21st Century Research Articles

Clear enigmas and hidden meanings: the perpetuum mobile of the ‘machine of the world’ motif in recent interartistic activity in Brazil

Out of its European Renaissance origins in the writings of Dante and Camões, the metaphor of the machina mundi first came to the fore in Brazilian literature in the canonical poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade: the quintessential work of Brazilian modernism in its broadest sense, “A Máquina do Mundo”. The aim of this article is to explore the multiple, shifting possibilities inherent in the complex literary-cultural motif of the ‘machine of the world’ in current Brazilian art and literature. The text begins by looking at the comic epic poem Por mares nunca dantes by Geraldo Carneiro, before focusing on the different creative practices and appropriations of a series of paradigmatic variations on the theme from the opening decades of the 21st century: hybridity and interdisciplinarity in the poems A máquina do mundo repensada by Haroldo de Campos and “A quarta parede” by Marco Lucchesi; and interartistic intersectionality and creative duality in Laura Vinci’s verbal-visual sculptural installation “A máquina do mundo”, and Nuno Ramos’s photo-illustrated poetry collection Junco. The aim of this exploration is to interpret each of the works within the discursive historical-cultural context of the motif, and to analyse critically its presence in these rewritten and reconceptualised forms.

Following the Innovations in A Learning Organization Perspective: To Follow, or Not to Follow

The purpose of this study was to investigate school administrators and teachers’ following innovations in pre-school education in terms of the learning organization perspective. We examined their following the innovations in terms of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competencies, 21st Century Skills, and Innovative School. A total of 207 participants (School Administrators N =33 & Teachers N = 174) were recruited in this research. The data collections tools were Information and Communication Technology Competency Scale (ICTC), Multidimensional 21st Century Skills Scale, and Innovative School Scale (ISS). Our results have shown that school administrators and teachers have positive attitudes towards following innovations in education. Participants, however, have some concerns over innovative atmosphere and organizational impediments in terms of the innovative school. Further, the results in innovative school showed a statistically significant difference in favor of male participants. The results of the regression analysis have revealed that there is a significant relationship between multidimensional 21st century skills and the innovative school variables at a high level. Although the participants' multidimensional 21st century skills significantly predicted their innovative school scores, we found that the ICT Competence variable alone did not predict or affect it. Limitations and recommendations for future research are provided, as well.

Floods of Egypt’s Nile in the 21st century

Extreme precipitation and flooding events are rising globally, necessitating a thorough understanding and sustainable management of water resources. One such setting is the Nile River’s source areas, where high precipitation has led to the filling of Lake Nasser (LN) twice (1998–2003; 2019–2022) in the last two decades and the diversion of overflow to depressions west of the Nile, where it is lost mainly to evaporation. Using temporal satellite-based data, climate models, and continuous rainfall-runoff models, we identified the primary contributor to increased runoff that reached LN in the past two decades and assessed the impact of climate change on the LN’s runoff throughout the twenty-first century. Findings include: (1) the Blue Nile subbasin (BNS) is the primary contributor to increased downstream runoff, (2) the BNS runoff was simulated in the twenty-first century using a calibrated (1965–1992) rainfall-runoff model with global circulation models (GCMs), CCSM4, HadGEM3, and GFDL-CM4.0, projections as model inputs, (3) the extreme value analysis for projected runoff driven by GCMs’ output indicates extreme floods are more severe in the twenty-first century, (4) one adaptation for the projected twenty-first century increase in precipitation (25–39%) and flood (2%-20%) extremes is to recharge Egypt’s fossil aquifers during high flood years.

The Pragmatics of Holocaust Heritage in the Twenty-first Century: Exploring the Concept Using the Case Studies of Terezín and Staro Sajmište

ABSTRACT Holocaust heritage across Europe is held to high standards of conservation, management, interpretation, and use, due to the belief that all such sites should be retained as or turned into places of memorialization as their primary function. This paper proposes that a pragmatic approach instead be taken towards Holocaust heritage in the twenty-first century and beyond. In acknowledgement that heritage practitioners today are not safeguarding this as a “found” heritage resource in 1945, but in the present day, it is argued that it is inevitable and perhaps unavoidable to make pragmatic decisions which take into account changes to such sites over the last 80 years. Site managers and other stakeholders are not in a position to make decisions based on a clean slate, devoid of post-war events and uses. Drawing on case studies from Serbia and Czechia, and adopting a three-pronged model of “heritage pragmatics,” this paper argues that our choices today should reflect and acknowledge past uses and aim towards more pragmatic solutions, letting go of idealistic aspirations more suitable for sites without a long history of reuse.

