Like-minded Peers Research Articles

Impact of Social Media on Cultural Identity in Urban Youth

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the impact of social media on cultural identity in urban youth. Materials and Methods: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Social media platforms serve as significant spaces where urban youth engage, express, and negotiate their cultural identities. These platforms provide access to a diverse range of cultural expressions, facilitating the blending and reshaping of traditional and modern cultural elements. Studies have shown that social media influences urban youth by offering a sense of community and belonging, where they can connect with like-minded peers globally, thus fostering a globalized cultural perspective. However, this exposure also poses challenges, such as cultural homogenization and the potential loss of distinct local cultural identities. Additionally, the curated nature of social media content often promotes idealized cultural norms, influencing youth to conform to certain stereotypes and societal expectations. Despite these challenges, social media remains a powerful tool for cultural expression and identity formation, enabling urban youth to navigate and redefine their cultural landscapes in dynamic and innovative ways. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social identity theory, uses and gratifications theory and cultural convergence theory may be used to anchor future studies on assessing the impact of social media on cultural identity in urban youth. Practically, there is a pressing need for digital literacy programs that educate youth on critical engagement with social media. From a policy perspective, integrating cultural education into school curricula is essential.

Pengaruh Lingkungan Pergaulan Terhadap Keinginan Berbisnis Mahasiswa Ekonomi Syariah UIN K.H Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan

This research aims to explore the influence of the social environment on the entrepreneurial intentions among Islamic Economics students. The social environment encompasses aspects such as family support, peer influence, academic community, mentors, and access to business information and opportunities. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method with data collection techniques through surveys and literature reviews. The results show that family support significantly impacts students' motivation, both in the form of moral support and financial assistance. The campus environment also plays a crucial role, where relationships with like-minded peers and business seminars can encourage entrepreneurial interest. Peer influence is found to be more dominant than faculty influence in shaping entrepreneurial interest due to the ease of sharing practical experiences. Additionally, media and information provide further motivation, although personal motivation remains the primary factor. Overall, this research emphasizes the importance of social support and environment in fostering entrepreneurial intentions among Islamic Economics students but also highlights that individual motivation is the key factor in the decision to start a business.

Finding their way to act for nature through out-of-the-classroom learning – the case of the Green Traineeship

Dutch nature organisations developed the Green Traineeship, combining out-of-the-classroom learning with voluntary work in nature for young adults, with the aim of supporting them to towards future action for nature. To better understand how young adults’ engagement with nature can be strengthened and facilitated, we studied perceived knowledge and competences of participants of the Green Traineeship, including their motivations, their connectedness with nature before and after the experience of the traineeship through surveys. We found that trainees primarily wanted to learn, find a way to turn their green intentions into actions, and find a community of professionals and like-minded peers. Their connectedness with nature was quite high at the start and remained stable during the programme. Fulfilling the trainees’ basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) were trainees led to more willingness to act for nature and a clearer idea of the possible paths to do so. Combining volunteering (autonomy through meaningful contributions), learning (competence), and creating a community (relatedness) shows promise in facilitating young adults to find pathways towards green actions.

Organizing a Regional In-Person Medical Student Symposium in Neuroscience and Neurosurgery Research: A How-To Guide

BackgroundMedical students are increasingly seeking out research opportunities to build their skills and network with future colleagues. Medical student-led conferences are an excellent endeavor to achieve this goal. MethodsThe American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) student chapter at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell designed an in-person medical student research symposium alongside the Northwell Health Department of Neurosurgery. Post-conference feedback forms were sent out digitally to student attendees to evaluate event planning and execution and responses were given on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest score). ResultsIn December 2023, the Northeast Medical Student Research Symposium (NMSRS) was held with over 80 participants and 52 medical student presenters. Keynote speakers delivered lectures geared towards students interested in neurosurgery and neuroscience research, followed by an interactive poster board session and resident/attending networking dinner. After the conference, students affirmed that they learned more about neuroscience research after the event (mean: 4.3), were more inclined to attend other neuroscience research events in the future (mean: 4.7), and would attend this event if held next year (mean: 4.8). The poster sessions (mean: 4.75) and keynote lectures (mean: 5) were the highest rated events, while the resident/attending networking dinner (mean: 3.6) was a potential area for improvement. ConclusionRegional in-person conferences are an excellent way to foster interest in neurosurgery and neuroscience research, network with like-minded peers, and prepare students for presentations at national meetings.

