This paper develops a critical accounting theory based on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, that goes beyond his well-known scheme of practices, institutions, internal goods and virtues to incorporate his hostility towards managerial capitalism and his ‘revolutionary Aristotelianism’. It proposes that two distinctive aspects of MacIntyrean thought provide the conceptual apparatus for a critical accounting that can move beyond critique of the status quo and the ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’, towards flourishing human communities. These aspects include, firstly, his support for a politics of local communities characterised by Aristotelian questioning and secondly, his commitment to an objective morality associated with human flourishing, that finds expression within well-ordered practices. The paper develops these by asking what the goods of accounting are, and what we can expect from good accountants. Postulating the common good of accounting as ‘transparency aiding understanding’, the paper explores how accounting can contribute by, for example, supporting a distributist political economy and serving the internal goods of other practices. It also draws attention to the very real possibility that our desires may be misdirected and that this may underpin many problematic contemporary accounting practices. The deleterious effects of contemporary compartmentalisation are also considered as a hindrance to the development of accountants as capable moral agents. The paper highlights ways in which these possibilities can be developed through further research.

ABSTRACT Honneth’s critical theory of recognition divides social and political theorists. Advocates of Honneth’s approach stress its sophisticated normative foundations, its ease of operationalizability and its intuitive applicability to contemporary socio-political struggles. Honneth’s approach is popular with empirical researchers and is deployed widely. Yet, criticisms of Honneth’s theory have been mounting. In this paper, I expand on these criticisms. I advance eight arguments which can be made against Honneth’s critical theory of recognition. I argue that the combined power of these criticisms is such that critical theorists should cease attempts to reform Honneth’s perspective and should instead develop divergent social-theoretical foundations.

ABSTRACT This study critically examines the racial, gender, and regional representation of authors on reading lists from seven first-year criminology modules at a UK Russell Group university. Drawing on critical race theory and decolonial scholarship, it explores whose knowledge is legitimised through curriculum design and how structural inequalities are reproduced in pedagogical materials. The findings reveal a striking overrepresentation of white, male, and Global North scholars, with racially minoritised and female authors often confined to identity-focused modules. These patterns highlight the epistemic exclusions embedded in criminology’s disciplinary canon and raise urgent questions about efforts to decolonise curricula. The paper argues that transformative reform must go beyond representational inclusion to challenge the institutional, cultural, and epistemological structures that maintain whiteness as the normative centre of criminological knowledge.

This article reconstructs the historical development and evolving conceptual architecture of the medical humanities since its emergence as a university subject in the 1960s. Originating in late 1960s US 'values programmes', the medical humanities initially deployed critique-philosophical, theological, psychoanalytical and sociological-to interrogate medicine's epistemic authority, ethical commitments and social power. Yet, from the 1970s onwards, critique operated in implicit conversation with systems theoretical approaches, particularly through the emergence of the biopsychosocial model and early engagements with phenomenology, cybernetics, anthropology and process philosophy. The subsequent rise of narrative methodologies in the 1980s and 1990s consolidated this synthesis by enabling scholars to conceptualise illness experience as an emergent property of complex, open biological and social systems. The article contends that renewing this synthesis is now essential for advancing the field's transdisciplinary ambitions. Contemporary systems science-encompassing epidemiology, developmental research, social determinants of health and the 'omics' disciplines-provides a powerful framework for understanding how social experience becomes biologically embedded across the lifecourse. At the same time, critique remains indispensable for revealing the often-concealed values, power relations and institutional arrangements that shape health and illness. Integrating these orientations would reconnect the medical humanities with its diverse intellectual constituencies, address long-standing fragmentation and enable new engagements with topics such as childhood, inequality, embodiment and lifecourse health. The article concludes by proposing that a concise set of shared systems theoretical concepts could provide the durable conceptual infrastructure needed to sustain ambitious transdisciplinary dialogue across the field.

