A Bias Event Approach

This paper analyzes the role of far right in the Ukrainian politics during the “Euromaidan” and the war in Donbas. The issue of the involvement of Ukrainian far right organizations in the “Euromaidan” and the war in Donbas have been politicized and polarized. Russian and separatist politicians and the media often presented the “Euromaidan” as a “fascist coup” and the Maidan government as a “fascist junta.” In contrast, the governments and the mainstream media in Western countries tended to present the role of the far right in the “Euromaidan” and in post-Maidan Ukraine, specifically in the conflict in Donbas, as marginal. Previous academic studies generally reached similar conclusions. They focused on numerical strength and electoral support for the far right parties and ignored other aspects of influence of the radical nationalist and neo-Nazi parties, specifically their role in the political violence, such as the Maidan and Odesa massacres and the war in Donbas. However, the number of academic studies of the contemporary far right in Ukraine is generally limited. The research question is as follows: What is the role of the far right in the Ukrainian politics during and after the “Euromaidan”? This study analyzes the involvement of specific Ukrainian radical nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations in the “Euromaidan,” the Odesa massacre, and the war in Donbas, their performance in the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014 and the 2015 local elections in Ukraine. The analysis focuses on major Ukrainian far right organizations, such as Svoboda (Freedom), the Right Sector, the Social-National Assembly, the White Hammer, the UNA-UNSO, Bratstvo, and C14, and paramilitary formations or special police and National Guard units organized and controlled to various extent by them, such as the Azov regiment, Dnipro, Donbas, Aidar, Sich, and St. Mary’s battalions, and the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps. It uses various sources of data, such as online recordings of live broadcasts and videos of the Maidan and Odesa massacres and the war in Donbas, official database of court decisions in Ukraine concerning investigations of the involvement of the far right in major cases of political violence, video recordings of the Maidan massacre trial, information posted on websites and social media groups of far right organizations, and media reports in Ukrainian, Russian, and English languages. The study shows that the far right organizations had significant but minority representation among the Maidan leadership and protesters, the post-Maidan governments, and in the presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. However, the analysis also shows that the far right organizations and football ultras played a key role during violent attacks, such as attempts to storm the presidential administration on December 1, 2013 and the parliament of Ukraine in January and on February 18, 2014. There is also various evidence of the Right Sector involvement in a violent attack of the Berkut police during its highly publicized dispersal of protesters on November 30, 2013. The Right Sector and Svoboda and smaller organizations had a crucial role in the violent overthrow of the Viktor Yanukovych government, in particular, in the Maidan massacre of the protesters and the police on February 18-20, 2014. The study demonstrates that the Right Sector, the Social-National Assembly/Patriot of Ukraine, and groups of football ultras were involved in the Odesa massacre on May 2, 2014. This paper also shows that the far right organizations and their volunteer battalions and paramilitary units had a significant role in the civil war in Donbas but a comparably minor role in fighting with several regular Russian military units during direct military interventions by Russia in August 2014 and February 2015. Major implications of this study for the Ukrainian politics and the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine are discussed in the conclusion. This paper implies that the far right has significant but not dominant role in the Ukrainian politics during and after the “Euromaidan.” But far right organizations and their armed units had a key role in major cases of political violence during and after the “Euromaidan,” and they attained ability to overthrow by force the government of the one of the largest European countries.

This study explains motivational/de-motivational factors for women employment from rural development standpoint. In doing so, quantitative approach and case study research design have been applied. The numeric data are collected from 72 respondents whereas narrative information are generated from five participants selected form five government and five non-government institutions of Vyas Municipality of Tanahu District. In this stance, anonymous self administered questionnaires and key informant interview techniques are applied. The result shows that motivational factors (i.e. salary, bonus, security, safety promotion) are encouraging women to perform their duty/responsibility effectively and efficiently with honorable way. They are not only supporting to their family livelihood but also playing gender role (social, economic & political roles) in community and society. However, some of the respondents are also experiencing less paid salary, sexual harassment, physical difficulties at the time of menstruation and not sufficient maternity leave (de-motivational factors). De-motivated women are failed to join in higher education and unable to perform gender role for rural development. Thus, better to address de-motivational factors by the local development stakeholders including aged persons supporting deeply rooted patriarchal systems of Hindu culture for motivating women for employment.

