Debate In Recent Decades Research Articles

Social costs and policy preferences: Evidence from territorial strategies in Catalonia

AbstractResearch on territorial preferences in self‐determination disputes has traditionally focused on economic and identity‐related factors. However, the impact of social costs—encompassing overall societal comfort and conviviality—on specific preferences for territorial strategies remains understudied. This paper presents a novel perspective by investigating how social costs affect such policy preferences in Catalonia, a region in Spain where secession has become a politically salient and defining feature of the political debate in recent decades. Through embedded experiments conducted within regionally representative online surveys over two time periods, we examine the relationship between social costs and preferences for territorial strategies. Our theoretical framework and empirical findings underscore the importance of considering social costs as a determinant of policy preferences, warranting further cross‐national exploration—beyond territorial debates.

The Effectiveness of race-based affirmative action in U.S. university admissions and other comparative proposals.

One of U.S. politics’ great debates in recent decades has been the presence of race-based affirmative action in the admissions processes of their universities, with June 2023’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned this policy, a culmination of this debate. It has been suggested that educational race-based affirmative action is a necessary response to the historical injustices that existed for members of minority racial groups in the U.S. education system, as well as the ongoing consequences of these injustices. Similar issues regarding the reconciliation of past injustices perpetuated against racial minority groups have emerged as a prominent issue on a global level. Resolving this issue is complicated by the variety of perspectives on how these conflicts should be resolved as well as accurately determining the ongoing implications of historic injustices. Using the research question “To what extent can the presence of race-based affirmative action in admissions processes of U.S. universities be considered the most effective method of addressing historical racial injustices in education?” to focus the investigation, this paper contends that combining class-based affirmative action in the short-term with a long-term goal of following a method named ‘the communitarian proposal’ is the most effective way of addressing the aforementioned historical injustices in education.

What If I Were the Exile? Linking Past and Present for Democratic History Teaching with Pre-Service Educators

The academic literature has fostered a debate in recent decades regarding the concept of historical empathy and the typology of activities that can help to treat and develop it, although there is no consensus as to the real effectiveness of narrative activities of a descriptive type that involve the projection of the person into the past. The aim of this research was to check whether the implementation of a programme that uses historical contextualisation, contact with primary testimonies, the use of sources and historical empathy, linking the situation of the exiles of the Spanish Civil War with the current refugees, can contribute to the development of tolerant attitudes towards the figure of the displaced in pre-service teachers and the degree to which these attitudes are modified after the application of the programme. The research design is quantitative and corresponds to a quasi-experimental design with a control and experimental group. A questionnaire was used to measure the attitudes of 101 pre-service teachers at a Spanish university towards refugees. The questionnaire was completed at two different times, before and after a historical empathy exercise on the exiles of the Spanish Civil War. The results indicate that programmes using historical contextualisation, testimonies close to refugees and historical empathy relating the situation of refugees to that of the exiles of the Spanish Civil War can contribute to increasing and/or reinforcing positive attitudes towards refugees in pre-service teachers.

Does the unemployment trap still exist? The case of the Italian minimum income scheme

AbstractThe question of whether welfare benefits imprison recipients in unemployment traps has been at the centre of academic and political debates in recent decades. Empirical evidence at the micro level supports the existence of work disincentive effects of welfare benefits, although of a small magnitude. However, the question of whether this translates into lower aggregate employment remains unsettled. This study innovates the existing literature by providing an estimation of the impact of the monetary component of the Italian minimum income scheme (MIS) on the employment rate. Isolating this impact from the spurious pro‐work effects of the Active Labour Market Policies embedded in every contemporary MIS is possible because in the Italian case, in the first quarters of implementation of the policy, the activation side was not operating. We adopt a difference‐in‐differences method and find that the impact of the monetary component of the Italian MIS on the employment rate is not statistically significant. The finding is robust to different treatment definitions, different specification models and weighted and unweighted econometric analysis. We then carry out a heterogeneous analysis and find that the impact, despite being indistinguishable from zero on average, is significant and negative for provinces with weak labour demand.

