Complementary Lenses Research Articles

Just Sustainability Transitions: Politics, Power, and Prefiguration in Transformative Change Toward Justice and Sustainability

Facing the world's ecological, economic, and social challenges requires us to connect the concepts of justice, sustainability, and transitions. Bridging and discussing heterogeneous fields, we argue that these concepts need to complement each other, and we present just sustainability transitions (JUSTRAs) to do so. To define JUSTRAs, we review the state-of-the-art literature, focusing on the understanding of these three concepts and their pairings in various disciplinary fields and empirical settings (e.g., environmental justice, just transitions, sustainability transitions, energy justice, food justice, urban justice). We center marginalized voices to highlight the processes of radical transformative change that JUSTRAs seek. We offer three analytical lenses that further the understanding of JUSTRAs: politics, power, and prefiguration. We argue that these complementary lenses are necessary to remake the world in both critical and pragmatic ways. Finally, we present a research agenda on JUSTRAs, foregrounding three complementary modes of inquiry: analyzing, critiquing, designing.

Silicon Valley Bank: What can be learned from its collapse

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023 and its resulting impact on global banking markets have already been exhaustively reported and analysed. This paper examines these events through two different but complementary lenses, root cause analysis and key assumptions check. Together, these methods provide a detailed picture of the causes and derive fact-based conclusions intended to prevent repetition of the mistakes made by SVB's executives and the US banking authorities.

Cumulative human impacts on global marine fauna highlight risk to biological and functional diversity.

Anthropogenic stressors to marine ecosystems from climate change and human activities increase extinction risk of species, disrupt ecosystem integrity, and threaten important ecosystem services. Addressing these stressors requires understanding where and to what extent they are impacting marine biological and functional diversity. We model cumulative risk of human impact upon 21,159 marine animal species by combining information on species-level vulnerability and spatial exposure to a range of anthropogenic stressors. We apply this species-level assessment of human impacts to examine patterns of species-stressor interactions within taxonomic groups. We then spatially map impacts across the global ocean, identifying locations where climate-driven impacts overlap with fishing, shipping, and land-based stressors to help inform conservation needs and opportunities. Comparing species-level modeled impacts to those based on marine habitats that represent important marine ecosystems, we find that even relatively untouched habitats may still be home to species at elevated risk, and that many species-rich coastal regions may be at greater risk than indicated from habitat-based methods alone. Finally, we incorporate a trait-based metric of functional diversity to identify where impacts to functionally unique species might pose greater risk to community structure and ecosystem integrity. These complementary lenses of species, function, and habitat provide a richer understanding of threats to marine biodiversity to help inform efforts to meet conservation targets and ensure sustainability of nature's contributions to people.

Cultural semiotic resources in young children’s science drawings

This study aims to explore the meanings communicated by young children with visual cultural semiotic resources available in the science classroom. It is a case study in an Early Childhood Education classroom of 23 children (3–4 years old) and their teacher, all engaged in a long-term science project about snails. We focus on the analysis of two series of drawings of snails made by children a month apart, examined through two complementary lenses: comparative content and social semiotics. The findings show that, during their first year of formal schooling, children acquired a range of semiotic resources to communicate to others, which are part of their classroom culture, rather than explicitly taught. Children used these resources to construct sophisticated meanings through their science drawings, highlighting what they considered important and accounting for different modalities and categories. These results point to the importance of supporting drawing tasks in early years, as well as providing opportunities for discussing and interpreting representations. A methodological contribution of this research regards the combination of two complementary foci in the analysis of children’s drawings that allows for a nuanced examination of their learning and abilities for meaning making.

Teaching Sociology of the Arts at an Urban Community College During the Pandemic: Reflections on Structure, Agency, and Community Engagement

This conversation outlines an undergraduate research project that I designed and implemented during the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 in an online Sociology of the Arts class at Queensborough Community College in New York City. The project involves original student research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on three community-based arts organizations and the communities they serve. To showcase the problems and possibilities that emerged in assigning the project, I engage the contrasting and complementary lenses of Pierre Bourdieu’s structurally based theories of culture, capital, and social reproduction on the one hand and the pedagogical strategies that emerge from humanistic sociology on the other. The conversation concludes with reflections on issues faced by educators committed to teaching an interdisciplinary and humanistic sociology at the community college level and the ways experiential learning strategies can help students develop community connections and agency through the arts.

