Dominant Theories Research Articles

“Problems of an Other’s Making”: B. R. Ambedkar, Caste, and Majoritarian Domination

This article presents a new theory of majoritarian domination drawn from Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s critique of majoritarian tyranny during the decades preceding British India’s decolonization. Ambedkar’s critique of British colonial pluralism and Congress-led Indian anticolonialism emphasizes attention to social structures and the mechanisms that produce and sustain communal majorities. He argues that caste prevents equality and fraternity, thus foreclosing the possibility of a democratic society. In such a context, Ambedkar argues that the majority is likely to be communal and fixed, rather than political, inclusive, and open to change over time. Ambedkarian majoritarian domination supplements nineteenth-century accounts of the institutional and epistemic dimensions of majoritarian tyranny. I defend comparison as a tool for theoretical analysis to show that Ambedkarian majoritarian domination can explain the interaction of hierarchical social structures with democratic politics in contexts beyond colonial India.

Not Just ‘Sinking Islands’: Climate Change and Adaptation in Small Island Developing States

Small Island Developing States are among the countries which are hit the most by climate change, and especially by sea-level rise. In this article, I argue against the narrative focused on plans for collective relocation for the populations of Small Island Developing States. I argue that focusing exclusively on relocation leads us to endorse a ‘doomsday’ approach, which normalises the inevitability of territory loss, and obscures theoretically distinct and pressing problems related to how to tackle the current environmental issues and resource scarcity affecting those countries. In the first part of the article, I argue that adaptation efforts, which are systematically neglected in the dominant political theory literature about Small Island Developing States, should be prioritised over plans for relocation. In the second part of the article, I start to cast light on some of the normative dilemmas raised by a close focus on adaptation, and I defend a community-based approach to adaptation in Small Island Developing States.

Optimal consumption and annuity equivalent wealth with mortality model uncertainty

The classical Yaari (1965) lifecycle model (LCM) stands as a cornerstone in numerous modern retirement studies, especially in understanding the determinants of annuity demand. The LCM predicts a high annuity demand among individuals facing retirement, yet it is rarely the case in reality. This gap between economic theory and empirical reality, commonly referred to as the annuity puzzle, has spurred extensive research endeavors aimed at elucidating its economic and behavioral underpinnings.In this paper, we examine the cause of low annuity demand through the angle of mortality model uncertainty. To this end, we advance Yaari's LCM via integrating a mortality perturbation analysis within a recursive utility framework. Through this approach, we derive the robust optimal consumption strategy and the corresponding annuity equivalent wealth. By utilizing stochastic dominance theory, we establish a series of monotonicity results about the annuity equivalent wealth with respect to ambiguity aversion parameter and other key parameters, such as interest, discount, and mortality rates. Our findings suggest that, among decision-makers with elasticity of intertemporal substitution less than unity, the economic value of an annuity is diminished for those who place greater confidence in their subjective mortality table. In other words, retirees may underestimate the additional utility gained from annuitization if they do not adequately consider the potential uncertainty surrounding their subjective mortality estimates.

Human-Centred Economics The Living Standards of Nations, 2024 Palgrave Macmillan, 356pp. Richard Samans

Human-Centred Economics: The Living Standards of Nations, by Richard Samans, is a bold and optimistic book. Its main message stems from recognizing the crisis facing the global economy. The book argues that the dominant economic theory of the neoliberal era needs urgent revision and proposes a path that draws on a tradition of liberal thinkers who went far beyond a perspective solely focused on GDP growth.

Electric vehicles in transition: Opportunities, challenges, and research agenda – A systematic literature review

This study conducts a systematic literature review on electric vehicle (EV) adoption, mapping critical themes and presenting an integrated framework to advance understanding of EVs' role in sustainable transportation. Drawing on 917 Scopus-indexed articles and 23 stakeholder interviews, it explores economic, environmental, energy, and social (EEES) dynamics through the Theory-Context-Methodology (TCM) framework and causal loop diagrams. Findings reveal dominant theories, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior and Value-Belief Norm Theory, and underscore the importance of methodological approaches like regression analysis and structural equation modeling. Key research themes include adoption intention, green infrastructure, and sustainable transport policy, all aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 (Clean Energy), 11 (Sustainable Cities), and 13 (Climate Action). By constructing a causal loop diagram, this study illustrates complex interrelations among EEES factors, highlighting the reinforcing and balancing influences on EV adoption behavior. The proposed integrated framework provides a roadmap for future research, identifying significant gaps and strategic directions for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers. Practical implications include guidelines to foster EV integration into smart cities, addressing infrastructure and environmental challenges while encouraging policy incentives to enhance public adoption. The study's theoretical implications include the expansion of existing behavioral theories, the development of an integrated theoretical framework that combines TCM and CLDs, the introduction of CLDs as a tool for complex systems analysis, and the identification of thematic clusters within EV adoption research. This review supports informed decision-making for sustainable urban mobility, positioning EVs as transformative in the global shift toward eco-friendly transportation solutions.

