Life Aspirations Research Articles

The Yoruba Muslims and the Credence in Reincarnation: An Orthodox Intrusion

Everybody knows that death is the unescapable end of man. What waves the mind of many, consciously or otherwise, is the question of what happens to man when he breaths his last breath. While some are of the opinion that after death comes judgment; a determent of whether one goes to eternal blissful domains, or into everlasting tenant; depending on whether he had lived piously or otherwise, while on earth. Another school of thought opines that the soul of the dead will reincarnate by taking abode in a new physical body, born as a new baby and live another normal life, whereby he/she has the opportunity to correct his/her wrong actions in the previous incarnation. While some are of the opinion that when the soul has gathered wisdom, knowledge and understanding through several incarnations, it becomes one with the creator; others believe that reincarnation is a continuous process without neither beginning nor an ending. The Yoruba of South-Western Nigeria, like most other Africans, believes that humans reincarnate in order to re-choose their destiny and fulfill their life ambitions which they had no chance to achieve in a previous incarnation. An examination of some Yoruba traditional songs about death and what follows, show that they believe in 'a day of reckoning' and the continuum of the life cycle. Reincarnation, generally speaking, is always thought of, and discussed as a religious phenomenon, most probably because it borders on the super-natural; an issue to which only God; the creative force, has the totally correct answer

Evaluation and Optimization of Urban Public Space Accessibility for Residents’ Satisfaction: A Case Study of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City

In order to meet the people’s growing aspirations for a better life and to improve the efficient supply capacity of the citizens’ diversified needs, our government has made the optimization of the supply of public services in urban communities a key task in urban planning and construction and has taken the community living circle as a starting point to make up for the short boards of urban public services, which is of great practical significance in improving the quality of urban life and optimizing the spatial structure of the city. As an important carrier of urban residents’ public life, urban public open space plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of life of urban residents. Accessibility is an important indicator to characterize the publicity and service level of a public open space. This study focuses on the construction of the community living circle, optimizing the GIS-based, Gaussian, two-part mobile search method to quantitatively calculate and evaluate the accessibility of a public open space within a 500 m walking distance for the residents in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. On this basis, social survey methods, including the questionnaire survey method via a field survey and the interview method, were used to conduct field research on the residents’ accessibility satisfaction. Comparing the differences and correlations between the two results, the deep-seated reasons affecting the residents’ accessibility satisfaction are explored at the levels of the construction system, management services, and structural layout and spatial design of the public open space, and targeted guiding countermeasures are put forward to guide the development and construction of public open space in the future.

The Implicit Social Contract in Soviet Higher Education and Its Transformation in the 1990s

The article presents a theoretical analysis and characterizes the parameters of the implicit social contract between society and the intelligentsia during the latter part of the Soviet period. The specificity of this type of implicit social contract is demonstrated, particularly regarding the potential benefits and existing limitations in pursuing higher education and realizing the life ambitions of the Soviet intelligentsia. The archetypes and behavioral strategies of individuals during the Soviet era are examined, both in terms of socially accepted and deviant conduct. The institutional elements that shape the experiences of individuals with higher education during the Soviet period are described, specifically the influence of officially proclaimed morality, ethical norms, and coercive mechanisms as value systems. The issue of the overproduction of individuals with higher education is highlighted, which resulted in the devaluation of its significance and a decline in social status for the technical intelligentsia during the Soviet period. The problems surrounding the quality of primary and higher education in the USSR are discussed, and the factors contributing to its crisis in the late USSR are identified. The transformation of values in the post-Soviet period is examined, and some consequences stemming from this transformation are explored.

The role of sexual and gender identity in the life aspirations of Portuguese youth

Positive life aspirations among adolescents and young adults have been associated with greater wellbeing in the future. However, belonging to a stigmatized minority may jeopardize this process. In this work, we sought to understand the role of sexual and gender identity in the life aspirations (desires and expectations) of adolescents and young adults (14–19 years), attending secondary education in Portugal (N = 888). Two MANOVAs with sexual and gender identity as a between-subjects factor (LGBTQ+ vs. Cis-heterosexual) were conducted to inspect differences in future desires and expectations in three life domains: family, social, and material. LGBTQ + youth expressed lower desires and expectations regarding all future life domains, when compared to their cis-heterosexual peers, with greater effect sizes detected for the family domain. In general, results suggest that when contemplating their future, LGBTQ + youth may be at a disadvantage. The findings highlight the need for parents, teachers, and policymakers to recognize the adversities LGBTQ + adolescents and young people still face in the present which and might extend to their future.