Meaning in elite sport – A narrative review of scholarship in sport psychology

Introduction Athletes’ heart-felt stories about their experiences in elite sport almost naturally evoke the notion of meaning. However, although various scholars and practitioners have suggested the concept of meaning to the sport psychology audience in the past two decades (e.g., Beckmann, 2023; Ravizza, 2002; Ronkainen & Nesti, 2020), its study in this discipline is still in the early stages compared to established psychological scholarship on the topic. To promote meaning as a complementary lens for research and applied work in sport psychology, the presentation aims to introduce the concept informed by psychological inquiry, and to synthesize and critically comment on the extant scholarship. For this, the wider meaning in life literature will be drawn on to give an overview of components, sources, pathways, and qualities of meaning and set it apart from the related concept of purpose. Methods A narrative review of 15 studies on meaning (n = 10) and purpose (n = 5) from elite sport contexts was conducted. Results The scholarship on meaning and purpose in elite sport revealed itself diverse in terms of employed study designs (quantitative, qualitative), methodologies and theoretical frameworks (e.g., narrative inquiry, phenomenology), conceptualizations of meaning and purpose (e.g., existential meaning, purpose in coaching), interpretations of meaning (intrapsychic or relational), and topics researched in relation to it (e.g., forced migration, injury experiences). To date the literature base on meaning and purpose in elite sport is characterized by fragmentation and largely imprecise use of the concept. Discussion/Conclusion To assist future empirical research and increase conceptual clarity of meaning in elite sport, sport psychology should integrate knowledge from its parent discipline psychology. Additionally, to make the somewhat abstract notion of meaning tangible for sport practitioners, more applied questions must be addressed. Through this, meaning could offer a truly holistic approach to well-being and mental health research and practice in sport. Importantly, “working” with meaning requires personal positioning, since conceiving of meaning as performance enhancement tool or as existential concern has major implications for how it is investigated and for how or whether it should be increased.

Precarious Industrial Labour at the Edge of the European Union: The Case of Baia Mare

Abstract Tens of thousands of labourers work in the factories in and around Baia Mare, a city that is being reindustrialized after an initial industrialization under state socialism. In 2021, most workers were being paid about 280 euro a month, as companies were aiming to achieve the lowest possible production costs while remaining within the European Union. Workers and their families, unable to make do on their low wages alone, constantly scramble for means to supplement their income. Many work overtime systematically; some choose to migrate for work abroad for a few months every year; yet others quit their factory jobs for more lucrative opportunities during the summers, only to return to the factories in the autumn. In this paper, I look at the industrial history of Baia Mare and the work lives of labourers to understand how the workers in the region were impacted by the politics of dispossession. I use two complementary lenses: on the one hand, I understand their position at the junction of global, national, and local forces; on the other hand, I underline the ways in which this specific case speaks to the workings of global capital, not as an exception, but as one of many interconnected stories of human experience.

The Synergetic Paradigm: A Confluence of Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology in The Examination of Cultural Values

Cultural Anthropology and Linguistic Anthropology are two vital subfields within anthropology, each offering unique insights into the diverse and complex ways in which human societies operate. When these disciplines converge, a profound synergy emerges, providing a richer and more holistic understanding of the cultural, linguistic, and social dimensions of human life. This article explores the interplay between cultural and linguistic anthropology, revealing how their synergy enhances our grasp of the intricacies of human existence. The fields of cultural and linguistic anthropology have long been distinguished by their unique focuses, methodologies, and research interests. Cultural anthropology delves into the intricacies of human societies, exploring cultural practices, beliefs, and social structures, while linguistic anthropology focuses on the role of language in culture and society. However, a synergetic paradigm is emerging that seeks to bridge these two disciplines, recognizing the intricate connection between language and culture. This paradigm acknowledges that linguistic and cultural anthropology are not mutually exclusive but, instead, complementary lenses through which to view the complex tapestry of human societies. Cultural and linguistic anthropology, though distinct in their focuses, share a fundamental interest in understanding the dynamics of human societies and cultures. When it comes to exploring shifts in value systems, these two subfields of anthropology often employ similar research methods. In this article, we will delve into the methods that cultural and linguistic anthropologists commonly share in their investigations of evolving value systems. Keywords: Linguistic anthropology; Cultural anthropology; Shared methodology; values.

GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PROMOTING SHARIAH AND SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES: THEMATIC ISSUE ON GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY [FROM THE EDITORS

/ EDITOR’S REVIEW
 Technological advancements, environmental challenges, and societal shifts drive transformative changes in governance and sustainability. Ethical leadership and Shariah principles are critical lenses for examining and navigating these changes. Governance and technology are new issues requiring an ethical framework to guide decision-making and policy formulation. Ethical leadership promotes transparency, accountability, and inclusivity in these complex landscapes. Ethical leadership emphasises the value of long-term environmental stewardship, equitable resource allocation, and social justice in this context.
 The manuscript expertly navigates the perilous terrain of governance, describing the ethical complexities introduced by digital democracy and decentralised technologies and arguing for the critical role of ethical leadership as a guiding compass through these variations. Ethical leadership emerges as an orienting paradigm with normative ideals of transparency, inclusivity, and accountability across the domains studied.
 Shariah principles are effectively integrated, adding a moral and ethical dimension that elevates the discussion. These principles promote fairness, transparency, and social responsibility, consistent with the overarching themes of effective governance and sustainable development. In doing so, the manuscript positions Shariah as a complementary lens and a critical, integral framework that enriches governance and sustainability ethics and practises.
 The erudition with which this overview weaves these multifaceted strands into a cohesive intellectual tapestry distinguishes it. It takes a multi-dimensional analytical approach to articulate the synergies and interdependencies between governance, sustainability, ethical leadership, and Shariah, advocating for a more holistic, integrated approach to addressing our times' complex challenges.
 The manuscript lays intellectually fertile ground for future research for field scholars. The articulation of complex, intersecting themes suggests numerous avenues for academic inquiry, particularly in conceptualising governance models that are effective, ethical, and Shariah-compliant. As such, this seminal overview is a valuable intellectual resource for many stakeholders, including academics, policymakers, and practitioners dedicated to fostering ethical, equitable, and sustainable futures.

Performativity and affective atmospheres in digitally mediated care labour

ABSTRACT This paper offers an exploration of women’s experiences of engaging in digitally mediated care work. Data for this article is drawn from qualitative interviews conducted with 15 young women in Australia to explore their experiences of securing care work through a digital platform. Importantly, we focus on both online and offline dimensions of securing work, thus contributing to the extant literature which has tended to focus on the online aspects of securing platform work. Through the complementary lenses of performativity and affective atmospheres, we examine the complexities of presenting an idealised self to obtain work opportunities from an online pool of diverse care-seekers, and the bodily performances and attributes required offline to secure actual work. We conclude by reflecting on how online and offline interactions explicate the normative performativity required by young women to successfully access digitally mediated service work.

On the Nature and Utility of Crosscutting Concepts

The crosscutting concepts (CCCs) are a collection of ideas that span the science and engineering disciplines. While various standards documents have identified similar sets of ideas in the past, calls for their explicit inclusion into science and engineering instruction began in earnest only about a decade ago. When these calls began, the research base on the teaching and learning of the CCCs was limited; in the intervening years, educators have debated whether and how the CCCs are useful for supporting science and engineering learners. In this article, we summarize a recent scholarship that has clarified the role of CCCs in supporting science and engineering learning. Then, we highlight two exemplary curricular units (one elementary and one secondary) that showcase CCC-informed instruction. Based upon these research and development efforts, we identify three core messages: (1) CCCs provide learners with a set of complementary lenses on phenomena, (2) CCCs are powerful tools for broadening access to science and engineering, and (3) practitioner innovations play an especially important role in the time-sensitive work of establishing a more robust research base for how CCCs can strengthen science and engineering teaching and learning.

Unpacking the interface of modernization, development and sustainability in Indigenous Guna communities of Panama

Abstract This study elicits the main development challenges for the indigenous social‐ecological system (SES) of the Guna people in Panama, which is characterized by rapid change and a unique governance system. We elicit the key challenges in the region through a combination of expert interviews with key actors in Gunayala's development and surveys with local communities. Current development centred on tourism and government support provide new livelihood opportunities, access to better education and healthcare. However, the shift from a subsistence‐based economy characterized by strong community cohesion to a lifestyle characterized by capital accumulation has had undesirable consequences. The current modernization and development trends have degraded some of the core values within the Guna belief system and worldview, and ultimately degraded elements of the SES. This is despite the strong institutions and self‐determination in Gunayala, which are commonly identified as strong buffers against unsustainable change in indigenous settings. Our study shows that merging the perspectives of national experts and Indigenous communities can help provide complementary lenses to identify how modernization processes, development aspirations and socioeconomic and environmental change intersect. Arguably this can provide valuable insights to inform effective and sensitive development programmes and mitigate unintended consequences. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Opportunity beliefs in internationalization: A microhistorical approach

We propose the concept of opportunity belief as a means of understanding individuals as the interpreters of their contexts over the internationalization process of a firm. To illustrate the concept, we conducted a microhistorical analysis on one of the largest forest industry MNEs with an internationalization history of more than 150 years. Historical archival data and rich secondary material provided access to the reasonings of individuals over the firm’s internationalization. This allowed depiction of different types of opportunity beliefs as the drivers of internationalization actions within particular historical contexts. We portray opportunity belief as a complementary lens to current internationalization models focusing primarily on firm-level development.

