Power Imbalance Research Articles

Experiences of bullying among nursing students during clinical practice: a scoping review of qualitative studies

AbstractBullying in the clinical setting has become a significant issue for nursing students. The experience of bullying during clinical practice can negatively affect students’ mental and physical health, as well as their professional development. Nursing students are often targets of verbal abuse, intimidation, and discrimination from various individuals in the clinical environment. This behavior not only harms individual students but also affects the quality of patient care. The aim of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of bullying toward nursing students, identify research gaps, and offer recommendations for future research. This study employed a scoping review method, with articles sourced from four major databases: CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The main keywords used included “bullying,” “nursing students,” “clinical practice,” and “verbal violence.” Inclusion criteria were studies with nurse participants, original research articles, and published within the last 10 years (2015–2024). Data were manually extracted using tables and analyzed through a qualitative descriptive approach. Eleven articles met the inclusion criteria. This scoping review focuses on the findings of an exploration of the experiences of bullying experienced by nursing students, identifies research gaps, and provides suggestions for future research. Findings showed that nursing students experience various forms of bullying, including verbal violence and intimidation, often triggered by power imbalances in interactions with clinical staff and mentors. The impact of bullying is not only detrimental to students’ mental health, but also affects their academic performance and quality of learning. Research gaps found include a lack of studies on the direct relationship between bullying and clinical assessment outcomes, as well as a lack of understanding of effective strategies to address bullying. This study recommends the need for clearer anti-bullying policies and transparent reporting systems, as well as further research to explore the impact of bullying in the context of nursing culture and education system.

Cultivating Care in the Classroom: Bridging Cultural Approaches in Malaysian and UK Higher Education

This paper investigates the role of care in the classroom by examining the impact of a care-infused virtual drama approach on English as a Second Language (ESL) learners at two Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), incorporating teacher reflections and insights from student interviews. Due to the prevalence of power imbalances (Nawi, 2014) and authoritarian practices (Tee et al., 2018) in Malaysia, this paper further explores the perspectives of three Malaysian Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) at the University of Warwick to understand their experiences and understanding of the notion of care within the context of a UK higher education institution. Through one-on-one semi-structured and pair interviews conducted online via Microsoft Teams, these GTAs shared how they manifest care and provide support for their learners at the University of Warwick. The insights from Malaysia and the UK accentuate the significance of fostering care in diverse educational environments, revealing its potential to enhance students’ engagement and well-being across cultural and institutional settings.

“There Is No Law for Me in England”: An Indian Grocer’s Struggle for Economic and Geographical Space, and Agency in Oxford (1888–1896)

The Oxford Times ran a headline in May 1896 that stated in bold capitals ‘STRANGE DEATH OF A HINDOO’, detailing the circumstances of the death of Baboo Mookhi Singh, who, it seems, was the first (known) Indian grocer in Oxford. While today, the pioneering research by Rozina Visram related to the presence of Asians in Britain, that of Antoinette Burton in the late-Victorian period, or Michael Fisher’s work on counterflows to colonialism, is not new, the majority of research regarding the presence of Indians in the British Isles is either scant for this period of time, or related to ayahs and lascars, or to poets, intellectuals, and aristocrats, with considerable research also related to the Indian military. The majority of times, that research has also focused solely on London. The originality of this research paper provides material heretofore undocumented related to an early settler in Oxford from India (1880s–1890s): Baboo Mookhi Singh (1867–1893), Oxford’s first grocer, and tea importer from India. He originated from Benaras (Varanasi) and arrived in Britain, where he set up a business in the centre of Oxford. However, what he encountered there was name-calling, verbal as well as physical harassment, and ultimately his death in strange circumstances. He seemingly came alone, although his import business, which boasted the best tea not only in Oxford, but in the whole country, was run by the ‘Singh Brothers’ (his brother remaining in India). While Singh most certainly travelled via the Suez Canal to Britain, the country to which he was travelling would have been both familiar and unfamiliar to him. However, due to the lack of resources available, all too often common people, such as Singh, have been neglected. In this article, newspaper reports and material from the numerous trials (mostly initiated by Singh against the local people and his immediate neighbours) are brought together, as well as the coroner’s reports, and the police notes to determine Singh’s struggle for recognition, and his attempt at resistance. This paper documents his struggle for cultural/geographic space, to redress the imbalance of power, and gain agency. Despite his attempts at resilience, he did, in the end, die. However, Singh was a pioneer in a struggle for power, a stand for resistance, and how the law perceived him, in his difference, changing the community around him, albeit on a small scale. It is a telling story that resurfaces an early Indian settler in Britain, his alterity in Victorian society, and the latter’s attitudes towards race. It steps outside of the traditional image of the empire at home, in Britain, in everyday life.