Boredom and its perceived impact in adolescents with exceptional mathematical talent: a sequential mixed-methods study in Paraguay.

Boredom, a state where the task at hand presents difficulties in attentional resources and attributed meaning, can be detrimental to talent development by reducing cognitive engagement. This study employed a mixed sequential design to assess boredom in adolescents with exceptional mathematical talent in Paraguay participating in a talent development program. First, in the quantitative phase 54 students completed the Boredom Short Scale, School Attitudes Assessment Survey-Revised, and Psychological Well-Being Scale for Adolescents. Next, in the qualitative phase 50 students participated in focus groups to explore their personal experiences of boredom, along with their perception of possible factors that impact boredom. Boredom in this population was similar to the general population of adolescents, albeit significant differences existed in items and subscales showing a pattern unique to this population; they tended to become bored quicker but had an easier time sparking interest in activities. Higher boredom had small to moderate correlations with worse attitudes at school and with teachers, lower motivation and self-regulation in academic activities, lower self-control, and lower involvement in personal projects. Higher valuation of goals and academic self-perception related with a lower tendency toward boredom only in the context of a talent development program, but not at school. Boredom seemed multifaceted, with dimensions such as the absence of meaning, superficial entertainment, and wasted time. Contributing factors included waiting for other people's slower pace, limited choices, lack of novelty, insufficient intellectual challenge, and the influence of teachers and social dynamics. Coping mechanisms included inner intellectual stimulation, seeking entertainment and escape, pursuing independent learning, extracurricular activities, like-minded peers, and extreme sensation-seeking. Fostering adequate challenge and support in advanced academic endeavors for the development of mathematical talent can prevent negative consequences associated with boredom in exceptionally talented populations.

Organizing Primary Care Clinicians to Expand Reproductive Health Access: A Qualitative Program Evaluation.

Comprehensive sexual reproductive health care (SRH) in the United States, including abortion, is siloed from primary care, making it more difficult to access. The crisis in access has drastically worsened following the overturning of Roe v Wade, 410 US 113 (1973). Primary care clinicians (PCC) are well-positioned to protect and expand SRH access but do not receive sufficient training or support. The Reproductive Health Access Network ("Network") was created to connect like-minded clinicians to engage in advocacy, training, and peer support to enhance access to SRH in their communities and practices. This evaluation explores PCC leaders' experiences within this SRH organizing network. In 2021, we conducted 34 semistructured phone interviews with a purposive sample of current (n=27) and former (n=7) PCC leaders in the Network (N=87). The program's theory of change and network evaluation framework guided reflexive thematic analysis. Participants viewed Network support as critical to ending isolation through three mechanisms: connecting to a supportive community of like-minded peers, empowering leadership, and providing infrastructure for local organizing. They viewed mentorship as critical in building a sustainable and equitable pipeline of PCC leaders. Participants identified challenges to engaging fully, such as burnout and discrimination experienced both within and outside the Network. Community-building, peer support, and mentorship are critical to building and sustaining PCC leadership in SRH-organizing communities. Efforts are needed to mitigate burnout, support SRH education and mentorship for PCCs, and transform into a truly inclusive community. The Network structure is promising for amplifying efforts to enhance SRH access through clinician leadership.

Promoting Transparent, Fair, and Inclusive Practices in Grantmaking: Lessons from the Open and Equitable Model Funding Program

This report presents the insights of the Open & Equitable Model Funding Program, a pilot of a cohort of eleven research funders interested in refining their grantmaking to foster open and equitable practices. Launched in April 2021 by the Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) with grants ranging from $5 to $560 million, this initiative brought together experts across various fields to create thirty-two interventions to promote open research and equitable grantmaking. The funders cohort fostered a collaborative learning environment through monthly meetings, allowing participants to share insights and tackle challenges. Supported by the ORFG's resources and guidance, this structured approach facilitated the tailoring of interventions to each funder's specific needs, emphasizing early identification of challenges to integrate these practices seamlessly into existing funding mechanisms. Despite facing challenges such as staff turnover, limited time, and resources, which impacted the full engagement with and implementation of the interventions, the pilot was appreciated for its organized and guided framework and its collaborative learning environment. Participants who met their pilot goals attributed their success to the clear, achievable interventions and the structured design of the pilot, which allowed for focused implementation and executive-level support. The initiative also encouraged collaboration among peers, fostering a community of like-minded organizations exploring common challenges. The ORFG's documentation of lessons learned and the testing of intervention suitability offers valuable insights for future funders to refine their grantmaking strategies, underscoring the importance of continuous effort and commitment to achieve lasting change. These recommendations were refined for relevance and completeness from direct engagement with applicants, grantees, and researchers from underserved communities, ensuring the incorporation of insights from historically marginalized groups and with the goal of tailoring more inclusive and practical improvements.

