Academic Discourse Research Articles

What does it take to co-create place brands? Learnings from an academic-practitioner exchange

Purpose This paper aims to report on the insights from an international workshop entitled Co-creating place brands: sharing research insights and practical experiences towards more inclusive cities and regions hosted by the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The authors outline their collective reflection and the learnings for place branding theory and practice. Additionally, this paper discusses the need to build practitioner-scholar relationships in a co-creative style, to co-develop more inclusive models for co-creating place brands. Design/methodology/approach The report details key learnings of a whole-day interactive workshop featuring academic and practitioner presentations and discussions around inclusive approaches to co-creating place brands. The report is structured around key emerging themes and their associated learnings. Findings The workshop yielded six important learnings: 1) a key obstacle to co-creating place brands is that co-creation is often misunderstood among decision-makers; 2) all place stakeholders need to be taken seriously if co-creation is to shape a place’s identity and foster cohesion; 3) broad stakeholder inclusion in place branding can be problematic, but it is a necessary condition to the practice of place brand co-creation; 4) co-creating place brands requires going beyond marketing tools and deep into the levels of community life and place’s social and cultural construction; 5) co-creation at all stages of the branding process from conceptual development to performance measurement and sometimes unconsciously; 6) politics of place must be observed (this is crucial yet easily overlooked in co-creating place brands). Originality/value The micro-format of the workshop facilitated valuable interactions between academics and practitioners, effectively blending practical, “on the ground”-knowledge with academic ideas, concepts and models. This approach not only generated key learnings with the possibility to advance the field but also highlighted important future research directions.

A comparative study of implementation Basel III between commercial and Islamic banks: a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review

Purpose This study aims to compare up-to-date research on Basel III implementation between commercial and Islamic banks in both developed and developing countries. The research examines the five main variables (capital, liquidity, lending growth, size of banks and performance) used in studies listed in the Scopus database, using bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review (SLR) as methodologies to map the research landscape and synthesize the results of existing literature on the subject. The findings clarify that most differences in the results of previous studies relate to the impact of Basel III on capital and the size of banks, whether at the country level or based on the type of bank. However, most studies illustrate a positive effect of implementing Basel III regulations on lending growth and liquidity, regardless of the type of bank or the level of the country. Overall, the impact of Basel III on performance shows a positive result for all studies on commercial banks in developed and developing countries, except for one study that found a negative effect. Design/methodology/approach This study used a bibliometric analysis and SLR as a methodology to map the research landscape domain and compare current trends of Implementation Basel III between commercial and Islamic banks in the literature. Findings The finding clarified that most differences in the results of previous studies were regarding the impact of Basel III on capital and the size of banks, whether at the level of the country or the type of bank. However, most studies illustrate a positive effect of implementing Basel III regulations regarding lending growth and liquidity, whether by type of banks or level of the country. Overall, the impact of Basel III on performance shows a positive result for all studies on commercial banks in developed and developing countries, except for one study that found a negative effect. Originality/value By using bibliometric analysis and an SLR, this study uniquely synthesizes existing literature while highlighting notable disparities in outcomes based on bank type and country context. In addition, it emphasizes the need for tailored regulatory frameworks that account for the specific characteristics of different banking institutions, particularly small and medium-sized banks. This nuanced approach not only contributes to the academic discourse but also offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners, addressing gaps in current research and proposing future directions for investigation.

Encounter, Critique, and Postcritique: A Play in Two Acts

What’s at stake in debates over critique and postcritique in International Relations (IR)? To subvert that question, this article is written in the format of a theatre play that stages a repeated encounter between scholars who are invested, or not, in that debate. At the centre of the conversations that take place are questions linked to academic responsibility, the nature of reflexivity, and the possibility of different political futures. The play and its characters are fictions, though they are hoped to reflect the ‘narcissism of small differences’ that often pervades academia. In doing so, we seek to (1) foreground how small changes in context (here, from an academic to a practitioner conference) force radical changes on how intellectual controversies are debated, (2) emphasize that the true stakes of debates such as those between critique and postcritique are often obscured by the combative nature of academic discourse, and (3) advocate for a refusal of, or active withdrawal from, the arbitrary classification of scholars into particular intellectual camps or positions. This process of fixing identities, the false idea that we are simply our academic personas, very rarely reflects either our personal-political realities nor the complex, polyphonic, and sometimes happily contradictory qualities of our evolving intellectual lives.

