This article provides a sociological analysis of (the absence of) political protest among Russian migrants following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We compared the narratives of Russian migrants in Norway who participated in anti-war protests with those who identified as ‘outside of politics’ [внеполитики]. The study anchors the interviewees’ narratives about their reactions to the war by typologising two frames of reference: a frame of ‘avoiding politics’ that considers politics useless and dangerous and a frame of ‘democratic ideals’ that renders political activity relevant and important. However, several interview narratives oscillate between these two frames, indicating an ambivalent relation to political involvement, their stories forming a tapestry of both legitimation and rejection of political participation. We posit that such oscillation between available frames of interpretation is an important aspect of individuals’ responses to shocking political events.

The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO/OREALC) is an understudied actor in policy transfer analyses. This article addresses this gap by analyzing the mechanisms of influence and educational messages that the organization mobilizes to shape school policy in Chile, its host country. Drawing on the analysis, processing, and coding of documents produced by the organization between 1990 and 2024, this article demonstrates that UNESCO/OREALC has mobilized and combined diverse, multi-scalar and thematically polyphonic governance instruments within the Chilean education system. The article also shows that UNESCO/OREALC has maintained an ambivalent relationship with Chile, insofar as its mechanisms project narratives of both validation and opposition to local trends of privatization. The article suggests that UNESCO’s regional bureau performs functions that transcend the logic of a forum, positioning itself as an actor seeking to broaden the learning curve and policy options within the host country. Furthermore, it reaffirms the identity tensions that arise when the organization operates in contexts with high levels of privatization.

This article examines the digital transformation of child and youth welfare from a socially sustainable and technologically ethical perspective. It reconstructs the role of cyber-physical and digital technologies— including mobile applications, socio-digital platforms, and generative AI systems—using a problem- exploratory, phenomenologically informed analytical approach. Methodologically, the study is based on a systematic literature review in accordance with PRISMA-Flow and a PESTEL-oriented contextualization to determine the political-legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological- sustainable, and regulatory environmental factors of digital social welfare (PRISMA statement, 2020). Within this factual frame of reference, the present study shows that, in today's reality, digital technologies have the potential to strengthen the participation, inclusion, and autonomy of young people and, at the same time, to meet user-centered design requirements in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9241-110, WCAG 2.2, and BITV 2.0, but their implementation reproduces systemic risks. These relate in particular to surveillance tendencies, algorithmic distortions, normatively questionable profiling logic, and increasing asymmetry in the management of personal data. According to the analysis, digital interventions that declare their aim to be empowerment often reinforce existing structures of inequality in their praxeological operationalization and create an epistemically and data protection-wise ambivalent relationship between young users and welfare institutions. With these realities in mind, issues of data ownership, the copyright implications of generative AI (Sections 16, 44b, and 60d of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)), and the long-term management of minors' digital identities are critically discussed. Further, in the praxeological view, a normative epistemic framework for action emerges that reveals how inclusive, prejudice-resistant, and participatory design practices can be incorporated into the relevant information technology standards and the regulatory and ethically structured systems to create a comprehensively socially sustainable, justice-oriented, and child-welfare-oriented architecture of digital care. To this extent, the contribution consolidates an epistemic, normative, and organizational-theoretical frame of reference that understands digitally transformed youth welfare in the AI-driven welfare state as a socio-technical structure and structures its design along principles of justice, responsiveness, inclusive participation, and sustainable capacity to act. As a result, the constitutive conditions for the permanently secured and non-discriminatory participation of young people are systematically elaborated.

ABSTRACT Studies show an ambivalent relationship between globalization and national identity. Waves of national populism and counter-movements have emerged. Each country is grappling with its own internal debates and trajectories. In the context of Qatar, studies based mainly on quantitative surveys have documented a steadily growing pride in Qatari national identity. Nevertheless, fear of dilution or loss of traditions and culture regularly punctuates national debates and informs policy. This paper adds to this discussion by bringing in more granular, bottom-up experiences through in-depth photovoice interviews with thirty young Qataris. It highlights two different pathways that are strengthening national identity amongst the youth. First, the strong role of the family and community in ensuring successful socialization and transmission of key facets of Qatari identity, namely Arabic language, Islamic traditions, and Arab customs. Second, educational opportunities as well as digital spaces have enabled intercultural mixing that led to a process of self-reflection and discovery by acting as ambassadors and witnessing their relative privilege. This resulted in a stronger attachment to their Qatari identity. This study adds to the discussions on national identity formation and the role of family socialization practices, the internationalization of education, and cross-cultural communication.