Why honors?: a qualitative investigation and taxonomy of student motivations for enrolling in honors programs

ABSTRACT Involvement in honors programs provides students an opportunity to grow academically, connect with like-minded peers, and reap tangible and intangible benefits. Understanding the motivations driving this involvement is a crucial task for honors program administrators and faculty alike as different motivations may influence how students engage and succeed in their honors pursuits. This study analyzes student motivating factors, organizing them into a five-factor framework that highlights different motivational groupings, including a non-intentional factor. While past studies have relied on student characteristics and survey information to understand honors program involvement, this study takes a qualitative approach, drawing on focus groups with current and incoming honors students to delve into the various motivations that honors students indicated as compelling for their participation in an honors program at a private mid-size liberal arts institution. The findings provide insight into key motivations which may inform efforts to increase the diversity of and involvement in honors programs. These eleven motivations are grouped into instrumental factors, personal factors, nudges, relationships, and accidental, with the majority of students noting more than one motivation for their involvement in the honors program.

"Going From Strength to Strength": Delving into Professional Identity Formation of Veterinary Curriculum Leaders: A Narrative Inquiry.

Curriculum leaders (individuals with responsibility for an institution's veterinary curriculum), are student-oriented, want to make a difference, and prioritize teaching and pedagogy in their work. However, as they work to enhance curriculum development, they experience tensions in their role. This study built on previous quantitative findings, and aimed to explore further how curriculum leaders respond to tensions, and how their identity is constructed and supported in a way that means they can thrive in their role. Using self-determination theory and narrative identity as conceptual frameworks, nine curriculum leaders were interviewed about their experiences. Narrative inquiry methodology enabled in-depth interpretations to be drawn about identity influences and participants' responses to conflict and dissonance. Curriculum leader identity was defined as being student-centered, change-oriented, valuing both clinical (particularly general practice), and pedagogical expertise while engaging in hard work and service to achieve pedagogical goals. Participants were skilled in leading change and had developed skills and personal attributes for this. Leading change involved experiences of conflict and tension that were personally meaningful, evoking feelings of identity dissonance that were characterised by either emotional resilience or disaffection and frustration. This response depended on social identity influences, including opportunities to network with like-minded peers, recognition of achievements from influential others, institutional advocacy for change, and support for advanced pedagogical training.

Transforming Service into Civic Purpose: A Qualitative Study of Adolescent Civic Engagement and Purpose Development

As tomorrow’s leaders, adolescents are navigating coming-of-age tasks in the context of both the fast-growing promises of technology and the burdens of overwhelming global challenges. The Climate Leaders Fellowship (CLF) is an extracurricular program that supports adolescents interested in environmental sustainability. Program participants are connected with like-minded peers and mentors across the globe who help them develop and implement community-based volunteer projects (CLF, 2022). This study focuses on whether and how participation in CLF shaped adolescents’ development. A directed content analysis approach was utilized to conduct and analyze semi-structured interviews with adolescent CLF participants (n = 9, 89% female). Results indicate that engagement in the program is associated with civic purpose development. Specifically, participants reported experiencing civic reflection, motivation, and action through their CLF involvement. Findings offer supporting evidence that the development of civic purpose may be associated with burgeoning critical consciousness. Recommendations for future programming, study limitations, and implications are discussed.