Reconciling British Values with Professional Identity: The Pursuit of Ontological Security Among Muslim Teachers in England

This article aims to investigate how the legal requirement to promote fundamental British values (FBVs) impacts Muslim teachers’ professional identity formation, utilising Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified Muslim teachers, including both male and female individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, employed in secondary schools across England. This study seeks to interpret Muslim teachers’ experiences through Anthony Giddens’ ontological security theory. Firstly, Muslim teachers expressed pride in being British and their successful integration into society. Secondly, the meaning of Britishness was elucidated by the participants through references to the values described in the current government guidelines on promoting FBVs. Finally, the impact of the obligation to promote FBVs on the professional identity formation of Muslim teachers points to a degree of ambivalence rooted in seeking ontological security. Certain teachers adopted an uncritical stance towards FBV policy, prioritising ‘values’ within the debate and thereby normalising the discourse surrounding FBVs. In contrast, others engaged in a critical analysis of FBV rhetoric, highlighting its adverse impact on academic discussions and their professional identities. From the perspective of ontological security theory, Muslim teachers are situated in a fragile position; while the majority grapple with ontological insecurity, others exist in a realm between ontological security and insecurity.

Reflections on Social Justice in the Promotion of Biotechnology Crops and Institutionalisation of Food Values among Smallholder Farmers in Central Uganda

The academic discourse of agricultural biotechnology carries a lot of information on how biotechnology crops are crucial in realizing food security once they are fully adopted by farmers. Biotechnology crops are seen as the solution to ameliorate the Malthusian catastrophe of population increase threatening food security. While studies on agricultural biotechnology are increasing, they mainly focus on how the new agriculture science produces crops with desirable traits in supporting food production interventions. Few studies have concerned themselves with the social justice implications among smallholder farmers, posed by institutionalised agricultural biotechnology knowledge with its sophistication. This paper addresses itself to the above lacuna. The data collection used an embedded mixed method design with focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, non-participant observation, and questionnaire survey methods. The paper shows that mechanisms that are used to promote biotechnology crops are highly institutionalized. The institutions not only develop the biotechnology crops but also engage in mechanisms that encourage smallholder farmers to adopt these crops. The major social justice concerns addressed by this study are plant diversity, equity and commercialization of biotechnology-generated seeds/crops, participation, and farming choices

The Different Aspects of the Housing Quality of Older Adults: Which Criteria Should Be Prioritized?

ABSTRACT Various studies have identified that older adults’ assessment of their housing quality differs from that deemed as good-quality housing by housing professionals. This has prompted the need to advance academic discourse beyond simply reporting high levels of satisfaction in older adult’s housing surveys. This study attempts to achieve this by using empirical data gathered through a mixed quantitative and qualitative research approach conducted with older adults in Slovenia. While the quantitative survey revealed generally high levels of satisfaction, the qualitative face-to-face interviews revealed numerous deficiencies, irrespective of whether older adults tended to express satisfaction with their dwellings. Therefore, our findings suggest that attributes such as ownership, period of residence, and neighborhood relations are far more important in determining housing satisfaction. Thus, we conclude that policies and programs for modifying housing for older adults must be based on a deeper understanding of their specific needs. During the policy formulation process and the implementation of specific housing improvement programs, emphasis should be placed on the social-historical aspects related to the lifestyle of each specific older adult.

