Articles In Special Issue Research Articles

Legal Principles for a European Green Energy Transition

The green energy transition has become a top priority for the European Union (EU) and its Member States. In line with the long-standing recognition of the need for climate change mitigation, recent years have seen a significant intensification of policies promoting this transition. Furthermore, recent global events, such as the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have further influenced EU energy policy. These developments have led to legislative action on many fronts to facilitate the transition towards net-zero, but also to enhance energy security and resilience. This Special Issue focuses on the legal principles governing the European green energy transition, also in the light of major recent developments. This foreword sets the stage by exploring the nature of legal principles in general and by discussing specifics of EU energy law principles. Further, this foreword suggests a differentiation between a) principles that enhance coherence within energy law by reflecting its core values, and b) principles that facilitate the green energy transition by ensuring that legal interpretation aligns with its objectives. Last, the foreword provides an introduction and a brief presentation of the Special Issue articles, which are organized around the abovementioned distinction, and invites readers to explore the articles further.

The impact of digitalization and virtualization on technology transfer in strategic collaborative partnerships

AbstractDigitalization and virtualization are integral parts of today’s competitive and dynamic business environments. Yet very little is known about the impact of digitalization and virtualization on technology transfer in strategic collaborative partnerships. Therefore, examining the impact of digitalization and virtualization on technology transfer in strategic collaborative partnerships holds much potential for contributing to the ongoing discussions in the technology transfer literature. This introductory article to the Special Issue reflects on the contributions of the Special Issue articles to the research on technology transfer and reveals three central themes through which the articles as a whole contribute to research in technology transfer: Theme 1 describes the role of digitalization in technology transfer outcomes, Theme 2 focuses on extending the understanding of knowledge transfer capabilities to include digital and virtual capabilities, and Theme 3 illustrates how technology transfer facilitators and intermediaries continue to play an important role in technology transfer in the digital world. We conclude the introductory article by proposing four promising avenues for future research on technology transfer in the digital age. These include Avenue 1: Understanding context specificity and temporality, Avenue 2: Focusing on capabilities and government policy, Avenue 3: Bridging distance, and Avenue 4: Protecting against threats.

Amenities and housing market dynamics: Implications for population change, urban attractiveness, innovation, and productivity

This introductory essay aims to provide a comprehensive overview of a collection of 17 articles, previously published in the Urban Studies journal, now consolidated as a ‘virtual special issue’. The articles contribute to numerous strands of what has, over the decades, become an extremely voluminous literature concerning the interplay between population change and productivity within cities. It is important to acknowledge that the volume of this literature makes it effectively impossible to summarise effectively in a single essay. This article instead presents a contextual overview, a glimpse into the various thematic strands arising from the literature, and an introduction to each of the selected virtual special issue articles themselves. It briefly highlights the unique contributions of these articles to the overarching objective of the Urban Studies journal, which is to advance our understanding of the urban condition. Yet, it is also worth noting that the literature does not neatly segregate into distinct strands. Indeed, several contributing authors within the virtual special issue rightly emphasise the significant interdependencies between population change, migration patterns, specialisation, firm location, urban and natural amenities, agglomeration economies, and productivity. This essay attempts to progress logically from one strand to another, with a specific focus on labour and housing markets, as well as transportation costs or systems, as mediators of these complex relationships. Finally, the essay concludes by bringing attention to several strands of future inquiry that might prove fruitful and would be of interest to the readership of this journal.

Special issue on systematic reviews and meta‐analyses in engineering education: Highlights and future research directions

AbstractIt gives me great pleasure to explore and synthesize the unique and synergistic contributions of 14 articles for this important special issue, as well as to set future directions for the field of engineering education. Given that evidence‐based syntheses help shape key research advances in the medical, psychological, and educational fields, we sought papers that used state‐of‐the‐art methods for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses to explore fundamental topics in engineering education. We received many excellent manuscripts, and eventually accepted 14 for this special issue. They cover a range of topics, including reading and writing in engineering, the use of concept maps for assessment in engineering, and other key topics. Most papers used systematic review methods, while three used scoping reviews and bibliometric methods. However, none used meta‐analysis. Although this is surprising, it presents an opportunity to call for more rigorous experimental and quantitative research on key topics in engineering education. Experimental studies can uncover cause and effect relationships and enable researchers to draw inferences more easily. While I advocate for all traditions of rigorous research, the collection of reviews in this special issue points to a pressing need for more experimental studies in the field of engineering education.

