Power Asymmetries Research Articles

Delineating the boundaries between genuine cultural change and cultural appropriation in majority-group acculturation

An emerging literature has begun to explore the acculturation of majority-group members within increasingly diverse societies. Given the inherent power asymmetries and ethnic hierarchies that usually favor majority groups, it becomes critical to examine their acculturation process through the lens of power dynamics. Central to this examination is determining when a majority group’s adoption of cultures from other groups (e.g., ethnocultural minorities who are indigenous or have a history of forced or voluntary migration) constitutes cultural appropriation versus genuine cultural change. In this paper, we argue that cultural appropriation becomes evident when majority-group members exploit cultural elements from less powerful ethnic groups against their will, often for material or symbolic gains, without providing proper credit or demonstrating a deeper understanding of the culture. By contrast, genuine cultural change is distinguishable from appropriation when it is characterized by deep cultural learning (as opposed to cultural engagement that remains superficial), concerns other groups as equal, and is consented to by the group whose culture is being adopted. Existing acculturation research suggests that the cultural adoption by majority-group members is typically driven more by self-reported egalitarian motives than by a desire for dominance, and that minority groups do not principally object to this adoption. Therefore, it is improbable that all aspects of majority-group members’ cultural adoption would constitute cultural appropriation. However, further research is needed to empirically differentiate cultural appropriation from genuine forms of cultural change within majority groups, particularly by investigating the perspectives of the groups whose cultures are being adopted.

Safeguarding trust in a digital ecosystem

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to elaborate the significance of safeguards in digital ecosystems and their role in generating trust among participants. This paper argues that the right mix and number of safeguards are crucial for an ecosystem’s growth and success. It offers ecosystem orchestrators concrete guidelines for how to implement and monitor safeguards.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on both consulting experience and publicly available information on several digital ecosystems.FindingsThis research conceptualizes safeguards as precautionary mechanisms that mandate or promote desirable behavior in an effort to engender trust among ecosystem participants. Safeguards can take various forms, including passwords, escrow, user privacy controls, ratings and reviews and policies and contracts. Striking the right balance of safeguards – neither too few nor too many – is crucial for ecosystem orchestrators. This paper identifies the factors that determine the optimal mix of safeguards, including the power asymmetry between sellers and buyers, the sophistication of participants, the nature of transactions, the cost of negative outcomes and the cost-benefit tradeoff.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to illuminate the relationship between safeguards and trust in the context of digital ecosystem. It is also one of the few attempts to provide managerial guidance for ecosystem designers trying to structure their platform for trust.

Female impoverishment in the democratic process: perspectives of decision-making power

This article analises problem the impact of female impoverishment on the democratic process, critically analyzing care relationships and the removal of decision-making power. Using the deductive method, it aims to investigate the imbalance of power and the invisibility of unpaid domestic work, as well as its consequent non-recognition by the law. To this end, it delimits the study into the invisibility of women's domestic work; the asymmetries of power and the difficulty of participating in democratic life; care and removal from decision-making power and, finally, women's political poverty and the need to review the deficit of democratic protagonism. The movement to reflect on and denounce gender inequality focuses on the overlap between paid and unpaid work relationships developed by women, and the inescapable conclusion is that the maintenance of patriarchy and the normalization of female impoverishment is largely due to the solidity of incessant, permanent, invisible and unpaid domestic work. The indignity of simultaneous working hours leads to women's material and, above all, political poverty and, as a result, to their removal from power and from the democratic processes of discussion and deliberation.