Essential lessons from an unpromising source: what reformers can learn from the Philippines on corruption control

PurposeCorruption control in the Republic of the Philippines (RP) has hardly failed, but it is not (yet) a success story either. Dramatic “people power” episodes have occurred, but populism has also, at times, led to repression. Still, essential reform lessons are available.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual reassessment of corruption control. Central concerns include the types of corruption experienced in the country, incentives that might sustain collective action, the need to measure both corruption and reform, and linking reform to citizens’ quality of life.FindingsTop-down, whole-country approaches to reform often treat corruption as if it were the same everywhere, thereby emphasizing “best practices”. However, that can be misleading: a best practice in one society might be irrelevant, impossible, or harmful in another. Contemporary reformers must carefully examine the historical, social, economic, and political contexts, as well as the consequences of corruption. Groups and activities seemingly unrelated to corruption control can prove essential. Reformers must fight corruption with people, not for them.Originality/valueThe ultimate goal of reform must be justice: redressing imbalances of power while building social and political trust.

The power and potential of space and place in family group conferencing: Reimagining the role of the venue in child protection practice

Family Group Conferencing is a family-led decision-making process used in children’s social care in the UK. Unlike traditional meetings between families and professionals when there is a safeguarding concern, Family Group Conferences are often held outside children’s services’ premises in a ‘neutral’ venue. In this article, we critique the idea that a meeting location can be neutral as spaces may be experienced differently, and hold multiple meanings, for the family, their network and professionals who take part. Starting from the premise that relationships with and in space have the potential to disrupt power imbalances and affect families’ and professionals’ experiences, we propose the meeting location for the Family Group Conference is instead viewed as a core component of the intervention. This bespoke approach begins with the question, how could the meeting venue improve the experiences of Family Group Conferencing for families and professionals? To answer this question, we use two fictional vignettes written from the perspectives of a young woman and her social worker. The vignettes were created based on the combined practice and research experience of the co-authors and are used in the article as a tool to theorise the possible benefits and limitations of considering the meeting venue as an intervention component. By reimagining how meeting somewhere meaningful to the family could influence families’ and professionals’ experiences of Family Group Conferencing this paper contributes to social work research and practice in the UK and beyond.

Arbitration and Wrongful Termination Claims: An Evaluation of Fairness and Efficiency in Labour Dispute Resolution

This paper shall review the position of arbitration in wrongful termination claims, especially regarding its effectiveness as a system of labour relation dispute resolution. Employment disputes specifically wrongful dismissal lawsuits stem from contractual breaches and violations of labour laws which may take time and cost a lot of money. Arbitration is seen as a suitable process for resolving disputes more effectively because it is faster, slightly cheaper, and does not attract public attention. As is to be expected there are some problems, some minor issues to be addressed. As for the problems the main issue regards the nature of arbitration and the fact that a major principle against it is the imbalance of power between employers and workers. Used in the study is both a synthesis of the current literature and qualitative interviews conducted with stakeholders, namely, arbitrators, legal commentators and employees. The implication herein is that while arbitration is effectiveness-oriented, it lacks procedural equity which is overshadowed by employer-biased scales. Based on the findings of this paper, this paper asserts that while using arbitration as a means of minimizing the time and money spent on wrongful termination claims, changes should be made in an effort to tackle the issues of partiality and bias.