Hackathons within medical education: Promoting cutting-edge innovation in surgery


 
 
 Medical students need to begin to learn how to innovate earlier in their training. Hackathons offer opportunities to foster innovation in healthcare. We launched a hackathon for medical students to generate solutions to a real-world surgical problem. We focused on generating solutions to better support more women in surgery, an area of medicine where women remain underrepresented. The goal of our event was to not only generate solutions at a systemic level but within our own medical school, break down barriers for female medical students by allowing them to network with Dalhousie surgeons and better explore potential career goals by attending the event. Attendees reported the event provided an opportunity to build problem solving skills, communication skills and the opportunity to network with like-minded peers. Our hackathon supported idea generation however further emphasis on translation of solutions from idea generation to implementation within our healthcare system is needed.
 
 

Exploring Youth Preferences for Collective Action: A Comparison of a Grassroots Initiative with a Union-Led One

Many young individuals now prioritize involvement in collective action as a means to instigate societal change. Crucially, they have access to social media platforms, which help them connect with like-minded peers and coordinate efforts. Some of them may be thus more inclined to favour less conventional collective action over formal union membership. In this study, which draws on data from young British workers during the period from December 2022 to March 2023, we endeavoured to ascertain this cohort’s preferred approach to collective action. We distinguished between an informal grassroots initiative and one led by a labour union as a means to advance the rights of gig economy workers. To this end, we conducted a controlled online experiment. We focused exclusively on a specific age cohort within a particular timeframe, thus limiting our ability to determine generational differences in preferences for collective action and in attitudes toward unions. Nevertheless, the results do offer insights into the forms of collective action preferred by Generation Z. British youth were found to view the informal grassroots initiative more positively than the union-led one. However, they viewed the latter as potentially having greater influence on government policy. Furthermore, they were not significantly more willing to join one initiative than the other. Nonetheless, they were more inclined to recommend the grassroots initiative. This paper contributes to the body of research on the relationship between labour unions and young people. It also provides insight into how members of Generation Z think about various ways of participating in collective action.

Heroes for nature: understanding childhood nature experiences in motivating action for nature

In the current biodiversity crisis, young people committed to act for nature need to be treasured. We did retrospective interviews with young adults who are dedicated to acting for nature in order to find patterns in their life experiences that contribute to their relationship with nature and drive their action for nature. We found that autonomous early childhood nature experiences build a foundation for young adults’ connection with nature. In early adolescence, engagement with nature takes flight after moments of wonder, significant life experiences, or encounters with like-minded peers. Some interviewees experienced a temporary lack of interest in nature during puberty. Using self-determination theory as a theoretical lens revealed that the basic psychological needs – relatedness, autonomy, and competence – manifested throughout the young adults’ lives. We use our findings to indicate both directions for future research and practical implications.

ENHANCING PERSONALIZED LEARNING WITH A RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM IN PRIVATE ONLINE COURSES

This paper proposes the integration of a recommendation system into private online courses as a means to enhance personalized learning. By leveraging the power of data analysis and algorithms, this paper argues that the recommendation system can tailor course content, study materials, and learning resources to meet the unique needs and preferences of individual students. The recommendation system, as detailed in this paper, operates by analyzing various factors such as students' learning patterns, performance data, and personal interests. Based on this analysis, the system dynamically adapts the course curriculum to provide additional resources and support for topics that students find challenging, while also offering advanced materials for those who are progressing rapidly. This adaptive approach, as presented in this paper, ensures that each student receives personalized guidance and support, enabling them to navigate the course at their own pace. As outlined, the recommendation system assists in creating customized study paths for students. By considering their learning goals and interests, this paper argues that the system suggests the optimal order of modules or topics within the course. In addition to personalized course content, as discussed in this paper, the recommendation system also suggests relevant learning resources to complement the core materials. These supplementary resources, as highlighted in this paper, such as articles, videos, interactive exercises, or recommended readings, are tailored to each student's specific needs. By providing diverse and targeted resources, the system, as detailed in this paper, ensures that students have access to a rich and varied learning experience, thereby promoting a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Moreover, as emphasized in this paper, the recommendation system fosters peer collaboration by suggesting study groups, discussion forums, or project teams based on shared interests, learning styles, or complementary skill sets. By connecting students with like-minded peers, as proposed in this paper, the system encourages active participation, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning, creating a supportive and engaging learning community. For courses that focus on skill development, as argued in this paper, the recommendation system helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses. By analyzing their performance data, this paper suggests that the system can recommend targeted exercises, projects, or practice materials to improve specific skills. It can also suggest related courses or modules that build upon students' existing knowledge, as detailed in this paper, allowing them to develop a comprehensive skill set. The recommendation system, as presented in this paper, incorporates personalized assessments and feedback mechanisms to evaluate students' progress. It recommends practice quizzes, mock exams, or interactive assessments to help students gauge their understanding and identify areas for improvement. The system also provides tailored feedback, as discussed in this paper, highlighting strengths and offering specific strategies for enhancement, thereby fostering a growth mindset and supporting continuous learning.