ABSTRACT Traditional family-based care for older people in Ghana is declining as globalization and social change weaken historical support systems. This analysis is informed by a review of scholarly literature concerning the implications of globalization for the provision of caregiving for older people managing chronic life-limiting illnesses. We aimed to explore ways of strengthening social structures to enhancing the quality of lives of older people with chronic life-limiting illnesses in rural Ghana amongst 15 older people; 15 family caregivers; 10 healthcare professionals. Critical Social Theory (CST) functions as the primary theoretical framework for conducting an interrogation of the systemic structures that perpetuate social, economic, and political inequities. The average age of participants was 75 years. Ethnographic interviews were conducted after participatory observations during 6 months of fieldwork supported with daily fieldnote notes utilized to gather the needed data and purposively sampled across the study location. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematic analysis procedure used as the major data analysis approach to present the results. Our paper finds that the significant physical, financial, and emotional burden on family caregivers threatens the sustainability of informal care and proposes addressing these vulnerabilities by restructuring national policies to foster inclusivity and social justice for older people and their caregivers.

ABSTRACT Racial/ethnic categories used in education research are frequently aggregated across groups and often used in regression models as relative to white individuals, (un)consciously centering whiteness. We employ Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) to consider the implications of collapsing racial/ethnic categories and of reference group category selection. We propose a decision tree framework to support researchers in choosing a reference category and illustrate its application using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K). We describe students’ interest in math and estimate a series of models that vary the reference group, including comparisons to white students but also 1) to the average of all students, 2) to the average of all students excluding white students, 3) to a universal target, and 4) that analyze within group differences. We demonstrate how choices around racial/ethnic categories and reference groups can produce different interpretations of the same underlying data.

ABSTRACT This study explores discursive encounters between school leaders, teachers, and local education authority (LEA) officials within a local school improvement initiative in Sweden. Using a primary school case, the research examines how competing discourses, focused on results- oriented accountability and professional autonomy, are interpreted and enacted locally, and how this shapes interactions between teacher leaders, principals, and LEA officials. Drawing on field notes from a meeting and interviews with key stakeholders, the analysis employs critical discourse theory to investigate discursive patterns, tensions, and the emergence of shared understandings. Findings reveal that a results- driven discourse emphasizing measurability and accountability intersects with a counter-discourse valuing collective processes, professional judgement, and holistic teaching practices. This intersection represents a process of hybridization, producing ruptures and moments of mutual understanding that reconfigure the “chain of effects’. The study demonstrates how dialogue-driven hybridization can transform competing discourses into shared resources for school improvement.

ABSTRACT Autistic and neurodivergent clients frequently experience relational and epistemic harm in psychotherapy when neurotypical therapists’ interpretations of emotional expression and communication rely on unexamined normative assumptions. While research increasingly documents autistic clients’ experiences of invalidation and misattunement, few studies interrogate therapists’ underlying assumptions that shape these encounters. Grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm, the Double Empathy Problem, and frameworks of epistemic injustice, this qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with 8–12 UK-based neurotypical therapists. Reflexive Thematic Analysis is employed to explore both explicit and latent themes in therapists’ interpretations of neurodivergent communication and emotion, including responses to vignettes depicting client behaviour. Findings aim to uncover the normative, ableist frameworks embedded in training and practice that perpetuate misunderstanding and relational harm. By centring therapists’ perspectives alongside critical theory, this research illuminates structural and ethical dimensions of therapeutic work, offering insights to support more inclusive, responsive, and ethically grounded practice with neurodivergent clients.

ABSTRACT This qualitative study describes the perspectives of Emergent Bilingual (EB) parents’ linguistic and cultural barriers when interacting with their children’s teachers and schools. EB parent engagement practices were collected through focus group and semi-structured interviews. Critical Sociocultural Theory (C-SCT) and discourse analysis were used to understand participants’ perspectives. Findings included: (1) lack of access to equitable communication; (2) insufficient and untimely teacher communication; and (3) lack of cultural heritage inclusion. EB parents especially noted the absence of being viewed as full contributing members of their educational community. The research promotes that teacher engagement with EB parents creates more asset-based relationships.

