Telemedicine has matured from an emergency workaround during the pandemic to a durable pillar of hybrid healthcare delivery. In late 2025, the strategic questions have shifted: under what conditions does virtual care safely substitute for in-person encounters, where does it add unique value, and how do institutions organize governance, reimbursement, and workforce strategies so that telemedicine closes—rather than widens—gaps in access and outcomes? This article develops a socio-technical, multi-theoretical analysis suitable for journal-level readers. It integrates the “quadruple aim” with Bourdieu’s forms of capital, institutional isomorphism, and world-systems theory to show how patterns of power, legitimacy, and dependency shape telemedicine at every layer—from device supply chains to bedside communication and cross-border data flows. Building on evidence and practice patterns observed across primary care, behavioral health, dermatology, and chronic disease management, the article proposes an H-SAFE operating model (Hybrid pathway design; Standards & safety; Alignment of incentives; Frontline enablement; Evaluation & equity), presents a maturity rubric for remote patient monitoring (RPM), and outlines a research and policy agenda for the next three years. The result is a critical, yet practical, roadmap for health leaders seeking safe, equitable, and economically sustainable telemedicine at scale.

Agentic artificial intelligence—systems that can perceive context, reason with memory, call external tools, and act toward goals with varying degrees of autonomy—has rapidly moved from experimental demos to production roadmaps in service economies. This article reframes agentic AI not merely as a technological capability but as a field of power that redistributes capital (economic, social, cultural, and symbolic), reorganizes organizational isomorphism, and re-articulates core–periphery relations in global markets. Building on Bourdieu’s theory of capital and fields, world-systems analysis, and institutional isomorphism, I analyze how agentic AI reconfigures decision rights, risk, and value capture in two emblematic service sectors: banking and tourism. I advance (1) a sociotechnical capability stack for agentic AI, (2) a governance and assurance framework oriented to procedural justice and fairness over time, and (3) a mixed-methods research agenda capable of isolating productivity, quality, and equity effects. The contribution is a critical yet constructive account that treats agentic AI as both organizational technology and social institution, offering executives, regulators, and scholars a vocabulary and blueprint for responsible adoption.

This article offers a critical-sociological analysis of Tumblr’s dramatic valuation shift—from a $1.1 billion acquisition in 2013 to a resale reportedly around $3 million in 2019—and asks what this episode reveals about platform strategy, cultural governance, and value creation in the digital economy. Integrating Bourdieu’s concepts of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital with institutional isomorphism and world-systems theory, the article argues that a platform’s financial worth is an emergent property of its governance credibility, multi-sided network effects, and the institutional field (advertisers, regulators, payment intermediaries) that conditions its business model. Using a qualitative case approach, the paper reconstructs key decisions and explores how policy shocks—particularly around content moderation—reallocate forms of capital within creator communities, influence cross-side network effects, and shape advertisers’ risk calculus. It derives a diagnostic framework for platform leaders and concludes by outlining an agenda for “governable growth,” interoperability, and diversified monetization that preserves subcultural distinctiveness while satisfying institutional constraints. The Tumblr case is mobilized not as a singular anomaly but as a prism to understand the recurrent tensions of the contemporary platform economy.

Over the past hundred years, hotel management has moved from an apprenticeship-based craft to a research-informed academic field spanning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels across leading universities. This article provides a critical, sociological account of that transformation. It traces the shift from experiential learning to formal curricula; explains how hospitality education became embedded in universities; and examines the roles of globalization, technology, branding, and regulation. To interpret these changes, the article mobilizes sociological lenses—Bourdieu’s forms of capital, world-systems theory, institutional isomorphism, human capital and credentialism, and the sociology of professions—alongside educational theories such as experiential learning and service-dominant logic. It argues that hotel management education reflects broader social processes: competition for status and distinction, diffusion from core to periphery in the world system, coercive and normative standards that drive program convergence, and the professional project that legitimizes hospitality as a knowledge domain. The piece concludes with implications for curriculum design, research agendas, and the future of learning in a technologically intensive, sustainability-conscious hospitality industry.

The global release of Apple’s iPhone 17 in late 2025 reignited debates on innovation, consumption, and cultural symbolism in a mature technology market. This article examines the iPhone 17 as both a technological object and a social text, with a specific focus on its headline aesthetic—Cosmic Orange. Moving beyond the product’s technical enhancements, this paper situates Apple’s design and marketing choices within the frameworks of Bourdieu’s concept of capital, institutional isomorphism, and world-systems theory. These sociological perspectives reveal how color, material, and feature diffusion reinforce symbolic hierarchies, aesthetic values, and geopolitical asymmetries across the global smartphone field. The orange finish functions as a gender-neutral aesthetic sign that mediates identity, taste, and belonging in a hyper-saturated market. It also reflects an ongoing process of institutional convergence and aesthetic standardization among global technology firms. Through critical analysis, this study explores how Apple’s design choices both challenge and reproduce global inequalities, while shaping the evolving semiotics of luxury and modernity.

This article examines a fast-moving development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) digital economy: the arrival and rapid scaling of Keeta, an international food-delivery platform, alongside visible shifts in pricing and promotional tactics by incumbent rivals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and neighboring markets. Drawing on theories of two-sided platforms, Bourdieu’s forms of capital, world-systems analysis, and institutional isomorphism, the paper frames Keeta’s expansion as a strategic market-entry maneuver that triggers defensive price and product responses, accelerates innovation adoption (e.g., last-mile automation), and pressures value distribution among consumers, couriers, and merchants. Methodologically, the study synthesizes contemporary reports and secondary data with established scholarly frameworks to generate a theory-informed interpretation suitable for managerial and policy decision-making. The article proposes measurable indicators for tracking competitive intensity and sustainability, outlines scenarios for the next 12–24 months, and concludes with recommendations for regulators, platforms, and merchants.