Ruminant livestock and climate change: critical discourse moments in mainstream and farming sector news media

AbstractThere is ongoing contestation around greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock and how society should respond. Media discourses play a key role in agenda setting for the general public and policymakers, and may contribute to polarisation. This paper examines how UK news media portrayed ruminant livestock’s impact on climate change between 2016 and 2021. The analysis addresses a gap in the literature by comparing discourses in national and farming sector newspapers using a qualitative approach. Four national and two farming sector news outlets were searched for articles published between 2016 and 2021. A corpus of 996 relevant articles was assembled, from which 154 were selected for in-depth examination using Critical Discourse Analysis. Four ‘Critical Discourse Moments’ (CDMs), each signifying a discursive shift in the debate, were identified over the 6-year studied period: 1) Low salience, diverging discourses, 2) We must eat far less meat, 3) Fighting the anti-meat agenda, and 4) Policy (in)action at COP26. There was a large increase in the number of published articles from January 2019 onward, partly associated with publication of the EAT/Lancet Commission report. CDM 2 (We must eat far less meat) occurred mainly in the national media, while CDM 3 (Fighting the anti-meat agenda) occurred mainly in the farming media. Our findings reveal both opinion polarisation and intergroup polarisation between national and farming sector media, and low engagement with food system power imbalances. Addressing polarisation will be important to enhance capacity for collective decision-making regarding methane emissions from ruminant livestock.

Exploring Participatory Grantmaking in Sub-Saharan Africa: Current Landscape, Practices, and Power Dynamics

Abstract“Participatory grantmaking” (PGM)—the practice of ceding decision-making power about grants to communities that are affected by the outcomes of the grants—is gaining traction in many philanthropic spaces. While there is emerging literature on PGM primarily in the Global North, few academic contributions explore how PGM plays out in the Global South. This article therefore advances the state of knowledge related to philanthropy and grantmaking, by analytically exploring PGM specifically in the African continent. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with 19 grantmakers within sub-Saharan Africa, the article identifies common forms of PGM in the region, its impact on various forms of power—particularly visible power—and the barriers encountered, including shrinking civil society space, resource scarcity, and back-donor demands. The article argues that PGM in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be seen as isolated in a silo of philanthropy, but that its contributions to addressing power imbalances must be integrated in broader long-term development sectors that are often dominated by the Global North. It also underscores that power, in its various forms, will always be present in PGM. Practitioners must continuously adapt and refine these models to address the uneven power dynamics in grantmaking that they aim to change.

Navigating institutional ethics processes: Insights from higher degree by research students and supervisors doing research in fragile contexts

Although gaining ethical approval is a conventional and established requirement for academic scholarship, institutional approaches remain subject to sustained critique. While not questioning the legitimacy of institutional ethical procedures, the dominance of legal frameworks and a focus on entry to ‘the field’ is inflexible and irresponsive to ethical complexities in practice. This is particularly evident in situations where participants experience ongoing trauma, marginalisation, and social and political precarity, or settings that we refer to in this paper as ‘ fragile contexts’. Responding to such ethical dilemmas, this article draws on Guillemin and Gillam’s (2004) notions of ‘ ethics-in-practice’ and ‘ethically important moments’ to examine how doctoral candidates and their supervisors navigate the compliance requirements of institutional ethics vis-à-vis the requirements of ethics-in-practice. Our findings foreground the need to attend to the linguistic and discursive challenges associated with research in fragile contexts, the temporalities of vulnerability, the management of community expectations, and a humbling of researchers and their institutional research ethics committees to avoid compounding injustices and power imbalances.

