Context Today Research Articles

Introduction: Social Protection in a Time of Global Uncertainty

Social protection has established itself as a vibrant policy sector across the global South, and as a pillar of international development cooperation. Social protection features in numerous country policies and development agency strategies, as well as in several Sustainable Development Goals. However, the global context today is characterised by a range of emerging and intensifying challenges and uncertainties, including post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery; the cost-of-living crisis; unprecedented climate change; and rising numbers of protracted wars and political instability, leading to mass displacement and migration. What is the role of social protection in this shifting and uncertain global context? This article highlights challenges and opportunities for social protection at this crossroads moment, under the themes of politics, crises, innovation, and inclusion, as a way of introducing and framing the contributions to this IDS Bulletin. We argue that the need for social protection has never been greater, but its future trajectories need urgent reimagining.

Reinventing the Wheel? On the Production and Acquisition of Knowledge in Politics

Reinventing the Wheel? On the Production and Acquisition of Knowledge in Politics The US Declaration of Independence’s opening claim – «We hold these truths to be self-evident» – is unjustified. Historical events and present circumstances internationally do not bear it out either. Why has the ‹sustainability› of knowledge about democracy, rule of law, and human rights proven so difficult to ensure, including in world’s oldest liberal democracies? Answering this question requires us to examine how knowledge is produced and acquired in the political context today. More specifically, we must study the widespread phenomena of populism and truthiness and their effects on the respective epistemic processes. Finally, it is imperative to consider what remains, what should remain, and how that might remain in the (re-)formation of political systems over space and time. The societal significance of this investigation should at least be ‹self-evident› in this the biggest election year in history.

Pembangunan Wilayah Berbasis Potensi Wisata Halal di Banten

Banten Province, with its rapid growth and diverse tourism potential, presents significant opportunities for developing halal tourism. Halal tourism, guided by Islamic Sharia principles, has become increasingly crucial in the global context today. The aim of this research is to analyze the potential, development, opportunities, and challenges in developing halal tourism in Banten Province. The research methodology employed in this article involves a qualitative approach. Qualitative methods are utilized to explore the perspectives and perceptions of the community towards halal tourism, as well as to understand relevant cultural values. Data sources for this research include secondary data. Secondary data may originate from related literature, government reports, tourism industry publications, and other relevant sources of information. The data collection technique involves literature review. The research findings provide a profound understanding of the potential of halal tourism in Banten Province and evaluate the challenges and opportunities for sustainable industry development. Therefore, this article makes a significant contribution to supporting the vision of Banten Province as a leading destination for halal tourism at both national and global levels.

Reaktualisasi Jihad Perspektif Hadis dalam Konteks ke-Indonesiaan

Jihad is a word that can inspire great enthusiasm in some people, but on the other hand, it can also instill fear and trauma in others. This is because, in today's context, jihad is often understood by many as a movement of struggle by a minority group of Muslims, which has subsequently created fear among the general public. Jihad is indeed frequently misunderstood, not only by Muslims but also by Western observers who often interpret it as merely a war against non-believers. This research aims to explore the hadiths (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) about Jihad and explain them by adapting them to the current Indonesian context. Therefore, in this study, a qualitative method is used, where the hadiths related to jihad will be analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results of this research show that in the Indonesian context today, jihad is an effort to strengthen Indonesia in various sectors, such as development and economy, which includes the individual struggles of people to improve their own and their families' well-being. Additionally, education and national character are also essential aspects to be improved so that a correct understanding of Islam can thrive in the midst of society Keywords: Reactualization, Jihad, Hadis