Abstract This article traces the history of how two generations of US archaeologists navigated their relationship with the Guatemalan government, from the Jorge Ubico dictatorship in the 1930s through the democratic opening of the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent CIA-sponsored coup. Critiques of modern archaeology have focused on the discipline’s history of ideological and material collusion with different projects of US and European imperialism in the Global South. While the archaeologists discussed here benefited from US hegemony in the region, their own correspondence reflects an ambivalent relationship to formal frameworks of international law and a desire to function as autonomous nonstate actors. Rather than reflecting the political context of a given moment, the archaeologists’ behavior was often determined by a generations-old professional culture based on pragmatism and collective entitlement to the control of antiquities.

Abstract This essay argues that W. H. Auden uses elegiac tropes to reflect on his ambivalent relationship to leftist politics at the start of World War II. The essay makes the case that the long epistolary poem “New Year Letter” is an elegy of sorts—in conversation both with Auden’s shorter (and more famous) elegies from this time and with the German elegiac tradition from Friedrich Schiller to Rainer Maria Rilke. Central to this tradition (and to the essay’s argument) is an understanding of poetic tone. In a broader frame, then, this essay—echoing the contemporary theorist of affect Sianne Ngai—suggests that tone is an especially apt tool for thinking (and feeling) about social and political dilemmas.

This article traces Montesquieu’s thoughts on legislative education, the foremost subject in The Spirit of the Laws . Returning to his unfinished, final mature work, the Essay on Taste , it follows the relationship between reason and art as Montesquieu theorizes and practices it; doing so, the article examines, in a new light, three related, difficult subjects: the forms of legislation; the mysterious summit of the Laws , Book XXIX; and the author’s ambivalent relationship to Plato.

How can a complicated, ambivalent relationship with a boss be both draining and generative? This paper challenges the view that leader–member exchange (LMX) ambivalence is solely harmful. Using the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework, we examine how conflicting feelings toward a leader can be experienced as both constraining and motivating. We focus on epistemic motivation—the tendency to seek deeper understanding—as a key factor that shapes how followers process such ambiguity. Across three studies, LMX ambivalence was linked to two distinct outcomes: emotional exhaustion and voice. These associations operated through different ruminative pathways: affective rumination, characterized by intrusive negative thoughts, and problem-solving pondering, involving reflective sense-making. Followers higher in epistemic motivation were less inclined toward affective rumination and more inclined toward problem-solving pondering, thereby strengthening the link between ambivalence and constructive voice while softening its association with exhaustion. Our findings highlight the hybrid nature of LMX ambivalence and suggest that it does not uniformly undermine followers but can also be associated with adaptive engagement. By unpacking the interplay of ambivalence, rumination, and epistemic motivation, this research provides a more balanced account of the complexities of leader–follower relationships.

Despite long-standing formal instruction, the evaluation of students’ written production at university continues to reveal persistent shortcomings. This article identifies four interrelated challenges that hinder the development of academic writing: (1) students’ ambivalent relationship to French—vis-à-vis the growing prominence of English—which affects motivation; (2) pedagogical practices that privilege linguistic sub-systems and the final product over a process-oriented approach; (3) negative perceptions of drafting, often dismissed as time-consuming; and (4) the sacralization of writing as a rigid, intimidating act. Drawing on didactic and cognitive models of writing, the paper proposes concrete avenues to desacralize writing and cultivate competence: authentic communicative tasks, explicit teaching of the writing process (planning–composing–revising), and collaborative revision with formative assessment. These strategies aim to help learners progressively build both competence and confidence in academic writing.

ABSTRACT This article examines the global spread of right-wing anti-trans rhetoric, focusing on how gender-affirming care controversies reinforce conservative nationalist forces in India, entrenching a bio-political regime of gender normativity. Situating these developments within the expanding nexus of global reactionary politics, the study traces how various Hindutva organisations strategically appropriate Western discourses of ‘gender ideology’ to bolster their vision of a hetero-patriarchal state, even as they negotiate an ambivalent relationship with indigenous non-binary identities such as hijras. Drawing from Susan Stryker’s theorisation of trans monstrosity and resistance, this paper foregrounds the counter-hegemonic practices of Indian trans activists who cultivate transnational solidarities with the Black, Latin American, and Indigenous trans movements. Employing a qualitative methodology, integrating critical discourse analysis of right-wing media, policy documents, and public statements, the study elucidates the dialectical interplay between authoritarian gender policing and radical trans self-determination. Concomitantly, it argues that South–South activist coalitions not only resist the globalised authoritarian turn against trans rights but also articulates new epistemological frameworks for decolonising gender. Finally, this article seeks to advance the fields of transgender studies and postcolonial theory by situating trans embodiment as a contested locus of bio-political control and a site for the emergence of insurgent futurities.