Exploring Police Reporting Among Victimized U.S. Nomads

Many people live and travel in recreational or retrofitted vehicles on a part-time and full-time basis with many living the Nomad lifestyle permanently. Research finds this population experiences high victimization prevalence. The current study finds Nomads have a high likelihood to report victimizations to the police and provides the first exploration into who among them report to the police. Hypotheses are derived from historically dominant theories and contemporary interest in the intersection of marginalizing and privileging social identities. Analyses of additive relationships and interactions are reported. Results raise questions about how the exigencies of life on the road encourage police reporting among those predicted to be less likely to report.

Time–space control: explaining subnational variation in Thailand’s guestwork regimes

Abstract How do states control labor migration? Furthering global trends, nation states increasingly seek to include foreigners in labor markets while excluding them from settling. Yet, dominant theories maintain a limited conception of migration control as primarily immigrant restriction, especially in the global North. Thailand offers a paradigmatic case for understanding labor migration control and the dual goal of inclusion–exclusion it entails. While migrants generally face rigid limits on their immigration status, the Thai state shows internal variation in how it manages their inclusion as workers: in some places, authorities more strictly regulate time limits of documents, while in others, they focus on control of boundaries around migrant spatial access. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in two sites, this article examines this regulatory variation to inform a more general understanding of guestwork control in global context. Comparing two subnational regimes, I show that the state must respond to multiple forces from above and below when controlling labor migration, requiring subnational regulatory differences, and fostering contrasting means of labor reproduction. Findings suggest that differential subnational incorporation into regional and global economies can shape differences in the time–space control of migrant workers and the conditions of noncitizenship that come with it.

Capital flight and domination by diffuse collectives

When progressive governments attempt to redistribute wealth, nationalize major industries, or empower unions, they are often faced with the threat of capital flight. Some republican theorists have suggested that this phenomenon might be a source of domination. However, the prominent neo-republican account of domination presented by Philip Pettit cannot justify this claim, since the class of investors is not usually an agent. In this article, I present a novel theory of domination by diffuse collectives that can justify the intuition that the threat of capital flight is a source of domination.

Special section introduction: epistemic politics in international and comparative political economy

ABSTRACT Economic orthodoxy has faced multiple challenges over recent years, ranging from the global financial crisis and economic populism to the Covid-19 pandemic and the spectre of stagflation. This has generated significant policy innovations, like quantitative easing and the furlough schemes, while heterodox economic ideas (briefly) gained notoriety. Yet these shifts have frequently been grafted onto pre-existing institutional and discursive templates, anchored by the assumption that they represent a temporary deviation from ‘normal’ equilibrium conditions. To make sense of these dynamics of crisis, change and continuity, this special section showcases an ‘epistemic politics’ approach that foregrounds the political life of economic knowledge. It is framed around three questions. What has been the role of economic knowledge and expertise in shaping policy and regulation over the past decade? To what extent have dominant economic ideas, theories and models been impacted by political conflicts and emergent issues? How have policy makers navigated economic crises and uncertainty through cognitive and discursive practices? This introductory paper sets out the ambition for the special section by defining our understanding of epistemic politics, before detailing the threefold contribution it makes to wider scholarship in IPE and CPE. It concludes with an overview of the five papers.

Subcortical Aphasia: An Update.