직장인들의 녹색 행동에 대한 연구: 시그날링 이론과 기대이론에 기반한 개인 수준의 분석

Pro-environmental policies of organizations and promoting green behavior of employees are of great interests in the business context today. Green behavior at one’s workplace, among all other social contexts, especially requires additional attention as it also directly contributes to preserving the firm’s resources. Despite recent interests and emphasis on pro-environmental issues, integrative, theory-based management research using empirical data on these topics remain scarce. To further complement the extant literature, the current research conducted multi-faceted analyses on factors that influence employees’ green behavior at work, based on the frameworks of signaling theory and expectancy theory.
 While signaling theory offers explanations from an informational and economic view, expectancy theory accounts for a psychological perspective, each serving as a novel theoretical standpoint to the issues. Based on survey data collected from 1,232 employees, signaling theory-based findings suggest that it is a perception of team green advocacy, rather than that of firm green advocacy, that promotes their green behavior. Moreover, expectancy theory-based findings imply that the more they perceive that their green behavior will have an instrumental and meaningful impact on environmental conservation, the more likely they are to engage in such behavior. Moreover, a significant interaction effect of the two signaling theory variables, which are perceptions of team green advocacy and firm green advocacy, provides theoretical support to the notion that the frequency of signals strengthens the signal effect. On the contrary, these variables did not show any significant interaction effect with an instrumentality perception on employees’ green behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are further provided.

Giyinmeyle İlgili Hadis Rivayetleri Bağlamında Giyim-Şöhret İlişkisi

Humans have an innate need to cover and dress. Although the nature of clothes varies according to beliefs and cultures, clothing has been a source of concern for Muslims who have achieved Muslim identity since the Prophet Muhammad's revelation. The Prophet, who is a guide for Muslims in all matters, is also an example for Muslims in clothing. This exemplarity includes the Prophet's clothing ethics extending beyond garment types to cover. I will underline the concept of vanity in the relevant narrations in this context. Although there are studies on clothing during the Prophet's time period, there needs to be a study on dealing with the concept of vanity in clothing. The fundamental premise of this study is the Prophet Muhammad's hadith, which states that "whoever wears a garment of vanity, Allah will make him wear a garment of humiliation on the Day of Resurrection." I will explain which aspects of clothes will be regarded vanity based on the narrations dealing with the relationship between clothing and vanity. The transfer of vanity dress traits, as well as the types of dresses in the Prophet's time, is significant in determining the requirements set by Islam on clothing. The Prophet's statements about the colour, pattern, and fabric of the clothes in his time have an important place in determining the clothing style of today's Muslims. In this research, it is aimed to contribute to the elimination of the deficiencies and weaknesses of today's people in this regard by determining the limits of the relationship between clothing and vanity according to the Prophetic principles. In this research, I will analyze the data obtained by using the documentation method within the framework of this subject in the context of narration and vanity. The Prophet's statements about the color, design, and fabric of clothing in his period have a significant impact on the clothing style of today's Muslims. The goal of this research is to contribute to the removal of today's people's flaws and weaknesses in this regard by identifying the limits of the relationship between clothes and vanity according to Prophetic principles. In this study, I will investigate the data gathered by employing the documentation method within the context of narration and vanity. In the analysis phase, I have used commentaries such as Imam al-Nawawī's (d. 676/1277) al-Minhāj, Ibn Hajar al-Askalānī's (d. 852/1448) Fatḥ al-Bārī and Abū al-Tayyib Shams al-Haq al-Azīmābādī's (d. 1329/1911) 'Awn al-Ma'būd. In terms of the relationship between clothing and vanity, explaining the concept of "vanity" in the narration is critical. The Prophet gives warnings and explanations concerning the features of the dress worn rather than adopting a specific form of dress. The vanity dress is one that is unusual in color, model, and fabric from what most people wear while also making the wearer famous, among others. This dress may have characteristics that draw people's attention, arouse adoration, and lead to arrogance. As a result, the Prophet's hadiths contain severe cautions for individuals who wear a dress for vanity. In addition to eye-catching clothes, the garments worn by a person to convince others of his poverty are also considered within the purview of the 'dress of vanity'. Both aim for arrogance and showing off. The Prophet forbade wearing garments for vanity because it breeds hubris. The fact that both valuable and worthless clothes are included in the definition of vanity dress demonstrates that intention is also significant in clothing. During my investigation, I came to the conclusion that the vanity dress is one that is worn with the goal of showing off and being arrogant. The Prophet's era embraced the over-the-heels attire, which reflected arrogance, as an element of showing off and vanity. Taking into account the sociocultural characteristics of the society in which we live, the garments worn with the goal of arrogance and vanity, as well as producing prestige, can be appraised in this context today.