Do conference-journal articles receive more citations? A case study in physics

Conference-journal articles, which are expanded versions of conference proceedings papers, play an essential role in disseminating scientific knowledge but remain understudied. In the context of increasingly stringent research evaluation systems, this study focuses on conference-journal articles, examining the effectiveness of journals in selecting conference-derived publications. We also explore the factors influencing the citations of conference-journal articles. Here, we focused on Physics, analyzing 59,329 conference-journal articles published between 2012 and 2020, matched with general journal articles and conference proceedings papers based on the conference and journal. Results show that conference-journal articles receive significantly more citations than conference proceedings papers but fewer than general journal articles. Conference-journal articles in special issues receive fewer citations than those in regular issues. A U-shaped pattern emerges between the duration from the conference convening to the journal publication and the citation. We also found that conferences with sponsorship and those held in OECD member countries are more likely to produce highly cited conference-journal articles. Additionally, results indicate that conferences held in the USA, Japan, France, China, and Poland produce the most conference-journal articles, with articles from conferences in the USA, Japan, and France receiving relatively high citation counts. In contrast, articles from conferences held in China and Poland receive relatively low citation counts. This research provides valuable insights for academic conference committees, journal managers, and conference participants.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Family Science Careers Through the Eyes of Theory

This manuscript is part of a special issue of Family Science Review entitled Family Science Careers Through the Eyes of Theory, edited by Raeann Hamon, Ph.D., CFLE. The authors of these deliberately unconventional manuscripts were asked to select and describe a career that a professional with a family science background might pursue. After outlining the professional role, authors reflected upon the family theories that most influence the way they approach their work and perform their professional duties. Authors briefly review the scholarly literature on selected family theories, provide case studies or work scenarios as illustrations of theory in action, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the theories in their unique professional contexts. The Special Issue articles are designed to be used individually or in combination, and feature articles about careers in early intervention, special education, family court, child life, and higher education.

Björk to Morton to Aphex Twin: Music as a positive hyperobject

AbstractIn this commentary, I describe music as a ‘hyperobject’ – an object so massive, multi‐dimensional and vastly distributed in space and time, that it exceeds full apprehension and quantification and ultimately traditional understandings of what a thing is. I draw examples from my own experiences and from the special issue articles to convey how music possesses the five core properties of a hyperobject; being viscous, molten, non‐local, phased and interobjective. I argue that, in contrast to many other hyperobjects, music is one that generally exerts a positive force in the world.

The following articles for this Special issue were published in different issues

AbstractJoão Filipe Brochado Martins, Anthony Jautze, Athina Christina Georgiou, Birgitte Maria Theresia Tulp, Wim Crielaard and Suzette Veronica van der Waal. Well‐being, postoperative pain and outcome after clinical application of a novel root canal irrigation fluid—RISA—in teeth with apical periodontitis: A first‐in‐human study. 2023;56(12):1488‐1498. https://doi.org/10.1111/iej.13977https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iej.13977Wing Nok Isaac Ng, Shanthini Kalimuthu, Carmen Oi Kwan Law, Angeline Hui Cheng Lee, Terrence Chi Kong Lau, Yiu Yan Leung, Gary Shun Pan Cheung and Prasanna Neelakantan. Intracellular bacterial eradication using a novel peptide in vitro. 2023;56(11):1360‐1372. https://doi.org/10.1111/iej.13965https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iej.13965

Introducing hospitable destinations

This editorial introduces the concept of hospitable destinations and sets the context for the Special Issue articles. It begins by exploring the complex nature of destinations more generally and highlighting their links with place. The discussion then moves to critically examining intersections of hospitality and destinations, considering various drivers for mobilizing hospitableness in strategic placemaking and the impacts of emergent hospitality-related practices on disparate destination stakeholders. The next section introduces the articles in the Special Issue, which examine in diverse empirical contexts how hospitality is experienced, co-created, operationalized and strategically deployed to produce, and occasionally challenge, notions of hospitable destinations. The editorial concludes by reflecting on the implications of the Special Issue articles for future research and practice that adopts hospitality perspectives to plan, manage and examine destinations.