ВПЛИВ КОМПЕТЕНТНІСНОГО ПІДХОДУ НА ФОРМУВАННЯ ОСОБИСТОСТІ МАЙБУТНЬОГО ФІЛОЛОГА-ПОЛОНІСТА В ОСВІТНЬОМУ ПРОЦЕСІ ЗАКЛАДУ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

The article examines the formation of a future specialist's readiness for professional activity in the process of studying at a higher education institution. The influence of the competence approach on the cognitive and activity organization of the educational process is clarified. The relationship between the competency-based approach in education and the personally-oriented and activity-oriented approaches to learning is analyzed, since, on the one hand, it concerns the student's personality, and on the other hand, it can be implemented and verified only in the process of a specific student performing a certain set of actions. The importance of using active learning methods in a higher education institution for the purpose of forming professional and personal competencies, awareness of problem situations, fighting motives, revaluation of values and their use in specific real situations during the study of the main components of professional training is considered. It is emphasized that the choice of values significant for the subject is carried out in accordance with his value competencies and is made under the influence of the sociocultural experience of the individual. It is emphasized that values are the objective basis of the formation of value competences and are learned only under the condition of acceptance by the individual, compliance of needs and interests with value competences, that is, if the individual identifies himself with them, reveals a personal meaning in them. An analysis of the respondents’ value orientations was carried out. It is emphasized that values are motivating competences, certain directing and accelerating motives of human behavior, activity, in particular professional. It is highlighted that providing a professional direction to the life aspirations and behavioral motives of a higher education seeker is an important moment in the formation of the personality of a future Polish specialist, the formation of stable life views, and professional beliefs.

САМОВРЯДНА ПАРАДИГМА У ФОРМУВАННІ ТА ФУНКЦІОНУВАННІ ДЕМОКРАТИЧНОЇ ПРАВОВОЇ ДЕРЖАВНОСТІ: ДО ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ЗМІСТУ, РОЛІ ТА ЗНАЧЕННЯ

The article is devoted to the scientific and theoretical substantiation of the problem of determining the content, role and significance of the self-governing paradigm in the formation and functioning of a democratic legal statehood. In domestic jurisprudence, this topic is practically not studied. The authors connect the appearance of this problem with the factors of formation, development and improvement of the phenomenology of democratic legal statehood, when it is in these conditions that permanent para-democratic, meta-democratic processes of a tactical and strategic nature arise and intensify, as well as purely democratic tendencies are formed, determined by these processes, which permanently stimulate as a phenomenology of statehood, emphasizing its potential promising opportunities, as well as new forms of communicative interaction and rather productive cooperation of actors. At the same time, it is noted that the above processes are stimulated not only at the level of intrastate relations: a) the state, b) its public authorities, including local selfgovernment bodies, c) citizens who are simultaneously residents of certain territories of the state, i.e. residents-members relevant territorial communities; d) other natural persons with different legal status (foreigners, stateless persons, refugees, etc.), who are legally on the territory of a specific state and permanently residing within its borders, are also residents and members of the relevant communities, who are in subordinate, coordination and reorientational subordination among themselves within the limits of national constitutional and administrative law in the understanding of communication of subjects of public authority. They are quite clearly and sensibly manifested at the level of actors of international legal relations: a) sovereign states; b) international intergovernmental and intergovernmental organizations, which enter on the basis of the sovereignty and equality of their patrimonial and other states in a complex and multifactorial inter-subject interaction within intergovernmental structures on the basis of the fundamental principles and norms of general international law. It is noted that the self-governing paradigm is based on the managerial humanisticself-governing paradigm "human rights - municipal human rights - municipal person", which, firstly, acts as its content, and, secondly, acts as a strategic and basic direction in the formation and the functioning of a democratic legal state, because it is within the limits of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that a person: a) carries out his life cycle; b) realizes all his life aspirations, needs and interests, which are transformed into human rights; c) the constitutional and legal status of a person and a citizen is realized in the sphere of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is noted that the paradigm "human rights - municipal human rights - municipal person" has a clear and understandable management character, has a number of identifying features: A) subject-object composition, B) structural organization, C) national and international regulatory legal support and provision, which, in turn, endows it with: a) a theoretical basis; b) doctrinal justification; c) praxeological realization; d) value-methodological orientation; d') existential essence and objective-existential potential; e) regulatory definition; e) ascertaining the existence of managerial impulses; g) objectification of management actions; g) connotational content; h) communicative coordinate system; i) strategic narrative content.