Examining the impact of market power discrepancy between supply chain partners on firm financial performance

Market power reflects a firm's competitive advantage and plays an important role in its performance. However, in a buyer-supplier relationship, how the asymmetric market power between a firm and its partners affects the firm financial performance remains an open question. This study investigates the impact of market power discrepancy (MPD) between a focal firm and its supply chain partners on the focal firm's financial performance, as measured by return on assets (ROA). With empirical evidence from China's listed firms between 2001 and 2021, we find that a higher MPD between the firm and its supplier or the firm and its customer negatively affects the firm's financial performance. A supplier or customer that has a matched market power with the firm is the best candidate for building a relationship. In addition, our findings suggest that the strength of the buyer–supplier relationship amplifies the negative impact of MPD on the firm's financial performance, whereas the level of relationship embeddedness reduces the MPD's negative effect. Moreover, our findings suggest that firm-specific institutional, industry, and regional economic heterogeneities affect the MPD's financial impact. Further, we find that MPD not only negatively affects a firm's financial performance but also worsens its environmental, social, and corporate governance performance. Our study recommends that firms should alleviate the asymmetry of market power with their partners and leverage the relationship dependence to balance power and benefits.

Strategies for addressing conflicts arising from blue growth initiatives: insights from three case studies in South Africa

South Africa has vigorously embraced the concept of the ‘blue economy’ and is aggressively pursuing a blue growth strategy to expand the ocean economy, create jobs, and alleviate poverty. However, many of these ‘blue initiatives’ are leading to conflicts amongst various stakeholders with different histories, relationships with resources and areas, worldviews, and values. Investment in the ocean economy is being prioritized by government and planning, environmental assessment, and decision-making processes are being fast-tracked. Consequently, historical inequities as well as environmental and social justice considerations are not being given due consideration. Communities are not being effectively consulted. This has resulted in tensions and conflicts amongst proponents of these projects and local communities living in areas affected by these initiatives. We examine the drivers of conflict and then explore the strategies that local communities and their social partners have employed in these case studies to challenge contentious developments, defend coastal and marine areas, and make their voices heard. The cases involve conflicts over air quality in an expanding marine industrial zone at Saldanha Bay, prospecting and mining applications in the vicinity of the Olifants Estuary in the Western Cape, and the expansion of the Richard’s Bay Port, mining activities, and conservation initiatives in KwaZulu-Natal. The barriers and potential opportunities to opening up deliberative spaces, shifting values and views, and co-producing knowledge, in contexts that are characterised by structural inequality, poverty, and power asymmetries, are discussed.

The discursive construction of solidarity by Ghanaian female parliamentarians

Abstract Research on issues of women has largely focused attention on, among others, power asymmetries and gender stereotypes, with less emphasis on positive linguistic mechanisms of women. Drawing on a critical discourse analytical approach and using Ghanaian parliamentary debates as data, this paper examines how female members of parliament (MPs) construct solidarity. The paper finds that, first, Ghanaian female MPs construct solidarity by positioning themselves as agents and the voice of (Ghanaian) women by using the inclusive-we and our/us. Second, the MPs engage in solidarity formation for (Ghanaian) women empowerment by championing the cause of women and calling for female empowerment. Third, the MPs demonstrate solidarity through congratulatory messages that highlight the achievements of (Ghanaian) women. Finally, the MPs resist discourses that discriminate against (Ghanaian) women. This paper highlights the need for marginalized voices to be centred in CDA research and contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on reparative critical practices.

Understanding interdependency of sustainability dimensions from the lens of collaborative relationship conditions: findings from an emerging economy

PurposeDrawing on the relational view and contingency theories, this study explores supply chain relationship conditions' roles in interrelationships between environmental, social and supply chain performance (SCP), i.e. triple bottom line (TBL).Design/methodology/approachThe data from industries and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to validate the proposed model. Interviews with industry experts were conducted to further understand the findings.FindingsThe authors find that relationship conditions, such as inventory information sharing, dependency, opportunistic behavior and conflicts, moderate TBL linkages. Interestingly, power asymmetry does not moderate the linkages. Social performance mediates between environmental and SCP. This indirect effect is stronger than the effect of environmental performance on SCP.Originality/valueThis research is perhaps the first to bring a much-needed nuanced view on the importance of relationship conditions for TBL performance linkages. The research further underlines the importance of social performance in an emerging economy.