This review aims to rediscuss the leading theories concerning the role of basal ganglia and the thalamus in the genesis of aphasic symptoms in the absence of gross anatomical lesions in cortical language areas as assessed by conventional neuroimaging studies. New concepts in language processing and modern neuroimaging techniques have enabled some progress in resolving the impasse between the current dominant theories: (a) direct and specific linguistic processing and (b) subcortical structures as processing relays in domain-general functions. Of particular interest are studies of connectivity based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tractography that highlight the impact of white matter pathway lesions on aphasia development and recovery. Connectivity studies have put into evidence the central role of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), inferior frontal occipital fasciculus (IFOF), and uncinate fasciculus (UF) in the genesis of aphasia. Regarding the thalamus, its involvement in lexical-semantic processing through modulation of the frontal cortex is becoming increasingly apparent.

Reconciling theories of dominance with the relative rates of adaptive substitution on sex chromosomes and autosomes.

The dominance of beneficial mutations is a key evolutionary parameter affecting the rate and genetic basis of adaptation, yet it is notoriously difficult to estimate. A leading method to infer it is to compare the relative rates of adaptive substitution for X-linked and autosomal genes, which-according to a classic model by Charlesworth et al. (1987)-is a simple function of the dominance of new beneficial mutations. Recent evidence that rates of adaptive substitution are faster for X-linked genes implies, accordingly, that beneficial mutations are usually recessive. However, this conclusion is incompatible with leading theories of dominance, which predict that beneficial mutations tend to be dominant or overdominant with respect to fitness. To address this incompatibility, we use Fisher's geometric model to predict the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations and the relative rates of positively selected substitution on the X and autosomes. Previous predictions of faster-X theory emerge as a special case of our model in which the phenotypic effects of mutations are small relative to the distance to the phenotypic optimum. But as mutational effects become large relative to the optimum, we observe an elevated tempo of positively selected substitutions on the X relative to the autosomes across a broader range of dominance conditions, including those predicted by theories of dominance. Our results imply that, contrary to previous models, dominant and overdominant beneficial mutations can plausibly generate patterns of faster-X adaptation. We discuss resulting implications for genomic studies of adaptation and inferences of dominance.

Dominance reversal protects large-effect resistance polymorphisms in temporally varying environments.

A central challenge in evolutionary biology is to uncover mechanisms maintaining functional genetic variation in heterogeneous environments 1,2 . Population genetics theory suggests that beneficial reversal of dominance, where alleles are dominant when beneficial and recessive when deleterious, can help maintain such variation in temporally varying environments 3,4 . However, empirical examples are scarce 5 due to difficulties in measuring dominance in fitness in field experiments 6 . Here we quantify the selective effects and dominance of large-effect insecticide-resistant alleles at the Ace enzymatic locus in Drosophila melanogaster 7 . In laboratory assays, we identify a beneficial reversal of dominance of the Ace alleles for fitness-associated phenotypes under selection in the presence and absence of malathion, a widely used organophosphate insecticide. Using highly replicated field mesocosms, we show that resistant Ace alleles fluctuate rapidly in response to a pulse of malathion, but are maintained in its absence. We show that this pattern is only consistent with beneficial reversal of dominance, where the resistant Ace alleles are dominant and beneficial for resistance and recessive and deleterious for enzymatic function. Moreover, we find that seasonally fluctuating selection due to insecticide resistance can generate fluctuating chromosome-scale genomic perturbations of allele frequencies. We propose an extension to Wright's physiological theory of dominance 8 , arguing that under fluctuating selection the currently deleterious allele should often behave as loss-of-function and thus recessive to the currently beneficial allele. Overall, our results suggest that beneficial reversals of dominance can be common and can help both maintain genetic variation and allow for rapid evolutionary responses to environmental shifts.

Hierarchy as a signal of culture and belonging: Exploring why egalitarian ideology predicts aversion to hierarchical organizations

Variation in people's ideological preference for the maintenance of inequality between social groups (i.e., social dominance orientation; SDO) predicts important sociopolitical outcomes, such as endorsement of different social policies, institutions, and belief systems. We argue that SDO may also inform people's engagement with work organizations. Specifically, we propose that SDO may impact attraction to different organizational structures. Across 6 experiments (N = 3034), we find that people with relatively egalitarian values are less attracted to organizations with much (vs. little) managerial hierarchy; this gap in attraction is attenuated for relative anti-egalitarians (Studies 1a-b). These effects are not moderated by whether dominant vs. subordinate group members occupy positions of power in hierarchical arrangements (Study 2a-b) and are driven by signals concerning likelihood of organizational belonging that egalitarians (vs. anti-egalitarians) derive from managerial hierarchy (Studies 3a-b). We discuss implications for social dominance theory and research connecting ideology to organizational attraction.