Decolonizing Western Conducting: Gospel Music Conducting Practices in Twenty-First Century Southern Nigeria

At the initial stages when Western conducting was introduced to Nigeria, it was mainly used to direct European art music. This was the practice from the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. However, in twenty-first century, Western conducting is utilized to direct gospel ensembles, especially in Southern Nigeria. Although some of the nuances used to conduct gospel music in the locale predate twenty-first century Nigeria, literature is scant on how gospel music is conducted; and how such practice decolonizes Western conducting in Southern Nigeria. In this paper, I purposively selected eighteen (18) gospel music conductors, utilized non-participant observation, interview; and the theories of decolonization and conducting dynamism to descriptively discuss gospel music conducting practices and how the conducting practices are decolonizing Western conducting in twenty-first-century Southern Nigeria. Findings indicate that gospel music conducting in the region rarely engages basic conducting beat patterns, lavishly utilizes audible counting and finger snapping, feet stamping, clapping; and dance/kinetics that are traceable to popular music traditions to remove the restraints of conducting classicism, and to elicit kinetics in tandem with gospel music performance tradition in Southern Nigeria. These decolonize Western conducting, produce a form of conducting that combines Western and popular music idioms; that is predominantly opposed to the restrains of classical conducting. These warrant canonization for conducting taxonomy and education in Nigeria and beyond.

“Cultural In-Betweenness” in Borderland Films of Malaysian and Indonesian Cinemas

ABSTRACT This paper examines cinematic representations of the borderlands between Malaysia-Thailand and Malaysia-Indonesia in the twenty-first century. The films focusing on the region explore problematic issues such as the intersection of traditions, issues of identity and belonging, the modern nation-state system, and the citizens in these peripheral areas. This paper employs film discourse analysis, and the ideas discussed herein are crucial to the national cinemas of the region, as they operate in a manner akin to Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of the war machine, the smooth space, and nomadology. These representations raise questions about uneven power dynamics between the hegemonic center and the peripheral other. This investigation analyses two films: Batas (Rudi Soedjarwo, 2011) from Indonesia and Bunohan: Return to Murder (Dain Said, 2012) from Malaysia. This paper argues that the portrayal of borderlands and borders challenges the stability of inwardly focused and ethnocentric national cultural identities by presenting the borderlands of this island region as nomadic spaces, conveying a nomadic ethos and a sense of “in-betweenness” among its people.

Andrew B.R. Elliott, Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media. Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century (Réédition)

Andrew B.R. Elliott, Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media. Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century (Réédition)

Agricultural irrigation development in Castilla y León (Spain): driving forces and outcomes for landscape and sustainability in the 21st century

ContextAgriculture relies on irrigation in many parts of the world, and the need for irrigation is increasing due to rising demands for agricultural products and climate change-induced alterations in rainfall patterns. However, irrigated agriculture has been found to damage ecosystems and threaten landscape sustainability.ObjectivesAgainst this background, there has been a recent development towards large-scale irrigation in Spain. The aim of this study is to understand this development at the landscape level and its impact in the context of landscape sustainability.MethodsWe focused on two study sites in Castilla y León using a mixed-methods approach. We studied driving forces, landscape changes, and sustainability outcomes through document analysis, interviews, and aerial photograph analysis.ResultsThe development of a landscape-level underground pipe network took place at one study site and is planned for the second study site. Interviewees perceived institutional and social driving forces as particularly influential and technological driving forces as less influential. Political and economic driving forces were often interlinked. The irrigation development tied to land consolidation led to landscape changes, such as the removal of trees and increases in field size. Thus, in terms of environmental sustainability, trade-offs were found, while social sustainability outcomes were mainly positive. The impact on farmers’ economic security varied.ConclusionsFor further landscape-level irrigation developments, we recommend integrating preserving seminatural habitats and the structural diversity of the agricultural landscape in planning processes. We also recommend a shift towards more water efficient crops, evapotranspiration management, and a new funding scheme for farmers to offset rising electricity costs.