Active non-alignment: Brazil and the measurement of South-South Development Cooperation

Measuring South-South cooperation (SSC) has gained policy and political salience in International Development Cooperation (IDC) debates in recent decades. This article applies the concept of active non-alignment to analyze the efforts of “southern providers”, such as Brazil, for autonomous, differentiated, and proactive engagement in the measurement debate, as well as in the field of international development more broadly. The article combines analyses of foreign policy and public policy and traces the evolution, since 2010, of the international debate and the Brazilian response – diplomatic, institutional, and non-governmental – to the growing “duty of measuring” the flows and impact of its SSC. Far from being purely a technical issue, the reconstruction of processes and negotiations surrounding the creation of measurement instruments and practices to count and account for Brazilian SSC contribute to illustrating political, geopolitical, and (inter)bureaucratic disputes in the production of transnational public policies, such as Brazil’s IDC.

Religious Diversity and Migration: Exploring Research Trends in an Increasingly Secular Spain

Secularism and the public management of religious diversity have gone hand in hand in public and academic debates in recent decades. Meanwhile, many of the elements related to secularism and the presence of religions in western societies have been conditioned by the migratory phenomenon. At the same time, Spain has been exposed to a relevant qualitative change in its socio-religious composition, evolving from a mainly Catholic society to a less religious and more diverse one, equating to other European societies. Many controversial issues have arisen in recent decades, such as the role of religion in the public life, the relations between religion and the state and the emergence of a more plural society, having a special role the migratory phenomenon. This contribution approaches these issues through analysis of the linkage between migration and religious diversity studies within a secular framework. The paper aims to analyze this reality, focusing on the main research trends in PhD studies in the past 20 years. The article reveals a growing interest in doctoral research from a multidisciplinary perspective in the field of religion and international migration, the contexts in which this research has been carried out, as well as its main themes and methods of approach. The intent is to study the religious phenomenon linked to immigration, because this reflects, at least to a certain extent, the concern for understanding the presence of religion in an increasingly secular society, such as in Spain.

Able Archer: How close of a call was it?

ABSTRACT Able Archer 83, a NATO nuclear exercise conducted in the fall of 1983, has been the subject of considerable debate in recent decades. While some analysts have argued that the superpowers came close to blows due to Soviet fears that the exercise was a ruse meant to disguise a NATO attack, revisionists have maintained that the danger associated with Able Archer 83 has been seriously overstated. In this article, the authors review the scholarship, take stock of the evidence, and discuss some of the challenges of studying nuclear history and close calls. They argue that further research is needed to determine how close of a nuclear call Able Archer 83 actually was and conclude that the case highlights the uncertainty inherent to nuclear policy making.

The trade effects of information provision about forced and child labor

The issue of child and forced labor employed in the production of goods has been at a forefront of public debate in recent decades with millions of victims and nearly all countries being affected. This paper examines whether information about the use of child and forced labor in the production of goods affects their imports to the United States. I investigate this question using the largest naming and shaming strategy ever implemented world-wide: inclusion on the U.S. government’s list of goods produced with child or forced labor. This list aims to provide impartial information to consumers and firms about a broad range of goods, in contrast to previously used measures in the literature which have tended to be more emotionally driven boycotts or labelling campaigns of specific goods. The paper finds that such information provision decreased United States imports of goods believed to be made using child and forced labor. The results are mainly driven by goods closer to the point of consumption, where consumers might reasonably be expected to penalize products that are thought to rely on such labor, while no effect was found for intermediate goods. Thus, public information strategies may be efficient policy instruments in disincentivizing the purchase of certain goods believed to be made with child and forced labor.

Pushing the boundaries of deliberative constitutionalism

Deliberative constitutionalism is a theory that has arrived at the centre of the academic debate in recent decades. Its novelty and interest lie in the fact that it offers a way to escape the objections to judicial review through a commitment to the premises of deliberative democracy. In this context, however, a question needs to be clarified: who can legitimately participate in this constitutional dialogue, in order for the objections to judicial review to be avoided? The argument of this article is that, while deliberative constitutionalism is a promising alternative that takes note of the objections to judicial review as well as the deliberative turn in democratic theory, not all of its variants take both of these aspects seriously. To assuage the objections to judicial review, we need a variant of deliberative constitutionalism that is oriented towards inclusive dialogue, and which addresses the whole constitutional system, rather than only intrajudicial, transjudicial and interinstitutional dialogue.

