace of Westphalia have played an important role in the discourse of international relations. Originally referred to as a concrete historical event and associated with a variety of meanings, such as the triumph of state sovereignty, the establishment of a community of states, and even the beginnings of collective security, the Peace was later transformed into a conceptualization of the international system. Beginning in the late 1960s, phrases like “Westphalian system” came to convey a package of ideas about international politics limited to the supremacy of state sovereignty, territoriality, and nonintervention, to the exclusion of other meanings. This conceptualization serves as a popular and convenient contrast to a more globalized order, but there are problems with its use: first, because the Westphalian system is an ideal-type that might never have actually existed, the impact of globalization may be exaggerated by scholars who employ it. Second, its use implies a linear progression from some Westphalian configuration toward some “post-Westphalian” state of affairs, whereas actual system change is likely to be more complex.
Politics
The Concept of Power and Its Formation
张成军
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Description:‌ This article is a translation of the first two chapters of my Chinese book Power Analysis（权力分析） = Research on Power (ISBN 978-988-76814-1-0), published in 2023. The book has been collected by over 40 libraries worldwide, including the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Harvard-Yenching Library, Princeton University Library, Columbia University Library, the Berlin State Library, and the Library of Congress. Under the publishing contract, I retain the rights to translate and adapt my original work. To facilitate academic exchange, I have translated and hereby publish the first two chapters of the book in this article.Official Website‌: [ http://www.hxcbcl.com/a/product/p3/349.html ] Baidu Baike (China's largest online encyclopedia) https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%9D%83%E5%8A%9B%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90/64436821
Politics
How Using Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration Shifts Citizens’ Expectations of Street-Level Bureaucracy
Mikael Poul Johannesson, Sveinung Arnesen
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This paper examines the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on citizens' expectations of street-level bureaucrats. Using survey experiments fielded in The Norwegian Citizen Panel, we assess how AI's role as a decision-support tool affects the importance citizens place on various bureaucratic traits. Our findings suggest that when street-level bureaucrats use AI, citizens will sometimes want bureaucrats that are more similar to themselves, and also tend to consider bureaucrats' technical expertise as less important. This suggests that as AI takes on more of the technical judgments that is part of bureaucratic decision-making, citizens place greater importance on the human elements of bureaucracy, such as shared experiences and empathy. This research highlights the growing need to understand how the use of AI will shift citizens' expectations of public institutions.
Politics
Reciprocity and Democratic Accountability
Benjamin Blumenthal, Salvatore Nunnari
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In this paper, we introduce reciprocity concerns in a political agency model with symmetric learning about politicians’ ability and moral hazard. Voters with reciprocity concerns are both prospective—that is, seek to select competent politicians—and retrospective—that is, reward fair actions and punish unfair ones. We focus on how electoral incentives induce politicians to exert effort (electoral control) and how voters remove incompetent politicians (electoral screening). We show that taking voters’ reciprocity concerns into account has important normative implications and can overturn results from standard models that neglect them: increasing transparency about the incumbent’s effort improves electoral control if and only if voters have sufficiently strong reciprocity concerns; increasing benefits from office improves electoral control if and only if voters have sufficiently low reciprocity concerns. Moreover, we show that reciprocity concerns can affect electoral screening, by affecting the competence threshold incumbents must clear to ensure reelection, generating incumbency advantages or disadvantages.
Politics Economics
Penalties for Particularism and Partisanship? Citizens' Preferences for Legal Punishment of Clientelism
Jeremy Horowitz, Giacomo Lemoli, Kristin Grace Michelitch
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In weak-state settings, clientelism is persistent yet normatively fraught, constituting a “legal gray area”. This study examines two key features of commonplace clientelism that may govern whether and to what extent citizens deem it punishable by the law. We posit a “particularism penalty,” by which citizens desire greater punishment for actions targeting narrower social groups, and an “outgroup actor penalty”, by which preferred punishment is greater for ethnic-political opponents. A survey experiment with Kikuyu and Luo respondents in Kenya reveals that respondents prefer more punishment for explicitly targeting supporters — coethnics or copartisans — versus general people, with little difference between coethnics and copartisans, regardless of the perpetrator’s partisanship. At the same time, they systematically prefer more punishment for partisan outgroup actors. These findings underscore that public opinion would support a legal evolution away from clientelism towards supporters, even as citizens remain more lenient towards ingroup members.