Environmental DNA reveals a presence of Anser fabalis (Bean Goose) and an absence of A. erythropus (Lesser White-fronted Goose) in Finnish Northern Lapland

Abstract Detecting rare and elusive species from vast wilderness areas poses significant challenges. The Fennoscandian population of Anser erythropus (Lesser White-fronted Goose) is among the most endangered bird populations in Europe, with only 25–30 breeding pairs remaining in Northern Norway. Historically, its former breeding range extended across the mountainous regions of Fennoscandia. Thanks to targeted conservation efforts during the 21st century, A. erythropus has started to recolonize some of its former breeding areas in Norway and possibly also in Finland. Anser serrirostris rossicus (Tundra Bean Goose) is classified as Endangered (EN) in Finland, with just a few breeding pairs in northernmost Finnish Lapland with a poorly known breeding range. It breeds in higher numbers in Finnmark Norway and is listed as Vulnerable (VU) in Norway. Anser fabalis fabalis (Taiga Bean Goose), classified as Endangered in Norway, can also breed in the same area in low numbers. To locate individuals of these elusive goose species during breeding seasons, we used environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from filtered lake water from selected lakes in northern Finland. We amplified and sequenced a short region of the mitochondrial control region to identify the species. Additionally, for positive controls, we sampled eDNA from the water of a Finnish spring staging site and known Norwegian breeding sites of the A. erythropus, from which eDNA of the A. erythropus was identified. eDNA of the A. erythropus was not detected within the former Finnish breeding range. Based on this, the A. erythropus has either not recolonized its former breeding habitats in Finland, the correct lakes were not sampled, the eDNA concentration was below detection limits, or due to other methodological issues. Anser serrirostris rossicus was detected in 3 lakes and A. fabalis fabalis in 10 lakes, providing new information about the breeding distribution of Bean Geese in Finnish Lapland.

Antarctic extreme seasons under 20th and 21st century climate change

In this study, available large ensemble datasets in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 6 (CMIP6) archive were used to provide the first multi-variate overview of the evolution of extreme seasons over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean during the 20th and 21st centuries following medium-to-high radiative forcing scenarios. The results show significant differences between simulated changes in background mean climate and changes in low (10th percentile) and high (90th percentile) extreme seasons. Regional winter warming is most pronounced for cold extremes. In summer, there are more pronounced increases in high extremes in precipitation and westerly wind during the ozone hole formation period (late 20th century), affecting coastal regions and, in particular, the Antarctic Peninsula. At midlatitudes, there is a reduction in the range of summer season wind extremes. Suggested mechanisms for these differences are provided relating to sea ice retreat and westerly jet position.

Brexit and the Iraq War on BBC Question Time: Demographic and Political Issue Representation in UK Public Participation Broadcasting

Public broadcasters are bound by strict guidelines to ensure balance in representing different demographic and political groups, and to better reflect the distribution of these characteristics within the public and political elites. How are these decisions affected when the biggest political issues of the day create further cleavages that not only cross-cut existing divides but also deserve representation in political discourse? In this article, we examine how panel selection on BBC Question Time dealt with this in relation to two prominent issues in twenty-first century UK politics: Brexit and the UK invasion of Iraq. We introduce an original dataset including all BBC Question Time appearances between 2001 and 2019, created using a combination of web-scraping and expert coding. This allows us to trace patterns in representation across sex, ethnicity, educational background, as well as partisan affiliation and stances on issues like Brexit and the Iraq war among the show’s panelists. We find that panel selection closely reflects gender and ethnic diversity among the UK public and MPs, but that individuals from privileged educational backgrounds are vastly overrepresented on the show. For both the Iraq war and Brexit, the show again broadly reflects the views of the public and political elites once we account for relevant comparisons between politicians and non-political guests.

Five levels of famine prevention: towards a framework for the twenty-first century and beyond.

In recent years, the world has faced a rapid rise in humanitarian needs and an increasing risk of famine. Given the potential threats posed by conflict, climate change, economic shocks, and other issues, it is important to be prepared for the possibility of new crises in the future. Drawing on key informant interviews and a literature review, this paper assesses the state of the art in famine prevention, examining a range of technical and political approaches and analysing emerging lessons. Based on the findings, it identifies five levels of famine prevention: (i) averting famine; (ii) anticipating famine; (iii) reducing famine risks; (iv) altering famine risks; and (v) preventing famine risks.The paper argues that the current focus only partially addresses a relatively narrow set of levels. It concludes that a more comprehensive approach that engages all five levels simultaneously could contribute to a global famine prevention framework for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Pierfelice Ravenna (1938–2022)—Life, New Names, and Confusion

Pierfelice Ravenna was a controversial Chilean botanist active from the late 1960s through the first decade of the 21st century. He died in 2022. During his active years he described ca. 650 species and infraspecific taxa of plants, mostly in Amaryllidaceae and Iridaceae. Unfortunately, the fate of his type specimens, a majority of which were located in his personal herbarium along with many loans from other herbaria, is not clearly known, but by all indications they were destroyed. In this article, we briefly review his life, compile an annotated list of all validly published specific and infraspecific taxa that he described, and determine which have available holotypes and isotypes.

