Egalitarian Tendencies Research Articles

Model of Family and the Propensity to Build Sustainable Savings Attitudes in the Post-COVID World: A Case Study of Poland

This article investigates the role of the model of family and their savings as a support to growth and source of economic sustainability. The central objective of the present article was to determine the impact of the model of a family on the propensity to save money in the population of Poland. As indicated by independence tests, in most studied cases, the model of a family does not have a key role in sustainable consumption and saving behavior. The only exception are the forms of allocation of the saved capital. The study results suggest that households in Poland hold traditional views on the family model and the allocation of their savings. Decisions in everyday life are often reached together with the partner, which may attest to the growing egalitarian tendencies in Polish families. The research shows that the funds saved monthly by households are not planned in advance but constitute a financial surplus after all the expenses have been paid, which is then set aside as a reserve for the future. Partners usually prefer to have separate bank accounts with funds for day-to-day spending. However, the awareness concerning the forms of allocating capital is still poor, which is confirmed by the fact that most of the financial surplus is kept in the current account. The funds saved this way are spent to satisfy current needs, such as holidays or durable goods, and cover expenses in emergencies, which may be particularly important in the context of minimizing the risk of poverty and social exclusion, which should be prevented in line with the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Escaping binary gender roles: Gender diversity dynamics in a CSCL‐Escape game

AbstractBackgroundGender and gender diversity are group features affecting social interaction and are critical for gender‐inclusive and equitable education. As such, the role of gender and gender diversity is of particular relevance to computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL). However, up until now, research on this topic in CSCL remains scarce. Those studies that explore gender frequently utilise a binary gender view, investigating collaboration patterns in terms of differences between men and women despite the pitfalls of this binary view, e.g. the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes.ObjectivesThrough gender diversity modelling based on group communication analysis, this study used a novel approach to investigate the role of gender in CSCL. It explored how gender diversity in CSCL is associated with emergent roles in small group interaction, providing evidence about how gender diversity interacts with the dynamics of group communication in a unique CSCL scenario.MethodsIn this explorative study, we used group communication analysis (GCA) to identify emergent team roles in the communication of triads in a CSCL escape game, realised through a Minecraft computer game. We elaborated on the differences between the team roles with respect to gender‐diverse and non‐diverse groups of our sample (N = 123) to estimate the role of gender diversity in CSCL learning processes.ResultsThe clustering of the group communication resulted in four emergent team roles with distinct communicative patterns: learner, lurker, follower, and leader. Non‐diverse teams were more likely to be dominated by leaders, whereas gender‐diverse teams showed more egalitarian tendencies in their group communication. Further, in gender‐diverse teams, there were more learners, and interaction was more productive overall.ConclusionsGender diversity is an important factor for understanding group dynamics in CSCL. A main advantage of gender diversity modelling – as explored here – is a more nuanced understanding of the role of gender in group communication, in contrast to reproducing existing gender difference paradigms. The approach demonstrated in this study enables CSCL researchers to extend traditional measures of gender towards gender diversity as steps towards more gender‐inclusive and bias‐free education. Further, it yields the practical design recommendation of ensuring group diversity to enhance the likelihood of productive group communication.

GENDER AND POWER IN ITALIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS: A DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE

This paper analyses, from the perspective of critical discourse analysis and critical pedagogy, the representation of gender hierarchy in two representative Italian as a foreign language textbooks, published between 2002 and 2019. The aim is to examine whether asymmetric power relations are reproduced or reversed through the representation of professions attributed to male and female characters, in order to obtain meaningful data about the approach adopted by the authors and publishing houses. Specifically, we aim to determine whether a progressive and egalitarian tendency in the perception and representation of women and men in the professional sphere can be identified. The analysis reveals significant differences in the approach adopted in the two textbooks and consequently in how gender hierarchies and roles in the professional sphere are constructed. Due to the absence of a gender-sensitive approach, the Qui Italia textbook reproduces and naturalises asymmetric power relations between women and men in the professional sphere. In contrast, the Dieci A1 textbook emerges as an educational material that challenges traditional gender roles in the professional sphere and offers alternative and egalitarian models. The results suggest that progressive trends regarding gender equality in educational materials have evolved over time and that a gender approach is increasingly implemented and valued.