The article examines the motivational and opposing factors that influence the readiness of psychotherapists to work with cases of sexual violence. The authors analyse the topic through the prism of psychological, sociocultural, ethical and professional factors. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of therapist resistance, which can manifest itself both consciously and unconsciously, and is determined by personal attitudes, emotional vulnerability, trauma experience, or professional burnout. The study also focuses on motivation as a driving force for working with trauma: both internal (values, professional identity) and external (support, training, organisational environment). The authors summarise current theoretical approaches and empirical data on secondary traumatisation, countertransference, the impact of religiosity, cultural taboos and transgenerational trauma. The proposed systematisation of resistance and motivation factors is of practical value for training, curriculum development, supervision and support of professionals working with sexual violence trauma. The article is aimed at expanding the scientific discourse and improving the quality of psychotherapeutic care in cases of sexual violence.

Vicarious traumatization of nonvictim members of communities targeted by bias crimes has been suggested by previous qualitative studies and often dominates public discussion following bias events, but proximal and distal responses of community members have yet to be comprehensively modeled, and quantitative research on vicarious responses is scarce. This comprehensive review integrates theoretical and empirical literatures in social, clinical, and physiological psychology in the development of a model of affective, cognitive, and physiological responses of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals upon exposure to information about bias crimes. Extant qualitative research in vicarious response to bias crimes is reviewed in light of theoretical implications and methodological limitations. Potential pathways to mental health outcomes are outlined, including accumulative effects of anticipatory defensive responding, multiplicative effects of minority stress, and putative traumatogenic physiological and cognitive processes of threat. Methodological considerations, future research directions, and clinical implications are also discussed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the media played a vital role in transmitting truthful information alongside misguiding false messages. Research evaluates media coverage effects on public discussions throughout Ghana after the government struggled against the spread of fake information about pandemic treatments and vaccines and their origins. According to Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model, this study evaluates how media institutions backing the government ended up promoting official statements through their platforms though independent outlets and social media channels became place where authentic reporting occurred alongside dangerous misinformation. Media framing shows direct influence over how people trusted health authorities and followed their health-demanding protocols. The official media platforms, which were associated with government, promoted public safety guidelines simultaneously as social media networks disseminated false information that weakened people's compliance with protection measures. The research establishes the requirement to evaluate how media representations combine with state communication and public awareness in crises, which turn life-threatening misinformation into a problem. This research reveals the challenges in deceptive media influences, which fills gaps in crisis communication literature to benefit policymakers together with journalists. The authors suggest enhancing fact-checking programs while teaching people to better understand media information and requiring public health officials to clearly communicate their messages. The research confirms that free media in democracies plays an essential role because it enables journalists to monitor authorities while blocking false information. The study makes an important global contribution to emergency health media analysis by demonstrating why accuracy should replace sensationalism in the media landscape. Ghana’s experience provides worthwhile lessons, which should guide other nations fighting pandemic-related misinformation during this age of wide-ranging incorrect information spreading freely. References Adom, D. (2020). Cultural and educational implications of the COVID-19 global pandemic in Ghana. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 9(3), 209–229. https://doi.org/10.17583/rimcis.2020.5416 Ansong, A. B. (2012). The media and democratic consolidation in Ghana. African Renaissance, 9(1), 121–134. Antwi-Boasiako, J., Abbey, C. O. A., Ogbey, P., & Ofori, R. A. (2021). Policy responses to fight COVID-19; the case of Ghana. Revista de Administração Pública, 55, 122–139. Appiah, B., Gastel, B., Burdine, J. N., & Russell, L. H. (2015). Science reporting in Accra, Ghana: Sources, barriers, and motivational factors. Public Understanding of Science, 24(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514547478 Boateng, J. K., Boateng, J., & Darkwa, E. (2024a). The role of adult education in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in selected communities in Ghana. Advances in Adult and Development Education, 1(1), 13–33. Boateng, J. K., Boateng, J., & Darkwa, E. (2024b). Community mobile teaching and learning applications during COVID-19: Review of the experiences of some religious groups in Ghana. Sustainable Community Development in Ghana, 51–62. Darkwa, E. (2023a). Book review of Affective Politics of Digital Media: Propaganda by Other Means, Megan Boler and Elizabeth Davis, 2021, New York: Routledge. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(4), 30–32. Darkwa, E. (2023b). Review of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 37–40. Darkwa, E., Acquah, B., & Osafo-Adjei, C. (2023). Navigating the mass media’s political agenda-setting role: A case study of Ghana. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(4), 1–12. Darkwa, E., & Acquah, B. (2023). Book review of Jennifer Hasty’s The Press and Political Culture in Ghana (2005). Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 14–18. Darkwa, E. (2024a). Exploring the characteristics and application of emerging digital technologies in contemporary Ghana's participatory spatial planning. International Journal of Current Research in Sciences, Social Sciences and Languages, 3(4), 7–26. Darkwa, E. (2024b). Book review of Social Media and Elections in Africa: Theoretical Perspectives and Election Campaigns edited by Martin N. Ndlela and Winston Mano. Research Ethics Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1(5), 106–109. Darkwa, E., Inguva, H., Osafo-Adjei, C., & Acquah, B. (2024). The public sphere on a digital plane: The influence of the new digital media on Ghana’s democracy and the public sphere. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2), 46–62. Gadzekpo, A. (2009). Media pluralism and democratic consolidation in Ghana. Journal of African Media Studies, 1(3), 451–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211010480 Gunther, A. C. (1998). The persuasive press inference: Effects of mass media on perceived public opinion. Communication Research, 25(5), 486–504. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365098025005002 Hartley, K., & Vu, M. K. (2020). Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: Policy insights from an equilibrium model. Policy Sciences, 53(4), 735–758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-020-09405-z Haleem, A., Javaid, M., & Vaishya, R. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life. Current Medicine Research and Practice, 10(2), 78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011 Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y., ... & Cao, B. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. The Lancet, 395(10223), 497–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5 Klaehn, J. (2002). A critical review and assessment of Herman and Chomsky's 'Propaganda Model'. European Journal of Communication, 17(2), 147–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323102017002691 Klaehn, J. (2003). Behind the invisible curtain of scholarly criticism: Revisiting the propaganda model. Journalism Studies, 4(3), 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700306487 Klaehn, J. (2017). The propaganda model: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 6(2). Klaehn, J. (2018). Media, power and the origins of the Propaganda Model: An interview with Edward S. Herman. Media Theory, 2(2), 95–100. https://hal.science/hal-02047633 Lin, C. Y. (2020). Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Social Health and Behavior, 3(1), 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/SHB.SHB_11_20 Larsson, A., Oxman, A. D., Carling, C., & Herrin, J. (2003). Medical messages in the media—barriers and solutions to improving medical journalism. Health Expectations, 6(4), 323–331. Mensah, K., Awini, G., & Mensah, G. K. (2021). Fake news and SDG16: The situation in Ghana. The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development, 325–344. Mullen, A., & Klaehn, J. (2010). The Herman–Chomsky propaganda model: A critical approach to analysing mass media behaviour. Sociology Compass, 4(4), 215–229. Naeem, S. B., & Bhatti, R. (2020). The COVID-19 'infodemic': A new front for information professionals. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 37(3), 233–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12311 Nyarko, J., Serwornoo, M. Y. W., & Azanu, B. (2021). Communication lapses to combating COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluating Ghana's COVID-19 campaign. Journal of African Media Studies, 13(2), 159–175. Nyarko, J., & Teer-Tomaselli, R. E. (2018). Print media standardization and professionalism: Determinants of independence of Ghanaian media. Journalism Practice, 12(1), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258617743620 Okereke, M., Ukor, N. A., Ngaruiya, L. M., Mwansa, C., Alhaj, S. M., Ogunkola, I. O., Jaber, M. H., Isa, A. M., Ekpenyong, A., & Lucero-Prisno III, D. E. (2021). COVID-19 misinformation and infodemic in rural Africa. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 104(2), 453. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-1488 Shardow, M. S., & Asare, B. E. (2016). Media ownership and independence: Implications for democratic governance in the fourth republic of Ghana. Journal of Pan African Studies, 9(9), 179–198. Smith, M. S., & Tietaah, G. K. (2017). Online media surveillance: Coverage of meningitis outbreaks in Ghana. Athens Journal of Health, 4(4), 303–319. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajh.4-4-2 Yendork, J. S., & James, S. (2020). COVID-19 in Ghana: Changes and the way forward. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 51(3-4), 369–384. https://doi.org/10.3138/JCFS.51.34.012 Zarocostas, J. (2020). How to fight an infodemic. The Lancet, 395(10225), 676. Books & Book Chapters Anokwa, K. (1997). In the public interest: Freedom of expression and public debate in Ghana. Freedom Forum. Boateng, J. K., & Darkwa, E. (2021a). Unpacking the dilemma of alternative dispute resolution and access to justice by women in the Ghanaian context. In Advancing civil justice reform and conflict resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative analyses and case studies (pp. 171–189). IGI Global. Boateng, J. K., & Darkwa, E. (2021b). Strengthening criminal justice systems and institutions to consolidate democratic governance in Ghana: The role of state and civil societies. In Y. E. T. & Kofie, N. F. (Eds.), Contemporary issues in criminology in Africa (pp. [page range]). Nova Science Publishers. Boateng, J. K., Boadi, C., Boateng, J., & Darkwa, E. (2024). Social media and electoral disagreements in Ghana’s 2020 election. In Communication and electoral politics in Ghana: Interrogating transnational technology, discourse, and multimodalities (pp. 91–118). Springer International Publishing. Chomsky, N. (1995). Necessary illusions: Thought control in democratic societies. House of Anansi. Hasty, J. (2005). The press and political culture in Ghana. Indiana University Press. Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. Pantheon. Klaehn, J. (Ed.). (2005). Filtering the news: Essays on Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model. Black Rose Books. McQuail, D. (1992). Media performance: Mass communication and the public interest. Sage. Voltmer, K. (2013). The media in transitional democracies. Polity. Government & Legal Documents Ghana Constitution. (1992). Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Government of the Republic of Ghana. Reports & Online Sources Conroy-Krutz, J., & Appiah-Nyamekye, S. J. (2020). Africans are concerned about the ills of social media but oppose government restrictions. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/africans-are-concerned-about-ills-of-social-media-but-oppose-government-restrictions-137653 World Health Organization. (2020). World Health Organization novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation report-3. https://www.who.int/ World Health Organization. (2021). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Myth busters. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters Videos Newsfile. (2020, March 18). COVID-19 and new voters’ poll Pt. 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCM6x2kpYTE Newsfile. (2020, March 18). COVID-19 and new voters’ poll Pt. 2 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8WO4WYHVOk Newsfile. (2020, July 18). Should the schools close or stay open? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT0bF7kIfR8 Newsfile. (2021, February 27). COVID-19 vaccines: 600k doses, in sharing rollout plan, busting myths [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NeDjythTqU Newsfile. (2021, March 22). Conflicting information about safety of the AstraZeneca jabs [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NeDjythTqU

