De Facto Research Articles

Cross-Image Pixel Contrasting for Semantic Segmentation.

This work studies the problem of image semantic segmentation. Current approaches focus mainly on mining "local" context, i.e., dependencies between pixels within individual images, by specifically-designed, context aggregation modules (e.g., dilated convolution, neural attention) or structure-aware optimization objectives (e.g., IoU-like loss). However, they ignore "global" context of the training data, i.e., rich semantic relations between pixels across different images. Inspired by recent advance in unsupervised contrastive representation learning, we propose a pixel-wise contrastive algorithm, dubbed as PiCo, for semantic segmentation in the fully supervised learning setting. The core idea is to enforce pixel embeddings belonging to a same semantic class to be more similar than embeddings from different classes. It raises a pixel-wise metric learning paradigm for semantic segmentation, by explicitly exploring the structures of labeled pixels, which were rarely studied before. Our training algorithm is compatible with modern segmentation solutions without extra overhead during testing. We experimentally show that, with famous segmentation models (i.e., DeepLabV3, HRNet, OCRNet, SegFormer, Segmenter, MaskFormer) and backbones (i.e., MobileNet, ResNet, HRNet, MiT, ViT), our algorithm brings consistent performance improvements across diverse datasets (i.e., Cityscapes, ADE20 K, PASCAL-Context, COCO-Stuff, CamVid). We expect that this work will encourage our community to rethink the current de facto training paradigm in semantic segmentation.

ConvMatch: Rethinking Network Design for Two-View Correspondence Learning.

Multilayer perceptron (MLP) has become the de facto backbone in two-view correspondence learning, for it can extract effective deep features from unordered correspondences individually. However, the problem of natively lacking context information limits its performance although many context-capturing modules are appended in the follow-up studies. In this paper, from a novel perspective, we design a correspondence learning network called ConvMatch that for the first time can leverage a convolutional neural network (CNN) as the backbone, inherently capable of context aggregation. Specifically, with the observation that sparse motion vectors and a dense motion field can be converted into each other with interpolating and sampling, we regularize the putative motion vectors by estimating the dense motion field implicitly, then rectify the errors caused by outliers in local areas with CNN, and finally obtain correct motion vectors from the rectified motion field. Moreover, we propose global information injection and bilateral convolution, to fit the overall spatial transformation better and accommodate the discontinuities of the motion field in case of large scene disparity. Extensive experiments reveal that ConvMatch consistently outperforms state-of-the-arts for relative pose estimation, homography estimation, and visual localization.

Towards mmWave Altimetry for UAS: Exploring the Potential of 77 GHz Automotive Radars

Precise altitude data are indispensable for flight navigation, particularly during the autonomous landing of unmanned aerial systems (UASs). Conventional light and barometric sensors employed for altitude estimation are limited by poor visibility and temperature conditions, respectively, whilst global positioning system (GPS) receivers provide the altitude from the mean sea level (MSL) marred with a slow update rate. To cater to the landing safety requirements, UASs necessitate precise altitude information above ground level (AGL) impervious to environmental conditions. Radar altimeters, a mainstay in commercial aviation for at least half a century, realize these requirements through minimum operational performance standards (MOPSs). More recently, the proliferation of 5G technology and interference with the universally allocated band for radar altimeters from 4.2 to 4.4 GHz underscores the necessity to explore novel avenues. Notably, there is no dedicated MOPS tailored for radar altimeters of UASs. To gauge the performance of a radar altimeter offering for UASs, existing MOPSs are the de facto choice. Historically, frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars have been extensively used in a broad spectrum of ranging applications including radar altimeters. Modern monolithic millimeter wave (mmWave) automotive radars, albeit designed for automotive applications, also employ FMCW for precise ranging with a cost-effective and compact footprint. Given the technology maturation with excellent size, weight, and power (SWaP) metrics, there is a growing trend in industry and academia to explore their efficacy beyond the realm of the automotive industry. To this end, their feasibility for UAS altimetry remains largely untapped. While the literature on theoretical discourse is prevalent, a specific focus on mmWave radar altimetry is lacking. Moreover, clutter estimation with hardware specifications of a pure look-down mmWave radar is unreported. This article argues the applicability of MOPSs for commercial aviation for adaptation to a UAS use case. The theme of the work is a tutorial based on a simplified mathematical and theoretical discussion on the understanding of performance metrics and inherent intricacies. A systems engineering approach for deriving waveform specifications from operational requirements of a UAS is offered. Lastly, proposed future research directions and insights are included.