Politics
Chinese Cinematic Visions: Popular Film, Strategic Ontology, and Prospects for Conflict
Jarrod Hayes, Adam B Lerner
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The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) re-emergence as a major world power has prompted substantial questions regarding its aims and the potential for future global conflict. While many studies have approached these questions through the traditional lenses of foreign and security policy analysis, this study undertakes an analysis of contemporary Chinese popular cinema. The core premise is that popular media like cinema are important components of social systems of meaning making, informing everyday strategic ontologies of the international system. Film offers insight into how societies understand themselves as political actors in relation to others on the world stage, both reflecting and reinforcing dominant strategic ontologies. Our discourse analysis of 20 recent box office hits in the PRC thus provides clues into potential future policymaking logics. Within the article, we place particular emphasis on how representations of self and other enable and bound PRC agency on the world stage. Among multiple findings, we argue that the films reveal that the PRC understands itself as, above all, a status quo power with great respect for both international law and other actors’ sovereignty—a positive sign for those hoping to avoid military conflict. Nevertheless, the films also highlight deep and longstanding grievances over foreign interference in the PRC’s regional sphere of influence that have the potential to stoke conflict if aggravated in the future.
Politics
The Long Twilight of Gold: How a Pivotal Practice Persisted in the Assemblage of Money
Nicolas Jabko, Sebastian Schmidt
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Why has gold persisted as a significant reserve asset despite momentous changes in international monetary relations since the collapse of the classical gold standard? IPE theories have little to say about this question. Conventional accounts of international monetary relations depict a succession of discrete monetary regimes characterized by specific power structures or dominant ideas. To explain the continuous importance of gold, we draw on insights from social psychology and new materialist theories. We argue that international monetary relations should be understood as a complex assemblage of material artifacts, institutions, ideas, and practices. For much of its history, this assemblage revolved around the pivotal practice of referencing money to gold. The centrality of gold as experienced by policymakers had important effects. Using archival and other evidence, we document these effects from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference through the transition to floating exchange rates in the mid 1970s – a period during which most IPE scholars underestimate the role of gold. Power relations and economic ideas were obviously important but contributed little to a fundamental development: the long process of reluctantly coming to terms with the limitations of specie-backed currency, and the progressive and still ongoing de-centering of gold in international monetary relations.
Politics Economics Sociology
Boots on the Ground: Means, Ends, and the American Military Commitment to Europe
Sebastian Schmidt
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the security commitment it entails are cornerstones of the current international order. Despite this centrality, international relations scholarship is ill equipped to explain the origin of the American commitment to Europe in the form of a long-term, peacetime military presence. At the time, this disposition of military forces represented a historically novel practice. The rational and norm-oriented logics of action that characterize much international relations theory explain cooperation as proceeding from a foundation of given interests. This perspective constrains the ability of analysts to make sense of the dynamic nature and potential creativity of cooperative endeavors. Building on a pragmatist understanding of action, this paper conceptualizes cooperation as a contingent process, characterized by the reciprocal relationship of means and ends, through which actors’ initially ambiguous interests become more concrete. The ends of cooperation emerge endogenously, and the potential for creativity is inherent in the process. This dynamic resulted in the specific form of the American commitment to Europe. A pragmatist account foregrounds agency and in doing so draws attention to important developments that traditional analyses may overlook or assume in the effort to reconstruct a pre-existing structure of interests as the basis for cooperation. By underlining the processual cast of action, this paper also helps recontextualize institutionalization as one step within a broader cooperative dynamic.
Politics Sociology
Foreign Military Presence and the Changing Practice of Sovereignty: A Pragmatist Explanation of Norm Change
Sebastian Schmidt
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Recent years have seen an increasing interest among international relations scholars in applications of pragmatist thought. Few works, however, have gone beyond discussing the epistemological and methodological implications of pragmatism. This article draws on a pragmatist understanding of human action to develop a novel explanation of norm change in contexts not amenable to more common analytical approaches. Specifically, concepts derived from pragmatism help explain how the creative recombination of practices by actors in response to changes in the material and social context of action can transform largely tacit notions of appropriate behavior. The article demonstrates the value of the approach by explaining the origin of a common contemporary security practice unknown prior to the Second World War and incompatible with the then-prevailing norms of sovereignty: the long-term, peacetime presence of one state’s military on the territory of another equally sovereign state.
Politics Sociology
Toward a Biomethane Strategy for Türkiye: A Comparative Policy Perspective with Italy
Ibrahim Arinc
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This study presents the first academically grounded framework for developing a national biomethane strategy in Türkiye, addressing a critical gap in renewable gas governance. Using Italy as a comparative reference within a Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD) framework, the paper applies a structured policy transfer approach supported by multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), a policy comparability matrix, cosine similarity scoring (0.964), SWOT analysis, and the OECD’s Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) principles. The framework integrates qualitative and quantitative tools to assess alignment in agricultural potential, infrastructure capacity, market regulation, and institutional governance. Key transferable elements from Italy include green certificate schemes, incentive structures for production with grid injection, and stakeholder mechanisms enabling biomethane scale-up. Türkiye’s strengths (e.g., biomass availability), weaknesses (e.g., institutional fragmentation), and opportunities (e.g., EU-aligned reforms) are examined alongside key threats, particularly the intrinsic complexities of its natural gas market and coordination gaps. Italy’s experience further informs broader strategic insights: prioritizing biomethane over biomass-based electricity generation, leveraging models like Biogasdoneright to integrate agriculture and energy, and positioning biomethane as a decarbonization tool for transport and industry—especially under the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This transition logic emphasizes biomethane in hard-to-electrify sectors, where it adds more systemic value than traditional biomass-to-electricity uses increasingly served by solar and wind. The paper contributes to comparative energy governance literature by offering a replicable framework for institutional lesson-drawing. It provides actionable insights for emerging economies aiming to align bioenergy policy with long-term energy security, circular economy integration, and sustainability transitions.