Autobiographical Reasoning and Severity of Personality Dysfunction

Narrative identity is defined as a personal life story that integrates an understanding of the past and an envisioned future to provide life with a sense of meaning, unity and purpose. The key process through the construction of narrative identity is autobiographical reasoning, which can be understood from the perspective of three indicators: exploratory narrative processing, meaning-making, and self-event connections. The relationship between narrative identity and personality disorders has been examined extensively over the last decade. According to the latest literature, autobiographical reasoning could be a crucial narrative indicator of the severity of personality dysfunction. However, there was no research to verify this hypothesis. The main goal of the presented research was to examine relationships between autobiographical reasoning and the severity of personality dysfunction. The analysis includes data collected from 11 volunteers using a questionnaire (Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale [SIFS]) and Life Story Interview (Critical Events). Each statement was treated separately (N = 88) in order to enable statistical analysis. The preliminary results show that the indicators of autobiographical reasoning are negatively correlated with some of the aspects of the severity of personality dysfunction. The results support the reasonability of the approach followed in this research, and contribute to academic discussion about relationships between narrative identity and personality disorders.

Stained glass ceilings: Gender and race in accounting academia in Brazil

AbstractBrazil is divided into five large regions marked by profound economic and social inequalities. Such vast differences can make people feel like “foreigners”, even though they live in the same country. Here, meritocracy is seen as the criterion for assessing and promoting people, which is conflicting given the absurdly unequal contexts in the country. This choice widens inequalities of gender, race and, above all, social class. Between 2000 and 2018, Brazil experienced profound social transformations. Female participation in the labor market grew, although there were still barriers to access and professional advancement for women, which were exacerbated in the case of black women. When it came to leadership positions, they were almost always blocked by processes which depended on subjective decisions from evaluators. These circumstances occur through daily confrontations with processes of sexualisation and racialisation. These transformations were followed in the most recent period by clear setbacks, deepened by the COVID‐19 pandemic and intense political polarization. A milestone in terms of Esperançar, a verb proposed by Paulo Freire (1992), were the 2022 presidential elections, understood as a process of re‐democratisation. The social achievements that have been maintained, however, are ‘advances’ that work differently when the diversity of the population and regional differences are taken into account. With this particular context in mind, the aim of this study is to investigate how the “glass ceiling” phenomenon has been present in the daily interactions and academic trajectory of black women in the accounting field. The question that underpinned this study was: how can the academic accounting environment, considering practice and discourse, boost or hinder the “glass ceiling” phenomenon in the professional career of black female academics? This is a qualitative study with a post‐structuralist approach, based on the adoption of auto‐ethnographic and oral history techniques. The evidence was built up through semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with female academics who had graduated from postgraduate programmes. This corpus was analyzed from an interpretivist perspective and the findings reveal that the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is present in accounting academia in Brazil and is expressed in barriers specific to the field. Barriers are erected in processes of closure, blocking the path of black women who aim to succeed in prestigious academic spaces, regardless of their level of qualification. In this way, they are conceptualized as “stained glass ceilings”, because the barriers become visible and concrete in a country where racism is a structuring element of social relations.

Strategic Approaches to Municipal Bond Management in West Java’s Debt Management Unit

The research on the "Debt Management Unit (DMU) Strategy in the Issuance of Municipal Bonds in West Java Province" addresses critical challenges local governments face in optimising financial resources for infrastructure development. This study is significant within the realm of Social Sciences, especially public policy, as it explores innovative financial strategies that could potentially reshape regional economic development. The background of this study stems from the suboptimal performance of the DMU in managing municipal bonds, a crucial tool for financing public infrastructure. The research aims to analyze the role of the DMU, identify key factors influencing its effectiveness, and propose strategic solutions to enhance its performance. Using a qualitative methodology, the study gathers data through interviews, observations, and document analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the DMU's operational challenges. The findings contribute both academically and practically by highlighting the importance of strategic management in public finance, particularly in a developing region like West Java. The proposed strategies, developed through SWOT analysis, offer actionable insights for policymakers to optimize debt management, thus ensuring sustainable infrastructure development. This research not only enriches the academic discourse on public financial management but also provides practical solutions for local governments facing similar challenges, making it a valuable contribution to both scholarly and applied fields.