Student agency for intercultural adaptability in international programs: Insights into internationalization at home in Vietnam

Despite new developments and a growing commitment to internationalization of higher education at the government and institutional levels, Vietnam remains largely on the periphery of existing scholarship on international higher education. Even though students are both key actors and beneficiaries of internationalization at home, insufficient attention is paid by policy makers and training institutions in Vietnam to student experiences and engagement in international programs. The study reported in this paper responds to this critical gap and explores student agency in navigating intercultural adaptability (IA). It draws on 80 interviews with different stakeholders in eight international programs across five Vietnamese universities. Using agency theory, student IA has been unpacked in specific ecological circumstances in terms of (i) how student agency for IA has enacted; and (ii) what supportive interventions have been created for student agency enactment in international programs. The study provides original insights into how individual aspirations for international programs, agentic life and professional history have influenced students’ agentic engagement in IA. It sheds light on the ways in which access to and capacity to influence supportive spaces in terms of language support, culturally responsive pedagogy, career orientation and intercultural exchange programs, have enabled students to reinforce their agency in IA.

Young Venezuelans’ experiences of migration on YouTube: Self-mediatization, consumerism and digital settlements

Venezuela’s displacement crisis has received extensive media coverage around the world. COVID-19 has exacerbated dramatic stories of border closures and increased prejudice against new arrivals. This article analyses videos of six young Venezuelan migrants who created YouTube channels to document their journey over four years (2017–21). A multimodal content analysis (MCA) captured themes and portraits that emerged from these videos. While these stories should not represent the full spectrum of Venezuelan self-mediatized migration, neither is YouTube free from commercial influences, these videos provide various reasons for their moving out, chapters of their integration into the new reality and plans for the post-settlement life. Most content makes sound evidence for understanding self-mediatized migration as interspersed with the capitalist underpinnings of social media platforms while casting genuine aspirations of a better life that contest the current stereotypical coverage.

Violence, life aspirations and displacement trajectories in civil war

AbstractDrawing on qualitative data from the civil wars in Syria and Libya since 2011, this paper seeks to build a better understanding of immobility and of displacement trajectories within conflict countries and towards neighbouring countries. The paper shows that different types of violent experiences—personal threats, generalized violence, an increasing hopelessness relating to the absence of violence in the future—trigger different exit movements across internal and external borders. Second, the analysis demonstrates that migration decisions in civil war contexts are complex processes with people balancing between strategies of how to avoid violence with strategies of how to realize broader life aspirations related to family, love, work and political change. Life aspirations often play a more important role once people move out of a situation of immediate danger and in later phases of trajectories and influence (im)mobility patterns in three different directions: stay, move (on) or return. Life aspirations, especially related to political change, outweigh perceptions of violence in some cases. Financial vulnerability can force people to stay in or return to violent contexts.

Incomplete lives: experiences of Islamophobia as governmentality in education and employment in Flanders, Belgium

ABSTRACT This paper discusses Muslim experiences of differential treatment in Flanders, Belgium, and builds on theories of Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism and a form of governmentality. I argue that Islamophobia understood as historically and structurally embedded, residing in social institutions rather than personal intentions or actions, operates in coercive and subtle ways to steer, structure and limit Muslim life courses. The analysis draws from forty semi-structured life story interviews conducted between 2020 and 2022 with mainly second and third-generation immigrants. Education and employment are prime domains where differential treatment restricts life aspirations and effectively governs Muslims’ life choices. Female respondents view a headscarf ban in education and job offerings conditional on veil removal as “a rejection of the (Muslim) self”, at times leading to veil decision fatigue. Respondents offered mixed prospects for the future, with some expressing a desire to leave Belgium in search of better opportunities for self-realization.