Prenatal testing (prenatal screening and diagnostic testing) is a central component of prenatal care in the UK. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a key role in guiding parents through the testing pathway. Against a backdrop where Black and racially minoritised parents are disproportionately impacted by maternal health inequalities, little is known about how HCPs working in prenatal testing services navigate the delivery of equitable care in everyday practice. Understanding HCP perspectives is essential, especially as prenatal testing technology advances. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 HCPs who deliver prenatal testing across England. Interviews explored experiences of discussing prenatal testing with parents from Black and racially minoritised backgrounds, influences on delivering equitable care, and views on service improvement. Data were analysed using codebook thematic analysis informed by Critical Race Theory to examine how structural factors shaped practice. HCPs valued equitable care, making deliberate efforts to support parents' varying needs. However, four interrelated themes highlighted constraints on equitable delivery: unequal starting points for parents entering testing discussions; uneven clinical confidence and knowledge of genetics across the workforce; variability in support for culturally sensitive care; and reliance on informal, individual labour to address gaps in service design. These dynamics meant that equitable care was often pursued through personal adaptation rather than consistently supported systems. Providing equitable care cannot rely on individual effort. System-level investment in clinical education, service design, and organisational cultures that support culturally sensitive care is needed. With the expansion of prenatal genomics, addressing these structural conditions will be essential for ensuring the benefits of prenatal testing are realised equitably.

ABSTRACT Although researchers belonging to disciplines like sports science, leisure studies and exercise psychology have conducted extensive studies on the critical engagement between sports and aging, there is still a scarcity of critical theorization of the interconnections between sports fiction and gerontological studies. It was only in the last decade that academic discourse on the latter arrested much scholarly attention, as critics gradually started to analyze representations of (old)age/master athletes within the ambit of sports fiction (mainly visual narratives). Aligning itself with this theoretical development, the paper tries to chart out the incremental growth of academic scholarship in sports and gerontology across the globe, and then, seeks to examine the Bollywood movie, Vijay 69, directed by Akshay Roy, in light of aging studies. The movie tells the story of an eponymous sexagenarian hero, enacted by Anupam Kher, who displays a unique spectacle of sportsmanship and athleticism, participating in a triathlon at the age of 69. The main purpose of the paper is to investigate how the movie captures the experience and conceptualization of old age, and also emerges as a counter narrative to the ageist perception that acts as the dominant force in the arena of sports.

ABSTRACT This article theorises seventeenth-century and contemporary still life by reading the genre through the twin lenses of biopolitics and new materialism. Combining visual analysis with critical theory (Agamben, Haraway, Wynter, Bennett), it traces how still life emerged alongside early-modern debates over sovereignty, materialism, and animacy, staging on the tabletop the sovereign decision that distinguishes human subjects from edible, collectible, or disposable ‘bare life’. The essay shows that canvases from Cotán and Collier to Yuskavage and Marshall function as portable laboratories in which fruits, animals, and racialized bodies both enforce and unravel political taxonomies. By foregrounding the vibrancy of ostensibly inert matter, still life anticipates new materialist claims about distributed agency, while its recurring aesthetics of exception visualise the perpetual suspension of law that undergirds modern governance. This interdisciplinary intervention positions still life – long dismissed as minor and mute – as a crucial archive for understanding how power scripts the life chances of humans and things alike.

Research on youth civic engagement has often framed immigrant and racially minoritized youth through deficit lenses, overlooking their contributions and lived practices. This study centers Korean immigrant youth to complicate dominant narratives of civic participation. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, AsianCrit, and frameworks of cultural, lived, and transnational citizenship, the study examines how civic engagement is shaped by intersecting structures of race, immigration, and schooling. Using counter-storytelling with nine Korean immigrant college students on the U.S. West Coast, the study finds that civic engagement spans diverse sites and develops from initially instrumental participation into more critical and sustained forms, particularly in college contexts. These findings highlight how their experiences disrupt normative civic frames and reveal alternative ways of belonging, responsibility, and leadership, while also demonstrating how civic engagement is shaped by racialized conditions.