The drivers of online polarization: Fitting models to data

Users online tend to join polarized groups of like-minded peers around shared narratives, forming echo chambers. The echo chamber effect and opinion polarization may be driven by several factors including human biases in information consumption and personalized recommendations produced by feed algorithms. Until now, studies have mainly used opinion dynamic models to explore the mechanisms behind the emergence of polarization and echo chambers. The objective was to determine the key factors contributing to these phenomena and identify their interplay. However, the validation of model predictions with empirical data still displays two main drawbacks: lack of systematicity and qualitative analysis. In our work, we bridge this gap by providing a method to numerically compare the opinion distributions obtained from simulations with those measured on social media. To validate this procedure, we develop an opinion dynamic model that takes into account the interplay between human and algorithmic factors. We subject our model to empirical testing with data from diverse social media platforms and benchmark it against two state-of-the-art models. To further enhance our understanding of social media platforms, we provide a synthetic description of their characteristics in terms of the model's parameter space. This representation has the potential to facilitate the refinement of feed algorithms, thus mitigating the detrimental effects of extreme polarization on online discourse.

Youthful culture: Immaterial labour, co-optation and the space between IRL young people and their conceptual doppelgangers

DIY and alternate cultures are important social spaces to study because they are where young people can find themselves when they feel like they do not fit in and where they can find like-minded peers with whom to work, make and play. DIY and alternative cultures are also key objects of co-optation and value creation, where resistive and creative practices are denuded of their artistry, politics and emotional authenticity, repurposed through immaterial labour, and resold as aesthetics and affects. Beginning by situating the analysis in wider conceptualisations about late capitalism's business ontology, this article contributes to unpacking these processes firstly by making a theoretical/methodological distinction between ‘youth’ and ‘young people’. I then develop the affects of ‘youthful culture’ not only to conceptually rethink how youth cultures still play a role in the lives of young people in terms of identity formation and everyday forms of escape and creativity, but also to highlight processes of co-optation, commercial culture and how figurative distortions of youth create value in late capitalism. As ‘youth’ is conceptually cut loose from age brackets, it becomes an affect operationalised for an array of vested interests. Importantly, what is often left out of considering co-optation are the actual physical bodies and everyday emotions of living, breathing young people from whom these affects are extracted. This article will discuss these aspects using empirical examples from research on punk and hospitality showing how the immaterial labour that ‘youth’ enacts in these spaces is exploited from backs of the physical and creative labour performed by young people themselves, aspects of which they are sometimes reflexively aware and are attempting to negotiate.

What Does It Mean To Be a Resilient Student? An Explorative Study of Doctoral Students’ Resilience and Coping Strategies Using Grounded Theory as the Analytic Lens