Recent Developments in Inertial and Centrifugal Microfluidic Systems along with the Involved Forces for Cancer Cell Separation: A Review.

The treatment of cancers is a significant challenge in the healthcare context today. Spreading circulating tumor cells (CTCs) throughout the body will eventually lead to cancer metastasis and produce new tumors near the healthy tissues. Therefore, separating these invading cells and extracting cues from them is extremely important for determining the rate of cancer progression inside the body and for the development of individualized treatments, especially at the beginning of the metastasis process. The continuous and fast separation of CTCs has recently been achieved using numerous separation techniques, some of which involve multiple high-level operational protocols. Although a simple blood test can detect the presence of CTCs in the blood circulation system, the detection is still restricted due to the scarcity and heterogeneity of CTCs. The development of more reliable and effective techniques is thus highly desired. The technology of microfluidic devices is promising among many other bio-chemical and bio-physical technologies. This paper reviews recent developments in the two types of microfluidic devices, which are based on the size and/or density of cells, for separating cancer cells. The goal of this review is to identify knowledge or technology gaps and to suggest future works.

Minimally invasive surgery and liver transplantation: is it a safe, feasible, and effective approach?

The minimally invasive approach (MIS) is undoubtedly one of the most important breakthroughs in surgery in recent decades. Consequently, MIS has been increasingly in the field of liver transplantation (LT). The objective of the present review was to determine the current status of MIS with respect to liver transplantation (LT) and what would be the indications for an MIS in this context today. The literature was searched for publications reporting the MIS in LT. Only those articles that described the results according to whether the MIS had been performed to treat transplant complications (urgent or late), another pathology not related to the LT, or to perform the liver explantation and graft implantation were included. From 2000 to 2022, 33 studies and 261 patients were included. Most frequent indications were incisional hernias secondary to LT followed by the treatment of other pathologies not related with the LT and treatment of LT complications. Only a 12% were urgent interventions. Few studies describe conversions with an average rate of 2.5%. Morbidity do not differ significantly from open surgery. No case of mortality or graft loss was described. Purely laparoscopic liver explants in 9 patients with 2 conversions and 3 cases of graft implantation with a higher warm ischemia in the MIS implants grafts were described. The limitations of MIS in LT are relative and probably depend more on training, experience, and skills of the surgeons. This approach could be safety and feasibility to solved complications or in other individualized indications in LT patients. The initial experiences in liver explant and graft implantation need further investigations.

Je me souviens, j’imagine: essais historiques et littéraires sur la culture québécoise. Sous la direction d’Anne Caumartin, Julien Goyette, Karine Hébert et Martine-Emmanuelle Lapointe

‘Je me souviens’ is the motto of Quebec province, and it is inscribed on the coat of arms on the Parliament Building in Quebec City (inaugurated in 1884). In this context it urged the Québécois to remember their history, embodied in the statues of key historical figures (founders, explorers, military, religious and political figures, and anonymous representatives of the indigenous population) which decorate the building. But in its more familiar context today — on the province’s car licence plates — the motto has lost its context and the population no longer makes the automatic connection between it and the collective identity it once invoked. The sense of historical continuity, which had been integral to the ideology of ‘survivance’ in Quebec from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, no longer holds. The break with the traditionalist, Catholic past, which culminated in the Révolution tranquille in the 1960s, coincided with a questioning of the reliability of history and of collective memory. Across twenty-two essays by historians and literary and cultural scholars, the current volume addresses this rupture between a people and its history. Inspired by Pierre Nora’s concept of the lieu de mémoire, it offers analyses of key topoi of Quebec history and culture as they have been represented within the collective imaginary. Some contributions focus on a significant historical moment or emblematic location (for example, La Conquête, or Le Forum de Montréal, home of the Canadiens ice-hockey team, 1926–96), but more frequently the chapters take up commonplace figures such as the porteur d’eau or the coureur de bois, or choose a broader topic (the myth of Quebec as a matriarchal society; the high birth rate in francophone Canada; the shifting meanings of the term ‘colonisation’; attitudes towards the French language in Quebec), in order to revisit them, undermining stereotypes and analysing their transformations, and, in some cases, their relevance in Quebec today. The chosen sites of memory relate mostly to francophone (rather than anglophone or allophone) experience in Quebec, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Essays dealing with various figures of the Other study images, clichés, and stereotypes as they function and shift within the collective (francophone) memory. These include contributions devoted to: the place of the indigenous voice, focusing on the earliest contact under French colonization; les maudits Français and the ambivalence of their presence in the Québécois sense of identity; and the place of l’Anglais in the imagination of (francophone) Quebec. The essay on the migrant Other focuses on one of the most problematic objects of memorialization. Migration (inward and outward, forced or voluntary) is central to what it is to become or to have been Québécois. But to attempt to memorialize the passage of migrants within or beyond Quebec is to attempt to capture a process of flight, of transition, of adaptation or exclusion. Accordingly, the essays in this wide-ranging volume engage the reader in what is both a reconfiguration but also a fundamental questioning of what its authors term ‘les contours d’un Québec évanescent’ (p. 18).