The two-state impasse in Israel/Palestine—The EU caught between egalitarian norms and expansionist realpolitik

In recent years, many academics as well as local actors have started to question the feasibility of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Increased Israeli unilateralism, expansionism as well as weak Palestinian institutions have instead pointed toward a “one-state-reality” where Israel is in de facto control over all lands. This in turn reveals a paradox, where international policymakers, most prominently in the EU and the US, and international organizations like the UN, seem determined to insist on a two-state solution, even though all facts on the ground indicate a move away from such a vision where the egalitarian principles inherent in the two-state solution exists in constant tension with expansionist attempts to establish Israeli sovereignty also on Palestinian land. This article unpacks various visions for the future in Israel-Palestine, based on egalitarian principles on the one hand and expansionist ones on the other and display how they current co-exist in a very uneasy relationship. The over-arching aim of the article is to understand how the EU relates to this paradox. We do this in three steps; first we conduct a mapping of visions for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to either egalitarian or expansionist principles, where we find one- as well as two-state solutions; second, we conduct a historical analysis on EU positions with regards to the abovementioned principles for solving the conflict, related to other powerful international actors' visions; lastly, we move to an investigation of current developments captured through recent speeches, documents and semi-structured interviews with centrally placed EU staff. Our main conclusion is that even though the EU is determined to hold on to the two state-solution, it however lacks willingness and/or power-resources to push Israel in that direction. Our interviewees seem painfully aware of the lack of viability of the two-state-solution and hence welcome criticism which could push for more egalitarian tendencies in Israel by appealing to its democratic-self-image. Here the current spread of the apartheid narrative among international organizations and an increased international human rights rhetoric emphasizing equal rights for two peoples seem to have left the EU balancing on a tight-rope where they have to choose between standing by status quo, risking supporting ultra-nationalist Israeli sovereignty-aspirations, or criticizing those, instead exposing itself to accusations of antisemitism.

Impact of Famine of 1924—1925 on Social and Political Mood of Peasantry in Tambov Province

The causes and consequences of the famine in the Tambov province in 1924—1925 are examined in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the need for a comprehensive study of the Russian peasantry of the “revolutionary breakthrough generation” (born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries). The main attention is paid to the impact of famine on the social and political moods of the peasantry. In order to determine the factors that influenced the self-awareness of the villagers, the documents of the funds of the Russian Archive of Social and Political History and the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Tambov Region were studied. A wide range of documents of central and local party organizations and state security bodies are used in the article. The social practices resorted to by rural society for survival in extreme crop failure conditions are considered. Relations between the main social groups of the village are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of state aid to the starving. As a result of the conducted research, an increase in oppositional attitudes among the peasantry has been proven. An increase in religiosity and egalitarian tendencies in rural areas is considered characteristic. It was established that significant state aid contributed to the spread of peasant loyalty to the government.

Dachas for Academicians: Practices of Distribution and Organization of Space, 1930–1980s

In the article, by the history of dacha settlements of academicians, the evolution of the principles of organization of privileged dacha space in the USSR is characterized. The author examines the practices of distribution and organization of departmental dachas,attempts to fit their history into the focus of everyday collective and interpersonal interactions of scientists, broad social processesof intertwining elitists and egalitarian tendencies of the epoch under consideration. Obtaining “academic” dachas was closely related to the reputational component, social and professional recognition, and the administrative resource of a particular researcher. In this regard, the practiceof departmental suburban space consolidate the established hierarchyin the Soviet scientific community. The principle of complex development (concentration of construction in one place, in the format of a closedsettlement, with the presence of a settlement-orient infrastructure) resultedin corporate isolationof socio-professional groups (primarily the nobility). In the competition of several principles - open and closedtypecooperation, departmental and private economic structure, the right of use and the right of personal property - distinct features of Soviet society were manifested: limited resources, bureaucratization of the distribution system, instability of property rights, but formed a unique “informal” space of “old-timers” settlements. Theresearchis based on a wide range of unpublished sources (clerical work, documents of personal origin) from the funds of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Amish Ecclesiology: Plural-Elder Congregationalism, Governing Lines of Fellowship, and Envisioning the Church

Abstract Amish ecclesiology is a plural-elder model of congregationalism that exhibits significant variation across the six non-communing affiliations that constitute the present Amish tradition in North America. The first section describes the ordination customs and structure of the ministry, the authority of tradition, the role of church leaders with strong personality types, and the egalitarian tendencies that present themselves in some Amish groups. Following an introduction to the six Amish affiliations, the article explains how each group defines its lines of fellowship, how these practices are organically linked to divergent understandings of the nature and shape of the Christian church, and how the Amish harness the strength of distinction-making to protect and grow their church communities from the inside out. Finally, the article questions the way that some Amish gloss the baptismal covenant as a vow, and explains why it problematizes the catholicity of the Christian church.