Demographic Transition and Unwanted Fertility: A Fresh Assessment (The Mahbub Ul Haq Memorial Lecture)

The distinction between wanted and unwanted fertility has been crucial in many of the more intense debates in recent decades over the nature of contemporary fertility declines and, in particular, the potential impact of expanded provision of family planning services. In a much-debated article published in 1994, Pritchett argues that decline in desired fertility is overwhelmingly the principal source of fertility decline, with the implication that family planning programmes are of little consequence. I revisit this debate drawing on a far larger body of survey data and, more importantly, an alternative fertility specification which relies on a non-conventional definition of wanted and unwanted fertility rates and which distinguishes rates and composition. Decompositions of fertility decline in the period from the mid-1970s to the present are carried out for 44 countries. The decomposition results indicate that declines in unwanted fertility rates have been at least as important, if not more important, than declines in wanted fertility rates. Surprisingly, shifts in the proportion of women wanting to stop childbearing—i.e., changes in preference composition—has contributed very little to fertility change in this period. Further, decline in wanted fertility and increases in non-marital exposure (due largely to delayed entry into first marriage) have also made substantial contributions, although on average they fall short of the contribution of declines in unwanted fertility rates. That declines in unwanted fertility have been an essential feature of contemporary fertility decline is the main conclusion from this research. This in turn opens the door to new perspectives on fertility pre-, mid-, and post-transition which recognises the inter-dependencies between fertility demand and unwanted fertility rates in the determination of the overall level of fertility. JEL classification: J11, J13, R11 Keywords: Demography, Fertility, Family Planning, Regional Economics

Unbinding architectural imagination: Wang Shu’s textual bricolage in theoretical writing and design

Architectural writing norms have been a subject of constant debate in recent decades. Architectural poststructuralists have often conceptualised writing as a form of virtual construction in the medium of words. Recent scholarship relating to innovative architectural writing questions the power relations inherent in the canonical forms of academic architectural writing. This article examines Pritzker prize-winning Chinese architect Wang Shu’s [王澍] doctoral thesis, ‘Fictionalising Cities’ [‘虚构城市’] (2000), and other related writings, focusing on their experimental forms, the critical intentions behind them, and the multiple resonances between Wang’s written and built works. This article begins by foregrounding the intentions behind Wang’s experimental writing approach, namely his rejection of the dualistic opposition between writing and building, as well as his critique of instrumentalism in architectural representation. Through a close reading of ‘Fictionalising Cities’, this article explicates the central influence of Roland Barthes’s understanding of text as a ‘tissue of quotations’ and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s concept of bricolage in shaping Wang’s writing approaches and his design thinking. By comparing Wang’s written and built works, specifically the Ningbo History Museum [宁波美术馆] (2003–2008) and the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art, Phase II [杭州中国美术学院象山校区二期] (2003–2007), the article identifies Wang’s consistent critical sensitivity towards the power relations and implied linear temporality that pre-structure modes of architectural creation. By highlighting Wang’s case, this article also suggests how the critical concerns that drive innovative architectural writing can be expanded into creative design practice.

Psychiatric diagnosis and treatment in the 21st century: paradigm shifts versus incremental integration.

Psychiatry has always been characterized by a range of different models of and approaches to mental disorder, which have sometimes brought progress in clinical practice, but have often also been accompanied by critique from within and without the field. Psychiatric nosology has been a particular focus of debate in recent decades; successive editions of the DSM and ICD have strongly influenced both psychiatric practice and research, but have also led to assertions that psychiatry is in crisis, and to advocacy for entirely new paradigms for diagnosis and assessment. When thinking about etiology, many researchers currently refer to a biopsychosocial model, but this approach has received significant critique, being considered by some observers overly eclectic and vague. Despite the development of a range of evidence-based pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies, current evidence points to both a treatment gap and a research-practice gap in mental health. In this paper, after considering current clinical practice, we discuss some proposed novel perspectives that have recently achieved particular prominence and may significantly impact psychiatric practice and research in the future: clinical neuroscience and personalized pharmacotherapy; novel statistical approaches to psychiatric nosology, assessment and research; deinstitutionalization and community mental health care; the scale-up of evidence-based psychotherapy; digital phenotyping and digital therapies; and global mental health and task-sharing approaches. We consider the extent to which proposed transitions from current practices to novel approaches reflect hype or hope. Our review indicates that each of the novel perspectives contributes important insights that allow hope for the future, but also that each provides only a partial view, and that any promise of a paradigm shift for the field is not well grounded. We conclude that there have been crucial advances in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment in recent decades; that, despite this important progress, there is considerable need for further improvements in assessment and intervention; and that such improvements will likely not be achieved by any specific paradigm shifts in psychiatric practice and research, but rather by incremental progress and iterative integration.