The digital economy and the growth dynamics of sharing platforms: A transaction cost economics assessment

Despite their growing significance in the digital economy, some sharing platforms struggle to achieve sufficient scale, while others fail entirely. By extending the focus beyond network effects and trust-building mechanisms, this paper seeks to identify factors that impact platform growth and to analyze their implications for governance mechanisms and the strategic management of sharing platforms. We center our analysis on transaction costs economics (TCE) and its three key related variables: transaction frequency, transaction uncertainty, and transaction-dedicated investments. Our aim is to examine how these variables determine transaction costs at the platform level and how these costs shape member participation and hence platform growth. To explore our hypotheses, we surveyed a community of members of a digital, peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing platform. Our empirical findings confirm that a platform's growth is significantly affected by transaction features and that, alongside other theoretical approaches, TCE represents an appropriate and complementary lens with which to explore the growth dynamics of sharing platforms, as well as to consider appropriate actions platform owners can take at the organizational, governance, and strategic design levels.

Strategizing in pluralistic organizations: extending theoretical frames to include disrupted contexts

Strategy work in pluralistic organizations has been investigated from different perspectives, including Actor-Network Theory, Conventionalist Theory, and the social practice perspective. However, these perspectives have been used to understand and influence strategy work in “business-as-usual,” rather than disrupted contexts. There is a challenge in understanding practices and processes that underpin the strategy work of pluralistic organizations facing disrupted contexts. This paper uses a narrative literature review to suggest the “improvised order” perspective for studying such strategy work by synthesizing and connecting three theoretical concepts: (dis)order, space, and bricolage. The improvised order perspective offers a complementary lens to the literature on strategy work in pluralistic organizations by showing the complexity of navigating between disorder and order, transforming space, and bringing to the fore practices required for strategy work in disrupted contexts. This paper also offers a set of propositions, which can stimulate future research on strategy work in pluralistic organizations facing disrupted contexts.

Of Two Arias and Nine Ragas: Analysing Monteverdi through a Karnatik Lens

ABSTRACTCommencing from an elaboration of extant theoretical and analytical positions in Monteverdi studies, this article closely analyses two of the most well‐known arias from Claudio Monteverdi's earliest opera,L'Orfeo(1607), from the melodic perspective of the Karnatik music of South India. In identifying ragas within Monteverdi's melodic structures, this approach evidences the author's practice‐based explorations of the arias while harking back to global influences that have shaped the identity formation of Western music. This approach to music analysis serves two primary purposes. First, it offers one way to decolonise and reimagine the music that emerged from an essentially multicultural early modern Europe. Second, in privileging artist‐researchers’ embodied oral aural knowledges, which emerge from practice, the approach makes a case for analytical approaches which aid in practice and which offer complementary lenses through which to view locate knowledges that are complex, embodied and non‐Western in their theoretical and analytical bases.

Aligning adoption messages with audiences' priorities: A mixed-methods study of the diffusion of enterprise architecture among the US state governments

Prior studies on the diffusion of complex Information Systems (IS) innovations have leaned on the rhetoric of persuasion perspective to formulate rhetorical strategies that can persuade adopters to engage in adoption behaviors. Yet, most of them ignore the shifting priorities and changing identity of the audience. To address this gap, we extend the perspective by examining how innovators need to evolve the adoption message of an innovation by aligning it with the audience's diverse and shifting priorities (and related identities). We trace rhetorical changes that the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) introduced to promote the diffusion of enterprise architecture (EA) between 2000 and 2012 among the 50 US states. We conduct a mixed methods analysis: first we qualitatively discern changes in the content of the rhetoric (message change); then we use a latent semantic analysis to measure the frame resonance between NASCIO's shifting rhetoric and the audience's changing priorities (alignment with audience priorities). Our findings highlight the importance of: 1) frame ambiguity that renders a complex IS innovation appealing to varied audiences over its diffusion trajectory; and 2) listening to the community members' priorities and aligning the adoption message with their dominant beliefs. Our analysis posits the rhetoric of identification as a complementary lens to account for the co-evolution of shared priorities and identity alignments between innovators and their audiences.