Marriage of Minor: Implications from Nigerian and Tunisian Legal Systems Framework

Background: Despite all the international agreements and national laws that ban and against the marriage of minors, it is increasingly commonplace in many countries across the globe. Child marriage is a human rights violation which denies girls from acquiring proper education and gaining the required knowledge and sound health that could help them to conveniently navigate the future for their dream or perceived ambition in life so that they can play an amazing role with their peers in nation building. People engage in a marriage with a minor for different reasons and motivations. Still, the majority believe in sexual pleasure derived from marrying someone young, l far different from that of an older woman. The implications of the marriage of minors are vividly addressed in this paper. The marriage of minors is rampant in the world, but this study limits its scope to the implications of the marriage of minors from the legal framework in Nigeria and Tunisia. Methods: This article uses content analysis (CA) and systematic literature review (SLR) as methodological approaches. The methodology provides theoretical and practical foundations for Marriage of Minors: Implications from Nigerian and Tunisian Legal Systems Framework. Results and Conclusions: The results from the literature review and content analysis demonstrate cases of the marriage of a minor in both countries explored in this study. The paper also demonstrated that there are international and domestic legal frameworks in addressing the challenges of marriage to minors, and the paper specifically analysed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also illustrated the Tunisian legal framework for the marriage of minors and highlighted the similarities and differences in Nigerian and Tunisian laws regarding the issue. The health and educational implications of child marriage in both countries are also elucidated in the paper. The paper recommends valuable suggestions to the policy maker and the need for the National Assembly of both countries to reform their family law and take note of the differences in both customary and Islamic laws. This paper also recommends more respect for civil law, enacted unanimously.

Settling in New Zealand’s Small Towns: Experiences of Minority Ethnic Immigrants

Small town New Zealand has, in recent years, experienced an increasing number1 and diversity of immigrants, with visible yet under-researched impacts for less populated regions that historically have been dominated by Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent) and Māori populations. Using qualitative interviews with three ethnic sub-groups in the Clutha District and Southland Region—the Filipino, Samoan, and Malay communities—we investigate their experiences of settling in small towns. While there is considerable variation in the experiences and aspirations of these ethnic minorities, for each community we demonstrate how local and regional contextual factors shape life aspirations, support infrastructures and settlement trajectories. Particularly drawing upon informal networks and social capital immigrants mediate the considerable challenges they face. Our study also demonstrates the limitations of current policy support and initiatives. Indeed, while local authorities clearly have a significant role in creating the conditions for enabling immigrant settlement in small centres in Southland-Clutha, now the role of government services and community-based support also needs to be considered.

An upswing to something better: Social space and the upward climb in vaudeville theatre

Vaudeville theatre was an important visual form of popular culture and entertainment that featured such specialty acts as comedy and song and dance, as well as lectures, lantern slide shows and motion pictures with subject matter from faraway lands, and themes of American patriotism. American vaudeville began in nineteenth-century saloons as floorshows and burlesque, but it was eventually upgraded to family entertainment, which appealed to middle- and upper-class audiences, before individual theatres were subsumed by franchised theatre chains. Vaudeville theatre directors, who were known as impresarios, programmed an innovative spectrum of acts that ranged from classical music and art to folk songs, and to acrobats, which appealed to a wide range of social classes. Following the theories of Henri Lefebvre, the social space of the theatre became a conceptually dynamic space, where class distinctions blurred and audience members could then dream of life in a higher social station, or what American Mid Victorians knew as ‘self-improvement’. A conundrum emerges, however, when we see that most of the programmes were plentiful with racial, ethnic and gender stereotypes, which were entertaining to White audience members. The vertical social climb of the gilded age in the 1900s was complicated with the social relations of uneasy, decadent consumerism. Individuals driven by desire thought their ‘un-comfort’ might be remedied by entertainment, as they looked for an upswing to something better.