The public and private mix in the production of childcare: a case study of 21st century South Korea

Purpose The aim of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of the “publicness” and “privateness” concepts in examining childcare policy reforms. Understanding them as having multiple facets, this paper challenges the way in which childcare-going-public is often simply assessed based on the coverage of publicly-funded childcare services. Instead, it highlights that the process should be more thoroughly examined by considering who pays for whom to provide childcare, where it takes place, how it is regulated, and what kinds of normative ideals it works towards.Design/methodology/approach The research design is two-fold. Firstly, it coins the concepts of “publicness” and “privateness” based on existing literature on welfare pluralism and public administration. It then unpacks the key facets constituting this conceptual twin within the childcare context, which are utilised to craft four models of childcare production. Secondly, this framework is analytically applied to explore 21st-century South Korea to track the changes and continuities in its childcare production models across four governments.Findings The analysis shows that while South Korea's childcare publicness increased in terms of funding, its privateness was bolstered in regard to the location of childcare, the way that publicly-funded childcare services were regulated and delivered, and the manner in which childcare was partially consolidated as a familial responsibility.Originality/value This paper proposes a new conceptual framework to analyse the complex and multi-layered process of how childcare goes public, which is analytically applied to a cross-governmental comparative study of South Korea.

The Chinampa a Response to Climate Change: A Complex Model of Ancestral Wisdom for Urban Resilience

Introduction: In the context of climate change, cities face critical challenges in water management and sustainability. One of the most ingenious and adaptive procedures that has endured throughout history is that of chinampas, which is a model of sustainable agriculture, and reflects a way of life intimately connected with nature. Objective: Evaluate the possibility of incorporating the method based on the chinampas built by the Mexica culture in current cities to generate a complex model of urban resilience. Theoretical Framework: In the theoretical framework there are theories such as ecological utopia, dystopia, stationary urbanism addressed by Fernando Gaja, smart cities by Tim Campbell and sustainability from the perspective of Francisco Javier Aceves, in addition to the agroecology of Nicholls and the socioecological systems of Towers as main axes of analysis. Method: The methodology is based on complex systems from the approach of Edgar Morin and Rolando García, with stratification, and the application of different methods to form a complex unit that is a resilient city model with the use of chinampas. Results and Discussion: The excessive construction, pollution, traffic and various problems show an urban crisis that was drying up the basin of the Valley of Mexico and there are currently few areas where bodies of water and chinampas such as Xochimilco are still conserved with socio-ecological systems and agroecology. Research Implications: Urban resilience, which aims to recover from an impact caused by climate change to current cities, health, adequate habitability conditions, and natural resources, which is why searching for a resilient urban city model is a complex task. Originality/Value: It is based on the recovery of ancestral knowledge to reestablish healthy cities of the 21st century from sustainability and bioclimatics since chinampas are used by the Mexica culture in pre-Hispanic times.

21st Century Skills-Based Sociology Learning at SMA Muhammadiyah Kupang

21st Century Skills-Based Sociology Learning at SMA Muhammadiyah Kupang

‘Neoliberalism, far-right politics, and the shrinking White middle class in Southern California’s Inland Empire’

ABSTRACT This article examines far-right, authoritarian politics among middle-class White communities of the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Grounded in a materialist theoretical framework and an analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews and the recent political-economic history of the region, I interrogate the political and social attitudes of study participants in relation to their experiences and perceptions of changing political-economic and sociocultural conditions in Southern California in the twenty-first century. Drawing upon Gramsci and the critical theoretical literature on authoritarian populism and neoliberalism, I consider how study participants’ authoritarian politics and ideologies reflect a reactionary political response to processes associated with the reorganization of racialized capital accumulation under neoliberalism. I argue that the appeal of these movements is, in part, how they provide commonsense (hegemonic) explanations for economic precarity, demographic shifts, and immigration, among other issues, while at the same time normalizing this increasingly exploitative and brutal regime of capital accumulation.