A Review of Black Skin Research: Gloger Rule/Theory Dead or Alive?

Unlike various topics of human life that recurringly naggingly preoccupy scholars, black skin tends to be considered by prestigious biology and science publication outlets as a closed and disposed-of topic. The present paper is not one of experiment, but rather the paper is a long-due comprehensive review of black skin scholarship, using a dominant theory of this scholarship, and suggesting newer insights for future research. Known since Antiquity, black skin -- euphemistically called dark sin -- has become the topic of repeated public debate in recent decades. Part of the reason is that although race is believed to be scientifically nonexistent skin color is not. Meanwhile, among the theories explaining black skin, Gloger rule/theory stands out to be the most popular. While multitudes of reviews have examined Gloger theory, few have confronted the theory with the arguments of Gloger himself. This might be because Gloger writings remain untranslated and unknown to English readership. Although Gloger was an ornithologist by profession, his arguments had immense ramifications far beyond the study of birds. The present paper focused on the key arguments of Gloger to present a critical assessment of black skin materials. To this effect, a comprehensive, historical background of Gloger theory was used along with recent research to bring in sharper relief Gloger teachings about skin color. In light of Gloger critiques, it was determined that Gloger theory is no less than inadequate and so is the description of black skin as a product of natural selection. Taken-for-granted theories and resultant arguments of black skin were reversed and paths for future skin color work were proposed. Gloger arguments highlight variability among species and across latitudes.

Re-mapping urban vitality through Jane Jacobs’ criteria: The case of Kayseri, Turkey

There has been a growing debate in recent decades about the view of city and urban theory. The scope of this discussion has expanded with many different claims about the variable structure of the city and urban society, the boundaries of the urban scale, the nature of the city and urban problems. Jane Jacobs, one of the focal points of these discussions, has offered a different perspective with the approach of urbanism and the principles shaping the city’s reconstruction: More important than how cities look is how they work. Therefore, human interactions which create a vibrant environment in cities should be considered to understand the dynamics of cities. Located in the central part of Turkey, the city of Kayseri is a rapidly growing industrial city with approximately 1.4 million population. Despite the fact that the city has a long history, the traditional urban pattern has been largely destroyed via planning decisions and the vast majority of the housing stock in the city has been renewed in the last 40–50 years. This paper examines the city of Kayseri using Jane Jacobs’ criteria for what makes a city livable and vibrant. We re-mapped 87 neighborhoods of the city that constitute a continuous urban macroform by using the Kernel Density tool with ArcGIS software, evaluated the “urban vitality” of each neighborhood, and compared outputs with our observations to understand the relevance of Jacobs’ views in different contexts. The main findings of the study reveal that not only historical and commercial centers within the city but also several transformed and newly built areas have high urban character values according to Jacobs’ criteria. However, the degree of vitality (high, moderate, low, or non-urban), which is measured, may differ from the urban vitality, which is observed by the “naked eyes” in some neighborhoods of the city.

A retrospective analysis and literature review of neoplastic appendiceal mucinous lesions

BackgroundAt present, the term mucocele is outdated, and mucinous appendiceal neoplasm is preferred. Mucinous appendiceal neoplasm is an uncommon pathology that occurs predominantly in middle-aged women. Its classification and management have been the subject of debate in recent decades. The aim of this study was to analyse the incidence, clinical management and survival of these tumours diagnosed in our centre in the last 10 years.MethodsThis was a retrospective observational study of patients with a diagnosis of appendiceal neoplasms between 2009 and 2018 in our centre. Variables such as sex, age, tumour type, clinical status, diagnosis, treatment and survival were collected. All data were analysed using the statistical program IBM SPSS Statistic® version 25.ResultsTwenty-nine patients with a diagnosis of appendiceal neoplasm were identified, and 24 corresponded to neoplastic appendiceal mucinous lesions (85.7%). The average age was 59.7 ± 17.6 years. Most patients were women (15 cases; 62.5%). Most of them presented with chronic abdominal pain (37.5%), and the diagnosis was performed by computed tomography (CT) (50%). The treatment was surgical in all cases. The surgical technique depended on the findings and histology of the tumour.ConclusionMucinous appendiceal neoplasms are an uncommon entity, and their pathological classification and management have recently changed.