The End of the World as We Know It

The End of the World as We Know It

“What Would You Do If You Were to Win the Lottery?” A Qualitative Tool for Overcoming Agency-Structure Issues in Migration Research

This paper proposes a quasi-standardized hypothetical interview-guide question and demonstrates its applicability in addressing participants’ general life aspirations, and, in particular, the embedded migration aspirations. The proposed interview question is related to the hypothesized behavior of participants in the off chance of having won the national lottery. Based on fieldwork results, conducted in rural Hungary between 2014-2019, the paper demonstrates how this question, introduced as a closing question during interviews, may be useful in addressing cultural values and attitudes in an agency-oriented way and with a reduction of perceived structural constraints affecting them. The question was eligible in differentiating between forms of geographical mobility, reflecting some migration-related phenomena that were formerly claimed challenging to be specifically addressed, revealing that pro-migration structural constraints might mask general attitudes to stay among those seemingly opting for emigration, and conversely, structural, restraining-constraints that, in some cases, mask pro-migration attitudes among those seemingly aspiring to stay.

Development and study of Chinese folk art of paper cutting

As a type of Chinese folk art, jianzhi paper carving expresses not only people's spiritual life, but also their aspirations for a better life. Chinese paper carving art is filled with simple life wisdom and good wishes, and the figurative symbols contain unique artistic value and national traits. However, in today's multifaceted development, the traditional art of paper carving with a thousand years of history is gradually fading away. Traditional folk art represented by paper cutting has also begun to be introduced into new fields, not only in graphic design, but also in installation design of public spaces, showing its rich expressiveness and deep artistic value. This paper will examine the characteristics of traditional national paper carving, highlight cultural differences between Eastern and Western paper carving art, combine traditional folk art of paper carving with modern artistic expressions, analyse symbolic and emotional imagery and explore new ideas for the development and innovation of Chinese national art.

REPRESENTASI FEMINISME DAN IMPIAN HIDUP DAMAI TIONGKOK: STUDI TINDAK TUTUR ASERTIF DAN IMPLIKATUR KONVENSIONAL

The Chinese government as one of the influential countries for world development also participates in efforts to protect equal women's rights and peace life realization. This was heard in the Chinese government's speech to the United Nations on October 1, 2020. This study aims to discuss the contents of the speech which represents the actions of feminism and dream of peace life by China by applying the theory of assertive speech acts and conventional implicatures to provide new understanding and knowledge related to real social issues developing now. Through this research, it can be seen that in the speech text, there are 3 purposes of assertive speech acts, namely 5 data to state, 4 data to claim, and 1 data to conclude. Each of these objectives has implicatures resulting from document studies supported by speech and news data that are realized in linguistic and social contexts. The stated goals are that China has actively voiced gender equality through the Beijing World Conferences on Women since 1995, is concerned about women's work, the existence of women is very influential in the 21st century, will always fight for women's rights, and long for an equal society. The purpose of the claim is that China claims the existence of women to create peace, oversees the progressive development of the existence of women's rights, guarantees women's protection rights, and that the country is an active country in voicing gender equality. The purpose of the conclusion is that China concludes that Chinese women love their country and are willing to fight for the safety of their people regardless of differences. The results of this study provide a description that China is now a country that struggles to protect women and yearns for a peace life.

How to facilitate intrinsic aspirations: An intervention through self-determination theory perspectives

Facilitating intrinsic aspirations remains a challenge in studies on self-determination theory. This article, comprising two studies, focuses on the development of an educational intervention that provides individuals with opportunities to consider their life aspirations. In Study 1, a total of 320 undergraduates participated in a survey designed to confirm the validity of the Japanese version of the Aspirations Index. The results showed that the scale had reasonable reliability and construct validity. Then, in study 2, we administered the program and tested its effectiveness for 42 undergraduate students (48 undergraduates for the comparison). The results of a generalized linear mixed model and mixed-design ANOVA indicated that the intervention successfully increased the participants’ intrinsic aspirations, but not their extrinsic aspirations. Additionally, from qualitative data, almost all participants reported deriving benefits from the intervention program and obtaining new perspectives on their career issues and intrinsic aspiring. Overall, we conclude that the proposed educational intervention may be a valid method of strengthening intrinsic aspirations of youth.