The Review on Medicinal uses of Neem

The present review paper focused on the control of plant diseases by using neem kernel extract. For so many years farmers are using neem extract for the control of pests and diseases in plants in Atharvaveda they stated that neem effectively works on the control of diseases. It was controlled by many seed-borne and soil-borne pathogens. It was effectively works on control of early blight and wilt of tomatoes and seed-borne diseases of cowpea. Powdery mildew disease can be controlled by using neem kernel extract. The Neem has many medicinal properties in Ayurveda (the ancient book of medicine) which states neem as Kalpa vriksha. The aqueous extract of neem and oil has shown that it is effective on controlling soil-borne pathogens like Fusarium oxysporum (f.sp,ciceri), Alternaria solani, Sclerotium roofs, wilt and rot in gram. The Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) has been known as the wonder tree for centuries in the Indian subcontinent. It has become important in the global context today because it offers answers to the major concerns facing mankind. Neem (Azadirachta indica) is considered harmless to humans, animals, birds, beneficial insects and earthworms, and has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency for use on food crops. Azadirachtin and other active ingredients in the neem seed have insecticidal properties that are effective against a broad spectrum of insects, many mites and nematodes, and even snails and fungi, and do not seem to generate resistance in the pests they affects.

Gedeeld ambtsgeheim?

Those who serve in ecclesial ministry are bound to official secrecy. Does this prohibit any form of sharing with others, particularly if those others are bound to secrecy themselves? This contribution first deals with terminology: the secrecy or the confession is theologically to be seen as the basis of official of professional secrecy of ministers. After a short explanation of professional secrecy in public law, privacy is being dealt with as important to the context today. Then this article describes church polity provisions in this respect, both in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN). Finally, it comes to the issue of sharing with others, dealing in particular with case law in PCN discipline which seems to permit sharing within certain limitations.

Reading Arrazy Hasyim's Oral Exegesis of The Law of Greetings Merry Christmas on Social Media

This article looks at the oral interpretation of the law of saying Christmas delivered by Arrazy Hasyim in the Close The Door podcast owned by Deddy Corbuzier. This study uses qualitative methods, so the data collection used by researchers is the method of observation, interviews, and documentation. This article uses an oral interpretation analysis initiated by Andreas Goerke. According to Goerke, the interpretation literature is experiencing dynamics that bring significant changes where all interpretations can be accessed easily both in hard and soft files, even online on social media. To see the form of Arrzy's oral interpretation, first, describe Arrazy Hasyim's view on the law of saying Christmas. Then this view is analyzed interpretively by comparing the opinions of other scholars. This study concludes that Arrazy Hasim regarding the law of saying Merry Christmas is permissible for Christians because it does not reduce the value of the 'aqeedah of someone who says it. And his views are so relevant in the Indonesian context today.