Differences in Electroencephalography Power and Asymmetry at Frontal Region in Young Adults with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity Disorder: A Quantitative Electroencephalography Study.

: Diagnosing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is often hard. This study aimed to determine differences in absolute EEG power and frontal asymmetry between individuals with ADHD and non-ADHD in young adults aged 18-30 years. : Young adult (age: 18-30 years) outpatients (n = 103) including ADHD patients (n = 51) and non-ADHD patients (n = 52) were enrolled. QEEG was performed for both groups for each region of the brain. The absolute power of each frequency measured in three frontal regions (Lt., Mid., Rt.) of the scalp area was compared between the two groups. Differences between the two groups including theta/beta ratio were compared. Frontal asymmetries were also evaluated for prefrontal (Fp2-Fp1), middle frontal (F4-F3), lateral frontal (F8-F7) pairs at all frequencies. Correlation analysis was performed for absolute powers, frontal asymmetry, and Stroop tests. : Demographic data, neuropsychological tests, and psychiatric symptoms were not significantly different between the two groups. Delta band was significantly increased while beta band was decreased in the middle frontal area of the ADHD group as compared with those of the non-ADHD group. For frontal asymmetries, all frequencies in the middle frontal area were more rightward in ADHD patients than in non-ADHD patients. Absolute powers in delta, beta band, and frontal asymmetry in all frequencies had correlations with Stroop tests. : This study revealed that ADHD patients had significant differences in absolute powers in delta, beta bands, and frontal asymmetries in all frequencies. Our findings suggest that QEEG can be a helpful tool for diagnosing ADHD in psychiatric patients.

Comparison of comprehensive quantitative EEG metrics between typically developing boys and girls in resting state eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions.

A majority of published studies comparing quantitative EEG (qEEG) in typically developing (TD) children and children with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders have used a control group (e.g., TD children) that combines boys and girls. This suggests a widespread supposition that typically developing boys and girls have similar brain activity at all locations and frequencies, allowing the data from TD boys and girls to be aggregated in a single group. In this study, we have rigorously challenged this assumption by performing a comprehensive qEEG analysis on EEG recoding of TD boys (n = 84) and girls (n = 62), during resting state eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions (EEG recordings from Child Mind Institute's Healthy Brain Network (HBN) initiative). Our qEEG analysis was performed over narrow-band frequencies (e.g., separating low α from high α, etc.), included sex, age, and head size as covariates in the analysis, and encompassed computation of a wide range of qEEG metrics that included both absolute and relative spectral power levels, regional hemispheric asymmetry, and inter- and intra-hemispheric magnitude coherences as well as phase coherency among cortical regions. We have also introduced a novel compact yet comprehensive visual presentation of the results that allows comparison of the qEEG metrics of boys and girls for the entire EEG locations, pairs, and frequencies in a single graph. Our results show there are wide-spread EEG locations and frequencies where TD boys and girls exhibit differences in their absolute and relative spectral powers, hemispheric power asymmetry, and magnitude coherence and phase synchrony. These findings strongly support the necessity of including sex, age, and head size as covariates in the analysis of qEEG of children, and argue against combining data from boys and girls. Our analysis also supports the utility of narrow-band frequencies, e.g., dividing α, β, and γ band into finer sub-scales. The results of this study can serve as a comprehensive normative qEEG database for resting state studies in children containing both eyes open and eyes closed paradigms.

Use of magnetic source imaging to assess recovery after severe traumatic brain injury-an MEG pilot study.