Progressive Adoption of RINA in IoT Networks: Enhancing Scalability and Network Management via SDN Integration

Thousands of devices are connected to the Internet as part of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems. The next generation of IoT networks is expected to support this growing number of Intelligent IoT devices and tactile Internet solutions to provide real-time applications. In view of this, IoT networks require innovative network architectures that offer scalability, security, and adaptability. The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) is a clean slate network architecture that provides a scalable, secure, and flexible framework for interconnecting computers. SDN technology is becoming a de facto solution to overcome network requirements, making RINA adoption difficult. This paper presents an architecture for integrating RINA with SDN technologies to lower the barriers of adopting RINA in IoT environments. The architecture relies on a RINA-based distributed application facility (DAF), a RINA southbound driver (SBI), and the RINA L2VPN. The RINA-based DAF manages RINA nodes along the edge–fog–cloud continuum. The SBI driver SDN enables the hybrid centralized management of SDN switches and RINA nodes. Meanwhile, the RINA L2VPN allows seamless communication between edge nodes and the cloud to facilitate the data exchange between network functions (NFs). Such integration has enabled a progressive deployment of RINA in current IoT networks without affecting their operations and performance.

Continuous Medicaid Eligibility During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Postpartum Coverage, Health Care, and Outcomes

Pursuant to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), continuous Medicaid eligibility during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) created a de facto national extension of pregnancy Medicaid eligibility beyond 60 days postpartum. To evaluate the association of continuous Medicaid eligibility with postpartum health insurance, health care use, breastfeeding, and depressive symptoms. This cohort study using a generalized difference-in-differences design included 21 states with continuous prepolicy (2017-2019) and postpolicy (2020-2021) participation in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). State-level change in Medicaid income eligibility after 60 days postpartum associated with the FFCRA measured as a percent of the federal poverty level (FPL; ie, the difference in 2020 income eligibility thresholds for pregnant people and low-income adults/parents). Health insurance, postpartum visit attendance, contraceptive use (any effective method; long-acting reversible contraceptives), any breastfeeding and depressive symptoms at the time of the PRAMS survey (mean [SD], 4 [1.3] months postpartum). The sample included 47 716 PRAMS respondents (64.4% aged <30 years; 18.9% Hispanic, 26.2% non-Hispanic Black, 36.3% non-Hispanic White, and 18.6% other race or ethnicity) with a Medicaid-paid birth. Based on adjusted estimates, a 100% FPL increase in postpartum Medicaid eligibility was associated with a 5.1 percentage point (pp) increase in reported postpartum Medicaid enrollment, no change in commercial coverage, and a 6.6 pp decline in uninsurance. This represents a 40% reduction in postpartum uninsurance after a Medicaid-paid birth compared with the prepolicy baseline of 16.7%. In subgroup analyses by race and ethnicity, uninsurance reductions were observed only among White and Black non-Hispanic individuals; Hispanic individuals had no change. No policy-associated changes were observed in other outcomes. In this cohort study, continuous Medicaid eligibility during the COVID-19 PHE was associated with significantly reduced postpartum uninsurance for people with Medicaid-paid births, but was not associated with postpartum visit attendance, contraception use, breastfeeding, or depressive symptoms at approximately 4 months postpartum. These findings, though limited to the context of the COVID-19 PHE, may offer preliminary insight regarding the potential impact of post-pandemic postpartum Medicaid eligibility extensions. Collection of longer-term and more comprehensive follow-up data on postpartum health care and health will be critical to evaluating the effect of ongoing postpartum policy interventions.

Bureaucratic Autonomy and the Performance of International Institutions

Abstract Despite longstanding scholarly interest in international institutions, remarkably little research has been conducted in variation in performance across organizations. In this essay, I review Ranjit Lall's book, which aims to fill that gap. Lall argues that the chief impediment to high-functioning international organizations (IOs) are member-states with particularistic interests that attempt to capture the institutions. The solution, he maintains, is to bolster the de facto autonomy of the bureaucrats who staff these institutions by forging operational alliances with nonstate stakeholders and mandating that they perform functions that are difficult for members to monitor. I evaluate Lall's argument and evidence. I then discuss a set of additional issues that are related to the performance of international institutions. First, why do stakeholders often continue to support those organizations that perform poorly? Second, what mechanisms exist for improving the performance of ailing IOs? Third, how does the widely documented backlash against globalization that has transpired during the past few decades bear on IOs? Fourth, Lall and others tout the benefits of well-performing IOs, but such institutions, nonetheless, can have costly and unanticipated side effects that merit greater scrutiny. Finally, formal international institutions have been key features of world politics. However, additional research is needed on whether and, if so, why they have become less important aspects of global governance.