Научно-академический дискурс в образовательном пространстве неязыкового вуза

The article deals with the phenomenon of scientific academic discourse. A nomenclature of discourse typological characteristics is analysed. The concept of scientific academic discourse is defined as a specialized type of institutional discourse. In our research we consider the scientific academic discourse as an integrative concept combining the features of scientific and academic types of discourse due to the interpenetration and intersection of their components. Cognitive and communicative aspects of scientific discourse are examined specific attributes of scientific texts such as harmony, consistency, objectivity and others are determined. The article focuses on the analysis of scientific discourse genre varieties. The authors describe the specifics of functioning of a research paper and a scientific report as main genres of scientific academic discourse, reveal their peculiarities in realizing English language oral and written discourse. From the theoretical and practical points of view both a research aper and a scientific report represent oral/ written communication aimed at scientific informing. The scientific polylexemic templates suggested in the article prove to be useful in academic writing.

Pairing Humanities With Technology to Combat Mis- and Disinformation

Over the last decade, the phenomenon of mis- and disinformation has come to the fore of popular, academic and political discourse. It is widely seen as a scourge to civil society and a challenge to democratic governance, but policy solutions seem as contentious as ever, showing no signs of broad agreement on what can be done to enhance cognitive and societal resilience, particularly without treading upon precious liberal principles like free speech. David V Gioe, Robin Brinkworth and Marina Miron offer a suite of policy options that are humanities-based to complement the more frequently researched technological approaches to combating mis- and disinformation. ◼

Introducing Landmarks: The Tugu Yogyakarta's Popularity in Literature Review and Online Media

This paper explores the cultural and urban significance of Tugu Yogyakarta, a famous monument in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Located at the city's main crossroads, Tugu Yogyakarta is essential to Yogyakarta's Philosophical Axis, symbolizing the city's identity and pride. This analysis examines the academic discourse and social media presence of Tugu Yogyakarta, highlighting the monument's historical, cultural, and urban importance. The study emphasizes the role of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok in promoting the monument to a broader audience through visual and interactive content, with virtual reality (VR) technology discussed to provide virtual tours, increasing public engagement and awareness without time and distance limitations. The findings expose that academic literature, predominantly produced by Indonesian researchers, focuses on cultural heritage, urban design, and educational roles, while the topic is just starting to gain attention internationally. The social media analysis shows strong public engagement, with hashtags like #tugujogja widely used, reflecting the monument's cultural significance. This study combines a literature review with social media data analysis, making it a unique approach to comprehensively assess the monument's popularity and public awareness of its historical and cultural value. The social media data was analyzed using Gephi and Excel to calculate hashtag frequency and visualize network interactions. The findings show the critical contribution of Tugu Yogyakarta to the sustainability of cultural heritage preservation. The study highlights the synergistic relationship between academic research and the social media presence in promoting Tugu Yogyakarta, with digital platforms significantly boosting its visibility and public engagement. In conclusion, this study provides a multifaceted analysis of Tugu Yogyakarta, integrating cultural aspects, urban elements, and city marketing strategies. Successful promotion of the monument through academic works and social media can enhance heritage conservation and strengthen the public's engagement with Yogyakarta's historical landmarks.

The thorn in feminism’s side: black feminist reconceptualization and defence of #tradwives and the #tradwife movement

ABSTRACT Tradwives have been the thorn in feminism’s side ever since they exploded onto the social media landscape in 2013, attracting considerable media attention post-COVID. With their growing popularity in the online influencer space, the movement has been a critical focus of feminist academic discourse, given their promotion of ‘traditional’ values. Adopting a black feminist lens, this article traces the construction of the tradwife as anti-feminist populism and given the complexity of defining tradwives, offers a typology to better understand sub-types of content creators. Three clear sub-types of tradwives are identified: 1) the nostalgic tradwife, 2) the former feminist and finally 3) the Southern Belle. It also examines the unassuming hyperfeminine aesthetic within the tradwife persona that allows tradculture to perpetuate alt-right ideology to an everyday audience. This article argues that some tradwives bury their heads in the sand by failing to consider how nostalgic constructions of ‘traditional’ femininity reproduce colonialist discourses, as well as modes of oppression through gendered, ethnic and class lines.