The rise of right-wing political movements supported by key players from big tech is transforming Western societies. This so-called techno-feudalism also implies challenges for bioethics. Racist agendas, intentional misinformation on health topics such as vaccinations, banned words and research topics in public institutions, and the massive funding of questionable biomedical research projects undermine health equity, patient safety, and autonomy. This new sociopolitical situation exacerbates a long-standing issue in healthcare that bioethics hitherto mostly failed to address adequately: societal power asymmetries that shape the roles and relationships of actors in healthcare and biomedical research. Although attempts have been made to reflect upon this issue, e.g. in feminist or postcolonial bioethics, there is no coherent bioethical approach that fundamentally focuses on power asymmetries as a lens of bioethical inquiry. In this article, I therefore introduce critical bioethics, an approach that takes epistemic lenses from critical theory, especially the so-called Frankfurt School. These epistemic lenses-totality and embeddedness, instrumental reason, dialectics and emancipation-allow us to uncover the societal causes for ethical issues in healthcare and biomedical research. Based on this methodological foundation, critical bioethics addresses health inequity as a result of power asymmetries by understanding individuals as fundamentally embedded in a concrete socioeconomic context. Through the lens of instrumental reason, it addresses the connection between disruptive technological innovations and economic interests in terms of commodification and solutionism. By using dialectics as a method to uncover contradictions in the way bioethics understands its principles, it provides an emancipatory perspective for normativity that separates it from affirmative forms of bioethical thinking that simply reproduce the suppressive status quo.

ABSTRACT Difficulties navigating adult social environments are associated with poorer outcomes for autistic adults. This study examines how autistic adults describe their social challenges and interactions within the context of their transition to adulthood through a series of semi-structured interviews. Seventeen autistic adults (18 and over, Mage = 26.7 years) were interviewed. Themes related to social interactions in education and the workplace were analysed. Data analysis was conducted through the theoretical framework of Critical Disability Theory and utilised reflexive thematic analysis. Participants expressed Difficulties with Initial Social Contact leading to isolation and overstimulation in new environments, difficulties creating Boundaries through lack of understanding of appropriate workplace decorum and topics, Bullying from co-workers and experiencing Growth in their social and professional identities. Participants struggled and embraced Disclosure of autistic identity both in college and in the workplace to co-workers and employers. Lastly, participants provided Employer Recommendations on how to best support their autistic employees. The experiences shared by the participants in this study will pave the way for understanding and re-centring of research priorities to endow young autistic adults with tools for success.

ABSTRACT Higher education governance has increasingly been examined through critical spatial theories that emphasise how spatiality is politically produced by and for the exercise of power. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, this paper analyses how space and geographic entities are constituted through the policy, and rendered as specific sites through which political effects are embodied. Taiwan’s Higher Education Sprout Project provides an illustrative case: introduced in 2017, it aimed to address the overemphasis on global rankings arising from earlier funding schemes by requiring universities to collaborate with local communities to address real-world problems. Methodologically, the paper employs policy network ethnography to trace how ‘local communities’ were produced – not as pre-given entities surrounding universities, but through discourses of social responsibility and policy instruments. The analysis reveals that while universities have been redirected from global ranking pursuits towards local engagement, this shift does not constitute a simple reversal. Instead, it represents a reconfiguration of neoliberal governing power across sites, embedding market-driven rationalities within localised practices. By adopting a critical spatial perspective, the paper contributes to scholarship on the spatial dimensions of higher education governance, showing how place operates as a governing category that both disciplines universities while enabling them to govern themselves.

ABSTRACT This study investigated the extent to which Doctor of Education (EdD) students at Northeastern University integrated social justice principles into their dissertations in practice. To guide this inquiry, the research team developed an operational social justice framework through an iterative process of refinement. The initial aim of the study was to critically evaluate the degree to which students’ research aligned with a comprehensive conception of social justice, particularly in advancing equity and fostering transformative educational practices. As the study evolved, it assumed a dual focus: a) assessing the depth of students’ engagement with social justice and b) serving as a methodological case study on the iterative development and application of the framework itself. Content analysis was used to examine 186 dissertations operationalizing social justice across four dimensions: Educational Access and Equity, Instructional Practice, Community Engagement, and Professional Development. Findings revealed variations in applying social justice frameworks across an EdD program and identified facilitating or hindering factors. Drawing on action research, critical theory, and transformative learning, the study developed an iterative approach prioritizing methodological adaptability specific to social justice. Findings suggest EdD programs should integrate equity-focused action research into curriculum and mentorship to develop socially conscious educational leaders.