Traditionally, the literature has sought to understand the impact of racial minority status and trauma as it relates to interpersonal violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault. What has not been as extensively reviewed and summarized is how racially or ethnically motivated hate crimes impact the mental health of minorities—particularly Latinx/Hispanic groups. This review aims to summarize the current body of literature on the intersection of race-motivated hate crime and trauma responses within Latinx community. To do so, the theoretical foundation for this inquiry will build from a race-based trauma perspective. Specifically, this review connects existing frameworks for race and trauma and integrates literature that examines Latinx or Hispanic populations that have experienced discrimination, bias, or hate crime as a result of their identity or perceived identity. The importance of situating bias or hate events within the trauma literature stems from a lack of overall formal evaluation of these events, and how these occurrences are historically overlooked as a traumatic stressor. The findings of this review suggest that (1) experiencing racially motivated victimization can cause adverse mental and physical health outcomes in Latinxs and (2) currently, there is only one study that has examined the impact of hate crime on Latinxs in the United States. This leaves the field with unanswered questions about the impact of hate crime victimization among Latinxs, which is an ever-growing area in need of attention.

The FBI does not provide statistics on hate crimes against immigrants. Media and anecdotal reports indicate that immigrants are frequent victims of hate crime. These crimes range from verbal threats and harassment to lynchings and massacres to beheading and burying aliens (claimed). Hate crime statistics in Great Britain are divided into five categories, in which one or more hate crime strands are deemed to be a motivating factor (race, sexual, religious, disability, transgender). Crimes motivated by the victim being an immigrant or foreigner might be counted in any of the five categories. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in hate crime in England and Wales. The increase cannot be attributed to anti-immigrant sentiments. Media items in the wake of an attack by Muslim extremists document the hateful reactions.