Feedback Loops: Future Present Becomings-With Critical Qualitative Inquiry

The following texts, by three critical session leaders, provide perhaps a conclusion to the special issue articles, but more importantly, may serve as “feedback loops” for becomings-with future present critical qualitative inquiries, for more just becomings that we have not thought. We become-with a new scholar who shares the important issues of her life as a beginning researcher, and we become-with two more senior researchers who share their critical experiences along with possibilities for reconceptualizing critical work as ethical ontologies.

Afghan Scholars’ Response to Perspectives on the Afghanistan War: Arrogant Conquest; Disgraceful Withdrawal

In response to the special issue on the Afghanistan War published by Armed Forces & Society, this article offers alternative perspectives regarding America’s longest war from the point of view of scholars who experienced the war firsthand and continue to live in its aftermath. We argue that Afghanistan was invaded by Western militaries who came to experience political failures and moral regrets. The soil could be conquered, but the Afghan nation has always strictly rejected foreign rulers and dictations. As our research critically evaluated the special issue articles published in the Armed Forces and Society Journal, we believe these articles fall short of reasonable analysis by only considering and analyzing the military strategies, war tactics, and failed stabilization efforts in Afghanistan. Civilian casualties owing to military operations by U.S.-led forces, not establishing an inclusive central government, strong resistance of the Taliban, ignoring the Afghan nation’s core ambitions, Pakistan’s double game policy, and high level of corruption led the U.S. to defeat. Nevertheless, we conclude that the U.S. approach to getting revenge for 9/11 victims and restoring their dignity through banzai attacks, blind bombardments, and night raids in civilians’ homes in Afghan cities and villages and taking innocent lives must be recognized, remembered, and condemned.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data: Improvements to the science of people at work and applications to practice

AbstractCurrently, in the organizational research community, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data techniques are being vigorously explored as a set of modern‐day approaches contributing to a multidisciplinary science of people at work. This paper discusses more specifically how these sophisticated technologies, methods, and data might together advance the science of people at work through various routes, including improving theory and knowledge, construct measurements, and predicting real‐world outcomes. Inspired by the four articles in the current special issue highlighting several of these aspects in essential ways, we also share other possibilities for future organizational research. In addition, we indicate many key practical, ethical, and institutional challenges with research involving AI/ML and big data (i.e., data accessibility, methodological skill gaps, data transparency, privacy, reproducibility, generalizability, and interpretability). Taken together, the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the areas of AI and ML promise to reshape organizational research and practice in many exciting and impactful ways.

Pluralising China as method: Between exceptionalism and universalism

To not only celebrate the launch of this double special issue, but also to shine a spotlight on the variety of China as Method epistemological approaches shared by the special issue’s editors and authors, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, the University of Amsterdam’s Media Studies Department, and Global Media and China, co-organised a hybrid symposium to generate intellectual exchanges on such a de-westernising mode of knowledge production. While the research articles in this double special issue extensively examine ‘distinct’ characteristics of China, in this introduction, we reflect on if we are essentialising China. We do not want to apply a universalist logic that exists in theories by and from the Global North to be ‘experimented on’ in the Global South; yet, we also seek to move away from ‘China exceptionalism’ and express the stance that China can only be understood in its positionality to other areas (and modes of knowledge production) of the world. Thus, this special issue seeks to further deconstruct China as Method, challenge the existing power imbalance, and pluralise knowledge production.