Severe TBI (sTBI) is a devastating neurological injury that comprises a significant global trauma burden. Early comprehensive neurocritical care and rehabilitation improve outcomes for such patients, although better diagnostic and prognostic tools are necessary to guide personalized treatment plans. In this study, we explored the feasibility of conducting resting state magnetoencephalography (MEG) in a case series of sTBI patients acutely after injury (~7 days), and then about 1.5 and 8 months after injury. Synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) was utilized to localize source power in the canonical frequency bands of delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma, as well as DC-80 Hz. At the first scan, SAM source maps revealed zones of hypofunction, islands of preserved activity, and hemispheric asymmetry across bandwidths, with markedly reduced power on the side of injury for each patient. GCS scores improved at scan 2 and by scan 3 the patients were ambulatory. The SAM maps for scans 2 and 3 varied, with most patients showing increasing power over time, especially in gamma, but a continued reduction in power in damaged areas and hemispheric asymmetry and/or relative diminishment in power at the site of injury. At the group level for scan 1, there was a large excess of neural generators operating within the delta band relative to control participants, while the number of neural generators for beta and gamma were significantly reduced. At scan 2 there was increased beta power relative to controls. At scan 3 there was increased group-wise delta power in comparison to controls. In summary, this pilot study shows that MEG can be safely used to monitor and track the recovery of brain function in patients with severe TBI as well as to identify patient-specific regions of decreased or altered brain function. Such MEG maps of brain function may be used in the future to tailor patient-specific rehabilitation plans to target regions of altered spectral power with neurostimulation and other treatments.

New Arguments for a pure lottery in Research Funding: A Sketch for a Future Science Policy Without Time-Consuming Grant Competitions

A critical debate has blossomed within the field of research policy, science and technology studies, and philosophy of science regarding the possible benefits and limitations of allocating extramural grants using a lottery system. The most common view among those supporting the lottery idea is that some form of modified lottery is acceptable, if properly combined with peer review. This means that partial randomization can be applied only after experts have screened the pursuit-worthiness of all submitted proposals and sorted out those of lowest quality. In the present paper, I will argue against the use of partial lotteries or partial randomization and instead promote use of a pure lottery in combination with a radical increase in block funding. The main reason for holding this position is that a partial lottery cannot solve the problems inherent in the current funding system, which is based on grant competitions and peer review. A partial lottery cannot decrease the enormous time-waste, reduce the uneven distribution of time between researchers, neutralize expert biases or mitigate academic power asymmetries. Instead, we need a stronger focus on improving general time management in academia by implementing a more holistic model for organizing research opportunities in the future.

Unsettling NbS: A pathway towards shifting colonial power relations in nature-based solutions research and practice

This article presents a synthesis and analysis drawing from NbS Justice, NBS Indigenous and NbS more-than-human literature, Indigenous governance, Indigenous planning and coexistence planning literature. The aim of this paper is to contribute to understandings of NbS and colonialism through critical reflection, as well as provide tools for action to for researchers and practitioners. In settler-colonial contexts, NbS are colonizing by default. Colonialism operates through producing and growing power asymmetries, which exist in NbS research and practice. These power asymmetries are perpetuated and accelerated by settler NbS practitioners and researchers. However, knowledge co-production that embodies ethical space principles with Indigenous partners in NbS may support power redistribution. To support settler NbS practitioners and researchers, we present a potential process to support mutually beneficial knowledge co-production consisting of three stages; pre-engagement, internal engagement and external/collective engagement.

Three visions of the global: global international relations, global history, global historical sociology

AbstractGlobal international relations (IR) generates space for theoretical expressions drawn from outside the experiences of the modern West. Alongside these demands for theoretical pluralism can be found a concern for widening IR's historical frames of reference. Yet, to date, the relationship between global IR and history is the least developed part of the project's agenda. This article suggests two ways in which this relationship can be strengthened. One draws from global history, shows how transboundary connections and relational dynamics forge the units used by advocates of global IR in their analysis: West and non-West, core and periphery, metropole and colony. The other draws from global historical sociology as it advances the role of power asymmetries for understanding the patterns and entanglements in transboundary connections. Connecting global IR to global history and global historical sociology can help produce a fuller understanding of the interactive connections and asymmetrical entanglements between peoples, places, ideas, and institutions that drive historical development. We illustrate this potential through a brief analysis of the rise of the West. This, in turn, demonstrates the ways in which three visions of the global – global IR, global history, and global historical sociology – can be mutually beneficial.