The Need for a Feminist Approach to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents immense potential and significant challenges concerning algorithmic bias. This paper explores how feminist theory provides a criti-cal lens for understanding and addressing algorithmic bi-as’s root causes and impacts. The historical context of systemic discrimination reveals how power imbalances have shaped data collection and analysis, leading to bi-ased datasets that perpetuate inequalities through AI sys-tems. The "black box" problem further obscures these bi-ases, amplifying discriminatory outcomes in various domains. Feminist interventions, particularly intersec-tional feminism, offer a framework for uncovering how algorithmic bias interacts with multiple forms of oppres-sion. Feminist data science challenges traditional meth-odologies and advocates for transparency, accountabil-ity, and diversity in AI development. Critiques of tech-no-solutionism highlight the need for broader societal change alongside technical fixes. By embracing a feminist approach, we can envision and work toward a future where AI technology is used for social justice, inclusivi-ty, and collective liberation.

The Ukrainian Crisis: a Game-Theoretic Analysis of the Complex Interplay between Ukraine, Russia, and the West

Abstract This study gives a general overview of the Ukrainian crisis through the lens of game theory, examining the motivations and constraints of Ukraine, Russia, and the West. Game theory provides structural concepts that explore trust, cooperation, risk-taking, and coordination challenges within the crisis. The analysis considers the impact of power imbalances and external factors like alliances and historical ties, strategic behavior, and other factors. The article concludes by highlighting key takeaways from the game-theoretic approach that can provide a roadmap towards a deeper analysis, and a structural diplomatic approach to conflict resolution.

Security and Privacy Perspectives of People Living in Shared Home Environments

Security and privacy (S&P) perspectives of people in a multi-user home are a growing area of research, with many researchers reflecting on the complicated power imbalance and challenging access control issues of the devices involved. However, these studies primarily focused on the multi-user scenarios in traditional family home settings, leaving other types of multi-user home environments, such as homes shared by co-habitants without a familial relationship, under-studied. This paper closes this research gap via quantitative and qualitative analysis of results from an online survey and qualitative content analysis of sampled online posts on Reddit. The study explores the complex roles of shared home users, which depend on various factors unique to the shared home environment, e.g., who owns what home devices, how home devices are used by multiple users, and more complicated relationships between the landlord and people in the shared home and among co-habitants. Half (50.7%) of our survey participants thought that devices in a shared home are less secure than in a traditional family home. This perception was found statistically significantly associated with factors such as the fear of devices being tampered with in their absence and (lack of) trust in other co-habitants and their visitors. We observed cyber-physical threats being a prominent topic discussed in Reddit posts. Our study revealed new user types and user relationships in a multi-user environment such as ExternalPrimary-InternalPrimary while analysing the landlord and shared home resident relationship with regard to shared home device use. Based on the results of the online survey and the Reddit data, we propose a threat actor model for shared home environments, which has a focus on possible malicious behaviours of current and past co-habitants of a shared home, as a special type of insider threat in a home environment. We also recommend further research to understand the complex roles co-habitants can play in navigating and adapting to a shared home environment's security and privacy landscape.

Power and racial differences in the communication experiences of Black and White patients living with advanced cancer and their care partners: An application of co-cultural theory

ABSTRACT We investigated power imbalances in racially discordant medical interactions in the context of advanced cancer care within the United States. We applied co-cultural theory to the transcripts of 43 interviews conducted with Black and White cancer patients and their care partners. We found Black patients and care partners perceived providers as dismissing their concerns. In response, they engaged in extensive preparation, rationalization, and utilizing liaisons. White patients and care partners recognized and took advantage of their privilege and utilized liaisons. Some patients acquiesced and conferred with others in response to power enacted by oncologists. We concluded co-cultural theory is useful in explaining what occurs in racially discordant patient-provider interactions. Our findings highlight the need for provider communication and de-biasing training. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03780816..