CMaize: Simplifying inter-package modularity from the build up.

There is a growing desire for inter-package modularity within the chemistry software community to reuse encapsulated code units across a variety of software packages. Most comprehensive efforts at achieving inter-package modularity will quickly run afoul of a very practical problem, being able to cohesively build the modules. Writing and maintaining build systems has long been an issue for many scientific software packages that rely on compiled languages such as C/C++. The push for inter-package modularity compounds this issue by additionally requiring binary artifacts from disparate developers to interoperate at a binary level. Thankfully, the de facto build tool for C/C++, CMake, is more than capable of supporting the myriad of edge cases that complicate writing robust build systems. Unfortunately, writing and maintaining a robust CMake build system can be a laborious endeavor because CMake provides few abstractions to aid the developer. The need to significantly simplify the process of writing robust CMake-based build systems, especially in inter-package builds, motivated us to write CMaize. In addition to describing the architecture and design of CMaize, the article also demonstrates how CMaize is used in production-level software.

A Zebrafish-Based Platform for High-Throughput Epilepsy Modeling and Drug Screening in F0.

The zebrafish model has emerged as a reference tool for phenotypic drug screening. An increasing number of molecules have been brought from bench to bedside thanks to zebrafish-based assays over the last decade. The high homology between the zebrafish and the human genomes facilitates the generation of zebrafish lines carrying loss-of-function mutations in disease-relevant genes; nonetheless, even using this alternative model, the establishment of isogenic mutant lines requires a long generation time and an elevated number of animals. In this study, we developed a zebrafish-based high-throughput platform for the generation of F0 knock-out (KO) models and the screening of neuroactive compounds. We show that the simultaneous inactivation of a reporter gene (tyrosinase) and a second gene of interest allows the phenotypic selection of F0 somatic mutants (crispants) carrying the highest rates of mutations in both loci. As a proof of principle, we targeted genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and we efficiently generated de facto F0 mutants in seven genes involved in childhood epilepsy. We employed a high-throughput multiparametric behavioral analysis to characterize the response of these KO models to an epileptogenic stimulus, making it possible to employ kinematic parameters to identify seizure-like events. The combination of these co-injection, screening and phenotyping methods allowed us to generate crispants recapitulating epilepsy features and to test the efficacy of compounds already during the first days post fertilization. Since the strategy can be applied to a wide range of indications, this study paves the ground for high-throughput drug discovery and promotes the use of zebrafish in personalized medicine and neurotoxicity assessment.

Preserving the nuclear test ban after Russia revoked its CTBT ratification

ABSTRACT Russia’s withdrawal of its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 2023 raised concerns about the possible end of the existing moratorium on nuclear explosions. But the moratorium continues to hold, largely thanks to the de facto norm against full-scale nuclear tests and the strength of institutional structures created by the treaty. Transparency of nuclear experiments demonstrated by the United States will be an important factor in upholding the moratorium, and Russia and China should be encouraged to be more transparent about their activities as well. Any disputes about the exact nature of their experiments and their adherence to the strict definition of a zero-yield nuclear explosion should not become reasons to question the value of the moratorium—or the ability of parties to verify and enforce the test ban once the treaty comes into force.