Remote data collection in sociolinguistics: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT This article reports on our experience of collecting language data from informants in video-conferencing settings under a research design originally developed with face-to-face interactions in mind. We had set out to investigate whether individual stylistic features persist in different modes of textual production and designed a complex set of data-collection procedures, which we then adopted for use in a fully virtual environment with 112 informants, who were asked to provide language samples in eight discourse types. We conclude that the unintended shift to virtual settings had only a minimal impact on the volume and quality of the data. While the process was occasionally afflicted by IT-related technical issues and made extra demands on the data collector, it also created opportunities, notably around the management of interactional power asymmetries. Additional benefits included instant troubleshooting during data handover sessions and the ability to recruit participants who would not have been able to travel to face-to-face sessions.

Radical design praxis and the problematics of intent

ABSTRACT This article explores counter-design as a radical meaning-making practice for community co-design. Radicalism, here, is an ongoing process of complicating and unsettling daily practices to reveal and thus acknowledge socio-political context. Semiotic analysis of ethnographic research with grassroots organisations is taken as the point of departure to understand how communities co-design meaning, and in turn how we might co-design new meanings through countering. Through counter-design in place, we observe small semiotic moments that problematise the rhetoric of horizontal democratic organising amongst the realities of coercion and power asymmetries. These semiotic moments are thus significant for how they reveal the reproduction of meaning and how this constructs, and can subsequently limit, the possible actions for these communities. In this sense, our approach constitutes a design praxis, through which we analyse what it means to employ countering against existing institutional power, both for our participants and for ourselves as designers. Here, we reveal the tenuousness of (designer/ly) intent in relation to and in combination with the artifice of readymade community designs, as these are shaped by work ‘on the ground’ and consider how this might impact the co-creation of democratic communities.

Conceptualizing fairness in the secondary use of health data for research: A scoping review

ABSTRACT With the introduction of the European Health Data Space (EHDS), the secondary use of health data for research purposes is attracting more attention. Secondary health data processing promises to address novel research questions, inform the design of future research and improve healthcare delivery generally. To comply with the existing data protection regulations, the secondary data use must be fair, among other things. However, there is no clear understanding of what fairness means in the context of secondary use of health data for scientific research purposes. In response, we conducted a scoping review of argument-based literature to explore how fairness in the secondary use of health data has been conceptualized. A total of 35 publications were included in the final synthesis after abstract and full-text screening. Using an inductive approach and a thematic analysis, our review has revealed that balancing individual and public interests, reducing power asymmetries, setting conditions for commercial involvement, and implementing benefit sharing are essential to guarantee fair secondary use research. The findings of this review can inform current and future research practices and policy development to adequately address concerns about fairness in the secondary use of health data.

Power in climate change policy-making process in South Asia

ABSTRACT Climate change policies are prepared in a power-loaded environment, where different policy actors interact to meet their personal or collective interests. This paper argues that the ‘power interplay’ between actors plays a significant role in shaping and re-shaping climate change policies. We present examples from South Asia (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) to show how actors’ power interplay at the local, sub-national, national and transboundary levels influences climate change policy-making. We show that negative effects of power interplay are prominent in the climate policy domain of South Asia, including short-termism of local adaptation plans, exclusion of certain policy actors in the policy-making processes, lack of transboundary-level adaptation, and lack of coordination between actors. Nuances also exist, such as the state's authority in prioritizing technical solutions, exclusionary design and implementation of climate policies, and an agenda of securitization; these can further marginalize the actors involved in climate change policy processes. The negative effects of power interplay in South Asia can limit the success of on-the-ground implementation of adaptation and mitigation strategies, limit adaptive capacity among communities, and possibly counter the development of a strong climate change solutions space. Lastly, we argue that there are no silver bullet solutions to power asymmetries and appeal to policy actors – in South Asia and elsewhere – to design context-specific and power-sensitive policy-making approaches.