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore doctoral students’ perceived resilience and the coping strategies they choose to employ to overcome challenging circumstances during their studies. Background: Doctoral students often experience barriers which may include personal, professional, academic, and institutional-related challenges. The students’ ability to recover from any burdensome situations is essential for their progress, motivation, and well-being. Methodology: The data for this study were gathered utilising qualitative interviews conducted with a diverse cohort of thirteen doctoral candidates enrolled at a single higher education institution in the United Kingdom. These participants were deliberately chosen to encompass a range of backgrounds, including international and domestic students, varying study statuses and stages within their doctoral programs (full-time or part-time, and at the beginning, middle, or end of their studies), as well as differing funding situations (either funded or self-funded). The Grounded Theory methodology was employed as an appropriate analytical framework, providing a systematic set of procedures that facilitated the elucidation of the participants’ conceptualizations and the significance they attributed to the concept of resilience throughout their doctoral pursuits. Contribution: Empirical studies have explored the stressors and motivations of doctoral students’ journeys, but little is known about the in-depth investigation of the choices students make to respond to adversity and how they demonstrate resilience. This study aimed to fill this gap in the relevant literature. Findings: Five emergent contextual conditions represented circumstances of adversity for the study participants. These were relevant to five thematic areas: (1) supervision and supervisory support; (2) key milestones and challenges inherent to the doctoral journey (i.e., self-regulation and finding a daily working routine, data collection, and analysis, the writing process); (3) personal and family-related expectations and responsibilities; (4) study status related considerations (e.g., being an international and/or a part-time student); and (5) challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings demonstrated doctoral students’ state of psychological capital, inner strength, and persistence that they considered in their attempt to employ varied strategies to tackle challenging circumstances. Recommendations for Practitioners: The findings are transferable to different populations of doctoral students from diverse disciplines. Different students may be able to relate to the doctoral-related experiences that are reported and interpreted in this paper through the Grounded Theory analytic lens. This may enhance their sense of relatability with like-minded peers and help them realise that they are not alone in the challenges presented along the doctoral journey. Most importantly, the institutional-related challenges presented in this study will help raise awareness for institutions to employ strategies on human capital and academic identity by placing a stronger emphasis on practical solutions that would encourage, enable, and empower doctoral students to construct their identities. Recommendation for Researchers: The study aims to increase the scholarly knowledge of doctoral students’ resilience and coping mechanisms that they employ during the doctoral journey. Researchers can develop a resilience scale using the results of this in-depth study to understand doctoral students’ perceptions and experiences on a larger scale. The scale will enable students, supervisors, and institutions more broadly to ascertain resilience/psychological capital that students may demonstrate during the doctoral journey based on targeted interventions that can be put in place to support students’ work, progress, and overall doctoral success. Impact on Society: The stressors associated with the doctoral journey may cause obstacles for students to progress and can affect timely completion to the extent that dropping out may become an unavoidable outcome and an obvious decision for some students. During academic challenges, doctoral students’ well-being and mental health are likely to suffer. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated academic challenges even more. It is imperative for educational scholars and researchers to explore how doctoral students perceive and respond to adversity to strategise appropriate interventions that can be designed and put into place to offer support and guidance to facilitate progress and maximise success. Future Research: Further research can extend the study’s findings with the aim to increase transferability in other educational contexts and contents. The findings offer ground for the development of a resilience/psychological capital scale by drawing on the five thematic areas and their key components. The scale can help guide the development of targeted interventions to support doctoral students’ work.

Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Metal Scene by Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale E. Zappia (review)