Politics Economics
Imperial Relations? Hierarchy and Contemporary Base Politics
Sebastian Schmidt
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The prevailing assumption in discussions of foreign military basing is that such presences are hierarchical in nature. While this was unavoidably the case prior to the Second World War, changes in the normative framework of international politics mean that the relationship of such presences to hierarchy have become an empirical question. Specifically, changes in sovereignty norms and the emergence of territorial and jurisdictional integrity render the linkage between foreign military basing and hierarchy contingent. As a result, the dynamics of some basing arrangements now closely resemble those of other interstate agreements. This analysis regrounds hierarchy in the specific normative context of action and in doing so highlights the implicit reification of the state in contemporary security studies. In practical terms, it shows how assuming hierarchy both overestimates the fragility of the US basing network and, by exaggerating authority relations, obscures the potential for greater fluidity in the basing space.
Politics
Taken at Face Value: How Emotion Expression Does and Does Not Affect Protest Dynamics
Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, Ishaan Prasad
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Understanding the role of emotions in protest is a growing field of research, but existing research does not address the role of emotions once protests start. By applying computer vision models to the expressed emotions of the 37,558 faces in 7,824 geolocated protest images across twelve protest waves in ten countries, this article makes five contributions to the study of emotions and protest. Most importantly, it measures emotions within protest waves, not before them. It also investigates emotions' temporal effects, multiple emotions simultaneously, connects them directly to actual protests, and does so across multiple countries. The results suggest that anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise occur simultaneously throughout a protest, though happiness peaks on the first day. Emotions sometimes correlate with protest size in unexpected directions, and the coefficient signs differ by country. The most consistent finding is that models without lagged terms outperform those with lags, suggesting emotions and protests covary more than the former causes changes in the latter.
Politics Sociology
Making sense of gold and governance: the importance of practices and repertoires
Nicolas Jabko, Sebastian Schmidt
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Scholars regularly mobilise the concept of policy paradigm to characterise successive periods in which certain ideas appear to structure policymaking. While this concept proved useful to establish that ideas matter, it is time to start thinking about ideas in ways that better resonate with actors’ practices. This article introduces and empirically illustrates two conceptual alternatives. First, it looks at international monetary relations from 1944 through the early 1970s. Instead of simply labelling this period as ‘Keynesian,’ it shows that the enduring centrality of gold was a pivotal practice among policy makers. Second, it considers the governance of the Eurozone in the run-up to the crisis of the 2010s. Rather than viewing this period as ‘neoliberal,’ it highlights a new discursive repertoire of governance that produced both austerity and unconventional policies. In sum, practices and repertoires help to make sense of elements of continuity, ambiguity and contestation that are often obscured by ideational analysis.
Politics Economics Sociology
Digital Authoritarianism: ICT-enabled Repression Across Regime Types
Martina Lucaccini
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Digital authoritarianism uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to sustain autocratic stability through surveillance, censorship, cyberattacks and social manipulation. While this phenomenon is central to modern autocracies, the borderless nature of cyberspace has enabled democratically elected states to adopt similar practices under certain conditions. Drawing on data from the Digital Society Project (DSP) and cross-national time-series analysis on the Digital Repression Index (DRI), this study reveals significant differences in the digital authoritarian toolkit across regime types. Closed regimes predominantly utilize tactics such as surveillance, social manipulation, and internet shutdowns, whereas democracies, despite possessing greater digital repression capacities, generally exercise restraint. However, when governed by illiberal leaders, democracies exhibit patterns of digital repression similar to their autocratic counterparts, challenging assumptions about the normative divide between regime types.
Politics
Relational Governance and Trust Cultures: Preliminary Insights on Tiwala and Pagsunod in Pasig City, Philippines
Karl Patrick R. Mendoza
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This research note engages political trust debates by foregrounding tiwala (trust) and pagsunod (submission) as relational, moral practices in Philippine urban governance. Drawing on five pilot interviews in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, it argues that trust is not merely an evaluative attitude or rational calculation but a dynamic, culturally mediated moral economy. This perspective challenges dominant Western-centric models that treat trust as a rational, pre-political disposition stabilizing democratic order. Building on an emerging trust cultures framework, the note shows how tiwala and pagsunod reveal trust as continuously contested and reshaped in everyday negotiations of care, legitimacy, and relational presence. These preliminary insights highlight how residents’ moral evaluations of leaders go beyond personalistic charisma to assess governance systems’ responsiveness and moral credibility. They also point to how hybrid governance environments—digital and face-to-face—shape trust cultures in transitional democracies. These reflections guide future comparative work across the Tiwala at Pagsunod (TaP) project’s three-city study.