Cross Retaliation Under TRIPS: A Creative Remedy When Power Disparity Exists

The WTO system has largely achieved procedural fairness, yet substantial challenges persist in addressing the equity of legal remedies and enforcement, particularly amid significant disparities in economic power among member states. Such power imbalances necessitate a nuanced consideration in the design of the system to ensure that fairness transcends procedural aspects and reflects in substantive outcomes. In that context, Intellectual Property (IP) retaliation emerges as an innovative and temporary method to address these imbalances, offering a mechanism to level the playing field between developed and developing countries. While IP retaliation has gained traction as a strategic tool to mitigate power disparities, its mechanisms remain inadequately defined and require further empirical validation and refinement in practice. This highlights the need for ongoing reform within the WTO system to enhance both the clarity and effectiveness of IP retaliation, ensuring it serves as a viable and fair recourse in international trade disputes.

Team behaviour in interprofessional collaboration during trauma alerts: A critical incident study from the perspective of radiographers.

Challenges in mutual awareness in interprofessional collaboration (IPC) along with relational and cultural barriers among professionals disrupt flow and delay decision-making in trauma care. Thus, this study explores team behaviours within IPC in trauma teams during trauma alerts from the perspective of radiographers. A qualitative approach was used with a critical incident technique (CIT) design applying interviews with radiographers within three hospitals in Sweden from May 2022 to May 2023. CIT analysis was conducted with an abductive approach, applying an IPC core competency framework. The results present collaborative requirements in trauma care from radiographers' perspective narrating a distribution of team behaviours within trauma team collaboration and fundamental skills in IPC. Behaviours within interprofessional values and ethics were the most reported incidents related to valuing radiographers' contributions to IPC in acute trauma care. Exploring behaviour through critical incidents associated with core competencies of IPC highlights the importance of interprofessional values as a foundation for successful IPC in the trauma team. The results show deficiencies in inclusive behaviour, influenced by the hierarchical environment of IPC. Power imbalances in this setting are traced to differences in perceived value and shared understanding among team members, possibly rooted in professional identity and culture. A dedicated leader is argued, as the recognition of radiographers' scope of practice in trauma imaging, emphasising the significance of shared decision-making. The findings highlight organisational and relational coordination challenges for optimising competencies in IPC. IPC's success requires reinforcing values and ethics by empowering members' contributions and shared decision-making. This involves clarifying and recognising responsibilities, particularly for radiographers, ensuring their role in trauma imaging is respected and integrated into decision-making.

Priorities to Support Care Partners of People Living With Dementia: Results of a Modified Delphi Process.

Objective: To determine priorities for services and policies that better support care partners of people living with dementia. Methods: A modified Delphi process engaged participants from organizations serving people living with dementia and care partners, focusing on historically and currently underserved communities. Eight thematic areas were identified. Participants (N = 40) responded to three surveys, generating ideas, rating each, and ranking priorities. Results: Each survey received 13-17 responses. Top ranked ideas were arrayed across six thematic areas: care partner supports; programs; funding; information; care coordination; and workforce development. Discussion: The Delphi process empowered participants to share knowledge, and respected their opinions. Anonymity removed power imbalances. The survey iterations blended qualitative and quantitative approaches, and built consensus. The Delphi invited the voices of diverse participants; all voices were weighed equally. This process could be extended to efforts to further engage dementia care partners, helping to value their voices in decision-making for services and policies.