Reviewed by: Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Metal Scene by Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale E. Zappia John W. Troutman (bio) Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Metal Scene by Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale E. Zappia University of Nebraska Press, 2020 SEVERAL RECENT BOOKS have chronicled contemporary, local, and transnational Indigenous music scenes. Kyle T. Mays's Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (2018) charts the rise of Indigenous hip-hop generations, and the way hip-hop's aesthetics, sound, and accelerant for political mobilization have staked out innovative expressions of sovereignty within various Native communities. Kevin Fellezs's Listen but Don't Ask Question: Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar across the TransPacific (2019) posits the Hawaiian slack key guitar as a fecund site of expression of and contestation over notions of Kanaka Maoli values, aesthetics, politics, and more. Kristina M. Jacobsen's The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language, and Diné Belonging (2017) showcases in rich detail the vibrant, diverse, and long-standing country music scenes that proliferate within the Navajo Nation. Now, in Rez Metal, filmmaker Ashkan Soltani Stone and historian Natale A. Zappia have illuminated yet another set of multigenerational music scenes that rattle and shake the Navajo Nation's lush soundscape. The publication of Rez Metal accompanies a documentary film project by Stone and Zappia, who spent time interviewing band members and scenesters in multiple communities, as well as in the metal epicenter of Gallup. Following a brief introduction, the slim volume's chapters rely upon lengthy quotations from excerpted interviews to explore the idea of "rez metal" to describe the experiencing of bands within a sampling of the Navajo Nation's metal venues—from hogans and house parties to dedicated clubs—to introduce the readers to some of the bands through interviews and to contemplate the genre's future. Throughout, the authors and interviewees ruminate on why and how metal matters to its Diné and neighboring Indigenous adherents. "Metal is justice," says Jay Cee, a radio DJ at Gallup's KZZ classic rock station. He continues, "It helps release all my anger, all my frustration" (33). The authors queried several men and women in the first chapter who expressed their histories with the genre and why they were drawn to identifying as a metalhead. Cee celebrates the life as a means to release tension but also to let loose and have fun within a community of like-minded peers [End Page 189] who congregate through mosh pits, head bangs, and the spellbinding, deafening lockstep drones of guitar, bass, and drums. Cee speculates that those drums might provide a link to older Indigenous musical traditions, but he also points out that metal continues to conjure negative stereotypes in the minds of others: in Zuni, where he grew up, some elders consider the metal scene a distraction that prevents its citizens from fulfilling their duties to their people. Edmund Yazzie heard similar concerns from some of his elders, but his parents were metalheads, and his father, a pastor, bought Yazzie his first record as a kid, by the band AC/DC. Now Yazzie gigs as the drummer in his son's band, Testify. Yazzie is also a member of the Navajo Council, and his interview reveals how deeply metal has been embraced by members of the Navajo Nation. Stone and Zappia's work is most compelling when it reveals through anecdotes the deep multigenerational history of metal and its embrace by the Nation's government as a positive, family-friendly element of today's vibrant Diné culture. The authors interviewed current Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who also passionately supports the Nation's metal scene and sees it as a positive tradition with the capability to heal and provide hope for many. In the first chapter, Stone and Zappia suggest that the "cathartic communal experience" of metal fuels its embrace and provides "'equipment' to deal with the historical, cultural, and economic trauma shared by Navajos . . . the music is both an escape from the day-to-day and also a saber to rattle in frustration and anger at the status quo" (13). With this power to bring people together, multiple...

Depolarization of echo chambers by random dynamical nudge

In social networks, users often engage with like-minded peers. This selective exposure to opinions might result in echo chambers, i.e., political fragmentation and social polarization of user interactions. When echo chambers form, opinions have a bimodal distribution with two peaks on opposite sides. In certain issues, where either extreme positions contain a degree of misinformation, neutral consensus is preferable for promoting discourse. In this paper, we use an opinion dynamics model that naturally forms echo chambers in order to find a feedback mechanism that bridges these communities and leads to a neutral consensus. We introduce the random dynamical nudge (RDN), which presents each agent with input from a random selection of other agents’ opinions and does not require surveillance of every person’s opinions. Our computational results in two different models suggest that the RDN leads to a unimodal distribution of opinions centered around the neutral consensus. Furthermore, the RDN is effective both for preventing the formation of echo chambers and also for depolarizing existing echo chambers. Due to the simple and robust nature of the RDN, social media networks might be able to implement a version of this self-feedback mechanism, when appropriate, to prevent the segregation of online communities on complex social issues.

What's interesting in entrepreneurial education research? Identifying conversants sharing common interests in the field

PurposeIn this study, the authors develop knowledge and insights on how the perception of interestingness influences the structure and focus of conversations in entrepreneurial education (EE) research. In particular, the authors elaborate on what is perceived as interesting among different subgroups of EE researchers, and not least, how EE researchers can identify and engage in scholarly conversation within the field.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a unique database with web-based responses from 465 EE researchers from around the world. The authors conduct analyses of both open-ended and closed questions. The open-ended questions are analyzed by inductive categorization. The closed questions are subject to factor and cluster analyses.FindingsThe findings suggest that EE research is a topic-oriented field, characterized by a strong focus on novel and challenging research issues. In addition, the field is individualistic and fragmented, and the perception of interestingness differs between five subgroups of EE researchers, whose members have a somewhat different perception of interestingness. Accordingly, the authors also find different core conversations going on within the field. Obviously, these conversations tend to be triggered by the field's obsession with novelty and challenging research, but several conversations are related to practically relevant research, as well as methodological and theoretical discussions.Originality/valueThis is the first study to elaborate on the perception of interestingness among EE researchers and the conversations going on within the field. In the study the authors have explored the characteristics of EE research based on the perception of interestingness among the researchers within the field. In this respect, this study contributes insights on how current and aspiring EE researchers can find and build scholarly conversations embedded in passionate interest, while concurrently disseminating and accumulating knowledge on EE together with like-minded peers.