Politics Sociology
“Market, culture and open access. European copyright and the renewal of a historical clash of values in the digital age
Céleste Bonnamy
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Copyright bares an inner tension between cultural and market values: it historically oscillated between empowering creators through the market and protecting them from the market. How does this tension play in the digital age? To tackle this question, this chapter look at the salient parliamentary debates on the 2019 “copyright in the digital single market” directive, framed as a victory of culture against the market. We contrast this perspective by highlighting that, following the digitalisation of the economy, a new set of values entered the actors’ repertoire: open-access values. Thus, three competing sets of values framed MEPs’ interventions: culture, market, and open access. We argue that in the digital age, the conflict between market and culture that structures copyright policies is rebalanced to fit in a classical market regulation dilemma. Culture values, supporting market regulation to fight GAFA’s monopolies, are opposed to open-access values, supporting a free market to encourage digital innovation. Thus, both sets of values, whereas historically and socially developed in opposition to economic incentives, are mobilised to defend different market approaches (more vs. fewer barriers to entry).
Politics Sociology
When Offshoring Threatens Jobs: Lifelong Education and Occupation Choice
Daisuke Adachi, Lars Skipper
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The offshoring of manufacturing jobs has replaced low-skilled workers who often lack the relevant skills to transition to new occupations. Using Danish adult education and employer-employee data, we study how adult vocational training influences occupational choice and mitigates labor demand shocks. Despite low participation rates in training programs, we show that manufacturing workers trained in business services (BS) programs have a 0.9-3.1 percentage point higher probability of transitioning to BS occupations using dynamic difference-in-difference analysis. We then propose and estimate a life-cycle model of occupation and program choice that yields a nested logit conditional choice probability. The program take-up elasticity is lower than the occupation choice elasticity, suggesting that individuals are insensitive to the monetary value of the programs. A counterfactual wage subsidy policy tied to participation in BS-related programs supports transitions from manufacturing to BS occupations and reduces the share of low-skilled individuals leaving the labor force, especially at older ages, demonstrating the potential for a resilient labor market.
Economics
Predicting Individual Life Trajectories: Addressing Uncertainty in Social Employment Transitions
Linda Vecgaile, Alessandro Spata, Luiz Felipe Vecchietti, Emilio Zagheni
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Life course sequences are complex trajectories of interconnected events that shape the future of individuals in multifaceted ways. Life course research often predicts single life events at specific stages, overlooking the sequential and dynamic nature of human lives. Additionally, the inherent uncertainty in life leads to various potential alternative pathways individuals may encounter. In this study, we perform sequence analysis to gain deeper insights into life course sequences and apply Transformers to model sequences of future life events focusing on individuals in Germany who are approaching retirement age. Our model forecasts these sequences from which we provide probabilistic assessments of alternative pathways. Through our analysis, we identify seven distinct late-career clusters, ranging from stable full-time employment, which exhibit high predictability and certainty, to persistent unemployment and marginal employment, which demonstrate greater volatility and uncertainty. Alternative pathways predicted by the model suggest that individuals in volatile career trajectories might have transitioned into stable employment under different opportunity structures. These findings underscore the potential for stability based on prior life course patterns and highlight the importance of proactive labor market policies. Our framework provides policymakers with actionable insights to design effective interventions aimed at supporting vulnerable populations and enhancing labor market policies.
Economics Sociology
From Housing Gains to Pension Losses: New Methods to Reveal Wealth Inequality Dynamics in Chile
Bastián Castro Nofal, Ignacio Flores, Pablo Gutiérrez Cubillos, Carolyn Fisher
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This paper examines wealth inequality dynamics in Chile from 2007 to 2021, focusing on two key macroeconomic events: the sharp rise in housing prices after the introduction of a real estate value-added tax in 2016 and the substantial liquidation of pension assets through early withdrawals during the pandemic. We introduce a methodological innovation that aims to improve the measurement of wealth inequality by integrating administrative pension fund records into household wealth surveys using machine learning techniques. Our results reveal extreme levels of wealth concentration, with the top 10% holding approximately two-thirds of national private wealth. However, inequality slightly declined over the period, particularly after 2016, as the outcome of two opposing forces: housing appreciation, which benefited middle-class households, and pension fund withdrawals, which disproportionately reduced wealth at the lower end of the distribution. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)
Economics
Global Technology Stagnation
Yuta Takahashi, Naoki Takayama
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In the last two decades, economic growth has slowed down across developed countries. This paper investigates the role of technology specific to durable consumption and equipment goods in this global slowdown. We present evidence that technological stagnation in these sectors has prevailed globally over the past two decades. Using an extended Ramsey growth model as an accounting device, we find that this global technology stagnation can substantially account for the economic slowdown across developed countries through the capital deepening effect, rather than TFP.