Misidentification and misreporting of hate crimes by victims and law enforcement are significant barriers to accurate data collection of hate crimes, and their consequent study and prevention. The use of machine learning in crime detection can improve the accuracy and speed at which reported incidents with bias elements are identified. This study develops a machine learning classifier that categorizes police reports as either events with bias elements or events with no bias elements. We use incident/offense reports from the Seattle Police Department to train a Natural Language Processing classification algorithm. We collect narratives, location data, and victim and suspect demographics to use as features. We evaluate the performance of logistic regression, random forest, and XGBoost algorithms, as well as several text embedding techniques. Despite substantial class imbalance, our model achieves a macro F1-score of 0.79, demonstrating the benefits of applied machine learning in accurately detecting and reporting hate crimes.

Although rightly lauded as one of the strongest democracies in Africa, it is striking that women do not have a political quota in Ghana, and that women’s rights have more often been handed down through the politics of patronage than achieved through civil society activism. This paper investigates the role of power and politics in influencing the adoption and implementation of gender equity policy in Ghana, focusing on two policy case studies: domestic violence; and girls’ basic education. The paper finds that although policy on girls’ basic education was easily adopted and implemented without any opposition, as it was considered a less ‘contentious’ issue, domestic violence policy faced significant opposition from religious and political groups. In response, the women’s movement adopted a highly strategic approach to swaying public opinion, focusing on religious and cultural leaders, marshalling support among local community groups, and making use of informal gatherings to raise awareness about the issue. However, framing domestic violence in such a way as to be non-threatening to existing gender norms and relations limited its transformative potential and contributed to implementation gaps. Policy implementation in competitive clientelist settings tends to be a highly personalised and political process, and with few political gains to be had from enacting domestic violence legislation, successive governments have failed to even present a plan for implementing the law. Both cases reveal the role of the political settlements in influencing policy-making on gender equity and point to the need to move beyond the influence of women’s presence in formal politics towards a deeper analysis of power and politics in shaping gender equity policy.

This study aimed to analyse the emergence and development of Disability Hate Crime as a policy area in the criminal justice system in England and Wales. It did this through building an understanding of the contributory factors including the challenges within the criminal justice system, wider government and politics, the independent statutory sector and disabled peoples organisations that led to the emergence and development of Disability Hate Crime policy and practice. This study contributes the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence and development of Disability Hate Crime in England and Wales to hate crime studies. Using a case study approach the thesis triangulates evidence from interviews in activist, policy and political streams, from hate crime cases and analysis of policy documents to chart this policy journey. It analyses the journey from agenda invisibility through agenda triggering to significant institutionalised actions on Disability Hate Crime in the criminal justice system, showing the roles of activism, politics and policy making in shaping this policy process. It underscores the analysis of this policy journey with a key focus on problematisation in policy making on Disability Hate Crime. This study found that Disability Hate Crime has faced challenges in its emergence and development as a policy area in the criminal justice system. It has faced challenges at each stage of the policy journey from initial agenda triggering, through agenda setting and onto agenda institutionalisation. This study concludes that Disability Hate Crime is an unsettled and unsettling policy agenda with agenda institutionalisation, as an established predictable area of policy and practice, some way off, despite legislation in 2003. The study found that: - Disability Hate Crime remains an unsettled policy agenda in that it displays an unsettled discourse, varied ways of responding, a need for ongoing national strategic action, and limited transition into day-to-day routine business. - Disability Hate Crime is an unsettling policy agenda in that it challenges understandings of hostility and prejudice beyond direct manifestations of hostility. It is also unsettling in that it raises a dual problematisation of targeted crimes against disabled people as either hostility targeting or vulnerability targeting. This reflects a wider dual problematisation of disability as either an issue of welfare or as an issue of rights. - Current understandings of disability hostility reflect under recognition of disability discrimination and linked ideologies of ableism and disablism. This under recognition of disability hostility lead to justice failures in Disability Hate Crime cases. Constructions of the targeting of disabled people in crime as based on vulnerability lacks recognition of such targeting as biased, hostile targeting of disabled people. This study reconceptualises disability hostility as hostility including vulnerability targeting. Arising from these conclusions, on an optimistic note, this study recommends a change to hate crime law which recognises that disability hostility can be based on hostility demonstration, a hostility motivation or hostile targeting because of disability. This study concludes that rather than institutionalisation of Disability Hate Crime as day-to-day hate crime business, it still remains unusual business. This study contributes a reconceptualization of the concept of disability hostility to include targeting because of disability – ‘disability vulnerability’. It makes the case for varied legal provisions to reflect the protection requirements of different hate crime strands. It adds to the body of case studies on public policy making. Finally, it illuminates the influence of equality law on Disability Hate Crime policy making.