Responsible Reading: Children’s Literature and Social Justice

In high accountability cultures, primary phase literacy education tends to focus on improving children’s test scores. Driven by each country’s performance in international league tables, this results in narrow, predominantly skills-based programmes designed to address attainment gaps. While scores may have been enhanced in recent years, there is little evidence that policy directives have positioned literacy in the lives of learners in ways that have become meaningful for them or been transferred into ways of thinking that promote social equity. Indeed, teaching practices that exacerbate the challenges for those young people who are already disadvantaged by circumstance have become more prevalent. Teachers, therefore, have an ethical responsibility to redress this through their teaching. This paper argues that literature is core to more equitable literacy development. As not all reading practices are equal, developing literacy education for a more socially just society needs to challenge the dominant pedagogic hegemony. Literature has the potential to spark the kind of mindful disruption necessary to shift standardised paradigms of thought, so literacy education should have children’s literature at its heart. By examining the value of literature through a set of complementary lenses, this paper seeks to reveal its affordances in young people’s lives. Then, through commentary taken from a pair of vignettes drawn from professional learning contexts, we illuminate shifts in teacher perception gained through scaffolded introduction to reading literary texts. The insights teachers gained reveal reconceptualisation of reading and the role of literature in primary education. This has the potential to redirect their future classroom practice. Consequently, we propose that for teachers to be adept at improving literacy outcomes through productive adoption and use of literary texts, they need: an aesthetic appreciation and knowledge of children’s literature; personal experience with reading such literature as social practice; and pedagogic insight into how to use literature to teach literacy and develop volitional readers. We call this knowledge set the additive trio, noting that no ‘step’ or understanding is sufficient on its own, and that together they can enable the development of Reading Teachers who work with literature to advance the social justice agenda.

Changing healthcare professionals' non-reflective processes to improve the quality of care

RationaleTranslating research evidence into clinical practice to improve care involves healthcare professionals adopting new behaviours and changing or stopping their existing behaviours. However, changing healthcare professional behaviour can be difficult, particularly when it involves changing repetitive, ingrained ways of providing care. There is an increasing focus on understanding healthcare professional behaviour in terms of non-reflective processes, such as habits and routines, in addition to the more often studied deliberative processes. Theories of habit and routine provide two complementary lenses for understanding healthcare professional behaviour, although to date, each perspective has only been applied in isolation. ObjectivesTo combine theories of habit and routine to generate a broader understanding of healthcare professional behaviour and how it might be changed. MethodsSixteen experts met for a two-day multidisciplinary workshop on how to advance implementation science by developing greater understanding of non-reflective processes. ResultsFrom a psychological perspective ‘habit’ is understood as a process that maintains ingrained behaviour through a learned link between contextual cues and behaviours that have become associated with those cues. Theories of habit are useful for understanding the individual's role in developing and maintaining specific ways of working. Theories of routine add to this perspective by describing how clinical practices are formed, adapted, reinforced and discontinued in and through interactions with colleagues, systems and organisational procedures. We suggest a selection of theory-based strategies to advance understanding of healthcare professionals' habits and routines and how to change them. ConclusionCombining theories of habit and routines has the potential to advance implementation science by providing a fuller understanding of the range of factors, operating at multiple levels of analysis, which can impact on the behaviours of healthcare professionals, and so quality of care provision.

The Evolution of HIV Patient Retention and Care in French Guiana: A Broader View From the Système National des Données de Santé

BackgroundAlthough the simplification of antiretroviral (AVR) treatment regimens and follow-up has led to fewer constraints for patients with HIV, their follow-up remains of paramount importance to optimize AVR therapy, to detect and prevent HIV-related morbidity, and prevent secondary infections. The problem of follow-up interruption in French Guiana has been persistent and seemingly impervious to efforts to alleviate it.ObjectiveThe objective was to follow the trend of follow-up interruptions and to test the hypothesis that an increasing number of patients was, in fact, followed by private practitioners.MethodUsing the complementary lenses of the hospital HIV cohort and the health insurance information system, we looked at the incidence of follow-up interruption and the proportion of patients followed by private practitioners.ResultsWe tallied 803 persons that were not known to have died and who were lost to follow-up. Over time, hospital outpatients were lost to follow-up significantly sooner. By contrast, there was a significant trend with more and more patients exclusively followed by private practitioners.ConclusionWhile hospital outpatient care remains by far the most common mode of patient care, there seems to be a gradual erosion of this model in favor of private practice.