Economics
Branding the African City: Applying City Branding Models to Accra in the Context of Ghana’s Heterogeneous Identity
Senyo Obed Amponsah
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This study explores the strategic potential of city branding in African urban contexts through a case study of Accra, Ghana. Drawing on Hankinson’s Relational Network Model and Herstein’s Country–City–Region Branding Matrix, the research assesses how Accra can be positioned as a distinct and competitive urban brand within Ghana’s multicultural national framework. The analysis, based on secondary data, reveals significant opportunities in Accra’s cultural assets, diaspora engagement, and sustainability initiatives. However, it also highlights fragmentation in governance, limited stakeholder coordination, and the absence of a coherent brand architecture. Comparative insights from Seoul, Barcelona, and Cape Town demonstrate how city branding can be effectively institutionalized through participatory governance, strategic communication, and cultural investment. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at integrating branding into Accra’s urban planning and development agenda. It argues that a stakeholder-driven, contextually grounded branding strategy could enhance Accra’s global visibility while complementing Ghana’s broader national identity goals.
Economics
货币本质是劳动力，主权属于人民——“国家经济学”的货币理论
He Zeshou
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自1609年阿姆斯特丹银行成立以来，各国银行部门逐步垄断货币发行权，通过买入外汇、黄金和放贷等方式发行货币，把大量的国家经济产出圈入银行后院。这一垄断制度已经持续数百年，具有高度隐蔽性，其理论基础是“货币是银行的负债凭证”。本文通过逻辑推演发现：货币是劳动力商品的替身和灵魂，本质是劳动力，是人民生育孩子的果实；人民的生育劳动构成了货币的价值基准和最终支持。这表明：货币主权属于人民，不是银行的负债凭证。进一步实证研究发现，货币发行实际是国家经济的初次分配，以上垄断制度造成了对人类生育劳动的系统性剥削，导致人民负债严重、消费力不足和利益受损，必然造成销售、就业和婚育困难，然后使新生儿数量减少，最终使国家经济陷入困境。理论分析表明，若建立“生育铸币制度”，即仅以生育补助的方式发行货币，让货币主权回归广大人民，可以不断提高家庭收入水平，补齐消费短板和恢复正常的生育率，形成拉动经济增长的稳定锚；能够夯实新发展格局，推动经济高质量发展，实现全体人民共同富裕，建成真正的发达国家。本文系统阐述了“国家经济学”的货币理论，为推动货币发行制度改革提供理论依据。
Economics
Exploring the Urbanism of Platform Urbanism: The Digital Mediation of Urban Space and Social Relations
Robert Goodspeed
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Urban life is mediated by a growing number of urban platforms, who therefore are playing a growing influence in cities worldwide. This article presents preliminary thoughts about how they represent cities through data, and how they may be influencing social relations. It concludes with a call for urban planners and other professionals to get engaged in the design of urban plat-forms.
Sociology
Trends in Public Crime Concerns in Germany: A Bounding Analysis of Periodic Change
Gordey Yastrebov, Alexander Trinidad, Thomas Leopold
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In this paper, we ask whether broader societal changes in Germany over the last three decades have been accompanied by a secular rise or decline in public concerns about crime. We conceptualize the aggregate effect of these changes as a period effect to be identified in a framework of age-period-cohort (APC) analysis. Upon evaluation of previous research, we argue that the secular trend is challenging to identify directly both for empirical and theoretical reasons. However, using Fosse and Winship’s bounding approach to APC analysis, we show that the challenge can be resolved indirectly, and identify a declining period trend under an intuitive and theoretically warranted assumption that crime concerns are unlikely to decrease from late adolescence into adulthood.
Sociology
Reconstruction of Social Values ​​and Norms in the Millennial Hijrah Community: A Sociological Study of Religious Identity Transformation in the Digital Era
Nishfa Auliya
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The phenomenon of hijrah among the millennial generation has developed into a rapid socio-religious trend in the digital era. The hijrah community promoted by social media creates new values ​​and norms that differ from traditional religious understanding. This article aims to analyze how social values ​​and norms are formed in the millennial hijrah community and how this process shapes the religious identity of its members. Using a descriptive qualitative approach and literature study methods and social media content analysis, this study reveals that values ​​such as ukhuwah, public piety, and the spirit of da'wah are the dominant norms in the hijrah community. The process of forming these values ​​is explained through Peter L. Berger's social construction theory (externalization, objectification, and internalization), and is strengthened by Ibn Khaldun's Islamic sociology approach and gender norm studies from Syamsul Bakhri's works. The results of the study show that the hijrah community not only forms a new religious identity, but also influences the structure of social relations, gender roles, and religious expressions in the digital space.