Civil Society and Legal Values to Ensure Decent Standard of Personality Life-Activity

Introduction. The civil society, the legal values, the law-governed state have always been within the scope of interest of many scientists, which indicates the relevance of this range of issues. Each state in the process of its formation and evolution forms the legal values under the influence of various conditions and factors (political, socio-economic, cultural and spiritual, etc.). The level of legal culture directly depends on the moral fundamentals of society and personality. The legal system of any state is based on the most important principles, the fundamental legal values. However, despite the majority of people are conscious of the importance of the legal reality development, the issue of the legal values influence on functioning of the civil society and on ensuring the decent standard of a person’s life-activity remains insufficiently investigated. The correlation and interconnection of the legal values with the life-activity of the civil society and personality become reality and constant demand in the most important spheres of public and private life. In practice this means that favorable conditions are getting ripe for every person and citizen to materialize the certain life aspirations, interests, needs, natural and inalienable rights and freedoms. The article substantiates the assertion that favorable prerequisites for discovery, recognition and implementation of the legal values in the fundamental social relations, the successful ordering of which is responsible for the full-fledged life-activity of a person and a citizen, can be formed only under condition of the civil society functioning and evolving. The interrelation is traced between the exercise of natural and inalienable rights and freedoms and the processes of forming conditions for a particular personality to acquire its decent lifestyle, which is manifested in all spheres of its entrepreneurial, social, cultural, educational and other life- activities. The aim of the study is to identify the potential of the legal values influence on functioning of the civil society and on ensuring the decent standard of personality life-activity.Materials and Methods. The civil society and the legal values in the context of ensuring the decent standard of personality life-activity are analysed. Particularly emphasized are the constitutional basis for integrating the legal values into the system of law, the regime of legal legitimacy and the reliable legal order ensuring a person’s and a citizen’s confidence in achieving the life goals determining the decent lifestyle. In the course of research, general scientific as well as special scientific methods have been used, more specifically the dialectic method of cognition, the method of system analysis, the axiological, the formally juridical, the comparative law and other methods.Results. The conclusion is made about the legal values potential as the force having efficient impact on functioning of the civil society and on the life-activity of each personality striving to ensure its decent lifestyle. The well-established and recognized legal values are the ideal accumulator to assign the legislative acts and law enforcement acts the content corresponding to the interests and life aspirations of the majority of the civil society members.Discussion and Conclusions. The problems in formation of the civil society in Russia are identified, including the insufficiently high level of legal consciousness and citizens’ legal culture. It is proposed to focus on the need to build up the efficiently functioning legal education and legal upbringing system. The practical significance of efficient interaction of the civil society institutions with the state authorities based on the use of the multifaceted potential of the legal system is noted.

Sustainable consumption and the Global South: A conceptual exposition

Although deliberations around the idea of sustainable consumption have triggered pro-environmental consumption behaviors, empirical works show such consumption choices hardly manage to lower the overall environmental impacts of their total consumption baskets. Driven by corporate-led globalization, most developing countries have adopted the prevailing neoliberal economic model centered on growthism and developmentalism. What complicates the situation further is that this capitalistic economic model fetishizes the wealthy and valorizes aspirations that shape socio-culturally held notions of good life toward overconsumption, especially in the Global South. The discussion on sustainable consumption needs to expand its scope from the post-materialistic discourses in the Global North to realign itself better with the developmental discourse in the GS. Expanding this scope is easier said than done because of the fundamental dependency of the neo-liberal economic policy-driven developmentalism on consumerism. Once these macro-economic priorities percolate into socio-cultural priorities, further driving individuals' sense of the good life, it becomes even more challenging to decouple materialistically-oriented need-satisfiers from wellbeing. Therefore, it is to theorize how the act of consumption happens at the complex intersections of political-economic priorities, socio-cultural conventions, and individual aspirations for a better life, which is even more so relevant in the context of the GS. It is critical to understand, especially for the Global South, how these structural factors percolate into socio-cultural and individual priorities through the changing notions of the good life and eventually act as the fundamental sustaining factors that keep the prevailing political-economic arrangements running.