Особенности формирования индивидуального стиля деятельности в процессе подготовки учителя иностранного языка

The present study is of relevance due to the necessity to develop an individual style of professional activity of intending teachers or their individual teaching style (ITS). This necessity is determined by the social and cultural significance of the phenomenon under study and by the rapid pace of changes happening in the educational context today. The purpose of the study is theoretical interpretation of the concept of ITS of intending foreign language (FL) teachers and of its social and cultural significance in the context of teacher training case study. The author hypothesizes that to a large extent the ITS of intending teachers is formed within the framework of the professional courses in the first three years of the university studies. An important condition that contributes to the effective ITS development is the use of practical training, quasi-professional activities, analysis of professional tasks and case-study in the educational process, creation of the digital environment to support students’ individual professional growth. The prevailing design of the study is of a qualitative nature. However, the applied methods of observation and statistical analysis are implemented, too. The research methods include theoretical justification of the key concept of the work through comparative analysis, interpretation, classification and specification, case study and experience analysis of the ways a FL teacher training programme is implemented. The case study is based on the survey results. The survey was carried out on a sample of the 3rd- and 4th-year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Linguodidactics of Saratov State University (methodology by A. M. Markova and A. Ya. Nikonova was implemented, the sample size was n = 126 people). As a result, the article specifies the concept of ITS for the context of FL teacher training, identifies the components of the ITS hierarchical structure, and singles out particular factors and methods of ITS development at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Linguodidactics. Our results cast a new light on the phenomenon under study in the context of FL teacher training. The initial hypothesis was confirmed, since the research revealed no strong correction of the ITS of the 4th-year students in correlation to the data collected for the 3rd-year students.

Educational leadership across cultures

Abstract The goal of this article is to introduce a reflection on leadership in the educational context. Our reasoning will start from the concept of group in its sociological meaning, from Donati (2021) to Goffman (1959) passing through Tuckman’s five stages of group development (1977). In this way, we will argue about the idea of leadership, more in detail on an important element in which the educational leader acts: the culture at all its different levels:, that of the school and then that of the community, which represents a crucial junction for its influence on the way of conceiving educational systems (paragraph 2), the term used to designate the holder of leadership is educational leader, meaning the one who coordinates and manages tasks within an educational context (paragraph 3). The choice that inspires our approach to leadership concept is, from one hand to frame the theme in its transcultural perspective, we believe that any educational context today can only be conceived as an international and global theater, regardless of the origin of the actors and the audience that are there. In addition to people and the objects, the way of formulating concepts of use that have multiform tonalities, origins, and heritages, often far from the context in which they appear and act, they are hybrids. On the other hand, schools often experience internationality and globalization very concretely: they host foreign students and participate in international projects of cooperation with other countries (paragraph 4). In our final remarks, we will affirm and demonstrate that the reflections proposed in this pathway on the topic of leadership are intended to signal the importance of laying the foundation for an international content orientation on which the knowledge of the educational leader is based. Therefore, using the concepts that describe intercultural communication, we assume that sociology can undertake a more incisive analysis of the meaning of multicultural societies.

The Language of Power: Casini and Bancheri's In-Depth Analysis of Italian in Immigration and Global Contexts

Abstract This review article looks at a groundbreaking book in sociolinguistics by Simone Casini and Salvatore Bancheri, What Is the Language of Power? Theoretical Reflections on Italian, Italiese and Other Languages, which focuses on the forms and uses of Italian in immigrant communities, as well as the role of the Italian language in the global village in which we now reside. Based on research conducted on the kind of Italian that takes shape in immigrant communities, called “Italiese,” one of the main insights that can be gleaned from this penetrating book is that the language that emerges in immigrant communities is a product of creative mechanisms, enlisted unconsciously to render the native language (or dialect) adapted to solving everyday communicative problems that pertain to the new environment socially and conceptually. By making the English input conform to the native language, structurally and semantically, the result is a code that allows for direct access to the new reality on its own terms. The book also relates the ways in which Italiese is constructed and employed to the history of Italian itself, ending with a broad examination of the roles that the language should be playing in an international context today. As such, it provides an expansive theoretical framework for assessing the factors that contribute to making a language, such as Italian, an instrument of control over any environment, real or virtual—hence, a “language of power.”

Possibilities for Sociological Research to Reduce Inequalities: Observations from the Immigration Scholarship.

This commentary brings immigration research to the conversation on sociology's possibilities to respond to inequality. It argues that legal status today has become an important dimension of inequality given its enduring impact across most areas of life and effects that extend laterally to all members of a family and across generations. The piece highlights the possibilities for sociologists to contribute to policy discussions but also the limitations of research in policy spaces given the antiscience resistance in the sociopolitical context today.