ALLEGIANCE BLINDNESS, EXTRA-TERRITORIAL EXUBERANCE, AND SECURITY AMBIVALENCE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RULING OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE ON PRODUCTS ORIGINATING FROM WESTERN SAHARA

Background: The European Court of Justice recently annulled Council Decision (EU) No. 2019/217, which had authorised the conclusion of an agreement—in the form of an exchange of letters—between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. This agreement initially extended coverage of preferential trade treatment between the two parties to products originating in Western Sahara and subject to the control of Moroccan customs authorities. The ECJ’s ruling has removed those trade preferences and imposed a de facto EU embargo on the region. This article critically discusses the ECJ’s ruling on both legal and policy grounds. From a legal standpoint, the ECJ’s decision foregoes consideration of notions of sovereignty applicable to Western Sahara in virtue of Islamic law, which would have led to recognition of its enduring ‘allegiance’ to Morocco. Moreover, the same decision amounts to an instance of extra-territorial application of EU law and infringes the principle of indivisibility of agreements. From a policy standpoint, by acknowledging standing in virtue of mere non-State armed military presence, the ECJ’s ruling has offered to terrorist groups and rebel militias— in a context of profound instability in the Sahel region—a blackmail strategy vis-à-vis regional governments. Methods: This critical review uses the descriptive approach to outline, analyse, interpret, and criticise the 2021 ECJ ruling, which denies preferential trade treatment to products from the Western Sahara region, even when under the control of Moroccan customs authorities, while Moroccan products continue to receive such treatment. Results and Conclusions: The European Court of Justice partially used the concepts of international law as it paid no regard to the concept of sovereignty in the Islamic world, which is connected to tribe, allegiance and loyalty. Further, extending the application of the European Law to a third state, which has several agreements with the European Union, must be devoid of any political dimension affected by regional conflicts and international balances. The enforcement of the referred ruling is tantamount to the economic embargo on the Western Sahara Region, which will inevitably affect the security situation thereof and thus bring it closer to the influence of terrorist groups.

Phenomenology is explanatory: Science and metascience

AbstractThis essay disambiguates the relationship between phenomenology and explanation, whereby we uncover a fundamentally new way to understand the function of phenomenology within the sciences. These objectives are accomplished in two stages. First, we propose an original way to interpret Husserl's claim that his phenomenology is non‐explanatory. We demonstrate, contra accepted interpretations, that Husserl did not think phenomenology is non‐explanatory, because it is descriptive or because it does not deal with causes. Instead, we demonstrate that Husserl concluded that phenomenology is non‐explanatory, because it engages in a dialectical process of conceptual clarification. To substantiate this interpretation, we examine how Husserl understood the function of explanation in three different tiers of standard science and how he grasped the role of phenomenology in pure logic. Having properly clarified Husserl's conclusion—that phenomenology is non‐explanatory—we then execute our second task, namely to challenge just that idea. We argue that Husserl has—despite his claims to the contrary—de facto and inadvertently described his phenomenology as an explanatory nomological science. Our paper therefore not only clears up a longstanding misinterpretation of Husserl, but opens a new area of debate concerning the status of phenomenology within the scientific nexus.

Demonstrating the deep institutionalisation of de facto responsible research and innovation (rri) in participatory market contexts: examples from Bolivia and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT Our paper reprises the concept deep institutionalisation of responsible innovation considering why and how it matters to add the adjective ‘deep’. We distinguish de facto responsible research and innovation (rri) as the study of how actors frame and govern responsibility through existing practices (‘in the wild’) and investigate how these practices become institutionalised. We present a diagnostic framework comprising four axes which facilitates the critical and reflexive empirical interrogation of deep institutionalisation (DI). Deploying the framework, the paper explores DI in two very different cases: an inter-organisational case of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in Bolivia; and an intra-organisational case of societal engagement within TNO in the Netherlands. Controversially perhaps, we argue that normative features of responsibility are enacted, amplified and potentially institutionalised through markets. Both cases show how particular market features become recursively qualified through the four mutually reinforcing processes that comprise deep institutionalisation: (i) historical contingency; (ii) institutional amplification; (iii) systemic overflowing; and (iv)multi-level alignment.

Is authority fungible? Legitimacy, domain congruence, and the limits of power in Africa

AbstractScholars increasingly recognize the plurality of leaders who exercise de facto authority in governing communities. But what limits different leaders’ power to organize distinct types of collective action beyond the law? We contend that leaders’ influence varies by activity, depending on the degree to which the activity matches the leaders’ geographic scope and field of expertise (“domain congruence”). Employing conjoint endorsement experiments in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia, we test whether domain congruence predicts citizens’ willingness to comply with leader requests across different activities and examine the mechanisms that explain its importance. We find limits on leaders’ authority, that the concept of domain congruence helps predict the activities over which leaders have the greatest influence, and that leaders’ domain legitimacy may underpin the relationship between domain congruence and authority.