Lost in translation: the lack of agreement between surgeons and scientists regarding biomaterials research and innovation for treating bone defects

BackgroundWith over 2 million grafts performed annually, bone ranks second only to blood in the frequency of transplants. This high demand is primarily driven by the persistent challenges posed by bone defects, particularly following trauma or surgical interventions such as tumour excision. The demand for effective and efficient treatments has increased exponentially in the twenty-first century. Limitations associated with autologous bone grafts drive exploration into replacements, including allografts, synthetic substitutes, and 3D-printed scaffolds. This research aimed to unravel disparities in the knowledge and evaluation of current and future bone defect treatments between surgeons and biomaterial scientists.MethodsA prospective cross-sectional survey, pre-registered with the OSF (https://osf.io/y837m/?view_only=fab29e24df4f4adf897353ac70aa3361) and conducted online from October 2022 to March 2023, collected data on surgeons’ views (n = 337) and scientists (n = 99) on bone defect treatments.ResultsScientists were significantly more optimistic than surgeons regarding the future replacement of autologous bone grafts with synthetic or tissue-engineered substitutes (p < 0.001). Accordingly, scientists foresee a paradigm shift from autologous bone grafts to biomaterial and tissue-engineered solutions, reflecting their confidence in the ongoing advancements within this field.Furthermore, regulatory trepidations for 3D-printed bone scaffolds were acknowledged, with scientists emphasizing the need for a more significant focus on clinical relevance in preclinical studies and regulatory clarity. In a ranked categorical assessment, witnessing the technology in action was deemed most influential in adopting new bone regeneration methods by both scientists and surgeons.ConclusionsTo conclude, this study was conducted through a web-based survey, highlighting a substantial translational gap. It underscores the immediate need (“call to action”) for meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration between surgeons and scientists, often referred to as the need to “walk the talk”. The findings underscore the critical importance of aligning clinical needs, research outcomes, and regulatory frameworks to improve the development and implementation of biomaterial-based bone graft substitutes that demonstrate efficacy and efficiency in bone defect treatment.

A systematic review on mediators and moderators of job insecurity–health relation before and after COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeJob insecurity is one of the most hazardous work stressors in the twenty-first century, placing employees between employment and unemployment may threaten employees’ health in the workplaces. Using a systematic review, the first aim of this study is to list the mediators and moderators of the link between job insecurity and health-related outcomes, and second, to explain and discuss the mechanisms that could explain the mediating and moderating effects.Design/methodology/approachWe searched four databases (Science Direct, PubMed, Springer Link and Google Scholar) from 2008 to 2018 to detect these mediators and moderators. Also, as the study was conducted during COVID-19 pandemic, we particularly searched and reported the same associations over this period (2019–2022).FindingsThe results of the review suggest that job insecurity negatively influences a wide range of both health- and safety-related outcomes in the workplace. The results also showed that the most studied mediator and moderator of the job insecurity-health link over the past 10 years has been workload and employability. During COVID-19, the number of studies on mediators were more than moderators and coping strategies appeared to gain more research attention. Additionally, this review suggests that, to explain the mediation and moderation effects, a combination of cognitive appraisal theory and the conservation of resources theory can be used.Originality/valueAlthough this review suggests that job insecurity detrimentally influences employee health, the severity of this impact on health-related outcomes may vary by the effects of various moderators.

Effect of Organizational Cynicism on Job Performance: Evidence from the Rubber Manufacturing Industry in Sri Lanka

Human capital serves as a beacon of any organization in the 21st century. Organizational cynicism, a pervasive negative attitude towards one's workplace, has been recognized as a significant factor influencing employee behavior and outcomes. In the last two decades, the global market has embraced Sri Lanka’s Rubber industry for its value-added products. Since the Sri Lankan context is obsessed with an empirical in exploring the organizational cynicism in the Rubber manufacturing sector, this research aims to ex-amine the impact of organizational cynicism on the job performance of operational-level employees within the rubber manufacturing industry, focusing on Gampaha District. This study is deductive and quantitative, deploying a sample consisting of 170 operational level employees in the rubber manufacturing industry in the Gampaha District, selected through the stratified sampling technique. Data were collected using an online structured survey questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (version 21). By deploying Pearson Correlation analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis, four hypotheses of the study were tested and three hypotheses were accepted. The thorough investigation of these hypotheses collectively confirms the detrimental influence of organizational cynicism on the job performance of operational-level employees in Sri Lankan Rubber manufacturing firms. Two facets of cynicism—cognitive, and behavioral—exerts a distinct yet interconnected role in mitigating job performance while the affective component was removed from the model. These revelations advocate for a paradigm shift in organizational strategies, urging managers to not only address the visible symptoms but also delve into the root causes of cynicism.