Genre Analysis of Law Research Article Abstracts and Application in Legal Writing Teaching

Investigating the rhetorical structure of law research article (LRA) abstracts is essential for researchers and instructors in legal writing. Despite their significance in academic discourse, the specific rhetorical strategies used in LRA abstracts remain underexplored. This study examines the rhetorical moves in English LRA abstracts using Hyland’s framework. Fifty LRA abstracts, randomly selected from the Journal of East Asia and International Law and Law in Context, both of which are indexed in Scopus and ISI Web of Science, were analyzed as the corpus. The research employed a qualitative content analysis approach to identify and categorize the rhetorical moves. The study reveals that the purpose and introduction moves are the most prevalent, underscoring the importance of clearly stating objectives and establishing context. The product and conclusion move, which summarize key findings and extend research implications, follow in prevalence. In contrast, the method move appears less frequently, reflecting the genre's focus on legislative analysis rather than detailed methodologies. These findings are valuable for law researchers aiming to publish in international law journals and contribute to a broader understanding of genre analysis in legal writing. The study offers practical implications for scholars and educators, enhancing the effectiveness of legal academic communication.

Beyond Eyeball Tests: A Methodical Rebuttal to Fillon et al.'s Commentary.

In our original study, "Consumed by Creed" (Adam-Troian & Bélanger, 2024), we established significant and consistent associations between obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity and radical intentions across four distinct U.S. population samples-Environmentalists, Republicans, Democrats, and Muslims-partially or fully mediated by obsessive passion. Fillon et al. (2024) challenged our findings, alleging methodological errors and an excessive degree of researcher flexibility, which they claim could lead to false-positive results. In this response, we critically examine Fillon et al.'s commentary, arguing that it exemplifies flawed meta-scientific critique. We demonstrate that their approach relies on a series of unsupported and misleading claims, including a misinterpretation of the literature, unjustified reliance on visual data inspection, speculative assumptions about religious influences on our findings, and a shifting of the burden of proof. Through rigorous re-analyses, we reaffirm the robustness of our original results and address the unfounded allegations regarding our methodological practices. We also critique Fillon et al.'s approach, highlighting the necessity of domain-specific expertize in meta-scientific evaluations and cautioning against the risks of speculative and defamatory criticism in academic discourse. This exchange underscores the importance of maintaining rigorous standards in both original research and its critique, ensuring that scientific debate remains grounded in evidence rather than conjecture.

Sustainable Business Strategies: Exploring the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility and Virtual Reality in Enhancing Brand Value

This study explores the intersection of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in developing sustainable business strategies that enhance brand value. Employing a qualitative research methodology through a comprehensive literature review and library research, the paper investigates how CSR initiatives, when integrated with immersive VR technologies, contribute to long-term brand equity and consumer engagement. The research highlights CSR's evolving role in aligning corporate activities with social and environmental goals, which not only strengthens stakeholder relationships but also increases brand loyalty. In parallel, VR technologies are gaining traction in marketing and brand communication, offering immersive experiences that create deeper emotional connections with consumers. The study analyzes recent case studies and academic discussions, illustrating how VR can enhance CSR's impact by making initiatives more accessible and engaging to a broader audience. This synergy between CSR and VR not only fosters a stronger brand identity but also provides a competitive advantage by differentiating brands in an increasingly socially conscious marketplace. The findings suggest that businesses leveraging CSR strategies alongside VR can cultivate a sustainable brand narrative that resonates with both customers and stakeholders, thereby improving overall brand value and driving sustainable growth. Future research is encouraged to further examine specific industries where these strategies can be most effectively implemented.

Zooming Out: Circular Economy Development in the European Union and its Implications on the Economy and Society

The concept of the circular economy has emerged as a response to the challenges posed by resource constraints, waste accumulation, and pollution, threatening both social welfare and business profitability. The circular economy aims for sustainable development, encompassing environmental quality, economic prosperity, and social equity across current and future generations. Despite its recognition as a pivotal solution, there needs to be more comprehensive understanding regarding its development and its economic and social impacts. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the progress of circular economy sectors in the European Union to get an overview of the circular economy advancements and discuss geographical economic and social effects. The focus is on the indicators of gross value added, private investments, and full-time employment within recycling, repair, and reuse sectors because these sectors provide good proxies for the circular economy activities in the European economy. Results suggest a linear growth of circular economy sectors across the European Union, albeit with variations among member states. The paper discusses the implications of circular economy transition on the economy and society, particularly on the labour market, skill demands, and technology integration, emphasising the need for a critical academic discourse. It questions assumptions about job creation and local employment, especially considering technological advancements that may reduce manual labour in recycling plants. Future research is invited to focus on these macro-level implications and critically reflect on the societal implications of a circular economy transition to shape a more fair and socially inclusive economy.