ABSTRACT Sociology has long engaged with environmental problems, yet persistent challenges remain in theorising how modern societies process ecological constraints in the context of sustainable development. Over recent decades, interdisciplinary frameworks such as social – ecological systems and social metabolism have highlighted the complex interactions and possible co-evolution between social and natural systems. While these approaches have generated non-deterministic concepts recognised across the social and natural sciences, the specifically sociological dimensions, particularly historical, institutional, and communicative characteristics, have received comparatively less systematic attention. This article contributes to environmental sociology by revisiting the theoretical work of Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas as complementary analytical resources for examining society – nature relations. Rather than proposing a new social – ecological ontology, the article draws on systems theory and critical social theory to examine how agency, inertia, and the limits of societal steering emerge in socio-ecological arrangements. It argues that non-adaptive socio-economic practices persist not simply because of insufficient knowledge or individual motivation, but because ecological disturbances are translated into system-specific forms of communication that constrain collective responses. By clarifying the social, institutional, and political mechanisms shaping society’s capacity to respond to environmental challenges, the article seeks to strengthen sociological contributions to interdisciplinary sustainability research.

Mental health disorders among medical students represent a persistent global challenge. Disclosure, defined as the act of revealing a mental health disorder to peers, educators or institutions, is shaped by cultural norms, institutional structures and professional expectations. Despite growing awareness of well-being, disclosure remains complex and fraught with stigma, confidentiality concerns and fears of professional repercussions. This international qualitative meta-synthesis explores how medical students experience and navigate mental health disclosure, aiming to clarify the social, cultural and institutional forces that shape disclosure decisions. It further seeks to inform policies that create psychologically safe learning environments. A systematic search of nine databases (updated December 2025) identified peer-reviewed qualitative and mixed-methods studies published between 2013 and 2025. Data were synthesised using Thomas and Harden's thematic synthesis method within an interpretivist paradigm. Reporting followed the enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (ENTREQ) and preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and methodological quality was assessed using the critical appraisal skills programme (CASP) checklist. Confidence in the review findings was evaluated using confidence in the evidence from reviews of qualitative research (GRADE-CERQual). The review protocol was registered with the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO;CRD42024521037). Eighteen studies from seven countries (n = 379 participants) met the inclusion criteria. Six overarching themes and 16 subthemes were identified. Key barriers to disclosure included stigma, professional anxiety, confidentiality concerns, institutional rigidity and uncertainty about support services. Peer influence emerged as the only consistent facilitator of disclosure. The findings illustrate how medical culture, systemic structures and social expectations intersect to sustain nondisclosure and limit access to support. Disclosure of mental health disorders in medical education is a negotiated, relational process embedded within socio-cultural and institutional power dynamics. This synthesis advances understanding by situating disclosure within disability and critical theory frameworks, highlighting how ableism and professional identity norms perpetuate silence. Addressing these structural forces through inclusive policies and psychologically safe learning cultures is essential to normalising openness and supporting the well-being of future doctors.

Introduction Racism in healthcare remains persistent and particularly impacts Indigenous Peoples. Antiracism has been conceptualised as a framework to address racism, outlining that all individuals have the responsibility to actively address and prevent racism. Although accreditation standards in health professions programs often emphasise healthcare equity with Indigenous Peoples, health professionals can graduate without antiracism skills. Through a conceptual framework of critical inquiry and Critical Indigenous Theory, this study examined the complexities of implementing competency-based anti-Indigenous racism education in health professions education programs. Methods A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used to examine student reaction and learning when participating in an anti-Indigenous racism education program at a large multidisciplinary health faculty in Australia. Data collection included student evaluations, pre- and post-module surveys using an adapted Antiracism Behavioural Inventory Scale, qualitative analysis of final assignments, and co-autoethnographic reflection to examine study findings within the context of competency-based health professions education. Results Students responded positively to the antiracism education content, though they desired more feedback. Statistically significant improvements were observed in self-rated antiracism behaviours post-program. However, qualitative analysis revealed varied demonstrations of antiracism by students, with superficial learning relating to taking action on racism. Co-autoethnography highlighted a lack of programmatic assessment, particularly in workplace learning, which was likely limited by course accreditation standards. Discussion The issues raised in this study point to a critical requirement for anti-Indigenous racism competency-based education and programmatic assessment models within course accreditation standards. Without this, students may develop an initial awareness of anti-Indigenous racism, but would unlikely build the skills required to practice antiracism and advance health equity for Indigenous Peoples.