Sociology
Seeing the Forest because of the Trees: New Perspectives on Daycare Center Closures, Maternal and Child Well-being and Early Childhood Education Quality through Machine Learning
Franz Neuberger, Mariana Grgic, Johannes Wieschke, Franz Classe, Susanne Kuger
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This paper estimates the causal effects of unexpected daycare closures on maternal and child well-being using machine learning methods for causal inference. Our identification strategy exploits the conditional in- dependence of closure assignment given observed covariates, with closures primarily driven by external staffing constraints rather than family charac- teristics. Using survey data from 14,867 mothers in Germany, we examine both maternal self-reported well-being (WHO-5) and mother-assessed child well-being (KINDL scales). Our causal forest analysis reveals significant dose-response relationships: short closures reduce maternal well-being by -0.097 standard deviations (SD) (95% CI: [-0.136, -0.058]), while longer clo- sures show stronger effects -0.192 SD (95% CI: [-0.261, -0.123]). Children’s outcomes follow similar patterns, with daycare-specific well-being showing large effects (-0.178 SD for longer closures). Mediation analysis reveals that closure effects operate primarily through perceived process quality rather than structural disruptions. For maternal well-being, approximately 53% of the effect is mediated through process quality perceptions, while for child outcomes this proportion reaches up to 100%. Our heterogeneity analysis using decision trees identifies vulnerable subgroups: families without alterna- tive childcare arrangements and those with inflexible work schedules experi- ence disproportionately worse outcomes. While unexpected closures emerged during COVID-19, today’s closures represent chronic structural problems af- fecting 44% of German families. These disruptions fundamentally reshape parental trust in early childhood institutions, highlighting urgent needs for policy interventions to preserve educational equity.
Sociology
The Dissolution of Dissent: The Depoliticization of Feminism from Cyberspace to Private Sphere in China
Wenjing Xu
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This study examines the depoliticization of feminist discourse in China, particularly as it transitions from digital activism to private, intimate relationships. Drawing on Rancière’s theoretical framework of politics, police, and the distribution of the sensible, the research explores how feminist discourse, initially disruptive in digital spaces, is systematically neutralized through ideological reframing, emotional labor, and platform-mediated containment. Based on qualitative interviews with 35 Chinese individuals engaged in feminist and anti-feminist discourse across social media platforms, the study identifies a two-tier process of depoliticization. First, feminist discourse is politicized in the public sphere through nationalist and anti-feminist rhetoric that frames feminism as a foreign, morally suspect ideology, and embeds it into the existing, inherently unequal political discourse framework, as to subsequently deprive it of the legitimacy of mobilization. After that, as the feminist challenge of inequality moves into the private sphere, it is individualized, reframed as a personal relationship issue rather than a structural critique, and absorbed into everyday emotional negotiations, thereby sustaining existing gender norms. The study also demonstrates how digital platforms facilitate this process through algorithmic segregation, commodification of feminist discourse, and the ephemeral nature of viral debates. Ultimately, the research reveals how modern authoritarian systems manage ideological dissent not through outright suppression, but through strategic containment and absorption, ensuring that feminism remains visible yet politically inert. This study contributes to feminist media studies, digital platform research, and contemporary discussions on ideological control by illustrating how depoliticization operates at the nexus of digital culture, nationalist discourse, and intimate relationships in contemporary China.
Sociology
Congregations and Communities: The Evolving Social Role of Congregations and Their Involvement in Social Service Provision
Brad R. Fulton
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This review article examines interdisciplinary research on local religious congregations and their role as social service providers in American communities. This field of study has experienced sustained growth over the past thirty years, generating extensive qualitative and quantitative research on an estimated 350,000 congregations serving approximately 50 million weekly attendees. The analysis explores how congregations function as community institutions, their evolving relationships with surrounding neighborhoods, and factors influencing their social service involvement. Key findings reveal that congregations vary significantly in their community engagement, influenced by financial resources, leadership education levels, and ideological orientation. Middle-class congregations in lower-income neighborhoods show the highest levels of social service activity. Most congregations offer short-term assistance through food, shelter, and clothing programs, typically collaborating with secular agencies rather than operating independent programs. The collective contribution represents a substantial supplement to public social services. As community anchors embedded in local networks, congregations continue to shape and be shaped by their broader social context, making congregational studies a vital field for understanding American community life.