Crypto-Egalitarian Life

Abstract In this article I explore the fundamental tension in the world of Bitcoin between ‘maximalists’, who see Bitcoin as a tool for the promotion of a moral revolution, and ‘traders’, who approach Bitcoin pragmatically as a financial tool. Based on ethnography of a crypto gold rush that took place in the Bitcoin Embassy in Tel Aviv, I argue that, despite heuristic distinctions, both of these attitudes advance egalitarian tendencies. While maximalists offer a sense of belonging to a close-knit community of equals, traders promote the nominal equality of all value-making strategies in an open financial environment. I use the terms ‘ideational’ and ‘materialist’ to characterize these two modes of practice, which realize contemporary visions of egalitarian life in different forms.

Shades of gray: Understanding the ethics of society’s technology and innovation propensities using national culture

This study examines the effects of national culture on national innovation. This is important because underlying values, which relate to national culture and are the basis of ethical stances, are predicted to affect directly country-level innovation propensities, which then can affect national economic well-being. Combining analyses from two databases, the paper explores the relationships between cultural dimensions, which are manifestations of underlying personal values held across a societal group, and national innovation outcomes. The first database uses Hofstede’s national culture dimensions and the other is based on the global innovation index scores of 71 countries. Of the six cultural dimensions, only masculinity/femininity is not found to be significantly related to innovation outcomes. Power distance and uncertainty avoidance negatively relate to innovation outcomes for three and four years, respectively, of the five years tested. Individualism, long-term orientation and indulgence positively relate to innovation outcomes for all five years tested. A major implication is that these cultural variables are important for innovation progress. Findings also suggest that the ethical use of technology and its underlying innovation practices (based on the value systems underlying these cultural dimensions) could benefit from further exploration on the effects of culture. In particular, if a country wants to increase its innovative efforts, it may be well advised to stress individualistic, future-oriented and egalitarian tendencies.

Aristocrats for Peace: The Anti-Duellist Conference of Budapest (1908)

The anti-duellist movement was founded at the turn of the twentieth century at the initiative of the Spanish infante Alfonso de Bourbon et d’Autriche-Este. It was one of the various strategies in favour of peace and against the use of violence in social and political relations that were established during this period. The anti-duelling leagues promoted by Prince Alfonso attempted to change the concept of honour held by males of the elite classes at the time. The most important project taken was the holding of the First International Anti-Duellist Conference in Budapest in June of 1908. The aim of this article is to examine an event that offers information on the mobilising capacity of the European aristocracy and the efforts of aristocrats to find their place in a society with egalitarian tendencies.

Interpersonal coordination enhances brain-to-brain synchronization and influences responsibility attribution and reward allocation in social cooperation

Fair distribution of resources matters to both individual interests and group harmony during social cooperation. Different allocation rules, including equity- and equality-based rules, have been widely discussed in reward allocation research; however, it remains unclear whether and how individuals’ cooperative manner, such as interpersonal coordination, influence their subsequent responsibility attribution and reward allocation. Here, 46 dyads conducted a time estimation task—either synergistically (the coordination group) or solely (the control group)—while their brain activities were measured using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning approach. Dyads in the coordination group showed higher behavioral synchrony and higher interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the time estimation task than those in the control group. They also showed a more egalitarian tendency of responsibility attribution for the task outcome. More importantly, dyads in the coordination group who had higher IBS in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) were more inclined to make egalitarian reward allocations, and this effect was mediated by responsibility attribution. Our findings elucidate the influence of interpersonal coordination on reward allocation and the critical role of the prefrontal cortex in these processes.

«Созерцавший Агнца Божия»: Джупитер Хэммон – первый чернокожий христианский поэт Америки

The role of Christianity as a factor that exerted a decisive influence over African American social and cultural history, is being debated time and again in the course of African American studies. The ambivalent attitude of the 18th –19th century Christian preachers and missionaries to slavery, egalitarian tendencies that combined with the idea of humility and resignation, led to contradictions and controversy in the evaluation of the role Christianity played in Afroamerica. The case of Jupiter Hammon (1711 –1806?), a preacher and the first Black Christian poet in America, illustrates the emergence of the basic topoi in the pre-war Blackamerican literary tradition: conversion to Christianity and literacy (enculturation) as two essential conditions for the acknowledgement of Black humanity and ability to integrate into the New World civilization. Jupiter Hammon refused to struggle against slavery; paradoxically, however, his work is an inherent part of both African American religious and cultural history and the New England Christian thought, that engendered Abolitionism and its most famous book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life among the Lowly (1852), based on the concept of the “religious genius” of the African and the “Black redemption” of the greatest American vice, slavery.