Feminism Is for Everyone: Scientists, Too.

Critically informed engagement in politics and the knowledge of social theory help democratize knowledge production, and redress power asymmetries in science and society. A feminist lens is one of the many ways in which power asymmetries in science can be critically unpacked and interrupted. There are many strands of feminism and feminist theory that differ in their approaches to resist patriarchy and injustices in science and society. As an example, I adopt here the definition of feminism of the late cultural critic bell hooks because her works underscore that feminism is an intersectional liberatory methodology for everyone to resist multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Queer theory is a strand of social theory that came to prominence since the 1990s in particular. Queer feminism continues to shape feminist writing on science cultures and the knowledge-based innovations contemporary science strives to accomplish. Systems science brings about systems thinking, and that includes rethinking science as culture beyond a narrow realm of technology, and being cognizant of the broader social, feminist, queer, and political contexts of science around the world.

‘Do you want me to take over?’

This article is concerned with the in situ negotiation of epistemic primacy in the context of medical emergencies. It investigates the mobilisation of questions and positioning in the material space as mechanisms for claiming control and for co-constructing epistemic authority. We bring together two high-risk, high-pressure emergency contexts – obstetrics and major trauma – and show the patterns that emerged from a bottom-up interactional sociolinguistic analysis of the data. We draw on a corpus of approximately 400 questions from a sample of ten teams; we zoom in on the role of the institutionally defined team leader, while special attention is also paid to the ways in which institutional power asymmetries are negotiated across the team in leadership enactment. We discuss the typology of questions that emerged from our data on a spectrum from a not knowing (K?) to a knowing (K+) status. Our analysis demonstrates consistent patterns in displays of epistemic primacy, with team leaders raising most of the questions indicating a K+ status across contexts. Further, we show that verbal claims of epistemic primacy are conditioned upon team leaders’ positioning at specific material zones of the emergency room as an integral part of doing their role.

Socio-Labour Inclusion of Low-Income Women in the Digital Economy: A Comparison between Corporate and Cooperative Domestic Work Platforms

It is often argued that digital labour platforms entail an expansion of opportunities for women for several reasons. They facilitate the balance between paid work and household chores as a result of time flexibility, they eliminate entry and permanence barriers for typically male work sectors, they enable economic independence, and they favour the creation of professional networks. Several studies, however, have shown that the wage gap, the sexual division of labour, occupational segregation, and gender stereotypes still persist. Hence, to what extent do the new forms of labour mediated by digital platforms lead to an expansion of opportunities for women? This article analyses the socio-labour inclusion of low-income women in digital labour platforms by contrasting the model of corporate platforms against the emerging alternative of platform cooperatives. The movement of platform cooperativism advocates for the creation of platform companies based on democratic ownership and governance models that reduce inequalities in a broad sense. The methodological approach is based on the comparison of two platforms: Zolvers, which was founded in 2013 with headquarters in Argentina and which operates as an intermediary or marketplace between those who offer and those who require home cleaning services, and Up & Go, which was founded in 2017 in New York and is owned by six worker cooperatives that use the platform to offer various services on demand, particularly home cleaning services. Whereas Zolvers offers job opportunities with possibilities of formalisation but no guarantee of stability, Up & Go is owned and managed by worker cooperatives that seek to guarantee living wages for their worker-members. Concerning working conditions, Zolvers reproduces power asymmetries of domestic work, subordinating workers to the platform and the hirers. On the contrary, Up & Go empowers women workers to decide on their schedules and hirers, among other issues. Finally, whereas Zolvers does not enable the participation of workers either in governance or in technology design, the cooperative nature of Up & Go promotes their involvement.