Challenges to ethical public engagement in research funding: a perspective from practice

European research funding organizations (RFOs) are increasingly experimenting with public engagement in their funding activities. This case study draws attention to the challenges they face in preparing, implementing, and evaluating ethical public engagement in the context of setting funding priorities, formulating calls for proposals, and evaluating project proposals. We discuss challenges related to seven themes: (1) recruiting participants; (2) commitments and expectations; (3) meaningful dialogue and equal engagement; (4) accommodating vulnerability; (5) funding call formulations; (6) lack of expertise in engagement ethics; and (7) uncertainty, resource constraints, and external factors. To address these challenges, we propose the following seven interventions: (1) developing comprehensive recruitment strategies with experienced recruiters and community organizations; (2) establishing clear communication of roles, expectations, and outcomes through codes of conduct; (3) training mediators to address power imbalances; (4) designing flexible engagement methods and providing tailored support; (5) implementing collaborative feedback loops for inclusive funding call formulation; (6) enhancing ethical standards through internal expertise and external advisory inputs; and (7) developing adaptive strategies for flexible and ethical public engagement. These recommendations emphasize the need for context-adaptive insights to support funding organizations to implement ethical public engagement activities, even when faced with organizational constraints and a lack of ethical expertise.

A practitioner-centered policy roadmap for ethical computational social science in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Background: Computational Social Science (CSS) utilizes large digital datasets and computational methods to study human behavior, raising ethical concerns about data privacy, informed consent, and potential misuse.Methods: This study employs a constructivist grounded theory approach, analyzing 15 in-depth interviews with CSS practitioners in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. These countries share a European legal context regarding data privacy and hereby provide a comparable regulatory environment for examining ethical considerations.Results: Findings highlight key challenges in CSS research, including power imbalances with data providers, uncertainties around surveillance and data privacy (especially with longitudinal data), and limitations of current ethics frameworks. Researchers face tensions between established ethical principles and practical realities, often feeling disempowered and lacking support from ethics boards due to their limited CSS expertise. Regulatory ambiguity further discourages research due to fear of sanctions.Conclusions: To foster responsible CSS practices, this paper recommends establishing specialized ethics boards with CSS expertise. It also advocates for acknowledging CSS's unique nature in research policy by developing tailored data guidelines and providing legal certainty through clear guidelines. Grounding recommendations in practitioners' experiences, this study offers actionable steps to help enable ethical CSS research.

When ‘struggling with English’ becomes ‘passivity’: how language asymmetries in higher education get masked as ‘cultural differences’

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the study of power imbalances in intercultural encounters by investigating the role of language differences in the construction and deconstruction of ‘cultural differences’. Adopting a Critical Discursive Psychological approach, it demonstrates how self- and other-perceived language proficiency differences can lead to the (re)production of cultural stereotypes. At the same time, evaluations of language proficiency differences might also be used to resist cultural explanations. Taking the example of international management higher education, the study shows how students with self-evaluated stronger English proficiency regularly draw on culture as explanatory factor when describing their perceptions of ‘weaker’ English speakers’ engagement in teaching and learning activities. The study, which is based on 46 student reflexivity papers, thus demonstrates that overlooking the role of language differences in intercultural encounters might lead to stereotyping processes. Language-related power asymmetries get therefore masked as ‘cultural differences’.

Insights into Algorithmic Decision-Making Systems via a Decolonial-Intersectional Lens: A Cross-Analysis Case Study

As the line between governance, technology, and decision-making becomes ever-blurred, advocates and disparagers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) debate the impacts of its societal integration. Despite efforts to promote Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE), vulnerable populations continue to be systematically marginalized and made “invisible” by the racialised, classed, and colonial institutions buttressing Algorithmic Decision-Making Systems (ADMS). To address these sociotechnical risks and acknowledge our privileged, Western “standpoint epistemology,” we employ a “metaparadigm perspective” to engage the literature and case studies through a critical theory lens. The cross-analysis of three case studies: Systems Theory, the United States’ “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” and predictive policing demonstrate that our current risk mitigation frameworks are incapable of addressing transhistorical injustices. Therefore, we call for operationalizing intersectional risk theory via the decolonial turn to address ADMS risks. On that note, we propose three algorithmic accountability recommendations. We theorize that through a reformulation of FATE principles to that of the algorithmic (decolonial) self, understanding power imbalances through marginalized risk discourses, and advancing intersectional ML decision-making practices, policymakers may be better positioned to enact equitable and just ADMS.