Perceptions of women’s leadership in urban governance in the communes of greater Lomé, Togo

Perceptions of women’s roles and leadership in urban governance vary from country to country and culture to culture. While women are represented and participate fully in political decision-making in some countries, in Togo women’s participation in local governance is still limited. The aim of this research is to analyse perceptions of women’s leadership in urban governance in the communes of greater Lomé. Specifically, the study of the influence of general perceptions of the role of women on the development of their leadership in the urban governance of greater Lomé (i) and the implications of these perceptions on the participation of women in the urban governance of greater Lomé (ii). Semi-structured interviews were conducted in all the town halls of the thirteen greater Lomé autonomous district communes with 222 women and 162 men, i.e., a total of 384 people. The corpus created from the interviews, which were transcribed in their entirety, was analyzed using the theory of social dominance developed by Sidanius and Pratto to explain power relations and inequalities between social groups. The results show that perceptions of women’s participation in urban governance vary and are generally associated with several significant implications. The general perception is that women are not as competent or legitimate as men in political and administrative leadership roles. However, there is a growing recognition of the value of gender diversity in urban governance, with a growing awareness of the importance of including women in decision-making processes. From the point of view of the significant implications of perceptions, positive perceptions favor increased representation of women, innovation, and creativity, strengthening legitimacy, reducing inequalities, and presenting women as positive role models in urban governance.

The End of the Supranational Dream of the European Union: Toward a More Nationalist and Intergovernmental Union

This article questions and analyses the supranational aspirations of the European Union (EU) over its intergovernmental policies. It addresses first nationalism followed by neo-functionalism, supranationalism, and intergovernmentalism; the dominant theories in European integration. The purpose of the study is to reflect the EU’s supranational limitations. Our main research question is to determine whether there is a new form of Europeanism across Europe. The study shows the rising nationalism across Europe, through the 2019 and 2024 European Parliament (EP) elections, and the growing Euroscepticism through public opinion surveys. Moreover, a “policy analysis” is conducted through the EP resolutions between 1999 and 2024 and in European laws through Eur-lex, to reflect the number of intergovernmental operations. The overall findings indicate that many EU countries have ambiguous positions and altered views on the EU, between “Europhoria” and “Europhobia”. The study suggests a new form of Europeanism is growing, between Pro-Europeanism and Anti-Europeanism: “Adapted-Europeanism”. This new typology is introduced to refer to countries asking for less but more adapted integrational policies.

Examining How Psychological Safety Consensus Emerges Over Time

Although research has provided rich data highlighting the value of team psychological safety, a common call among scholars is the need for longitudinal examinations of this construct to test implicit assumptions about time made in dominant team theories. By analyzing changes in both consensus and the average level of psychological safety over time, we respond to this need and provide insight into emergent state development. Results indicated that team psychological safety climate develops over time through consensus emergence, this process is initiated by early information sharing, and there is a decline in the average level of psychological safety over time.

Whose Fundamental Constitutions?

This article uses the methods that Locke advocated in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to evaluate manuscript evidence from five different schemes and two drafts of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to thereby determine what role, if any, John Locke had in writing it, and in advocating for slavery and absolutism. It focuses on the influential claims put forward by David Armitage 20 years ago, that Locke was responsible for actively promoting slavery in Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions. It enables the reader to view, and judge, the relevant evidence. The author concludes, and invites the reader to conclude, that Armitage’s main claims lack foundation in the manuscript evidence. That evidence instead points towards the legal power of those who owned Carolina, the Lords Proprietors, and to the crown, which granted Carolina’s charter, and to the logic of a different theory of government, patriarchalism, for the rationale behind both slavery and absolutism. The central ideas behind slavery and colonization were epitomized, as Locke understood, by Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote the book to which Locke responded in his Two Treatises of Government. Filmer’s ally, Sir Henry Spelman, like Filmer a deeply committed royalist who believed in the king’s unlimited prerogatives, composed the original 1629 Carolina charter that shaped the Fundamental Constitutions. Misattributing the authorship of particular clauses to Locke is a symptom of a larger failure to distinguish the impact of momentous debates over authority and race in the seventeenth century. Locke’s theories did, in practice as well as principle, reject the theory of domination put forward by Filmer, and argued instead for human rights and democracy that were inclusive and capacious. The manuscript evidence has the potential to reshape how modern democratic theory is understood in the present.