Sociology
The social stratification of attitudinal-work couple arrangements around the transition to parenthood: A research note
Daniele Florean, Anna Zamberlan
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This research note focuses on the relationship between gender ideological pairings and the division of paid and unpaid work for different-sex couples around the transition to parenthood. We examine the social stratification of couples’ attitudinal-work arrangements, paying particular attention to the combined social classes of the partners. We contribute to the literature by adopting a linked-lives approach and explicitly considering couples as a meaningful unit of analysis; by jointly examining the three domains of ideological pairing, the gender division of paid work, and the gender division of unpaid work; and by including an often-overlooked driver of life course patterns, namely social class. We analyze panel data from Understanding Society, the largest household panel study providing a representative sample of the UK population, using multi-domain sequence analysis and logistic regression techniques. Our findings suggest a striking stability in couples’ ideological pairings and division of domestic labor around the transition to parenthood, with a preponderance of partners agreeing on traditional gender roles and women doing most of the housework. However, labor arrangements vary widely between couples, and social class (especially the class of the female partner) emerges as a critical determinant of how partners share paid work.
Sociology
Ranking proved better than rating to measure the criteria of nationhood
Maciej Koniewski
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Criteria of nationhood are commonly assessed using Likert-style rating, the method prone to response bias, which distorts the factor structure of a measured construct. This might be the reason why no consensus has been yet reached among scholars regarding the best factorial representation of the respondents’ views on what makes someone truly British, Polish, a true American, and so forth. In the present research, I test the hypothesis that asking about criteria of nationhood using ranking would result in clearer factor structure than the commonly applied rating. I present robust evidence derived from confirmatory factor analyses that the models run on ranking data surpass the same models ran on rating data. A common factor model with a random intercept proved the best fitting one. I recommend best to worst ranking (a.k.a., drag and drop ranking) as the method of choice in assessment of the importance of the criteria of nationhood.
Sociology
UK Gender-Parent Hiring Discrimination across Skill Levels before, during, and after the COVID-19 Pandemic
Soyoung Kweon, Lynn Prince Cooke
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We conducted a correspondence study to investigate patterns of UK gender-parent hiring discrimination across skill levels before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic as labor supply and demand fluctuated. To test hypotheses, we sent pairs of fictitious call center worker, assistant restaurant manager, and accountant applications in response to 2,262 UK employer job postings between August 2019 and December 2021. We find no hiring discrimination against mothers applying for call center or accounting positions as compared with childless women during any period, and some disadvantage for mothers applying for assistant restaurant manager positions only pre-lockdown. Among men, only low-skilled fathers were more likely to be called back than childless men before and after the lockdowns, with a significant decrease in their hiring advantage during the pandemic. These results firstly indicate that employers rely more on assumptions about group productivity when male applicants lack objective measures of productivity. The drop in callbacks during lockdowns further suggests low-skilled fathers’ dramatic increase in caregiving and housework negatively affected employers’ perceptions of their greater productivity.
Sociology
Narrative Engagement in Story Listening: The Challenge of Age and Vision Loss
Signe Lund Mathiesen, Amanda Grenier, Walter Wittich, Mahadeo Sukhai, Bjorn Herrmann
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Narrative engagement offers substantial psychosocial benefits, including cognitive health, emotional and social well-being, and longevity. However, vision loss in older adults can pose challenges in accessing printed narratives. As individuals may shift from print to auditory narratives due to age-related vision loss, understanding how this transition affects narrative engagement becomes crucial. The current work provides a synthesis of the intersection of aging, vision loss, and narrative engagement, focusing on cognitive, emotional, and sensory changes. We discuss how age and vision loss may modify critical components of story engagement, potentially altering narrative consumption and experience. Our research highlights the need to adapt research methodologies and measurement scales to suit older adults and auditory narratives, ensuring they capture unique aspects of auditory engagement and account for sensory impairments. We propose novel directions for studying narrative engagement and offer insights for future research to provide inclusive and accessible narrative forms that support the cognitive and emotional well-being of older adults.
Sociology
The Phenomenon of Negation: Anton Chigurh and the Perversion of Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception"
Wafid Kholishatul
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Anton Chigurh is a character from the novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, which was later made into a movie by directors Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. This article is written to discuss the character of Anton Chigurh through the philosophical framework of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception. Chigurh represents an extreme or antithetical form of authentic subjectivity in Merleau-Ponty's view. The analysis explores key Merleau-Pontian concepts, including the distinction between the lived body (Leib) and the objective body (Körper), the active nature of perception in constituting reality, the embodied and reciprocal nature of intersubjectivity, and the concept of freedom as situated through the character of Anton Chigurh. Chigurh's interactions with others are analyzed as a form of systematic destruction of intersubjectivity, characterized by the objectification of others and the failure to establish reciprocal engagement. His adherence to uncompromising principles and deterministic view of fate is contrasted with Merleau-Ponty's more nuanced understanding of situated freedom that emphasizes continuous and open engagement with the world. Chigurh functions as a phenomenological anti-subject, embodying a pathological form of being-in-the-world. His character becomes a literary exploration of the denial of the most fundamental mode of human existence, as described by Merleau-Ponty highlighting the unsettling consequences of disengagement from embodied empathy, mutual intersubjectivity, and the ambiguous openness of existence.