Ukraine and the Debacle of Russian Soft Power

ABSTRACT The war in Ukraine has demonstrated Russia’s incapacity to implement a foreign policy strategy without resorting to hard power means, exposing the limits in its soft power capacity to ‘attract’ and ‘persuade’. Specifically, Russian soft power in Ukraine built around the model of the ‘Russian world’ (Russkiy Mir) was unable to persuade Kyiv to align with Moscow through peaceable means. Simultaneously, EU-inspired soft power based on the idea of ‘Greater Europe’ and Ukrainian ‘Europeanness’ conceived through the normative prism of liberal-democratic values and the potential of higher levels of economic development, limited the impact of Russia’s soft power in Ukraine. Russian soft power in Ukraine was not inspired by the idea of attraction but conceived as a propagandistic means to justify expansionist policies, merging de facto with hard power. After the 2022 invasion, in the occupied regions, Moscow’s influence could only be imposed coercively as an ancillary tool of hard power through a unique combination of smart and sharp power. Overall, a comparison of the influence of Russian and EU soft power in Ukraine highlights that the latter proved to be generally more persuasive, leading Moscow to resort to military force.

Jurisprudence: The Study of the Rule of Law in a Republic

When we understand the ontological, political and legal underpinnings associated with the concept of freedom, liberty and rights, we understand the relationship between rights and laws. Rights can be understood as liberties or as laws. Liberties can be understood as de facto rights or as de jure rights. It is de jure rights that are recognized as laws that provide the basis for the rule of law. It is the rule of law that provides the basis for equal rights and equal justice in an ideal republic. Rights, laws and the rule of law are distinct. Rights are self-evident truths. Laws are imperatives backed by sanctions (John Austin). The rule of law is a principle that purports that the recognition de facto and de jure rights provide the basis for political, social and economic justice. People live by the rights recognized by law. As such, the rule of law advocates two fundamental underpinnings in a republic: (1) the recognition of rights as the basis for equal rights and equal justice, and (2) the recognition of law as the basis for governance. (H.L.A. Hart). However, since the recognition of law is the recognition of rights, the recognition of rights precedes the governance by law principle. What is fundamental to the rule of law is that it recognizes rights, legitimizes political rule and administers equal/blind justice (Meyers, 1213). As such, no branch of government can weaponize laws to terminate recognized individual rights. The maxim of the republic should be – while anyone can be the ruler, everyone lives as free as the ruler. Majority rule and protection of self-evident individual rights is fundamental to an ideal republic. Keywords: law, equal rights, equal justice, impunity, rule of law

Generative exhaustions: Thresholds of long-term uncertainty and stink bug infestation in Georgia’s contested borderland

ABSTRACT Displaced Georgians from the Gali region of the de facto Georgia–Abkhazia borderland have constructed mobile lives by navigating a decades-long conflict and its turbulent landscapes. For the people of Gali, cross-border mobility is a vital concern; uncertainty is a daily matter of tactical anticipation. Arbitrary checkpoints, unannounced border closures, and the Enguri River’s capricious water levels interfere with mobilities; occasional crises unsettle the subtle ways that the Gali people have developed over three decades to manoeuvre everyday uncertainties. Focusing on an unanticipated stink bug infestation that disrupted already precarious lives, this article explores the temporal and affective anatomy of long-term uncertainty with its continuities and limit points. Using exhaustion as an analytical concept, it examines the generative thresholds of protracted uncertainty without eclipsing the cumulative toll of continuous life struggle in a conflict zone.