Socioeconomic status self‐deception as a way to perpetuate classist societies

AbstractSocioeconomic status self‐deception refers to the motivated tendency to perceive oneself as having a higher subjective status than would correspond to objective conditions. This can be a powerful mechanism to legitimize the social order. We proposed that when people perceive the surrounding social environment to be classist, people tend to self‐deceive themselves by overestimating their socioeconomic status. This mechanism, in turn, would lead to justify the system to a higher extent and show less support for redistribution, and reduce relative deprivation and status anxiety. These hypotheses were tested across four pre‐registered studies on different high‐quality samples, different operationalization of the variables in our model, and both cross‐sectional and longitudinal observations. On the one hand, the results do not provide evidence of a link between perceiving a classist climate and socioeconomic status self‐deception. On the other hand, socioeconomic status self‐deception was confirmed to predict higher system justification, and lower support for redistribution, status anxiety and relative deprivation. The construct and operationalization of socioeconomic status self‐deception proposed in this research could help reconcile opposing predictions by system justification theory and social dominance theory, and understand why individuals low on socioeconomic status would oppose policies which could benefit them.

Further discussion of the inherent challenges and subsequent opportunities for developing global science communication curricula

ABSTRACT This paper responds to the framework of learning outcomes and competencies proposed by Lewenstein and Baram-Tsabari [2022. How should we organize science communication trainings to achieve competencies? International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 12(4), 289–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2136985], which provides an excellent overview of the skills underpinning all aspects of science communication. In presenting the framework, Lewenstein and Baram-Tsabari note that several people during the ‘member check’ of their framework development raised that many items may be culturally specific to Western, democratic nations. This is familiar to the discipline, which tends to be dominated by the theory developed in the ‘Global North’. The authors reiterate – rightly – that users of the framework need to develop a curriculum based on the needs of their audience and their context. However, if the dominant theories of the field are from one cultural perspective, this limits the opportunity to develop curricula in a global context. Science communication is increasingly found at the interface of attempts to address global issues like climate change, pandemics, food security and energy transition. Global solutions require global insights, meaning science communication theory and best practice need to be drawn from – and valued – from a greater variety of sources than is current practice.

Green skepticism: review and research agenda

PurposeDespite a growing interest in investigating green skepticism, there has been a paucity of effort in synthesizing green skepticism research. This study aims to synthesize extant green skepticism research. This study is useful in providing a comprehensive synthesis of research on green skepticism and identifying key gaps in the existing literature, thereby paving the way for future research directions. This research demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the dominant theories, contexts (i.e. countries), characteristics (i.e. key variables and their associations) and methods (i.e. research design) employed in green skepticism research.Design/methodology/approachA hybrid review method that combined an Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with lexicometric analysis was employed to present a comprehensive synthesis of the green skepticism literature.FindingsThe findings showed that many theories have been applied to green skepticism research with the theory of planned behavior and attribution theory being prominently used. The review also proposes a conceptual framework that illustrates the relationships between antecedents and consequences reported in the green skepticism literature. Lexicometric analysis identified six major themes in green skepticism research, including trust in green products, product-related attributes, environmental attributes, social responsibility, organic consumption and promotional campaigns.Research limitations/implicationsThis review included only papers authored in English. Consequently, studies conducted in other languages were not taken into account. Future research could broaden the understanding of green skepticism by incorporating studies conducted in different languages.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical implications for retailers, marketers and policymakers to combat green skepticism and encourage the purchase of green items. This study suggests integrating endorsements from authorized third-party organizations or celebrities into green marketing campaigns to reduce skepticism. Further, aligning corporate social responsibility efforts with genuine social welfare goals can build consumer trust. Finally, securing third-party endorsements for ecological claims will emphasize product credibility and drive green purchase intention.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to review the extant literature in green skepticism by integrating a systematic review approach, lexicometric analysis and the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology framework. Through this approach, (1) SLR provides a detailed synthesis of green skepticism research to date, (2) Lexicometric analysis aids in the identification of key themes investigated in green skepticism research to date, and (3) the TCCM framework assists in identifying crucial avenues for future research endeavors in the realm of green skepticism.