The Abolition of Slavery in Africa's Legal Histories

AbstractThis introduction contextualizes the special issue's articles in the broader continental dynamics. It discusses the Eurocentric bias of the historiography and suggests that the view that Europe was responsible for the legal abolition of slavery in Africa should be nuanced and qualified. Some independent African polities abolished slavery before Europe's colonial occupation. Nowhere did European abolitionists encounter a tabula rasa: African polities had complex jurisdictions, oral or written, which formed the normative background against which slavery's abolition should be studied. To do so, however, it is misleading to imagine abolitionism as a unitary movement spreading globally out of Europe. What happened differed from context to context. Normative systems varied, and so did abolition's legal processes. This introduction examines the dynamics that led to the introduction and implementation of anti-slavery laws in African legal systems. It recenters the analysis of the legal abolition of slavery in Africa around particular African actors, concepts, strategies, and procedures.

The role of the state in shaping the internationalization of firms in the twenty-first century

The year 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent crises, highlighted the significance of state intervention in shaping firm competitiveness. However, unprecedented government support for businesses has left us puzzled about the state’s role in firm internationalization, especially in emerging markets and the Global South, where government involvement has been accompanied by democratic backsliding and rising authoritarianism. Our Special Issue moves the current debate forward by exploring how the state’s changing role affects firm internationalization. The objective of this editorial is twofold: stimulating theory development by scrutinizing state intervention in emerging markets in recent decades and introducing the Special Issue articles. Contributions investigate how governments support the internationalization of their domestic businesses by focusing on firms’ institutional embeddedness and the impact of institutions as both resources and constraints to their internationalization. By linking the discourse on state capitalism with business internationalization, our empirical studies advance research on political economy and the state’s role in innovative ways, reflecting on recent geopolitical developments. Our introductory article situates the Special Issue papers in the state capitalism and firm internationalization literatures and discusses their implications for future research.

Preliminary Translation of the Tianhui Laoguanshan Manuscript on Piercing as Therapy

Abstract This translation forms a triptych with the following two articles in this double special issue: Gu Man, Zhou Qi, and Liu Changhua, “Techniques for Piercing the Mai Recorded in the Laoguanshan Han Tomb Bamboo Slips” and Zhou Qi, “Research on the Lacquered Channel Figurine Excavated from a Han Tomb in Tianhui.” Here you can read an entire Tianhui Laoguanshan text in translation on the subject of therapeutic piercing. The contribution by Gu, Zhou, and Liu positions the therapy in relation to ideas and techniques in other manuscript texts contemporary to the one translated here and the printed classics of Chinese medicine. These articles are accompanied by opinion pieces written by current practitioners of Chinese medicine as expert witnesses to the evolution of the techniques and their relevance, or not, to modern practice. Together, we present an interdisciplinary analysis that we hope will engage the reader actively in the process of multifocal interpretation. The text here is introduced by a translator’s introduction that reflects broadly on the unique challenges of rendering this fascinating work into English.

Introduction: Exploring the Artistic Uses of Sonic Remnants

Archives are both spaces of power and sites of memory. For this reason, artistic practices exploring sound archives have the capacity to reshape our visions of the past and produce new knowledge. The articles in this Filigrane special issue explore the creative possibilities of sound archives. How do artists use sound archives to propose counter-hegemonic historical narratives? What are the creative processes involved in reusing such archives? How do artists and their works reactivate the voices of the past through listening, propose new narratives, explore what is said and unsaid in collective memory and official history, and make the struggles of the past resonate in order to understand those of the present?

Has the Feminist Economics Intellectual Project Lost its Way? An Analysis of the Journal’s Evolution

This article analyzes the methodologies, scope, and impact of manuscripts submitted to and published in Feminist Economics from 1995 to 2019. The analysis finds that in addition to becoming increasingly empirical, Feminist Economics publications have also become increasingly intersectional. However, quantitative empirical submissions, relative to other methodological approaches, are more likely to be desk rejected and less likely to be eventually published if they proceed to peer review. The increasing attention to gender in the mainstream of the economics discipline, proxied by the prevalence of gender analyses in the discipline’s top thirty journals, is also associated with increased desk rejection, reflecting a rise in submissions that take a mainstream “add gender and stir” approach. Ultimately, this study aims to understand how feminist economics has evolved since the inception of the journal and to spark conversation about how to continue to make the journal and economics more feminist in the future. HIGHLIGHTS Publications in Feminist Economics have become increasingly intersectional. Non-empirical work has been favored in the publication process. Special issue articles garner more citations on average. Intersectional articles garner fewer citations on average. More “gender” papers lacking feminist engagement have been submitted over time.