Writing to learn: creative LD perspectives for Learning Developers and students

Academic writing is a contested area, even more so in times of large language models and artificial intelligence (AI). This writing is tricky to navigate and master especially for newcomers – staff and students. Learning Developers almost uniquely play with writing as a practice of emergence and discovery. Academic writing is a process: we write to become academic. Students write to join their epistemic communities, and Learning Developers write to give birth to an emergent field. Drawing on recent work by Syska and Buckley (2022) and Abegglen, Burns and Sinfield (2022; 2023), we argue that academic writing is an initiation into and participation in wider professional and academic discourses. We ‘write to learn’ rather than ‘learn to write’. In our practice with students, we know that we need to move beyond the ‘mechanics’ of writing and make the process meaningful, engaging, interactive, and fun. Similarly, Syska and Buckley (2022) have explored what makes Learning Developers ‘tick’ with respect to academic writing – revealing how, counterintuitively perhaps, academic writing can become an inclusive Learning Development space: our ‘happy place’. With this presentation, we opened the discussion on academic writing for building the Learning Development community.

Reclaiming Being: Applying a Decolonial Lens to Gendered Violence, Indigenous Motherhood, and Community Wellbeing

Indigenous women and children in Canada are significantly more likely to experience some form of family violence than their non-Indigenous counterparts. However, biomedical and academic discussions around the violence that Indigenous women and their families and communities face reflect a colonial narrative emphasizing Euro-Canadian perspectives and values; a colonial narrative that disconnects the role of past and ongoing forms of colonial violence and naturalizes family violence within Indigenous communities, informing a view of Indigeneity as risk. Through a decolonial lens, the underlying causes of family violence in Indigenous communities can be connected to the gendered violence of patriarchal colonialism targeting Indigenous women. It is revealed how Indigenous women’s bodies became a site of the coloniality of violence as colonization disenfranchised and displaced Indigenous women from their lands, communities, and central roles. Gendered colonial violence attacked Indigenous women’s scared status in their societies and disrupted Indigenous relational modes of being. This informed a coloniality of being for Indigenous peoples; a coloniality of being integral to intergenerational trauma and family violence. Through the lens of Indigenous laws as a decolonial approach to family violence, the centrality of Indigenous women’s roles and responsibilities as mothers is linked to community wellbeing and intertwined with leadership and governance. By grounding the rights of Indigenous women within relationships, Indigenous women can reclaim their sacred places within respectful, reciprocal, and interconnected ways of being.

E-Professionalism's Impact on Dental Professionalism: A Rapid Scoping Review.

Dental regulators and educational institutions are increasingly concerned about the influence of digital platforms used by the profession for social, business, digital interaction with the public/patients and its impact on the professionalism in practice now and going forward. However, academic knowledge and research within dentistry are relevant to e-professionalism at a level of engagement and approach in delivering guidance to students through the current dental curriculum. The question therefore asked was what breadth of academic material, research, debate and discourse is available to inform our understanding, guidance and teaching on this ever-evolving topic. To map how e-professionalism has developed in academic dental literature as a topic within the study of professionalism in practice. A rapid scoping review was conducted to identify published research that describes and tests the topic of professionalism from 2016 to 2023. Studies were synthesised narratively using thematic analysis to inform the understanding of what has been already researched in the field. Thirteen articles were included in the review. After undertaking a thematic analysis, five themes were constructed. These included: curriculum, opportunities and safe professional use, reflections, personal and professional identity issues, and students as co-creators. Within dental research there is consensus that e-professionalism could present a tangible threat to the identity of dental professionals their clinical practice and interaction with patients/public however, less is known about what educational strategies are most effective when teaching e-professionalism.