Abstract This research analyses the effect of financial stability on environmental degradation in Africa. To do this, the study uses a panel of 47 countries and an empirical approach based on a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model. We also use impulse response functions (IRFs), carried out using Monte Carlo simulations, which allow us to observe the short-term and long-term dynamics of the effects of shocks on financial stability and the environment. The results indicate an ambivalent relationship. In some cases, increased financial stability promotes investment in sustainable projects, but it can also encourage harmful activities if regulation is lacking. Finally, economic policy implications emphasize the need to strengthen governance, introduce strict regulations, and promote green and sustainable investment. These measures aim to balance economic development and environmental protection, while adapting financial policies to regional realities to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.

The war in Gaza reveals a profound transformation in the humanitarian sector. While Joël Glasman sees it as a breaking point, Michaël Neuman believes that Gaza is instead the culmination of a process that has already begun: the criminalisation of the enemy, political hardening, and a gradual shift away from the liberal framework. Both agree that non-governmental organisations (NGOs), traditionally supported by Western democracies, are seeing these alliances crumble as they face a loss of legitimacy and resources on the ground. Faced with these changes, NGOs are being called upon to radically rethink their role, their functioning and their autonomy.

Dissemination and implementation of socially prescribed community-based programmes for individuals with rheumatic conditions remain rare. However, such programmes can help overcome key barriers, including limited access to evidence-based psychological interventions, individuals' preference for psychosocial care outside of rheumatology clinics and the prevention of isolation and loneliness. This study presents a qualitative process evaluation of a community-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) group intervention, delivered as part of a psychosocial service within a support organization for individuals with rheumatic conditions. We conducted 12 semi-structured qualitative interviews following participants' completion of five in-person ACT group sessions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to assess acceptability and explore how participants conceptualized ACT's processes of change. Four key themes emerged, offering practical considerations for planning and delivering ACT groups for individuals with rheumatic conditions: (1) the process of finding peace through mindfulness while managing practice-related difficulties, (2) recognizing the importance of making values-consistent choices, (3) navigating an ambivalent relationship with pain and (4) the dual nature of the group experience-both comforting and awkward. Findings highlight the implications of programme duration in planning ACT groups for individuals with rheumatic conditions in the community. The study suggests that acceptance and mindfulness may be time-bound and context-sensitive processes, influenced by the fluctuating symptomatology of rheumatic conditions. Mindfulness is best developed step by step, starting with body awareness, understanding symptoms and slowly bringing mindfulness into daily life. Pain acceptance should focus more on facilitating momentary patterns of activity engagement, rather than willingness towards the fluctuating symptoms.

ABSTRACT The phenomenon of juridification – citizens’ increasing reliance on legal frameworks and institutions to address political issues – is often portrayed in contemporary literature as a depoliticizing and de-democratizing shift, marked by the transfer of political authority to the courts and the expansion of formal law. The article offers a more nuanced account of the phenomenon by revisiting the early twentieth-century work of Frankfurt School jurist Otto Kirchheimer. Drawing on his writings from the 1920s and 1930s, the article reconstructs Kirchheimer’s multifaceted theory of juridification as a process unfolding along three distinct trajectories: (1) toward formal democracy, (2) toward substantive democracy, and (3) toward executive democracy. Each trajectory embodies a different form of juridification – formal, material, and administrative – and entails divergent implications for democratic governance. By juxtaposing these models, the article argues that while Kirchheimer viewed the first and third trajectories as ultimately detrimental to the endurance of democratic institutions, he regarded the second, oriented toward a value-based substantive democracy, as a necessary development for sustaining democratic life. This reconstruction sheds light on the ambivalent relationship between juridification and democracy.

This article examines how Latin American punk articulates alternative temporalities in response to crisis, repression and neo-liberal acceleration. Rather than adhering to a logic of linear progress or future-oriented optimism, punk often embodies a presentist regime of experience, as conceptualized by François Hartog and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. Within this framework, punk privileges a dense and decelerated present while maintaining an ambivalent relationship to the past and a critical stance towards the future. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope, the article explores how punk configures time and space through autobiographical testimonies, subcultural practices, performances and symbolic figures. Focusing on punk scenes in Argentina, Chile and Peru, it analyses how the aesthetics of immediacy, the myth of eternal youth, and selective uses of memory shape a spatiotemporal formation that challenges dominant cultural timelines. By engaging with both historical and contemporary materials, the article argues that the Latin American punk chronotope constitutes a mode of temporal disobedience, one that resists normalization and opens space for insurgent subjectivities and affective insurgencies.