Whom to share teacher, joker or stranger

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of humour, teaching, gender, age, birth order, siblings, parents’ level of education and income on kindergarteners’ costly sharing behaviours. The participants consist of 106 kindergarteners enrolled in three public kindergartens in Şanlıurfa. The participants interacted with two assistants, one of whom made them laugh (the joker) and the other taught them something new (the teacher). After the meetings, a third assistant presented 20 stickers to each child. Among the 20 stickers, the children selected their 10 favourite stickers. Another assistant asked the children to share their stickers with teaching, joker or stranger if they desired. The children’s distribution of their stickers to the joker, the teacher assistants and the neutral recipients did not statistically differ. This might be the result of egalitarian tendency of young children. Multiple regression revealed gender as a predictor variable for sharing with jokers and total sharing. The girls shared significantly more than the boys.

Egalitarianism and public perception of social inequities: A case study of Beijing congestion charge

Egalitarian thought has a long tradition in Chinese history. Synthesized with the socialist ideology, it was practiced nationwide in the first decades of Communist China. Alongside the well-reported quality of life improvements that the recent economic liberalisation reforms have brought about, Chinese people are experiencing an increasingly serious polarization between the rich and the poor. Consequently, an egalitarian tendency has represented itself within contemporary policy and popular discourse.This paper aims to explore how egalitarian thought has influenced public awareness of social inequities by using the case of public attitudes towards the Beijing congestion charge, which is currently still at its planning stage. Nine focus groups, with a total of 73 participants, were undertaken with residents living in different areas of the city. Results show that the perceptions of social inequities are significantly different between low-income and high-income people. Due to egalitarian thinking, low-income people expect the privileges of the rich to be abolished, however, they do not pay much attention to a wider redistribution of wealth and other social resources. By contrast, richer people tend to deny to a wider population the privileges they themselves received, and, to some extent, they are reluctant to accept policy outcomes that may favour those who are in lower social positions. The resentment against the rich, as another by-product of egalitarianism, considerably exaggerates actual social inequalities, thereby intensifying the feelings of being unequally treated.

The Problem of Gender and Women's Ordination: Variability of Interpretation in Different Concepts of Feminist Theology

The article offers an overview of the concepts of prominent representatives of feminist theology devoted to the gender problem in religion, and also analyzes the key features of Protestantism as a basis for the formation of women's ordination. The purpose of this article is to study the relation between the key principles of feminist theology, events within the Protestant denomination - Anglicanism and the emergence of women's ordination of the late of the twentieth century.The author found that the emergence of feminist movements gave impetus to reassess the existing patriarchal traditions in Christianity, which assigns women only a minor role in the church and in the most radical reading reduces her essence to sin. The victory of the feminist movement in the secular sphere also had a significant influence in religious directions. Feminist theorists began exposing sexism in Christianity since the 1960s. At the same time there was the formation of separate direction of theology - feminist. Among the prominent representatives are S. Beauvoir, M. Daley, L. Irigarey, and others. Their works laid the new paradigm and the foundation for understanding the need for equality of gender relations in the religious sphere. Thanks to the efforts of activists of religious women's movements, such a denomination of Protestantism as the Anglican Church first revised its rules and allowed women to ranks of the hierarchy. Protestantism is the most loyal on the issue of the ordination of women from the three branches of the Christian tradition. This is due to the fact that a number of Protestant churches are characterized by the egalitarian tendency (position of equality).In 1994, the Church of England finally approved at the canonical level the women's right to the priesthood, and in the same year the first women were ordained priests. The conclusion comes by the issue of female priesthood arises as a synthesis of feminism and original interpretation of the theological doctrine of the priesthood in Protestantism: the priesthood for Protestants is not a san, but a post. In this connection, they consider that an obstacle to the ordination of women in ancient times was only a socio-cultural tradition of those times and today only need to restore justice and equal rights for women and men. In addition, the actualization of the question of the ordination of women in the holy ward is due to the absence of direct prohibitions in the Scriptures.

평등주의적 성향에 입각한 마크모리스 작품 <하드 넛>의 안무분석

평등주의적 성향에 입각한 마크모리스 작품 <하드 넛>의 안무분석

Issues and images – new sources of inequality in current representative democracy

Right from its beginning, representative democracy was criticized for promoting inequality. Nonetheless, for many decades representative democracy has led to more equality – politically as well as socially. Meanwhile, in most Western societies this has dramatically changed. Trying to understand this change, the paper will first identify the immanent egalitarian tendencies in modern democratic representation. I will argue that not only universal franchise, but, paradoxically, also the distinction between society and the stage of political representation have had strong egalitarian effects. I will continue to demonstrate that the development from party to audience democracy together with the rise of non-electoral modes of participation transformed the performative and configurative functions of political representation. Instead of translating social conflicts into reasonably consistent political alternatives, parties try to identify strategically promising issues in order to create attractive media images. Together with the growing weight of issue-oriented, non-electoral participatory activities, this development threatens to undermine the political realm as a distinct sphere of equals.