ENSINO SUPERIOR E TRANSFORMAÇÃO SOCIAL: DECOLONIZAR A UNIVERSIDADE NA PERSPECTIVA DA IGUALDADE RACIAL

Higher education as a social practice and, above all, as a field of research, has been gaining more and more space in academic debate in recent decades around the world. Both the emergence and the consolidation of the field come from its role in the conception of public policies, programs and strategies for economic, social and cultural development at global level and, most importantly, from the possibilies it offers for a sustainable social transformation, the construction of worlds and less inequitable relations, more fair and democratic. However, despite its relevance and the recognition of its role in social transformation, higher education / university carries a colonial heritage with its inherent paradigms: coloniality of knowledge, but also of the Being and power. In this context, it contributes to the reproduction or reinforcement of Western (Eurocentric and colonial) cultural, economic, and political hegemony based on heteronormativity, whiteness, and progress as part of the supreme values ​​of modernity. This paper aims to analyze the possibilities of decolonizing university / higher education in the perspective of racial equality.

Parental Well-being of Mothers and Fathers in Latin America: A Systematic Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT The relationship between being a parent and personal well-being has been the topic of interest and debate in recent decades. However, most of the studies in this field are from high-income countries in North America and Europe. This is an important limitation since parenthood is a phenomenon highly dependent on sociocultural context. The purpose of this article was to identify and examine the main findings related to the well-being of mothers and fathers in Latin America through a systematic review of the scientific literature. This review shows that, in general, mothers and fathers expressed feelings of well-being. However, parenthood significantly affected their daily lives and simultaneously represented a source of frustration and displeasure. Gender stereotypes, the type of family and work–family conflicts were variables relevant to these factors. Our results show the importance of developing policies and strategies that favour gender equity and provide support for vulnerable families in Latin America countries.

The Prague rules

Abstract The Prague Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration are available to parties and arbitrators since 14 December 2018. The conception and development of this new soft law text generated one of the most vivid technical debates in recent decades in international arbitration. The Prague Rules constitute voluntary suggestions which are technically based and designed to facilitate the efficient conduct of arbitral proceedings, by way of the continual cooperation of parties and arbitrators in their development. Its recommendations are based on the strictest respect for the principle of the autonomy of the parties. The recommendations of the Prague Rules are contained in twelve articles, which can be grouped into the following aspects of procedural handling: case management; the taking of evidence; and decision. This contribution undertakes a rough and summarized analysis of the scope of the Prague Rules in arbitral procedure, with the sole aim of understanding their content and investigating the merits of the strong criticism which these Rules have attracted

Club convergence in the corporate income tax: The case of European effective rates

The corporate income tax is permanently under debate in recent decades with respect to coordination and competition issues, including the race-to-the-bottom hypothesis, and the effects on investment and economic growth of such a distortionary tax. In this paper we study the evolution of the effective corporate tax rates in the European Union through a convergence analysis, identifying common trends by a club convergence approach. The results evidence three clubs, with the high-tax-rate-club formed by France, Malta, Spain and Portugal. In addition, and compared with the results for the statutory corporate tax rates, important differences arise, showing the significance of the fiscal benefits in this tax and the distance between both tax rates in many European countries. Our results are also analysed in the fiscal harmonization framework.

The question of linguistic minorities and the debates on cultural sovereignty

When observing certain global debates in recent decades on the defence of national cultural and linguistic spaces, one finds what seems to be a paradox: states that were historically constructed by homogenizing cultures and stifling languages in their territory (even states that were until recently accused of promoting cultural imperialism), now seem to be resorting to defensive arguments traditionally used by threatened minorities. This reaction is based on the perception that flows linked to globalization, migratory movements and the development of telecommunications are threatening the linguistic and cultural space of the nation, and therefore the nation itself, and could thus suggest a confluence of arguments between states and minorities. As in any paradox, we are not only faced with statements that apparently depart from common sense, but instead with a complex reality, whose understanding poses a challenge. In this article, we will try to analyse, from the point of view of the linguistic minorities, the limits of the arguments wielded by the states in defence of their national space, as well as the possibilities those minorities have of resorting to the discourses constructed at a global level in defence of diversity.