“Converging on a new theoretical foundation for selling” five years later: emerging priorities, new applications, & directions for ongoing research

PurposeNot that long ago, half of all sales research was demonstrably if not unequivocally “atheoretical” (Williams and Plouffe, 2007). The foundational argument of this paper is that stronger theoretical development and application of theory in sales research is critical for the sales field to retain its relevancy. The purpose of this paper is to underscore that deliberate and cogent application of HWV (2018) is scant in the recent sales literature (over five years after publication in Journal of Marketing) for one or both of two reasons: scholars either do not understand the paper and/or are fearful of (mis)applying it.Design/methodology/approachMore than simply introducing the articles to this special issue of the European Journal of Marketing (EJM), this paper also makes a number of important, overdue contributions. Although Hartmann, Wieland and Vargo’s JM (HWV, 2018) theoretical and conceptual paper has been well-received by the sales community, it has seen limited meaningful integration or application in sales research since its publication. This paper thus clarifies key misunderstandings and misperceptions with HWV (2018) so that sales researchers can more impactfully apply it to future sales research.FindingsThis paper identifies and then explains key aspects of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) and commonly misapplied and/or misunderstood aspects of HWV (2018) to guide future sales research. Ultimately, the overarching goal of this special issue of EJM is to focus a “spotlight” on sales theory development, while simultaneously demonstrating – through the five articles the special issue reports – that with purposeful effort, rich theoretical insights can effectively be applied to both “classic” and more current and emergent sales research topics.Research limitations/implicationsBecause HWV (2018) draw heavily upon S-D logic, it follows that some aspects of their article have been misinterpreted or misapplied by sales scholars. In particular, the critical concept of “crossing points” (both of the “thick” and “thin” variety) are explicated and detailed further, so as to afford sales researchers with better knowledge and insight on how to apply these key tools within HWV (2018).Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this paper primarily revolve around further educating and clarifying for sales researchers “how” to better apply HWV (2018) to sales research, rather than simply citing it in passing. The paper also concludes by providing a summary and introduction to each of the five EJM special issue articles.Originality/valueThe originality and value of this paper and this special issue of the EJM is twofold. First, both this paper and the entire special issue itself emphasize the ongoing importance of advancing sales research through the meaningful and cogent application of theory. Second, the paper demonstrates that purposeful effort can lead to successful applications of HWV (2018) – as exhibited by the five articles in the EJM special issue – such that rich theoretical insights can be woven into both traditional and contemporary sales research topics.

The Eastern Cape and East London: African Protest and the Historical Context of Bloody Sunday 1952

This concluding overview explores themes which provide background to the four articles in the part special issue on popular protest in the Eastern Cape, with a special focus on East London. As these articles demonstrate, East London became the site of some of the most explosive urban popular protest in South Africa from 1950 to 1952. First, we discuss distinctive features of Eastern Cape African history over the long term. Society in the Eastern Cape was shaped by a particularly violent and protracted colonial conquest, lasting a century, but also by an early and widely dispersed missionary presence and relatively incorporative franchise system. Both left deep legacies. Second, we focus on East London, and some social characteristics that underlay the protests of the 1950s. Despite control by an anglophone white elite, the City Council was strongly committed to segregation and conditions in the ‘locations’ were among the worst in South Africa. This helped to radicalise African urban communities who also united to a degree behind Africanist, rather than class or worker-based, ideas and rhetoric. Third, we discuss participation by women in movements of popular protest in the Eastern Cape, focusing on both rural and urban contexts. Women were deeply engaged in two periods of militant mobilisation in East London: from 1929 to 1931, led by the Independent Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (IICU) and 1950 to 1952, led by the ANC Youth League. The relationship between political radicalism and spiritual renewal is also briefly discussed. This overview suggests that all three of these historical processes shaped the ideas, patterns, and radicalism of popular protest in early 1950s East London.