Fatherhood Models in the Middle Class of Contemporary Russia

Drawing on in-depth interviews with married Russian fathers, this paper focuses on the gender contracts and father-hood models of the middle class of contemporary Russia. It shows that while the ideal of fathers heavily involved in day-to-day parenting is widespread, the reality is somewhat different despite the active participation of Russian mothers in the labor market. Still, for most Russian men, fathering as a set of everyday practices of engaging with their children has more value than for the generation of their fathers. The research shows that modern Russian society can be characterized by the co-existence of egalitarian and traditional tendencies in gender relations. On the one hand, the practices of involved fathering are evolving, and on the other hand, the traditional patterns of masculinity are enforced, excluding fathers from the sphere of parenthood. Economic factors and rigid notions about the family gender contract are the main obstacles which prevent Russian men from “doing” involved fatherhood. The liberal phenomenon of “new fatherhood” which appeared in Western countries turned out to be much more conservative in Russia. The modern family is still the “space of struggle,” and this struggle is counter-directed: it can be a fight for survival, or for power, or for an egalitarian gender order, against the discrimination of men as secondary parents, against old-fashioned traditional views on the father’s and the mother’s roles in the family, or for the preservation of those views.

Dopamine Modulates Egalitarian Behavior in Humans

Egalitarian motives form a powerful force in promoting prosocial behavior and enabling large-scale cooperation in the human species [1]. At the neural level, there is substantial, albeit correlational, evidence suggesting a link between dopamine and such behavior [2, 3]. However, important questions remain about the specific role of dopamine in setting or modulating behavioral sensitivity to prosocial concerns. Here, using a combination of pharmacological tools and economic games, we provide critical evidence for a causal involvement of dopamine in human egalitarian tendencies. Specifically, using the brain penetrant catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) inhibitor tolcapone [4, 5], we investigated the causal relationship between dopaminergic mechanisms and two prosocial concerns at the core of a number of widely used economic games: (1) the extent to which individuals directly value the material payoffs of others, i.e., generosity, and (2) the extent to which they are averse to differences between their own payoffs and those of others, i.e., inequity. We found that dopaminergic augmentation via COMT inhibition increased egalitarian tendencies in participants who played an extended version of the dictator game [6]. Strikingly, computational modeling of choice behavior [7] revealed that tolcapone exerted selective effects on inequity aversion, and not on other computational components such as the extent to which individuals directly value the material payoffs of others. Together, these data shed light on the causal relationship between neurochemical systems and human prosocial behavior and have potential implications for our understanding of the complex array of social impairments accompanying neuropsychiatric disorders involving dopaminergic dysregulation.

Egalitarianism, Welfare Policies and the Legitimation of Political Regimes. The Case of the Czech Republic

Economic and social rights have been effectively used for the legitimation of the political regime both by pluralist democracies and, in their own way, by fascist or communist movements during the 20 th century. These rights provide a basis for a type of distributive justice in the modern society. Sociological studies have indicated relatively strong egalitarian tendencies in the Czech society during the post-communist transformation after 1989, which were not easy to explain. In this article we will argue that the explanation should not be sought only by putting forward the obvious argument of the persistence of communist stereotypes or some kind of Czech Ostalgie . Rather, we will try to demonstrate that such egalitarian tendencies could be rooted deeper in the collective experiences shaped by the confrontation with the world wars and the particularities of the formation of the modern Czech nation. We may formulate this statement even more radically. Egalitarian tendencies in the present-day Czech society are not merely a result of the fact that the country was under socialist dictatorship between 1945 and 1989. On the contrary. The birth of a socialist dictatorship after the Second World War made these egalitarian tendencies easier, however the tendencies themselves are historically older, and they formed a strong consensus for the need for social reform in the Czech society, enabling the Communist Party to monopolize power much more easily. This article is divided into three thematic sections. The first one traces the formation of a post-war consensus for reform, which was the basis for the rapid growth of social expenses on both sides of the Iron Curtain, as a result of industrial crises and conflicts following the Second World War. The second part elaborates on the specific issues arising in the implementation of social rights under the conditions of the socialist dictatorship, whereas the third and final part concentrates on the formation of public opinion among the Czech population related to guaranteeing social rights in a transition economy. Key words: Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Social Rights, Full Employment, Distributive Justice, Welfare State