Nigerian Radicalism: Towards a New Definition via a Historical Survey

Abstract Recent military coups in West Africa have put the continent’s democratisation itself into question. In some places, for the moment, these coups appear to have popular backing. Nigeria, where radicalism is firmly rooted in democratic values and a human-rights framework, the radical grassroots opposition to the Buhari government’s creeping authoritarianism lies drenched in blood. The roots of this development go back to the history of Nigeria’s radicalism in the twentieth century. Much has appeared on the global 1968 recently, including that of Africa. 1970s/1980s-style radicalism is reappearing today with Omoyele Sowore’s 2018 presidential candidacy, with the African Action Congress party, the #EndSARS protests and the tragic Lekki Toll Gate massacre (2020) in Nigeria. The shift towards radicalism is palpable with protest music such as Falz’s This is Nigeria, and Burna Boy’s Monsters you Made, both explicitly targeting neocolonialism and police brutality. Contrary to Achille Mbembe’s sweeping dismissal of African radicalism, the movement with very deep roots under study is meaningful once again, and is gathering momentum in West Africa’s giant polity. This article applies Walter Benjamin’s and also Nigerian radical thinkers’ conceptualisation of political, social and artistic radicalism, while it frames the Nigerian version via the movement’s history, in which marxisant theory and praxis, feminism, human rights and pro-democracy movements interact with emancipatory strands of Islam, Christianity, Igbo Judaism, and animism. In the context of Nigerian radicalism, even expressly pro-capitalist art theory performs a radical social function by stressing the African’s right to make universal statements (Olu Oguibe) in its de facto defiance of the neo-colony. As these different strands of protest meet, ethnic uprisings (amongst them IPOB) find ways to establish common cause with social radicalism, posing a composite threat to the prebendalist oligarchy that rules and oppresses the country via a militarised neoliberalism.

Time Preferences, Land Tenure Security, and the Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices in Southeast Nigeria

Sustainable land management (SLM) practices are important for tackling agricultural land degradation. This study investigates the association between farmers’ time preferences and their adoption of SLM practices (agroforestry, terracing, and land fallow practices) with intertemporal benefits, and further documents the moderating role of land tenure security in this relationship. The analysis in the paper is based on data from a survey of 480 farmers in south-east Nigeria, complemented by semi-structured interviews. Farmers’ time preferences were elicited using both a survey and experiments with hypothetical payouts. Land tenure was conceptualised as a composite concept to suit the legally pluralistic context of the study area. This study found that many of the sampled farmers have high discount rates. The result further shows that farmers’ time preferences are negatively associated with their adoption of agroforestry and land fallow practices. Moreover, the result shows that both legal and de facto tenure security encourage the adoption of SLM practices. Other factors influencing the adoption of SLM practices include gender, household size, education, credit constraints, marital status, risk attitude, farming experience, and farm characteristics (e.g., erosion problems and steepness of slope). Furthermore, this study found that the security-enhancing effect of land tenure security (de facto) can alleviate the negative influence of time preferences on farmers’ adoption of SLM practices. The findings suggest that farmers with higher discount rates, who have secure tenure rights to land, are more likely to adopt SLM practices, compared to similar farmers without tenure security.

Sanitation is political: understanding stakeholders’ incentives in funding sanitation for the Gaza Strip, Palestine

The Gaza Strip is dependent on external aid to deliver basic services, including water and sanitation. Such services are not sustainable due to the Israeli occupation and the limited financial and technical capacities of service providers and the state. This paper examines the incentives of stakeholders in delivering sanitation services in the Gaza Strip through a qualitative institutional economics analysis of literature supplemented with qualitative key informant interviews. External aid is crucial to deliver basic services in the Gaza Strip. However, this has created a dependency that undermines the sustainability of sanitation services. Donor agencies often prioritise capital expenditure on visible infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment, without addressing its long and short-term operational needs; hence the Gaza Strip’s needs are continually addressed as an emergency response. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas de facto governments lack sovereignty over the Gaza Strip and Palestine. Therefore, they also lack the capacity and incentives to create an enabling environment for delivering safely managed sanitation. This paper contributes to development policy literature, the politics of infrastructure and wider politics of settler colonialism and siege basic services such as water and sanitation.

Understanding campus-based intercultural social capital for minority university students in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Social capital accrued via cross-racial/ethnic networks plays an important role in the adjustment, persistence and success for minority groups of university students. Yet, few studies offered insight into how intercultural social capital impacts learning and socialising experiences among minority students in non-Western contexts. Drawing on interviews with minority university students in Hong Kong, this study canvassed their intercultural networking, its influences and institutional factors that conditioned its accessibility. Findings showed that participants garnered a full array of social capital in ethnic minority cliques, whereas their connections with institutional agents were more inclined to pastoral care rather than academic advising and mentor services. This study unearthed a campus environment wherein a monolithic Chinese/Cantonese culture and de facto racial/ethnic-segregation contributed to their restricted academic/social engagements with other counterparts and added to the manifestations of marginalisation in the literature that has been preoccupied with racial lines around the Black-White binary in Western contexts.