Sociology
Unlucky 13: A Narrative Inquiry into the Origins of Numeric Taboo Across Civilisations
Dinesh Deckker, Subhashini Sumanasekara
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The number 13 is widely regarded as unlucky in many Western societies, yet its symbolic meaning varies significantly across global cultures. This superstition, known as triskaidekaphobia, raises questions about the interplay between myth, cognition, and cultural transmission. This study aimed to investigate the origins, evolution, and cross-cultural symbolism of the number 13, exploring how it has been constructed as a taboo or sacred number across different civilisations and religious systems. Adopting a qualitative narrative inquiry and comparative analysis approach, the study synthesised data from religious texts, mythologies, historical documents, scholarly literature, and architectural practices. Theoretical frameworks from symbolic anthropology, cognitive psychology, and sociology guided the interpretation of the data. Findings reveal that the fear of 13 is not universal but culturally contingent. In Christian and Norse traditions, it is associated with betrayal and cosmic disruption; in Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, and Maya cultures, it symbolises spiritual transformation and cosmic order. The modern institutionalisation of the taboo in Western architecture and media reflects the power of narrative and collective belief over objective reasoning. The number 13 functions as a symbolic threshold—its meaning derived from narrative structure, cultural boundaries, and cognitive heuristics. This study underscores the importance of viewing numeric taboos as culturally produced phenomena rather than inherent superstitions.
Sociology
Gender Representation in Indonesian YouTube Ads 2024: Analysis of Commercial Ad Content
Abraham Unais
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This study examines how gender representation is portrayed in several Indonesian commercial advertisements aired on YouTube throughout 2024. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, this study examines how gender roles are constructed and conveyed through visual and narrative elements in digital advertisements. The main objective of this research is to understand the extent to which gender stereotypes still appear and are reproduced in new media, as well as to identify any changes or consistency in these representation patterns within the Indonesian cultural context. The analysis results indicate that women are still frequently depicted in roles related to the domestic sphere, emotions, and aesthetics. Meanwhile, men are more often portrayed as rational, dominant, and masculine figures. These patterns indicate that traditional representations of gender roles persist, even in digital media platforms often perceived as modern and progressive, such as YouTube. In other words, despite changes in the platform, the social messages conveyed tend to uphold traditional norms. These findings contribute significantly to media sociology and gender studies in Indonesia, while also serving as a reminder of the need for critical evaluation of the digital content consumed by society. This research also underscores the urgency for the advertising industry to adopt more equitable, inclusive communication strategies that reflect the diversity of gender roles in contemporary society. Keywords: gender representation, YouTube advertising, digital media, stereotypes, media sociology.
Sociology
Optimizing BATNA Strategies in Negotiation: Insights from Theory and Practice
Shreesham Pandey , Abhinav Kumar, Anshul Saini, Aryan Mallik, Sachin Choudhary
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Negotiation is a critical skill in various domains, pivotal for achieving mutually beneficial agreements. Central to effective negotiation is the concept of BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), conceptualized by Fisher and Ury. This paper explores the multifaceted aspects of BATNA, delving into its definition, psychological implications, strategies for optimization, and practical applications. Through a comprehensive analysis of BATNA, this study aims to equip negotiators with tools to enhance their negotiation outcomes. By synthesizing insights from real-world case studies and theoretical frameworks, this research underscores the significance of BATNA in contemporary negotiation paradigms.
Sociology
Understanding Consumer Behavior Regarding Nutrition Labels and Health Claims
Leo Jay D. Lumaras
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Even with the widespread availability of nutrition labels and health-related claims on food products, consumers often grapple with comprehending and utilizing this information effectively when deciding on food purchases. The Philippine context reveals a gap in recent research delving into how demographic elements impact consumer attitudes and actions associated with nutrition labeling, thus emphasizing the necessity for a localized exploration of this topic. This study explored consumers' buying behavior towards nutritional labels and health claims. It aimed to determine the relationship between consumers' demographic characteristics and their understanding and utilization of nutritional facts when making food purchases. A descriptive-correlational design was utilized. A structured questionnaire was administered to 184 respondents from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds. The instrument collected data on age, sex, educational attainment, monthly income, perceptions of nutrition labels, and label usage behavior. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were employed to analyze the data. Research revealed that health-conscious and budget-conscious consumers were inclined to scrutinize nutrition labels and health claims when selecting food items. Their priorities leaned towards nutritional value and affordability. Conversely, trend followers and convenience seekers paid less attention to nutritional information, tending to make decisions based on taste, brand familiarity, or convenience. The study shows a positive correlation between higher levels of education, increased monthly income, and favorable perceptions and frequent use of nutrition labels. These findings emphasize the significance of embracing consumer diversity in shaping effective nutrition communication strategies. By grasping the intricate behaviors unique to each consumer group, stakeholders can devise tailored interventions, empowering the population with enhanced nutritional knowledge and more conscious dietary decisions.
Sociology