The Mediating Role of Collaborative Decision Making on the Effect of Digital Literacy and Leadership on Military Soldiers’ Professional Performance

Digital age has created an unregulated war environment and there are non-state actors, armed groups, terrorists, and criminals which should be faced by established governments. Therefore, in the military context today, soldiers as national security guards no longer face physical forms of combat only, information, however, has became the front line in the national security landscape and needs to be treated equally with the land, sea and air defense dimensions. This study aims to reveal how digital literacy and leadership improve professional performance of soldiers through collaborative decision making as mediator, which can be applied not only in the military environment but also in soldier’s interaction with the civilian community in their social life. Quantitative approach with an explanatory survey is used in this study in order to explain symptoms and determine the causal relationship between variables, while the unit of analysis is soldiers from various divisions and ranks with a sample size of 3,598 soldiers from all over Indonesia. The results show that increasing digital literacy and leadership will improve professional performance of the soldiers through collaborative decision making. Leaders should initiate digital leadership in order to develop digital literacy of the soldiers as well as employ digital based internal collaborative decision-making platforms in order to improve not only the professional performance of soldiers but also the organization effectiveness in general.

Coloniality in the German Higher Education System: Implications for Policy and Institutional Practice

This article focuses on the public German higher education sector as a site upon and through which coloniality is enacted. This status quo indicates exclusionary effects and merits interrogation. We briefly discuss the history of German colonialism to understand how coloniality pervades higher educational structures in the German context today. Two proposals addressing coloniality in German higher education are made: the development of structures centering diverse faculty and the support of ethnic and identity studies.

Glocalization: An Emerging Approach in Teacher Education

Due to the increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, teachers’ role has continuously been changing and they have to open their eyes to the reality of the world. Particularly in Sulu, pedagogical and technological development in education are remained outdated and traditional. Yet, changes in the past 20 years for the environment, employment, relationships, health and wealth, in society, safety, culture, communication, and even the values demonstrated by society’s leaders. We could argue that virtually everything has changed and that students today think, act and understand things differently from how their parents did. The same with the changes happens in educational context today which the teachers need to “think globally and act locally”.
 This papers anchored on the view that glocalization in education is the effective approach for the nation to catch up with the trends at par with other developed nations. It is presumed the education today has changed so much, it is appropriate that we look at what teachers need to do in order to prepare young people for the modern world, with its increasingly complex and rapidly changing future. This is the effective approach to make our educational environment in Sulu more relevant to the society. Therefore, the teachers must be updated and research-oriented which help our government toward promoting quality education in Sulu and the country as a whole.
 This paper is solely based on the secondary data. The different sources of data are journal articles, websites, books, reports of various organizations, articles published in international and national papers, etc. This paper gives a brief description of the glocalization in education as an approach to education. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to highlight the glocalization in education as an approach toward achieving quality education which covers changing nature of education, glocal teacher and glocal teachers’ edge.

Theories of the Heart-mind and Human Nature in the Context of Globalization of Confucianism Today

About 60 years ago, Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (Tang Chun-i), Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (Mou Tsung-san), Xu Fuguan 徐復觀 (Hsu Fu-kuan), and Zhang Junmai 張君勱 (Carson Chang) published “A Manifesto for a Reappraisal of Sinology and Reconstruction of Chinese Culture.” In the Manifesto, these major representatives of contemporary New Confucianism tried to rectify Westerners’ biases and reestablish Chinese people’s cultural confidence by upholding the Confucian learning of the heart-mind as the core of Chinese culture. Following the same approach, some prominent scholars today continue the effort of bringing Confucianism to a new epoch through reappropriating metaphysical theories of the heart-mind and human nature of the Zisi 子思–Mencius lineage, which flourished in the Song-Ming 宋明 period. This article critically reflects on this approach and argues that the Confucian learning of the heart-mind and human nature should not be taken so much as a mirror that reflects metaphysical reality than as a lever that directs and uplifts human vision and gongfu 功夫/工夫 (the art of life). In the cultural context today, revealing the gongfu nature of Confucianism can help us appreciate the real value of Confucianism as a constructive resource for global culture.