Abstract In light of increasing digitalization, this article examines the relation between the use of digital technologies in the workplace and employees’ subjective perception of job autonomy. Job autonomy is considered a key work resource that allows employees to meet work demands and shows positive links to productivity, satisfaction, or creativity. Based on the BIBB/BAuA employment surveys of 2012, 2018, and 2024, the use and introduction of digital technologies are considered indicators of workplace digitalization. Job autonomy is measured using a composite index and four sub-dimensions (Task, Criteria, Scheduling, Working Time). Multiple linear regression analyses are used to estimate the effects of digital tools on the Autonomy Index. The regression analyses show that digital technologies are linked to job autonomy in various ways: video conferencing enhances all areas of job autonomy, while frequent computer use increases task-related freedom but limits flexibility in terms of work goals and time. Smartphones promote task- and method-associated autonomy but are associated with a loss of control over goals and working hours. Greater autonomy is positively linked to the perceived relief brought about by the introduction of new technologies. These results thus fit into existing research on the ambivalent relationship between digitalization and working conditions. Practical relevance: This article offers a nuanced view of the connection between job autonomy and the use of selected digital tools, providing valuable insights for companies and policymakers to develop strategies for creating humane working conditions in an increasingly digitized and intensified world of work. Flexible communication is proving to be a strong driver of job autonomy gains in all areas. The success of digital transformation does not lie in the mere introduction of new tools and gadgets, but in how they are experienced: if employees perceive them as a relief, autonomy is likely to increase. The study also provides important insights into potential stress factors resulting from a lack of autonomy in the workplace. The frequent use of computers and smartphones can limit job autonomy in certain areas. The results point to increased pressure to perform and greater external control. Occupational safety must therefore focus more on psychological and organizational factors beyond purely technical and ergonomic aspects.

The increasing body of research underscores that athletic performance is not solely contingent upon physical capabilities but is also significantly influenced by psychological strengths. Despite this, there remains a need for comprehensive meta-analyses to rigorously investigate the link between psychological factors and sports performance. In line with this, the present study seeks to examine the influence of various psychological constructs, such as motivation, self-efficacy, self-confidence, goal setting, attention, stress management, extraversion, self-discipline, personality traits, and emotional intelligence (EI) on athletic performance. This analysis was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and included 127 studies covering a total of 24,358 participants. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist, ensuring a rigorous evaluation of study designs and data reliability. The findings indicate an association between personality traits-such as motivation (d = 0.525), self-efficacy (d = 0.413), conscientiousness (d = 0.316), and extraversion (d = 0.336)-and sports performance. Moreover, the overall association between psychological factors and sports performance was calculated as moderate (d = 0.329). Moderator analyses revealed no significant associations based on variables such as gender, type of sport, or type of athlete. Additionally, no significant associations were found for anxiety, openness to experience, neuroticism, or agreeableness, suggesting that these traits may have more complex or context-dependent relationships with performance. The findings of this meta-analysis indicate that psychological skills training plays a critical role in enhancing athletes' performance. Future research should delve deeper into studies conducted in specific contexts to better understand the ambivalent relations among these factors.

Care policy emerged as a new concept in 2021 within the domestic social welfare system and the world of social sciences that underpin it. In recent years, it has been institutionalized in several stages, continuously in new areas. In the study, we attempt to define and analyze the content of care policy based on two foundational textbooks published at the end of 2024 and related publications, highlighting the essential content elements and the differences from the system of social work and social policy. Care policy is characterized by a contradictory, ambivalent relationship with the concepts of social policy and social work; it simultaneously seeks to consider itself as an organic, qualitatively progressive continuation of them, while at several points it firmly denies their fundamental principles and values. The monitoring and interpretation of the development of care policy is of paramount importance for the social policy and social work in Hungary.

Abstract This paper sits with the geopoetics of the Egyptian poet and writer Iman Mersal to grapple with affective ambivalence towards common objects of desire, such as an anchorage of one's place in the world, an idea of home. What does it mean to “train” ourselves into the idea that we are never really at home? In what forms might these trainings to come to terms with our precarious relation to the world manifest? And how might they rework imaginations of precarious geographies in world politics? By way of an answer, I suggest supplementing the urban geopolitics of home, one that is beholden to the event of violence, with an urban geopoetics of home, one that I propose might be more open to affectual ambivalence. I argue that an urban geopoetics of home opens up towards modes of knowing, feeling, and storytelling home and city otherwise; one that critically witnesses their material precarity without being beholden to the event of violence inflicted on them. More specifically, it allows for an ambivalent relation to home as an uncertain anchor to selfhood.

This brief report examines how religion influences the self-perception, coping strategies, and psychological well-being of individuals who experience minor attraction. Through a mixed-methods survey of 70 self-identified minor-attracted persons (MAPs), we assessed religious affiliation, level of observance, theological interpretations of attraction, perceived community stigma, and coping resources. Quantitative findings reveal a high level of religious engagement among respondents, with 60% identifying as somewhat or very observant. Qualitative responses show that while religion provides some MAPs with existential meaning and ethical direction, it also contributes to internalized stigma and spiritual distress. These results suggest a complex, ambivalent relationship between religious belief and minor attraction, one marked by both resilience and suffering. Implications for clinical care and pastoral responses are discussed.