The functional relevance of Kiswahili in Kenya has featured in many language policy statements. It is recognised as a lingua franca for interpersonal use. It also acquired a statutory and political role as a language of national integration and mobilisation at independence. The climax of Kiswahili's formal elevation came on 27 August 2010, with the promulgation of Kenya's new constitution. Henceforth, Kiswahili became an official language alongside English. This promotion of status portends an elaboration of the functional domains of Kiswahili. Given the historical, linguistic, political and inter-ethnic tensions that have characterised the growth of Kiswahili in Kenya, its redefined status has been received with political apprehension and public skepticism. In this article, I analyse the challenges and prospects of Kiswahili within Kenya's socio-political context. The aim is to establish the trends that the elaboration of its functions is likely to generate in the social, governmental, educational, professional, media, regional and political spheres.

Hate crimes are crimes of intolerance and bigotry that are committed to hurt and intimidate protected classes including race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability, with bias being a motivational factor. Hate crimes are more likely than non‐hate crimes to be violent crimes, with 84% of all hate crimes falling into the categories of sexual assault, robbery, aggravated or simple assault, compared to only 23% of non‐hate crimes.

/t mbition, Joseph Schlesinger argues, lies at the heart of politics. . . . The central assumption of ambition theory is that a politician's behavior is a response to his office goals. But the structure of opportunity and the structure of ambition have proved extremely difficult to link empirically.' Some years ago Harold Lasswell ridiculed the notion of a political escalator carrying politicians in an orderly and inevitable fashion from the lowest to the highest positions of power in the United States. Various structural and motivational factors do not support such a conception. Yet most commentators would agree that. . . political careers may be subjectively conceived as real and because they are so conceived, have real consequences for the taking of political roles and behavior.2 This premise constitutes the basis for recent theories of political recruitment and has provided a common focus for a small but growing body of empirical research.3

In this paper, I theoretically discuss the emerging role of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as private actors in global governance – referring to the collective rule-making and rule-implementation among public and private actors on a global scale. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of ‘political’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social connection as well as on empirical evidence, I suggest that SMEs are, on the one hand, as much as multinational corporations (MNEs) exposed to governance gaps of social and environmental regulation when operating in the global marketplace; on the other hand they do not follow the same approach to (political) CSR as MNEs, due to different organizational characteristics, limited financial and human resources and motivational factors. Notwithstanding, numerous examples exist where SMEs are already accepting an active role in global governance, e.g., by following the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and engaging in (multi)stakeholder dialogue. I theoretically develop a conceptual framework for the systematic assessment of how SMEs approach global governance and embed political responsibility in their organizational settings.

The once widely held notion that bilingualism is related to enhanced cognitive functions has recently been challenged, in particular among young adults, as opposed to children and older adults. This strand of research, however, is essentially focused on executive functions (e.g., attention, inhibition, and shifting). But there is another side to the bilingualism-cognition story. Indeed, growing evidence has shown that bilingualism, and by extension multilingualism, are associated with enhanced creativity. However, this relation is arguably quite complex, for several reasons. First, creativity is a fuzzy notion; it is usually conceptualized as a mix of cognitive, personality and motivational factors. Second, multilingual people generally have a richer multicultural experience than monolingual people. In addition, multicultural experience itself is also positively related to creativity. Hence, there are manifold relations between cognition, creativity, multilingualism, and multicultural experience. In this brief research report, using a latent variables model which replicates some of our recent findings, we show that both multilingualism and multicultural experience are positively associated with creativity, even when controlling for cognitive abilities (divergent thinking and intelligence). We discuss these results in a perspective that considers methodological challenges and factors that are relevant to goal-directed behavior.